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By A. Beeby Thompson

FOR more than 2500 years, natural gas issues in the Surakhany district of the Apsheron peninsula were the object of pilgrimages by fire worshippers and Hindoos from Burma and India. Even as late as 1890, Hindoo priests conducted ceremonies in a temple at Surakhany, which probably replaced a more ancient one; but later, the visits of the pilgrims were prohibited in order to check the spread of Asiatic diseases in that region. For centuries, limited supplies of oil have been abstracted from shallow excavations in the Caspian oil belt and dispatched into the interior of Asia and elsewhere for medicinal and industrial purposes. Statistics show a yield of 37,400 bbl. in 1863, but only since 1869 has there been serious development; in that year the yield was 203,000 bbl. At that time, hand digging was supplanted by drilling, and the enormous wells that resulted from tapping sources hitherto beyond the reach of operators completely demoralized the industry for a time, owing to inadequate outlets for the products. The early activities in this area were greatly hindered by annoying taxation, monopolies, imperial land grants, etc., but when these were revoked or adjusted, in 1877, the industry sprang into prominence and, between 1898 and 1901, the Baku fields produced practically one-half of the world's supply of oil. Within a few miles of Baku lie the two richest oil fields in the world; viz., the Balakhany-Saboontchy-Romany and the Bibi-Eibat, the latter constituting almost a suburb of the city. For many years the gasoline obtained in the refineries of the Baku area was burned in pits, being considered an undesirable product, and until 1870 the residue also was destroyed, its value as a fuel not being recognized. Kerosene was the main product sought by the refiners. It was shipped across the Caspian Sea and up the Volga to the industrial centers of Russia. Only on the completion of the Baku-Batoum railway did the Baku oil fields secure

Jan 8, 1920

By James Terry Duce

The symposium on production for the year 1940 contains few papers on the foreign situation. It is probable that the foreign part of next year's symposium will be even shorter. This is due to rigid censorship in various countries, as the question of the volume of petroleum supplies has become one of great strategic importance. This is even more true than in the last war, owing to greater mechanization of armies. 'It has always been the policy of officers in charge of the symposium to refrain from publishing information that might possibly injure national or private interests. At the close of the war we hope again to publish full and accurate records of production abroad. Excerpts from Circular to Authors In order to facilitate interpretation of the data in this chapter, we print the following excerpts from the Circular to Authors. The field is the unit in this tabulation. In cases of fields extending across State boundaries, such as Rodessa, it is suggested that each State author treat the section of the field in his State as a unit, and by a footnote indicate that the field extends into an adjacent State. Each space in Table I may represent one of four possibilities; either it is not applicable to the particular field, or the proper entry is not determinable, or the proper entry may be determinable but is not determinable from data available to the author, or the proper entry is determinable. When spaces are not applicable, leave blank; in spaces where the proper entries are determinable but not de-terminable frod data available to the author, please inserty; in spaces where the proper entries are determinable by the author, make such entries. y implies a hope that in some future year a definite figure will be available. The entry of a zero is a positive declaration, and an important declaration where it is in order. Inability to determine precisely the correct entry for a particular space should not lead the author to insert merely y. Contributions of great value may be made by the author in many cases where entries are not subject to precise determination. In sucli cases the author should use his good judgment and make the best entry possible under the circumstances. For many spaces the correct entries represent the opinion of the author (for example, "Area Proved') and in such cases the entry need not be hedged to such extent as when the quantities are definite yet can be ascertained only approximately by the author. In cases under definite headings but where figures are only approximate, the author may use x. It is thought that the nearest whole numbers are sufficiently accurate for our purposes except as to percentage of sulphur in oil. If an author desires to report any other figures to tenths, he may do so. The quantity of gas produced should include, where possible, gas sold or otherwise marketed, and gas blown into the air, burned as flares or otherwise wasted. Segregation of these figures would be interesting if the authors can make such segregation. In any event, the figures should represent as nearly as possible the total quantity of gas removed from the reservoir. Under the columns on "Depth," the average depth to the top of the productive zones and to the bottom of the productive wells, when

Jan 1, 1941

By C. S. Allen

With increased coal production and mechanization of coal mines many transportation problems arise. The main objective is to bring the coal to the tipple or dump it as quickly as possible. Larger and faster haulage locomotives or two locomotives connected in tandem have been adopted to solve the problem. Motor equipment, gears and control systems of locomotives to be placed on these hauls are carefully studied to meet these requirements, by an analysis of motor characteristic curves with the corresponding tractive effort curves, in order to determine the correct load for maximum efficiency and to determine the approximate schedule. Control equipment is usually considered to be the controller and resistance. Sometimes accelerating curves are calculated in order to obtain smooth starting in the least possible time without slipping the wheels. Train control is very important, but why limit this to acceleration ? Deceleratien-or-retardation of the locomotive is a part of the train control and should be given as much consideration as the control for acceleration. Types or Braking Common braking systems for mine locomotives utilize screw-type mechanical brakes, dynamic braking and the air brake. For gathering and haulage locomotives, the srrew-type mechanical brake is regarded as standard. A brake of this kind cannot be applied without much effort and lapse of time. Motormen, like other people, follow the path of least resistance, and therefore have their brakes ready for instant application—which means that the shoes are virtually dragging. Even then, a motorman bucks and plugs the motors to gain time and avoid as much physical effort as possible. "Bucking of motors" consists in turning the reverse cylinder of the controller to parallel position corresponding to the opposite direction of travel while the locomotive is in motion, without applying power from an external source. When this occurs, both motors tend to act as series generators, because the armatures are revolving and there is residual magnetism in the field circuit. Owing to slight differences in motor manufacture, one of these will generate a slightly higher potential and will overcome the generated voltage of the second and tend to drive it as a motor in the reverse Direction.-This action retards the locomotive but is very severe on the segments of the reverse cylinder and on the motor commutators. "Plugging motors" is the application of power to the motors corresponding to the opposite direction of travel. In order to "plug" the motors it is necessary first to "buck,, them (which reverses the connections to the motors) and then to apply power. Theoretically, this should be done only in an emergency, but locomotives in mine service are frequently thus treated., Dynamic braking is retardation of the locomotive by the motors acting as generators, which take no power from the line.

Jan 1, 1942

By C. S. Allen

With increased coal production and mechanization of coal mines many transportation problems arise. The main objective is to bring the coal to the tipple or dump it as quickly as possible. Larger and faster haulage locomotives or two locomotives connected in tandem have been adopted to solve the problem. Motor equipment, gears and control systems of locomotives to be placed on these hauls are carefully studied to meet these requirements, by an analysis of motor characteristic curves with the corresponding tractive effort curves, in order to determine the correct load for maximum efficiency and to determine the approximate schedule. Control equipment is usually considered to be the controller and resistance. Sometimes accelerating curves are calculated in order to obtain smooth starting in the least possible time without slipping the wheels. Train control is very important, but why limit this to acceleration ? Deceleratien-or-retardation of the locomotive is a part of the train control and should be given as much consideration as the control for acceleration. Types or Braking Common braking systems for mine locomotives utilize screw-type mechanical brakes, dynamic braking and the air brake. For gathering and haulage locomotives, the srrew-type mechanical brake is regarded as standard. A brake of this kind cannot be applied without much effort and lapse of time. Motormen, like other people, follow the path of least resistance, and therefore have their brakes ready for instant application—which means that the shoes are virtually dragging. Even then, a motorman bucks and plugs the motors to gain time and avoid as much physical effort as possible. "Bucking of motors" consists in turning the reverse cylinder of the controller to parallel position corresponding to the opposite direction of travel while the locomotive is in motion, without applying power from an external source. When this occurs, both motors tend to act as series generators, because the armatures are revolving and there is residual magnetism in the field circuit. Owing to slight differences in motor manufacture, one of these will generate a slightly higher potential and will overcome the generated voltage of the second and tend to drive it as a motor in the reverse Direction.-This action retards the locomotive but is very severe on the segments of the reverse cylinder and on the motor commutators. "Plugging motors" is the application of power to the motors corresponding to the opposite direction of travel. In order to "plug" the motors it is necessary first to "buck,, them (which reverses the connections to the motors) and then to apply power. Theoretically, this should be done only in an emergency, but locomotives in mine service are frequently thus treated., Dynamic braking is retardation of the locomotive by the motors acting as generators, which take no power from the line.

Jan 1, 1942

By H. L. Luo, P. Duwez, C. C. Chao

BY rapidly cooling alloys from the liquid state, it is possible to obtain solid solutions beyond the equilibrium concentrations, provided that the components are miscible in the liquid state. Typical such cases include CU-Ag,1 Pt-Ag,2 CU-Rh,3 nickel-base alloys with silicon, germanium, and tin,4 and cobalt-base alloys with silicon, germanium, tin, aluminum, and gallium.5 In the present note it is shown that terminal solid solutions can be appreciably extended in A1-Mg alloys. The alloys whose compositions are given in Table I were prepared by induction melting in tantalum crucibles under an argon atmosphere. Both aluminum and magnesium were 99.99 pct pure. Weight losses after melting were less than 0.2 pct for the aluminum-rich alloys and less than 0.4 pct for the magnesium-rich alloys. From these weight losses it was estimated that the compositions of the ingots after melting were accurate within 0.3 at. pct for aluminum-rich alloys and within 0.5 at. pct for magnesium-rich alloys. As indicated in Table I, the compound AuCd10 in which there is an ionic contribution to the bonding. The authors thank Dr. J. H. Westbrook of the Research Laboratory, General Electric Co., for arranging the supply of materials and for his interest. This investigation was supported by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission under Contract AT(30-1)-1002, Scope I. some of the alloys were also chemically analyzed and the results confirmed the limits of uncertainty based on weight losses. Rapid quenching from the liquid state was achieved by techniques previously described.8,7 The principle of these techniques consists of propelling a small globule of liquid alloy (about 20 mg) onto a copper substrate. The thin foils easily detached from the copper substrate were analyzed by X-ray diffraction using a Debye-Scherrer camera 114.6 mm in diameter and either nickel-filtered copper Ka or iron-filtered cobalt Ka radiation. Since the back-reflection doublets were resolved, the wavelengths used in the computatioas were CuKal = 1.54050A and CoKa1= 1.78892A. Lattice parameters were obtained by extrapolation of the Nelson-Riley function, and the tables compiled

Jan 1, 1964

Discussion of the paper of A. P. WATT, presented at the St. Louis meeting, October, 1917, and printed in Bulletin No. 130, October, 1917, pp. 1476 to 1563. THE CHAIRMAN (0. M. _BILHARZ, Miami, Okla.).-Mr. Watt's reference to sorting or hand-picking of the ore in the lead district, which is being introduced at Mine La Motte, is especially interesting. I believe, from my former experience in the district, that hand-picking should be practised to some extent by all the companies in the Lead Belt. I know that a great many thousand tons containing only very small amounts of lead are passed through the mills, which, of course, is not to the advantage of milling machinery. That procedure may be Warranted at times of high prices, but I think that hand-picking should ordinarily be adopted to some extent: ERNEST GAYFORD, Salt Lake City, Utah.-On page 1525, speaking of the settling of slime previous to treatment either on slime tables or by flotation, Mr. Watt states: "The settling area allowed per ton of dry slime varies from 11 to 16 sq. ft.-an average for the district would be about 13 sq. ft. of settling area per ton of dry slime. This figure applies when the, discharge contains 20 per cent. solids." Mr. Ramsey, of the Dorr company, is here and I would like to ask him whether a settling area of 13 sq. ft. per ton of dry slime per 24 hr. is not considerably above the average area of Dorr settling tanks, and whether 20 per cent. solids is not above the general dilution for that' capacity? I should also like to know what is the general average on slimes of that character. E. R. RAMSEY, Denver, Colo.-An allowance of 13 sq. ft. per ton does seem rather large. I am not familiar with the settling characteristics of the dolomitic gangue, but as an average over the country, I should say that 6 or 7 sq. ft. would be nearer correct for discharge at that consistency. L. A. DELANO, Bowie Terre, Mo.-We have had an opportunity to try our tanks at the highest capacity, and-find that by thickening the slime to 30 per cent. solids we average 12 sq. ft. per ton of dry slime. ERNEST GAYFORD.-DO you find any definite ratio between the thickness of the discharge and the settling capacity of the tank? Do you consider that the tank has a larger capacity if the discharge is 3 to 1 than if it is 50 per cent. solids? L. A. DELANO.-I think it has greater capacity with the thinner discharge. It depends a good deal on the density of feed to the tanks; in our case the feed contains 2.5 per cent. solids.

Jan 1, 1918

By W. Francis

OF THE methods that have been used for studying the chemical composition of coal, attack by reagents has not, in general, yielded much information. Most of the reagents used have been strong oxidants such as nitric acid or Schulze's solution. The use of a milder oxidizing agent, such as air at low temperatures, enables progressive changes in the character of the coal substance to be studied and thus helps toward an understanding of its constitution. British bituminous coals frequently have a banded structure. These bands (of four types) can be separated one from another and have been found to possess markedly different chemical characteristics, even when taken from contiguous portions of the same lump coal. It has been found convenient to give each of the ingredients of banded coal a distinctive name, more or less descriptive of its appearance, and the study of the chemistry of bituminous "coal" in England has resolved itself into a study of each ingredient separately. . The coal chosen for this work was taken from the Top Hard seam at East Kirkby colliery, Nottinghamshire, a detailed chemical analysis of which has been recorded by Baranov and Francis.1 The banded structure was well marked and the bands could readily be separated. The research was confined to the brilliant vitreous bands (vitrain), the dull hard bands (durain) and the "sooty partings" (fusain); for previous work had shown that the fourth type, to which the name clarain has been given, is intermediate in character, chemically, between vitrain and durain.

Jan 3, 1925

By Tell Ertl, Ernest E. Burgh

INTRODUCTION THE Bureau of Mines is operating an oil-shale mine 10 miles west of Rifle, Colo., as part of its Synthetic Liquid Fuels program. The purpose of operating this mine is twofold: First, to supply oil shale to an experimental processing plant; and second, to develop practices and select methods for mining oil shale on a commercial scale at the lowest practicable cost. The second purpose-that of finding out how to mine oil shale most cheaply-entails considerable mining research. Since the drilling of oil shale probably will be one of the major items of the mining cost, factors that influence drilling speeds were investigated. One phase of the drilling program was the development of a successful hard-surfaced rock-drill bit1 that can be used for drilling long holes in oil shale without changing bits. During that phase, drilling speeds were measured and drill cuttings were collected for assay and for screen sizing. When the cuttings from the individual tests were compared, a definite relationship was shown to exist between the drilling speed and the coarseness of the drill cuttings. PROCEDURE Measurement of Drilling Speeds All drilling in the tests was done with a Model UMB-D-99W Gardner-Denver wagon drill. Round-lugged drill steel, 1 ¼ in. in diameter was used in 6, 12, and 18 ft lengths with 2 1/8 -in. Timken H-type bits hard-faced with acetylene tube borium. The tests were made in the lower adit of the Bureau of Mines oil-shale mine; the grade of the oil shale drilled ranged from 18.6 to 42.7 gal per ton. During the experiments air pressure varied between 75 and 90 psi while water pressure remained fairly constant at 75 psi. All holes were drilled almost horizontally. Each drill hole was thoroughly cleaned of cuttings after being collared. The advance of the drill along the carriage was measured and recorded as the drilling speed in inches per minute. Method of Collecting Cuttings To facilitate the collection of cuttings, each drill hole was collared in a smooth, vertical portion of the oil-shale breast (Fig 1). A galvanized-steel sheet was fastened to the breast below the area in which the hole was to be drilled. The cuttings washed out of the drill hole by the drilling water were guided by the steel sheet into a wooden box. The cuttings that remained in the drill hole after the drill was withdrawn were scraped out and placed in the same box as the cuttings washed out of the hole. After the cuttings from a 1-min. drilling interval were collected, they were placed in flat metal pans. The fines were allowed to settle and the clear water was decanted. The cuttings then were dried in the sun.

Jan 1, 1947

By C. G. Dunn

NUCLEI that are formed during the recrystallization of a grain following plastic deformation generally have orientations that differ from the original. This aspect of recrystallization may be described in terms of orientation changes. It was shown previously, in an investigation on recrystallization in silicon ferrite,1 that the observed orientation changes were highly improbable on a chance basis, and that some mechanism must be involved. Analysis showed that the data could be satisfactorily classified into the smaller of two subclassesf of the 36 third- order twin transformations. No attempt was made at that time to classify the data within the special class of 12 third-order twin transformations, although results did indicate a greater probability for some of them to occur. A classification of this type would be more valuable, of course, with more data on orientation changes per old deformed grain. The present work fulfills this condition to some degree and also extends the scope of the investigation to include the effects of original orientation and the amount of plastic deformation. The effect of original orientation is of considerable interest because of the known effects of orientation on plastic deformation, particularly with regard to degree of fragmentation and the formation of de- formation bands, and because the orientations produced by deformation should influence the orientations obtained through recrystallization. Barrett and Levenson2 reported that single crystals of iron deformed in the range 82 to 97 per cent could be put into three general classes; namely, crystals in class I maintained a reasonably sharp single orientation, those in class 2 transformed into two distinct orientations, and those in class 3 changed into a large number of major and minor orientations. Something similar would be expected for silicon ferrite crystals, and verification of this for a few cases of types class I and class 2 deformation has been reported elsewhere3 for single crystals of silicon ferrite cold-rolled in the range 10 to 20 per cent. As an example of class 2 deformation, it was shown that a crystal of silicon ferrite cold-rolled in a {110} plane in a < 100> direction developed two layers, or deformation bands differing in orientation. When this happens it is possible to etch away one band and leave a single structure for use in studying the orientation changes that occur during recrystallization. when preferred crystal orientations are obtained in recrystallization, it is notparticularly necessary to evaluate groups of common orientation, as was done previously (ref. I, Table 6); but an

Jan 1, 1946

By S. Fróes Abreu

The importation of liquid fuels in Brazil amounts to about 1,300,000 tons; 30 per cent of this total being gasoline for automobiles and airplanes. Statistics show an increasing consumption of gasoline notwithstanding the use, daily greater, of fuel alcohol, a domestic fuel of low cost in the producing areas. The Brazilian market for petroleum products has shown a tendency to grow as the country has steadily developed— expansion of the industries in the areas already developed, and also the recent occupation and population of new zones. The war has brought many difficulties to Brazil. It has limited the importation of petroleum products, which came mostly from the United States, Venezuela and Mexico. During the first days of the present crisis automobile and truck traffic was vastly curtailed; but the national activity in the production of more fuel alcohol, and principally in the development of producer gas, has done much to provide a solution for the transportation crisis threatened at the beginning of the gasoline shortage. Many thousands of cars and trucks in Brazil are now burning producer gas made from charcoal. Producer gas for automobiles has been improved by Brazilian engineers and many new types have appeared. - Production There is only one producing oil field in Brazil—the one in the State of Baia, near the Baia de Todos os Santos. The first producing oil well was drilled in Lobato in 1939 by the Federal Government following studies carried on in that area by Oscar Cordeiro, S. Froes Abreu, G. Paiva and J. Amarai. The field and laboratory work done by these men was published in 1936 in a paper entitled " ContribuicBes para a Geologiado Petroleo no Reconcavo (Baia)," which indicated the potentialities of the area as an oil producer. After the discovery of the first producing well, the Brazilian Government issued a decree establishing an area, 60 km. in radius, as a National Reservation. This first well was drilled in Lobato. In no other locality in Brazil is any petroleum produced. Although many wells have been drilled in the southern part of Brazil, on the northeastern coast and in the Amazon Basin, they yield nothing. Actual production is below 1000 bbl. daily. The producing area covers Itaparica Island, Candeias and Arath, Joanes Island and Lobato. Since very little geological information was available, especially about subsurface structure, it was necessary to drill several wildcats in order to collect the data essential in the choosing of good locations. The United Geophysical Co. was contracted to perform a geophysical survey to clear up the major problems concerning the oil deposits in the Reconcavo beds. The best wells in Reconcavo are on Itaparica Island, where the daily flow amounts to about zoo bbl.; in other sectors production is considerably lower and most of the wells are pumping. In the Aratfi sector, near an area of very light oil, there is an important gas field, with wells producing about I0,000,000 cu. ft. daily.

Jan 1, 1944

By Carl L. Renzoni

INTRODUCTION This paper defines equity as the issuance of a permanent interest in the business on a broadly distributed basis. As such, it excludes the issuance of equity to either a merchant bank or to another corporation. Nearly twenty years ago the equity markets were very simple: The instruments used were primarily common shares, convertible debentures or convertible preferred shares. Another equity-type option often used, especially by junior companies, was the sale of joint venture interests. Issue sizes were generally in the order of $25 - $100 million and issues were syndicated primarily in North America and Europe by one or two investment dealers. Mining corporations today benefit from a market with much more depth. Issues are syndicated by dealers on a truly international basis, and issue sizes now often range up to $300 million. Moreover, dealers are now willing to take significant risk in buying the issues for redistribution. This discussion of trends in equity markets will encompass: 1) common shares 2) warrants to buy common shares 3) convertible debentures 4) commodity backed instruments A review follows of events that affect the mining industry and investment dealers as they have a bearing on the equity markets for the metal producers. FACTORS AFFECTING THE MINING INDUSTRY The current business cycle, up to October 1987, had been characterised by a buoyant stock market and depressed base metal prices. Mining companies entered this period with weak balance sheets and little prospect of cash flows meeting capital needs. The issuance of equity and the sale of assets were used extensively to reduce debt to manageable levels. During this period, the relative high price for gold, and more important, the very high earnings and cash flow multiples afforded to gold producers, caused companies to target gold as the only game in town. The need for capital to acquire and develop gold properties prompted an unprecedented volume of equity issues. (Burns Fry led or co-managed over $1 billion of mining equity issues per year during this period). This high demand for equity capital by the industry prompted an increase in the use of equity instruments, such as commodity backed instruments. In addition, government tax incentive programs in Canada, such as flow-through shares, allowed smaller companies to raise significantly more equity than would otherwise have been possible. Over $1 billion in flow-through equity was raised in 1987 alone. The abundance of flow-through capital in Canada made it easy to form a new company. One flow-through share fund developed a system of providing the working capital required for a company to be eligible to receive flow-through share capital so that an entrepreneur required only a mining property to get started. Many new companies were formed and several flourished in a buoyant stock market environment to the point that market capitalizations grew to $100 million or more. The current period is in stark contrast to that before October 1987. The equity markets are generally available to the resource industry only on a window basis and only for senior companies and for special situations. The industry is benefitting from buoyant metal prices, and bankers are anxious to provide debt capital. Investment dealers previously processing several equity issues

Jan 1, 1990

By M. C. Chang, J. Dasher

The Crucible mine in Pennsylvania, operating on Pittsburgh seam coal, is rated at 5000 tpd. The washing plant, built in 1943, is rated at about 400 tph, using hydroseparator boxes to wash the coarse coal (4 x 5/16 in.) and hydrotator units for the fine coal (5/16 x 0). It is generally acknowledged that gravity concentration equipment cannot be used efficiently to bene-ficiate coal finer than about 65 mesh. Before the present flotation circuit was installed, Crucible recovered its fine coal slurry, predominantly —24 mesh material, by passing it through a battery of five 14-in. and one hundred and ten 3-in. Hey1 & Patterson cyclones in parallel with a 75-ft Dorr thickener. About two thirds went to the cyclones and one third to the thickener. Underflows from cyclones and thickener were filtered, respectively, in one 12-disk Eimco and two 4-disk Oliver filters fitted with stainless steel cloth. The resulting cakes were added to the coarse metallurgical coal. The filtrates, overflow from the 3-in. cyclones, and thickener overflow were recycled to the coarse coal plant. The three major problems encountered in this system became acute when the mine switched from track-mounted machinery to the more economical off-track equipment. The quality and uniformity of product declined, too much slime accumulated in the circuit, and waste pond disposal became highly impracticable. Lowering of Quality and Uniformity: Since the filter cake was not beneficiated in any way, addition of this material, which contained about 18 pct ash. would certainly lower the quality of metallurgical coal. Difficulties of handling the high-ash, high-moisture cake were compounded by the lack of adequate blending facilities at the mine, making it impossible to maintain uniform feed for the coke ovens. For a two-month test period, to verify the source of trouble, all filter cake was excluded from the metallurgical coal. The excluded filter cake was stocked in the yard. Slime Buildup: The moisture retained in the coarse coal products and the filter cake provided daily the only means of slime bleed from the circuit. As this bleed was not enough to offset the incoming fines in the raw coal feed, there was excessive buildup of slimes. To operate at all, it was necessary to purge the system each weekend by pumping all the solids from the thickener to a waste pond. The slimes built up during the week progressively increased the apparent viscosity and density of the circulating plant water, so that hydroseparators and hydrotator units had to be constantly adjusted. Uniformity, yield, and quality of the metallurgical coal suffered in consequence, and the filter cake ash and moisture contents increased from Monday to Friday. Limited Waste Disposal: Location of the plant does not permit unlimited waste pond area. Maintenance of a waste pond for the purpose of emptying the thickener during weekends became a costly burden that could not be tolerated. HOW THE PROBLEMS WERE SOLVED The flowsheet (Fig. 1) chosen to overcome these difficulties is considered the one most economical to install and operate. In a preliminary change made before the flotation circuit was installed, the cyclones and thickener were first operated in series, the overflow from the 3-in. cyclones, after flocculation, being discharged into the thickener and the thick-

Jan 1, 1960

By Oliver C. Ralston

A definite field of usefulness has developed for the brine-leaching processes of removing lead from ores and other products, so this paper reviews the developments, both in practice and in research, that have taken place since the publication of two earlier papers on this subject.&apos; Several commercial plants are now in operation and a number of semi-commercial test plants have been operated in an effort to determine the limitations of brine leaching and to compare the results with other forms of treatment. Briefly, the brine leaching of lead depends on the fact that lead chloride and lead sulfate are soluble in saturated sodium-chloride solutions. In dilute brines, the solubility of the lead salt is less than in pure water; but in the strong brines, the solubility is greater than in pure water due, supposedly, to the formation of a double sodium-lead chloride. This is seen in Fig. 1, which shows the results of M. Demassieux2 on the solubility of lead chloride in sodium-chloride solutions of different concentrations and at three temperatures. The curves are not those given by Demassieux but are calculated from his results in order to convert them to units common in metallurgical work. The right-hand branch of each curve shows that if the solution is kept in contact with solid sodium chloride the lead chloride can be almost entirely displaced from solution, but that brines which are saturated with sodium chloride, but are not in contact with the solid salt, have a very high solubility for lead chloride. The diagram gives the analysis of the solution in grams of lead per liter, although the substance actually in solution is lead chloride. At 100" C. as much as 100 gm. of lead per liter can be obtained; but at lower tem-

Jan 1, 1924

By Basil B. Zavoico

The symposium on production for the year 1942 contains no papers on the foreign situation except those on Argentina and Mexico. It has always been the policy of officers in charge of the symposium to refrain from publishing information that might possibly injure national or private interests. At the close of the war we hope again to publish full and accurate records of production abroad. Excerpts From Circular to Authors In order to facilitate interpretation of the data in this chapter, we print the following excerpts from the Circular to Authors. The field is the unit in this tabulation. In cases of fields extending across State boundaries, such as Rodessa, it is suggested that each State author treat the section of the field in his State as a unit, and by a footnote indicate that the field extends into an adjacent State. Each space in Table I may represent one of four possibilities; either it is not applicable to the particular field, or the proper entry is not determinable, or the proper entry may be determinable but is not determinable from data available to the author, or the proper entry is determinable. When spaces are not applicable, leave blank; in spaces where the proper entries are determinable but not determinable from data available to the author, please insert y; in spaces where the proper entries are determinable by the author, make such entries. y implies a Rope that in some future year a definite figure will be available. The entry of a zero is a positive declaration, and it is an important declaration where it is in order. Inability to determine precisely the correct entry for a particular space should not lead the author to insert merely y. Contributions of great value may be made by the author in many cases where entries are not subject to precise determination. In such cases the author should use his good judgment and make the best entry possible under the circumstances. For many spaces the correct entries represent the opinion of the author (for example, "Area Proved") and in such cases the entry need not be hedged to such extent as when the quantities are definite yet can be ascertained only approximately by the author. In cases under definite headings but where figures are only approximate, the author may use x. It is thought that the nearest whole numbers are sufficiently accurate for our purposes except as to percentage of sulphur in oil. If an author desires to report any other figures to tenths, he may do so. The quantity of gas produced should include, where possible, gas sold or otherwise marketed, and gas blown into the air, burned as flares or otherwise wasted. Segregation of these figures would be interesting if the authors can make such segregation. In any event, the figures should represent as nearly as possible the total quantity of gas removed from the reservoir. Under the columns on "Depth," the average depth to the top of the productive zones and to the bottom of the productive wells, when subtracted, should give the approximate thickness of the productive zone. For fields where this is not true because of unusually high dip or for some other reasons, it is suggested that the authors indicate in their text the approximate average thickness of the productive zone.

Jan 1, 1943

By D. L. King, B. A. Schepman

A number of unique thickener mechanism designs with the operating results achieved in various installations are discussed. These unusual designs include new types of raking arms, lifting devices, and feed-wells employed to obtain higher underflow densities and minimum operator control or improved overflow clarity. Several installations of large thickeners in which the underflow lines pass upward through the center to eliminate tunnels are reviewed. The location of the lines and pumps with the maintenance and operating records are included. Several types of automatic lifting device controls are used to provide storage in the thickener. Some of the installations employing underflow density controls are achieving excellent operating results. Thickeners or sedimentation basins are used in minerals beneficiation plants for three basic purposes. These are 1) Concentration, or to raise the density of a liquid-solids slurry. 2) Clarification, or removal of finely divided solids from a slurry. 3) Hydroseparation, or removal of a specific fraction of solids from a slurry. The concepts that control the size and configuration of basins used for these purposes are different. Likewise, different equipment is properly employed to accomplish these various objectives. The pattern of liquid and solids flow in the clarification zone of a sedimentation basin used for thickening or raising the density of a pulp normally is not critical. That is, the solids normally will drop or plunge to the bottom quite readily, and the liquid separates itself from these solids so as to overflow the basin in a relatively clear condition. When clarification or removal of finely divided particles is to be accomplished, the flow patterns in the basin are extremely important. The velocity of the incoming stream must be dissipated and the liquid flow distributed ]In the tank so that the feed is not divided into streams that flow directly to the overflow carrying the fine:ly divided solids that are to be removed. Similarly, the configuration of the arms that provide the raking and thickening of the pulp is not as important in basins primarily devoted to clarification. In thickening, the design of the arms and the manner in which the pulp is moved or worked, can contribute appreciably to the thickening process and achievement of a higher density underflow. THICKENING As the grade oi ore bodies throughout the world generally decreases, and chemical processes, hydro-metallurgy, and other more refined methods of minerals beneficiation are required, problems in thickening become more acute. Difficult operating conditions, previously encountered only occasionally in thickening metallurgical slurries, or clarifying process streams in the mill, are now the rule rather than the exception. Fig. 1 illustrates some of the different types of raking arms that are successfully achieving the desired goals in pulp thickening. The conventional raking arms consist of a relatively simple truss with the blades attached to the bottom chords. This design provides proper Concentration of many &apos;normal&apos; slurries. A modificaiion of this design as shown in the center is being used with excellent results on large thickener basins where it is desirable to have a

Jan 1, 1962

By A. C. Wallace

THE development of the natural resources of any district of any magnitude, inevitably gives rise to many problems off title, usually due to the greatly enhanced value of the land. The development of the mining industry in the Quapaw Agency has been no exception to this general rule. Our problems, how-ever, have not been many or particularly serious. The Quapaws were allotted and patents issued by the United States Government in 1895. These patents contained a restriction against alienation for a pe-riod of twenty-five years. The effect of the restric-tion was to prevent the Indian from selling, leasing, or in any way encumbering his land. The Govern-ment, in a paternalistic spirit, sought to teach the Indian thrift and industry and to insure him a place of residence. This is evidenced by the first Leasing Act passed by Congress, which permitted only incom-petents and those physically disabled to lease their land for either agricultural or mining purposes. The able-bodied Indian was denied the right to lease. It soon became apparent to the Government, how-ever, that this was a mistaken policy, and in 1897 a General Leasing Act was passed by Congress and it was under this act that the mining industry in the Quapaw Agency was developed. The act, reads as follows: "That the allottees of land within the limits of the Qua- paw Agency, Indian Territory, are hereby authorized to lease their lands, or any part thereof, for a term not ex-ceeding three years, for farming or grazing purposes, or ten years for mining or business purposes. And said al-lottees and their lessees and tenants shall have the right to employ such assistants, laborers, and help from time to time as they may deem necessary: Provided, That when-ever it shall be made to appear to the Secretary of the Interior that, by reason of age or disability, any such allottee cannot improve or manage his allotment properly and with benefit to himself, the same may be leased, in the discretion of the Secretary, upon such terms and conditions as shall be prescribed by him. All acts and parts of acts inconsistent with this are hereby repealed." It was the interpretation of this Act that gave rise to our first serious problems. It will be noted that the Act says that "allottees of land" within the limits of the Quapaw Agency are authorized to lease their land. Thus, the first question was presented by the use of the term "allottee," and the question was as to whether or not Congress intended to limit the Quapaw Indian to the leasing of his own allotment or did Congress mean that the term "allottee" was synonym-ous with "Indian" and intend to give the Indian a right to lease both his allotment and his inherited land and was an Indian without an allotment an "allottee" even though he was a member of the Qua-paw tribe and the owner of the Quapaw land by in-heritance, and not being an allottee, could he lease his inherited Quapaw land under the authority granted in this Act?

Jan 5, 1928

By J. H. Brophy, A. L. Prill, H. W. Hayden

An error lzas been found in the conventional way of determining the time exponent of linear shrinkage for the solution-precipitation stage of liquid-phase sintering. Large amounts of shrinkage due to initial rearrangenzent result in erroneously low exponents and tni si dentification of the rate-controlling process. Two alternative, mathematically correct, methods of calculation are applied to existing data on Fe-Cu, WC-Co, and Tic-Ni-Mo. This results in reidentifi-cation of the rate-controlling process and somewhat better agreement with related data. In each case the solution-precipitation process is solution-controlled and not diffusion-controlled. THE liquid-phase sintering process has been the object of a considerable amount of research for many years. Linear shrinkage vs time data at various sintering temperatures have been used recently in an attempt to identify the prevailing mass-transport processes in a number of metallic and nonmetallic systems. There is an analytical error inherent in the methods previously used for handling data during the "solution-precipitation" stage of shrinkage which must be recognized before the correct rate-controlling processes can be determined. It is the purpose of this paper to show how the error has affected previous conclusions and to suggest corrections. A number of mechanisms have been proposed to explain experimental observations during sintering in the presence of a liquid phase. The earliest of these is due to Price, Smithells, and williamsl who attributed the observed growth of the solid phase to the simultaneous solution of smaller particles and growth of larger particles. From the work of Lenel et al.2,3 and Gurland and Norton4 has come the suggestion that the liquid-phase sintering process may be divided for analysis into three steps: 1) rearrangement upon formation of the liquid phase; 2) solution and reprecipitation of the solid phase in the liquid; and 3) "coalescence" or a final stage of sintering, characteristically slower than the solution-precipitation process. The sequence of steps is shown schematically in Fig. 1. Kingery5 presented a thermodynamic and kinetic analysis of the first two "stages" of the liquid-phase sintering process in which the functional dependence of lineal shrink- age on time at temperature was used to identify the rate-controlling mass-transport process. Table I summarizes the time dependences and processes considered by Kingery.5 This method of data presentation has been employed by Kingery and coworkers for Fe-CU,6 WC-Co, and a number of nonmetallic systems," and bv Whalen and Humenik for Tic-Ni-Mo and Fe-cu.8 In each of these studies, the rate-controlling step during the "solution-precipitation" stage was identified from the slope of the curve in that stage on a logarithmic plot such as Fig. 1. However, in all of the previous studies, at a certain composition, relatively large amounts of shrinkage due to rearrangement preceded the solution-precipitation stage. Under these conditions, the larger the amount of rearrangement shrinkage the

Jan 1, 1965

By James Terry Duce

The symposium on production for the year 1940 contains few papers on the foreign situation. It is probable that the foreign part of next year&apos;s symposium will be even shorter. This is due to rigid censorship in various countries, as the question of the volume of petroleum supplies has become one of great strategic importance. This is even more true than in the last war, owing to greater mechanization of armies. &apos;It has always been the policy of officers in charge of the symposium to refrain from publishing information that might possibly injure national or private interests. At the close of the war we hope again to publish full and accurate records of production abroad. Excerpts from Circular to Authors In order to facilitate interpretation of the data in this chapter, we print the following excerpts from the Circular to Authors. The field is the unit in this tabulation. In cases of fields extending across State boundaries, such as Rodessa, it is suggested that each State author treat the section of the field in his State as a unit, and by a footnote indicate that the field extends into an adjacent State. Each space in Table I may represent one of four possibilities; either it is not applicable to the particular field, or the proper entry is not determinable, or the proper entry may be determinable but is not determinable from data available to the author, or the proper entry is determinable. When spaces are not applicable, leave blank; in spaces where the proper entries are determinable but not de-terminable frod data available to the author, please inserty; in spaces where the proper entries are determinable by the author, make such entries. y implies a hope that in some future year a definite figure will be available. The entry of a zero is a positive declaration, and an important declaration where it is in order. Inability to determine precisely the correct entry for a particular space should not lead the author to insert merely y. Contributions of great value may be made by the author in many cases where entries are not subject to precise determination. In sucli cases the author should use his good judgment and make the best entry possible under the circumstances. For many spaces the correct entries represent the opinion of the author (for example, "Area Proved&apos;) and in such cases the entry need not be hedged to such extent as when the quantities are definite yet can be ascertained only approximately by the author. In cases under definite headings but where figures are only approximate, the author may use x. It is thought that the nearest whole numbers are sufficiently accurate for our purposes except as to percentage of sulphur in oil. If an author desires to report any other figures to tenths, he may do so. The quantity of gas produced should include, where possible, gas sold or otherwise marketed, and gas blown into the air, burned as flares or otherwise wasted. Segregation of these figures would be interesting if the authors can make such segregation. In any event, the figures should represent as nearly as possible the total quantity of gas removed from the reservoir. Under the columns on "Depth," the average depth to the top of the productive zones and to the bottom of the productive wells, when

Jan 1, 1941

By S. Fróes Abreu

The importation of liquid fuels in Brazil amounts to about 1,300,000 tons; 30 per cent of this total being gasoline for automobiles and airplanes. Statistics show an increasing consumption of gasoline notwithstanding the use, daily greater, of fuel alcohol, a domestic fuel of low cost in the producing areas. The Brazilian market for petroleum products has shown a tendency to grow as the country has steadily developed— expansion of the industries in the areas already developed, and also the recent occupation and population of new zones. The war has brought many difficulties to Brazil. It has limited the importation of petroleum products, which came mostly from the United States, Venezuela and Mexico. During the first days of the present crisis automobile and truck traffic was vastly curtailed; but the national activity in the production of more fuel alcohol, and principally in the development of producer gas, has done much to provide a solution for the transportation crisis threatened at the beginning of the gasoline shortage. Many thousands of cars and trucks in Brazil are now burning producer gas made from charcoal. Producer gas for automobiles has been improved by Brazilian engineers and many new types have appeared. - Production There is only one producing oil field in Brazil—the one in the State of Baia, near the Baia de Todos os Santos. The first producing oil well was drilled in Lobato in 1939 by the Federal Government following studies carried on in that area by Oscar Cordeiro, S. Froes Abreu, G. Paiva and J. Amarai. The field and laboratory work done by these men was published in 1936 in a paper entitled " ContribuicBes para a Geologiado Petroleo no Reconcavo (Baia)," which indicated the potentialities of the area as an oil producer. After the discovery of the first producing well, the Brazilian Government issued a decree establishing an area, 60 km. in radius, as a National Reservation. This first well was drilled in Lobato. In no other locality in Brazil is any petroleum produced. Although many wells have been drilled in the southern part of Brazil, on the northeastern coast and in the Amazon Basin, they yield nothing. Actual production is below 1000 bbl. daily. The producing area covers Itaparica Island, Candeias and Arath, Joanes Island and Lobato. Since very little geological information was available, especially about subsurface structure, it was necessary to drill several wildcats in order to collect the data essential in the choosing of good locations. The United Geophysical Co. was contracted to perform a geophysical survey to clear up the major problems concerning the oil deposits in the Reconcavo beds. The best wells in Reconcavo are on Itaparica Island, where the daily flow amounts to about zoo bbl.; in other sectors production is considerably lower and most of the wells are pumping. In the Aratfi sector, near an area of very light oil, there is an important gas field, with wells producing about I0,000,000 cu. ft. daily.

Jan 1, 1944

A LARGE attendance at the annual dinner of the Institute, to be held this year on Tuesday eve-ning of convention week, is already assured. Presentation of the Douglas, Hunt and Saunders medals will attract unusual attention since not only in Blaylock, Mathews and Hoover the Institute will be honoring men who have made notable contributions to the advance-ment of their profession, but as to one of them each person as he passes down the reception line will be won-dering whether in renewing acquaintance with our past-president and present Secretary of Commerce, he is not greeting the next president of the United States. Elsewhere in this issue accounts of the professional careers of these three men appear as also of the two younger men, Charles H. Herty, Jr., and P. H. Royster, who are to receive the Robert W. Hunt and the J. E. Johnson awards. Institute honors go for technical achievement, but the Institute will be proud and happy if the nation should later confirm its own judgment by placing larger responsibilities on one of its members. The medals are to be presented at the annual dinner following the President&apos;s reception and preceding the dance. There will be no. other speeches and since the occasion falls on Carnival Night a particularly gay evening is anticipated. The event will be at the Wal-dorf as usual, and members are urged to return prompt-ly the reservation cards sent them by mail. Other entertainment features will include a Smoker, Monday evening at 8.15, held at Mecca Temple and in charge of a new committee with Fred Kay of the Petro-leum Division as chairman. He promises that vocal music will not be allowed to interrupt conversation. Lunch will be served each day on the Fifth Floor of the Engineering Societies Building, and ten special luncheons and dinners have been arranged for particu-lar committees and groups as shown by the detailed program. The Woman&apos;s Auxiliary has laid out a gen-erous program including luncheons, teas, a theater party on the night the men folks go to the Smoker, visits to museums and, not the least important, a round of the leading shops. The Excursion Committee is arranging for an excur-sion sure to be of interest. The American Smelting and Refining Co. has opened its great Perth Amboy plant to the Institute, and on Thursday, Feb. 23, a party will be taken to it by bus traveling through the Holland Tunnel en route. Full opportunity will be afforded those interested to see the workings of the ventilation system of that great public work. If a sufficient number indicate interest, arrangements will be made for group excursions to other plants in the vicinity of the city.

Jan 2, 1928