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Information and links on a variety of technical aspects of mining & mineral exploration.
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 According to the Geological Survey of India, the glaciers are doing just fine Friday, November 20, 2009Vijay Kumar Raina of the Geological Survey of India has done some essential research on the "receding" Himalayan Glaciers due to climate changing. His conclusion: they're not melting... Science journal also agrees with Raina's findings. Climate change, and its gloom-and-doom pronunciations, is to liberals what "terrorism" is to conservatives: an imaginary bogeyman used to instill fear in the general population. read more » United States Using Less Water than 35 Years AgoMonday, November 16, 2009The United States is using less water than during the peak years of 1975 and 1980, according to water use estimates for 2005. Despite a 30 percent population increase during the past 25 years, overall water use has remained fairly stable according to a new U.S. Geological Survey report. read more » Mayfly May Thwart $3 Billion in Coal Mined in U.S. Mountaintops Friday, November 13, 2009Mayflies may seal the fate of mountaintop mining in the Appalachian hills of the eastern U.S. Companies such as Massey Energy Co. that mine coal there by stripping mountain peaks and dumping debris in streams are being asked by the Environmental Protection Agency for the first time to safeguard the mayfly, one of the oldest winged insects and a bait favored by fly-fisherman. 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 » Water: Coalbed methane decision adds salt to Montana farmers' wounds Tuesday, November 03, 2009Roger Muggli has worked his family's 1,700-acre farm in east Montana almost the entire length of his 61 years, and he considers the nearby Tongue River to be the very lifeblood of his alfalfa and barley crops. But three years ago, something happened to the river's water, Muggli said, as routine irrigation began turning the Custer County farm's once-rich soil the consistency of mayonnaise. read more » Air Pressure Changes Trigger LandslidesMonday, November 02, 2009A river of rock and soil nearly 2.5 miles long and 1,000 feet wide, the Slumgullion landslide winds like an earthy freight train down the hills of southwestern Colorado. But this incredible force of nature is swayed by the tiniest push. read more » U.S. water use down but migration to West a concernFriday, October 30, 2009Steady migration to the hot and dry Western states along with water use by coal and nuclear plants are undermining conservation efforts that have kept U.S. water use steady in recent years, a study said on Thursday. read more » Burning coal deep down has huge potential, untestedTuesday, October 06, 2009Burning coal underground could be one of the next breakthroughs to increase the world's energy supply, similar to establishment of Canadian oil sands, executives and academics told a conference in London on Monday.
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 » To leach or not to leach?Wednesday, September 30, 2009In-situ leaching (ISL) or in-situ recovery was developed in the mid 1970s as a method for extracting uranium from typical roll-front type deposits located in water saturated permeable rocks that were not suitable for conventional mining. It was conceived independently in both the (former) USSR and the USA using similar approaches in engineering and technology. read more » Planning for the futureWednesday, September 30, 2009In the introduction to ICMM's Planning for Integrated Mine Closure: Toolkit, the authors describe planning for closure as being "about how to design a mine operation in order to facilitate closure. When a project is designed,there is a lot of scope to do so with closure in mind..." read more » Viva Las CrucesWednesday, September 30, 2009After an almost year-long suspension Las Cruces in southern Spain made the final leap into production in June. Daniel Gleeson examines a mine reporting contained copper of some 2,425 MIb, an estimated 15-year mine life and some exciting copper processing advances. 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 » Mercury-tainted fish found widely in U.S. streamsThursday, August 20, 2009Scientists have detected mercury contamination in every one of hundreds of fish sampled from 291 freshwater streams, according to a U.S. government study released on Wednesday. More than a quarter of those fish contained concentrations of mercury exceeding levels set by the Environmental Protection Agency for the protection of people who eat age amounts of fish, the U.S. Geological Survey report said. read more » The Arid DeviceThursday, July 09, 2009Industry and governmental agencies have known for years that the water quality in the Powder River Basin coals is quite good. In fact, CBM produced water has greatly enhanced livestock operations, through the development of watering areas in previously unused or under-used pastures. 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 » Nutrient Delivery to the Gulf of Mexico Among Highest Measured Tuesday, June 16, 2009Spring nutrient delivery to the northern Gulf of Mexico is among the highest measured by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in thirty years. read more » Water Treatment Technologies for Oil Sands MiningThursday, May 28, 2009To produce oil from the oil sands field in Alberta, huge amount of water is used. Specifically, water is used to separate bitumen from the sand at a high water to oil ratio. read more » Climate Change Impacts MiningThursday, April 09, 2009The most intriguing paper from the 2009 SME conference is entitled Climate Change Risk and Impact Assessment for Global Diversified Mining Group. read more » Man-made earthquake?Thursday, February 05, 2009Did dam trigger the devastating 2008 Sichuan quake? read more » Groundwater Monitoring ToolsTuesday, February 03, 2009Here is an announcement by VMS-Profound of new groundwater monitoring equipment read more » Carlson Natural Regrade Wins INTERMAT Silver Innovation AwardTuesday, January 27, 2009Intermat officials recently announced that Carlson Software's Natural Regrade land reclamation software won a Silver Award in the Services Category of their Innovation Awards. read more » South African Mine Water Best Management PracticesTuesday, October 28, 2008Here are links to a magnificent series of e-publications from South Africa on management of mine water read more » Perpetual Mine Water TreatmentFriday, October 24, 2008Here is a collection of writings on the issue of perpetual treatment of mine waters. read more » Heap Leach Pad RisksWednesday, September 03, 2008Risk management enables you to identify risks and take action to avoid them before you get hurt. At least that is the theory. read more » Connelly on Mine GroundwaterTuesday, July 29, 2008In the old days when SRK still went by its original name, Steffen Robertson and Kirsten, Dick Connelly and I were given the task of pounding the pavements to develop a groundwater practice in South Africa. read more » The Meaning of Long Term?Monday, July 21, 2008These terms are often carelessly bandied about in the mining industry: long term; on-going; foreseeable future; several centuries; perpetuity; forever; sustained. What really do they mean? read more » In-Lake Tailings Disposal Tuesday, June 17, 2008A new report from the Globe and Mail states that sixteen Canadian mining companies have applied to dispose of mine tailings in lakes across the country. read more » Pierina Gold MineThursday, June 12, 2008GoldSim to the rescue again: an abstract for the conference on Tailings & Mine Waste ’08 tells of a water balance model for the Pierina Gold Mine in Peru using GoldSim for the entire plant. read more » GoldSim and the Marillana MineFriday, June 06, 2008GoldSim is a computer code that enables you to model systems consisting of units (elements) into, through, and out of which things flow. read more » Invitation to Submit a Presentation to IECAMonday, May 12, 2008I received an email from the International Erosion Control Association inviting me to submit a presentation proposal for Environmental Connection 2009, IECA's annual conference read more » Erosion Control EducationWednesday, May 07, 2008The International Erosion Control Association is a source of On-Demand education opportunities. read more » ASTM Publishes New Compilation on Erosion and Sediment Control TechnologyFriday, April 18, 2008ASTM International announces the publication of a new compilation, ASTM Standards on Erosion and Sediment Control Technology, 2nd Edition. read more » WetlandsWednesday, April 09, 2008More on Wetlands for stormwater protection from the Center for Watershed Protection. read more » Center for Watershed Protection AnnouncementWednesday, March 26, 2008In a continued effort to provide all communities with the tools needed to protect their watersheds, the Center is posting online previews of most of the slideshows sold on CD. read more » Wallingford and WaterinfoTuesday, March 04, 2008From the Waterinfo e-news put out by Wallingford Software, here are a few news items and a bit of promotion that I thought worth recording for those interested in hydraulics and software. read more » Non-Traditional Uranium MiningFriday, February 29, 2008Here is a way to get more uranium from old mines and simultaneously protect surface water quality. In the paper Non-Traditional Utilization of Uranium Deposits After Underground Mining Completion, Rapantova et al. write of recovery of uranium from groundwater read more » Tailings ElectroosmosisTuesday, February 19, 2008Electroosmosis involves application of an electric voltage across a porous material to increase the hydraulic gradient, thereby speeding up fluid flow and hopefully consolidation, strength gain, and reduced permeability. read more » Aquifer Depressurization ManagementTuesday, February 05, 2008This paper describes a fascinating case history: Management of Aquifer Depressurization System in Hazelwood Mine, Latrobe Valley, Australia by J. Fernando of International Power and D. Nag of Monash University. read more » Giant Mine Ground FreezingMonday, January 14, 2008An extreme example of ground freezing to control groundwater pollution from a closed mine, is the Giant Mine in the Northwest Territories, Canada. read more » Durham CoalfieldsFriday, January 11, 2008The February 2007 edition of the Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology included a paper entitled Migration of polluted mine water in a public supply aquifer. read more » GoldSim White PapersWednesday, January 09, 2008Two white papers from GoldSim that are, in my opinion, worth downloading and reading read more » Mine Water PlanMonday, December 17, 2007The July 2007 issue of International Mining included a fun article Minimizing water use and its pollution. Here is the best part of the article and what I will call the SRK Principles for a Mine Water Plan. read more » FracMan - An UpdateMonday, December 03, 2007Fracman is a powerful way to model groundwater flow in mines where the flow is in the fractured bedrock. read more » The Drying WestFriday, November 23, 2007The New York Times’ Jon Gertner writes of the water crisis in the West in a long and insightful piece The Future is Drying Up. read more » Wardrop Mine DewateringTuesday, November 06, 2007I have recently posted two EduMine courses: Surface Water Management at Mines and Groundwater in Mining. Here is something from Wardrop that I wish I had added to the course on groundwater. read more » Urban Stormwater ManagementFriday, November 02, 2007If you are involved with or responsible for surface water management at a mine, this volume is for you. I refer to a magnificent new e-publication called Manual 3 Urban Stormwater Retrofit Practices. read more » Riprap Design Procedures ManualTuesday, October 16, 2007Many a mine needs to control erosion in the surface water channels. If the mine is blessed with an abundance of good quality rock, riprap may be the most economic approach to limiting erosion. read more » The Judicious Use of Computer ModelsTuesday, September 25, 2007Here is some practical advice I cull from Hydrology and Floodplain Analysis (1988) by Philip B. Bendient and Wayne C. Huber. read more » Groundwater Modeling ToolsMonday, September 17, 2007Over the last decade, great strides have been made in developing numerical models covering virtually all aspects of mining hydrogeology from traditional 2D seepage models to complex models simulating multi-phase flow and multi-species contaminant transport. read more » Surface Water CalculationsFriday, September 14, 2007The September issue of Stormwater contains one of the best articles about surface water I have read in quite a while. read more » Performance Based CodesTuesday, September 11, 2007There has been much criticism of the draft Environmental, Health and Safety Guidelines for Mining recently published by the World Bank. read more » Arizona Mine Water NeedsMonday, July 30, 2007The Arizona Republic takes a long and hard look at water resources for new mines in Arizona. read more » Groundwater ModelsWednesday, July 25, 2007On many a project, preparing and running the groundwater model is the largest cost item. Why is this? read more » International Mine Water AssociationFriday, July 20, 2007Kudos to the International Mine Water Association for making the proceedings of the Congresses, Symposia, and Meetings so readily available. 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 » Fracture FlowMonday, May 07, 2007A comprehensive book, free on the web: Rock Fractures and Fluid Flow – Contemporary Understanding and Applications. This 1996 publication was prepared by the following committees read more » Darcy's LawTuesday, May 01, 2007I have always admired Henry Darcy, but never thought to join his fan club—you can at this link. There you can find all the intimate details of his birth, life, and death. There is even some information on his works and equation. read more » Groundwater SoftwareTuesday, April 24, 2007Here are some places you can find information about software that you may need to deal with groundwater in the mining context. read more » Software BluesTuesday, April 10, 2007The next book on my reading list is Useless Arithmetic: Why Environmental Scientists Can’t Predict the Future, by Orrin H. Pilkey and Linda Pilkey-Jarvis. read more » Groundwater TerminologyWednesday, April 04, 2007Let us examine some of the many terms that are used to refer to water in soils and rocks. I prefer the simple Anglo-Saxon sounding groundwater. read more » Groundwater PeopleTuesday, April 03, 2007Of all the disciplines at the intersection of science, engineering, and technology, groundwater is the one that demands the most application of art. read more » Groundwater BookTuesday, April 03, 2007Recent flooding of the shaft and underground mine workings at the Cigar Lake uranium deposit in Saskatchewan reminds us of the significance of groundwater in mining. 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 » Montana MiningFriday, March 23, 2007The idea started in Montana and now is spreading across the west: no new mining unless you can prove up front that you won’t need perpetual water treatment when you shut down. read more » Australian Mine Water UseWednesday, March 14, 2007You must pay attention when the news item starts thus: “Using life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology, Australia’s natural science agency CSIRO has established that water used by the mining industry 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 » Quecreek Mine Flooding DisasterMonday, February 26, 2007At about 9 pm on July 24, 2002 a work crew of nine men from the Quecreek Coal Mine in Somerset Pennsylvania nearly lost their lives read more » Mine FloodingThursday, February 22, 2007Ground freezing is on way to control the inflow of water to a mining operation. If flow quantities are low, it may be easier to pump from dewatering wells, of from the mine workings themselves read more » I Think Mining BlogWednesday, January 31, 2007Some paper magazines will never die. They are the ones with high quality, thoughtful, well-written articles. The rest are doomed to fade and wither. Part of their problem is the competition of Blogs read more » New Hampshire GeomorphologyFriday, January 12, 2007There are no mines in New Hampshire that I know of; except surely some aggregate mines and gravel pits? Regardless, the volume I refer you to does not address the impact of mining at all. read more » Sand and Gravel Mining Permits in Pinal County, ArizonaTuesday, December 19, 2006Sand and gravel mining in floodplains occurs nearly everywhere. If you want to mine sand and gravel in Pinal County, Arizona, you will need to comply with the requirements read more » McArthur MineFriday, December 15, 2006The McArthur Mine in Australia was in the news recently. I vaguely recollect reading reports of a controversy surrounding the mine. read more » Stream UnderminingWednesday, December 13, 2006Subsidence on underground mine workings can disrupt surface water flow and impact groundwater. This simple fact is brought home simply and starkly by a fine brochure from Hatch Mott MacDonald read more » Utah Abandoned Mines ProgramFriday, December 08, 2006This is a valuable reference if you mine in Utah. It is also valuable if you are simply interested in the story of mining in Utah, the abandoned mines in Utah read more » Utah Mine ReclamationFriday, December 08, 2006This volume is the best primer on Mine Reclamation I have yet come across: The Practical Guide to Reclamation in Utah. It should be your first stop on a tour of mine reclamation reading, even if your mine is not in Utah. read more » BLM Mined Land ReclamationMonday, December 04, 2006A comprehensive manual on mine reclamation is probably a pipe dream. The topic is too large and multi-disciplinary to get all the information in one volume. read more » Colorado Mine ReclamationFriday, December 01, 2006A recent report (June 2006) makes fascinating reading and instructive reporting. I refer to the Reclamation Feasibility Report Henson Creek Watershed read more » Water Management for MinesMonday, November 27, 2006Ralph B. Peck said that he read the adverts in new magazines first. He maintained that if you truly want to know what is developing technically in your field, you should follow the adverts before turning to the technical papers 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 » Glamis Review ReportFriday, October 20, 2006A rare peek into the exclusive world of peer review of tailings dams. We hear so much about the need, and see so little of the implementation. read more » Rock Filter Dams for Sediment ControlWednesday, August 30, 2006Compliance with discharge standards for the amount of sediment in runoff from mines demands a holistic approach to runoff control. Sediment dams are but one aspect of an overall approach to mine sediment control. read more » Mining WaterMonday, August 28, 2006From Mineweb: An old saying in the West is that "water flows uphill; towards money." Water was legally defined as a commodity in the year 2000, which paved the way for multinational corporations to buy and manage water systems. read more » 7th ICARD Abstracts On-LineTuesday, August 22, 2006All 209 pages are now available on-line. That is, you can now see for free over two hundred abstracts of all the papers presented at the 7th ICARD Conference in St Louis in March 2006. read more » BioteQThursday, August 17, 2006How do you address Acid Mine Drainage? I surveyed the state-of-the-art as discussed at the ICARD conference in St Louis read more » |
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