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By George E. Erdman

Gouverneur Talc Co. had sought an effective means of depicting its mine at Balmat, N. Y. since it commenced operations in 1947. After considerable research the engineering department settled on the idea of a model made of plexiglas at a scale of 1 in. to 50 ft. The solid portion of this model represents the actual underground excavations. Talc is mined from two metamorphic tremolite-talc orebodies which are part of a complex fold system in this region. In the mine, stopes are laid out in panels and developed into openings 50 ft wide, 10 to 80 ft high, and perhaps 200 ft in length. Pillars usually approximate 30 ft in width. All present mining operations are contained within a block 2000 ft long, 1700 ft wide, and 1500 ft thick.

Jan 11, 1960

By Willard Ide Pierce

The Department (formerly called State) of Tolima, which is beginning to attract considerable attention in this country on account of its mineral wealth, comprises an area of 18,415 square miles, lying between latitude 1" 34' 25" and 5" 44' 12/" N. and between longitude 74" 25' 45" and 76" 34, 25" W. from Greenwich. It is bounded on the north by the Department of Antioquia, on the east by the Departments of Cundinnmarca and Cauca, and on the south and west by the Department of Cauca. It is the most recently created of the States of Colombia, having been established by decree of April 12th, 1861, and being composed of the old provinces of Mariquita and Neiva, and of the districts Melgar, Carmen, Cunday and Santa Rosa, of Tequendama.

Jan 1, 1888

By C. M. Loeb, A. M. Gaudin, J. H. Brown

R. E. Carter (General Research Laboratory, Schenec-tady, N. Y.)—Brown, Gaudin, and Loeb in their study of intergranular comminution by heating attempt to find one explanation for all types of rock in terms of the properties of the phases present. The only necessary condition for intergranular cracking by heating is the setting up of high stresses at the grain boundaries. Such stresses may be set up in multiphase isotropic mixtures if the thermal expansions of the phases are different, in non-cubic single phases because of the anisotropy of thermal expansion in the various crys-tallographic directions, and in materials containing quartz because of the a-p' transformation at 575°C. In addition, for intergranular comminution by heating, the cooling and not the heating is most important.

Jan 1, 1960

By Frederic E. Carter

THERE have been many attempts to prove that platinum was known to the ancients, but since no traces of the metal have been found in the relics of early times, it must be concluded that it was not known to them. As far as records go, it was actually first discovered in the 16th century in a Spanish mine on the Pinto River in South America; from which source it received its name of Platina del Pinto (little silver from the Pinto). It was more or less of a rarity and was a subject of interest to a few chemists only, until the year 1822 when the metal was first discovered in Russia. In 1819 there were noticed in the washings of the gold sands of the southern part of the Ural Mountains, grains of a heavy white substance, but it was not until three years later that this substance was found to contain platinum. While at first the amounts of platinum brought from the Urals were meager, prospecting soon disclosed rich deposits extending over a considerable area, and nuggets from 10 to 20 lb. were by no means rare. This discovery assured to chemists an ample supply of platinum for their crucibles, etc. The ore is now found in various parts of the world but the richest deposits are still found in the Ural Mountains. The platinum of commerce is obtained entirely from alluvial deposits at depths varying from 6 to 40 ft. The sand and gravel of former river beds are subjected to a series of screenings and washings to effect the separation of the ore. Actually, probably all gold-bearing gravel beds of the world contain platinum, and it is more than likely that large quantities of platinum ore have been thrown away with the black sand washings from gold placer deposits. This is especially true of the alluvial deposits of the Pacific Coast in California and Oregon. Platinum ore is usually found in the form of rounded or flattened grains of "sand," and occasionally in irregular lumps of the size of peas. Large nuggets are very rare. The ore has a metallic luster and is distinguished by its steel gray color, but shows light gray streak when rubbed on a hard white surface; it has a high specific gravity, 16 to 19; is infusible in the hottest blast furnaces, and insoluble in any single acid. Platinum ore is a complex body consisting of the metal in combination with varying proportions of the other members of the platinum group; iridium,

Jan 1, 1928

By AIME

Rapid exhaustion of iron ore in Minnesota's Mesabi range has led the Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp. to develop the world's largest open quarry mine for magnetite iron ore, at Star Lake, N. Y. Already contributing more than one eighth of the total iron ore used by the Corporation, the expanding Benson mines are destined to become Jones & Laughlin's important source of ore within the next ten years. In 1947 over 650,000 long tons of high-grade ore was produced. Output this year is expected to reach 800,000 long tons and studies are under way to increase production further. The future of the Benson mines is assured as present indications show large reserves of ore. The property, briefly described in M & M for November 1943, then under

Jan 1, 1948

By A. S. Richardson

AIR conditioning, or air cooling, for the improvement of ventilation in the Butte mines has come into increasing use during the past 10 years. In part, the methods practiced have been described in previous publications of the Institute, but some improvements on earlier methods have been made and a number of new features have been developed. This paper is presented as a record of progress made, and for the sake of completeness describes all general features of the work. The need for air conditioning in the ventilation of mines in the district arises from the fact that the temperature of the ground and mine water has shown a very great increase with increase in mining depth, and has now reached a maximum of slightly over 130°F. The most difficult part of the ventilation problem is the maintenance of temperature and humidity of a satisfactory standard in the working places, especially on the lower levels. Although ordinary ventilation is adequate to maintain good conditions in most of the working places it is subject to a number of limitations at great depth. Most important among these limitations is that with increase in depth the air becomes heated before it reaches the working places, both by compression from increase in atmospheric pressure and by heat transferred to it from rock at high temperature, so that its capacity for lowering temperatures is greatly reduced before it reaches the operating zone. Increasing depth of mining also increases the distance traveled by the air in its passage through the mine, and this causes a corresponding increase in resistance to air flow, so that there is greater difficulty in maintaining even the same volume in circulation. Thus, in the face of a demand that the ventilating system have a very much greater capacity to remove heat from the mine, the tendency is for that capacity to diminish. The only evident alternatives were (I) the opening of additional air shafts to increase the volume of air in circulation, (2) an extension of the existing system that would be subject to the same limitations, or (3) the adoption of an entirely different method such as air cooling. Fortunately for an economic solution of the problem, the mean annual temperature of the surface atmosphere at Butte is about 40°F., with very low relative humidity in summer, so that there is unlimited natural cooling power at a temperature range adaptable to air-conditioning methods. METHODS Two similar methods of air conditioning are used, as necessitated by service requirements and dependent upon the equipment available. In one, which is the more important and has the greater cooling capacity, water is circulated in a closed circuit, and, alternately, first absorbs heat from warm mine air and then dissipates it in the surface atmosphere by cooling at a cooling tower. The second

Jan 1, 1941

By J. B. Morrow

AMONG the most notable of Canada's many contributions to the personnel of the mining industry in the United States is J. B. Morrow, born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, April 9, 1886. Soon after completing his schooling at Dalhousie University in 1906 he emigrated to Arizona and Kew Mexico, via Cobalt and Larder Lake, Ontario. After preliminary experience in sampling and mucking he was employed by the Phelps Dodge Corp., first as chemist at the Copper Queen smelter, then, in 1908, with the Corporation's Stag Canyon coal branch at Dawson, N. M., in various capacities fro111 chemist to coke oven and coke department superintendent, and finally as general outside superintendent. While with Phelps he had some contact with the late Dr. Douglas, of whose industrial methods he has always been a great admirer.

Jan 1, 1937

A. A. Almstrom is mill superintendent for Barrue Mines, Barraute, Quebec. Frank A. Ayer, vice president of Copper Range Co., who has been in charge of the development and bringing into production of White Pine orebody in northern Michigan, has resigned. E. G. Bailey and H. S. Mudd were made honorary members of the American Society of Civil Engineers. Lee Bilheimer, graduate of Missouri School of Mines, has been employed as assistant mine captain at the Edwards, N. Y., div. of the St. Joseph Lead Co. Douglas C. Blackwell, recently graduated from the South Dakota School of Mines, is now with the Oliver Iron Mining Co. of Duluth, Minn. Joseph F. Brown has joined the Grand Junction Exploration Branch of the United States Atomic Energy Commission as a geologist.

Jan 1, 1952

By Dr. O’Neil Thomas J., Donald W. Gentry

There are mines that make us happy, There are mines that make us blue, There are mines that steal away the tear-drops As the sunbeams steal away the dew. There are mines that have lost the ore chute faulted, When the ore's forever lost to view, But the mines that fill my heart with sunshine, Are the mines that I sold to you. -Anonymous INTRODUCTION The preceding chapters have discussed, in various degrees of detail, the primary considerations necessary to perform a cash flow analysis of a mining-related investment opportunity. Although the previous discussions regarding the manipulations, calculations, and interrelationships of the various components of the pro forma income statement were illustrated in the text, many individuals are un- familiar with the format and appearance of a final spread sheet for the evaluation of a mining property. As a result, it seems appropriate to conclude this book with an abbreviated case study of an actual mine property (currently in production) showing the cash flow analysis and some back-up data. Obviously all of the supporting data and calculations for the case study presented cannot be provided; however, reference is made to the major assumptions utilized and to the appropriate procedures employed in the calculations, as described elsewhere in the text. The problem associated with using any case study for illustrative purposes is that one tends to be overwhelmed by detail. For instance, specific costs, prices, expenditure timings, and other variable values may be challenged because they either do not conform to one's expectations or are not consistent with specific operating experiences. When this occurs the instructional value of the problem becomes obscured. The purpose of most case studies, and particularly the one presented in this chapter, is to expose the student to the methodology, procedure, and format associated with performing a cash flow analysis of a mining property. It is not to laboriously wade through the specific details associated with operating and capital cost development, mine plans, or equipment schedules. It should be noted, how- ever, that the values represented in this case study result from specific mine plans, operating procedures, equipment spreads, manpower requirements, and other en-

Jan 1, 1984

American Zinc Institute, 60 East 42nd St , New York, N Y. Julian D. Conover, Secretary The monthly Journal of the American Zinc Institute contains papers on zinc deposits, mining and metallurgy of zinc, as well as affairs of the Institute, statistics, and many papers on phases of the utilization of zinc It has the title "Zn " The numbers for each year are collected as volumes for that year, the first volume was issued in 1918, and the latest complete volume available is Vol 12 (1929) Copies of Indexes to the volumes will be sent upon request Back numbers of the Journal are not generally available for distribution but may be seen in most libraries For further information regarding papers, back numbers of the Journal, or volumes, address the Secretary

Jan 1, 1933

By L. W. Pommier, L. R. Plitt, F. B. Brien

L. R. Plitt (Assistant Professor of Mining and Metallurgy, University of Alberta, Canada.) — It is indeed encouraging to see rheological studies being carried out in a mineral engineering school. The bulk of the work being done today in applied rheology seems to be concerned with the behavior of polymeric solutions and thus has limited application to the solid-liquid systems encountered in mineral beneficiation. The authors have approached the problem by carrying out a dimensional analysis which showed that for power law fluids the drag coefficient, Ds, must be some function of a generalized Reynolds number which has the form: If the power law adequately describes the behavior of a fluid, the dimensional analyses predicts that the Ds - RN function should hold for all values of n' or any other dependent variable. The experimental evi-

Jan 1, 1968

By Walter Harvey Weed

CONTENTS. [ ] INTRODUCTION. THIS paper deals with certain ore-deposits whose structural features or mineral contents (or both) result, directly or indirectly, from igneous intrusions and their after-effects. It is largely a discussion of contact metamorphic ore-deposits based upon the physical changes in rocks due to contact action. It involves a classification of ore-deposits only so far as is abso-

Jan 1, 1913

By J. E. Howard

On Aug. 25, 1911, a rail failed on the Lehigh Valley Railroad, causing a disastrous wreck. The surface of the fracture was in a plane at right angles to the length of the rail. There was a dark-colored, oval spot on this surface, located on the gage side of the head, representing the part of the rail which was the first to fracture. The nucleus of this spot showed that the fracture had an interior origin. Other fractures of this kind, the peripheries of which had not reached the surface of the rail, presented surfaces having a (silvery luster. The darkened surface of the present fracture was caused, doubtless, by the air having had access to it. This fracture was recognized as a fatigue fracture, of a modified type, its interior origin having been due to a component in the rail which is not usually present in cases of fatigue fractures. The metal next the running surface of the head of the rail was in a state of internal compression, this being the component not commonly met with in other cases, and which caused the fracture to have its interior origin. For the purpose of giving this modified type of fatigue fracture a specific name, for identification, the term "transverse fissure" was applied. No mystery was thought to attach to its formation, or to its development. The explanation of its occurrence seemed obvious in the light of common knowledge upon the behavior of steel under repeated alternate stresses.' By reason of the state of internal compression at the running surface, the maximum tensile stresses in the head, ander bending loads, were along an interior element. Here the tensile strains were higher than in the fibers more remote from the neutral axis. Under such conditions the fracture of the rail would be expected to have an interior origin. A discussion of the subject of transverse fissures essentially becomes a discussion of fatigue fractures, since they are believed to be identical. The descriptive term employed, merely for the identification of this type of fatigue fracture, had the appearance of creating alarm. Apprehensions arose that a new phenomenon in the physical properties of steel had presented itself, the explanation of which was sought in every

Jan 1, 1918

Philip Argall, Denver, Colo. (communication to the Secretary) : Mr. Rickard expresses regret that I have not given more extracts " from the fresh leaves of nature's open book." The quotations used by me in argument were all from nature's open book, and by authorities recognized in the scientific world as being able to decipher nature's unwritten pages, if not lay bare her inmost secrets. The study of -nature should be preceded by a knowledge of her laws. Natural science is but the summary of the observations of the past or an organized and accurate knowledge of the order in which things have been observed to happen. One who ignores the 'knowledge of the past or despises that of the present and approaches nature's open book with a virgin mind but too often finds her

Jan 1, 1895

By A. T. Miesch, L. B. Riley

An error occurred in the preparation of Fig. 3, p. 249, of Basic Statistical Measures Used in Geo-chemical Investigations of Colorado Plateau Uranium Deposits. This figure shows the relation of the arithmetic mean: geometric mean ratio to the geometric deviation. Curves for the cases where n, the number of samples, is 100, 10, and 5 are too high with respect to the ordinate. The error is negligible at low geometric deviations, but becomes increasingly greater wi,th higher values of geometric deviation. Arithmetric mean values in Table I1 are not effected by the errors in Fig. 3. The authors will endeavor to supply copies of the revised curves on request; write to: A. T. Miesch, Geologist, Branch of Radioactive Materials, U.S. Geological Survey, Bldg. 25, Federal Center, Denver 25, Colo.

Jan 1, 1962

CHARLES G. ROEBLING Charles Gustavus Roebling, president of the John A. Roebling's Sons' Co., of Trenton and Roebling, N. J., and of the New Jersey Wire Cloth Co., of Trenton, and vice-president of the John A. Roebling's Sons' Co., of New York, died at his home, No. 333 West State Street, Trenton, on Oct. 5, 1918. Mr. Roebling, who was born in Trenton, was a son of the John A. Roebling who finished the plans for the Brooklyn Bridge just before he died. The bridge was completed by his sons, Charles G. Roebling and Col. Washington A. Roebling. Upon graduation from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1871, Charles Roebling became associated with the Roebling company as a mechanical engineer. He was engineer and builder of the suspension

Jan 12, 1918

By H. J. R. Way

THE work to be described was undertaken at various periods from 1937 to 1939 on the Busia gold field, in the eastern province of Uganda. It was decided to examine the possibility of reef prospection by the resistivity method, for it was not known how far the usually disintegrated nature of most reefs in the ubiquitous laterite near the surface would obscure indications obtained by resistivity traverses. The work at the commencement was therefore largely experimental, but the results obtained thereby were satisfactory, and a survey was started at the Government closed area at Amonikakine. With the limited time and resources at the writer's disposal, it was not possible to complete the survey to his satisfaction or to follow up exhaustively all the geophysical indications, but some of the results of the experimental work and the survey were of sufficient interest to be worth recording; in particular the relation between the width of reef, electrode separation and shape of the curve, and the interference effect of constant separation curves over zones of float are significant and useful. Three new veins were located, but only one contained sufficient gold to warrant detailed prospection. This was called the Geophysical reef, and was uncovered over a strike distance of 1140 ft., and there are indications that it extends over a distance of 1990 ft. These results and the recommendations consequent therefrom were embodied in a special report to the Uganda Geological Survey. HISTORY OF THE FIELD The Busia field is in the southeastern corner of Uganda near the Kenya-Uganda border, and is about 17 miles north of the northeastern corner of Lake Victoria. Gold was first discovered in the area in the stream beds by Davies1,2 in 1932. Subsequently numerous small alluvial claims were worked by prospectors and the area was prospected for reef by a company for periods varying from three to nine months, but was finally abandoned, as the results were considered unfavorable. Further prospecting by the Geological Survey in 1935-1936 under Davies3 and later under the writer4 uncovered three reefs with sufficient gold values to be of economic interest. These were finally taken over by a company known as Borderland Syndicate, which still owns the area, and from September 1937 to the end of 1941 about 13,000 oz. of gold was extracted from reefs of the area proved by the Geological Survey. Opencast mining operations are still proceeding (February 1943). The Amonikakine area lies to the immediate north of that of Borderland Syndicate. A certain amount of prospecting had been done when the writer started work there. As a result of his report, this area was taken over by another syndicate, but little further work was accomplished before it ceased operating because of difficulties of wartime working.

Jan 1, 1944

By R. W. Rausch

BELT-CONVEYOR 'history in this country dates back to the end of the eighteenth century. Up to 1896 they were crude in design and application. The second era, dating from 1896 to about 1920, saw special study given to belt construction and idler design. The latter part of this era saw the beginning of the present-day antifriction idler. The third era followed World War I, when industry began to expand rapidly. Mines and quarries, steel mills, and power-generating plants became larger and greater quantities of ore, stone, and coal were being handled. It became vital that belts handle larger capacities, that they be longer, and that they be dependable for 24 hours per day. In this third era a radical change in belt conveyor design and application occurred. The design has became more scientific. Studies have been made to find out what factors influenced the power required for a belt conveyor and it was found that the sag of the belt between idlers and the flattening of the load between idlers had considerable effect on power requirements. So definite initial tension was put into the belt at the loading end and idler spacing was reduced at the foot end to limit this sag. Belt manufacturers made tougher and stronger belts.

Jan 1, 1947

By Henry M. Rowe

Professor Ruff's most illuminating paper' describing his extremely valuable investigation of the carbon-iron equilibrium diagram assigns definite temperatures to certain very important lines in the diagram, viz.: the eutectic temperature EB (Fig. 1) and the " near-eutectic " temperature E'B', but without indicating clearly enough the reasoning which warrants these assignments. These temperatures are of such primary importance that it is well to indicate the apparent gaps in the reasoning, in the hope that they may be filled in. In his diagram, Fig. 1, the point X and the liues B'D'lII represent the experimental results reached by Ruff and Goecke;a AB, AEB, and SE represent the liquidus, the solidus, and the solubility of the carbon in solid austenite in the absence of graphite according to Gutowsky,3 AB being also in accordance with Spiecker's data; S'E' the solubility of carbon in solid austenite in the presence of graphite according to Ruer and Iljin;5 GS the line A3 after Ooerens and Meyer; 6 and EBC the true eutectic line as inferred by Prof. Ruff from Gutowsky's data. B'D' is the carbon content found in cast-iron which had apparently saturated itself with carbon in the presence of the graphite of the enclosing graphite crucibles in which the determinations were made. From its straightiiess and its sharp inflection near 6.67 per cent. of carbon, the carbon content of

Jan 1, 1913

By Arthur Bell

(San Francisco Meeting, September, 1915) . PRIOR to 1908 the oil production in the State of California, had been almost entirely a heavy fuel, oil, with a high flash point, hut changed within a-short period to a large percentage of refining oil with a low flash, by reason of the coming in of the Santa Maria field, the Midway field, and the increased production of the Fullerton field. This is clearly shown in the following tabulation of California's production: Year Barrels . Below -20° Be, Above 20° Be,, Per Cent_ Per Cent. 1905 48,307,000 90 10 1910 77,698,000 SO 20 1912 90,075,000 6o 31 1914 10:3,600,000 47 53 The bringing in of these high percentage's of light oil with their dangerous low flash and the increasing demand for the refined products necessitated the devising of some cheap and efficient means of quickly separating the lighter elements either in the field or at the main distributing points; also it became necessary to remove the excessive percentage of water which many of the light oils carried in emulsion.

Jan 9, 1915