The Mining EngineerNewsletter for the Mining Engineering Program

October 2012

Missouri university of science and technology founded 1870 Mining Engineering 226 McNutt Hall | Rolla, MO 65409-0450 | 573-341-4753 | mining@mst.edu | mining.mst.edu

EXECUTIVE FORUMS

Executive Forum I: Global Opportunities & ChallengesExecutive Forum II: Talent for Global CompetitionExecutive Forum III: Student Forum (organized & moderated by students with student presenters)

TECHNICAL SESSIONS

Session I Investment Risks & Opportunities

Session II Technology Transfer Risks & Challenges

Session III Novel Technologies and Knowledge Gap

Session IV Global Venture Capital Acquisition & Financing

Session V International Project Management

Session VI Global Minerals Engineering Education

Session VII Global Sustainable Development

Session VIII Global Mine Safety & Health

Session IX Global Markets & Trading Dynamics

September 09 – 12, 2013

In this Issue...

Message from the Department ChairProfile of Faculty and StaffWelcome New Faculty MembersEnrollment continues to growUpdate from Experimental MineStudent Orgnization UpdatesUpdate on Faculty Research 2012 Phonathon Donors2012 Development Board2013 IME Conference Announcement

  The 2020 Vision in the FY2010‐20 Strategic 

Plan states, “Missouri S&T will be recognized 

as the global university of choice for mining 

engineering education, research and graduate 

employees for the mining industry.”  In line 

with this vision, the Department made 

progress in capacity expansion for research 

and education in AY2011‐12.  The 2006‐12 

Mining Engineering enrollment growth is as 

follows:  (i) total enrollment is 88% from 155 

(2006) to 291 (2012); (ii) undergraduate 

enrollment is 50% from 123 to 184; (iii) 

graduate enrollment is 234% from 32 to 107; 

and (iv) PhD enrollment is 317% from 6 to 25.  

Missouri S&T has the largest mining 

engineering program in the United States 

based on the 2011 Enrollment Statistics 

published by SME.  The Department also ranks 

7th out of the 20 academic departments at 

Missouri S&T based on the End of 4th Week 

Enrollment from the Office of the Registrar in 

spring 2012. 

 

The graduation rate also increased by 267% 

from 15 (in 2006‐07) to its largest of 55 (in 

2011‐12), with 100% placement and the 

highest average starting salary of $73,000.  In 

addition to academic and professional 

excellence, our students also made impressive 

achievements in collegiate mining 

competitions.  At the 2012 International 

Intercollegiate Mucking Competition in 

Cornwall, United Kingdom, the Lady Mucking 

Team B won the Women’s Trophy as World 

Champions.  The Men’s Team A won the North 

American Championship and placed 2nd overall 

after an Aussie Team.  At the 2012 NSSGA‐

SME Mine Design Competition in Seattle, our 

Team A made an impressive finish in the second round of the completion.  At the 

2012 Professional Mine Rescue Competition in Rolla, MO, Missouri S&T’s Gold 

Team won the Underground Competition, beating all the 12 industry teams and 

Missouri S&T’s Black Team. 

 

Building on the success of the Master Science in Explosives Engineering that was 

approved in April 2010, the Department is currently working on a proposal to 

implement a PhD degree program in Explosives Engineering.  The Department is 

also leading an effort to establish a Master of Science degree in Mineral Process 

Engineering in collaboration with Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering.  As part 

of an effort to increase the faculty size, Dr. Nassib S. Aouad (PhD, Missouri S&T), 

Assistant Teaching Professor, with specialty in Mine Mechanical Engineering, and 

Dr. Lana Z. Alagha (PhD, University of Texas‐Dallas), Assistant Professor, with 

specialty in Mineral Processing were added to the Department.  The faculty, in 

collaboration with faculty members from Missouri S&T, other universities, 

research organizations and industry are leading multi‐million dollar research 

efforts to expand frontiers and advance knowledge. 

 

The Department took specific initiatives to expand its research and education 

capacity.  As part of its capacity expansion and renewal initiatives begun in 2009, 

the Department completed the Virtual Surface Mining Simulator, which was 

unveiled by Chancellor Schrader on April 08, 2012.  This facility will be used for 

research and education.  Significant progress was also made on the Energetic 

Research Facility and the new Experimental Mine Building.  Upon completion, 

these two facilities will expand our education and research capacity in mining and 

explosives engineering.   

 

The Department also expanded its global footprints within the last 5 years into 

China, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia.  In China, the Department will establish a new 

Department of Mining and Mineral Process Engineering at Sichuan Missouri 

University in Sichuan Province.   In Saudi Arabia, the Department will establish a 

new Saudi Mining Polytechnic (SMP) to train professionals for the emerging 

mining industry.  The efforts in Indonesia will focus on establishing the 

Department of Mining and Environmental Engineering at the State Islamic 

University of Indonesia.  These efforts will yield enormous dividends to expand 

S&T’s Mining Engineering Program and provide opportunities for global exposure 

to our faculty, staff and students. 

 

Missouri S&T has succeeded in producing highly qualified graduates for the 

industry and we take pride in their achievements.  The faculty and staff members 

have created environments, which contribute to student success.  The 

contribution by the Board, Academy, industry and alumni has been outstanding.  

As it embarks on the AY2012‐13, the Department will continue to be guided by its 

five strategic initiatives in the FY2010‐20 Strategic Plan.  These initiatives include 

(i) maintaining and expanding outstanding mining engineering education 

portfolio; (ii) enriching the student experience; (iii) broadening mining engineering 

research; (iv) expanding S&T’s mining engineering capacity; and (v) strengthening 

national and global partnerships. The vision of global leadership will be achieved 

through our core values (excellence, ethics, experience, exposure, leadership, 

passion, and tradition) that form the basis of Missouri S&T’s tradition of 

excellence.  Thank you for your support!!   

 

Samuel Frimpong, PhD, PEng 

Professor and Chair 

Robert H. Quenon Endowed Chair 

Sustaining Growing Programs with a Critical Mass of Faculty and Staff 

The Department offers BS, MS/ME, PhD, and DE in Mining 

Engineering and MS in Explosives Engineering.  We are 

currently developing a proposal to offer a PhD program in 

Explosives Engineering, as well as a future graduate program 

in Mineral Process Engineering.  One of the essential 

ingredients for sustaining strong program growth is a critical 

mass of highly qualified and dedicated faculty with research 

and education capacity.  Another important ingredient is a 

critical mass of staff members who provide important services 

critical to the core mission.  Traditionally, mining engineering 

programs have been very small with few faculty and staff 

positions.  Missouri Set’s Mining Engineering has grown 

significantly within the last six years.  Our global footprints 

have extended from Australia, Brazil, Botswana, China, Ghana, 

and Indonesia to Saudi Arabia.  In Botswana, China, and Saudi 

Arabia, our efforts are substantial.  Our annual research 

capacity has been between $2 and $4 million and is expected 

to increase to between $5 and $7 million within the next year.   

With the growing programs, the number of faculty has 

increased slowly from 7 (in 2007) to a complement of 11 (with 

a potential for a 12th position if the program for the Sichuan 

Missouri University in China program is implemented).  The 

Table below shows the additional faculty with increasing 

program expansion.  Given the amount and the intensity of 

work, we still need additional faculty members to sustain the 

growth of the education and research programs.  Despite this 

small number, the faculty members have worked hard with a 

collective understanding of excellence in research and 

education.  

 

Periodic Faculty Additions with Growth 

YEAR  FACULTY POSITION  RATIONALE 

2008  One (Explosives Eng)  Growing capacity in explosives research and education and the introduction of the MS degree program  

2009  One (Mining Eng)  Resulted from the Missouri S&T – University of Botswana academic program; will be filled in the specialty 

area of Mineral Process Engineering 

2010  One (Mining Eng)  Resulted from the retirement of David Summers, Curators’ Professor Emeritus and former Director of the 

Rock Mechanics and Explosives Research Center; will be filled in the specialty are of Underground Mining  

2012  One (Mining Eng)  A future Endowed Chair position that comes from the Missouri S&T – SMP Program in Saudi Arabia  

2013  One (Mining Eng)  A potential faculty position in Mining Engineering upon the inception of the Sichuan Missouri University 

 

One of the core strengths of S&T Mining and Explosives 

Engineering is the set of attributes that qualify the 

administrative and technical staff in the Department.  The S&T 

Experimental Mine is the consummate laboratory for the Mining 

and Explosives Engineering programs.  The laboratory sessions 

for several courses in the programs are taught at the Mine, as 

well as providing environments for research initiatives, mine 

rescue and mucking competitions and haunted mine activities.  

The leadership provided by the Mine Supervisor and Assistant 

Mine Supervisor has been superb.  In addition, the two leaders 

have been great counselors and mentors to a number of 

undergraduate students in the programs in the areas of summer 

and COOP internships and career placements.  The Department 

has outstanding administrative staff, which works hard beyond 

the call of duty to support its education, research, and service 

mandate.  Despite the growth, Missouri S&T support only one 

and half technical staff positions and one administrative position 

in Mining and Explosives Engineering.  The rest are supported on 

soft dollars (i.e., non‐budgeted dollars).   

Meet the people who are responsible for shaping the Department’s education, research and service mandate!!

 

 Samuel Frimpong, PhD, PEng 

Professor and Chair 

Robert Quenon Endowed Chair 

 

 

RESEARCH AREAS: Surface 

Mining; Excavation Engineering; 

Machine Dynamics, Health and 

Longevity; Machine‐Formation 

Interactions; Formation 

Deformation Mechanics; Novel 

Oil Sands Mining; Stochastic 

Processes; Risks and Hazards 

Engineering 

 

 

RESEARCH AREAS: Underground 

Mining Methods; Mine 

Atmospheric Control; Mineral 

Economics; Mine Health and 

Safety 

 

Stewart A. Gillies, PhD 

Professor and Director, RMERC 

Rocky Mountain Energy Prof. 

 

 

RESPONSIBILITY AREAS: 

Experimental Mine Supervision; 

Manages & Directs Mine Tours; 

Mine Rescue & Mucking 

Advisor; Assists Chair in 

Planning for Future Use of 

Experimental Mine 

  

Jimmie Taylor Sr. 

Experimental Mine Supervisor 

 

 

RESPONSIBILITY AREAS: 

Experimental Mine Supervision; 

Assists Mine Safety Class & 

MSHA Certification 

Maintenance; Supervises 

Student Assistants; Mine 

Simulator and Explosives 

Summer Camp Staff;  

  

Curtis D. Phelps 

Sr. Lab Mechanic 

Asst. Mine Supervisor 

 

 

RESPONSIBILITY AREAS: 

Executive Assistant to Chair; 

Administer Advance & Joe’ss; 

Administer Newsletter, Website 

& Desktop Publishing; 

Coordinator for Explosives 

Camp; Administer Budgets, 

Phonathon  & Fundraising; 

Coordinate Conferences & 

Meetings; Contact with 

Industry, Alums 

 

 Barbara A. Robertson 

Administrative Assistant 

“Chief Cook & Bottle Washer” 

 Judy Russell 

Administrative Assistant 

 

 

RESPONSIBILITY AREAS: 

Administer Distance Education; 

Administer Mines & Metallurgy 

Academy Activities; Assist with 

Blackboard; Grant Proposals on 

People Soft; General 

Administrative Duties– Chair, 

Faculty, Students & Other 

Departments 

 

 Shirley Hall 

Senior Secretary 

 

RESPONSIBILITY AREAS: 

Administer Graduate Students 

Files; Primary Industry Contact 

on Interviews and Info Sessions; 

Assist with Blackboard; General 

Administrative Duties – Chair, 

Faculty, Students & Other 

Departments; Travel and 

Reimbursements 

 

 

 

 

Welcome to Dr. Nassib Aouad

Last November, Dr. Nassib Aouad joined the faculty as an assistant professor and director of the online program. Dur-ing this past year, Dr. Aouad’s efforts were steered toward recruiting new students to be mining engineers, expanding the online certificate and master of engineering programs as well as conducting extensive research on truck vibrations.

He is part of the Heavy Machinery Research Group and is currently CO-PI on a CDC-NIOSH grant investigating the “Engineering Solutions for Dump Truck Vibrations and Impact on Operator Safety in High-Impact Shovel Loading Opera-tions”. As part of this research group, he is investigating the Machinery and Whole Body Vibrations using MSC.ADAMS by creating system numerical models and virtual prototypes which allow extensive simulation scenarios in various severe environments. During this past year, Dr. Aouad was focusing on reducing the vertical acceleration on the truck operator’s seat and working on introducing commercialized components to retrofit the trucks to achieve lower accelerations and a safer working environment.

Welcome to Dr. Lana Alagha

Dr. Lana Alagha has joined mining and nuclear engineering de-partment at Missouri S&T in August 2012. She obtained her PhD degree from the University of Texas at Dallas in 2007. After that, Dr. Alagha moved to Canada and worked as an adjunct faculty member at Mount Royal University in Calgary, Alberta, Canada from the period of 2008 – 2009. In February 2009, she joined the department of chemical and material engineering at the Univer-sity of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada as a postdoctoral fellow work-ing on oil sands ore processing. Dr. Alagha’s research areas focus on applying surface science and nanotechnology in treatment of tailings wastes produced from mining operations. Dr. Alagha is looking forward to initiate a new direction in mineral processing fundamental research at Missouri S&T based on applying polymer science and nanotechnology to enhance the aggregation of fine and ultrafine particles in the processing of mineral ores. About her teaching interests, she is interested in all subjects that deal with interfacial science such as mineral processing, flotation, hydromet-allurgy, colloids, etc. “I am really impressed by the family atmo-sphere here and everybody is volunteering to help”, Dr. Alagha said about her department as she is also enjoying her life in Rolla.

 

 Paul N. Worsey, PhD, CEng 

Professor & Director, 

Explosives Engineering 

 

 

 

 

RESEARCH AREAS: Explosives 

Engineering; Drilling and Blasting; 

Commercial Pyrotechnics; 

Demolition 

 

 Jerry C. Tien, PhD, PE 

Associate Professor & S&T China 

Liaison 

 

 

 

RESEARCH AREAS: Underground 

Mining Methods; Mine 

Atmospheric Control; Mine 

Health and Safety; Operations 

Research; Mineral Economics; 

Diesel Particulate Matter; Mine 

Fire Simulation 

 Jason Baird, PhD 

Associate Professor & Assistant 

Director, RMERC 

 

 

RESEARCH AREAS: Blast and 

Ballistic‐Resistant Structures; 

Advanced Blasting and 

Demolition; Energetic Materials; 

Advanced Polymeric and 

Composite Materials; Explosive 

Taggants; Explosives‐Driven 

Pulsed Power; Plasma Effects on 

Explosion Shocks for Pulsed 

Power 

 

 

RESEARCH AREAS: Mineral‐Coal 

Processing; Synthetic Fuels; 

Waterjet/Hydraulic Mining; 

Nanoparticulate Coal Science 

Integrated Manufacturing 

Processes 

 

 Grzegorz Galecki, PhD 

Associate Professor & Director 

of Mineral Processing 

 

 

 

 

RESEARCH AREAS: Rock 

Mechanics, Ground Control, 

Microseismic Monitoring, 

Geophysical Methods in Mines, 

Acoustic Emission, 

Nondestructive Testing 

 Maochen Ge, PhD 

Associate Professor 

 

 

 

RESEARCH AREAS: Surface 

Mining, Sustainability, 

Reclamation and post‐mining 

land use, Geostatistics, 

Machine‐Formation 

Interactions, Modeling, 

Simulation and Optimization of 

Mining Systems  

Kwame Awuah‐Offei, PhD 

Assistant Professor & Graduate 

Coordinator 

 

 Nassib S. Aouad, PhD 

Assistant Professor & Director 

of Distance Education 

 

 

 

 

RESEARCH AREAS: Mechanical 

Design and Automation; Machine 

Health and Fatigue Analysis; 

Machinery and Whole Body 

Vibrations; Advanced Vibrations 

Modeling and Analysis; Numerical 

Modeling and Simulation; Virtual 

Prototyping; Computational Fluid 

Dynamics 

 

 

 

 

RESEARCH AREAS: Oil Sands Ore 

Processing, Tailings 

Management, Polymer Science, 

Nanotechnology, Interfacial 

Science, Colloidal Interactions in 

Aqueous Systems, Clays 

 Lana Z. Alagha, PhD 

Assistant Professor 

How to build this building: First, you call DeWayne and Jim-mie! DeWayne Phelps is operating the lift on the ground - he doesn’t like heights. Jimmie Taylor is secured in the bucket and secur-ing the panels. The result is the building shown. We can now work on our equipment inside.

Expanding the Enrollment Capacity of Missouri S&T’s Mining Engineering The capacity of the Mining Engineering program at Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) has grown significantly 

over the last decade.  Table below shows the enrollment growth trends for the Mining Engineering program from fall 2006 to fall 2012.  

Within this period, the growth rates are: (i) 88% from 155 (in 2006) to 291 (in 2012) for total enrollment; (ii) 50% from 123 to 184 in 

undergraduate enrollment; (iii) 234% from 32 to 107 in graduate enrollment; and (iv) 317% from 6 to 25 in PhD enrollment.      

 

          2006‐12 Enrollment Growth in Mining Engineering at S&T 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

          2012 SME Enrollment for US Mining Engineering Schools 

 

                   Distribution of Fall 2012 Mining Eng Enrollment 

 

Under the program, students complete all the fundamental science, mathematics and engineering courses at UB and complete the last 

two years of the BS degree program at Missouri S&T.  The Department is pursuing two similar programs in Indonesia and the Dominican 

Republic.  

 

0 

50 

100 

150 

200 

250 

300 

FS2006  FS2007  FS2008  FS2009  FS2010  FS2011  FS2012 

FMEN 

UGRAD 

GRAD 

TOTAL 

FMEN; 32

SOPH; 47

JUNR; 45

SENR; 60

ME; 56

MS; 26

PhD; 25

Graphic 2 illustrates the enrollment statistics 

gathered by the Society for Mining, Metallurgy and 

Exploration (SME) Inc. for all accredited mining 

engineering programs in the United States and 

published in 2012.  The Figure shows that Missouri 

S&T’s mining engineering program became the largest 

program in the United States effective fall 2007, 

based on enrollment.   Graphic 3 illustrates the 

distribution of the fall 2012 enrollment statistics.  The 

2012 enrollment shows growth and strength at all 

levels.  The current upward growth trend is a strong 

indication of future growth. 

Other recruiting programs include the Jackling Intro 

Engineering Camps, the Mining/Aggregate Industry 

Nights and high school visits by the students and 

faculty.  The MS program in Explosives Engineering 

has aided the growth to a significant degree.  There 

are 21 students enrolled in the MS program and 11 

students in the graduate certificate program. The 

Department hopes to strengthen its enrollment 

capacity with a future introduction of the PhD 

program in Explosives Engineering.  The Missouri S&T 

– University of Botswana (UB) 3+2 program also 

brings an annual stream of 12 to 15 students into the 

junior year of the program.  

This growth resulted from strategic and tactical 

initiatives undertaken by the Department.  These 

initiatives include marketing and recruiting, explosives 

engineering graduate program, internships and 

permanent placements, financial aid, industry‐

university programs, international programs and 

student‐oriented programs.  Since the summer of 

2005, the Department has hosted between two and 

three explosives summer camps for high school 

students.  These camps bring an average of 60 

students to explore the exciting adventures in mining 

and explosives.  The Department recruits over 70% of 

the campers into the mining engineering program.   

  

The availability of internships and permanent placements for graduates are strong incentives for attracting students into the program.  

The graph to the left shows the reported 2012 summer internship opportunities for the Missouri S&T’s mining engineering students.  A 

number of the internships were not reported, and thus, not captured in this graph.  For example, CONSOL energy had 14 interns, but 

only 10 interns were captured in the graph.  Mining Engineering also enjoys about 100% placement after graduation.  Rolla graduated 

about 50 students in December 2011 and May 2012 with 100% placement and an average starting salary of $73,000. 

 

Financial aid has been a vital component toward attracting and retaining qualified students into the mining engineering program.  The 

Department awarded a total of $215,000 in financial assistance to mining engineering students in the academic year 2011‐12.  Sixty 

percent of this amount came from the mining industry, SME, ISEE, and other individual donors and 40% from endowed scholarship.  The 

Department was able to provide assistance to several students and no student dropped out for due to financial burden to our 

knowledge.  Overall, the students in the program have served as our ambassadors to the undecided undergraduate engineering 

students as they continue to market the program on campus.  The industry, the faculty and staff, the Board and the students continue 

to play a vital role in ensuring a full pipeline of highly qualified high school and transfer students into mining engineering at Missouri 

S&T.    

0 

2 

4 

6 

8 

10 

12 

14 

16 

NO O

F 2

012 INTERNS  TOTAL REPORTED INTERNSHIPS AND COOP PLACEMENTS = 64 

Reprint of the newsrelease announcing the signing of the contract be-tween Ma’Aden and Missouri S&T

Missouri S&T to make impact on Saudi mining industry

ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) has won a $24 million award from Saudi Arabia to train and educate personnel for the Saudi mining industry.

Missouri S&T was selected to be a partner with the Technical and Voca-tional Training Corp. (TVTC), a Saudi government entity, and the Saudi Arabian Mining Co., Ma’aden to establish the Saudi Mining Polytechnic (SMP). Under the agreement, Missouri S&T and partners from industry will train personnel at SMP during an initial five-year period. The award is potentially renewable for another five years.

Missouri S&T’s partners in this venture include Canadian Petroleum Ser-vices, Caterpillar Global Mining, The Doe Run Co., Immersive Technolo-gies, Orica Inc. and P&H Mining.

In January 2011, a Missouri S&T delegation visited Saudi Arabia in prepa-ration for the final bid submission. The contract was signed during a sec-ond visit by the Missouri S&T delegation in July 2012.

“This partnership provides Missouri S&T a great opportunity to shape the direction of the mining industry in Saudi Arabia,” says Dr. Samuel Frim-pong, chair of Missouri S&T’s mining and nuclear engineering depart-ment.

With Missouri S&T leading the way, SMP plans to educate an average of 200 professionals annually in mineral processing, as well as surface and underground mining.

“Missouri S&T has a proud heritage of supplying the world with great mining engineers – a heritage that dates back to our founding in 1870 as the Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy,” says Missouri S&T Chan-cellor Cheryl B. Schrader. “We’re pleased to be a part of this important partnership, as we believe it will transform the mining industry in Saudi Arabia.”

“Developing the skilled pool of talent needed to support the expansion of mining in the Kingdom is one of the biggest challenges we face,” says Ma’aden President and CEO Khalid Al Mudaifer. “We are delighted to be partnering with Missouri S&T to deliver world-class training at Saudi Ara-bia’s first specialist training institute for the mining industry. Missouri S&T has a long history of excellence and international partnerships, and we look forward to welcoming their team to Saudi Arabia.”

“Due to the significant developments taking place in Saudi Arabia, the TVTC has a new vision for the future of its training that will compete with global standards.” says Fahd Al Dohish, TVTC’s general manager of the Strategic Partnerships National Center (SPNC). “We are partnering the private sector to establish advanced polytechnics that will graduate skilled Saudi nationals in well-paying technical jobs, thus helping reduce unemployment and contributing to community and economic growth.”

### Contact: Andrew Careaga, 573-341-4328, acareaga@mst.edu More news from Missouri S&T: http://news.mst.edu

Eng. Abdullah Al-Saif, Chairman Ma’aden, and Dr. Kent Wry, Provost S&T, sign the cooperation agree-ment.

Ambassador to Saudi Arabia J. Smith (r) and Eng. Khalil Al-Watban, President - Ma’aden Phosphate Company, attended th press confer-ence.

Several students and industry mem-bers joined the Ma’aden and S&T delegations at the press conference

Dr Wray is holding a gift presented by Eng Anbdullah Al Saif.

Greetings from the Experimental Mine: Jimmie and DeWayne say hello. Our summer was busy with preparation of the new mine building site and the annual explosives camp. Jimmie just completed

20 years with Missouri S&T. Some additions to the mine in-clude a new Bobcat, 30 Koehler lights, a 5 Ton dump truck and the erection of the student design building that was taken down on main campus. With the addition of the donated 30 cordless Koehler lights, we can now have 2 full classes at the same time under ground. We also have a 2 person Kennedy Chamber for mine res-cue training and Mine Health and Safety clas-

Another great addition to the mine is a 40'x60' metal building - the former solar car building. It took 11 days to dismantle and over a year to erect with some of the work still in progress. We laid the foundation in May 2012 and spent most of July working on the building. It will be nice to work on equipment inside during the cold weather. We purchased a new S205 Bob-cat with the donation from Steve and Eliza-beth Lang. This is a great addition to our old Bobcat that is 20 years old.

We have gained a few new items at the mine that have im-proved the training that is provided to the students. However, we have a growing need for a newer truck that would be used for traveling to Mucking and Mine Rescue competitions. The best would be a 4 door diesel 3/4 ton or 1 ton that could also tow a trailer. All of our vehicles are donations and we appreci-

The new Bobcat Donated by Steve Lang

New Shop at Mine Moved from Main Campus.

Donated by Kennedy Metal Products Donated by Koehler

We recently started a decline in the Wheeler mine. This will accommodate the drilling and blasting classes and ensure that they will always have space for drilling and blasting. The plan is to use a 1973 JOY Air Track to drill in the mine. Jimmie went to England for the 2012 Mucking competition and acquired an appreciation for the meaning of FLAT ROCK. Dr. Worsey will run around spouting “Flat Rock” and describing the difference between flat rock and round rock!! While traveling with the Mucking Teams, the group visited London, Stonehenge (the real ONE), Buckingham Palace and old tin mines in Corn-wall. The 2012 competition was held at the King Edward Mine. Dr. Worsey, Mrs. Worsey, Jimmie and his wife took advantage of a free day and traveled to Paris by train. While in Paris, Mrs. Worsey was the tour guide and walked the legs off the group. DeWayne accompanied the Gold Mine Rescue Team to New Iberia, LA and the tram came in 8th from a field of 14 teams.

News from the Experimental Mine

When you are in the Rolla area, we would like to show you all the im-provements at the Exp. Mine. Please call 573-341-6406 or email Jimmie at jtaylor@mst.edu or DeWayne at phelpscd@mst.edu

Building Capacity for Expanding Mining and Explosives Engineering Programs Mining  and  Explosives  Engineering  programs  at Missouri 

University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) have 

grown  substantially  in  enrollment  and  research  capacity 

over the last decade.  The enrollment growth rates within 

the 2006‐12 period are: (i) 88% (total enrollment); (ii) 50% 

(undergraduate  enrollment);  (iii)  234%  (graduate 

enrollment);  and  (iv)  317%  (PhD  enrollment).    These 

growth  rates  are  significant  given  industry  demand  for 

mining engineers driven by the mining industry boom and 

aging  workforce,  and  closure  and  marginalization  of 

several  global  mining  engineering  programs.    Strategic 

Objective  4  focuses  on  Expanding  S&T’s  Mining 

Engineering  Capacity.    Specifically,  this  objective  aims  at 

(i)  Completing  the  new  Experimental  Mine  Building;  (ii) 

Expanding Existing Laboratory Capacity;  (iii) Building new 

Laboratories;  (iv)  Creating  Endowment  Positions;  (v) 

Increasing  Personnel  Resources;  and  (vi)  Maintaining 

Strong  Enrollment  and  Recruiting  Efforts.    The 

Department  and  its  Development  Board  launched  the 

Capacity  Renewal  Efforts  in  September  2009  to  advance 

this  strategic  objective.    The  sections  below  provide 

updates  on  the  progress  achieved  to  date  on  various 

facets on the program.  

 1. Updates on Capacity Renewal and Expansion Initiatives This  section  highlights  the  capacity  renewal  and  expansion  initiatives  on  the  new  Experimental  Building,  the  Energetics 

Research Facility and the Virtual Surface Mining Simulator. 

 

The New Experimental Mine Building: Expansions are currently underway on the new Missouri S&T Experimental Mine and 

the Explosives Research Facility.  The graphic below shows the 3‐D layout of the new Experimental Mine Building. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                          Front of Building 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                   Back of Building 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                             First Floor of Building 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

              Second Floor of Building 

 3‐D Views of the New Experimental Mine Building 

 

The  existing  facility  has  a  capacity  of  20  students, which 

does not allow concurrent laboratory classes to be held at 

the mine.   Multiple  sections must be held  to complete a 

laboratory  session  for  a  large  class  with  current  facility.  

The new Mine Building will have 3 classrooms with a total 

of 180‐seat  capacity.    The new  facility also has  space  for 

three laboratories, mine rescue and mucking stations, dry 

rooms,  and offices  for  students,  faculty  and  staff.    It will 

allow concurrent laboratory sessions of large classes to be 

taught  at  the  mine.    As  part  of  expanding  the  mine 

facilities,  the  old  student  design  building  has  been 

relocated  at  the  Experimental  Mine.    This  facility  will 

provide  additional  space  for  important  activities  at  the 

Mine.    New  Experimental  Mine  Building  requires 

additional $600,000 for completion. 

 

Missouri  S&T  Energetics  Research  Facility:  The 

development of the Energetics Research Facility has been 

underway  for  about  4  years.    This  facility  is  located  in 

Building  No.  4  (previously  used  by  the  US  Bureau  of 

Mines).    The  facility  houses  two  explosive  chambers  for 

research  and  education.    The  Missouri  S&T  Energetics 

Research  Facility  (ERF)  has  modern  facilities  for  the 

engineering  design,  test,  and  evaluation  of  blast 

mitigation and defeat concepts, commercial rock blasting 

techniques  and  systems,  and  modern  explosives 

performance.    The  ERF  (Fig.1)  comprises  blasting 

chambers (one rated for 1kg of explosives in Fig. 2 and the 

larger  one  for  4  kg  in  Fig.  3,  machine  shop,  computing 

facilities, and explosive magazines.  The ERF also contains 

explosion  imaging  equipment,  which  includes  the  ultra‐

high  speed  Cordin  10‐A  framing  camera  (capable  of 

1,250,000  frames  per  second  (Fig.4),  high‐speed  video 

cameras (one, a Phantom V5.1, capable of 90,000 frames 

per  second),  a  gated  ICCD  camera  (capable  of  single 

exposures down  to 55 nanosecond exposure  times),  and 

flash  x‐ray  equipment.    The  Experimental  Mine  also 

contains  explosives  research  facilities  including  an 

underground  blast  chamber  rated  at  10  kg  TNT  net 

equivalent weight  (NEW) of explosives, a 1 kg TNT NEW‐

rated  surface  blast  pad  with  instrumentation  bunker,  a 

large format (~50 ft long) explosive‐driven shock tube for 

instrumented  testing of  full‐scale glazing and wall panels 

(up to 6 ft x 8 ft), assorted storage and heavy equipment, 

and magazine storage for over 3,000 lb of explosives and 

detonators.    Miscellaneous  equipment  also  includes 

velocity of detonation measurement equipment,  sixteen‐

channel  synergy  data  acquisition  system,  pressure 

transducers, and eight seismographs.  

 

   

 

 

 

Funding  from  industry,  university  and  individual  donors 

has  addressed  the  capital  expenditures  to  finish 

construction  projects  at  the  Laboratory.    The  remaining 

work  to  complete  the  facility  include:  (i)  Replacement of 

the  Cordin  ultra‐high  speed  camera,  which  is  mid‐1960s 

vintage.  The technology is obsolete and is not supported 

by the manufacturer.  The Cordin is a “draw” for many of 

the  research  initiatives  currently  being  pursued  in  the 

facility.  Current cameras with similar capability are in the 

$180k to $225k range.  (ii) The flash x‐ray system is also of 

the same vintage as the camera system and has a similar 

replacement  cost  requirement.    Currently,  Dr.  Baird 

supports this research through his SRI account, funded by 

reimbursements  from  other  research  projects.  Many  of 

these  unfunded  projects  resulted  from  the  particular 

student’s  interests,  because  there  were  no  explosives 

engineering  requirements  from  industry  to  offer  to  the 

students.  We  are  very  willing  to  tailor  research  to  suit 

industry  desires/requirements  that  have  a  promise  of 

funding to support the associated research. 

 

The  Virtual  Surface Mining  Facility: A  new  laboratory,  the  Virtual  Surface Mining  Simulator  (VSMS),  was  completed  and 

unveiled on April 08, 2012 by Chancellor Schrader.    The VSMS Facility  comprises 2 AES Base Simulators, Dragline Console, 

Shovel‐Truck Console and a Command Center.   This  facility was  funded by Caterpillar Global Mining,  Luminant Energy,  Joy 

Global and Immersive Technologies.  The facility will be used for research and education in surface mining engineering.  It will 

2012 SME/NSSGA Student Design Contest

S&T Design Team participated in this contest after being absent for a couple of years. The team made it into the finals and presented their design at SME in Seattle, WA. While our team did not place in the top three, it gives us an opportunity to rebuild a good design team and get back into the competitionFrom left: Matthew Ortel; Matthew McHale; Sean Steagall; Tyler Leithauser; Greg Gibson and Benja-min Sutton

Two of our faculty received Outstanding Teach-ing Awards in 2012. Dr. Richard Bullock (fourth from the right) and Dr. Maochen Ge (first from the right) received the award from Chancellor Schrader and Provost Wray.

also  be  used  to  help  K‐12  students  understand 

technological  innovations  in  the  mining  industry  for 

education and  recruitment.    The  facility will  introduce K‐

12  students  to  surface  mining  operations  via  virtual 

environments.  It  will  also  provide  them  with  an 

appreciation of large mining machinery and how they can 

be  controlled  with  a  touch  of  a  button.      It  will  also 

demonstrate  to  young  students  that  engineers  can  have 

fun  on  the  job.    The  facility  will  also  allow  mining 

engineering  students  to  interact with  large  scale  surface 

mining operations with heavy machinery in the classroom.  

It  will  sharpen  students  understanding  of  engineering 

design associated with heavy machinery deployment.  The 

VSMS Facility will help students appreciate the magnitude 

of  the  challenges  associated  with  these  machines  and 

sharpen their critical thinking and problem solving skills to 

manage  and  improve  such  systems  in  real  life.    It  also 

provides  additional  hands‐on  laboratory  that  improves 

enhanced  experiential  learning.    Specific  courses  will  be 

developed  for  training  and  educating  equipment 

operators  to  improve  their  operating  skills.      These 

courses  will  include  (i)  risks  and  hazards  control  and 

mitigation;  (ii)  planning  and  deployment  of  heavy 

machinery  in rugged terrain;  (iii) surface mining methods 

and  equipment;  and  (iv)  tracking  and  improving  key 

productivity indices of heavy machinery use. 

   

    

 

 

Missouri S&T Chancellor unveils 

the Virtual Surface Mining 

Simulator Facility (Top Left); The 

Dragline Simulator (Top Right); 

and the Shovel‐Truck Simulator 

(Left) 

 

 

2. Funding the Capacity Renewal and Expansion Initiatives This  capacity  renewal  and  expansion  initiative  was  put 

together by the Department and the Development Board 

under  the  leadership  of  Paul  A.  Lang,  Executive  Vice 

President  and  Chief  Operating  Officer  for  Arch  Coal  Inc.  

The  cost  associated with  this  initiative was  estimated  at 

about $6.9 million.   The Department and the Board have 

raised  $3.5  million  toward  the  capacity  expansion  and 

renewal efforts, as illustrated in Table 1.  The outstanding 

balance  of  $3.4  million  for  specific  laboratories  is 

illustrated in Table 2.  I want to thank all our donors who 

have  contributed  towards  this  major  effort.    Special 

thanks  go  to  Paul  A.  Lang,  Bill  Kennedy,  Bruce  Neil,  Jeff 

Rosychk,  Chris  Curfman  and  Janpeter  Bekkering,  Steve 

Kopenitz,  Bryan  Galli,  Michael  DeCola,  Stephen  A.  Lang, 

Gregory  A.  Lang,  Ted  Ruppert  for  their  leadership, 

contributions  and  support  for  this  major  effort.    Special 

thanks also go to Arch Coal, Caterpillar Global Mining, Joy 

Global  Inc.,  Kennedy  Metal  Products,  The  Doe  Run 

Company, Mississippi  Lime Company,  Barrick Gold North 

America,  and  Immersive  Technologies  for  their 

contributions.  The second phase of this initiative will raise 

the  remaining  $3.4  million  to  compete  the  expansion 

initiatives.    Your  support  is  key  to  the  future  of  Rolla 

Mining Engineering.  

 

 

Funded Laboratories/Facilities ($3.5 M) 

LABORATORY/AID  DONORS  AMOUNT  STATUS 

New Experimental Mine 

Building ($2.5 M) 

Kennedy Metal Products 

The Doe Run Company 

Mississippi Lime Company 

$1.58 M 

$250,000 

$100,000 

Remaining Funding is $650,000; Construction is 

underway with projected finish date of Fall 2013 

McNutt CLCs ($300,000)  Ted Ruppert  $300,000  Complete funding for one 40‐seat and one 30‐seat 

Computer Laboratories 

Virtual Surface Mining 

Simulator ($700K) 

Caterpillar Global Mining 

Luminant Energy 

Joy Global Inc. 

$325,000 

$250,000 

$100,000 

Project is fully funded and built; was unveiled by 

Chancellor Schrader on April 08, 2012 

Mine Survey ($325K)  Barrick Gold N. America  $125,000  Funding remaining is $240,000. 

Mine Health and Safety 

($120K) 

Arch Coal Inc.  $120,000  Project is fully funded and it will be located in the 

new Mine Building 

Explosives Facility ($600K)  Mr./Mrs. Stephen A. Lang  $100,000  Explosives facility is currently underway  

Rock Mechanics Facility 

($750K) 

Peabody   $250,000  Remaining funding is $1 M to expand and renew the 

old rock mechanics building  

 

Unfunded Proposals ($3.3 M) 

LABORATORY  AMOUNT  IMPORTANT FUNCTION 

Mineral Processing   $0.8 M  Mining Engineering has hired 2 faculty in mineral‐coal processing and is combining 

efforts with Chemical Engineering and Extractive Metallurgy to develop mineral‐coal 

processing, tailings management and sustainable systems.  This research facility will 

provide a core capacity for advancing research in these areas.  

Rock Mechanics  $0.5 M  Additional funding required to complete the new Experimental Mine Building  

New Experimental Mine 

Building 

$0.6 M  Additional funding required to complete the new Experimental Mine Building 

Mine Ventilation   $0.5 M  Expansion of the old Ventilation Facility to incorporate new equipment for research and 

education 

Virtual Underground Mining 

Simulator 

$0.5 M  Similar to the Virtual Surface Mine Simulator. This facility will be used for education and 

research in underground mine production systems. 

Mine Survey   $0.2 M  State‐of‐the‐art technological environment for mine survey 

Explosives   $0.4 M  Additional funding required to complete the new Experimental Mine Building 

 

Update from the S&T Mine Recue Team

May 7-11 2012 saw the Mine rescue teams travelling to New Iberia Louisiana for the Southern regional mine rescue contest. The Missouri S&T team competed against 15 other industry teams. The Missouri S&T team

performed will even though they did not earn a trophy. The competing team was: Captain- Casey Slaughter,

Gas Man- Jacob Morris, Map Man- Eric Wesel, First Aid- Katie Sewester, Co-Captain- Andrew Krump, Fresh

Air Base- David Stine, Fresh Air Base Assistant- Spencer Evans, Team Alternates- Dana Resmini and Jenna Freese. Below are a few photos from the SE Mine Rescue Competition in New Iberia, Louisiana. As you can

see, our team is hard at work. This team placed 1st in the SE Missouri Mine Rescue Competition in Rolla in

September 2012.

  

 

 

34th International Intercollegiate Mining Competition, Cornwall, England 2012

By: Amanda Baker and Lindsay Brandt The Missouri S&T Mucking teams had a fantastic year;

four teams were sent to Cornwall, England for the 34th

International Intercollegiate Mining Competition. Members of

the womens A-team included: Maggie Newsom, Jenna

Freese, Katherine Stockdale, Sara Tipton, and Elizabeth Hunt;

while members of the womens B-Team included: Lindsay

Miller, Lindsay Brandt, Amanda Baker, Kelsey Garrett, and

Deanna Fitzgerald.

The two week adventure started at the Gatwick airport south of London.

After a few relaxing days in London, the group set out for Stonehenge, to be

followed by Falmouth. During the six-hour bus trip, there were many naps and a

few gas station stops. The entire

group got to go and visit the historic

Stonehenge Ruins. Once again

everyone got on the bus for the final

leg of the trip to Falmouth, where the

competition events started. During the

first night, theteams were left to

explore the city. The next day, all the

teams went on a historic mine tour that

went from the picturesque shorelines

of England to the underground tin

mines. The old tin mines are unique

in construction; the mines were dug out under the

ocean.

The competition events started the next day. A

practice day for all the teams was held to get familiar

with the equipment and the terrain. The following day

was the womens competition day. The Mucking

Competition day consisted of seven events: hand

steel, swede saw, jackleg drilling, survey, gold pan,

trackstand, and as the name implies, mucking.

Between both teams, gold was taken in 4 out of the 7

events. Womens A-Team earned Bronze medal in the

overall standings while Womens B-Team brought home

the title of International Intercollegiate Mining

Champions back to Missouri S&T. To celebrate the

achievements of both teams, the next week was spent

touring Dublin and London.

In 2013, the competition will be held in Golden,

CO at Colorado School of Mines. Both womens teams

are working together to reclaim the title in 2013.

Womens A‐Team

Womens B‐Team 

Womens B‐Team Mucking 

NSSGA Student Chapter Update by Greg Gibson, President

The Missouri S&T Student Chapter of the National Stone, Sand, and Gravel Association is off to a good start this year. We recently hosted the Second Annual Aggregate Industry Night. This year there were four companies in at-tendance: Lehigh Hanson, APAC Central, Austin Powder, and US Silica. The event was hosted on September 20th in the McNutt Hall Commons. Food was catered from Bandannas BBQ and the students ate and chatted with industry repre-sentatives. After dinner, representatives from each company, many of which were UMR or S&T Alum, had presentations that informed students on what students could expect as a newly-hired engineer. Overall it was a good event that should be continued in the future.

The entire leadership for NSSGA is new this year, and with that we plan on bringing some new ideas to the or-ganization. We are currently planning a shooting social. The plan is to bring students out to the Rolla Shooting Club and shoot trap and sheet, rifles, and pistols. This will be a member only event and NSSGA will supply ammunition and guns. We have a feeling that this event will encourage students to join NSSGA and become a yearly event.

ISEE Student Chapter Update

Our Student Chapter had another very active year. A large group of students attended the 2012 Annual Conference of ISEE in Nashville, TN. But this was not the only conference. Several of our chapter members attended the Best in the West in April 2012. Two of our students presented a paper. We want to thank for the financial support we received to attend these conferences.For several years members of this chapter have provided great pyro displays for campus activities. We continued this over the past year. This Fall we have two displays at night football games. The Annual SUB Block Party is always

closed with a big firework. Our students are building a reputation of very great shooters!We work with the other student organizations in the department by hosting socials, providing call-ers for Phonathon and working Haunted Mine. The explosives program on this campus is “ex-ploding”.

Dr. Worsey and the stu-dents posing for a photo in Nashville during the 2012 ISEE Annual Meeting and Conference.

Society of Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration

Will Thompson, PresidentThe Missouri S&T student chapter of the Society of Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration would like to introduce the 2012-2013 officers: President Will Thompson, Vice-President Katie Sewester, Secretary Hannah McNally, and Trea-surer Drew Krump. Last year the chapter started off the fall semester with the “All Society Annual Social” with ISEE, NSSGA, and WIM. This social is held every fall to help returning students ease back into school life and to introduce new students to the societies and their members. Currently, all the organizations are gearing up for the annual Haunt-ed Mine, which helps fund the yearly National Conferences For this event, the Experimental Mine is morphed into one scary place. The Haunted Mine benefits all the organizations and is the largest fundraiser for our SME chapter. Our chapter also sends students to the St. Louis Section SME meetings, which is a great opportunity for students to meet industry members and find out more about the industry. We have had our first monthly meeting, which was a movie night. We plan to continue the meetings and get industry members to come for presentations. We are also in the pro-cess of having an SME/S&T t-shirt that we hope to have available to all the students, faculty, staff, and alum. We plan to have some available at the national conference in Denver this coming February. We also in-tend to be bring one, possibly even, two teams to Denver to compete in the NSSGA competition. Lastly, we will end the school year with our an-nual Senior Banquet.

Thirty-six students attended the 2012 Annual Meeting of SME in Seattle, Washington. The students added one extra day to the itiner-ary and enjoyed the sights and food in Seattle. It was the first time that SME held the annual meeting in Seattle, but we hope it will go back in the future.

High GPA Freshman Professional Leadership Award External Relations Award Anders Hopkins Casey Slaughter Tyler Leithauser High GPA Sophomore Outstanding Metal/Non Metal Graduate Good Citizneship Award Robert Florich Kyle Pfitzinger Kathryne Sewester Paul Schmidt Hannah McNally High GPA Junior Blake Demoss Outstanding Aggregates Graduate Student Activity Award Tyler Leithauser Michael Allen High GPA Senior Benjamin Sutton Mike Allen Outstanding Graduate Student - Research Bonno Basiami Osei Brown

Outstanding Graduate Student - Teaching Muhammad Azeem Raza

2012 Student Award Recipients

Update from Mr. Windy – Jerry Tien (JCT) 

  

It has been a very busy year for the ventilation group. 

 

Australian Trip 

 

Current NIOSH project on fire and fire simulation requires us 

to visit major mining countries to examine their mine safety 

practices and emergency procedures. Up till now, we have 

visited mine sites and safety facilities in Poland, India and 

China, the last one on the list is Australia. 

 

Australia is one of the more advanced major mining countries 

with a booming mining industry.  The high labor costs and 

first‐world safety regulations, distinctive geology and the im‐

portance placed on mining research by government and busi‐

nesses, has resulted in a mining sector that is quite techno‐

logically advanced, including mine ventilation network model‐

ing, fire‐fighting and mine rescue techniques. Dr. Stewart 

Gillies and I visited Australia in summer 2012. 

 

In Australia we visited three mines (two gold mines and one 

gassy coal mine), Queensland Mines Rescue Service, and 

safety devices testing centers and extensive discussions for 

their best safety practices, mine rescue operations, under‐

ground refuge chambers and safety regulation. 

 

 

Inside a Refuge Chamber at Daisy Milano Gold Mine 

near Kargoorlie, WA 

 

Mine Rescue Short Courses in China 

 JCT and Casey Slaughter conducted two 3‐day safety short courses at University of Science and Technology‐Beijing (USTB) and Xi’an 

University of Science and Technology (XUST), Shaanxi Province. Both are comprehensive universities with tradition and strong em‐

phasis in mining engineering. 

 

Lecturing at Xi’an University of Science and Technology, Xi’an.  

The title of the short course is: “Mine Emergency Response, with Special 

Emphasis on Escape under Mine Fires,” combined over 500 undergraduate 

and graduate students at both institutions attended these two lectures. It 

appears the short course is well received, we have been requested to con‐

vert the lecture notes into a formal book on mine rescue. 

 

 

 

 

 

Center Wrap up 

 The Western U.S. Mine Safety and Health Training and Trans‐

lation Center was consortium of four universities (Colorado 

School of Mines, University of Utah, Montana Tech started 

back in 2004). 

 

The Western Mining Safety and Health Training & Transla‐

tional Center (Center) was funded by the National Institute of 

Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Center for Disease 

Control and Prevention, Department of Health and Human 

Services. When it was established in 2004, it was a four‐

member consortium consisting of University of Missouri‐Rolla 

(at the time of creation), Colorado School of Mines (CSM), 

Montana Tech of the University of Montana (Montana Tech) 

and the University of Utah. In 2005, Montana Tech withdrew 

from the consortia.  

 

The Center is physically located in the Department of Mining 

and Nuclear Engineering, Missouri S&T and all projects were 

Women in Mining News

The WIM Student Chapter completed a successful year. In addition to joining the other student organizations on Haunted Mine, Phonathon, and other department

activities, the chapter sent 3 members to the 2012 Annual WIM Meeting in San Diego, CA Ste-ven O’Donnell, Evan Thibaud and Tristan Worsey attended the conference and really enjoyed the interaction with other members and San Diego.

The chapter elected new officers and is currently working on an old project that is still very inter-esting: What’s Mined Is Yours! The members are re-printing the cards showing the materials needed to, for example, make a sink. The card is then posted next to a sink in the residence hall. On one of the next weekends, a large number of WIM members will post all the cards around campus. The chapter is also sponsoring a poster contest with a local Middle School. Posters drawn by the Middle School students will be judged by chapter members and the winning class is treated to a pizza party. The topic is the importance of mining and minerals in our life. This should be an interesting project.

Look at all these smiling faces! This is just a portion of the mining students receiving financial aid from the department. Thanks to the alums that set up endowments, and to the industry that supports us, we were able to help most of our students. We want to thank all our donors for their assistance.

What’s New from Rock Mechanics

The Rock Mechanics & Explosives Research Center (RMERC) has been buzzing with activity this past year – new projects, new researchers and staff, and new equipment.

Dr. Greg Galecki added a third post-doctoral researcher from Turkey to his team. Over the summer, Dr. Sedat Buyuksagis arrived from Afyon Kocatepe University to work on waterjet-assisted rapid excavation of rock. He joined Dr. Gul Akar and Dr. Sezai Sen from Dokuz Eylul Univer-sity, who have been working with Dr. Galecki for the past two years on coal-water-fuel characterization.

Two post-docs have also been doing research with Dr. Norbert Maerz (Geol. Eng.). Over the summer, Dr. Ahmed Youssef – an S&T grad (MS CE‘04, PhD GeoE‘04) – traveled from the Saudi Geological Survey to work with Dr. Maerz on natural hazards. And, continuing his project from the previous year, Dr. Ahmet Deliormanli from Dokuz Eylul Univer-sity in Turkey worked with Dr. Maerz on issues related to the Graniteville Quarry.

Last November, Mike Bassett – our newest staff member -- took over from Scott Parker as Senior Research Engineering Technician. Mike hit the ground running and has the RMERC machine shop and Bldg. D in tip-top condition. He has also been working with Dr. Jason Baird on major im-provements to the explosives blast chamber.

Three faculty members have joined our Center in the past year. Dr. Wan Yang (Geology) is analyzing rift basin fills. Dr. Hank Lee (Nuclear Eng.) is fabricating a flat-panel x-ray source from nanomaterials. Last but not least, Dr. Sriram Chellappan (Computer Science) is developing solutions for wire-less sensor networks and communication systems in underground mines. We’re pleased to have them aboard!

We also bid a fond farewell to two of our research investigators: Dr. Louis Ge (Civil Eng.), now at National Taiwan University; and Dr. Mohamed Ab-delsalam (Geology), now the Boone Pickens chair of geographics at Okla-homa State University.

In addition to the new faces at RMERC this past year, we have also ac-quired some new equipment. Two large booster fans arrived in conjunc-tion with Dr. Stewart Gillies’ mine ventilation project for NIOSH, and have been installed at the Experimental Mine. Also, a new 125 HP, 90 kpsi intensifier pump has been extend-ed to us on short-term lease from KMT Waterjet Systems. Dr. Galecki has been using this high-pressure intensifier in his work on advanced titanium machining with abrasive waterjets for the Center for Aero-space Manufacturing Technologies (CAMT).

Some other topics being researched at RMERC this past year include frac-tured anticline formations, saturated rock fragmentation, robot-mounted LIDAR fusion, and uranium ore borehole mining.

Recently, two of RMERC’s senior investigators, Dr. David Summers (emeri-tus) and Dr. Greg Galecki, received a U.S. patent for jet-assisted drilling/cutting methods.

2012 Old Timers AwardThe recipient of the 2012 Old Tim-ers Award is Michael Shuman. Mike worked every summer in the coal industry and is now working for Jim Walter Resources in Ala-bama. Mike received the award at the Annual Student Awards Ban-quet in April 2012

coordinated and managed through the Center by Dr. Larry R. 

Grayson, who left Missouri S&T in 2007 and the Center was 

later transferred to Dr. Jerry C. Tien. This project has multiple 

subprojects and the primary aim of this project is to reduce 

the number of injuries to miners through an integrated pro‐

gram of training intervention and translational research. 

 

Over the six years of operation, the Center has taught seven 

workshops on DPM training reaching 232 students from the 

mining industry. Most of the trainees were from the metal 

and nonmetal mining in the Western United States. Two 

short courses on mine ventilation had 42 students in two 

years. Small mine miner training reached 436 miners, includ‐

ing 53 mines in both initial training and follow‐up visits or a 

total 189 miners reached. CSM’s trained a multiplier of 4 to 

have reached 5,203 trainees in six years. The progression 

among years of miners trained (without a multiplier) has 

been 161 in Year 1; 372 in Year 2; 478 in Year 3; over 500 in 

Year 4, over 545 in Year 5 and around 610 in Year 6, including 

the DPM project and the Hazard Identification and Risk As‐

sessment projects.  

 

The six‐year project funded a total of eight students (four 

Ph.D., two M.S. and two B.S. students, published 16 papers 

and a 178‐page DPM Emissions Control training manual (with 

a DVD). The Center officially ended August 31, 2011. 

 

Refuge Chamber Project 

 After  the Sago mine disaster,  the MINER Act of 2006 mandated  that all underground coalmines must  install  and maintain  refuge 

chambers. Missouri S&T’s Ventilation Group was awarded a project by NIOSH to examine the CO purging process and to determine 

total air quantity and time necessary to lower the CO concentration to safe levels inside the chamber for different inlet/outlet con‐

figurations using 3D numerical simulation technique. This research can provide useful guidelines in developing an efficient strategy 

for purging refuge chamber.     

 (a) Physical Model            (b) Computational Mesh 

 (c)  CO  concentration distribution  at  different  cross‐sectional  planes  inside  the Refuge Chamber  for middle‐

inlet at time t = 0 s and t = 100 s   

 

1

MISSOURI S&T EXPERIMENTAL MINE UNDERGROUND BOOSTER FANS

by Dr. Stewart Gillies

Missouri S&T is working with the University of Utah on a NIOSH funded ventilation research project with

Dr Stewart Gillies as Co-Project Investigator. In early February 2012 two booster fans were delivered to

Rolla by truck from Spendrup Fans Company, Grand Junction, CO (Photo 1). Spendrup Fans was very

generous in this purchase transaction.

Photo 1 Unloading Spendrup fans

Both booster fans were initially checked and tested at the

Rock Mechanics and Explosives Research Center. The fans

then went to the Experimental Mine for installation in 150 x

150 mm treated timber framework bulkheads. The timbers

have been bolted by 100 cm fully threaded expanded bolts to

the walls and the back.

Photo 2 West booster fan installation by Jimmie Smith, Mine

Supervisor and Grad Student Arash Habibi

The void between timbers and the wall has been sealed by

applying cementatious plaster mixture on metal laths.

Sealing is achieved by applying expanded foam to minimize

leakage through the bulkhead. Kennedy Metal Company

donated man doors and metal stoppings for the project.

19mm fully treated water-proofed plywood has been used

(Photo 2) on the bulkheads to seal the open area around the

booster fans. The booster fans have been bolted on painted

steel metal skids for transportation around the Experimental

Mine. The skids have been bolted to the floor to reduce vibration caused

by the fans.

A 12kW three phase 460V motor powers each booster fan. A 76 mm

hole has been drilled passing the power cable underground. The hole

is located next to the main pole from which power is distributed

throughout the Experimental Mine (shown in Fig 3).

Photo 3 76 mm drill hole with the 50 mm conduit passing wire to

underground

A safety “kill” switch has been installed on the electrical pole (not

shown in this picture). The switch will shut down both booster fans in

case of emergency. Wires are strung from the mine back. A split box

divides the circuit in two for power to each fan. Adjacent to fans

electrical components are installed and each fan is equipped with a

variable speed controller. The generous support of NIOSH and the Spendrup and William Kennedy

companies is acknowledged.

Expanding Global Frontiers in Mining Engineering Education 

Expansions  in  the  domestic  and  global  mining  industry  have 

fueled  greater  interest  in  mining  and  explosives  engineering 

research and education all over the world.  Missouri S&T has 

strong  and  leading  programs  in  mining  and  explosives 

engineering, and is therefore, positioned to play a vital role in 

meeting the global demand for technological innovations and 

the  production  of  highly  qualified  personnel  in  these 

disciplines.   Over the next 10 years, the Department has laid 

down  strategic  objectives,  goals  and  action  plans  to  expand 

and grow  its  research and education  initiatives at home and 

abroad.    Missouri  S&T’s  global  presence  will  expand  the 

capacity  of  its  mining  engineering  program  and  provide  our 

students  with  opportunities  to  experience  diversified 

portfolio of students and cultures abroad.  It will also provide 

opportunities  to  experience  the  global  mining  industry  for 

great career opportunities.   The global presence will broaden 

the  research  capacity  to  cover  several  industries  in  several 

countries.    The  resulting  experience  and  exposure  will  allow 

Missouri S&T to serve the US mining industry with distinction.  

Toward  these  important  objectives,  Missouri  S&T  is 

expanding  its  global  presence  into  several  mining  countries, 

including  Australia,  Botswana,  Brazil,  China,  Dominican 

Republic,  Ghana,  Indonesia  and  Saudi  Arabia.    Below  are 

highlights  of  our  presence  in  Botswana,  China,  Saudi  Arabia 

and Indonesia.   Today, these programs have the potential to 

add  4  faculty  members  to  the  mining  engineering  faculty  at 

Missouri S&T. 

 

Global Presence in Botswana, Southern Africa 

Botswana produces 35% of  the global gem diamonds.    It 

also  produces  copper,  gold,  and  coal.  However,  the 

country does not have a mining engineering program.   In 

2007,  Missouri  S&T  signed  a  Memorandum  of 

Understanding  (MOU)  with  University  of  Botswana  (UB) 

and  a  specific  Implementation  Agreement  to  offer  a  3+2 

program in Mining Engineering.  Under the agreement, UB 

students  will  complete  1‐year  pre‐university  and  2  years 

university  education  and  transfer  into  the  junior  year  at 

Missouri S&T.  These students will then complete a 2‐year 

program  leading  to  the  Bachelor  of  Science  degree  in 

Mining Engineering.  Since its inception in the Fall of 2008, 

this  program  has  produced  33  graduates  with  a  current 

enrollment  of  24  students.    The  photos  show  a  group 

picture of the Botswana students, a visit to the Okavango 

Delta  Safari  by  a  delegation  from  Missouri  S&T  and  a 

picture  with  Her  Excellency  Ma  Seretse,  the  Botswana 

Ambassador to the United States.      

 

 

Global Presence in China 

In 2010, Missouri S&T along with University of Missouri – Saint Louis 

(UMSL)  completed  an  MOU  with  Tianfu  College  of  Southwestern 

University  of  Finance  and  Economics  (TC‐SWUFE)  to  establish  four 

engineering  programs,  nursing  and  hospitality  schools.    Under  this 

agreement, Missouri  S&T will  develop Mining and Mineral Process 

Engineering,  Materials  Science  and  Engineering,  and  Engineering 

Management.  TC‐SWUFE, located in Sichuan Province, was founded 

in 1925 in Shanghai. During WWII it moved to Chengdu Province. In 

1952,  Sichuan  College  of  Finance  and  Economics  was  formed  by 

merging 17 colleges, universities and institutes for higher education. 

In  1985,  its  name  was  changed  to  Southwestern  University  of 

Finance  and  Economics.    TC‐SWUFE  is  one  of  the  top  100 

independent  colleges  of  China.    It  was  recognized  in  2010  for  its 

excellent graduates by Sichuan Province and awarded “21st

 Century 

Innovation  Demonstration  Site  of  Education  Reform”  nationally.  

This  region  has  the  largest  concentration  of  rare  earth  minerals  in 

the  world.    New  faculty  members  will  be  hired  to  administer  and 

teach the programs. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 These photos show the infrastructure being 

developed for the new programs in engineering, 

nursing and hospitality. 

 

2012 Phonathon

Fall is coming to the Ozarks and the annual Mining Engineering Phonathon is coming up. Our students will work the phones from November 4 to 8, 2012. We hope you will take their call and continue your generous donation to the Department. Remember that all the Phonathon donations come to the Department and are split between scholarships and deprtment activities. All four student organizations, as well as mine rescue, mucking and the student design team benefit from the Phonathon.

 

 

Global Presence in Saudi Arabia 

In 2012, Missouri S&T completed a contractual agreement 

with Ma’aden, The Saudi Arabian Mining Company and the 

Technical and Vocational Training Cooperation (TVTC) to 

establish the Saudi Mining Polytechnic (SMP).  This Saudi 

Mining Institute, located in Arar, Saudi Arabia, will educate 

and train professionals in surface and underground mining 

and mineral processing plant operations.  Saudi Arabia has 

diversified its economy into mining with strong emphasis on 

gold, bauxite, phosphate, copper and zinc and other 

industrial minerals.  Its multi‐billion dollar bauxite‐alumina 

and phosphate‐ammonia‐fertilizer complexes present state‐

of‐the‐art technologies that present bold initiatives into the 

next century for its mining industry.  Alongside this bold 

initiative is the establishment of a comprehensive institution 

to prepare professionals for the mining industry.  Ma’aden 

and TVTC initiated a global competition via an RFP and 

Missouri S&T was selected as the partner for executing this 

important assignment.  This assignment presents a great 

opportunity for shaping the mining industry of Saudi Arabia. 

 

 The photos above show architecture, desert features and a 

camel farm in and around Arar, Saudi Arabia. 

 

 

Global Presence in Indonesia 

In October 2012, Missouri S&T signed an MOU 

with Syarif Hidayatullah Islamic State University 

(UIN) in Indonesia to establish a School of Mining 

and Environmental Engineering at UIN.  Indonesia 

has large reserves of precious, base, ferrous and 

fossil fuel minerals and its home to several multi‐

national mining companies.  The School will be a 

vehicle to produce highly qualified graduates to 

meet the talent needs of Indonesia.  Under the 

agreement, the two universities will undertake a 

2+2 BS in Mining Engineering program, distance 

education and faculty training and development.  

It will also create research partnerships between 

Missouri S&T and Indonesia’s mining industry and 

opportunities for international exposure to our 

students.   

   

   The UIN delegation meets Chancellor Schrader (Top Left); Missouri S&T 

and UIN signs an MOU (Bottom Left) 

 

These initiatives are part of the FY2010‐20 Strategic Plan for the Department of Mining and Nuclear Engineering to expand its global 

footprints. Under the Strategic Objective 5 (Strengthen National and Global Partnerships), the Department seeks to engage national 

and global universities,  industries and research organizations as partners  in education and research.   The specific goals under this 

strategic  objective  include  (i)  Maintenance  of  a  Strong  Development  Board;  (ii)  Enhancing  Missouri  S&T‐UB  Partnership;  (iii) 

Developing S&T‐Saudi Initiative on Mining Education; and (iv) Developing Other S&T International Initiatives.  Toward these goals, we 

seek to grow in strength and capacity.   

Congratulations to Dr. Braden Lusk

Some of you will remember Braden Lusk (BS 200 and PhD 2006) from when he was a student here. We are pleased to announce that this February he received the International Society of Explosives Engineers President’s award and was promoted to Associated Professor of Mining Engineering with tenure at the University of Kentucky. Braden will be helping us with the explosives masters, joining us as adjunct associ-ate professor in the near future and be teaching a distance class on blast vibration engineering.

News about the Explosives Program by Dr. Paul WorseyWe have just finished our second year of the explosives masters and have now graduated a total of 9 masters to date with 27 enrolled students in hot pursuit and 8 others in the postgraduate certificate program.. By the end of the second year we exceeded our 4th year goal and we are now at a sustainable level.

The graduation statistics today are:

Table Showing Graduates with qualifications 1997 thru May 2012, Explosives emphasis through Masters

U Emphasis U Certificate U Minor G Certificate G Minor M.S. TotalGraduates 36 13 71 13 2 9 144

The emphasis was approved in 1997, the minors in 2005, certificates in 2006 and masters in 2010. We now have 13 separate explosives classes being given plus “postgraduate cooperative experience”, “industry project”, “spe-cial problems” and “research”. Also we should have an additional class added this spring. The classes span rock blasting, explosives theory, instrumentation, safety, manufacture, pyrotechnics and demolition.

We are currently in the midst of the submission of a proposal for a PhD in explosives engineering catering for our masters’ students that would like to continue. The Masters and PhD are both in house and distance, full and part time and a hybrid of all four, catering both for traditional students and those in industry, unable to attend the univer-sity for an extended period of time because of their work and family commitments.

The name is Worsey, Paul Worsey. He likes his Martini shaken - not stirred.

Dr. Worsey ready to attend the Mining Hall of Fame Induction Banquet in Las Vegas, NV

Research Update - Caleb Baumgart

The title of my research project is optimal design and use of advanced structural materials to mitigate explosive and impact threats. This project is funded by the depart-ment of homeland security under the alert project. It is the intent of this project to develop or design a re-deploy-able barrier capable of providing protection from explo-sive hazards. This protection is to be directly applied to forward operating bases, extended lines of communica-tion and enhanced protection of buildings with limited space from threat zones. The qualities of the barrier include the capability of stopping vehicles that pose a threat and mitigate the explosion after an impact without creating secondary debris. This is different from currently used barriers today in that it is meant to mitigate the blast and create a blast shadow, where today’s barriers are only meant to create a blast shadow. To create this mitigating effect cavities are created inside the concrete barrier that are filled with a media. This media is used to absorb most or all the energy that travels through the barrier and reduce or remove the spalling effect cre-ated by an explosive on the back side of the barrier. In other words the purpose of this project is to convert the very high impulse pressure loads to lower pressure loads using a media with the correct density, porosity and geometrical size and shape.

Summer Work - Matthew Ortel

This summer I worked for Orica North America in Watkins Colorado, where I published two technical papers through the International Society of Explo-sives Engineers. I researched the effects of the ini-tiation position in geophysical charges on observed out-put waves. The research used mathematical modeling and worked to improve exploration meth-ods for oil and mineral deposits. The second project also aimed to improve current geophysical explo-ration techniques by investigating the many pos-sible causes of frequency filtering in mathematical models. This research is used to eliminate numerical artifacts in computer modeling so that simulations accurately predict the events that happen during blasting.

Research Update – Dominique Nolan

Dominique spent the summer doing work in two areas. First, on large linear shaped charge (10,500 gr/ft) performance on structural steel targets and the effect of standoff on performance of large linear

shaped charges. Second, the ground work and foundation of a literature review for work look-ing at the interaction of target characteristics (density, UCS, tensile strength, etc.) and how a conical shaped charge’s depth of penetration might be affected by all of those characteris-tics as they interact with each other.

Research Update – Phillip Mulligan

This summer I co-authored a paper in the Hypervelocity Impact Symposium’s 2012 conference proceedings. The paper examined the forces imparted on the projectile, of an explosively formed projectile, from the two soft recov-ery methods used to collect the projectile. Method 1 utilized three polyethylene water barrels placed “end-to-end” horizontally, providing 2.6 meters (9 feet) of water to stop the projectile. Method 2 is a modification of the soft-recov-ery method utilized in “Soft-Recovery of Explosively Formed Penetrators” by Air Force Research Laboratory. This method utilizes a series of several materials with an increasing density gradient, placed end-to-end over 14.3 meters (47 feet) to stop the projectile. Despite the fact that explosively formed projectiles (EFPs) of the same design were fired into each recovery method, the projectiles collected using the two methods differed in shape, size, weight, and the number of pieces collected. The force analysis assisted in identifying the source of deformation between the two recovery methods.

I also co-authored a paper with students at the University of Kentucky, examining the effects of age on the accuracy of electric blasting caps, for the International Society of Explosive Engineer’s 39th annual conference proceedings. In which we examined two different age’s of blasting caps from the same batch one year apart, in addition to caps that were between eight and nine years old. Each system was tested at a short medium and long delay time. Statistical analysis was conducted to determine the effect of time on the detonators accuracy. This paper quantifies the impor-tance of regular inventory cycling to help preserve intended timing when using non electric shock tube detonator systems.

I authored an additional paper for the International Society of Explosive Engineer’s 39th annual conference proceed-ings. This report detailed the preliminary calculations governing the underwater collapse of an oil pipe via explosive lensing. This report assumed a spherical-shaped, single explosive charge. The calculations assist in identifying how the explosive charge size needed to seal a metal pipe while focusing on one explosive charge acting on part of the pipe. Future calculations will analyze the combination of multiple explosive charges acting on the pipe as a whole.

Engaging Our Constituencies for Strong Mining Engineering Education 

One  of  the  greatest  constituencies  for Missouri  S&T’s Mining 

Engineering  Program  is  the  Mining  Industry  of  the  United 

States.   We  are  proud  of  industry’s  contribution  to  the  social 

fabric  and  economic  security  of  the  nation  captured  in  the 

following statements from the National Mining Association.  In 

keeping with the above contributions by the industry, Missouri 

S&T  educates  future  mining  engineers  with  industry  as  a 

partner.    Every  year,  Missouri  S&T  interacts  with  industry 

leaders  on  substantive  issues  that  affect  the  direction  of  its 

mining engineering education.     

 

“In 2008, the mining industry paid approximately $45 billion in 

taxes, royalties and fees to federal, state and local governments 

combined.  Nearly  $107  billion  was  paid  to  mining  industry 

employees  in direct and  indirect wages and benefits. The total 

direct  and  indirect  impact  of  U.S.  mining  is  valued  at  $1.9 

trillion ‐ mining produced $80 billion of finished mineral, metal 

and  fuel  products  that  were  then  transformed  by  consumer 

industries into goods creating an additional $1.8 trillion in value 

added.   According to U.S. Geological Survey analysis, the value 

added to U.S. GDP by major industries that consume processed 

mineral  materials  was  an  estimated  $2.1  trillion  in  2010,  14 

percent  of  U.S.  GDP.    Minerals  and materials  processed  from 

minerals account  for exports worth as much as $87 billion per 

year.” (National Mining Association, 2012) 

 

Mining Engineering Development Board:  The Board comprises 

top  executives  from  the  mining  and  aggregate  companies, 

consulting  and  research  organizations  and  OEMs.    Page  36 

contains  a  list  of  the  current  Board  Members.    The  member 

companies  include Arch Coal  Inc., Barrick Gold North America, 

BHP  Billiton,  Casper  Stolle  Quarry,  Caterpillar  Inc.,  Centerra 

Gold,  Cliffs  Natural  Resources,  Cloud  Peak  Energy,  Conco 

Quarries,  Consol  Energy, Doe Run Company,  Fred Weber  Inc., 

Golder  Associates,  Goodyear  Company,  Immersive 

Technologies,  Jack  Kennedy  Metal  Products,  Joy  Global  Inc., 

Kiewit Mining  Group,  Komatsu  America  Corp,  Lehigh  Hanson, 

Luminant  Energy,  Martin  Marietta,  Missouri  S&T,  Newmont 

Corporation,  NovaGold  Corporation,  Orica  Inc.,  Peabody 

Energy, Vulcan Materials, and Weir International.   

 

 

 

The  Board meets  once  a  year  in  April.    At  the  April  08,  2012 

Board Meeting,  Chancellor  Schrader  provided  a  vision  for  the 

future  of  Missouri  S&T,  followed  with  the  state  of  Missouri 

S&T’s Mining Engineering by Samuel Frimpong, Chair of Mining 

and Nuclear Engineering.  Updates on capacity renewal efforts 

were  provided  by  Paul  A.  Lang  (Executive  Vice  President  and 

COO  for  Arch  Coal),  Bill  Kennedy  (President  and  CEO  for 

Kennedy  Metal  Products),  Nassib  Aouad  (Assistant  Teaching 

Professor)  and  Paul  Worsey  (Professor  and  Director  of 

Explosives  Engineering).    The  Mining  Engineering  faculty 

members also provided highlights of major research initiatives.  

The  Board  also  focused  on  summer  internships  and  COOP 

opportunities for the students and scholarships for students in 

the  program.    Chancellor  Schrader  unveiled  the  new  Virtual 

Surface Mining Simulator for research and education in mining 

engineering at this Board meeting. 

 

Mining/Aggregates Industry Nights: On the eve of every Board Meeting (in 

April), the Department hosts a Mining Industry Night (MIN).  MIN 2012 took 

place  on  April  07  on  the  theme,  “Marketing  the  Future  Industry  to  Future 

Engineers.”   Picture to the illustrates the companies that attended the MIN 

2012.    US  Silica,  APAC  Central,  Austin  Powder  and  Lehigh  Hanson  also 

attended  the  Aggregates  Night  on  September  21,  2012.    These  nights 

introduce  the  challenges  and  opportunities  in  the  industry  to  future 

engineers and scientists.   The  forum  is also used as a vehicle  for  recruiting 

undecided engineers into the Mining Engineering Program.   

 

Industry Recruitment: Tables 1 and 2 show the respective lists of companies 

that  visited  Missouri  S&T  to  recruit  mining  engineering  graduates  for 

permanent  placements  and  as  interns  for  summer  2013  through  the 

Department and the fall 2012 campus career fair.  These tables show strong 

and vigorous recruiting of our graduates by mining companies. 

Table 1 2011‐12 Companies Recruiting Through the Department 

RCT #  Date  Company  Info Session  Responsible Chapter Society 

1  09/06 – 07/2011  BHP Billiton  YES  Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration 

2  09/08/2011  US Gypsum  NO  Career and Opportunities Center 

3  09/20 – 21/2011  Martin Marietta  YES  National Stone, Sand and Gravel Association 

4  09/26/2011  UNIMIN Corp  YES  Women In Mining 

5  09/26/2011  Alberici Group  YES  International Society for Explosives Engineers 

6  09/26/2011  Luminant Energy  YES  Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration 

7  09/26 – 28/2011  Newmont Mining  YES  International Society for Explosives Engineers 

8  09/27 – 28/2011  Peabody Energy  YES  Women In Mining 

9  09/27 – 28/2011  Arch Coal  YES  Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration 

10  09/27 – 28/2011  Cloud Peak  YES  Society for Mining, Metllaurgy and Exploration 

11  09/28/2011  Marston  NO  Career and Opportunities Center 

12  09/28/2011  P&H Mining  NO  Career and Opportunities Center 

13  09/28 – 29/2011  Walter Energy  YES  International Society for Explosives Engineers 

14  10/12/2011  Cargill  NO  Career and Opportunities Center 

15  10/25/2011  Consol Energy  NO  Career and Opportunities Center 

16  11/02 – 03/2011  Patriot Coal  YES  National Stone, Sand and Gravel Association 

17  11/10 – 11/2011  Murray Energy  YES  International Society for Explosives Engineers 

18  01/18 ‐19/2012  Minova  YES  Women in Mining 

19  02/08 – 09/2012  Foresight Energy  YES   

20  04/25/2012  Vibra‐Tech  NO  Career and Opportunities Center 

21  04/30 – 

05/01/2012 

US Steel  YES  Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration 

 

Table 2 Fall 2012 Career Fair Employers seeking Mining Engineering Graduates 

Accenture  Alberici Constructors, Inc.  APAC‐Missouri, Inc  Arch Coal, Inc. 

Ash Grove Cement   Associated Electric Coop  Barnard Const. Co, Inc.  Barr Engineering Co. 

Barrick Gold of N. A.  Bureau of Safety & Env. Enf.  Caspire, Inc.  Chariton Valley Tel. Corp. 

Cliffs Natural Resources  Cloud Peak Energy  Drummond Co., Inc.  Energy Future Holdings 

Epic  ExxonMobil  Freeport‐McMoRan Inc.  Gallus Biopharmac., LLC 

GeoEngineers, Inc.  Golder Associates Inc.  Grand River Dam Auth.  Halliburton 

Jacobs  Joy Global ‐ Surface Mining  Lehigh Hanson  MEMC Electronic Mat, Inc. 

Meramec Elect. Prod Co.  Mississippi Lime Company  Orica USA  Peabody Energy 

Perceptive Software  ProEnergy Services  Schlumberger  Shannon & Wilson, Inc. 

Specialty Granules Inc  TG Missouri Corporation  The Doe Run Company  U.S. Silica 

UNIMIN Corporation  US Navy Officer Programs  Walter Energy Canada  Westmoreland Coal Co. 

 

Industry Visits and Field Trips:   A number of visits were made 

to industry by the faculty, staff and students over the past year 

as  part  of  enhancing  our  industry  networks,  alumni  relations, 

exposure  of  students  to  operating  practices  in  industry  and 

broadening the education and research experience.   Upon the 

invitation  by  Luminant  Energy,  Dr.  Frimpong  attended  the 

Luminant Mining Conference on July 11 and 12, 2012 in Dallas, 

TX.    At  this  conference, Dr.  Frimpong made  a  presentation  to 

Luminant  on  “Professional  Development:  Frontiers  of 

Knowledge and Technology for Solving Industry Problems.”  Dr. 

Frimpong also gave a short course on surface mining materials 

handling  to  the participants  in  the Associate Mine Supervisors 

Program at  the  Luminant Academy  in  Tyler,  TX within  July  30 

and  August  03,  2012.    Upon  the  invitation  by  Barrick,  Dr. 

Frimpong  attended  the  Barrick’s  Interns  Day  in  Elko,  NV  on 

August  09,  2012.    Several  presentations were made by  senior 

interns  on  specific  projects  these  interns  completed  over  the 

summer  of  2012.    Drs.  Frimpong,  Galecki  and  Krishnamurthy 

also  visited  Ma’aden  and  SMP  in  Saudi  Arabia  for  signing  an 

agreement  between Ma’aden  and Missouri  S&T.    During  that 

visit,  we  had  the  opportunity  to  visit  Ma’aden’s  corporate 

office in Riyadh for signing the agreement, the SMP Campus in 

Arar and the aluminum and phosphate industrial complexes in 

Al Jubair, Saudi Arabia.   

Field  trips  are  important  assignments  for  the  experimental 

learning process.  During these trips, students become familiar 

with difficult and challenging concepts in the classroom.  These 

trips are essential in the mining engineering curriculum.  Table 

3  shows  the  field  trips  undertaken  by  the  faculty,  staff  and 

students  in  the Mining Engineering Program.   Overall, 18  field 

trips  were  undertaken  to  several  surface  and  underground 

mining  operations  involving  a  total  of  610  students.

Table 3 Field Trips undertaken by Faculty, Staff and Students in AY2011‐12 

F.T. #  Date  Course #  Catalog Description  Enrollees  Mines Visited 

1  02/24/2011  Mi Eng 324  Underground Mining Methods & Equip  44  Doe Run 

2  04/07/2011  Mi Eng 350  Blasting Design and Technology  19  Dyno Nobel 

3  04/08/2011  Mi Eng 324  Underground Mining Methods & Equip  54  Peabody 

4  04/08/2011  Mi Eng 326  Surface Mining Methods & Equip  54  Peabody 

5  04/12/2011  Mi Eng 241  Principles of Mineral Processing  28  Doe Run 

6  04/15/2011  Mi Eng 003  Principles of Mining Engineering  48  Springfield Quarry 

7  04/15/2011  Mi Eng 303  Aggregates Materials Sizing  6  Springfield Quarry 

8  11/14/2011  Mi Eng 317  Mine Power and Drainage  49  Kennedy Metals 

9  11/18/2012  Mi Eng 003  Principles of Mining Engineering  12  Springfield Quarry 

10  12/08/2012  Mi Eng 352 

Mi Eng 353 

Min Proc I Flotation & Hydrometallurgy 

Min Proc II Mechanics and Design 

21  Doe Run 

11  03/01/2012  Mi Eng 324  Underground Mining Methods & Equip  48  Doe Run 

12   03/14/2012  Mi Eng 324  Underground Mining Methods & Equip  48  Mississippi Lime 

13  04/11/2012  Mi Eng 241  Principles of Mineral Processing  37  Doe Run 

14  04/12/2011  Mi Eng 350  Blasting Design and Technology  19  Dyno Nobel 

15  04/13/2012  Mi Eng 003  Principles of Mining Engineering  50  Pacific Quarry 

16  04/13/2012  Mi Eng 303  Aggregates Material Sizing  14  Pacific Quarry 

17  04/12/2012  Mi Eng 326  Surface Mining Methods & Equip  49  Peabody 

18  04/20/2012  Mi Eng 324  Underground Mining Methods & Equip  48  Arch Coal 

 

Mines  and  Metallurgy  Academy  Meetings:    The  Academy 

comprises  distinguished  alumni  of  the  seven  programs  in 

Departments  of  Mining  and  Nuclear  Engineering,  Geological 

Sciences  and  Engineering  and  Material  Science  and 

Engineering.    The  Academy  meets  twice  a  year  in  April  and 

October.    During  the  October  2001  and  April  2012 Meetings, 

Dr. Frimpong had the opportunity with the two other Chairs to 

share  the enrollment growth,  research and education and  the 

capacity expansion initiatives ongoing the Department. 

 

MSHRAC Meeting and NIOSH Visit: As part of the Mine Safety 

and  Health  Research  Advisory  Committee  (MSHRAC), 

appointed by the US Health and Human Services Secretary, Dr. 

Frimpong  attended  a  two‐day  meeting  in  Pittsburgh  on 

research and technological advances in mine safety and health 

by NIOSH within August 19 – 21, 2012.  The charter of MSHRAC 

are  as  follows:  “MSHRAC  shall  advise  the  HHS  Secretary,  the 

Director of CDC, and  the Director of NIOSH, on  the  conduct of 

mine  health  research  including  grants  awards  and  research 

contracts  (30  U.S.C.  '  812  (b)(2),  (Public  Law  91‐173,  ' 

102(b)(2)).  The  committee  shall  also  provide  advice  on  the 

conduct of mine safety research. The committee shall evaluate 

the  degree  to which:  1)  the mine  research  activities  of  NIOSH 

conform to those standards of scientific excellence appropriate 

to  Federal  scientific  instructions  in  accomplishing  objectives  in 

mine safety and health; 2) the mine research activities, along or 

in conjunction with other known activities inside and outside of 

NIOSH,  address  currently  relevant  needs  in  the  field  of  mine 

safety  and  health;  and  3)  the  research  activities  produce 

intended  results  in addressing  important  research questions  in 

mine  safety  and  health,  both  in  terms  of  applicability  of  the 

research  findings  and  translation  of  the  findings.”    The  other 

committee members include the following: 

  

1. Dr. Cecile S. Rose, Professor & Director, Occupational and Environmental Health Clinic, University of Colorado 

2. Mr. Brent Chamberlain, Director of Human Resources, Safety, and Health, General Moly, Inc. 

3. Mr. Dennis O’Dell, Administrator for Occupational Health and Safety, United Mine Workers of America 

4. Dr. Syd Peng, Director, Longwall Mining and Ground Control Research Center, West Virginia University 

5. Mr. Emmett Russell, Director, Department of Safety and Health, International Union of Operating Engineers 

6. Mr. Bruce Watzman, Vice President of Safety, Health, and Human Resources, National Mining Association 

7. Dr. Lawrence Bank, Program Director, Structural Materials and Mechanics, US National Science Foundation 

8. Dr. Jeffery Kravitz, Chief, Special Projects/Mine Emergency Operations, MSHA 

9. Dr. Darryl Zeldin, Senior Investigator, National Institute for Environmental Health, NIH 

10. Dr.  Jeffery  L.  Kohler,  Executive  Secretary  to MSHRAC, Associate Director  for Mining  and Director, Office  for Mine  Safety  and 

Health Research (OMSHR), NIOSH 

11. Syd Pen, Brent Chamberlain, Cecile S. Rose, Darry Zeldin, Dennis B. O’Dell, Derek Elsworth, Emmett Russell, Richard J. Fragaszy, 

Jeffery H. Kravitz, Kelly F. Bailey, Michael Wright, Tony Bumbico 

Coal Rush! by Dr. Greg Galecki

When I received a call from a colleague at the 2012 SME Annual Meet-ing to visit Pioneer Pump Incorporated’s booth, I thought of another good application of waterjets for the mining industry. After getting closer to the booth, I was pleasantly surprised. I recognized a few faces from a TV documentary standing in front of the booth, so I shouted, “Gold Rush!” After a short explanation that I like gold but I am deeply involved in coal cleaning, we all came up with “Coal Rush!”

Dr. Greg Galecki (center) with a few team members from the TV show Gold Rush!

Let me tell you more about my passion for coal. For the past two years it has been my great pleasure to work on coal slurry characterization with post-doctoral fellows Gul Akar and Sezai Sen. After the first year of their stay, funded by TUBITAK and YOK, Drs. Akar and Sen spent one addi-tional year researching coal slurries in my Mineral Processing Laboratory. I felt honored by their request to continue to work under my supervision, so I came up with funds to continue work on coal-water-fuel characterization. By the time you read this article, both of them will be back to Dokuz Eylul University, in Izmir, Turkey to continue their research on mineral process-ing; specifically coal. We have discussed our future plans and can say that our two years of joint research marked the beginning of long term coop-eration between Missouri S&T and Dokuz Eylul University.

At the beginning of July, Mrs. Yaqing Li defended her M.Sc. thesis “Effects of Coal Comminution in Relation to Waterjet and Selected Feed Proper-ties”. I believe her professional life will include further studies involving the cleaning of emissions from coal burning power plants in her home country of China.

With these short descriptions of my research involving coal, you can un-derstand why, with a smile, I can say “Coal Rush!”

Dr. Greg Galecki is an Associate Professor of Mining and Nuclear Engi-neering Department, Missouri University of Science and Technology. If you would like to talk more about coal for power generation, you can reach him at ggalecki@mst.edu or by phone at 573.341.4938.

Do youwant to stay in touch wth your Department? Would you like to be informed about events on campus? Receive Job Postings?

Then send your email address to mining@mst.edu and ask to be included in our Alumni List Server. We have close to three hundred alums currently on the list. This is a ‘closed” server - that means only members can post to the server - no junk mail!

Research on Mechanical Properties of Frac Sand

Dr. Maochen Ge

“Frac sand” is a high-purity silica sand with very durable and very round grains of a specific size (Figures 1 and

2). The term frac sand, comes from its critical role in the hydraulic fracturing process, the technique that is used

for recovering tight gas and shale gas. Shale gas is considered a major component of the future energy for the

United State.

Fig. 1: St. Peter sandstone, a primary

source of frac sand

Fig. 2:A thin section view of the

microscopic structure of St. Peter sandstone

The primary source for frac sand in the United States is the St. Peter sandstone. The St. Peter sandstone is very

different from the minerals and rocks, which have been studied extensively in mining. On the one hand, it is

brittle, characterized by an unusually high friction angle. On the other hand, it is friable, possessing extremely

low, and in most cases zero cohesion. The scarcity of the ground control techniques for this particular mining

environment has created many difficulties for the mine operators.

In order to resolve these problems, Dr. Ge and his research group have conducted an extensive research to

investigate the basic geotechnical properties of the St. Peter sandstones during the past two years. One of the

major achievements resulting from this investigation is the theoretical elucidation of the mechanics of the

extremely high friction angle associated with the St. Peter sandstone, which is about 60˚ on average and can be

as high as 70˚. Figure 3 shows the friction angle determined from the triaxial tests and Figure 4 is the triaxial

test equipment utilized for this research.

Fig. 3: High Friction angle observed for St. Peter

sandstone

Fig. 4: Sample assembly in pressure vessel

prior to the triaxial test

The phenomenon of the extremely high friction angle associated with the St. Peter Stone suggests a fundamental

question regarding the mechanical properties of St. Peter Stone, “What are the underlying mechanics for this very

high friction angle?” Investigations to date have attributed the high angle to be caused by the various surface

properties of the sandstone particles. We, however, hold a very different view on this problem as none of these

surface properties would be significant enough to cause such a large increase in friction angle. We believe that the

structure of the sandstone particles is the cause and a rhombohedral model (Figure 5) was developed to simulate the

sandstone structure.

Fig. 5 Rhombohedral packing, a structure model for the St. Peter Sandstone The model shows that the particles have to climb to the top of the other particles during the shear displacement. This process is illustrated by Figures 6 and 7. According to the model, the average climbing slope is 15˚. In other words, the shear test under a low fining pressure condition will result in an increase of the friction angle

by 15˚. This result is an accurate prediction of the extremely high friction angle observed for the St Peter

sandstone. In addition to its accuracy, the model also explains two other important phenomena associated with the

St. Peter sandstone: very large dilation under low confining pressures and very small or even no dilation under high

confining pressures.

Fig. 6 A 2D illustration

of the particle

movement during a

shear test

Figure 7 A 3D illustration of the particle movement

during a shear test

Update from Dr. Kwame Awuah-Offei

It has been another great year for Dr. Kwame Awuah-Offei (Dr. Kwame) with teaching, research and service all presenting interesting challenges and fulfilling outcomes.

The Sustainable Mine Modeling Group (SMMG), Kwame’s research group, continued its research on (i) mining and en-ergy sustainability assessment and modeling; (ii) spatiotemporal variation of soil CO2 fluxes; (iii) operator and mine pro-duction impacts on mining energy efficiency; and (iv) mine design and production planning. Kwame continues to teach undergraduate and graduate students and advise the SME/NSSGA student design competition teams.

This past year, Missouri S&T entered three teams in the SME/NSSGA design competition, which saw fourteen teams overall. For the first time, a Canadian school (McGill University) participated extending the global reach of the competi-tion. One of our three teams made it to the second phase in Seattle and came in sixth overall. We were very proud of all our teams who had to take on this task in addition to their academic work and all the other extra-curricular activities. We are happy with our progress in this competition and hope to do better this year.

The competition has already started for this year. And again, Missouri S&T has three teams participating. We look for-ward to the learning and networking that will occur over the course of the competition. We are always delighted to see our students grow as they tackle real-life problems and receive mentoring from the industry judges. While we under-stand the aggregate slant of the competition (it is after all sponsored by mostly aggregates companies), we will encour-age more involvement by professionals in coal and metal mining to expand the mentoring opportunities the competition offers.

This summer, Kwame was funded by the University of Missouri South Africa Education Program to visit University of the Western Cape (UWC) and Stellenbosch University (SU), both near Cape Town, South Africa. He was hosted by Dr. Leslie Petrik, an associate professor of chemistry at UWC, and Dr. Alan Brent, a professor of sustainable development at SU. The trip was funded in response to a proposal to collaborate with these two institutions on mutual research interests. Dr. Petrik has active research in characterizing trace elements in fly ash. Our mutual interest is in the sustainable ex-traction of rare earth elements from this waste stream. Dr. Brent has been working on the sustainability implications

of large scale adoption of renewable energy in South Africa. Being a chemical engineer by training and someone who understands resource needs, Alan is interested in where the critical materials (rare earth ele-ments, lithium, PGMs etc.) necessary for renewable energy production will come from. This question is of mutual interest.

The visit was a success in various ways. The interaction with these col-laborators was very successful. Kwame was part of a one-day workshop led by the collaborators and attended by researchers from UWC, SU and the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. He also visited the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) offices in Pretoria and Jo-hannesburg and met with a representative from MINTEK. He also visited the Komati Power Station, a coal-fired power plant, to observe fly ash management and disposal practices.

Robben Island - above

Table Mountain - right

Kwame also got to visit Robben Island (where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 18 years) and Table Mountain. These visits added to the fun and made the visit even more pleasant.

Kwame looks forward to the coming year with excitement and hopes to continue to aid the Department’s vision to become the global choice for mining engineering education and research.

Angelina Anani, PhD student

Ms. Anani joined the group in January 2012. She obtained her BS in mining engineering from Missouri S&T, in May 2011. Angelina will be working on account-

ing for pillar extraction in underground mine sequence optimization. Her research will develop an algorithm that determines the optimal sequence of extraction in underground room and pillar operations, while concurrently accounting for pillar recovery and min-ing risk. Room and pillar sequencing will be expressed as a mixed integer linear programming optimization problem and solved using a novel branch and bound algorithm. The model will be validated using real coal and metal mine data.

Maryam Abdi Oskouei, MS student

Maryam Abdi Oskouei has been with the Group since Fall 2011. Maryam is modeling dragline energy efficiency under uncer-tainty, in order to understand the effect of operator practices and

operating conditions. The main research activities are data collection, modeling, and verification and validation. She has acquire data from an actual mine using data acquisition equipment; conducted statistical analysis; and formulated a modeling framework. She is currently working on stochastic models of dragline energy efficiency. The outcome of this research will increase understanding of the dynamics of energy efficiency in excavation and material handling opera-tions leading to advanced technologies to reduce the energy intensity of mining operations.

Mark Boateng, MS student

Mark Boateng joined the group this semester (fall 2012). Mark is working on using agent-based model-ing to characterize dynamic interaction between social acceptance and a mining

project. The interaction between community accep-tance and mining projects is dynamic and not static due to changes in community’s demographics, expectations and notions about the mining project from one stage to the other within its cycle. There are currently no ap-proaches to account for the effect of changing char-acteristics of the mine over its life cycle (exploration, exploitation, closure, post-mining land use) and how that affects the communities perception of mining. The goal is to provide a simulation program that will help stakeholders evaluate mining projects based on dy-namic interaction between community acceptance and the mining projects. This will aid better decision making by all sides.

Moagabo J. K. Mathiba, PhD student

Moagabo J. K. Mathiba has been with the Group since Summer 2008 and is ready to graduate. Mr. Mathiba has a BE in mining engineering (Technical University of Nova Scotia, Canada) and MS in environmental science and

engineering (Colorado School of Mines). Moagabo has been modeling soil CO2 flux generated by acid mine drainage (AMD) neutralization reactions with carbonates (mainly lime-stone) on reclaimed mine land. He has measured CO2 fluxes from three reclaimed mine lands in Missouri, Indiana and Pennsylvania, and used various statistical tools to evaluate correlations with soil moisture, soil temperature and sample elevation and explored the nature of the spatial variability. The aim of the research has been to understand the behavior CO2 fluxes measured with chamber accumulation flux mea-surement so as to evaluate the effectiveness in delineating this emerging hazard to post-mining land use.

Sisi Que, PhD student

Ms. Que’s research is on determining the drivers of commu-nity acceptance of mining projects. The goal is to advance sustainability science by understanding the drivers of com-munity acceptance using discrete choice modeling. This approach will help the industry and regulators understand characteristics of individuals and mining projects that con-trol the level of community acceptance.

Eric Raymond Achelpohl

Adebowale O. AkinsanyaBruce H. Allen

John David Anderson

Matthew T. Angle

Lois Appel

Richard L. Ash Jr.

William D. Auberry

Kwame Awuah-Offei

Jason Baird

Connie Lynn Bauers

John J. Baz-Dresch

Darryl G. Bennett

Michael Justin Besancon

David M. Bird

Genevieve Marie Bodnar

Marjorie A. Bohler

Scott J. Bohler

Erin Elaine Boren

Robert William Bosch

Brian T. Bosecker

Maudine M. Bowman

Niles K. Brill

Angela R. Brockley

Leslie M. Brockley

Fredric B. Brost

Donald D. Brumm II

Jason Michael Buenemann

Dr. Richard L. Bullock

Barbara E. Busby

Terry Alan Bush

Frederick J. Campen Jr.

Jonathan Edward Carmack

Emily Carter

James Edward Chaney

William R. Christians

James A. Ciarlette

Dennis A. Clark

Kenneth D. Cochran

Jan Conci

Mark R. Congiardo

Johan Coppens

Chad Russell Cornwell

Andrew W. Cox

Lee Ann Cox

Willard E. Cox

Terry E. Croxford

Bradford C. Cummings

Jerry Leon Curless

Dr. Abbas Ali Daneshy

Kurtis James Daniels

Philip G. Davis

Mary E. Deachan

Richard C. Dendler

Jeffery Gail Denny

Sureshchandra K. Desai

Frank A. Dickof

Adam M. Doerfler

Terry C. Donelson

Terry L. Drechsler

Michael Leo Droszcz

Brianna C. Drury

Jeffrey C. Dubbert

Michael F. Dunn

Donald C Dwyer

Jami M Dwyer

Adam James Eatherton

Allan B. Edwards

Paul K. Edwards

Casimir J. Eichenseer

Dale H. Emling

Lyle David Evans

Phillip S. Fetterman

Timothy James Findley

Patrick S. Flaherty

Glenn H. Fritz

Eric Steven Gamble

Mikel D. Garrett

Fred L. Gatewood

Scott F. Geer II

Fiorella Giana

William E. Giles

Robert G. Giovando

R. Larry Grayson

Andrea M. Green

Michael W. Gronek

Joey Allen Hale

Jack A. Halpern

Mrs. Warren F. Harter

Gary Joseph Hatfield

Andrew J. Heinemann

Larry L. Hendren

Robert B. Hopler

Harry M. Hoppe, Jr.

Ivan D. Howard

Gary Brian Hubbard

Roger J. Hull

James D. Humphrey, PE

Daron Mitchell Hunt

Charles E. Hunter

James Ronald Hutchcraft

Earl E. Jackson

Marguerite L. Johnson

Tristan H. Jones

James H. Junge

Dr. Hemendra N. Kalia

Harlan L. Kebel

Cyril M. Kinane

Dennis Nicholas Kostic

Mark A. Krigbaum

Elizabeth A. Lang

Eugene A. Lang Jr.

Gregory A. Lang

Paul Anthony Lang

Stephen A. Lang

Mary Lou Larson

Richard B. Leisure

Edward C. Leonard

Alvina L. Letcher

Lawrence L. Lewis

Steven R. Lewis

Peter Watts Lounsbury

George O. Lovland

H. John Lutz

Thomas P. Lyons

Adam J. Markus

Charles F. Marosek

Joshua Joseph Martin

Michael T. McCall

Carolyn A. McCannon

Patrick T. McChesney

Clay Allen McNail

Larry L. McNary

Richard Merczak

Aaron Wade Miller

Everett K. Miller

Ronald G. Milligan

Todd R. Mills

Evan Schoultz Mudd

Brian J. Murphy

Kirk A. Nobis

John Novak

Klaus Nunemacher

David Nutakor

Kurt Benton Oakes

Shannon Orr

Martin S. Oudenhoven

Nancy Lynn Parks

Todd Parks

Dr. Wesley C. Patrick

Dustin Ronald Penn

Gary W. Perrey

Mrs. Richard W. Phelps

William Podrazik

Amy R. Pousson

Seth Austin Puls

Joseph S. Quinn

Nicholas Ragsdale

Rudolph J. Ramstack

Stanley E. Rand

Amy M. Reeves

Seth A Reeves

Kathleen A. Reinhold

Donald A Richards Jr.

Brett D. Richter

Kenneth B. Rigsby

Patricia Robertson

Robert J. Rosser

Nathan Rouse

Paul H. Rydlund

Yvonne Sanders

Earl D. Sanderson, Jr.

Jacob Austin Scherer

Michael Jason Scherr

John A. Schillie

Bradley S Schreiber

Jason L. Schroeder

Matthew Schwent

Christopher Searing

Bahram Shajary

Charles J. Shields

Blake E. Silkwood

Cory R. Smith

David A. Smith

William C. Smith

David James Steagall

Paul V. Sterk

Heather Stevinson

Michael Stevinson

John N. Stolwyk

James M. Stratton

Christopher Scott Strickland

John R. Stucker

Gregory F. Sutton

Brian C. Syers

Bruce E. Tarantola

Emil J. Teisa

Daniel W. Thebeau

Martin A. Thieme

Edward N. Thurmond

Dianna K. Tickner

Dr. Jerry C. Tien

Bryan Matthew Tilley

Timothy J. Todd

Bruce Carlton Townes

Charles W. Travelstead

Frank J. Traversone

Richard D Trynoski

Richard A. Tucker

Robert F. Uthoff

Daniel L. Vaughn

Joseph Todd Vaughn

Aaron Kyle Velasquez

Robert J Vetter

Bradley W. Vollmer

Robert L. Wade

Sterling Evans Wainscott

Catherine E. Walker

Jeffery R. Walker

Christopher James Ward

David L. Webb

Samuel Leroy Weeks

Jared Lee Wehde

Scott C. Weinhold

David Bruce Wilhide

Jennifer C. Winston

Brett Elliott Wissel

Megan Leann Wissel

James W. Witmer

Leonard A. Wolff

Morris T. Worley

Worsey and Associates

Dorris M. Yale

Lori R. Young

Forrest A. Younker

Jeffrey L. Zelms

Ty Zimmerly

2011 Phonathon Donors

EXECUTIVE FORUMS

Executive Forum I: Global Opportunities & ChallengesExecutive Forum II: Talent for Global CompetitionExecutive Forum III: Student Forum (organized & moderated by students with student presenters)

TECHNICAL SESSIONSSession I Investment Risks & Opportunities

Session II Technology Transfer Risks & Challenges

Session III Novel Technologies & Knowledge Gap

Session IV Global Venture Capital Acquisition & Financing

Session V International Project Management

Session VI Global Minerals Engineering Education

Session VII Global Sustainable Development

Session VIII Global Mine Safety & Health

Session IX Global Markets & Trading Dynamics

September 09 – 12, 2013

Call for Extended Abstracts & Dates:

September 30, 2012 – Abstract Submission Opens

March 30, 2013 – Abstract Submission Deadline

April 30, 2013 – Acceptance Notification

May 30, 2013 – Presentation Submission Deadline

Havener Center | Rolla, Missouri

We are excited to announce Gary Halverson, Regional President of Barrick Gold of North America, Inc. as the general chair for the upcoming Innovations in Mining Engineering 2013 Conference.

Please join us, along with top industry executives and professionals, faculty and students, to discuss relevant issues on the theme, “Exploring Global Mining Frontiers: Challenges & Opportunities for Winning the Competition.”

Register today atminingconf.mst.edu

MISSOURI UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGYFormerly University of Missouri-Rolla | FoUnded 1870

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mining.mst.edu

u PHONE

573 341 4753

Innovations in Mining Engineeringu E-MAIL

mining@mst.eduu WEB

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u PHONE

573-341-4278

Welcome and Congratulations to Board Members  

On behalf of the Department and the Board, I welcome the following new members to the Board:  (i) Jerry Pyatt, President and 

CEO  for  The  Doe  Run  Company;  (ii)  Bill  Ayers,  President  and  COO  for Mississippi  Lime  Company;  (iii)  Chance  Allen,  Vice 

President and General Manager, Martin Marietta, and (iv) Richard Goodridge, Manager of Global Technologies, Orica Inc. 

 

In addition, I would also like to congratulate the following for promotion: (i) Paul A. Lang to Executive Vice President and COO 

for Arch Coal Inc., and (ii) Pat Risner to President BHP Billiton’s San Juan Mine.  

 

MEMBERS  POSITION  COMPANY AND LOCATION 

Jerry Pyatt  President and CEO  The Doe Run Company 

Stephen A. Lang*  Chairman of the Board and Former President and CEO  Centerra Gold 

William Kennedy  President and CEO  Jack Kennedy Metal Products 

Michael T. McCall*  Former CEO and Chairman  Luminant Energy 

Gregory A. Lang*  President & CEO  NovaGold Corporation 

Dennis N. Kostic  President & CEO  Weir International 

Richard Marston  President & CEO  Marston, Golder Associates 

Rob Vogel  President  Vulcan Mid West Operations 

Bryan Galli  President ­ Coal Sale  Peabody Energy 

John E. Cramer  President  Casper Stolle Quarry 

Pat Risner  President  BHP Billiton 

Paul A. Lang*  Executive Vice President & COO  Arch Coal Inc., 

Jeane Hull  Executive Vice President, Technical Services  Peabody Energy 

Steve Kopenitz  Senior Vice President – Mining  Luminant Energy 

David Webb  Senior Vice President, Global Coal  Cliffs Natural Resources 

Chris Ward  Vice President/General Manager  Lehigh Hanson 

Jeffrey A. Roschyk  Vice President – Marketing/Prod. Mgmt  P&H Mining Equipment 

John T. Desharoon  Vice President, Industry Relations  CAT Global Mining 

Mike Koesterer  Vice President – North America  Komatsu America Corp 

John Anderson  Former Vice President/General Manager  Martin Marietta 

Chance Allen  Vice President/General Manager  Martin Marietta 

Cory Cook  Vice President – Americas  Immersive Technologies 

Roger Gagliano  Vice President – Operations  Fred Weber Inc. 

Chris Upp  Vice President/General Manager  Conco Quarries 

Jerry Tystad  Vice President, Business Improvements  Peabody Energy 

Kurt Salvatori  Vice President, Human Resources  Consol Energy 

John Cash  Director of Technical Services  Barrick Gold North America 

Richard Goodridge  Manager, Global Technology  Orica Inc. 

Joe Mehl  District Engineering Manager  Kiewit Mining Group 

Bruce Jones  General Manager  Cloud Peak Energy 

Terry Bush  Engineering Manager  Newmont Corporation 

Greg Gajewski  Technical Manager  Goodyear Company 

Richard Bullock  Quenon Chair & Professor Emeritus  Missouri S&T 

 

Finally, we want to thank you for all your support during this past year. As you have seen in this newsletter, our students, faculty and staff are very active and new projects or events seem to come out of nowhere. However, all these activities help us to “produce” the best young mining engineer possible - and we see that we are on track by increased numbers of companies looking to us for their mining engineers. The formula we use to mix curriculum, student and professional activities is working and we will keep on track. You can be proud of your “Old School” and the new generation of mining engineers. We have some mining companies come directly to the Department to interview. A large number of companies are looking for mining engineers at the Fall 2012 Career Fair. S&T/MSM mining engineers have an excellent reputation in the industry and we are committed to keep the tradition going.

The Faculty and Staff of the Mining Engineering Program

Department of Mining and Nuclear EngineeringMining Engineering Program226 McNutt Hall1400 N. Bishop AvenueRolla, MO 65409-0450

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THE “START” OF THE MISSOUR UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGYMISSOURI SCHOOL OF MINES