An integrated hydraulic mining, selective

CIM Bulletin, Vol. 79, No. 891, 1986

J. JANIAK, W. PAWLAK, B. IGNASIAK, Coal Research Department, Alberta Research Council,Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and C. RODKIEWICZ Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

There is a general consensus that, in order to widen the utilization of Western Canadian coals, a major effort must be devoted to their transportation, utilization of fines, beneficiation and mining techniques. It is postulated that the concept studied extensively over the last four years at Alberta Research Council (ARC), and based on a combination of hydraulic mining, selective agglomeration with bitumen and/or heavy oil, pipeline transportation and oil recovery from agglomerates, offers a particularly attractive solution to the problems associated with extraction, beneficiation, transportation and utilization of Western bituminous and subbituminous coals. Results of preliminary experimental work on the feasibility of pipeline agglomeration of metallurgical coal and hydraulic transportation of agglomerates are presented and discussed in the context of conventional agglomeration techniques in stirred tanks.

Keywords: Coal utilization, Hydraulic mining, Selective agglomeration, Metallurgical coal, Transportation, Beneficiation, Extraction.