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A. E. Hunt, Pittsburgh, Pa : I have heard these papers read with a great deal of pleasure. I am particularly interested, in a financial way, in the bauxites as ores of aluminum, and it is safe to prophesy that there will be many more mining engineers in the future who will be interested in these ores of aluminum, in the same way as many are

Jan 1, 1895

By Peter Joralemon

Peter Joralemon's contention that Nevada contains one of the world's major gold belts is the result of 30 years' active involvement with the state's regional geology. He first suggested the possibility of an arsenical gold belt-tenuously based on two replacement deposits 480 km (300 miles) apart-in his 1949 doctoral thesis of the Getchell mine. In the years that followed, some 18 or 20 arsenical gold ore bodies have been discovered along the lineament Joralemon postulated. In this article, he uses the evidence that he's collected over the last three decades to refine his 1949 thesis. Joralemon's conclusion: A mineral belt containing a billion dollars worth of gold extends the length of Nevada, and a number of ore bodies are yet to be discovered.

Jan 7, 1978

By D. G. Oss, S. E. Erickson

An automatic control method for the ferrosilicon heavy media process maintains media density within 0.01 specific gravity points. Continued demands for higher grade, competitive products from the Mesabi Range have resulted in experimental work such as that detailed for one concentrator. Various methods, step by step procedures and instruments used at an iron ore beneficiation plant in the development of an automatic control system are described. Work continues and it is hoped that further applications of control instrumentation can be made in the next operating season. The need for instrumentation and automatic control of the various parameters in the heavy media process of iron ore beneficiation has been apparent for some time. Continued demands for higher grade, competitive products from the Mesabi Range have made it necessary to increase the efficiency of the process in every possible way. In a typical heavy media flow scheme for iron ore beneficiation (Fig. 1) a sized, prepared feed (generally about —1% in. to +% in.) is fed to a heavy media separatory vessel, along with a ferrosilicon slurry. A separation of the feed is made on the basis of specific gravity. Low density particles overflow a tailings discharge weir, while high density ore particles sink to the bottom of the high density pool and are moved away to the concentrate discharge chute. Both products are passed over drainage screens and then are cleaned thoroughly of attached ferrosilicon on wash screens. Float material is generally stockpiled, while the sink product is shipped as a final concentrate. Undersize from the drain screens is returned directly to the circulating media sump. Wash screen undersize is cleaned of contaminating ore particles and slimes by passing through magnetic separators. Provision is also made for splitting a portion of the tailings drain undersize into the cleaning circuit if necessary for control of depth of tailings overflow, or for additional cleaning as required. Cleaned ferrosilicon is stored in a densifier and returned to the Circulating media sump as make-up material. Dilution water is also added to this sump to maintain a desired specific gravity of the circulating media. As in any process, operational intelligence is secured only by keeping records of the process variables. Generally apeaking, plant operators have neither the inclination nor the time to keep complete and detailed records of these variables over the course of their shift. Before instrumentation was added to aid the operator, specific gravity was measured by weighing a given volume of pulp at intervals of from 30 to 60 min. Scale readings were made at the beginning and end of each shift. No records were kept of operating conditions, such as rpm of the separatory ves-sel, media level in the machine, tons per hour of the products, and so forth. These items were recorded only when spot checks were made by the metallurgical staff. CONTlNlJOUS DENSITY RECORDING The first process instrument used, other than the usual ammeter on the drive motor of the separatory vessel, was a nuclear density gauge and its associated circular chart recorder. These instruments were used to indicate and record specific gravity of the circulating media. This was a tremendous aid to the operator in that tie was able to observe and correct the specific gravity at any time. There was also added incentive to make frequent corrections because of the permanent record made by the recorder of the densities. The addition of the nuclear density gauge was influential in securing optimum quality and recovery of the heavy media product. Manual control was improved, and it became possible for a good operator to main control within f.05 specific gravity units. This compares with an unknown quantity, estimated at f0.15 gravity units, when manual measurement and control was used. An example of the improvement in manual control over the course of one season's operations is shown in Fig. 2. Chart A is typical of the records made shortly after the gauge was installed. Needless to say, it was difficult for operators and foremen alike

Jan 1, 1962

By E. Gybbon Spilsbury

In a paper* read at the last meeting of the Institute, in Scranton, Pa., I referred to the proposed introduction at the Haile gold-mine, South Carolina, of a novel method of chlorination. I have since

Jan 1, 1888

By Iichiro Omori

THE Mabuki process, a Japanese hearth process for the treatment of matte, uses the same princi-ple as the Bessemer steel process. The only difference between the two is that in the Mabuki proc-ess a hearth furnace, not a converter, is used. Though the hearth is not as good as the converter, the first cost is very low and the capacity is compara-tively small; so the process is most suitable for smelters FIG. 1.-PLAN AND SECTION OF HEARTH. having a small production. To construct the hearth, an excavation, 6 ft. in each dimension, is made in the ground and a drainage channel is dug at the bottom. Then all side walls are faced with stone or slag brick and the cavity is filled with fireclay or brasque, except the hearth at the top.

Jan 9, 1922

By W. L. Kendrick

Jan 1, 1957

By John D. Wiebmer

Kansas, with its thin seams and tough overburden, may not be anyone's first choice for a coal mining operation. But there are operators making it pay through careful attention to mining techniques and aggressive marketing in the local region. One of the few Kansas coal operators is Bill Patch, who has been in the business for 28 years. Beginning with a single dragline operation near his home in Welch, Okla., Bill's Coal Co. weathered some lean times during the "soft" coal market of the 1950's and 1960's. But his tenacity paid off when new markets began opening up, and the company has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years. In 1975, the Fort Scott mine opened in Bourbon County, Kansas; in 1976, the Porter mine began production in Wagoner County, Okla.; in 1977, the Fulton mine opened near Fulton, Kansas. In addition, the original Welch mine in Oklahoma is still a producer, and this year the company will open a new mine at Chetopa, Kansas.

Jan 9, 1978

By L. W. Bahney

Frequently in using a thermo-electric pyrorneter for measuring the temperature of a furnace, a hole is drilled at the back or side of the furnace, through which is introduced the tube containing the thermo-couple. At times the couple is left almost where it drops, for the reason that it soon becomes too hot to be handled easily, and the space at the back or side of the furnace may be so small and uncomfortably hot that an easy and accurate adjustment is nearly impossible. In order to overcome this clumsy and unscientific method of using the thermo-electric pyrorneter, I designed an adjustable stand, to hold the clay or quartz tube inclosing the platinum and platinum-rhodium leads that constitute the couple of the Le Chate-lier thermo-electric pyrometer. This stand also allows an easy and rapid adjustment of position to varying heights and angles, as may be desired for special reading, This stand is illustrated in Fig. 1. The couple in the tube might be of better service if the tube were held a little higher above the charge in a roasting-dish, changing the height and angle if desired. The stand, made of 1.5-in. water-pipe and mounted on casters, is heavy enough so it cannot be tipped over easily. It is adjusted to any position, and has a universal clamp which holds the clay or quartz protecting-tube. To avoid disturbing the wires of the couple at the cold junction each time the tube is moved, the cooling-bottle sets in a wire basket so placed that it moves forward or back with the couple. To overcome the necessity of leveling and adjusting a galvanometer at each furnace, a switch-board is used to connect

Jan 1, 1910

By James A. Lewis

It is the purpose of this paper to show the importance of sand characteristics, when combined with other physical data, in evaluating production obtained by secondary recovery operations, and to indicate the benefits to be gained from the application of these principles to primary production.

Jan 1, 1942

By Oliver Bowles

AMONG mining men as well as in the popular mind the conviction has held sway that mining is pre-eminently a western industry. True it is that gold, silver, copper and other metals have made the States of California, Colorado, Montana, Utah. Nevada and Arizona famous. The prominence attained by these States as mineral producers is, however, not measured alone by the money value of the products of their mines. While the metals are without doubt indispensable in industry, the glamour of the precious metals, and the lure of copper, lead and zinc have given to their ore deposits a sentimental interest that often quite out-weighs their commercial importance. Today a great group of more commonplace minerals are finding a place in commerce and industry rivaling that of the metals, but there is little sentiment attached to them, and,. therefore, they attain relatively little publicity. This is the great group of the non-metallic minerals, exclusive of fuels and oils, including stone, sand and gravel, cement, lime, gypsum, asbestos, mica, phos-phate rock and many others. Almost unnoticed they have grown in production to almost unbelievable pro-portions. The estimated value of metal production for 1925 is given as $1,380,000,000, of the non-metals (ex-cluding fuels) $1,294,000,000. The non-metallic industries are not new, many of them date back almost to pre-historic times; but, as the greatest of them (on a tonnage basis) provides raw materials for the construction industries, it required the activities of the present age of construction to bring about their enormous development. Many of them enter manufacturing as well as con-struction. Non-metallic minerals constitute the back-bone of our great chemical industries. While construction and manufacture reach to all parts of the country their widest development has been in the great industrial centers of the eastern Seaboard and the middle West. Consequently the raw materials of mineral origin required for these great industries have attained a remarkable growth in the eastern half of the- United States. In compiling figures of mineral production for 1924, for which more complete data are available than for later years, the surprising fact is brought to light that the non-metallic mineral produc-tion alone of some of the eastern and middle-western States exceeds by a substantial margin the total min-eral production of some of the western States that have been classed as essentially mining States. Thus the non-metallic mineral production, exclusive of coal and petroleum, of the State of Ohio, was approximately $150,000,000; of Pennsylvania $175,000,000; and of New York $107,000,000. For the same year, 1924, the total mineral production of Utah was $84,357,000; of Montana $70,632,000; of Colorado $61,488,000; and of Nevada only $26,226,000. Even Minnesota, with its enormous iron ore production, reached only $107,845,-000, or a sum about equivalent to the non-metallic min-eral production of the State of New York.

Jan 8, 1927

There is no simple answer to the question, "What is the meaning of life?" The expressions of life are so multiple that life has different meanings for different spheres of thought, such as art, science, or philosophy; and it conveys a different significance to different persons, according to their individual development and interests. Life is complex from a philosophical point of view. The meaning of life is superficially positive and unmistakable only when approached from a mechanistic view- point; namely, that of biology or biochemistry, since these deal with the physicochemical basis of life processes. However, such a purely mechanistic or biochemical approach to the significance of life and the interpretation of man's behavior on the basis of purely physical laws is certain to run into trouble. Similarly, a concentration of effort upon materialistic advances in world progress is extremely dangerous. The possible consequences of splitting the atom, development of guided missiles, and possible bacterial warfare are timely examples. Man becomes more self-reliant as he extends his scientific and technologic discoveries and learns how to shape natural conditions to his own desires. When man will be able to travel to other planets in atomically propelled space ships and destroy whole worlds by pushing a button, a possibility which now seems to be within the realm of the predictable future, he will need the strong-

Jan 1, 1950

By F. C. von der Weid

The mining district of Sao Fidelis, in the northern part of the State of Rio de Janeiro, is situated on the Paraiba River, where it crosses the Serra do Mar (Mountain of the Sea), in the center of a mountainous country having numerous graphitic outcrops. For a long time, these outcrops were irregularly explored by local people, who had little means and no technical advice. A few years ago, the Cia. Brasileira de Mineracao de Grafite took over the control of some of the more important outcrops and entrusted to me the task of studying the ores and establishing a flowsheet for a pilot plant to be situated in Sao Fidelis—the ore to be concentrated being mostly of a very high grade. Mineralization and Ores The rocks of the district are mostly gneiss and crystalline schists, with occasional interstratification of dolomitic limestone belonging to the Archean Brazilian Fundamental Complex. The general direction of the beds is roughly between 60' and 80°E., with variable dip, generally nearly vertical. Mostly, direction and dip of the graphitic outcrops is concordant with the embanking gneisses or schists. These outcrops seem to be aligned in two or three parallel zones (Padua, Sao Fidelis, Mac- abu), the Sao Fidelis zone being the best known and the most important to date. Two outcrops of the Silo Fidelis zone, Saudade and Sao Benedito, are now being exploited. Mining has beer] carried out, so far, on a small scale. The mineralization consists of a vein of nearly massive graphite in a very compact, partially granitized gneiss, with vertical dip. The vein is most irregular, nith nests and lenses irregularly distributed along the fracture plane. The ore consists chiefly (particularly in Sao Benedito) of massive graphite appearing and disappearing along the main direction of the vein, forming a succession of irregular lenses in a sort of rosary design. The average width is more or less one foot, with variations from zero to 6 feet. The lode minerals are quartz, a little feldspar and garnet (the latter having its origin perhaps in the embedding gneisses), with rare ferruginous clays on the outcrops. In Saudade a little pyrite, pyrrhotite and chalcopyrite is found occasionally, as well as a carbonaceous mineral, very light, black and shiny, with conchoidal fracture, looking like a sort of jet. The composition of this mineral has not yet been established, but it seems to be very complex. The mineralization seems to be hydro-thermal at a rather low temperature, perhaps mesothermal. The paragenesis, according to samples from Saudade, seems to be as follows, the earlier minerals being listed first: pyrrhotite, pyrite, chalcopyrite, with quartz concomitant to the three and graphite formed later. Age of the mineralization is still uncertain, owing to the very in-

Jan 1, 1947

By F. C. von der Weid

The mining district of Sao Fidelis, in the northern part of the State of Rio de Janeiro, is situated on the Paraiba River, where it crosses the Serra do Mar (Mountain of the Sea), in the center of a mountainous country having numerous graphitic outcrops. For a long time, these outcrops were irregularly explored by local people, who had little means and no technical advice. A few years ago, the Cia. Brasileira de Mineracao de Grafite took over the control of some of the more important outcrops and entrusted to me the task of studying the ores and establishing a flowsheet for a pilot plant to be situated in Sao Fidelis—the ore to be concentrated being mostly of a very high grade. Mineralization and Ores The rocks of the district are mostly gneiss and crystalline schists, with occasional interstratification of dolomitic limestone belonging to the Archean Brazilian Fundamental Complex. The general direction of the beds is roughly between 60' and 80°E., with variable dip, generally nearly vertical. Mostly, direction and dip of the graphitic outcrops is concordant with the embanking gneisses or schists. These outcrops seem to be aligned in two or three parallel zones (Padua, Sao Fidelis, Mac- abu), the Sao Fidelis zone being the best known and the most important to date. Two outcrops of the Silo Fidelis zone, Saudade and Sao Benedito, are now being exploited. Mining has beer] carried out, so far, on a small scale. The mineralization consists of a vein of nearly massive graphite in a very compact, partially granitized gneiss, with vertical dip. The vein is most irregular, nith nests and lenses irregularly distributed along the fracture plane. The ore consists chiefly (particularly in Sao Benedito) of massive graphite appearing and disappearing along the main direction of the vein, forming a succession of irregular lenses in a sort of rosary design. The average width is more or less one foot, with variations from zero to 6 feet. The lode minerals are quartz, a little feldspar and garnet (the latter having its origin perhaps in the embedding gneisses), with rare ferruginous clays on the outcrops. In Saudade a little pyrite, pyrrhotite and chalcopyrite is found occasionally, as well as a carbonaceous mineral, very light, black and shiny, with conchoidal fracture, looking like a sort of jet. The composition of this mineral has not yet been established, but it seems to be very complex. The mineralization seems to be hydro-thermal at a rather low temperature, perhaps mesothermal. The paragenesis, according to samples from Saudade, seems to be as follows, the earlier minerals being listed first: pyrrhotite, pyrite, chalcopyrite, with quartz concomitant to the three and graphite formed later. Age of the mineralization is still uncertain, owing to the very in-

Jan 1, 1947

By R. H. Sweetser

At the Buffalo meeting in October, 1898 (Trans., xxviii., 865), our Secretary, Dr. Raymond, in speaking of the obstacles he had encountered in securing contributions to the Transactions from members in practice, said : " It is the disinclination of many members to communicate incomplete or partial or preliminary results. They are going to write, ' some day,' a thorough and monumental paper; and meanwhile they prefer to communicate nothing.... It is the difficulty to which I have just referred that I have encountered in a wide correspondence with members, undertaken for the purpose of securing contributions of fact and opinion concerning the special subject of this discussion.... Almost none of them seem to recognize the value of preliminary, incomplete and indecisive reports of practice, as laying the foundation for a thorough' inquiry." This remark was made in immediate reference to a discussion concerning blast-furnace tuyeres; but, notwithstanding this appeal from the Secretary, little has been recorded regarding the distribution, the penetration, and the pressure of the blast at the tuyeres and inside the iron blast-furnace. I am therefore encouraged to contribute the following incomplete and crude observations of the blast-pressure inside the hearth. At the suggestion of J. H. Frantz, the general manager of the Columbus Iron & Steel Go., a test was made at the East furnace of the company to determine whether there was any difference in blast-pressure at the different tuyeres. The apparatus used for this test was not sensitive enough to give accurate results. It consisted of a small pressure-gauge mounted on a 3/8-in. gas-pipe. A hollow plug, fitting into the peep-hole of the tuyere-cap, prevented the blast from blowing-out during the test. The test-pipe was held in place by means of the handle on the outer end.

Jan 1, 1910

By Charles W. Goodale

The attention of the Institute has been called by Prof. John A. Church* and Mr. W. Lawrence Austin? to the free-milling ores of the Tombstone mines and their treatment, but the silver-bearing man ganese ores of the district have received only a passing notice. As these ores show some interesting peculiarities, and have yielded not less than 750,000 ounces of silver, they are worthy of some study. The Knoxville, Lucky Cuss, Luck Sure, and Wedge mines (named in the order of their importance) are situated along the northern border of the district. They have been the leading producers of this manganese ore, and possess the same general characteristics. Special attention will be given to the Knoxville, as it has been the one most extensively developed. The limestone belt, in which the Knoxville ore bodies occur, has an easterly and westerly trend, is about 1680 feet wide, and rests on granite on the north, the plane of contact being nearly vertical. It is overlain by quartzite, the contact-plane having a dip of 82°. Some mining has been done along these contacts, and a considerable amount of pay ore has been extracted, but development has been very superficial. The ore found along these contact planes contains very little manganese, and differs entirely from the ore in the lime stones. No attempt will he made to assign this limestone country-rock to a particular geological horizon, as no fossils have been found in it. Prof. Blake, in a paper on "The Geology and Veins of Tombstone, Arizona" (Trans., x., 334), speaks of the middle and upper strati-

Jan 1, 1889

By J. M. Kane

IN all probability the mining and metallurgical industry as a whole can demonstrate a larger economic return from installation of dust-control equipment than any other major industrial group. This fact has partially accounted for the marked increase of dust-control installations made during the past decade. While the primary objectives for installation of dust-collecting systems are improved working and operating conditions for men and equipment, the fact that an economic return can be anticipated on salvageable materials is an added advantage which shows in partial or complete equipment write-off. The conditions apply to most phases of the mining, milling, and smelting industry, both non-metallic and metallic.

Jan 1, 1953

By Allen Garrison

THE chemistry of clays and shales has been assuming increasing importance in the petroleum industry, and two factors have greatly influenced this trend. The first has been the growing evidence that the marine shales are source beds, and that the petroleum compounds have migrated to the sand reservoirs overlying or underlying these shales: the second has been the demand for drilling, fluids better adapted to penetrate these marine shales without difficulty and expense. ORIGIN AND GENERAL COMPOSITION OF CLAYS AND SHALES Clays, shales and surface soils are all closely related materials. They are mixtures of finely divided compounds formed during the weathering of the solid crust of the earth. Their nature is essentially colloidal; that is, their behavior is determined by the state of division of the materials and the surface reactions of the smallest grains. Many of their chemical changes affect only the exposed areas and do not involve the interior of the grains of matter. The extent of these reactions is more nearly proportional to the area of the substances than to their mass, therefore it is possible for a small. amount of a material in an extremely fine state of division to completely dominate the character of the mixture. More than 83 per cent of the crust of the earth is composed of three elements-oxygen, silicon and aluminum. Consequently, the corrosion products of the crust are predominantly aluminosilicates, or compounds of aluminum, silicon and oxygen. If we add the compounds of six elements-iron, calcium, sodium, potassium, magnesium and hydrogen-more than 98 per cent of the crust has been accounted for. These six elements, together with the first three, also appear in soils, clays and shales. But direct chemical analysis is of little value in describing the nature of such materials. Many chemical individuals may be present in variable amounts,. and the extreme subdivision of any one of the individuals may contribute qualities that dominate the mixture.

Jan 1, 1939

By AIME AIME

SECTION DELEGATES were given an opportunity to see how the machinery of Institute administration functions, on Tuesday evening, Feb. 16, when they were the' guests at the regular monthly meeting of the Directors. Of the new board of 25 members, 19 were present at the meeting, including directors from Seattle, Los Angeles, Wyoming, Oklahoma, Chicago and Pitts-burgh, the new junior past-president from Jerome, Ariz., and the new president from .Washington, D. C. The complete list of the 72 in attendance at the dinner,: held in the main dining room of the Engineers' Club, which pre-ceded the general session of the Directors'. meeting, follows:

Jan 1, 1932

By A. S. Richardson

VENTILATION of the Butte mines has long been a rather difficult problem because of the natural high temperature of the rock. With increase in mining depth, higher rock temperatures have been encoun-tered, and this has caused a constantly growing demand for more effective ventilation measures. During recent years the hazards of dust in mine air have been more clearly recognized, and have necessitated the adoption of dust-prevention methods. To meet these ventilation problems in the mines of the Anaconda Copper Mining Co., a mines ventilation department was organized in 1918, to act under the direction of the general superintendent of mines. At the present time, under normal operating conditions, the force employed includes the ventilation engineer, two chief assistant ventilation engineers and eight assistant ventilation engineers. The activities of the department are, briefly: (1) planning and supervising operation of the general ventilation system; (2) planning and supervising the operation of dust-prevention measures, together, with dust sampling and related microscopic work for the quantitation of the dust samples and determina-tion of particle-size distribution; (3) the design and development of air-conditioning methods to meet present exceptionally severe temperature conditions and in anticipation of future requirements. To a large extent the technical features of the ventilation methods have been described in earlier papers by the author. This paper is written mainly to summarize past accomplishments bearing most closely on health and safety, with a somewhat more detailed account of the dust-prevention measures that have been developed comparatively recently.

Jan 1, 1938

By L. S. Panyity

THE State of Ohio is among the pioneers in the production of oil and gas. Numerous anticlinals, such as the Macksburg, Cow Run and Newport, have been thoroughly developed, and the pools found in connection with them are quite in accord with the structural theory. Numerous oil and gas pools found in the Berea sand, however, demand a different explanation. The study of these pools belongs to the sub-surface geologist, as it is possible to understand the factors controlling "off-structure" accumulations only after a careful study of well records. By carefully analyzing the various 'conditions over a large territory, it is possible to understand the otherwise meaningless mass of data that one may have at hand, and put it into tangible shape, from which various conclusions may be drawn. The territory here discussed includes Belmont, Guernsey, Muskingum, Noble, Monroe, Morgan, Washington, Athens and Meigs counties, containing the majority of the prolific oil and gas pools of the Carboniferous system in southeastern Ohio. The general dip of the strata is to the southeast, the entire territory lying on the northwestern flank of the Appalachian geosyncline. The best known oil- and gas-producing horizon in the territory is the Berea sand, which lies near the lower part of the Mississippian, with the Sunburry shales (the coffee-shales of the driller) above, and the Bedford shales below it. The Bedford is underlain by the thick Ohio shales. The Ohio and Bedford contact is considered to be the dividing line between the Carboniferous and Devonian systems. The Berea is one of the most persistent of recognizable oil and gas horizons; its outcrop has always been found in its expected place, and it has always been penetrated whenever the drill went deep enough. It is not expected, however, even of the most uniform formations, that no lithological variations should occur, and the Berea is no exception. Nevertheless, there appears to be a certain regularity in its variation, the main features of which directly affect the accumulation of petroleum.

Jan 8, 1918