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By Robert S. Dalzell, Ernest A. Curth

Following the introduction of shields to the U.S. longwall mining scene and the steady increase in the number of shield faces during recent years, the occurrence of longwall -ground-control -associated accidents has shown a welcome downward trend. But even though the accident experience is favorable, problems exist. New mining systems, however efficient, have run afoul of roof control. Shield faces have suffered extended stoppages because of roof cavities. Therefore, the Bureau of Mines has reviewed foreign remedial techniques to evaluate their potential for domestic application. Such technology includes cribbing, strain absorbent modules (SAM'S), inflatables, wire meshing, chemical rock stabilization, synthetic foams, and monolithic fills.

Jan 1, 1984

By D. K. Crampton

THE object of this work was to obtain and correlate information on effect of internal stress in variously drawn tubes on several properties. Also, a simple approximate method of comparing types of stress distribution in such variously drawn tubes was sought. There is also included some work on comparison of single and polycrystalline materials and effect of different types of operation and preferred orientation. PREPARATION OF MATERIAL A series of tubes was drawn to study the effect of the type and degree of final reduction on various physical properties and the approximate distribution of stress intensity across the tube wall. The material used all came from a single heat of 70-30 brass melted in a regular production Ajax-Wyatt induction furnace. The analysis of the metal as cast was: copper, 70.36 per cent; lead, 0.04; iron, 0.02; zinc, balance. The material was cast in "shells" with 4 in. outside diameter and 3/4 in. wall thickness. It was drawn part way down according to the usual standard mill schedule and then by suitable individual schedules to finish by a variety of types and degrees of drawing to the same final cases in every instance; namely, 0.750 in. outside diameter by 0.080 in. wall thickness. The exact final draws, together with the percentage area reductions, diameter reductions and gage reductions are given in Table 1.

Jan 1, 1932

By D. I. Bardos, Paul A. Beck

A MARK, Boren, and westgrenl in their X-ray diffraction study of manganese alloys with 10 to 25 at. pct Si reported the occurrence of a phase with complex crystal structure in a Mn + 14.5 at. pct Si alloy after annealing at 800° or at 600°C. Recently Kuzma and Gladyshevskii2 identified Mn6Si as an R phase,3,4 the second binary R phase known. (A binary R phase was previously found in the Mn-Ti system by Waterstrat.5) A ternary R phase was reported earlier0 near the Mn-Si binary border of the Ti-Mn-Si system at 1000°C. In the light of the Russian work it now appears that this "ternary" R phase may be in fact an extension of the binary (Mn6Si)R phase. As already found by Amark, Boren, and Westgren, the corresponding binary phase is absent at 1000°C; the effect of titanium is evidently to stabilize it up to higher temperatures. In a recent paper Wieser and Forgeng7 gave the boundaries of this binary phase, which they referred to as 6. In order to re-examine the identity of this phase, an alloy of Mn + 14.5 at. pct Si was prepared by induction melting in helium atmosphere and annealed for 3 days at 800°C. The powder pattern, taken with an asymmetrical focusing camera of large dispersion and shown in Table I, was found to be that of the R phase, in agreement with the results of Kuzma and Gladyshevskii. For comparison, Table I also lists

Jan 1, 1965

By Geo. Otis Smith

Twelve years ago, the Director of the United States Geological Survey addressed to the Secretary of the Interior a letter calling attention to the government's need for liquid fuel for naval use and pointing out that the rate of increase in demand was more rapid than the increase in production.' This letter, in a way, inaugurated the policy of public oil-land withdrawals, which was well founded in its primary purpose of protecting the oil industry and highly desirable in its immediate effect of checking the over-development of that day in California. Unfortunately, however, through delays in legislation, this policy may be regarded now as having outlived both its intent and its usefulness. In 1908, the country's production of oil was 178,500,000 bbl., and there was a surplus above consumption of more than 20,000,000 bbl. available to go into storage. In 1918, 10 years later, the oil wells of the United States yielded 356,000,000 bb1.—nearly twice the yield of 1908—but to meet the demands of the increased consumption more than 24,000,000 bbl. had to be drawn from storage. Nor is this all of the brief comparison. In 1918, our excess of imports over exports of crude petroleum was nearly 33,000,000 bbl. whereas in 1908 we exported 3,500,000 bbl., which was net, as we had not begun to import Mexican oil. In this period, the annual fuel-oil consumption of the railroads alone has increased from 16,871,000 to 36,714,000 bbl.; the annual gasoline production from 540,000,000 gal. to 3,500,000,000 gal. This record may be taken not only as justifying the earlier appeal for Federal action, but as warranting deliberate attention to the oil problem of today. Need of Future Supply The position of the United States in regard to oil can best be characterized as precarious. Using more than one-third of a billion barrels a year, we are drawing not only from the underground pools but also from storage, and both of these supplies are limited. In 1918, the contribu-

Jan 1, 1921

THROUGHOUT the Colonial era, Philadelphia was easily the leading city of North America, and it still held that position at the end of the period, with a population of about 25,000, though closely pressed by Boston, which had slightly over 20,000, and New York, which had nearly as many. It was the center of a region in which mineral industry was important. Thomas Rutter's bloomery, built in the Schuylkill valley in 1716, was quickly followed by many others, and during the Colonial period at least 20 blast furnaces, 45 forges, and iron- works of other types were built in eastern Pennsylvania, which easily led all the other colonies in iron manufacture. During the Revolutionary period others were erected as far west as Fort Loudon, in the Cumberland c alley.6 After 1800 the rapid development of the anthracite mining industry profoundly affected Philadelphia's development, since transportation of the coal was then necessarily by water,, and the streams of the anthracite regions mostly flowed into either the Schuylkill or the Delaware Rivers. With an abundant near-by supply of coal and iron, with the seat of government, which had been there since 1774, and with a national Bank established there in 1791, one would have seemed safe in prophesying, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, that Philadelphia would permanently remain the leading city of the United States. Education in Philadelphia was at first wholly in the hands of the Quakers, who had established a "Public School" there in 1689, but in November 1739 George Whitefield, who had created a sensation in England by his preaching, though only 24 years old, passed through Philadelphia on his way to Georgia to found an orphan school there. He preached a series of sermons in Christ Church that were so disturbing to the established church that on Nov. 25 the Rev. Richard Peters (who was also Provincial

Jan 1, 1941

By Strathmore R. B. Cooke, Robert E. Brandt

EARLIER work1,2 has shown that the strength developed by fired magnetite pellets containing silica or silicates is due to three separate effects. Two of these are associated with the formation of slag in the interior of each pellet at temperatures above 1000°C, where the atmosphere is substantially though temporarily neutral. The third is independent of the silica content and is responsible for the development of a hard shell around the pellet during the initial stages of firing, a condition which permits the pellet to assume the increasing load of the overlying burden and prevents extrusion of the slagged and semi-liquid interior. Pellets made from hematite concentrates do not show these effects unless specific additives are incorporated, and it is these differences in behavior which in large part account for the difficulty in producing satisfactory pellets from such concentrates. Elsewhere it has been stated that "the most important factor responsible for the development of strength in fired magnetite pellets containing no additive is the oxidation of magnetite to hematite and the subsequent recrystallization and grain growth of this constituent."1 The object of the investigation reported in the present paper was to study in detail the mechanism described above and to evaluate its contribution to the strength of the fired pellet compared with other possible mechanisms, excluding slag bonding. This was effected by placing together polished faces of two cubes prepared from specific minerals and then heating them under constant pressure at different temperatures both in air and in nitrogen.

Jan 4, 1954

By N. J. Keys, B. Barlin

Operating properties of Bancroft Mines Ltd. are in the Western Province of Northern Rhodesia, just south of the Katanga border and at the north- western end of the Rhodesian Copperbelt. The concentrator, above, was commissioned in January 1957 to treat 150,000 tons per month of ore derived from the nearby Kirila Bomwe South orebody, and the Konkola orebody eight miles away. The Konkola orebody is comparatively low grade and mining was discontinued there in early 1958. Development work on the new mine at the Kirila Bomwe North orebody commenced in 1959. Today, the plant treats approximately 150,000 tons of ore per month from the Kirila Bomwe South orebody and development ore from the north orebody. Ultimately, 100,000 tons of ore per month will be produced from the north orebody.

Jan 9, 1963

By D. T. MacRoberts

Tins paper embodies the results of theoretical studies concerning gas reservoirs, especially the effect of drilling programs of various intensities upon pressure depletion and ultimate recoveries. The primary objective has been to determine the net quantity of recoverable gas that could be obtained as a result of each additional well, in comparison with the gas that might be secured from a single well ideally placed with respect to both acreage and geological structure. No method is yet known whereby the relative merits of intensive and sparse drilling can be compared experimentally; a reservoir must either be drilled closely or developed with wide spacing, but both programs cannot be conducted simultane-ously. Hence, the analytical method seems to be the only approach to the problem. While the present state of our theoretical knowledge does not offer a precise solution to the problem of gas flow in sand bodies, it takes such appropriate cognizance of the limitations of the methods used as to restrict any answer obtained to the realm of engineering accuracy. In solving the problem for the average gas field, it was found that practically the same answers resulted as to pressure distribution, regardless of the size of the drainage radius, even though the latter was assumed to vary from a few feet as a minimum to that of the entire reservoir as a maximum. Such limits represent extreme possibilities; therefore, the practical conditions that are associated with normal development programs, in which wells are placed in the center of tracts varying in size from 40 to 640 acres, will of necessity result in less extreme variations than those indicated in the tables accompanying this paper. Stated more concisely, the amount of gas unrecovered at abandonment (of the particular field used for illustrative purposes) will lie somewhere between 4.6 and 6 per cent of the total original content, no matter how intensively the field is drilled.

Jan 1, 1938

By Hoyt Gale

RECENT work on borate deposits near Kramer, in the extreme southeast corner of Kern County, California, is of special interest to those who are making a study of the mode of origin of the borate minerals colemanite and ulexite. A valuable clue to the mode of origin of colemanite in its present known deposits is given in a paper by W. F. Foshag1, of the United States National Museum. Colemanite is found in or near original deposits of ulexite, from which it is supposed to have been derived by a change in the rate of movement or the character of the ground water. Indications that an alteration of this sort had produced colemanite were first recognized by the writer' in specimens collected in the Kramer district in 1920, and sent to W. T. Schaller, at U. S. Geological Survey, for identification. The identity of the two borate minerals in these specimens was not at once determined, but the relations of the minerals as seen in the specimens afforded a manifest clue to the origin of the deposits. Similar specimens were obtained by the writer from deposits in death Valley soon after he had examined the deposits near Kramer. After studying the specimens submitted to him Dr. Schaller wrote as follows: "I have finally positively identified the boron minerals you sent me with your letter of Sept. 27. The `white fibrous mineral like ulexite' is ulexite; the harder nodules' in the clay are colemanite, apparently formed from the ulexite as a result of leaching, with recrystallization in place-a theory that Foshag is working on." The present paper is a report on the facts observed at. the deposits near Kramer, and some general observations on the geological relations noted, which, unfortunately, still form only a very incomplete record.

Jan 2, 1926

By Carl H. Samans

THE INFORMATION AVAILABLE on the rolling characteristics of the precious metals-gold, silver, the platinum metals and their alloys-is incomplete and mostly from scattered sources. In the present paper an effort has been made to assemble and correlate it and to fill in some of the gaps that exist. GENERAL ROLLING CHARACTERISTICS SOME EFFECTS OF IMPURITIES Gold and its alloys are generally considered to be hot short and hence are usually rolled cold. Cold rolling of the yellow, green, and pink gold alloys. Which customarily contain gold, silver, copper and zinc and frequently some nickel as well, introduces no new problems since reasonable reductions are quite feasible and the alloys show little tendency to fire crack in subsequent annealing. The white gold alloys. which usually contain little or no silver and 10 pct or more nickel, are very susceptible to fire cracking1 and hence wrist he given relatively heavy reductions, i. e., 8-10 pct or more per pass with a total reduction of about 50 pct between anneals, to minimize this tendency. In addition, it is preferable to keep the bar as flat as possible during rolling. Although no comprehensive study appears to have been made of the effects of impurities on the cold rolling characteristics of gold alloys, the observations of Nowack2 on the effects of small

Jan 1, 1948

By Edwin Hopkins

The year of 1924, in Venezuela, has been one of especial interest. The figures for production marketed are not so impressive, but to the well-informed followers of the development, the ease with which this production has been obtained and with which it apparently can be increased at will merits most careful consideration. For several years, the oil world, especially in the financial centers, has been closely following the slow unfolding. of the' Venezuelan developments, which has been, and still is, one of the great pioneering achievements in the history of oil exploitation. Venezuela, from the first days of its recognition by geologists and financiers as a great future source of oil, has been a field for the enterprising vision of the larger capital groups. The laws of the country have been drafted with almost an inspired foresightedness that has favored the exploitation of the resources along constructive lines, which' has eliminated the irrational promotion schemes that accompany many of the oil developments in the United States. Developments have been exclusively in the hands of strong financial groups, who have followed a conservative policy with respect to the dissemination of detailed information concerning the geological findings and detailed production data. Within the last year, however, the rapid expansion of the production phase of the developments has been on such an important scale and has involved such a large and rapidly increasing personnel, that further restraint with respect to information of a general informative' nature can serve no useful purpose. Certainly, from the volume of references to Venezuelan oil affairs, which are now of almost weekly occurrence in the oil trade journals, the public must appreciate the fact that in Venezuela, and in the Maracaibo district in particular, a new oil region of the first magnitude is about to emerge from comparative obscurity and occupy a commanding position on the stage of world oil affairs.

Jan 3, 1925

By Will H. Coghill, Fred D. DeVaney

THE coercimeter, as its name implies, is an instrument for measuring the coercive force[+] of magnetic substances. It was developed by Davis and Hartenheim in the Special Studies Section, Metallurgical Division. A detailed description of this apparatus may be found elsewhere.2 The coercive force determinations of magnetic materials are interesting because of the relationship established by Gottschalk,4 who showed a linear relationship between the magnetization coercive force and the specific surface of comminuted particles. The value of this relationship in determining grinding efficiency has been shown by Dean.3 The determination of the surface contained in the subsieve sizes has always been a difficult problem for investigators. They made approximate measurements of the surface of coarse materials by sizing on screens, but for the determination of the surface of the sub- sieve sizes it was necessary to make detailed grain counts or elutriation tests, or to study dissolution rates. The technical literature contains many references to other methods for determining these surfaces, either by some special apparatus or by mathematical calculations based on distribution lines. Many of the methods are long and tedious, and the results of some, at least, are questionable. The turbidimeter gives quick results on ground cement. By using magnetite as the material to be ground, a simple determination of its coercive force by the coercimeter, requiring 10 minutes or less, can be transposed directly and accurately into units of relative surface. This subject has been pursued further by the U. S. Bureau of Mines in cooperation with the Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy, Rolla, Mo., and the following is a description of the results.

Jan 1, 1938

By G. W. Phelps

The field of industrial minerals is concerned with both sieve size and distribution of sub-sieve particles. A great deal of work has been reported on the techniques designed to provide information of this work. The term sub-sieve is here considered to include particular material that will pass a 325-mesh testing sieve. Plant men require rapid, precise and simple testing techniques that are, if possible, inexpensive with respect to equipment and manpower. A number of particle-size procedures have been developed, based on the Stokes equation for streamline movement of a particle of diam D, moving at velocity V through a liquid of viscosity n. 1 Particles are considered to be rigid, smooth spheres, completely dispersed at low concentration and moving at low velocity through the suspending medium with no slippage between particle and liquid. In particle size determinations the particle moves either from natural gravitational forces or those provided by centrifugal means. The diagram of Fig. 1 shows a spherical particle of density S and diam D moving downward at velocity L/T (or V) through a liquid of density So and viscosity n. The forces of gravity G (natural) or Gc (centrifugal) cause the particle to move through the liquid, thereby creating a viscous drag F or Fc. Within the streamline flow

Jan 1, 1967

By D. Grosse

At the beginning of the 1960's, the Hannoversche Portland-Cementfabrik A. G. needed to open a new quarry. The land on which this quarry was to be developed was completely flat and separated from the existing quarry by a navigable canal. The area had been exploration-drilled previously, so that enough reliable data on the chemical properties of the deposit were available. From the geologic point of view, the deposit under a very moist surface belongs to the Turon (Upper Chalk) formation, soft on the surface and medium to very hard farther down. Between the 15% sloping banks of chalk (with a calcium carbonate content of 75 to 90% and running from west to east), there are numerous beds, up to 3 m deep, which are rich in alumina and iron oxide but contain only 50 to 60% CaCO3. In the old quarry-worked conventionally by deep-hole drilling, a 2-cu-m shovel, and 900-mm track with 6-cu-m dump cars-an adequate and modern crushing plant was available. The plant crushed the moist material (11 to 13% H2O content) down to 0 to 50 mm. INSTALLATION OF ORIGINAL MOBILE CRUSHER It was decided to employ a mobile crushing unit in the new quarry; the moist and soft ground did not permit the use of heavy trucks for transporting the material, and a road network would have entailed a large investment. The use of a rail system was eliminated from the beginning, since the ground would be very uneven after the quarry was developed. At that time only one prototype of a crawler-mounted mobile crushing unit existed. This unit was operating in a nearby works as a primary crusher. A similar, slightly improved machine (Fig. 1) was purchased

Jan 1, 1969

By G. Don Sullivan

Although the first application of strip mining dates back to 1866, the true origin of today's problem of land reclamation is found in World War II, when the yawning war machines demanded more, and faster fuel production. To meet the new wartime demands, the strip coal mining companies that had been producing coal for the normal needs of industry and commerce during peacetime worked to the full extent of their capacities but were unable to satisfy the voracious demand. To supplement the production of the established mining firms, a host of temporary, make-shift coal strip operations came into being-road contractors, ditchers and foundation excavators, earth movers of every type became strip coal operators. Unfortunately, many were of the here-today-gone-tomorrow category, and showed little concern for the condition of the land after mining. Likewise, the land owners of the mined properties (most of the land was on royalty lease or tonnage contract) showed little concern. Land owners realized from their acreages more income during the war years of coal production than could have been obtained in two or three lifetimes of conventional farming or other land uses. Most of these mined lands were sub-marginal with little productive promise. As a result the wartime stripping produced most of what are known today as "orphan banks" or "abandoned strip pits." It is of these that so much of the present day complaints about strip mine reclamation are being made.

Jan 3, 1967

Canada's newest low-grade porphyry copper mine, Gibralter Mines Ltd. (N.P.L.), has reached production. The subsidiary of Placer Development Ltd., located at Williams Lake in the Caraboo District of central British Columbia, began open pit mining in mid-June on reserves estimated at 358 million tons assaying 0.373r: Cu and 0.016C; MoS,. Each of four separate zones will be mined in a predetermined sequence, in one or more stages, and with a throughput of more than 36,000 tpd. The sequence and stages of mining the zones have been determined by computer calculation and economic analysis and are designed to maximize recovery and minimize cost. At the very least, the mine is off to a promising start. Development costs leveled off at $67 million. 9'; below the anticipated budget.

Jan 7, 1972

By L. de Florez

The successful control of any operation, whether industrial, military, or purely physical, is fundamentally dependent upon the same elements: (I) The securing of accurate and pertinent information concerning the factors involved in the operation; (2) Correct interpretation of their relationship as affecting future results; (3) Efficient means for effecting changes in the factors governing the operation to shape the result. The analogy which exists in the control of operations in these widely differing fields of action is of utmost interest, and in considering the physical control of a process, the realization of its existence permits a clearer conception of the steps required to achieve results and aids in formulating the problems to be met. Let us imagine, for instance, the requirements for successfully conducting a business. It is evident that the first requisite lies in obtaining continuous and reliable information concerning the functioning of its various branches and in detecting, with the least possible delay, any tendency of change in their functions; next, in correctly analyzing this information by comparison with past records, showing the relation of the particular business to general conditions in the trade; and finally, in employing means for counteracting any unfavorable change in general conditions, or compensating for its effects by an appropriate action. Likewise, in military operations, the success in carrying out a plan lies primarily in the maintenance of proper intelligence and communication service, which furnishes information as to the disposition of forces; in correct analysis of the ascertained position, guided by fundamental knowledge of tactics; and finally, on the efficient carrying out of orders and effecting corrective movements. In the physical operation of a process, such as for example in cracking, our information is obtained by pressure and temperature instruments, etc., which permit us to visualize existing conditions under which the operation is being carried out. The information at hand is then analyzed and certain conclusions arrived at as to the results which will be obtained under the observed conditions. If this analysis should indicate, in the

Jan 1, 1928

By Fred Wright

IN A recent paper1 a detailed discussion is given of the possibilities. of using polarized light in the examination of opaque substances. The factors underlying the problem .are there treated from the viewpoint of the electromagnetic theory of light and the presentation is necessarily mathematical in form. The practical methods resulting from the discussion are, however, relatively simple and promise to be of value in the determination of certain ores and metals when studied in reflected light under the microscope. The results of the theoretical investigation referred to may be summarized by stating that in general the optical constants, such as refractive indices and absorption indices, cannot be satisfactorily ascertained on small, random, polished sections; that the use of polarized light enables. the observer ordinarily to determine whether the crystal plate is isotropic or anisotropic, and also to ascertain the degree of anisotropism; that for this purpose methods based either on the contrast in intensity between the two reflected components of non-polarized light, or on the amount of rotation of the plane of polarization, on reflection, of vertically incident, plane-polarized light, may be employed; that methods based on the phase difference between the two reflected components are in general of little value because of the small differences in phase which ordinarily result for a relatively large change in birefringence or biabsorption. The measurement of the optical properties of transparent minerals, even in minute irregular grains, is a simple task with modern petrographic microscope methods and is accomplished by petrologists as part of their ordinary routine work. But the determination of the optical constants of opaque substances is difficult and is rarely attempted; all observations are necessarily made in reflected light and are restricted commonly to the determination of color, of hardness, of the character of crystallization, and

Jan 2, 1920

By R. E. Rowlands, I. M. Daniel

An experimental study is discussed of the state of strain, deformation and fracture around lined and unlined cylindrical cavities in rock under biaxial compressive static loading. The specimens were limestone plates 36 in. high, 24 in. wide and 3 in. thick with a 4 in. diameter hole unlined or lined with hydrostone and aluminum liners. The ratio of horizontal to vertical applied stress was one-third. Experimental techniques used were strain gages, differential transformers and photoelastic coatings. Strain distributions were plotted along the horizontal axis of symmetry for various levels of applied stress. The agreement with theory was good at low stress levels but appreciable deviations occurred at higher levels and near the hole. The experimental strain concentration factor was nearly the same, slightly higher and appreciably higher than the theoretical value for the hydrostone-lined, unlined and aluminum-lined specimens, respectively. Failure modes were splitting along a vertical plane for the unlined and hydrostone-fined specimens, compressive (shear) failure for one unlined specimen and splitting with radial cracking for the aluminum-lined specimen. In the latter, a maximum tensile stress of more than three times the uniaxial tensile strength existed at the interface with the liner at the time of fracture,

Jan 1, 1971

By A. U. Seybolt, C. H. Mathewson

As is well known, many questions affecting the properties and uses of a metal cannot be answered without careful consideration of the state of purity realized in the various operations of preparation, refining, or special treatment that have brought the product to its final state. The occurrence of an impurity in minute quantity offers no guarantee that its effect will be inconsiderable because dissolved substances often modify the properties of a metal quite out of proportion to their concentration. In such cases the determination of solid solubility must be accepted as a problem of considerable difficulty, requiring the use of especially purified materials and methods not ordinarily used in the metallurgical laboratory. This aspect of the equilibrium between metals and their oxides is especially important and a search for fundamental data reveals little except conflicting opinion even concerning the systems of common occurrence and interest. Rhines and Mathewson1 in 1934 studied the solubility of oxygen in solid copper by annealing to equilibrium in air and gave reasons for the failure of other methods, notably the ordinary procedure of heat-treatment followed by microscopic examination, to yield reliable results. In this paper, a similar study has been made of the solubility of oxygen in cobalt. The simple theory of this method is outlined below.

Jan 1, 1935