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By Edgar G. Tuttle

The accompanying figures show a jig arranged for separating the middle product or middlings obtained in the concentration of certain ores, minerals, coal, etc. In the preparation for sizing, prior to jigging, of ore-bearing minerals, coal, etc., with their impurities, it is generally desirable to avoid reducing them to unnecessarily small sizes. Where the impurities adhere to the mineral particles or are disseminated through its mass, it is generally necessary to crush to such a fineness as will unlock the minerals from the gangue. If a considerable proportion of the material consists of mixtures of the minerals and gangue, each in large size, and a lesser proportion consists of a mixture of the two, in smaller sizes of various dimensions, it is not always desirable to reduce the whole to such size as would be required to liberate completely the pieces of ore and gangue in the finest mixtures. In such a case it is preferable to reduce all the material to such an

Jan 1, 1897

By T. T. Chen, P. Pint

Based on the mineralogy, phase characteristics and compositions of the smelter feed, the smelter products and the smelter wastes, the sources and distributions of mercury and arsenic in the Afton copper smelter, Kamloops, British Columbia have been determined. Of the total mercury In the feed, approximately 33% is in solid solution in tennantite, 51% is in native copper and 16% occurs as mercurian silver. Arsenic in the feed occurs mainly as tennantite. Under current smelting conditions, 99.6% of the total mercury In the feeds enters the off-gas cleaning system. From this off-gas, about 1% of the total mercury, occurring as dust, is recirculated to the flotation concentrate; 4.6% of the total mercury is contained in SO2 scrubber sludge which is discharged to tailings. Approximately 78% of the total arsenic in the smelter reports in the copper products; 20% is incorporated in the dust and slag which are subsequently recirculated to the mill. Only 1.8% is rejected as scrubber sludge, and less than 0.2% 1s released to the mercury scrubber.

Jan 1, 1984

By R. W. Wittkopp, J. D. Stephens

In a device known as the electron-beam microprobe, the mining industry has lately acquired a sophisticated new analytical tool that can dig out answers to a broad range of questions spanning all phases of mining activity. Essentially, the microprobe is a specialized X-ray fluorescence unit that makes it possible to obtain chemical analytical data for volumes as small as 1 cup. With this capability, it can be used both for determining the composition of small inclusions in rocks or metallic products and for monitoring changes in composition that proceed from a reacting surface. At the Research Center of Kennecott's Metal Mining Division, this versatile probe has successfully solved problems in mineral operations ranging from exploration through refining. A few instances of how the probe has been applied at the Center are presented here. In Mineral Exploration-A Good Look Before Leaping Since the objective of mineral exploration is to locate deposits of materials which can be processed at a profit, the mode of occurrence of elements or minerals in the deposits is important.

Jan 1, 1970

By Harold J. Bennett

A comprehensive knowledge of the availability of mineral resources to evaluate and assure a dependable supply is a prerequisite in establishing and maintaining a viable national economy. Since no nation is self-sufficient in all its mineral needs, its prosperity depends to a great degree upon its developing and maintaining an effective national minerals policy. This must be preceded by a systematic inventory of mineral resources that may be available to that nation. The U.S. Bureau of Mines is implementing a mineral deposit inventory program of domestic and foreign mineral occurrences, with initial emphasis on the domestic. In order to provide an in-depth appraisal of minerals availability, the approach includes not only realistic estimates of quantity and quality, but other essential factors such as costs, technology, environmental constraints, and development-time requirements. Analysis of this information provides usable relationships of quantity, price, time, and associated degrees of confidence of the occurrence of identifiable mineral resources. Keeping pace with a changing minerals industry and handling the large volume of information required in this undertaking demands that computer methods be employed.

Jan 1, 1977

By Robert Glass Cleland

THOUGH the rapid revival of the copper market in the early twenties solved the most serious of the company's immediate postwar difficulties, a much more fundamental, long-range problem still remained. Mining is not like farming: the earth does not bring forth a new crop of gold, silver, lead, zinc, oil, or copper at every harvest time. Metal taken from the ground does not spring up again from the old roots like perennial flowers in a garden, or find renewal in freshly sown seed. No ore body, whatever its size or richness, is too big or too rich to escape ultimate exhaustion. When the war closed in 1918, Phelps Dodge had been mining copper from Bisbee, Morenci, and Nacozari over periods varying in length from ten to nearly forty years. During much of that time, the company's production had run from fifty million to as high as two hundred million pounds a year. Even the greatest of mines had to respond in time to such a drain. High grade ore was already at a premium in Bisbee and Morenci. The Burro Mountain properties of New Mexico were a disappointment. Failing the acquisition of

Jan 1, 1952

THE International First-Aid and Mine-Rescue con-test, under the auspices of the U. S. Bureau of Mines, was held at Butte, Mont., on Aug. 20, 21 and 22. As usual, the first-aid elimination contests were held the first day, the finals the second, and the mine-rescue contest the third. While the number of teams entered was not as great as at some previous contests held nearer the coal-mining districts of the East, the atten-dance was much larger than usual, due to the great interest in first aid, rescue work, and accident preven-tion that has been created by the effective support and constructive policy of the Anaconda Copper Mining Co. toward them. The winner of the first-aid contest was the Great Falls Zinc Mill team of the Anaconda company, of which Fred Erickson is captain. Second place went to the Baton Rouge team of the Standard Oil Co. of Louisi-ana, and third to the Great Falls Furnace Refinery team of the Anaconda company.

Jan 9, 1928

By J. C. Irvine

Meramec Mining Co., a joint venture of Bethlehem Steel Corp. and St. Joe Minerals Corp., mines and pelletizes iron ore at the Pea Ridge mine. The Pea Ridge property is located near Sullivan, Miss., about 113 km (70 miles) southwest of St. Louis. The ore body was delineated in the mid-1950's by St. Joe during a lead exploration program. The first test holes drilled on the Pea Ridge magnetic anomaly revealed the presence of a large magnetite deposit; further drilling in 1956 and 1957 confirmed that the ore body was mineable. Meramec Mining Co. was incorporated in 1957 and shaft sinking began late in the year. Production began in April 1964. The ore body is overlain by about 400 m (1300 ft) of flat-bedded sediments. It is tabular, about 800 m (2600 ft) long and up to 180 m (1600 ft) thick. It dips about 80° and is of unknown depth. The ore is mainly high-grade magnetite with small zones of specular hematite. The wall rock is a Precambrian rhyolite porphyry.

Jan 9, 1976

By R. D. Fisher, A. G. Metcalfe, F. A. Crossley

AN investigation of the application of magnetic stirring to the consumable arc melting of aluminum and nickel demonstrated that grain refinement could be obtained when there was sufficient stirring force. Also, it was found that grain refinement could be obtained in aluminum by alternately reversing the polarity of the current through the magnetic stirring coil. The effect of the latter was to periodically reverse the direction of rotation of the molten metal.' Because of their promise, these findings were applied to conventionally cast aluminum. Shortly after this work was begun, Kondic2 reported experiments in which aluminum cast with 40° C (72° F) of superheat exhibited a grain size of 10 to 20 grains per cm2. When interrupted rotation was applied during solidification by mechanical means, a grain size of 800 to 1000 grains per cm2 was obtained. Magnetic Stirring Applied to Conventional Casting— The applicability of magnetic stirring to producing grain refinement in conventionally cast metal was evaluated in the following way. Three pounds of aluminum were cast into a clay-bonded graphite mold. The mold was surrounded by a magnetic stirring coil of 1000 turns. A direct current of 200 amp was passed through the casting by means of a graphite electrode which was immersed from the top. A current of 5 amp was passed through the stirring coil. The aluminum (1100 or 25) was superheated to 1600° F (871° C) and fluxed by passing chlorine gas through the melt for 2 min prior to casting. Two additional castings were made for comparison: 1) a conventional casting of metal superheated to 1600° F and 2) a similar casting through which 200-amp current was passed during solidification, but without current in the magnetic coil. Macrosections of these three ingots are shown in Fig. 1. Very remarkable grain refinement resulted in the magnetically stirred casting. It may be noted that the casting through which 200-amp current was passed has a coarser structure than the conventional casting. It would appear that this is due to the additional heat input generated by the current to the former casting. Mechanical Rotation Applied to Conventional Casting—A casting temperature of 1600° F was used throughout. Some 1 1/2 -lb castings rotated at 150 rpm were predominantly columnar with small areas of coarse, equiaxed grains close to the lower mold wall. Following these, a series of 3-lb castings was made. Macrosections of these ingots are shown in Fig. 2. The imposed rotational speed was 250 rpm. Turbulence or acceleration in the solidifying liquid was the significant factor. Fine grain size resulted in the material solidified during the period of acceleration of the liquid to the imposed rotational speed. When uniform rotational motion was achieved, the grain structure reverted to columnar. The final casting shown in the lower right-

Jan 1, 1962

By R. W. Armstrong, P. C. Jindal

WE should like to point out that Hu and cline.1 in their study of the recrystallization of titanium, have obtained data which appear very important for accurately determining the dependence of hardness on grain size for this material. It has been proposed2,3 that the macrohardness. H. of a poly crystalline material should depend on its average grain diameter, l. in accordance with the relationship: H =H0 + kHl-1/2 [1] where Ho and kH are experimental constants. This relationship follows from the hardness dependence on yield stress or flow stress4 and. thence. the Hall-Petch stress-grain size relations.5'6 Fig. 1 shows the Diamond Pyramid Hardness. Dph. values vs the reciprocal square root of the average diameter of the recrystallized grains, taken from the titanium data reported by Hu and Cline. The data in this figure give a linear relationship for the hardness over a wider range of grain diameters than anyone has previously measured. The data are not linear, for example. on an I-1 or l-1/3 scale. At the very large grain sizes the data are in reasonable agreement with measurements earlier reported by Holden, Ogden, and Jaffee.7 For the grain sizes smaller than 1 µ, which correspond in Fig. 1 to hardness values greater than 150, the material was reported as not being completely recrystallized and, therefore, these data appear less meaningful as far as the hardness dependence on grain size is concerned. However. it has been suggested by other investigators that deformed materials exhibit strengthening due to an effective grain size refinement even in the unrecrys-tallized condition.8-10 Also. Hu and Cline have shown that a change in texture occurs for titanium during the recrystallization process and. especially. following it. The influence of this texture change on the hardness-grain size relation would be expected to be less than that reflected in the unidirectional stress-strain behavior, even for an hcp material. because of the actual combined stress system which applies for the hardness test. For, at least, certain combined stresses, average values of the orientation factors should still occur in the stress-grain size analysis of a material exhibiting a preferred orientation.' We previously suggested3 that the experimental constants. H0 and kH. from the Meyer hardness-grain size relation should be correlated with the Hall-Petch constants, uoy and ky.5,6 Our recent study" of the Hall-Petch relation and the hardness-grain size results which obtain for a number of polycrystalline materials shows that: The inequality [2] is explained by noting that the hardness should be correlated. perhaps, with the flow stress at some value of strain, as suggested by Dugdale,12 and. also, that the influence of strain on the Hall-Petch relation is to increase uo and not change k very much." Normally. Dph values and Brinell hardness values are nearly equivalent to each other and to the Meyer hardness number. For the case of titanium, then. the inequality [2] may be evaluated using the experimental values of ao = 8.0 kg per sq mm and ky = 1.3 kg per mm3/2 obtained from the experiment of Guard.6,13 Thus, (Ho/uo) = 12 and (kH/k3) = 1.3. This research has been supported at the University of Maryland through the Center of Materials Research by the Advanced Research Projects Agency of the U.S. Government.

Jan 1, 1969

By Thomas F. Torries, George H. K. Schenck

Crushed and broken stone is used directly in construction as an aggregate and accounts for about half the value and two-fifths of the quantity of natural aggregates consumed in the United States. Sand and gravel provide most of the balance of aggregates except for some lightweight materials such as pumice and expanded shale. Conditions necessary for production of crushed stone from a deposit are : 1) Quality-should pass rigid specifications for strength and durability. 2) Cost-low average total delivered cost. Construction aggregates are hard, essentially inert materials suitable for being formed into a stable mass either (1) by the addition of cementing or binding materials that produce a concrete or (2) by compaction or by natural weight to produce a road base or foundation. Aggregates usually provide about 80 to 100% of the material volume of the construction masses in which they are used. The construction industry utilizes as aggregates about 70% of all crushed stone produced in the United States according to statistics provided by the U.S. Bureau of Mines (USBM) , [Table 1], using definitions as shown below. Nonconstruction uses of crushed stone, [Table 2], are included elsewhere in Industrial Minerals and Rocks because such uses require the special physical or chemical characteristics which are discussed in those chapters.

Jan 1, 1975

By J. A. Herbst, G. E. Agar

Beginning with the second paragraph in the second column of page 148, this paper should read: The Reynolds number in Fig. 6 was calculated from the inlet diam and it is evident from the graph that above NR = 5000 the value of K2 is as it should be, a constant. The data10 shown in Fig. 7 was obtained for fluids flowing in pipes of diam D with sharp edged orifices of diam d. To be consistent with the representation in Fig. 6 the Reynolds number was calculated with the orifice diam d. These two sets of data show similar patterns and the variation in the orifice coefficient C is believed to account for the variability of the cyclone coefficient K2. The values of C given in Table IV are derived from K2 by conversion of units. C more nearly represents an equivalent orifice coefficient for a cyclone. Armstrong1' showed that data reported by Chaston 12 and Elcox13 yielded values for C of 0.24 and 0.27, re- spectively, Dahlstrom's4 data gives a value of 0.22. As a consequence of the variability of the cyclone coefficient some caution must be exercised in substituting for Q in the split size equation.

Jan 1, 1967

By Scott Turner

IT has been considered that the training of an engineer is too often vocational training; that it is a pity all engineers cannot have had a period of liberal training before taking up' pure engineering. Offhand, the so-called liberal courses should bring more ready adaptability to deal with the unexpected, to face with assurance situations which have had no parallel in one's experience, and to move without hesitation under conditions which were heretofore unknown to one, than the specialized course in mining engineering. We hear increasing talk as to the necessity of making the engineer articulate and bringing him into public life. The social implications, and responsibilities of engineering are pointed out, as of equal importance with the prodigious marvels of engineering ingenuity. You often read of this as the logical result of the in¬creasing consciousness of the engineer as to his rela¬tive position in our modern industrial civilization. , Some wag has noted that man is the noblest work of God, but that man is the only one who has said so. Perhaps engineers are the only claimants as to the necessity of their going in for public life and service; at any rate, some liberal educators' still maintain that a well-rounded general education is the better training.

Jan 1, 1930

By H. F. Haller

COLUMBIA-SOUTHERN'S Barberton limestone mine, 8 miles southwest of Akron, Ohio, is a million-ton-per-year producer from a depth of over 2200 ft in a district where other underground mining at this depth is unknown. Mining extracts 46 of the top 51 ft from a formation of Devonian limestone discovered by drilling in the 1890's. The same drilling revealed extensive salt deposits below the lime- stone, which led to the location of the chemical plant at Barberton as a division of the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co. in 1899. Soda ash was the principal product of the plant, and as production increased the demand for limestone increased. Columbia's first attempt to secure a reliable all-weather source of stone was the development of a quarry at Zanesville, Ohio, in 1919. Zanesville production eliminated some of the stock- piling required by the use of Michigan stone, avail- able only during the lake shipping season. Stone from some Zanesville horizons, however, was found to be more suitable for cement production than for soda ash, and rail transportation remained an important factor. As demand continued to increase, plans were made to develop the Barberton deposit.

Jan 12, 1954

By Joseph W. Leonard

Evidence is presented to show that certain coals can be super-cleaned, using present coal preparation processes, to reduce sulfur below levels that are commonly believed to be possible. The evidence points to the need to develop continuous sorting methods by which coal coming from a mine can be segregated so that different raw coal types can be processed separately to produce a super-clean coal in addition to coals cleaned to more common levels of sulfur. Evidence is presented and techniques discussed that may be applicable for making the method feasible.

Jan 1, 1976

By S. J. Hubbard, S. D. Michaelson, A. W. Last, B. H. Ensign

Of the seventeen western states, five-Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, Montana, and Nevada-produce about 90 pct of this country's primary copper. All seventeen of these states occupy 60 pct of the nation's land area but receive only 25 pct of the country's total precipitation. Seventy percent of this precipitation returns directly to the atmosphere through evaporation and transpiration, leaving very little for ground reservoir recharge or immediate domestic, agricultural, or industrial use. With so limited a supply available for all, competition for water rights among users is severe. The result does not always permit using the limited supply to produce the most valuable end product. Most of industry and much of agriculture can shop around for suitable operating locations. Where water is critical to their purposes, they can and do locate in areas where the needed amounts are available. Such is not the ordinary lot of the mining industry, which must locate in the area of the deposit it is planning to mine and concentrate. In the case of copper this happens to be, for the most part, right in the heart of the semi-arid regions of the West.

Jan 7, 1960

By Edward Keller

(Canal Zone Meeting, November, 1910.) UNDER the title, Labor-Saving Appliances in the Works-Laboratory, I published a paper1 in which was described how multi-manipulations, in a works-laboratory, and in the furnace-room of an assay-laboratory, can be condensed into single manipulations by applying the proper mechanical devices. For example, I now deposit in, or withdraw from, a muffle a set of 48 cupels as one unit. The front row. (8) of these. are blanks or heaters; the other 40, when they have attained the proper temperature in the muffle, are charged simultaneously with the 40 lead-buttons. Three manipulations here accomplish an operation which by the generally customary method requires 136, and this number is only limited by the size of muffle and cupels. This operation is an enlargement of what I have already described in my former paper, and Fig. I shows the improved implements. In the paper referred to I described a gold-silver bead parting-bath, which is the last of the devices used in regular sequence in practice. This bath was designated as being convenient, but was not a labor-saver properly. Fig. 2 of the present paper shows a new device. Instead of the original tray, there are now sectional holders for the test-tubes, each having a wooden handle on either end, so that the holders may be removed from the boiling bath, and the acid or water poured off from each set of tubes (in this case, 7) without waiting to cool. The tubes, held in place by clutches, as shown in Fig. 3, rest in holes in the base-strip, having a smaller diameter than the tubes. Each holder is stamped at either end with a number, so that the bath becomes further useful by permitting several men to use it at the same time without interference. Apart from the handles, the holders are made of sheet-copper. ' Trans., xxxvi., 3 to 18 (1906).

Aug 1, 1910

By John McGhee, Jack Newcombe, M. J. Rzasa

A series of water floods was made on laboratory prepared unconsoli-dated sand columns to study the effects on oil recovery of the solid-water-oil contact angle, the oil-water interfacial tension, flood rate, and oil viscosity. A procedure was developed for treating silica sand with silicone polymer to produce surfaces of varying degrees of wettability as evaluated by measuring the contact angle on a flat silica plate that had been simultaneously treated with the sand. Fluid interfacial tensions were changed by the use of surface active agents in the flood water. Water-wet, oil-wet, and intermediate wettability systems were studied at high and at low values of interfacial tension, at several flood rates, and with oils of different viscosities. For both oil-wet and water-wet systems and a low viscosity oil, recoveries were functions of the oil-water interfacial tension; also, increase in flood rate resulted in increased oil recoveries. High interfacial tension floods were more efi- cient than low interfacial tension floods on water-wet systems, while low interfacial tension floods were more eficient on oil-wet systems. Intermediate or neutral wettability systems were less sensitive to rate of flood advance and interfacial tension than either oil-wet or water-wet systems. The eflects of surface forces on oil recovery for high viscosity oils were not so well defined as for low viscosity oils. INTRODUCTION Reservoir rock surfaces vary in their wettability1, some being water-wet while others are apparently oil-wet. The factor of wettability enters into reservoir performance in both primary and secondary recovery, and into laboratory measurements of capillary pressure, connate water saturation, and relative permeabilities.' In theory, the degree of wettability is measured by the contact angle for the system solid-water-oil. A water-wet system is defined as one in which the advancing water contact angle is less than 90". An oil-wet system is one in which the advancing water contact angle is greater than 90°.3 The surface forces in a solid-water-oil system are related by the Young-Dupree equation as follows4: These surface forces are commonly expressed as the difference in adhesion tension, or the product of the water-oil interfacial tension and the contact angle. If the contact angle is less than 90°, the adhesion tension difference is positive and oil displacement by water from a solid surface will be spontaneous and favored by a high oil-water interfacial tension. If the angle is greater than 90" the displacement will not be spontaneous but will require less energy the lower the oil-water interfacial tension. The contact angle and interfacial tension also appear in the capillary pressure equation5: PC = 2ocosejr .... (2) The quantity cos was used by Rapoport and Leas6 s a factor in the generalized form of their "sealing coefficient." Warren and Cal-houn' presented the results of cos on oil recovery in oil-wet systems and correlated their data using a "scaling coefficient" suggested by Jones-Parra and Calhoun.8 The "sealing coefficients" were advanced to help correlate the effects of the variables influencing oil recovery by

Jan 1, 1956

By E. DeGolyer

WAR has wrought sharp and sudden changes in the pattern of the oil industry. The most obvious and most striking of such changes have been in the fields of transportation and refining. A third of the world's total oil production formerly started to market, tanker-borne, over the waters of the Gulf and Caribbean. Most of this oil went to our North Atlantic ports, supply points for the world's greatest consuming center. This tremendous traffic, disrupted by the loss of tankers as a result of requisition for military purposes and by the activity of enemy submarines, has had to be substituted largely by such lines of supply as could be improvised without loss of too much time. No single solution for this gigantic problem has been found nor is it likely to be entirely solved for some time to come. It has been solved in part, however, by rearrangement, reversals, and patching up of existing pipe-line systems; by overland transport of crude and products in tank cars on a scale never before attempted; by barging over inland waterways; and through the construction at long last of the "big-inch" line, the first leg of which is just being put into operation as far as Norris City, III. The tank-car traffic alone, reaching a peak of deliveries of 856,710 barrels per day into District 1 during the week ending Sept. 19, 1942, and accomplished at an expense of millions of dollars in extraordinary transportation costs, defrayed by the Defense Supply Corp. and by the mobilization of tank cars from all over the nation, is a story worth the telling but by some of those who directed it.

Jan 1, 1943

By AIME AIME

PERHAPS the most interesting paper of the subsidence session on Monday morning was that by Roland D. Parks entitled "Yieldable Metal Props for Underground Support." This paper described the development of a telescoping prop made from two pieces of pipe. The lower and larger in diameter has cast in it a soft metallic alloy which is slowly extruded through an orifice in the upper and smaller piece of pipe. In this way, the length of the prop decreases gradually as the load from the roof increases. The stress-strain diagram for these props, as tested in the laboratory, is almost ideal, and can be duplicated satisfactorily in successive tests. They have not yet been tested underground. Another paper of much interest was presented by Prof. P. B. Bucky. It is an addition to his series on structural models as applied to mining and was entitled "Effect of Approximately Vertical Cracks in the Behavior of Hori¬zontally Lying Roof Strata." It was illustrated by motion pictures of a model under test. After explaining the un¬derlying theory, the apparatus and the mode of testing, Prof. Bucky set forth the effect of vertical cracks in a mine roof, as follows: (a) the wider the crack, the weaker the roof; (b) where the sides of the crack are in juxtaposition, there is little weakening of the roof; (c) grouting cracks whose sides are not in contact restores the strength of the roof until it may be as strong as, or stronger than the uncracked roof. Small paper props helped sustain the roof. Both the nature of the material and its bonding affect its behavior under stress.

Jan 1, 1933

By I. Iwasaki

The steel industry is facing an unprecedented challenge. I would like to point out the role that flotation technology could play in meeting this challenge by providing high quality raw materials to the steel industry. Of all the technology available to a blast furnace operator, raw material preparation is by far the most important. Raw material preparation has been a key to the success of the Japanese steel industry. The foremost proponent of better raw material preparation was Professor Joseph at Minnesota. He gave a Howe memorial lecture to the AIME audience in the early 1950s, prepared from the lecture notes that he gave in his classes. At about that time he was invited to Japan. It is ironic that the Japanese steel industry listened and made it a success. In order for our steel industry to be competitive, first we must supply high quality and uniform quality raw materials to improve the efficiencies of our blast furnaces. Where does flotation fit in to the iron ore industry then? First, as a primary means for concentrating for oxidized iron ores. Second, to touch up magnetite concentrates for the removal of the last few percent of silica. And third, in the preparation of super-concentrates for direct reduction.

Jan 1, 1984