|
|
|
Information and links on a variety of technical aspects of mining & mineral exploration.
|
| |
| Articles |
 US coal peak production: Point and counterpointTuesday, October 20, 2009Coal peak production has been a seriously debated topic for the past few years outside the coal-science community. "We hope to spur science-based discussions by membership of the coal geology and geology and health communities," said session co-chair Romeo Flores. read more » Mining expansion to avoid big riversThursday, October 15, 2009The region's next major mine expansion could involve the extraction of 300 million tonnes of coal from a 19,000ha area, securing 1200 direct jobs for 30 years. read more » Managing Costs - Core DrillingWednesday, September 30, 2009Sometimes the smallest products can make the biggest impact. While they don't carry $1 million price tags like some of the high technology capital equipment available on the market, coring consumables represent incremental cost over the life of a project that can save or lose a drilling contractor hundreds of thousands of dollars in ... read more » Supporting a remote mining fleetWednesday, September 30, 2009The importance of the Sandvik operation headquartered in the city of Timika on the south coast of Papua (Irian Jaya),Indonesia, is such that it is an incorporated company, PT Sandvik SMC. This company was established purely for the Freeport business,which roughly splits 50/50 between underground and surface equipment. read more » Steeling for a comebackWednesday, September 30, 2009At the beginning of August, Macquarie Research described iron ore prices as being "in transition." Announcing "progress" in its 2009 iron ore price negotiations, BHP Billiton highlighted what it views as significant progress in the evolution away from iron ore pricing dominated by an annually negotiated benchmark price towards a "transparent" pricing system based on index (or spot pricing). 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 » 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 » Kaftar Hona anthraciteWednesday, September 30, 2009Saddleback Corp was formed in 2004 and then established Saddleback Gold Corp in Tajikistan. It has offices in central London and in Dushanbe, the capital city of Tajikistan. The objective of SGC has been to build a diversified mining and exploration company by securing interests in mining and exploration projects in Tajikistan with a focus on coal and gold. read more » California Mining Investment RulesTuesday, September 01, 2009A new mine in California is almost unheard of. We must take our hats off to Molycorp for the reopening of, dare we call it the “new?” Mountain Pass mine in California. read more » Human Error PreventionFriday, August 07, 2009Preventing human error can be the biggest contributor to the productivity, safety, and quality of any project. A new easy to read book can help you tackle the causes of human error and how to prevent them. read more » Using Insects to Model Equipment Dispatching Systems Tuesday, August 04, 2009Here's a novel approach to model an equipment dispatching system: use the swarming behaviour of insects! The dispatch of trucks and shovels is an important part of the success of an open pit mine. The following paper by Bissiri et al. introduces a new technique that uses insect swarming to model and simulate a dispatching system. read more » Principles of Mine PlanningMonday, June 29, 2009Principles of Mine Planning is a must-read for mining engineering and geoscience professionals and students. Some of the major topics covered in this book include the determination of technical factors in mine planning read more » Mining salaries in Australia & New ZealandMonday, June 29, 2009Hays Resources & Mining published a new salary survey pertaining to the Australian mining industry: market changes, positions in demand, salary movements, changes to employer recruitment practices. read more » Electronic Journal on California Gold Rush and Gold MiningThursday, May 14, 2009The Sierra College Press has published an electronic journal on the California Gold Rush and Gold Mining. This eJournal is the latest edition of Snowy Range Reflections: A Journal of Sierra Nevada History and Biography. read more » Coal through a microscopeMonday, May 11, 2009If you think that coal is a boring black rock then you have never seen it through a transmitted light microscope. The microscope reveals coal's hidden beauty as well as its composition. read more » Truck DriversThursday, August 28, 2008Every mining magazine features a new article on new big trucks. But there is an aspect to the big truck photo scourge that we do not talk about. I refer to the folk who drive those big trucks. read more » Talvivaara Heap LeachTuesday, July 29, 2008This case history of a new heap leach operation is courtesy of E&MJ, May 2008. They describe a new heap leach pad at the Talvivaara Mine in Finland read more » The Berkeley PitWednesday, April 16, 2008The Mine Waste Technology Program at Montana Tech understandably enough focuses on the Berkeley Pit. Here are the reports they have produced on the pit read more » Suncor Oil Sands MiningFriday, April 4, 2008At the SME meeting in Salt Lake City in late February 2008, I chanced into one of those presentations that justify conference attendance. This one was by Erik Jones talking about mine productivity initiatives at Suncor Energy’s Alberta operations. read more » Micromine’s Pit Optimisation SoftwareMonday, March 17, 2008A recent study by Golder Associates has revealed that MICROMINE’s powerful Pit Optimiser is as high in usability and performance, as other leading industry-standard optimisation software such as Gemcom’s Whittle 4X optimiser. read more » QMASTORTuesday, March 04, 2008A newsletter that is worth looking at if you are into mining-related software is from QMASTOR read more » Micromine Launches PITRAM 3Wednesday, February 27, 2008Micromine, leading provider of mining and exploration software products and services, has announced that the highly-anticipated official global launch of PITRAM 3 will take place on 3 March at PDAC International Convention, Trade Show & Investors Exchange 2008. read more » Fuzzy Logic in MiningTuesday, February 05, 2008A new paper in the InfoMine Library is by Bascetin Atac of the Mining engineering Department of the Istanbul University. In his paper, A New Approach for Decision Making Based Genetic Algorithm in Mining Operations, he describes the use of fuzzy logic methods 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 » Liberty Mining ConsultantsTuesday, January 15, 2008Every so often a new company lists on InfoMine as a consultant. I generally examine the websites of these new listers. Here is one that caught my attention. read more » Montana Mining MagazineTuesday, October 23, 2007The best value for my mining money on the web right now is the new magazine called Montana Mining. Actually it is free for download. Governor Brian Schweitzer summarizes the current mining situation in the state in his opening editorial. read more » SpookWednesday, April 04, 2007Filling old open pit mines with mining wastes has many advantages. I recognize there are many disadvantages too, mostly to do with the cost. 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 » Dust CalculationsFriday, March 09, 2007The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) e-publishes the definitive volume on how to calculate the quantity of dust from mine (and indeed all) unpaved roads, paved roads read more » Adams Mine LandfillFriday, March 09, 2007The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is intended to facilitate trade between Canada, the United States, and Mexico. Parts of the Preamble state that the governments of the three nations resolve via the agreement to read more » Wind Power and MiningFriday, February 16, 2007Depending on your aesthetic sensitivities it is the most beautiful site in all the world or the ugliest. I refer to a large wind farm. read more » Rawhide Mine Community Relations PlanThursday, February 08, 2007A good example of a community relations plan as any I have come across is that for the Rawhide Mine in Nevada. This plan sets out what will be done from 2006 to 2010 at the now closed mine 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 » Aditya Birla Minerals and IndiaWednesday, January 31, 2007The moral of this story is that news reports and Annual Reports can tell the curious engineers and technicians amongst us interesting tales of the trials and tribulations of mining read more » Madagascar MiningThursday, January 18, 2007A summary of an article from the New Yorker, October 2, 2006:
Burkhard Bilger writes about the gem industry in Madagascar, which has some of the richest, and least exploited, gem deposits on earth 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 » 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 » Aventurine and the Sherpa SoftwareFriday, November 24, 2006If you have not previously seen the Aventurine site, you have a treat awaiting you. If you need to estimate the cost of a mining activity, you have to get Sherpa software. read more » Oil Sands ReclamationFriday, November 17, 2006Can we reclaim the oil sands operations? A pretty obvious question. Many, many answers. I surveyed 350 Google hits from the key words “oil sands reclamation.” read more » Science Fair Project on MiningFriday, November 17, 2006Here is an example to hold before the kids. Here is an opportunity to show ‘em what can be done. Here is the piece to send them to when they ask for help with their homework. 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 » 50-Year PerspectiveThursday, November 02, 2006What will mining be like in fifty and five hundred years? We can only guess at five hundred, but for fifty, we can extrapolate current trends to venture a prediction. read more » Canadian Natural Resources & Finning TrucksThursday, October 19, 2006In 1989, Canadian Natural was an oil and natural gas company operating only in Alberta. They employed 9 people, produced about 1,400 barrels of oil equivalent per day and had a market capitalization of about $1 million. read more » Suizhou Huawei Truck ManufacturersTuesday, August 15, 2006The pictures speak for themselves: a full range of material transport and dump trucks. All from the Hubei Huawei Special-Purpose Automobile Manufacturing Company in Suizhou, China. read more » Truck-Shovel.comWednesday, August 2, 2006Sparwood, British Columbia has a population of about 4,000, TRUCK-SHOVEL.COM (RW Consulting and Training Services) a consultant newly listed on InfoMine, and a short but fascinating history. read more » Outokumpu & GrindingTuesday, August 29, 2006There is plenty of interesting material on grinding in the Outokumpu Grinding Technologies Brochure. I quote & edit from their website to give you a bit of news about their successes read more » Xstrata and McArthur River MineThursday, July 27, 2006News Item: The Northern Territory, Australia, government declared that the fate of one of the territory's largest mines now lies with its owner, Swiss giant Xstrata. read more » Haul Roads Using Fly AshMonday, July 24, 2006Oil sand mining and coal mining involves trucks with payload capacity of more than 300 tonnes and costing upwards of six million dollars. A good haul road ensures low vehicle operating and maintenance costs. read more » |
|
|
|
