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I wanted to determine the mineral depositional type at the area marked with green (Maran, Pahang - Central Belt of Peninsular Malaysia). The regional geology study shows the mineral deposition of this area is mainly in metasediment. There are 2 mines nearby the study area which are the RED and the PURPLE. I wonder is it possible to determine the mineral depositional type of my study area based on the nearby deposition type?
RED - Skarn type deposits copper mine (Au is very less)
PURPLE - VHMS type deposits gold mine
ORANGE - Normal fault (NW - SE trend) associate with serial of synclines (NE - SW trend)
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Of course...that is how scientific exploration works. Otherwise you have to keep re-inventing the wheel. The real question is not "type" but what you say about it. I attach a little "cartoon" I made regarding a major porphyry copper deposit in Chile. Having proposed a coherent geological mechanism involving a mine and a process...in this case copper bearing magmatism associated a proposed tectonic detachment feature, now I try to tie local deposits together. They may all be different types but they might fit into a larger process that you can use to predict or explain. You might find skarns here and dikes there or the remnants of a leakage pattern in a "fault" but they are part of a whole...assuming, of course the respective age dating allows it.
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The effects of fluorine on the cycling of calcium, magnesium, and potassium in pine plantations of Eastern North Carolina.
Author: Wheeler, Garland Laurin, 1941-
Published: Raleigh, N. C., 1972.
Description: 67 ¾. illus. 29 cm.
Format: Theses and Dissertations
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Yes.
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Is there any information about the average stripping ratio of open pit mines around the world?
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We often would use of rule of thumbs but always dependent on a lot of things and hence the ~~SR will always be based on economics and real costs etc.
That said in South Africa we wouldn't expect to see a coal mine operate above a SR of 7BCM to 1tcoal. Hardrock would be in the region of 12t:1t but when Platinum was booming we say SR as high as 20:1.
Just a comment to add to the discussion
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The dramatic tumble in the prices of metals found the industry vulnerable to react. Capex were downsized and operations suffered from slim down plans. Exports, investment, employments and salaries adjusted to the new levels. However, the discussion about the factors behind this fall deserves a further and deep analysis. Please, help me to compile data, papers and articles on this issue.
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The only thing that made this last cycle unusual is that it had a longer duration (?8 or 9 years) than several previous cycles (e.g. the early 1980s gold boom, mid 1980s boom that was terminated with the  Wall Street Crash (1987), mid 1990s etc - these generally lasted around 5 years or so). Please note that some of the older cycles had a duration longer than the last cycle (e.g the cycle up to the end of WW1 (copper, tin, tungsten, iron etc - ?15-18 years), and the 1960s cycle (iron ore, base and nickel - ?12 years) that terminated around 1973 or 1974 (in part driven by the Vietnam war and industrialization of Japan)).
Factors that lead to the longevity of this last cycle can be largely attributed to the rapid growth of China and to a lesser extent India, development of new technologies (mobile phones, solar panels etc) and increased consumerism from Africa. It seems to me that the global financial crisis (2008) was largely felt by the USA and Europe both areas where growth is low. 
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I would like to check with relevant literature and/or econometric works how the consumption of minerals has been estimated and whether the industry takes its decisions driven by them. Any suggestion will be highly welcomed.
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Thanks Donald and Kenneth, future demand of minerals seems to be a key issue. Higher incomes increase the consumption of technological goods made from minerals. They also demand further infrastructure and energy.
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Little info:
-These grains have been tested in the SEM with the EDAX attachment and the data reads as the following (on average):
20 - 25 wt. % Na, 20 wt. % Zn, 20 wt. % S, 5 wt. % Au
The rest of the total 100% is oxygen and carbon with trace elements filling up the rest.
This is an incredibly high amount of gold and I'm pretty sure that it is some kind of ZnS sphalerite, but the amount of Na is seriously throwing me off.
-p.s. the grains I'm talking about are the lighter grays with inclusions of some metal I'm unsure of.
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I agree with Harry, the mineral is sphalerite, but there is an overlap between  NaKa 1.041eV and Zn La 1.009eV, and overlap between Au Ma 2.123eV and SKa 2.308eV SkB which need to be resolved and give you this high Na vlaue
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Gypsum being mineral in nature and mined from limited area in India, its availability n future will no longer be the same as it was in the past. Therefore there is an urgent need to find out an alternative to mineral gypsum and standardize the agro-techniques for its use on sodic soils.Your comments and suggestions on this are invited.
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Dear Dr. Sarwan Kumar Dubey,
You will find a lot of Research results following this link on the subject.
Concerning Commercial Products, you could be very well informed contacting one of my colleagues in the industry, With this e-mail address:  Magne Dastol <magnedastol@gmail.com>.  He has a lot of experience from Asia, working many years in China.
Best regards,
,Dr. Karl-Jan Erstad
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Coal Mining, Ground control
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Your question is intriguing and also needs to be addressed from practical and visual investigations as well, which provide some wonderful signs of impending dangers. Roof falls are major concern for any underground mining professional. It may be interesting to note that several hours before a major fall in one of the UG coal mines, we could hear very low intensity noise from the roof before its final collapse. Also, many times by tapping the roof with an overman's wooden rod, the roof gives a husky sound instead of its characteristic sharp sound. The sides may show the signs of spalling. Also, many a times, I could witness sudden increase in water seepage from roof. Supports (timber) were also observed to buckle.
Coming to your concerns, if RMR rating is high, we can go for expansion in roof exposure area with a limited confidence,though. Cover depth definitely enhances the chance of roof fall. Hence, we need to strike an optimization among cover depth, RMR rating and the span or maximum exposure area.
Furthermore, the borehole logs of the districts, if available, should be thoroughly scrutinized for studying the nature of immediate roof layers. Acoustic emissions from the roof need to be also studied. Also, wherever possible the convergence recorders should be used in addition to seismic studies.
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Department of Mining at Tallinn University of Technology is preparing proposals for Horizon 2020 calls and is ready to be partner also in other mining related proposals.
Department of Mining prepares applications for following calls:
SC5-11d-2015 - EC link: Topic: New sustainable exploration technologies and geomodels
Department of Mining is looking forward to be partner in following or related calls:
SC5-13c-2015 - EC link: Topic: Innovation friendly minerals policy framework
SC5-13e-2015 - EC link: Topic: Raw materials intelligence capacity
SC5-13f-2015 - EC link: Topic: Strategic international dialogues and cooperation with raw materials producing countries and industry
EO-2-2015 - EC link: Topic: Stimulating wider research use of Copernicus Sentinel Data
Department of Mining prepares applications for following calls under Central Baltic and Baltic Sea Programme:
CB - More exports by the Central Baltic companies to new markets and other Mining related priorities
BSR - Efficient management of natural resources and other Mining related priorities
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Hi Veiko,
I am interested in  SC5-13f-2015 - EC link: Topic: Strategic international dialogues and cooperation with raw materials producing countries and industry.
Hope you are well and greetings,
Vladimir
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It is too difficult to do surface mining statistics of the one county but at country level I think it is more easy (many data?). Please, help me, I am blocked in my research.
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I know only four authors but they are not enough.
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I'd like to know if there is a software to estimate the grade of an element by means of petrographic microscope avoiding tedious and time-consuming modal analysis.
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Yes, Image J is useful to obtain areas on selected areas but there are two negatives to this approach for modal analysis. One is that it may take some time to set the threshold to measure many different minerals, and in my experience, they would have to be measured grain by grain, which takes time and you have to be sure you have not made duplicate measurements or missed some grains. The second and maybe more significant aspect is that modal analyses from thin sections may not provide a true modal analysis but is biased by the very small area of a thin section. Reliable modal analysis can really only be obtained by SEM-based quantitative image analysis, preferably done on sized crushed carefully split samples that are reconciled to bulk chemistry with XRD information. I realize this does not help you when using just a petrographic microscope but you should be aware of the limitations of only using thin sections, no matter the measurement technique. For more information see my 2012 Discussion note and the 2013 presentation I made in Duluth.
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Why do people hate mining when mining is the way to source mineral resources for improving our modern civilization? How should mining be done for a better situation?
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They do not see connection between mining and end products they consume. They blame miners for environmental impact and not their growing demand for goods they need which contain excavated minerals – e.g. energy, buildings, electronics etc. In Poland maybe also because of simply envy - true and false material and non material privileges such as higher income (almost twice us much as the average salary), earlier retirement, higher prestige connected with frequent distinction for hard work, belonging to separate and closed group of people with own tradition and specialized knowledge and much higer influence on politicians due their organisation, determination and strong pressure.
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The prices of rare earth element has dropped during last year, I cant find the data of its variation during last year specifically after crazy increase after China's limitations in exports since 2007. I'm seeking for reasons of this drop too.
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Do anyone have a long time-series of databases on the rare earths element price of the world?