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Contributions made by mining have played a much more significant role in the development of civilization than is generally conceded by historians or recognized by ordinary citizens. In modern society, mined products pervade all industry and the lives of all civilized people. Early man relied largely on stone and ceramics, and eventually metals, to fashion tools and weapons. Civilization was advanced by discoveries such as abundant supplies of high-quality flint in northern France and southern England and firesetting to break rock. Middle Eastern cultures flourished not only because of agriculture and trade, but also because of mineral-rich deposits nearby. The earliest miners date back perhaps to 300,000 BC; their quest was for nonmetallic minerals (chert, flint, obsidian) suitable for utensils and eventually for weapons. Other rocks and minerals (ceramics, clay, salt, meteoric iron) attracted the miners for jewelry, cosmetics, construction materials, food seasoning, and coinage. At first, their excavations were confined to the surface, either pits or placers. But by about 40,000 BC, mine workings had been extended underground as short adits or shafts, and by 8000 BC as elaborate interconnected openings 300 ft (90 m) in depth. Metallurgical separation of metals from their ores and their subsequent fabrication evolved gradually over the centuries, copper being the first liberated (c. 7000 BC) followed by lead, silver, gold, and iron. Man enhanced both the sophistication of his

Jan 1, 2008

By J. Trow

Dowsing is really IESG which inductively locates electric gradients (dv/dx) on the flanks of SP anomalies. "Sensors" are in one?s head. The "meter" consists of one?s body, limbs, and two $.69 welding rods. The method was calibrated near Mamainse Point, Ontario, where IESG-negative chalcopyrite-bornite-chalcocite-native copper ores reveal mineral zoning related to the IESG-positive Keweenaw fault, down which oxidizing solutions moved. In Michigan, the IESG-positive Keweenaw fault suggests that oxygen-bearing solutions from the Jacobsville Sandstone moved downward to oxidize hydrothermal sulfur to produce native copper, and to supply sufficient water to satisfy Walter White.

Jan 1, 1992

By Frank Pepe, Nestor Garavelli

The 2023 Rapid Excavation and Tunneling Conference (RETC) will be held in Boston, MA and will include the presentation of 133 papers divided into 20 technical sessions during the 3 day conference that were selected from over 200+ papers that were submitted to the committee. The selected papers are included within this book to provide a comprehensive recap of the conference while also providing a source of reference for contractors and engineers in the future. The selected papers will include contributions from all divisions of the tunneling industry plus risk management and best contract practices. Boston is known to the tunneling industry for its complex and difficult tunneling history, specifically of recent memory the Central Artery/Tunnel Project also know as the “Big Dig” of the 1980s and early 1990s. The selection of Boston as a host city was fitting from a historical perspective and as avenue for the city to present its upcoming tunnel projects. RETC began in 1972 with the idea of sharing ideas, design and project construction experience, and new technology, between contractors, designers, owners and suppliers. The ability to provide a single location every other year for all facets of the tunneling industry to gather and discuss the aforementioned was and still is viewed as a way to help the tunnel industry grow. The lessons learned from completed projects, the advancement of technology which could be implemented into design and the presentation of new projects by owners/designers and contractors allows for the limits and complexity of upcoming projects to be expanded beyond our current capabilities. Our industry has never been as busy as it currently is, and we are seeing more future projects coming out for solicitation across all business sectors. With the good fortune that all of us have been blessed with one of the biggest challenges that we have been faced with is the shortage of future management on all levels for our projects including the labor force. We all want our industry to continue to grow and succeed, our most important assets are the people that we employ. Investing in the education and continued training of our work forces to be up to date with the latest technology and methods is the key to our success. This also includes develop, recruiting and mentoring of young students graduating college to join our industry so that we can all continue to grow. We hope that all those attending the conference will have the ability to attend as many sessions as possible and to expand their network within our industry. As in past years, scholarship students will be in attendance and we encourage all to offer these students an opportunity to visit jobs, attend learning sessions or future internships to expand their interest in our industry that needs an injection of young engineers to contribute and lead our future Rapid Excavation and Tunneling Conferences. The program chairs wish to thank the session chairs, co-chairs, authors, and other members of the RETC Executive Committee for their dedication to this conference. Last but certainly not least, we give special thanks to the SME staff for their hard work and enthusiastic support in making this conference possible.

Dec 1, 2023

By Michael Rieber

Mineral economics interfaces the mineral sciences and engineering with finance and economics in the analysis of appropriate questions facing the minerals and energy industries. Its practitioners include those trained in the earth sciences; mining, petroleum, and geological engineering; metallurgy and mineral preparation; as well as finance, information systems, economics, and statistics-most usefully in one or more combinations. Allowing for some overlap, three general areas may be identified: evaluation, economic analysis, and resource appraisal. Evaluation begins with mine investment analysis (exemplified by Gentry and O'Neil, 1984) and process costing, for which the STRAMM Handbook (Anon., 1977) provides a well-known basis for mining and beneficiation. But it extends from property appraisal, often used for the determination of taxes and royalties, through the determination and comparison of transport costs (e.g., Richer and Soo, 1977), and to benefit/cost analyses of externalities. Economic analysis, the subject of this section, is displayed in rigor and extent both theoretically and as applied to commodity classes in Vogely (1985), but it is implicit though apparent throughout Lefond (1983). The text edited by Vogely places minerals in their aggregative context with economic growth and trade, proceeds to the theoretical analysis of minerals and their markets, analyzes the structure and performance of the major mineral sectors, and concludes with policy issues: fuel, nonfuel, and environmental. Resource appraisal employs quantitative methods for the estimation of mineral and energy resources. It moves through geologic, geophysical, and geochemical properties to the identification of estimation procedures for mineral endowment and for the economic measure of stocks and flows of specific minerals (Harris, 1984). It can be used to estimate the probable amount of a specific resource remaining in a given region and has been used to project sites in a specific

Jan 1, 2008

By Gregg Davidson, Lonnie Jacobs, Brett Zernich, Alan Howard, Robert Pintabona

All Rights Reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Information contained in this work has been obtained by SME, Inc. from sources believed to be reliable. However, neither SME nor its authors guarantee the accuracy or completeness of any information published herein, and neither SME nor its authors shall be responsible for any errors, omissions, or damages arising out of use of this information. This work is published with the understanding that SME and its authors are supplying information but are not attempting to render engineering or other professional services. If such services are required, the assistance of an appropriate professional should be sought. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any statement or views presented here are those of the authors and are not necessarily those of SME. The mention of trade names for commercial products does not imply the approval or endorsement of SME.

Dec 1, 2014

By Bruce Bryant

Silver ore was discovered at Aspen in 1879, but the district did not reach full production until 1888 after lawsuits were settled and railroads furnished less expensive transportation to the outside world. The boom years were 1888-92; production declined thereafter. From the middle 1920's until 1950, the Midnight mine in the Richmond Hill district furnished most of the output in the Aspen quadrangle. Since 1950, little mining has been done at Aspen. The metals produced were silver, lead and zinc. Native silver dissolved from the sulfide ores was redeposited by waters circulating as deep as 300 m below the land surface, resulting in great secondary enrichment of many of the deposits. Over 100 million ounces of silver were produced in the Aspen quadrangle. Low-grade lead-zinc deposits remain between the old workings locally, and data available suggest that primary ore below levels mined is also of low grade. The ore occurs in the Mississippian Leadville Limestone and the lower part of the Pennsylvanian Belden Formation in sites that were made favorable for deposition by a number of stratigraphic and structural factors.

Jan 1, 1982

By COLIN A. LAWRENCE, Anthony Del Vescovo

All Rights Reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Information contained in this work has been obtained by SME, Inc. from sources believed to be reliable. However, neither SME nor its authors guarantee the accuracy or completeness of any information published herein, and neither SME nor its authors shall be responsible for any errors, omissions, or damages arising out of use of this information. This work is published with the understanding that SME and its authors are supplying information but are not attempting to render engineering or other professional services. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any statement or views presented here are those of individual authors and are not necessarily those of the SME. The mention of trade names for commercial products does not imply the approval or endorsement of SME.

Dec 1, 2017

By Victor Romero, Steve Redmond

All Rights Reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Information contained in this work has been obtained by SME, Inc. from sources believed to be reliable. However, neither SME nor its authors guarantee the accuracy or completeness of any information published herein, and neither SME nor its authors shall be responsible for any errors, omissions, or damages arising out of use of this information. This work is published with the understanding that SME and its authors are supplying information but are not attempting to render engineering or other professional services. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any statement or views presented here are those of individual authors and are not necessarily those of the SME. The mention of trade names for commercial products does not imply the approval or endorsement of SME.

Dec 1, 2011

By Scott G. Britton

Mine exploitation is a broad subject whose focus is the technical skills or efforts needed for the extraction of mineral from a known ore body. Mine exploitation can be considered the very core of the mining engineering discipline. It begins at the conclusion of the exploration and development stages of mining and ends when the ore body is exhausted and the mine (or mines)closes and is reclaimed. Section 8 on mine exploitation is comprised of seven chapters: (1) classification of mining methods, (2) mine surveying and mapping, 3) systems engineering, (4) computer methods, (5) labor relations and training, (6) management and administration, and (7) mine closure, sealing, and abandonment. Each chapter focuses its efforts towards providing detailed and useful information for the engineer on basic mine exploitation principles. The information can be applied to a broad range of mining problems without regard to mineral type or mining method.

Jan 1, 2008

By Bradford F. Townsend, Matthew E. Fowler, Michael F. Smithson, Lawrence R. Eckert

All Rights Reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Information contained in this work has been obtained by SME, Inc. from sources believed to be reliable. However, neither SME nor its authors guarantee the accuracy or completeness of any information published herein, and neither SME nor its authors shall be responsible for any errors, omissions, or damages arising out of use of this information. This work is published with the understanding that SME and its authors are supplying information but are not attempting to render engineering or other professional services. If such services are required, the assistance of an appropriate professional should be sought. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any statement or views presented here are those of the authors and are not necessarily those of SME. The mention of trade names for commercial products does not imply the approval or endorsement of SME.

Dec 1, 2010

By Willard C. Lacy

A mining operation begins with prospecting and exploration-stages with long periods of investment and high risk of failure. However, success in exploration ultimately determines survival of the mining industry. Prospecting and exploration may discover evidence of a mineral occurrence and outline its size and character, but ore deposits that support mining are "made" through the collective efforts of project geologists, geophysicists, geochemists, metallurgists, engineers, chemists, lawyers, and even politicians (Joralemon, 1975). Some deposits may go through multiple cycles of rejection and recommendation, discovery and development, decline and abandonment, rediscovery and development, etc., as economic, technological, or political conditions change or geologic understanding is improved. Peters (1987, p. 233) graphically illustrates the normal life cycle of a mine and the position of exploration in the cycle (Fig. 4.0.1). During the past fifty years, mineral exploration has evolved from comparing evidence of mineralization of prospects with that of known deposits to a more quantitative science employing many facets of geochemistry, geophysics, multispectral sensing from space, computer data storage, analysis, modeling, and most importantly, a better understanding of ore genesis. This modem approach to exploration began in the late 1940s and continues to develop. Exploration efforts peaked in the 1960s with emphasis upon the search for porphyry copper deposits, Mississippi Valley lead-zinc deposits, and volcanogenic massive sulfide copper-lead-zinc deposits. It peaked again in the middle and late 1980s with emphasis upon micron-size disseminated gold and epithermal and stratiform precious metal deposits.

Jan 1, 2008

By George H. Willis

In the second half of the nineteenth century, bimetallism progressively replaced by gold standard. After World War I and 1931-33 depression, gold mainly reserved for official international transactions and internal use restricted. Changes since 1971 have shrunk official international use of gold. International payments deficits and surpluses now financed by private and official credit, rarely by gold. Historical review covers evolution of: (1) internal and external private use, (2) internal official use, (3) external official use, (4) role in IMF and (5) use as unit of account.

Jan 1, 1978

By James R. Evans

Orange County, adjacent to the populous and industrialized Los Angeles area, is the fastest growing county in California and is second only to Los Angeles County in total population (figure 1). In addition to an equable climate and a burgeoning economy, there is room in Orange County for growth and expansion. Growth over the past decade has resulted in rapid development of industrial tracts, housing areas, and shopping and commercial centers, mostly in former agricultural areas. The value of new building in 1972 was a record amount-over I billion dollars (figure 2). Problems relating to the proper direction of growth are the concern of both government and the private sector. The intelligent and efficient use of areas to be developed requires planning for the conservation and protection of the County's natural beauty and for the orderly development of natural resources. The availability of sand and gravel, which is used in many phases of construction, will be a major controlling factor in the future of the County.

Jan 1, 1974

By Shemek Oginski, MARK C. JOHNSON

All Rights Reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Information contained in this work has been obtained by SME, Inc. from sources believed to be reliable. However, neither SME nor its authors guarantee the accuracy or completeness of any information published herein, and neither SME nor its authors shall be responsible for any errors, omissions, or damages arising out of use of this information. This work is published with the understanding that SME and its authors are supplying information but are not attempting to render engineering or other professional services. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any statement or views presented here are those of individual authors and are not necessarily those of the SME. The mention of trade names for commercial products does not imply the approval or endorsement of SME.

Dec 1, 2015

By Bradford F. Townsend, Marc R. Kritzer, Michael F. Roach, Dennis Ofiara

All Rights Reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Information contained in this work has been obtained by SME, Inc. from sources believed to be reliable. However, neither SME nor its authors guarantee the accuracy or completeness of any information published herein, and neither SME nor its authors shall be responsible for any errors, omissions, or damages arising out of use of this information. This work is published with the understanding that SME and its authors are supplying information but are not attempting to render engineering or other professional services. If such services are required, the assistance of an appropriate professional should be sought. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any statement or views presented here are those of the authors and are not necessarily those of SME. The mention of trade names for commercial products does not imply the approval or endorsement of SME.

Dec 1, 2008

By Douglas W. Fuerstenau, Pradip Pradip

The design and development of selective flotation collectors has been the key to the remarkable success of flotation in beneficiating complex, difficult-to-process ores. Sustained research efforts in the field over the past hundred years have led to delineating the scientific basis of selective mineral flotation in terms of the crystal chemistry and the surface and colloid chemistry of minerals including their solubility, and the aqueous solution chemistry of added reagents. It is now well-established that the electrical double layer theory (EDL) is the most powerful means of quantifying the relative strength of mineral-reagent interactions in the case of nonsulfide minerals. We illustrate the utility and the power of the EDL in delineating the science underlying selective mineral flotation with the help of a few examples taken from our own work, in particular on the selective flotation of rare-earth minerals (bastnaesite) from associated semisoluble minerals (barite and calcite) using alkyl hydroxamate collectors and the flotation separation of lithium-containing minerals (spodumene) from associated alumino-silicate minerals with oleate (fatty acids). Both of these mineral separation systems are of contemporary research interest and of immense value to the industry today. Recent advances in utilizing molecular modeling computations, particularly in the context of quantifying the effect of crystal chemistry and the relative distribution of adsorption sites available on mineral cleavage planes, are also reviewed.

By W. R. Dengler

Dynatec Mining Limited contracted to sink a lS00 metre (4960 ft.) concrete lined shaft for Falconbridge Nickel Mines in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. The shaft is 6.3 metres (20.S ft.) in diameter inside the concrete lining and is equipped with steel furnishings. Dynatec used the owner supplied 4.6 metre (l5 ft.) diameter double-drum hoist to sink the shaft with 12.S tonne buckets for muck removal and 4 cubic metre concrete buckets for concrete placement. One of the unique features of the shaft sinking operation is the use of a four-boom electric hydraulic drill jumbo permanently mounted in the shaft sinking stage. This paper will describe the performance obtained with the electric hydraulic drilling equipment and the high capacity muck removal and concreting equipment.

Jan 1, 1992

The Canadian concept for nuclear fuel waste disposal is being assessed by AECL Research in a series of experiments at its Underground Research Laboratory (URL) near Lac du Bonnet. Manitoba, Canada. As pan of this research, the Mine-by Experiment has been designed to obtain information on rock mass behavior, the development of an excavation-induced damage zone and failure mechanisms around a circular bored tunnel. An iterative design approach was used to effectively reconcile the experiment objectives and construction logistics. This paper discusses the design considerations and construction methodology adopted on the project.

Jan 1, 1991

By Bill Mariucci, Gary Almeraris

All Rights Reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Information contained in this work has been obtained by SME, Inc. from sources believed to be reliable. However, neither SME nor its authors guarantee the accuracy or completeness of any information published herein, and neither SME nor its authors shall be responsible for any errors, omissions, or damages arising out of use of this information. This work is published with the understanding that SME and its authors are supplying information but are not attempting to render engineering or other professional services. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any statement or views presented here are those of individual authors and are not necessarily those of the SME. The mention of trade names for commercial products does not imply the approval or endorsement of SME.

Dec 1, 2009

By Mokhinabonu Mardonova, Yosoon Choi

Open-source technology for supporting the Industry 4.0 has become the target of academic research in many sectors. This study reviewed the trends of open-source technology, its forms, and some industrial applications. As a case study using open-source hardware and software for the mining industry, this study proposed a low-cost environmental monitoring system for non-metallic underground mines to support mine safety and occupational health issues. The system was developed using open-source hardware, Arduino and 3D printer, to design the monitoring device. An open-source software, MIT App Inventor, was used for developing an Android application for smartphones to enable remote communication with the system. Field experiments were conducted at an underground tunnel and a non-metallic underground mining site to assess the performance of the system in both mobile and static modes, respectively. Although a few limitations related to the precision of the low-cost dust and gas sensors still exist, the findings of the experiments show that the mining industry can benefit from open-source technology deployment when considering cost factors