FEBRUARY 2005 NEWSLETTER: WEBSITE EDITION

From the Chairman

Shortly after our forthcoming meeting and before we meet again, several nationally-oriented professional meetings of significance are scheduled.  Our SME Annual Meeting will be held in Salt Lake City, the National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association (NSSGA) Annual Meeting, and the Con/Agg Expo will be held in Las Vegas.  I encourage each of you to consider attending one or all of these meetings if able.  They offer excellent opportunities to become more informed and better acquainted with our industry and those who move it forward. H. John Head, our Section Vice-Chair, will be officially representing us at SME in Salt Lake.  John also is one of the Heartland Region Membership Committee representatives. Never-the-less, if you cannot attend any of these, you still have our local Section meetings, which provide many of the same opportunities, albeit on a smaller but no less important scale. I know our next couple of Section meetings may be the last chance for some of you for a while, as the new construction and processing season ratchets up.  So let’s mobilize early.  I look forward to seeing you soon and “happy travels” for those who can attend the national meetings.  --Gordie

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From the Program Chairman

This Meeting

“PRACTICAL BLASTING: State-of-the-Art in Drilling and Blasting"

 "State-of-the-art" blasting techniques may perhaps be divided into two important genres: controversial & practical. Controversial methods are often difficult to clearly explain as to why & when they will work as desired. 

About the Speaker

Jason Ryan attained his Bachelor of Engineering degree at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada in 1995. He subsequently joined the Corporate Technical Service Group of Austin Powder Company in McArthur, Ohio, USA as a specialist in field instrumentation.  

In 1997, Jason accepted the position of Product Manager for Non-electric Detonators.  In 2000, he was promoted to Manager of Electronic Technology Development with responsibility for development projects in blast modeling software and electronic detonators.   

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Last Meeting

Our January speakers were Chris Nelson, VP, and Allan Martin, Electrical Engineer, of Rohr Corporation talked on dredge automation.  Rohr manufactures floating clamshell and bucket ladder dredge systems at their facilities in Cincinnati, Ohio.  The speakers are involved in the design, construction and startup of these systems.  They also do site training for the operators. 

 They discussed various types of dredges and how they are set up for different situations.  New instrumentation and PLC-control technology is enabling these dredges to go deeper and with higher productivity.  Besides lowering operating costs and increasing the mineable reserves these changes have improved productivity and safety at many locations where dredges have been automated.  One location they highlighted was Vulcan Materials’ large automated clamshell dredge in California..

Upcoming Speakers

Our Treasurer, John Magyar spent the better part of last year assisting in the startup of Placer Dome’s Tourquoise Ridge gold mine near Winnemucca, Nevada.  This is a high grade underground mine with ground he describes in some areas as being more like fault gouge than rock.  He will share with us some of the problems and the successes of an underground mine startup.

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GEM/PIE News 

Upcoming Event: The Mansion Rocks

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Section News

Don't forget to pay your 2003-2004 dues.  Click here for details.

Click here for the 2003-2004 Officers

Speakers for Upcoming Meetings?

If you would like to present a talk or have a subject matter that you are interested in hearing presented at a meeting, please give  Frank Kendorski,  of Agapito Associates who is our Program Chair.  He can be reached at:

e-mail:  frank@agapito.com

New to the Chicago SME Website: Corporate Sponsor Links

The Chicago SME section has added a sponsor page of links on our web site.  The links will be added for a small annual fee, with the money going solely to support our GEM (Government, Education & Mining) Committee outreach efforts.  This money goes to sponsor a variety of teacher education, Mineral Information Institute education materials, student scholarships and more. 

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Upcoming Meetings & Events

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Member News

Meyer Material Gets Permits for Greenfield Site

Gordie Stevens and a multidisciplinary team at Patrick Engineering, Inc. successfully assisted Meyer Material Company through the process of Annexation and rezoning a 791-acre Greenfield parcel near Harvard, Illinois, for a sand and gravel pit (Yard 56).  The process nearly culminates several years of direct efforts. They include: geologic, groundwater, noise, wetland and stream studies and mine design and reclamation plans.  The crown jewel will be issuance of the mining permit, which is in process. 

As planned, the mine will eventually include the diversion of nearly 1-mile of stream into the developing 407-acre lake.   Current expectation is that the digging will be done wet.  Patrick is currently designing the rail spur and loading facility, and entrance/roadway improvements. 

Raj Rajaram Joins Burns & McDonnell

Long time, Chicago SME-Section member Raj Rajaram has joined Burns & McDonnell within the last month as a senior geotechnical engineer in the Environmental Practice area.  Burns & McDonnell is a large engineering firm involved in design-build for coal-fired power plants, potable- and waste-water treatment plants, infrastructure and environmental remediation. 

Raj noted that “The wonderful part of this job is that I am working with a lot of young geologists and engineers, and guiding work on several remediation projects around Chicago.”  He added that for him the best part is the commute, which is less than 10 minutes. 

Raj can be reached via phone at (630) 990-0302 X541 and e-mail at:  vrajaram@burnsmcd.com

Patrick Looks at Quarry Blasting near 350KV power lines 

Continued expansion of Columbia Quarry Company’s pit, southeast of St Louis, is causing the relocation of a 350KV power line to a route passing over the quarry.  This will necessitate production blasting directly under the high voltage lines.  Patrick Engineering was hired to design the transmission line and towers, and to evaluate the quarry’s blasting practices.   

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Industry News

From CATERPILLAR  Down Under

Mining Boom Causing Shortages in Men and Materials

The mining industry is starting to feel the pinch from the world's growing appetite for commodities.  Industry sources say there's a shortage of everything from personnel to building materials, like steel. The world's third largest supplier of mining equipment, Caterpillar Elphinstone, is a huge consumer of steel at its plant in  Burnie, Tasmania  Managing director Andrew Ransley says it just wasn't prepared for the extent of this current mining boom. 

Ransley stated "Mining is having an unprecedented boom at the moment, and companies such as ourselves, which supply the industry, are struggling to meet the demand.  Mining has always been cyclical, we've had a trough for the last few years and we have come out of that trough very, very rapidly".

"As we try and ramp up, some of the biggest constraints that we are finding, is finding people, finding steel and finding tyres."

This is a transcript from the ABC National Rural News that is broadcast daily to all (Australian) states on ABC Regional Radio's Country Hour and in the city on ABC News Radio

From Aggregate Research.com, Feb 8, ‘05

http://www.aggregateresearch.com/article.asp?id=5753&s=m

Editors Note: Mining is booming world wide, and particularly in Australia at the moment.  Check out

http://www.infomine.com/careers/positions/ to see where the activity is hot.  A recent 6 day period advertised 828 openings in the mining industry worldwide – and 65% were in Australia, including an opening for a quarry manger in Queensland, NSW. 

Caterpillar’s Elphinstone is a major supplier of underground mining equipment worldwide, and the brand is becoming common in the US. 

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New Coal Plants Bury ’Kyoto’

Now that the Kyoto Treaty has been ratified by much of the world, coal-fired power-plant construction is booming. 

 By 2012 China, India, and the United States are planning to build nearly 850 new coal-fired plants. They are expected to emit as much as an extra 2.7 billion tons of carbon dioxide. In contrast, Kyoto-signatory countries, by that year, are supposed to have cut their CO₂ emissions by some 0.483 billion tons. 

China is the dominant player. The country is on track to add 562 coal-fired plants. That is nearly half the world total of plants expected to come online in the next eight years. India could add 213 such plants; the US, 72.  New coal plants would burn an additional 900 million tons of coal each year.  There are uncertainties; if only those plants that now have start dates are built, then the expected emissions from the three nations would total only 1.2 billion tons of CO₂.  However, Chinese and Indian leaders face few political barriers to power-plant construction and big demands for more power. While both have signed the Kyoto Protocol, they are exempt from any of the Kyoto Treaty’s constraints on CO₂ emissions.

With natural gas prices expected to continue rising, 58 other nations have 340 new coal-fired plants in various stages of development. They are expected to go online in a decade or so. Malaysia, Japan, Indonesia, Thailand, and Turkey are all planning significant new coal-fired power additions. Germany also plans to build eight coal plants totaling 6,000 megawatts capacity. --Summarized from a Christian Science Monitor article by Mark Clayton from12/23/04

In honor of April 15th

A Businessman’s Song

The Government is my Shepherd, I shall not want

It causeth me to shut down my business

It leadeth me beside still industries

It destroyeth my investments

It leadeth me in the path of bankruptcy for politics sake

Yea, though I work in the valley of recession and depression, I will fear no hardship

For the Government is with me

With Good Intentions and Promises, they comfort me

It prepareth a tax table for me to the detriment of free enterprise

It loadeth my desk with paperwork

My cash flow drieth up

Surely red tape and regulations shall follow me all the days of my career

And I will dwell in the land of the shrinking dollar forever

--Author Unknown

Submitted by Rick Ackermann

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