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By Samuel Lasky

WITH the movement of American capital into foreign investment, a new field of specialization for the American mining engineer is gradually opening a field hitherto entered almost wholly by chance and without full appreciation of its possibilities. Our age has been fitly called the "Age of Specialization." The special application of one's knowledge and ability to a definite and restricted branch of .his profession is purely a modern condition. Any profession, or branch of a profession or, industry, in which the problems may be segregated into definite types, calls for specializa-tion. Modern industry demands efficiency and that, reduction and ultimate annihilation of waste. Effort and time wasted by workers' on a problem with which they are not familiar is as flagrant a waste of money -the final standard-as any waste of materials. One of the subdivisions of mining engineering which is beginning to be recognized is of engineers who are clearly conversant with the particular and peculiar problems obtaining under foreign operating conditions. The need is as yet obscured, however, by the domestic prosperity of our American mining industry. The opportunity here lies more with the American engineer than with other nationals. The foreign en-gineer now in that service is not there through a realiza-tion of the special opportunities that exist, but through necessity, whereas, with the American engineer, more especially ,the recent graduate or those who will soon graduate, this is a new field to be entered wholly by choice. As a matter of fact, many engineering students will find it necessary to seek foreign service if they wish to remain in mining. Although the scope of the domes-tic industry is tremendous and there are many positions open to the junior engineer, there are not enough for the great number of graduates turned out yearly from our, mining schools. Educators tell us that less than 40 per cent. of the students in engineering schools gradu-ate; and of these but a minority continue in engineering. Even this minority is too great for our domestic. In-dustry, and although the young engineer realizes that condition after a few years he rarely seeks foreign work. A. perusal of the directory of the American Institute of Mining Engineers indicates that, but about one-half of one per cent of the Junior Associates are in positions outside of North America. Granting that most of them are still in school, the figure is surpris-ingly small.

Jan 1, 1927

The difficulty of finding new ore bodies, the complexities of patenting them when they are found, and the absence of incentive legislation for exploration have limited mining exploration in the United States mostly to the big companies. This situation, coupled with ECA spending abroad, has caused American capital to look outside our national boundaries for investment opportunities which are further made attractive by some relaxing of restrictions to gain American dollars and patronage.

Jan 1, 1950

By Ralph Arnold

IN OPENING the symposium under the auspices of the Petroleum and Gas Committee of the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers, I wish to call to your attention the following, among other subjects, which it is hoped may receive proper attention: 1. The recording of as accurate an appraisal of the oil possibilities of the various countries as is possible, with information as to the immediate availability of their supply. 2. The development of further support for the move-ment to bring about active cooperation among Ameri-can oil companies in their foreign exploration and development work. 3. The furtherance of the efforts of the industry in securing governmental assistance in foreign oil develop-ment: (a) along the lines of a modification of our domestic oil policy, so that we can go to foreign coun-tries and consistently ask fair treatment as to royalties and bonuses; (b) by a closer cooperation between the State and Commerce Departments and the oil industry. 4. The calling of attention to the unjustifiably drastic action of the price-fixing group of the oil industry during the last year or so, with the hope that it will use gentler methods in the future. None of these subjects are new, and some of them have been discussed before various organizations for years. Our justification for again bringing them forward is the hope that by everlastingly harping on them the industry, the Government, and the people who shape the destinies of this country may some time, some how, realize their importance and take effective constructive action.

Jan 6, 1922

By Sherwin F. Kelly

THE principal interest in the meeting sings arranged by the Geophysical Committee this year centered around the many papers dealing with the practical applications of geophysical methods to solving geological problems in many other parts of the world. The program Wednesday morning dealt with work in South Africa, Poland, and South America. Rudolph Krahmann's first paper gave a perspective of the geophysical investigations upon mineral deposits in South Africa. A striking point in his story was the tremendous increase in magnetic work during the last two or three years. This is largely accounted for by the intensive exploration for the extension of the Witwatersrand gold mining area. The author mentioned many surveys in which other methods were used for the search for ores of copper, lead, and zinc, and in the study of water-bearing and oil-bearing structures.

Jan 1, 1935

By Evan Just

THE high standards of living and improved national security that industrialization can bring are so evident that no country can be named that does not cherish the hope of industrializing. With such a universal aim, why do many countries unable to develop their own industries accomplish so little toward attracting the foreign private investor, who alone can provide them with the necessary capital and skill? Obviously, because they fail to under- stand what constitutes a favorable climate for investment, because they have false notions about being exploited or dominated by the foreign investor, or because they are so nationalistic they refuse to permit outside assistance. The purpose of this paper is to aid the citizens and policy makers of developing countries in achieving their aims, by defining the conditions which en- courage investment and portraying the results of a policy of encouragement. The following is quoted from Eugene R. Black, president of the World Bank:

Jan 6, 1957

By F. B. Plummer

PRODUCING operations abroad during 1940 were shrouded in the fog of war. Little, if any, concrete information is available, and the data that issue from the belligerent countries are too frequently distorted for military purposes, for the volume of supply of gasoline and fuel oil has become an important strategic secret. Despite this lack of information signs indicate the spread of a slow paralysis which is gripping producing operations in foreign countries. Only in the Caribbean area are developments proceeding normally and even there the destruction of the Western European market is being seriously felt. This creeping paralysis is being brought about partly by the serious shortage of materials so necessary for drilling and other producing operations such as steel, machinery, and the like-together with a scarcity of that prime munition of war-money. Markets too have been curtailed by the operation of exchange control as all exchange is needed to support war efforts. As a result, gasoline is tightly rationed in all belligerent countries. The growing casualties in shipping are fast restricting the water-borne trade in petroleum, but have had a local stimulating effect in some areas where the risk is less or where water-borne transport can be efficiently used as for instance Trinidad and Egypt. The type of product needed for war effort, particularly the great demand for aviation gasoline, has changed the schedules of .refinery operations. As a result of all these influences the world oil picture outside the United States- has vastly changed during the year.

Jan 1, 1941

By L. G. Huntley

The entire production of Colombia for 1927 was that from the Tropical Oil Co. concession. Production was approximately 14,000,000 bbl., of which 12,081,000 bbl. were exported from the Mamonal terminal of the Andian National Corp. near Cartagena. The balance represents that refined and used or marketed within Colombia. As production in 1926 was only 6,443,540 bbl., the increase has been more than 100 per cent. This is partly due to the looping of the pipe line from the concession to the coast, and the resultant increase in capacity to 50,000 bbl. per day, and also to increased domestic sales. The refinery at Barranca has been doubled in capacity, and it is understood is now handling 5000 bbl. of crude daily. This gives the producing field a potential outlet of 55,000 bbl. daily. The Tropical Oil Co. completed 82 wells in 1927, with one abandoned for drilling difficulties. The average daily initial production was 1136 bbl. per well. The largest well is reported to be No. 173 La Cira, rated as 5000 bbl. initial. Most of the wells were drilled on the Infantas and La Cira structures, the latter located en echelon to the northwest of the main Infantas anticline, and separated from it only by a low saddle. Drilling operations on the Llanos fold, also en echelon with Infantas but to the southeast, and at San Luis, bearing about the same relationship to the Umir Hills uplift, are still more or less in the exploratory stage. The four structures mentioned cover approximately 15,000 acres, on which there are at present 223 producing wells. Drilling has been better than 92 per cent. successful since starting operations on this concession. Allowing 15 acres per well, which is 50 per cent. more than good practice in the Mid-Continent fields, there is thus room for 1000 wclls, which at the recent rate is a 10-year drilling campaign. This does not take into consideration the known deeper oil zones, which have not been prospected, but which are uniformly petroliferous at their outcrops to the eastward. It is estimated that with the enlarged pipe line capacity, as well as increased domestic consumption, the production for this country will be about 20,000,000 bbl. for the current year of 1928. It is possible that

Jan 1, 1928

By J. T. Duce

In viewing the petroleum world as a whole certain tendencies arc to he noted. The first of these is of a legal and political nature. It involves the nationalization of the oil industry; in some instances going into all its phases and in others with reference simply to production.

Jan 1, 1928

By H. J. Wasson

At the close of 1927 Venezuela was producing at the rate of 205,000 bbl, per day, making it the third country in the world in point of present daily production. For the year, the total was close to 64,000,000 bbl., representing an increase of about 70 per cent. over the 37,000,000 bbl. in round numbers produced in 1926. All of the 1927 production canie from fields opened up before the beginning of the year. While no new fields were added to the list of shippers, the past 12 months' wildcatting yielded a fair quota of new discoveries which, in the light of prcsent results, may be considered likely sources of production in due time. Altogether three such promising finds were made Of first importance, at least for the immediate future, is the completion by the Lago Petroleum Corpn. of the San Matins well, 4 miles north of the present edge of the Lagunillas field. Although rated as only a 125. bbl. well, at 3217 ft., it indicates a probable extension of the field over the intervening 4 miles between the two. The two other wildcat discoveries of importance were the Los Manueles well in the District of Colon, which has in all probability opened up a new field about 7 miles north of the present Tarra oprations; and the Honibre Pintado well of the Standard Oil Co. of Venezuela,. in the State of Falcon, which is considered to be a promising clc~vc~lop~ncnt. Neither of these last mentioned two discoveries will apprcciably affect production during 1928, as the Manueles area must await the carrying out of a general plan for the exploitation of the District of Colon, a problem requiring time. The Hombre Pintado area is being tested further, but doubtless several wells will be put down before. anything definite will be done towards making the pipe line. arrangements that rnust necessarily precede the commercial exploitation of the field. The San Matias Well The San Matias well is a highly significant dcvelopment,. It is located along the trend of the La Rosa-Ilagunillas producing formations, and when drilling started, production in the Lagunillas field was 4 miles

Jan 1, 1928

By B. B. Zavoico

There were no radical changes in the petroleum situation in the Russian Soviet Union during the 1926 to 1927 operating year. The developments of the previous year were continued, but the major undertakings were far from being completed. The pipe lines from Baku to Batum and from Grozny to Touapse, and the large refineries on the Black Sea are delayed in their completion by the insufficient authorizations; until their completion the changes in the general situation will be necessarily of a halfway nature. The marketing situation was subject to much controversy during the past year and, though certain statements are quite true, the bulk of the criticism against the petroleum industry hardly deserves mention. The home market in Russia is steadily growing, with the per capita kerosene consumption already exceeding the prewar figure and fuel oil consumption obviously gaining. The foreign trade is making rapid and well-grounded success, but continues to suffer from low world quotations. There is no apparent sacrifice of home consumers in favor of export trade. The production of all Russian fields increased by 13,750,000 bbl. as compared with the 1925 to 1926 operating year, and next year's program anticipates a further increase of 9,720,000 bbl. (Table 1). The increased and improved refining facilities will make the real gain in production in the next year even larger than these figures indicate.

Jan 1, 1928

LIMA (PERU) Established May, 1952 James S Young, Honorary Member of Section (Legion of Honor Member) Bernard T Colley, Honorary Member of Section (Legion of Honor Member) Edward H Robie, Honorary Member of Section (Secretary of AIME) Carl W Westphal, Chairman Ernesto A Baertl, 1st Vice-Chairman Pierre L Garrigue, 2nd Vice-Chairman Walter E King, Secretary-Treasurer Avenida Santa Cruz 331 San Isidro, Lima, Peru Daniel M Rodriguez, Assistant Secretary Alberto E Brazzini, Assistant Treasurer Robert P Koenig, Section Delegate Irving L Barker, Special Representative

Jan 1, 1954

LIMA, PERU Established May, 1952 (Official year begins in June) Luncheon meetings third Wednesday monthly Ernesto A Baertl, Chairman Arthur C Hall, Chairman-Elect Raymond R Beard, First Vice-Chairman Edgardo Portaro, Second Vice-Chairman Walter E King, Secretary-Treasurer Av Santa Cruz 331 San Isidro, Lima, Peru Alberto E Brazzini, Asst Treasurer Daniel M Rodriguez, Asst Secretary, '58, Section Delegate '58, Alternate Section Delegate

Jan 1, 1956

EASTERN VENEZUELA PETROLEUM Established December 15, 1954 Meets fourth Thursday each month at Chepa's Ice House in Anaco Glenn N Murchey, Chairman Jerome C Kearby, First Vice-Chairman J L Thompson, Second Vice-Chairman Thomas G Wall, Treasurer G J Clarke, Secretary Mene Grande Oil Co Apartado 3974 Caracas, Venezuela S K Wilkie, '58, Section Delegate

Jan 1, 1957

LIMA (PERU) Established May, 1952 (Official year begins in June) Luncheon meetings third Wednesday monthly Ernesto A Baertl, Chairman Arthur C Hall, Chairman-elect Raymond R Beard, 1st Vice-Chairman Edgardo Portaro, 2nd Vice-Chairman Walter E King, Secretary-Treasurer Av Santa Cruz 331 San Isidro, Lima, Peru Alberto E Brazzini, Asst Treasurer Daniel M Rodriguez, Asst Secretary Robert P Koenig, '56, Section Delegate Arthur C Hall, Alternate Section Delegate

Jan 1, 1955

CARACAS PETROLEUM Established February 24, 1957 Meets second Tuesday monthly W F Shelton, Chairman Homer N Mead, First Vice-Chairman Jose G Paez, Second Vice-Chairman T A Moore, Treasurer E A Moore, Secretary Cia Shell de Venezuela Apartado 809 Caracas. Venezuela

Jan 1, 1958

By Arthur E. Belton

Ever since the industrial Revolution both major and small companies have put much emphasis on the use of incentives to compensate top management for extra effort and extra skill. For many years industries have also provided hourly rate employees with incentive plans. More recently incentive plans have been extended to include the "front line" supervisors. Many companies have what are called Christmas bonus or profit-sharing plans. The incentives for foremen in mining, which we shall discuss, differ from such bonus plans in that the incentives are paid on a definite measured performance for each individual, and thus directly reflect his effort and skill. What is the objective for paying incentives? The objective for any part of an industrial Engineering Program is to increase productivity and reduce unit cost. The unit cost must include the entire cost of the program. From what base do we start an incentive plan? One should think of art incentive program as the top rung of the Industrial Engineering ladder. Therefore, a company must take several steps before reaching this top rung. The following steps are necessary:

Jan 1, 1960

By A. C. Stevenson

"The most common theory is that, since thyristors, diodes, and insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) are “solid state” they will live forever. This is not so. They have wear-out mechanisms (e.g. insulation) and other mechanical parts such as motor bearings. These wear-out phenomena can be easily calculated. In this paper we will look at some of the failures and the failure rate of thyristors in power converters to see what affects them and to see what improvements can be made. If converter failures do occur, some simple forensic engineering steps will show if this is the root cause of the problem.IntroductionLook at the general failure rate curve for thyristors, diodes, gate turn off devices (GTOs) and IGBTs shown in Figure 1. We see that there is an initial high failure rate due to manufacturing defects, application problems, and drive start-up stresses that lasts for a few weeks. This is followed by a long period of (hopefully) several years with a relatively low but very slowly rising failure rate. At the end of this period, the devices start to wear out and the failure rate suddenly starts to increase rapidly over a few months. This signals the end of life for the devices in the system. We will start by looking at this end of life area."

Jan 1, 2000

By Sanjay Gupta, Sorabh Gupta, Ravi Sundaram

A geotechnical forensic evaluation of piles for an industrial facility in Haryana was performed to assess the quality of the piles and to evaluate piles installed using two different types of rigs. Low strain pile integrity tests were performed on all piles to assess the pile length and possible presence of structural defects. Coring was done through questionable piles for the clinching evidence of concrete quality and pile length. Probe holes adjoining piles helped confirm the bulging of piles at shallow depth. The paper highlights the importance of implementing a well-planned quality assurance program to confirm that all piles installed are of the desired quality.

Sep 1, 2022

By R. S. Rogers

Abstract - Forensic geology in a mineral exploration context is concerned with geology and related technical matters as they pertain to legal cases involving exploration and evaluation of mineral properties. Such cases involve the possibility of outright scams that include falsification of data and information, as well as inappropriate application of various technical procedures. Experience in forensic geology in such cases emphasizes the need for systematic quality control procedures during routine exploration/appraisal and indicates the need for more attention to ‘target hardening’ (improving security in the chain of custody of samples and assay results). A number of ‘early warning signs’ that might suggest some form of tampering or falsification of information are listed. These measures will support the work of the "Qualified Persons" (geologists and engineers) entrusted with the scientific and technical aspects of mineral exploration, and facilitate the increased attention to regulatory oversight and enforcement of securities laws recommended in the report "Setting New Standards."

Jan 1, 1998

By Hugh K. Herbert, R. John Watling

Laser Ablation-Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrom­etry (LA-ICP-MS) has been used successfully to "fingerprint" gold in forensic investigations within Australia and abroad. By comparison of the elemental associations it has been possible to relate gold to specific mineralising events, mines, bullion samples and fabricated articles. The methodology facilitates identification of the provenance of gold thereby providing definitive scientific evidence in criminal investigations. "Gold" samples for analysis span a wide range of materials with many requiring exhaustive prior separation and treatment to present the contained gold in a chemically "unmodified" state, and in a form, suitable for LA-ICP-MS fingerprinting. The quality of the fingerprint, and hence its value in evidence, is directly related to the rigours of prior sample preparation and evaluation, to an appreciation of the history of the gold under investigation, and to the skill of the analyst.

Jan 1, 1995