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By A. F. Fossum, D. E. Munson

The U. S. Department of Energy is constructing and operating the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), a research and development facility near Carlsbad, New Mexico, to determine whether or not defense-generated high-level radioactive waste can be stored safely in bedded salt. The goal of the WIPP modeling program is to develop the capability to predict room responses from one site to another without a priori knowledge of the actual room responses. Data from one of the early WIPP excavations, called the South Drift, have already been used to form an initial evaluation of computational models for predicting room closures as a result of salt creep [Morgan et al., 19851. In that study, a significant unresolved discrepancy existed between predicted and measured room closures. It was suggested that future studies address alternate forms of the constitutive law. In this paper, an alternate form of the creep model for salt is used that is founded upon the deformation- mechanism map for the micromechanical deformation processes. This model embodies both steady-state and transient creep. Also, quasi-static plasticity is incorporated into the complete constitutive model for salt. The conclusion is drawn that the combination of the mechanistic creep model, plasticity, and flow potential can approximate the late time South Drift deformation. Further improvement of the model fit of plasticity in the future is expected to further improve the simulation.

Jan 1, 1986

By Martin H. Col, Thomas W. Steele

The ability to make a good profit in the mining industry is becoming more and more difficult. Typically, grades are lower, sites are more remote, and environmental restrictions are getting tighter than ever before. While the price of the materials P.roduced, such as gold and silver, have stayed flat or declined, the external costs (goods and services) have increased. Increasingly difficult environmental restrictions have increased the lime and costs of develoJ?in9 new deposits, while often placing restrictions on a mme s production rate. Environmental costs for mine closure and site reclamation also make it very difficult to show a long-term profit while mining. Typically, the answer to this cost/price squeeze has been technological innovation. The whole concept of heap leaching low-grade gold ore is one innovation that provided some very goocf profits to the mining companies; but, today, those profits are being eroded by the continuing cost/ price squeeze. This paper will discuss material handling in a heap leach stacking operation and the alternatives of trucks, grasshopper conveY.or systems and mobile conveyor systems.

Jan 1, 1992

By O. Lopez

"Stringent regulations and increased arsenic presence in ore bodies being exploited have created the need for cost effective and environmentally compliant technologies to remove selenium and arsenic from mine waters and metallurgical waste streams. Existing treatment methods have high life cycle costs and/or produce residues that, due to their unknown stability over the long-term, may represent future liabilities. This results in high compliance costs and uncertainties which negatively impact existing operations and projects in permitting. Selen-IX™ is a new ion exchange based process that selectively removes selenium from mine impacted waters down to 1 ppb while producing a stable inorganic iron-selenium product. Results of piloting completed on streams generated from coal and copper-gold deposits are presented along with preliminary equipment sizing and life cycle costs of full scale treatment. An example of a commercially available system for arsenic removal using sulphide precipitation is presented. The benefit of this treatment method is discussed based on recently completed technical feasibility assessment including laboratory testing and preliminary engineering design. INTRODUCTION Selenium Due to the chemical similarity between selenium and sulfur, selenium substitutes sulfur in many minerals that can be found in a wide range of deposits including coal, base metal, precious metal, phosphate, and uranium. One of the main environmental challenges facing the industry in North America today is related to the removal of hexavalent selenium, e.g. selenate, to ultralow levels, typically between 1 to 10 ppb, from large flows of often cold water containing less than 1,000 ppb of selenium. Recent studies commissioned by the industry identified biological selenium reduction systems as the best available technology. Although the biological selenium reduction process is commercially proven in certain applications to remove selenium to ultralow discharge levels, the technology has been primarily applied to relatively low and constant flows of warm water produced by the Flue Gas Desulfurization (FGD) scrubbers in the power generation industry. The wide spread adoption of this treatment method by the mining industry is hindered by high capital and operating costs associated with treating large flows of cold water, lack of data and knowledge about the long term stability of solid residues produced by this treatment, and limited capacity of biological systems to respond to sudden changes in flow and/or mass load of contaminants. Furthermore, it has been reported that reaching discharge limits less than 3 ppb could be a challenge and that polishing treatment for the removal of BOD and phosphate maybe required to avoid the impact of the biological treatment which requires organics and nutrients, on aquatic environment downstream of treatment plants. Alternate treatment systems are being developed to overcome and/or completely avoid some of the challenges of biological systems. One such treatment system is BioteQ’s Selen-IX™ process which is purely physico-chemical treatment system."

Jan 1, 2015

By Frederick S. Fisher

Three spatially separate porphyry copper/molybdenum deposits are associated with the Tertiary Needle Creek igneous center in the southern Absaroka Mountains, Wyoming. In all three deposits a central zone containing disseminated copper and molybdenum is surrounded by a halo of small, discontinuous base and precious metal veins. Propylitically and phyllically altered rocks are common in all three mineralized areas, and potassically altered rocks are locally present. Fission- track age data from apatite and zircon indicate that mineralization occurred about 32-40 m.y. ago. Limited data suggest that the lead isotopes are nonradiogenic, similar to porphyry copper deposits elsewhere in the western United States. The complex igneous history of the Needle Creek center has involved several periods of intrusive and probably extrusive activity. lntrusive rocks are calc-alkalic and include andesite, granodiorite, diorite, quartz monzonite, dacite, and rhyodacite. Stocks (1-30 kmz in exposed area), radial dike swarms, and sills make up the presently exposed plutonic masses and constitute lower-level vent fillings in an old stratovolcano. The Needle Creek igneous center is located approximately midway along a northwest-trending belt of intrusive rocks extending more than 100 km along the central axis of the Absaroka volcanic field. The igneous and mineralized centers within this belt were probably localized at the intersections of northwest- trending Laramide and possibly Tertiary fracture systems and earlier northeast-trending Precambrian structures in the underlying basement rocks.

Jan 1, 2013

By H. F. Broicher

Introduction In April 1998, AIS Sommer GmbH of Germany delivered the first laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) analyzer to the mining industry. LKAB's Kiruna iron ore mine in Sweden shared the costs and the risk of building the prototype. This marks the beginning of LIF analysis as a technique for quality control in mining and mineral processing. Photoluminescence analysis is well established. In most laboratories, fluorescence spectrometers are standard equipment for quality or pollution control. LIF is being used in several applications, including combustion studies and particle image velocimetry. However, it has mostly been used in laboratory environments. The availability of rugged lasers for industrial use brings this powerful tool to the forefront of production, even in the rough conditions found in mining and minerals processing. Laser-induced fluorescence Basics. Fluorescence of naturally occurring minerals has fascinated man since scientific investigation of this phenomenon commenced about 200 years ago. However, importance in industrial application and peripheral activities. Hand sorting of ore under ultraviolet (UV) lamps is seen as an archaic method. Long gone are the days when geologists set out at night with UV hand lamps to find valuable ore deposits, especially those of tungsten. Today, fluorescent minerals are considered collectors' items and museum exhibits. In the late 1960s (Hemphill, 1968) and during the 1970s, attempts to use lasers for excitation of fluorescence in minerals led to the development of an airborne fluorosensor (Seigel and Robbins, 1980). However, this prospecting technology did not gain industry acceptance and vanished from the market. During the past seven years, ongoing research of the LIF of minerals resulted in new findings that give good reason to revive the interest in fluorescence and its use in the mineral industries (Broicher and Zydek, 1995; Broicher, 1998). Fluorescence is defined as the short-lived form of photoluminescence, in which matter emits visible radiation during and after irradiation with light – the fluorescence generally being of a longer wavelength than the irradiation. Fluorescence of matter is described by: • the absorption spectrum, • the emission spectrum, • the decay curve and • the quantum efficiency. The absorption spectrum shows the fluorescence intensity in a fixed spectral band as a function of the excitation wavelength, while the emission spectrum shows the fluorescence intensity at varying emission wave- lengths for a fixed excitation wavelength (Fig. 1). The decay curves describe the exponential decrease of the fluorescence intensity with time. The quantum efficiency is the ratio of irradiating energy to emitted energy. Re- cent research has found that: the quantum efficiency of minerals can be measured and evaluated,

Jan 1, 2000

By Randal J. Barnes

The January 1988 issue of Engineering and Mining Journal includes two short articles on blasting practices in surface gold mines (Anon., 1988 ; Carr , 1988). A reader of these articles learns, among other things, that a "12 x 13 ft" blasting pattern is used at the Carson Hill Mine, and a "17-ft burden and 18-ft spacing" is used at Echo Bay Mineral's Borealis operation, while at Mascot's Nickel Plate Gold Mine "ore shots are on a 10 x 10 ft" pattern. Like a new edition of the World Book Almanac, these articles are overflowing with useful tidbits of technical data; but, they never mention why the particular blasting patterns were selected. A survey carried out during the Winter of 1988 at six surface gold mines in the western United States also failed to produce a satisfactory answer. The responses from mine planning engineers to the question "why is your blasting pattern X by Y", reduced to "we use X by Y here because we used X by Y at our last operation, and it worked ok." Certainly, with the available decades of experience and professional practice in blast holes design, rock fragmentation in surface mines has been thoroughly investigated. However, and this is the central issue, fragmentation of the rock is not the primary purpose of most rotary drill holes in surface gold mines. Quoting senior mine engineers from companies operating, three of the richest surface gold mines in the world (AMAX Gold, Homestake Mining, and Gold Fields Mining)

Jan 1, 1989

By Yuting Xue, Taghi Sherizadeh, Mark Van Dyke, Dogukan Guner, Khaled Mohamed

The Coal Pillar Rib Rating (CPRR) technique has been developed to assist in rib support design in underground coal mines. One major challenge of the data collection process is the measurement of coal strengths in the field. Schmidt hammer has been verified as a useful tool to determine coal strength. An alternative approach is to obtain the representative strength of coal mass by determining the coal lithotypes in the field based on the coal brightness profile by experienced geologists or mining engineers. In this paper, image processing techniques have been used to quantify the texture of coal images of different lithotypes with the purpose of classifying coal lithotypes. The coal images were collected from the pillar ribs with exposed surfaces in underground coal mines, and the coal lithotypes were identified when taking the images. The method of Gray-Level Co-Occurrence Matrix (GLCM) was used to analyze the textures of coal images of different lithotypes, and the texture parameters, such as contrast, homogeneity, energy, and entropy, were compared. The results show that the images of coal with different lithotypes have different textures, which can be quantified through the image processing. The results from this study demonstrate the potential of classifying coal lithotypes using rib photos and easing the data collection process of CPRR.

Feb 1, 2024

By Leonard Harris

Most of those involved in the mining industry are aware of the negative feelings that the well-informed citizens of this country, also known as the American public, have for the industry. As noted in an issue of Mining World News, “The general public perceives mining as dirty, noisy, destructive and belonging somewhere else.” The same theme was raised at a conference in Scotland in July 1991. It was noted there that mining has an unattractive public image around the world “as dirty, dangerous work that pollutes and degrades the environment.” Why is this? Why does mining have such a bad rap? I’m afraid that some of the blame rests with the mining industry itself - both in the past and in the present. Hopefully, we can do something about this in the future. And hopefully, the information here will help the reader to spread the word to offset the negative messages being issued almost daily by industry foes. I hope this will become more than just the words of another miner talking to miners and their friends. In the past, belching smokestacks and polluted streams and waterways were common sights. Today, the negative results of mining operations can also be seen in the form of waste dumps, leaked acid mine waste water and dust blowing from tailings piles. Some will argue that mining did nothing illegal in the past, and that all the regulations in force at that time were carried out to the letter. That may be so. The fact remains, however, that mining did these things, and the evidence is very clear in many parts of the country. It is visible to the well-informed citizens, in spite of the fact that many mine sites have been cleaned up and new technologies, such as flash smelting, dump leaching, pressure leaching and bioleaching, have greatly overcome many of the pollution problems. What is not so visible is the importance of the mining industry in our daily lives. Not long ago, knowledge about our non-renewable mineral resources ranked low on the list of qualifications for being a well-informed citizen. Events during the past two decades have changed this scenario. Politicians, writers, newscasters, economists and administrators, as well as the ‘public,’ are expressing opinions and forming judgments on oil company profits, desecration of landscapes, waste disposal sites and pollution by the extractive industries.

Jan 1, 1992

By H. E. Hawkes

Reconnaissance mineral exploration based on the distribution of ore metals in stream sediments has become a generally accepted method of mineral reconnaissance. This approach seems to work almost equally well in all climates and in all kinds of terrain, provided of course that the ore deposits being sought are exposed at or near the surface and are actively undergoing erosion. Nobody with any experience in the field would question the validity of the concept on which stream sediment reconnaissance is based. Considerable dispute does arise, however, when the subject of density of sample sites per unit area, or sample spacing, comes up for discussion. What is the optimum balance between completeness of coverage and cost? The tacit assumption is frequently made that a greater sample density necessarily leads to more complete coverage and hence a lower probability of missing an important discovery, without regard for the size of the stream sample or the topology of the drainage pattern. The purpose of this paper is to attempt to bring the problem of site selection in stream sediment sampling into better focus, and to present a formula that may help in planning reconnaissance programs.

Jan 1, 1976

By Gordon R. Haworth

Conditions affecting minerals investments are continuing to change at an increasing rate, and in this paper we will attempt to predict the course of mine financing in the future. We will first review the situation historically and then examine the problems and constraints that are now making the financing task more difficult. Suggested solutions are discussed, and a new method of financing a group of mining projects is hypothesized.

Jan 1, 1977

By D. M. Ziebarth

"During the mid to late 1960’s, the underground potash industry in Saskatchewan was born. For the next four decades the industry operated at a steady pace supporting a large part of the world demand; until 2008 when the potash market heightened. Operators were motivated to capitalize on this increased demand, new mines were proposed while existing mines were planning upgrades. Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan (PCS) was one of the major producers planning upgrades to their production facilities quickly, including modifying the existing headframe and shaft at the PCS Cory Site to accommodate a new 1500 tonne per hour hoisting plant. Upon completion of the project, the innovative operations group continuously reviewed methods to increase production and reduce operating costs, allowing PCS to continue being competitive on the world market. This paper will describe the design challenges encountered during the development of the infrastructure around an operating facility whilst minimizing down time, schedule, capital and construction costs. This paper will also explore the strategy to increase capacity of the newly commissioned hoisting plant. BACKGROUND Potash production is a major Saskatchewan industry, and has played a significant role in the economy for over 40 years. Production commenced in 1962 when water problems were overcome at the International Minerals and Chemical (IMC) mine near Esterhazy, Saskatchewan. A surge of development by other companies resulted in twelve companies opening ten mines by 1970. In 1975 Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan was created by the government of Saskatchewan and shortly thereafter purchased several mines in Saskatchewan, including the Cory Mine (Cory), near Saskatoon. Cory has been in operation since 1968 and is located 12 km (7.5 mi) west of Saskatoon in central Saskatchewan. The mine is located in the center of the world’s largest potash deposit, 1,000 m (3300 feet) below surface. PCS has embarked on sizable capital expansions of more than CDN $7 billion. The Cory CDN $1.6 billion expansion was expected to raise operational capability of the site to 2.7 million tonnes per year, an increase of 1.9 million tonnes per year (MTPY). To achieve 2.7 MTPY of finished product and considering the 22.6% average production recovery1, 12 MTPY of ore must be hoisted to surface for processing. To deliver this rate required upgrading of the hoisting plant to 1500 tonne per hour (TPH). To accomplish this ambitious challenge, creative thinking, careful planning and a cohesive team was needed to work together to ensure the schedule, budget and most importantly the work was completed safely"

Jan 1, 2017

By Donald M. Duncan

An acceptable source of concrete aggregate is available in Kansas City in a continuous, medium bedded, slightly dipping limestone unit. Removal is accomplished in shallow depth, 12 feet to 17 feet high, room and pillar mines. The accepted empirical design spaces 20 foot pillars 60 feet on center. A portion of the 20 foot unit is left in place for roof support. Rock and soil cover is variable to 100± feet maximum. Long-term stability of these mines is affected by numerous factors, including the above mine-rock profile, ground water conditions and mining practice. Crusher-run aggregate sells at the mine for $2.20 per ton, yielding a gross income of $2.00 to $2.80 per square foot of mine. Use of mine space for real estate development requires a new perspective in mine development. Mining practices to obtain long term stabile structures can become an over-riding factor as compared with minimum production costs and maximum extraction ratios. Poorly mined areas are unusuable for secondary purposes. Development cost for lease space in less desirable mines is substantially greater than those planned for a secondary use. Real estate development in mine space involves unique engineering problems. Properly engineered developments offer singular advantages. Warehouse lease space sells for $.50 to $1.00 per square foot per year; fully developed office areas may double these values.

Jan 1, 1968

By Tim O'neil

Attendance exceeded 4,500 minerals professionals from all over the world at SME's March 9-11 Annual Meeting and Exhibit in Orlando, FL. The exhibit, of more than 600 booths, featured 398 of the mining industry's premier suppliers. The keynote session, "Change makers in the industry," opened the meeting. The session featured Jeffrey Clevenger, president of Cyprus Climax Metals; Mark Baker, senior vice president of Modular Mining Systems, a division of Komatsu; and John Correnti, vice chairman, president and chief executive officer of Nucor. The SME meeting also featured four specialty programs: Bulk materials handling by conveyor belt, Latin American perspectives, plant operators' symposium and waste characterization and treatment. Also open to attendees were more than 60 technical sessions encom¬passing coal, the environment, industrial minerals, mining and exploration, minerals and metallurgical processing and minerals resource management. Ed Dowling was the chair of the 1998 SME technical programming committee. And Dowling, director of process management and engineering for Cyprus Minerals, acted as the host of the SME keynote session. Dowling said the mining industry has undergone incredible change over the last decade. And the forces of change continue to accelerate. These changes include globalization, regulatory pressures, technology, labor, competition, pricing and other market influences, he said. With that in mind, the SME program committee selected as the theme of this year's SME Annual Meeting, "The changing world of mining ... our role." Given some of the current commodity prices, Dowling said, the theme is timely. He also noted that a large percentage of the 60 technical sessions spoke to the evolving operational and business aspects of the mining industry as the industry crossed international boundaries. The keynote session mirrored the meeting theme by focusing on the increasing challenges and required changes the minerals industry faces. Dowling reminded keynote attendees that change is not a new idea. He said Benjamin Franklin described three types of people: Those who are immovable, those who can be moved and those who are movers. And so it was appropriate that three of the most forward-thinking movers in the business - Clevenger, Baker and Correnti - address the keynote session, Dowling said. John Callaway moderated the keynote session. He is senior correspondent for WTTW TV, the public broadcast station in Chicago. For the past 13 years, Callaway has served as host of WTTW's award-winning, primetime news analysis program, Chicago Tonight. Callaway said that the keynote changemakers are recognized as industry leaders whose vision has led to significant business transformation and results. Panel speakers, he said, will discuss how shifts in strategy, op-

Jan 1, 1998

By Nancy J. Wheatley

I. INTRODUCTION The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) is a regional water and sewerage authority which provides wholesale water and sewer services to the Metropolitan Boston area. The MWRA was created by the Massachusetts Legislature as an independent authority in 1985 following the filing of a lawsuit in federal court to correct the pollution of Boston Harbor resulting from inadequate and inadequately maintained sewerage facilities. Immediately upon its creation, the MWRA began to tackle treatment plant issues, including addressing the need for a secondary treatment plant, planning for ceasing ocean discharging of sludge, and making interim repairs to the existing, antiquated treatment plants. The MWRA's initial activities led to a court-ordered schedule for construction of a single new primary and secondary treatment facility, for development of sludge management plan focussed principally on reuse, and for completion of a short term program of repairs to existing facilities. Once a schedule for completing these activities had been negotiated, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), a plaintiff in the federal court case, asked that the MWRA take "responsibility" for controlling discharges from combined sewer overflows (CSOs) within its service area. Combined sewers (sewers in which both sanitary sewage and storm water runoff are carried in a single pipe) presently discharge over 10 billion gallons of untreated wastewater into Boston Harbor and its [ ]

Jan 1, 1991

By Richard H. Lindgren

I appreciate this opportunity to discuss with you OPIC's new policies designed to assist U.S. minerals companies in developing new sources of minerals overseas. A comparison of recent figures on U.S. investment in mineral exploration, development and production gives results which are remarkable --and disturbing. Through the 1960's the flow of U.S. foreign direct investment in mining and smelting in the developed and less developed countries were nearly equal. However, by 1973, roughly 80% of all exploration expenditures by mining companies was taking place in the developed countries and principally in the U.S., Canada and Australia. Clearly it is to the interests of both the developing countries and the United States to put these figures back in better balance. As you may be aware, the administration as a whole is examining systematically what can be done by government to reduce the disincentives and increase the incentives to mineral investment in the less developed countries --the LDCs. A subgroup of the National Advisory Council chaired by the Treasury Department has been formed to coordinate U. S. Government policy and program efforts relating to mineral and energy development in these countries. Among other matters, this subgroup will examine how public policies could positively influence the private investment decision-making process in the minerals industry.

Jan 1, 1978

By Jorgen Elbrond

Before and in the early stages of industrialization, mining was the undisputed leader in technology. It represented the high-tech of the time. Early mechanization bears witness to that. Hoisting and rock breaking driven by waterpower are such examples. The mines' use of the steam engine was a major incentive to its development. By these means new mines could be opened and more metal supplied. Understanding of systems was essential for miners when shaping the infrastructure of the mines for the transportation of ore, material and men and for the evacuation of water and for ventilation. The irrigation systems of ancient mines are such examples. However, with the industrial revolution other more specialized branches of industry advanced further, and the mines became users of other industrial branches technologies. The mining industry had, however, always been quick to recognize a good thing and use it, when time was right. But, compared with other branches of industry, the mining industry has the disadvantage of working in a rugged environment with (and actually inside) a raw material which is abrasive and highly variable with respect to mechanical properties. This determines the rather high unpredictability of mining machines' performances and their low availabilities and explains a part of the delays in introducing technological advances.

Jan 1, 1989

By K. Koizumf, A. A. Cram, K. Whitchurch

The Expert Scheduling is a new, exciting method for scheduling underground and open-cut coal mines. A key feature of the Expert Scheduler is the adoption of an expert or artificial intelligence system. The expert system makes decisions regarding the schedule, such as which area should be mined. With existing scheduling systems these choices are made by the scheduling engineer. Developing one area may be better than another if it offers better quality or lower costs. Information the engineer considers in these decisions could be; • coal tonnage and quality targets, • equipment utilisation, • mining cost, • and other practical constraints. In expert scheduling a number of experts are appointed to make these decisions. A number of mining strategies are examined for each period. Information for each strategy is evaluated by "experts" and the "best" solution adopted. The method is based on the Blackboard Techniques. With this technique information is presented to "knowledge sources” or "experts" by the Blackboard Controller for their "opinions". These "opinions" are examined by the Blackboard Controller to select the best strategy. Engineers can readily add experts to the system, and modify the weighting of experts to suit mining conditions. Using an Expert Scheduler means that many schedule op- tions can be analysed quickly with full repeatability.

Jan 1, 1996

By John A. Herbst, William T. Pate

Column flotation is emerging as one of the most important new separation technologies of the decade. Attendant to this development is the need for a quantitative understanding of the dynamic characteristics of columns. An understanding of the many important sub-processes occurring in the cell makes possible the development of dynamic simulators for flotation columns which will aid in the design of control systems for dynamic and steady state optimization. This paper presents a dynamic model for the column flotation cell developed from a population balance point of view similar to that which has been successfully applied to conventional flotation cells. In particular, the mixing that occurs within the pulp is modeled with a distributed-volume, mixer-in-series model as an approximation to the axially dispersed plug flow transport that occurs in the cell. This simpler approach avoids the distributed transport model which often leads to mathematical intractability. Other phenomena dealt with are the attachment and detachment of particles from bubbles in the froth and pulp, the transport of water and the bubble volumes with the froth and pulp phases. Simulation of the flotation of an Illinois No. 6 coal in a pilot plant flotation column were performed to test control strategies.

Jan 1, 1989

By D. J. DeLeo

In recent years the hue and cry of American industry concerning the pressure of foreign competition on the domestic marketplace has become all too familiar to most of us, as we are all well aware, the steel industry has not been exempted from this pressure, reduced production levels, work force cutbacks, and in some extreme cases, plant closings and company liquidations have resulted, new regulations governing imports and quotas have been enacted, foreign trade agreements reached, and more strict regulation enforcement practices undertaken, despite these, and other measures, the impact of aggressive foreign competition has not lessened, the concensus of numerous management consultants is that in order to successfully cope with these problems we must draw on all available technology to provide the tools which will enable us to enhance our management effectiveness, one area requiring particularly close attention in any mining operation is that of managing critical resources - namely time, energy and equipment in a fast and efficient manner, In mining, with critical resources deployed over a large geographical area, any degree of success involved with resource management is dependent upon knowing the current status of all work related activities, if we, as mine operators, are to be more successful in this area, additional tools are a necessity and modern technology has provided a multitude of new options from which to choose.

Jan 1, 1985

By Derek M. Hutchinson, Don Zeni

The construction of shafts by blind drilling has been made cost effective by advances in technology and experience. The techniques of blind shaft drilling are discussed and a brief history presented. A recent use of blind shaft drilling to access a small gold ore body in Australia is described. Finally, the most recent developments in drilling machinery are reviewed together with possible applications in new and existing mines.

Jan 1, 1987