Search Documents

By D. R. Knowlton

IF I were a minister, and this were a sermon, and such a passage appeared in the Bible, I would choose for my text: "From whence cometh the oil for our war?" And no preacher was ever more serious than I am. You petroleum engineers recognize that the producing branch of the industry is passing through an era of plenty and inflated potentials into an era of scarcity and unmet allowables. Not too long ago the oil operators of Kansas, California, and Texas were appearing before operators' meetings and regulatory authorities asserting that these States were capable of producing at rates far in excess of what the demand at that time would absorb. Today every oil-producing area in the United States except the Texas Gulf Coast and West Texas is producing close to or in excess of its maximum efficient rate.

Jan 1, 1943

By T. Lane Carter

BEFORE describing the experience with the Chinese on the Rand and the work they have accomplished, it will be necessary, sary, first, to give a brief account of labor-conditions in the Transvaal since the war, and then to show how the necessity of importation of labor arose. As is well known, the Transvaal mines are run on the dual system of labor-that is, the rough work is done by colored laborers under the superintendence of white men. From the start of mining operations in South Africa there has been the cry of shortness of native labor, due in great measure to the failure of Kaffirs to work continuously in the mines. While he works, the Kaffir is a satisfactory laborer, but his period of service is short, averaging about nine months. People unacquainted with the Kaffir have maintained that, by offering a higher wage and better accommodation, better results would be obtained from the native workers, but an increased wage simply aggravates the trouble. The Kaffir's wants are few. While at work he spends little of his money, and before long has sufficient capital with which to buy wives and become a gentleman of leisure. Doubling the wage of the Kaffir means that he acquires a competency in half the time, so that his period of service is correspondingly reduced. In 1899, before the war, there was always a cry about the scarcity of Kaffir labor. The highest number of natives at work was in July and August, 1899, when nearly 100,000 were employed. At the outbreak of hostilities the Kaffirs were scattered far and near, many doing well during the war by working for the military authorities. On the, resumption of mining operations on the Rand a serious mistake was made. Based on past experience, it was argued that if the whole industry decided to start anew with

Sep 1, 1908

By Samuel Taylor

IT is customary for the president of an engineering society, in his annual address, to describe either some engineering problem with which he has beer connected or to review the work of the society during his administration. My first thought, this being the sesquicentennial year of our nation, was to review the advance in coal mining for the past fifty years, during which period I have been more or less intimately con-nected with the bituminous coal industry, and have personally witnessed most of the great changes which have occurred in methods and machinery used in the production of coal, but preparation of the requisite address would take more time than could be spared to prepare it, and its presentation would consume so much time that it .would not be suitable. The new arrangement providing for giving the presi-dent's address at the business meeting makes it more .appropriate to review the work of the Institute during the past year, together with some suggestions which appeal to me as being of advantage to the future wel-fare of the Institute, which I will try to do briefly. The work of the business office has been reviewed in the Secretary's report and it will not be necessary for me to dwell on it. Suffice it to say, it seems to be going along very well. Additional work could be done which would be to the advantage of the Institute, if we had the money with which to defray the necessary ex-pense incident to it, but I will refer to this again later. I would be derelict if I did not refer to the splendid work of the Secretary and the Assistant Secretary. Keeping in touch with all the sections, which number now about 26, and affiliated student societies which number 40, besides special committees, and represent-ing the Institute on various boards, provides work enough to occupy the Secretary's time almost exclu-sively. In addition to this the Secretary and the As-sistant Secretary have the work of editing and publishing the TRANSACTIONS of the Institute; the issuing of the magazine, MINING AND METALLURGY, in the splendid manner in which it goes out to the mem-bership is no light task and I think they should receive the commendation of the membership for this work.

Jan 3, 1927

By M. B. Hopkins

FOR years the expression "except rubber, tin, and manganese" has appeared in practically every discussion of the natural resources of the United States. Knowledge that natural rubber is not produced in the United States has now spread from the relatively few who have reason to be interested in the country's basic raw material supplies to all those who ride in automobiles, which means everybody. This "everybody" reads in the daily papers that we have a stock pile of natural rubber and that plenty of synthetic rubber is just around the corner. Statistics as to the United States' rubber requirements and sources of supply are of interest to him only to arrive at an answer to the question : "After taking care of rubber requirements for military purposes, will there be rubber for my automobile and the many other rubber articles I want?" More than 30,000 different rubber articles are manufactured in addition to the tires and tubes which use up about 70 per cent of the rubber supply.

Jan 1, 1942

By T. Egleston

circumstances, would prefer the steel with which they are now familiar, to a specimen that Mr. Sandberg has described as having broken into seventeen pieces under the wheels. After blowing such low manganese steel, it may be coaxed into a rail, but it is a wonder that it holds together so long as it does, with so great a nornber of minute flaws. I would not in any way depreciate chemistry, but I think it should be kept in its proper sphere. Let the chemist look after the quality of pig metal, and apply common sense in the avoiding of extremes, then the most fastidious railroad cannot find fault with the result. PROFESSOR EGLESTON, New YORK City : It is not my place as an engineer to apologize for the chemists, but as no one seems disposed to do so, and as they have had more than their share of criticism, 1 am glad to say that I believe there are chemists in this Institute whose work and word are just as reliable, arid perhaps even more so, than that of the average engineer. But we ought to make a distinction; there are chemists and chemists. With the ordinary commercial chemist, who looks upon the science as so much merohandise, I have not a particle of sympathy; but with the chemist who looks upon his profession as engineers do upon theirs, I have every sympathy. When matiufactorers and engineers go to a chemist and ask him to make an investigation, and scretv him dowu to the lowest point, turning the equivalent of his brains into cents and mills, they ustially get an exact equivalent in poor work for miserable pay, and no one has or should have any sympathy with them, and the under these conditions has no right to ask for any, and no reason to criticise any work that he may get under such circumstances. But I am disposed to think that the chemists who have been replwented and discussed at this meeting do their work conscientiously, and that it is as reliable as that of almost any profession. I believe, however, that this problem of steel rails is being investigated in a wrong direction. I said so at the Pittsburgh meeting, and I think the discussion of this meeting will prove it to all those who have heard it. I think the chemigt is incapable of solving this problem unlees he goes very far into the domain of physical chemistry, so far that it becomes physics and not chemistry; and that the physicist will be the one on whom we must rely in the future for the elucidation of the subject. The chemist may aid the physicist, but it is my decided opinion that we are looking in the wrong place to get the explanation of the phenomena.

Jan 1, 1881

By J. A. Wilcox

A NEW LINE of specialists has arisen as a result of the trend toward labor socialization and collectivism in all branches of industry. These men are the ones who will govern the destiny of many companies and the labor policy of our government in coming years. They must be men of integrity and of rather exceptional qualifications; men who can foresee the trend of labor relations with business, and who are willing to sacrifice the immediate fruits of technical training for manual labor and study. They must take their place in industry, not with the idea of following the orthodox line of advancement, but knowing that they must stay at the bottom until they have learned to understand the viewpoints, the work, the advantages and the disadvantages of each classification of labor. They must not be of a radical nature or become easily biased, and they must study. You will say I am looking for a superman and in one sense that is true, but the business man and our government are both in the market even now for this type of man, and with the proper training and background, many of our young technicians can readily enter this field of work.

Jan 1, 1942

By PERCY E. BARBOUR

SECONDARY copper1 has &come more or less of a bugbear generally. What is its influence is often the subject of heated argument. The inedapable fact usually quoted is that since in 1929 primary production of copper in the United States was 1,026,348 tons and secondary production was 626,550 tons, there- fore, 0.6 lb. of secondary is produced for every pound of primary, and "How can you get around that?" The matter seems very plain, now that I have reached my conclusions, but they are the result of much laborious study and research. I shall show that' the production of secondary copper is not 0.6 per lb. of primary, in spite of statistical appearances; that the production of secondary is a function of primary production rather than of price; that secondary production has 'only a sub-. ordinate influence on the price of copper and then only in abnormal times; that there is not an accumulating reservoir of secondary from which the country is some- time to be drowned in copper, as is believed by some, or a reservoir from which we are going to draw much needed and more or less inexhaustible stores in the future, as is believed by others; and finally, that the United States always produces more copper than it uses and exports the surplus. These are all controversial points, and for that reason and to anticipate argument I have set forth my reasoning in considerable detail.

Jan 1, 1931

By Bruno Nordberg

THE high cost of coal in Butte and the development of large amounts of cheap electric power from the Missouri river caused the Anaconda Copper Mining Co. in 1908 to make an investigation as to the possibility of adapting this cheap electric power for the operation of their many large hoisting plants. At this time electric power had already been adopted for practically all other power purposes around the mines, such as pumping, compressing air, etc. The map (Fig. 1) shows the location of the mines of the Butte mining district. These mines are located within a circle of approximately a 1-mile

Jan 9, 1913

By Carroll C. Bailey, William F. Boericke

Mine financing, or providing adequate capital for developing and bringing a mining property into production, is an essential requirement for a successful operation. Today it presents a different picture than even twenty-five years ago. The day appears to be gone when a mining property could pay its own way from grass roots to production. The country has been quite thoroughly combed for surface showings from which sufficient initial profit could be immediately garnered to pay for further development and production facilities. The four M's for success in mining-mineral, market, management, and money-are still essential; but doubled or tripled wage costs and steep advances in cost of equipment and supplies throw increased emphasis on adequate capital funds for bringing in a prospect and making it a producer. Consequently, the old picturesque, although seldom rewarding, grub- staking procedure where a single venturesome citizen might advance funds to a prospector on a fifty-fifty basis for whatever discovery he might find, has largely disappeared. Its place, to some degree, has been taken by the small syndicate of venturesome members who band together for furnishing funds to a group of prospectors for the same general purposes. Such a syndicate has a definite organization and is usually assured of sufficient initial funds, or flow of funds, to carry on work for several years. It is headed by an engineer-promoter who has had considerable field experience as well as personal knowledge of his prospecting crews. For the owner of a potential mining property who has ample capital, the problem is to determine (1) justification for the necessary investment in exploration and development, and (2) the economics of the enterprise as to size and degree of integration of the final operating entity. If the owner of such a property has little or no capital, he also faces these same basic problems but, in addition, must be able to present the findings of fact and persuade the prospective investor that the enterprise will produce

Jan 1, 1959

By Henry G. Granger

A RESIDENCE of 14 years in the Republic of Colombia, spent in almost continuous traveling and prospecting-trips, has given me an intimate knowledge of the resources of that wonderful country. The man who best knows Colombia is unquestionably General Rafael Reyes, President of the Republic for the past three years, and with seven years more to serve in his present term. Such is the strength of his personality and the wisdom of his policies that his term of office will no doubt endure as long as he is willing to serve. The vastly improved economic situation and the brilliant outlook for Colombia are so directly due to the influence of President Reyes that a few lines concerning him. will not be amiss, if they serve towards a better understanding of his personality. Born of a distinguished ancestry in the mountains of Boyaca, he is now 57 years old, just the age of his friend Porfirio Diaz when be began the work which has placed Mexico in the rank of great modern nations. It was Reyes who came to Washington to protest against the action of the government of the United States of America in reference to the establishment of the Republic of Panama, and, without entering into a discussion of this affair, it can be fairly said that there was not an American in Colombia whose feelings of justice were. not outraged at the government action and subsequent refusal to submit the matter to the impartial judgment of the' Hague. President Reyes is an accomplished linguist, speaking English, French, German, Portuguese, Spanish, and Italian. He has a remarkably. powerful voice, which can readily be heard by a large assemblage. His height is about 6 ft., and his weight exceeds 200 lb. He has clear gray eyes. Reyes was the leader of those who favored the approval of

Sep 1, 1908

By Lysle E. Shaffer

INCREASING attention has been given in the last decade to the possibilities of mine leasing in the West. The practice as described in this article does not refer to the leasing of entire properties for corporate operation. It is intended to deal rather with the advantages and problems incident to leasing portions of properties to individuals who themselves, individually or in groups, do the actual mining and transportation of the ore. These individuals are sometimes called "leasers" and sometimes called "tributors." The contracts under which they work set up an independent relationship of lessor and leaser, between themselves and the mineowner or operator. This relationship has many advantages to both sides over those created by the ordinary relationship of employer and employe. From the standpoint of the owners there is no liability on independent contractors for industrial injuries, social security taxes, unemployment taxes, or the manifold restrictions of the Federal Labor Relations and Wage Hour Acts and similar state acts where they exist. As the leaser's income depends on the quantity and quality of ore produced, there is a distinct incentive for maximum production of a good grade of ore. This in turn promotes careful mining of the areas under lease. Ordinarily in mining, labor cost is a high percentage of the total cost of operation. Under a leasing system, even if the leasers be allowed to retain half of the gross values that they produce, and the owner or operator gets half, in the case of marginal ore bodies this is ordinarily more than the lessor would realize if the property were worked by day labor. In some instances mineral deposits under a leasing system may become ore, whereas under a day-labor system they would

Jan 1, 1948

By Robert T. DeGavre

The $650 million financing for Into Ltd.'s Soroako nickel project is a story worth telling-not only because the project itself represents a significant achievement but also because there are certain important lessons that can be derived from our experience in financing the project. A critical appraisal of the methods and successes in the financing plan is presented in this article, in light of goals which Inco sought to achieve. A technical assessment of the project is not included, since Inco Ltd. has submitted a series of papers on this subject at the International Laterite Symposium as part of the 108th Annual Meeting of AIME in February 1979. Progress in developing and financing the project is encapsulated in the accompanying project factsheet.

Jan 3, 1979

By Alfred H. Bell

Drilling activity increased in Illinois in 1935. There were 34 com-pletions as compared with 26 in 1934 and 18 wells were drilling at the end of 1935. Some large blocks of acreage were leased in Marion and Clay counties near the central part of the Illinois structural basin. Production of oil in the state totaled 4,305,000 bbl., a decrease of 4 per cent from that of 1934 There was some curtailment of production in the early part of 1935 but none after April 30 as shown in the following table. Percentage Pro-duced of Potential ProductioN (USING September 1934 Period as BaSis) Jan. .l-Feb. 20............................................ 79 Feb. 21-Feb. 25............................................ 85 Feb. 26-Feb. 38............................................ 79 Mar. 1-Mar. 11............................................ 85 Mar. 12-Mar. 31............................................ 100 Apr. 1-Apr. 9.......................................... 80 Apr. 10-Apr. 30............................................ 86 May 1-Dec. 31........................................... 100 This is equivalent to an average curtailment throughout the year of 5 per cent. The price of Illinois crude oil at the wells remained constant during 1935 at $1.13 per barrel. A small amount of oil was sold at a 1ower price, notably from the Dupo field, but to arrive at a value for the state's production there would be little error in assuming an average price of 81.13, giving a total value of $4,864,465. The following table shows production in Illinois by moths in 1935, according to the U.S. Bureau of Mines. Jan............. 332,000 May.......... 382,000 Sept ,............. 370,000 Feb............. 295,000 June. ........... 858,000 Oct.............. 391,000 Mar............ 370,000 July............ 377,000 Nov............. 369,000 April............ 338,000 Aug............. 379,000 Dec............ 344,000

Jan 1, 1936

By Alfred H. Bell

Drilling activity increased in Illinois in 1935. There were 34 com-pletions as compared with 26 in 1934 and 18 wells were drilling at the end of 1935. Some large blocks of acreage were leased in Marion and Clay counties near the central part of the Illinois structural basin. Production of oil in the state totaled 4,305,000 bbl., a decrease of 4 per cent from that of 1934 There was some curtailment of production in the early part of 1935 but none after April 30 as shown in the following table. Percentage Pro-duced of Potential ProductioN (USING September 1934 Period as BaSis) Jan. .l-Feb. 20............................................ 79 Feb. 21-Feb. 25............................................ 85 Feb. 26-Feb. 38............................................ 79 Mar. 1-Mar. 11............................................ 85 Mar. 12-Mar. 31............................................ 100 Apr. 1-Apr. 9.......................................... 80 Apr. 10-Apr. 30............................................ 86 May 1-Dec. 31........................................... 100 This is equivalent to an average curtailment throughout the year of 5 per cent. The price of Illinois crude oil at the wells remained constant during 1935 at $1.13 per barrel. A small amount of oil was sold at a 1ower price, notably from the Dupo field, but to arrive at a value for the state's production there would be little error in assuming an average price of 81.13, giving a total value of $4,864,465. The following table shows production in Illinois by moths in 1935, according to the U.S. Bureau of Mines. Jan............. 332,000 May.......... 382,000 Sept ,............. 370,000 Feb............. 295,000 June. ........... 858,000 Oct.............. 391,000 Mar............ 370,000 July............ 377,000 Nov............. 369,000 April............ 338,000 Aug............. 379,000 Dec............ 344,000

Jan 1, 1936

By Young C. Kim, Francis Martino, Ish Chopra

For the past two and one-half years, various emission control strategies were jointly developed by the University of Arizona and the Homer City Owners to com- ply with the clean air requirements at its Homer City Power Plant. Some of the available options for the SO2 emission control by the Homer City Owners were:l)cleaning of run-of-mine coal,2) scheduling of mining operations at its captive mines, 3) blending the captive mine coal with externally purchased low sulfur coa1,and 4) placing a partial FGD system. This paper describes two specific emission control strategies developed and implemented. These are: 1) production scheduling at the mining face to minimize sulfur variability, and 2) external purchasing of low sulfur coal for further blending. The main objective of this paper is to share our experiences on implementing the developed strategies. This paper emphasizesthe need for proper mine planning on a short-term basis, if the power plant is to meet the desired objective.

Jan 1, 1983

By Albert Sauveur

THE senior author of this paper has expressed the belief that when gamma iron transforms into alpha iron on reaching the A3 point, each gamma grain does not change bodily into one or more alpha grains but that the alpha phase forms first at the boundaries and along the crystallographic planes of the austenite grains.1 To quote: On cooling through the point A, at about 900° C., iron passes from the gamma condition to a. new allotropic form generally designated as alpha. This transforma¬tion, however, is not instantaneous. There are good reasons for believing that it begins at the grain boundaries and along the octahedral planes of the crystals and that it progresses until each grain of gamma iron is changed into a grain of alpha iron, the resulting structure being similar to that of gamma iron. Were it possible to retain at room temperature pure iron but partially transformed, it seems probable that a Widmanstättian structure, or rather, as later explained, a martensitic structure would be observed (Fig. 1), consisting of alpha iron at the boundaries and at the octahedral planes, and of a groundmass of gamma iron. In order to confirm, if possible, the accuracy of that view, a number of experiments were conducted. Polished samples of electrolytic iron were heated in a vacuum, maintained in the gamma range for several hours and quenched in different media. It was hoped by such means to produce and retain on the polished surfaces a pattern which would reveal the mechanism of the allotropic transformation. The samples were placed in evacuated quartz tubes, heated to 1000° C. and held 2 hr. at that temperature. The tubes were then immersed in the quenching bath. Iced brine and liquid air were used first. The polyhedral austenitic structure existing at the time of immersion was very clearly revealed (Fig. 2). This is generally ascribed to iron volatilizing at the grain boundaries.

Jan 1, 1929

By W. R. Barclay

IN MY general contact with industry I have become more and more impressed with the need for the closest possible co-operation between engineers and metallurgists, and particularly with the need for appreciation of the work that each group is doing to assist the other. Also, I am convinced that from time to time it. is vitally important to a true perspective of human progress in all its branches, and certainly a salutary corrective of undue optimism and pessimism to endeavor to carry the mind hack over certain periods in the advance of technical knowledge, and form some kind of broad estimate of what has been accomplished in the application of science to industry in the fields with which we, as individuals or groups, may for the time being be concerned. We cannot without some appreciable mental effort realize what our forerunners have dine For us. If the young engineer or metallurgist entering industry today could be suddenly transported to a quarter of a century ago, and be compelled to work with the materials then available and within the limitations of knowledge then attained, he would, on his return to present-day life, have a much greater appreciation of what has been accomplished before lie arrived on the scene, and, what is even more important, a far more acute sense of its inherent value to his profession. I propose here merely to indulge in a general summary of the subject of improved engineering metals and alloys rather than in details, and to deal exclusively with developments within my own experience.

Jan 1, 1938

By Chester Fulton

IN Polk County, Florida, the mining of raw phosphates began some 50 years ago with dredging operations on the Peace River, and in other near-by places by removal of shallow overburden with negroes and wheelbarrows, or with mules and scrapers, and the excavation and screen-ing of deposits found close to the surface. There were many individual operations of comparatively short life. Later steam shovels removed the overburden, and still later hydraulic methods were substituted for the steam shovel. Within the last 10 years large electrically operated drag-lines have almost entirely replaced hydraulic mining for overburden removal. The matrix is still mined by hydraulic giants and pumped to the washer or recovery plant. The many small operations have long since disappeared and the most desirable phosphate lands have gradually been acquired through purchase or merger by the seven companies that are operating in the field today. These companies are producing and selling about 2,000,000 long tons of phosphate per annum, or about two-thirds of what the industry likes to think is the normal output, with 1929 and 1930 in mind. To produce these 2,000,000 long tons of raw phosphate, they mine and treat about 1,000,000 tons of tailings from older and less efficient opera-tions, about 11,000,000 tons of matrix, and remove from above this matrix some 22,000,000 tons of overburden. The mining practice that has made possible the excavation and handling of 34 million tons of material to win but 2 million tons of merchantable product, selling for probably an average of only $4 per long ton when dried, should be of interest to the mining profession, though little has been written of it. The Florida Pebble Field, as it has come to be known, comprises an area (Fig. 1) within a radius of about 18 to 20 miles centering around Mulberry in Polk County, a small town 30 miles east of Tampa, Florida's largest port on the gulf coast.

Jan 1, 1936

H. W. MussEn, Collingwood, Ontario, Can. (communication to the Secretary*):—Doubtless all engineers who have paid more than a casual visit to Russia have come into contact with that formidable document, the " smieta," or estimate of the Russian manager. It is an institution which seems to be inseparable from Russian mining-methods. As Mr. Shockley points out, the year's costs a agree very closely" with the figures of the smieta made at the beginning of the year. In cases which have come under my notice, I have been satisfied that there had been a good deal of " rigging" of accounts to this end. The sum spent by the manager was carefully kept down to the total of the estimate, because it was well known that no more money would be forthcoming, and when this is done it is not a difficult matter to see that the right amounts come under the right heads in the final accounts. I do not say that this is always the case, but I have come across notable instances. Looking at it from the Russian owner's point of view, I think that the balance of the argument is usually in favor of the smieta as limiting " impulsive indiscretion" on the part of managers. The Russian Mining Code of to-day leaves much to be desired, but this is thoroughly appreciated by the official world there, and great changes are spoken of for the future. In many, if not in most, cases the laws are interpreted liberally, and a great deal is left to the discretion of the district mining engineer or inspector, with whom it is necessary to keep in close touch. As Mr. Shockley points out, the officials of a mine, who are always Russians, are held personally responsible for accidents resulting to employees, quite independently of any compensation which may be made to the sufferer. This seems startling enough, but I have always found that a penalty is imposed only

Jan 1, 1909

By Eugene McAuliffe

NO physical impairment can be more serious than the partial or complete loss of sight. With reasonably good eyesight, a person is equipped to care for life and I limb, provided a rational measure of t caution is manifested. When the sight of one eye is lost or badly impaired, one-half of this God-given asset is gone, and extreme care must be taken to prevent the tragedy of total darkness that closes out the beauty of sky, field and mountain, the faces of relatives and friends, and either removes entirely or in part one's capacity to produce and earn. During 1933, The Union Pacific Coal Co., operating ten coal mines in Wyoming, decided to undertake a visual survey of all of its mine operating officials and employees. Although the cost of workmen's compensation paid because of eye injuries was material, the management was more deeply concerned with the social loss and the suffering resulting from the many eye injuries. As every element of coal production cost must be scrutinized, accurate data on all accidents, with the workmen's compensation paid therefor, are carried forward monthly. The number of accidents to eyesight and the resultant compensation paid are shown in Table 1 for nine calendar years:

Jan 1, 1934