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By D. H. Bacon

Our Transactions contain so many suggestions of apparently trivial, yet really important, contrivances for the saving of time and

Jan 1, 1893

By S. C. Lindsay, D. J. I. Evans

With each year that passes hydrometallurgical processes are being more widely used to recover base metals from ores and concentrates. Generally these processes involve liquid-solid separation of metal-bearing liquors from barren residues. This may be done by countercurrent decantation, thickening and filtration, or filtration or centrifuging only. Choice of method is governed by chemical and physical characteristics of the pulps; cost of labor, power, materials, and waste disposal; and even by the amount of capital available when building plans are under way. Since all these controlling factors change with time and location and with technological advances, the separation method must be re-evaluated when new plants or expansion programs are contemplated. At the Sherritt Gordon refinery in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, an ammonia pressure leaching process recovers nickel, copper, and cobalt from the nickel concentrate produced at Lynn Lake, Manitoba.' Pregnant liquors are separated from the barren leach residues in a thickener-filter liquid-solids circuit. The decision to use this type of separation was based on a summation of economic factors during the pilot plant and design stages. Although countercurrent decantation was not incorporated in the refinery flowsheet, the problems solved in thickening the leach residues and the experience gained in operating the commercial plant are pertinent to countercurrent decantation, particularly where it is applied to slow-settling leach slurries or slurries having a relatively high vapor pressure of a valuable, obnoxious, or poisonous vapor. The nickel sulfide concentrate is leached under pressure with air and ammonia to dissolve the nickel, copper, and cobalt and most of the sulfur, leaving a residue of iron and siliceous material to be discarded.2,3 During a subsequent distillation stage to recirculate part of the ammonia used for leaching, copper is recovered from the solution as a high-grade sulfide. After further purification to remove traces of copper and undesirable sulfur compounds, the nickel is precipitated by hydrogen under pressure at an elevated temperature. The cobalt, together with unreduced nickel, is precipitated as a mixed metal sulfide by hydrogen sulfide for eventual cobalt recovery. The end solution is then evaporated to produce a crystalline ammonium sulfate byproduct. As shown in Fig. 1, the nickel concentrate is leached in a continuous, two-stage, countercurrent circuit. In the first stage, or adjustment leach, the fresh concentrate is partially leached (60 pct) in the liquor produced in the second stage, or final leach. This system is necessary to produce a solution suitable for treatment in the copper sulfide precipitation step. Both stages are carried out at 170" to 180°F under a total pressure, with air, of 100 to 120 psig in large, horizontal, water-cooled autoclaves. The autoclaves are divided by overflow weirs into four compartments to give a certain amount of staging during leaching. In each compartment a relatively slow-speed (100 to 150 rpm) agitator maintains the nickel concentrate in suspension. Adjustment leaching, carried out in two autoclaves in parallel, is followed by a thickener-filter liquid-solids separation. Final leaching is done in two parallel trains of three autoclaves using aqueous ammonia to extract metal values from the adjustment leach residues. This too is followed by a thickener-filter circuit. Here the residues are repulped once with aqueous ammonia and twice with process water and refiltered after each repulping stage, to insure a maximum recovery of soluble metal, before being discarded to the tailings pond. The adjustment leach is followed by a seven-disk Dorr-Oliver American filter, with an agitator in the filter boot to keep the residues in suspension. Agitators have also been installed beneath the four ten-disk filters following the final leach thickener. Slurry Characteristics: A typical analysis of the Lynn Lake nickel concentrate, produced by differential flotation,' is given in Table I. The concentrate comprises 35 to 49 pct pentlandite, (Fe, Ni)S; 3 to 6 pct chalcopyrite, CuFeS,; 1 to 4 pct pyrite, FeS2; and 24 to 42 pct pyrrhotite, Fe1-2S (where x varies between 0 and 0.2) together with various siliceous minerals such as actinolite, hornblende, and talc. During leaching, the sulfur in the pentlandite, chalcopyrite, and part of the pyrrhotite is successively oxidized through the thiosulfate and poly-thionate radicals to sulfate and sulfamate." Simultaneously the nickel, copper, and cobalt are converted to soluble ammine complexes and the iron in the pentlandite, chalcopyrite, and part of the pyrrhotite is oxidized to a spongy hydrated iron oxide. The hydrated iron oxide is readily broken down by the agitation needed to sustain the concentrate in suspension and to maintain a satisfactory mass transfer of the oxygen from the air to the slurry. Table I shows typical chemical, screen, and

Jan 1, 1961

Jan 1, 1920

Executive HOWARD N. EAVENSON, Chairman FREDERICK M. BECKET EDGAR RICKARD ERLE V. DAVELER WILLIAM WRAITH Finance HENRY KRUMB, Chairman PAUL I). MERICA J. V. W. REYNDERS H. G. MOULTON, Consultant Admissions JOHN M. LOVEJOY, Chairman GEORGE D. BARRON DONALD M. LIDDELL ELI T. CONNER WILLIAM W. LYNCH Alternates WM. H. BASSETT, JR. L. B. LINDEMUTH W. A. SINSHEIMER

Jan 1, 1934

Mining headlines in 1952 dealt mainly with expansion as the industry aimed for an ever increasing production to meet the nation's needs. Huge sums were expended for equipment, research, and development. Headlines told part of the story. Negotiations between San Manuel Copper Co. and the RFC finally resolved in a $94 million loan for the development of low grade Arizona ores. Magma Copper, parent firm was to supply an additional 8 million. Kennecott Copper Co., deepening its Deep Ruth Shaft of its Ruth, Neyy mine, announced that the shaft would be in full production in 1953.

Jan 2, 1953

1913. FRANDKA WBONA DAMS Montreal, Canada. 1921. WILLIAM CUTHBERTB LACKETT Sacriston, Durham, England. 1923. GELASIOC AETANI. Rome, Italy. 1929. TAKUMAD AN Tokyo, Japan. 1920. HENRYS TURGISD RINKER. Merion Station, Pa. 1922. FEDERICGIOO LITTI. Torino, Italy. 1906. SIR ROBERTA . HADFIELD. London, England. 1928. JOHNHA YSH AMMON.D. New York, N. Y. 1921. FRANKW ILLIAMH ARBORD London, England. 1917. HERBERTH OOVER. Washington, D. C. 1906. HENRI LECHATELIER. Paris, France. 1900. WALDEMAR LNDGREN Cambridge, Mass. 1879. JOHNM ARKLE .New York, N. Y. 1921. C. MCDERMID London, England. 1913. EZEQUIELO RDONEZ Mexico City, Mexico. 1909. ALEXANDRPEO URCEL Paris, France. 1911. ROBERT H . RICHARDS Cambridge, Mass.

Jan 1, 1929

JOSEPH W. RICHARDS, Chairman. J. E. JOHNSON, JR., Vice-Chairman. ARTHUR S. CALLEN, Secretary, 453 Chestnut St., So. Bethlehem, Pa. SUB-COMMITTEES IRON ORE DWIGHT E. WOODBRIDGE, Chairman. ERNEST F. BURCHARD, WILLIAM KELLY, CHARLES F. RAND, FELIX A. VOGEL. BLAST FURNACES II. A. BRASSERT, Chairman. WILLIAM H. BLAUVELT, AMBROSE N. DIEHL, JAMES GAYLEY RICHARD V. McKAY. STEEL WORKS HENRY D. HIBBARD, Chairman. GUILLIAEM AERTSEN, C. F. W. RYS, .1. S. UNGER. FRANK D. CARNEY, A. A. STEVENSON, WILLIAM It. WALKER. MECHANICAL TREATMENT CHARLES A. BUCK, Chairman. ROBERT W. HUNT, GEORGE MESTA, FREDERICK W. WOOD.

Jan 6, 1915

By AIME AIME

ALL 32 of the Local Sections of the Institute in the continental United States and practically all of the Divisions as well, had representatives present at the Conferences of Local Section and Division Delegates at the Annual Meeting. Three sessions were held, two on Monday and one on Thursday, both the incoming and outgoing Presidents of the Institute being on hand to con- duct the meetings. H. J. Brown was called to the chair during a portion of the last session, President Fulton having to leave early. Complete minutes of the meetings have ,been sent to all delegates. In general, the Local Sections appeared, from their reports, to have risen to the wartime demands made upon them with their usual resourcefulness. Apparently more difficulty has arisen in the last year in arranging attractive programs and securing acceptable speakers, this being perhaps attributable to the fact that most technical men have been extremely busy. Careful planning ahead .has usually brought good results, however. Another wartime difficulty has been the matter of transportation to meetings, gasoline rationing and congestion on the railroads and buses being a handicap to attendance. Sharing cars has proved practical as a method of meeting this issue, this again requiring planning. Suitable meeting places and a supply of food have been another difficulty for some local groups.

Jan 1, 1944

By James Boyd

THE Bureau of Mines for a number of years has been seeking additional ways and means of improving the efficiency of its operations and increasing its service to the public. It has become obvious that changes in the organization of the Bureau are essential to a more effective accomplishment of its functions and objectives. The old organization was defective in meeting current needs in that the Bureau's field activities were neither sufficiently coordinated with the national program nor were they particularly responsive to local needs of the mineral industries. Further, the traditional organization hampered the efforts of the Bureau to obtain, analyze and provide to the policy-making agencies of the Government essential information and advice in such a form that the requirements of domestic industry could be fully taken into consideration in the development of domestic and foreign policies. Consequently, the Bureau has now modified its organizational structure.

Jan 1, 1949

MARCH 15-Industry is rapidly snapping back from another coal crisis, other business news is in general favorable and the outlook through the Spring is by most observers considered quite promising. Most industries report comfortable backlogs of unfilled orders, department store sales in recent weeks have equalled in dollars those of the corresponding period last year, retail sales of automobiles show again over the same period a year ago, and new orders for machine tools are at the highest figures since August 1946. Orders for railway freight cars have shown a very encouraging pickup, with a total of 9385 cars in January and the N. Y. Central alone ordering 4500 in February. Construction continues very active. In January new housing starts totaled 80,000 against 50,000 a year ago and the daily average contract awards, according to the Dodge reports, were 57 pct larger. In the first 22 days of February the increase in awards was 27 pct. Lumber orders since Jan. 1 have run 22 pct above last year. All of these favorable factors bolster the opinion that the upturn in industrial output and employment which began last summer has not yet spent itself and that the setback caused by the strikes will be made up when people get back to work. Only in a few lines are there indications that primary production may be outrunning the consumption of finished goods, although inventory build-up would seem to be rather modest as the National Association of Purchasing Agents reported in February that 78 pct of its members were buying for 60 days or less. Industrial prices as a whole show no significant trend despite the continued alarm over both the immediate and the long-term possibility of inflation caused primarily by the government's increasing expenditure and its inability to balance the budget. A recent advance of 1.9 pct in primary market prices is viewed by some people as the surface symptom of renewed inflation, but even so it is more than two years since the alltime high was reached by the daily index of sensitive commodities in November 1947. Over two years have passed since prices received by farmers hit their peak and about a year and a half since all wholesale prices and the consumer price index touched their highest points in August 1948. The decline in the wholesale price index has been almost continuous, interrupted only twice by slight advances in the monthly figures from February to March 1949, and, later in the year, from August to September. Of course, this continued decline in the last half of 1949 largely reflects a downward movement in farm and food prices. Wholesale prices for commodities other than farm and food leveled out after June and now stand only slightly under the June level. Farm products are down by 22 pct from January and by 18.6 pct from August 1948. Food prices are down only slightly less. Consequently, the farm price support program is in serious trouble and has imposed a heavy financial burden on the Treasury. In those commodities other than farm products only building materials, chemicals and textiles have come down as much as the average, while housefurnishings and metals and their products have fallen hardly at all. Glancing away from the domestic front, the results of the British general election indicated a highly inconvenient situation, that public opinion there is so exactly deadlocked as to divest the victors of much ability to make forceful decisions or create significant policy. It is generally considered that another election in the near future would give substantially the same result. The British people are equally divided and the politicians are not likely to precipitate another appeal to the country until there is manifest reason to believe that external and internal circumstances have changed sufficiently to permit one party or the other to obtain a decisive verdict. Because of the lack of a clear mandate steel nationalization will likely lag in Britain. In the meantime there is considerable discussion going on as to whether the European steel industries as a whole are at a disadvantage in world competition with the American industry. An article in the "Statistical Bulletin" for January of the British Iron and Steel Federation takes issue on this point with the authors of the Geneva report, observing that they wrote before devaluation, and this particular conclusion "has been overtaken by events." The "Bulletin" also contends that the statement was in any case incorrect so far as Britain was concerned, and that it was based on scanty and insufficient evidence. To support the rebuttal a detailed and extensive comparison is made of the home prices of certain steel products in Britain and in other countries of the world. The accompanying table gives a selection of the prices published. It sets out the changed position since devaluation and since the recent increases in American steel prices. These are home market prices; no doubt in competitive export business some of the price levels could be brought closer together at need.

Jan 4, 1950

By Edwin Ludlow

I DEEPLY appreciate the honor which has been conferred upon me by my election to the presidency of this Institute, as I feel that it is the highest honor a mining engineer can receive, and I also feel that I am especially fortunate in being called to take the presidency in the year following Mr. Hoover, as I may be enabled in that way to carry on the work which he has initiated. The constructive work that Mr. Hoover has inaugurated has been of inestimable benefit in bringing not only this Institute but the entire engineering profession into a place in the public esteem to a degree which it had never before occupied.. This work Mr. Hoover will now carry on in the broader field of the Federated American Engineering Societies, of which he is president. Through that organization the engineers of this country, in all branches of the profession, will be welded into one compact body reaching from the Atlantic to the Pacific, making the united engineering profession a power for maintaining American . . ideals and standards throughout the land.,

Jan 1, 1921

POSITIONS VACANT (Under this heading will be published notes sent to the Secretary of the Institute by members or other persons.) Position open as assistant superintendent at a steel plant. Practical experience in the manufacture of crucible and open-hearth steel and heat treatment of steel and alloy steels required. This position offers an excellent future. No. 9. A company in Virginia desires a man with experience in Western mines to act as superintendent of its pyrite mine. No. 15. Position open as instructor at a University in Middle West to teach the mechanical side of mining, such as hoisting, haulage, drilling, and mine surveying. Salary, $1,500 to $1,800. No. 16. Experienced amalgamator wanted at a mill in Ivory Coast, Africa. An American speaking French preferred. No. 18.

Jan 5, 1914

The volumes of Transactions, which are published annually, contain the list of officers, rules, etc., the Proceedings, and the papers revised for final publication. (In this revision, after the preliminary publication, authors are permitted to use the largest liberty; and the changes and additions made in papers are sometimes important. It should be borne in mind by those who study or quote a paper in the preliminary edition, that they may not have in that form the ultimate and deliberate expression of the author's views. It should be added, however, that in the majority of cases there are no important changes.) These volumes are for sale as follows, in paper covers:

Jan 1, 1917

In answer to inquiries from members, Mr. Sheafer said that the culm-banks of which his paper gave the shipments were of about the average quality of the banks in the Mahanoy region of the Schuylkill field,.made prior to 1881 or 1882, when the practice of preparing buckwheat coal was introduced; but that in a very old hank, made about 1849, no coal above pea-size had been found. Apparently it was then the practice to ship everything. In reply to an inquiry concerning the utilization of the fine coaldust, Mr. Sheafer said that it was not utilized in connection with the washing described in his paper, but was carried away in the water as waste; that during Mr. Corbin's presidency the Reading Company built at Mahanoy City an extensive plant for making artificial fuel, but difficulty was encountered, due to the circumstance that the small coal from different collieries varied in its combustible quality and also in the amount of pitch required to be mixed with it, and he believed they concluded that from some varieties of the coal-dust a very good fuel could be made, but at a cost entirely too great for successful competition with cheap coal. Of course, the anthracite dust was not so well suited to this manufacture as bituminous slack. R. W. Raymond, New York City : I believe that was the practical outcome of the enterprise of a member of the Institute, Mr. E. F. Loiseau, now deceased. It was found, I think, as an additional drawback, that the manufacture of artificial compressed fuel from anthracite dust could not be successfully practiced with material so impure as that of the culm-banks. Consequently, the manufacture could be based on that source of supply only when accompanied with a preparatory washing. The most favorable location for it would be at large yards where the waste from the handling of coal, which is comparatively pure material, could be thus treated. I believe the manufacture of compressed fuel from bituminous coal was at one time a profitable business in Nova Scotia, but was destroyed by the indirect effect of the general introduction of watergas for illuminating purposes. The result of that change on the

Jan 1, 1895

By M. A. Cook

Sutherland used an ion-pair adsorption model to derive the author's hy-drolytic pee-acid) adsorption equation for the contact bubble curves of Wark and Cox. To do so it was necessary to postulate that the sum of coverages of surface anion sites by the collector and depressant anions is practically unity. It is here shown that the free energy of Sutherland's postulated collector ion (x-)-depressant ion (OH-) exchange reaction (for no other than the OH- to compete with X-), namely EX + (OH-) Z SOH- + X-, is in some cases positive and X- should not even adsorb. Also, in many cases the (OH-) adsorption must be quite negligible even though the collector covers only about a sixth of the mineral surface at the threshold of air bubble contact. This, however, contradicts the postulate that permits one to derive the correct bubble contact eqwztion for the ion-pair model. Furthermore, the requirement for charge neutrality leads in the ion-pair model to the (impossible) constancy of the ratio @+)/(OH-) along a contact bubble curve in which pH may change by more than seven units. HYDROLYTIC ADSORPTION EQUATION Hydrolytic (free-acid or free-base) and ion-pair (H', X-, or R', OH-) adsorption models of the collector in metal sulfide and similar flotation systems are superficially alike and somewhat difficult to differentiate. This is because they yield, under seemingly valid assumptions, equivalent forms of the equations describing the distribution of the collector between the aqueous solution and the mineral surface. This has been discussed by the author and associates1-4 and more recently by Sutherland,' both for simple collector-mineral and for more complicated collector-depressant-mineral systems. In the hydrolytic adsorption model the equations describing the contact bubble curves of Wark and coxeJ7 are as follows :2 Here X is the collector anion, D- the depressant anion, 9, and On are the fractions of the free-acid sites S on the surface of the mineral covered by collector and depressant free acids, respectively, and @ is the fraction of uncovered sites. Kx is the free-acid collector dissociation equilibrium con- stant, K1 that for the free-acid collector adsorption, KD that for the free-acid depressant dissociation, and K2 the equilibrium constant for the free-acid depressant adsorption. Eqs. 1 to 5 yield upon simultaneous solution the result is the critical free-acid concentration for bubble contact in the absence of depressant-free acid. Eq. 8 expresses the conditions along a simple collector-mineral contact bubble curve for the case HD = 0, or V = 0. Last and Cook showed that Eq. 6 applies generally and with good accuracy in the collector-depressant-metal sulfide mineral systems. Inci-dentally, it has been shown by infrared absorption studies that in some cases the free-acid adsorption process splits out water.' In this case, Eq. 2 might be written SHOH + HX Z SHX + H20, with a similar equation replacing Eq. 4 for depressant-free acid-water exchange. This possibility does not change, however, the basic equations or considerations of the hydrolytic adsorption model. Indeed, this type of free acid-water exchange reaction was predicted for fluorite and iron ore flotation by oleic acid in the dry grinding and boiling processes.410

Jan 1, 1961

The Joint Economic Committee's subcommittee on international payments and exchange has recommended that, following international monetary reforms, the law which prohibits private possession of gold by American citizens be repealed. The subcommittee recommendation called for reforms to enhance the role of special drawing rights in international monetary affairs and downgrade the role of gold. Special drawing rights, also known as "paper gold", are on artificial reserve with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which distributes them to member nations in proportion to their economic importance in the world economy. The special drawing rights are then used to settle debts between nations in the same manner as gold or currency. The subcommittee said that under the reforms now being discussed special drawing rights would be acceptable in lieu of gold among the member countries of the IMF.

Jan 1, 1973

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA LOCAL .SECTION Executive Committee SEELEY W. MUDD, Chairman C. COLCOCK JONES, Vice-Chairman. FREDERICK J. H. MERRILL, Secretary-Treasurer, 631 Higgins Bldg., Los Angeles, Cal. RALPH ARNOLD A. B. CARPENTER The Southern California Section, held a dinner and meeting at. the Sierra; Madre Club, Los Angeles, on Friday evening, Sept. 28, 1915, at which 21 members and guests-were present. The Vice-Chairman, C. Colcock Jones; presided, in the absence of the Chairman. The amendment' to the By-Laws providing for the increase of the Executive Committee from five to seven members, having been formally presented at the annual meeting of June 18, 1915, and duly announced for consideration at this meeting, was voted on and unanimously adopted. Prof. Robert H. Richards of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; made a short address on the subject of ore concentration. The paper on the Geology and Ore Deposits of Mojave, County, Arizona, prepared by F. C. Shrader, was presented to the meeting by the Secretary and was discussed by Allen Burris and Dr. L. D. Godshall. F. J. H. MERRILL, Secretary.

Jan 11, 1915

By P. Ramakrishnan, Ramjilal

Fine powders of lead zirconate titanate have been prepared by three different methods such as ball milling, conventional coprecipitation and spray drying. Different powders have also been prepared by changing the process variables in each method. These powders were analysed for particle size chemical composition and reactivity. DTA, TGA and x-ray analysis have been carried out to study the lead zirconate titanate formation with reference to calcination temperatures. The calcined powders were then consolidated by compaction and sintering. An attempt has bean made to explain the consolidation behaviour of these powders on the basis of powder characteristics.

Jan 1, 1980

Albin, B. R Billings, Mont. '28 Amster, Nathan L 25 Broad St., New York, N. Y. '28 Bache, Jules S 42 Broadway, New York, N. Y. '28 Barrett, C. P 5338 Harper Ave., Chicago, 111. '28 Bayless, William S Russ Bldg., San Francisco, Cal. '28 Bean, Louis, H 60 E. 42nd St., New York, N. Y. '28 Beatty, Ross J Room 604, 6 N. Clark St., Chicago, III. '28 Benwell, Oswald F Hold Mags. '28 Beymer, Albert S., V.P., Keystone National Bank Pittsburgh, Pa. '28 Blumenthal, Hugo 44 Pine St., New York, N. Y. '28 Boettcher. Charles Ideal Cement Bldg., Denver, Colo. '28 Bowlus, Thomas H., Banker, Pres., Allen County State Bank Iola, Ran. '28 Brown, Colvin B Chamber of Commerce, Washington, D. C. '28 Burt, Maxwell Struthers Southern Pines, N. C. '28

Jan 1, 1934

New York Meets first Wednesday after first Tuesday of each month. J. E. JOHNSON, JR., Chairman EDGAR RICHARD, Vice-Chairman D M LIDDELL Secretary, 7 Wall St.. New York. N. Y. C. A. BORN, Treasurer JOHN V. N. DORR LEWIS W. FRANCIS Boston Meets first Monday of each winter month. R. L. AGASSIZ, Chairman JAMES G. CARLETON. Vice-Chairman E. E. BUGBEE Secretary-Treasurer, Mass. Inst. of Technology, Cambridge, Mass. W. E. C. EUSTIS G. A. PACKARD Columbia Holds four sessions during year. Annual meeting in September or October. W. H. LINNEY, Chairman OSCAR LACHMUND, Vice-Chairman LYNDON K. ARMSTRONG, Secretary-Treasurer, P. O. Drawer 2154, Spokane, Wash. STANLY A. EASTON S. SHEDD

Jan 12, 1917