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By Jon E. Fatzinger

The design of a centrifugal slurry pump is approached as a compromise between efficiency and wear life of the wetted parts. This compromise is effected by the choice of proper materials of construction and geometry. However even the most optimally designed pump will fail if due consideration is not given to its installation and operation. System head curves and hydraulic profiles are discussed as useful tools to be used in the operational analysis of a slurry system.

Jan 1, 1978

By Wilson D. Michell

THE Magma copper vein trends east-west, dips 70° south, and cuts through a 6000-ft thickness of limestones, quartzites, shale, diabase, and schist. The vein is itself a fault with -a horizontal offset of 500 ft on the formation contacts in the two walls. There are two principal faults of large displacement and numerous smaller steep and flat faults that complicate the prediction of ore occurrence. A study of the geology, its systematic recording to facilitate ready reference, and graphic methods of interpretation of mineralization have aided the exploration, development, and mining of the ore. In making predictions of the distribution of mineable ore bodies and their shape in critical areas, studies are made of "mineralization contours" and "mineralization trends," which are developed on a longitudinal section of the vein from variations in the concentration of the combined base metal content as shown by assays of available openings in the mine.

Jan 1, 1947

By J. B. Clark

An exploratory study of the 60 wt pct Mg and 80 wt pct Mg sections of the solid constitution in the magnesium-rich region of the Mg-Al-Ca-Zn system was undertaken. The objective of the investigation was to determine the general configuration of the phase fields with respect to the magnesium solid solution in this complex system. The 335°C (635°F) tetrahedron was selected for study because the solid constitutions of the bounding ternary systems—Mg-Al-Zn,1 Mg-A1-Ca,2 Mg-Ca-zn3—were well known and, at least in these ternary systems, diffusion was rapid enough at 335°C for equilibrium to be reached fairly rapidly. Metallography and powder X-ray diffraction were selected as the best corroboratory methods for determining the solid phase equilibria. A total of forty-six quaternary alloys on the 60 wt Mg and 80 wt Mg sections were prepared, annealed to equilibrium at 335°C, and the phases present identified. Singly sublimed (99.99 pct) magnesium, electrolytic (99.99 pct) zinc, high-purity (99.99 pct) aluminum, and USP calcium were alloyed in graphite crucibles under a chloride flux and chill cast into a split graphite mold. Alloy samples were sealed under argon in Pyrex vials and annealed at 335°C ± 1/2° for a minimum of 500 hr. At the conclusion of the anneal, the alloy samples were quenched rapidly in ice water. Standard metallographic procedures for magnesium alloys were used. Powder X-ray diffraction patterns were taken on a G. E. Camera with a diameter of 14.32 cm using nickel filtered copper radiation. The phase equilibria in the 60 wt pct Mg section of the 335°C (635°F) tetrahedron is shown in Fig. 1. The complex equilibria in the zinc-rich region were not accurately determined and are shown only tentatively with dotted lines. The equilibria of the three bounding ternary 335°C sections from pure magnesium to 60 wt pct Mg are also shown as though folded away from the tetrahedron. The 80 wt pct Mg section has the same configuration of phase fields as that shown in Fig. 1. Thus it is reasonable to conclude that in higher magnesium sections, the same relative configuration of phase fields is maintained though the relative proportions of the individual phase fields may change slightly as the magnesium solid solution is approached. Note that all the ternary phases present in these ternary diagrams enter into the quaternary equilibria with the exception of the phase of the Mg-Al-Zn system which becomes unstable with the addition of as little as 1/2 pct Ca. No quaternary intermetallic phases were found. No liquid phase was detected in any of the quaternary alloys annealed at 335°C suggesting that if a quaternary eu-tectic exists, it must lie between 335°C and 339°C, the temperature of the ternary eutectic in the Mg-Al-Zn system.

Jan 1, 1962

By Benny J. Nelson

To obtain information on the effect of gallium upon the corrosion of magnesium alloys, tests were made on the commercial alloy AM52S (Mg-3 pct Al-1 pct Zn-0.2 pct Mn) and experimental

Jan 1, 1957

By S. Webster, M. Karmis, C. Haycocks

Mining any seam can seriously affect subsequent operations in coal seams both above and below the one being mined. The effect is often detrimental to the recovery, cost and safety of mining the subsequent seams. This paper describes the ground control mechanisms involved in mining through a passive subsided zone or all actively subsiding trough. Data were extracted from case studies, primarily from the Appalachia region, for construction of empirical models to predict interaction problems that can occur in overlying seams. Inner-burden thickness, innerburden lithology, percentage extraction, lower seam height, time and overburden were analyzed to determine their effect on upper seam damage. Magnitude of upper seam subsidence was incorporated, together with a broad classification of rock types, to predict the type and range of damage that can occur in the upper seam. Results are summarized in graphically and nomogram form for use in. engineering design.

Jan 1, 1984

By John F. Shaw

The Denver Mining Research Center headquartered at Denver, Colo., is typical of the new research units recently activated as a result of increased emphasis by the U. S. Bureau of Mines on research concerned with metal and nonmetal (except mineral fuels) ore extraction. The Denver Center, together with the recently established Minneapolis Research Center and the Offices of Mining Research at Reno and Spokane, and the older, well-known Applied Physics Research Laboratory at College Park, Md., share the responsibility for the comprehensive mining research program. The Denver Center specializes in two areas of research: (1) The development of engineering principles and mathematical techniques applicable to exploration, development and operational problems in mining, and (2) the study of rock mechanics as applied to ground control. The first area presently includes three categories: research on methods of ore sampling, mine-systems analysis, and applications of statistics to problems of mineral exploration. The second area emphasizes research in two main categories: laboratory investigations designed to develop a fuller understanding of how rock be- haves under the loads imposed by mining, and field investigations to evaluate stress-strength relation- ships in full-scale, operating mines.

Jan 3, 1962

By Clarence A. Seyler

The object of all classification is to group together things which are alike, and separate those which are unlike. This object is essentially a practical one, enabling us to apply past experience to new conditions. Many costly large-scale experiments lose half their importance for want of proper description of the coal used, and the consequent impossibility of predicting that other coals will behave in the same way. I do not, therefore, make a fundamental distinction between "scientific'' and "use" classifications, except in so far as use depends on conditions, such as size or impurities which are not related to the nature of the coal substance itself. The characters chosen to define the classes of coal must be such as are accompanied by as many other properties as possible. It is not to be expected that any system of classification will enable us to predict every property of coal, since all specimens have an individuality of their own. But specimens can be grouped by a number of resemblances into species. Further, species which resemble each other can be grouped into genera. Elementary Composition as a Basis of Classification There can be little doubt that the ultimate or elementary composition of "pure coal" is the best basis of classification. It was soon after the perfection of the method of elementary analysis of organic substances by Liebig that Regnault, the distinguished chemist and physicist, laid down the principle that coals of the same kind vary only between narrow limits of elementary composition. This is still the widest generalization that can be made about coal. Upon it the metallurgist Gruner based his classification. In some quarters the value of the ultimate composition was denied, Stein going so far as to say that it teaches us nothing of importance about coal. One still hears statements that it is like crushing a work of art in a mortar and analyzing the powder, or like counting the number of times a given letter occurs in a sentence. Such comparisons are misleading, and the criticism might be applied to organic chemistry as a whole. Nor is the existence of isomerism, or of entirely different substances which

Jan 1, 1928

By P. E. Landolt

MILITARY necessities and economic scarcities, occasioned by the first and second World Wars, led to the search for substitute materials and new products to meet the demands of advancing technology accelerated by research development. Among others, lithium came to attention. Its chemistry had been studied for a long period, but its general use was quite restricted due to limited known sources of raw material. In World War I, Germany used lithium metallurgically for two principal purposes: 1-hardened lead alloy, B-Metal, for railway bearings as a substitute for lead-tin-antimony alloys; and 2-light strong aluminum alloys, Scleron, in which zinc was largely substituted for copper.

Jan 12, 1951

By G. Broughton

For the past few years a great amount of work has been done on the viscosity characteristics and gelation of clay suspensions, much of which has been reported in papers published by the Institute.7,12,18,19,24 Impor-tant reviews have been made elsewhere by Evans and Reid,10 Marshall20 and Clews, Macey and Rigby,8 the last two on the general properties of clay. It is unnecessary, therefore, to recapitulate past work beyond recalling that three explanations for the high viscosity and gelation of clay suspensions have been put forward. For lack of more exact nomencla-ture, these may be called the water hull,16 mechanical interference" and attraction-repulsion" theories. The first pictures the clay particles as surrounded by relatively rigid water envelopes, which increase effective volume; the second emphasizes the mechanical interference of platy particles or their agglomerates; while in the third the particles are assumed to be held relatively rigidly at a distance from each other determined by the balance between the attractive (van der Waal's) forces and the elec-trical repulsions of the charges. 13,14 This article presents fresh data on clay suspensions, particularly on the influence of previous flow history of the suspensions, specific contra-ions, temperature, solvation and particle size, in an attempt to contribute to the solution of the problem.

Jan 1, 1938

By J. P. Myers, A. H. Flagg, E. S. Mardock, J. L. P. Campbell, J. M. Terry

The development process for the use of radioactive tracers as a means of locating zones of permeability is discussed. The general techniques for the safe handling of radioactive materials is given as developed by the Lane-Wells Co. and Well Surveys, Inc. The prob1em and. successes with tracers in waterflood systetns, oil and gas injection profiles, fracture sand tracing, squeeze (ement tracing. lost circulution, and cement top localion are discussed and illustrated. INTRODUCTION The exact location of the permeable zones lying within the productive horizon has been a major problem faced by the petroleum engineer for decades, and it has been a problem which has seldom been solved with certainty. Reservoir engineers usually have to incorporate a question mark in their estimates of future reservoir performance because of blanks in the core data. Although the use of radioactivity or electrical logs for the estimation of porosity has been of great assistance in furnishing a record for the reservoir engineer, this application of logging data has not completely solved the problem. In short, the industry needs an in-situ well surveying method which can locate and estimate the permeability of the zones existing within a given pay section. The initial development work with radioactive tracers has been towards filling the need for permeability information. Progress to date permits the location of permeable zones with a qualitative estimate of their relative importance with respect to permeability. The calibration of the method is still incomplete. but present development work on tracer preparations, borehole effect correction factors, and instrument limitations give a promise of quantitative "permeability profiles" in the near future. The development work on the radioactive tracer method discussed here began several years ago in the laboratories of Well Surveys, Inc., in Tulsa. At the outset of this work, three approaches to the problem were visualized as follows: 1. A fluid carrying a soluble, chemically inert, gamma ray emitting isotope is pumped down the borehole and out into the permeable zones of the formation. The greater gamma activity of the permeable zones thus permits them to be differentiated from the impermeable zones which contain no active tracer. It was found difficult to obtain a tracer material which was chemically inert. Absorption to some degree was noted in all experiments. Also, it proved impossible to hold the tracer near the horehole where it could be logged. 2. A fluid carrying a soluble, gamma ray emitting isotope is pumped down the borehole into the permeable formations. In contrast with proposal 1, above. the tracer is chemically active with the fluids and materials in the pore spaces of the permeable zones. The permeable zones are thus indicated by their higher radioactivity level. The main difficulty in this proposal was finding a tracer material which would not be absorbed by shale as well as in the permeable porosity. Very little field work was done with this system. 3. Radioactive particles suspended within the injection fluid are pumped down the well. As the fluid enters the permeable formations, the radioactive particles are filtered out on borehole wall. The permeable zones are differentiated from the impermeable by the gamma ray activity deposited on the formation wall.

Jan 1, 1956

By R. L. Thayer, D. L. Auer

A review of bentonite production and quality control methods, is presented along with an update on techniques employed by the bentonite industry. This paper also includes an overview of bentonite market demands and long-range supply with resulting emphasis on changes in bentonite testing methods required to utilize existing reserves.

Jan 10, 1979

By C. R. Boyd

THE region to which I have the pleasure of calling your attention, though limited in area, is remarkable for the quantity and purity of its mineral deposits, and in these respects it would be difficult to find its equal anywhere. IRON ORES. The red and brown hematites, pipe ore, and semi-magnetites, from which is made in charcoal furnaces the highest quality of iron for car-wheels, extend through the counties of Giles, Montgomery, Pulaski, Wythe, Smyth, Washington, Bland, Tazewell, Russell, Scott, Lee, Floyd, Carroll, and Grayson, Virginia, and run over into Ashe County, North Carolina. One locality of semi-magnetite, in the centre of the great Giles County basin, has in sight, by actual measurement, 50,000 tons of ore, which, according to Prof. Fesquet, contains 69.74 per cent. of iron and no phosphorus. In the great brown-ore belt, which passes through the counties of Montgomery, Pulaski, Wythe, Smyth, and Washington, there is an extraordinary deposit of more than a million tons. A small section of this very long vein, on Cripple Creek, in the County of Wythe, yields an ore which, analyzed by Mr. James Aumann, gave the following results: Metallic iron, - 58.15 Water, - 12 96 Alumina, - 2.32 Silica, - 1.09 Phosphorus, - none. At one point towards the western end of Red Land Mountain, in Pulaski County, New River section, I measured a body of ore in this belt which will yield, to a depth of 150 feet, over 8,000,000 tons, and the deposit extends far below the 150 feet measured at the upper part. Again, at Rich Hill, near the mouth of Reed Island Creek, these veins show extraordinary surface development, giving an ore of very great purity. At numerous places, also, in the counties of Giles, Bland, Tazewell, Russell, Scott, Wise, and Lee, these brown and red iron ores are exposed in such vast quantities as to baffle both description and measurement. That of Chestnut Flat, in Giles County, back or west of the Angel's Rest Mountain, is an easily reducible ore, blood-red when crushed, of which there are fully 300,000 tons in sight. Its analysis is as follows

Jan 1, 1880

By Earl S. Bardwell

In his paper entitled, Development of Hindered-Settling Apparatus, Dr. Richards has related the history of the development of the hin-dered-settling classifier and given illustrations of the several types of this apparatus which he has designed.' An earlier paper,2 Close Sizing Before Jigging, shows the nature of the hindered-settling phenomenon and the results which it produces. In the first-mentioned paper Dr. Richards describes the method of getting hindered settling and shows the relation that the constriction bears to the classifier. The question of proper ratios between the area of the sorting column and the area of the constriction opening Dr. Richards leaves open, aside from certain statements as to the ratios which have been found to give good results in practice. While working with a hindered-settling classifier of the type now in use at the Boston & Montana Reduction Plant of the Anaconda Copper Mining Co. a number of interesting facts were brought out which have thrown considerable light on the question of proper ratio between the area of the sorting column and the area of the constriction and which will be made the subject of this paper. Free and Hindered Settling.—If a mineral particle be dropped into a vessel containing still water, the particle will sink in accordance with the laws of free settling in water, which are as follows: 1. Of two grains having the same specific gravity but differing in size, the larger will settle in still water at the greater velocity. 2. Of two grains having the same size but differing in specific gravity, the heavier grain will settle at the greater velocity. From these laws it becomes evident that the velocity of settling depends primarily on the specific gravity and the size of the mineral grain. The fracture of the mineral may exert a very considerable

Jan 1, 1914

By Benny Langston, Frank M. Stephens

Although little information is available concerning small-scale equipment for dust collection in laboratories, it is possible to adapt standard equipment for laboratory use. Dust from laboratory processes may be collected by cyclone separators, filters, electrostatic separators, scrubbers, and settling chambers. IN recent years much attention has been given to recovery, treatment, and disposal of dusts discharged into the atmosphere from operations of industry. considerable data has been accumulated on both operation and design of dust-collector equipment for commercial installations. On the other hand, there is almost no published data on design and construction of small-scale equipment to handle dust problems that arise in the ore-dressing laboratory. Dust-collection equipment such as multiclones, single-cyclones, scrubbers, chemical and mechanical filters, settling chambers, and electrostatic separators has proved its efficiency for collecting dust in industry. In the laboratory, however, the engineer is faced with the problem of collecting small quantities of dust, inexpensively, without diverting the major effort from the metallurgical problem to the problem of collecting dust produced by the process. For most applications standard dust-collection equipment is too large for use in the laboratory; however, for control of dust in large working areas it is often possible to use a standard dust collector, such as an air filter, with branch ducts to eliminate a health hazard. For example, the well-furnished sample-preparation room containing small jaw crushers, rolls, and pulverizers, in addition to the riffles and screens necessary for preparation of samples, presents a perennial source of dust. The authors' experience has shown that a combination system consisting of overhead branch ducts to the individual equipment and floor ducts with grills, where applicable, connected to a central dust collector effectively removes dust generated in preparation of samples. Fig. 1 is a sketch of a downdraft dust-collector for table installation. Similar systems can be built with floor grids. For portable equipment such as laboratory vibrating screens this type of installation with a steel grill to support the heavy load is reasonably efficient. Overhead branch ducts to individual crushing and grinding equipment, although efficient, must be carefully controlled by dampers to prevent excess loss or a change in the composition of the sample. Change in sample composition can result from excess velocity, which causes selective removal of constituents of low specific gravity. Fig. 2' shows the theoretical effect of terminal velocity on spherical particles of different specific gravities in air and water under action of gravity. Fig. 3 shows the effect of air velocity on composition of CaCO, coal mixtures. Although the entrainment of dust particles in a moving air stream is the basic mechanism by which all dust-collection equipment functions, usually intake velocity of the dust-collection system must be controlled to prevent loss of part of the sample. As an example of what may happen when excess velocities are used, a mixture of 50 pct coal and 50 pct limestone was crushed to —10 mesh and fed to a pulverizer equipped with an overhead dust-collection system. Fig. 4 shows the overhead dust-collection equipment used in this test. The pulverizer was set to give a product 95 pct —100 mesh in two stages. Velocity of air passing over the lip of the pulverizer was measured with an anemometer. After grinding, the finished product was analyzed to show the amount of calcium carbonate present. Fig. 3 shows graphically the increase in calcium carbonate as velocity through the dust-collection duct was increased. These data show that at a velocity of 1 ft per sec little if any of the coal was entrained by the overhead draft. At the maximum velocity, about 6.5 ft per sec, approximately 7 pct more coal was entrained than calcium carbonate. From an operating standpoint, this problem can be remedied easily by dampering the line to control velocity. The lowest velocity commensurate with satisfactory dust control should be used to prevent excess loss and, in some cases, selective dust loss. Collection of Dust in Laboratory Processes As in industry, the engineer desires to collect efficiently the dust produced by processes being investigated on a laboratory scale. However, in the collection of laboratory dusts he is faced with two additional problems: 1—The volumes of gas and the quantity of dust that must be recovered are small when compared with the capacity of standard dust-collector equipment, which must be scaled down in design except for collection of dust from large pilot-plant operations. 2—In addition, because of the variety of problems studied in the process laboratory, the engineer cannot design today a dust collector that will meet the conditions imposed by the processes of tomorrow. Sometimes, therefore, he must compromise collection efficiency to minimize the cost of fabrication and the amount of time diverted from the metallurgical to the dust-control problem. For collection of dust from laboratory processes a cyclone separator, filters, electrostatic separators, scrubbers, and settling chambers can usually be adapted for small-scale operations. The following

Jan 1, 1955

By A. Berghezan, E. Bull Simonsen

A simple and general method is described for melting and zone refining refractory metals by induction heating on a specially shaped water-cooled copper crucible. The crucible is the essential part of the apparatus and is placed horizontally. It consists of either a copper plate, or a flattened tube, or of several parallel small diameter tubes all water cooled. The charge lies on the crucible, or whenever possible, is suspended above it. This assembly goes into a transparent quartz tube and the whole is passed through the coil of a radio frequency generator. Vaarious atmospheres can be used. No contamination is detected from the copper crucible. purification is obtained both by selective evaporation of impurities and by zone refining. METHODS of melting and refining relatively large ingots of all reactive and refractory metals as well as some semiconductor materials have been developed in this laboratory during the past several years using induction heating and cold crucibles. These methods are simple and permit the use of a variety of starting materials in preparing ingots of suitable shapes. Among these methods, two are of particular interest. One deals only with the problem of melting without contamination. In this method the induction coil has a specially designed shape and acts simultaneously as heating element and crucible. The second goes one step further, being designed for both melting and further purification of the refractory metals. The aim of this paper is to describe the second method which is of more general interest and of greater applicability to metallurgical problems. A) THE PRINCIPLE OF THE MELTING AND PURIFICATION METHOD As originally proposed by one of us1 the method consists of heating a charge of any refractory metal or semiconductor material to the melting point on a water-cooled copper crucible by passing both the charge and the crucible through the induction coil of a radiofrequency generator. Although both are subjected to the same induction field, one achieves the melting of a refractory metal on a copper crucible even when the refractory metal has a melting point of more than 2000°C above that of the crucible. This seemingly "odd" method works effectively for the following reasons. Because of its high electrical and thermal conductivity as compared with the material being melted, copper can be used as the crucible and kept at a low temperature while the material is heated by induction to its melting point. With water Silver and other highly conducting materials can also be used. If a nonconducting material is contemplated, e.g. SiO or a high polymer, a very thin wall should provide efficient cooling. cooling through ducts in the crucible its temperature can be kept between 40" to 70°C; thus its electrical resistivity is kept low, while the resistivity of the charge increases rapidly as its temperature is increased. B) APPARATUS The crucible is the essential part of the apparatus. It has been designed in various shapes depending on the atmosphere used, whether vacuum or an inert gas or hydrogen. In all crucible designs an effort was made to reduce its volume to "nothing but the cooling water" in order to avoid shielding the ingot from the induction field. In practice it is either a

Jan 1, 1962

By H. Margolin, E. Ence

Two versions of the Ti-Mn binary diagram have been published recently.' , -0th diagrams show two compounds in the region between 40 and 70 wt pct Mn, but disagree as to the reaction in which these compounds are involved. The investigation of the manganese-rich portion of the Ti-Mn binary diagram was undertaken at New York University as part of an investigation of ternary systems with titanium and manganese in order to determine which of the proposed diagrams is correct. A number of alloys between 31 and 70 pct Mn were prepared in a manner similar to that described by Cadoff and Nielsen; except that low currents (110 amp in argon atmosphere) and long melting times (up to 20 min) were used to prepare the alloys. Compositions were determined from weight-loss data, assuming all loss as due to manganese. Heat treatments were carried out with relatively large pieces, since there was a tendency for manganese to be lost during heat treatment. When X-ray diffraction data was to be obtained, the central parts of heat-treated specimens were used to make filings or powders which were not heat treated. Specimens were heat treated from the as-cast state. Heat-treatment times were as follows: 1150°C, 1 day; ll00°C, 2 days; 1000°C, 5 days; and 900°C, 15 days. It should be noted that equilibrium was not attained at 900°, 1000°, and in one case, at 1150°C. Metallographic specimens were electrolytically polished and strain etched by a technique described elsewhere.' At least four, and possibly six, phases were found in the region investigated. On the basis of information available at this time, a completely self-consistent diagram cannot be constructed, and therefore data are presented only for those phases which have been identified by both X-ray and microstruc-ture. Of the compounds detected, the one highest in manganese is the Laves phase, TiMn,, which is hexagonal with a MgZn, type of structure.V he diffraction data for TiMn2 from a 70 pct Mn alloy annealed at 1150°C are shown in Table I. The c/a ratio and parameters of TiMn2 agree well with those of Wall-baum hnd Rostoker et al. The values obtained here are c/a = 1.641, a = 4.825A. Another compound is the y-phase which is estimated to contain about 60 pct Mn. The y-phase has a structure which is identical to that of TiMn, with c/a = 1.639, a = 4.906Å. The fact that y has a Laves-type lattice would suggest that TiMn, has a range of solubility which extends from the composition of TiMn2 (69.6 Mn) to that of y (60 pct Mn). However, this could not account for microstructures which, in the 60 to 70 pct Mn region, show several phases in both the as-cast state and after annealing at 1150°C. Fig. 1 shows a two-phase structure of a 60 pct Mn alloy annealed at 1150°C. The phases present are y (white) and e (dark). If y were TiMn, then, according to Rostoker et al.,' the second phase of Fig. 1 should be P-Ti. The diffraction data for the 60 pct Mn alloy of Fig. 1 are shown in Table I. The starred d-values are from the e-phase and these lines do not correspond to those of &Ti. Comparison of as-cast and 1150°C microstructures of the 60 pct Mn alloy indicates that e precipitated from y. Since y has a

Jan 1, 1955

By G. E. Burpee

A COMPREHENSIVE study of insoluble residues in the productive Permian limestone in the Hobbs and Eunice fields, Lea County, N. M., has been conducted by Shell Petroleum Corp. engineers {luring the past two years. This study was prompted by the belief that the stratigraphy of the producing formation might be worked out in detail and that some relationship might be established between the permeable oil, gas, and water zones and correlatable lithologic horizons within the productive formation. As a result of the study, correlations have been established which have proved of great value to both an orderly development and corrective program.

Jan 1, 1935

By Frank M. Howell, Claude E. Schmidt

To counteract the spiralling costs of labor and materials against the fixed sale of its product, namely, gold at $35 per oz, Homestake Mining Co. has revised the milling flowsheet once and effected increases in the daily milling rate twice in the past 12 years. During this period the mining department has been able to hold production costs steady by increased productivity through technical improvements and utilization of the most modern mining by CLAUDE E. SCHMIDT and FRANK M. HOWELL, JR. 46-MINING ENGINEERING, APRIL 1963 equipment. The flowsheet alteration occurred during 1951-1953 when the two crushing plants at the shaft head frames were converted to a three-stage crushing system with the third stage closed circuited to produce a minus 5/8-in. product as rod mill feed.

Jan 4, 1963

INTRODUCTION TO COMPOSITING Individual drill hole samples may vary greatly in size, length, and weight. The sample interval may represent any convenient unit of hole length, and is usually related to the type of drill being used to obtain the sample. Depending upon the type of mineral deposit, it is desirable to group the individual sample values into composite weighted values representative of some particular zone or volume of the ore body. For example, values of several sequential samples of diamond drill core 3 m (10 ft) in length may be grouped together to represent a 12-m (40-ft) sample value over one bench height. On the other hand, several individual sample values taken across the thickness of a stratiform deposit or a vein zone may be weighted together to represent the value of the total thickness at the point of intersection. The choice of composite intervals is usually dictated by the type of mineral deposit and the mining method selected to produce the mineral. The techniques of weighting values from various lengths of samples into a composite value has already been discussed briefly in Chapter 3. Further examples of determining weighted composite values will be given in the following discussion on compositing for various types of mineral deposits. SAMPLE VALUE COMPOSITES AND TYPES OF MINERAL DEPOSITS There are many kinds of mineral deposits, each of which will require special treatment of sample data to obtain the best composite intervals for evaluating the deposit. It cannot always be known before hand what the optimum composite interval will be. Such composite intervals may properly be determined by geologic factors that are often unknown prior [ ]

Jan 1, 1980

By C. Dinis da Gama

In order to reduce the complexity of mechanisms influencing rock. fragmentation by blasting a simulation approach is proposed, using the capabilities of microcomputer interactive graphics. Situations involving cratering end bench blasting are simulated, and both jointed and intact rocks can be subjected to explosive action, taking into consideration its breakage mechanisms. Size analysis curves relating rock distribution before and after the blasts are determined and compared with field data.

Jan 1, 1984