Mining Engineering Commons^™

Monitoring The Impact Of Groundwater Pumping On Infrastructure Using Geographic Information System (Gis) And Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (Psi), Kirsten Deprekel, El Hachemi Bouali, Thomas Oommen

Department of Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences Publications

Transportation infrastructure is critical for the advancement of society. Bridges are vital for an efficient transportation network. Bridges across the world undergo variable deformation/displacement due to the Earth’s dynamic processes. This displacement is caused by ground motion, which occurs from many natural and anthropogenic events. Events causing deformation include temperature fluctuation, subsidence, landslides, earthquakes, water/sea level variation, subsurface resource extraction, etc. Continual deformation may cause bridge failure, putting civilians at risk, if not managed properly. Monitoring bridge displacement, large and small, provides evidence of the state and health of the bridge. Traditionally, bridge monitoring has been executed through on-site surveys. …

Evaluation Of The 20 L Dust Explosibility Testing Chamber And Comparison To A Modified 38 L Vessel For Underground Coal, Robert Quentin Eades, Kyle A. Perry, Catherine E. Johnson, Jacob Miller

Mining Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The phenomenon of combustible dust explosions is present within many industries. Tests for explosibility of dust clouds per ASTM E1226 use a 20 L explosive chamber that places the combustible dust directly below the dispersion nozzle which generates a thorough mixture for testing purposes. However, in the underground coal mining industry, there are a number of geologic, mining, and regulatory factors that change the deposition scheme of combustible coal dust. This causes the atmosphere of a coal mine to have a variable rock dust-coal dust mixture at the time of ignition. To investigate the impact of this variable atmosphere, a …

Climbing The Crustal Ladder: Magma Storage-Depth Evolution During A Volcanic Flare-Up, Guilherme A. R. Gualda, Darren M. Gravley, Michelle Connor, Brooke Hollmann, Ayla S. Pamukcu, Florence Begue, Mark S. Ghiorso, Chad Deering

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

Very large eruptions (>50 km³) and supereruptions (>450 km³) reveal Earth’s capacity to produce and store enormous quantities (>1000 km³) of crystal-poor, eruptible magma in the shallow crust. We explore the interplay between crustal evolution and volcanism during a volcanic flare-up in the Taupo Volcanic Zone (TVZ, New Zealand) using a combination of quartz-feldspar-melt equilibration pressures and time scales of quartz crystallization. Over the course of the flare-up, crystallization depths became progressively shallower, showing the gradual conditioning of the crust. Yet, quartz crystallization times were invariably very short (<100 years), demonstrating that very large reservoirs of eruptible magma were transient crustal features. We conclude that the dynamic nature of the TVZ crust favored magma eruption over storage. Episodic tapping of eruptible magmas likely prevented a supereruption. Instead, multiple very large bodies of eruptible magma were assembled and erupted in decadal time scales.

An Evaluation Of The Deployment Of A Distributed Strain And Temperature (Dst) Fiber Optic Sensing System In An Underground Facility, Calvin Kammerer

Graduate Theses & Non-Theses

In an effort to further mine safety and utilize the recent advances in fiber optic sensors’ distributed sensing capabilities, a research project at Montana Tech has deployed fiber optic sensors in an underground environment. The method of Brillouin scattering that has documented success in a mining environment will be used because it shows the greatest potential for detecting both temperature and strain in the deployed environment, as well as the ability to differentiate between the two. The primary objective of the Montana Tech research is to create a scenario where the distributed sensing technology can be evaluated for its sensing …

Rare Earth Elements Removal Techniques From Water/Wastewater: A Review, Omoniyi Pereao, Chris Bode-Aluko, Olanrewaju Fatoba, Katri Laatikainen, Leslie Petrik

Mining Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The rare-earth elements (REEs) remain very important due to the growing increase in their demand and for their critical and indispensable use in many high-tech industries today. This growing demand for REEs has led to an increased environmental exposure and water pollution from numerous REEs commercial products and as a result, the recovery of REEs is a significant issue that requires appropriate consideration. There are diverse and various strategic techniques available to remove metal ions from aqueous solutions, but nanofiber adsorbent appears to be quite innovative due to their outstanding characteristics such as cost effectiveness, flexibility, high surface area, porosity, …

Explosive Dust Test Vessel Comparison Using Pulverized Pittsburgh Coal, Jacob Miller, Jay Schafler, Phillip R. Mulligan, Robert Eades, Kyle A. Perry, Catherine E. Johnson

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Explosions of coal dust are a major safety concern within the coal mining industry. The explosion and subsequent fires caused by coal dust can result in significant property damage, loss of life in underground coal mines and damage to coal processing facilities. The United States Bureau of Mines conducted research on coal dust explosions until 1996 when it was dissolved. In the following years, the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) developed a test standard, ASTM E1226, to provide a standard test method characterizing the “explosibility” of particulate solids of combustible materials suspended in air. The research presented herein …

Landsliding Near Enguri Dam (Caucasus, Georgia) And Possible Seismoectonic Effects, Alessandro Tibaldi, Paolo Oppizzi, John S. Gierke, Thomas Oommen, Nino Tsereteli, Davit Odilavadze

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

The Enguri dam and water reservoir, nested in southwestern Caucasus (Republic of Georgia), are surrounded by steep mountain slopes. At a distance of 2.5 km from the dam, a mountain ridge along the reservoir is affected by active deformations with a double vergence. The western slope, directly facing the reservoir, has deformations that involve a subaerial area of 1.2 km2. The head scarp interests the main Jvari-Khaishi-Mestia road with offset of man-made features that indicate slip rates of 2-9 cm/y. Static, pseudostatic and Newmark numerical analyses, based on field and seismological data, suggest different unstable rock volumes basing on the …

Additive Manufacturing Of Liners For Shaped Charges, Jason Ho, Cody Lough, Phillip R. Mulligan, Edward C. Kinzel, Catherine E. Johnson

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A Shaped Charge (SC) is an explosive device used to focus a detonation in a desired direction, and has applications in oil extraction, weaponry and demolition. The focusing relies on a void in the explosive mass, shaped by a metal liner that becomes a super-heated projectile during detonation. Additive Manufacturing (AM) allows greater design freedom and geometric complexity for the liner portion of the SC. Specifically, hierarchical structuring and functional grading can potentially provide greater velocity, directionality, and efficiency. In this work, Selective Laser Melting (SLM) is used to explore different geometries for an SC liner made out of SS …

Slalom: An All-Surface Snow Water Path Retrieval Algorithm For The Gpm Microwave Imager, Jean-François Rysman, Giulia Panegrossi, Paolo Sanò, Anna Cinzia Marra, Stefano Dietrich, Lisa Milani, Mark S. Kulie

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

This paper describes a new algorithm that is able to detect snowfall and retrieve the associated snow water path (SWP), for any surface type, using the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Microwave Imager (GMI). The algorithm is tuned and evaluated against coincident observations of the Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR) onboard CloudSat. It is composed of three modules for (i) snowfall detection, (ii) supercooled droplet detection and (iii) SWP retrieval. This algorithm takes into account environmental conditions to retrieve SWP and does not rely on any surface classification scheme. The snowfall detection module is able to detect 83% of snowfall events including …

Nanometer Ultrastructural Brain Damage Following Low Intensity Primary Blast Wave Exposure, Hailong Song, Landry M. Konan, Jiankun Cui, Catherine E. Johnson, Graham K. Hubler, Ralph G. Depalma, Zezong Gu

Mining Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Blast-induced mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is of particular concern among military personnel due to exposure to blast energy during military training and combat. The impact of primary low-intensity blast mediated pathophysiology upon later neurobehavioral disorders has been controversial. Developing a military preclinical blast model to simulate the pathophysiology of human blast injury is an important first step. This article provides an overview of primary blast effects and perspectives of our recent studies demonstrating ultrastructural changes in the brain and behavioral disorders resulting from open-field blast exposures up to 46.6 kPa using a murine model. The model is scalable and …

Process Mineralogy Of Iranian High Sulfur Iron Ore, Tonglin Zhao, Xiaoli Wang, Hongle Ai, Ahmed Sobhy

Mining Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Processing of Iranian high sulfur iron ore is problematic in minerals industry. The iron ores were studied by the means of polarizing microscopy, chemical analysis, X-ray diffraction. The study shows that the iron ores have high grade of iron, and complex structures. XRD showed that the iron ore consists of metallic minerals such as magnetite with a small amount of hematite and limonite and non-metallic minerals as serpentine, chlorite, and talc. The average particle size of magnetite crystals is 0.182 mm. The ore contains 1.62% sulfur as harmful impurity in form of pyrite mineral. Due to the isomorphism of magnesium …

Detonation Synthesis Of Alpha-Variant Silicon Carbide, Martin Langenderfer, Catherine E. Johnson, William Fahrenholtz, Vadym Mochalin

Mining Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A recent research study has been undertaken to develop facilities for conducting detonation synthesis of nanomaterials. This process involves a familiar technique that has been utilized for the industrial synthesis of nanodiamonds. Developments through this study have allowed for experimentation with the concept of modifying explosive compositions to induce synthesis of new nanomaterials. Initial experimentation has been conducted with the end goal being synthesis of alpha variant silicon carbide (α-SiC) in the nano-scale. The α-SiC that can be produced through detonation synthesis methods is critical to the ceramics industry because of a number of unique properties of the material. Conventional …

Enhancing Manual P-Phase Arrival Detection And Automatic Onset Time Picking In A Noisy Microseismic Data In Underground Mines, Charles Mborah, Maochen Ge

Mining Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Accurate detection and picking of the P-phase onset time in noisy micro seismic data from underground mines remains a big challenge. Reliable P-phase onset time picking is necessary for accurate source location needed for planning and rescue operations in the event of failures. In this paper, a new technique based on the discrete stationary wavelet transform (DSWT) and higher order statistics is proposed for processing noisy data from underground mines. The objectives of this method are to (i) improve manual detection and picking of P-phase onset; and (ii) provide an automatic means of detecting and picking P-phase onset time accurately. …

Holmium And Samarium Detectability In Post-Blast Residue, James Seman, Catherine E. Johnson, Carlos Henry Castano Giraldo

Mining Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The creation of an identification taggant that survives detonation and can easily be recovered would prove invaluable in situations such as a terrorist attack where the explosives have been detonated and need to be traced by law enforcement. This paper shows that traces of two elements, samarium (Sm) and holmium (Ho), can be identified from explosive post-blast residue. This is the first step to creating a viable taggant system that survives detonation. The two elements were introduced to the explosive before detonation, and the post-blast residue was analyzed by neutron activation analysis (NAA). These data indicate the presence of these …

Sensitivity Of Atmospheric Aerosol Scavenging To Precipitation Intensity And Frequency In The Context Of Global Climate Change, Pei Hou, Shiliang Wu, Jessica L. Mccarty, Yang Gao

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

Wet deposition driven by precipitation is an important sink for atmospheric aerosols and soluble gases. We investigate the sensitivity of atmospheric aerosol lifetimes to precipitation intensity and frequency in the context of global climate change. Our sensitivity model simulations, through some simplified perturbations to precipitation in the GEOS-Chem model, show that the removal efficiency and hence the atmospheric lifetime of aerosols have significantly higher sensitivities to precipitation frequencies than to precipitation intensities, indicating that the same amount of precipitation may lead to different removal efficiencies of atmospheric aerosols. Combining the long-term trends of precipitation patterns for various regions with the …

Multi-Auv Cooperative Target Hunting Based On Improved Potential Field In A Surface-Water Environment, Hengqing Ge, Guibin Chen, Guang Xu

Mining Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this paper, target hunting aims to detect target and surround the detected target in a surface-water using Multiple Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (multi-AUV) in a given area. The main challenge in multi-AUV target hunting is the design of AUV's motion path and coordination mechanism. To conduct the cooperative target hunting by multi-AUV in a surface-water environment, an integrated algorithm based on improved potential field (IPF) is proposed. First, a potential field function is established according to the information of the surface-water environment. Then, the dispersion degree, the homodromous degree, and district-difference degree are introduced to increase the cooperation of the …

The Status Of The Local Community In Mining Sustainable Development Beyond The Triple Bottom Line, Sisi Que, Liang Wang, Kwame Awuah-Offei, Yao Chen, Wei Yang

Mining Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Mineral products provide essential fuels and raw materials for industrialization and our daily life, but their influences on other aspects of life need to be taken into consideration. While the whole world benefits from mining's contributions, most of the resulting detrimental impacts on the environment and society fall on the local communities. The participation of the local community is one solution to decrease the risks from community-related problems. Subsequently, the requirements of mining sustainable development can be met. A literature review was conducted on mining sustainability and stakeholder participation, and the shortcomings of existing research and difficulties of further study …

Entity Summarization Of Reviews And Micro-Reviews, Thanh Son Nguyen

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Along with the regular review content, there is a new type of user-generated content arising from the prevalence of mobile devices and social media, that is micro-review. Micro-reviews are bite-size reviews (usually under 200 char- acters), commonly posted on social media or check-in services, using a mobile device. They capture the immediate reaction of users, and they are rich in information, concise, and to the point. Both reviews and micro-reviews are useful for users to get to know the entity of interest, thus facilitating users in making their decision of purchasing or dining. However, the abundant number of both reviews …

The Ozone Monitoring Instrument: Overview Of 14 Years In Space, Pieternel F. Levelt, Joanna Joiner, Johanna Tamminen, J. Pepijn Veefkind, Pawan K. Bhartia, Simon Carn, Et. Al.

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

This overview paper highlights the successes of the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on board the Aura satellite spanning a period of nearly 14 years. Data from OMI has been used in a wide range of applications and research resulting in many new findings. Due to its unprecedented spatial resolution, in combination with daily global coverage, OMI plays a unique role in measuring trace gases important for the ozone layer, air quality, and climate change. With the operational very fast delivery (VFD; direct readout) and near real-time (NRT) availability of the data, OMI also plays an important role in the development …

Hawai'i Wildlife Fund V. County Of Maui, Lowell J. Chandler

Public Land & Resources Law Review

In Hawai’i Wildlife Fund v. County of Maui, the Ninth Circuit held that the plain language of the Clean Water Act provides jurisdiction over indirect discharges of pollutants from a point source into groundwater that is shown to be connected to navigable waters. The court found that studies confirmed pollutants entering the Pacific Ocean were fairly traceable to the County of Maui’s sewage disposal wells. In affirming the district court’s ruling, the Ninth Circuit held that Maui County violated the Clean Water Act by discharging pollutants into a navigable water without the required permit. The court also concluded the …

Optimization Of Drilling And Blasting Practices At A Western Us Open Pit Copper Mine, Joel Gadikor

Graduate Theses & Non-Theses

The mining process begins with drilling and blasting activities. The efficiency of blasting affects all downstream operations such as loading, hauling, crushing and milling. Therefore drilling and blasting activities should be designed to ensure that designed parameters produce the desired fragmentation. The Kuz-Ram model is a fragmentation prediction model and is widely used for predicting the fragmentation distribution from blasting in the mining industry. This research evaluates the performance of the Kuz-Ram and Modified Kuz-Ram models to determine the most accurate models applicable to a Western US open pit copper mine’s fragmentation data. The performance assessment was done using the …

Evaluating Open Pit Highwall Dig Compliance, Judith Buaba

Graduate Theses & Non-Theses

The mine planning process comprises three major stages: collection of relevant data, application of design methods and measurement of performance. Relevant information about the geology, structure, rock mass and hydrogeology are collected to create a geotechnical model. This information, collected by the geotechnical engineer, is used to design the pit slopes which are incorporated into the pit design by the mine planner based on mining regulations, safety and economics. Drilling, blasting, excavation and dewatering activities mainly constitute the implementation stage of the mine design. Mining to achieve design has proven to be difficult practically. Factors such as geology, blasting and …

Study On The Effect Of Iron-Based Deoxidizing Inhibitors For Coal Spontaneous Combustion Prevention, Chaoyu Hao, Yanling Chen, Jiren Wang, Cunbao Deng, Guang Xu, Fengwei Dai, Rui Si, Hongfei Wang, Haoyu Wang

Mining Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

To improve the prevention of spontaneous coal combustion, reduced iron powder and other ingredients should be added together to form an iron-based deoxidizing inhibitor, with the dual effect of oxygen consumption and inhibition. The oxygen consumption rate of the inhibitor was studied through experiments. According to the theory of coordination resistance, the coordination resistance of Fe³⁺ was studied via the density functional method. Subsequently, a comparative experiment of the effects on spontaneous coal combustion was conducted. The research shows that several kinds of common resistance agents that are added to the reduced iron powder can consume oxygen. However, the …

Review Of The Methods For Determination Of Reactive Oxygen Species And Suggestion For Their Application In Advanced Oxidation Induced By Dielectric Barrier Discharges, Emile S. Massima Mouele, Olanrewaju Ojo Fatoba, Omotola Babajide, Kassim O. Badmus, Leslie F. Petrik

Mining Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) particularly non-thermal plasmas based on electrical discharges have been widely investigated for water and wastewater treatment. Dielectric barrier discharges (DBDs) generate large amounts of selective and non-selective reactive oxygen species (ROS) such as ozone, hydrogen peroxide, atomic oxygen, superoxide molecular anions and hydroxyl radicals, having been proved to be efficient for water decontamination among various forms of electrical discharge systems. The detection and quantification methods of these oxygen species in non-thermal plasmas have been reviewed. However, their application in dielectric barrier discharge has not been well studied. It is therefore imperative to summarize the various detection …

Implementing An Ore Reconciliation System Supported By Statistical Process Control, Bryan Nielson

Graduate Theses & Non-Theses

There are several stages within mine planning that utilize different block models to help predict future values. Ore reconciliation manages the variance observed between the forecasted values from these block models and actual production data. This paper primarily focuses on an ore reconciliation system that was developed for an open pit copper operation located in the Western United States. A monthly reconciliation approach has been setup in a stepwise format along the mine value chain. Mine call factors are calculated each month for each step within the operation’s mining process to measure the variance between predicted values and production data. …

The Effects Of Underground Blasting On Nearby Pre-Existing Structures, Logan Connolly

Graduate Theses & Non-Theses

Butte, Montana holds a prestigious place in the history of mining, deemed “The Richest Hill on Earth,” containing a plethora of underground mines. The Orphan Boy/Orphan Girl underground mines, on the western side of Butte, operated from 1895-1956 producing zinc, lead, silver, and manganese. Today, the Orphan Boy mine is part of Montana Tech’s Underground Mine Education Center (UMEC) and the Orphan Girl mine houses the World Museum of Mining. Underground development in the Orphan Boy mine continues to progress as students from Montana Tech receive hands-on underground training; in addition, the UMEC is a multi-disciplinary research facility. Repeated underground …

Developing Trees Tolerant To Degraded Mine Soils In An Underground Greenhouse, Cosmas Opoku-Ware

Graduate Theses & Non-Theses

This project explored the potential for developing trees tolerable to degraded un-reclaimed mine site soils and tailings as a solution to re-establishing long-term tree growth on those sites. The project incorporates growing tree seedlings in an underground greenhouse grown from seeds planted in the degraded mine soils in which they will eventually be planted. The outcome of the project is expected to lead to a successful solution for re-establishing tree growth in soils and tailings containing high metal concentrations with minimal post-planting human intervention at a relatively low cost.

The research is being conducted in an underground greenhouse located 100 …

Modeling And Validation Of Local Electrowinning Electrode Current Density Using Two Phase Flow And Nernst-Planck Equations, Joshua M. Werner, W. Zeng, M. L. Free, Z. Zhang, J. Cho

Mining Engineering Faculty Publications

In this work we demonstrate the validity of a multi-physics model using COMSOL to predict the local current density distribution at the cathode of a copper electrowinning test cell. Important developments utilizing Euler-Euler bubbly flow with coupled Nernst-Planck transport equations allow additional insights into deposit characteristics and topographies.

Complete Stress-Induced Depolarization Of Relaxor Ferroelectric Crystals Without Transition Through A Non-Polar Phase, Sergey I. Shkuratov, Jason Baird, Vladimir G. Antipov, Wesley Hackenberger, Jun Luo, Shujun Zhang, Christopher S. Lynch, Jay B. Chase, Hwan R. Jo, Christopher C. Roberts

Mining Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The development of relaxer ferroelectric single crystal technology is driven by the ability to tailor ferroelectric properties through domain engineering not achievable in polycrystalline materials. In this study, three types of domain-engineered rhombohedral Pb (In_1/2Nb_1/2) O₃-Pb (Mg_1/3Nb_2/3) O₃-PbTiO₃ crystals were subjected to transverse high strain rate loading. The experimental results indicate that the domain configuration has a significant effect on the stress-induced depolarization and the associated charge released. A complete depolarization of the single-domain crystals with 3m symmetry is observed, while multidomain crystals with 4mm and mm2 …

A New Hybrid Decision Support Tool For Evaluating The Sustainability Of Mining Projects, S. Kamenopoulos, Zacharias Agioutantis, K. Komnitsas

Mining Engineering Faculty Publications

The integration of sustainable development challenges and opportunities into the decision making process during the design and/or implementation of multi-disciplinary mining projects is generally not supported by decision support systems (DSS). A new hybrid decision support tool, which features an integrated assessment of sustainable development issues as they apply to mining projects, is hereby proposed. The proposed DSS framework, named “Acropolis DSS”, can be used to assist involved stakeholders in critical decisions, especially when addressing issues such as stakeholder participation, transparency, and trade-offs. The proposed DSS is based on a multi-criteria decision analysis combined with the multi-attribute utility theory.