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By Arthur Notman

THE mineral industries in this country have now had about a year of national planning. Al. though the period is short, the volume of activity and legislation designed to make that planning effective has been nothing short of enormous. Those who have been privileged to see and study a few of the codes to regulate our mineral industry, such as those for oil, coal, steel, and copper, are driven to the conclusion that nothing was really known about the proper way to conduct those industries in this country prior to June, 1933; or if anything was known, nobody in actual practice made use of that knowledge. And yet those industries, in days gone by, helped to make this country the most prosperous in the world, and to maintain a standard of living even today higher than that of any other country. Without wishing to assume any first-hand knowledge of the Russian standard of living, I must confess that the evidence seems to indicate that even with dictatorial authority, national planning encounters unexpected difficulties. Perhaps what really wants

Jan 1, 1935

By Carel Robinson

THE little coal mine at Otsego, in the Winding Gulf field of southern West Virginia was dying. In the history of coal mining thousands of mines have been successful at first, but usually a change occurred and profits ceased. Often be change was so gradual and extended over such a length of time that the fundamental causes did not stand out in sharp relief and their significance was not realized. Studies often reveal that the cause for failure was in the arteries that connect the producing places with the mine entrance. Profits continued so long as the working places were close to the tipple and while the thrill of newness aid ease of access resulted in effective supervision from day to day. The air- way and haulageway, the wire line and manway, may have been sufficient when the distance from the entrance was a few hundred feet, but were inadequate when this was extended for thousands of feet.

Jan 1, 1937

By S. F. Shaw

IT IS generally recognized that the natural gas absorbed in petroleum plays the leading r6le in moving the oil through the sands to the well and supplies the energy that delivers the oil to the surface when the wells are flowing. It is the purpose of this paper to note the amount of oil that could be lifted by this gas if 100 per cent. efficiency were obtained and the efficiencies actually obtained in the use of this gas. An article in MINING AND METALLURGY,' stated that in a Wyoming field, with a pressure of 300 lb. per sq. in., there would be absorbed 65 cu. ft. of gas per barrel, or 1.55 cu. ft. per gal. of oil. The writer does not know if data have been obtained, by experiment, for pressures beyond those indicated in this article, therefore, for the purpose of illustration, he has projected this curve to obtain figures for pressures greater than 300 lb., although probably experiment will show that the extended line is not quite correct.

Jan 1, 1926

By A. E. WALKER

SOME eighty years have elapsed since the discovery of the Clifton magnetite deposit. For a few years about the time of the Civil War it was mined for iron ore. most of which was smelted on the property. Since risen the small exposures of ore in the old cut. test pits, and on the dumps have been examined by various prospectors. The M. A. Hanna Co. first became interested in the possibilities of the deposit when we discovered the large area of strong magnetic anomalies caused by the margnetite bed, indicating a size that would support a commercial operation. In 1940 we made a detailed magnetometer survey of the area. and the deposit was diamond-drilled. The main ore lied was found to be 1500 ft. long, to average 60 ft. thick, and to dip southeast at an angle of about 40 deg. The thickness of the bed is irregular in wavy folds both along the strike. and down the dip. Faults occur at both raids of the main deposit.

Jan 1, 1943

By C. MeCulloch

A NOVEL practice in the bituminous coal industry is the accelerated method of burning coal to ash used in the laboratory of the Fidelity washery of the United Electric Coal Companies, Du Quoin, Ill. Development of this method has supplanted the tedious float-and-sink process for plant control at this plant. In normal operation the plant operators have available within thirty minutes the accurate ash percentage of the coal loaded in the railroad cars and can therefore make adjustments to maintain a practically uniform quality of washed coal, regardless of the variations in washery feed.

Jan 1, 1937

By D. M. Wade, F. F. Redfield

PRODUCTION at Aguilar started in 1936 and by 1942 the mine had reached a peak of 25,000 tons a month. Present production is only about 60 per cent of this capacity because of difficulties in railroad transportation and the rationing of fuel oil brought about by the war. In the early years, cut-and-fill stopes were tried, but square sets were found to be the most practical method in the southern section of the mine, where blocky, treacherous ground and greater mining widths are prevalent. Square sets and opencut mining were the rule until 1942, when it became increasingly difficult to get mine timber. The ore beds in the northern section of the mine were found amenable to cut-and-fill stoping as the rock was firmer and the veins narrower. At present 69 per cent of the ore comes from cut-and-fill stopes, 27 per cent from opencut, and only 4 per cent from square-set stopes. Massive galena and sphalerite with comparatively little quartzitic gangue constitutes the higher-grade ore. The gangue minerals that can be detected by eye in low-grade ore are rhodonite, wollastonite, and pyrrhotite. Wall rocks range from shale to quartzite, with occasionally a little limestone.

Jan 1, 1947

By GEORGE L. CHRISTIAN

T HE Tonopah Extension assay office is a two- story, concrete structure on a solid foundation of andesite, situated about 100 yd. from the company's mill, so that it will not be affected by the stamps or the tube-mills; also it will not be affected by under- ground blasting. On the second floor are the mine superintendent's office and drafting and blueprint rooms. On the ground floor are the assayer's office,' mixing room, furnace room, crusher room, chemical laboratory, parting room, store room, and change and shower room for the mine superintendent, assayers, and engineers. The crusher room is outside of the main building, and has four concrete walls, thus eliminating the jar of the crusher; it is so situated that the least possible amount of dust spreads through the main building. An 8 by 10-in. jaw crusher, which crushes to ¼ in., was made by a local foundry. Attached to the top is a small galvanized-iron hopper covered with a ¼ in. screen, on to which the sample is dumped. The fines-pass through the screen into the hopper, while the oversize is dumped into the crusher. The crushed sample and fines from the screen drop down to a set .of splits suspended from an iron rod below the crusher jaws. The small sample is caught below in a small pulp pan. The rejects drop from the splits through a 2-in. pipe on to a bucket conveyor, which dumps into a galvanized-iron hopper in an upper corner of the room. The rejects drop through a 2-in. pipe to a reject bin outside the build- ing. This bin is constructed high enough for a truck to be loaded from it by means of a chute door on the side.

Jan 1, 1921

By AIME AIME

AMONG the recent mining and metallurgical developments in England great interest has been shown in the development of an iron-ore field covering 26,0.00 acres in Northamptonshire, containing 500,¬000,000 long tons of ore; and the erection at Corby, by Stewarts & Lloyds, of a modern basic bessemer steel plant and tube works. The entire project was planned to cost about £3,300,000. Many improvements have been made in the varied equipment that is being installed, some of which has set mew records for massiveness. There is, for instance, a new roll crusher, which has been manufactured by Hadfields, Limited, of Sheffield, the largest ever built in England, and weighing 130 tons. This machine, shown in Fig. 1, as erected at the Hadfields shops, is primarily designed to take blocks of iron ore as they come from the steam shovel. The maximum size is 54 by 48 by 36 in., hut occasional pieces slightly larger than this may be accommodated. The capacity is upwards of 500 tons per hour, the product passing to a secon-

Jan 1, 1934

By Thomas T., Read

DESIRABLE as it is to summarize what has been set forth in preceding chapters, the task can only be approached with great hesitation. What follows represents the personal views of the author at the moment of writing, reserving the privilege to change them on more mature reflection or in the light of further evidence. With that reservation they may be stated somewhat as follows. Education for the mineral industries falls into two categories; general education and technical vocational, using the word vocational not in its usual sense but to signify preparation for specific activities, in which sense a law school is a vocational school. Even at the beginning, as indicated in the first chapter, mineral industry education was partly general and, partly technical and that relationship still persists, because technical education requires a firm basis of general education. Our general American system is to provide free public' general education through the twelfth grade, or completion of high-school work, though there are already many technical vocational high schools, and even in a community where nearly all the young people are preparing for entrance to college there will be some who wish to qualify for employment at the end of the high-school course, or even on completing junior high. Our educational system, therefore, has not only to provide education for those who intend to proceed beyond the twelfth grade but also for those who, for a variety of reasons, may wish or be forced to cease full-time education at any level between the first and twelfth grades. This study has been chiefly concerned with the problem of what kind and how much technical education to provide for those who have completed the twelfth grade and who wish to make their living in the mineral industries. The obvious fact that the mineral industries employ all sorts of trained persons,

Jan 1, 1941

By Philip D. Wilson

WHEN the United Nations win the war and the decision has been made to control future armament in the Axis countries, plans for the extent and operation of such control must have been prepared, to be ready to put into immediate execution. Such control to be effective must be premised upon complete military occupation of the two countries for a substantial period, with an arrangement at the end of such occupation for continued supervision of these industries into an indefinite future.

Jan 1, 1944

By J. S. Marsh, T. B. Winkler

THE past year, the first full one of peacetime production, proved that the process of beating swords into plowshares has increased in complexity in step with civilization. Further, judging by various remarks of our distaff departments, the crystal balls of certain radio and magazine oracles must have been cloudy, because we have been in formed from time to time that coveted items such as automobiles and refrigerators did not appear in great abundance. This seemingly extraneous matter is really not out of place here, however; the steel producer and the fabricator exist in a sort of symbiosis: the making of consumer goods produces scrap which is returned to the steelmaker who makes more steel, and so on and so forth. Thus, no abundance of automobiles, no abundance of scrap from this normal source; and other sources had been picked pretty clean during the war. To be short, so was scrap. Since the economy of the steel industry lean; as heavily upon iron from scrap as upon iron from ore, the statement on transformation of swords to plowshares follows. But this is not the whole story: after all, ingot production was a record for a peace year!

Jan 1, 1947

By George A. Miller

OIL, the abundance of it in the hands of the Allies and the lack of it in the hands of the Axis, played a major role in winning World War II. It bids fair to implement the winning of the peace. In fact the signing of the revised agreement on petroleum between the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Government of the United States of America on Sept. 24, 1945, may be considered as the first step in establishing a new pattern in foreign relations by our Government. The significance of this agreement on petroleum is that it was arrived at on the part of the United States of America through the advice and consent of the most interested parties, the leaders of the petroleum industry and the Government, distinctly a first step toward unifying the power of business and the strength of the Government, which places us on a par with the British Crown which has always had the advice and counsel of its business leaders in formulating its foreign trade policies. And what is the thing so patently discernible in this new first step toward winning the peace? It is that the petroleum agreement, the first draft of which, signed in Washington on Aug. 8, 1944, almost caused an epidemic of apoplexy among the leaders of the oil industry, represents the desire of the people most concerned with the problems of petroleum both at home and abroad. This new agreement, which will come up before the Senate for ratification this month-hearings will commence in January - derives its "power from the consent of the governed," something about which our forefathers were vitally concerned once upon a time.

Jan 1, 1946

By NEWTON B. KNOX

THE Guianas region is a geological unit, consisting of the northern lobe of the Brazilian Shield, but political accident and the fact that rivers act as the principal means of transportation have divided the region between five separate sovereignties. Brazilian and Venezuelan Guiana have already been considered. The French, Dutch, and British colonies consist of a coastal plain some fifty miles wide, which, together with the lower reaches of the principal rivers, support the greater part of the population. Inland from this tidewater region is a wide area of low, forest-covered hills, under-lain by gneisses, schists, granites, and pegmatites of the Shield. As in Venezuelan Guiana, these rocks are overlain by a thick series of horizontal continental sediments intruded by moderately basic magmas. Gold, bauxite and diamonds have been the principal products of the colonies. The first metal is quite widespread in the hill country. The quartz mines are small, though occasionally rich; probably the greater number of veins remain undiscovered because of the thick mantle of decomposition product that covers the schists and gneisses. The greater proportion of the gold, therefore, is derived from placers which are exploited in all three colonies. Some geologists claim that they occur in two belts parallel to the coast; whether this feature has its origin in the location of the primary mineralization or in the gradients of the rivers is not clear. In some instances the river gravels grade into auriferous laterite. The laterites are well developed in the Guianas and represent the weathering products of the more basic rocks.

Jan 1, 1946

By Francis P. Sinn

IN the zinc smelting industry the year 1947 seems to have been one of putting one's house in order rather than one of any material technical development or radical change in operating conditions. Labor generally has been in better supply but several plants report a scarcity of skilled workmen. Some plants continue to operate on the basis of a six-day week and will probably continue to do so until labor is more plentiful. Only one plant is known to have operated on a curtailed basis because of labor shortage, but here the difficulty was lack of proper housing facilities. Necessary materials and equipment for much-needed maintenance and modernization have been in short supply so these programs have often been delayed. Laborsaving devices of the "Payloader" type have been more generally used for handling materials. Slab zinc production was discontinued during the last months of the year at Danville, 111. and at Langeloth, Pa. Both of these plants used the Hegeler type of furnaces fired with producer gas. It is understood that the rolling mill and possibly the acid plant at Danville will continue to operate. At Langeloth acid will be produced from

Jan 1, 1948

By J. J. Carrigan

IN all mining operations a considerable portion of the work performed, especially underground; is accomplished under artificial light, yeti this subject is often not given proper attention. Poor illumination decreases mining efficiency, impairs the sorting or grading of ores, and increases the risk of accidents. In the beginning, and for several years afterward in the metal-mining industry of Butte, Montana, candles placed in candlesticks were carried by the men. Sconces or holders for candles were also provided at stations and curves in drifts to furnish better light for men engaged in. hand tramming. It was also common practice to place clusters of candles on the ground, with no provision for guarding against an underground fire other than the exercise of sufficient care by the men themselves. An accumulation of candle grease from this source was the direct result of the first serious fire in the Anaconda mine, in 1889.

Jan 1, 1936

By E. H. Crabtree

IN an ideal mill, with perfect milling operations, the mineral extraction would be 100 per cent, the, concentrate would be 100 per cent mineral, the tailing would assay zer.0 mineral and the milling cost would be zero dollars. Such an operation can, of course, never be attained. We can only strive to approach it as nearly as possible and in doing so most recognize .the fact that the three primary factors in milling: assay of concentrate, assay of tailing, and cost of operation bear a definite economic relationship to each other. This relation will change from time to time and will be different for different mills, depending on milling equipment, character and quality of feed, market conditions, and other factors. It is granted that for a given operation there is an economic point, but the location of this point is difficult. It is for the purpose of making some of these economic points a little more tangible that this paper has been prepared.

Jan 1, 1930

By AIME AIME

TWENTY-TWO sections and all four of the divisions sent delegates to the annual meeting. They became so interested in the wide ranging dis6ussion of old and yet ever-new problems of Institute affairs that three instead of two sessions scheduled were necessary. Monday morning the meeting assembled with President Bassett presiding in the absence of President-elect Tally, who had been called to Baltimore by the serious illness of a brother. Thursday morning Vice-president Turner presided until Mr. Tally appeared after which the latter guided the sessions. Since reports from all of the active sections save one had been mimeographed and sent in advance to the delegates, detailed reports from each were dispensed with. The discussions dealt largely with membership problems, both local and national, with financing, speakers and programs, visits from national officers, and the conduct of the annual meeting. Many interesting and constructive suggestions were made and will be reported back to the sections by the delegates.

Jan 1, 1931

By Robert W. Thomas

LEACHING of mined-out areas at the Arizona property of the Ray Mines Division, Kennecott Copper Corp., was started on Jan. 20, 1.937, and by July 1, 1938, 10,000,000 lb. of copper had been produced by this method. Leaching operations at present are confined to the western portion of the ore body and over an area of approximately ten acres. The ore in this area was extremely high in pyrite and the copper content, which averaged slightly in excess of 1 per cent, was the result of incomplete secondary enrichment by solutions which apparently worked laterally from the main ore body. Above the ore was an unaltered zone of primary or protore averaging 125 ft. in thickness and containing approximately 0.6 per cent copper. Above this was the capping or leached zone averaging 50 ft. thick.

Jan 1, 1938

By Earl Oliver

IN times like these, the A. I. M. E. and similar societies have their greatest usefulness. . . . Individuals and companies acting alone in the development of public opinion are merely voices crying in the wilderness. United and organized they make a great force that can and does influence public action. . . . What part, if any, then, shall the A. I. M. E. take in these great stabilization processes of civilization? Shall it help to give direction and force to scientific knowledge which comes within its field of activity or shall it merely develop more of it? . . . Is it the A. I. M. E.'s function to help bring system, order and direction out of this situation so that the world can again have forward economic movement, or should it rest on its oars until other agenciess develop that public understanding and direction so necessary for economic progress? As we understand the functions of the A. I. M. E. Petro¬leum Division, they are to discover and promote knowl¬edge for the benefit of society on the mining of oil and gas. To the individual member of the Petroleum Division, there are certain advantages of social and professional contacts, but the collective purpose is that described. And the individual is benefited by membership only as the Division measures up to the purposes of its existence. Consequently, the welfare of this Division and that of its members depends on the extent to which it keeps pace with the needs of society on matters relating to the mining of oil and gas.

Jan 1, 1932

By Joseph C. Buchen

IN principle, production of salt from sea water is a simple operation. Sea water is trapped in ponds, the sun and wind cause evaporation of the water, and what is left is principally salt. Commercial production of solar salt, however, requires a careful consideration of many factors. Obviously, sufficient evaporation must take place throughout the making season to produce an economically adequate crop. Other factors are density of soil, contour of ground, height of ground above sea level, minimum dilution from fresh-water streams, and distance from market. Unfortunately, in the United States the localities of greatest evaporation, allowing for the other factors, are not the most suitable for the manufacture of sea salt by solar evaporation. The south end of San Francisco Bay most

Jan 1, 1937