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By E. S. Messer

A knowledge of the magnitude of the irreducible inter.;titial water in a porous medium is so important to petroleum engineering that its determination has become routine in core analyses. The method of determination, being a production problem, should encompass the basic requirements of simplicity in technique and calculations, with reproducible results obtainable in a short interval of time. The results of the evaluation tests outlined in this report indicate that the evaporation method for determining the irreducible water is a technique which meets the requirements. The procedure consists, as the name implies. of permitting the saturant in the pore spaces to evaporate until only an irreducible volume remains. The determination of this volume can be made either graphically or by a mathematical comparison of fluid flows; the time required for each determination being dependent on the fluid used. When fluids other than those having reservoir characteristics were used, a volume factor had to be calculated which was based on the relative volume of various liquids adsorbed on grain surfaces and retained in pores. This factor made possible the calculation of an irreducible water volume when more volatile fluids such as toluene and benzene were used as the saturants. Also presented is the theoretical discussion necessary for the calculation of the capillary pressure as determined from the evaporation curve. A comparison is made between the calculated values and those obtained by experimental means. INTRODUCTION In all geological formations there exists, in the pore spaces of the rock structure, water that is held in a state of equilibrium between capillary and hydrostatic forces. "Interstitial water" is the term given to this water and is defined as that water coexisting in the pore space with the oil prior to exploitation. The term ''connate water" has often been used synonymously with this term; however, this can be true only by a specific definition since, geologically, it means the water in place at the time the rock structure was formed. The quantity of the interstitial water is a variable factor in any formation, since it depends on the hydrostatic forces present in any multiple-phase system. These forces may become unbalanced by the introduction of an extraneous force such as the raising or lowering of the "water table" or the migration of oil into a water-filled formation. Any unbalanced force results in a change in the interstitial water. There exists, however, an irreducible interstitial water. for a particular sand, that is the fraction of the pore space occupied by water when the capillary pressure at the particular point in question is at an equilibrium with the hydrostatic head of the oil sand in the reservoir. For this discussion the term "irreducible water saturation" will be used in place of "irreducible interstitial water saturation" for the sake of brevity; however, they are understood to be identical. A great amount of work has been devoted to the theory and methods for studying the irreducible water saturation and its related capillary pressure. As a result of the publications of Leverett;' Hassler, Brunner and Deahl;2 Calhoun and Lewis;3 and others, the role of capillary pressure studies is being accepted by the industry as a tool for studying suhsurface phenomena. Many techniques have been developed and published for determining the capillary pressure and irreducible water. In general, these techniques may be grouped into three classifications. One of the first was the capillary pressure method described by Leverett1 and expanded by Bruce and Welge.4 The experimental results were compared with water saturation of cores obtained using oil-base mud. Thornton and Marshall compared the irreducible water saturation of core samples determined by the capillary pressure method and by salinity and reported good agreement between the two methods. The second classification for determining the irreducible water and capillary pressure may be referred to as the "centrifugal force method." The general technique is similar to the capillary pressure method except that the force driving the reservoir fluid from the sample is of a centrifugal nature. A complete description of this method was presented by J. J. . McCullough and F. W. Albaugh.6 A process, the reverse of the capillary pressure method, was presented by W. R. Purcell.7 Mercury under pressure is driven into the pores of the rock and the saturation of the core determined at each applied pressure. The resulting capillary pressure curve is used to evaluate the irreducible water saturation. The techniques mentioned are singular in their approach to the irreducible water saturation. In all cases. an external force was applied to the core. The forces employed in the evaporation method are the vapor pressure of the liquid causing evaporation, the kinetic diffusion forces. adsorptive forces and. to a lesser degree, the viscous forces resisting flow to the surface. The basic definition of irreducible water is that water held in a state of equilibrium between capillary and hydrostatic forces This water has been described by previous investigators as being held in the microcapillaries too small to support fluid flow. Actually, this fluid volume is made up of the water in the microcapillaries and as a film adhering to the surface of the crystals. All capillaries. therefore, possess some liquid as a film, the thickness of the film being dependent on the properties of the fluid and solid. A discussion of experiments with references pertaining to the measurement of this immobile layer next to the solid surface can be found in the text by J. J. Bikerman.8 Eversole and Lahr calculated the thickness of this layer to be in the order of 10 ' to 10' cm for aqueous solutions and glass. Between two quartz surfaces they found the thickness to be 2 x 10 cm. The work of Volkova, on the capillary movement of water and toluene in quartz grains, indicated the thickness of the Immobile layers to be near 10' cm. Since any measurement is an average value, it is easy to understand that an absolute value would depend on the roughness of the surfaces involved and the complexity of the system. A calculated effective pore radius of 2 x 10 cm is obtained at the, irreducible saturation of a porous media in a water-air system when a capillary pressure of 100 psi is applied. Since the separation of the sand grains is of the same approximate magnitude as the immobile layer.

Jan 1, 1951

By E. S. Messer

A knowledge of the magnitude of the irreducible inter.;titial water in a porous medium is so important to petroleum engineering that its determination has become routine in core analyses. The method of determination, being a production problem, should encompass the basic requirements of simplicity in technique and calculations, with reproducible results obtainable in a short interval of time. The results of the evaluation tests outlined in this report indicate that the evaporation method for determining the irreducible water is a technique which meets the requirements. The procedure consists, as the name implies. of permitting the saturant in the pore spaces to evaporate until only an irreducible volume remains. The determination of this volume can be made either graphically or by a mathematical comparison of fluid flows; the time required for each determination being dependent on the fluid used. When fluids other than those having reservoir characteristics were used, a volume factor had to be calculated which was based on the relative volume of various liquids adsorbed on grain surfaces and retained in pores. This factor made possible the calculation of an irreducible water volume when more volatile fluids such as toluene and benzene were used as the saturants. Also presented is the theoretical discussion necessary for the calculation of the capillary pressure as determined from the evaporation curve. A comparison is made between the calculated values and those obtained by experimental means. INTRODUCTION In all geological formations there exists, in the pore spaces of the rock structure, water that is held in a state of equilibrium between capillary and hydrostatic forces. "Interstitial water" is the term given to this water and is defined as that water coexisting in the pore space with the oil prior to exploitation. The term ''connate water" has often been used synonymously with this term; however, this can be true only by a specific definition since, geologically, it means the water in place at the time the rock structure was formed. The quantity of the interstitial water is a variable factor in any formation, since it depends on the hydrostatic forces present in any multiple-phase system. These forces may become unbalanced by the introduction of an extraneous force such as the raising or lowering of the "water table" or the migration of oil into a water-filled formation. Any unbalanced force results in a change in the interstitial water. There exists, however, an irreducible interstitial water. for a particular sand, that is the fraction of the pore space occupied by water when the capillary pressure at the particular point in question is at an equilibrium with the hydrostatic head of the oil sand in the reservoir. For this discussion the term "irreducible water saturation" will be used in place of "irreducible interstitial water saturation" for the sake of brevity; however, they are understood to be identical. A great amount of work has been devoted to the theory and methods for studying the irreducible water saturation and its related capillary pressure. As a result of the publications of Leverett;' Hassler, Brunner and Deahl;2 Calhoun and Lewis;3 and others, the role of capillary pressure studies is being accepted by the industry as a tool for studying suhsurface phenomena. Many techniques have been developed and published for determining the capillary pressure and irreducible water. In general, these techniques may be grouped into three classifications. One of the first was the capillary pressure method described by Leverett1 and expanded by Bruce and Welge.4 The experimental results were compared with water saturation of cores obtained using oil-base mud. Thornton and Marshall compared the irreducible water saturation of core samples determined by the capillary pressure method and by salinity and reported good agreement between the two methods. The second classification for determining the irreducible water and capillary pressure may be referred to as the "centrifugal force method." The general technique is similar to the capillary pressure method except that the force driving the reservoir fluid from the sample is of a centrifugal nature. A complete description of this method was presented by J. J. . McCullough and F. W. Albaugh.6 A process, the reverse of the capillary pressure method, was presented by W. R. Purcell.7 Mercury under pressure is driven into the pores of the rock and the saturation of the core determined at each applied pressure. The resulting capillary pressure curve is used to evaluate the irreducible water saturation. The techniques mentioned are singular in their approach to the irreducible water saturation. In all cases. an external force was applied to the core. The forces employed in the evaporation method are the vapor pressure of the liquid causing evaporation, the kinetic diffusion forces. adsorptive forces and. to a lesser degree, the viscous forces resisting flow to the surface. The basic definition of irreducible water is that water held in a state of equilibrium between capillary and hydrostatic forces This water has been described by previous investigators as being held in the microcapillaries too small to support fluid flow. Actually, this fluid volume is made up of the water in the microcapillaries and as a film adhering to the surface of the crystals. All capillaries. therefore, possess some liquid as a film, the thickness of the film being dependent on the properties of the fluid and solid. A discussion of experiments with references pertaining to the measurement of this immobile layer next to the solid surface can be found in the text by J. J. Bikerman.8 Eversole and Lahr calculated the thickness of this layer to be in the order of 10 ' to 10' cm for aqueous solutions and glass. Between two quartz surfaces they found the thickness to be 2 x 10 cm. The work of Volkova, on the capillary movement of water and toluene in quartz grains, indicated the thickness of the Immobile layers to be near 10' cm. Since any measurement is an average value, it is easy to understand that an absolute value would depend on the roughness of the surfaces involved and the complexity of the system. A calculated effective pore radius of 2 x 10 cm is obtained at the, irreducible saturation of a porous media in a water-air system when a capillary pressure of 100 psi is applied. Since the separation of the sand grains is of the same approximate magnitude as the immobile layer.

Jan 1, 1951

By Felix E. Wormser

REGISTRATION started bright and early Monday morning in the Silver Corridor at the Waldorf-Astoria with Mrs. W. H. Bassett as chairman. What a registration-over 200 ladies! Several joined us from as far away as California and Washington State. Apparently they enjoy our meetings so much that present travel inconveniences didn't discourage their coming. At noon the ladies joined the men at the All-Institute Luncheon and Monday evening we had our informal dance, which is separately reported. Tuesday morning was devoted to our annual meeting at which all Section annual reports were read. At noon we were all the guests of the W.A.A.I.M.E. at a luncheon at the Port Arthur Restaurant on Mott St. in Chinatown. Many of us rode down on the old 3d Ave. elevated railway-the last of four. It, too, is soon to be torn down. The luncheon was delightfully unusual, with huge dishes of delicious Chinese food on each table. Our chairman, Mrs. Read, who lived in China in her youth chose our menu, and she chose it well, for most of us indulged so heartily that as we arose from the table we felt we couldn't eat again for 24 hours. Someone donated sherry wine, and boxes of Chinese pencils as favors. We wonder who? All owe a big vote of thanks for this lovely party to Mrs. T. T. Read and Mrs. H. A. Prosser, chairmen, and Mrs. H. W. Hardinge, Mrs. R. Hursh, and Mrs. R. L. Lloyd, vice-chairmen.

Jan 1, 1944

By Michael E. Zellars

The environment for deposition of marine phosphorite is controlled by the relationship of prevailing climatic, oceanographic, structural, and sedimentary conditions. The set, or sets, of conditions that has evoked the accumulation of economic concentrations of phosphorite has been the subject of a number of previous works. Phosphorite presently considered ore is generally in excess of 10% P205 with an extractable phosphate product in excess of 30% P2O5. The concentration of the product in the ore, its amenability to state-of-the-art extraction, and thickness of the overburden are major controlling factors in determining its mineability. A recent survey of phosphorite deposits in the south-eastern United States included a review of the depositional and structural setting for the major areas of occurrence. The application of previous work regarding phosphorogenesis has led to the establishment of a general depositional model for most mid-Miocene primary phosphorites, and, is also possibly applicable to the Bone Valley (Pliocene-Miocene) district of central Florida.

Jan 12, 1978

By Herbert Everest

THE idea of economical production is usually associated with large operations, tonnages, and mines, with even larger capital behind them. Nevertheless many small mines operate in the shadow of large competitors and make a good showing on the capital invested despite larger overhead expenses. For the purpose of this discussion I will divide the cost of production into classes, and specify opposite each the approximate percentage expended thereon: 1. Labor, including miners and company men; 60 to 75 per cent. 2: Development, including all necessary yardage, room turning, crosscuts, etc.; 7 to 12 per cent. 3. Deadwork, covering payment to miners for handling falls, drawslate, or faults, rock work, water, and in general, all nonproductive labor; 3 to 7 per cent. 4. Supplies: mine timbers, oil, brattice material, lumber, cement, and repairs to equipment; 2 to 6 per cent. 5. Expense: management, selling, office, taxes, etc.; 1 to 5 per cent. 6. Depreciation of coal reserves and royalties; 6 to 10 per cent. 7. Depreciation of equipment and interest on capital invested; 1 to 3 per cent. 8. Fuel; ½ to 1 ½ per cent. The labor cost for a small mine is relatively much lower than for a large mine, particularly the sum paid to company men. Idle-pay expense is cut to a minimum; the labor item being larger than all the others together, a saving in labor makes a decided showing on the total cost. The development charges in small and large mines are about the same. There should be a small showing on the Beadwork item in favor of the small mine. The unit cost for supplies is usually small in the small mine. The operator of the small mine finds, owing to a limited tonnage, that the expenses of management, selling, etc., are abnormally high.

Jan 1, 1916

By Herbert A. Everest

The idea of economical production is usually associated with large operations, tonnages, and mines, with even larger capital behind them. , Nevertheless many small mines operate in the shadow of large competitors and make a good showing on the capital invested despite larger overhead expenses. For the purpose of this discussion I will divide the cost of production into classes, and specify opposite each the approximate percentagc expended thereon: 1. Labor, including miners and company men; 60 to 75 per cent. 2. Development, including all necessary .yardage, room turning, crosscuts, etc.; 7 to 12 per cent. 3. Deadwork, covering payment to miners for handling falls, draw-slate, or faults, rock work, water, and in general, all nonproductive labor; 3 to 7 per cent. 4. Supplies: mine timbers, oil, brattice material, lumber, cement, and repairs to equipment; 2 to 6 per cent. 5. Expense: management, selling, office, taxes, etc.; 1 to 5 per cent. 6. Depreciation of coal reserves and royalties; 6 to 10 per cent. 7. Depreciation of equipment and interest on capital invested; 1 to 3 per cent. 8. Fuel; ½ to 1½ per cent. The labor cost for a small mine is relatively much lower than for a large mine, particularly the sum paid to company men. Idle-pay expense is cut to a minimum; the labor item being larger than all the others together, a saving in labor makes a decided showing on the total cost. The development charges in small and large mines are about the same. There should be a small showing on the deadwork item in favor of the small mine. The unit cost for supplies is usually small in the small mine. The operator of the small mine finds, owing to a limited tonnage, that the expenses of management, selling, etc., are abnormally high. The item, depreciation of coal reserves and royalties, is usually about

Jan 1, 1916

By F. Rosenblum, P. Spira, F. Kitzinger

The possibility of increasing the efficiency of mineral processing plants by means of computer control has prompted metallurgists to examine their flowsheets more critically in order to develop practical control strategies. Control schemes in use to date generally rely on the automation of traditional and previously manually regulated control loops, e.g., the addition of reagents to maintain a constant assay or a constant pH. This approach is predicated on the availability of well established primary sensors such as pH electrodes or on-stream analyzers. Noranda Research Center, in cooperation with Noranda Group concentrators, has developed a froth level monitor and a pulp density meter adaptable to this type of control. Although some of the basic principles on which they are based have been known for some time, their incorporation into the design of reliable, direct-reading instruments which can be interfaced with a computer is believed to be novel.

Jan 4, 1979

By R. W. Raymond

FOUR portraits have recently been hung in the rooms of the Institute, in recognition of four illustrious men with whom we, as mining engineers and metallurgists, may claim fellowship. LUTHER. Martin Luther is often spoken of as a miner's son; but it is less generally known that John Luther, his father, was, in a small way, a metallurgist as well as a miner, and that Martin Luther himself, in his youth, worked in a forge or bloomary established by his father at Mansfeld, Saxony. Since this is the only manual occupation on his part of which we have any record, it is fair to assume that the great scholar and reformer derived from his work in this department the practical familiarity with the conditions of human labor so abundantly evinced in the homely illustrations which accompany even his serious arguments, and in the witty apothegms of his famous "table-talk." At the same time, I must confess that 1 have not been able to find in any of the works of Luther distinct allusions to mining or metallurgy. KÖRNER. Theodor Körner, a student at the Mining Academy of Freiberg, Saxony, threw himself into the German War of Freedom in the first decade of the 19th Century. He was a poet of no mean rank ; and his " Song of the Sword " is one of the great lyrics of literature. This poem was written but a few days before he died in battle. In many respects, Körner may be compared with our American hero Theodore Winthrop, who similarly met a glorious fate, and left behind him prophetic indications of genius, of which his premature death prevented the complete fulfillment. I am informed by a member of the Institute that Körner's admirable collection of minerals is still preserved at Dresden.

Nov 1, 1908

By T. P. Meloy

Recently, Gilvarry1 has criticized the Gaudin-Meloy2 derivation of the size distribution equation for impact grinding. The criticism states that as the derivation stands it is good for only a long, thin wire being fractured. This paper contains a second derivation in reply to the criticism. Consider a homogeneous solid particle. This particle is broken into fragments by impact. It is assumed that the material resembles galena and that the particles were broken into chunky parallelepipedes which may be treated as cubes. The fragments are now reassembled — as seen in Fig. 1 — and a line is passed through the fractured solid perpendicular to one of its faces. For simplicity, the length of the line segment in the cube is considered to be 1. Fig. 2 represents the line segment in the cube showing the locations of the crack surfaces cutting the line and one point, P, chosen at random on it. The question arises as to what is the probability of the point, P,

Jan 1, 1963

By Wing L. Lew

LEAD, silver, and zinc, in quantities of economic importance are found in the Aguilar ore. The lead occurs as galena and the zinc as sphalerite and marmatite. The silver occurrence is more complex. Pyrargyrite and proustite have been identified only occasionally. Galena is silver-bearing and so are the various other sulphides, though to a lesser degree. The principal nonsulphide gangue minerals include calcite, quartz, wollastonite, rhodonite, and various calcium, aluminum, and iron silicates. A typical analysis of, the ore is: Pb, 11.2; Zn, 12.3; Fe, 4.4; Mn, 2.2; Cu, 0.15; S, 11.2; CaO. 7.6; "Insoluble," 50.1 percent; and Ag 263 g per ton. Crushing is done in three stages. The primary crusher at the mine is set to deliver about a 5-in. product. The crushed ore is then transported to the secondary crushing plant by a 3-km cableway where the general practice is to hold the product of the first Symons to about 1 in., and of the second Symons to about 1/2 in. When the ore is soft and rich the product of the first Symons is by-passed directly to the ball-mill bins. Dust control in the secondary crushing plant is effected by enclosing the dust-emanating sources and exhausting the enclosures with a Clarage No. 18 fan driven at 1300 rpm by a 20-hp motor. Use is also made of spray water at one or two critical places. Every effort is made to keep the air free from visible dust. Dust counts taken at the working places show dust concentrations of less than six million particles ner cu ft. The composition

Jan 1, 1947

By T. W. Healy, P. Somasundaran, K. Ananthpadmanabhan

Hydrolyzable surfactants such as fatty acids and amines undergo, in addition to micellisation and precipitation, various associative interactions in aqueous solutions to form ionomolecular complexes such as acid-soap, dimers, etc., depending upon the solution conditions such as pH. The interaction of these collector species with the mineral surface and with other dissolved species in solution will play a significant role in determining the interfacial processes such as adsorption and flotation. Marked differences in the hydrophobicity imparted to the mineral surface depending upon the solution conditions such as pH can be attributed to possible differences in surface activities of the foregoing complexes. This aspect of solution chemistry of flotation system is discussed here for two widely used collectors, namely, oleic acid and dodecylamine. Equilibrium species distribution diagrams, based on the available literature data and on estimates of energy of interactions between molecules, have been obtained for oleic acid and dodecylamine solutions.

Jan 1, 1980

By Arthur Knapp

Oil-well depletion curves, to be of value, should show when a well or lease may no longer be operated at a profit. The difference, at any time, between the total expenditures and the total income of a lease or well may be called the lease status. Plotting this lease status against time will give a curve subject to more accurate and different interpretations than the barrels-time curves. According to the hypothetical barrels-time curves shown in Fig. 1, well A, at the end of 16 mo., is producing twice as much oil as well B and will continue to produce for another year whereas well B will cease producing in about 6 months. Data fob Lease Status-time or Dollars-timb Curve Time Lease Months Status Lease purchased for $3000.............................. 0 — $ 3,000 No expenses chargeable to lease for 3 mo................. 2 — 3,000 Well A is started; cost of drilling for month is $16,000..... 3 — 19,000 Well is completed at additional cost of $10,000............ 4 - 29,000 Well A is brought in and flows 10,000 bbl. first month (we Fig. 1). Necessary to invest in tanks, boilers, pipe lines, etc.; difference between expenditures and receipts gives profit for month of $5,000............................ 5 — 24,000 Investment is small, cost of operating well A is small, so profits are $15,000................................... 6 — 9,000 Well ceases to flow so there is additional investment for pumping equipment and additional operating expense; net earnings from 6,000 bbl. of oil produced is $4,000. 7 ... Lease operation nor becomes normal and curve becomes smooth........................................... 8 — 500 9 2,000 10 4,500 11 6,000 12 7,700 13 8,700 14 9,000 15 9,500 16 10,000 A hypothetical lease status-time, or dollars-time, curve of this lease is shown in Fig. 2. At zero time, the lease is purchased for $3000, which is plotted below the zero dollar line, All subsequent entries are plotted

Jan 1, 1921

By Samuel Hoyt

THE hardness of annealed copper has been given in the literature and is easily obtained by any of the standard methods of hardness testing. It is not our intention to correct published values or to add to them, but to describe tests of two bars of annealed electrolytic copper in which the methods of Meyer's analysis were employed. MEYER'S ANALYSIS OF BALL INDENTATION TEST The ball indentation test is probably the most valuable hardness test we now have but, as it is carried out in the Brinell or Rockwell test, the result may be seriously in error without the operator suspecting such to be the case. This condition results from the isolated and uncontrolled nature of the measurement. The accuracy depends on the accuracy of the equipment and the care and skill used in the operations; there is nothing in the impression diameter, which is all that is measured, to indicate the presence of error. Meyer's analysis supplies a control of the measurements that goes far toward eliminating unsuspected errors. The principles of this work maybe obtained from elsewhere.1 As this subject has not received the attention of this Institute, it may be well to summarize the more important points as follows.

Jan 2, 1926

By AIME AIME

I N JUNE, 1918, at a meeting of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in Worcester, Mass;, a resolution was adopted for a committee to investigate the aims and organization of that society. This was followed subsequently by similar independent action on the part of the Society of Civil Engineers. The other two Founder Societies were approached and requested to appoint similar committees, the four committees to combine as a .Joint Development Committee, later called the Joint Conference Committee, to investigate what might be done in the way of coordinating those activities of the Founder Societies which ape of common interest, and which were then being pursued separately. The Joint Conference committee worked diligently -for almost. two years and. brought forth a tentative as outlined in its report which was published in full in MINING AND. METALLURGY, December, 1919. It recommended the formation of a nation-wide organization to be composed of representatives' of all of -the engineering societies, local, state, regional, or national, the object to be to further the interest of the public through the use of technical knowledge and engineering experience, and to consider and act upon matters common to the engineering and allied technical professions. Whereas the technical societies have large fields of endeavor in welfare work, and their prime. efforts are 'still in technical lines, this new organization was to be devoted entirely to service, looking to the welfare of the nation and the engineering profession, and to service for the public in local and state affairs.

Jan 1, 1920

By J. J. Carrigan

IN all mining operations a considerable portion of the work performed, especially underground; is accomplished under artificial light, yeti this subject is often not given proper attention. Poor illumination decreases mining efficiency, impairs the sorting or grading of ores, and increases the risk of accidents. In the beginning, and for several years afterward in the metal-mining industry of Butte, Montana, candles placed in candlesticks were carried by the men. Sconces or holders for candles were also provided at stations and curves in drifts to furnish better light for men engaged in. hand tramming. It was also common practice to place clusters of candles on the ground, with no provision for guarding against an underground fire other than the exercise of sufficient care by the men themselves. An accumulation of candle grease from this source was the direct result of the first serious fire in the Anaconda mine, in 1889.

Jan 1, 1936

By M. L. Fuller

IN connection with an investigation in this laboratory on the high-zinc side of the copper-zinc system, it was observed that well developed segre-gate structures of the Widmanstätten type were formed when a secondary phase precipitated from the solid solution of copper in zinc. This paper presents an analysis of the crystallographic relationship between the segregate and the solid solution matrix. The data to be presented are an interesting addition to the literature on segregate structures in that the plane of segregation is one of the less densely populated planes. In agreement with the generalization of C. H. Mathewson and D. W. Smith1 the plane of segregation in the matrix con-tains the direction of closest atomic packing of the lattice. Furthermore, the matrix and the segregate are both hexagonal close-packed, which has not been reported hitherto in the literature.2 The increasing com-mercial importance of zinc alloys containing copper makes this funda-mental study of value to the metallography of zinc alloys.

Jan 1, 1933

By F. Rosenblum, P. Spira, F. Kitzinger

The possibility of increasing the efficiency of mineral processing plants by means of computer control has prompted metallurgists to examine their flowsheets more critically in order to develop practical control strategies. Control schemes in use to date generally rely on the automation of traditional and previously manually regulated control loops, e.g., the addition of reagents to maintain a constant assay or a constant pH. This approach is predicated on the availability of well established primary sensors such as pH electrodes or on-stream analyzers. Noranda Research Center, in cooperation with Noranda Group concentrators, has developed a froth level monitor and a pulp density meter adaptable to this type of control. Although some of the basic principles on which they are based have been known for some time, their incorporation into the design of reliable, direct-reading instruments which can be interfaced with a computer is believed to be novel.

Jan 1, 1980

By R. Crnojevich, J. L. Blanco, C. Nikolic, W. G. Sherwood

This paper describes the process used for cobalt purification and recovery at the AMAX Nickel Refining Co. plant In Port Nickel, Louisiana In the first stage, cobaltic precipitate produced in the Outokumpu electrolytic nickel cobalt separation process is dissolved using methanol and sulfuric acid liquor produced in this step is converted to an ammoniacal complex, and sufficient ammonium sulfate is added to facilitate cobalt oxidation to cobaltic pentammine Nickel is then selectively precipitated as nickel-ammonium sulfate double salt at pH 2 5 Final purification of the pentammine liquor is effected by pH adjustment with ammonia and removal of divalent nickel by ion exchange Purified liquor is then advanced to hydrogen reduction to produce cobalt metal Although similar to other cobalt refining processes used in the nickel industry, the Port Nickel process is unique because of a single point chemistry adjustment for a number of unit operations that occur in succession.

Jan 1, 1981

By J. Pinto, F. Galasso

THE current emphasis in preparing boron fibers by reduction of gaseous boron compounds on a resistively heated metal wire substrate has renewed interest in the borides of those metals which have relatively high melting points and are available as fine wires. A knowledge of the structures and properties of the borides, which are formed when boron diffuses into the metal core during boron deposition, can be of assistance in the understanding of the boron fiber formation process and the fiber properties. Many of these borides are well-known and their properties have been measured. However, when an unidentified boride is found in the core, it may be difficult to establish its composition because of the small amount of material available, the preferred orientation effects on the reflections in its X-ray pattern, and the possible overlap of X-ray reflections if several borides are present in the core. For example. the proper indexing of the X-ray pattern of WB4, which was formed in the tungsten substrate core during boron fiber formation, was accomplished only after small single crystals of this boride were grown and X-ray precession investigations were conducted.' This note presents the results of a study of the phases formed in the core when tungsten, tantalum, and molybdenum metal wires were used as substrates in the boron fiber preparation process with particular emphasis on the identification and characterization of a higher boride of molybdenum analogous to WB,. Boron was deposited on resistively heated stationary 0.0012-in.-diam tantalum, tungsten, and molybdenum wires at 1050°C for various times up to 60 sec using boron trichloride and hydrogen as the reactant gases. After 60 sec of boron deposition the fibers were approximately 0.006 in. in diam. Examination of photomicrographs of fiber cross sections showed that the boron had diffused nearly to the center of the tungsten and molybdenum cores in 15 and 30 sec, respectively, and only halfway to the center of the tantalum core in 60 sec. X-ray diffraction photographs of the fibers indicated that it was also after 15 and 30 sec deposition times that the tungsten and molybdenum metal reflections, respectively, had disappeared from the X-ray patterns of the fibers. The patterns of the boron fibers produced using tantalum wire as a substrate showed that amorphous boron, TaB2, and tantalum metal were present after a few seconds deposition time and remained even after deposition times of 60 sec. Until a deposition time of 15 sec was reached, the tungsten substrate fibers contained amorphous boron,273 6WB, W2B5, and WB4 as well as tungsten metal, while the molybdenum substrate fibers contained amorphous boron, MoBa, Mo2B5, and molybdenum metal for deposition times up to 30 sec. Just before the molybdenum metal pattern disappeared, a pattern similar to that of WB, appeared, suggesting that a phase, MOB,, isomorphous with WB,, was present in the fiber. This same pattern was obtained from the product formed by heating a mixture of molybdenum metal and excess boron powder in a boron nitride crucible at 1960°C in an argon atmosphere. As was the case with the WBn pattern, this pattern could best be indexed on the basis of a hexagonal unit cell rather than the tetragonal unit cell Chrktien and Helgorsky reported for ~0~4,~ see Table I. The unit cell parameters for MoB4 were calculated to be a, = 5.214A, co = 6.358A. Assuming the space group P63/mmc and positions5 2M01 in 2b and 2MoII in 2c found for tungsten in WB~,' a logical structure for MOB, was determined using geometrical considerations to place the boron

Jan 1, 1969

By F. J. Plecity, J. T. Michalak, W. C. Leslie

W. M. Williams (McGill University)-The authors are to be congratulated on completing this detailed investigation of recrystallization behavior. The present writer has recently completed some research at the University of Toronto on the recrystallization and grain growth behavior of a number of "pure" irons, and he would like to take issue with the authors' contention that recrystallization cannot be followed by means of hardness measurements. Two series of specimens of Ferrovac E, a com- mercially available iron, were annealed to complete recrystallization at 525" and 620" C, measurements being made both of Rockwell hardness and of volume percent recrystallized as a function of annealing time. Good correlation was found between these two quantities and, following the earlier practice of Cook and Richards for copper, hardness measurements were used in an extensive investigation of recrystallization. No anomalous behavior was observed as a result of this practice. Specimens which showed complete softening always showed, (metallographically and by X-rays), completely re-crystallized structures. These observations do not, of course, detract in the least from the results of the work under discus-

Jan 1, 1962