Stan SuboleskiSenior Vice President

Evan Energy Investments

Borrowed some slides from Virginia Tech Department of Mining & Minerals Engineering – thanks due to them

It will be apparent which of these are theirs

Field of mining engineering Technical areas that are special or unique

to mining Research projects that Evan Energy is

currently sponsoring Feel free to ask questions at any time.

BS, MS & PhD in Mining Engineering Taught at Virginia Tech and Penn State Initially worked as mining engineer at mine Advanced degrees led to work in computer

modeling and simulation (and banking) Moved into operations management and

executive management Post retirement positions at VT and on Mine

Health & Safety Commission in DC

Now working for Evan Energy Investments, a family-owned business

Evan Energy installed first modern longwall mine in China, sold in 2008

Own minority share of Asian-American Gas

Mining and trading coal in Venezuela and Colombia since 1992

Installing first mechanized underground mine in central Colombia

Do we need mining? What do Mining Engineers

do?

Stone9,871 lb/yr

Sand/Gravel7,811 lb/yr

Cement714 lb/yr

Clay204 lb/yr

Iron Ore377 lb/yr

Phosphate247 lb/yr

Aluminum84 lb/yr

Copper15 lb/yr

Zinc7 lb/yr

Manganese7 lb/yr

Salt400 lb/yr

Lead12 lb/yr

Study of the physical and chemical characteristics of the earth to locate potential ore deposits..

Evaluation

Exploration

Extraction

Development

Mineral Processing

Conservation

Analysis of the size, shape, properties and composition of a deposit to determine its economic potential.

Evaluation

Exploration

Extraction

Development

Mineral Processing

Conservation

Preparation of an ore body for mining (including surface and underground support facilities).

Evaluation

Exploration

Extraction

Development

Mineral Processing

Conservation

Evaluation

Exploration

Extraction

Development

Mineral Processing

Conservation Application and supervision of modern mining systems for the removal of valuable materials from the earth.

Application and supervision of modern mining systems for the removal of valuable materials from the earth.

Evaluation

Exploration

Extraction

Development

Mineral Processing

Conservation

The recovery of salable components from mined ores by low-cost physical and chemical processes.

Evaluation

Exploration

Extraction

Development

Mineral Processing

Conservation

Protection and restoration of the environment (air, water and land) during and after the mining cycle.

Evaluation

Exploration

Extraction

Development

Mineral Processing

Conservation

$60,000 $70,000 $80,000 $90,000 $100,000 $110,000 $120,000 $130,000 $140,000

Civil

Materials

Industrial

Mechanical

Electrical

Agricultural

Aerospace

Chemical

Mining

Computer

Petroleum

Nuclear

(2010 NSPE Professional Engineer Survey)(2010 NSPE Professional Engineer Survey)

Median Annual Income by Branch of Engineering

Working in natural materials whose physical properties are only partially known

Working people safely at depth Controlling the environment over large

areas & often hostile conditions Working efficiently in confined spaces Sampling Separation of economic material from

mined rock

High volume mines are like underground cities, not tunnels

Must supply all functions – water; fresh air; power; transportation of mined material, people and materials; repairs; waste disposal

Roof must be supported, both globally and in the openings used for travel Use reinforcing rods and glue for the latter

Deepest mines at 10,000 feet today Most at 500-1000 feet vertical cover

Rock may flow or burst in very deep mines Rock temperature may be up to 140 F in these Ventilate & AC massive quantities of air

Minimize exposure of people Attempts at autonomous mining Memory cutting by machines

Large underground coal mine can be tens of miles long and wide

Air flow measured in hundreds of thousands or millions of cubic feet per minute

Methane emitted, oxygen depletes Proper air flow is vital Knowing what is happening is challenge Remote sensing difficult, introducing power

to remote areas introduces dangers

Mining rates can be very high In coal, range from 10 TPM to 50+ TPM Large equipment, large volumes of

material, and small openings Add supply handling, etc. and safe

movement is a challenge More deaths from “traffic accidents” than

roof falls Continuous miners have proximity

detection

Samples are often via drill holes (<3”) Use geostatistics to estimate reserves Gold, diamonds most difficult to sample May open mine in ore with 1/3 ounce per

ton and no visible gold Mine a million tons and throw a million

tons of rock away!!!! (less 330,000 ounces)

Recover about 10 tons of gold, worth $450 million dollars

Copper mineable to 0.4% or 8 lbs/ton of rock

Must grind very finely to liberate rock from copper

Most metal processes must use surface chemistry to do rock-ore separation

Others use gravity differences and surface chemistry

Source: Virginia Tech Dept. of Mining

Two projects – both applied research A new separation process for coal and

rock that will work at the finest sizes The development of a new sensor that

requires no power source in the mine

All underground coal mines monitor certain gases

CO – to detect impending fires before they ignite

Oxygen levels Methane – to prevent explosions Last includes monitors on equipment that

automatically cut power at 1% (methane explosive at 5%-15% concentration)

No in-mine power source needed; allows sensing in very remote areas or potentially explosive areas

Uses laser and fiber-optic cable Individual gases will uniquely absorb

laser beam at certain frequencies, allowing the gas presence and concentration to be detected

Potential for multi-gas detection

Laser of certain frequency is fired from surface

Travels to the sensor in fiber optic cable Within sensor, laser travels across gap in

cable, through the mine atmosphere If gas is present, laser is partially absorbed Laser travels back to surface in fiber optic

cable on other end of gap, where amount of gas encountered is calculated.

Mulitple frequencies = unique gases

Ready for testing

Prototype Design

Performing in-mine testing

Glad to answer questions about what I have talked about and what I have not

A method to clean and dry coal that is ultrafine in size

Now throw away much of this – can’t dry except by direct heating

Cannot use gravity methods (Sp G of coal < 1.4, rock > 1.6) with face powder particles

Process developed by Virginia Tech

Based on surface chemistry Coal is hydrophobic (rejects surface water) Rock is hydrophillic (attracts surface water) Fines are now recovered by adding surfactant,

and blowing bubbles through the mixture Coal attaches to bubbles and floats Rock will not attach But very fine coal too wet to sell (>35% H2O)

About <2 mm (think face powder) Use hydrophobic liquids (e.g., butane) to

both separate rock from coal and to repel water from the coal surface.

Done before, but coal particles surrounded by hydrophobic liquids then agglomerate around water particle and trap it

Able to de-agglomerate for first time

Works in laboratory, where volume is measured in grams per minute.

Building 100 lb/hr proof-of-concept unit to take to field and test.

Lab scale reduces moisture to below 10% from 35%, reduces ash to less than 5%

100 lb/hr unit is being built – all parts are ordered

Hope to make first tests in November If successful, will construct 1 ton/hr unit

on trailer(s?) and begin on-site testing Patent is pending, process details

unpublished