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CONTENTS PAGE Simons, Theodore.-Basic Principles of Gravity Concentration-A Mathematical Study : :.. 1 Taggart, Arthur F. and Gaudin, A. M.-Surface Tension and Adsorption Phenomena in Flotation 11 Hersam, Ernest A.-Factors Controlling the Capacity of Rock Crushers 12 Shaw, S. F.-The Ore Deposits of Sierra Mojada, Coahuila, Mexico 12 Wilson, Philip D.-The British Columbia Batholith and Related Ore Deposits 26 Greensfelder, N. S.-Shot-firing by Electricity 27 Mitke, Chas. A.-Metal Mine Ventilation in the Southwest 28 Foley, F. B. and Howell, S. P.-Neumann Bands as Evidence of Action of Explosives upon Metals 30 Schwartz, H. A., Payne, H. R., Gorton, A. F., and Austin, M. M.-Conditions of Stable Equilibrium in Iron-carbon Alloys 30

Jan 12, 1922

By A. H. Bell

Continued low prices and restricted markets for crude oil discouraged drilling activity in Illinois oil fields during 1933. Only 36 wells were completed in the state, the smallest number since 1904, and of these the majority were scattered wildcat wells, only 10 having been drilled in producing fields (Table 2). Production was curtailed approximately 40 per cent for the first half of the year. During July, August, and the early part of September there was no restriction on production. On Sept. 8, under the "code of fair competition for the petroleum industry," the quota of allowable production for Illinois was fixed at 12,000 bbl. per day. The state's production in 1933 was 9 per cent less than in 1932. What it would have been had there been no curtailment of production and if economic conditions had permitted a normal amount of cleaning out and repairs to wells, it is not possible to estimate, but it would no doubt have been considerably more than the actual figure. No new pools or new producing horizons were discovered in 1933, but the deepening of a Robinson sand well in Crawford County to the McClosky "sand" horizon (St. Genevieve limestone of the Lower Mississippian) resulted in a production of 3 bbl. per day (Fred Patchel, Savilla Shipman No. 5, NE. 1/4, SW. 1/4, sec. 26, T.6N., R.l3W., deepened from 1122 to 1388 ft., to be tested to the McClosky horizon, and, owing to the rapid variations in porosity within short distances, as shown in the Lawrence County field to the south, one test may not be considered as proving or condemning any large area. The average price of Illinois crude oil in 1933, calculated from the posted prices as published in the Oil and Gas Journal and Oil Weekly, was $0.862 per barrel. This compares with a calculated average price of $1.032 in 1932 and 0.852 in 1931. The total value of Illinois crude oil produced in 1933 obtained by multiplying the average price (0.862) by the total production (4,227,000 bbl.) was $3,643,674. Of the 26 wildcat wells drilled in 1933, only one was drilled on known favorable structure. This was the Walmar Oil Company's William Pepple well No. 1, sec. 12, T.4N., R.12W., Hancock County, which tested

Jan 1, 1934

By Elmer W. Pehrson

NINETEEN FORTY-SIX was an eventful year for the mineral industries. Perhaps the most significant development was the socialization of industry in Great Britain, initiated in 1945 but carried to fruition in the coal industry in 1946. On Jan. 1, 1947, management of the coal industry will be vested in a National Coal Board, responsible to the Ministry of Fuel and Power. A sum of £164,660,000 has been provided to compensate private owners for assets transferred to the Board. The British coal industry has been a problem for many years. Production has declined to a point where serious shortages of fuel for domestic needs have developed. Exports have dwindled to a small fraction of the previous trade. Costs have increased greatly, and quality has deteriorated. The industry's physical plant has not kept pace with the rapidly mounting wage scales in recent years. Some claim that the best and most accessible coal reserves of Britain are heavily depleted. The industry has been harassed by difficult labor problems, including bad morale among the workers and a shrinking labor force.

Jan 1, 1947

Some 15 years ago, Dr. Adolf Schmidt, director of the Magnetic Observatory in Potsdam, Germany, developed an instrument, which was a modification of Lloyds balance, for the measurement of the vertical component of the earth's magnetism in the field. There was a keen demand for this because (1) it was desirable to have a field instrument that would measure the component of the earth's magnetism which stands in the closest and simplest relation to the configuration of the subterranean magnetic formations-the vertical component; (2) it was desirable to have an instrument that was not only more sensitive but also more reliable than the existing vertical magnetometers (the dip needle, for instance). The application of the magnetometer in oil geology demanded such an instrument, because the magnetic disturbances produced by most types of magnetic formations associated with the occurrence of oil (salt domes, faults, anticlines with crystalline core, etc.) are too small to be detected with the ordinary dip needle. The writer can prove, by some investigations recently made for the U. S. Bureau of Mines, that these instruments may be used also to very great advantage in mining, because they are capable of measuring anomalies which are as great as twice the normal strength of the earth's magnetic field. Even for such anomalies, the field balance is more advantageous than the dip needle. First, the instrument rests on a firm support and can be adjusted in the proper azimuth, which insures measurement of the vertical intensity only, without a part of the horizontal intensity, which is very important for the interpretation. The readings give the vertical intensity in linear terms and not as a function of an angle; and the field balance is insensitive to temperature when used with scale values that are adequate for the determination of large anomalies. In another phase of mining, the gold placer work, the field balance has also shown excellent results for which the dip needle is not adequate. What has been said about the dip needle holds also, though to a lesser extent, for two other types of vertical variometers recently used, the Tiberg balance and the Thomson-Thalen magnetometer.

Jan 1, 1929

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Jan 1, 1907

By Leo J. Vogel, E. D. Hummer, David J. Akers

INTRODUCTION An efficient refuse-disposal system is a necessary part of the modem cleaning plant. The large-scale refuse system and disposal area, engineered for the lifetime of the plant, has become more important due to the greater tonnages of refuse produced from increased quantities of mechanically mined and prepared coal. Laws and increased government regulations have affected the design and operation of disposal systems. THE EFFECT OF MINE AND PLANT OPERATION Refuse disposal starts at the mining face. The mining system, the type of roof support, the machinery used, and the degree of discipline at the face contribute to the amount and type of refuse that must be removed through the disposal system. Economies gained through modification of the mining system or mining machinery may be partially offset by increased dilution of the mined coal with impurities from associated rock formations. In some cases the change in the mining system and equipment has reduced the dilution. In all cases the ratio of impurities that must be removed from the raw-coal feed to the plant not only affects the maintenance and

Jan 1, 1979

By John H. Schilling

The Gabbs magnesite-brucite deposit is unique in size and is one of two magnesite deposits being exploited in the United States. It is near the town of Gabbs, which is one hundred miles southeast of Reno, in west-central Nevada. The brucite was discovered in 1927; the magnesite was found while exploring the brucite. During World War II, more than 80,000 tons of magnesium metal was produced from about 900,000 tons of magnesite ore mined from these deposits. An additional 5,000,000 tons of magnesite and 1,000,000 tons of brucite have been produced for use in making magnesia refractories and chemicals. Basic Inc., presently the only producer, mines 1.5 ± 0.25 million tons of ore and waste annually using high-selective open-pit rriethods; the ore is up-graded, calcined, and processed into a variety of products. Known reserves of highgrade (less than 5 per cent CaO) magnesite ore total more than 25,000,000 tons, and there are larger tonnages of lower-grade material; brucite reserves are small. The magnesite and brucite are in generally west-dipping dolomite of the upper member of the late Triassic Luning Formation, in the over-riding plate of the Paradise thrust fault. A great variety of dikes and a stock of Cretaceous granodiorite intrude the Luning Formation in the vicinity of the magnesite-brucite deposit. The magnesite bodies are scattered over an area of about a square mile around a prong of granodiorite which extends north from the stock. The brucite is mainly in two bodies in contact with the prong of granodiorite; at the surface and along deeper cracks the brucite has weathered to hydromagnesite and artinite. In the area of magnesite-brucite mineralization, much of the dark, fine-grained, schistose, regionally-metamorphosed dolomite of the Luning Formation has been marmorized to a lighter-colored, coarser-grained, massive dolomite that is intergrown in varying proportions with the magnesite. The magnesite and marmorized dolomite can not be distinguished visually. In addition to the two varieties of dolomite, the gangue in the magnesite and brucite bodies mainly is the various varieties of dike rock, serpentine and a variety of other "contact" minerals, and "post-ore" dolomite and calcite. The magnesite ( and recrystallized dolomite) is believed to have formed by the hydrothermal replacement of the regionally metamorphosed sedimentary dolomite; alternatively it has been suggested that the magnesite is sedimentarv and formed contemporaneously with the dolomite in an embayment of the Triassic sea. Because all the igneous rocks exposed in the immediate vicinity of the magnesite deposits appear to be younger than the magnesite, the ore-forming solutions are thought to be related to a somewhat older granite which crops out elsewhere in the area. The brucite is the result of contact-metasomatic replacement of magnesite during the emplacement of the granodiorite stock.

Jan 1, 1968

By W. G. Matteson

The Gulf Coastal plain of the southern United States is that area bordering for a large part, the Gulf of Mexico and extending inland and northward to the main interior highland region. It is more or less V-shaped and includes the States of Florida, extreme southern Alabama, all .of Mississippi and Louisiana, the eastern and southern half of Arkansas, and the eastern, southeastern, and southern portions of Texas. While the contents of this paper apply to. the Gulf Coastal plain in general, they are intended to refer more specifically to that portion of the plain included between the 90th and 97th meridians, and the 29th and 33d parallels, an area that may be described geographically as comprising western Mississippi, all of Louisiana, part of eastern and all of south-eastern Texas. It is within this area that numerous and prolific oil pools have been developed during the last 17 years.

Jan 2, 1918

By D. K. Deardorff, Haruo Kato

D. K. Deardorff and Haruo Kato (U. S. Bureau of Mines)—We wish to refute the 1875" 20°C value that Giessen, et al., report as the transformation temperature of hafnium. Although these authors state that their work along this line will be reported later, we can't leave their value undiscussed, for we believe it to be 125°C too high. Our value of 1750° 20°C, which the authors mention, has been substantiated in our laboratories by the use of three other methods. The first method of substantiation was by heating and cooling curves using a hafnium/tungsten thermocouple, the couple having first been calibrated against a t/Pt-10 pct Rh couple. The second method was by quenching and metallography of dilute Hf-Ta alloys. The third cussion, it may be pointed out that the observations of Rogers referred to large unidirectional strains where the internal cracks or voids appeared only after a strain of 32 pct or more. On the contrary the internal fissures observed, as a result of fatigue cycling, occurred for a total extension of some 5 pct and furthermore followed the directions of the slip zones. Finally, it is not our contention, as implied in Dr. Alden's last paragraph, that the tensile stress is an important factor in crack propagation. Indeed, in connection with the reference to the companion report, special note is made of the fact that "Deformation was apparently concentrated in grains which have a slip plane nearly perpendicular to the specimen axis and thus near the plane of maximum applied shear." This dependence of the growth of fissures on the orientation of the slip planes with respect to the direction of maximum applied shear is clearly shown in work on the torsional cycling of single crystals which has been submitted for publication. method was by heating and cooling curves with W/W-26 pct Re thermocouple. Counting the original resistometric method, four different methods have yielded 1750" 20°C as the transformation temperature of hafnium. All our work on determination of the hafnium transformation temperature has shown that the specimen under test must be quickly heated to and through the transformation temperature if the lowest possible transformation value is to be determined; otherwise a higher value not representative of pure hafnium will result. Speed was emphasized in all methods. In our resistometric work the corresponding voltage, amperage, and temperature readings were taken quickly and the transformation temperature was usually reached within 5 min total heating time. In the thermal analysis work involving Hf/W or W/W-26 pct Re thermocouples the transformation temperature was attained within three minutes total heating time, this time being less because the two variables were

Jan 1, 1963

By H. M. Howe

Page 1. Introduction............................514 2. Definitions.............................517 3. Brevity of the Heating........................517 I. THE HARDENING OF THE BORE..............517 4. The Hardening of the Bore.....................517 5. The Thickness of the Hardened Layer.................517 6. Martensitization..........................518 7. The Hardening Repetitive ......................519 8. The Temperature Cycle.......................519 9. The Hardened Layer is the Merged Layer............... 521 10. The Progressiveness of Merging....................521 11. The Progressive Thickening of the Hardened Layer from Round to Round. 523 12. Merging and Hardening are Cumulative................523 13. Three Additional Causes of the Progressive Thickening of the Hardened Layer 525 14. Progressive Roughening of the Bore..................525 15. Avoidance of an Endothermic Transformation.............525 16. Asymptotic Retardation of the Thickening of the Hardened Layer.....527 17. The Troostitic Layer........................ 529 18. The Usual Lack of Martensitic Markings................529 19. The Thickness of the Hardened Layer Should Increase with the Quantity of Heat Taken up by the Walls of the Bore.................530 20. The Decrease of the Thickness of the Hardened Layer from Breech to Muzsle 531 21. Phstic Deformation as a Contributory aCause of Hardening........531 22. In What Way May Plastic Deformation Hasten Hardening?....... 535 23. Possible Need of Coarsening.....................535 24. Carburization as a Cause of Hardening..........:.....536 25. Does Hardening Increase Erosion?..................-538 11. THE CRACKING OF THE BORE ...............539 26. Appearance of the Bore and Cracks in Elevation............539 27. The Cracks in Elevation in the Rear Ring...............539 28. The Cracks in Elevation in the Forward Ring.............540 29. The Copper Network in the Grooves.................540 30. The Cracking of the Lands......................541

Jan 1, 1918

By E. H. Dix

All commercial aluminum contains small percentages of copper, iron, and silicon as unavoidable impurities. The purest metal obtainable commercially, special grade high purity ingot, contains a maximum of 0.50 per cent. impurities of which the usual minimum amount of copper is 0.01 per cent.; silicon, 0.12 per cent.; and iron, 0.20 per cent. This grade is too costly for most purposes. The two standard grades, Nos. 1 and 2, containing a minimum of 99.0 and 98.0 per cent. aluminum, respectively, are more generally used. Other grades of secondary aluminum often contain as high as 3 or 4 per cent. of impurities, which include 1 per cent., or more, of zinc. Specifications for high-grade aluminum-casting alloys generally allow a maximum of 1.7 per cent. for total impurities. The S. A. E. Specification No. 33, which is intended to cover alloys made from secondary aluminum ingot, gives the iron maximum as 1.5 per cent. and the maximum for silicon (including manganese and tin) as 0.75 per cent. The effect of even relatively small amounts of impurities on the physical properties of ingot aluminum is shown by the following cornparison of two lots of aluminum, which may be taken as representative of special grade and grade No. 2 ingot, respectively. AnalysEs Special Grade, Gbade No. 2, Per Cent. PeR CBnt. Copper................................. 0.01 0.32 Silicon................................. 0.12 0.32 Iron................................... 0.42 0.82 Aluminum.............................. 99.45 98.54

Jan 1, 1923

By E. H. Dix

All commercial aluminum contains small percentages of copper, iron, and silicon as unavoidable impurities. The purest metal obtainable commercially, special grade high purity ingot, contains a maximum of 0.50 per cent. impurities of which the usual minimum amount of copper is 0.01 per cent.; silicon, 0.12 per cent.; and iron, 0.20 per cent. This grade is too costly for most purposes. The two standard grades, Nos. 1 and 2, containing a minimum of 99.0 and 98.0 per cent. aluminum, respectively, are more generally used. Other grades of secondary aluminum often contain as high as 3 or 4 per cent. of impurities, which include 1 per cent., or more, of zinc. Specifications for high-grade aluminum-casting alloys generally allow a maximum of 1.7 per cent. for total impurities. The S. A. E. Specification No. 33, which is intended to cover alloys made from secondary aluminum ingot, gives the iron maximum as 1.5 per cent. and the maximum for silicon (including manganese and tin) as 0.75 per cent. The effect of even relatively small amounts of impurities on the physical properties of ingot aluminum is shown by the following cornparison of two lots of aluminum, which may be taken as representative of special grade and grade No. 2 ingot, respectively. AnalysEs Special Grade, Gbade No. 2, Per Cent. PeR CBnt. Copper................................. 0.01 0.32 Silicon................................. 0.12 0.32 Iron................................... 0.42 0.82 Aluminum.............................. 99.45 98.54

Jan 1, 1923

Coal Division Industrial Minerals Division Minerals Beneficiation Division Mining, Geology and Geophysics Division Established as a Society February 26, 1957 OFFICERS AND COMMITTEES J W Woomer, President A B Cummins, President-elect S D Michaelson, Past President C E Lawall, Eastern Regional Vice-President D W Scott, Central Regional Vice-President 3 D Forrester, Western Regional Vice-President R B Ladoo, Treasurer John Cameron Fox, Secretary

Jan 1, 1959

By Arthur F. Hagner

The titaniferous magnetite deposit at Iron Mountain, Wyoming, is in Precambrian anorthosite. Individual ore bodies are lenses, commonly arranged en echelon, conformable to the platy crystal structure and compositional layering of the anorthosite; a few transect these features at various angles. The ore bodies are on the east flank of the principal anticline in the anorthosite mass. Magnetite and ilmenite, accompanied by spine!, are the ore minerals. The principal gangue minerals are olivine, which was introduced with the ore, and plagioclase, the chief constituent of the anorthosite. The anticlinal region appears to have been a structurally weak zone, and westward-bowing curves of the axis were especially favorable sites for localization of the two largest massive ore bodies. These bodies are synclinal and plunge southeast. The proportion of magnetite-ilmenite to olivine and to anorthosite appears to be related to structural features. Where magnetite-ilmenite is present with olivine, the magnetite-ilmenite is encountered along the most pronounced parts of a fold where anorthite content is highest, whereas olivine is associated principally with more gently folded portions. During granulation and recrystallization of the anorthosite mass, temperature and pressure changes furnished the energy required to release and mobilize iron and other elements that migrated to areas of low pressure, the ore zone. Some iron and magnesium may have combined with silica from partly dissociated plagioclase to form olivine. The ore formed by replacement of anorthosite as indicated by: (1) the marked changes in mineralogy along strike, dip, and plunge of an ore body; (2) the concentration of massive ore in folds and olivine on limbs; ( 3) the halo of low-grade mineralized rock that transects the structure of the anorthosite in the hanging wall; and ( 4) the layering in the large southern ore body, that strikes more easterly than the trend of the body.

Jan 1, 1968

By Carleton C. Long, George F. Weaton

Two years ago the general features of the St. Joseph Lead Company's zine-smelting process were described.' At that time the discussion was limited to a description of the production of high-purity electrothermic zinc oxide. The present paper will describe the commercial production of electrothermic zinc metal. Since a fairly complete description of the plant of the Josephtowlz smelter was given in the earlier paper, the brief recapitulation given here will be limited to mention of additional equip-ment recently installed and a bare outline of the preparatory process. The raw material is zinc sulphide concentrate received from the company's mines in St. Lawrence County, New York. An average dry-weight analysis of this material is: Zn, 58.28 per cent; Pb, 0.56; insoluble, 1.6; SiO², 1.12; Fe, 6.4; CaO, 0.47; MgO, 0.27; S, 31.9; Cd, 0.1; Cu, 0.06; Mn, 0.24. Moisture content is usually about 3 per cent. Three 21-ft. 6-in. diameter, 12-hearth Nichols-Herreshoff furnaces roast the coacentrate to a calcine of average conlposition (first 10 months of 1938): Zn, 67.69 per cent; Pb, 0.06; insoluble, 1.75; SiO², 1.26; Fe, 7.24; CaO, 0.47; MgO, 0.36; S, 1.88; Cd, 0.1; Cu, 0.07'; Mn, 0.27. The sulphur dioxide gas, after passing through a waste-heat boiler, proceeds through a recently redesigned low-resistance gas-purification assembly to the contact sulphuric acid plant, of which the capacity is 200 tons of concentrates per day. The calcine is mixed with a portion of returned furnace residues and sintered on 42-in, by 44-ft. Dwight-Lloyd sintering machines, gas-fired. Wind-box gases pass through air coolers before filtering in a 1440-bag Dracco unit, and thence to stack. The Dracco fume is mixed with Cottrell dust, from roaster gas cleaning, and sent to the leach plant, where it is roasted (SO² to acid plant) and leached with sulphuric acid to recover, as end products, lead sulphate, zinc sulphate and cadmium.

Jan 1, 1943

By George F. Weaton, Carleton C. Long

Two years ago the general features of the St. Joseph Lead Company's zine-smelting process were described.' At that time the discussion was limited to a description of the production of high-purity electrothermic zinc oxide. The present paper will describe the commercial production of electrothermic zinc metal. Since a fairly complete description of the plant of the Josephtowlz smelter was given in the earlier paper, the brief recapitulation given here will be limited to mention of additional equip-ment recently installed and a bare outline of the preparatory process. The raw material is zinc sulphide concentrate received from the company's mines in St. Lawrence County, New York. An average dry-weight analysis of this material is: Zn, 58.28 per cent; Pb, 0.56; insoluble, 1.6; SiO², 1.12; Fe, 6.4; CaO, 0.47; MgO, 0.27; S, 31.9; Cd, 0.1; Cu, 0.06; Mn, 0.24. Moisture content is usually about 3 per cent. Three 21-ft. 6-in. diameter, 12-hearth Nichols-Herreshoff furnaces roast the coacentrate to a calcine of average conlposition (first 10 months of 1938): Zn, 67.69 per cent; Pb, 0.06; insoluble, 1.75; SiO², 1.26; Fe, 7.24; CaO, 0.47; MgO, 0.36; S, 1.88; Cd, 0.1; Cu, 0.07'; Mn, 0.27. The sulphur dioxide gas, after passing through a waste-heat boiler, proceeds through a recently redesigned low-resistance gas-purification assembly to the contact sulphuric acid plant, of which the capacity is 200 tons of concentrates per day. The calcine is mixed with a portion of returned furnace residues and sintered on 42-in, by 44-ft. Dwight-Lloyd sintering machines, gas-fired. Wind-box gases pass through air coolers before filtering in a 1440-bag Dracco unit, and thence to stack. The Dracco fume is mixed with Cottrell dust, from roaster gas cleaning, and sent to the leach plant, where it is roasted (SO² to acid plant) and leached with sulphuric acid to recover, as end products, lead sulphate, zinc sulphate and cadmium.

Jan 1, 1943

By Frederick Laist

I. INTRODUCTION The new slime-concentrating plant at the Washoe Reduction Works, Anaconda, was put into operation during March, 1914. This plant, which has a capacity of 26,000,000 gal. of slime pulp carrying 2,500 tons. of solid matter per day, consists of Dorr thickeners and Anaconda multiple-deck slime concentrators.' This plant is the culmination of a great deal of experimental work extending over a considerable period of time, which work will be described briefly in the following pages.

Jan 8, 1914

By J. C. Uy, T. E. Davidson, A. P. Lee

The effects of hydrostatic pressures to 26 kbars on the micro structure of poly crystalline Cd, Zn, Bi, Sn, Zr, Mg, Cu, and Fe were examined. Pressure-induced microscopic plastic flow in the form of boundary migration, slip, multiple slip, or twinning has been observed either singly or in combination in cadmium, zinc, bismuth, and tin. No deformation was observed in zirconium, magnesium, copper, and iron. The occurrence of such deformation, in terms of its intensity and initiation pressure, relates directly to the degree of anisotropy in the linear compressibility. Pressure cycling does not significantly affect the residual tensile properties of a zinc alloy which exhibits pressure-induced deformation similar to that of Pure zinc. CLASSICAL elastic theory predicts that a superim-posed hydrostatic pressure will not induce shear stresses in an ideal material. Thus, in the case of homogeneous and isotropic materials plastic flow will not occur as a result of pressure exposure, regardless of the magnitude of the pressure, unless some form of phase transformation or permanent density change takes place. However, real materials, such as metals, often vary considerably from the condition of homogeneity and isotropy. For this reason, Vu and johannin' examined and observed hydrostatic pressure-induced microscopic deformation in polycrystalline cadmium and, zinc, but not in aluminum, to pressures of 9 kbars and indicated that its occurrence is related to anisotropy in the linear compressibility. In addition, Davidson and omaan' have reported pressure-induced deformation in polycrystalline bismuth below the 1-11 transformation pressure. It becomes apparent then that under certain conditions hydrostatic pressure can induce localized internal shear stresses in some metals of sufficient magnitude to cause plastic flow. In this work, eight pure single-phase metals of different lattice structures and degrees of elastic anisotropy were examined after pressure exposures of up to 26 kbars in order to establish the conditions under which such deformation occurs and the type of deformation as a function of pressure. The effects of pressure cycling on the mechanical proper-

Jan 1, 1965

By Earle E. Schumacher, Alexander G. Souden

IN the field of physical metallurgy it is becoming increasingly difficult to keep abreast of the recent develop¬ments since the diversity of investigations is so great and the literature so voluminous. The purpose of this review is to present the more important advances in the nonferrous field during the past few years, the topics discussed being classified broadly as fundamental and practical. The former includes those studies that have done most toward developing the basic science of metals and alloys, and the latter includes technical developments and applications. With the rapid growth of the metal

Jan 1, 1938

By Wilbur S. Burbank, Robert G. Leudke

The impressive western San Juan Mountains of Colorado were carved by Pleistocene and Recent erosion from a thick blanket of Tertiary volcanic rocks that rests upon a basement of metamorphic, sedimentary, and igneous rocks ranging in age from Precambrian to Tertiary. These rocks record a long, complex, and fairly complete sequence of geologic events that have affected the region through much of geologic time. The geologic history of the region includes several periods of deformation, erosion, and igneous activity; closely associated with two of these periods were two periods of mineralization. The older of these was related to Late Cretaceous-early Tertiary (Laramide) intrusive activity, and its deposits occur in the older sedimentary units. The younger, of later Tertiary age and related to the widespread middle Tertiary extrusive and intrusive activity, is the chief concern of this paper. Tertiary volcanism built a great plateau surrounding the San Juan volcanic depression, a complex of subsided crustal blocks in the vent areas. The Silverton and Lake City cauldrons, nested within the larger depression, were domed by resurgent magma that created keystone grabens along the distended crests of the domed floors and many postcauldron radial and concentric fractures, dikes, and intrusive plutons within and marginal to the cauldron sites. The postvolcanic evolution of large quantities of gases, chiefly carbon dioxide and water, propylitically altered the rocks in and around the volcanic depression prior to the younger period of ore deposition. The ore deposits, localized mainly in the radial and concentric fractures about the cauldrons and in the associated graben faults, include fissure veins, chimneys, replacements, and disseminations in volcanic and underlying basement rocks. Fissure veins, constituting the major economic source, yielded precious- and basemetal ores. Most veins are compound with sphalerite, galena, and chalcopyrite; some veins contain silver-bearing arsenical sulfosalts and free gold. These minerals occur in predominantly quartz gangue. However, gangues composed of several manganese silicates and carbonates and relatively· barren of metals are abundant locally and probably originated by alteration of rocks at roots of faults and fissures during evolution of carbonatic solutions. The bulk of the ores are hypogene and probably had their source in deep parent magmas of the shallow eruptive rocks. Total production since the early 1870's has exceeded half a billion dollars in recovered metals, with a ratio of precious- to base-metal values of about 3 to 2. Since 1930, improvements in metallurgical treatment and mining techniques have increased the base-metal yield.

Jan 1, 1968