Multivariable control strategy for a bucket wheel reclaimer / Estratégia de controle multivariável de retomadora de roda de alcatruzes

Mining operations are generally done by large machines working in very harsh environments and historically having shy embedded technology. The use of control strategies, in many cases, dramatically increases the operating efficiency without large financial investments. In this context, this paper presents the method of choice and practical application of a multivariable control strategy for a bucket wheel ore reclaimer. This strategy adopts PI and PID controllers following a type override strategy acting on the manipulated variable: the slewing angular velocity. This manipulated variable was chosen because its actions affect the controlled variable very fast, so, allowing correcting disturbances in an adequate time. In addition, a fuzzy type controller was implemented to act on a second manipulated variable: the translation step. The second manipulated variable aims at taking the first one (angular speed) out of saturation states. When working together, these controllers seek to increase the equipment and process performance, taking into account, however, their operating limitations. Finally, a statistical analysis of results was performed in order to validate the feasibility of the implanted strategy when compared with the method previously in operation

Remediation alternatives for an abandoned gold mine contaminated with mercury in Brazil / Alternativas para descontaminação de mina de ouro abandonada contaminada com mercúrio no Brasil

Heavy metal contamination of soils has generated two major problems, namely, loss of land value and health risk for people near contaminated sites. Studies on soil remediation are typically conducted on a pilot scale under very controlled conditions. This is a misleading approach, once the complexity of the actual biogeochemical soil conditions may causes inefficiency in full scale real-world application. In addition, environmental impacts of remediation practices themselves are often ignored, which may make them unfeasible. In 2002, an occurrence of mercury in an abandoned old gold mine was detected in a rural area of Descoberto, Brazil. In 2014, the State Public Prosecutor required from the responsible State Environment Agency, a remediation project to the area. This study compares alternatives for remediation of the contaminated area. Also a historical approach on mercury amalgamation in gold mining in the region, in order to estimate the amount of mercury remaining in the site. The geochemical characterization of the contaminated area was performed to describe the contamination process.  The results were compared with the remediation proposal advocated by the Brazilian Ministry Public, and some alternatives for decontamination of the area were studied. The electrokinetic method has displayed the lowest overall unit cost, between US$120.00/t and US$ 260.00/t. The residual Hg concentration after four cycles of the electrokinetic technique was estimated at 1.28 mg (Hg)/kg (soil), slightly higher than the intervention value for agricultural soil, which is 1.20 mg (Hg)/kg (soil)

Long-term evolution of heap surface of paste tailings under erosion / Evolução a longo prazo de pilha da pasta de rejeitos sujeita a erosão

Many mines are moving from conventional tailings storage facilities to filtered tailings disposal systems. The benefits of these systems include increased water recovery, reduced size of containment landfills, improved facility safety, and reduced environmental impact. In geotechnical terms, the challenges are to find the correct way of waste disposal: whether in piles of dry sandy tailings or co-disposal waste rock. The long-term evolution of the surface of fine and sandy tailings stockpiles is a matter of concern. The goal of this study was to quantitatively evaluate the temporal evolution of a paste tailings pile, using a computational model of landscape evolution. For this, SIBERIA, a simulator of the evolution of landscapes under the action of runoff and erosion, was used. The effect of erosion on a trunk-pyramidal tailings pile with about 21% of slope after long periods of decommissioning (100 and 250 years) was studied. The SIBERIA modelling data considered the surface roughness and the average diameter of the sediment particles and the typical properties of iron ore tailings. The results indicate that for a lower Manning roughness coefficient and larger average apparent diameter of the sediment particles (or clods), the lower the sediment transport will be and, therefore, in the long term, the greater will be the integrity of the tailings pile

Characterization and prospecting of graphite-gneisses of the Jequitinhonha Complex

O advento da tecnologia do grafeno vem destacando ainda mais a importância da grafita no panorama industrial moderno, tornando esse mineral estratégico. Os novos campos de sua utilização tornaram a explotação de grafita cristalina (flake) economicamente atrativa. Os gnaisses kinzigíticos do Complexo Jequitinhonha contêm mineralizações de grafita e têm sido objeto de estudos recentes. A compreensão do comportamento da mineralização por meio da caracterização permite o avanço nas técnicas para sua prospecção e exploração. Estabelecer a influência dos contaminantes do meio geológico e as características que esses conferem à mineralização é importante para a padronização dos procedimentos de prospecção e beneficiamento. Este estudo permitiu determinar o padrão resistivo/condutivo da mineralização em função de seus contaminantes, estabelecendo as características inerentes à mineralização de grafita que permitem padronizar critérios de prospecção e posterior utilização industrial do minério.The advent of graphene technology has highlighted the importance of graphite in the modern industrial landscape, making this mineral strategic. The new fields of its use have made the exploitation of flake graphite economically attractive. The kinzigitic gneisses of the Jequitinhonha Complex contain graphite mineralizations and have been the object of recent studies. Understanding the behavior of mineralization, through characterization, allows advancement in the techniques for its exploration and exploration. Establishing the influence of the contaminants from the geological environment and the features they impart to the mineralization is important in order to standardize prospecting and processing procedures. This study allowed determining the orebodies resistive/conductive patterns as a function of petrological contaminants, defining the inherent characteristics of the graphite mineralization that make possible the standardization of the prospecting criteria and later the industrial use of the ore

On bed porosity of multisized spheroidal particles / Da porosidade de partículas esferoidais polidispersas

In numerous instances of engineering the problem to quantify the porosity of polydisperse systems arises. Despite its great importance, the theoretical predictability of the bed porosity is still problematic. In the field of ceramics, classically, Furnas' studies on porosity are quoted, where he has studied void fraction resulting from blending two distinct particle sizes in various proportions. Less often, ternary diagrams plotting porosity isovalues for spherical particles beds are used to characterize ternary mixtures of distinct monosized particulate systems (usually in ceramics industry). Although similar studies using polydisperse systems have been conducted, a lot of improvement is yet to be achieved. This article falls in this context and aims at contributing to this field of technical and economic impact. Synthetic samples with controlled particle size distribution were used. The resulting porosity of those glass beads random packs (mimicking several size distributions described by Rosin–Rammler equation) has been experimentally determined under a standardized compaction level. The main result was to obtain an equation for the porosity forecast for bead beds inside spheroidal containers, as a function of the sharpness parameter, n, from Rosin–Rammler distribution. An accurate extrapolation to systems well described by the Whiten sigmoidal distribution was achieved as well. A generalization of the Ergun equation is presented at the end of the article, as an application example