Posted in consulting, Open Pit, People, tagged consulting, D Sullivan, hydraulic conductivity, hydromechanical coupling, pit stability, slope stability, stress relief on June 15, 2013 | 3 Comments »
As a consultant you can only advise. You cannot force. You can only provide your professional opinion. You cannot make the client do the right thing. You can set out facts and possible consequences. You cannot make the outcome be what you desire or believe it should be. (more…)
Posted in brandy, consulting, Environment, mining, Mining history, People, Reclamation, Tailings, Uncategorized, tagged brandy, cannon mine, filter pressed tailings, Greens Creek, judgement, Oil sands, optimum seasonal deposition, pond 5 suncor, Prof Jennings, ralp peck, Tailings on June 7, 2013 | 1 Comment »
Professor Jere Jennings who taught so many of us now-old civil engineers in mining used to say: “When you have read everything there is to read, when you have done all the calculations possible, then drink a bottle of brandy and exercise engineering judgement.” (more…)
Posted in People, Tailings, tagged gordon ritcey, hydrometallurgy, tailngs workshop on June 4, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
![tumblr_mezun24sj41qj6juso3_500[1]](http://ithinkmining.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/tumblr_mezun24sj41qj6juso3_5001.jpg)
This past weekend, a colleague sent me word of the Tailings & Waste Management Workshop to be held in Johannesburg, South Africa 29 to 31 July. The course is to be lead by Dr. Gordon M Ritcey of GM Ritcey & Associates in Ottawa, Canada. Although the workshop announcement says he is an International Consultant and Adjunct Professor of Hydrometallurgy at Curtin University WA School of Mines. (more…)
Posted in About the news, communication, Peru, Tailings, tagged brixel, caldwell, edumine, fergusson, hutchison, paste 2013, tailings management on June 2, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
Spent time today preparing for an upcoming EduMine webcast. At this link are the details of the webcast we call Advanced Tailings and Mine Waste Facility Design, Construction, Operation, and Closure. (more…)
Posted in brandy, consulting, feasibilty studies, mining, Tailings, tagged closure, cost, CostMine, estimate, feasibilty, filter press, Tailings on May 9, 2013 | 4 Comments »
It costs between $1 and $40 a ton to build, operate, and close a mine tailings facility. That is as specific as I was able to be when answering a question today in response to an enquiry from Australia. There is a surprising paucity of data out there on the cost of tailings management. We have details of salaries & wages. We know the compensation of mining company executives. We know how much it costs to engage and retain even the most expensive consultant. But we have no data-base on tailings costs. (more…)
Posted in consulting, environmental, health and safety, mining, Tailings, tagged black swan, complex system, emergency response, risk resiliance, tailings failure on May 2, 2013 | 2 Comments »
![tumblr_ma0rnrWVVt1ro76g2o1_500[2]](http://ithinkmining.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/tumblr_ma0rnrwvvt1ro76g2o1_5002.jpg)
Risk resilience is a term that I heard for the first time today. The people who used the term assure me that it is not new, just not recognized in mining for its power. There was a conference last year in South Africa on risk resilience in mining. There is a successful consultant on the topic in Australia. (more…)
Posted in About the news, Tailings, acid mine drainage, People, environmental, tagged EPA, Pebble Mine, andy robertson, mine water solutions, extreme environments on April 30, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
Just available at this link is the PowerPoint presentation made by Andy Robertson at last week’s conference in Lima, Peru on Mine Water Solution in Extreme Environments. As always, it is fascinating & provocative and informed by his deep understanding of the topic and his international experience looking at mines & tailings dams worldwide. (more…)
Posted in acid mine drainage, brandy, consulting, decomissioning, environmental, Geology, Geotechnical, Human relations and mining, Tailings, tagged categories, decision making, pre-feasibility study. feasibiility study, Tailings on April 27, 2013 | 3 Comments »
![tumblr_mkp6emeM3k1qhs2doo1_500[1]](http://ithinkmining.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/tumblr_mkp6emem3k1qhs2doo1_5001.jpg)
Categories are constructs of our imagination. We define categories to aid our thinking, analysis, and decision-making. It is easier to respond immediately if a stimulus fits a preconceived category, than to analyze afresh. A rustle in the brush fits the definition of the category “Tiger in the woods; the tiger could kill us; therefore flee.” Why analyze the situation to decide that the wind is merely blowing through the trees and making a nasty sound? (more…)
Posted in About the news, consulting, People, Tailings, tagged christoph wels, conferences, fronco oboni, insight, tailings water balance on April 16, 2013 | 4 Comments »
Day 2 of the conference on Mine Water Solutions in Extreme Environments. Here is a link to a presentation made today at the conference by Christoph Wels of RGC. We have worked together over the past six or seven years on the issues he adresses in this presentation. But he must take the credit for the ideas, the hard work, the intellectual stamina, and now the presentation. (more…)
Posted in About the news, Copper, Investing & Finance, Open Pit, tagged bingham canyon, investment rule, kennecottt copper, mine, mormons, Utah on April 12, 2013 | 3 Comments »
A massive slope failure has occurred at the open pit of the Bingham Canyon Mine in Utah. Here is a link to a magnificent collection of photographs of the failure, which appears to have taken out part of a building, access roads, and filled the bottom of the pit with slide material. Nobody was hurt: the mine had been monitoring movement and when deformation increased from 1 mm a day to 5 mms day they pulled out all workers. A fine testament to the engineers who study rock and soil slope stability in the open pit mine context. (more…)
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