Fundamental investigation of particle-fluid flow in the IsaMill grinding process. The Australian mining and minerals processing industries generated exports of about $56 billion in 2004/5, representing approximately 44 per cent of Australia's total exports. Grinding is a basic operation that liberates valuable minerals from the host rock. However, conventional grinding technologies are very inefficient. The newly developed IsaMill technique greatly improves the power efficiency of the grinding p ....Fundamental investigation of particle-fluid flow in the IsaMill grinding process. The Australian mining and minerals processing industries generated exports of about $56 billion in 2004/5, representing approximately 44 per cent of Australia's total exports. Grinding is a basic operation that liberates valuable minerals from the host rock. However, conventional grinding technologies are very inefficient. The newly developed IsaMill technique greatly improves the power efficiency of the grinding process. This project aims to understand the flow of particles and fluids within IsaMill through combined experimental and numerical studies, leading to improved grinding performance and lower energy consumption. Such work will provide a significant economic benefit not only to Xstrata but also to the Australian mineral processing industry.Read moreRead less
Precision three-dimensional localization system for underground mining vehicles, offering improved productivity and personnel safety. The advanced machine guidance and monitoring technology developed by this project will significantly enhance the partner organisation's capacity as a leading supplier of mining machine control systems. The deployment of such enhanced machine control systems will offer an immediate national benefit to the Australian Mining Industry by dramatically improving produc ....Precision three-dimensional localization system for underground mining vehicles, offering improved productivity and personnel safety. The advanced machine guidance and monitoring technology developed by this project will significantly enhance the partner organisation's capacity as a leading supplier of mining machine control systems. The deployment of such enhanced machine control systems will offer an immediate national benefit to the Australian Mining Industry by dramatically improving productivity and occupational safety. The national interest will also be served by this project's significant contribution to Australia's leadership position as an innovator in frontier technologies for mining and robotics. Furthermore, the research outcomes will help to solve similar positioning problems in hazardous, GPS-denied environments such as urban search and rescue.Read moreRead less
Excavation Design and Sequencing in Highly Stressed Rock Masses. An increasingly large number of Australian underground mines are being operated in highly stressed rock mass conditions, where safe and economic mining is a real challenge due to rock mass instability. In the future, this problem will become more significant as extraction gets deeper with the discoveries of new deeper orebodies or the extension of current operations at depth. The aim of this research project is to provide the Austr ....Excavation Design and Sequencing in Highly Stressed Rock Masses. An increasingly large number of Australian underground mines are being operated in highly stressed rock mass conditions, where safe and economic mining is a real challenge due to rock mass instability. In the future, this problem will become more significant as extraction gets deeper with the discoveries of new deeper orebodies or the extension of current operations at depth. The aim of this research project is to provide the Australian mining industry with effective design tools to engineer the largest, most economical, yet stable excavations in rock. The research project will use a generalised framework for design where rock mass characterisation, excavation design, behaviour and dilution control will be studied in detail.Read moreRead less
Rapid optimisation in underground mining network design. This project represents a major advance in the problem of optimising the infrastructure of underground mines and providing powerful planning tools for management. The software tools we are developing will prove important to the mining industry because of their accuracy, flexibility and generality. Not only can they be used for benchmarking in the design of specific mines, but they also provide a reliable method for testing the cost-benefi ....Rapid optimisation in underground mining network design. This project represents a major advance in the problem of optimising the infrastructure of underground mines and providing powerful planning tools for management. The software tools we are developing will prove important to the mining industry because of their accuracy, flexibility and generality. Not only can they be used for benchmarking in the design of specific mines, but they also provide a reliable method for testing the cost-benefit of emerging technologies. This is an important project for ensuring that Australia's mining industry remains efficient and internationally competitive. Given our economic dependence on mineral resources, it will also benefit Australia as a whole.Read moreRead less
Decision tools for underground mine development. The aim of this project is to develop innovative new strategic tools to assist senior mine management in planning underground mine operations. It will be based on modelling underground mine layouts using the theory of abstract mathematical networks. For many years, there have been well-developed methods of modelling and optimising the operation of open-cut mines. The design of the infrastructure of underground mines has a similar potential for opt ....Decision tools for underground mine development. The aim of this project is to develop innovative new strategic tools to assist senior mine management in planning underground mine operations. It will be based on modelling underground mine layouts using the theory of abstract mathematical networks. For many years, there have been well-developed methods of modelling and optimising the operation of open-cut mines. The design of the infrastructure of underground mines has a similar potential for optimisation and strategic modelling. This design optimisation will lead to huge savings in the costs of underground mines. Similar methods will be used to plan drilling programs, which are major cost items.Read moreRead less
Deep Coal Mining. The occurrence of progressively larger gas outbursts, coal bumps, and the potential for the catastrophic collapse of coal pillars is of increasing importance as mining drives deeper in seams rich in methane and other hydrocarbons. This study will address this issue by examining the roles of stress level, strain-rate, gas desorption rate, and drained and undrained gas and liquid pressures in the dynamic failure of coal, while simultaneously evaluating the promise and fidelity of ....Deep Coal Mining. The occurrence of progressively larger gas outbursts, coal bumps, and the potential for the catastrophic collapse of coal pillars is of increasing importance as mining drives deeper in seams rich in methane and other hydrocarbons. This study will address this issue by examining the roles of stress level, strain-rate, gas desorption rate, and drained and undrained gas and liquid pressures in the dynamic failure of coal, while simultaneously evaluating the promise and fidelity of a variety of hazard indices and precursive signals.Read moreRead less
Multi-scale modelling of particle breakage in grinding process. The minerals industry is the largest exporter in Australia, contributing approximately 40% of Australia's total exports. Grinding is one of basic operations in mineral processing to liberate valuables from the host rock. Grinding process, however, has very low efficiency and may account for 50% of the direct operating cost of a mineral processing plant. This project is to develop a novel, multi-scale model to investigate grinding at ....Multi-scale modelling of particle breakage in grinding process. The minerals industry is the largest exporter in Australia, contributing approximately 40% of Australia's total exports. Grinding is one of basic operations in mineral processing to liberate valuables from the host rock. Grinding process, however, has very low efficiency and may account for 50% of the direct operating cost of a mineral processing plant. This project is to develop a novel, multi-scale model to investigate grinding at both process and individual particle levels and to provide a more accurate prediction of grinding performance. This will result in improved control and design of grinding process with reduced energy consumption and mineral waste, which will be of immense economic and environmental benefit to Australia.Read moreRead less
Mining venture risk: novel econometric methods to integrate joint financial and geological uncertainty into dynamic risk forecasting measures. The mining industry is nationally important: it contributed $33,927M to Australia's GDP in 2002-3. This project's outcomes - sophisticated statistical and econometric tools - will significantly improve capability for forecasting overall risk to mining projects requiring vast upfront, irreversible investments, and contribute to its efficiency and internati ....Mining venture risk: novel econometric methods to integrate joint financial and geological uncertainty into dynamic risk forecasting measures. The mining industry is nationally important: it contributed $33,927M to Australia's GDP in 2002-3. This project's outcomes - sophisticated statistical and econometric tools - will significantly improve capability for forecasting overall risk to mining projects requiring vast upfront, irreversible investments, and contribute to its efficiency and international competitiveness. Innovative methods driven by data from complex financial and geological systems will integrate price volatility risk and orebody uncertainty in a real options framework, providing holistic, rigorous measurement of mining venture risk. Xstrata Queensland Ltd will strongly support and participate in research training of an identified candidate to deliver discoveries to the wider industry.Read moreRead less
Understanding cycles in mineral commodity price, a market model with uncertainty. Mining accounts for more than 8% of Australia's GDP, and almost 50% of Australia's total merchandise exports. Understanding phenomenological mechanisms for price fluctuations and using our dynamic price model can help determine better timing of investments in mining infrastructure. This knowledge will help Australia benefit from the upside of commodity 'cycles', super or not. The market model that will be develope ....Understanding cycles in mineral commodity price, a market model with uncertainty. Mining accounts for more than 8% of Australia's GDP, and almost 50% of Australia's total merchandise exports. Understanding phenomenological mechanisms for price fluctuations and using our dynamic price model can help determine better timing of investments in mining infrastructure. This knowledge will help Australia benefit from the upside of commodity 'cycles', super or not. The market model that will be developed in this project can be used to assist in better planning for commodity cycle upside, improving the overall efficiency of capital utilisation in the long term.Read moreRead less
The Influence of particle shape fragmentation and compaction on 3D hopper flow. According to world-leading material scientist Patrick Richard, "Granular materials are ubiquitous in nature and are the second-most manipulated material in industry (the first one is water)". Our research will produce massive three dimensional computer simulations predicting and analysing the influence of particle size and shape on the morphology of industrial and natural granular flows. The results will have directl ....The Influence of particle shape fragmentation and compaction on 3D hopper flow. According to world-leading material scientist Patrick Richard, "Granular materials are ubiquitous in nature and are the second-most manipulated material in industry (the first one is water)". Our research will produce massive three dimensional computer simulations predicting and analysing the influence of particle size and shape on the morphology of industrial and natural granular flows. The results will have directly and immediately relevant applications in a range of Australian industries, including mass mining and minerals processing and will further make a major contribution to understanding and modelling a variety of geo-hazards.
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