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By Millard K. Shaler, Sydney H. Ball

During the past 50 years the attention of mining-men has been turned to Africa, and within the past decade prospecting-expeditions sent into Central Africa have resulted in the open-ing-up of several mines. Having recently spent two years in the Belgian Congo for the Societe Internationale Forestiere et Miniere du Congo, it is our purpose to outline briefly the mining-conditions in that part of Central Africa. Before it became, in 1908, a Belgian colony, this region was known as the Congo Free State. 11. Location and Area. The Belgian Congo lies in southwestern Central Africa, west of the continental divide, as illustrated in Fig. 1. It has a coastline of but 20 miles on the Atlantic, but widens rapidly eastward to points 5 north and 14 south of the equator. Its area is 908,000 sq. miles, which is almost one-quarter that of the United States and Alaska, or more than one and one-half times that of Alaska. Stated in other terms, its area is nearly one-third that of the United States, exclusive of Alaska and the insular possessions, or more than that of all the United States east of the Mississippi river. III. Topography and Drainage. From north to south, Africa is made up of three topographic elements: 1, the Atlas mountains, a highly-accentuated region

Jan 1, 1911

By A. W. Gauger

SMELTING of iron ore, manufacture of steel, and the fabrication of ferrous metal products are all processes that require energy. Charcoal was adequate, to supply this energy for the relatively simple processes of the early iron-masters. In the fourth decade of the nineteenth century, anthracite and bituminous coal and later coke supplanted charcoal for the smelting of iron. So far as the chemical phases of the process were concerned, charcoal was an ideal iron-furnace fuel. It had practically no sulphur, and its ash, besides being low in quantity, consisted chiefly of lime and alkalies, thus supplying a part of the flux required for smelting the ore. The ash of coal and coke on the other hand, being largely silica, had itself to be fluxed with bases added to the charge. Physically, however, coke proved to have many advantages over charcoal, which could not be used in the furnaces of today. The chief reason, however, for the change from charcoal to coke was the impossibility of maintaining an adequate wood supply.

Jan 1, 1941

PUGET SOUND SECTION SIMON H. ASH, Chairman, I. F. LAUCKS, Vice-Chairman, CHARLES SIMENSTAD, Sec.-Treas., 425 Lyon Building, Seattle, Wash. GLENVILLE A. COLLINS, JOHN N. POTT. The Puget Sound Section met at the Arctic Club, Oct. 28, 1916, for the annual meeting. Those present were: Chairman Glenville A. Collins, Vice-Chairman H. L. Manley, Sec.-Treas. Amos Slater, Chester F. Lee, R. P. Tarr, G. E. Rockefeller, Simon Ash, Geo. W. Evans, Joseph Daniels, I. F. Laucks, F. C. Greene, Darsie C. Bard, Marcel Daly, Milnor Roberts, F. A. Hill, Percy E. Wright, and as guest, Mr. Coates of British Columbia. After dinner had been served, Chairman Collins called the meeting to order. The reading of the minutes of the last meeting were suspended upon request of the Secretary. The Secretary read the report from the Committee on the Associated Engineering Societies of Seattle. Upon motion, duly seconded, the report was adopted and placed on file. Mr. Lee, Chairman of the Committee. on the Mining Men's Convention to be held this coming winter, gave his report orally, and upon motion the committee was continued. The report of the Secretary-Treasurer was read, received, and placed on file.

Jan 3, 1917

By AIME AIME

UNQUESTIONABLY the Coal Division has never had a meeting in which so many outstanding technical papers were presented of immediate practical application to problems of personnel, mining, safety, preparation, combustion, and carbonization. Should there have been those present with the lingering idea that all that was needed for success in the coal industry was a strong back and a weak mind they must have had a rude awakening.

Jan 1, 1942

By John V. Beall

On weekends things get pretty interesting out our way because the fleet is usually in. Our No. 2 son is now based at New London, which Isn't far from here, and he brings his friends home. No. 1 son is a re- cent Navy veteran, and he lives at home. It is just as well that the Pentagon can't hear what is said. This is all aside from the point except that last Friday evening, Dave Meinhard, a redheaded nukie (nuclear sub crewman) from Indiana, commented on our late arrival home In obvious need of a pick-me-up. "Just like my dad; but he has it rougher than you. We live in La Porte, Ind., and every day he drives 35 minutes to work at Bridgeman, Mich., and loses an hour on the time zone. It's really exhausting. You should see him." We feel very sympathetic. He should receive extra pay. However, extra pay benefits are hard to come by although the reverse comes relatively easy. For example Grass Valley, Calif., was such a nice place to live 25 years ago that they compensated for it by making an appropriate deduction for the s

Jan 1, 1971

By AIME AIME

THIS year the Petroleum Division holds its fall meeting at Houston, Texas, Oct. 2 and 3, with head- quarters at the Lamar Hotel. Technical sessions will be held in the morning and afternoon of both days. A smoker on Friday afternoon will afford an opportunity to get together socially. Saturday evening is left free for private parties to the beach at Galveston, where a wide variety of entertainment is available. On Oct. 4 there will be an excursion to Sugarland oil field, with luncheon at Boling and a visit to Boling sulfur mine and plant in the afternoon. There are nine technical papers on the program for Friday. Saturday morning will be devoted to oil production control and it is planned to make the discussion more

Jan 1, 1931

THE LIFE and works of Alexander Agassiz, first president of the Calumet & Hecla Mining Co., were recalled to memory when a monument bearing his statue was unveiled in Agassiz Park, at Calumet, Mich., on Sept. 26, The statue is the work of Paul W. Bartlett, of New York, and was erected by George R. Agassiz, eldest son of Alexander Agassiz. We are indebted to Rodolphe L. Agassiz, now president of the Calumet & Hecla Consolidated, for the accompanying photograph of the statue. The principal address at the unveiling ceremony was delivered by Allen F. Rees, of Houghton, who said, in part: To the world at large Alexander Agassiz was preeminently the man of science. With all his devotion to the industrial life of this district, he found the time to devote to the con-tinuation of his work of scientific research which had been the life work of his fa-ther, Louis Agassiz. Not only did he acquire eminence for his scientific at-tainments and learn-ing, but he was recognized and hon-ored throughout the civilized world for his achievements and accomplishments in the realm of original research. His work in the fields of nat-ural science, in oceanography, in marine zoology, and in other similar lines of research, has added much to our knowledge of the world's mysteries. His life was one of accomplishment also in the industrial world. The union in one life of acknowledged achievement as a scientist and the accomplishment of great results in the prac-tical industrial world is a rare thing, and its possibility has never been exemplified in greater measure than in his life and its results.

Jan 11, 1923

By B. E. Sundquist

The various methods based on solution models for obtaining free energies of mixing from miscibility-gap data have been applied to a number of binary-alloy systems. For nine of these systems there exist experimental thermodynamic data that permit a comparison of the results to experiment. It was found that the method of van der Toorn and Tiedema almost invariably leads to results that are physically unacceptable and that vary drastically with small changes in the miscibility-gap parameters. The subregular solution model is found in all cases, except the Al-Zn, Fe-Cr, and Cu-Pb systems, to exaggerate the free energy of mixing by 30 pct or more. The model developed by Lumsden is found to give results that are often in excellent agreement with experiment and which exaggerate the free energy of mixing by no more than 30 pct. These results and others give evidence that the Lumsden treatment of the effect of unequal atomic sizes and of imperfect configurational randomness due to deviations of AB bond energies from the mean of AA and BB bond energies is adequate for most systems. ANALYTIC expressions are frequently proposed for the dependence on composition of the activities of the components of a solution. Because the development of solution theory is incomplete, these expressions contain parameters which must be determined by experiment. The measurement of activities is often difficult and consequently such measurements are less readily available than are measurements of phase equilibria which, under certain conditions, can also be used to evaluate these parameters. For example, suppose it is known that two structurally dissimilar phases, each of known composition, in an n-com-ponent system are at equilibrium at a given temperature and pressure. n equations can be set up in terms of these parameters expressing the equality of the chemical potential of each component in the two phases. In addition, one can write the Gibbs-Duhem equation for each phase that also contains these parameters. Thus, if these n + 2 equations contain n + 2 parameters, these parameters can be determined (at the temperature in question) from the phase diagram alone. If the average number of parameters in each expression for the activity of a given component in a given phase is V then there will be 2nV parameters involved. Equating 2nV to n + 2 shows that, for n + 2, V = 1. If the temperature dependence of each parameter were to be expressed in some explicit form one could use equilibrium conditions at a number of temperatures to increase V. The situation is much improved when the two phases in equilibrium are structurally similar. It can then be assumed that, stably or metastably, two phases will become one at higher temperatures. Thus the number of parameters involved becomes nV instead of 2nV. Hence, V = 2 for n = 2 using only one temperature. (It is implied here that the activity expressions used are valid over the entire composition range.) In this investigation only the equilibrium of two structurally similar, two-component phases (miscibility-gap systems) will be considered. The various proposed solution models will be applied to a number of these systems and the results compared with available experimental results. All of the analytic expressions that have been proposed for the free energy of mixing of a two-component system are of the form where ?Gmix is the free energy of mixing per mole of solution, N1 and N2 are the mole fractions of components 1 and 2, respectively, and f(Ni, T) is some function of composition and temperature. In the "ideal" solution model f = 0. In the "regular" solution model f = a constant. Since these two models permit only a symmetric equilibrium diagram they will not be considered further here. The simplest model that permits a nonsymmetric miscibility envelope is the so-called "subregular" solution model proposed by Hardy.1 This model gives where the Ci(T) are functions of temperature only. The same expression for f is obtained from the "linear a function" model proposed by Darken and Gurry2 and applied to miscibility-gap systems by Wriedt.3 This model requires that the a function defined by be a linear function of composition (yi is the activity coefficient of component i). This model is not purely hypothetical for it has been found2 to hold true for a number of systems. It is readily shown3 that the f(Nl, T) obtained from this model is of the form given in Eq. [2]. It will be noted that the subregular solution model contains only two parameters and hence both of them can be determined at any desired temperature below the critical temperature, Tc, for a miscibility-gap systems in the manner described previously. At T, the two constants can be determined by equating the second and third derivatives of ?Cmix with composition to zero. Another two-parameter model was proposed by Lumsden4 who set

Jan 1, 1967

By W. J. Millard

VAGUE rumors and stories have been heard, from time to time, about the diamond and gold deposits of southern Venezuela. It is perhaps appropriate, at this time of revived interest in gold mining, to publish a few facts in regard to this country, which has been undergoing exploration since the fifteenth century. Gold and diamonds are found principally in the State of Bolivar which lies in southeastern Venezuela and is bounded by British Guiana on the east and Brazil on the south (see Fig. 1). The famous Mt. Roraima is situated at a point where these three countries meet in a common point (see Fig. 2). Some gold is also found in the southern part of the territory of Amacuro. Good oil prospects exist in the northern part of this same territory. Diamonds are found on the Caroni river from Rio Paragua to the village of Guri. Another small district is on the headwaters of the Cuyuni river. Quartz veins containing gold are chiefly exploited in

Jan 1, 1931

By Michael S. Koleda

Less than two years ago, the, Congress, with broad bipartisan support, passed the Energy Security Act of 1980. A decade marked by ten- fold increases in world oil prices and two major interruptions in oil flows from the Middle East had ended. An all-out national commitment to transform America's vast tar sands, oil shale and coal resources into conventional fuels had begun. The national synfuels effort was to be public-private cooperation at a scale unmatched in peace time. Private industry would own and operate the synthetic fuels facilities. Government would reduce market uncertainties to acceptable levels. The potential government commitment was substantial. Up to $88 billion would be available through the Synthetic Fuels Corporation, principally in the form of contingent financing. Billions more would be spent through Department of Energy programs. Additional incentives for alternate energy development were contained in the Energy Tax Act of 1978. The Energy Security Act clearly specified national synthetic fuels production objectives: 500,000 barrels per day by 1987 -- 2 million barrels per day by 1992. Finally, said Congress, Uncle Sam was going to do something about rapidly rising oil prices, uncertainties of energy supply, and the resulting disruption to the U. S. economy. Simply put, the purpose of the Energy Security Act of 1980 was to provide government guarantees sufficient to get synthetic fuels projects off the private sector drawing boards and into commercial production. Because of their huge cost, technological uncertainty, and lengthy pay-out period, these projects were always second place to projects of smaller size, known technology and more rapid pay-out. The Energy Security Act was the legal expression of public policy to bring the free-market synfuels timetable into line with the faster paced political timetable in the interest of national energy security.

Jan 1, 1982

By Edgar L. Weinberg, W. Horatio Brown

The Austinville-Ivanhoe lead-zinc deposit occurs in the Lower Cambrian Shady dolomite. This deposit is located in southwestern Virginia in the faulted and folded Appalachian Valley and Ridge province. The ore bodies resemble the chimmey and manto deposits of northern Mexico and are formed by replacement and filling. They are confined to certain favorable zones of the Austinville and Ribbon members of the Shady. Structural and stratigraphic factors combine to control the location and form of the ore bodies. In certain places secondary oxide enrichment of the zinc minerals has contributed to the economic development of the area. It is concluded that the ore is epigenetic and is deposited by hydrothermal solutions rising through the fault "plumbing." Classification is epithermal-telethermal.

Jan 1, 1968

By T. D. Jones

MUCH the same story can be told for the lead industry for the year 1945 as for the three previous years. In response to inquiries as to new developments, invariably the answer has been, "No new developments-our men either too busy with the man-power problem or trying to get production out." Time and efforts of industry have been concentrated for the most part on war or readjustment problems. Now that V-E and V-1 day have passed, the lead industry can justly be proud of its record in World War II. As in previous wars, lead played an important role and one of its most spectacular uses was in the production of the atomic bomb. We read that the part lead played was rather obscure, but as a protective agent, lead played a most significant role. "Since the materials in the Pile Plant are intensely radioactive, all storage and handling must be done behind thick concrete walls or lead shields. The material is never seen and all operations are auto matically controlled by a foolproof remote control system especially designed for this purpose." (Chews. & Met., Sept. 1945.) When our armies invaded the European theater of war and made a landing on Normandy beach, gasoline and oil for the motive power were furnished through miles of armored lead pipe. This amaz-

Jan 1, 1946

By F. W. Bradley

MY first Nevada City mining reminiscence is one of seeing Capt. Thomas Mein, over 52 years ago, in the old Wyoming mill on Deer Creek about a mile below the town of Nevada City. Captain Mein was then superintendent of the Wyoming mine, where the old fashioned Cornish pump was used, as well as hurdy-gurdy water wheels for power. This mill was one of the typical, up-to-date mills of that time and consisted of stamps, fed by Chinese hand feeders, who also cobbed the ore down to a small enough size to be fed into the mortars. Stamps at that time were of light weight and crushed about one ton to one and a half tons to the stamp, the pulp going over plates, then into sluices with self-raising gates. When a sluice became full the pulp was shut off and directed into the parallel sluice, also with a self-raising gate. The concentrate thus collected in the sluice was shoveled out and carried to Cornish buddles and there cleaned up, preparatory to being sent to a local custom chlorination works.

Jan 1, 1929

By AIME AIME

FREE competition, long the controlling ideal of domestic trade within the United States, has had the fundamental geographical advantage of functioning in the world's largest area of unrestricted commerce. Goods moved back and forth across state lines, unimpeded by customs, and industrial operations have developed rapidly to meet the expanding needs of a pioneer country richly endowed with natural resources. Fifty years ago, antitrust laws were adopted to protect the competitive private enterprise principle. It became illegal for one person to combine with another to restrain trade or commerce among the several states or with foreign nations. The original legislative measures defining this philosophy were the Sherman Act of 1890 and the Clay- ton Act passed in 1914. The development of Europe and other parts of the world was influenced by different conditions which led to a different theory of trade. Here were many small nations, with limited natural resources and a thin market, and they attempted to protect their national economy by tariff walls. International business arrangements for the purpose of diminishing the ups and downs of the more competitive system --crux of the modern cartel operations-seemed a logical device to stabilize production and guard the interests of both workers and consumers. European governments as well as European industrial interests became convinced that if com- petition could be held in bounds the danger of business depressions and un- employment could be reduced.

Jan 1, 1944

By Charles M. Rolker

(Read at the Philadelphia Meeting, February, 1878.) THE Mariposa estate, a grant made by the Mexican Government to Juan B. Alvarado, during the time when California was still under the dominion of Mexico, was purchased in 1847 by J. C. Fremont, and the United States patent issued to him in 1856. By sale, or its equivalent, money advanced, the property came into the hands of the Mariposa Company, June 25th, 1863, and through a varied existence of work and temporary inactivity, has as yet been kept as an undivided property, and rests at present with the Mariposa Land and Mining Company of California. I pass over this period of 15 years without giving the history of the ups and downs of the estate, partly because it is familiar to many, and also because I think in such a case this paper would assume too much the character of a narrative. The estate is situated in Mariposa County, California, about 170 miles southeast of San Francisco. It begins in lat. 37° 26’ 38" - north, and long. 119° 55' west, and runs 6 miles north; thence 6 1/2 miles west; thence 5 miles northwesterly towards the Merced River; thence 8 1/2 miles southerly; thence 3 miles easterly; thence 1 mile southerly; thence 2 miles easterly; thence 2 miles southerly; thence 2 miles easterly; thence I mile southerly; thence 2 miles easterly; thence 1 mile northerly, and thence 2 miles easterly to the place of the beginning; embracing 44,387 acres (70 sq. miles) more or less. To describe this vast estate in detail as to its full geology, its numerous quartz veins, its many facilities to exploit them and work them by cheap methods, would lead me further than I intend to go at present, and I will content myself to describe the latest workings of the company and its immediate field of operations. As long ago as 1860 the late Dr. Adelberg advised the running of an adit from the northwestern edge of the estate at Benton Mills on the Merced River. His object was to undercut the deepest workings of the then paying mines on the estate-the Pine Tree and Josephine. Following this advice, the tunnel known as "River Tunnel" was commenced. Its entrance is in S. 5, T. 4, S. R. 17 E. It is run in

Jan 1, 1878

By AIME AIME

A PAPER recently presented before the Anthracite Section of the A. I. M. E. by S. J. Phil- lips, Mine Inspector, Fifth Anthracite District, Department of Mines of Pennsylvania, covering the water hazards in the anthracite coal mines of the Lackawanna River Valley, was especially timely because the conditions there are duplicated to a large extent in the Wyoming Valley, which is traversed by the Susquehanna River with its many large tributary streams. Also, in the southern anthracite field, where there are a number of large creeks, similar pumping problems and mine water hazards will in time be presented if mining is continued to its conclusion.

Jan 1, 1936

By H. E. Criner, M. G. Driessen

Maurice Rey—The influence of cyclone diameter upon the fineness of separation is an important point which, however, cannot be discussed adequately if the injection pressure or the rate of flow are not specified. Perhaps some light can be thrown on the matter by using the formulas derived by Dahlstrom. Let us consider several geometrically similar cyclones where the apertures e and b are equal and proportional to the diameter D and which are operated with the same pressure drop. Eq 8 of Dahlstrom's paper can be written: Q Q = K D'. " or. if F is constant: Q = K D18 K is a constant of proportionality. Introducing this value of Q in eq 13 gives elimination efficiency = K D ,41 Elimination efficiency, in the terminology of Dahl-strom, means the diameter of particles, in microns, which divide equally between the underflow and the overflow. This denomination is regrettable and it would be preferable to call it diameter of separation or characteristic size or any other name connoting a size rather than an efficiency. Whatever the name used, the above equation shows a slow increase in the fineness of separation when the diameter of the cyclone decreases. For example, if a 14-in. cyclone gives a 400-mesh separation (37 microns), geometrically similar cyclones, having the same pressure drop will give separations at the sizes shown below.

Jan 1, 1951

By M. G. Driessen, H. E. Criner

Maurice Rey—The influence of cyclone diameter upon the fineness of separation is an important point which, however, cannot be discussed adequately if the injection pressure or the rate of flow are not specified. Perhaps some light can be thrown on the matter by using the formulas derived by Dahlstrom. Let us consider several geometrically similar cyclones where the apertures e and b are equal and proportional to the diameter D and which are operated with the same pressure drop. Eq 8 of Dahlstrom's paper can be written: Q Q = K D'. " or. if F is constant: Q = K D18 K is a constant of proportionality. Introducing this value of Q in eq 13 gives elimination efficiency = K D ,41 Elimination efficiency, in the terminology of Dahl-strom, means the diameter of particles, in microns, which divide equally between the underflow and the overflow. This denomination is regrettable and it would be preferable to call it diameter of separation or characteristic size or any other name connoting a size rather than an efficiency. Whatever the name used, the above equation shows a slow increase in the fineness of separation when the diameter of the cyclone decreases. For example, if a 14-in. cyclone gives a 400-mesh separation (37 microns), geometrically similar cyclones, having the same pressure drop will give separations at the sizes shown below.

Jan 1, 1951

By R. Dawson Hall

LONG regarded as nearly worked out, the anthracite region still shows promise of a hundred years of life, for means are being found to get bottom, top, pillar, and other coal that earlier generations disregarded as too expensive to mine. Rock drivages and, still more, machinery are making it possible to get such coal. Mechanical methods enable the owner of thin beds to mine these with profit, and the miner recognizes that he must permit the use of machinery or the inexorable laws of economics will deny him opportunity to work. E. L. Dana, Jr., well outlines this situation, which in the past year became definitely established. Stripping also is recovering, safely and inexpensively, coal that past generations regarded as too hazardous and costly for mining.

Jan 1, 1935

By C. H. Lieb

ONE astounding fact in the production of petroleum is the comparatively recent realization by producers that flowing production is the cheapest crude produced. About 1910 or even later, operators actually endeavored to get a producing well to pumping as quickly as possible after completion. A well was not really considered to be completed until it was operating on the pump. Remarkable progress has been made since then. It was not until about 1920 that producers began to take a serious interest in pressures and to think a little about proper methods of handling oil wells. Pressure gauges were installed, and records of pressures maintained, which was quite an innovation. Desultory experiments were made with tubing of different sizes, as well as experiments with placing the bottom of the tubing string at different levels in the well. Probably the first important departure from customary procedure was about 1926, during the Seminole development, when gas lift

Jan 1, 1936