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By W. H. Emmons

Although gold is one of the rarer metals, it is widely distributed; it is found on all of the continents and in each of the grand metallogenic provinces of the earth. It is prominent particularly in the shield areas of the earth; these areas have produced a large part of the world's lode gold and in most of them gold lodes are more important than the lodes of other metals. The Scandinavian shield is the only one that has not produced much gold. Nearly all of the world's gold has been derived from lodes and from sands and gravels where gold placers formed by the destruction of lodes. The gold derived from magmatic segregations, from pegmatites and from contact metamorphic deposits is quite subordinate to that derived from auriferous lodes. The lodes include all veins and related deposits that are formed by hot waters that move along fissures or other openings and that deposit vein 'matter :in the fissures and by replacement of the country rocks along the fissures. All of the shield areas of the earth are characterized by large areas of granitic rocks including granitic gneisses, granodiorites and other acid intrusives which here are included in the general term "granite." The granites are intruded into schists, ancient lavas and other rocks which here are designated as the "invaded" rocks. The granites are parts of what once were great batholiths: that is, they are the remaining portions of great deep-seated bodies that slope outward, have very irregular roofs and so far as known have no floors but extend downward to great though unknown depths. Some of them are scores or hundreds of miles across and contain islands or "roof pendants" of the invaded rocks at places where the roofs of the batholiths were low—that is, where erosion has not yet completely unroofed the batholiths. It is in these islands of older rocks and in the narrow marginal belts and cupolas of the batholiths that practically all of the gold lode deposits of the shields are found. Valuable lodes are lacking generally in the granites themselves except in grahite within a mile or less from .the contacts with rocks of the islands (Fig. 1). It is probable that the great areas of granites and gneisses that surround the islands are not all of the same age, and that at places unmapped granite intrudes gneiss or older

Jan 1, 1932

By H. Foster Bain

Probably no more significant change has come into the lives of men in the past two hundred years than their shift from major dependence on plants and animals to major dependence on minerals. From the dawn of history, nay from long before that dawn, food and clothing had been man's main concern. The wandering of the tribes in pastoral ages was in search of grass for their cattle; the patient work of the "man with the hoe" has ever been to supply food for himself and family and if he accomplished so much he had little strength, energy, or ambition for other things. The great civilizations of the past arose in the fertile valleys where food supply was abundant or on shores where by grace of the wind and primitive wooden ships food could, if needed, be imported. Provision for the "seven lean years" by storing the abundance of the seven fat years was long held up as the highest example of statesmanship and the ambitions of the Roman populace did not go beyond bread and circuses, the former the product of a plant and the latter involving essentially contests of men and other animals. Through all those centuries of want, misery, and warfare it was, for example, an axiom that "an army fights oh its belly." Now an army rides to the battle line in trucks; its members stand up and fight with tons and tons of metal and other minerals. Food supply is assumed, and rightly so, for in this modern world of ours shortage of food is chargeable at once to poor organization or deficiency of transport. The areas in which famines occur are those in which the one or the other

Jan 1, 1932

By C. H. Wilson, J. W. Daly, J. J. Jakosky

Meteor Crater, Arizona, is a natural wonder which for years has been the subject of considerable discussion and study as to its origin and age (Fig. 1). Of the various theories advanced regarding the origin, two have been considered as most probable by a majority of investigators. The first theory is that the crater was formed by a meteorite or a swarm of meteoric material striking the earth at a high velocity and burying itself. The second theory is that the crater was formed by a "steam explosion" from hot solutions or gases coming from underneath the present sedimentary beds which overlie the area. In order to obtain more detailed information regarding the conditions existing at the crater, the present management decided to have a detailed geophysical examination made. The origin of the crater is of considerable scientific importance and interest. More or less active mining operations have been carried out during the past 20 years by various groups who believed that the crater was of meteoric origin, and who hoped that sufficient quantities of such material had been buried to be commercially valuable. Fragments of meteoric material found on the surface of the ground in the debris around the rim gave analysis of approximately 92 per cent iron and 8 per cent nickel, with some platinum and iridium. The material having a gross value of approximately $50 per ton, mining would be commercially profitable if sufficient quantities of the material existed in condition for mining. In the early work numerous drill holes and shallow shafts were put down, mainly in the northern portion of the crater. Pulverized material and debris caused considerable difficulty, and in an effort to overcome this the present management started a 1500-ft., two-compartment shaft on the south rim of the crater and outside of the fill zone. The intention was to sink the shaft in the solid rock outside of the crater, and then to crosscut toward the crater at a depth of 1500 ft. The work was finally stopped when a depth of 650 ft. was reached, because water poured into the shaft through large cracks and fissures in the rock. The enormous force responsible for the crater had also broken

Jan 1, 1932

In the history of American mining, so far as I know, there is no cleaner, brighter, or more completely successful mining adventure than that of the United Verde Extension.* It deserves to be placed on record here. The mine is at Jerome, 25 miles northeast of Prescott, in Yavapai county, Arizona. For 30 years before the U.V.X., as it is known to mining men, achieved celebrity, the Jerome district was identified with a copper mine, the United Verde, one of the great mines of the world. The success of this mine, of course, stimulated the search for similar orebodies, or for an extension of those already known, in adjacent ground; but, despite vigorous prospecting, the United Verde remained for many years alone in its glory. The reason for this solitariness was geologic: a fault with a big throw frustrated the effort to trace the ore-zone, thereby causing exploratory work to be both uncertain and costly. Despite these failures to develop other mines in the vicinity, the belief persisted that all the ore was not localized in the United Verde mine, but before we consider the reasons for such a belief we must look at the geologic conditions. The basal rock of the Jerome district is a schist, which has been correlated with the Yavapai formation of the Bradshaw quadrangle. This schist is geologically ancient, for it is of pre-Cambrian age. It is composed of volcanic tuffs, together with sediments, both argillaceous and siliceous, all of which

Jan 1, 1932

Jan 1, 1932

By F. J. Norton

THE object of this investigation was to make a comprehensive study of the degassing of molybdenum in order to determine how rigorous a treatment was necessary to completely remove sorbed gases from molybdenum electrodes in vacuum tubes. Some work has also been done with tungsten, nickel and carbon. As a logical development of this work it has been shown that the gas is present throughout the body of the metal and a study has been made of the solubility of nitrogen in molybdenum and tungsten and the rate of diffusion of nitrogen through molybdenum has been calculated. Tests were made on molybdenum from all the commercial sources and no difference was discovered in the nature of the gases present, the amounts or the ease of removal. The reason for this was apparent when a study was made of the manner in which gases are absorbed by gas-free molybdenum. It is necessary to heat molybdenum to 1760° C. in a vacuum of the order of 0.001 micron for a time which varies lineally with the thickness, in order to obtain a condition in which no further gas is evolved by the sample. A sample so degassed can be handled and subsequently assembled in a tube and then degassed readily. The gases obtained from molybdenum are carbon monoxide and nitrogen, the nitrogen being the more difficult to remove.

Jan 1, 1932

By Scott, Turner

MY whole life has been spent in the mining business, PO I naturally tend to address my remarks particularly to the newly-graduated mining and metallurgical engineers among you. To a certain extent, all forms of engineering principles are involved in the training of the mining engineer, and most sorts of engineering are certainly utilized by him, so every one of this graduatins class is concerned with the field I propose to discuss.

Jan 1, 1932

By C Gunther

Many definitions have been advanced and many limitations advocated in the use of the terms, veins, lodes and ledges. The following definitions appear to follow the best usage. A fissure vein, according to Lindgren, is a mineral mass tabular in form as a whole, though often irregular in detail, filling or accompanying a fracture or series of closely set and intimately related parallel fractures in the enclosing rock, the mineral mass having been formed later than both the country rock and the

Jan 1, 1932

Jan 1, 1932

By John Norton

THE tremendous increase in the use of metals that have been prepared by the various cold-working processes during recent years has greatly stimulated the investigation of problems concerned with the fundamental nature of these processes. It has been observed in practice that different methods of bringing about the same dimension changes in a sample result in a rather wide range of properties. Cold working reduces the ductility of a metal, or what is perhaps more nearly correct, its "working capacity," and naturally the manufacturer wishes to produce an article that has as large a working capacity as possible, and to produce it with the smallest number of operations, It has also been known for some time that cold deformation produces a parallel alignment of the crystal grains of a metal, and that the type of this preferred orientation depends to some extent at least upon particular processes employed in the deformation. The present investigation has for its purpose the study of the relations between the various factors of a cold-working process and the preferred orientation of the metal crystals resulting from this deformation. The work is chiefly confined to a study of cold-drawn seamless tubing.

Jan 1, 1932

By C. E. Lawall

WHEN this study was started very little information was available, regarding the physical characteristics of West Virginia coals. This was particularly true of friability and of crushing strengths of the coals. Some work had been done on specific gravity studies but the available information applied to only a few coals. In practically all coal-classification systems thus far proposed, the predominating factors of classifications are largely based on the chemical characteristics of the coal. Recently some investigators have pointed out that a classification based on chemical and physical properties of coal might serve to place coals in their proper group better than classification systems based on chemical properties alone. One of the aims of this study was to obtain some data on the physical properties of coal which might help to properly classify West Virginia coals.

Jan 1, 1932

By Newell G. Alford

With the workable area of coal prospected and known as to workability and quantity and sampled and tested for desired quality comes the determination of the projection and method of working. The best method will be the one supplying the greatest degree of safety, the most merchantable product, the minimum average cost per ton with the largest yield of recoverable coal. Based on coal elevations, taken at the bottom of the seam on all known outcrop exposures, prospect openings or drill holes, coal contours are made on the map to be used in developing the mining plan. The contour interval should be as close as available information will permit. For general utility in layout of mining, haulage, drainage and ventilation, a map scale of 400 ft. per in. is preferable. In mountainous sections, location of the main out- crop opening or hoisting shaft is often limited by the available railroad route and amount of land level enough for a plant site. In level country, where a tipple and hoisting shaft may be placed at will, choice of the plant site should depend on the minimum average underground haul for the total coal to be worked to the new

Jan 1, 1932

By Albert J. McIntosh

In discussing the petroleum products situation the first thing that comes to mind is "what is happening to gasoline." Is the consumption increasing? How is the export market? What about imports? Are stocks on hand too high? Have we produced too much? This paper will attempt to answer these questions. Consumption of gasoline (motor fuel) in the United States in spite of the depression and the chaotic conditions of many industries has increased during 1931 about 2 per cent over 1930. This favorable factor was offset by a severe contraction in exports, which fell off about 30 per cent from 1930. This drop in exports was so large that very little more export business was done than in 1926 or 1927. Taking all demand combined, there was a decrease from the peak year of 1930 of nearly 11,000,000 bbl., amounting to slightly over 2 per cent. The units of the industry, though, should have expected some decrease and governed themselves accordingly. Let us see what they did. They reduced imports over 3,000,000 bbl., which helped. Production was cut 3,000,000 bbl., but this was not enough, so that stocks increased 1,800,000 bbl. whereas during the previous year stocks were reduced 2,500,000 bbl. It is apparent, therefore, that something was done to keep the industry in balance in regard to gasoline, but not enough. If the year had ended on Sept. 30, we could have said that production had been cut 19,000,000 bbl. and stocks had been reduced from the previous year, but the excessive production during the last three months of the year changed everything. It is a strange thing and worthy of note that the price of gasoline fell to its lowest levels when apparently the greatest improvement was being made, and that during the last quarter of the year prices started to improve, when, in spite of an improvement in total demand which approximated 1930, an excessive production caused an uneconomic condition to set in. Stocks on hand on Dec. 31 were unquestionably too high, possibly 10,000,000 bbl. more than was needed for a strong condition to obtain. It seems almost unbelievable that the industry would continue to produce

Jan 1, 1932

By Howard S. Bryant

The state of Kansas in 1931 continued to hold fourth place on the list of oil-producing states, despite the fact that low prices for crude oil curtailed drilling to just one-half the amount done in 1930, which itself was the lowest in the preceding 10 years. The estimated crude oil production for 1931, according to sources available to the writer, will approximate 37,037,000 bbl., the lowest since 1925. Thus Kansas produced one-eighth less oil this year than it did last year when it produced 42,729,085 barrels. This year's development was characterized by a very small amount of wildcat drilling; however, large new areas were semiproven for oil production, and several thousands of acres were added to the actually proved areas in western Kansas, so that the state now has larger proven areas of oil reserves than at any time in its history since the heyday of the famous El Dorado pool. The general prospects for oil production in the near future are indeed promising for central western Kansas, where drilling costs are moderate and depths are relatively shallow compared to the remaining unexplored parts of the northern Mid-Continent area. Probably the greatest singular achievement in the state for 1931 was the development of its natural gas reserves. This development took place principally in two spots, McPherson County in central Kansas, and Stevens and Morton counties in southwestern Kansas, and it is a matter of record that more than one and one-half billion cubic feet of open-flow capacity per day were added to reserves, nearly twice the amount developed in 1930, previously the largest amount in the history of gas development in Kansas. Gas pipe lines already built and now building are in position to deliver natural gas by one system to Chicago, Ill., by another to Indianapolis, Ind., from whence lines already lead practically to the Atlantic seaboard, and to other cities large and small located west, northwest, north and northeast of Kansas. Table 2 shows all well completions for 1931 in a form to compare with the results of previous years.

Jan 1, 1932

By H. Shaw

In the author's previous paper an attempt was made to analyze in detail the gravitational effects arising from certain subterranean anomalies of simple form, and extending to infinity in three directions. As a result of this critical examination, certain features—which were considered to be characteristic of the anomalies under investigation—were disclosed, a close observance of which enables a complete interpretation to be reached. The most simple case was first considered; viz., that of a heavy horizontal plate, bounded above and below by horizontal planes, and extending to infinity on one side of a vertical plane containing the y axis, in the three directions + y, —y, and +x. After this, the investigation was extended to the case of a similar infinite horizontal block having an inclined face. In each case the form and behavior of the gradient curve and the curve of differential curvature were analyzed, and entirely distinct interpretations were put forward, based upon (1) the gradient, (2) the differential curvature and (3) a comparison of these two quantities. In continuation of the previous work, and as a preliminary to further analysis of more complex structures, certain factors will now be examined which characterize (1) the simple infinite vertical block and (2) an infinite block which is inclined to the vertical, formations which are of considerable practical interest, being typical of important. geological structures—intru-sive dikes, lodes, veins, etc.—and because, even though in nature these may be irregular, valuable guides to a more complete interpretation are obtained by assuming, as a first approximation, that they have the simple characteristics to be studied hereafter. In the previous paper certain preliminary assumptions were made in order to render the resulting deductions universally applicable and entirely independent of the particular scale employed. Consideration was limited to homogeneous deposits of unit positive effective density (and this condition is retained in the present investigation), so that in the case of

Jan 1, 1932

Jan 1, 1932

By B. B. Cox

Iraq, formerly called Mesopotamia in Asiatic Turkey, became a kingdom under British Mandate after the world war and is expected to gain its independence in 1932 when it enters the League of Nations. The kingdom is shown on Fig. 1 in its relations to neighboring countries, to the Mediterranean Sea and to the Persian Gulf. It is slightly smaller than the State of Texas with its capitol, Baghdad, inland about as far from the Persian Gulf as Breckinridge, Tex., is from the Houston Shipping Channel. The oil fields lie 180 to 225 miles north of Baghdad, or about as far as from Breckinridge to Oklahoma City, and about as far from the Mediterranean as Fort Worth is from Hobbs, N. M. A narrow-gage railway runs from Basra, the Persian Gulf port, to Baghdad. From there another narrow-gage runs into the Kurdish hills east of the Tigris to Kirkuk. A standard-gage, part of the old Berlin-Baghdad system, follows the west bank of the Tigris northward from Baghdad to Baiji, a village about 100 miles south of Mosul. No railway exists between Iraq and the Mediterranean, though the Anatolian Railways in southern Turkey come to within 50 miles of the Iraq frontier and 120 miles of Mosul. Surveys have been completed for a railway through British Mandates from Haifa to Baghdad as well as for a railway through French Mandated Syria from Tripoli to Abu Kemal near the Iraq border. Wagon roads, excepting those constructed by the oil companies, are few and indifferent in Iraq and no road exists across the desert to the Mediterranean, but contrary to prevalent beliefs the surface is firm and free from sand dunes so that motor cars can go almost anywhere in dry weather, with ease. Frequent motor car and airplane service exists between Baghdad and the Mediterranean ports and motor car service may be had between Kirkuk and Nisibin, Turkey, where on two days each week through Wagons Lits service is available to Paris. Baghdad is about 21 days distant from New York City with present transport facilities. The climate is semiarid, similar to Imperial Valley, California, the average rainfall outside the mountainous parts amounting generally to

Jan 1, 1932

Jan 1, 1932

By E. B. Swanson

There is only one way to transport natural gas and that is by pipe lines. In the past few years, these lines have been extended rapidly into areas which previously had been served mainly by solid and liquid fuels. In the subject given me, this extension is referred to as an invasion, which implies a rather forceful entry. Whether or not such an implication may be applied to recent natural-gas developments is unimportant. It is the fact of the extension, not its definition, which is important. For centuries, natural gas has been utilized for various purposes in many parts of the world. It was the foundation of fire worship at Baku. The Chinese used it for the evaporation of brine in salt manufacture. In our country, its history seemingly dates back 110 years to the vicinity of Fredonia, N. Y., where seepage gas was assembled and used for lighting purposes. A few years later, a %inch pipe was laid to a lighthouse on Lake Erie, and the early records of the Lighthouse Service tell of the difficulties surrounding this use. With the discovery of oil in Pennsylvania, there followed further development; the town of Titusville was piped with natural gas and, some few years later, gas was made available for manufacturing plants adjacent to the oil fields. For more than a half century, the industry was concentrated in the

Jan 1, 1932

By C. K. Leith

1 apologize for attempting to talk in a field in which 1 am by no means a specialist, but some of the problems brought up have much in common with other minerals. It touches the field in which we are all interested and it is a field in which our Mineral Inquiry has been giving special attention during the last two years. While it is the primary business, of course, of this Institute to consider the physical facts and technology of minerals, we now face the necessity of considering the minerd industry in its broader economic, social, and political relationships. We have run into a traffic jam—as though a load of hay had been spilled on the road. It makes no difference whether we are drivers or passengers, technical or nontechnical men, we have to get the load off the road before we can go farther. We are conscious of very many difficulties which are outside of the ordinary range of cost accounting or methods of mining or the usual thing with which we concern ourselves. We have extensive readjustments to make in our social and economic and political contacts. It is up to us to find out what is the matter. As a matter of fact, we do not know what is the matter in any comprehensive way. We have many suggestions as to difficulties here and there. Many people are working on the problem, but when the mineral industry as a whole is asked what is a reasonable course of procedure, what is its program, what would be a reasonable state or national policy, I think you will agree with me that we have no spokesman able to outline even a semblance of such a general policy. We sit back and criticize when somebody else steps in, as Governor Murray stepped in, and as many others of our state governors and legislators are stepping in, to do things which we do not think are reasonable. When they say, "What is a reasonable program? " we find ourselves caught napping. We have not agreed on a program. The other day in talking with one of the leaders of the western radical movement, I was twitting him on having no sound and comprehensive conservation program. He said, "What is yours, and what is the program of the mineral

Jan 1, 1932