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Technology Solutions for Mining
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 Stability Analysis of Tailings Dams – Focus on Numerical ModellingMonday, March 26, 2012Here is a link to a Licentiate Thesis by Muhammad Auchar Zardari of the Lulea University of Technology in Sweden. Its title is Stability Analysis of Tailings Dams – Focus on Numerical Modelling. read more » Groundwater Modeling in Decision Making About Mine Tailings, Waste Rock, and Heap Leach FacilitiesWednesday, March 21, 2012Let me discuss modelling, calculating, and thinking as part of the decision making process. In particular, I write of those essential modern aids to judgment, namely conceptual models and the running of computer codes. read more » Conceptual Models for Mining Analysis and Decision MakingWednesday, March 21, 2012Conceptual models are key aspects of mine modelling, analysis, and decision making. With our limited thinking ability, we need concepts, or models, of reality before we can fully comprehend, understand, and mentally manipulate reality. read more » The Observational Method for Groundwater Modeling & PracticalityMonday, March 19, 2012One of the enduring mysteries of professional practice is why groundwater experts never apply the Observational Method in their ever-more sophisticated groundwater modeling and monitoring work. read more » Monte Carlo AnalysisFriday, March 16, 2012Monte Carlo is a principality where you can go and gamble to the profit of the royalty of a small kingdom. It is also the most powerful way to quantify the probability distribution of an outcome of an essentially random process. read more » Cover Technology: Wismut to Suncor’s Pond 5Tuesday, March 13, 2012Clap! The sound a big volume of mining proceedings made when it landed on my desk this morning. read more » New US Topo MapsWednesday, January 25, 2012USGS will produce new US Topo maps for another 20 states in 2012. read more » Airborne Geophysical Survey Offers New Insight Into Permafrost in AlaskaMonday, January 23, 2012A pioneering airborne electromagnetic survey in the Yukon Flats near Fort Yukon, Alaska, by the U.S. Geological Survey has yielded unprecedented images of the presence and absence of permafrost to depths of roughly 328 feet. read more » USGS Data - Global Multi-resolution Terrain Elevation Data 2010 (GMTED2010) Thursday, December 01, 2011The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) have collaborated on the development of a notably enhanced global elevation model named the Global Multi-resolution Terrain Elevation Data 2010 (GMTED2010) that replaces GTOPO30 as the elevation dataset of choice for global and continental scale applications. read more » On seismic signals from landslides – new research Tuesday, November 29, 2011See a massive rock avalanche in action somewhere up in Alps and learn how to read seismic recordings to be able to detect this kind of events. read more » Pyrite Damages 20,000 Irish Houses and Coal Miners FacilitiesFriday, November 18, 2011Apparently 20,000 new houses in Ireland are cracked and damaged because a pyrite-rich rock from a local quarry was used in construction of the houses. read more » The Basic Principles of Mine Tailings ManagementFriday, June 24, 2011The story of tailings management is the story of application of a few basic principles. All involve control of the forces of nature. read more » California Earthquake Fault Zone MapsThursday, February 10, 2011The index map identifies all Official Maps of Earthquake Fault Zones delineated by the California Geological Survey through December 2010 under the Alquist-Priolo Earthquake Fault Zoning Act. Individual Earthquake Fault Zone Maps can be viewed on screen. Digital image files (pdf) and Geographic Information System files (GIS) of individual maps can be downloaded by selecting a specific quadrangle map. read more » Soil Atlas of the Northern Circumpolar RegionMonday, December 06, 2010The 144 pages atlas is the result of a three-year collaborative project with partners from northern EU countries, as well as Norway, Iceland, Greenland, Canada, the USA and Russia and gives a detailed overview of circumpolar soil resources relevant also to agriculture, forest management, water management, land use planning, infrastructure and housing and energy transport networks. read more » Presentations from Tailings and Mine Waste 2010 ConferenceWednesday, November 17, 2010The Tailings & Mine Waste 2010 conference took place in Vail, Colorado. If you did not attend the conference and do not have a copy of the proceedings, here is how you can access many of the excellent presentations read more » MSHA to Review Mine Tailings Dam SafetyMonday, August 30, 2010Here is an issue that is fascinating and the information is a trifle tedious to find. The topic is a call from MSHA for comments on ways to make mine tailings dams safer. read more » Quicksand Incident ControlWednesday, July 07, 2010An incident is a small event that is a bit out of the ordinary; a mere trifle; a nuisance & irritation; a bit embarrassing maybe; but in the end nothing to worry about. Or is this correct? read more » Closure of Remote Historic Underground Mines in Desert EnvironmentsMonday, July 05, 2010Geotechnical solutions were developed for closure of two historic underground borate mines in the deserts of California: the old Borate Mine located in the Mojave Desert and the Lila C. Mine near Death Valley. read more » SinkholesTuesday, June 08, 2010When water from rainfall moves down through the soil and encounters bedrock in karst terrain, the bedrock begins to dissolve along horizontal and vertical cracks and crevices in the rock. Eventually, these cracks and crevices ... read more » June 2010 Geology and GSA Today highlightsFriday, May 28, 2010Fossils, faulting, continent formation, river evolution, eolian sedimentation - the June Geology covers all this and more, with input from scientists around the world. Highlights include the first field evidence of neotectonic activity in the Hochschwab karst massif; in-situ sampling from the AlpTransit tunnel site; discovery in Mexico of the oldest known Bryozoan fossils; and fingerprinting of magmatic glasses and crystals to determine their "rock DNA." GSA Today examines microbial ecosystems in the Tibetan Plateau. read more » Computing in Mining/Geotechnical EngineeringThursday, January 21, 2010The enormous advances in computational hardware and software resources over the last 15 years resulted in the development, of new, nonconventional data-processing and simulation methods. read more » Boldly Going Where No Man (or Woman) Goes: USGS Unmanned AircraftFriday, January 08, 2010"In dangerous and remote areas, such as polar regions, volcanic islands, and expansive deserts, remote-controlled unmanned aircraft can provide more detailed, more timely data about the status of natural resources and environmental conditions than would be feasible by any other means ..." read more » Deeper open pitsMonday, December 07, 2009Surface mines are always seeking to extract more from their existing ore bodies by going deeper, or steeper, or both. Doug Minchin, Director, Rock Australia notes that as well as open pit mines getting larger and deeper, slope design is becoming more aggressive with concomitant high risk in size of failures and consequences. "Slope Failure, even a small rock fall threatens the safety of personnel, plant and equipment, productivity and potentially overall mine viability." read more » Mine GeoWaste Engineering: the great texts on geotechnical engineeringTuesday, November 24, 2009Here is what I have written on the standard texts on geotechnical engineering. These are the books and resources you should read if you are a geotechnical engineer in the mining industry read more » Geotechnical Engineering of Oil Sands TailingsFriday, November 13, 2009A fine paper at the Banff, Alberta conference on Tailings & Mine Waste is that by John Sobokowicz and Norbert Morgenstern. It is called “A Geotechnical Perspective on Oil Sands Tailings.” read more » DOE-Sponsored Mississippi Project Hits 1-Million-Ton Milestone for Injected CO2Thursday, November 05, 2009A large-scale carbon dioxide (CO2) storage project in Mississippi has become the fifth worldwide to reach the important milestone of more than 1 million tons injected. As a result, it is helping to both further carbon capture and storage (CCS) as a mitigation strategy for global climate change and move forward G-8 recommendations for launching 20 projects of this type internationally by 2010. read more » Mining Peer ReviewersMonday, October 05, 2009A few random thoughts about those who are the peer reviewers for mines of the geotechnical structures that mines build, including the tailings impoundment, the waste rock dump, and the heap leach pad. read more » Coal-mining Hazard Resembles Explosive Volcanic Eruption, Study ShowsFriday, October 02, 2009Worldwide, thousands of workers die every year from mining accidents, and instantaneous coal outbursts in underground mines are among the major killers. But although scientists have been investigating coal outbursts for more than 150 years, the precise mechanism is still unknown. read more » Monitoring faults could predict earthquakes: studyThursday, October 02, 2009Geologists working near California's San Andreas Fault have found a way to monitor the strength of a geologic fault — a finding which could be used to predict when a fault would fail and cause an earthquake. read more » Cost breakingWednesday, September 30, 2009Fragmentation within the mine is often overlooked as a critical element in the process and can be used to provide essential process control information. SPLIT digital fragmentation technology has been available for some time, with applications from the mine with post-blast analysis at the muck pile face through to the mechanical comminution circuit with ... read more » CCS all about finding the ‘right rocks’Wednesday, September 30, 2009The Coal Tech 2009 conference, held on September 15-16th, hosted a range of presentations on technologies including carbon capture and storage (CCS); coal-to-liquids; underground coal gasification; and syngas. read more » The road to GrasbergWednesday, September 30, 2009Until Bechtel built the first road in the early 1970s, and Freeport Indonesia subsequently developed the area, subrivers were the only access inland to the foothills of the Jayawijaya mountain range on Irian Jaya that hosts what is arguably the greatest ore complex discovered in the world to date, the Grasberg and Ertsberg copper gold deposits. read more » Frack Attack - Drilling Technique Under ScrutinyThursday, June 25, 2009Four years after a widely used but controversial oil and gas production technology was exempted from federal regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act, Congress is taking another look at the process known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. read more » Oil Sands Effective Stress & AnalysisFriday, May 29, 2009A wise professor made a presentation that caputured an enduring fact and a recent change in tailings analysis and modeling. read more » Geomorphic Reclamation of Uranium Mill TailingsTuesday, April 21, 2009Review of a paper on the use of a computer code to design and construct reclamation works for abondoned uranium mill tailings piles in Wyoming. read more » Clay & Tailings ConsolidationMonday, March 09, 2009In the last few months on tailings projects from the furthest north of Canada to the tip of South America I have looked at consolidation analyses done to predict how long it will take to consolidate the tailings. read more » Rapid Mining According to Rio Tinto Thursday, February 26, 2009A review of the 2009 SME conference session on rapid mining comparing tunnel advance rates in the civil and mining industries. read more » Man-made earthquake?Thursday, February 05, 2009Did dam trigger the devastating 2008 Sichuan quake? read more » Northwest Community College School of Exploration & MiningWednesday, January 28, 2009Discussions with staff and students from the Northwest Community College on learning for and working in the BC mining industry read more » Geogrid-reinforced Tailings CoversMonday, October 27, 2008Here is a figure that shows how fill placed over the crust that may form on the top of a soft tailings deposit may respond to loading by the wheel of a vehicle trying to spread a new reclamation cover. read more » Snowden on-line libraryWednesday, October 01, 2008Snowden is a respected consulting company serving the mining industry in Australia and North America. Here is a link to papers & publications on mining and related to mining by Snowden staff. read more » Mine Mound ArchaeologyFriday, July 11, 2008What evidence is there in the archaeological record for the very-long-term performance of mine waste disposal facilities? A paper from twenty-five years ago gives some interesting answers. read more » Paste Fill FencesTuesday, May 13, 2008The Red Lake Mine in eastern Ontario currently does nearly sixty percent of its mining using overhand cut and fill, twenty-five percent using underhand cut and fill, and about fifteen percent using pillar recovery. read more » Oboni on RiskTuesday, April 22, 2008Franco & Cesar Oboni, a father and son team, have just published a paperback with the title “Improving Sustainability through Reasonable Risk and Crisis Management”. read more » Geosynthetics for Uranium Wastes: a Brief HistoryThursday, April 17, 2008Are geosynthetics affected by the constituents you would expect to find in waste disposal facilities at uranium mines? Here are some historical opinions we found on this issue. read more » Settle 3D by RocscienceFriday, December 14, 2007In the industrial area of Albuquerque is a large oil tank sitting on foundations I designed. One of the design issues was just how much the soft silty sand beneath the footing would settle. read more » Earthquake Resources & ConsultantsFriday, December 14, 2007The mine facility most susceptible to earthquake damage is the tailings impoundment. Here are some links to sources of data on earthquakes and consultants who may be able to help you. read more » Gully InceptionFriday, August 31, 2007Here is a detailed review of a paper called Thresholds, Triggers and Time –Erosion Risk on Evolving Reclaimed Landforms after Bauxite Mining in the Darling Range, Western Australia by F.C. Mengler and R.J. Gilkes read more » Long-term Erosion Control Per NRC RequirementsFriday, August 31, 2007Soon after joining the Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) Project, I was sent to Washington, D.C. to meet with Ted Johnson of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Agency. read more » Ken Weaver’s New Book on GroutingFriday, July 20, 2007I was honored to work under Ken Weaver’s direction of the Cannon Mine Tailings impoundment. We pumped about one million dollars worth of grout into the rock foundations read more » Paste TailingsTuesday, June 05, 2007The March 2007 International Mining includes a supplement on Paste Tailings Management. This valuable supplement includes the following articles read more » Erosion Control ProductsFriday, May 11, 2007It takes a paper magazine to remind you of information that has not yet found its way across the internet. I recently got the March/April issue of Erosion Control. read more » Mine Sites & PublicationsFriday, May 11, 2007A library should be a quiet, wood-paneled room where you can browse dusty magazines and peek into the past. Here are some sites with the look and feel of old magazines in a quiet library. read more » FracManWednesday, March 28, 2007It seems so obvious: most mines involve cutting into rock, and rock is fractured. Therefore the stability and groundwater flow patterns of the mine opening, whether open pit or underground, will be controlled by the fractures. read more » Total Robot StationsWednesday, March 07, 2007David Cook writes in the December issue of Geotechnical News of Total Robotic Stations and Remote Data Capture in civil engineering construction. He defines a Total Robot Station thus read more » Grout TerminologiesMonday, March 05, 2007Grout terminology is as specialized a language as any dialect or in-group-speak. Luckily for us the terminology is readily available at this link read more » Brazilian Dam BurstFriday, March 02, 2007The web was recently awash in the flood of news about the failure of a “bauxite mine tailings dam burst” in Brazilian read more » Engineering AdvancesFriday, February 23, 2007The conventional view of science is that it is the process of observing, hypothesizing, testing, confirming or rejecting, and adopting the hypothesis that explains the observed phenomenon read more » Mine Sand PilesThursday, February 22, 2007My father regularly drove us out to those piles of golden sand, so soft and warm in the summer sun. And here we would spend happy hours climbing up the sand and sliding down, and climbing up and sliding down read more » GIS Ten PercentThursday, February 15, 2007Before the mine, a forest. With a bit of luck, after the mine, a forest. We need trees aplenty to counteract global warming. read more » Soil GroutingFriday, February 09, 2007Soil grouting is the topic of a comprehensive new paper from BiTech Publishers and their premier magazine Geotechnical News. The paper is Soil Grouting – There’s Only One Way to View It. read more » Rock Pile Transient SeepageFriday, February 02, 2007This is the story of a waste rock dump success/failure. The story is in a paper from BiTech Publishers and their premier magazine Geotechnical News. read more » Roadside GeologyFriday, February 02, 2007I own eleven of the Roadside Geology books. One of my ambitions is to own all thirty or more. It is not the possession of more books that interests and excites me. read more » Software DirectoryWednesday, January 24, 2007The Geotechnical & Geoenvironmental Software Directory catalogues 1681 programs in the fields of Geotechnical Engineering, Soil Mechanics, Rock Mechanics, Engineering Geology read more » Grouting CourseTuesday, January 16, 2007Grouting is difficult; but it will be much easier if you attend a course planned in Denver in April 2007. The course is for owners, engineers, and contractors read more » Fort Knox Gold Mine LandfillTuesday, December 12, 2006Landfills at mines seldom get much attention. The size and glory of the waste rock dump, the heap leach pad, and the tailings impoundment quickly overshadow the lowly landfill. read more » INEEL Disposal FacilityWednesday, December 06, 2006For all those interested in the design of waste disposal facilities, the volume on the design of a mixed waste disposal facility at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratories (INEEL) is a must-read. read more » Brazil Cover Design ManualFriday, December 01, 2006This manual is as good a summary of all the relevant theory and practice of unsaturated cover design as any I have come across. read more » Unpaved Road MaintenanceFriday, December 01, 2006Although the reference I describe here does not deal with mines, I consider the topic and the treatment worthy of reference by the civil and geotechnical engineer and miner read more » Discrete Element Method (DEM)Thursday, November 30, 2006The sales brochures are readily available. The technical papers are not. What the computer software does is readily obvious. What can yet be done to benefit the mining industry is not. read more » DEM SolutionsMonday, November 06, 2006As so often, John Chadwick and International Mining are ahead. In the article Process Control, John provides this news of movements in the world of advanced software and engineering read more » Jiri Open Pit MineFriday, November 03, 2006Download the technical paper, the digital data, and the program input parameters for a new publication “An Open-Pit Coalmine Surcharged by Artesian Water Pressure”. This paper is downloadable from read more » Good Practice Mining PublicationsFriday, November 03, 2006The International Council on Mining & Metals (ICMM) website on Tailings: Good Practice continues to bring us easy access to view or purchase books newly posted/advertised on their site. Here are some read more » Syncrude Mine Geotechnics and Review BoardsTuesday, October 17, 2006There must be a book in the story of the advances and successes of mine geotechnics at the Syncrude property in Alberta. I refer to a 1998 paper recently posted in the InfoMine Library by kind permission of BiTech's Geotechnical News read more » Crack-induced Hydraulic ConductivityTuesday, September 26, 2006In Words of Wisdom an old paper from BiTech’s Geotechnical News, newly posted into the InfoMine Library, quotes from the writing of Ralph B. Peck are collected. read more » Slope Stability RadarWednesday, September 6, 2006Slope stability radar (SSR) remotely scans rock slopes, continuously measures surface movement, and detects wall movement with sub-millimeter precision. The radar waves penetrate rain, dust, and smoke to give reliable measurements 24 hours a day. read more » Geoengineer WebsiteWednesday, August 30, 2006I have previously written in this site about one of my favorite websites, namely www.geoengineer.org. Here is what I said almost a year ago read more » Artificial Ground FreezingThursday, August 17, 2006The 2003 Geotechnical News paper Case Study: Thermal Analysis of Artificial Ground Freezing at the McArthur River Uranium Mine describes a case study of the engineering carried out to artificially freeze the underground ore body at the mine prior to read more » |
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