Search Documents

The lignite deposits of the United States represent a huge potential source of fuel for power generation. It has been estimated that lignite constitutes about 24 percent of the remaining National reserves of solid fuel on a tonnage basis and about 15 percent of the reserves on a B.t.u. basis. (See sec. 3, part 1.) The major portion of these reserves is in North Dakota. Lignite has been used locally for domestic heating since the first settlers burned it at forts and fur-trading posts as early as 1855. Some of the first studies of the use of lignite in steam boilers were conducted by the Federal Bureau of Mines from 1910 to 1920 (15, 19) 1/ However, the commercial utilization of lignite as fuel for producing power developed slowly. Not until about 1925 was any really successful lignite industrial fuel-blaming equipment developed. Since then the commercial use of lignite as a fuel for producing power has been increasing steadily.

Jan 1, 1954

By Charles F. Jackson

Gold mining is a subject that not only appeals to the popular imagination but has vital importance to the world's economic structure. However, a discussion of the use of gold as a medium of exchange, and a basis for credit between nations and for monetary systems is not within the scope of this paper. The importance of gold in carrying on the commerce of the world, the present supply and rate of production, the probable trend of future production, the probable future requirements, and related subjects have recently received much attention from bankers and economists, and many articles on these subjects have been published. During slack periods of base-metal production due to falling prices, accompanied by scaling down of base-metal mining operations and often by the closing down of at least some mines, there usually result revival of interest in gold mining, search for previously undiscovered deposits, and reopening of some old gold mines.

Jan 1, 1932

By W. R. Crane

Mining of the red iron ores of the Birmingham district, Alabama, has _gone on energetically for the past 50 years and has created a large iron and steel manufacturing center, the only important one in the South. The district produces about 10 per cent of all the iron ore mined in the United States and 80 per cent of the Alabama output is red ore ; moreover 43 of the 419 blast furnaces of the country are in the district tributary to Birmingham and produce 7 per cent of the pig-iron output. The rapid growth of the district has been made possible by investigations that have led to radical changes in furnace practice; studies of methods by which the low-grade, highsilica ores may be treated by concentration 1 will give still greater impetus to development. The· mode of occurrence of the ore has made mining practice comparatively simple, but with the rapid extension of the workings underground and the disturbed condition of the ore bed some distance from the outcrop, conditions tend to become more difficult. Stoping, handling, support, drainage, and ventilation are all affected, sometimes favorably and sometimes adversely, by the extended workings and increased depth of cover. Should beneficiatioil make available the high-silica ores of the lower bench of the Big Seam, mining practice must necessarily be adapted to the new conditions and will be rendered more difficult as the weight of cover increases at long distances from the outcrop. The support of workings will require more attention as the weight of cover increases, and the efficient and economical operation of the mines will depend largely upon improvements in mining and handling the ore.

Jan 1, 1927

By Benjamin Moore

AT present the demands of the United States for strontium are met by imports from Germany, England and Canada, which vary considerably in proportions of ore and finished salts, in tonnage and in value. Statistics for the period 1926-1932 are given in Table 1. Domestic deposits are TABLE 1.-Strontium Imported into the United States, 1926-1932° Ore Chemicals Year Short Tons Value Pounds Value 1926 2,200 $58,159 5,433,044 $115,436 1927 1,356 58,711 4,233,816 149,383 1928 759 31,157 3,380,464 136,561 1929 973 45,505 4,578,327 196,233 1930 220 10,459 2,153,788 104,807 1931 (260 lbs.) 123 1,742,714 83,564 1932 5 276 469,481 20,910 a Mineral Industry (1934) 42, 61. known in many states, but the larger and purer ones are in the West, particularly in the desert region of southeastern California and western Arizona. These deposits are large enough to command interest, par-ticularly in consideration of future cheap power at the Boulder Dam. The deposits described in this paper were examined during an investi¬gation of the, mineral resources of the Boulder Dam region by the United States Geological Survey for the United States Bureau of Reclamation' in the spring of 1934. Mr. D. F. Hewett, who had general charge of the investigation, Mr. W. T. Schaller and Mr. M. I. Goldman contributed many helpful suggestions. Mr. N. H. Harshman assisted efficiently during the field work.

Jan 1, 1935

By A. C. Watts

The question of disposition of the slack and dust so troublesome to coal mine operators of the West has been divided by your committee chairman into three heads, viz: The preparation and transportation of fine and powdered coal. The developments along the line of low heat carbonization. The uses to which fine and pulverized coal have been put. The development of low heat carbonization has been assigned to me. This is really not a part of the subject but as it has a most important bearing on the future use of coal, I presume the chairman thought best to include it. An English committee on smoke abatement makes the statement that the burning of raw coal is "dirty, wasteful and unscientific". I will go a step further and characterize it as an "economic crime." It has been predicted by eminent scientific men that eventually no raw coal will be burned for heat or power purposes. All this will take time, experimentation and large expenditure, but it will surely come. The question of disposition of slack and dust so troublesome to coal and utilization of its by-products has been retarded by the abundance and cheapness of the raw coal, and by the abundance of suitable coking coals for metallurgical purposes. But necessity is surely, if slowly, demanding that the enormous waste ensuing from the burning of raw coal for heat and power must cease. For instance, smoke abatement investigations in Manchester, England, showed that the increased cost of household washing was about $1,250,000 per year due to smoke and soot. It is estimated that in London 200 tons of soot and smoke particles are suspended in the atmosphere over that city during dense fogs and that much more than this is emitted from the chimneys each winter day during the forenoon. As an example of what benefits a smokeless fuel gives, it is cited that in the mill town of Shaw, England, the burning of smokeless fuels in the factories has reduced the so-called fogs by about 80%. Necessity, caused by the war led Germany into the field of low tem¬perature carbonization because of the shortage of motor fuel and lubricating

Jan 1, 1922

By H. J. Struth

The benefits of proration of oil production were perhaps more concretely realized in 1932 than at any time since the oil industry adopted nation-wide production control. Reduced output of crude petroleum, which brought the daily average of the United States down to approximately 2,000,000 bbl. from a peak in 1931 of more than 2,600,000, had a telling effect on the trend of oil prices. Mid-Continent crude was advanced in price from 776, for 36-gravity oil, to $1.04 a barrel. California crude, of 26-gravity at Signal Hill, moved forward from 736 to 976 a barrel. Pennsylvania crude, the only exception to the upward trend, rose in price from $1.82 per barrel to $2.02, only to react to $1.72. This was due to local conditions which necessitated an adjustment to overcome competition from other areas of the United States. East Texas continued to exert a far-reaching influence on the crude and gasoline market during 1932. Despite the fact that oil prices were advanced in most fields, large quantities of oil were produced in East Texas in violation of state proration orders, and sold in the market at prices considerably below official postings. This created competitive conditions in the gasoline market that were felt by all refining centers of the United States. The quantity of gasoline produced from cheap East Texas crude was not large, but the volume was sufficient to influence prices in practically all sections of the country. Thus, while the industry's' economic situation showed visible improvement statistically, the unreported and unseen statistics originating in East Texas proved to be an insurmountable obstacle to the economic betterment that was otherwise apparently justified. Somewhat surprising to many was the fact that gasoline consumption was maintained within 10 per cent of the preceding year. Domestic consumption showed only a net decline under 1931 of about 8.5 per cent; exports dropped in volume to the extent of about 23 per cent. As a matter of fact, domestic gasoline consumption was only about 1.4 per cent less than it was in the predepression year of 1929. Exports, however,

Jan 1, 1933

Forty-three years ago a record for low cost was made at the Spanish mine, in Nevada county, California. In 22 days of September, 1887, there was mined 2796 tons of ore at a cost of 37.5 cents per ton, of which 32.4 cents was for labor and 5.1 cents for supplies. The mill treated this ore for 23 cents per ton, of which 12.3 cents was for labor and 10.7 cents for supplies. Thus the total operating cost was 60.5 cents per ton. The yield was $1.16 in gold per ton, leaving a profit of 56 cents per ton, or 48 per cent of the yield. The mine was an open-cut in a schist formation on a hillside and the work was done by Chinese laborers that were paid $1.40 per shift. The ore was soft, and could be ground effectively in four Hunting- ton mills, supplemented by silvered amalgamating plates.* The engineer in charge was F. W. Bradley, a student from the University of California. As has been indicated, the conditions were unusually favorable in respect of softness of ore, accessibility to the mill, metallurgic simplicity, with cheap labor and power, but even at that the results were so remark- able as to attract general attention, which, as might be expected, was magnified, for advertising purposes, by the manufacturers of the Huntington mill, the firm of Parke & Lacy, at San Francisco. The record made at the Spanish mine therefore found its way into many textbooks on mining published at that time. The editor of the 'Mining and Scientific Press'† (at that date, Charles G. Yale) evidently took a warm interest in. the

Jan 1, 1932

By Francis C. Frary

OF the five metals that now show the highest figures for annual tonnage production in the world, three (iron, copper, and lead) have been known and used by man for many thousands of years. The fourth (zinc) did not come into general use until the Middle Ages. Only the fifth (aluminum) is of, ultramodern origin, as far as mankind is concerned. Discovered in 1825, and first publicly exhibited at the Paris Exposition in 1855, aluminum was still so difficult to obtain that it was more expensive than silver, until the development of the dynamo provided cheap electricity and the development of the present electrolytic process for its production made it possible to make large quantities cheaply. Even today, the world production of aluminum is only about one per cent of the world production of iron, although about half that of copper by weight. The increase in production from a few tons to more than a million tons per year began with ,the development of the Hall-Héroult electrolytic process, which was first commercially operated by Mr. Hall's company, The Pittsburgh Reduction Co., in 1888. During the relatively short period of time that has elapsed since that date, it has been necessary to develop all the metallurgical and fabricating information required for the production of useful articles of the metal and its alloys, together with experience in both their production and their use, so as to be able to fit them satisfactorily into their proper places in our complex modern civilization. The fundamental properties upon which the usefulness of aluminum depends are its lightness, workability, resistance to corrosion,

Jan 1, 1953

By C. A. Stetefeldt

In May and June, 1885, I was engaged in examining the goldores of Las Minas, in the State of Vera Cruz, Mexico, with a view of finding a cheap and efficient method for extracting the gold. The following minerals could be plainly seen in the ore : magnetite, pyrites of iron, pyrites of' copper, quartz, and garnet. Neither galena nor zinc-hlende mere visible, but the ore contained a trace of lead, and in some samples of ore from the Muertos mine, 1.19 per cent. of zinc mas found. Antimony and arsenic were not present. Native gold could scarcely be seen in specimens of' the ore, and it only appeared—mainly in extremely fine particles—after pulverizing and washing. Magnetite was in every instance the most prominent mineral, its quantity varying between 43 and 67 per cent. Determinations of copper and sulphur showed that from 3.5 to 7 per cent. pyrites of copper, and from 3 to 22 per cent. pyrites of iron were present. The gold-value of the ore varied between 0.3 oz. and 0.8 oz. per ton. I do not speak of specimens, but of average samples of large quantities of ore put through the battery. In ore that had been crushed through a No. 40 screen, the gold appeared, in part, as free gold, the rest being thoroughly mixed with the magnetite and pyrites, both minerals containing about the same percentage of gold. If this free gold was brought in contact with pure quicksilver it (lid not amalgamate readily, even if the quicksilver was charged with sodium amalgam.

Jan 1, 1886

By John C. McDonald

The amount of published literature in the field of mechanical properties of magnesium alloys is not great; particularly with respect to rolled alloys. Haughton and Prytherchl have summarized most of the articles to 1937, including their own work on sheet. Although many papers can be found dealing with the technology of magnesium and the alloys now in commercial use, there does not seem to be any work dealing exclusively with the variation in properties of rolled alloys as caused by changes in alloy composition. Comparison of published data reveals considerable discrepancies in properties of alloys of the same composition, probably due to differences in the details of working and heat-treating followed by different workers. The purpose of this paper is to study the properties of alloys in conditions where the effects of such differences have been eliminated. It is well known that the strength and ductility of metals are functions of the working and heat-treating they have received, as well as of their chemical composition. In comparing alloys with respect to these properties, therefore, all possible combinations of the variables of the fabrication procedure ought to be carried out on each alloy. One or more of these treatments mill produce the highest ductility, or strength, or both. These highest properties would then be selected as characteristic of each alloy, and alloys would be compared on the basis of those properties. Thus a separation of the effect of composition and that of workiiig and heat-treating would be achieved. In this paper, however, a compromise with completeness has been made by carrying out a restricted number of treatments. As a consequence, the properties obtained are not necessarily the best that the alloy is capable of exhibiting; but since all alloy3 have been treated by the same method, the results ought to be comparable. The elements selected for the study comprise a class that will alloy easily with magnesium, and that are reblatively cheap. Each was added in different amounts, up to a limit that varied with the element.

Jan 1, 1940

By W. P. Shinn

In a paper contributed by W. A. Goodyear, M.E., on "Water Gas as Fuel," read at the Boston Meeting, February, 1883,* the following statenlent was made: "The latest experiments on a scale of some magnitude in our citier, in the way of heating buildings and furnishing power for manufacturing purposes, have been by the distribution of high-presslire steam through pipes laid in the streets. Hilt these experiments (1) have not hitherto been very successful; and when we consider the high cost and (2) the great and unavoidable loss of heat and power, which always accompany the conveyance of high-pressnre steam to any considerable distance in pipes, to say nothing of (3) certain practical difficulties in the management of the pipes themselves, (4) it is evident that all such methods must eventually disappear before a system which can furnish a cheap gas of great heating power, easily distributed wherever wanted, without requiring pipes to stand pressures of 50 to 75 pounds per square inch, and (5) without keeping the whole mass of ground in the streets through which it passes hot, gratis, for a distance of ten or fifteen feet, in all directions around the pipes!' For the purpose of controverting Mr. Goodyear's statements in regard to steam-distribution in cities, I hare numbered the points made in his indictment, my principal object being, not a professional discussion of the technical and theoretical merits of steam vs. watergas, but a simple statement of facts, in regard to the present state of the street system of steam distribntion. Taking Mr. Goodyear's points in their order: 1. Concerning what he terms " These experiments," saying that they " have not hitherto been very successful," I propose to show, that the problem of stearn-distribution has passed beyond the experimental stage, and that its practical solution is highly successful. This will be shown by the facts hereinafter fully set forth. 2. "The great and unavoidable loss of heat and power whicn always accompany the conveyance of high-pressure steam to any con-

Jan 1, 1884

By Rossiter W. Raymond

By the courtesy of Mr. Charles W. Jenks, of Boston, one of the owners of this interesting mine, I am enabled to lay before the Institute a suite of specimehs, illustrating its peculiar formation and the paragenesis of mineral species which it presents; and a recent brief visit and rapid reconnoissance of the locality permit me to supplement this exhibition with a general description, based upon personal observation. The mine is situated upon the Culsagee Fork of the Tennessee River, in Macon County, North Carolina, a few miles from Franklin. The most practicable route by which it can at present be visited is by wagon (or preferably on horseback) from Seneca City, S. C., a station on the Charlotte and Atlanta Air Line Railroad. The itinerary is as follows: to Walhalla,* nine miles; Walhalla to Highlands, twenty-nine miles; Highlands to the Culsagee, fourteen miles. By passing the night at or near Highlands, the mine can be reached and examined and the return to Highlands made on the second day; and the round trip, if performed in the saddle, can be completed in three days from Seneca City. It is not easy, with due regard to steed and rider, to do it in less time. The rough and precipitous mountain roads do not permit rapid travel; and the journey is at best a fatiguing one. But its slight hardships are overpaid by the stimulating effect of the climate and the great beauty of the scenery, both of which are destined to become more widely known than at present, to seekers for health and pleasure. Indeed the town of Highlands, already named, is almost entirely made up of northern immigrants, attracted by these advantages and by the inducement of cheap land for agriculture and stock-raising. The Culsagee or Sugartown fork of the Tennessee traverses the belt of ancient crystalline schists on the west flank of the Blue Ridge. This belt abounds in valuable minerals. Among those of the nonmetallic class may be mentioned graphite, soapstone, serpentine, asbes-

Jan 1, 1879

By John C. McDonald

The amount of published literature in the field of mechanical properties of magnesium alloys is not great; particularly with respect to rolled alloys. Haughton and Prytherchl have summarized most of the articles to 1937, including their own work on sheet. Although many papers can be found dealing with the technology of magnesium and the alloys now in commercial use, there does not seem to be any work dealing exclusively with the variation in properties of rolled alloys as caused by changes in alloy composition. Comparison of published data reveals considerable discrepancies in properties of alloys of the same composition, probably due to differences in the details of working and heat-treating followed by different workers. The purpose of this paper is to study the properties of alloys in conditions where the effects of such differences have been eliminated. It is well known that the strength and ductility of metals are functions of the working and heat-treating they have received, as well as of their chemical composition. In comparing alloys with respect to these properties, therefore, all possible combinations of the variables of the fabrication procedure ought to be carried out on each alloy. One or more of these treatments mill produce the highest ductility, or strength, or both. These highest properties would then be selected as characteristic of each alloy, and alloys would be compared on the basis of those properties. Thus a separation of the effect of composition and that of workiiig and heat-treating would be achieved. In this paper, however, a compromise with completeness has been made by carrying out a restricted number of treatments. As a consequence, the properties obtained are not necessarily the best that the alloy is capable of exhibiting; but since all alloy3 have been treated by the same method, the results ought to be comparable. The elements selected for the study comprise a class that will alloy easily with magnesium, and that are reblatively cheap. Each was added in different amounts, up to a limit that varied with the element.

Jan 1, 1940

By Rossiter W. Raymond

In the course of this address, President Raymond referred to the law, said to have been discovered at the French works of Terrenoire, that the amount of phosphorus may be increased without injury to steel, if the amount of carbon be proportionately decreased. The works named have been for more than a year, it is said, manufacturing in the open hearth, by the Martin process, steel rails containing as high as 0.35 per cent. of phosphorus, with about 0.15 per cent. of carbon, which were not found inferior to Bessemer rails. It is not claimed by the manager of the works that phosphorus is an ingredient to be preferred, or purposely introduced; but only that materials containing it (such as old iron rails, etc.), can be succesfully employed. Other parties have apparently a higher opinion still of the new manipulation, and are prepared to claim for " phosphorus steel" superior qualities. Mr. I. Lowthian Bell alluded to the subject in his recent address as President of the British Iron and Steel Institute, but without expressing a positive opinion. After pointing out that the commercial value of the process turned on the cheap manufacture of ferro-manganese, by means of which only could the necessary amount of manganese be introduced into the Martin bath, without increasing its contents of carbon, Mr. Raymond proceeded to say that the principle alleged to have been discovered at Terrenoire was already known years ago, in this country, at least. Not only had steel been manufactured here, containing high percentages of phosphorus, coupled with low percentages of carbon, and suitable for use in rails, boiler-plates, etc., but the reason of its surprising qualities had been distinctly surmised, if not widely proclaimed. The following analyses and extracts from private letters prove these assertions. Some of them assert a similar principle in .the case of wrought iron; but the analyses, and the remarks based upon them, have reference solely to the steel manufactured under the superintendence of Mr. Slade, at the works of the New Jersey Steel and Iron Company in Trenton.

By Rossiter W. Ph. D. Raymond

(From the President's Address at St. Louis, 1874.) IN the course of this address, President Raymond referred to the law, said to have been discovered at the French works of Terrenoire, that the amount of phosphorus may be increased without injury to steel, if the amount of carbon be proportionately decreased. The works named have been for more than a year, it is said, manufacturing in the open hearth, by the Martin process, steel rails containing as high as 0.35 per cent. of phosphorus, with about 0.15 per cent. of carbon, which were not found inferior to Bessemer rails. It is not claimed by the manager of the works that phosphorus is an ingredient to be preferred, or purposely introduced; but only that materials containing it (such as old iron rails, etc.), can be succesfully employed. Other parties have apparently a higher opinion still of the new manipulation, and are prepared to claim for "phosphorus steel" superior qualities. Mr. I. Lowthian Bell alluded to the subject in his recent address as President of the British Iron and Steel Institute, but without expressing a positive opinion. After pointing out that the commercial value of the process turned on the cheap manufacture of ferro-manganese, by means of which only could the necessary amount of manganese be introduced into the Martin bath, without increasing its contents of carbon, Mr. Raymond proceeded to say that the principle alleged to have been discovered at Terrenoire was already known years ago, in this country, at least. Not only had steel been manufactured here, containing high percentages of phosphorus, coupled with low percentages of carbon, and suitable for use in rails, boiler-plates, etc., but the reason of its surprising qualities had been distinctly surmised, if not widely proclaimed. The following analyses and extracts from private letters prove these assertions. Some of them assert a similar principle in -the case of wrought iron ; but the analyses, and the remarks based upon them, have reference solely to the steel manufactured under the superintendence of Mr. Slade, at the works of the New Jersey Steel and Iron Company in Trenton.

Jan 1, 1875

THE distinction btween price reduction as a re-sult of lowering of production cost and price re-duction through unrestricted competition cannot be made too clear, because they are often interwoven in actual experience. Take the whole population of a town whose principal industry is shoe manufacturing as a concrete example. If the manufacturer is able to cut his price per pair in half because he has found out how to make a pair at half the cost, he will com-monly let a number of his men go, because reduction in production cost usually results from substituting cheap mechanical energy for expensive human energy. These people will normally find other employment. The workmen who remain employed usually earn more in dollars than they did before, and in spending it give employment where there was less before. Mining companies that initiate considerable enter-prises in foreign lands where the economic level is low, and where most of the people are busily but in-efficiently engaged in raising enough food to support themselves and their families, often find themselves confronted with an acute labor problem. If any con-siderable number of workers leave the land to work in and about the mines, those left on the land cannot raise enough food to keep them all unless they are taught better methods of agriculture and provided with equipment that will enable them to produce more with less expenditure of effort. Add to this the fact that managers commonly find that the "natives," as our British cousins designate them, usually need more food and a better balanced diet than they have been accustomed to in order to show anything above the lowest order of efficiency in industrial work,. and it is clear that to make a new industry possible in what may be termed an economic province involves increas-ing the productivity, not only of those who are em-ployed in it, but of the whole social group. It has already been pointed out that the employ-ment of large numbers of men in automobile manu-facture is only possible because the others have in-creased their productivity enough to turn out every-thing else that is needed without the help of the auto-mobile workers.

Jan 7, 1928

THE great event in American affairs was the sudden death of President Harding, on Aug. 2, in San Francisco. A few hours later Vice-Presi¬ dent Coolidge took the oath of office while in his father's farmhouse in Vermont and forthwith proceeded to Washington as the 30th president of the United States. The French and Belgian governments' replied to the British refusing the proposed discussion of the German offer and declaring that they would pursue their policy in the Ruhr until the German government abandoned its resistance and surrendered unconditionally. The economic collapse of Germany .appears to be nigh. Chancellor Cuno and his cabinet resigned the govern-ment of Germany on August 12, and Gustav Strese-mann, head of the People's party, accepted the task of forming a four-party coalition government. Coinci-dentally, there were food riots throughout Germany, and many persons were killed and wounded. The , National Assembly of the Turks at Angora ratified the Lausanne treaty, in the latter part of August, whereupon the retirement of the military forces of the Allies from Constantinople and the Straits began. Thus, Turkey was fully reinstated as a European power. The Greek government also ratified the Lausanne treaty and commenced to put its army on a peace basis. The number of unemployed persons in Great Britain is again increasing, which is causing much concern. The flood of crude oil and gasoline, which is severely taxing storage capacity, had its natural economic effect. Some small refiners were constrained to liqui-date in distress. The Governor of North Dakota, having acquired a supply of such cheap gasoline, insti-tuted a drastic cut in price, deliberately egging on the big refiners to do likewise. The Standard Oil Co. of Indiana accepted the challenge with enthusiasm, say-ing that it had always been its policy to sell as cheaply as any competitor. There was a humor in this situation which paved the way for the Standard to extinguish its small competitors and do by invitation of the State exactly what the muck-rakers had always charged as its greatest crime. The gasoline war spread to other states and reductions in price were made even on the seaboards. All of this was purely economic.

Jan 8, 1923

By Florian Aurelian, Mihai Popescu

"It will be tested four types of “geochemical barriers”. All those mixtures were contacted with mine waters containing uranium, radium and heavy metals. The loading capacity was determined. The optimum mixture was determined and its efficiency was tested within an uranium areal, where the activity was stopped. It was determined the possibility to recover the radioactive elements and the heavy metals from the investigated barriers.IntroductionThe paper presents the results concerning the performances of some “geochemical barriers” used for the decontamination of mine waters from uranium mining sites, which were tested in lab and in situ.ExperimentalThe research activity was carried out in lab and on the site.In the lab a module was constructed in order to follow up the uptake capacity of the “permeable reactive geochemical barriers” used to remove the radiolelements from the contaminated waters originated from the uranium mining industry. The barriers, which were used, are made of cheap natural materials, which can be easily got (wood chips, peat coal, sawdust, iron span, steel and zeolitic tuff). The following types of barriers were tested:•, 1st barrier: peat coal, sawdust, zeolite on weight ratio of 1/1/1;•, 2nd barrier: bentonite, sand, wood chips, peat coal on weight ratio of 1/1/1/1;•, 3rd barrier: iron span, steel, sawdust, peat coal on weight ratio of 2/1/1;•, 4th barrier: iron span, steel, sand, firry wood chips on weight ratio of 1/1/1.Lab researches concerning the uranium uptake capacity of the above described “reactive barriers” pointed out that the 3rd mixture (iron span, steel, sawdust, peat coal on a ratio of 2/1/1) didn’t reach the maximum uranium uptake capacity not even after eleven contact stages (the uptake capacity being of 70.6 mg U/ kg of mixture) and the mixture of peat coal, sawdust and zeolite has an uranium uptake capacity of 26.6 mg U/kg of mixture and becomes saturated after four contact stages.Each one of the components involved in physical-chemical processes of sorption, reduction and precipitation, will determine the diminution of uranium and other metals contents upstream the permeable reactive barrier."

Jan 1, 2008

By W. M. Myers

[The principle of the application of electrolytes for deflocculation of fine materials in order that impurities may settle out, and the subsequent flocculation of the suspended particles by a different reagent, is well known and has been applied successfully to clays. Flocculation is also applied with success to ore slimes. Thus certain electrolytes, particularly alkalies added to a suspension of colloidal particles cause deflocculation so that, suspension may be-maintained indefinitely. The addition of bother electrolytes particularly acids, on the contrary produce's flocculation and the articles produce's are rapidly precipitated from suspension leaving a clear liquid above: the precipitated mass. Salts of trivalent elements such as aluminum act similarly. Due to its cheapness the double sulphate of aluminum and potassium, ordinary alum, has been used extensively for treating clays. These properties of electrolytes. and. their utilization in the commercial: preparation of clays have been described in publications of the Bureau of Mines.2]

Jan 1, 1927

By P. Lloyd

Perceptions of disaster caused by burning fossil fuels have reached such a pitch that they seriously threaten the very future of the industry. Coal is a dirty word. A leader in Business Day(January 192009) claimed ?There is no disputing that renewable and non-polluting energy sources are preferable to the country?the true cost of so-called cheap coal-fired power stations is neither reflected nor accounted for by Eskom?the true and immediate but unacknowledged cost of continued coal mining is apparent in the catastrophic level of acidification from mining runoff of all significant natural water resources in the country?and their waters have been rendered unfit for human consumption. Air quality is in a similar state with?increases in pulmonary disease causing workforce absenteeism and compromised childhood development, among many other health problems recorded in areas polluted by coal mining.? The upshot is that our latest coal-fired power station, Kusile, is being required to use flue gas desulphurization. The costs are considerable, and the benefits minimal. Meanwhile, exports are being threatened by EU directives and an assumption that South African coal gives off excessive quantities of SOx and NOx when burned. The industry needs to arm itself with clear responses to these and similar misconceptions, and to communicate those responses loudly and clearly, if it is to survive.

Jan 1, 2011