Operators Conference Technology, communications — key to survival,

The keynote address here at the 8th Annual Operators Conference was not vintage William James. His banquet address before a record 300 mine operators and an equal number of suppliers at the Collins Centre was uncharacteristically serious.

“It’s up to you guys to make this industry work,” he said. “If our mines are not productive, our high standard of living in Canada will go out the window.” Mr James, who is chairman, president and chief executive officer of Falconbridge Ltd., was addressing the theme of the conference, Excellence in the Survival Mode. The conference was initiated eight years ago by Dome Mines President Henry Brehaut and is sponsored by the Canadian Institute of Mining.

Honored at the banquet, were canmet’s pre-eminent rock mechanic scientist David Hedley and North Bay mining contractor Patrick Harrison — two men Mr James said exemplify the survival instinct of the people working in the Canadian mining industry. Mr Harrison’s company has sunk close to 20 shafts for Falconbridge alone.

Several important practical topics relevent to the economic survival of mining companies today were discussed during two days of technical presentations held in the basement of a church next door to the Collins Centre. Twenty-four papers were presented by operators from all across the country.

“Communications is the most important thing to consider if we are going to survive,” Rio Algom’s P. Bedford said. His company has spent $400,000 on 66 new low- frequency inductive radios manufactured in France. They have been installed on most of Rio Algom’s underground mobile equipment at Elliot Lake. Martin Wafforn, project engineer at the Quirke mine, which has three years of experience with the radios, says maintenance costs about $750 a year per radio but the productivity gains (about 2%-3%) and improved safety resulting from improved communications makes the investment worthwhile (10% rate of return on investment). The manufacturer, El Equip, is working to extend the radios’ range to the surface.

J. Marshall, project manager for Nanisvik Mines (82%-held by Mineral Resources International), talked about what is too often ignored in mining — management — which, he says is getting things done through or with people. “Good management can overcome a lot of problems,” he said, “and poor management has been the death of many companies. Just remember,” he advised, “not all problems are solved by technical solutions.”

Nanisvik has payed off its original $33-million capital investment in its Baffin Island lead-zinc mine in just six years. Shaft Sinking

Fred Edwards, vice-president of engineering for contractors Dyanatec Mining, explained why his company sunk the No 3 shaft at Macassa and how he, William Schaver and William Dengler, arrived at the rectangular timber design that was eventually chosen. Ground conditioning required to support the walls of this, the deepest single-lift shaft in North America, were more than double original estimates, Mr Edwards said. Tragically, there was one fatality during the project.

Three other presentations on shaft sinking included: a description of Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting’s Namew Lake mine shaft in northern Manitoba by Ronald Javorsky; a discussion by Karl Pieterse of how to reduce the lead time between discovery of mineral deposits and production of metals; and M.D. Winship’s discussion of the deepening of the Robertson Shaft at the Con mine in Yellowknife, N.W.T., which was recently sold to Nerco Minerals of Fairbanks, Alaska.

“Historically it takes 8-11 years from the time an orebody is found to the time production starts,” Mr Pieterse says. The Star Lake mine in Saskatchewan, is at least one exception. K. Reddy, of the Saskatchewan Mining & Development Corp. said total production costs at this new mine are about $85 a ton. It poured its first gold bar only three years after discovery. Namew Lake Mill

Hudson Bay Mining & Smelting is negotiating with Finland-based Outokumpu to build a mill at Namew Lake. If those negotiations fail, the company will truck ore to Flin Flon. Concentrates will be sold to either Inco or Sherritt Gordon.

At Denison’s uranium mine here, biological leaching has been used since 1961 to recover uranium from low-grade ore that is broken and leached in underground stopes using water laden with microscopic bacteria. The company is aiming to have 25% of its total production come from these bioleaching stopes. G. St. Denis, a new engineer on the much-expanded project, says recoveries of 70% have been achieved and recoveries could reach as high as 80%. Denison and Rio Algom’s uranium supply contract with Ontario Hydro comes open for re-negotiation in 1991. Dilution from Backfill

William Hedderson, of Falconbridge, discussed the relatively recent problem of mine dilution when mining massive orebodies next to cemented backfill. He discussed the economics of trying to keep the fill walls standing. Falconbridge is preparing a report on dewatered back fill for Dome Mines, Mr Hedderson said, and is doing diamond drilling in fill to develop a computer model that will enable engineers to predict the behavior of the fill as pillars are mined next to it. That work is being done in co-operation with Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont. He suspects that leachable calcium from cemented fill can significantly reduce nickel recoveries if it gets into the ore. Pillar Recovery

At Inco’s mine in Thompson, Man., a significant portion of production will come from crown and rib pillar recovery over the next 1 1/2 years. Rod MacLean, operations general foreman at Thompson described the successful development of pillars in the T3 complex. Ore recoveries are expected to be as high as 95%.

Relieving high stresses in rock pillars at the Campbell Red Lake mine in northwestern Ontario was described by Mike Neumann. A dramatic tape-recording of rock noise recorded by a geophone during one distressing blast contained a violent rock burst which occurred 30 seconds after the round was blasted. “This rockburst indicated it was a good idea to destress this particular pillar,” Neumann said. Selbaie Crown Pillar

Y. Fourmanoit of Les Mines Salbaie in northwest Quebec described his company’s successful execution of plans to recover a crown pillar under a thick layer of overburden. “Work has been so successful so far,” Mr Fourmanoit says, “we are going to go ahead and try to recover more than 2/3 of the ore in place.” Originally, a much lower figure was thought to be possible.

Two papers from Sherritt Gordon Mines’ Ruttan mine in Leaf Rapids, Man., described the advantages and deficiencies of a maintenance computer program and how the company phased out its 2-in and 6 1/2 -in drills in favor of a unit that drills 4 1/2 -in holes in the mine’s blasthole open stopes. The unit, built by Cubex in Winnipeg, requires one man instead of two to operate. So far, the company has blasted 430,000 tons using the up-hole method. Dupont has developed a suitable power that will stay in the hole. “Quantum Leaps”

Representing Inco’s Levack mine in Sudbury, Barry Nicholson described how this mine has made “quantum leaps” in productivity by switching from undercut and fill mining to Vertical Retreat Mining (vrm) and by reducing manpower. “In 1981, we were in big trouble,” Mr Nicholson said, “it was either clean up our act or we’re history.” About 72% of the mines production now comes from vrm pillars and manpower has been cut dramatically. Manpower Reduction

Peter Townsend, chief industrial engineer at Denison Mines described his company’s recent successes in reducing its fixed workforce. A program was implemented to measure exactly what the fixed manpower is doing and then set work standards by packing particular work tasks as tightly as possible into a clear, optimum schedule. In a 18-month period Denison reduced its fixed workforce costs in one work area by 36%. “We are very pleased with the results,” Mr Townsend said, “and plan to implement the program in other work areas.”