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By AIME AIME

THE climax of the various programs and entertainments in connection with the holding of the World Engineering Congress* in Tokyo in October was the complimentary dinner given by the visiting members of the Institute to our members in Japan. At the same time President Bradley conferred an honorary membership on Baron Takuma Dan, the vice-president of the World Engineering Congress.

Jan 1, 1930

By A. Eilers

ALTHOUGH the process to which I refer in this paper has been in successful operation for nearly five years, during which time it has been introduced, superseding all other processes having in view the same end, in almost every lead refinery in the country, no description of it, giving economical data, has ever appeared in print, nor has the process been known in its details to any considerable number of engineers beside those conducting it at their works. A discussion of this subject at the present time becomes especially interesting in view of a late publication in the Prussian ministerial organ for Mining and Metallurgy, by Dr. Wedding, in which the method of treating the zinc-silver-lead alloy by distillation, as finally settled upon at Tarnowitz, is very minutely and fully described. It is the more interesting, because in that article reference is made to the American method in an unfavorable light, while, at the same time, it is clear from the article itself, that the most important details of the process, besides the one that it is conducted in black-lead retorts, were not at all understood. In publishing herewith the details of our American method, one of my objects is to invite comparisons between our simple and direct process and the elaborate one at Tarnowitz. In extracting the silver from work-lead by means of zinc, it is always the intention, in this country, to obtain a zinc-crust so rich in silver that the rich lead resulting from subsequent distillation

Jan 1, 1875

The American Mining Congress, of which the President is Carl Scholz, and the Secretary is J. F. Callbreath, and of which many of the officers and directors are prominent in Institute affairs, has extended to the members of the Institute a cordial invitation to attend the nineteenth Annual Session of the Congress, to be held at the La Salle Hotel, Chicago, Nov. 13 to 16, 1916, and to take part in its deliberations. The morning sessions will be, general meetings at which the attendance of all members of the Convention is hoped for, and which will he devoted to a discussion of subjects related to the three several heads, "safety," "efficiency" and "conservation." The afternoon meetings will be divided into several sections, each devoted to the discussion of subjects of interest to its special branch of the industry. It is planned to have 811 papers printed and distributed, allowing the author a limited time in which to present the salient features of his address and giving up the greater part of the time to a discussion of the subject presented by members on the floor. By this plan it is hoped to have a free expression of opinion and to provide ample time for reaching conclusions to be embodied in resolutions representing the best thought of the mining industry.

Jan 10, 1916

ON the face of it, the American Mining Congress meeting was a big success, as witness the smiles on the AIME members, pictured here, who attended. The grins were captured at Booth 232, where caricaturist Lenn Redman held forth for the Independent Pneumatic Tool Co., sketching 114 subjects in one week.

Jan 10, 1950

By Spruille Braden

My attendance at this seventy-fifth Anniversary banquet of the A I M E is for me a homecoming, It means renewing associations with old friends, breathing again 'the invigorating mining atmosphere in which I was born and reared, and being among those who remember with affection and esteem the man from whom I inherited a name so intimately linked to-the mining profession Tonight, like a prodigal son strayed from mining into the far countries of diplomacy, I return, to eat and be merry over the fatted calf on this pleasurable occasion , While there is no riotous living in modern diplomacy, you are no doubt convinced that neither did I suffer a mighty famine in those far lands When I entered the Foreign Service, a few mining friends, viewing diplomats as sartorial perfectionists, or "striped pantsers" preoccupied with the art of cookie pushing, no doubt thought me a lost soul Conversely, some of my new colleagues at first looked upon me captiously and later as a reformed character, because they believed all miners to be rough customers, attired in muddy boots and given to direct action and equally direct or even explosive speech In point of fact, these two professions have much in common I do not have in mind the parallel cynicisms that "a miner is a liar with a hole in the ground" and "a diplomat a man sent abroad to lie for his country " I do

Jan 1, 1947

The 28th annual American Mining Hall of Fame Awards Banquet and fundraiser sponsored by the Mining Foundation of the Southwest will be held at the Marriott University Park Hotel, Tucson, AZ on Saturday, Dec. 4, 2010. The Mining Foundation of the Southwest is a nonprofit organization whose objectives are public education about the mineral industries, and recognition of outstanding accomplishments in and contributions to the fields of mineral and fuel resources. Funds are being raised to the support the foundation?s educational programs. Among these is the Educational Outreach Program operated jointly by the foundation and the Arizona Department of Mines and Mineral Resources.

Jan 1, 2010

THE Searles Lake orebody is located in the north- west corner of San Bernardino County. It is a dry lake bed with an exposed salt surface covering an area of 12 square miles. Recoverable mineral values are contained in the mother liquor below the surface of the lake. Stratification in the lake bed has separated the brine into two bodies which differ in composition. Although liquor is processed from both bodies, this paper will discuss only the upper structure brine. Fig. 1 illustrates a typical cross-section of the two commercial orebodies. The orebody is composed of a porous salt deposit 70 to 90 ft deep. The upper structure is separated from the lower orebody by a 12 to 16-ft thick impervious mud seam, as shown in Fig. 1. These salt structures are composed of 55 pct solid-phase salts and 45 pct voids which are filled with the original mother liquor.

Jan 2, 1954

By Hal W. Hunt

Heavier loading and more efficient equipment is helping to keep driven piles competitive in America. Better Knowledge and testing of soils and support materials make it practical to use higher stresses; this is being strongly promoted by those directly concerned with timber, steel and concrete piles. Readily available point protection is increasingly used to assure penetration of piles without damage to full load bearing capability. Fabric drains are being installed with pile equipment to speed consolidation of soils. Sheet pile configuration has changed; production has been reduced largely because of imports. Dynamic checking of representative piles for load carrying capability is replacing conventional load testing of just a pile or two ? at much lower cost.

Jan 1, 1987

The following letter has been received from the Chairman of the United States Shipping Board. August 1, 1918. American Institute of Mining Engineers, New York, N. Y. GENTLEMEN: I am going to call upon your organization for some teamwork. The time has come for Americans everywhere to put themselves solidly behind American ships. Our railroads must no longer stop at the ocean. We are building an American merchant fleet of twenty-five million tons-three thousand ships. We are backing modern ships with modern port facilities, establishing our bunkering stations all over the globe and will operate with American railroad efficiency. We will carry American cargoes at rates corresponding to our railroad rates-the cheapest in the world. Fast American passenger-and-cargo liners will run regularly to every port in Latin America, the Orient, Africa, Australia. Are you taking steps to use these ships to increase your own prosperity? Do you realize that American products of factory, farm and mine can be delivered to customers in foreign countries on terms which will build lasting trade? Do you realize the possibilities for bringing hack raw materials to extend your products and trade? We must all take off our coats and work to bring these American ships home to the people of every American interest and community. The manufacturer must think of customers in Latin America as being as accessible as those in the next state. The farmer must visualize ships carrying his wheat, cotton, breeding animals, dairy products and fruit to new world markets. The American boy must think of ships and foreign countries when he chooses a calling.

Jan 9, 1918

The Garfield plant of the American Smelting & Refining Company is situated about seventeen miles west of Salt Lake City, on the Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad, and has freight service by the Denver & Rio Grande Western. Western Pacific and Bingham & Garfield Railways. The site lies between the picturesque Great Salt Lake, with its mountain islands and the northern point of the Oquirrh Range, which forms the western boundary of the Salt Lake Valley.

Jan 1, 1925

"The Garfield plant of the American Smelting & Refining Company is situated about seventeen miles west of Salt Lake City, on the Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad, and has freight service by the Denver & Rio Grande Western, Western Pacific and Bingham & Garfield Railways.The site lies between the picturesque Great Salt Lake, with its mountain islands, and the northern point of the Oquirrh Range, which forms the western boundary of the Salt Lake Valley.The location includes several hundred acres of land rising from the southern shore of the lake, selected on account of its adaptability to the economical handling of materials by gravity methods.The smelter is a custom smelter, treating copper ores and concentrates produced in Utah and adjoining states.The ores treated consist mainly of oxides from the Tintic and Park City Districts, sulphides from Bingham District, and concentrates from the mills of the Utah Copper Company, from mills in California, and copper precipitates from the Ohio Copper Company. The last product comes from low grade ores of Bingham Canyon.The following figures represent approximately the daily consumption of materials:Ores and Concentrates…2,700 tonsLime sand…100 ""Coal…350 ""Oil for Roasters…240 Bbls."

Jan 1, 1925

By Frank W. Luerssen

Introduction "Austerity" is perhaps an overly generous description of the past three years in the American steel industry. Steel plants operated at an average of only 57% of their capability in 1982-84. The dismal losses for last year are still being totaled. But during the two years before this period, American steelmakers recorded an aggregate net loss of a staggering $6.8 billion. Steelmakers responded by closing numerous marginal facilities. And production capability was cut by 13.6 Mt (15 million st). Capital expenditures still averaged $2 billion annually. But this was inadequate to maintain the existing base of steelmaking facilities. The general economy experienced a satisfactory recovery during this period. American steel, however, continued to suffer from a lagging recovery in the capital goods sector. This was due to record penetration of its domestic market by imports and from very weak realizing prices on the volume that was available. In addition to the direct influx of offshore steel products - which itself depressed prices - the industry also became painfully aware of the growing importance of "indirect" imports. These came in the form of steel-containing producer and consumer durables. Industrial equipment and autos fabricated from foreign steel accounted for the equivalent of 6 Mt (6.5 million st) of lost market opportunity for domestic steel-makers last year. That is over and above the 23.5 Mt (26 million st) of direct steel imports. Given these factors, Inland Steel was not spared from the threeyear downpour of red ink. Despite its record of continuing modernization in steel, our single-plant location in the world's best steel-consuming market, and the high proportion of consumer durables related products, such as cold rolled and coated sheet in our mix, Inland suffered aggregate losses of $277 million during the 1982-84 period. Strategic Planning The foregoing establishes a perspective - a base from which we have restructured our view of the steel industry, and of our own role within that picture. Until possibly two years ago, this present weakness in steel demand was viewed around the world as an aberration, eventually to pass. By contrast, it is now recognized that austere times are the normal steel environment. The topic here is management of resources. This implies an emphasis on strategic planning. It is worthwhile to examine some of the more critical assumptions that were driving strategies among a number of steel companies just before the 1980s. Those projected characteristics of the future steel environment were arrived at through painstaking analysis. They were carefully and heavily quantified and were generally shared by outside observers and our peers within the steel industry. • First, the assumption was made that domestic steel demand would continue to grow at an average rate of 2% per year. • Second, it was assumed that this growth in the American market would continue to be filled predominantly by US mills. It was believed that increases in steel and steel-related demand overseas would absorb much of the ominously growing capacity of third

Jan 6, 1985

By J. C. Bartlett

As American students of mining, philosophy, philology, music, history, or art have found it necessary or highly advantageous to supplement their course of study at home by a residence of some years at a foreign university, so, ever since mining has been practiced in this country in any other than a rude and wasteful manner, many American students of mining have sought in London or Paris, but chiefly in the Academy of Freiberg, Clausthal, or Berlin, such infor-

Jan 1, 1877

By M. J. Langley

Zinc ores were first discovered in Tennessee in 1856 at Jefferson City where a deposit became the Mossy Creek mine. From that time until 1913, small- scale attempts at prospecting and mining were made in various parts of the district. The actual systematic development of the zinc deposit dates from 1913 when the American Zinc Co. started operations at Mascot. Mining in the Mascot-Jefferson City area today is devoted exclusively to the zinc sulfide, sphalerite. Various grades of zinc mineralization have been found intermittently through a 600-ft vertical thickness. However, the commercial ore is confined to a total thickness of about 250 ft, from which it usually is mined irregularly from four or five separate levels known locally as "ore runs." In a few places vertical thicknesses up to 150 ft have been mined where commercial material extended from one run to another.

Jan 10, 1962

By Robert Linton

M ETHODS by which Americanization is developed among the foreign workers at the mines in the United States, with particular reference to mines of the Pennsylvania coal region, were discussed in a most constructive way at the Wilkes-Barre Meeting of the Institute. Arthur Notman, of the Phelps Dodge Corpn., as chairman, guided the discussion. Americanization was defined by E. E. Bach, !chairman of the Institute's Sub-committee on Americanization, who said: "Americanization applies either to the native-born or foreign-born and is that process of assimilation which guarantees the full functioning of American citizenship. Naturalization papers merely entitle one to the privileges of citizenship."

Jan 1, 1921

By M. E. Grimes

The Port Radium mine of Eldorado Mining and Refining Limited, located on Great Bear Lake only a few miles from the Arctic Circle in north-western Canada, is the oldest uranium producer in Canada, The first concentrates were produced in 1933 and except for a period between 1940 and 1942 the mill has operated continuously. Although it is located in a remote area, and compared to more recent mines in other areas is a small tonnage operation, nonetheless the relatively high grade of the Port Radium ore has permitted operation to date on an economical basis. The mill process at Port Radium includes the original gravity concentration mill, and since 1952 an acid leaching plant which treats tailings from the gravity mill and tailings recovered by dredging of residues from underwater dumps in Great Bear Lake. The pregnant solution from the leach plant has to date been processed through aluminum reduction to yield an intermediate grade uranous phosphate-arsenate precipitate, Because of the rising costs of the aluminum reduction process, and its sensitivity to ore composition, Eldorado became interested in possible application to Port Radium of the solvent extraction processes of which we were obtaining increasing information in the latter part of 1954 and during 1955.

Jan 1, 1958

By Roger K. Clifford, Gary W. Hudiburgh

The amine flotation of feldspar from a magnetite concentrate produced at a domestic concentrator was investigated using zeta potential measurements, Hallimond tube flotation tests, and laboratory-scale flotation tests. The point of zero charge of six feldspars (microcline, orthoclase, albite, anorthite, anorthoclase, and oligoclase) range from pH 1.4 to 2.5. Hallimond tube flotation tests using amine flotation reagents were performed on these feldspars and on gangue material (quartz, albite, and microcline) from the magnetite concentrating plant. Laboratory-scale (623 g and 2500 g) flotation tests were performed on the magnetite concentrate to float the feldspar. The effects of three different collectors, two levels of collector concentration, three pH levels, starch, HF acid and regrind were investigated.

Jan 1, 1977

By Gary W. Hudiburgh

The gangue in some magnetite ore bodies contains feldspar; the alkali content of the feldspar reduces the usefulness of these iron ores. One method of decreasing the feldspar content in magnetite concentrate is froth flotation. The amine flotation of feldspar from magnetite concentrate was investigated using zeta potential measurements, Hallimond tube flotation tests and laboratory-scale flotation tests. The zeta potential of various feldspars (microcline, albite, anorthite, oliqoclase and anorthoclase) were determined as a function of pH; the point of zero charge ranged from pH 1.4 to 2.5. Hallimond tube flotation tests using two amine reagents were conducted on the feldspars. Hallimond tube flotation tests using six amine flotation reagents were performed on the cobber tails (quartz, albite and microcline) from a magnetite concentrating plant; in all cases, over 85 percent flotation recovery was obtained at pH 8 and 10-5 to 10-4 [M] collector addition. Laboratory-scale (667 grams) flotation tests were performed on the magnetite concentrate in an attempt to float the feldspar which had reported to the concentrate. The effects of three different collectors, two levels of collector concentration, three pH levels, starch and HF acid were investigated.

Jan 1, 1975

By M. G. Gorman

The effects of particle size, particle shape and degree of aggregation on n-dodecylamine flotation of -20 µ m quartz and glass beads were studied. A microflotation cell suitable for use with very fine particles was used in the flotation experimentation. Degree of agglomeration of particles was estimated by comparing size distributions of the quartz and beads in a dispersed system to size distributions in systems in which the collector was present. Results obtained show that in such flotation systems the fine particles are not generally present as individual particles during flotation but rather as aggregations. However, the quartz floats more readily than the beads indicating that there are some shape effects in the systems, considering the large specific surface areas of the materials it also appears that substantial amine consumption in the systems may limit flotation or lead to a requirement of greater reagent dosage for equivalent flotation to that tor larger particles.

Jan 1, 1990

By Donald W. Scott, Nathaniel Arbiter, A. C. Richardson

THIS paper describes the application of amine flotation to a specific problem-that of increasing the grade of magnetite concentrates derived from an iron ore requiring extremely fine grinding for mineral liberation. Experiments conducted on an iron ore from Wisconsin had shown that concentrates containing 60 to 62 per cent iron and 12 to 14 per cent silica could be produced by magnetic separation. The residual silica occurred as quartz and hornblende, either entrained or locked with magnetite. Most advantageous utilization of the concentrate, however, necessitated that the silica content be reduced to about 5 per cent, equivalent to an iron content of 67.5 per cent. It had been demonstrated that tabling of the magnetic concentrate removed sufficient quartz and hornblende to yield an acceptable concentrate, but disadvantages inherent in tabling dictated that flotation be investigated as a substitute. The goals set for the flotation investigation were: (I) the production of concentrates of about 68 per cent iron content from the magnetic concentrate; (2) an iron recovery of about 85 per cent of that in the feed to flotation; and (3) minimum reagent cost. Both batch and continuous flotation tests were employed; the former, to establish the procedure and the latter to verify it. Although the data were obtained on a specific ore, and with a commercial application in view, it is believed that they have a bearing on other problems where amine flotation is being used or is anticipated. SAMPLES Two samples, designated "minus 100mesh magnetic concentrate" and "minus 150-mesh magnetic concentrate," were used for the batch experimental work. They differed only in the degree to which the crude ore was ground prior to magnetic separation. They were stored moist in steel drums in quantities sufficient for all the experimental work reported. This procedure had the advantage of allowing all tests to be made on common samples, but had the disadvantage that the individual flotation samples, because of the difference in storage time, were subject to various stages of surface alteration. Previous work had indicated that common samples were desirable for the batch studies, and it was decided that if these data appeared sufficiently promising the effect of surface alteration could be checked best by continuous tests. The size distributions and the assays of the samples are given in Table I. The minus 150-mesh magnetic concentrate, on which most of the flotation tests were made, assayed 60.9 per cent iron, 13.3 per cent silica, and 0.016 per cent phosphorus. The minus 325-mesh portion represented 78.1 per cent of the sample by weight, and assayed 67.9 per cent iron. Thus, the insoluble, mainly silica, was concentrated

Jan 1, 1945