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38th Annual Canadian Mineral Processors Operators Conference
January 17-19, 2006

The CIS Precious Metals Summit
February 13-14, 2006

Gravity Concentration '06
March 13-14, 2006

Comminution '06
March 15-17, 2006

Used Equipment Listings

Nordstrom Machinery Corp.

Vantage Equipment

D'Angelo International

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Jobs of the Month

"Permafrost/Geotechnical Engineers "
Canada

"MineStar Implementation Engineers/Consultants "
USA

"Environmental Geochemists / Hydrogeologists"
Chile

"Mine Planning Engineer"
Australia

"Crusher Production Foreman"
Guyana

"Uranium Geologist "
Madagascar


"Senior Geologist - Business Development "
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"Exploration Manager"
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MineSite is a new InfoMine initiative with a focus on mining operations around the world. Each MineSite page is designed to bring you in-depth, up-to-date, intelligence on a mining operation ... mine contacts, ownership, location (including climate, topography, satellite images), property, deposit type, reserves, mine type and equipment, production, process type, environment and community, suppliers, jobs, news channels, commodity prices, and related links. MineSite integrates information from many other InfoMine products to provide you with a powerful resource for mining intelligence.

Each MineSite page also provides a platform for MineSite subscription by mine personnel for access to other InfoMine resources ... for example, suppliers database, companies and properties database, personnel searches, professional development and training, publications and technology searches, and others.

The prototype MineSite presents sixteen mines around the world. Other pages are in preparation and will be added regularly. Please take a few minutes to review MineSite and then email your suggestions for improvements to make it even more relevant to your requirements.

The Headline News is a summary of the day's top mining news - from exploration results - to mine developments - to companies raising money for their projects. This news is compiled into an email and sent out each business day so you can stay on top of major events in the mining industry. The email include links to full editorials and complete press releases, as well as complete company and property reports, so you can immediately follow-up on the stories to get all the details. Start receiving the latest mining news today.
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InfoMine's Newest Clients

Axmin Inc.

Eagle Plains Resources Ltd.

UrAsia Energy Ltd

First Point Minerals Corp.

War Eagle Mining Company Inc.

Quantec Geoscience Ltd.

Wardrop Engineering Inc.

Perkins mechanical Service Inc.

Molycor Gold Corp.

Pacific North West Capital Corp.

Eskay Creek Mine (Barrick Gold Ltd).

Australian Companies added this Months

Image Resources NL

Jackson Gold Ltd.

Kentor Gold Ltd.

Magnum Gold NL

Marengo Mining Ltd.

Minotaur Exploration Ltd.

South American Companies added this Months

LP Holding S.A.

Compania Minera Condesa S.A.

CIA. Minera Caudalosa S.A.

Fomento Minero De Santa Cruz S.E. - Fomicruz S.E.

CareerMine adds Job Alerts to its list of job hunter and employer services. Already known as the largest and most frequently visited mining specific job-board on the Internet, CareerMine brings you this additional feature to help you get your next job, and further your career.

Minesites and areas within the direct proximity of mine sites provide excellent geologic environments for additional reserves and new discoveries of satellite ore bodies. more...

The global steel industry has been subject to a number of significant changes since the start of the millennium. It started with China's emergence as the major force. more...

Sustainable Development in Mining ... our Latest Course

This is a course for managers, professionals, students and all other concerned stakeholders in mining who require an understanding of the concepts and issues of sustainable development. The course is illustrated by numerous case studies and examples from mining projects, and supported by a discussion of mineral consumption, recycling and resource depletion More...

The conference on Computer Applications in the Minerals Industry was held in Banff, Canada from October 31 to November 02. Several papers on mining education by Malcolm Scoble of UBC and Simon Houlding of EduMine, as well as a text transcription of the Mining Education Forum titled "What is the Role of Continuing Education on the Internet in Addressing the HR Crisis in Mining?", are now available for download. The plenary session presentation on "The Impact of the Internet on Mining" by Andy Robertson is also available More...

CareerMine welcomes our latest "Employer's of Choice" - Elk Valley Coal and Modular Mining Systems Inc. Please look at their current openings and all our other Employers of Choice career opportunities. We work closely with our Employers of Choice to help them with their recruiting needs. To find out more about becoming an Employer of Choice please email Renee and she will be happy to assist.

Reaching the end of a job interview, the Human Resources Person asked the young Engineer fresh out of MIT, "And what starting salary were you looking for?"

The Engineer said, "In the neighbourhood of $75,000 a year, depending on the benefit's package."

The HR Person said, "Well, what would you say to a package of 5-weeks vacation, 14 paid holidays, full medical and dental, company matching retirement fund to 50% of salary, and a company car leased every 2 years - say, a red Corvette?"

The Engineer sat up straight and said, "Wow!!! Are you kidding?"

And the HR Person said, "Certainly, ...but you started it."

If you have any humorous stories about mining or just want to inflict misery on our readers with jokes worse then mine, we would love to get your input. Please email the editor with the subject line marked "InfoMiner Jokes".

Every month in the InfoMiner we give you computer tips that save you time and effort, but what about some computer tricks that will drive your irksome co-workers insane or leave your tech department baffled? How about pranking someone with "Clippy" possibly the most irritating word software assistant ever devised. Or maybe you want to give someone a start menu that does nothing at all.Or everyone's favourite classic the fake delete, watch as your colleagues face contorts helplessly as he sees months of hard work dissappearing into a vortex. The best part of this is everything is safe and harmless but looks extremely authentic.Remember to check out the "how to remove prank software" link to save unnecessary blushes. More...

Here's a sample of the information on "Garnet" available on InfoMine. This is just an example of how our search provides excellent and pertinent results for any topic you wish to explore. Why not try your own favorite topic now?

Looking Back ... The First Synthetic Diamond

This article is copyrighted by the author and all rights reside with the author, David E. Black

Back in the 1950s the scientists from General Electric were not the only ones trying to make diamonds. Unknown to them, in a magnificent old hunting palace on the outskirts of Stockholm, the Swedish electrical company ASEA had already been funding an eccentric independent scientist called Baltzar von Platen to look into making diamonds.

In 1949 they hired a team of five scientists and engineers, headed by Erik Lunblad. The top secret project was called Quintus and Von Platen's lab became known as the Quintuslaboratorium. Von Platen was an extraordinary man who had invented the fridge. That is why ASEA took him seriously. His dream was nothing less than to invent a machine that could make Koh-i-Noor diamonds.

Like General Electric, Von Platen's team knew that high pressure and high temperature was needed to break graphite's atomic bonds. And like General Electric they had a difficult time making a machine strong enough to create those conditions. Their diamond press had a completely different design.

It had six pyramid-shaped anvils, which when pressed together formed a sphere around a sample of graphite. The whole structure was encased in a strong copper jacket and suspended in an alchohol-filled tank at 6000 atmospheres of pressure. But it was highly dangerous. If a leak appeared, it would create a high-velocity alcohol jet capable of drilling right through a hand. The whole device was capable of producing over 50,000 atmospheres and the graphite sample was surrounded by thermite which, although it could raise the temperature by 2000°C, was unstable and, combined with the alcohol, potentially explosive. Von Platen made sure that the most valuable members of the team left the room when the press was operating.

The problem for the Swedish team was that their machine was so complicated that every time they put the apparatus under pressure and something broke, it took a whole day to unravel and rebuild it. Eventually they too realised that by adding iron carbide to the graphite sample it lowered graphite's melting point and that as more and more graphite was dissolved in the metal, it became saturated. They were sure that they had cracked the theory of making diamonds.

On February 16th 1953, nearly a year before General Electric, Erik Lundblad ran the high pressure press at 83,000 atmospheres and about 2000°C for a full hour. On unwrapping the carbon parcel, he was astonished - he found diamond crystals, no bigger than grains of sand. Unfortunately for Von Platen, ASEA decided to keep the experiment a secret in case a competitor stole their secret, and the experiment was not duplicated or published - a condition of recognition for scientific inventions - until after General Electric's announcement. As a result the world has never officially recognised that it was Von Platen's team who in fact had made the first synthetic diamond.