News

Mining Industry Advances Coarse Particle Flotation Recoveries

October 18th, 2017

Bill Hancock with other industry experts update recent coarse particle flotation understanding and technology advancements in the September 2017 Mining Magazine issue.

Bill Hancock Becomes SME Foundation President

March 3rd, 2017

Bill Hancock assumed the Society of Mining, Metallurgy and Geology (SME) Foundation Presidency during the February 19-22, 2017 SME Annual Conference and Exhibit in Denver, CO. The SME Foundation financially supports mineral industry programs. Read more about Bill Hancock and the SME Foundation at the Zeroday blog.

Bill Hancock Elected Vice President SME Foundation

March 24th, 2015

Bill Hancock was elected to a 2-year term as Vice President for the Society of Mining Engineers Foundation (SMEF), at the SME Annual Meeting in Denver, Colorado, February 16-18, 2015. Hancock will be responsible for supporting the SMEF President, executive committee, Trustees and staff in developing and successfully executing fundraising programs necessary to fully fund SME’s education needs.

SMEF’s mission is to be SME’s and community’s funding arm for professional development, education and outreach. While SMEF is a legal entity separate from SME, its critical role is to raise sufficient funding for SME’s important professional development and educational programs. Presently SMEF funds MEC (Minerals Education Coalition), PE, ABET (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology), several scholarships, Miners Give Back, and the new Educational Sustainability (PhD Fellowships and Career Grants) programs. Expectations are that future programs will be developed for which fundraising must be formulated and implemented.

More information about SMEF and their great work and programs supporting the mining industry can be found at http://community.smenet.org/SMEFoundation/Home/.

Bill Hancock Achieved AusIMM Fellow Member Status

November 3rd, 2014

Bill Hancock was informed the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM) Board of Directors approved his promotion to Fellow Member status effective end of July 2014. This is AusIMM’s most senior membership level. The Fellow Member elevation was made based on his experience and industry professional stature.

Melbourne, Australia based, AusIMM is the second largest mining professional society in the world at 14,000 members from all sections of industry who are supported by a wide network of branches and societies not only in Australasia but also internationally. Founded in 1893, AusIMM provides services to mining industry professionals in all areas of the global minerals sector. Their efforts focus on providing leadership and ongoing professional development to support their membership professional careers as well as allowing the members high quality industry professional input and public education.

Bill Hancock Appointed to the Society of Mining Engineer’s Foundation Executive Committee

October 9th, 2014

Bill Hancock was appointed to the SMEF Executive Committee.  Hancock has been a Foundation Trustee since 2012 and was given this additional leadership responsibility.  The Executive Committee consists of the Past President, President, Vice President, Secretary-Treasurer, Ad Hoc Committee member (position Bill assumed) and key SME Executive and management staff.

Through their fundraising focus, SMEF supports existing programs and developing important and even crucial new programs related to mining public education, professional development and university education.  SMEF’s mission statement:

The SME Foundation supports scientific, technical, educational and other activities that:

–       Foster interchange and understanding concerning the responsible development of the world’s mineral resources and

–       Further the professional disciplines serving the minerals industry.

The June 2014 issue of SME’s Mining Engineering magazine announcing Hancock’s appointment follows:

Bill Hancock joins SMEF Executive Committee

Bill A. Hancock Becomes President of OneMine.org

March 22nd, 2011

Effective March 1, 2011, Bill Hancock became the OneMine.org President for 2011-2012. William Wilkinson transferred the responsibilities to Bill at the annual OneMine.org Board of Trustees Meeting. Hancock was an original member of the 2008 Ad Hoc committee that SME organized to investigate and then develop OneMine.org program plans.

OneMine.org (www.OneMine.org) was incorporated in 2008 as an internationally organized online “google” searchable mining database that presently has 794,905 pages of technical content from 69,843 mining and minerals related documents. This organization is a collaborative effort by multiple global professional societies to place the world’s most comprehensive collection of mining and minerals based information in one database.

The database presently includes technical documents, conference papers, articles and presentation preprints with efforts being made to collect broader ranges of available content. Subject matters cover the full breadth of mining industry focuses and interests including environmental, health and safety, geology, mining, mineral processing, metallurgical extractions, and engineering and design.

Argo Consulting and Hecla Lucky Friday were Selected for the 2011 SME Environmental Division’s Best Paper Award

March 8th, 2011

At the Society of Mining Engineers (SME) 2011 annual Denver meeting, the Environmental Division recognized the paper “Mitigating the Impact of Synthetic Drilling Mud on Hecla Limited’s Lucky Friday Mine Water Treatment Plant” with their Best Paper Award.  The authors were Bill Hancock of Argo Consulting and Carlos Aguiar and Cindy Moore of Hecla Lucky Friday with Bill Hancock presenting the paper at the March 1, 2011 Water Treatment session.

This paper reviewed the 002 water treatment plan operational issues caused by the exploration diamond drilling synthetic drilling mud additive program that used soluble oil and emulsion polymer.  The paper summarized the efforts to resolve the issues posed and covered the identification and fundamental explanation why these products negatively impacted the water treatment clarification-filtration process, replacement of these additives with a new synthetic dry program, precipitation of the spent mud synthetic mud residuals using Z Clear™ 129 that was metered with a Masterflex peristaltic metering pump, and the resulting dramatic improvement in water treatment plant operational control/results while maintaining drilling productivity were obtained.

Read the paper: Argo-Hecla water treatment paper.

Hancock Receives SME Presidential Citation

March 4th, 2010

During the Society of Mining Engineers (SME) Annual Meeting Dinner on March 3rd, 2010 SME President William Wilkinson awarded Bill Hancock the Presidential Citation for his efforts and work in developing strategic and operating plans for an SME Tech Online (STO) course program and then receiving Board approval for implementation. As a consequence of those efforts, SME has hired an STO administrator and have begun developing on line course curricula. STO is conceived as a platform for SME members to develop text, audio and video peer reviewed courses from SME membership and leading professionals worldwide who will develop courses from the wide range of constituencies SME serves. To enhance the offerings, STO will resell courses from other organizations that meet SME standards and fills membership needs.

The Presidential Citation reads as follows: “The Society recognizes Bill Hancock for his leadership in working with the SME Tech Online ad hoc committee to develop a plan for SME Tech Online. He worked with his committee to develop a product that the SME Board of Directors approved, and he will continue to serve to implement the plan and develop this into an important member benefit. His insight and commitment have been invaluable.

Hecla and Argo Sign Contract

February 19th, 2010

Hecla Lucky Friday Mine awarded Argo Consulting a 2010 metallurgical consulting contract to support their operations optimization efforts.  Primarily focused on their lead-zinc flotation circuits, the primary goal is to maximize production rates/recoveries to the respective lead and zinc concentrates.  Furthermore, the secondary goal is to understand circuit bottlenecks in preparation for mill process modifications required to meet increased milling throughputs planned from increased mining rates resulting from sinking the new shaft at the mine.