Legal Issues Canada, USA

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MINERAL EXTRACTION

• Legal Issues Canada, USA
• Exploration
• Staking a Claim
• Type of Ore
• Extraction
• Open Pit
• Underground Mine
• Strip mining
• Solution Mining
• Heap leach
• Crushing
• Separation Techniques
• Gravity Separation
• Flotation
• Chemical Separation
• Smelting

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LEGAL CONTROLS USA

• Mine Safety The Federal Mine Safety and Health
  Act (Mine Act) http//www.dol.gov/compliance/laws/
  comp-fmsha.htm
• The Mine Act requires that the U.S. Department of
  Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration
  (MSHA) inspect all mines each year to ensure safe
  and healthy work environments for miners.
• In addition to setting safety and health
  standards for preventing hazardous and unhealthy
  conditions, MSHA's regulations establish
  requirements for
• Immediate notification by the mine operator of
  accidents, injuries, and illnesses at the mine
• Training programs that meet the requirements of
  the Mine Act and
• Obtaining approval for certain equipment used in
  gassy underground mines.
• The Mine Act covers all mine operators and miners
  throughout the United States, including the
  District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto
  Rico, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam,
  and the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands.

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Mineral Exploration in the USA

• The 1872 Mining Law was signed into law by
  President Ulysses S. Grant. Before Custer's Last
  Stand, it was passed to promote the development
  and settlement of publicly-owned lands in the
  western United States.
• The Case for Mining Law Reform The New York
  Times, June 23, 2008 On June 17, the generally
  conservative commissioners of Lincoln County, New
  Mexico, terrified by the prospect of a big gold
  mining operation in the nearby Capitan Mountains,
  asked the Senate to amend the 1872 mining law to
  give local officials some say in the matter. Two
  days later, Representative Raúl Grijalva of
  Arizona urged the secretary of the interior to
  take emergency measures to protect lands adjacent
  to the Grand Canyon from uranium mining. And the
  day after that, three Western governors added
  their voices to the reform chorus.
• Enticed by soaring prices in recent years for
  gold, silver, copper and uranium, mining
  companies have been filing claims at a record
  clip. But the General Mining Law of 1872, which
  governs them, is as flimsy as ever.
• A relic of the boisterous era of Western
  expansion, the law gives hard-rock mining
  precedence over all other uses of the public
  lands, including conservation. It demands no
  royalties and provides minimal environmental
  protections. Its legacy, if it can be called
  that, is a battered landscape of abandoned mines
  and poisoned streams.
• Recent rumblings suggest that mining law reform
  may be moving from the list of legislative lost
  causes to reality. Last fall, the House passed a
  good bill that would require companies to pay
  royalties, just as oil and coal producers do,
  strengthen environmental safeguards, give local
  officials a role in decision-making and allow the
  interior secretary to veto mines that threaten
  irreparable harm to the environment.
• This leaves matters in the lap of the Senate,
  where the majority leader, Harry Reid, controls
  the agenda. Mr. Reid is a miner's son whose home
  state of Nevada depends heavily on mining, and it
  is hard to overstate his lack of enthusiasm for
  serious reform.
• At the same time, his colleagues have not been
  putting much pressure on him. Senator Jeff
  Bingaman's Energy and Natural Resources Committee
  has held hearings, and Mr. Bingaman himself
  strongly favors reform. What Mr. Bingaman needs
  to do now is draw up an actual bill, get it
  approved in committee and ask Mr. Reid to
  schedule a vote.
• That could break the logjam and change a law that
  has remain unchanged, for the worse, for 136
  years

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Canada

• Exploration, Extraction, Environmental Issues,
  Health and Safety in Canada is governed by
  Provincial Acts
• e.g. Manitoba Mines and Minerals Act 1996
• http//web2.gov.mb.ca/laws/statutes/ccsm/m162e.php
  
• For Rocks and Minerals the act deals with
• Ownership of mineral rights vs surface rights
• Claims and leases of mineral rights
• Access to land for prospecting and extraction
• Compensation to owner of land
• Environmental closure of all mines and quarries
  is the responsibility of the company except for
  aggregate
• For Aggregate
• There is a government levy of 10 cents per tonne
• Closure of Quarry funded and controlled by Land
  Management Branch of Manitoba Department of
  Energy and Mines

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EXPLORATION

• Initially minimal impact
• lines cut through forest
• samples of rock, soil, vegetation collected
• Mining camps in wilderness areas may leave
  refuse/oil drums
• Drilling may cause environmental problems
• Manitoban bush will soon regrow
• Tundra and desert pavements are more vulnerable

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Staking a Claim
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EXTRACTION

• Includes ore removal, primary crushing and waste
  rock removal and disposal.
• Extraction method depends on
• Value of the ore
• Cost of Extraction
• The shape and orientation of the ore body
• The distribution of the ore mineral
• The strength of the ore and surrounding rock
• Location
• Solubility of Ore
• Social Issues related to mining town
• temporary with fly in workers e.g. Ekati
• or permanent like Leaf Rapids, Lynn Lake

Gold ore vein, Bissett
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Types of Ore

• Massive base metal Cu, Ni, Zn
• Disseminated gold, diamonds

Native copper, Michigan
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Bedded Ore bodies
Potash, Saskatchewan
Syncrude, Oil sands, Fort McMurray
Black Thunder Coal MineWyoming, USA
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Extraction process depend on shape, position and
value of ore body

• Open Pit
• Strip Mining
• Underground Mine
• Dissolution potash, uranium,
• In situ mobilization oil shale
• Heap Leach

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Open Pit
Bingham Canyon Cu Mine
The amount of waste rock to be removed to provide
reasonable gradient for trucks. Only efficient
for large ore bodies close to the surface Open
Pit can be useful for dumping mine waste at
closure
Ekati Diamond Mine
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Strip Mining
Very efficient for high level flat lying ore
bodies. Overburden and top soil can be replaced
minimizing environmental damage
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Dissolution potash, uranium In situ
mobilization sulfur, oil shale
NaCl or KCl dissolved in water
Acid in situ leach of metallic ore
Hot water or steam used to mobilize sulfur or oil
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Heap Leach
Landusky, Montana, CN Heap Leach Gold Mine
1979-1996
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Crushing

• Ore bearing and non ore-bearing rock will be
  separated as soon as possible
• What happens to non-ore-bearing rock?
• Ore-bearing rock will be crushed to the size
  necessary to liberate the required mineral
• Heap leach requires only very coarse crushing
• Much finer crushing for gold and PGE as they
• are enclosed within other mineral grains
• Initial crushing underground
• In mill, crushing in autogenous circuit with
• feedback of large particles
• Final crushing in rod or ball mills

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Beneficiation (Extraction of metal from
rock/mineral)

• Physical techniques
• Gravity
• Gold from quartz
• Diamonds
• Tantalum
• Flotation
• Sulphides from silicates
• Cu and Ni sulphides
• NaCl from KCl
• Chemical Techniques
• CN leaching
• Roaster oxidizes sulphide to SO2
• Smelting
• Electrochemical Refining of pure metal
• Consider the waste generated at each stage

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Gravity Separation
Whiffle table
Separator
Fine grained waste goes to tailings pond. What
does it contain?
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Flotation Cells
Ore becomes attached to air bubbles, float, and
are collected. Gangue sinks to the bottom of the
flotation cells and piped to tailings
pond Chemicals added include Frothers pine
oils alcohols promote the formation and
stability of bubbles. Collectors promote
adherence of air bubbles to the mineral.
Conditioners make the surface of the mineral
particle either more or less susceptible to
concentration. Activators e.g. copper sulfate,
lead nitrate, lead acetate Depressants e.g.
sodium cyanide, zinc sulfate
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Chemical Separation

• Cyanide leaching for gold
• at pH 11
• Gold retrieved by Merrill Crowe (precipitation on
  zinc dust)
• or Carbon in Pulp (CIP) process
• Roaster oxidizes sulphide to SO2
• Releases metal for refining and SO2 to the
  atmosphere unless scrubbers are in place

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Smelting

• Separates remaining silicates from metals
• Slag (molten silicates) pored off
• Metal pored into bars or sent for final
  electochemical refining