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By Charles P. Williams

THE successful production of zinc white or oxide on a commercial scale in this country dates from the issue of the patent of Samuel Wetherill, for the preparation of the material (November, 1855), and

Jan 1, 1877

Jan 1, 1902

By John Wellington Finch

WHAT is an engineering opportunity? To the mining .engineer the natural assumption is that the first requisite 'is a mineral deposit, but, of course, it is not so simple as that. There are at various points on the earth really very great mineral deposits which, on account of geographic location, backwardness of the country, or hostility of its natives, are now, and for a long time to come will be, quite valueless. The mining engineer, and for that matter the civil engineer, is more dependent upon the decisions of capital than upon any other factor in his profession. Ordinarily it is to be assumed that money will go to any place where it is clear that an adequate return upon its investment can be secured, but for many years it has not been safe to depend upon this. ' As already stated, there are many places where local conditions are such that mining is not safe to engage in and there are still other places in which conditions have been so aggravated by the Great War and by the social unrest which has upset the Asiatic region that capital is naturally most reluctant to venture, even when engineering data makes the undertaking appear attractive. It will be evident, I. believe, that there are many factors vital to the success of a mining enterprise in some of the remote countries which we do not have to consider in the United States and which do not, in fact, exist here.

Jan 1, 1924

By Wllliam D. Davis

C OMMERCIAL production of oil in northeastern Oklahoma began in 1897 and in the next two decades this area became one of the greatest oil districts of the time. Its importance is now secondary, but thousands of wells in this area have produced uninterruptedly for more than thirty years. They are now classified as stripper wells. By means of what is known as water flooding their L. production can be considerably in- creased. This practice consists in injecting water under pressure into the sand surrounding an oil well, thus displacing the oil in the pores of the sand and forcing it into the oil well.

Jan 1, 1940

By John Wellington Finch

THE- impression which the public has of northern Canada is that it is a' vast wilderness of forests; river's, and. lakes, sparsely inhabited by. a few Indians and `containing a few, scattered trading posts of the Hudson Bay Co. This is far from the facts. The building of the Canadian Pacific Railway led to the discovery, in 1883, of the nickel deposits of Sudbury, Ont.; these are the largest known nickel deposits in the world and produce about 90 per cent. of the world's output of nickel. The building of the Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway north, from North Bay, to open up farming lands along Lake. Temiskaming, resulted in the discovery and development of the great silver deposits of the Cobalt area, Ontario. Since the discovery of these deposits in 1903 to Dec. 31, .1923, Cobalt has produced a total of ' 327,301,897 oz. of silver, valued at $212,668,434, and paid in. dividends $88,338,185. In 1923 the production of Cobalt amounted to 10,285,247 oz. of silver. Just south of Cobalt, in South Lorrain,. a. new silver district has recently been developed and mills have started production. These deposits are of such extent that 'a branch railroad is under construction from Cobalt to that area. Northwest of Cobalt is the Gowganda silver area which is also a producer of silver ore and is now attracting outside attention. This area is not connected by railroad.

Jan 1, 1924

By J. L. SILSBEE

THE existence of large saline deposits in that flat arid basin, known as the Great Salt Lake Desert, has long been recognized, but the extent and great commercial value of these deposits has not been generally appreciated. That a very considerable interest has recently developed is indicated by the fact that about 263 prospecting permits-each covering about 2560 acres of land in this Desert-have been issued under the Potash Leasing Act (Act of 0ct. 2, 1917-40 Stat. 297), and patents granted on approximately 40,000 acres. It is reported that patents and leases have, or will be applied for on an additional 80,000 acres in the basin. , Tests have been made on probably less than 10 per cent. of the total area of the basin, but these have proved a practically unlimited supply of brine available -sufficient, probably, to. furnish the potassium and magnesium chloride requirements of this country for at least a hundred years.

Jan 1, 1925

New Products Equipment

Jan 6, 1953

By W. C. PAGE

AS the pioneer operation treating the mixed lead- zinc-iron ores from the district tributary to the Salt Lake Valley, the International Smelting Co.'s plant has offered an extremely interesting and instructive opportunity to study some phases of this problem. Basically, there were two main reason for our attempting to work out a successful operation for the separation and concentration of the values contained in the rather widespread deposits of these so- called lead-zinc ores. In the first place, the time was ripe and demanded some method of curtailing the economic waste resulting from the costs of past and present practice of smelting ores of this character, or rather, those ores which could stand the charges inherent with smelting them. Secondly, but rather primarily with us, we believe that such a solution would greatly in- crease in general the production of lead in the district tributary to the Salt Lake Valley. It is generally known that there were and are three relatively large lead smelting plants in the Salt Lake Valley and the decreasing production of correspondingly clean lead ores was not efficient to justify the existence of all three. We could not hope for better lead smelting metallurgy nor more efficient business management than was being practised, so the only prospect was to at- tempt to work out some way to increase the primary production and thus widen the scope of operations.

Jan 1, 1926

By Robert L. Marovelli

A recent reorganization placed the health and safety research activities of the Bureau of Mines under a director, Division of Minerals Health and Safety Technology. The new health and safety research organization and its position in the Bureau hierarchy is shown in Table 1.

Jan 11, 1979

By NORMAN EBBLEY

NUMEROUS references have been made recently to "Alaska's oil reserves," and in view of the wartime petroleum situation sober thinking demands a dispassionate and scientific study and investigation of these reserves or supposed reserves. The question naturally arises, "Is there actually oil in Alaska, or are the reserves there a supposition?" True, in 1923 President Harding established Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 4 in Alaska, certainly implying that oil was there. This reserve, embracing about 35,000 sq. mi., was set aside on the advice of the Bureau of Engineering of the Navy Department and was based upon the existence of known petroleum seepages at Cape Simpson on the Arctic coast. The Cape Simpson seepages have been known for more than fifty years, but in spite of persistent rumors of other seepages in northern Alaska no definite evidence of their existence has been available.

Jan 1, 1944

By D. R. George

Preliminary research has identified several organic and aqueous solutions that are effective absorbents for SO, from simulated smelter gas containing 0.3 to 2% SO2. These SO2 loaded solutions are also compatible to the reaction of H2S and SO2 to precipitate a readily filtered elemental sulfur. The economic removal of SO2 and production of elemental sulfur from stack gases discharged by base- metal smelters is a challenging goal. The magnitude of this task is illustrated by the estimate that about 3.5 million tons of SO2 are discharged to the atmosphere by smelters annually in the U.S. The SO2 concentration of the gases ranges from about 0.5 to more than 3%. As the sulfur content of SO2 is 50% a potential production of 1,750,000 tons of sulfur per year is indicated.

Jan 1, 1970

By S. Razi

Injection luminescence of single crystals of rare-earth-activated CdS was investigated. Crystals of CdS:Nd, CdS:Er, and CdS:Yb, grown by the vapor transport technique, were suitably etched and hetero-junctions of Cu2S-CdS were fabricated on one side of the CdS substrate by chemical reaction. The device was then heated to 200°C in an inert atmosphere for 5 min. Static V-I measurements show that at low voltages (V < 1 v) the current is controlled by the junction, while at higher voltages the bulk Properties of the CdS substrate effectively control the current. Because of the large thicknesses no negative resistance was found. Reverse breakdown voltage varied from 5 v, for junctions that were not heat-treated, to 100 v, for diodes that received the proper heat treatment. The rectification ratio, measured in the range of 2 to 10 v, varied from 300 to 3000. Capacitance- voltage measurements indicate a weak dependence of the junction capacity on applied voltage. The capacity was found to increase appreciably with room light illumination. The variation of capacitance with frequency is indicative of a p+-i-n structure. An open-circuit voltage of 0.4 v was measured under an illumination of 100 mw per sq cm. Under forward bias, the bluish-green edge emission characteristic of CdS was observed. No sharp rare earth emission line was observed, which is in contrast to our results using ZnS:Tb, where, under high-voltage excitation, the rare earth emission was dominat over the lattice emission. The absence of rare earth emission implies that either the nature of the rare earth ion is different at the het-erojunction than in the bulk or the probability of energy transfer to the rare earth ion is small. RARE earth elements are playing an increasingly important role in the Synthesis of materials for a variety of purposes, e.g., solid-state lasers, color television screens, and so forth. Interesting systems result when wide-band-gap photoconducting lattices are activated with rare earths. A study of the lumines-

Jan 1, 1969

Jan 1, 1931

THOSE MARKED THUS * ARE MEMBERS, MARKED THUS ?ARE ASSOCIATES. THESE SIGNS DOUBLED INDICATE LIFE MEMBERS AND ASSOCIATES RESPECTIVELY. THE FIGURES AT THE END OF THE ADDRESS INDICATE THE YEAR OF ELECTION. HEAVY-FACED TYPE SIGNIFIES HONORARY MEMBERSHIP. *AARONS, J. BOYD, Vivian Gold Mining Co., Ltd., Harris, West. Australia. &apos;05 *ABADIE, EMILE R., Cons. and Min. Engr., 214 Union Savings Bank Bldg., Oakland, Cal. &apos;76 ?ABBÉ, MAX F., Prest., Abbé Engineering Co, 220 Broadway, New York, N.Y. &apos;07 ? ABBÉ, PAULO., Secy.,Abbé Engineering Co., 220 Broadway, New York, N.Y. &apos;07 *ABBOTT, AI ARTHUR Morococlia, Peru, So. America. &apos;95 *ABBOTT, CLARENCE Chief EDgr., Iron Mines, Dic Tennessee Caol, Iron & R. R. Co., Bessemer, Ala. &apos;04 *ABBOTT, JAMES W., Min. Engr: Ploche, Lincoln Co., Nev. &apos;94 *ABE, MASAYOSHI, Prof. of Mining, Imperial University Kyoto, Japan. &apos;05 ? ACKER, E. O&apos;C., Supt., Treatment Dept., Bethlehem Steel Co., So. Bethlehem, Pa. &apos;86

Jan 1, 1910

By Thomas L. Kesler

Essentially all of the barite produced in Georgia has come from the Cartersville district in the northwest part of the state. The earliest recorded shipment of ore, 60 tons, was made in 1894.1 With the exception of the four-year period 1931 to 1934, the separate yearly output has been recorded and published since 1915, whereas the total yearly output of the United States has been published since 1880. The separately recorded production of Georgia (Cartersville) through 1947 is 2,232,544 short tons valued at $14,900,746,2 but unpublished data on the period 1931 to 1934, plus the estimated unrecorded output prior to 1915, make the actual total about 2,400,000 short tons. This is about 21 pct of the total production of the United States, which, through 1947, is 11,328,440 short tons valued at $71,683,386.2

Jan 1, 1949

By A. W. Fahrenwald

FLOTATION practice in Idaho is now about 13 years old. The advance has been steady during these 13 years. The operators have been alert to take advantage of the newest developments and they have themselves made a constant effort to improve their work. The metallurgical improvements are clue to the development of (1) better equipment, (2) better reagents, and (3) better understanding and control of the process. During the 8 years which the writer has been in this district, there has been continuous experimentation by several companies to improve the ore dressing by flotation methods. Gravity concentration has fought hard to hold its place, and although it is true that gravity processes have been improved during this period, nevertheless, in several of the important mills of the district the few tables that managed to hang on have finally given way. On the straight-lead ores, tables and jigs are still used; and, due to better classification, their hold on this job has been strengthened.

Jan 1, 1927

By J. B. Goddard

Crystallization of ammonium paratungstate (APT) is frequently the last effective purification step in producing high-purity tungsten. However, crystallizer mother liquors are often several times higher in tungsten than predicted by the solubility of APT. The formation of heteropoly anions, particularly those containing phosphorus and silicon, is largely responsible. Solubility of tungsten in APT mother liquor can be linearly correlated with the concentration of these and other impurities. The problem can be overcome by direct treatment of the crystallizer feed solution with aluminum sulfate. By appropriate treatment, the aluminum hydroxide flocculates and is easily filtered, resulting in a purified low-aluminum crystallizer feed from which high APT yields can be attained.

Jan 1, 1985

Jan 1, 1914

By Jack M. Swales

Kermac Potash Co., the newest American entry in a rapidly expanding industry, has come on the scene with notable variations in conventional shaft-sinking and mining techniques. Located in the famed potash producing district east of Carlsbad, N. Mex., Kermac started up its mine in November, 1965, to supply ore to the company&apos;s 500,000-tpy potash crystallization refinery. In so doing, the company (1) drilled the first large diameter mine shaft in the potash industry and (2) has employed new continuous miners especially adapted for use in thin potash beds. REACHING THE ORE ZONE In its initial mine planning, Kermac, a partnership owned jointly by Kerr-McGee Corp. and the National Farmers Union Development Corp., considered it imperative that the shafts be sunk and equipped as soon as possible and that the mine be developed sufficiently to insure a constant ore feed to the mill when the unit was placed on stream. After examining the alternative sinking techniques available to it, the company decided to accept a proposal by Big Hole Drillers, Inc., to drill the shaft from the surface through various formations of sandstones, siltstone, shales, anhydrite, limestones, dolomite and salts to the potash ore zone.

Jan 12, 1966

By C. Chamberlain

The Telfer Project, Australia&apos;s newest, largest, and most remote gold mine treats 480 kt of ore grading 9.33 g/t derived from open pit mining operations. Coarse gold is recovered by gravity concentration with jigs and further upgraded wing a continuous strake launder table, and by amalgamation. Remaining gold is recovered in a cyanide circuit and incorporates flat bottom air agitators, counter current decantation (CCD) and stellar filters for clarification and precipitate removal. Overall recovery into a bullion averages 98%. The mill incorporates a number of design features that allow for maximum efficiency and security wing a minimum number of operation personnel.

Jan 1, 1983