Province-scale commonalities of some world-class gold deposits:Implications for mineral exploration

Discovery rates for all metals, including gold, are declining, the cost per significant discovery is increasing sharply, and the economic situation of the industry is one of low base rate. The current hierarchical structure of the exploration and mining industry makes this situation difficult to redress. Economic geologists can do little to influence the required changes to the overall structure and philosophy of an industry driven by business rather than geological principles, However, it should be possible to follow the lead of the oil industry and improve the success rate of greenfield exploration, necessary for the next group of lower-exploration-spend significant mineral deposit discoveries. Here we promote the concept that mineral explorers need to carefully consider the scale at which their exploration targets are viewed. It is necessary to carefully assess the potential of drill targets in terms of terrane to province to district scale, rather than deposit scale, where most current economic geology research and conceptual thinking is concentrated. If orogenic, IRGD, Carlin-style and IOCG gold-rich systems are viewed at the deposit scale, they appear quite different in terms of conventionally adop- ted research parameters. However, recent models for these deposit styles show increasingly similar source-region parameters when viewed at the lithosphere scale, suggesting common tectonic settings. It is only by assessing individual targets in their tectonic context that they can be more reliably ranked in terms of potential to provide a significant drill discovery. Targets adjacent to craton margins, other lithosphere boundaries, and suture zones are clearly favoured for all of these gold deposit styles, and such exploration could lead to incidental discovery of major deposits of other metals sited along the same tectonic boundaries.

Some Challenges of Deep Mining

An increased global supply of minerals is essential to meet the needs and expectations of a rapidly rising world population. This implies extraction from greater depths. Autonomous mining systems, developed through sustained R＆D by equipment suppliers, reduce miner exposure to hostile work environments and increase safety. This places increased focus on ＂ground control＂ and on rock mechanics to define the depth to which minerals may be extracted economically. Although significant efforts have been made since the end of World War II to apply mechanics to mine design, there have been both technological and organizational obstacles. Rock in situ is a more complex engineering material than is typically encountered in most other engineering disciplines. Mining engineering has relied heavily on empirical procedures in design for thousands of years. These are no longer adequate to address the challenges of the 21st century, as mines venture to increasingly greater depths. The development of the synthetic rock mass （SRM） in 2008 provides researchers with the ability to analyze the deformational behavior of rock masses that are anisotropic and discontinuous-attributes that were described as the defining characteristics of in situ rock by Leopold Mfiller, the president and founder of the International Society for Rock Mechanics （ISRM）, in 1966. Recent developments in the numerical modeling of large-scale mining operations （e.g., caving） using the SRM reveal unanticipated deformational behavior of the rock. The application of massive parallelization and cloud computational techniques offers major opportunities： for example, to assess uncertainties in numerical predictions： to establish the mechanics basis for the empirical rules now used in rock engineering and their validity for the prediction of rock mass behavior beyond current experience： and to use the discrete element method （DEM） in the optimization of deep mine design. For the first time, mining-and rock engineering-will have its own mechanics-based Ulaboratory.＂ This promises to be a major tool in future planning for effective mining at depth. The paper concludes with a discussion of an opportunity to demonstrate the application of DEM and SRM procedures as a laboratory, by back-analysis of mining methods used over the 80-year history of the Mount Lvell Copper Mine in Tasmania.

Discussion on Nontraditional Mineral Resources

In this paper, the authors introduce the concept of nontraditional mineral resources, and propose the major system of nontraditional mineral resources, including nontraditional resources, research methods, mining and mineral economics. Then the authors conclude that the research on nontraditional mineral resources is not only significant to satisfication the human needs in the 21st century, but also important to the development of the present geological theory.

Integration system research and development for three-dimensional laser scanning information visualization in goaf

An integration processing system of three-dimensional laser scanning information visualization in goaf was developed. It is provided with multiple functions, such as laser scanning information management for goaf, cloud data de-noising optimization, construction, display and operation of three-dimensional model, model editing, profile generation, calculation of goaf volume and roof area, Boolean calculation among models and interaction with the third party soft ware. Concerning this system with a concise interface, plentiful data input/output interfaces, it is featured with high integration, simple and convenient operations of applications. According to practice, in addition to being well-adapted, this system is favorably reliable and stable.

Availability of Residual and/or Applied Inorganic Phosphorus for Sugarcane Uptake and Growth in a Post-Mined Reconstituted Soil

Mineral sands mining is worldwide an environmental issue and also at the Hillendale mine in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The post-mined soil is to be rehabilitated to sugarcane cropping. One of the concerns with the post-mined soil which is reconstituted with a 70:30 mixture of sand: slimes (silt-plus-clay fraction), is its low phosphorus (P) status, which could be limiting for optimum sugarcane production. A field experiment was conducted on a reconstituted soil at Hillendale to establish the availability of either residual or applied inorganic P to the plant and first ratoon sugarcane crop. Four treatments were evaluated including those where P fertilizer was omitted, applied at half the recommended rate or introduced equal to the recommended rate according to chemical analysis of the soil. In the fourth treatment, no fertilizer was applied at all, whereas nitrogen (N) and potassium (K) were added at recommended rates in the first three treatments. Phosphorus application had a significant effect on sugarcane fractional light interception and aboveground biomass yield of the plant and first ratoon crops, and stalk length and diameter of the first ratoon crop. Pol, brix, purity and fibre content and tiller number were not affected by P application. The application of P increased the foliar N, P, K, calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg) and sulphur (S) contents of both crops. However, foliar N, P and K were deficient in the first ratoon crop even in the case where fertilizer was applied at the recommended rates, which could have been because of waterlogging. The possible effect of waterlogging on P uptake needs to be addressed in future studies in this reconstituted soil.

Hainan to Promote the Exploration and Development of National Strategic Minerals and Prohibit the Mining of Rare Earth Metals

The Land and Resources Department of Hainan Province said on November 10 that the Overall Mineral Resources Plan of Hainan Province(2016-2020)(hereinafter referred to as the'Plan')has gone into effect with the approval of the Ministry of Land and Resources,and that the province will strongly promote the exploration and development of

Ministry of Land and Resources: To Strengthen Reserve of Key Ore Mines for Strategic Minerals

The Ministry of Land and Resources formally promulgated‘Outline of the'Thirteenth Five Year Plan'for Land and Resources’on August14.The'Outline'pointed out to,reinforce prospecting and protection of key mineral resources;improve orefield reserve mechanism,strengthen reserve of key orefields for strategic minerals such as tungsten,rare earth。

Study on International Development of Financial Asset Securitization:An Example of Mining Rights

Mining right asset securitization is a market financing pattern for mineral resources, and it is a creative application of financial asset securitization. Nowadays, because of world energy price decline, the world energy market is facing weak investment and financing sharply under pressure. Under this background, this paper aims at briefly commenting on the content, processes and impact of mining right asset securitization, understanding the international mining right asset securitization specific practices, and then combining the situation of China(Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone so as to give advice for the development of mining right asset securitization in China. For instance, mineral mining rights and expenses system design are not clear, so the mineral values do not reflect their true costs and the need to speed up market credit system construction.