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"Genius is the Gold in the mine,
Talent is the miner who
work to bring it out"
Maruirette Gardner-Countess of
Blessington
Best wishes for
a Happy New Year
Global Melt-down and mining industry
The euphoria has been short lived with the demands
either disappearing or slowing down and commodity prices not matching
expectations. China’s demands and globalization had brought in fringe
players with threshold deposits into the focus but the present crisis
could as well ease out many fringe players and shut down threshold
deposits. But this is also looked upon as an opportunity to shed
overweight and clean up houses which under normal circumstances deemed
difficult. No urgency is therefore seen for implementation of projects
in place or go in for
capacity expansions either.
The blurb says that this series is intended as a general
outline and "user friendly". This is more than that.
The
Primer divided into four parts is fairly exhaustive and very
informative, covering a wide range from types of ore deposits,
exploration methods, sampling and assaying as well as mining
methods.. The full primer is in PDF format.
"Hydrofracing" and Horizontal drilling
The focus is now on the development of
horizontal wells using
hydrofracing technology where water mixed with sand and
chemicals is pumped at high pressure to fracture the rock and
release the gas. While this process is considered efficient and
safe the issues of sourcing, and handling the “flowback” water
is getting serious attention due to the necessity to
source huge amounts of water and handle the flowback which
is contaminated and look at the
whole issue in a larger scale of protection to watersheds.
As in the case of Marcellus, The Susquehanna River Basin
Commission has already initiated regulatory measures. While the
implications and remedial measures are getting in place, methods
like “closed loop system”, which handles the processing, and
recycling of the water at site are being developed.
related:
Horizontal drilling Horizontal and
vertical well production
How Oil And Gas Wells Are Drilled Horizontally
A spokesman from the Department of
Geological Mines and Surveys, Uganda
confirms issuing licenses to Ugaruss Trading House Ltd,
Russia. The venture involves mining and exporting tantalite, tin
ore and other minerals and initially covers parts of Mbarara and
areas near Uganda-Tanzania border. Uganda is looking to tap the
mineral potential in the Country and is seriously engaged in
exploration.
more at: Investing in
Uganda’s mineral sector
Map from Geology.com Mineral
wealth of Uganda
Caterpillar working together with
Computer scientists from
Carnegie Mellon
University plans to completely
automate its largest truck. The truck equipped with
necessary software is capable of haul loads up to 240 tons is
powered by a 3,550-horsepower, 24-valve engine will have a robot
at the wheel. The truck will be designed to move up to 42 miles
per hour.