Search Documents

By E. B. Burwell, R. H. Nesbitt

Designed by army engineers, the NX borehole camera provides the most economical method of subsurface exploration so far devised. Continuous cylindrical color photographs now reveal minor flaws in foundation bedrock not always disclosed by borehole samples. A unique projector transforms the photographs into true-to-scale images of three dimensions. ANEW milestone in the progress of photography and subsurface exploration was reached when the Chief of Army Engineers announced the development of the NX borehole camera. In obtaining continuous undistorted cylindrical color pictures of dry or water-filled borings the device surpasses all other cameras designed for photographing interior surfaces of pipes, wells, and conduits. The usefulness of the camera and the unique projector that comes with it are at once apparent. To the geological, mining, and civil engineer alike it signifies the end of guesswork with respect to underground conditions that have eluded identification by conventional core-drilling methods. To the medical profession it may well signal new progress in photo optics which could result in cylindrical color photographs supplementing the X-ray and existing photographic methods used in exploratory surgery. The pilot model of the camera has more than paid for itself as a result of its success in bringing to the surface at two dams information previously obtainable only by costly drilling of mansized boreholes for subsurface on-the-spot examination. Such bores cost as much as $200 per lineal foot as against $10 per ft for the conventional 3-in. or NX exploratory core borings from which the present invention derives its name. The NX camera can now photograph completely the interior surface of these borings. Research and development for the first camera and projection equipment were conducted by Engineering Research Associates, Division of Remington Rand, Inc., under the technical supervision of the Geology and Geophysics Branch, Office of the Chief of Army Engineers in Washington, in accordance with plans and specifications furnished by this branch. Subsequent modifications of the camera-lowering device, transporting equipment, and special field tools were made in the Corps of Engineers' Ohio River Division Laboratories in Cincinnati. The background of this development is interesting. Among the more difficult foundation problems involved in construction of concrete dams are those resulting from bedrock imperfections that escape disclosure by conventional exploration methods. Often these imperfections are of sufficient magnitude to introduce costly changes, especially when their presence is discovered only after foundation excavation is well in progress. Bedrock flaws most frequently camouflaged may be ruptures resulting from the enormous stresses to which rocks have been subjected, or they may be planes or zones of weakness related to chemical alteration and underground erosion. Obviously, detailed information on their location, dimensions, and structure is important, as these factors can affect the stability of a dam and the security of life and property downstream. Their discovery and appraisal entail extensive subsurface exploration. At present the most economical exploratory tool available to geologists and engineers is the small-diameter diamond core drill by means of which cores of the foundation bedrock are recovered for examination and testing. All too often, however, these samples fail to disclose minor foundation flaws that may be of major importance before a structure is completed. As a result, the small-diameter drillings are supplemented generally by more reliable but much more costly shafts, tunnels, or large-diameter calyx drill holes that permit the investigator to examine the foundation rocks in place. It was to reduce the number and cost of these expensive and time-consuming investigations, as well as to obtain more complete information on rock structure from the smaller borings, that the NX borehole camera was developed. That it has been eminently satisfactory in accomplishing that purpose is demonstrated by its success most recently at the Folsom dam, under construction on the American River, 23

Jan 1, 1955

By Norman B. Pilling

The technical difficulties hampering the metallographic analysis of silicon steels are chiefly the result of the extreme corrodibility of these alloys. The addition of silicon to iron in increasing quantities, up to about 6 per cent., rapidly increases the susceptibility of the alloy to chemical attack, not only in acid solution, but in water. This renders the preparation of metallographic sections very difficult, because of a non-selective attack upon the finely polished surface by the water used as a lubricant in polishing. This water attack masks the true structural details revealed by suitable etching reagents. It is thus necessary to use alcohol as a polishing lubricant in the last stages of preparation and to avoid all etching reagents having an aqueous base. A specific reagent for the identification of iron carbide in ferrous alloys, and the one hitherto used almost' exclusively by metallurgists, is an alkaline aqueous solution of sodium picrate, which stains this constituent selectively. Its application to silicon steels has not proved successful, as its distinctive selective action is more or less completely hidden by the general attack of the aqueous solvent on the silico-ferrite, greatly accentuated by the fact that this reagent must be used at its boiling temperature (105' C.). Thus, a powerful metallographic aid to the study of the higher silicon alloys, such as transformer steels, is lost. A new reagent has been developed for the purpose of overcoming this difficulty. It is with some hesitation that the list of etching reagents, already overburdened, is increased, but the properties of this new reagent are advantageous in several ways and a definite field for it may be found in the metallography of ferrous alloys. The reagent consists of a dilute solution of nitric acid and methyl alcohol in nitrobenzol. It is a great advantage to secure an anhydrous solution, as a tendency toward acidic etching has been traced to small amounts of water. A convenient method of preparation is to make an anhydrous stock solution of nitric acid in methyl alcohol in the proportion 20 per cent. acid by weight (12.5 per cent. by volume). The alcohol can

Jan 1, 1924

By Philip D. Wilson

The mines of the Calumet & Arizona Mining Co. are situated in the Warren Mining District, Cochise County, Arizona, between Bisbee and Warren and adjoin those of the Copper Queen Consolidated Mining Co. and the Shattuck Arizona Copper Co. Paleozoic 1imestones.of considerable thickness have been intruded by granite porphyry. A great stock of the intrusive outcrops boldly near the city of Bisbee and is known as Sacramento Hill. From this central core the porphyry has tongued out into the limestone for many thousands of feet as dikes and sills of irregular shape and variable dimensions. Churn drilling has recently developed a large tonnage of secondarily enriched copper ore in the main porphyry mass of Sacramento Hill. While some ore has been found in porphyry in other parts of the district, it is relatively unimportant compared with that which occurs in the Paleozoic limestone as irregular lenses replacing favorable beds near porphyry contacts or associated with well-marked fracture zones often many hundreds of feet away from the intrusive. In a zone extending from Sacramento Hill for a distance of from 1,500 to 3,000 ft., the limestone has been extensively metamorphosed and in this contact metamorphic zone the ore occurs through a known vertical thickness of upward of 900 ft. and individual orebodies often show extension in a vertical direction of over 200 ft. At a greater distance from the intrusive stock, the ore occurs as lenses of greater horizontal than vertical dimensions with an average thickness of approximately 30 ft. An exception to this rule is found in the occasional steeply dipping mineralized fractures, almost true tabular veins, which are found long distances a way from the zone of contact metamorphism. The copper was probably introduced during or slightly later than the porphyry intrusion in the form of chalcopyrite and bornite. These primary copper minerals are always associated with pyrite and often occur as rich lenses in a huge mass or shell of pyrite carrying an insignificant percentage of copper. In many instances the copper-bearing solutions were preceded by siliceous solutions and these latter, often persisting during the period of mineralization, have thoroughly indurated the ore-

Jan 1, 1917

By W. A. Schaeffer, Sidney A. Justin, Jr. H. D. Easton

Restriction and proration of petroleum production have increased materially the difficulties attendant upon the estimation of reserves, particularly in large, "flush" fields. Such practices preclude the use of decline or other curves, from which, under capacity production conditions formerly prevalent, much could be learned as to the ultimate recovery to be expected from a given field or lcase therein. In restricted fields that would produce at many times the low rate allowed by the regulations in force if allowed to flow without restraint, one is forced to use other information than production performance to predict the volume of oil recoverable. Examples are: at Kettleman Hills, California; the Conroc, Van and East Texas fields, Texas; the Iowa field, Louisiana. It is beyond the scope of this paper to apply a definite method to the determination of the reserves in any actual field, therefore the discussion will be limited to a consideration of available methods and an enumeration of important factors governing the accuracy of such estimates. The problem is to determine not only oil in place but recoverable oil in place, for a given field or tract, which is complex and depends not only on the characteristics of the reservoir but also on the plan of development, the production allocation scheme, the rate of production and many other factors. Many data must necessarily be considered, weighed as to inportance, and assigned quantitative values. Estimates of recovery in prorated fields have been discussed by Brace', Shaw2, Snider3 and others. The wide difference in estimates of ultimate recovery from a number of important recently developed fields demonstrates the inadequacy of

Jan 1, 1935

By V. D. Perry

AS the traveler approaches Chuquicamata from the seaport of Antofagasta, crossing in a northeasterly direction the 150 miles of coast range and completely barren pampa with its low, rolling hills and broad depressions, the gradual rise to an elevation of 9000 ft is imperceptible, and it is hard to realize that the smoothly contoured hills east and west of the mine are from 10,000 to 11,000 ft above the level of the sea. The deceptive monotony of the scene is relieved only by the background of an unbroken line of lofty volcanic peaks, part of the Andean Cordillera, which rise, snow covered, against the eastern skyline. The drab geographical foreground is matched by the geological monotony of unaltered, gray rock

Jan 1, 1952

By B. W. Gandrud

WET-PROCESS coal-washing tables as we know them today have been in use in this country for approximately 25 years. The literature records only a few table installations worthy of note prior to adoption of the present-day differential-motion table. According to Phillip,1 six Campbell bumping tables were being operated by the St. Bernard Coal Co., Earlington, Ky., in 1893. As late as 1923, according to Richardson, 2 such tables were in operation in the Rosedale washery of the Cambria Steel Co., at Johnstown, Pa. Bumping tables probably were not used to any considerable extent except in the plant at Earlington, and at two or three plants in Pennsylvania, but they may be considered as. forerunners of the present-day coal-washing table. The transition from bumping tables to the type of tables now in use signalized a revolutionary change in table design. The advantages of the new design over the old were so outstanding as to make its adoption inevitable. BUMPING TABLES Bumping tables, as the name implies, utilized a bumping action for conveying the refuse and discharging it over the refuse end. The tables were hung from rods attached to overhead supporting beams. A shaft and cam arrangement at one end of the table served as the actuating mechanism and imparted to the table an endwise, back-and-forth, swinging motion. A bumping block was fixed in the proper position at the shaft end, so that the table would strike against it at the end of each backward swing. The hanger rods or stirrups were so adjusted as to give the table a slight uphill slope toward the refuse end; that is, the end next to the driving mechanism. The feed box was near the upper end of the table and designed to spread the mixture of coal and water over the width of the table. Wash water was added a short distance below the feed box. With the table in motion and coal mixed kith water being fed to it through the feed box, a certain amount of stratification took place, depositing heavy refuse at the bottom of the bed in contact with the surface of the table. Constant bumping and a certain amount

Jan 1, 1950

By Herman Blumenthal, Ronald Silverman

lnfiltrability of a porous Tic compact, produced by powder metallurgy technique, depends on the capillarity of the compact and the surface condition and nature of the individual particles. Capillary forces raise the liquid metal infiltrant into the interconnected pores of the compact and the complete filling of these pores is a function of their geometry as well as the wettability of the Tic particles. The paper deals especially with the improvement of this wettability through surface conditioning of the Tic particles. INFILTRATION, a technique for preparing dense powder metallurgy parts by filling the void spaces of a porous body with a liquid metal, has been used for the manufacture of titanium carbide-base cermets. Although the infiltration process was

Jan 1, 1957

By Frederick Prime

AT the last meeting of the Institute, Mr. A. L. Holley read a paper on "Steel," in which he proposes for it a definition so opposed to the one generally received, as to call for some remarks. Until within the last five or six years there has been no dispute on the subject, and it seems worth while to investigate the matter. For not only does a proper tax on all importations depend on a proper appreciation of the term steel, but it is necessary to know whether steel, or wrought-iron, or homogeneous iron are requisite in all processes of manufacture in which malleable iron is employed, on account of cost, strength, etc. Karsteu* says : " Iron may be obtained, either as an unforgeable, unweldable metal, which melts at a high heat, termed cast-iron; or as a ductile, weldable, soft metal, which can only be melted at the * Karsten, Handbuch der Eisenhüttenkunde, 3d ed., vol. i, p. 6. Berlin, 1841.

Jan 1, 1876

By AIME AIME

A separate room in the suite occupied by the American Institute of Mining Engineers on the ninth floor of the United Engineering Society Building, has been equipped with furniture and telephone extension for the temporary use of members of the Institute or of sister societies, or visitors suitably accredited. .In addition to this general accommodation, another room has been similarly furnished as a business headquarters for a single person, and for a limited period. For the conditions of this privilege, inquiry should be made at the office of the Institute. . In order that the benefit of this arrangement shall not be restricted to a few members only, the period of continued occupancy will be limited, and applications will be considered in the order of their receipt. A small. fee will be required for the use of the facilities furnished. ANNOUNCEMENT. THE BIRMINGHAM MEETING. - The XCIVth Meeting of the Institute for the reading and discussion of professional papers will be held at Birmingham, Ala., beginning about October 1. After the Birmingham sessions and excursions, it is proposed to return by special train via Chattanooga, Ducktown, etc., to Washington, D. C., where additional sessions will be held. Further particulars will be given in a special circular, to be issued at an early day.

Jan 5, 1908

By Charles Law McCabe, Lyndon H. Everett, Edna A. Dancy

It has been found that the carbide phase present at equilibrium in the system M-H2-CH4, at about 600°C, is MC for the rare-earth metals Ce and Pr. X-ray diffraction analysis showed that the monocarbides have fcc structures with lattice constants of 5.036 + 0.009Å and 5.131 + 0.001Å for CeC and PrC respectively. Gaseous equilibrium measurements were used to calculate the standard free energy of formation of the monocarbides from the elements. for the formation of (+ 1300) for the formation of PrC. THE rare-earthdicarbides, and their crystal structures, have been known for some years,l but only more recently were the carbides CeC,2,3 Ce2C3 2 and CeCS3 reported. In 1958 to 1959, Spedding et al. published work on the lanthanum-carbon system4 and other rare-earth metal-carbon systems,5 proving the existence of M2C3 and MC2, and measuring the lattice constants. They also demonstrated that tri-rare earth carbides, M3C, exist for the rare-earth metals samarium through ytterbium. However, they concluded that the cerium monocarbide reported by Brewer and Krikorian2 and by Warf,3 and given a fcc structure with a lattice constant of 5.130Å bythe former workers, was, in fact, cerium metal with carbon dissolved in it. They were also unable to find any evidence for the existence of Warf's CeC3, for which no structural details had been given. Even more recently, Palenik22 reported the existence of only M2C3 and MC2, having been unable to find any evidence for the existence of any other rare-earth carbides. There are no published experimentally derived thermodynamic data for the formation of any of these carbides, although Brewer and Krikorian6 have estimated values of for CeC, Ce2C3 and CeC2. The objective of the present investigation was; to determine experimentally the free energy of formation of any of the reported carbides of cerium and praseodymium, through a study of the rare-earth metal-hydrogen equilibrium. EXPERIMENTAL A methane-hydrogen mixture was circulated, in a closed system over previously prepared cerium or praseodymium hydride, and when equilibrium had been attained, the gas mixture was analyzed by selectively oxidizing the hydrogen and condensing out the water formed. The metal hydrides were used as starting material for convenience because, otherwise, the hydrogen in the gas mixture would immediately dissolve in the metals; in addition, the metals would not react with methane alone at the experimental temperature (around 600°C). The circulating system was based on that used by Browning, DeWitt, and Emmett7 for similar studies on iron carbides. It consisted of a quartz reaction vessel, all-glass circulating pump, analysis tube containing copper oxide that could be heated to 300" C by means of a small furnace, a solid CO2-methanol trap, and a double limb absolute manometer, Fig. 1. A cathetometer, capable of reading to 0.005 cm, was used to measure the difference in height between the two columns of mercury. In its final form, the reaction vessel was enclosed in an outer jacket, containing approximately the same pressure of hydrogen as that within, to reduce errors due to diffusion of hydrogen out through the fused silica of the reaction vessel., The circulating system was supplied with

Jan 1, 1962

By A. Blake Caldwell

Northwest frontier is here defined as Alaska, the Yukon, the Northwest Territories and northern British Columbia. The mineral potential of this area is great and will unfold in the decade ahead but now the largest single producer is the Pine Point lead-zinc mine in the NWT about 1200 km north of Edmonton, Alta., close to the south shore of Great Slave Lake. The mill, initially designed for 4540 mtpd, was expanded to 7250 mtpd in 1969. This operation is described in detail in Mining and Concentrating of Lead and Zinc, Vol.1, Chapt. 17, SME/AIME in the article by W. H. R. Gibney.

Jan 1, 1971

By C. B. Foraker

THE Magma mine, of the Magma Copper Co., at Superior, Pinal County, Arizona, is 68 miles east of Phoenix and 21 miles west of Miami, Arizona, on highway U. S. 180. Temperatures and Underground Waters Surface Temperatures.—The average surface dry-bulb temperature at Superior is 72.4°; wet-bulb, 57.4°; with an indicated relative humidity of 38 per cent. The average yearly rainfall from 1921 to 1936, inclusive, was 18.74 in. The maximum condition of the atmosphere is in June, July and August, and the minimum is in January and February. The surface temperatures, of course, influence the temperatures of the downcast shafts; however, the variation between winter and summer causes a difference of only 2" to 3" in the stopes and working places that are not close to the intake shafts. Average atmospheric conditions are shown in Fig. 1. Rock Temperatures.—Rock temperatures on the deeper levels of the mine are as follows:

Jan 1, 1940

By C. B. Foraker

THE Magma mine, of the Magma Copper Co., at Superior, Pinal County, Arizona, is 68 miles east of Phoenix and 21 miles west of Miami, Arizona, on highway U. S. 180. Temperatures and Underground Waters Surface Temperatures.—The average surface dry-bulb temperature at Superior is 72.4°; wet-bulb, 57.4°; with an indicated relative humidity of 38 per cent. The average yearly rainfall from 1921 to 1936, inclusive, was 18.74 in. The maximum condition of the atmosphere is in June, July and August, and the minimum is in January and February. The surface temperatures, of course, influence the temperatures of the downcast shafts; however, the variation between winter and summer causes a difference of only 2" to 3" in the stopes and working places that are not close to the intake shafts. Average atmospheric conditions are shown in Fig. 1. Rock Temperatures.—Rock temperatures on the deeper levels of the mine are as follows:

Jan 1, 1940

Alfred Noble Joint Prize Committee F B Foley, '56 American Documentation Institute F B Foley, '56 American Geological Institute J L Gillson, Nov '56, H A Meyerhoff, Nov '57 Committee on Government Relations J L Gillson, '56 American Power Conference Paul R Nichols, '56 American Standards Association Mining Standards Board E R Borcherdt, Jan '58, Otto Herres, Jan '58 Alternates E W Bullard, Dec '56, and J K Richardson, Dec '56

Jan 1, 1956

By Y. A. Chang

Heat content values of tantalum monocarbide and tungsten monocarbide have been determined from 325" to 985°K by means of a drop-type diphenyl ether calorinzeter. Based on the values obtained in the present study and those available in the literature, best values lected and computed from 298. 15°K to temperatures close to their respectiue melting points. At temperatures higher than 1700°Kfor TaC and 27000 K for WC, values of Cp and related thermodynamic quantities were extrapolated based on the two Debye parameters: one corresponds to the metal sublattice and the other to the carbon sublattice. The contrzbutzon In the total specific heat due to lattice dilation was evaluated using the Nernst-Lindemann relalionship. The calculated values of Cp were in good agreement with the In view of their refractoriness, tantalum monocar-bide (TaC) and tungsten monocarbide (WC) are of con- experimentally determined ualues. Furthermore, the calculated values of the absolute entropies at 298.15"K were 5.03 and 4.15 in comparison to the experimental values of 5.05 and 4.15, all expressed in the unit of cal per degg-atom. Using the same Debye parameters, values of the linear coefficients of ther mal expansion for TaC and WC were calculated from absolute zero to their respective melting points using the Grüneisen equation. The calculated values are in excellent agreement with the experimental values available in the literature. Finally, the values of the bulk modulus of TaC from room tenzperature to temperature near its melting Point were also calculated using the equation recently derived by Anderson. No cot~ipari-son between the calculated and experimental values can be made due to lack of experimental data. siderable practical interest. In order to completely define these materials, it is necessary to know their thermal properties as a function of temperature. Tantalum rnonocarbide having a NaCl structure (B-1 type) melts congruently at 4250PK,1 while tungsten monoearbide with a simple hexagonal structure (Bh type) melts per itectically at 3049°K into melt and graphite.2 In the present study, the heat content values (from which

Jan 1, 1968

By Fred J. Hurst

In 1934, Irvin Lavine (A), University of North Dakota, stated that the low-rank coals (lignite and subbituminous) of this country represent a vast tonnage of fuel of commercial value and predicted that some day they will play an important role in our economic welfare. Lavine also pointed out that one of the major problems with efficient utilization of the low-rank coals is their high moisture content. Following the discovery of uranium-bearing lignite in the Williston basin of North and South Dakota in 1948 by D. G. Wyant and E. P. Beroni, detailed investigations were conducted (primarily during 1950 to 1954) by members of the U. S. Geological Survey to evaluate the geologic factors and economic possibilities of the radioactive lignites as a source of uranium. The information gained in these studies and summarized in several papers indicated that a large potential reserve of uranium is contained in the subbituminous coal and lignite deposits of the Dakotas and Wyoming (2,3,4). Most investigators concluded that an epigenetic emplacement of uranium in the coal by means of circulating groundwater and the more extensive concentrations of uranium in coal are apparently related to the permeability of the rocks enclosing the coal beds. Breger (5) and others have shown that uranium is readily adsorbed by coal and is held irreversibly as a disseminated adsorbed constituent. Briefly, lignite beds containing 0.1 to 10% uranium have been discovered in the Dakotas and Wyoming. The distribution of uranium was found to be erratic and was usually concentrated in thin layers, which were characteristically 10 to 14 in. thick and occasionally 30 to 36 in. thick. Lignite beds more than 3 ft. thick generally contain more uranium at the top of the bed than at the bottom. Special strip mining techniques are required to mine these thin

Jan 1, 1983

By Richard E. Chism

The dry methods of assaying mercury-ores and other combinations of mercury all rest upon the volatility of this metal as a beginning. After the separation of the mercury in the form of vapor from the matrix upon which the assay is performed, the mercurial vapors are either condensed upon cold surfaces or received upon a gold plate into which the mercury is absorbed.

Jan 1, 1899

By Lawrence H. Van Vlack

The energy of the y-iron grain boundary was determined to be 850 ergs per cm2 at 1105°C. The a/a and the a/y boundaries possess somewhat less energy. The microstructures of several iron alloys are discussed in terms of the interfacial energy relationships. THE dependence of the shape of liquid interfaces upon their energies has been studied for some time.1"3 Recently, Smith' concluded that many of the microstructures observed in metals may be attributed to the energies of the interfaces between the grains and phases. While the energies of liquid surfaces have been measured by numerous different methods: only two attempts have been made to determine experimentally the energy of surfaces involving crystalline solids. Udin, Shaler, and Wulff8 used a procedure introduced by Berggren7 to measure the surface tension of solid copper. It consisted of determining the load required on a thin copper wire so that the surface tension was counteracted, and no net strain resulted. Bailey and Watkins8 sed a different technique and were able to determine both the surface tension of copper and the tension of the copper grain boundary. They measured the contact angle which liquid lead makes against a copper surface. They then calculated the above energies from the surface energy of liquid lead by using the Pb vs. Cu/CuY dihedral angle and the surface groove angle formed during thermal etching. They obtained a value of 1800 dynes per cm for the surface tension of clean copper and approximately 640 dynes per cm for the tension of copper grain boundaries. The former value was somewhat higher than Udin's value of 1500 dynes per cm. This paper includes a determination of the energy of the y-iron grain boundary. In addition, the micro-structural relationships of several other metallic and nonmetallic phases with iron were examined and an attempt was made to interpret the observed structures in terms of interfacial energy relationships. Theoretical Considerations In a three-phase material containing a solid and two liquids, there may be two solid/liquid interfaces, one liquid/liquid interface and one inter- granular interface. Liquid/liquid interfacial energies can be measured directly. Therefore, by determining the energy of such an interface and by measuring the required interfacial angles: the energies of the interfaces involving solids may be obtained.10 They may be shown schematically as in Fig. 1. The above procedure requires the following assumptions: 1—The interfacial energies are, in general, unaffected by boundary orientation, and 2— the shapes of the interfaces are unaltered between annealing and sectioning for microscopic examination. The first assumption is good to a first approximation as shown by Dunn and Lionetti11 except for a few critically orientated boundaries. Two conditions may alter the shape of a boundary upon cooling: 1—Precipitation of dissolved material upon one side of the interface, and 2—a change in volume during the transition from one phase modification to another. The former must be detected by microscopic observation. The latter may become appreciable in systems containing an interface between two liquids which solidify after annealing. However, possible movement of the two-liquid interface may be checked in the system diagrammed in Fig. 1 by measuring 8, for example, and comparing it with its value as calculated from the other interfacial angles by: tan8, C11 05 COS- o- + cos 8, cos- The choice of a suitable pair of liquids is limited by several factors. The relative values of the several

Jan 1, 1952

By T. Fraser, F. F. Giese, R. L. Sutherland

Under a cooperative agreement between United States Bureau of Mines and the Truax-Traer Coal Company, some operating-scale experiments have been made with the cyclone thickener in the preparation plant of the Shamrock No. 1 mine at Kayford, West Virginia. These tests were made with a 14-in. cyclone of the type developed by the Dutch State Mines in Limburg. It was applied experimentally to the thickening of solids in washery water to obtain performance data to show the range of sizes that may be recovered and other operating characteristics that would indicate the field of usefulness of this device in coal preparation practice. This is a progress report only. It covers results obtained in a series of 17 tests of the operation of what has been considered a unit of commercial size operating on suspensions of fine coal mixed with a relatively small amount of free impurities. The underflow material, after further dewatering in centrifuges, is a marketable grade of coal. The coal at Shamrock No. 1 is mined from the No. 2 Gas seam. It is made up essentially of a low ash coal suitable for byproduct use with one or more bands of splint coal of higher ash content suitable for industrial fuel. The washing plant was installed for the two-fold purpose of removing the free impurities incident to mechanized mining and to separate the run of mine coal into the two types. To accomplish these results it is necessary to make a separation at a specific gravity of about 1.4 to recover the byproduct coal and to separate the splint coal from refuse at a higher gravity. The coarse coal section of the washing plant was put into service about 10 months before the fine coal section was completed. Inadequate screening capacity in the raw coal preparation plant resulted in a portion of the fine coal being fed to the jigs. No provision for preliminary dedusting of the raw coal feed was incorporated in the design. Under the conditions in the initial operating period, separation at the desired lower gravity was not realized, apparently because of the presence of an excessive amount of fine solids in suspension in the wash water. Difficulty in wetting the fine coal may also have been a contributing factor. Additional facilities for the removal of the fine solids from the wash water was indicated. Information then available on the Driessen cone for this purpose was studied and a cooperative agreement with the Bureau of Mines for experimental work with a unit of standard size as developed by the Dutch State Mines was arranged. During the time required for construction of the cone it was found the addition of a small amount of wetting

Jan 1, 1950