OCTOBER 2003 NEWSLETTER: WEBSITE EDITION
From
the Chairman
From the Program ChairmanThis Meeting“A Case Study for an Underground Potash Mine at Suria, Spain” In 2001 Weir International Mining Consultants was commissioned by Iberpotash, SA to conduct an operations assessment and geologic survey of three underground potash mines. The three mines were located at Suria, approximately 90 kilometers northwest of Barcelona, Spain. The presentation will focus on the complex geology of the potash deposit, the mine plans developed and the operating procedures recommended. The culture of the mine managers and workers will also be discussed. In addition, photographs of the unique architecture of Barcelona are included. Bill Huber is a Vice
President with Weir International Mining Consultants with over 30
years of operations and engineering experience in the coal and
industrial minerals industries. In addition to performing operations
and safety assessments, Mr. Huber instructs Supervisory Training
Seminars for the National Stone, Sand and Gravel Association and
writes a monthly article, Maintenance Forum, for Rock Products
magazine. Last MeetingHarry Kokal of Ispat Inland Steel gave us a excellent presentation titled Kazakstan – Mines, Places and People. Kokal is presently Consultant—Raw Materials for the Direct Reduced Iron (DRI) Group, Process Research Division, Ispat Inland, Inc., which is located at the Ispat Inland Research Laboratories at East Chicago, IN. Mr. Kokal started with an overview of the LNM Group, the world’s second largest iron and steel company, which owns Ispat Inland Steel and Ispat Karmet in central Kazakhstan. He gave us a visual tour of several of these operations, along with the cities and the country where they are located. Currently three iron ore mines are operated; Lisakovsky, Kentobe, and Atasu. Each is different, and each has its own unique problems. These ores and their concentrates along with several others are used in the sinter plant and blast furnaces of Ispat Karmet. These mines and mills were purchased by the LNM Group after the breakup of the former Soviet Union. One unique feature of the Kazakhstan operations came along with the purchase of the iron operations. Certain pieces of the local infrastructure were owned by the mines, similar to the old company towns in the US. LNM Group has tried to divest themselves of some of the company housing and sports facilities, but still own trolley lines, water treatment systems and other municipal services. They are even operating a regional power plant at the request of the local government when management and money stopped coming from Moscow. One item noted by Kokal was that the population of the country has declined by 20-25% since the breakup of the USSR. The people leaving are generally ethnic Germans and Russians who moved to the region since 1940 and are returning to their native country. The Editor
GEM News2003 Teachers Workshop A Success
Twenty-seven teachers participated. We've become familiar with the toothpaste, cookie mining, cupcake drilling, birdseed mining, and metamorphic sandwich activities; but to our audience it was all new. The comments were all very positive with most saying they will recommend a colleague attend next time. The field trip visited two of Rockford Sand & Gravel's operations: North Shores gravel pit and Nimtz Quarry. The group was able to have their lunch at the reclaimed Cherry Valley Aggregates site now known as Bauman Park. They seemed to be most impressed with that. I admit a fondness for it myself since I did get to see the project start to finish! New this year was a presentation on blasting by Willard Pierce of IDNR/Office of Mines & Minerals. Two people said it was their favorite part of the workshop. One of the unique things we can do in Rockford is visit the Burpee Museum. They have a new section on economic geology that has videos and displays about our construction aggregate. The group also liked the coal swamp, dinosaur, and mammoth exhibits. The committee is feeling very positive and looking forward to being in Rend Lake next year. This is a different venue for us so we'll have to make some new plans. Sponsor a teacher and/or join us! Linda
M. Hiltabrand Again - Rock Samples WantedThe Gem committee is hunting for rock samples of approximately 1 inch in size in quantities of 35 samples or more for rock kits which will be given to teachers at the Illinois Association of Aggregate Producers teacher workshop next fall. Contact Anne Leslie of Raimonde Drilling at 773-889-1412 or email at rdcdrill@rdc-drill.com if you can help out.
Section
News
Don't forget to pay your 2003-2004 dues. Click here for details. Click here for the 2003-2004 Officers Final Notice: If You Still Want a Paper Newsletter….Do you still want a paper Newsletter? The executive committee has decided to start sending an e-mail link to the newsletter to those of us who have e-mail addresses. We are intending to STOP sending paper copies of the newsletter to e-mail addressees with the November issue unless you ask us to continue with the mailed copy. Many SME Sections as well as the local AEG Chapter have abandoned paper newsletters in favor of electronic versions. Let’s hear from you! Contact Gordie Stevens or Rick Ackerman. Had Your Computer Stolen Lately? …. I Did ….I had the
unfortunate experience of having my car window smashed and my
briefcase and computer stolen last month in down-town Chicago.
At first, the 911 operator wanted to take the report over the
phone, without an officer even showing up!
I nixed that, and when they did get there (an hour later) I
have nothing but good to say about the officers on the street and the
detectives I talked with on the phone.
But that is not the reason this article is in the newsletter. I learned
a lot when one of the first questions the detective asked was if I had
a tracer program on my machine by a company named AbsoluteSoftware.
This detective described the program as “the Lo-Jack of the
computer world”, and went on to say the Chicago Police recover a
number of computers every year which have the program installed.
He said the program sends a locator message out when it logs on
the internet. If the
computer is reported stolen, Absolute notifies the police of the
connection, and they go get a search warrant for that connection
location. A
recommendation like that from the Chicago cops seemed like a good one
to me, so I checked out the program. The
program is called ComputracePlus and may be found via the
AbsoluteSoftware website.
The maker claims that this program will survive a disk reformat
and a disk partition and still do its job.
The program costs $49.95 per year per computer for up to 99
licenses. This product is
not sold in computer stores. According
to the sales rep I talked to, AbsoluteSoftware only markets it to
businesses and government agencies, but they do sell individual
licenses. They have some of the successful recovery stories on the web
site. Check it out at www.absolute.com. I asked
my IT people about it. My company does not subscribe.
Upcoming Meetings & Events
Member NewsBlack & Veach Wins Army COE Tunnel ContractBlack & Veatch has been selected by the US Army Corps of Engineers to design and provide construction management services for the Cady Marsh Ditch tunnel. This is a 10-foot-diameter lined tunnel, 6400 feet long, in Griffith, Indiana. This tunnel will relieve flooding in Griffith and surrounding communities. Chicago Section SME Member and Program Chair, Dr. Raj Rajaram, is involved with the design of this tunnel. Other tunneling projects being conducted by Dr. Rajaram include a detailed feasibility study for a flood control tunnel in Little Rock, Arkansas, and the wastewater tunnels for the City of Charleston, South Carolina. John Magyar at Turquoise Ridge Startup in NevadaChicago Section SME member and Secretary, John Magyar of International Mining Services, is on assignment with Placer Dome at their Getchell Gold Corporation's Turquoise Ridge Mine North of Winnemucca, Nevada. The scope of the project includes underground construction and development, a high head single lift mine dewatering system, materials handling systems and 700 ft of underground ventilation shaft construction. The project duration is six months and is in support of the recommissioning and ramping up of the Turquoise Ridge Mine production in May of 2004. This is a relatively high grade gold mine with almost all of the ore coming from fault gouge. Other interesting minerals include Orpiment and Realgar, which are arsenic sulphides. The mining method is over hand drift and fill. The top pass and any development in poor ground uses spiling; an unusual method of ground control rarely found in mining today. Boncosky Oil to Display at MPSA Fleet NightBoncosky Oil will join 30 or more vendors displaying their wares and services to this sector of business in the Metropolitan Chicago Area at the upcoming Fleet Night. Chicago Section SME member and Treasurer, Steve Tivy, Boncosky Oil Company's Commercial Representative says, "there are plenty of organizations around for technical folks, but Truckers and Fleet Managers aren't always so lucky. MPSA serves a need to get regulatory and product information to an "old-line" industry that is undergoing huge challenges and change. Boncosky Oil is proud to be a part of this organization.”
Industry NewsRecent Quarry DaysThe operators of these open houses are commended for their public outreach and efforts to educate our fellow citizens about the mining industry. The
editor Dwyer
Quarry – Helm Group on 9/27:The
Helm Group (Conmat, Inc.) hosted their second annual Quarry Day on
Sept. 27 at the Dwyer Quarry near Freeport.
Proceeds from the event were donated to the local domestic
violence shelter. Children
had the opportunity to lift, dump and scrape sand while seated in real
construction equipment. In
addition, children were able to make concrete, build brick walls,
climb a 26 ft. rock, examine spectacular fossils and more! The Helm
Group recently received an honorable mention from the National
Association of State Land Reclamationists for their community outreach
efforts. Federal
Quarry – Materials Service 9/13:
This quarry day is free to all who come, including the food
and freebies. Parking is
at a nearby manufacturer’s lot, and school buses run a shuttle to
the pit overlook and the Federal yard where the equipment and
activities were set up. In
addition to the food tent (very popular with all who attended) there
was a tent with displays of fossils and mineral specimens from the
local area, vibration and noise monitoring equipment from Vibra-Tech
and drilling equipment from Materials Service. Materials Service also
had some nicely restored antique equipment mixed in with pieces of the
current fleet for everyone to examine and photograph. Materials Service had two areas for kids to dig into –
literally. One was the
fossil hunt rockpile, where they had put quantities of fossil rich
rocks for the kids to search thru and take home.
The other was the “gold mine” – a huge sand pile heavily
laced with pyrite chunks for the kids to dig up.
Both were big hits with the kids, along with the Frisbees they
handed out as you were leaving. New Handbook of Industrial Minerals and Rocks ComingThe 7th edition of Industrial Minerals and Rocks will be published by SME in the next couple of years and writing of the new volume is underway. Harry Kokal will be one author of a chapter on "Metallurgical Fluxes". Anyone wishing to contribute or wanting to be co-author can contact Harry at harold.kokal@ispat.com. In particular, if anyone has experience with limestone and dolomite or lime and dolomitic-lime for flux in the metallurgical industries, Harry would like to hear from you. Experience with fluxes in the non-ferrous industries would also be welcome. SME Executive Director ResignsMr. Paul
A Scheidig announced his resignation as Executive Director of the SME
effective September 30, 2003. The Board of Directors and staff are grateful for Paul’s
efforts in leading the Society during a difficult period and wish him
well in his new pursuits. Mr.
John J. Orologio has been appointed the interim Executive Director of
the Society. Mr. Orologio,
a long-time employee and director of Finance for SME, retired this
past June. A Search Committee will be formed immediately to seek a
permanent replacement for Mr. Scheidig. From the SME website at www.smenet.org From the ATF – for the
Explosives Users ---
If
you would like the explosives regulations that combine the old orange
book (dated year 2000) with the new SEA interim regulations you can
print it out by going to the following link at e-CFR. The word from the ATF agent at the ISEE Vendors Night on Oct 16th is that this will be the most up-to-date source of the regulations available, even though he said it is NOT the official source. This link is to the Electronic Code of Federal Regulations from the Government Printing office. Printed copies incorporating the new regulations will not be out until sometime next year. For other items you can visit the AFT website at www.atf.gov.
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As
with many professional organizations, SME is losing members.
The
Illinois Association of Aggregate Producers PIE Committee finished
another successful teachers' workshop July 21-23 at the Clock Tower
Inn at Rockford.