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By S. Yalcin, S. Chang, M. Oliazadeh

"Present day ferrochrome demand is on the rise, as more steel products require this material as an alloying element. It is projected that the stainless steel demands will grow by about 6% per year to 2020; as such, the supply and demand for ferrochrome appears promising. Chromite is the only economical source of chromium, which is commonly upgraded by gravity techniques and used to produce ferrochrome. The gravity separation methods are not able to treat particles finer than 0.1 mm efficiently. Therefore, in processing chromite ore, a large quantity of fine tailings; some 25% of the mineral values have been reported as lost in slimes during processing. The chromite content of these tailings is typically 10-20% Cr2O3 and accumulates into a large stockpile/pond. A chromite concentrator project in Canada, considers a cut-off grade of 20% Cr2O3. This indicates further processing might be required to recover chromite from low-grade stockpile when the high-grade deposits are depleted. Low-grade ores normally indicates disseminated chromite ores with low liberation and consequently fine comminution. This paper reviews the techniques for treating chromite from fine material and provides some examples of successful operations in fine chromite recovery. Beneficiation techniques for fine particles include gravity separation, magnetic separation, and flotation. Several case studies are presented here that used one of the aforementioned methods or a combination of them.INTRODUCTIONChromium is one of the essential element and important material for production of ferrochrome alloys and special steel. Chromium occurs as chromium spinel, a complex mineral with chemical composition of (Fe, Mg) O (Cr, Al, Fe)2 . Chromite ore is exclusively found in ultramafic igneous rocks. Major associated gangue minerals are talc, quartz, serpentine and iron oxides.Chromite is a heavy mineral, with a specific gravity in the range of 4-5, relative to associated gangue minerals in a chromite ore, which makes gravity concentration a suitable process. This is generally true for coarse particles, ranging from 1 mm to 100 mm. Typically, the ore is prepared by crushing (and grinding if necessary) to a suitable size and the material is sized for the appropriate beneficiation techniques. It is common to use heavy medium separation (e.g. dense media drums, dense media cyclones, or Dyna Whirlpool) to treat coarse size and intermediate size particles (1 – 100 mm). Intermediate and fine particles (20 – 0.1 mm) could be treated by jigs. Spirals, shaking table, sluices, and Reichert cones can upgrade fine particles. Figure 1 shows a typical chromite beneficiation process flowsheet. As can be seen, it consists of three major sections: feed preparation (crushing, screening), de-sliming, and concentration. Beneficiation recoveries range from 80 to 85%, although the ratio of upgrading is only 2 to 3."

Jan 1, 2013

By Forrest T. Moyer

To keep the mineral and allied industries informed of trend: in the causes of accidents and to point out the need for corrective measures, the Bureau of Mines collects, analyzes, and publishes, periodically health and safety statistics. This report includes data for 1961 on injury experience, with related employment statistics, at coal mines in the United States. These data are presented in tabular form under the following headings: General Injury Experience Tables 1 to 6: Current data on number of injuries, degree of injury, frequency and severity rates, average severity, and related employment and production data by work location.

Jan 1, 1963

By Steven M. Shope

An essential element of the Bureau of Mines electromagnetic location and communication system for trapped miners is a quantitative knowledge of the surface and above-surface electromagnetic fields created by an underground transmitter. The field solutions given in this report use approximations in which the displacement currents are negligible for low frequencies. The earth is represented by a homogeneous half-space model in which a dipole source is immersed. The vertical magnetic field equipotential contours at and above the surface are graphically mapped. The volumes of the regions bounded by these contours are directly related to the geometrical zones of signal detectability. Knowledge of the detectability zones will enable the proper search strategies to be developed for airborne detection of trapped miners.

Jan 1, 1983

J. Chipman (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.)—The fact that the experimental work has been applied to copper rather than iron and that the paper is presented to the Iron and Steel Division, I regard as rather significant. It shows the unity of metallurgy and the fallacy of trying to cut it up by metals. This result for the solubility of sulphur in molten copper correlates with Professor Schuhmann's finding that the published data on the other side of the copper-sulphur miscibility gap are also in error. I should like to ask the author to say a little bit more about the sulphur capacity of the slag. T. Rosenqvist (author's reply)-—I hope that Dr. Chipman will find the derivation of the expression for sulphur capacity more clearly explained in the printed version of the paper than in the oral discussion at the meeting. I feel that this quantity, which actually is the ratio of two activities, can be measured more easily than the individual activities. Even if the ratio CaO/CaS is chosen as the standard state, the expression can be used for any slag, even for slags completely free of lime, and it represents a way to put the desulphurizing power of all slag constituents into one bag. Some doubt has been expressed as to whether oxygen ions really exist in calcium oxide and in molten slags. From a thermodynamic view point that question is of minor importance. The term oxygen ion activity, or any activity for that matter, is defined rigorously by the equation: activity = exp u/RT, where u is the change in free energy connected with the transfer of one mol of ions from the standard state into the slag. Whatever happens to the ion in the slag is of no concern to the thermodynamicist. Regardless of whether the ion is "free" in the slag or not, or whether it is present in a very small amount, its activity can always be expressed, and for a thermo- dynamic calculation that is all we need. However, ionic activities will only be of some real value if they are simple functions of the slag composition, or can be measured easily. Concerning the real nature of the oxygen in the slag, my feeling is that the oxygen atom has a rather multiplex nature depending on how strongly it is tied by covalent forces or polarized by the other atoms or ions present. The oxides of iron, cobalt, and nickel differ from calcium oxide and blast furnace slags as to the amount of free electrons that can give rise to electronic conductivity. In slags we know that the conductivity is mostly ionic. The fact that reversible emf's can be obtained with oxygen electrodes in certain salt melts, indicates a significant amount of oxygen ions in these melts. But extended work, e.g. polaragraphic studies and measurements of transference number; are needed to obtain quantitative information about the real structure of the slags. D. E. Babcock (Republic Steel Corp., Youngstown, Ohio)—-With reference to the ion, it might be well to remember Dr. Moses Gomberg. All of his life he had no use for the ionization theory and he contributed greatly to the field of chemistry on the assumption there was no such thing as ions. I do not think we have to worry about whether the oxygen is ionic or not. I think one thing specifically should be brought to your attention and this I think is one of the important contributions of Dr. Rosenqvist. He pointed out what we know as oxygen potentials or what is described as oxygen potentials. I have used this concept for a long period of time and I want to state that if this concept is properly applied, it vitiates much of what we have in the literature, or makes our usual ideas regarding oxidation seem primitive. That one thing is more valuable than almost all the rest of the discussion as a fundamental basis on which to build a reasonable in-

Jan 1, 1952

By H. R. Beard

The Federal Bureau of Mines investigated the absorption of radium and thorium from waste uranium leach liquor by clays and other materials. This work was conducted in support of the Bureau's goal of minimizing the environ¬mental conflicts, impacts, and occupational hazards Associated with mining and mineral processing operations. Tailings and soil samples from Wyoming and Utah were contacted with tailings liquors to determine the degree of absorp¬tion. Absorption ranged from 0 to 99 percent for radium and from 0 to 31 per¬cent for thorium. Some samples, which readily absorbed radium, were contacted with various salt solutions that could be present in tailings solutions to determine their effectiveness as desorbents. The desorption of radium ranged from 0.06 to 100 percent. An alpha-spectrometric method was used to determine the radium and thorium, concentrations in the solutions and the solids.

Jan 1, 1979

By L. D. Wyant

That natural gas-gasoline can be used to advantage as a refrigerant is suggested by the fact that the "make" tanks and other parts of the equipment of gasoline plants frequently become coated with frost. The experiments reported in this paper confirm this assumption and indicate that volatile gasoline can be use used to advantage in many refrigerating plants. The Bureau of Mines is making a study of wax distillates in order to find out why satisfactory lubricating oils and waxes can be made easily from certain crude oils and only with difficulty from others. In the commercial distillation of crude petroleum it is customary to separate the distillates into the following groups: (A) Gasolines and naphthas, (B) Kerosenes, (C) Gas oil, and (D) Wax distillate (consisting mostly of light lubricating oil together with small amounts of paraffin Wax).

Jan 1, 1923

By Kenneth H. Johnston

This report describes in detail three waterflooding projects and a pressure-maintenance project in Butler and Cowley Counties, Kans., that will be visited on the 1963 annual spring tour of the Kansas-Oklahoma Waterflood Association. Among the unique features of the projects are the flooding of five oil-producing horizons separately with injection water furnished by two water-treating plants. Discussion of the individual projects includes information on their early history, the source and treatment of the injection fluids, oil production decline curves, and the results of water injection on oil production.

Jan 1, 1963

By E. T. Turkdogan, L. S. Darken

Using the quadratic formalism, thermodynamic equations are derived for the composition dependence of the heat and entropy of mixing. The applicability of these equations is confirmed by available experimental data on the activities and heats of mixing for binary metallic systems of Group ZZB elements. In a recent paper arkeen' introduced a quadratic formalism describing the composition dependence of the activity coefficient in the terminal regions of binary metallic solutions. That is, in the terminal region, which may extend to as much as 60 at. pct, the logarithm of the activity coefficient, log y,, of component 2 is a linear function of (1 - N,)' where N2 is the atom fraction of component 2. Similarly, for the other component, log yl is a linear function of (1 - N,)'. A number of iron-base binary liquid alloys were shown to obey this quadratic formalism. arkeen' extended this formalism also to any corner of a ternary system and showed that the activity coefficients of the components 1, 2 and 3 (1 is taken as the solvent) can be represented by quadratic terms involving five parameters, four of the binaries and one for the ternary system. Numerous examples given by arkeen' demonstrated the general applicability of the quadratic formalism to iron-base systems over a wide composition range. In this paper further examples are given of binary liquid systems (Group IIB elements, Zn, Cd, and Hg) and of several solid solutions, again demonstrating the appropriateness of this concept. A further purpose of this paper is to extend the quadratic formalism to the enthalpy and excess entropy of binary metallic solutions and to test the equations so found using available experimental data. QUADRATIC FORMALISM FOR HEATS AND ENTROPIES OF MIXING OF BINARY METALLIC SOLUTIONS The following equations, reproduced from Darken's paper, are for the two terminal regions of binary systems. at infinite dilution and a's are temperature dependent parameters to be determined from the experimental data. Although the quadratic formalism is an assumed representation of the data, Eqs. [I] to [4] are thermo-dynamically consistent with the Gibbs-Duhem relation and satisfy Raoult's and Henry's laws as limiting cases. As pointed out previously,' the following form of the Gibbs-Duhem equation facilitates the integration in general but particularly in regions I and 11, where each of the derivatives is constant. The partial molar enthalpy of solution i, (and i; the value of i, at infinite dilution) are related to the activity coefficients y, and y," by the thermodynamic relation Differentiating Eq. [l ] with respect to 1/T and substituting the above thermodynamic relation gives for region (I) It is reasonable to assume that over a temperature range of experimental interest, the enthalpy of mixing is essentially independent of temperature, implying from Eq. [7] that the derivative da,,/d(l/) is also independent of temperature. On the basis of this argument, the temperature dependence of a has the form where £ and S have the units of enthalpy and entropy respectively; they are characteristic parameters for a terminal region of a binary system, e.g. for region (I), C12, S12 and for region (II), d:,,, S2,. Using this equation gives for dff ,/ d(l/), From Eqs. [7] and [9] an expre_ssion is obtained for the composition dependence of L,. Similar calculations are made for El and the results are summarized below for the two terminal regions. For region (I), The corresponding expressions for the molar heat of solution, AHM, are readily obtained from the above equations for the two terminal regions: For region (I),

Jan 1, 1969

By N. I. Aziz

The importance of using disc cutters for rock excavation is reflected by their wide application in hard rock cutting machines such as tunnel boring machines and raise borers. The forces involved in the cutting process are those due mainly to thrust and rolling forces and are greater than that required by cutting picks. An interesting feature of cutting with discs is the formation of surface crushing, surface and sub-surface chipping and primary crack formation. Experimental, as well as analytical, work has been carried out to determine the optimum spacing between the disc cutters to control primary crack orientation. Wedge bit indenters were used to simulate disc cutters. The paper concludes by proposing a new approach to rock excavation by hybrid cutting based on controlling the primary crack orientation.

Jan 1, 1992

By Juan Ayza

Ante el peligro de la concentración y exposición de los polvos de sílices en el personal minero, el presente texto revisa la silicosis -en tanto determina las propiedades de los polvos en reacción y su relación con los medios para detectarlo. Asimismo este estudio constituye en un problema de mecánica de fluidos, donde las operaciones más peligrosas se evidencian en la perforación y explosiones. También se refieren algunos datos sobre los costos de profilaxis de la silicosis y de las indemnizaciones de los enfermos.

Oct 1, 1955

By P Stone, J. M. Cook, P. R. Simpson, C Mcdermott

Paper presented at the conference Economic geology in Europe and beyond II, models for mineral deposits in sedimentary basins, held in Keyworth, UK, 13-14 April 1994. The SW part of the Southern Uplands is a back-arc section of an accretionary thrust system, divided into structural blocks by major NE-SW shear zones and NW-SE faults forming the margins of Permian half-grabens. The highest arsenic levels in stream sediments (over 65 ppm) are associated with those blocks carrying brittle-ductile transition fabrics. Three factors combine to recomend the area as having potential for gold mineralisation: As-rich greywackes as country rock, felsic intrusions and a major shear zone. Selected stream sediments were analysed for gold using lead fire assay with ultra-pure flux and ICP-MS finish. Several localities showed over 15 ppb Au, the three most significant being within the hanging wall of the Orlock Bridge Fault and each having distinct characteristics

Aug 1, 1995

By R. G. Nelson

The mechanical properties of low-hafnium, arc-melted, Kroll-process zirconium are presented. The effect of temperature on the ultimate strength, yield strength, proportional limit, elongation, hardness, Young's modulus, electrical resistivity, and impact strength are shown, The effects of cold work and annealing on the tensile properties, bend radius, and formability, as determined by cupping tests, are also given, Tensile properties are compared, in part, to those obtained on earlier graphite-melted zirconium and on crystal-bar zirconium. INTRODUCTION The commercial production of high-purity, low-hafnium bearing zirconium has been achieved, and this metal is becoming available for industrial use. However, there is little published information regarding the physical and mechanical properties of this product; and, since there have been many improvements in the production and arc-melting techniques of zirconium in the past 3 years, it was considered advisable to present the properties of the vastly improved zirconium representative of current production.

Jan 1, 1954

By Forrest T. Moyer

To keep the mineral and allied industries informed of trends in the causes of accidents and to point out the need for corrective measures, the Bureau of Mines collects, analyzes, and publishes, periodically health and safety statistics. This report includes data for 1961 on injury experience, with related employment statistics, at coal mines in the United Status. These data are presented in tabular form under the following headings; General Injury Experience Tables 1 to 6: Current data on number of injuries, degree of injury, frequency and severity rates, average severity, and related employment and production data by work location.

Jan 1, 1963

By Giovanna Valdivia Málaga

Dado que la comunidad de Michiquillay recibe una gran cantidad del canon minero a través de la gestión de la Municipalidad del mismo nombre, se planteó mejorar las relaciones de parentesco y la inmersión en la modernidad económica y socia de dicha comunidad y pasar de una economía informal a una economía social o solidaria. En ese sentido, el presente texto describe el proyecto de participación colectiva entre los miembros de la comunidad Michiquilllay y La Encañada, con el objetivo de construir una propuesta de privatización del proyecto minero Michicallay. El trabajo de campo se realizó en los ocho sectores y se desarrolló desde hace dos años, alcanzando la comunicación y sostenibilidad del mismo.

Sep 12, 2011

By David Schlain

"INTRODUCTION Electrolytic manganese is produced by electrolysis of a solution of manganese sulfate and ammonium sulfate in a diaphragm-type cell, metallic manganoese being deposited on the cathodes and sulfuric acid produced at the anodes. The spent electrolyte is used to leach fresh ore that has previously been subjected to a reducing roast; the resulting leach liquor is purified and returned to the cell.The leach liquor produced at the Bureau of Mines pilot plant 3/ at Boulder City, Nev., contains 135 to 140 grams of ammonium sulfate and 32 to 36 grams of manganese (as sulfate) per liter, and has a pH of about 2.5. After neutralization to a pH of 6.4 to 6.6 with ammonia and thickening, 0.10 to 0.15 gram of hydrogen sulfide per liter is added to the liquor to precipitate the heavy metals, and after 15 to 30 minutes the precipitate is filtered off. Residual sulfides and colloidal material are removed by ferric hydroxide formed by adding a small amount of ferrous sulfate to the solution at a pH of 6.5 to 7.0 and passing air through it. The solution is then filtered and clarified as a precoat filter. Finally, 0.1 gram of sulfur dioxide per liter is added, and the solution is electrolyzed in an anode-in-diaphragm cell. The spent electrolyte coming from the cell contains approximately 10 grams manganese, 135 grams ammonium sulfate, and 45 grams sulfuric acid per liter."

Oct 1, 1946

By Han Zhao, FENGLIANG WU, Tong Wang

Calibrating an entire mine ventilation network model from survey data has long been considered a challenging and sometimes impractical task. This paper proposes a solution to this issue with the development of a quadratic programming optimization model. The optimization model takes the minimum modification of input resistances as the objective function, uses the mesh pressure equations as equality constraints, and incorporates the lower limits of airway resistances as inequality constraints. A two-step method is developed to solve the model, which includes finding an initial feasible solution and iteratively solving the final solution using the active set method. A computer program has been developed to implement the optimization model. To demonstrate its practicality, a study case using a 35-branch ventilation network is presented, which indicates that the solution process converges after only 57 iterations, a significant improvement over the times of trial and error, which could reach 3.4 × 1010 for the worst-case scenario. Additionally, it is shown that considering only the equality constraints results in negative resistances, while incorporating the lower limits of resistance ensures that the corrected resistances are within a reasonable range. Using the resistance corrected by the optimal model to simulate the ventilation system via traditional methods generates quantities and fan pressures that perfectly match the measured values, eliminating the tedious process of manually adjusting airway resistances repeatedly.

Jan 13, 2024

By R. L. Fullman, J. W. Cahn

A method is derived for obtaining the distribution of sphere diameters and plate thicknesses (or pearlite spacings) from size distribution functions obtained along randomly oriented lines. The method described offers several advantages over existing methods. IT is often of interest to measure not only the average particle size but also the distribution in sizes of particles dispersed in an opaque material, such as an alloy. Particles of a single size will exhibit a range of apparent sizes on the plane of polish. If the sample contains a distribution of particle sizes, the distribution of observed sizes on the plane of polish is related to the distribution of actual particle sizes by an integral equation, For example, a distribution of sphere sizes, N(r),

Jan 1, 1957

By Mohammad Djavid

The one-pass tunneling pipe jacking method has often been the most schedule and cost efficient method for the pipe line installation. The main challenges in jacking pipes larger than 108 inches and for longer runs are: transportation and logistics, requiring high jacking forces, keeping line and grades, control of ground surface settlement, providing adequate external lubrication, and the potential of damaging the joints and pipe spigots. In recent years, 144" diameter pipes have been jacked for short runs of up to only 300 feet. In this article design and construction of installation of up to 1,000 linear feet run of 144-inch internal diameter, reinforced concrete pipes without intermediate jacking station in Chicago O?Hare International Airport are discussed. The article also presents discussions regarding the subsurface saturated silt formation, shallow cover, dewatering, jacking and receiving shafts, jacking forces, lubrication and settlement data.

Jan 1, 2008

By G. R. Leverant, C. P. Sullivan

To evaluate the effect of a dispersion of nondeform-able, incoherent, second-phase particles on high-strain cyclic deformation and fracture, recrystallized TD-nickel (Ni-2ThO2) and a commercially pure nickel, Ni-200, were fatigued under strain control at total strain ranges varying from 0.009 to 0.036. Relative to the Ni-200, the slip at the surface of the TD-nickel was more wavy and discontinuous due to the presence of the thoria particles. This made crevice formation (incipient cracking) within slip bands more difficult in TD-nickel than in Ni-200. Both materials cyclically hardened to a constant (saturation) flow stress which increased with increasing plastic strain amplitude. Cellular substructures were developed in both materials during cycling. The cell size in TD-nickel was controlled by the thoria particle distribution and was independent of plastic strain amplitude over the range investigated. The cell size in Ni-ZOO was larger than that in TD-nickel at similar plastic strain amplitudes and was a function of plastic strain amplitude. These results, together with the cyclic stress-strain curves for both materials, are discussed in terms of a model for fatigue strain accommodation at saturation recently proposed by Feltner and Laird. NUMEROUS fatigue investigations have considered the interrelation of slip character, dislocation substructure, and cracking in pure metals and solid-solution alloys. However, except for the studies of the low-strain fatigue of internally oxidized copper alloys1 and cast, dispersion-strengthened lead,&apos; little is known about the effects which small, incoherent, nondeform-able, second-phase particles have on cyclic deformation and cracking processes. Effects due to the particles alone are often obscured by a dislocation substructure introduced during thermomechanical processing of dispersion-strengthened metals. In the present study, recrystallized TD-nickel and a commercially pure nickel, Ni-200, were employed to evaluate the effect of a thoria dispersion on high-strai fatigue deformation and cracking at room temperature. I) MATERIAL AND EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE The TD-nickel was supplied by DuPont as a 5/8-in.-thick stress-relieved plate which had been subjected to a proprietary schedule of thermomechanical treatments, and the Ni-200 as 3/4-in. bar which was subsequently annealed for 2 hr at 850°C in argon resulting in an average grain diameter of 0.05 mm. The compositions of these materials are given in Table I. The microstructure of the TD-nickel consisted of elongated grains parallel to the primary working direction with an average width of 0.16 mm, Fig. l(a). Many fine annealing twins were present indicating that the starting material was in a recrystallized condition; this supposition was confirmed by the absence of of any extensive dislocation substructure, Fig. l(b). Sheetlike stringers parallel to the rolling direction were occasionally seen both within grains and at grain boundaries. Some approximately spherical particles about 2 in diam, which may correspond to exceptionally large thoria particle aggregates, were also present. The average Young&apos;s modulus of the plate material in the rolling direction was 21.8 X 106 psi which is consistent with a {100}<001>recrystalliza-tion texture3&apos;* being prominent. In transmission microscopy, the 2.3 vol pct of thoria particles generally appeared to be uniformly distributed although some clusters, 0.1 to 0.3 in diam, of larger particles were observed as previously reported for TD-nickel sheet,5 and stringering of particles was present in some areas as welt. The average diameter of the thoria particles was 450A with a calculated mean planar center-to-center spacing of 2100A, as determined by quantitative metallographic analysis.= The 0.2 pct offset yield stress was 36,000 psi which agrees with the value predicted by the modified Orowan relation7 for edge dislocations bowing between thoria particles of the size and spacing observed in the present investigation. Fig. 2 illustrates the specimen design employed for the axial high-strain fatigue testing. Adapters were screwed onto the threaded portions of each specimen so that testing could be performed in the same manner as that reported for buttonhead specimens.8 Stressing was coincident with the working direction for both materials. The gage section of each specimen was electropolished and lightly etched prior to testing. The total strain was controlled, being varied between zero and a maximum tensile strain ranging from 0.009 to 0.036. In addition to these tests, a circum-ferentially notched TD-nickel specimen was cycled over a total strain range of 0.0075. The same strain

Jan 1, 1969

By H. Wilton Clark

"IntroductionTHE CANADIAN use of short-period delay-action detonators in coal shooting has been carried on for about two years, mostly in British Columbia, and this is a preliminary report on progress to date. Entire coal faces are being shot successfully with one application of electric current.The electric blasting cap came into use about the beginning of the century. The low-tension electric cap, the type most commonly used, consists essentially of a metal tube containing an initiating explosive. Two wires lead into the end of the cap and are connected inside the cap with a short 'bridge wire .of very high resistance. This •bridge wire is buried in a match-head of a readily ignitable powder composition. When current goes through the lead wires, the bridge wire becomes extremely hot and sets• off the match-head which, in turn, ignites the powder just below it in the tube. This explosion sets off the main charge of explosive. Thus, by connecting a group of caps to a source of electric .current, a number of charges could be exploded simultaneously. This immediately became of great value to mine and quarry operators. Explosives could now be used to break up large masses of material at one time, as against the older, slow method .of blasting small amounts with single charges.The next step was to develop a delay detonator which would allow charges of explosive to fire one after the other, one or two seconds apart. Such detonators allowed first blasts to relieve some rock burden before the next charge fired, giving the second charge an easier task in forcing out more rock, and so on for the rest of the series of charges."

Jan 1, 1953