The spatial distribution of heavy minerals along the mine paths 2014 and 2015 at the wet concentrate plant B shows an increase of heavy minerals sand concentration northwards and slime contents southwards, and it is commonly associated with depth and grain sorting; the increase of heavy minerals concentration with depth is considered to be from the surface formed by Unit 6 to the bottom of Unit 7. The Unit 82 is characterized by low heavy minerals concentrations and high slime contents declining northwards. The mineral proportion estimation suggests that ilmenite is the most abundant heavy mineral in the entire area followed by zircon, rutile and mozanite, and some accessory minerals such as chromite, kyanite, staurolite, tourmaline, epidote, spinel and quartz. The ilmenite occurrence is divided into ilmenite low (< 53% TiO₂) and high (> 53% TiO₂); the ilmenite high with zircon and rutile shows tendency to increase northwards while ilmenite low increase southwards. Zircon, monazite, rutile, chromite, kyanite and staurolite show low variability, which is probably associated with high resistance of minerals for abrasion during transportation and diagenesis. The depositional model of the Namalope deposit, in the flat area and wet concentrate plant B in particular, suggests deposition in a shallow marine environment associated with regression for deposition of Unit 6, 7 and 9 and transgression during deposition of Unit 82. The spatial distribution of heavy minerals in the Namalope deposit and its environment of deposition are the key points for discovery of new deposits around the Namalope with the same characteristic of mineral assemblage and they are used for mine strategic plans such as update block model and mine design.

Diplom thesis discusses a question of influence of mineral resources on politics and economics in chosen countries of Sub-Saharan Africa. The paradox of low economic development of many resource rich countries significantly engaged in international trade is often discussed by economic experts. I decided to focus on Sub-Saharan Africa because I consider this region to be unable to fully use its potential for economic development despite being very rich in natural resources.Target of this thesis is to find out which natural resources exist in chosen countires, how the countries manage them, how successfull their economic development is, which problems they currently handle and how their current situation is related to their historic, cultural and politic background. For the purpose of my thesis I have chosen Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo and Botswana.

M.Sc. / Coal mining is a mature industry and plays a vital part in the economy and development of South Africa. Coal mining however is a temporary use of land. Historically, when an ore body was exhausted, production ceased and mines were boarded up and abandoned. Today mine closure requires the return of land to a viable and sustainable post-mining land use but a number of challenges are associated with mine reclamation. One of the greatest challenges is the inability of mines in South Africa to return mined land to its pre-mining state or land capability. The minimization of loss of land use capability and equally soil resource is a key part in achieving success in mine reclamation. This study verifies and assesses the replaced soil depth and actual post-mining land capability at a surface coal mine in Mpumalanga province, according to the Chamber of Mines “Guidelines for the rehabilitation of mined land” (2007). Five of the seven reclaimed sites within the study area exceeded the planned land capability proportions determined during the pre-mining stage. A top soil balance done at the end of January 2010 however indicates that the available volume of soil resource at the mine will not suffice the amount needed to achieve the planned land capability in areas not yet reclaimed. It is suggested that the lack of an adequate soil monitoring and management strategy in the past, has led to the shortfall of the available soil resource at the mine. The soil monitoring and reconciliation strategy developed will hopefully assist mine managers and rehabilitation planners to prevent further soil loss at the mine.

The deep seabed polymetallic nodules are one the major types of deep-sea ore resources. Oceanic deposits of these raw materials represent a potential source of numerous metals that are in short supply on the land-base deposits at the nearest future. The process of geological survey to the deep ocean floor is considered to be an onset of a quantitatively new stage in the process of mineral resource extraction. Continuation of the on-going work on polymetallic nodule deposits within the Clarion-Clipperton Zone is regarded as a serious task to be undertaken over a period until the year 2025, with a due consideration to advance in designing of an efficient mining unit and application of modern processing technologies for extraction of major metals : manganese, nickel, cobalt and copper. A prerequisite of a rational management of oceanic resources is the preservation of natural oceanic environment. Considered is the extraction's profitability of a concrete deposit within the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, which is the exploration area of the IOM, with annual production scale of 2.2 Mt of wet nodules for the year 2025.

Essa dissertação é um trabalho na área de geoestatística aplicada à avaliação de recursos minerais. Esta aplicação pode ser considerada o passo anterior à avaliação das reservas minerais. Os conceitos básicos são fundamentados na geoestatística atual, com amplo uso de recursos de informática. O objetivo principal foi de testar a técnica da krigagem com deriva externa na avaliação de recursos minerais, principalmente no que tange o ganho de resultado com a utilização de mais de uma variável, ou seja, verificar se o uso de variáveis auxiliares pode ser feito de maneira amigável com bom custo/benefício. Foram escolhidos dois depósitos, com geologias distintas entre si, um depósito de metal base com minério saprolítico e outro depósito de calcário. Em cada um foram selecionadas duas variáveis, uma variável principal e outra secundária, no depósito laterítico as variáveis foram \'SiO IND.2\' e Fe e no depósito de calcário as variáveis foram CaO e \'SiO IND.2\'. Foi elaborada a modelagem tridimensional dos depósitos no programa Datamine. Os modelos foram transferidos para o programa Isatis e serviram como base para a estimativa das variáveis. Essa modelagem foi necessária para que se pudesse dar aos blocos estimados a geometria do corpo do minério. A estimativa por krigagem com deriva externa foi comparada à krigagem ordinária, essa comparação serviu para mensurar as diferenças em relação a um método tradicional amplamente usado e divulgado com outro pouco utilizado, ou mesmo difundido. Os resultados mostraram pequenas diferenças entre os blocos estimados por krigagem com deriva externa e por krigagem ordinária. Porém como na mineração podem ocorrer situações de sub-amostragem, por diversos fatores, pode-se afirmar que a krigagem com deriva externa é uma alternativa válida, pois demanda menos esforço na estimativa multivariada do que, por exemplo, a cokrigagem ordinária. / This dissertation is a work on applied geostatistics to evaluation of mineral resources. This application can be considered as the last step to such the task. The basic concepts are based on current geostatistics, with extensive use of informatics resources. The first goal of this work was to test the technique named kriging with external drift in the evaluation of mineral resources, concerning to the resulting gain in the use of more than one variable, mainly whether the use of auxiliary variables con be done in a friendly way. Two deposits were chosen with different geology, a deposit of base metal saprolitic ore and another deposit of limestone. In each deposit two variables were selected, the principal and secondary variable, at lateritic deposit variables were respectively \'SiO IND.2\' and Fe and at the deposit of limestone were CaO and \'SiO IND.2\'. The three-dimensional modeling of the deposits was made in the software Datamine. The models were transferred to the software Isatis and used as the base for interpolate variables. This model was necessary in the way to print in the estimated blocks the geometry of the ore body. Estimates by kriging with external drift was compared to ordinary kriging, ones this comparison was done to measure the differences between a traditional method widely used to another underutilized, or even non widespread. Results showed minor differences between the blocks estimated by bolth methods. But as in mining sub-sampling can occur from several factors, one can say that the kriging with external drift is a reliable alternative since it requires less effort to perform multivariate estimation than those, for example, to perform the ordinary cokriging.

Department of Mining and Environmental Geology / MESC

MENVSC / Department of Geography and Geo-Information Sciences

Department of Sociology / MA (Industrial Sociology)

MESMEG / Department of Mining and Environmental Geology / The future of energy in South Africa depends on coal as it is one of the cheapest and most affordable sources of energy; however, some of the coal is uneconomical to mine due to the thickness and depth of the coal seams. For many years the coal resources of the Soutpansberg Coalfield remained untapped and limitedly researched and with the coal resources running out in the other coalfields, the Soutpansberg Coalfield remained the bright coalfield of tomorrow in South Africa. Coal seams in the Soutpansberg Coalfield occur within the Madzaringwe Formation. Three coal basins have been identified in this coalfield, are the Venda-Pafuri, Tshipise and Mopane. Sedimentological basin analysis of the coal stratigraphy and characterisation of the Soutpansberg Coalfield in the Makhado area, Limpopo Province was investigated within the farms of Rissik, Fannie, Duel, and Lurkin. The main purpose of the study was to establish the variation of the coal stratigraphy and how coal influenced the stratigraphy within the area. Fieldwork involved core logging and core sampling from the different farms within the Makhado coal area, while laboratory work included petrographic studies, investigation of the physical and chemical properties of coal. Core logging revealed the occurrence of coal zones where coal seams were intercalating with mudstones, but rarely with siltstone that formed the footwall of coal. Rarely was coal intruded by dolerite dyke as was the case along borehole W6610001. Core logging further revealed the sedimentary structures in the lithologies and the depth at which different lithologies were intersected. From these sedimentary structures, the environment of coal deposition was deduced supported by the geochemical analysis of major oxides and trace elements. Correlation of boreholes along the strike showed that the shale and mudrock were the predominant rocks within the coal horizon leading to the conclusion that these were the coal host rocks. Whole rock geochemical analysis was undertaken, using X-Ray Fluorescence Spectroscopy in order to establish the rock types and their trace element contents. The collected samples were analysed at the University of Venda, Department of Mining and Environmental Geology Laboratory, Siza Coal Services in Secunda and Council for Geoscience. The study indicated that the coal seams of the Soutpansberg Coalfield were deposited within the floodplain of a mixed-load fluvio-deltaic (fluvial and braided) systems. This sedimentary channel has been the major influence on the development of the coal seams. Locational changes in sedimentary facies above and below the coal seams within the study area has caused variations in the rates of compaction and subsidence which influenced the coal basin morphology and the coalification pattern. These two parameters (variations in the rates of compaction and subsidence) controlled the coal quality parameters, and coal seam thickness as well as the coal composition. The study confirmed that coal quality and thickness vary markedly from place to place in this coalfield due to varying local depositional environments. Most of the drill holes intersected mainly 3 coal seams, although in some cases either 2 or 5 seams were intersected. The thickest coal seam (borehole F578002) was 8 m. It was concluded that the coal was sub-bituminous to bituminous coal rank class (medium-volatile bituminous coal rank class). The coal had low moisture content ranging from 0.7-0.8%, and ash content ranging from 21.4-32%. The fixed carbon and volatile matter values of the coal samples ranged from 42.5 to 50.4% and from 25.2 to 27.4% respectively. The carbon and hydrogen were the main principal combustible elements in coal, however; carbon is the predominant one based on weight, constituting about 5.3% (the lowest) to 70.3% (highest) of the total. Due to the nature and thickness of the coal seams we conclude that this coal was economical to be mined and can be used for electricity generation and in cement grinding plants. A graph of coal gas concentrations over combustion time showed that methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) had high gas concentrations, amounting to 1.75% and 1.70% respectively. / NRF

Map of mineral resources of the Tennessee Valley Region published in 1970 by the Tennessee Valley Authority, Division of Water Control Planning. Compiled from published reports, maps, and file data of the state geological organizations, the U.S. Geologic Survey, and the U.S. Bureau of Mines; and from information furnished by companies producing mineral commodities in the region. A detailed legend on the bottom quarter of the map denotes fuels, construction materials, nonmetals, and metals. Notes of the particular area surrounding Carthage, Tennessee are also included in the lower right corner. Physical copy resides in the Government Information, Law and Maps Department of East Tennessee State University’s Sherrod Library. Scale - 1" = 10 miles. / https://dc.etsu.edu/rare-maps/1042/thumbnail.jpg