A numerical assessment of land reclamation as a strategy for nearshore diamond mining

On the south-west coast of Namibia, diamonds were trapped during the Quaternary on bedrock platforms and in bedrock gullies. These were formed by differential erosion due to wave action. The diamonds originated from Kimberlite diamond pipes within the catchment area of the Orange River in South-Africa and Botswana. This river eroded the diamonds...

Designing a treatment system for the underground effluent at Loulo Gold mine (Mali, West Africa)

A scoping study on the Baboto ore body

The Baboto ore body is situated along the same geological structure as the Yalea and the Loulo3 ore bodies. It is located approximately 10km north east of the ROMPAD, 1km north of the village of Baboto. It stretches 5km to the north, a part of the Baboto North ore body lies in the Kofi permit. Relative little sampling has been done; core...

Stope mine design optimisation using various algorithms for the Randgold Kibali project

In current practice stope mines are designed using simple rules of thumb or using algorithms that do not find the true optimisation. Therefore a combinatorial optimisation algorithm was developed for optimising stope boundaries for sublevel stope mines. The profitability of a stope and the feasibility of a mine depends on the infrastructure that...

Analysis of Natural Fractures in the Basal Zechstein Carbonates in the Dutch Offshore Area using Wireline Log Data

The primary gas reservoirs in the Southern Dutch offshore are in decline. Discoveries of new gas reservoirs are getting smaller and smaller reservoirs receive more attention. The three major carbonate beds in the Basal Zechstein (Z1C, Z2C and Z3C) are considered potential secondary gas reservoirs. To be able to develop the gas from these...

Zinc Removal from Aircraft Aluminium-alloy scrap

This report introduces a method for the removal of zinc from aircraft aluminium-alloy scrap. The driving force for this research is the demand from the secondary aluminium industry for a low zinc content in the Al-alloy scrap, and the growing demand for aluminium in the world. Meanwhile large amounts of obsolete aircraft are stored because of...

Basin settings of the Upper Jurassic Source Rock of the Southern Danish Central Graben

From 3D seismic interpretation and well logs five of the strongest reflectors of the Upper Jurassic Source Rock along the Southern DGC were mapped, the markers were correlated with biostratigraphic and geochemical data. It was generated a simple 3D basin model. The Southern DCG experienced a strong subsidence during Kimmeridgian with tilted...

Applicability of near-infrared spectroscopy for sensor based sorting of mill pebbles from the Los Bronces copper mine, Chile

Los Bronces is an open pit mine located on a large porphyry copper-molybdenum deposit near Santiago, Chile. Annual production is around 240 000 tonnes of copper and 2 700 tonnes of molybdenum. The extracted ore has a relatively low average copper grade of around 0.6%. This results in relatively high processing costs and creates the need to...

Hot metal quality in the hearth of an iron making blast furnace

After fifteen years of service, blast furnace #7 at IJmuiden’s Tata Steel operation was blown down on the 31st of August in 2006 for a small repair. The blow down and salamander tap were successfully completed and afterwards the furnace was quenched with water. All remaining liquids are solidified followed by excavation of the remaining skull....

Optimization of mining and processing for an Albanian nickel-laterite mine

The scope of the project was to re-evaluate, optimize and update an existing pre-feasibility study of a nickel-laterite project in south-eastern Albania. This included, but was not limited to, the development of the resource estimate; geotechnical assessment of the different rock zones; investigation of potential mining methods; design and...

An optimised iron ore grinding strategy based on balling fundamentals

In order to meet the future demand of pellets for the blast furnace, the output of the grinding circuit of the Tata Steel IJmuiden pellet plant needs to be increased. As the power consumption of the grinding circuit is already at its maximum, the grinding itself and/or the grinding strategy needs to be optimised, leading to a higher circuit...

Smart Processing of Brass Smelter Residues

In this study a industrial survey was performed on the secondary products generated in the Dutch metal industry. From this industrial survey it was concluded that the Dutch metal industry is already far ahead with closing the materials cycle as for almost every product is a processing route to recover its metal content. The residues generated at...

The root causes of Stope Slippage at Kidd Mine, Canada

Kidd Mine has a production target of 2.5 million tonnes of ore per year in 2010. Seventy-five stopes are turned over to the next stope in order to achieve this annual production. Each turnover from stope to stope has an anticipated number of days based on the geomechanical relation between them. Due to the depth and size of the operation, it is...

Natural Convection Effects on Magnesium Solution Mining

Raw magnesium chloride can be recovered using solution mining at a depth of a 1500 to 2000 meters. Underground caverns are formed in stacked layers of bischofite , carnallite and halite. The salt layers consist for a large part of NaCl and but contain a minimum of at least 35% magnesium chloride. Recovery is implemented by injection of fresh...

Metallurgical processing of zinc-bearing residues

In this study metallurgical processing of two different kinds of zinc-bearing residues have been performed: Zinc A and Zinc B. These residues have been stored for over 15 years in Rotterdam Harbor. The chemical compositions of the residues have been determined and showed that zinc ferrite is a major phase present. Zinc ferrite is not soluble...

Ferrovanadium production from heavy fuel oil fly ash and BOF dust

Vanadium is an important industrial metal that is mostly used as an alloying element in steel and to a lesser extent in titanium. It is generally produced in combination with other metals such as iron, titanium, and uranium. The typical production method begins with salt roasting of the ore or concentrate to produce a water soluble form of...

Economic Analysis of a Marine Gas Hydrate Operation from the sea floor and its sediments: The case of hydrate bearing sediments in the Atwater Valley

Natural gas is an important energy source. Recently the world-wide consumption is rapidly increasing due to the growing demand caused by industrial growth and also by shifting to cleaner energy source driven environmental concerns. To satisfy demand also in the future, it is necessary to look for alternatives sources of supply of energy. An...

The minimisation of copper losses during iron and aluminium precipitation from zinc leach liquors

The basis for this research project was that copper is lost in the Leaching Plant of the Nyrstar Budel zinc smelter. In the section of the Leaching Plant copper is lost, iron and aluminium are precipitated. Sampling of this process showed that the removal of copper from the solution is a function of pH and is mainly linked to the removal of...