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By Dudley Homer

MINAS DE MATAHAMBRE, S.A. is a Cuban mining corporation with mines located in the Matahambre district about 100 miles westerly from Havana in the Province of Pinar del Rio. The port of entry is the subport of Santa Lucia on the north coast of Cuba. The mines are located six miles inland at the town of Minas de Matahambre. Minas de Matahambre and Santa Lucia are connected by a 9-mile automobile road, and a 30,000-ft. Leschen aerial tramway. At the subport of Santa Lucia the company maintains docks, concentrate bins, tugs, lighters, and miscellaneous shipping equipment. The power plant of the company is also located at Santa Lucia. Connection between the power plant and the mine is effected by a 30,000-ft. transmission line. In the town of Minas de Matahambre are located the mines, concentrator, shops, and warehouses. The con-centrates are transported to Santa Lucia by the Leschen aerial tramway. The mines are equipped with three shafts, viz., Nos. 1, 2, and 3. (Fig. 1.) No. 1 Shaft is a three-compartment vertical tim-bered shaft and has reached a depth of 1825 ft. This is the present main hoisting shaft. No. 2 Shaft is a four-compartment vertical shaft lined with steel sets and native hardwood lagging. Certain portions where the ground is heavy have been lined with re-inforced concrete. Practically all production will be hoisted eventually through this shaft. No. 3 Shaft is a three-compartment vertical timbered shaft. It has reached a depth of 1090 ft. Its purpose is for prospecting, ventilation, and handling men and sup-plies through the north section of the mine.

Jan 1, 1933

By Reinhardt Thiessen

During the last few years a type of coal called "splint coal" has been brought to the attention of the United States Bureau of Mines, through numerous inquiries concerning its nature. Until recent years it appears to have escaped general notice. The term "splint coal" is of long standing, but was thought to be merely another expression applied by the miner to coal having certain minor characteristics. When closely examined, however, these coals were found to form a marked and distinct type, with distinctive characteristics that cannot be mistaken. Because splint coals produce a hot cheerful flame, possess a clean blocklike nature, and have a high volatile content, they have lately become much valued for domestic, gas-producer and steaming purposes, and have attracted considerable attention. Mattkohle For many years we have heard from the Germans about Mattkohle and Streifenkohle, in contradistinction to Glanzkohle, but have not realized that they were of a different type from the coals with which we were most familiar. This type of coal was first brought to general notice by Muck, in 1881, who gave a good description of it.' Because this coal is often intercalated with thin sheets of brightly shining cod, Schondorff, who was more familiar with the Saar coals, called it Streifernkohle. This term was later used by Muck also. Still later Potoné² used this term exclusively for the whole group in contradistinction to a class called Glanzkohle, and considered these coals to be composed alternately of Humuskohle and Faulkohle or Mattkohle (Pig. 20). Not knowing the nature of the German coals and not realizing that the term Streifenkohle was applied to a distinct class of coal, the terms of its components as used by Potonié and others were translated to "bright Coal" and "dull coal" and applied to the components of our

Jan 1, 1930

By James Johnston

Synopsis.-A description of the working of the mills of this company and the metallurgical practice in vogue, by which a remarkably. complex silver ore, averaging 54 oz. of silver per ton (run-of-mine ore), is treated to give a 95.66 per cent. extraction. The main features of the, processes are: The cyanide amalgamation of the high-grade ore. The cyanide treatment of the low-grade ore, after extremely fine grinding and close classification, in a caustic soda solution. The use of a wet desulphurizing process to break up refractory silver minerals. The substitution of aluminum dust for zinc dust as a precipitant. The recovery and shipment of over 13,000,000 oz. of silver in bullion at. 997 to 999 fine since this metallurgy was inaugurated, about 2.5 years ago. On the completion and successful operation of the mill to treat their . high-grade ore,1 the Nipissing Mining Co., under the general management of R. B. Watson, started a series of investigations of the possible treatment of the low-grade ore by the cyanide process, so that they would be in a position to market only silver bullion. These tests were run in July, 1911, on a large scale, by G. H. Clevenger, on an average mixture of Nipissing ore. The results obtained by a partial amalgamation followed by cyanide treatment gave an extraction varying from 90 to 93 per cent. and were sufficiently encouraging to warrant Charles Butters, the company's Consulting Metallurgist, in recommending that the new low-grade ore mill under contemplation should be a cyanide mill, instead of a concentrator. The cost of such a mill, capable of treating 200 tons per day, to obtain a 90 per cent. extraction at a working cost of $3 per ton of ore treated, was estimated at $250,000.

Jan 1, 1914

By Werner Engelmaier

Constant-strain rotating-bending fatigue tests were conducted on 2024-T3 aluminum alloy constant-strain McAdams-type specimens in ultrahigh vacuum, 10-lo Torr, and in atmospheric air. In the elastic strain range the ratio of vacuum-to-air fatigue life varied from about 10 at a maximum bending stress of 37 ksi to near unity at the endurance limit. After 10 pct of the fatigue life, intergvanular microcracks appeared on the surface which did not appreciably propagate further until the last 5 pct of the fatigue life, where trans-granular cracks propagating first in slip-plane cracking and then in the stress-dominated mode led to failure. No reduction in residual tensile strength resulted from the fatigue of the specimens short of fracture. The mechanism governing the fatigue life operates between the occurrence of the intergranular microcracks and the initiation of the trans granular cracks. MORE than forty years ago, Mc Adam' and Haigh2 published the first systematic studies showing that the fatigue properties of metals were greatly affected by environments. Gough and sopwith3 found in a later study that the fatigue life of metals subject to corrosion can be substantially increased by reducing the atmospheric pressure. This and their later work4'5 was, however, done in a vacuum of only 10~3 Torr. Subsequent studies6-' at a vacuum of 10- Torr showed that water vapor is the primary agent affecting the fatigue properties of aluminum alloys. Only recently was ultrahigh vacuum used for fatigue studied.l Various theories have been put forward to explain this phenomenon. Wadsworth and Hutchings12 postulated that cracks form very early in the test and that the chemical attack by the corrosive components of the atmosphere at the root of the cracks enhances the speed of the crack propagation. They also noted that chemisorbed layers of gas on the fresh crack surfaces prevent cold welding of the crack and make the separation irreversible. Ham and Reichenbach, on the other hand, reported that their specimens showed no cracks after a run in vacuum, even though the runs were long enough to have caused the specimen to fracture in atmospheric air. They also reported that in argon at 0.14 Torr the fatigue life was about 5 times longer than at 7 X lo-' Torr. Jacisinll reported that fatigue tests in dry nitrogen showed results close to those obtained in ultrahigh vacuum. The present experiment was designed to determine the extent to which cumulative fatigue damage, i.e., the accumulation of length of fatigue cracks, reduces the residual static tensile strength of an aluminum alloy in both ultrahigh vacuum and atmospheric air and to obtain fatigue-life data for this aluminum alloy at various strains. It was also hoped that information ex- tracted from these data might support one of the previously mentioned theories. 1) EXPERIMENT Test Specimens. The material tested was commer-cial 2024-T3 aluminum alloy. In addition to aluminum, this alloy contains approximately 4.4 pct Cu, 0.5 pct Fe, 0.5 pct Si, 0.6 pct Mn, 1.5 pct Mg, plus smaller amounts of other elements.13 Some typical mechanical properties of this aluminum alloy are listed in Table I.'~ The material was used in the as-received condition, i.e., solution-treated and cold-worked. Mc Adam-type1' constant-stress specimens and notched fatigue specimens were machined from 4 -in. -diam rods, Fig. 1. The critical section of the McAdam-type samples was polished with a 45-deg spiral motion to a No. 8 microfinish. The notch in the notched specimens was machined on a lathe with a forming

Jan 1, 1969

By Charles B. Dudley

DEAR SIR: It is now nearly three years since my first report to you on the subject of steel rails was written. That report, as you will remember, dealt principally with the question of the relation between the chemical composition and physical properties of steel rails end their power to resist crushing and fracture in actual service. Other matters were referred to or touched upon in that report, but the main question was, Why do some rails crush or break in service while others do not? Yon will doubtless remember that the principal conclusion arrived at was, that the softer rails are less liable to Crush or break in service than the hard ones. Or, in other words, so far as conclusions could be drawn from the chemical analysis and physical test of 25 samples of steel rails which had actually been in service, these conclusions were that those rails which have the smaller amounts of carbon, phosphorus, silicon, and manganese are less liable to crush or break in service than those which have larger amounts of these elements. Or, again, looked at in the light

Jan 1, 1881

By David B. Reger

Wildcat drilling for new supplies of gas and the expansion of previously discovered oil and gas pools were the principal petroleum activities in West Virginia .during 1942. Much of the new gas exploration is still uncompleted and still indecisive but various wildcats made substantial extensions to existing pools. Out of 53 wildcats drilled 27 resulted in commercial gas and 6 in commercial oil. Four of the oil discoveries also had commercial gas. No strictly new pools of oil or gas can safely be described as discovered but several scattered oil and gas wells previously drilled have been confirmed as the openers of definite pools; also, various completions closed wide gaps between apparent gas pools already discovered. The proved oil territory of the state was increased about 4850 acres and the proved gas territory about 51,000 acres. The new proved oil reserves should about balance withdrawals and the new gas may represent a substantial increase. Aside from the drilling in four rather lively pools, oil activity was slight because of unfavorable operating conditions and prices. Gas drilling also declined for reasons beyond the control of the operators. The account of operations, as gathered from trade journals and other reporting services, shows that 797 new wells were drilled, providing 119 new oil wells with 2762 bbl. of daily new production; 536 new gas wells with 1,228,501,000 CU. ft. of daily open flow: and 142 dry holes. Also... 76 old wells were drilled to deeper sands, with 71 bbl. and 26,034,000 cu, ft. of added production. On the new wells the oil average was 23.21 bbl. per well per day; and the gas average was 2,270,406 CU. ft. per well per day. On new wells the ratio of dry holes to completions was 17.82 per cent. On deeper drilling the ratio of failures was 21.05 per cent. Production of oil for the year was estimated by the Oil ad Gas Journal as 3,492,000 bbl., as compared with 3,378,000 bbl. in 1941. Production of natural gas for the year is estimated by the author as 220,000,000,000 cu. ft., as compared with the U. S. Bureau of Mines final figures of 207,000,000,000 cu. ft.* in 1941. General State op Industry Leasing of wildcat acreage increased considerably. The total land of all classes under lease may now exceed 5,000,000 acres. Taking into consideration completions, abandonments and corrected figures or estimates, Table I shows cumulative and late annual statistics. New Pools and Extensions Table 2 shows the principal areas of drilling activity during 1942. Various consolidations of territory, hitherto treated as separate pools, have been made. in addition to these active pools, extensive drilling was done in numerous other areas where pool boundaries can hardly be defined. Summary or Exploration Table 3 gives a summary of important wildcat or exploratory wells drilled during

Jan 1, 1943

By David B. Reger

Wildcat drilling for new supplies of gas and the expansion of previously discovered oil and gas pools were the principal petroleum activities in West Virginia .during 1942. Much of the new gas exploration is still uncompleted and still indecisive but various wildcats made substantial extensions to existing pools. Out of 53 wildcats drilled 27 resulted in commercial gas and 6 in commercial oil. Four of the oil discoveries also had commercial gas. No strictly new pools of oil or gas can safely be described as discovered but several scattered oil and gas wells previously drilled have been confirmed as the openers of definite pools; also, various completions closed wide gaps between apparent gas pools already discovered. The proved oil territory of the state was increased about 4850 acres and the proved gas territory about 51,000 acres. The new proved oil reserves should about balance withdrawals and the new gas may represent a substantial increase. Aside from the drilling in four rather lively pools, oil activity was slight because of unfavorable operating conditions and prices. Gas drilling also declined for reasons beyond the control of the operators. The account of operations, as gathered from trade journals and other reporting services, shows that 797 new wells were drilled, providing 119 new oil wells with 2762 bbl. of daily new production; 536 new gas wells with 1,228,501,000 CU. ft. of daily open flow: and 142 dry holes. Also... 76 old wells were drilled to deeper sands, with 71 bbl. and 26,034,000 cu, ft. of added production. On the new wells the oil average was 23.21 bbl. per well per day; and the gas average was 2,270,406 CU. ft. per well per day. On new wells the ratio of dry holes to completions was 17.82 per cent. On deeper drilling the ratio of failures was 21.05 per cent. Production of oil for the year was estimated by the Oil ad Gas Journal as 3,492,000 bbl., as compared with 3,378,000 bbl. in 1941. Production of natural gas for the year is estimated by the author as 220,000,000,000 cu. ft., as compared with the U. S. Bureau of Mines final figures of 207,000,000,000 cu. ft.* in 1941. General State op Industry Leasing of wildcat acreage increased considerably. The total land of all classes under lease may now exceed 5,000,000 acres. Taking into consideration completions, abandonments and corrected figures or estimates, Table I shows cumulative and late annual statistics. New Pools and Extensions Table 2 shows the principal areas of drilling activity during 1942. Various consolidations of territory, hitherto treated as separate pools, have been made. in addition to these active pools, extensive drilling was done in numerous other areas where pool boundaries can hardly be defined. Summary or Exploration Table 3 gives a summary of important wildcat or exploratory wells drilled during

Jan 1, 1943

By R. T. McLamore

Lack of sufficient native permeability or skin damage caused while drilling wells for in situ leach mining projects may necessitate stimulating injection and production we1ls to increase the leaching rate to economic levels. Such stimulation processes could include acidization, hydraulic fracturing, or explosive fracturing. This paper describes an explosive fracturing process that is being developed primarily to stimulate the production of oil and gas wells, but may be useful in in situ leach mining projects as well. The process utilizes a liquid explosive that has unique safety features. The chemicals that form the explosive are subdivided into two pumpable, non- detonable components. Technology has been developed to pump these two components independently but simultaneously into the well and blend them together downhole to form the explosive. As such, surface facilities and personnel are not exposed to explosive hazards. The explosive formulations utilized in the process have been subjected to numerous safety and characterization tests and been qualified for use in deep wells with temperatures and pressures up to 250°F and 10,000 psi. The explosive composition can be varied to produce an explosive ranging, energetically, from a blasting agent to a high explosive that can be detonated after injection into a borehole, a porous media or into thin naturally occurring fractures within the roc

Jan 1, 1974

By Joseph C. Buchen

In principle, productiorl of salt from sea water is a simple operation. The sun and wind cause evaporation of sea water trapped in ponds, and what is left is principally salt. Commercial production, however, requires consideration of many factors. First is a high consistent annual rate of evaporation, as well as large areas of suitable low-lying ground close to economical shipping facilities. The south end of San Francisco Bay has these requisites. Large ponds are built, by using clamshell dredges to build up levees to a height of approximately 3 ft. on ground usually lower than sea level, so that the water may be taken in through tide gates without pumping. Ponds are divided into extremely large concentrating ponds and smeller crystallizing ponds. Approximately ten times more area is required for concentrating than for crystallizing. The concentrating ponds are irregular in shape and size but the crystallizing ponds are rectangular and fairly regular in size, to aid in harvesting. The ocean water is taken into the first of a series of concentrating ponds and gradually moved forward from pond to pond as it increase:: in density, reaehing the crystallizing area as a saturated brine. This brine is pumped into the crystallizer at the beginning of the net evaporating season, usually in May, and further evaporation causes its sodium chloride content to deposit on the bottoms of the ponds. The brine must be drawn off and a fresh supply added from time to time to prevent other undesirable salts from depositing with the sodium chloride. Harvesting usually begins near the end of August and now is accomplished almost entirely by mechanical means. After harvesting, the salt is stored in large sbockpiles until required for shipping or refining. The greatest amount is used for industrial purposes and is shipped without any processing other than screening, but all salt for domestic use produced by the Leslie Salt Co. is refined by the racuum process, giving a produet consistently testing over 09.9 per cent sodium chloride.

Jan 1, 1938

By Joseph C. Buchen

In principle, productiorl of salt from sea water is a simple operation. The sun and wind cause evaporation of sea water trapped in ponds, and what is left is principally salt. Commercial production, however, requires consideration of many factors. First is a high consistent annual rate of evaporation, as well as large areas of suitable low-lying ground close to economical shipping facilities. The south end of San Francisco Bay has these requisites. Large ponds are built, by using clamshell dredges to build up levees to a height of approximately 3 ft. on ground usually lower than sea level, so that the water may be taken in through tide gates without pumping. Ponds are divided into extremely large concentrating ponds and smeller crystallizing ponds. Approximately ten times more area is required for concentrating than for crystallizing. The concentrating ponds are irregular in shape and size but the crystallizing ponds are rectangular and fairly regular in size, to aid in harvesting. The ocean water is taken into the first of a series of concentrating ponds and gradually moved forward from pond to pond as it increase:: in density, reaehing the crystallizing area as a saturated brine. This brine is pumped into the crystallizer at the beginning of the net evaporating season, usually in May, and further evaporation causes its sodium chloride content to deposit on the bottoms of the ponds. The brine must be drawn off and a fresh supply added from time to time to prevent other undesirable salts from depositing with the sodium chloride. Harvesting usually begins near the end of August and now is accomplished almost entirely by mechanical means. After harvesting, the salt is stored in large sbockpiles until required for shipping or refining. The greatest amount is used for industrial purposes and is shipped without any processing other than screening, but all salt for domestic use produced by the Leslie Salt Co. is refined by the racuum process, giving a produet consistently testing over 09.9 per cent sodium chloride.

Jan 1, 1938

By Ancel St. John

Defects in the interior of metal objects are troublesome to both manufacturer and user. For the former, they frequently increase manufacturing cost through the rejection of material when defects appear after considerable work has been done. For the latter, they often cause damage to equipment, personal injury, or loss of life when a part, which has passed all inspections and has been put in service, gives way because of a hidden flaw. Methods of testing that locate such flaws without subjecting the specimen to possible, if not actual, destl-uction are few; x-ray examination, whether fluoroscopic or radiographic, is one. Hitherto, however, x-ray examination has been restricted to objects of nearly uniform thickness and regular outline; the inspection of such articles as those shown in Fig. 1 has been inconvenient and unsatisfactory. This figure represents a group of 5/16-in. hexagonal-head machine bolts,

Jan 1, 1923

By Ancel St. John

Defects in the interior of metal objects are troublesome to both manufacturer and user. For the former, they frequently increase manufacturing cost through the rejection of material when defects appear after considerable work has been done. For the latter, they often cause damage to equipment, personal injury, or loss of life when a part, which has passed all inspections and has been put in service, gives way because of a hidden flaw. Methods of testing that locate such flaws without subjecting the specimen to possible, if not actual, destl-uction are few; x-ray examination, whether fluoroscopic or radiographic, is one. Hitherto, however, x-ray examination has been restricted to objects of nearly uniform thickness and regular outline; the inspection of such articles as those shown in Fig. 1 has been inconvenient and unsatisfactory. This figure represents a group of 5/16-in. hexagonal-head machine bolts,

Jan 1, 1923

By Robert J. White

Strong's equation for calculating bottom-hole pressure reduction due to gas cutting of drilling mud is corrected, resulting in a simpler equation which is easier to use. Use of the equation is illustrated by examples. It is shown that reduction of weight of a 10 lb/gal mud by 50 per cent at the surface due to gas cutting produces only n 3 per cent decrease in hydrostatic head at the bottom of a 5,000-ft well. It is also shown that at the surface 5 volumes of air per volume of mud are required to reduce the apparent mud weight from 8.5 to 6.5 lh/gal in a 3,000-ft well. Illustrative graphs are included to show the effect of various degrees of gas cutting on apparent mud weight at depths of 2,000, .5,000 and 10,000 ft and to show variation of apparent mud weight, with depth for a 100 lb/cu ft (13.37 lb/gal) mud gas cut to 90 lb/cu ft (12.03 lb/gal) at the surface. INTRODUCTION In 1938, Strong' published the following equation for calculating reduction in bottom-hole pressure due to gas cutting of drilling mud h = 1/D [p + pn/100 In p + p(1-n/100)/p(1- n-100)] where: h = depth in feet P = pressure in atmospheres at depth h due to mud column only D = hydrostatic pressure in atmospheres of a col-umn of uncut mud 1 ft high p = back pressure at well-head (in atmospheres) n/100 = fraction by volume of gas in mud at well-head at back pres-sure p This equation was recently found to contain an error due to an incor-rect expression for variation of vol-ume fraction of gas with pressure. Values calculated by the original equation are close to the correct values for small percentages of gas for which it was derived but become increasingly erroneous as the gas content increases and are completely unusable at the very high gas con-tents employed in aerated mud. DERIVATION The nomenclature used is the same as in Strong's paper. The pres-sure dP exerted by a lamina of thickness dh at a depth h ft is ex-pressed by Eq. 1 where x = volume fraction of gas at depth h dP = D (l - x)dh . . . (1) When we express x in terms of the wellhead per cent gas n, the well-head pressure p and the pressure P at depth h, the result is Eq. 2. x = (np/p+p)/(100-n) + (np/P + p) When this is substituted in Eq. 1 and rearranged to separate the var-iables the result is dh = 1/D [dp + np/100-n dp/(P + p]. Integration between appropriate lim-its results in or if the wellhead is open so that p = 1 atm and we rearrange Eq. 4, the result is loss in head = hD — P = n/100-n In (P + 1) ...(5) Eq. 5 can be solved easily by successive approximation using hD as a first approximation for P on the right-hand side and calculating a first value for loss in head. This can then be used to get a new value of P using the left-hand side of the equation. Values converge very rap-idly even for quite large values of per cent by volume gas n. EXAMPLES The effect on bottom-hole pressure of 50 per cent gas cutting of the mud in a 5,000-ft well using 10 Ib/ gal mud will be calculated, we have: h = 5,000 ft 10 X 7.48 144 X 14.7 = 0.0353 atm/ft hD = 176.5 atm n = 50 Substituting these values in Eq. 5 and using hD as a first approxima-tion of P on the right, we have, approximate loss in head = 50/50 In (176.5 + 1) = 2.30 log 177.5 = 5.17 atm. We calculate a new value of P as follows:

Jan 1, 1958

By A. E. Moss, J. K. Gustafson

MEASURED in terms of ore tonnage, the New Quebec and Labrador iron ore fields promise to rank with the greatest iron ore districts of the world. Over 400 million tons of high-grade ore for direct shipping have been discovered to date. Much greater amounts of lower-grade beneficiating ores are indicated by outcrops. Many hundreds of square miles of iron formation await testing. By 1954 iron ore will begin to move towards American blast furnaces, and shortly thereafter the annual rate of production is expected to reach 10 . million tons. To bring this vast project into being over $200,000,000 will have been spent for exploration and development, mining equipment, hydro plants, townsites, the building and the equipping of . a 360-mile railroad, and the construction of docks and ore-handling facilities. The most important iron ore deposits are located over 300 miles from tide water, see frontispiece and also Fig. 1. The frontispiece shows principal sources of iron ores and manganiferous iron ores for the U. S. and Canadian steel industry, and the major smelting districts are shaded on the map. No navi- gable rivers lead into the interior. When work was . commenced on this project there were no roads, no railroads, no communication ,system, no inhabitants, and no adequate maps either topographical or geological. The geological field season was limited to approximately 100 days per season. The obstacles facing this enterprise were many and varied. Its success will be due to the integrated team work of people of diverse skills. Explorers, Indian guides, prospectors, geologists, surveyors, mechanical, civil, electrical, and mining engineers,

Jan 1, 1954

By Charles White Merrill, James W. Pennington

No metallurgical process developed in the 20th century compares with froth flotation in its effect on the mineral industry. Processes like gravity - concentration, amalgamation, and pyrometallurgical reduction are of ancient origin; others like cyanidation and electrolytic reduction were well established by 1900. Such metallurgical processes as heavy-media separation, ion-exchange, and solvent extraction belong to this century, but their influence is small compared with froth flotation. Data collected by the U. S. Bureau of Mines* in a canvass of 202 froth flotation plants reveal that, in 1960, 198- million tons of material was treated to recover 20-million tons of concentrates which contained approximately $1 billion in recoverable products. SIGNIFICANCE OF FLOTATION Froth flotation as described in this chapter refers to a wet process for separating properly ground mineral particles into two or more products. It involves the separation of mineral particles from each other in a liquid pulp by means of air bubbles. Finely crushed ore is agitated in water with the addition of air or other gases. Various chemicals and oils are added to cause the selected mineral particles to attach themselves to the air or gas bubbles. These bubbles, carrying the mineral particles, rise to the surface where they are removed in a froth, while the other particles remain suspended in the pulp. The earliest flotation divided the raw material into two products: a bulk concentrate that was removed as a froth and a tailing that remained in the flotation machine. The froth usually contained the valuable constituents. The successful application of such a process depended on the recovery of a single concentrate from which one or more valuable constituents could be recovered by a chemical or smelting process. With the advance of the art, however, the principle of selective flotation, by which two or more relatively pure products could be recovered from complex raw materials, was evolved. Other chapters in this volume describe the developments during the last 50

Jan 1, 1962

By George Langford

THE McIntyre mine is in the Pearl Lake section of the Porcupine gold area. The rocks are Keewatin lavas intruded by quartz porphyries and albitite dikes of Algoman age. Gold-bearing quartz veins are found in the Keewatin rocks near the porphyry stocks. The whole area has been highly compressed by forces acting along a N. 20°W. line. These forces folded the Keewatin rocks before the intrusion of the Algoman rocks, and later schisted both the Keewatin and Algoman rocks. Vein fractures were developed after the folding but before the development of the schist by the compres-sive forces being locally broken up into couples. These couples were set up by the differential resistance to deformation of porphyries and basalts, and also by the competency of the dacites and incompetency of the tuffs and fragmental rocks. During the important period of vein formation, two zones were developed-an inner productive zone in which the quartz veins are ankerite-bearing and an outer barren zone in which the quartz veins are calcite-bearing. The vein solutions originated in the same magma that supplied the albitite dikes.

Jan 1, 1938

Primarily, 1961 was a year for widespread application of tools and techniques which have become operational in the past several years • • • Raising --Raise climbers and climber raising techniques have been improved; narrow veins as low as 55° dip are now being mined from climber raises. Climber modifications include: larger motors, tighter radius curves negotiated, improved lubrication and new methods of stowing the climber during a blast. Climber raises are now ventilated in several ways: a 12-in. diam flexible vent tube behind the climber rail; a 6-in. diam pipe behind the climber rail (with fan); or a 6 to 8-in. diam drill hole along the axis of the raise. In hot raises, these ventilating techniques have resulted in more rounds per shift. When driving raises from crosscut and lateral development, mucking machine loading of raise rock is preferred over slusher ramp loading for the following reasons: a) faster set-up and teardown of climber facilities; b) easier access for climber maintenance, repair and loading of raising supplies; c) area at the bottom of the raise can be kept cleaner. Both wide and narrow veins are mined from 7 x 7-ft climber raises at Butte and at Republic, Wash. At Republic, climber rollers have been modified to support increased weight when driving 55°dip raises • Drilling-The new largebore, short-stroke push feed drills are much faster drilling than previous models and are most satisfactory in hard ground. Although reports on maintenance studies of the new drills are not yet available, increased steel and bit wear and breakage, and increased drill maintenance are seen as potential problems. Mines in Montana and Idaho continue to test rubber-collared drill steel. The fabricating methods used are successful but advantages in increased steel life have yet to be proved. Underground applications of down-the-hole drills continue. Drilling speed and accuracy are reported as the outstanding advantages. Manufacturers are now hopeful of making drills which will operate in any direction. Present applications are for ventilation holes (to 8 in. diam) for climber raises, holes for hydraulic fill distribution, drain holes and "predrilled" raises. Good drilling accuracy has been reported to a depth of 200 ft. Cutting holes in drifting is seen as a future application

Jan 2, 1962

WITH the economic situation of the world what it is, we may expect important events in every month of 1922, and January showed us some-what of the nature of things that will happen. The Germans announced their inability to meet in full the reparation payments that were due Jan. 15. The Su-preme Council arranged a plan for them to pay some thing on account every 10 days, and called a conference at Cannes to talk things over. While this conference was in progress Premier Briand resigned and was suc-ceeded by Poincaré. This emphasized the growing differences between British and French policies and interests. The French want to exact the utmost from the Germans; so do the British. The latter think, however, that the French aims will so cripple the Germans that they can not work properly and hence can not trade. Great Britain, with a huge unemploy-ment problem, must have trade. The French thought that Briand was unduly deferring to the British and withdrew their support of him. The other important political developments of the month in Europe were the establishment of the Irish Free State, relieving the British of the vexatious Irish question; and the growing tendency to recognize the Soviet government of Russia and admit its representa-tives into international conferences. In the United States the great political event was the establishment of the dominance of the agricultural bloc in the Senate, which implies the passage of agrarian legislation that will probably be unwise. Economically, there was no progress in the United States. If anything there was probably some reces-sion in the physical volume of business. There were some further reductions of wages, but these were irregular, geographically, and moderate in amount. The great unionized trades maintained the jam. Events of great importance were the formal demand of the anthracite coal miners for increased wages on April 1 and the declaration of the bituminous coal miners that they would resist a reduction at that time. The attitude of these groups is believed to presage labor troubles in the spring. In the metal markets affairs were dull during Janu-ary, but prices were generally firm, save for a little further weakening in iron and steel. In the matter of production, however, there was some quickening of activity, especially in copper, zinc and iron.

Jan 2, 1922

By H. Biloni, G. F. Bolling

The microsegregation in tin specimens containing 0.2, 0.5. or 1 wt pct Pb has been studied m detail. The specimens were grown from the melt in a controlled fashion and exhibited a well-developed cellular substructure. In general, a severe microsegre-gation can be observed in all the photomicrographs presented. Some observations of special interest are: the distribution of a second phase, the presence of a eutectic in several forms, the evidence for dif- THE Smialowski or cellular substructure which forms during solidification has been extensively studied during the past decade.'* Many of the im- *Most references to the cellular substructure except for the last 2 years are reviewed by Winegard.' portant characteristics of this substructure, such as its occurrence and variability with growth conditions, its association with the phenomenon of constitutional supercooling, and its effect on dislocation production and mobility, have received quantitative fusion of solute in the solid, and the enhancement of segregation at a dislocation subboundary network ("striations"). On the basis of the metallographic observations, it can be deduced that the segregation observed is representative of the solute segregation produced during crystal growth. Some deductions are also made about the interplay of the two substructures, cells and striations, and about the mode of cellular growth. investigation both experimentally and theoretically. However, the concentration profile of the solute segregated during crystal growth has not been examined in detail. Tin crystals grown from melts containing various concentrations of lead have been most extensively studied. In a recent investigation of Sn-Pb alloys, Kramer et a1.2 were able to measure the effective solute distribution coefficient, k,, at the most advanced points of the solid-liquid interface, over a large range of growth conditions, finding it to approach the value of k,, the equilibrium distribution coefficient. As will be shown, this must lead to drastic segregation. Another recent study of several Sn-Pb alloys was made by Plaskett and winegard3 who investigated the variation of growth conditions

Jan 1, 1963

By L. W. Casteel

This is a story of progress through research, invention and innovation-progress that made a small mine in Missouri into a large and prosperous corporation. The St. Joseph Lead Co. was founded in Borne Terre, Missouri, in 1864. At that time, the mine consisted of a narrow trench eight feet deep; the mill was a hand-operated jig; and the smelter, a charcoal oven with a sloping hearth. During the first year, production was suspended for two months because of an invasion by the Confederate army. There have been few interruptions since that time.

Jan 7, 1964