Search Documents

By Robert P. Koenig

FOR the first time other than on occasion of war the people of the United States are experiencing full-scale participation in world affairs. Public concern has seldom been so involved with conditions and events beyond our own continental limits. Our interest is not wholly of recent origin. Over the years the activity of the United States as a world power and an important trading nation brought about the widening of our political interests and the progressive interrelation of our economy with that of the rest of the world. Some may see in our present phase of world-wide activity the natural consequence of our continued growth. Such observers must also be aware that within recent years our importance in world affairs has been considerably increased. For within the space of an extremely short period events have occurred that have literally jet-propelled the United States into the role of a leading participant in the conduct of world affairs. Little of the choice of this role was left to us. The decline of power in western Europe, the ascendancy between the Elbe and the Pacific shore of an obviously antagonistic force, our earnest endeavor to secure international control of atomic energy, the necessity of providing relief and rehabilitation to war-ravaged areas, and the police work that must be done in occupied territories are problems which have risen in great measure without our help-but they cannot be solved without it.

Jan 1, 1948

By Frank L. Hess

BERYLLIUM is demanding more of the limelight, and the output of beryllium copper (containing 2% to~ 3 per cent of beryllium) seems to have grown 60 per cent above that of 1936, which was double that of 1935. There is increasing interest in beryllium-aluminum alloys and small quantities are being marketed at $50 per lb. for the contained beryllium. Other alloys also can be produced. Further price decreases for beryllium copper (now $23 per lb. for the contained beryllium) seem , possible and desirable. No difficulty has been experienced in obtaining beryl and a 'reserve stock has been built up. One supplier heretofore found reliable has offered to furnish 200 tons per month. Supplies during 1937 have come from the Black Hills in South Dakota, Colorado. India, and South America

Jan 1, 1938

By Charles R. Keyes

Discussion of the paper of Charles R. Keyes, Bi-Monthly Bulletin, No. 19, January, 1908, pp. 1 to 31. BERNARD MACDONALD, Guanajuato, Mexico (communication to the Secretary*) :-Mr. Keyes's paper is very interesting to me because of my personal experience with the development of the ore-deposits of Lake Valley. Seeing that many of the important facts connected with the early history of the development of these mines are either now unknown, or have become more or less distorted, and thinking that it would be interesting as well as valuable to have these recorded as a historical supplement to Mr. Keyes's elaborate paper, I present the following narrative: In February, 1881, soon after the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé railroad made connection with the Southern Pacific at Denting, N. M., the Lake Valley properties were brought to the attention of New York and Philadelphia capitalists by John A. Miller, of Silver City, N. M. At that time silver was $1.10 all ounce and silver-mining was very attractive. Vast fortunes were being made in Leadville and other Colorado camps, and Tombstone was pouring out its millions. Lake Valley, like all' other mining-camps in their early history, had its drawbacks, but the railroad, then passing within 14 miles of it, mitigated many of these. The camp lay in the foot-hills of the Black range, in which the Apaches had their stronghold, and raided, when it suited their convenience, the surrounding country, killing the prospectors and pioneer settlers and stealing their cattle. This band of Indians was joined by the outlaws and desperadoes from the frontiers of Texas, Arizona, and Mexico, who collectively defied the United States soldiers, restrained, as the latter were, by the mollycoddles from the East. The brutality of the Indian raids through Arizona and New Mexico in those days would scarcely be believed now, but they stain in deep

Feb 1, 1909

By Charles H. Behre

KEYNOTE of the mining geology sessions was the preparation for an extensive war with all that this implies as to the need for strategic minerals, both metallic and nonmetallic. Nevertheless the sessions also included many papers of less urgent, more theoretical interest. The stress of wartime production had the effect of giving an unusually full and rich program, the longest in recent years, with sessions continuing virtually throughout the meeting. Some papers dealt with geophysical prospecting as applied to mining geology; others were concerned with the grand strategy of mineral reserves and thus involved the industrial minerals; such "borderline" subjects were presented before sessions held jointly with the Geophysics Committee or the Industrial Minerals Division.

Jan 1, 1942

By Stanley J. LeFond

Brazil is one of the most outstanding examples of economic development of our time. Its amazing growth record is substantiated by a GNP which has increased at an average rate of 92% for the period 1968-1970 and estimates for 1971 range from 11.7-12.5%. Hence, this growth, coupled with a more relaxed attitude of the Brazilian government towards foreign participation in business opportunities and the remittance of profits out of the country, has caused many exploration companies to reevaluate the potential of Brazil. Despite recent press notices and publicity, Brazil is still not a mining country in the tradition of Canada or Australia. It is still basically an agriculture and manufacturing country.

Jan 11, 1973

By Kirtley F. Mather

FROM almost every point of view, petroleum was "strategic mineral number one" during the World War that ended in 1945. Even the spectacular advent of the atomic bomb in the final days of the conflict did not displace it from its position of prime importance, although within a few years uranium will almost certainly be the "number one" material in the minds of military strategists, if it is not even now in that position. But both as fuel and as raw material for chemical industries, petroleum will hold the center of the stage for many years to come. Hardly any other substance illustrates so fully the manner in which science and technology may be combined to achieve the utmost success in contributing to human efficiency and comfort. Fundamental to any understanding of the problems implied by my topic

Jan 1, 1948

By Stanley F. French, Bruno F. Koch

Although the amount of dust that will be actually recovered in the six main dust-control systems cannot be accurately stated until the tests mentioned previously are carried out, it is estimated that the average air entering the wet collectors will contain around 5 grains of dust particles per cubic foot. This means that the six systems handling a total of about 133,000 cu.ft. of air per minute will return about 68 1/2 tons of dust to the concentrator per day and since the copper in this dust will average around 2 per cent, the total recovery is approximately 1.37 tons of copper every 24 hours. This important copper recovery is not due entirely to the dust-control system since in a plant without control only the duct that is dispersed to the atmosphere represents a loss. A conservative estimate of the recovery of copper solely due to the dust control system would be about half of the total or approximately 0.70 tons of copper per day.

Jan 1, 1942

By J. E. Tobey

THERE are a lot of good things about this great industry of ours. Let us stop commiserating and consider some of the things that are right in this business. Coal is number one in the basic material industries. Our civilization owes more to it than to any other basic commodity. We are literally immersed in the benefactions of coal. In cur man-made world it is indispensable and we are constantly surrounded by objects, materials, and services which owe their existence to coal. Practically all the important materials, such as iron, steel, brick, cement, lime, rubber, glass, cotton, and wood have felt its magic touch.

Jan 1, 1939

By Johnson Crawford, Alan H. Hoagland

Zinc mining at Jefferson City began in 1854 with small scale production of oxidized ore from open pits. Significant production began in 1913 with the development of the Mascot Mine by the American Zinc Company. In 1965, four flotation mills were treating crude ore at the rate of about 12,000 tons per day and the Mascot-Jefferson City district currently is the largest zinc producing area in the United States. The producing mines, Mascot, Young, North Friends Station, New Market Zinc, Grasselli, Davis-Bible, Coy, and the Jefferson City, are 15 to 28 miles northeast of Knoxville in the Valley and Ridge physiographic province, an area of gentle relief lying between the more rugged Great Smoky Mountains and the Cumberland escarpment. The ore is strata bound, occurring essentially within a stratigraphic range of 200 feet in the Lower Kingsport and Upper Longview formations of Lower Ordovician age. In the lower strata of the mineralized section, the ore generally is found in coarsely crystalline elastic dolomite breccia containing silica and chert debris within a sequence of aphanitic limestones. The upper strata of the mineralized section are fine-grained primary dolomites that, in the ore zones, have been fragmented in mosaic patterns by solution collapse with the interfragmental space filled by white gangue dolomite and sphalerite. The mineralogy is unusually simple, sphalerite being the only important sulfide. Pyrite is very sparse. Dolomite gangue is abundant, silica was deposited in quite small amounts, calcite is minor, and fluorite and barite are very rare. The principal ore controlling structures are rubble breccia zones that were formed during the post-Lower Ordovician-pre-Middle Ordovician erosion interval by supergene solution as a phase of the development of a regional karst system of underground drainage that extended to' depths of at least 800 feet. The major Appalachian orogenic structures are post-ore and have been superimposed on the ore bodies. There is substantial evidence to support the current thinking of the writers that the ore deposits were formed at a depth not exc1~eding 800 feet.

Jan 1, 1968

By W. E. Wrather

DURING the war the mineral industry, and metal mining in particular, extended itself more than any other to attain the limit of its productive capacity. Likewise, probably no other industry went quite so far toward jeop¬ardizing its own economic future through depletion of material reserves. Once we looked to Europe for most of the manufactured goods we needed. Our own limited mineral requirements were easily supplied from mines near the Eastern seaboard. With expansion and industrialization, our mineral needs increased in proportion, and the centers of mining activity moved westward to Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and the Tri-State district, where seemingly inexhaustible high-grade deposits of iron, copper, lead, and zinc ores were opened and rapidly developed.

Jan 1, 1946

By Scott, Turner

MY whole life has been spent in the mining business, PO I naturally tend to address my remarks particularly to the newly-graduated mining and metallurgical engineers among you. To a certain extent, all forms of engineering principles are involved in the training of the mining engineer, and most sorts of engineering are certainly utilized by him, so every one of this graduatins class is concerned with the field I propose to discuss.

Jan 1, 1932

By J. Rogers, K. L. Sutherland

THE relationships between collector and mineral, activator and mineral, and activator, collector and mineral will be considered herein. We propose to criticize current theories of flotation but we will not repeat the many pertinent arguments presented by Wark and Cox28 in 1937 in which the "chemical" or more strictly the "solubility" theory proposed by Taggart and co-workers22 is shown to be untenable. Recently Taggart, Arbiter and Kellogg24 have studied the long-chain aliphatic amines as collectors and have attempted to resuscitate the solubility theory for these particular collectors. Dean and Ambrose3 have felt that "we stumble over words" when we distinguish different mechanisms of adsorption. Our view is that nothing is more stultifying to the development of a science than attempts to force widely different phenomena into one classification. This oversimplification leads immediately to difficulties in the interpretation of results. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE The response of minerals to activator and collector was determined by "captive-bubble" tests. The methods of preparation of specimens26 and of testing18 have been previously described. Results from captive-bubble tests were confirmed by flotation tests in glass-stoppered cylinders.25 The full lines shown in the figures relating solution composition to contact (flotation) distinguish solutions in which contact (flotation) is possible from those in which it is not. The curve is derived by successive approximation and the accuracy is ±0.2 pH units and ± 5 mg. per liter of collector or depressant. Solution compositions for which it was shown experimentally that contact or flotation is possible are marked by a circle, those for which it is not possible by a cross and those for which it is doubtful by a cross within a circle. It is assumed that at all other solution compositions within (without) the curve, contact or flotation is possible (not possible). After testing in the collector solution, the mineral was removed, washed, and tested by the captive-bubble method in water, or floated in a cylinder with frother only. In this way the composition of solutions in which a mineral was conditioned but in which properties of the collector solution prevented contact or flotation can be defined. The composition of solutions in which conditioning was possible lie between the full and broken curve, the experimental results being indicated on the figures by a square. The curves show the limits of composition of solution in which flotation in a cell would be possible. Many factors other than those considered in these tests determine recovery or grade of a given mineral in practice.

Jan 1, 1947

In connection with the recent visit of the Special Mission of British Ministry of Munitions to the United States, the United Engineering Societies gave a dinner to the members of the. Mission on Tuesday evening, Nov. 13. This was the only public function on behalf of the visiting commissioners while they were in New York. During the remainder of their visit they were in daily conference with bankers, merchants' associations, labor federations, and other organizations. The result of these conferences will doubtless have an important influence on the manufacture of war supplies in the United States, since it will enable our business men and manufacturers to avoid a good many of the mistakes that unfortunately occurred in England at the beginning of the war. At present, fully 90 per cent. of the employees of British munition factories are omen, and the problem of employing women in the industries of the United States will doubtless soon be encountered with increasing frequency.

Jan 1, 1918

By B. M. Burchfiel

CALIFORNIA possesses such an abundance of ceramic materials other than clays, that she is quite independent of other states and foreign countries so far as these materials are concerned. Certain users import some feldspar, silica, and allied minerals, but they do so from choice and not necessity. Production is largely for home consumption, so the total volume of ceramic materials produced is comparatively small. Many small deposits of the materials here under discussion are worked by individuals, and their output sold to individual grinding companies or users. The data given here shall be confined to the larger deposits and developments because they give a truer picture of typical deposits, operations, and materials.

Jan 1, 1936

By Leon Borgman, Michael P. Lipkewich

Orebodies at or near the surface are generally amenable to open pit mining. The development of a mining program involves designing an ultimate pit and a production schedule. This pit maximizes total profit while the production schedule maximize6 the present value of the property. Optimum pit limits can be approximated by two-and three-dimensional numerical techniques. These techniques presuppose that the mineralized area has been sufficiently sampled to allow a reasonably accurate prediction of grade at any spatial location.

Jan 1, 1969

By AIME AIME

A REQUEST for information as to the details of activities of the Engineering Council was made by the Joint Conference Committee for the benefit of the new American Engineering Council. , This request was complied with, and the scheduled reply so succinctly sets forth the activities of the old Council as well as the scope of possible activities of ,the new Council, about whose efforts there has been much discussion, .that it' is given herewith in full, except the 'budget which is summarized.

Jan 1, 1920

By C. A. Stewart

PAGE. I. Introduction............ 241 II. Location. TopoGRaphy. and History....... 243 III. DescRiption of the Rocks......... 245 1. Altered Sediments.......... 245 2. Alaskite........... 246 3. Alaskite.Porphyry.....255 4. Quartz Dikes........... 257 5. Biotite.Granite.......... 256 6. Quartz.Porphyryl......... 260 7. Andesite........... 262 8. Miscellaneous Dikes......... 263 IV. Age oF the Rocks and Comparison with other Localities.. 263 V. AlteRation............ 265 1. Sericitization........... 265 2. Silicification........... 266 VI. StRuctuRes........267 1. Dip of the Limestone......... 267 2. Faulting........... 267 VII. Contact - metamorhism,.......... 269 1. Endomorphism.......... 269 2. Exomorphism......... 271 Recrystallization and Loss of Color...... 271 New ,Minerals.......... 272 Addition of Material........ 274 Volume.Changes.... 276 Locus of Metamorhism........ 277 Method of Precipitation.........278 VIII. ORe-Deposits............ 278 1. Contact-Metamorphic Copper.Ores,..... 279 General..........279 Shape and Distribution........ 279 Minerals........... 281 Secondary Enrichment........ 282 2. Disseminated Copper.Ores........ 283 3. Origin of the Copper.Orcs........ 284 4. Lead-Silver Ores.......... 287 IX. Bibliography............ 288

Jan 1, 1913

By L. R. Smith

BUTANE OPERATED drilling rigs are a recent innovation in the petroleum industry, so extensive data on their operation are not available. However, experience indicates that, within limitations, as much can he accomplished with butane as with steam, at a decided reduction .in expense of installation and cost of operation. Commercial butane is a liquid motor fuel similar to gasoline, but much more volatile, so that it has to be stored under pressure. At 10° F. it is liquid at atmospheric pressure, but at 100° it has a pressure of 70 lb. or more. As soon as the pressure is reduced, it turns to vapor and in that state is far more easily mixed with the air necessary for combustion. Butane occurs as a by-product in the absorption process of natural gasoline extraction from casing-head gas. The product has been used to some extent 10 raise the octane value of gasoline. However, because of its volatile nature, such admixture is stable only to a limited degree. Attempts also have been made to introduce the product in a gaseous form into oil- hearing formations in repressuring work. It has, however, until recently, for the most part been wasted.

Jan 1, 1937

AlFred JamEs," London, Eug.:—I thank you, gentlemen, for Sour kind invitation to address you. It is a very great pleasure for me to be here at your annual meeting, and, although I have been a member since 1894, this is the first opportunity I have

Jan 1, 1909

By C. A. Heiland

NOT only has the demonstration of progress in all fields of science been characteristic of the Chicago "Century of Progress," but the manner in which the fundamentals of these sciences have been displayed captivated the visitor's eye and ear at the same time. The average individual is interested most in progress which concerns his every-day life. He is fairly well educated in medicine, biology and certain aspects of physics. But how raw materials and chiefly minerals occur, how they are located, taken out of the ground and refined, is something which appears to be more remote from the every-day line of interest, and about which, therefore, the public knows comparatively little. This is particularly true of the oil industry, although it ranks in size second only to agriculture in the United States. In appreciation of the tremendous educational value which a complete exhibit on all phases of the mineral industries would have, both mining and metallurgical as well as oil inter¬ests took steps early to make these exhibits at Chicago a reality. The board of directors of the A. I. M. E. authorized an advisory committee to the Museum of Science and Industry early in 1932. It is divided into four subcommittees - for geology and petroleum, for metal mining, for coal mining, and for metallurgy respectively. The entire committee held its first meeting in Chicago on April 11 and 12, 1932, to advise with the Museum's officials and experts about the most advantageous arrangement of the minerals industries' and geology exhibits.

Jan 1, 1933