Geology and Economics

During our Job shadow at Polymet, Austin, Brianna, and I kept hearing that we should have a talk with the geologist, Rich, and that it would be a very interesting conversation. Well on Wednesday afternoon we got the chance to talk with him. We started by asking what he did for the mine planning and about what geologists do in general. It started out as a decent presentation but then evolved into a conversation that blew our minds. It was very difficult to wrap our heads around some of the ideas and calculations that go into geology and the geologic aspect of mine planning. We talked about the sample drilling, and how they use that information to guess what is going on underneath the ground. If the geologist is looking for fault lines, the drilling needs to be done at an angle into the ground so they can mark the bottom of it to tell how it was orientated in the ground. Then we talked about how they use this information to create a 3 dimensional model of where the ore is. This is a block model, but instead of displaying ore content it tells you the value in dollars. Each block is labeled with a price per ton of collectible ore. We also now know that this information is fed into a computer program that creates a plan for the order in which it is best to take out the ore. But even with all that, the most interesting part is when you start talking about the cutoff value. After they pull the ore out of the ground they have to decide whether to bring it to the processing plant or to put it in a waste rock stockpile. This is decided by looking at not only the amount of ore in the block but what market prices are doing. I found out that geologists and engineers in general need to know a lot more about economics than I thought. All three of us learned a lot from that meeting and had our heads spinning afterward.

Proofed by Brianna

Environmental Impact Public Meeting

Tonight Brianna, Andrew, and I attended the public hearing down in Blaine about the opening of the precious metal mine, Polymet. It was held at the Schwann Center, consisting of an open house that ran from five to seven, and a presentation beginning shortly thereafter. Among those to speak were the DNR, Sen. Tomassoni, Sen. Bakk, and Rep. Rukavina. The open house had various booths including mine waste management, water, air, mercury, wildlife, socioeconomic impact, and a whole assortment of other topics; each of them having an expert in those areas to explain the concerns and give a plan to the next proposed course of action. The presentation discussed the first draft of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). There were two main topics involved in it, what Polymet projects to do in the project to handle environmental issues, and other alternative options that need to be considered, which were provided by the DNR. The place was packed, causing many people to have to stand. Powerful speeches from the two Senators and Representative, subdued the protest to a minimum level. The hearing overall went very well for Polymet and the Iron Range supporters from up North. There are some alternatives that still need to be examined and studied before the project is given the green light, but is now one more step closer to becoming a reality.

Proofed by: Brianna

UTac Job Shadow

The last few days I have been at UTac job shadowing a Mechanical Engineer that works in Business Improvement. Business Improvement is the Lean Six Sigma section of Cliffs. The projects that they do are to improve efficiency, safety, and basically anything else. When the Black Belts start a project, they have written process that they follow. The first step is to define the problem statement. Once they have done that, they figure out the business effects and what opportunities the company has by completeling the project. The next step is to go into the field and gather data. They use the data to calculate how much money the company will save by completing the project. The next step is to bring the project to a meeting to decide whether or not the project is worth it. If the project gets approved then the Black Belt assembles a team. The team usually consists of the workplace owner, direct supervisor, and a couple of workers affected by the problem. The team meets and brainstorms ideas to improve the area. Having the people that work directly in the problem area on the team is important because they usually have the best ideas to fix the problem. The team comes up with a solution and they implement the project. It was really neat to get a first-hand look at this because we had a day of training with the Business Improvement information and I got to see actual projects that involve it. Overall, it gave me a better understanding of Cliffs business improvement.

Proofed by Christine

Minnesota's Power

12/7/09: 7:10 a.m. At MN Power's Laskin Energy Center in Hoyt Lakes. Let's see how this thing is put together.

Facts: Produces 110,000 kilo-volts of power
Lower-sulfur, sub-bituminous coal generating station
Two power generating units are rated for 55 megawatts each

What a sight to see. One D-9 cat pushing coal into a grizzly hopper/reclaim unit. The coal gets a ride on a belt system into the plant after it is pulverized into a fine powder. The fine powder is produced by a massive steel rotating wheel that is located in the drum house. The pressurized system then forces the coal and air powder into the two boiler units, one for each steam turbine. The Pre-igniter units combust the fuel air mixture and swirl the ferocious updraft inferno up and out the exhaust exchangers. The inferno super heats the water lines in the boiler, this water goes to a chamber between two rotating drums allowing the water to instantly evaporate into steam. The steam is fused into the the main throttle unit on each Westinghouse turbine. Wickets allow the transfer of this energy from the high pressure side to the low pressure side, spinning a generator to create power. A step-up transformer ends the power distribution cycle by increasing the voltage to transfer long distances through transmission lines.

What a great start to the week. A employer that treats its employees well. Employees that love there job and as a result create a positive learning environment. I seen much more today I cannot describe. I learned much more that I thought would be dry and boring. I was wrong, very wrong... I cannot wait to see what the rest of the week has to offer.

Proofed by: Alex and Austin

North Shore Mining Job Shadow

Today was my first day of job shadowing Mike Jonson at North Shore Mining. The first thing we did was drive to the dump building to take some measurements. Several levels below ground level, there was a broken jib. A jib is basically a beam that is hinged to the wall, and used to swing a load from one area to another. This particular jib was rated for 2 tons. Last week someone decided to use the jib to move a 10,000 pound load. This caused more force than the anchor bolts could handle, and pulled them out of the concrete wall. Our job was to find a way to re-attach the jib in the same place and make it more reliable. To do this, we decided we needed to bolt an I-beam to the wall, and fasten the jib to the I-beam. This meant we needed to do some beam analysis. We found what moment of inertia would be needed to support the load, then look through the beam bible to find the most efficient beam. We ended up picking a w6x15 beam because it was the smallest beam that could hold the load, with a factor of safety of 5. But then, Mike remembered that the bolt pattern on the jib was 8 inches. This caused us to look at the possibilities for an 8 inch beam. The smallest 8 inch beam was a w8x31, which was more than 5X stronger than the 6 inch beam. Also, it more than doubled the weight and cost of the beam, but eliminated the waste of man hours, fab costs, and material costs that would have been required to mate the jib to the 6 inch beam.

Throughout the day we looked at many projects and solved lots of problems. It was a good learning experience for the both of us, considering Mike had never seen a Voyage 200.

Proofed by: Cory Moran

Hibbing Taconite Job Shadow

This morning, at the bright and early time of 7 a.m., Dan and I started a week of job shadowing at Hibbing Taconite. We are shadowing quite a variety of Cliffs Natural Resources engineers. For the first half of the week, I am shadowing plant engineering. My time is split between Todd Pocquette--electrical engineer and head of plant engineering, and Bill Janicki--mechanical engineer. Dan is shadowing in the concentrating department with Jon Eng--reliability engineer. At mid week, Dan and I will switch, so we can get a better understanding of the diversity of the different engineering positions in just a week.

The first day went very well. We started with a short safety video on Hibbing Taconite operations, and shortly thereafter, Dana Koth led us on a very informative tour from which we gained a good understanding of the site and site operations. At the end of the tour, Dan and I split to begin our shadowing. After a very jam packed day, our heads were spinning with the new knowledge and excitement of the projects to come. Look for an update on our projects later in the week.

Proofed by Bill and Dan

Coleraine Minerals Research Lab

Today we attended Coleraine Minerals Research Lab to learn more about the mining process. Our teacher was a retired geologist who had seen almost all of the mining processes ever used, including those that are still being used today. It was very interesting to hear about how efficient the process has become over the years. Most of the tailing piles that can be seen across the Iron Range, actually contain valuable Taconite ore they are now working to extract. The way they used to mine entailed only going after the pure ore chunks that were in the ground below. Surrounding that ore was rock that only contained a percentage of the valuable material. They now are able to seperate the two using a slurry mix of the crushed minerals and a magnet that pulls the ore out, but back then they had to leave everything that wasn't pure for waste. They have actually went back to some of the piles to try remove the taconite, but due to oxidation (aka rust) most of the mineral isn't suitable to make pellets that hold their shape.

He also touched on the new projected mine, Polymet. The mine is going to try extract the copper and nickel that are embedded below the surface. He stated that many worry about the waste sulfuric materials becoming an environmental hazard, but using a metalurgical process and a newly available chemical they now have, he does not see it being a problem. Years ago when they drilled and attempted to mine the metals, they did not have the chemical they do now that will actually absorb the sulfuric gases out of the compounds leaving behind the nickel and copper along with other precious metals such as platinum. The chemical can then actually be used to fire the metal, this due to the flammability of the absorbed gases. I was still suprised to learn that only about ten percent of the material removed will be of value. It should be interesting to hear more about Polymet as Brianna, Andrew, and I job shadow there next week.

Proofed by Christine and Richie

Blandin Project Update & White Board Use

We have made significant progress on the Blandin project. Up-to-date: we have conceived many ideas for the hitch design and agreed on a current best solution, formed many ideas for hooking two carts together, created an interactive Excel Workbook that analyzes members of the cart, and modeled our current design in Pro/E.

Most of our design took place on a white board where we scribbled down ideas, erased, redrew, erased, redrew, and ended up with a final (or best at the time) design. When we go to record what we’ve done, all there is to record is our latest drawing. The problem with that is there isn’t any development of our design on paper—no starting point and improvements showing the design process.

The white boards are valuable tools, but they can hinder our ability to keep good records. I have found it more effective to limit the amount of work that is done on the boards and do more on paper. This will ensure that there is a reflective record of what has been done. It will also help provide evidence of the design process used and most importantly, it will provide a better reference to look back on.

Proofed by Austin and Christine