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By Alfred Weiss

Over the past 25 years hard-rock mining companies have developed a number of profitable computer applications which appear applicable to operations in the coal industry. The evolution of these applications are described and the most profitable discussed. The basic nature of these systems is that they must cut across organizational boundaries. While technological advances contributed significantly to the successful implementation of computers within mining, the human aspects related to organization, management and control of systems projects remain as key to future success in coal as they were and still are in hard-rock mining.

Jan 1, 1983

By Mark L. Requa

During the past two years California has developed a new and important oil-field: I refer to Midway. This field produced the famous Lake View gusher, which is credited with a total production in excess of 8,000,000 barrels. Fortunately for the oil industry of the State, this well is now a thing of the past, and nothing, save a great crater-like opening marks its location. The pipe is entirely worn away and gone; and it is a matter of serious doubt if there can be anything done that will cause the well to produce again. Fortunately, also, there have been no other wells in that field or elsewhere throughout the State that in any may compared with the Lake View. Midway is noted for large wells, of from 500 to 2,000 barrels production; but the decline is rapid, and a few months serve to bring the output down to a few hundred barrels. In the oil-territory heretofore blocked out as proved and probable, there have been, during the year, many changes. Some areas which were expected to be fairly productive have apparently failed; others, more strictly "wild-cat," have come in; while in some of the older fields there are properties which are beginning to shorn evident signs of exhaustion. The total area of proved territory will therefore probably suffer but small

Jan 1, 1912

By Aaron Miles

THE pressure distribution in a producing oil or gas reservoir has been obtained mathematically in a limited number of special cases where the boundary of the reservoirs are simple geometric figures with the wells conveniently located within them. Using some of the previous work as a basis, it can be proved that a number of additional problems of pressure distribution can be solved by use of soap film. This method is particu-larly applicable to a reservoir drained by a number of wells, or to a reservoir of irregular shape, or to both. Since this method obtains the pressure distribution, it also establishes the drainage boundaries of the wells. This paper derives the analogy between the equation representing the pressure distribution in a reservoir and the equation of the deflected membrane. It also describes the apparatus and the method of operation. The experimental method is employed to solve a problem whose mathe-matical solution is known and the results compared. These are found to be in good agreement. The method is applicable to any homogeneous liquid, compressible or incompressible, or to a gas, flowing in a reservoir of uniform thickness, permeability and porosity. The flow state may be either the steady state or the transient state wherein the density or pressure of the fluid in the reservoir declines at a constant rate.

Jan 1, 1938

By R. E. Pray, M. C. Fuerstenau, J. D. Miller, B. F. Perinne

Quartz cannot be floated with potassium amyl xanthate as collector at any pH. Complete flotation is achieved with certain minimal additions of amyl xanthate and Pb from pH 5.8 to 8.5 and with amyl xanthate and Zn from pH 7.5 to 8.1. The active species of these metal ions responsible for activation are shown to be PbOH and ZnOH No flotation was effected when Cu and Mg were added as activators. Previous work1,2,3,4,5,6,7 has shown that quartz may be floated in the presence of sulfonate or soap when the following two criteria are met: 1) some portion of the added metal ion has hydro-lyzed to its first hydroxy complex, and 2) a precipitate of the metal-collector has formed. Since sulfonate and soap, two substantially different anionic collectors, conform to these criteria, this phenomenon may well be expected to be of a general nature. In this view then, it would appear that any anionic collector, including xanthates, should also float quartz when these two criteria are met. The object of this paper is to demonstrate the conditions under which quartz will respond to flotation in the presence of potassium amyl xanthate. EXPERIMENTAL MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES Quartz was prepared by leaching the sized sample (48 x 150 mesh) with HC1 until no iron could be detected in the leach liquor. Conductivity water, made by passing distilled water through an ion exchange column, was used in the investigation. Potassium amyl xanthate was selected as collector. Purification of this reagent was effected with the following method: 1) a laboratory sample of potassium amyl xanthate was dissolved to saturation in hot ethyl alcohol and filtered several times while still hot, 2) the filtrate was cooled, during which time potassium amyl xanthate crystallized out of solution; the xanthate was then separated from the solution by filtration, 3) the amyl xanthate was dissolved in fresh hot ethyl alcohol and filtered, 4) step (2) was repeated, 5) the crystalline potassium amyl xanthate was washed with ethyl ether five times, and 6) the xanthate was dried for 24 hours under continuous vacuum. Inorganic impurities are insoluble in hot ethyl alcohol whereas dixanthogen is soluble in ethyl ether. Five-gram charges of 48x150 mesh quartz were conditioned for 3 min in 125 cc of solution containing the reagents and were floated with the small-scale cell and procedure described in previous papers.478 Reagent grade HCl and NaOH were used for pH adjustment, while reagent n-amyl alcohol was added as frother. Frother addition is necessary with this technique, but it should be mentioned that data, similar to those shown in Fig. 2 for 1 x10-4 mole per liter Pb++ and 1 X 10-4 mole per liter AX-, were also obtained with a Hallimond cell in the absence of frother. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS Clean quartz could not be floated with amyl xanthate at any pH. Flotation was achieved under certain conditions, however, when various metal ions were added to the system. The activating ions used were lead, zinc, copper and magnesium, added as reagent grade chloride salts. Lead as Activator: The effect of Pb++ as activator was examined at five different additions of amyl xanthate (Fig. 1, 2 and 3). When 1x 10-5 mole per liter xanthate was added in the presence of 1 x 10"4 mole per liter Pb ++, no flotation was obtained at pH 6.5 or below, while a recovery of about 60% was effected at pH 7. When the pH was increased to 7.8, no flotation was again obtained, Complete depression was noted from pH 7.8 to about 10, at which point a recovery of about 30% was achieved. At about pH 11, the precipitate of lead amyl xanthate which was present below this pH dissolved and complete depression occurred. When 2.5x 10-5 mole per liter xanthate was added with the same lead addition, no flotation was obtained at pH 5.8 and below, whereas a recovery of

Jan 1, 1965

By John Chipman, Minu N. Dastur

This paper presents equilibrium data on the reaction of water vapor with vanadium dissolved in liquid iron at 1600°C. The thermo-dynamic behavior of vanadium and oxygen when present together in the melt is discussed. A deoxidation diagram is presented which shows the concentrations and activities of vanadium and oxygen in equilibrium with V209 or FeV2O4. STUDIES of the chemical behavior of oxygen dissolved in pure liquid iron1-3 have served to determine with a fair degree of accuracy the thermody-namic properties of this binary solution. The practical problems of steelmaking, however, involve not the simple binary but ternary and more complex solutions. Only a beginning has been made toward understanding the behavior of such systems. The silicon-manganese-oxygen relationship was studied long ago by Korber and Oelsen4 and more recently by Hilty and Crafts." The carbon-oxygen reaction was investigated by Vacher and Hamilton6 and by Marshall and Chipman.7 A number of deoxidizing reactions have been studied empirica1lys'10 with the object of determining the appropriate "deoxidation constants." The work of Chen and Chipman" afforded a clear-cut view of the effect of the alloy element, chromium, on the thermodynamic activity of oxygen in liquid ternary solutions. These investigators determined the oxygen content of experimental melts which had been brought into equilibrium with a controlled atmosphere of hydrogen and water vapor and were able to show that the presence of chromium decreases the activity coefficient of oxygen. They determined also the conditions under which the two deoxidation products, Cr2O3 and FeCr2O4, were formed and showed that the activity of residual oxygen is considerably less than its percentage. It was the object of this investigation to apply a similar method to the study of molten alloys of iron, vanadium, and oxygen. Vanadium was once considered a moderately potent deoxidizer, but this is now known to be erroneous, in the light of its behavior in steelmaking practice. Its reaction with oxygen retains a certain amount of practical interest in that a high percentage of one element places a limit on the amount of the other that can be retained. As a deoxidizer it will be shown that vanadium lies between chromium and silicon. Experimental Method The apparatus was that used by the authors3 in their study of the equilibrium in the reaction: H2(g) +O = H2O(g);K,= [1] PII., ao Crucibles of Norton alundum or of pure alumina were used. The latter were made in this laboratory and were of high strength and low porosity. Under conditions of use they imparted no significant amount of aluminum (less than 0.01 pct) to the bath. Temperature measurements were made with the optical equipment and calibration chart of Dastur and Gokcen.= The charge was made up of calculated amounts of ferrovanadium (20 pct V) and clean electrolytic iron totaling approximately 70 g. The first few heats were made in alumina crucibles with an insufficient amount of vanadium so that no oxide of vanadium would be precipitated under the particular gas composition. All the heats were made at 1600 °C under a high preheat and with four parts of argon to one part of hydrogen in the gas mixture to prevent thermal diffusion. The rate of gas flow was maintained constant at 250 to 300 ml per min of hydrogen. The time for each heat was three quarters of an hour after the melt had melted and attained the required temperature (1600°C). The water-vapor content of the entrant gas mixture was gradually raised in succeeding heats, keeping the vanadium content of the melt constant. This was controlled by manipulation of saturator temperature. A point was reached when for a given H2O:H2 ratio some of the dissolved vanadium was oxidized and appeared as a thin, bright oxide film on top of the melt. By raising the temperature of the melt it was possible to dissolve the oxide film which reappeared as soon as it was cooled down to 1600°C. The temperature readings taken on the oxide film were consistently higher by 80" to 85 °C as observed by the optical pyrometer. The heat was allowed to come to equilibrium under a partial covering of this oxide film. At the end of the run the power and preheater were shut off and the crucible containing the melt was lowered down into the cooler region in the furnace. This method of quenching proved quite

Jan 1, 1952

By N. E. Truitt, D. G. Russell

The transient pressure behavior of a well which produces a single compressible fluid through a singte-plane wrticat fracture has been investigated mathematically. The fracture is assumed to possess infinite flow capacity, to be of limited mdial extent, and' to penetrate the producing formation completely in the vertical direction. Previous studies of vertically fractured wells have been concerned primarily with production rate performance or semisteady-state pressure behavior. This study was undertaken to ascertain the influence of vertical fractures on transient pressure tests such as pressure build-ups and flow tests. In a vertically fractured system, flow in the region nearest the fracture is practically linear, whereas farther away from the fracture essentially radial flow prevails. Thus, transient pressure analyses based on radial flow theory are somewhat inaccurate. As fracture penetration increases radially, kh values calcutated from pressure build-up and flow test curves become increasingly larger than true values. Failure to consider the effect of fracture penetration also introduces inaccuracies into the catculation of fracture length from the apparent skin factor and into the determination of average reservoir pressure. If the total length of the fracture is 20 per cent, or greater, of the drainage radius of the well, corrections must be made to pressure build-up and flow test results. Methods for correcting such results are discussed in this paper. For wells with prefracturing pressure build-up or flow test data, it is possible to estimate fracture length by comparison with postfracturing build-up or flow test results. In new wells or wells without prefracturing build-up or flow test data, fracture length must be estimated to correct the values obtained from analysis of pressure tests after fracturing. Fracturing efficiency calculations should be made whenever possible to provide an estimate of fracture length. Tables of the dimensionless pressure drop as a function of time and fracture penetration are included in this paper. Using these values should permit analysis of other types of transient pressure behavior in vertically fractured wells. INTRODUCTION Hydraulic fracturing has been used quite successfully for over a decade as a completion and stimulation technique in oil and gas wells completed in low-permeability reservoirs During this period a considerable amount of theory has evolved on the performance of hydraulically fractured reservoirs and on more efficient means of artificial fracturing. Although theory has been developed, no rigorous investigation has been made of pressure build-up and flow test behavior in such wells. Prats et al.1 first discussed the performance of vertically fractured reservoirs for the case of a compressible fluid. Their work was primarily concerned with production performance at constant flowing pressure. These authors also considered large-time (semisteady-state) constant production rate behavior for vertically fractured wells; however, transient pressure behavior at constant rate was not investigated. McGuire and Sikora10 and Dyes, Kemp, and Caudle2 employed an electrical analog to investigate the influence of artificial vertical fractures on well productivity and pressure build-up. They found that fractures which extend beyond 15 per cent of the drainage radius away from the well alter the position and slope of the straight-line portion of the build-up curve. They concluded that these effects must be considered both in the determination of the effective permeability of the formation and in any calculations of final build-up pressure. Although these authors did not undertake an exhaustive study of the influence of vertical fractures on pressure build-up performance, their limited results were quite interesting from the standpoint of the effects they demonstrated. In a more recent paper, Scott- reported the results of an investigation of the effect of vertical fractures on pressure behavior, which was conducted with a heat flow model. Scott's results appear to be consistent with those reported in Refs. 1 and 2. However, the effects of different fracture lengths on performance were not investigated. Pressure build-ups and transient flow tests are among the most diagnostic tools available to the reservoir engineer or production engineer. Since a very high percentage of present-day well completions incorporate the hydraulic fracturing technique, a definite need exists for information on the effect of fractures on transient pressure performance. For these reasons we have undertaken a rigorous study of pressure build-up and flow test behavior in vertically fractured reservoirs. The objectives of this study were (1) to obtain synthetic pressure build-up and flow test

Jan 1, 1965

Quarrying and crushing 500 tons of limestone plus burning some 240 tons of limestone per day are the two initial phases in the production of borax, soda ash, sodium sulfate and related chemicals at Stauffer Chemical Co.'s plant in Westend, Calif. These processing steps have been upgraded in recent years by the installation of new primary and secondary crushers, an 8 x 340-ft rotary kiln plus kiln feed, control and cooling components-all designed and manufactured by Traylor Engineering and Manufacturing Division of Fuller Co. As a result of this new equipment, a new product- quicklime-has been added to the West End product family and considerable reductions have been realized in fuel and manpower costs.

Jan 1, 1965

By Merrill Horine

IT has been stated and accepted for many years that the automotive industry was the instigator, the principal sponsor for and the largest user of alloy steel and nonferrous alloys. The only universally recognized standard specifications and heat-treatments for these materials are those adopted by the Society of Automotive Engineers. It is this same auto-motive industry that has been the chief inspiration for and consumer of modern production machine tools. The production curve of steel ingots is more sensitive to fluctuations in automotive production than any other influence or group of influences. In every other important steel-con-suming industry, automotive materials and automotive processes are the outstanding features of modern progress. In this connection I need only mention the prefabrication of buildings, following the automotive system of straight-line, interchangeable mass production; the motorization of ships and railroads, employing automotive types of prime movers; the production of pressed-steel stoves, plumbing and furniture by methods originated in the automobile-body industry and the extensive use of rubber for the cushioning of all manner of machinery as pioneered by the automotive and tire industries. Dr. Jeffries has brought out this point in his address (p. 21), assuring us that the transportation industry is the largest user of these materials. In the transportation industry, or as we might more accurately express it, the transportation group of industries, the. automotive industry pre-dominates as a user of light alloys. One out of every four tons of aluminum produced is consumed by the automotive industry. Similarly, the automotive industry ranks first in the consumption of the following metallurgical materials: steel, 24.04 per cent; malleable iron, .57; alloy steels, 72.2; nickel, 30; lead, 39 per cent.

Jan 1, 1936

By P. K. Lucke

One of the interesting features connected with the great continental uplift, which formed the table land of Mexico, is the great depth to which oxidation and secondary enrichment of orebodies occurred. This table land lies at altitudes ranging from 4000 to 7000 ft. (1219 to 2133 m.) above sea level. Several cases could be cited of oxidized zones in copper and lead mines which reached depths of upward of 1500 ft. (457 m.) below the surface, and it is universally admitted that the oxidized zone in a mine is limited by the permanent water level. Mexico, however, like many other countries in which deserts occur, is visited at rare intervals by tremendous floods, which sometimes cause variable water levels over long periods. The following cases bear out the idea, and lead to interesting conclusions of commercial value. My paper demonstrates that carbonates of ores may occur below water level and sulfides above, and I will endeavor to explain the causes of the phenomena in certain specific instances. Case I.—Fig. 1 in this case shows that sulfides of lead remained

Jan 1, 1920

By G. L. Coleman, D. S. Hutton, W. C. Leslie

The occurrence of twins in a iron, generated during cooling through the ?-a transformation, is well established,1-8 but this phenomenon has been nearly ignored during the past 20 years. It is the purpose of this note to call attention to the prevalence of such twins and to illustrate their appearance. The work of paxton7 and Kelly8 has demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt that for Neumann bands (mechanical twins) in a iron the twinning plane is (112) and the twinning direction <III>. The agreement with McKeehan&apos;s earlier work4 on transformation twins indicates that both types of twins in ferrite follow the same twinning law. There is little doubt of this conclusion, but it could be strengthened by a microbeam X-ray determination of the orientation relationship between a single ferrite grain and a transformation twin within that grain, as in the technique used by Kelly8 on Neumann bands. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Transformation twins, identified by their appearance on a polished and etched section, were found in

Jan 1, 1960

By Herbert K. Kutter

This paper is concerned with the physical phenomena in the fracture process of presplitting and only indirectly with the establishment of the optimum presplitting parameters. Its nature is therefore qualitative, rather than quantitative. Before examining the problem of presplitting, it is first necessary to study the phenomena which occur when an explosive charge is detonated in a borehole. To do this it is desirable to consider the action of the explosion wave separately from that of the expanding gases.l In the theoretical analysis such a separation poses no problems. Experimentally this was accomplished by use of an underwater-spark discharge to generate the stress wave and by pressurized oil to simulate the pressure of the explosion products. The main role of the wave is to generate a densely radially fractured zone around the borehole. The subsequent gas pressure, exerted against the walls of a highly (radially) fractured cavity, generates a quasi-static stress field (henceforth referred to as static stress field). This stress field was found to be the same as that of a pressurized cylindrical "equivalent cavity" with a radius equal to that of the crack tips. Under these conditions the quasi-static stresses become appreciable and cause further extension of the radial cracks. It was further found that, under gas pressure, the longest of the radial cracks would extend first, and extension of two diametrically opposed radial cracks requires the least pressure. From these observations concerning the single shot the transition to a whole series of more or less simultaneous shots, as in presplitting, can readily be made. In the case of multiple shots, as in presplitting, exactly the same effects occur, but at numerous locations and sufficiently close in time that they interfere with

Jan 1, 1968

By Edward Nichols

These deposits, which are found in James County, Tennessee, differ both in their mode of occurrence and in their chemical constitution from any other ores belonging to the same geological horizon which are known to the writer. Taylor&apos;s Ridge, or White Oak Mountain, is a long monoclinal ridge, which starts from a point near the Tennessee River in Meigs County, and, following a southwwt .course, extends unbrokenly into Cherokee County, Alabama, where it finally disappears. It is made up of strata of the Upper Silurian rocks, which dip to the southeast. To the eastward of this ridge, which is generally several hundred feet high, are a series of low foothills or knobs, composed of Clinton shales carrying seams of fossiliferous hematites. In the neighborhoud of the East Tennessee, Virginia, and Georgia Railroad, where it crosses the ridges, considerable ore has been milred from these seams during the pst ten years. Most of the workings have been superficial, and the ores mined, with one exception,,carry a silicious and nod-calcareous gangue, and contain from fifty to sixty per ceut. of iron.

Jan 1, 1882

By R. B. Haagensen, E. Martinez, V. Kudryk

The sample under investigation contained approximately 16% BaSO, and was 80% -325 mesh. Established methods for floating barite did not produce concentrates of satisfactory grade or barite recovery because of low barite content and the presence of 6% calcite in the feed. By using a new long-chain sulfosuccinamate collector in combination with relatively high concentrations of sodium silicate, a barite concentrate was produced that would be acceptable as an oil-drilling mud using a simple rougher-cleaner circuit. No desliming of the fine-ground feed was necessary. Barite recovery was over 80% and the concentrate produced had a specific gravity higher than 4.3. During the course of the investigation, a procedure was developed to obtain semiquantitative determinations of barite, calcite, quartz, and feldspar in test samples using an infrared spectrophotometer. Samples were also analyzed in a thermobalance for determination of the calcite content. The use of these instruments made it possible to obtain quick mineralogical assays and proved to be of invaluable assistance in guiding the flotation testing.

Jan 1, 1976

By Henry S. Washington

During the last twenty years or so the chemical investigation of rocks has made great advances, and it is now generally recognized that a knowledge of the chemical composition is as essential as that of the texture or mineral composition—if not more so—for the proper classification of rocks and study of their origin and relationships. Rock-analyses have vastly increased in number and, what is of greater importance, in quality. New and improved methods permit of greater accuracy than was possible in the early days, and the list of chemical constituents frequently determined has risen from the seven or eight of the greater part of the nineteenth century, to twenty or more. Indeed, rock-analyses with determinations of so many constituents are now commonly made by the chemists of the United States and Australia, while in Germany, Great Britain, France, and Italy the rarer constituents are determined more frequently than formerly. As a consequence of this modern, accurate work, it has been discovered that some elements which were formerly supposed to be rare are of wide-spread occurrence and are often present in considerable amount. The fact is further being developed that the elements tend to show certain relations of occurrence or abundance in connection with each other. This is a fact which is applicable to the rarer elements, and which also finds a broad geological and petrological expression in the recognition of petrographic provinces. We are beginning to obtain some definite, though as yet rudimentary, knowledge of the distribution of the elements among igneous rocks. Some of the results along these lines obtained by study of the vast accumulation of analytical data now available are well known to petrologists, while others do not seem to be so gener-

Jan 1, 1909

By Richard D. Harvey, Arthur M. Squires, Robert A. Graff, George Kan

Particles of half-calcined dolomite (CaC03 + MgO) that had undergone cyclic absorption of H2S and regeneration with C02 in laboratory tests reveal enlargement of the crystallite grain structure, reduction in the number of pores but enlargement in their size, and partial development of a relatively dense mosaic microstructure on outer surfaces of cyclically reacted particles. Scanning electron microscopy, X-ray microanalysis, microprobe analysis, and X-ray diffraction techniques were used to evaluate microstructural properties of particles after tests conducted at pressures of 1 and 21 atm and temperatures of 7000 to 9000 C. The tests conducted at 7500 C and 21 atm showed the most favorable absorption and regeneration capacities of the dolomite tested. The changes in structure and pores play a major role in reducing the sulfur reactivity of half-calcined dolomite particles. The mosaic microstructure forms more rapidly at 1 atm than at 21 atm pressure. Once it occurs it seals the surface of the natural pore channels that existed in the half-calcined dolomite and restricts further conversion of crystallites of CaCO3 within the particles. Although a relatively coarse, granular mosaic of crystallites is present on some particles cycled at 21 atm pressure after only three absorption-regeneration cycles, it does not completely cover the particles, and that is true even after 30 cycles. Individual crystallites of MgO were not resolved by the X-ray microanalysis, but we believe that during the tests the MgO occurs as crystallites no more than 0.1 um in diameter that are homogeneously distributed through the particles, and it remains essentially inert during the reactions. The MgO contributes to the maintenance of the original fine-grained and microporous structure of the particles, an effect that is most advantageous to absorption and regeneration.

Jan 1, 1976

By Titus Ulke

About two years ago, in making an examination of the Etta mine for the Harney Peak Tin Co., I discovered, in a vertical secondary quartz-vein in the granite massive of Etta mountain, the mineral about to be described. The vein was from a few inches to 3 feet wide, and was exposed for a length of about 15 feet. It was

Jan 1, 1893

By L. W. Bahney

(Cleveland Meeting, October, 1912.) THE photograph, Fig. 1, shows the apparatus a little less than half size, consisting of a filtering-flask fitted with rubber stopper, through which passes a bent glass tube, and an extraction-thimble fitted with rubber stopper through which passes a glass tube of 0.2-5-inch bore. Both tubes are connected by a short piece of rubber tubing. A section of a thimble is shown in the photograph; the tube extends to within in. of the tapered end. The object of using the thimble is to remove the acid from the beaker after all the copper has been precipitated. Time is saved, the copper is not exposed to the acid alone, and there are none of the losses attending ordinary filtration. I have accomplished these results by means of a piece of perforated platinum fastened in the end of a 0.25-in. bore glass tube and a filter-mat of asbestos, but after my supply of proper length fiber became exhausted I could not replenish it even after purchasing 14 lots from four different dealers. The above apparatus may be used to remove at least seven-eighths of a supernatant liquid from a settled precipitate without disturbing the latter. The application of the thimble is best shown by partly out-lining the assay for copper, as follows: Dilute the acid solution of copper and other sulphates to 150 cc. in a 200-cc. Jena beaker, place on a hot plate, add 2 drops of concentrated HC1, then place a strip of aluminum in the beaker (this may be bent or straight, as desired). Connect the apparatus, as shown in Fig. 1, with a filter-pump having a, strong suction. When the copper is precipitated, remove the beaker from tine hot plate and insert the extraction-thimble alongside the strip of aluminum. The acid solution will be drawn through the porous tube. Wish the upper end of the aluminum strip with a jet of hot water, wash down the sides of

Nov 1, 1912

By Sergio G. Jarpa

A mining project is, at one and the same time, capital intensive and highly risky. Besides, because of its usual long projected life, the operating cost is more difficult to predict and offtentimes exceed, during the life of the project, the first investment manifold. The objective of this study was to evaluate the applicability of cost-capacity relationships as used in the chemical industry to mining operations and, when necessary, to develop new ones. With the aid of a computer library program available at the Computation Center of the Pennsylvania State University, the total investment in mining equipment was determined to vary exponentially with production capacity, and the scaling exponents for each class of equipment, i.e., drills, shovels, trucks and earth moving equipment, as well as for the total operation were calculated. Since the scaling exponent for the whole mining operation happened to be equal to 0.94, it was concluded that more significant economies of scale are achievable in processing plants than in mining operations. From the operating cost point of view, unit material cost was found to decrease more rapidly than unit labor for the same increases in production capacity. The analysis of cost centers revealed that drilling and blasting, which are materials-intensive operational stages, were the most favorable in achieving significant economies of scale. Hauling unit cost, on the other hand, decreased only slightly when production capacity increased.

Jan 1, 1977

IN order that you may be expert in every phase of this art of parting, I wish to caution you upon twelve points, all necessary, so that you may know beforehand what may happen to you and what provision you must make to obtain good results. Understand that the gain derived from this art lies in carrying out the work that you wish to do accurately and with profit, which means nothing other than working with certainty and seeing that there is no loss of gold or silver [69v] or substance of anything that is valuable in itself. For, since everything lost is silver or gold, it is valuable however little. it may be, and many little things obviously make one large one; for gain increases gain, and loss, loss. Therefore, you will have as your first task to seek to have the materials that you are to use for making the aqua fortis of as perfect a nature as possible. I tell you this because the saltpeter is often weaker and of worse quality than the alum. For this reason it is necessary to make an effort to have it not only well refined and free from earthiness but also of a nature as powerful as pig [dung] saltpeter, the color of which tends strongly toward yellow. In order to work better, you also refine this again before you put it to use, as I shall tell you in its place. Likewise, see if you can get alum of the red kind that comes from the Levant or from Cartagena, for it costs less and is more powerful. Furthermore; see that you have a good number of well-formed cucurbits of properly purified glass not too large and of, equal content and size. Above all, see that they contain, no indentations, bubbles, folds, or scratches, especially, in the, body or in the bottom, because they break easily and the nature and great force of the acid pierces them by eating away, and makes a little hole. For this reason, cucurbits. are always divided into four grades; one is taken for making aqua fortis, another for drying the waters when they are laden with silver, the third for recovering the acids from the separations, and the fourth are either rejected as useless or dangerous, or are saved for recovering the whites or for some other service. Whoever wishes to practice this art well should remember to keep a large supply of cucurbits, receivers, and alembics. The third is the precaution which one must take in luting them; first, to

Jan 1, 1942

By George Holderer

THE relation between man-hours of labor and production may be correlated for any industry, and already it has been widely used in piece-work studies. It is not in general use as yet for recording labor efficiency of an enterprise or an industry. An exception to this is the Cement Institute, which tabulates the man-hours used in each operation and FIG. 1.-LABOR PRODUCTIVITY IN COPPER MINING. thus gets the total man-hours per barrel of cement. The writer knows of one steel company that keeps a complete record of man-hours for every operation from mining the ore to finishing the product. No doubt many others find the information useful, and such a study could be of value to the mineral industries.

Jan 1, 1935