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By Harry Piers

A RAPID glance over the history of The Mining Society of Nova Scotia shows that in its fifty years of service, which it is now rounding out, the Society has had an honourable career, rendered signal service to the mining industry of the Province, and helped to shape and improve legislation bearing on our mines and minerals, besicles publishing very many excellent papers and subsequent discussions thereon dealing with all subjects in its field of activity. THE GOLD MINERS? CLUB OF NOVA SCOTIA: The Society has the distinction of being generally regarded as the oldest mining fraternity in Canada ( 1). Iris the direct outgrowth or reorganization of The Gold Miners' Club of Nova Scotia, which was organized in March, 1887, at a period when the gold mining industry was very prominent in the Province. Mr. Geo. W. Stuart, who, in 1934, was the only living member of the parent association, informed me that the seventeen Charter Members of The Gold Miners' Club were John H. Anderson, Charles F. Andrews, A. B. Cox, Clarence H. Dimock, George E. Francklyn, L. W. Getchell, John E. Hardman, Alonzo A. Hayward, Major R. G. Leckie, W. L. Libbey, Edward M. McDonald, G. F. McNaughton, George A. Pyke, H. A. Sanders, C. E. Willis, Benjamin C. Wilson, and George W. Stuart. Others joined later in the same year.

Jan 1, 1937

By W. E. D. Stokes

The application of aviation to mining and petroleum operations, on the basis of economy and attainment, has become a demonstrated fact. According to Dominion Government rccords, 30 Canadian companies engaged in air transportation with northland mining camps, carried 13,000 tons of freight in 1935, and in 1936 carried 16,000 tons. In addition, many mining companies used planes to transport prospectors with canoes, outboard motors, gasoline drums and supplies to remote locations, and one company maintained a plane to take radium-bearing ore from its mine on Great Bear Lake nearly 1000 miles south to the railway at Waterways, Alberta. Heavy pieces of mining machinery weighing 2 tons are being carried by Ford trimotor planes over the Andes, at an altitude of not less than 15,000 feet. At Bulolo, New Guinea, 17,500 tons of disassembled gold-dredging equipment has been flown over inaccessible terrain, while supplies and building materials for a community of 1000 whites have been transported by airplane. A 31/2-ton shaft was carried on one notable trip, while at another time an automobile, 2 tons of rice and a large safe went over the mountains in one plane. Fig. 1 shows an electric generator that was carried by plane to Bulolo. Many large American oil companies operated fleets of planes during 1936, ranging from fast, luxurious air liners for executives to elaborate geological prospecting units, ambulance planes, freight carriers and pipe-line repair crews. According to the U. S. Geological Survey, commercial firms photographed 16,291 square miles during 1935, while the Government compiled from aerial photographs by the Geological Survey in the United States 85,544 square miles. It was found that information could be determined in a fraction of the time required by surface methods. However, sounding a word of caution, a Commonwealth of Australia government report on aerial survey operations had this to say: It is necessary to repeat ad nauseam that aerial photographic survey is in no sense a substitute for geological investigation, though it is a very valuable adjunct thereto, and greatly facilitates and aceeleratcs geological mapping. There are many details

Jan 1, 1937

By S. R. Zimmerley

[In the course of a flotation investi~ntion, a siliceous gold ore was ground ir, R 'ball mill to ~inils 300-mesh. It mas found that the small mount of zlus 300-~esh mnterial had a go12 assw approximately twice that of the oricinal ors, md thst this oversize ~roduct also contained much abra?.ed iron. >!oreover, the gold assay of the abraded iron, which was separated ma~etic-dl:;, wno ei::ht tiaes tkat of the ore. These facts sug,~estsd th~t sone r3laticnshin existed between the abnormally high .gold content and the preseace of abrade4 iron. It was ciecided, therefore, to investl~ate furtkor ths acsoclation of the ;old nith the iron abraded from the balls durir-g grincing. As a nrelininary ex?rr>hent, a samy?le of siliceous gold ore 786 grolznd for 1-1/2 hours i;l 3 ball mill and the nuln was divided into two products electri~mag-etically. The racult s follow: ]

Jan 1, 1937

By J. A. Allan

OCCURRENCES of salt in Alberta have been mentioned and described by the writer in 1929 (l) and by Cole in 1930 (2). Brine springs occur at a number of places along the valley of Athabaska river north of latitude 56 degrees, and also on the south margin of Salt prairie, twenty-five miles west of Fitzgerald in the vicinity of the 60th parallel of latitude, which is the boundary between Alberta and the Northwest Territories. These salt springs were visited by Sir James Richardson in 1820, and in the same year D. W. Harmon stated that " ... clown Salt river there are several places where almost any quantity of excellent dean white salt may be taken with as much ease as sand along the seashore" (3). One hundred years later, in 1920, when the writer first visited these springs, the "dean white salt" which had accumulated about the springs was about 400 tons ( 4). This paper deals with a thick deposit of rock-salt which has been proved by drilling in the vicinity of McMurray. Particular attention will be given to a well drilled at Waterways early in 1936 by Industrial Minerals, Limited, when a continuous bed of rock-salt was penetrated with a thickness of 199 feet. As this paper is being presented, a salt plant is being completed and a production well is being drilled at the plant. < is salt deposit is in the vicinity of McMurray, close to the junction of the Clearwater and Athabaska rivets, in township 89, range 9, west of the 4th meridian. McMurray is about 240 miles northeast from Edmonton. As shown on Figure 1, Clearwater river, which rises at Methy portage, in Saskatchewan, enters Athabaska river at McMurray. Some three miles above the mouth of Clearwater river, the Hangingstone enters from the southwest. Waterways, where the latest salt development has taken place, is situated at the end of the Northern Alberta railway, a distance of 304 miles from Edmonton. This railway reaches the bottom of the Clearwater valley at Draper station, about 3 miles east of Waterways and near the mouth of Deep creek. The Draper bituminous sand plant is approximately half a mile east of Draper station. About one mile south of the townsite of McMurray, Horse river enters the Athabaska from the east.

Jan 1, 1937

YEAR OF ELECTION 1913. FRANK DAWSON ADAMS Montreal, Canada. 1935. GUILLAUME DANIEL DELPRAT Melbourne, Vic., Aust. 1920. HENRY STURGIS DRINKER Merion Station, Pa. 1933. KARL EILERS New York, N. Y. 1922. FEDERICO GIOLITTI Trino,Italy. 1906. SIR ROBERT A. HADFIELD London, England. 1921. FRANK WILLIAM HARBORD London, England. 1917. HERBERT HOOVER New York, N. Y. 1931. WALDEMAR LINDGREN Cambridge, Mass. 1921. C. MCDERMID London, England. 1913. EZEQUIEL ORDOAEZ Mexico City, Mexico. 1935. ROBERT PEELE New York, N. Y. 1937. GEORGE S. RICE Washington, D. C. 1911. ROBERT H. RICHARDS Cambridge, Mass. 1934. T. A. RICKARD..... Victoria, B.C., Canada. 1933. ALBERT SAIVEUR CAMBRIDGE, MASS.

Jan 1, 1937

By John A. Burgess

The Carson Hill mine of the Carson Hill Gold Mining Corporation is at Melones, Calaveras County, Calif. It is one of the numerous mines on the Mother Lode of California. The property extends for 8,400 feet along the outcrop of that important vein system. The elevation at the haulage level is about 1,000 feet above sea level. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Acknowledgment of assistance in the preparation of this paper is made to Frank Wagner, underground superintendent; Max Petersen, engineer; and Homer Mann, assistant engineer. The geology of the Mother Lode has been described by Adolph Knopf in Professional Paper 157 of the United States Geological Survey; references to general geology have been abstracted largely from Knopf.

Jan 1, 1937

By M. W. Von Bernewitz

The Bureau of Mines receives frequent requests for information on the treatment of mercury ores, but as its own and almost all other publications on mercury are out of print, the Bureau has prepared this circular on the metal for the prospector and operator of small mines and plants. Mercury, commonly though improperly termed ?quicksilver?, is the only common metal that is liquid at ordinary temperatures. Mercury is used in the amalgamation of gold and silver, in power boilers, explosives, friction-less bearings, laboratory apparatus, lamps, medicine, paint, rectifiers, and for ?silvering.? The last mentioned is being superseded by silvering with silver. The use of mercury boilers may increase when they are thoroughly understood, but amalgamation is -being replaced to some extent by the use of corduroy and other collecting mediums, such as jigs and flotation cells.

Jan 1, 1937

By Paul Beck

IT is well known that the hardness of metallic single crystals, like that of polycrystalline metals, increases during deformation (hardening by cold-work). It is also known that, as a consequence of deformation, the metallic material acquires an evident thermodynamic instability, revealed, for example, by the fact that the increased hardness gradually decreases with time, especially at elevated temperatures (softening by annealing). The temperature at which the stabilizing process begins is different for various metals, and for any metal it depends on the amount of deformation. Such stabilization of deformed metals may proceed in two different ways: through recovery, and through recrystallization. The former process allows the unstable deformed metal body to approach stability gradually and without visible change in the grain structure; the latter process, like an allotropic transformation, yields directly the undeformed stable "phase" in the form of new undeformed crystals, which, starting out of a certain number of nuclei, grow into and&apos; consume&apos; the deformed hard material. The extent of stability attainable through recovery is limited, espe-cially if the deformation of the metal crystal or crystals involves not only the gliding along slip planes, but also the bending of the slip lamellae, or at any rate the bending of comparatively large parts of the crystal lattice. In such cases, for instance in bent single crystals or poly-crystalline metals subjected to any deformation, recovery will not as a rule be able to restore the "straight" undeformed lattice, and stability can be attained only by recrystallization; that is, by the consumption of the bent crystal lattice parts by new, undeformed crystals-a much more drastic process. It is evident that the part of the surplus free energy stored in deformed crystals, which is present in the form of the elastic energy of the bent lamellae, is in these instances not considerably involved

Jan 1, 1937

By Jos. R. Guiteras

This paper describes the operations of the St. Joe Mining & Milling Co. in Boulder County, Colo., as of June 1936. Later a brief visit was made to the mine in September 1936; information obtained at that time has also been recorded. The company operates a gold mine, the Grand Republic, in the Sugar Loaf mining district; a 100-ton flotation mill in Lefthand Canyon near Gold Hill; and a custom sampling punt, the Boulder Ore Sampling Works, at Boulder, Colo.

Jan 1, 1937

In 1936 the Institute established the Anthony F. Lucas Gold Medal, which will be awarded from time to time "for distinguished achievement in improving the technique and practice of finding and producing petroleum." These awards will be sponsored by the Petroleum Division. Captain Lucas was a pioneer in the oil industry, one of the early wildcatters and a leading mining and petroleum engineer. He was famous as the discoverer of Spindletop. He became a member of the Institute in 1895 and in 1913 was the first Chairman of the Petroleum and Gas Committee of the Institute, the forerunner of the present Petroleum Division. He also headed the Committee in 1914, 1917 and 1918. The first medal was presented at the annual dinner in 1937, Feb. 17, to J. Edgar Pew. The personnel of the Committee on award as appointed in February, 1937, is as follows: John R. Suman, Chairman Until Feb., 1938 Until Feb., 1939 Hallan N. Marsh R. OgaRRio Russell 6. McFarland H. H. Power John R. Suman CaRl A. Young Until Feb., 1940 Until Feb., 1941 W. B. Heroy Joseph Jensen C. V. Millikan John M. Lovejoy J. Edgar Pew Carroll H. WEgemanN Members ex-officio R. C. Allen John W. Finch Axtell J. Byles H. B. FUQUA

Jan 1, 1937

Jan 1, 1937

By Orson Cutler Shepard, Charles F. Skinner

THE leaching method that was first widely used with the cyanide process consisted of percolation leaching of crushed ore in vats or leaching tanks. It was frequently necessary to separate the sand for cyanide treatment and discard the slimes, because only granular material allows the necessary amount of solution to percolate through it in a reasonable time. Later a slime process consisting of agitation followed by thickening and filtration was developed, and is extensively used to the present day. Even though the agitation-leaching slime process is considered satisfactory, the cost of plant and of operation are both greater than for a percolation-leaching plant of equal capacity. This situation has been recognized in the hydrometallurgical treatment of copper-bearing slimes; and a considerable amount of work has been done at the Southwest Experiment Station of the U. S. Bureau of Mines in an effort to develop a percolation method of treating slimes. Experimental work on the copper-leaching problem was started by H. E. Keyes1, and later tests were made by J. D. Sullivan and A. P. Towne2. The Bureau of Mines work resulted in the development of a process by which slimes were moisture-agglomerated with sand and crushed ore, to form a permeable mass through which solution could be trickled without breaking down the glomerules. The agglomeration trickle-leaching method was developed on a small scale and finally tried out in a 12-ton vat. Successful results were obtained as long as the leach solution was added slowly, so that the agglomerated charge was never flooded. If the leach solution flooded the charge, the glomerules broke down and the charge became impervious. There are two important difficulties in the application of the agglomeration trickle-leaching method to the cyanide process for gold and silver ores:

Jan 1, 1937

Jan 1, 1937

By C. H. Fisher

Sulphuric acid of various concentrations has long been used as a reagent in the determination of olefins and aromatics in hydrocarbon oils4 such as gasoline, kerosene, and neutral oils from coal-tar distillates. Despite its long use, however, there is no general agreement as to optimum conditions and concentration of acid, and numerous methods and modifications have been recommended. In most cases, treatment of the neutral oil with 80 to 90 percent sulphuric acid, followed by distillation to the original endpoint to remove olefin polymers, is recommended for the estimation of unsaturated hydrocarbons. The distillate thus obtained is taken as olefin-free oil and used in later stages of the anlysis. Aromatic hydrocarbons generally are determined in the olefin-free oil by suphonation with more concentrated acid (96 to 100 percent and fuming sulphuric acid are recommended), the hydrocarbons not attacked and removed as water-soluble sulphoric acids being considered as saturated hydrocarbons. In some cases the saturates are examined further by differentiating between cyclic (naphthenes) and acyclic hydrocarbons (paraffins), Generally this is achieved by physical methods, although strong sulphuric acid is known to react preferentially with some types of saturated hydrocarbons. It was the purpose of the present work to make a general study of this type of analysis and to investigate the reactions of hydrocarbons under conditions often used in analyses that employ sulphuric acid reagents. Since previous work is not in good agreement, the optimum concentrations of acid for the different stages of the analysis were determined. Several sulphuric acid methods previously recommended and new modifications were compared, two synthetic solutions being used as the reference oil. The results obtained are presented below under separate headings.

Jan 1, 1937

By F. Clerf

Blast-furnace practice in France is determined more or less by the character of the ores used. Some French ores are siliceous and others are calcareous, therefore by proper burdening a self-fluxing mix can be used. This is not always done, as, for instance, at the Caen furnaces of the Société Métallurgique de Normandie, where the Soumont ore of Normandy is used, which is a carbonate. This ore is crushed and calcined at the mines, yielding a product that is porous and well sized for blast-furnace consumption. The lines of the Caen furnaces are given in Fig. 1. Originally these furnaces had 16 tuyeres; six are plucked and these tuyeres are set in the lower part of the bosh. Operating data on these furnaces are given in Table 1. Table 1.—Operating Data, Caen Furnaces Kg. Lb. Blast-furnace burden per ton of iron: Soumont ore....................................... 200&2100 (44004650) Limestone...................................... 900-1000 (2000-2200) Basic Bessemer slag (bearing phosphorus).............. 100 (220) Scale.............................................. 35 (77) Manganese ores.................................... Coke.............................................. 1100-1200 (2420-2640) Coke analysis: Ash, per cent............. 9.5 H2O, per cent............. 4.0-10.0 Flue dust (approx.), kg. per metric ton.... 200 (440 lb.) Blast volume, cu. m. per hr.............. 83,000 (49,000 cu. ft. per min.) Preesure, lb............................ 12 Blast heat, deg. C....................... 650 (1200" F.) Top temperature, deg. C................ 250 (445O F.) Top-gas analysis, per cent............... CO2 9.3 CO 30.3 O2 0.3 H2 3.0 Production per 24 hr. about 510 tons. MINETTE ORES The most important ore deposits in France are in the west of Lorraine. They are called the "minette" ores and are of two classes-—siliceous and

Jan 1, 1937

By David Mitchell

MANY of the difficult operating problems of the preparation of coal for market, of sampling coal shipments and in the utilization of coal are caused by segregation in the coal mass. Segregation may be of two kinds: i.e., "size segregation," in which parti- cles of the same size in a mass of coal containing a range of sizes collect to-gether and "density segregation," in which particles of the same density or specific gravity in a mass of particles of varying density gather together. MECHANICS OF SEGREGATION Size segregation cannot take place with closely sized coal. As the size range increases, the tendency for size segregation increases. Similarly, cleaned coal with particles of approxi- mately the same specific gravity have very little tendency for density segrega- tion. The wider the density range of particles and the more particles of different density, the greater the chances are for density segregation. FIG. 1.-SEGREGATION IN A SIDE-FILLED The following discussion deals primarily BIN with coal of a wide size range as screenings and of wide density differ-ences as uncleaned or run-of-mine screenings. If a mass of coal containing particles of a wide size range is subject to the stream action of a moving current of water, the small particles are transported farther than the coarser. Particles of different density in a stream of moving water are subject to the laws of classification, the heavier settling out first. The familiar sluice box of the gold miner and the action of rivers and other streams in classifying material according to

Jan 1, 1937

By Francisco Cadena

THE construction of Norris Dam, built by the Tennessee Valley Authority on the Clinch River, a tributary of the Tennessee River, involved the production of coarse and fine aggregate for approximately 1,000,000 cu. yd. of concrete. A hammer-mill plant for the manufacture of sand from quarried rock was indicated as the most economical method of providing this material. The abrasive character of the feed as compared to the average hammer-mill feed made it necessary to control operations rather ciosely, and this resulted in the accumulation of many data bearing on production and maintenance. This paper will deal only with three specific sets of data, accompanied by such general infor-mation as may be necessary to explain the conditions under which they were obtained and followed by discussions on the relation of silica content to hammer wear, comparative costs of slugger and stirrup hammers, and comparative costs of tool-steel and manganese-steel grate bars.

Jan 1, 1937

By Paul Merica

THOSE of you who, like myself, have had the privilege of hearing previous Howe Memorial Lectures will note, and I hope without too much disaffection, that for the first time in this series of lectures iron has been chosen as the subject. I feel sure that the predominant choice by previous lecturers of subjects relating to steel has been principally in deference to the well-known interest this subject held for Professor Howe, and that their choice has not reflected any lack of respect for the material, iron. Nevertheless, in the face of this record, I feel some diffidence in introducing this "Cinderella" of materials into the circle of distinguished subjects hitherto treated by Howe lecturers, which is relieved only by the fact that I hope to be able to present some evidence that this Cinderella has at last undergone some of those magical trans-formations which render her acceptable even in the society of her dis-tinguished sister, steel. Fortunately I can cite the old master himself in support of my choice of subject and recall to you that Professor Howe by no means overlooked or neglected cast iron in the long course of his metallurgical meditations. Indeed his attention was early arrested by a metallurgical aspect of cast iron which he believed and we still recognize as of the most funda-mental importance-namely, the genesis of graphite in gray iron and the means for the control of its quantity and distribution. He made some comments over 20 years ago regarding the nature of J. E. Johnson&apos;s oxygenated iron which indicate that even then his thoughts were taking directions which today we are finding it useful to explore in connection with the theory of high-strength iron. Had we had in the subsequent years the continuing benefit of Professor Howe&apos;s illuminating consider-ation of this important subject, our progress in the improvement of cast iron would undoubtedly have been even more rapid.

Jan 1, 1937

By D. Harrington

Advocates of health and safety in mining have found themselves confronted in recent years with what might appear to be contradictory procedures with regard to dust occurrence in mines and what appear to be suitable methods or measures to give the mines and mine workers a maximum measure of protection against dust. A concerted and relatively effective drive has been made to introduce rock dust into bituminous and lignitic coal mines to prevent or limit explosion and fire disasters, while an equally determined effort has been and is now being made to curb rock dust or to eliminate it from air in metal mines to prevent or at least limit the occurrence of miners&apos; consumption and other diseases. Both procedures are logical even though the efforts appear to be of an opposing nature. While rock dusting has not been applied in coal mines nearly as universally or as effectively as could and should be done, nevertheless a careful analysis of the record of the past 10 years indicates that the amount of rock dusting that has been done has resulted in the saving of a minimum? of 200 lives annually certainly no small achievement. Largely but by no means wholly due to the use of rock dusting, the number of fatalities from explosions and fires in our coal mines in the last 4 years haw been reduced more than 75 percent as compared with the 4-year period 1911-15, the first years of the existence of the United States Bureau of Mines, which was brought into existence in 1910 largely to try to do something about reducing the disgracefully high fatality occurrence from explosion disasters in our coal mines. Hence, rock dusting has been given at least a. trial and has proved its effectiveness definitely.

Jan 1, 1937

By W. P. Campbell

THE investigation herein described had its beginning in the chemical laboratory of the Department of the Interior, Calgary. After the transfer of the natural resources to the Province of Alberta in 1930, the laboratory was closed and the investigation discontinued, but in 1933, with the permission of the Director of the Mines Branch, the work was again taken up and brought to completion. OBJECT OF THE INVESTIGATION The object of the investigation as originally planned may be stated as follows : (1) To determine the chemical composition of the limestone formation underlying Turner Valley gas field. (2) To identify &apos;beds&apos; in the limestone, if such existed, with definitecharacteristics which would mark them from immediately overlying and underlying measures. (3) To relate information acquired on the composition of the limestone to the occurrence of oil and gas in the particular section examined. Definite information was lacking as to the exact chemical composition of the limestone and of its variations in composition at various depths. The formation was generally referred to in the field as the &apos;dolomitic&apos; limestone, but the depth to which the dolomitized zone extended and the degree to which the limestone generally had become dolomitized were not known. Jn the drilling and logging of wells, the recognition of suitable &apos;markers&apos; in the various formations is a matter of some importance. Markers are generally relatively small but widespread members of a formation, which have some characteristic property, of colour, composition, or form, by which they may be identified, and with them, consequently, the formation of which they form a part. In the formations above the limestone in Turner Valley, a number of well defined and easily recognized markers are known to geologists, drillers, and others interested in the field. Many of these markers Hand out in sharp contrast to adjoining measures and are therefore easily recognized; in others, the contrast is less sharp, with consequent difficulty in identification.

Jan 1, 1937