Abstract

Mineral resources and mineralogy mining science, technology, and engineering; industrial mining; mining equipment; geological materials; metallic materials; and exploration and mining geology. Present in new technologies to enhance discovery of mineral resources.

Keywords

Minerals, Technology, Engineering, Mining equipment.

1. INTRODUCTION

A new era focused on continuous improvement in tackling key sustainable development parameters has come and is intensifying. In order to maintain the social licenses needed to enlist broad public support for mining businesses, continued progress must be visible to national, provincial, and local governments as well as the people who live in the areas blessed with the mineral resources that the global economy and growing population will demand.

To be sure, serious challenges against the permitting of mining operations will be made by certain constituents of society in most countries. To counteract these challenges, the industry must continue its progress on all fronts, and more importantly prevent the failures that compromise the sustainable development principles and threaten the social licenses to do business. Numerous global mining companies, for example, are dedicated to working with the citizens in areas where mining investments are likely to occur, and the majority of the citizens understand the nature of the business and that great progress has been made and will continue. Continuing the progress is the challenge that will require the help of engineering and science researchers working with industry.

Mineral resources and mineralogy mining science, technology, and engineering; industrial mining; mining equipment; geological materials; metallic materials; and exploration and mining geology. Present in new technologies to enhance discovery of mineral resources, more refined methods to evaluate the feasibility of mineral projects, new energy-efficient technologies for mining or processing, significant steps in equipment and mining system automation to help drive greater productivity and higher levels of safety and health, new tools for modelling geological materials and ways to integrate support systems to stabilize post-extraction geologic structures, and better ways to control the interaction of water with minerals that could cause adverse environmental impacts.

The industry has realized tremendous advances in technology and applied science; has met changing and more stringent environmental performance criteria; has made remarkable reductions in fatality, illness, and lost-time accident rates; and has connected better than ever before with the communities in which mining, milling, and smelting are housed. Industrial minerals are valued for their physical and chemical properties that make them so useful for so many products, and their price is driven by market demand for these items rather than by commodities exchange markets. Manufacturing, agriculture, and in particular the recovering construction and housing markets, are contributing to market growth for these minerals. Market demand for industrial minerals also influences how they are mined. Industrial minerals are extracted primarily by surface mining, which is less expensive than underground mining. Industrial minerals are typically mined from existing sites or areas that are close to infrastructure as their price usually doesn’t justify the cost of building up the infrastructure needed to explore a new site.