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By Charles L. Harness

Magnesia (MgO) has a variety of uses, and it has become increasingly important as a war material because of the imperative demand for refractories to line metallurgical furnaces, and because magnesia is used to make the in aircraft and other implements of warfare. Magnesia occurs as an integral part of nearly 60 minerals, but it is extracted commercially from only a .smaller number, of them. The present commercial sources are magnesite, brucite, dolomite, raw sea water, sea water bitterns, and well brines. Magnesia Raw Materials Magnesite magnesium, carbonate MgCO3, theoretically contains 47.8 percent MgO and 52.2 percent CO2. There are two varieties of magnesite, crystalline and cryptocrystalline (dense or amorphous). The latter type, though, not so plentiful as the former, is generally purer. It resembles unglazed write pottery in texture, whereas the crystalline variety is generally dark and granular, though the color may vary. The principal domestic deposits, of crystalline magnesite are near Chewelah, Stevens County, Wash. (which has supplied most of the magnesite mined in the United States), in the Gabbs Valley area of Nevada (near Luning); and in Llano County, Tex. Crypto-crystalline magnesite occurs principally in California. Magnesite occurrences have also been reported in several other States, including New Mexico, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Vermont, and Maryland, but these deposits have not been developed commercially.

Jan 1, 1943

By GUY B. HUNNER

THOSE magnetite ore bodies comprising the Clifton Mines are situated in the south central part of St. Lawrence County, New York, on the western slope of the Adirondack Mountains. The topography is made up of gently rolling hills densely wooded with second-growth maple, birch, and hemlock. Drainage is north and west to the St. Lawrence River.

Jan 1, 1943

By AIME AIME

OUT of the fabulous iron ranges of Michigan?s Upper Peninsula since Pearl Harbor have come go to the steel mills to become tanks, guns, ships, and other weapons for a United Nations' victory. But the contributions to the war effort, as far as Michigan's iron country is concerned, do not stop there. The same men who mine iron ore deep inside the earth also are "mining" on top of the ground, gleaning a harvest of scrap iron and steel that is writing a big chapter in the War Production Board's salvage program. At virtually every mine over an area of a hundred square miles, everyone from the top mine official and straw boss to the man in the dippings is scrap conscious. They know the importance of the ore they mine but they are equally familiar with the importance of iron and steel scrap in war production. The successful job they are doing in salvage is a tribute to the entire Upper Michigan mining industry and to the man who marshaled them into action-John M. Bush, chief of the land department for the Cleveland- Cliffs Iron Co. at Negaunee, and for ten years an A.I.M.E. member. Also, this job should be an inspiration to 611 mining. metallurgical, and petroleum communities as to the latent possibilities of organized scrap recovery.

Jan 1, 1943

By AIME AIME

ON the afternoon of Feb. 20 of this year a new volcano was born in the center of the State of Michoacan, Mexico, about 100 miles inland from the Pacific Coast. Creation of this new mountain - forming crater began on an almost flat cultivated field at the south margin of a small basin about a mile in diameter and having an altitude of approximately 6800 ft. above sea level. This basin is connected to a gently inclined plain that forms the Parangaricutiro valley, the chief town of this municipality, bearing the same name as the valley, being situated three miles from the site of the new crater. The village of Paracutin, from which the new volcano received its name, is about one mile to the northwest of the crater. From the City of Mexico to the volcano is a distance of 330 miles. The paved highway running from Mexico City to Guadalajara, by way of Toluca and Morelia, is left at Carapan; from here another paved branch highway goes to Uruapan. The town of Paracutin is reached by a narrow dirt road 18 miles from Uruapan and connects with a road leading to Parangaricutiro where horses may be hired for a 40-minute trip to a place where visitors can enjoy a magnificent view of the volcano. It is possible to get within half a mile of the point of eruption in this manner.

Jan 1, 1943

By Walter Miller

NOW, after a year's continued impact of war, the task of the petroleum-refining industry stands out clearly and looms up in larger aspect. This time it is not, as it was so largely in the first World War, simply a matter of increased quantity- more and more of the same petroleum products that had substantially been standard for years. In this era the emphasis is largely on newer and improved materials which had been produced, if at all, in comparatively insignificant quantities, and for which manufacturing equipment was not available on a large scale. At the beginning of 1942 four great product needs (besides a number of lesser one-) confronted the industry: 100-octane aviation gasoline, toluene for T.N.T. production, high-quality lubricating oils for aviation and Army equipment service, and petroleum chemicals for synthetic rubber manufacture.

Jan 1, 1943

By AIME AIME

THOUGH the Annual Meeting of the Institute-officially numbered 158 on the records was delayed a bit at the start by low steam pressure on the locomotives bringing members to New York, the crowd that finally arrived more than lived up to expectations, and the technical program had few difficulties because of absent authors or lack of competent discussers. The transportation difficulties were occasioned by the fact that Monday, Feb. 15, was the third coldest day in the 72 year history of the New York Weather Bureau, the official temperature being 8 below zero. The New York Central's premier train, the 20th Century, due at 9:30 a.m., arrived about 6:30 p.m., and the Commodore, another crack train from Chicago, was about equally late.

Jan 1, 1943

By Philip D. Wilson

OF all the metals in the war program the demand for and the production of magnesium have increased percentagewise the most. In the prewar year 1939 the production was 3350 tons. The war program, twice expanded, now provides for nearly one hundred times that amount annually. The goal announced by the War Production Board in February 1942 was 362,500 tons per year. Be- cause of the development during the year of satisfactory types of incendiary bombs other than magnesium this objective has been somewhat reduced but the capacity of the plants already built or under construction will be huge. The Aluminum and Magnesium Division of the W.P.B. has had the responsibility of planning and implementing this expansion and of providing fabricating facilities as well for this greatly increased tonnage of magnesium ingot.

Jan 1, 1943

By P. E. Fitzgerald

SOME readjustments in the research programs of most of the oil companics and petroleum engineering schools have been made necessary by the war. The most obvious change has been the conversion from production engineering to problems more closely related to the nation's was effort. Many laboratories now devote much of their time to studies on products to be derived from petroleum. such as synthetic rubber, toluene, and substitutes for critical materials. Others are working to improve motor fuels including high-octane gasoline and the special lubricants required by the wide geographical range of the present conflict. Of great importance is the experience of the geophysicists, who are now devoting a great percentage of their time on instrument research and production or special apparatus required by the armed forces.

Jan 1, 1943

By Charles B. Henderson

DESPITE the loss, by enemy conquest, of a high percentage of our normal sources of supply for tin, the position of this important metal is easier today than that of rubber and a long list of other strategic materials, many of which are produced in this country. Actually, there is no shortage of tin for essential war purposes, owing to a strict control of its use, to increasing considerably the amount of secondary tin available, and to the foresight of the Government in authorizing the Reconstruction Finance Corp., as early as June, 1940, to acquire and produce certain critical and strategic materials of which tin was one of the most important. The construction of the Longhorn Smelter on the Gulf Coast in Texas is an important part of this program.

Jan 1, 1943

By J. R. Linney

A HISTORY of the ore-mining and iron-smelting industry of the Adirondacks comprises a century and a half of pioneering by rugged individualists, both men and women. By geographical location, the climate is most severe-long, cold winters with heavy snowfall, and short seasons of vegetation growth; this, together with its remote location from large centers of population, adds considerably to the difficulties of conducting mining operations in this area.

Jan 1, 1943

By Oliver Bowles

A HEAVY gel of bentonite clay has been proposed as an effective lubricant to speed down the ways to sea, river, or lake, the mighty cargo ships now hitting the water at the rate of about three a day. Another unusual application of a nonmetallic mineral is in food conservation, for the claim has been made that the next new item on the menu for poultry and rabbits will be vitamin tablets prepared from mont-morillonite clay. These uses have minor importance but illustrate not only the diversity in utilization, but the notable trend in 1942 toward mobilizing nonmetallic minerals for the war program. Although occupying less headline space than iron, steel, copper, aluminum, magnesium, and other metals, the nonmetallics are filling important emergency needs. Mica and quartz crystal are essential to communication; asbestos is urgently needed in fireproof heat and electrical insulation; and strontium minerals are utilized in the manufacture of signal flares and tracer bullets.

Jan 1, 1943

By Linney, Robert J.

REPUBLIC Steel Corporation's iron-ore properties in the Adirondacks consist of mines, mills, and sintering plants in the Mineville and Port Henry area and at Lyon Mountain. This article will deal with the properties in the vicinity of Mineville and Port Henry. In 1938, when Republic leased the Mineville- Port Henry operations from the Witherbee Sherman Corp., these properties had just come through some hard depression years. As a result, the mine development program was far behind schedule; most of the equipment needed replacement; and above all, the entire system of mining had to be completely changed to reduce operating costs. The concentrator had been in operation for many years; the process was dry and dusty. Machinery and equipment were either badly worn or entirely obsolete. The sintering plant, also long in operation, was badly in need of repairs.

Jan 1, 1943

By A. C. Johnson, McHenry Mosier

The Bureau of Mines has adapted its activities to needs of national defense and to conditions brought about by the war program . Its work is now oriented solely to war problems . After studying about 1,600 deposits of war minerals , exploration projects have been undertaken on 96 of the most promising , of which 56 have proved successful . These have indicated that 56 million tons of ore of commercial or near -commercial grade can be utilized to meet war requirements . Included in this amount are 1 million tons of tungsten ore ; 4 million tons of chromite ore, 10 million tons of manganese ore , 2 million tons of antimony ore , 1 million tons of mercury cre , and 28 million tons of iron ore . Work done in connection with exploration projects included 172,000 feet of surface trenching , 210,000 feet of drilling , and 21,000 feet of shaft sinking . Nearly 100,000 samples were taken, on which 500,000 analyses were made . Extensive metallurgical tests were made on ore from many of these deposits , both in the laboratory and in pilot plants , in connection with research to develop metallurgical processes for their treatment .

Jan 1, 1943

By R. R. Sayers

Under compuision of the present urgency to implement the President's promise to make the United States the arsenal for the democracies there is a tendency to demand a relaxation of restrictions on hours of labor and to speed up all industrial processes. The pressure is the more insistent with growing realization of the importance of the time factor in the success- ful prosecution of the war effort and the lack of skilled workers due to (2) operation of the draft, lack of an apprentice system in industry, and loss of skill by workers unemployed for long periods during the depression. With "total" war such as it is today the probabilities are that everyone will be required to exert greater effort (in many instances in activities to which they are unaccustomed) for longer periods than ever before has been necessary. The question arises, "What will be the aftereffects as well as the immediate effects on health, safety, and efficiency?" A review of the literature leaves the impression that this question has not been an- swered completely, especially as regards the ultimate effects. Mechanization, speeding up of industrial processes, mass produc- tion, and the small industrial concerns present many problems to indus- trial medicine. Does the tendency to expect the worker to produce at full speed all the time he is on the job decrease the effectiveness of the shorter working hours and cause undue fatigue, loss of efficiency, and increased accident proneness? The answer is important as this condition is likely to be intensified by the exigencies of the present emergency. According to Viteles (1)3, The increased tension under such conditions of work appears to offset the savings in muscular force made pos- sible by the machine. The tension, the speed, the subject- tion to specialization of work and a rhythm uncontrolled by the individual promote fatigue, characterized by a "decrease in the power to work, a decrease in pleasure taken in work, and a decrease in the enjoyment of the hours spent away from work."' The crowding of workers in temporary structures without proper provision for comfort and health may add greatly to the general fatigue factors already present in many industrial establishments. In 1932 Lockhart (2) stated that the production and maintenance of a healthy, satisfied industrial population is the most urgent necessity, involving problems so serious as to constitute a national task too great economically to be relegated to industrial concerns. If this was true in 1932, it must be doubly so today.

Jun 1, 1942

By Charles L. Harness, A. T. Coons

Sodium carbonate, Na2CO3, more commonly known as soda ash, is the most important of the alkalies. Sulfuric acid is the only heavy chemical, Soda ash enters the market either as the natural product or as a manufactured derivative of common salt. Notwithstanding their common occurrence in closed basins of the Western States, natural sodas are produced at present by only four firms, all in the same California area, and satisfy only 4 percent of domestic demand for soda ash; soda ash made from salt supplies 96 percent of the requirements. The impossibility in wartime of routing all westbound American shipping through the Panama Cami.l has curtailed Pacific Coast receipts of soda ash and-increased the importance of local resources of natural carbonates. One of the most promising of ·these is the recently discovered trona (sodium sesquicarbonate)· deposit 2o·mnes· west of Green River, Wyo. Reserves are likely to run into hundreds ·of million·s of tons, and the deposit probably could be worked by the room-and~pillar· system of mining, like common salt or coal. • • Raw materials ·ne·cessary for manufacturing synthetic soda ash occur closely associated in m·afiy parts· bf the United 8tates. Almost unlimited resources of salt in brines and in rock-salt depbsits are located near limestone quarries in many areas. The· limesto'ne furnishes the carbon dioxide for the manufacture of soda ash arid the lime f o'r the recovery of ammonia. used in one step of the process. Expansion of the industry to meet wartime needs depends chiefly on availability of trained labor, materials, and equipment necessary for the erection of additional units.

Jun 1, 1942

By S. M. Shelton, M. M. Fine, T. L. Johnston

"INTRODUCTION The Bynum property is about 15 miles west of Gadsden and 1 mile north of Walnut Grove, Etowah County, Ala. The ore lies in layers and as irregular masses and pockets in the clay residue from decomposed quartzite and limestone formations to the district.The property has been developed by means of numerous shallow shafts sunk to water level - about 25 foot. Operations are confined to small-scale, selective mining of pockets of high-grade ore. The ore is marketed directly, without beneficiation. The property does not yield a large amount of manganese ores. No estimates of reserve ore tonnages are available.A 206-pound sample was furnished for test. It was taken at random from a stock rile estimated to contain 130 tons of ore. The sample con¬sisted of a mixture of manganese oxides, iron oxides, and siliceous fragments in clay. The manganese occurred largely as soft, unconsolidated pyrolusite and wad. Some hard, crystalline pieces of psilomelane were distributed through the soft material. Small amounts of iron oxides were associated with the manganese oxides. Chert, quartzite, and clay comprised the gangue minerals.Dry analysis of the sample was as follows: 36.0 percent manganese, 6.1 percent iron, 2: .0 percent silica, 1.5 percent calcium carbonate, 0.36 percent phosphorus, 3.0 percent alumina, 2.2 percent barium, and 0.31 percent zinc."

May 1, 1942

By J. B. Zadra, S. M. Shelton, R. B. Fisher, M. M. Fine

"INTRODUCTION An extensive test program is in progress by the Bureau of Mines to determine ways and means of recovering ferromanganese ore 5/ from the widespread domestic manganese and manganiferous iron deposits.Samples were received from the Stance property in southwestern Virginia, 12 miles northwest of Stoney Gap, in Bland County.The Stange mine is situated on the crest of Flat Top Mountain and is developed by open-cuts extending over several acres. The manganese deposit occurs in the Oriskany sandstone largely as a replacement of the sandstone, to some extent as breccia filling in the crusted parts of the sandstone, and as veins along joints, and bedding planes.The mine was first worked in 1917 and was operated during the war years. A long period of idleness was followed by intermittent operations in recent years. A small log-washing plant, consisting of a 20-foot log washer, was operated 1-1/4 miles northwest of the mine. The log-washer concentrates were crushed to minus- 1/2 inch and then washed in a second log washer to remove as much of the siliceous sandstone as possible. According to a communication from the operator, the double-washed concentrates were jigged and the jig concentrates marketed without further beneficiation."

Apr 1, 1942

By S. M. Shelton, W. A. Calhoun, M. M. Fine, T. L. Johnston

"INTRODUCTION An extensive test program is in progress by the Bureau of Mines to determine ways and means of recovering ferromanganese-grade ore 6/ from the wide-spread domestic manganese and manganiforous iron deposits. Samples for testing were received from the Interstate Manganese Co. in northeastern Tennessee, 11 miles west of Mountain City and 10 miles southwest of Damascus Va. The ore deposit occurs in the residual material of the Shady dolomite 7/ as an unconsolidated mixture of hard and soft manganese oxides and clay.Numerous tunnels and pits have developed a large reserve of ore in an area of about 15 acres. One pit 250 by 50 by 20 feet is being mined by rower shovels. The ore is hauled to a washing plant for log-washing, hand-sorting, and jigging. Coarse concentrates from the washing plant are marketed without further beneficiation.ACKNOWLEDGMENTSThe authors wish to acknowledge the assistance of R. F. Fisher, who made the roasting and magnetic tests."

Mar 1, 1942

By S. M. Shelton, A. L. Engel

"This report presents the results of investigations of ore-testing projects assigned to the Ore-Dressing Section, Metallurgical Division, Bureau of Mines, at the Mississippi Valley Experiment Station, Rolla Mo. During the fiscal year ended June 30, 1941.The manner of approving ore-testing projects has been explained in a previous reports. 4/ The testing procedures likewise have been described. 5/The treatment methods described are based upon laboratory experiments with small amounts of sample and naturally are subject to the inherent, normal, limiting conditions of such procedure. It is not intended to describe treatments in detail, but rather to indicate applicable methods. Local operating conditions, when the laboratory results are applied to plant operations, may require further study. Large-scale pilot-plant tests should be made before commercial operations are begun, so that translation from the experimental stage will yield satisfactory results."

Mar 1, 1942

By S. M. Shelton, W. A. Calhoun, M. M. Fine, T. L. Johnston

"FOREWORDFerrograde manganese ore or its equivalent is essential to the manufacture of every ton of steel produced; although it is well known that there are large deposits of low-grade are in the United States, the production of substantial amounts of ferrograde material from domestic sources presents a problem that becomes more and more critical as the stockpiled ore depleted through inability to procure adequate supplies from foreign sources. Consequently, a program of laboratory,and pilot-plant investigation designed to solve the problem of obtaining a domestic supply of manganese has been undertaken by the Metallurgical Division, Bureau of Mines.This paper is one of a new series that include reports of results obtained in the various investigations conducted under the manganese program. The scope of the program and the organization that was set up to direct and supervise the were discussed in the foreword of the first paper of this series, Report of Investigations 3606 Manganese Investigations. 1. Concentration of Manganese Ores,from the Drum Mountain District, Utah, by S. R. J. D. Vincent, and C. R. Schack. Other reports will be published as the work progresses."

Mar 1, 1942