Engineering Commons^™

Imerys: Tube Mill Optimization Project, Ryan Waltman, Dalton Beasley, Dyson Beasley, Tristan Mcmichael

Senior Design Project For Engineers

The Tube Mill Optimization Project is in partnership with Imerys for Tube Mill 81 at their Marble Hill site in Georgia. Tube Mill 81 is a dry ball mill that operates 24/7 and makes an intermediary product for Plant 3. Tube Mill 81 needs quality improvement and a production rate increase to meet demand. Imerys’s quality specification is between a particle size of 12-18 microns and an acceptable production rate of 5 tons per hour. This project focuses on the development and implementation of three solutions: increase the amps on the separator to increase production, replace missing classifier blades in …

Geoelectrical Signatures Of Acid-Generating Mine Waste Rock, Difan Su

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Acid mine drainage (AMD) contamination associated with waste rock piles (WRPs) at mining sites is a global concern, and understanding the generation and release of AMD from these piles is highly desirable. Traditional WRP monitoring techniques involve the installation of monitoring wells and periodic core sampling; however, these approaches are invasive, expensive and can only provide data with limited spatial and temporal resolution. An attractive alternative is non-invasive geophysical techniques that can provide non-invasive and continuous information on subsurface features and processes. This thesis aims to investigate the feasibility of the spectral induced polarization (SIP) method for monitoring changes in …

Recovery Of Valuable Metals From Electronic Waste Using A Novel Ammonia-Based Hydrometallurgical Process, Peijia Lin

Theses and Dissertations--Mining Engineering

The growing quantity of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), also known as electronic waste (E-waste), has been an area of growing public concern. The abundance of valuable metals contained in waste printed circuit boards (WPCBs) has made it a promising secondary resource, especially for Cu and Au. Although the recovery of metals from WPCBs via hydrometallurgical routes has been studied extensively over the past 20 years, most of the research has been limited in the laboratory. In current hydrometallurgical processes, strong acids and expensive oxidizers are often used to ensure a high recovery of metals without considering the sustainability …

Prediction Of Dynamic Subsidence In The Proximity Of Longwall Panel Boundaries, Jesus David Romero Benitez

Theses and Dissertations--Mining Engineering

The development of mining subsidence has a dynamic character, and it is related to the mining rate and a time coefficient. Reliable prediction of dynamic deformations is important when planning to undermine important structures that cannot account for large relative deformations and or large horizontal strains. This thesis discusses subsidence development for a number of points over a retreating longwall panel in the eastern US. The prediction points are at different distances from the excavation rib and, therefore, present a different response in terms of dynamic movements. Final movements, i.e., measurements after the panel was fully extracted, were used to …

Prediction Of Blast-Induced Ground Vibrations: A Comparison Between Empirical And Artificial-Neural-Network Approaches, Luis F. Velasquez

Theses and Dissertations--Mining Engineering

Ground vibrations are a critical factor in the rock blasting process. The instantaneous load application exerted by the gas pressure during the detonation process acts on the blasthole walls creating dynamic stresses in the adjacent rock. This triggers different sorts of stress waves, mainly divided into two categories: body and surface waves. The first comprises the P and the S waves, while the second comprises Rayleigh waves. These waves spread concentrically starting at the blast location and move along the ground surface and its interior, being attenuated as they reach further distances.

In most cases, and accepting the hypothesis that …

An Acid Baking Approach To Enhance Rare Earth Element Recovery From Bituminous Coal Sources, Ahmad Nawab

Theses and Dissertations--Mining Engineering

Rare earth elements (REE) are a group of 17 elements typically classified as light and heavy rare earth elements, which play a crucial role in developing the latest technologies for energy, defense, and medical sectors. Even though REEs have been found in more than 200 minerals, only bastnaesite, monazite and xenotime are commercially exploited for REE extraction. However, the recent exponential increase in REE demand has spurred countries such as the United States into research for the extraction of REEs from secondary sources such as coal, acid mine drainage, and coal ash. Several coal sources (e.g., Fire Clay seam coal) …

Effects Of Downwash When Measuring Gas Concentration With Uav-Mounted Gas Sensors, Jacob Lane Brinkman

Doctoral Dissertations

"This research concludes that the downwash region of a rotary-wing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) does not produce pressure variations substantial enough to cause significant changes in density-based gas concentration measurements. US regulations evaluate gas concentration as a function of gas density, and accurate concentration measurements are critical for protecting health and safety, which means evaluation of actual downwash effects on measured gas concentration is essential.

During experimentation, the UAV was fixed to a stand in a sealed chamber filled with NOx (NO and NO₂) of constant concentration. The UAV rotors ran at hovering speeds, and gas concentrations were …

Augmented Reality And Mobile Systems For Heavy Equipment Operators In Surface Mining, Juan David Valencia Quiceno

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

U.S. federal laws mandate that mining companies ensure a safe workplace, implement approved training programs, and promptly report work-related injuries. The mining industry's commitment to innovation reflects a history of adopting advancements to enhance environmental sustainability, workplace safety, and overall productivity, while simultaneously reducing operational costs. This thesis proposes the integration of Augmented Reality (AR) technology and digital applications to enhance the surface mining industry, presenting two innovative solutions: an AR Training System and an Operational Digital System. These business solutions have been developed and applied at a surface mine in the southwest of the US, having the potential to …

Development Of A Hydrometallurgical Process For The Extraction Of Cobalt, Manganese, And Nickel From Acid Mine Drainage Treatment Byproduct, Alejandro Agudelo Mira

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Critical minerals (CMs) are defined as crucial elements for the country's economy due to the development of new cutting-edge applications and the risk of an eventual disruption in their supply chain. The unique chemical and physical properties of the CMs have made these elements decisive in the growth of industries such as telecommunications, army, medicine, Aerospace, etc. In 2022, the US Geological Survey established a list of 50 CMs, including manganese, cobalt, nickel, aluminum, magnesium, and others. Of the total of CMs, 26 are 100% imported from outside the United States (Venditti, 2022).

Driven by the ever-increasing demand for critical …

Analysis Of The Root Causes Of Fatal Injuries In The United States Surface Mines Between 2008 And 2021., Maria Fernanda Quintero

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Mining has long been recognized as a hazardous industry worldwide. An annual average rate of 10.3 fatal injuries per 100,000 workers was recorded in the United States between 2008 and 2021 (MSHA, 2022). This rate can be compared with the average of the industries with the highest average rates of fatal injuries—agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting; transportation and warehousing; and construction—which had average rates of 23.5, 13.1, and 9.9 fatal injuries per 100,000 workers, respectively, during the same period in the Unites States (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2023).

The scope of this research is related to the fatal injuries …

Identification Of Rockmass Deformation And Lithological Changes In Underground Mines By Using Slam-Based Lidar Technology, Francisco Eduardo Gil Hurtado

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

In mining, hazards causing rib and roof fall accidents generally develop with time. The development of a hazard depends on factors like geology, excavation geometry, overburden stress, and mining-induced stresses. Hazard mapping in an underground mine is essential for roof and rib stability assessment. However, often it is neither practical nor economical to inspect and map vast areas of mine workings with limited personnel. New technologies, recently, have been adopted in the mining industry that can solve this problem. Advances in LiDAR technology and simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) algorithms have led to the development of portable and mobile laser …

Selective Recovery Of Rare Earth Elements From Acid Mine Drainage Treatment Byproduct, Zeynep Cicek

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Rare earth elements (REEs) are critical in emerging clean energy, advanced technologies, and military defense applications due to their unique physical, chemical, optical, and luminescent properties. Given the potential supply chain restrictions imposed by one country's dominance in the global REE market and the consistently growing demand for REEs, developing the US domestic REE supply chain is imperative. Thus, alternative sources are crucial to supply the demand and prevent interruption in manufacturing products that consume REEs. Concurrently, acid mine drainage (AMD) is a long-standing and widespread global challenge the mining industry encounters. AMD is generated in large volumes and continuously …

Assessment Of Air Overpressure From Blasting Using Computational Fluid Dynamics, Cecilia Estefania Aramayo

Theses and Dissertations--Mining Engineering

Air overpressure is a shock wave that occurs when explosives detonate and travel through the air. This can cause damage and annoyance in mining blasts, making it a significant concern for the surroundings of the operation. Currently, the cube root scale distance is used to predict air overpressure, but this method has limitations. To accurately determine air overpressure behavior, a new method is needed. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is a reliable and advanced technique that can simulate and solve complex physical problems, including the behavior of air overpressure. In this thesis, two techniques, the bursting balloon, and total pressure boundary, …

A Laboratory And Numerical Investigation Of The Strength Of Irregularly Shaped Pillars, Zachary Wedding

Theses and Dissertations--Mining Engineering

Underground mining operations utilize the room-and-pillar mining method that extracts the orebody and creates ‘rooms’ and leaves the remaining in-situ material as ‘pillars’ to support the overburden. Room-and-pillar mines are traditionally designed in square or rectangular-shaped pillars. This work presents laboratory experiments testing the compressive strengths of specimens modeled after square and parallelogram-shaped pillars and numerical models of square and -parallelogram-shaped pillar systems. The uniaxial compressive strength of the specimens’ shape and the observations of the extent of the specimen core post-failure were analyzed. There was insufficient evidence from the laboratory experiments to conclude that there is a difference in …

An Entropy-Based Risk Index (Eri) Of Mining Health And Safety Using Clustering And Statistical Methods, Dharmasai Eshwar Reddy Sirigiri

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Over the last decade, the mining industry has seen a significant reduction in the number of fatalities in the United States. However, the annual employee hours have also decreased during the same period. Therefore, it is crucial to evaluate the historical mining data and identify the potential risks of a mine through the mine risk index. The risk indicators also describe the severity of accidents and injuries at mine sites. The variables such as citation, order, significant & substantial citations, lost time, and no lost time injuries and penalties are considered for the determination of the risk index. However, using …