ACADEMIC YEAR 2021-2022 A newsletter for friends and supporters of the Department of Mining Engineering
Mining Engineering
Mining Students at MinExpo 2021
Welcome to our 2021 Mining Engineering Department Newsletter. We have had a very good year, despite the many challenges and complications from the COVID pandemic. This issue has a bit of something for everybody with news on faculty and students, and updates on various programs in the Department. Below is an update on some of the major initiatives that we are advancing to increase enrollment in our undergraduate program and make mining and our department more attractive to students: Recruiting & Marketing: Currently we have 85 undergraduates. Our target for increasing the number of undergraduates by 2024 is around 120, which can be accommodated within the current size of our faculty and our existing classroom and laboratory infrastructure. Approximately 25% of the 1,250 to 1,450 incoming freshman every year are undeclared, and many of the other students change their major at least once. So, we are in the middle of a search for an outreach coordinator to help us tell the story about mining and recruit more of our awesome incoming and undecided students. Mining Scholars Program: We would like to increase the number of undergraduate scholarships such that at least 70% of our students are supported by a scholarship or grant. Since Fall 2020, 10 donors have added the Mining Engineering Department to their estate gift, we have had gifts of $5,000 or more from 26 companies/individuals, and we continue to increase the number of new scholarships. We are profoundly thankful to those of you who have contributed! But we have a long way to go to reaching our 70% target. Dale Gaubatz, Mines’ Director of Admissions tells me that a $2500/yr scholarship is meaningful to an in-state student and that a $5,000/yr scholarship is meaningful to an out-of-state or international student. This because it defers the need for a student to take on a part-time job, either on or off campus, to help defray costs and allows them more time to study. So, please consider contributing to the Mining Scholars Program in your charitable giving planning in 2022. Mining Student Signature Experience: We continue to provide a distinctive experience for students in our programs. This includes hands-on education, visiting mining operations, attending conferences, and experiential learning opportunities while providing opportunities to meet with industry influencers and developing their own leadership skills. Over the last year, we have been focused on formalizing opportunities for internships and Co-Op experiences, revising our summer field sessions and student fieldtrip program, and sending our students to MinExpo and AEMA this Fall, and to SME, ISEE, and other conferences this Spring. Going forward, we have a lot more to consider that can expand our Mining Student Signature Experience and be attractive to more students. This includes: facilitating field trips to area mines for undecided freshmen, funding professional work experiences for freshman and sophomores at the Edgar, EMI, and EMCIS who are unable to secure internships, providing skill development and coaching for freshmen and sophomores regarding professional conduct, behavior, interview skills, and exposure to industry professionals, developing summer field camps for 14-18 year old students in explosives, space resources, and underground/surface mining, and formalizing relationships with Colorado’s Community Colleges as a path to department admittance. The most important event happening early this Spring semester is the one-day, 2022 #idigmines day of giving event on February 2, 2022. This year, we are focused on continuing to fund the Mining Student Signature Experience initiative. We are particularly grateful to Tim ’87 and Mary Haddon who will again be providing $25,000 matching gift challenge to the Department of Mining Engineering. To learn more about the 2022 #idigmines campaign, visit our website. Thanks so much to our students, faculty, alumni, industry partners, friends and supporters who make our program so outstanding. My education at Mines has had a profound positive impact on my life, my family, the companies I have worked for, and the communities in which I have lived. I trust that your association with us has been just as valuable. Mining, it’s in our name – we are the Colorado School of Mines!
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Message from the Mining Engineering Department Head
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Dr. M. Stephen Enders Class of 1976 senders@mines.edu
4......................................................................................................................................Quick Bits 6..................................................................................................................................EMI Updates 7..................................................................................................................................EMCIS News 8................................................................................................................Kroll Institute Updates 9............................................................................................................The Tailings Center News 10.......................................................................Mining Engineering Student Groups Updates 14...........................................................................................Mining Engineering Faculty News
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From the Department Head
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ColoradoSchoolofMines Mining Engineering Department 1600 Illinois Street Golden, CO 80401 303-273-3700 MINING.MINES.eDU Academic year 2021/2022 A newsletter for friends & supporters of the Mining Engineering Department at Colorado School of Mines MAILING/DELIVERY ADDRESS: 1600 Illinois Street Brown Hall 239 Golden, CO 80401
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Mining@Mines.edu
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Quick bits
Army portal with equipment
Quick Bits
Quick Bits, continued...
Welcome, Banu!
Sare Banu Yigitbas, our new Research Admininstrator, holds both an Engineering Degree and an Engineering Management Master Degree from Istanbul Technical University/Turkey. She holds a second Master Degree in Finance from University of Colorado-Denver. After college, she worked at Unisys in Istanbul/Turkey as a Planning and Purchasing Specialist. In 1995, she and her husband moved to Denver and she started to work at International Process Systems as an accountant and purchasing specialist. She is married and has two sons and one sweet cat name Candy. She enjoys outdoor activities, travel, cooking, and family time.
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New 2-Cubic yard LHD loader
Photo from a recent visit with researchers from Picatinny Arsenal taken at the ERL
Mines Explosives Research Lab Mines Explosives Research Laboratory has taken tremendous steps forward this last year! We have inventoried both the outdoor blast site and the indoor blast laboratory, we have cleaned up and repaired equipment, and written numerous research proposals that are now pending review. We have also hired many talented undergraduate and graduate students, and one postdoctoral scholar, that are now working with us on several different research projects. One project, which located in our blast laboratory in BB120 on campus, is on advanced manufacturing through direct ink writing of composite high explosives. Currently, we are printing with inert materials but will soon transition to energetic materials. It has been a lot of fun learning how to design our own printer, control its capabilities and setting up in-site monitoring of the print using smart solutions and off-the-shelf components to match what our national laboratory collaborators can do. In another project we are studying the interaction of multiple shock waves with other shocks or structures. For this experiment, we use a high-voltage exploding wire setup meaning that even our undergraduate students — after proper training — can investigate shock-shock interactions without needing to use explosives. If you are interested in what we are up to or to learn more about our future short courses, please take a look at our website or reach out to Dr Eliasson directly. We look forward to hearing from you! Professional Master Program The Professional Masters Program in Mining Engineering and Management (PM-MEM) continues to grow and develop. As of July 1, 2021, direction of the program transitioned from co-managers Barb Filas and Rob Reeves to Paul Zink, a newly appointed Professor of Practice shared between the Mining Engineering and Economics and Business Departments at Mines. The program has had its first graduates in the spring and fall 2021 semesters (a total of 8 by December 2021), and the fall 2021 cohort of 13 students admitted to the program is the largest cohort to date. Since its launch, the MP-MEM program has grown gradually, without the benefit of any systematic, focused marketing, but that will change soon. In this 2021-22 academic year, Mines has hired a new marketing director for online programs, and we are working with her to develop a marketing/advertising campaign that will initially focus on significant international mining companies as priority targets. Given the enthusiastic initial response to the MP-MEM program, particularly from interested students in Latin America and Africa, we believe this will be fertile ground to significantly grow the program in the near to medium term. We expect the MP-MEM program evolution to continue with a standardized course sequence to improve the scalability of the program, optimize costs, and preserve adequate faculty capacity as the program expands. We are also working to create some flexibility in the program by incorporating selected elective courses; we believe this will add some additional appeal to the program and help to increase enrollment. We are also exploring the possibility of creating a parallel professional masters program in mining and management that would be open to experienced mining professionals with degrees in fields other than engineering. Stay tuned, as this exciting program continues to evolve! Edgar Experimental Mine The CSM Edgar Experimental Mine saw significant upgrades this year. Mines students, under guidance from Mine Manager Lee Fronapfel and Mine Superintendent Clinton Dattel, rebuilt the Army portal to the mine and installed a new door, replacing the deteriorating old structure. Mines students are currently developing four different faces underground, in the course of their MNGN309 Mine Safety class. Students learn to design, drill, blast, muck and support the stopes using jackleg and jumbo drills, two loaders and hauling the muck out with locomotives, rail cars and mine trucks.
department updates
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Students participating in an exercise at the Edgar Mine for a recent EMCIS course
The Mining Department’s Energy, Mining, and Construction Industry Safety Program (EMCIS) is currently entering into its second year of a 3-year, $1.452 Million grant from CDC NIOSH Mining in support of its continuing efforts to enhance the quality and availability of health and safety training for Western mine workers. The primary investigators of the grant are Hugh Miller and Michelle Reiher, and supported by an outstanding group of safety professionals that include Kirk McDaniel, Korky Vault, Jerry Powers, Lori Guasta, David Lauriski, and Whitney Derber. The program also includes several undergraduate and graduate students who play pivotal roles in the training mission of the group. The EMCIS team is also pleased to announce it is the recipient of a 2021/2022 MSHA Brookwood Sago Grant to examine the use and impact of energy-based hazard recognition tools as integrated into an existing regulatory training program designed for mine workers. The primary goals of both grants are to provide workers with relevant knowledge regarding the hazards associated with working at mine sites and an understanding of the effective controls for reducing risk for injuries and illnesses. As part of this ongoing effort, a comprehensive approach to meeting the safety and health training needs of the Western mining industry is being employed by providing a high quality, interactive training experience that targets a diversity of audiences, including: mine workers, trainers, safety and health professionals, mine management, and mining engineering students. In addition, this training program is designed to service underrepresented industry sectors, such as contractors, consultants, suppliers, equipment manufacturers, and small mining operations. This approach strongly encourages trainees to become active participants and take ownership in improving the health and safety conditions where they work. If you have any questions or would like to learn more about the program, please contact either Hugh Miller (hbmiller@mines.edu) or Michelle Reiher (mreiher@mines.edu). Thank you.
Picture of running a robot on lunar testbed
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Updates from EMI (Earth Mechanics Institute)
2021 was a very busy and exciting year for the EMI! Our on-going, multi-year, research projects with Nutrien and De Beers provided EMI with exciting new challenges. We worked closely with them to better understand their mining practices and find improvements in bit design, geometry, and bit management for Nutrien, as well as develop entirely new methodology for DeBeers. The De Beers project involved installation of the waterjet testing system, utilizing our 15 ft tall 3D printing frame as a traverse. One of the high-pressure Kobe Pumps was reconditioned to apply pressures up to 200 MPa (30ksi), while cutting samples at different traversing speeds and stand-off distances to see the impact of jetting parameters on cutting of kimberlite! Our NIOSH project also made great strides in 2021, looking at both dust mitigation measures as well as installing sensors in the cutter blocks to measure cutting forces at different bit wear conditions in selected rock types. New load sensors developed for this project have been designed, fabricated, calibrated, and used in full scale testing while simultaneously working on algorithms for evaluation of bit condition and identification of the rock types being cut. Another part of the project involves data transmission between the cutterhead and the machine, using different types of antennas. EMI’s newly installed roof bolter was fully commissioned and used for several bit comparison studies. The highlight of the year was successful proposal to work on automated roof bolter. The NIOSH project is funded for 3 years and involves installation of various sensory system on roof bolter to develop a perception of the rock face and identify the obstacles such as wire mesh and steel straps and guide the bit through these obstacles for automated bolt installation. The Lunar Test Bed also saw constant utilization, testing a new lunar rover which will be deployed on the Moon in 2022. New space-related projects include work on EMI’s NASA drill and producing several tons of Lunar and Martian regolith simulant production. EMI has developed the capability for high volume production of lunar regolith simulants for use by research groups across the country. Some improvements and upgrades have been made to several pieces of equipment, while EMI staff have been able to apply 3D scanning of rock surfaces for variety of projects, which offers a robust system for estimating of the volume of materials cut in LCM and waterjet testing. Rock mechanics testing at EMI continued to grow at EMI as well. Students and staff alike have done an exceptional job throughout the extra challenges during the pandemic. 2022 is already shaping up to be another excellent year, as we build on the momentum of 2021.
Application of 3D scanning of rock surface to estimate the volume of excavated rock
EMCIS News (Energy, Mining, and Construction Safety)
Screenshot from a recent geotechnical conference hosted by Huesker.
The Tailings Center Updates
The past several months have been extremely busy for the Tailings Center. This is the first year of operation, and our primary focus has been on standing up professional development courses for the mining industry. We established a certificate training program in tailings management during the spring of 2021, which consisted of 6 modules totaling about 90 contact hours. This training program is currently being repeated in the fall of 2021. In addition, we developed a training program focused on regulators for the State of Arizona in the spring and summer of 2021. A total of nearly 500 people have attended one or more training courses in our initial year. The Tailings Center has been working closely with other universities and industry groups that are coordinating to develop training courses that increase the overall competency of mid- and senior-level professionals specifically in the tailings management sector. The Tailings Center has also been working to offer Masters-level graduate courses. Starting in the spring of 2022, we are collectively offering 4 MS-level courses that address various aspects of tailings management. Three of these courses will be offered at Mines, and one will be through CSU. Other courses including those focused on PhD students will be offered in the fall of 2022. Faculty with the Tailings Center have been actively contributing to external activities – conducting lectures for other universities and industry groups, actively supporting research at other universities, participating in writing textbooks and developing regulations, and in actively participating in industry associations to raise visibility, awareness of technical challenges facing the mining industry as it works to improve tailings management.
The Kroll Institute for Extractive Metallurgy (KIEM) is the home of Mineral Processing, Extractive Metallurgy, and Recycling at Mines. The Institute was established in 1974 when Dr. William J. Kroll, inventor of the titanium and zirconium metal production processes provided a donation to Mines which initiated our Institute. KIEM has provided support for a significant number of undergraduate and 15 to 20 graduate students each year who have gone on to make important contributions to the mining, minerals and metals industries. These graduates are now at the heart of our nation’s effort to produce critical metals from ores, tailings and recycled materials, resources for the new Global Energy Future Initiatives being driven from Mines. KIEM is funded by private industry, DOE through the Critical Materials Institute (CMI) and several of its national laboratories including NREL here in Golden, and the National Science Foundation (NSF) through our IUCRC Center for Recourse Recovery and Recycling (CR3). We also have a current project from the Universidad Nacional de Sam Augustine de Arequipa (UNSA) in Peru organized under Mines’ Center for Mining Sustainability; and we are looking forward to potential new research programs to be established through this center. Our two long running short courses are being organized for their post-pandemic return to the Mines campus in 2022; Recycling Metals from Industrial Wastes and New Directions in Mineral Processing. Highlights from this past year include; Recent graduate student, Dr. Victoria Vaccarezza filed for a patent based on her PhD research with support from non-exclusive licensees General Motors and Heritage Environmental. The same, Dr. Vaccarezza has been nominated for the CSM Rath award for the best and most impactful PhD thesis. Dr. Kim Conner Mills had her PhD thesis patent application granted as a full patent. Dr. Hao Cui, a recent KIEM graduate, along with Dr. Corby Anderson published a book on Advances in Mineral Processing and Hydrometallurgy. Michael Caplan, a PhD candidate, traveled to Peru where he and his UNSA counterparts sampled smelter waste piles as source materials for critical metals research. Dr. Vivek Kashyap, a recent KIEM graduate and his advisor, Dr. Pat Taylor, were co-authors of a paper that received the SME 2021 Arthur F. Taggart Award for best paper; Selective Extraction of Zinc from Zinc Ferrite. Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration.
Erik Spiller, masters student Nicolas Bellusci, and Corby Andersonat Trona Patch in Wyoming
Kroll Institute News
Michael Caplan (and colleagues) in Peru on Slag pile
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MinExpo 2021
Written by Mining Undergrad Student, Zara Antal
Written by Mining Undergrad Student and Team President Trinity Kelly
Our student-led groups are happy to be back on campus and meeting in person. They are also back to attending conferences, going on field trips, and meeting face-to-face on a regular basis.
Mining Comp Team
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The Mines Intercollegiate Mining Competition Team is continuing to rebuild and prepare for the upcoming 43rd Annual Mining Games hosted by Missouri S&T this March. This year teams are practicing twice a week at the new competition grounds in the survey fields. This new space allows us to practice each of our events to the competition standards. This year, all of our teams will be competing in jackleg drilling, survey, gold pan, hand steel, swede saw, trackstand, and hand mucking. Our generous sponsors have allowed us to continue improvement on our grounds and will help us compete in Rolla this spring. New members are welcome to join the team and compete in the games this year by emailing tkelly1@mines.edu. We also encourage everyone to follow the Instagram account @minesminingteam for team updates and information. Best Regards, Trinity Kelly-President John Dill-Vice President Will Colvin-Treasurer Vince Matuszak-BSO/Sail Rep.
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MINING ENGINEERING STUDENT GROUPS
24 students in the SME student chapter had the opportunity to travel to Las Vegas for the 2021 MINExpo event in September. This event is held every 4 years, so it was a great opportunity for the students to attend. This event is a trade show that hosts companies from all over the world. We were able to see things from huge fully autonomous Cat 794 AC mining trucks for surface mining to robot dogs for underground mining. Not only did we get to see new technology that is being developed by major companies, but it was also a very good networking opportunity for the students. Many of us brought our resumes and business cards and have had success when it comes to catching the attention of some of the big companies. When we weren’t at the convention center, we had the opportunity to attend a Colorado School of Mines alumni reception dinner. There were many alumni who joined in at this reception, as well as some of our professors. This was a great way to get to know the stories of some very successful people and be able to get advice from people in the industry who have gone through what we are currently going through as students. Many of the students also enjoyed what Las Vegas had to offer. We were able to visit old Las Vegas, the Strip, and a few malls. Overall, MINExpo was an event that will forever be engrained in our minds. We are all very grateful to have been given the chance to attend.
student groups
Technological University in Butte, MT for a competition between the Montana Tech and South Dakota School of Mines mine rescue teams. Students attended first aid training by the Rosebud Mine Rescue Team during the competition. The two-day competition included an underground, first aid, and technician sections. CSMMRT placed first in both the first aid and technician sections with second overall. Since the competition, CSMMRT had many training exercises. The first being CPR training, during which nine students got certified. The team also practiced in the maze room in the Edgar Mine. In addition, the team was able to go to the Smuggler Mine in Aspen, CO for a training MERD. During which, the team went over the IWT communication system and every member was able to go under-air in the smoked-out mine. In spring, CSMMRT hopes to attend a competition in Winnemucca.
From left to right, President Ryan Coffin, Vice President William Colvin, Treasurer John Dill, and BSO/Sail Representative Jacob Mellema
Attendees at a recent Mining Seminar Series
The International Society of Explosives Engineers aims to build off the great experiences the previous years officers set up. ISEE works to bring in speakers who have years of experience in the explosives industry. Through these speakers we’ve gotten to hear about great things including new technologies such as “Webgen,” a completely wireless blast cap that relies on magnetic pulses, from explosives company Orica. Or even personal advice from speakers on how students can better advertise themselves to the companies they want to work for. ISEE is aiming to continue a new tradition of working alongside the Edgar Experimental Mine in Idaho Springs to have ISEE members come and experience the process of loading and setting off an underground blast. Anyone interested is welcome to come to one of our biweekly meetings at 5 pm on Tuesdays in Brown 125. To get in contact to join ISEE, club President Ryan Coffin can be emailed at rtcoffin@mines.edu or Vice President William Colvin at wcolvin@mines.edu.
Mining Seminar Series
Mine Rescue Team
ISEE
The Mining Seminar Series at the Colorado School of Mines meets a diverse group of industry specialists, professionals, students, faculty, and academia to share innovative and invigorating ideas that are shaping the present and future sustainability of the mining industry. The Seminar engages with people of diverse expertise that intersects within the mining industry around natural resources, science, engineering, technology, economy and society topics. The Mining Seminar is a meeting place that offers access to an inclusive and diverse sessions where knowledge and experiences are shared from distinguished members of the mining industry to the interested public. Every Wednesday afternoon from 4-5 PM MT, selected authorities in their respective fields join us for a 45-minute presentation followed by a 15-minute open discussion. During the fall semester of 2021, the Mining Seminar Series hosted 12 speakers covering a range of topics. We would like to express our gratitude to Dr. Abani Samal, Ray Ballantyne, Brad Gyngell, Richard Bailey, Dr. Pouya Zangeneh, Dr. Kadri Dagdelen, Dr. Ian Lange, Dr. Sebnem Duzgun, Dr. Aaron Malone, Ian Loomis, and Fernando Sagastegui, whose contributions were essential to the success of Mining Seminar Series this fall. Our speakers shared their wonderful knowledge and experiences regarding topics such as risk estimation, mining equipment, digitalization, big data, artificial intelligence, mining policy, rural livelihoods, and mine planning. In the Fall semester, the Mining Seminar Series has engaged over 12 participants with academic, industrial and government affiliations. This fall, the seminar adopted a hybrid format, in person and online, which allowed to expand the seminar’s audience and participation to a wider geographic area while still allowing some to meet in person. Our web presence continues to develop and contribute to the knowledge of the global mining community by adding to the many great talks on the mining department YouTube channel. The Mining Seminar is currently organized by student team comprised of Fatih Aranoglu, Joseph Trouba, and Alejandro Delgado, supported from the department by Gretchen Wodniak, Christine Monroe and Dr. Steve Enders. This spring, the team will continue to work towards keeping an enriching seminar series that provides the opportunity for engagement with multidisciplinary speakers throughout the mining industry here on the Mines campus. Please reach out to mining@mines.edu to join this effort.
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Dr. Corby Anderson Dr. Kadri Dagdelen Dr. H. Sebnem Duzgun Dr. Veronica Eliasson Dr. Linda Figueroa Dr. Elizabeth Holley Dr. Rennie Kaunda Dr. Hugh Miller Dr. Masami Nakagawa Dr. Priscilla Nelson Dr. Jamal Rostami Dr. Nicole Smith Mr. Erik Spiller Dr. Patrick Taylor Dr. Gabriel Walton Mr. Paul Zink
After serving as a Mines adjunct professor since January 2019, I was appointed a Professor of Practice by the Economics and Business Department in January 2021 and by the Mining Engineering Department in June 2021. In my time as an adjunct, I developed three online business-type courses for the MP-MEM Program; Mineral Economics and Policy, Mine Accounting, and Mine Finance. I began my work with Mines in late 2018, after a 42-year career in industry, starting on Wall Street in the late 1970’s and spending most of my career working with and in the financial side of the mining industry. I am privileged to have known and worked with so many great CSM alumni over the years and am honored to teach here and to have been asked to try to fill the shoes of Barb Filas and Rob Reeves in managing the MP-MEM program. They have done a great work in developing that unique program. In this new capacity, one of my important responsibilities is to backfill course instructors when they retire or take on other roles outside the Mines community. Based on my decades of industry experience, I strongly feel like one of the best pools of talent to explore for new adjuncts for our program is the CSM alumni base. If you have any desire to share your relevant knowledge and experience with motivated MP-MEM students in this developing world of online education, please take a look at the courses offered in the program and register your interest with me and/or my colleagues in the Mining Engineering Department. Stay well and Go Orediggers!
December 1945 - October 2021
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Paul Zink
The Kroll Institute for Extractive Metallurgy (KIEM), under Dr. Taylor’s guidance as director since 2002, has finished yet another successful year. Mineral processing and extractive metallurgy at the Colorado School of Mines is housed in the Mining Engineering Department under the KIEM banner. After 45 years of teaching and research, Dr. Taylor has announced his retirement and is anticipating a period of transition beginning in May 2022. However, the university is looking forward to his guidance and counsel for many additional years as he practices what “retirement” might be. In this past year among the many successes of KIEM, Dr. Taylor has continued to nurture and graduate another crop of Bachelor, Master and PhD students in the science and art of mineral processing and extractive metallurgy, applying this engineering science to both ores and recycling. He and his PhD student, now Dr. Vivek Kashyap, were co-authors of a paper that received the SME 2021 Arthur F. Taggart Award for best paper; Selective Extraction of Zinc from Zinc Ferrite. Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration. Dr. Taylor contributes his talents to both the Recycling Metals from Industrial Wastes and New Directions in Mineral Processing short courses offered on the Mine’s campus. In amongst other accolades, at Homecoming festivities this year Dr. Taylor was presented with the CSM Alumni Industry Involvement award. Topping off the year, Dr. Taylors’ son, Dylan Taylor endowed a chair at his own alma mater, the University of Arizona, entitled the Patrick R. Taylor Chair in Materials Science and Engineering.
Dr. M. Stephen Enders, Department Head Dr. Jürgen Brune, Associate Department Head
Patrick Taylor
MINING ENGINEERING FACULTY PERSPECTIVES
It’s with a heavy heart that the faculty, staff, and students of the Mining Engineering Department announce the loss of Jerry Powers, a dedicated and incredibly gifted colleague who passed away unexpectedly on October 7th. Jerry started his career in mine safety and health with the Colorado Division of Mines, State Mine Enforcement Agency shortly after graduating from Colorado State University. He then went on to hold a variety of leadership positions with the Cotter Corporation that included Mine Safety Manager, Human Resources Manager, and Corporate Safety Director. After retiring, he started his own mining and oil & gas safety and health consulting firm, PC Group Inc.. In 2012, Jerry joined the Mines EMCIS program, where he worked until his untimely death. During his tenure with the EMCIS program, he was integral in developing new training materials, engaging in training activities for industry, providing educational and learning experiences for university students, and promoting skill development for safety professionals. Jerry’s passion for students and promoting safety and health education in the mining industry resonated in everything he did. He touched the lives of many and he will be greatly missed.
In Memory of Jerry Powers
MINING ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT FACULTY
Research Professor D. Erik Spiller is a graduate of Mines with 45 years of industrial experience covering worldwide process development and operations at the executive level. Over the past 35 years he found himself gradually becoming an accidental academic on the short course, teaching and research front. Now a full-time member of the Kroll family, he brings applied experience in all aspects of mineral processing, extractive metallurgy and recycling to the Mines’ campus. Professor Spiller enjoys teaching undergraduate and graduate students about liberation and separation, particularly comminution and particulate separation by gravity, flotation, magnetic, sortation, and other unit operations. His experience covers resource recovery from ores, tailings and recycled materials. He also taught Mineral Processing to the inaugural on-line cohort in the Professional Masters in Mining Engineering and expects to meet a new group of students in 2022. Prof Spiller is often invited to be a guest speaker bringing the excitement of mineral processing and mining to non-mining students and industry leaders. Erik is an organizer and contributor to both the Recycling Metals from Industrial Wastes and New Directions in Mineral Processing short courses offered on the Mine’s campus for more than 25 years. Most recently he helped guide graduate research projects involving sortation of automobile scrap, flotation of lead-zinc ore, beneficiation of trona ore, treating zinc waste materials, artisanal gold mining, and the recovery and recycling of rare earth materials from ores, coal and end-of-life consumer goods. His worldwide travel and broad process experience is an inspiration to our mining and metallurgy students.
Hope you are all well and healthy. Hard to believe how quickly 2021 went by. As usual, we are always very proud of our hard-working students who do what it takes to attend class, graduate, do research, and to get the job done! During 2021, I taught Introduction to Mining, Rock Slope Engineering, and Mining the Environment. My research group won research grants from different entities including NIOSH and the NSF. Grad students Sewit, Carolina and Kizito also graduated during 2021. Hopefully things return to normal during to 2022 for everyone! Please stay healthy, enjoy the holidays, and feel free to stay in touch through email or other means. So until next year – best wishes to all!
Despite Covid, it’s been an extremely busy and productive year. My responsibilities as the SME Past-President concluded in March. It was a fantastic experience and I enjoyed meeting so many outstanding people. At Mines, I’m delighted to be teaching in-person again and interacting with students on an individual basis. I really enjoyed coteaching a field course last summer, where we took students on a series of day trips to local operations. As you might expect, interacting with students is the best part of the job. I’ve also been occupied this year with several research activities and numerous department initiatives. Thanks to the outstanding efforts of my EMCIS colleagues, the impact of our NIOSH sponsored training activities has been exceptional and continues to evolve. EMCIS was also recently awarded a MSHA Brookwood Sago Grant that focuses on new methodologies for improving hazard recognition. Along with Rennie Kaunda and colleagues at Michigan Tech, we were awarded a NIOSH Grant that seeks to use analytical tools to identify leading indications of potential hazards. With the USGS and others at Mines, I continue to be involved with several international capacity building activities in the developing World. On a personal note, the most significant event of the year occurred in August with the birth of our first grandchild (and future Mining Engineer). I sincerely wish everyone the best for 2022 and hope that you and your family remain safe and healthy.
This has been an exciting year for our research group. Congratulations to Claire Kincaid who received her MS in Earth Resources Development Engineering and published a journal article based on her research on diversity and inclusion in the mining industry. She is now working at the Epiroc headquarters in Sweden. In other research news, our research on mineral supply chains continues to grow. We now have two NSF funded projects on gold supply chains and welcomed PhD student Jenna White to our group to contribute to these projects. We also look forward to contributing to new research initiatives on campus related to critical mineral supply chains. On the teaching front, my graduate class, Sustainable Development and Earth Resources, received recognition from the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network as a model for teaching about the Sustainable Development Goals in higher ed. This year I was extremely humbled to receive a Martin Luther King Jr. Award from Mines for efforts related to diversity and inclusion on campus. As the chair of our department’s Diversity, Inclusion, and Access committee, I hope to continue working toward fostering a greater sense of community and a more welcoming environment in our department and on campus. Please reach out anytime and check out our website to stay updated on our activities.
Kadri Dagdelen
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Erik Spiller
Hugh Miller
Nicole Smith
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Dr. Kadri Dagdelen is continuing to teach Surface Mine Design and Geostatistics courses during the Fall and Advance Surface Mine Design, Mine Systems and Mine Valuation courses during the Spring semesters. In addition, he is supervising 5 PhD and 3 MSc students working on topics varying from mineral resource estimation of roll-front uranium deposit in Wyoming, application of AI techniques to truck dispatching problem, determination of ultimate pit limits and production schedules with minimum mining width constraint to multi-seam coal mine production scheduling in an Indonesian coal mine. He is enjoying to be the faculty mentor for the Student Chapter of SME at CSM, while coordinating the Undergraduate Program Committee for the Department.
Rennie Kaunda
18 MINING.mines.edu
Dr. Corby Anderson, the Harrison Western Professor and Assistant Director of KIEM lectures and guides research at the undergraduate and graduate level. He is the site Director of our NSF-IUCRC Center for Resource Recovery & Recycling (CR3) which is entering its 11th year with the support of 14 global entities. He is Co-Director of the Critical Materials Institute (CMI), an important part of Kroll since 2012. He also manages industrial sponsored research programs. Dr. Anderson contributes his talents to both the Recycling Metals from Industrial Wastes and New Directions in Mineral Processing short courses offered on the Mines’ campus. Among other endeavors this past year, Dr. Anderson organized a TMS International Symposium and edited a book entitled Nickel Cobalt 2021. He and his former student Dr. Hao Cui, published a book on Advances in Mineral Processing and Hydrometallurgy. He also initiated and served as editor for the new Journal of the International Precious Metals Institute. Dr. Anderson served on external PhD thesis committees for Universities in Finland, India, and Austria. He was externally nominated and elected to the prestigious Sigma Xi Scientific Research Honor Society, and he will receive the TMS EPD Distinguished Service Award in February 2022. For the Academic Year of 2020- 2021, during the worst challenges of Covid 19, he was honored by the mining engineering students with a Colorado School of Mines Outstanding Faculty Award.
Jürgen Brune
Corby Anderson
Dr. Jürgen Brune received the prestigious SME Howard Hartman Award, recognizing him for outstanding contributions to the field of mine ventilation engineering. The award was established in 1989 and is named for Professor Howard L. Hartman, one of the pioneers of mine ventilation network computer modeling. Awardees are selected by the SME Underground Ventilation Committee in recognition of their distinguished contributions in practice, teaching or research in the field of underground ventilation engineering. The award is presented every other year at the North American Mine Ventilation Symposium. Dr. Brune has been teaching mine ventilation at Mines since 2012. Prior to that, he worked with CDC NIOSH in the field of improving miners’ safety and health and preventing fires and explosion. Dr. Jürgen Brune was recognized as Outstanding Faculty for Mining Engineering for the 2020-2021 Academic Year.