Search Documents

DR FRANK DAWSON ADAMS Montreal, Canada HENRY STURGIS DRINKER Bethlehem, Pa PROF HATON DE LA GOUPILLIERE Paris, France SIR ROBERT A. HADFEILD London, England HERBERT C. HOOVER Leoben, Austria ROBERT W. HUNT Chicago, ILL JAMES FURMAN KEMP New York, N.Y. PROF HENRI LOUIS LE CHATELIER Paris France EZEQUIEL ORDONEZ Mexico City, Mexico ALEXANDRE, POURCEL Paris, France RICHARD H, RICHARDS Boston Mass. JOHN E. STEAD Middlesborugh, England PROF DIMITRY CONSTANTIN TSCHERNOFF St Petersburg, Russia CHARLES D WALCOT Washington D.C.

Jan 1, 1923

YEAR OF ELECTION 1913 FRANK DAWSON ADAMS Montreal, Canada, 1921. WILLIAM CUTHBERT BLACKETT Sacriston, Durham, England 1923 GELASIO CAETANI Rome, Italy 1920 HENRY STURGIS DRINKER Merlon Station, Pa 1921. FERDINAND FOCH Paris, France 1922. FEDERICO GIOLITTI Torino, Italy 1906. SIR ROBERT A. HADFIELD London, England 1921. FRANK WILLIAM HARBORD London, England 1917. HERBERT HOOVER Washington, D C 1905. HENRI LECHATELIER Paris, France 1921. C MCDERMID London, England 1913 EZEQUIEL ORDONEZ Mexico City, Mexico 1909. ALEXANDRE POURCEL Paris, France

Jan 1, 1923

By AIME AIME

THE name of Dr. Henry Sturgis Drinker has been added to the short list of Honorary Members of the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers, a signal honor rightfully bestowed. To quote the Philadelphia Inquirer, "It is essentially a recognition of the highest achievements, the greatest benefits, and most deserving personalities among engineers themselves." The regard in which Doctor Drinker is held by his friends and associates is reflected in the following comments of the press: Doctor Drinker is distinguished far beyond the confines of Bethlehem and of Lehigh University, to the development of

Jan 1, 1921

The Gold Medal of the Institution for Mining and Metallurgy for 1978 was awarded to Adriaan Louw at the Annual General Meeting of that Institution in London on 17th May, 1979. The award was made for distinguished services to the mining industry in South Africa.

Jan 1, 1979

On June 25, Herbert C. Hoover and General Pershing were honored by Oxford University with the degree of Doctor of Civil Law. The ceremony was held in the Sheldonian Theater. It was the culminating feature of the annual L Ecnaenia, or commemoration exercises. Both General Pershing and Mr. Hoover were greeted-heartily when the group filed into the theater, the great audience rising as the distinguished visitors entered and proceeded to their .places on the rostrum. Others upon whom. the degree was conferred were Baron Makino, head of the Japanese Peace Conference delegation; Marshal Joffre of France, Vice Admiral Sir David Beatty, Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, Major Gen. Sir Henry Hughes Wilson, Chief of the British Imperial Staff, and' Vice 'Admiral' Sir Rosslyn Wemyss, First Sea Lord. Former Premier Orlando, of Italy, and Premier Ignace Paderewski, of Poland, received the degree by proxy.

Jan 8, 1919

THE second award of the Saunders Gold Medal for "distinguished achievement in mining," of which the first was awarded last year to the late D. W. Brunton, has been made to Herbert Hoover. The main events of Mr. Hoover's life are so familiar to all through the numerous journal articles about him and his work, and the interesting biography written by Vernon Kellogg, that no attempt will be made here to touch on anything other than his achievements as a professional mining engineer, for which the award was made. He graduated in mining from Leland Stanford, Jr., University in 1895, but had served as an assistant to Dr. Branner on the Arkansas Geological Survey in 1893 and had also worked two sum-mers as an assistant to H. W. Turner and Waldemar Lind-gren on U. S. Geological Sur-vey work in the Sierra Nevada around Lake Tahoe, and on the American River. Immediately after graduation he got "a job" underground at Grass Valley, and soon rose to be night shift-boss. He then secured employment with the late Louis Janin and made such a good record as office and field assistant that he was soon placed in charge of a small mine at Carlisle, N. M. In 1897, Mr. Janin recom-mended him to Bewick, More-ing & Co., who were looking for an examining engineer for their staff in Australia. Two years were spent in hard work there which was done so creditably that his princi-pals held him and his judg-ment in the highest regard, and he came to the head of their local organization. Among the properties which he acquired for them was the Sons of Gwalia.

Jan 2, 1928

THE John Fritz Medal Board of Award, at its regu¬lar annual meeting Oct. 19, awarded its gold medal to Herbert Clark Hoover. Thus ended a process of selection begun a few years ago. The award was tentatively made a year ago by the Board, which is composed of sixteen recent past-presidents of the four national societies of Civil, Mining and Metallurgical, Mechanical, and Electrical Engineers, having together a membership of nearly 60,000. The sixteen members of the Board are: American Society of Civil Engineers : C. E. Grunsky, Robert Ridgway, George S. Davison and John F. Stevens ; American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers: William Kelly, J. V. W. Reynders, Samuel A. Taylor and E. DeGolyer; American Society of Mechanical Engineers: Fred R. Low, D. S. Jacobus, Dexter S. Kimball and Charles M. Schwab; American Institute of Electrical Engineers: Farley Osgood, M. I. Pupin, C. C. Chesney and Bancroft Gherardi.

Jan 1, 1928

By Joe Strobbe, Kevin Joe

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation awarded PCL Civil Constructors the project to build a new visitor's center and parking lot structure at the Hoover Dam. The excavations for these structures present many blast design challenges. The visitor center, a 30 foot deep excavation was blasted in the Nevada side of the canyon wall, 600 feet above the existing power plant. This excavation also included a through-cut underneath the existing road that carries the traffic over the Dam between Nevada and Arizona.

Jan 1, 1993

By Carl Barchet

INTRODUCTION Located on the Colorado River on the Nevada-Arizona border about 56 km (35 miles) southeast of Las Vegas, Nevada, Hoover Dam is a gravity arch dam 221 m (726') high for electric power generation and water supply. The head waters of the dam form a large reservoir, Lake Mead. The dam is equipped with two emergency spillways, one in the Nevada abutment and one in the Arizona abutment. Both spillways which are concrete lined and 15.25 m (50') in diameter, were intended for use only if Lake Mead is full and incoming flow of the Colorado River exceeds the discharge capacity of the turbines and regular bypass conduits. In the spring of 1984, a combination of rain and unusually rapid snow melt required the opening of the spillways for only the second time in the 50 year history of the dam. As in the previous use in 1942, the massive discharge of water through the tunnels resulted in severe damage to the concrete Linings of both tunnels. This damage is the result of cavitation which occurs as the discharge water flows at very high velocities over minor irregularities in the concrete lining. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has long been aware of the cavitation effect which occurs during these high volume discharges and has been studying solutions. One solution to the problem is to induce air bubbles into the flowing water to eliminate the vacuum associated with cavitation. This solution had been implemented at Yellowtail, Flaming Gorge, Blue Mesa, and Glen Canyon dams by constructing an aeration slot in the inclined portion of their spillway tunnels. Since the spillways of Hoover Dam were already in need of repair, the BUREC decided to construct similar facilities in each of the two 15.25 m (50') diameter spillways coincidental with the other repairs required.

Jan 1, 1987

We are glad to print the following letter from Herbert C. Hoover, who has recently been appointed Food Administrator, by President Wilson. Mr. Hoover has a tremendous task before him, and we are sure that mining engineers will give him their hearty support by responding to his appeal to stop the waste of food.

Jan 7, 1917

By AIME AIME

THE portrait of Herbert Hoover, President of the United States, recently painted by Philip A. de Laszlo at the request of the four Founder engineering societies, was unveiled at a special meeting in the Engineering Societies Building on Feb. 15. The portrait was delivered by Gano Dunn, chairman of the Hoover Medal Board of Award, who said, in part:,

Jan 1, 1932

The resignation of Herbert Hoover, Director General of Relief in Europe, from his post as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Food Administration Grain Corporation, in which capacity he had served for nearly two years; and the reorganization of the corporation under the name of the United States Grain Corporation, with Julius Barnes, United States Wheat Director, as its new head, took place at the annual meeting of the stockholders, held in New York, July 1. This action on the hart of Mr. Hoover is believed to be one of the first steps in his intended withdrawal from public service upon the conclusion of the war service of the various departments of the Food Administration, or as soon as they shall have been absorbed by other agencies. The Grain Corporation has been, for the past two years, a vast collection and distribution agency. Its function has been to assist in supplying to the Allies and the American Army and Navy large quantities of wheat, wheat flout, and other foods, with very little disturbance of American prices, and with such an even control of American distribution that reserves from one crop to another have been brought down to the lowest possible compass and without the dvelopment of actual scarcity anywhere in the United States. In the year just past, it carried on all the buying and the shipping for, the Belgian Relief Commission, until the commission retired on May 1 and the Belgian Government itself undertook its own overseas supplies. During the twenty-two months of its existence the corporation had disbursed $3,500,000,000 and collected an equal amount, selling for over-seas shipments commodities valued at $1,800,000,000, at an operating expense of about $3,250,000, or one-sixth of 1 per cent. During this time it has not lost a single dollar through fire loss.

Jan 8, 1919

By C. F. Kelley

IT is no new experience for the distinguished subject of this presentation to be the recipient of honors conferred, to be eulogized for successful accomplish-ment, or to hear expressed with sincerity the admira-tion of his fellows. The objectives of his professional endeavor have taken him to many fields; the scenes of his labors have varied from the most remote corners of the globe to those which are close at hand; the universality of his experience is an epitome of modern life, impossible of occurrence in any other era. His career not only embodies to an unrivaled degree the opportunities of the contemporaneous epoch, but also exemplifies in the manner in which they have been transformed into successful accomplishments the pos-sibilities of our age. The many-sided career of our medallist is a composite. Tonight we deal chiefly with its phase for which this medal has been bestowed.

Jan 3, 1928

A Joint Venture between Hope Bay Gold Corporation and Miramar Mining Corporation recently acquired the Hope Bay project in Nunavut, which represents the first discovery of a major new Archean greenstone gold belt in Canada since the discovery of Hemlo in 1982 and the Yellowknife belt in 1938. Located some 685 km North of Yellowknife, the Hope Bay Belt is geologically comparable to the other major gold producing regions of Canada. The initial discovery of gold mineralization in 1992 led BHP to acquire virtually all of the Hope Bay belt. Over the subsequent 6 years, BHP expended C$85 million on exploration, including 180,000 meters of drilling, 2.3km of underground workings and a 27,000 tonne bulk sample, as well as extensive environmental and economic studies. Hope Bay Gold and Miramar acquired the Hope Bay property in December 1999 for a cost of C$27 million, considerably less than the C$85 million spent by BHP in exploring the property. They both hold 50% of the project, and share expenses equally. Hope Bay Gold is the manager of all exploration phases and Miramar will manage feasibility, construction and operations. The Hope Bay Joint Venture controls 1,117 sq. km., covering virtually the entire 80 km long Hope Bay and adjacent Elu greenstone belts. We believe that Hope Bay is one of the best-undeveloped gold projects in Canada. Work to date has defined a global resource in excess of three million ounces of gold in three principal deposits, each of which is open to extension along strike and to depth. A C$17 million work program for year 2000 focused on advancing a significant portion of the gold resource to a measured and indicated category. This will provide the basis for initiation of a feasibility study in 2001. The 2000 drill program was one of the largest undertaken in Canada last year, and is a clear indication of our confidence that Hope Bay will develop into a major gold producing district. The majority of the potential mineable areas known to date lie within 350m of surface and would be accessed through a combination of open pit and declines. Currently, development of a 1,800 to 2,000 tpd gold mine producing in excess of 300,000 ounces of gold per year at cash costs below $US200 per ounce is envisioned. In addition, the exploration potential on the 80 km gold belt at Hope Bay is clearly tremendous.

May 1, 2001

By Stephen P. Quin

One of the most prospective undeveloped greenstone belts in Canada, the Hope Bay greenstone belt extends over 80km in a north-south direction and is between 7 and 20km wide. The belt lies on the arctic coast and comprises mafic meta-volcanic and meta-sedimentary rocks that are bounded by Archean granite intrusives and gneisses. The greenstone package has been deformed during multiple events and is transected by major northsouth trending shear zones that appear to exert a significant control on the localization of mineralization. The Hope Bay belt contains a number of significant gold deposits hosted in a typical Archean greenstone belt and which occur in several geologic settings, including shear-hosted, lode-style and breccia-associated. Combined, the deposits host a measured and indicated resource of 1.6 million oz of gold averaging 15.7 g/t plus an inferred resource of 2.7 million oz of gold averaging 12.3 g/t. All deposits remain open to expansion. Exploration in the period 2000-2002 by Miramar includes more than 110,000m of drilling to more fully define the nature of the known deposits, while regional exploration has focused on identifying and evaluating new targets. In carrying out its programs, Miramar uses a number of techniques to improve its chances of exploration success. Activity in 2003 includes 43,000m of drilling focused on expanding resources in the Madrid area, testing the Boston deposit at depth and continuing the hunt for more discoveries. Meanwhile Miramar is advancing one of the deposits towards a production decision, based on a low capital, high return development scenario.

May 1, 2003

By L. E. Kun, R. O. Oelofsen, E. J. J. van Vuuren

High-rate floc-blanket clarification of gold pregnant rotary filtrate was introduced at the Vaal Reefs South gold plant of the Anglo American Corporation during February 1978. A. daily 12 000 to 15 000 t of filtrate, with an average suspended-solids concentration of 350 mg/I, is continuously clarified to a concentration of less than 2S mg/I of suspended solids in a modified plant pachuca (10 m in diameter) at throughput rates of 7,7 to 8,5 ma/m2.h by the addition of 5 g/t of ferric chloride inorganic coagulant and 0,2 g/t of Superfloc NI00 flocculant. The pachuca overflow is then clarified further in seven Stellar candle pressure filters of 54,S m2 surface area to under 5 mg/I of suspended solids. The combined clarification cost when the hopper clarifier is used in conjunction with the Stellar filters is R0,0032 per ton of liquid treated, which is approximately 60 per cent lower than the cost of Stellar filtration on its own. The savings are mainly due to the reduced use of filter pre-coat, the consumption of which has dropped by 70 per cent since the introduction of hopper clarification.

Jan 1, 1979

By A. G. Ramsay, P. G. Kahles, L. E. Kun

A method for the clarification of uranium pregnant solutions using a high-rate floc blanket was developed from laboratory scale through pilot-plant testing to full-scale production by the Anglo American Research laboratories. A two-stage clarification process (hopper plus leaf) was commissioned at the Western Deep levels uranium plant in October 1980. The high efficiency of the hopper clarification permitted its use on its own. The leaf clarifiers were therefore taken out of service in September 1981, since when the secondary clarification is achieved by further unaided gravity settling in the semi-clarified and clarified pregnant-solution storage tanks. As a result, a daily 12000 to 17000 t of countercurrent-decantation overflow with a suspended-solids concentration of 500 to 600 mg/I is continuously clarified to a suspended-solids concentration of less than 30 mg/I. Secondary gravity settling reduces the suspendedsolids concentration to under 20 mg/I. The cost of the single-stage hopper-clarification process is RO,O020per ton of liquid treated. The removal of the leaf clarifiers from the circuit resulted in an approximate visible saving of RI00000 per annum.

Jan 1, 1983

By F. N. Lewis

HOPPERS may be divided into three classes accord-ing ing to type, namely; round, suspension, and square or rectangular. The round hopper is the most simple of the three and is the most easily understood by laymen. The bursting pressure in these hoppers is resisted by the shell as a round tank resists the pressure of water. They are perfectly stable as long as they retain their cylindrical shape. In holding water or other liquids the pressure on the sides is always the same, but with ore this is seldom true. These round hoppers for ore are usually filled from one side and frequently drawn off from the opposite side. A considerable amount of fine material is deposited on the side of filling, while the coarse particles run over to the far side. This con-dition of filling causes the ore to flow out unevenly, sometimes drawing out completely on one side. After a time the remaining ore breaks down and the shock of this falling ore, sometimes many tons, is very severe and has a tendency to distort the hopper from its true shape; consequently a round hopper holding ore should be stiffened to resist such shocks as this. For these reasons round hoppers have never been popular with engineers for holding ore. They also have a trait of welling. up worse than the square hoppers. I have known of round hoppers holding fine ore, 25 ft. diam-eter, that had a tendency to well up until there was ,only a round hole about 6 ft. diameter leading to the gate. The suspension or catenary type of hopper is well adapted to conditions requiring only small capacities. The selection of this type of hopper should be done with considerable care. The theory of the design is that the loads are carried entirely in tension in the bottom plate, just as a hammock carries a load, and it must be remembered that the bottoms of these hoppers are con-stantly changing form with the changing loads. Take a hammock, for example, if a person stands up in it, the bottom goes down and the sides approach a straight line; if the person lies down then the bottom comes up and the sides go down. It is this constant changing of the form that has a tendency to break the connections.

Jan 7, 1928

By Duane A. Smith

Horace Tabor. No 19th century Colorado mining man is better known but, unfortunately, probably less understood. He is little appreciated for his significant contributions to the industry and the state. A century ago, Tabor was headline news. The legend today, however, has become so all pervasive and so interwoven with fact that the two are hard to separate. For example, he never told Baby Doe on his death bed to hang on to the Matchless mine. Yet this has emerged as staple Tabor fare. So much attention has been focused on his matrimonial triangle that it overshadows the man. Symbol of mining's reward Tabor traveled west in the 1859 Pike's Peak gold rush. In the next generation, he came to symbolize the rewards mining might lavish on an individual. The Leadville Daily Herald (Sept. 10, 1882) could write, without exaggeration, that "the extent which the mining industry of Colorado is under obligation to Tabor cannot be easily estimated - what he has done for Leadville and Denver is patent to all." It had not come easily, nor had Tabor started out a success. His early placer mining at Payne's Bar, near present-day Idaho Springs, CO, had turned no fortune. So in 1860, he, his wife Augusta, and son went south to Colorado City, then over Ute Pass and up the Arkansas Valley to Oro City. Arriving soon after the initial discovery, Tabor staked a good claim. With a sharp eye, he and Augusta broadened their base by establishing a store. Both mining and business would pay dividends in the following years. By the season's end, though, Oro City was already declining. Always on the lookout for a richer district, Tabor and his family moved the next year across the mountains to promising Buckskin Joe. The familiar pattern followed, with the store and post office being the center of their attention. Mining investment and management now replaced the earlier physical panning and sluice operating. Seven years later, the Tabors abandoned Buckskin Joe and returned to Oro City. It had moved up California Gulch to be near the district's best mine, the Printer Boy. Middle class was not enough Middle class respectability, plus a steady income, was the Tabor's by the 1870s; fine as far as it went. But it proved far from the fortune Horace had always been seeking. Oro City languished in the backwash of Colorado mining and Tabor seemed like many men who had drifted around the Territory following the ebb and flow of mining. His faithful wife Augusta had been a steady factor in the success the family achieved. She helped year after year to operate the store and post office. Not simply the happy-go-lucky individual he has often been portrayed, Tabor was a hard working businessman/mine owner. An R. G. Dun and Company agent evaluated him in 1876 "Net worth $23,200. Is a very shrewd businessman and not liable to lose money, has a good chance to make money as he had no competition." Leadville: Tabor's silverlined-fortune After all those years on the Colorado mining frontier, in 1877, Lake County's wealthiest and most respected merchant made another move. It was short in distance, only 4 km (2.5 miles) down California Gulch, then a little north to a new mining camp. This new camp, soon named Leadville, gave birth to the Tabor fortune and legend. Middle-aged (Horace was 47), the Tabors once more set up their general store and found themselves in the midst of the open¬ing of a new district. This time silver beckoned and not the gold that had brought them West 18 years before.

Jan 1, 1989

H ORACE VAUGHN WINCHELL was born at Galesburg, Michigan, Nov. 1, 1865, and died at Los Angeles, California, on July 28th of this year, at the age of fifty-seven. Mr. Winchell was one of the conspicuous geologists of his time. It may fairly be said that he was a geologist born and reared. His father, N. H. Winchell, was professor of geology at the University of Minnesota; his uncle, Alexander Winchell, was professor of geology at the University of Michigan. Under both of them Horace studied, graduat-ing at the University of Michigan in 1889. Mr. Winchell at once began that active life in the field which he followed for 34 years and until his death. The first years of his professional life were largely spent in the study of the iron ranges of Min-nesota. In 1898, he re-moved to Butte and became geologist in charge of the geological depart-ment of the Anaconda Copper Mining Co. and allied companies. There he remained for eight years. This period covered the trying days of the mining controversies be-tween the Anaconda and associated companies and the Heinze interests, and it fell to Mr. Winchell to direct the geological studies and development in connec-tion with that litigation. Recognizing the importance of careful geological study in the practical operation of mines, he organized and developed the splendid geological department of the Anaconda Copper Mining Co. This was one of his greatest contributions to the mining industry. Probably no mining company has attached the impor-tance to geological study and continuity of geological mapping in connection with mining operations that the Anaconda company has. It has given broad authority to its geological department and the development of its mines is under the direction of its geologists. The broad vision of Mr. Winchell was responsible for the adoption of this policy, one which is being profitably employed by many other organizations.

Jan 9, 1923