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Archive for the ‘Underground’ Category

Mine Water Management Best Practice Guidelines and EduMine Webcast

Posted in acid mine drainage, consulting, Enviromental, People, Tailings, Underground, Waste Rock, tagged , , , , on April 5, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

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Browsing the web earlier this week I came across the site of the South African Department of Water Affairs.  There I found the following Best Practice Guidelines relevant to mine water management: (more…)

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What Do Civil & Geootechnical Engineers Do at Mines and for Mining?

Posted in brandy, Jobs and Salaries, mining, Mining history, Open Pit, Tailings, Underground, Waste Rock, tagged , , , , , , on November 10, 2012 | 5 Comments »

There is more civil engineering in mining than there is mining engineering in mining.  To substantiate this controversial statement let me repeat below something I wrote a long time ago.  (more…)

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Stacked Against All Odds – Mine Tailings Stacks

Posted in environmental, Geotechnical, mining, Open Pit, Tailings, Underground, tagged , , , , on March 20, 2012 | 1 Comment »

The night is waning into dawn, and the air is thick with smoke and desperate moves.  The mine mill is still churning off in the distance. The odds are against you – what to do? (more…)

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Mining Subsidence and Loss of Water to Mines

Posted in Australia and New Zealand, Coal, environmental, Europe, Mining history, North America, Underground, tagged , , on March 15, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

The old adage “a picture is worth a thousand words” comes to mind when you look at the above photos. I was talking to a colleague about his trip to Timmins, Ontario for an Undergraduate Geological Engineering field trip to visit the old gold and base metal mines. I too had to share a few of my undergraduate field trip stories but my visits to a big motorway or the precast concrete factory just didn’t seem as interesting, so we will be talking about subsidence instead. (more…)

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Design A Mine Waste Facility: Guidance From Wisconsin

Posted in acid mine drainage, environmental, Law (Mining), mining, Tailings, Underground, Waste Rock, tagged , , , , on February 14, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

The Wisconsin legislature has just posted a proposed new law on mining in the state.  The full document is available at this link.    At 191 pages it is not a short read; but it is a must-read.  And it is a fascinating read.  It is serious and sometimes frivolous.  Consider these sections that caught my eye on scanning the document: (more…)

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The Dark Side of Mining: Pasta Carbonera

Posted in Mining history, Underground, tagged , , , on October 19, 2011 | 7 Comments »

In a now-demolished farm house in Iowa  I taught the older grandsons to make pasta carbonera. It is easy: while pasta (any type) boils in hot water, in a pan fry bacon and onion; throw the boiled pasta into the pan; break in a few eggs; mix the whole until the eggs are cooked; eat with wine (adults) or soda (kids). (more…)

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Massey Energy denies report of responsibility for Upper Big Branch mine deaths

Posted in About the news, Coal, safety, Underground, tagged , , , , on May 20, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

 

This report should be mandatory reading for all in the mining industry.  If you are a Democrat you will believe it, and believe something should be done—particularly a change in the law and more enforcement of lax and dishonest mine operators.  If you are a Republican, you will ignore it, attack it, and say lives are secondary to employment.  Both are sort sighted and mean perspectives.  (more…)

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Acid Mine Drainage threatens Kwa Thema, South Africa. Is this really worse than Global Warming?

Posted in acid mine drainage, Africa, environmental, Global Warming, Gold, Reclamation, Tailings, Underground, Uranium, tagged , , , , , , on April 28, 2011 | 1 Comment »

   

Growing up on the East Geduld Mine, a gold mine at the far east end of the South African Witwatersrand, we often went to play around the slimes dams and the pools of orange, green, and blue waters that dotted the landscape.   Our parent forbade us to go there, for there were stories of kids sliding into pools, drowning, or worse, being entombed in collapsing caverns in the slimes dams.  But that made our adventures all the more exciting. (more…)

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2010 US Coal Mine Wages

Posted in Coal, Jobs and Salaries, North America, Open Pit, Underground, tagged , , , on February 17, 2011 | 3 Comments »

CostMine has just sent me a copy of their new 2010 Survey Results U.S. Coal Mine Salaries, Wages and Benefits.   Here are some of the numbers for coal mine wages.  In future postings, we will look at salaries and executive compensation. (more…)

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Mine-Mill Integration Jobs

Posted in consulting, Underground, tagged , , , , , , on December 17, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

   The big idea is that you put your mill deep underground.  Less noise, less dust, no surface run-off to manage.  You send only the concentrate or refined product to the surface, thereby saving on haulage costs.  Maybe you can use the waste rock to backfill the stopes. I am not sure what you would do with the fluid tailings–pump them to the surface?  Filter press them and use them as stope backfill? (more…)

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