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By Ching L. Wu, Joseph Penzien

An analytical procedure is presented for evaluating the stresses in linings of bored tunnels caused by kinematic soil-lining interaction. Three cases of interaction as produced by the following conditions are treated: (1) relaxation of in situ soil stresses near a lining following its installation; (2) overburden pressure at the soil surface; and (3) free-field soil response resulting from an earthquake. Non-dimensional formulas and graphs resulting from parametric studies are presented for practical tunnel design applications. The procedure is applied separately to a steel lining and a concrete lining for a site located at the lower end of Market Street in San Francisco through which a BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit)tunnel passes.

Jan 1, 1997

By Robert C. Horton

The Getchell Mine is located on the east flank of the Osgood Mountain Range in the Potosi Mining District, Humboldt County, NV. Mining in the area first began in 1883 for copper, lead and silver in skarn-related deposits. Tungsten was discovered in the skarns in 1916 and was mined sporadically until 1957. The first major discovery was made in 1933 when two Winnemucca prospectors, Edward Knight and Emmett Chase, found gold at the present site of the Getchell gold mine. In 1934, after a small amount of preliminary prospecting, the claims were purchased by Noble H. Getchell of Midas, NV. The Getchell Mine Inc. was organized and exploration and development work began on a broad scale. Major funding was provided by George Wingfield and investors he assembled. Laxalt described Wingfield’s immediate history prior to his financing of Getchell as follows.

Jan 1, 1999

Solvent extraction has recently been introduced into Australian hydrometallurgical practice for the production of a high grade uranium concentrate from El Sherana ore by a sulphuric acid leach and solvent extraction process. The solvent is a 5 per cent solution of tri(iso-octyl)amine in kerosene modified with 4 per cent of a long chain alcohol. The stripping reagent is a molar solution of sodium chloride.Preliminary testing for the development of the process showed that the leach liquor was quite amenable to the solvent extraction process and that the equilibrium and rate considerations of both the extraction and stripping steps were very favourable.The industrial plant contains four stages of extraction, three stages of chloride stripping and one stage of secondary carbonate stripping. An internal type of mixer-settler is used for the stagewise contact, the design being based on tests with model equipment.The performance and control of the industrial plant is satisfactory; 99·7 per cent of the uranium is recovered for a loss of 0·3 gallons of kerosene and 0· 4 pounds of amine per 1,000 gallons of liquor treated.INTRODUCTIONThe processing of El Sherana uranium ore from the South Alligator River valley commenced in April, 1959, and thereby introduced into Australian hydrometallurgical practice the unit operation of solvent extraction on an industrial scale. Although there are now some twelve mineral processing plants in the United States and Canada using solvent extraction, its application to the field of primary hydrometallurgy is quite new. Prior to 1956 none of these twelve plants was operating and hydrometallurgical application waslimited to the refining of comparatively high grade uranium compounds and fission products from nitrate and nitric acid solutions.

Jan 1, 1961

By D. C. Kaliampakos, A. K. Moutsatsou, J. K. Skotaras

The wastes from marble extraction in the Thasos- Kavalla-Drama region of northeastern Greece could be utilised as a new source of high-quality white carbonate fillers for the European market. Large deposits, satisfactory properties, acceptable processing costs and environmental benefits are among the factors that would have a positive bearing on a proposal for their use in this way. DTH, the waste arising from dolomitic marble quarrying operations on the island of Thasos, appears to be the more suitable material than DA waste from Nikissiani on the mainland because of the lower cost of primary grinding and the higher production rate of ultrafines with a mean particle size of 5 micrometres (the optimum size for filler properties in the case of both DTH and DA), its superior whiteness, the benefits that such use would bring to a very severe and complex environmental problem and the lower transport cost

Jun 18, 1905

The Greymouth Coalfield contains New Zealand's greatest known resource of bituminous rank coal. The coals are of very high quality, with low ash and sulphur contents and a range of other properties that makes them desirable for a wide range of uses. In fact only a few producers around the world today can offer coals with such exceptional properties. This suggests that Greymouth coal has potential as a premium export trading commodity. These assertions have been largely confirmed by a comprehensive exploration drilling programme funded by Mines Division û Ministry of Energy between 1979 and 1984. The program, forming part of the NZ Coal Resources Survey, was carried out under contract by Lime and Marble Ltd. The drilling of 49 deep, predominantly cored, holes at 1000 m intervals over the coalfield has generated a vast amount of data. It has shown the existence of three major potentially minable coal deposits containing 233 x 106, 33 x 106 and 15 x 106 tonnes of coal in ground. Investigations have at this stage only identified targets and these estimates represent 'in ground' resources, not recoverable reserves. Recent geological studies as well as past and present mining have clearly highlighted the problems posed by the complexity of the coalfield geology. The coalfield lies within a mobile zone in the earth's crust known as the Paporoa Tectonic Zone, which has been active from at least mid-Cretaceous to the present time. Currently this factor poses the greatest obstacle to the determination of mining possibility of the, defined deposit and ultimately will strongly influence any future mining development. The Greymouth Coalfield has, however, had a long and eventful mining history spanning the last 120 years, where 32.5 x 106 tonnes of coal has been won from over 100 mines. In spite of the problems facing development, the large quantities and exceptional quality of the remaining coal will act as a strong inducement to persevere with this difficult but potentially valuable resource.

Jan 1, 1985

By Steve Kral

The mining industry is no stranger to hard times. Throughout its history, the industry has faced the ups and downs of commodity prices, difficult-to-mine-and-process ore bodies, labor issues and other problems. Throughout it all, though, the mining industry continues to provide the materials needed for society —even in the face of attacks by those who seek to cripple the industry or have it go away. The reason the mining industry survives, of course, is that mankind requires the products the industry produces. And, in recent decades, the industry has developed new technologies and improved on existing ones to produce those products in environmentally sound ways. At the same time, the economic benefits have been enormous to communities throughout the world where mining takes place.

Jan 1, 2002

By M. Moinpour, Y. K. Rao

The catalysed direct reduction of copper sulphide with carbon and lime was investigated in the range 850-1000 degrees C using Cu2S-CaO-C and Cu2S-4CaO-4C reaction mixtures. The effects of the catalytic additives K2CO3, Li2CO3, Na2CO3, NaF, Na2SO3 and the ternary eutectic (K,Li,Na)2CO3 were determined. Potassium carbonate, sodium fluoride and the ternary appear to be the most effective catalysts for the direct reduction process. The rate enhancement of the catalysed carbothermic reduction of copper sulphide in the presence of lime was explained in terms of the catalysis of the Boudouard reaction

Jul 1, 1991

By Alexandre Schultz Rizek

Esse projeto visou a substituição do sistema de controle instalado por um padrão RUSSULA, sistema esse que controla um laminador de barras e de rolos de 500.000 toneladas/ano na Usina Presidente Vargas da CSN em Volta Redonda, RJ/Brasil. Juntamente com o sistema de controle, RUSSULA forneceu um novo posto de operação para a cabine central, com novas telas de operação, sendo um posto “touch”. Equipado com controladores Siemens S7-400, IHM Wonderware InTouch, acionamentos ABB ACS800 e DCS800, o sistema se apresentava ineficaz, exigindo a otimização do processo, aumento de produtividade, diminuição de paradas, diminuição de perdas metálicas e maior confiabilidade no controle, o último através das ferramentas RUSSULA implementadas no software, como por exemplo detecção automática de sucata, controle de tração, controle de laço, rastreamento do material no laminador, otimização de corte das tesouras e barra fantasma.

Aug 17, 2017

By Rodrigo Cortés

La biooxidación de minerales de oro refractarios y concentrados es un proceso biotecnológico de tratamiento compuesto de microorganismos oxidadores de hierro y azufre que se ha implementado en distintos países del mundo como Perú, Australia, China y Sudáfrica. En ese sentido, el presente texto señala la minería peruana y las opciones biotecnologicas para el tratamiento de mineral refractario a través del uso de reactores de tanque agitados y lixiviación en pilas.

May 1, 2014

By Sean Dessureault

Dentro de los procesos de la operación minera, se requiere conocer las etapas que describen el planemiento y la extracción hasta la entrega final del mineral. En ese sentido, el presente texto se enfoca en el control del blending de una de las minas de carbón más grandes que se encuentra en el estado de Wyoming, Estados Unidos.

Jan 1, 2012

A wide range of drill holes and process streams are sampled for resource estimation, grade control, and contractual purposes in the minerals industry. However, despite the availability of training courses, conferences and both national and international standards on correct sampling practices, it is still surprising how often little attention is given to ensuring that representative samples are collected for analysis. The reason for this is that the responsibility for sampling is often entrusted to personnel who do not appreciate the significance and importance of sampling, with cost being the main driving force rather than whether the sample is representative of the material from which it was extracted. This seriously undermines the precision and accuracy of the analyses subsequently generated and can render the analysis process a total waste of time and money and expose mining companies to serious, potential, financial losses. Company management needs to reverse this situation and ensure that sampling is given the attention it deserves to generate representative samples for analysis.

Jan 1, 2010

By Euclid P. Worden

INTRODUCTION Today, conventional raise boring is an accepted method of development in underground mines and on major construction projects. Over the years that this technique, and its associated machines and tools, have been under development, many articles have been written on the subject. To a great extent, these papers have reported operating results of one or more specific projects or have been generalized reviews of state-of-the-art machines and tools. This paper is intended as a review of the technique from an operational standpoint. Conventional raise boring, as opposed to the related variants box hole drilling and underground blast hole drilling, is a two step process consisting of the pilot hole drilling and reaming cycles. This author has covered the subject of pilot hole drilling in another article (1) . A good review of the current machines and equipment has been presented by Monroe (2) and an overall review of this entire technology was published by E&MJ (3) and Mining Journal, April, 1983 (4) . The subject of the reaming cycle is presented here together with some of the technical aspects of how the drilling tools are intended to be used. OPERATIONS Bit Change After the pilot bit has broken through at the end of the pilot hole cycle, a changeover takes place at both the machine and

Jan 1, 1985

By R. Venugopal, T. C. Rao, N. Suresh

Experiments were carried out using the cyclone to treat coal in the size range -2.0+0 mm. The diameters of the cyclone outlets (vortex finder and spigot) were varied to study their effects on cyclone performance. The cyclone products were deslimed over a screen with an aperture of 0.075 mm. The performance of the separator was studied for washing coarse coal (-2.0+0.075 mm) and fines (-0.075 mm). Performance curves were plotted for the separation of -2.0+0.075 mm coal. The concept of a generalised distribution curve was adopted to predict cyclone performance. A mathematical representation was derived from the generalised distribution curve. The specific gravity of separation for individual size fractions showed a decreasing trend with decreasing particle size down to 0.85 mm, beyond which a reverse trend was noted. It was also found that the fine size fraction (-0.075 mm) does not separate on the basis of size or specific gravity but follows the water distribution

Apr 1, 1995

Australian rutile and zircon concentrates are refined raw materials and not manufactured products. The composition and properties of the grains are therefore fixed by nature. Specifications and assay certificates should take this into account by eliminating unnecessary provisions which only increase the time and cost of analysis.INTRODUCTIONThe raw material from which Australian rutile and zircon concentrates are isolated is beach sand on the coast of New South Wales and Southern Queensland. The principal current operations are in an area between Sydney and Brisbane.The sands consist principally of quartz particles, but they contain from 1 per cent to 50 per cent of a mixture of heavy minerals, including zircon, rutile, ilmenite, monazite, leucoxenic grains, chrome spinel, chromite, garnets, corundum, topaz, brown spinel, olivine, epidote, clinozoisite, tourmaline, magnetite, hematite, and cassiterite. The major components are zircon (25 to 60 per cent), rutile (25 to 50 per cent), and ilmenite (5 to 50 per cent).The so-called leucoxenic grains are not a definite mineral species but an alteration product of which the major components are titanium oxides and silica in varying proportions.Primary concentration is by gravity, using spirals or various forms of pinched sluice (Pullar, 1962), the resulting concentrates being redressed on wet tables. During these processes, some of the lighter heavy minerals including leucoxene and impure rutile, which tend to degrade the final rutile and zircon concentrates, are eliminated.The separation of heavy minerals from each other is...

Jan 1, 1963

By George Hope, Brigitte Lacouture

"The Red Dog Mine has increased mill throughput for most years since startup. Although flotation equipment has been added over the last 10 years, the Red Dog metallurgical performance has been restricted by a lack of adequate flotation capacity. Two reduced tonnage trials conducted in 1997 as well as numerous SAG relines have consistently indicated the potential to significantly increase both zinc concentrate recovery and grade with additional flotation capacity. Late in 1999, a new circuit was designed with increased flotation capacity while simplifylng the current circuit, providing for three stages of dilution cleaning, and creating a retreat section. The purpose of the retreat section is to target the more complex particles and allow the chemical environment to be fine tuned for improved iron depression. In total, twentyone (21) Outokumpu OK50 mechanical flotation cells and four (4) 3.66m dia. column cells will be added to the current flotation circuit. The VIP (Value Improvement Program) Mill Optimization project is also addressing thickening, water treatment and power issues and has a total budget of $US105 M. Startup of equipment will be phased in to minimize the impact on current operations and is expected to be complete by the end of Q3-2001.INTRODUCTIONRed Dog Operations started production in November 1989. The mine is located above the arctic circle in northwest Alaska. It is linked by an 80 km road to a port-site facility where the concentrate is stored. Concentrate is shipped to markets throughout the world during the one hundred (100) days of open seas. Typical of sedimentary exhalative deposits, the metallurgy proved to be challenging and coupled with many mechanical shortcomings, the initial few years were very difficult. The start-up issues were slowly resolved and in 1998, a major grinding expansion, the PRI (Production Rate Increase) project, was completed. The project was designed to allow a 40% increase over the 1995 throughput. In 2000 mill throughput was 3,050,000 tonnes to produce a total of 960,000 and 140,000 dry tonnes of zinc and lead concentrates respectively, making Red Dog the largest zinc concentrate producer in the world. To address a shortage of flotation capacity remaining from the PRI grinding expansion, a project designated as the VIP (Value Improvement Program) Mill Optimization project was initiated. The mill optimization project is targeted to produce 1,100,000 tonnes of zinc concentrate at 56% zinc grade and 87% zinc recovery. The project will add twenty-one (21) Outokumpu OK50 (50m3) flotation cells, four (4) 3.66mO column cells and address water treatment, thickening and power generation capacities."

Jan 1, 2002

By Fernando Altamirano Escobar

Una emergencia es todo evento que altera las condiciones normales de tranquilidad del hogar o las condiciones operativas del trabajo. Sin embargo, si no se está preparado para afrontarlo, la emergencia se convierte en una crisis o descontrol. Por ello, el presente texto señala los principios básicos para manejar una situación de emergencia y resolverlo con capacidad, rapidez e intelgencia. Así los procesos para la solución de una emergencia son: Definir el problema y establecer prioridades, organizarse ante la emergencia, tomar medidas rápidas sobre todo si hay riesgo de pérdida de vidas humanas, asignar tareas, pero lo más importante saber a qué personas se debe asignar las tareas, mantener a todo el personal motivado y con un enfoque positivo. Aprovechar las habilidades de la gente, manejar las relaciones públicas, conseguir que la prensa se ponga de nuestra parte y cuando todo haya terminado hacer un balance de la emergencia.

Apr 1, 2017

By M. N. Shetty

LARGE copper whiskers (-100 p) of 11111 orientation were tested in a floor-model Instron testing machine, at liquid nitrogen temperature. (Testing methods will appear elsewhere.) Whiskers deformed by twinning after some initial deformation. A load-elongation curve at the onset of twinning is reproduced in Fig. 1. Twinning was confirmed by taking a back-reflection Laue picture, using a slit colli-mator, which showed distinct splitting of reflections. The tensile stress reached just before twinning is about 1.4 x 107 g per sq cm (-7.0 x106 g per sq cm—resolved shear stress) which drops to 1.2 x107 g per sq cm (-6 x 106 g per sq cm—resolved). This twinning stress is about five to ten times larger than the value for bulk single crystals of copper deformed at 77°K (-106 g per sq cm—resolved). Twinning models based on Cottrell-Bilby's pole mechanism are discussed in detail by Venables.' In the present work a mechanism based on the idea of failure of a Lomer-Cottrell barrier by recombination will be proposed. An L-C barrier may fail either by recombination or by dissociation.3 Fig. 2 provides the necessary information. It shows that the stress necessary to break such a barrier is about 1.8 x 107 g per sq cm by recombination and 4 x 107 g per sq cm by dissociation at 77°K. The twinning stress reached by whiskers is comparable to the stress level required for failure of an L-C barrier by recombination. (Stroh himself points out that his calculations should not be taken too literally.) We consider a segment of the L-C dislocation which has recombined (AB in Fig. 3) over a length to form the total dislocation which then glides in the

Jan 1, 1965

By Jesús Velapatiño Pacheco

El presente texto refiere dos temas importantes en seguridad minera: seguridad eléctrica y salud y seguridad ocupacional dentro de una auditoría de seguridad realizada como parte de la política de las empresas mineras y afines. Por ello, el documento describe el incumplimiento de las instalaciones y actividades eléctricas a la normatividad vigente en seguridad eléctrica y salud ocupacional, los cuales fueron identificados en una auditoría de seguridad que fue realizada en minas y plantas concentradoras. Luego del diagnóstico, se propone elaborar un carné de proyectos con el correspondiente presupuesto, el que se pagará con los beneficios generados: los ahorros posibilitados (disminución y control de pérdidas) y con la mitigación de multas previstas para el pago de los incumplimientos. Finalmente, se formula una matriz de soluciones (recomendaciones) donde se medirán los impactos de la implementación del carné de proyectos de mejora de las instalaciones eléctricas.

Aug 1, 2014

By Tracy Brettmann, Will Bohlen

An innovative retaining wall design consisting of tangent drilled shafts with supplementary seal piles was used to limit continuing bank erosion along the Brazos River in Southeast Texas. The riverbank erosion had progressed to where it was threatening the stability of both the bridge abutment and corresponding approach embankment of the heavily travelled Highway 99 bridge at this location. A tangent pile design was selected because it was both much faster to install and more cost effective than a secant pile system. The design included both 5.5-ft and 10-ft diameter shafts with depths up to 130-ft and comprised both anchored and cantilevered sections. Supplementary seal shafts were also installed between the structural tangent drilled shafts to help plug any gaps between the tangent shafts. The plumbness and diameter of the shafts were tested using a sonic caliper to make sure the shafts were installed within the specified tolerance. The initial design had to be revised when a record flood from Hurricane Harvey impacted the site during construction. Introduction The Fort Bend Grand Parkway Toll Road Authority (Owner) needed to protect the north bridge abutment with a retaining wall system due to rapidly eroding conditions of the Brazos River banks within the 300- feet-right-of-way of the State Highway 99 Jodie Stavinoha Bridge. The extent of the local scour and erosion along the north bank of the Brazos River has caused concern for the structural integrity of the bridge. The magnitude of the erosion along the north bank at the location of the bridge has been measured at about 120 feet over three recent hydrologic flood events locally referred to as Memorial Day 2015, Memorial Day 2016, and Tax Day 2016. During construction, a new record flood level occurred due to Hurricane Harvey in August of 2017 that resulted in a portion of the retaining wall needing to be redesigned due to even more erosion occurring. The Brazos River is an actively eroding and meandering alluvial river plain that naturally meanders and migrates over time. The processes of bank erosion and meander migration were ongoing before the bridge was constructed and will continue in the future. These recurring major flood events, however, rapidly increased the rate of erosion in just a few years. Background. Due to the need to protect the bridge as soon as possible, the Owner selected a project team consisting of the designer, general contractor and specialty deep foundation contractor prior to final design to work together in developing a cost-effective design that could be implemented rapidly. The project team initially considered both a secant pile and tangent pile retaining wall system using drilled shafts. After reviewing various alternative designs, a tangent pile wall with seal piles was selected based on both cost effectiveness and speed of installation. The tangent pile with seal pile option was approximately 20 percent lower in cost and 50 percent faster to install.

Jan 1, 2018

An account is given of experimental apparatus for generating a short duration high velocity water jet and the effect of its impingement on various rock samples under air or water cover. The penetration was found to be highly dependent upon the rock structure; in general material with closely interlocking grains was resistant.The damage sustained by a stationary sample held close to the jet did not vary greatly whether the sample was in air or confined under a water layer; but when the sample was translated under the jet there was a marked increase in the damage sustained.Some consideration was given to the possible practical application of a water jet for deep hole drilling and an estimate made of the power requirements and transmission losses for such a system.

Jan 1, 1969