Mining Engineering Commons^™

Designing Efficient Petroleum Fiscal System For Mozambique, Nelson Victor

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

Nowadays, tax regime is designed to attract investment and provide the contractor with fair return on investment, at the same time, provide the host government with adequate resources for rent, thereby resulting in win-win situation. This study analyses the existing petroleum fiscal regime in the Republic of Mozambique and proposes a more efficient and flexible regime. The analysis shows that the government take currently remains at around 39% while the contactors' net present value (NPV) increases as field sizes and oil prices increase. The current system is considered a regressive system which is inefficient in distributing wealth from oil profit. …

Wellbore Stability Evaluation For Mishrif Formation, Ethar H.K. Alkamil, Husam R. Abbood, Ralph E. Flori, Andreas Eckert

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

During drilling operations for the E oilfield in the Mishrif formation in southern Iraq, stuck pipe has been identified as a significant geomechanical problem for several wells. In this study, a 1-D mechanical earth model (MEM) of the Mishrif formation is compiled based on its state of stress and rock strength parameters and is utilized to assess the contribution of borehole collapse leading to the stuck pipe problems. The MEM model is based on the principal in situ stresses and their orientation obtained from wireline logs measurements, measuring while drilling (MWD), and leak off test (LOT). Rock strength properties are …

Time Series Pattern Discovery Techniques For Well-To-Well Log Correlation, Chanchai Apiwatsakulchai

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

Well log data is one of the most abundant data sources for subsurface characterization since almost all drilled wells are logged. Subsurface characterization requires correlated well log information. Processes to help perform well-to-well log correlation have been developed in this study based on the two approaches: pattern matching and pattern discovery. Pattern matching focuses on finding a known pattern of interest in uncorrelated wells. The use of Euclidean, Hamming, and Levenshtein distances in similarity measurement, Piecewise Aggregate Approximation (PAA), and Symbolic Aggregate approXimation (SAX) data representation helps create reduced-resolution while maintains the main characteristics of the signals. Multi-resolution analysis provides …

Coal Combustion Products Utilization For Soil Amendment, Tran Thi Anh Tuyet

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

Nowadays, coal has a crucial role in generating energy all over the world. As a result, the consumption of coal creates a huge amount of coal combustion products, including bottom ash and fly ash. The coal ash has the potential characteristics to become a resource material in agriculture such as its texture, water holding capacity, bulk density, pH etc., and contains almost all the essential plant nutrients. However, most of the coal ash created is dumped into the landfill, which is a contributing factor in the environmental degradation. This study wants to use coal ash in agriculture as a way …

Mining Asteroids For Volatile Resources: An Experimental Demonstration Of Extraction And Recovery, Egboche Christopher Unobe

Masters Theses

"Gaseous compounds trapped within carbonaceous asteroids may prove to be important targets for prospective space miners in the near-term. Volatile release is from hydrated, hydroxylated and carbonated phases present, making such bodies attractive as feedstock for the production of H₂O, CO₂ and simple organic compounds. A source of these species in orbit provides an opportunity to locally produce space-craft propellant and other life-support gases through the application of In-situ Resource Utilization (ISRU).

For this study, an experimental vacuum system was modified and used to test the technical validity of radiatively heating asteroid simulants to extract contained gaseous …

Detection Of Mine Roof Failure Using Inexpensive Lidar Technology, Ali Abdullah M. Alzahrani

Masters Theses

"Slope, Roof, and mine wall stability problems are some of the main reasons for deaths at U.S. surface or underground mining. The safety instruments were not enough to prevent that failure or even predict it before it occurs. However, the cost of such a tool that can be helpful in detecting roof failures is very high and not reachable in most instances.

The present study investigates the feasibility of using the M16 Leddar Evaluation Kit to detect the roof failure in mines. The M16 Leddar Evaluation kit cost is between 300$-800$, so it is the reachable price if it provides …

Quantitating Active Photosystem Ii Reaction Center Content From Fluorescence Induction Transients, Cole D. Murphy, Guangyan Ni, Gang Li, Audrey Barnett, Kui Xu, Jessica Grant-Burt, Justin D. Liefer, David J. Suggett, Douglas A. Campbell

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

Photosystem II (PSII) is a pigment-protein complex that photochemically extracts electrons from water, generating the reductant that supports biological productivity in all biomes. Estimating the content of active PSII reaction centers in a liquid sample is a key input for estimating aquatic photosynthesis rates, as well as for analyzing phytoplankton stress responses. Established procedures for PSII content quantification based on oxygen evolution are slow, imprecise and require dense cell suspensions, and are thus inapplicable to many laboratory or field studies. A new approach uses baseline chlorophyll fluorescence emission divided by the effective absorbance cross section for PSII photochemistry, with both …

Controlling Properties Of Agglomerates For Chemical Processes, Joseph A. Halt

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Iron ore pellets are hard spheres made from powdered ore and binders. Pellets are used to make iron, mainly in blast furnaces. Around the time that the pelletizing process was developed, starch was proposed as a binder because it’s viscous, adheres well to iron oxides, does not contaminate pellets and is relatively cheap. In practice, however, starch leads to weak pellets with rough surfaces – these increase the amount of dust generated within process equipment and during pellet shipping and handling. Thus, even though the usual binder (bentonite clay) contaminates pellets, pelletizers prefer it to starch or other organics.

This …

Real-Time Diesel Particulate Matter Monitoring In Underground Mine Atmospheres, Association With The Standard Method And Related Challenges, Muhammad Usman Khan

Doctoral Dissertations

"Diesel-powered equipment is a significant component of underground mining operations. Miners' exposure to diesel exhaust is harmful. The standard Diesel Particulate Matter (DPM) monitoring method (NIOSH 5040 method) has limitations that preclude rapid DPM estimation and detailed understanding of DPM variations over time. However, real-time DPM monitors do not inherit these limitations. Biodiesel is often used as a substitute for regular petroleum-diesel because of its ability to emit less DPM. However, accuracy of available real-time DPM monitors has not been determined in mines using 70% to 99% (high-percent) biodiesel. The present research addresses this need by rigorous testing of a …

Pillar Design For St. Peter Sandstone Formation, Francis Anohomah Arthur

Doctoral Dissertations

"Silica sands produced primarily from St. Peter Sandstone are used for hydraulic fracturing in the petroleum industry, glassmaking, chemicals, ceramics, filtration and the foundry industry in the US. The recent high demand for silica sands for hydraulic fracturing has triggered increased production and commissioning of new silica sand mines to support natural gas production from shale and tight gas deposits in the US. Most mines use surface mining methods to extract St. Peter Sandstone. The room and pillar mining method has been successfully used for St. Peter Sandstone mining in a few US locations, however, no one has proposed a …

The Andacollo's Mining Community: Ethnographic Work-Based Approach To Corporate Social Responsibility Policies And Practices, Ubirata De Oliveira

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This ethnographic study was designed to explore the phenomenon of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the mining industry. The research addressed the impacts of a problematic, systemic, and ethnocentric (top-down) CSR approach driven by a transnational mining company, and proposed a novel cultural relativist (bottom-up) CSR approach looking at the social needs of the community. Solving the problem stemming from the ethnocentric approach is important for both the mining company and the community affected by the CSR program, as it will alter dynamics between actors and mitigate social conflicts. The purpose of this study was to investigate factors that improve …

A Novel Method For Sensorless Speed Detection Of Brushed Dc Motors, Ernesto Vazquez-Sanchez, Joseph Sottile, Jaime Gomez-Gil

Mining Engineering Faculty Publications

Many motor applications require accurate speed measurement. For brushed dc motors, speed can be measured with conventional observers or sensorless observers. Sensorless observers have the advantage of not requiring any external devices to be attached to the motor. Instead, voltage and/or current are measured and used to estimate the speed. The sensorless observers are usually divided into two groups: those based on the dynamic model, and those based on the ripple component. This paper proposes a method that measures the current of brushed dc motors and analyses the position of its spectral components. From these spectral components, the method estimates …

Eveleth, Minnesota: A Portrait Of My Home Town, Judith I. Luna

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This 30-minute documentary film provides snapshots of the small northeastern iron mining town of Eveleth, Minnesota, on the Mesabi Iron Range. It uses a two-pronged approach: 1) a first-person return to the town by the filmmaker almost 50 years after graduating from high school to see how the town may have changed, 2) a look at some historical and cultural factors which made the town what it was when the filmmaker was growing up and what continues to animate the town in the face of iron mining’s decline and rebirth. The latter include the immigrant experience and influence as the …

Explosion Testing Of A Polycarbonate Safe Haven Wall, Kyle A. Perry, Rex A. Meyr

Mining Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The MINER Act of 2006 was enacted by MSHA following the major mining accidents and required every underground coal mine to install refuge areas to help prevent future fatalities of trapped miners in the event of a disaster where the miners cannot escape. A polycarbonate safe haven wall for use in underground coal mines as component of a complete system was designed and modeled using finite element modeling in ANSYS Explicit Dynamics to withstand the MSHA required 15 psi (103.4 kPa) blast loading spanning 200 milliseconds. The successful design was constructed at a uniform height in both half-width scale and …

Haul Truck Tires Recycling, Omkar Bhave

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The disposal of large Off-the-Road (OTR) tires is an increasingly important concern. These tires can weigh up to 8,450 pounds with an overall diameter and width of approximately 140.7 inches and 45.1 inches respectively. OTR tires are used for mining vehicles such as haul trucks, wheel loaders, backhoes, graders, and trenchers.[1] These new tires cost between $38,000 and $50,000 each, depending on multiple factors including oil prices and the cyclical nature of the industry. Haul trucks contain six tires per vehicle, and mines replace these tires around every 9-12 months.[2] Statistics regarding discarded OTR tires are not provided by the …

Ignimbrites To Batholiths, Chad Deering

TechTalks

Ignimbrites sample large magma reservoirs in the Earth’s upper crust, sometimes digging deep enough to link the volcanic realm with the plutonic world. Integrating textural, petrological, geochemical, and geochronological information on such deposits with geophysical signals suggest incremental growth and evolution of subvolcanic magma bodies that are dominated by high crystallinity mush zones, but sometimes remain sufficiently liquid to erupt. The eruptible upper portions are either extracted melt from the mush and constitute only a small volumetric fraction of the vertically extensive mushy batholithic magma body. The high-flux, ignimbrite flare-up phases are typically preceded by waxing magmatism that prime the …

Diversity And Impacts Of Mining On The Non-Volant Small Mammal Communities Of Two Vegetation Types In The Brazilian Amazon, Natália Carneiro Ardente, Átilla Colombo Ferreguetti, Donald Gettinger, Pricila Leal, Ana Cristina Mendes-Oliveira, Fernanda Martins-Hatano, Helena Godoy Bergallo

Harold W. Manter Laboratory of Parasitology: Faculty Publications

The CarajaÂs National Forest contains some of the largest iron ore deposits in the world. The majority of the minerals are found below a plant community known as Savana Metalo fila, or ªCangaº, which represents only 3% of the landscape within the CarajaÂs National Forest (CNF). The aim of our study was to understand the diversity of community of non-volant small mammals in the two predominant vegetation types: Ombrophilous Forest and Canga, and to examine how mining impacts these communities. Sampling was conducted from January 2010 to August 2011 in 11 sampling sites divided by the total area of Canga …

Improving Global Detection Of Volcanic Eruptions Using The Ozone Monitoring Instrument (Omi), Verity Flower, Thomas Oommen, Simon Carn

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

Volcanic eruptions pose an ever-present threat to human populations around the globe, but many active volcanoes remain poorly monitored. In regions where ground-based monitoring is present the effects of volcanic eruptions can be moderated through observational alerts to both local populations and service providers, such as air traffic control. However, in regions where volcano monitoring is limited satellite-based remote sensing provides a global data source that can be utilised to provide near-real-time identification of volcanic activity. This paper details a volcanic plume detection method capable of identifying smaller eruptions than is currently feasible, which could potentially be incorporated into automated …

Utilizing Vegetation Indices As A Proxy To Characterize The Stability Of A Railway Embankment In A Permafrost Region, Priscilla Addison, Pasi T. Lautala, Thomas Oommen

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

Degrading permafrost conditions around the world are posing stability issues for infrastructure constructed on them. Railway lines have exceptionally low tolerances for differential settlements associated with permafrost degradation due to the potential for train derailments. Railway owners with tracks in permafrost regions therefore make it a priority to identify potential settlement locations so that proper maintenance or embankment stabilization measures can be applied to ensure smooth and safe operations. The extensive discontinuous permafrost zone along the Hudson Bay Railway (HBR) in Northern Manitoba, Canada, has been experiencing accelerated deterioration, resulting in differential settlements that necessitate continuous annual maintenance to avoid …

Global Ocean Particulate Organic Carbon Flux Merged With Satellite Parameters, Colleen B. Mouw, Audrey Barnett, Galen A. Mckinley, Lucas Gloege, Darren Pilcher

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

Particulate organic carbon (POC) flux estimated from POC concentration observations from sediment traps and 234 Th are compiled across the global ocean. The compilation includes six time series locations: CARIACO, K2, OSP, BATS, OFP, and HOT. Efficiency of the biological pump of carbon to the deep ocean depends largely on biologically mediated export of carbon from the surface ocean and its remineralization with depth; thus biologically related parameters able to be estimated from satellite observations were merged at the POC observation sites. Satellite parameters include net primary production, percent microplankton, sea surface temperature, photosynthetically active radiation, diffuse attenuation coefficient at …