Welcome to MTD Autumn newsletter 2019. There have been so many events and issues since our last newsletter, including the challenges of leaving the European Union! Events include the Global Minerals Professional Alliance meeting in Peru, the James Watt bicentenary, the Tailings Management – What is best practice? event, the Global Grand Challenges Summit 2019 and the Sustainability Development Group meeting.

Also the IOM3 is continuing with the review of the structure of the Institute, with the appointment of Strategic Advisors and a review of its role as a Professional Organisation (particularly for those estimating Mineral Resources or converting Mineral Resources to Ore Reserves, in accordance with the CRIRSCO template guidelines).

The MTD website is our way of communicating future events, contact details for those who can offer wise and sage advice, contact details for local societies with a

“mining” focus and is a platform to share experiences,photographs, issues and the like. Also the newsletters are all published on the website. While there are certain constraints imposed by the IOM3 in terms of design and content, we would welcome your feedback, comments, and suggestions to make this more “user friendly” and “relevant”. Type in “IOM3/MTD” into the search engine, and then click on “Mining Technology Division | IOM3.”

MTD would be interested in your comments on the newsletter contents and please do contribute to the sustainability debate. MTD members have lots of plans to make this a hot topic.

Christine BlackmoreIOM3 MTD Chairman

Mining Technology DivisionAutumn Newsletter 2019

IN THIS ISSUE......• Mining and Aviation • Selective Mining• MTD Website• Micro Management• Heritage Rail and Steam• Extract from the Queen’s speech• The Third Annual Russian-UK Raw Materials Dialogue

The Mining Technology Division is a technical community within the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3), Registered Charity Number 269275, based at 297 Euston Road, London NW1 3AD Tel: 020 7451 7300 www.iom3.org

STOP PRESSCONFERENCES ONES TO WATCH

Message from the MTD Board Chairman

Annual Victor Phillips Memorial Lecture Cornish Institute of Engineers 15th November 2019 | Penryn

Shaft Design and Construction 2019 MTD 18th - 20th November 2019 | Toronto

ABMEC (Association of British Mining Equipment Companies) Annual Conference

IOM3 21st November | Nottingham

Mines and Money 2019 Business Design Centre 25th - 27th November 2019 | London

European Mining Convention 2019

The Conventions Centre 3rd - 4th December 2019 | Dublin

Mining For and With the Electric Vehicle MTD and ABMEC 29th - 30th January 2020

A Short Comparison between Mining and Aviation – a Personal View – Part 1I joined the staff of the Department of Mining and Mineral Engineering in the University of Leeds in 1999 having no notion that in a few years I’d be teaching aviation instead of mining. Lack of students and retiring staff soon saw only the Camborne School of Mines in the UK as the last man standing for the provision of undergraduate courses in mining. All my teaching now is aviation related and I’m often asked how I’ve managed to transition myself from being 3000ft below ground to 3000ft above it and whether there are any similarities between mining and aviation. Having thought about it there are quite a few (plus some differences), so read on. Aviation at Leeds is unusual in that the course is science and engineering dominated unlike at other universities that offer aviation transport management type courses. The students study the same level of maths, fluid mechanics, thermodynamics and heat transfer that the mining students did. There is great similarity between mining and aviation students. Students studying mining don’t just decide to do it or pick a course at random, they have a genuine interest in what mining, mineral and quarry engineering has to offer and the majority embark on careers in the mining industry. It’s the same with aviation students, they have a passion for all things flying, most get their Private Pilots Licence and after their degree train to be commercial pilots. The ones that don’t are those that cannot pass the strict medical requirements for pilots and take up airline or airport related roles.

Attending university isn’t necessary to become a commercial pilot as being a pilot isn’t regarded as a graduate job. In a way they are more akin to a (very complicated) bus driver. Some pilots miss out university and go straight into flight school which makes accreditation of the role of a pilot by an engineering institution nigh on impossible. They cannot meet the Engineering Council academic requirements by the normal route to be an Incorporated or Chartered Engineer

It’s doubtful a pilot could successfully use a technical report route unless they had an additional engineering role. This is actually becoming more common as major airlines are encouraging pilots to take on additional roles and reduce their flying hours. Some say this is to reduce fatigue as pilots are only allowed to fly for 900 hours per year and long haul pilots especially may suffer from tiredness. The majority of younger pilots chose to go to university before undertaking commercial training and currently there are no EC accredited aviation degrees in the UK. There are several accredited aeronautical and aerospace degrees some of which are accredited by the IOM3 but the majority are accredited by the Royal Aeronautical Society or the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. The University of Leeds course currently offers a BSc qualification but from 2020 it will be a BEng and accreditation will be sought from the IOM3 in due course.

The International Civil Aviation Organisation International Standard Atmosphere

Though flying is one of the safest forms of transport, unfortunately approximately 70% of aviation disasters are caused by pilot error so it’s worth discussing what causes the other 30% and direct comparisons can be made with mining. The mining industry often operates in harsh climates, remote areas and reliability of equipment is vital. It uses Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM), Weibull (and other) analysis of equipment data, Root Cause Analysis (RCA) and Condition Based Monitoring (CBM) to ensure that equipment is properly maintained, so it doesn’t fail unexpectedly. This is simplistic though as any of these techniques are only as good as the data and most staff have a poor knowledge of how RCM especially can be used. Aviation excels in all these areas and aviation students study these topics in detail.

Read the full article at IOM3/MTD website.

Dr Darron Dixon-Hardy CEng MRAeS FIMMM

Board Member

How To Mine Thin Veins By Selective Mining – Part 1It was commonly believed that mining thin veins was uneconomic on account of excessive dilution and the cost. A method of selective mining is gaining acceptance and is successfully used by many companies. The author has returned a number of operations to profitability by the adoption of selective mining.

The method involves careful mining of ore by cleaning off the waste and then mining the ore by excavator. While the machine is in ore it is assigned to the control of the geology department. Beforehand, the ore is defined by RC drilling and face mapping that results in a grade control model that allows for irregular ore-waste boundaries.

Blast-hole sampling and Bill of Quantity mining contracts are unsuited to selective mining; and if a contractor is used, then it tends to be done under expensive ‘charge-out’ rates. An owner-operator fleet is the best option, which is one reason why it is being adopted by many mining companies.

Not all the waste can be removed by selective mining, and disruptive technology is around the corner and will increasingly start to replace selective mining practices within the next decade or so.

It is generally understood that mining thin ore veins produces excessive ore dilution and is uneconomic. Many mines have been unable to mine veins effectively because of poor mining methods: one gold mine in Mexico was ‘strip mining’ a bench by taking a 4 to 5 metre cut along the face, sending waste as well as ore to the plant. The veins at around 4 grams/tonne (g/t) were reporting a head grade of 0.4 g/t.

Strip miningThis is an extreme example of at least 150% dilution, and although dilution is more normally 20 to 40%, it can be reduced to around 5% by good mining practice.

Each gram equivalent of gold saved by reducing dilution can raise as much as 0.4M USD on 8,000 tonnes/day throughputAnoush Ebrahimi 1 of SRK states that a combination of orebody physical parameters, grade distribution, mining conditions and operational issues are the causes of dilution.

I would add that dilution is more specifically related to the following:1. Geology of the ore body2. Mining methodology3. Types of contractor mining4. Inappropriate grade control

Geology of the ore body

Ebrahimi refers to internal dilution, pockets of waste or low grade within a deposit that cannot be separated out by mining or grade control. Each pocket can vary considerably and could be extensive in some forms of ‘stockworks’, those with sets of small veins interspersed by waste, that would be impossible for the excavator bucket to mine out, or too costly for grade control to differentiate each vein. In these cases, technology has come to the rescue in the form of ore sorters, which are discussed later.

External dilution or contact dilution refers to the waste outside of the orebody that can potentially be extracted by excavator, backhoe or dozer. However, it is impossible to separate all waste and ore, especially if there is throw after blasting, and a small amount of waste will be loaded as ore. In my view the best that can be achieved is 5% dilution.

In the next newsletter we shall address the mining methodology, the types of contractor mining and appropriate methods of grade control. In subsequent newsletters we will explore some solutions to selective mining.

A conventional form of grade control is by sampling blast holes, which can result in massive dilution. Example: we use a standard square pattern of 4.5 metres both burden and spacing. The five-metre high bench is mined in two flitches, and the composite sample is 2.5 metres. Each mining block is then 4.5 x 4.5 x 2.5 metres. The bench below is drilled and sampled as in Fig. 3. The boundaries of each block are shown, and the grade of each determined by the composite sample. The holes are marked A to D.

Grade control sampling of blast holes • Hole A is a waste hole so mining blocks 1 and 5 report as waste. • Hole B is in ore for the top flitch and waste for the lower flitch. Block 2 reports as high grade while 6 reports as waste, despite the presence of the vein. • Hole C reports as waste for block 3 and low grade for block 7.• Hole D misses the vein in the top flitch and cuts the vein entirely in the lower flitch.The consequences are:1. Around half of the ore is consigned to the waste dump2. The ore sent to the plant will have a mining grade far higher than the plant head grade and will not reconcile.

Read the full article at IOM3/MTD website.

El Piratto1 The Importance of Dilution Factor for Open Pit Mining

Projects; Anoush Ebrahimi, SRK Consulting; 2013

MTD Website

As an ageing administrator of the Mining Technology Division (MTD) website, the language of the “specialists” is somewhat confusing. I administer a “microsite”. The microsite has “banners”, “homepages” (or a single homepage?), “meta tags”, “security patches”, “back end” pages etc. The IOM3 website homepage has, on the left of the page (in the ribbon, task bar, or whatever) “OUR COMMUNITIES”, which on pointing with the mouse, turns into “SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS”, “LOCAL COMMUNITIES” and “MEMBER COMMUNITIES”. As I wrote earlier, in my day the mining community lived in a village, central to which was the mine club or “Welfare”. Where are the mining related pages? I have now completely lost interest, particularly if you are “of an era” of free love, heavy metal, punk rock, and beer at 50p a pint!

But do not despair. Google, bless their creators and current employees, have made this easy for us. Type in IOM3/MTD, and, as if by magic, the following appears (from 3,060 results in 0.31 seconds):

Clicking on the link takes you to where you want to be, and where we want you to be too! This is the MTD home page, hopefully a summary of useful things, in an appropriate format, for you, the mining professionals. The style and content format is governed by the IOM3, and so the website is developed along those guidelines.

The main area on the page informs you what is the MTD and what we do, and there is a mining related photograph. Anyone who has a good photograph that they think would be suitable, please send them along.

The ‘READ NEWSLETTER’ gives you access , not only to the latest one, but all the previous newsletters, if you missed something!

The “stuff” below this, “NEWS”, EVENTS” and “FEATURES” are links to the main IOM3 website, but the mining related stuff is linked through the red text in the “banners”, the grey panels or boxes on the right hand side of the page.

“BREAKING NEWS” is for interesting articles or events that we want you, the website users, to access easily. Again, if you have any article, or other issue that you think might benefit the wider mining community, and you cannot wait to get it out there then please send us the article, and if deemed appropriate, we will put it in this banner.

“DIGGING DEEP” contains links (red text) to other useful places on the MTD website, without having to trawl through the bar (menu bar? ribbon?) at the top of the web page. If you have any links you think should be included, please send them to us and, if we deem them appropriate, they will be included.

“MINING MATTERS” contains links to mining related conferences, seminars, meetings, symposia etc. If you are organising an event, mining and IOM3 related, please let us know, and we will include if we think it is appropriate.

If you want to contact any of the active “MTD Board” members, the LOCAL ACTIVITIES, BOARD and CONTACTS pages (accessed from the menu bar/ribbon(?)) have names, companies, and in many cases e-mail or contact telephone numbers. Where this information is missing, contact any one of the other Local Society contacts, Board members or contacts, who will be happy to help. These members can also assist with queries relating to membership of the IOM3, qualifications, Continuous Professional Development, etc.

Remember, the MTD “microsite” is the “mining professionals” space on the IOM3 website. Make use of it and contribute to it. MTD wants you to get involved with it and help improve it. It aims to be what you want , not what we think you should have! Also don’t forget that you can have greater access to the IOM3 website, and the other microsites if you Log In (top right hand side of the page).

We look forward to your visits to our domain, and hopefully your inputs to improve it!

Andy BirtlesBoard Member

Is mining the home of micromanagers? Most of us in mining have met the dreaded micromanager and understand how working for them can be thoroughly demoralising and unproductive. The classic micromanager cannot easily delegate as he thinks he can do the job far better than you can; or if he leaves you to it, must check and even re-write your work. He has to be present at every meeting, cc’d on every email, and makes all the decisions down to the brand of office coffee. The control freak is the bottle-neck, his computer has hundreds of unsigned invoices and cost approvals, even the one you submitted two months ago for the rebar for the slab that needs pouring next week. You would have signed it yourself as you know exactly what you need, but your spending limit is less than 500 dollars. The micromanager wants to keep close control of the finances to please his boss by approving everything himself.

The most deeply frustrating experience is when the micromanager is an operations manager in charge of a project, so that all project spending and decision-making has to go through him. A project spend is determined by cost, scope and time constraints, and if the material conforms to scope, is on time and on budget, the project manager won’t hesitate to approve purchase. In fact, any delay will be undesirable. On the other hand the operations micromanager may likely hesitate: we’ve always bought A in the past so why buy B now, why the change, can we get it more cheaply, why does it need all those bells and whistles, and so on, in other words trying to optimise the spending decision as he would in operations.

The operations manager queries the material to the project staff; they may get the final approval too late; or the micromanager has changed the specification.

The project staff see an unwelcome scope change which has knock-on effects down the project. It may contribute to project failure in terms of overspend and over time, all too frequent in mining projects, and a part of the reason why mining does not understand projects.

But the effect on mining operations is also detrimental, and it seems to emerge from insecurity. All too often in mining a technician does well at her job, and is promoted to be the head of department, and then recruits her successor. She has little management training, but is now responsible for a significant portion of the mine’s operations, so failure is not an option. She is better technically than her previous co-workers, so finds it hard to delegate, preferring to re-write others’ work. She now finds herself on the slippery slope to be a classic micromanager.

Her boss is something of a micromanager. Sometimes he drops down into her comfort zone and starts doing some of her work, especially on decisions he likes making. Her response is to drill down on her own staff; their response in turn is morale destruction, increasing sick leave and eventually resignations.

How to cope with a micromanager? The literature suggests you build empathy and trust, understand them, make friends with them, and so on. But unless you have the patience of St Jerome or St Francis, building that sort of relationship is impossible with your micromanaging boss who usually does not encourage close personal relations. I tend to flood his email box with requesting permission to do this, spend that, and if needs be, write detailed justifications for each. I am amazed how many micromanagers actually read my gumpf. But the inevitable end is to join the exodus from that employer.

On one occasion I was VP on a Latin American mine. The General Manager had to approve every single invoice himself. The big complaint from the Finance, Process and Mine Managers was that approvals never got through the system. The mine used a paper system and on the corner of the GM’s desk was a 6-inch stack of unsigned approvals. I took them away and signed the lot, barely reading them. Afterwards the CFO and I devised an electronic cost control system and spending limits for each department head.

Anyone know how to cope successfully with a micromanager?

El Piratto

Keeping Steam Locomotives Steaming – Part 1The UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) opened a consultation process in 2019 on proposals that have the laudable aim of reducing emissions. In January 2019 Defra published its updated 2019 Clean Air Strategy. As part of the aim to reduce particulate matter emissions nationally this strategy proposed to phase out the sale of bituminous coal for household use and impose strict 2% sulfur limits on all solid fuels burnt in domestic grates in England (Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have other regulations as this is a devolved issue).

Vale of Rheidol Railway, September 2019 Gala

It is estimated that approximately 130,000 tonnes of coal are burnt by households in the UK per annum and the household market is Britain’s major consumer of sized, lumped coal. The size and specification for the household coal is more or less identical to the coal burnt by steam locomotives in the heritage sector! Steam railways and the preservation industry as a whole burn an estimated 35,000 tonnes per annum and whilst lower than the domestic household market is not an inconsiderable amount of coal. Furthermore, it is estimated that up to 4,000 jobs directly result from heritage railways with many more jobs supported indirectly. The heritage railways of the UK attract > 13 million visitors a year and there are over 22,000 “working volunteers”. It is estimated that the industry contributes between £400 – 500 Million in economic impact.

If production of UK sourced coal for the domestic household heating market is banned and the UK heritage railway industry is forced to rely solely on imported coal (e.g. from Poland or Russia) it is estimated that the cost per tonne to preserved railways could increase by 400%.

It is against this background that engineers from Wardell Armstrong International visited the Merchant Navy Locomotive Preservation Society (MNLPS) at their Stewarts Lane home Depot in South London to discuss the potential impact of a ban on the sale of bituminous coal in the UK for the domestic heating market, what sources may remain and consider potential strategies to keep MNLPS’s magnificent locomotive Clan Line steaming.

Clan Line Steam Locomotive, London

The three current opencast coal mines in the UK from which many heritage railways source their coal supplies – Ffos – y – Fran in South Wales, Shotton in Northumberland and Garlaffen in Ayrshire will not produce forever and their demise may be hastened by the Defra proposal to phase out sales of bituminous coal. Hence there is an urgent need to at least consider whether there are viable alternatives. Clearly production from overseas is likely to continue but without the boost created by the 130,000 tpa household sales, prices will inevitably increase.

Quality could be sacrificed in some instances – lines with short running distances could use more friable coals, but a large engines require coals that will not be reduced to dust during the journey, as well the “chemistry” requirements to prevent fouling and unacceptable emissions. The chemistry could also affect adversely the financial cost of the regular refurbishments that a large engine requires. Supply options include blending or briquetting of a mix of coals. An interesting option might be to couple a mining museum with coal supplies to the heritage sector – though significant investigation and feasibility study would be required to prove its viability. The heritage sector perhaps needs to consider a consortium approach where rather than individual society’s with relatively small tonnage requirements, the sector as a whole negotiates contracts with a central supply body for the bulk of the 35,000 tpa.

Read the full article at IOM3/MTD website.

Dr Chris Broadbent

IOM3 Welcomes Queen’s Speech Focus On Increased Investment In Science, Transport, Energy And The EnvironmentThe Monarch has today set out the Government’s plan for 26 bills to deliver Brexit, improve environmental targets to help tackle climate change, increase investment in science and ensure a national infrastructure strategy to improve transport and energy infrastructure.

IOM3 is pleased to see Government is committed to:• Building safety standards – new legislation regarding the implementation of safety standards• Introducing a national infrastructure strategy – a long-term vision to improve the nation’s digital transport and energy infrastructure• Establishing the UK as a world-leader of scientific capability and space technology• Increased investment in science and development of new funding agency and open visa system• Ambitious national space strategy• Protecting the environment for future generations through new laws• Improve air and water quality, tackle plastic pollution and restore habitats so plants and wildlife can thrive. • A new legislation to create new legally binding environmental improvement targets• Establish a new world-leading independent regulator to scrutinise environmental policy and law and investigate complaints and take action• Prioritise and tackle climate change• Ensure all girls have access to 12 years of quality education.

The full details of the Environmental Bill are expected in due course.

IOM3 CEO Colin Church welcomed the Government ambitions. ‘Clearly, we need to see the detail of the proposals, but it is good to see the high profile of some important issues for IOM3 in the Queen’s Speech. The commitments around investment in and support for science and engineering and the future of environment policy are particularly welcome. We look forward to working with our fellow professional bodies through the Environmental Policy Forum and the National Engineering Policy Centre to input to these discussion as they move forward.’

To read the full Queen’s Speech, visit www.gov.uk/government/speeches/queens-speech-2019

Don’t forget to visit our website www.iom3.org/mining-technology-division, or search IOM3/MTDFor any feedback regarding the newsletter, website, MTD etc use above link and use the feedback link

The Third Annual Russian-UK Raw Materials DialogueMining Technology Division (MTD) was well represented at the Third Annual Russian-UK Raw Materials Dialogue (Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining (IOM3) and St Petersburg Mining University initiative) held in St Petersburg, Russia. This followed on from the successful second dialogue held in London last year (2018). MTD (Christine Blackmore, Bob Siddall and Norman Jackson) were involved in helping to organise the event together with MPB (Dr Chris Broadbent). Christine was invited as Chair of the IOM3 MTD to present a keynote address on “Innovations in the managing and processing of tailings”, to facilitate a panel discussion (moderated by Bob Siddall) and also help judge a student “Business Case Competition”. Chris led a session on “Successful Careers in the Minerals Industry” Norman participated in the workshops and discussions.

Both the IOM3 and UK Russian Embassy were delighted in the way the event developed and considered that MTD involvement was instrumental in ensuring that the Third Raw Materials Dialogue was a success, indeed Ian Bowbrick (Director of Membership at the IOM3 and responsible for the IOM3 side of the organisation of the event) commented on MTD input and thanked us very much for our contribution.

Christine BlackmoreIOM3 MTD Chairman