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By Neville J. Price

In order that the reader may not be misled, I feel it necessary to comment upon the title of this paper. "Laws of Rock Behavior," one may take as being part of the all-embracing "Law of Nature" and this, according to the Oxford Dictionary, relates to the principles of conduct recognized as being pleasing to God. I feel it would be presumptuous to erect a code of rock behavior on this basis, so turn to a secondary definition, namely that a "Law" is that which is intrinsically reasonable. It is extremely unlikely that any group of geologists, or workers in rock mechanics would be in complete agreement about what could be taken to be "intrinsically reasonable." Therefore, this paper does not present any deified utterances, but rather deals with a few aspects of rock behavior which I consider to be intrinsically reasonable and with which I hope the reader will concur. The mode of behavior of rocks in the Earth's crust covers the range from wholly brittle to completely ductile ; with a deformation time scale which may be measured in milliseconds, for some events such as meteoritic impact, or in millions of years for the tectonic deformation involved in mountain building. A complete survey is, of course, outside the scope of an introductory paper, so I must be both brief and selective in my treatment. Any attempt to establish the mode of rock behavior in the Earth's crust should take into account data and relationships established in laboratory experiments and correlate these with field evidence. Consequently, the first section of this paper presents a brief discussion of the experimental aspects of rock mechanics which are pertinent to the subsequent discussion.

Jan 1, 1970

By Herty, C. H.

The effect of temperature on the physical properties of structural materials has been the subject of many investigations during the past decade. The literature on the effect of elevated temperatures. is voluminous, and during the last four years a great deal of experimental work has been carried out on the effect of low temperatures on the impact properties of steel. For many engineering purposes it is important to know the shock resistance of steels at low atmospheric temperatures, and with the ever-developing field of refrigeration and separation of materials at low temperatures, the normal limits of atmospheric temperature have been exceeded in practice. Iron and its alloys in the unnotched condition have a high impact strength at low temperatures, but in practice variations in type of notches result either from design or accidentally through scratches and surface or internal defects. A study of notched bar impact tests is, therefore, highly important to the engineer. A survey of the literature on low temperature impact testing indicates that chemical composition, heat treatment and method of testing have been the variables which have been considered in most previous work. In only a few instances has any mention of the steel- making method been mentioned and in these the comparison was between steel-making processes and not between steel-making methods on the same process. In view of the wide variations in impact properties at room temperature, in quench and strain ageing and in grain growth of steels of identical chemical composition, (by this is meant the usual five element analysis reported), it was felt

Jan 1, 1957

By Ian Wark

IN an earlier paper1 measurements of contact angles due to the effect of xanthates on mineral surfaces were reported. The solutions in which these measurements were made differed widely from those of modern flotation circuits. It is intended, however, by introducing, one at a time, the other principal reagents of flotation, to approach gradually the solu-tion composition of flotation liquors. The work now described is an attempt to determine the effect of one of the most important of these reagents-namely, sodium cyanide-on the establishment of air-mineral contact. The work has been carried out for the following companies: Broken Hill South, North Broken Hill, Zinc Corporation, Electro-lytic Zinc of Australasia, Mount Lyell Mining and Railway, and Burma Corporation. Since the effect of cyanide is inseparably connected with the alkalinity, the results cited below deal with the mutual effects of alkalis and cyanide. Alkalis alone exert a significant effect on the air-mineral contact but comparatively large amounts are required. Since the addition of a small amount of cyanide greatly decreases the degree of alkalinity necessary for the suppression of contact at surfaces of any of the minerals experimented with (except galena) and since alkalis are rarely used alone in practice, little attention has been paid to cyanide-free solutions. It was shown in the previous paper that, excluding the dixanthogen effect, whenever contact was practicable at all in an ethyl xanthate solution the angle of contact was 60°. There is, therefore, less necessity to measure equilibrium contact angles; in fact, the experiments herein described have generally been conducted with a view to determining whether contact is possible and not to measuring the actual value of the contact angle. The separations which have generally to be effected in dealing with complex sulfide ores are: (1) galena from sphalerite, pyrite, etc.; (2) sphalerite from pyrite and/or gangue minerals; (3) copper minerals from pyrite and gangue minerals; (4) pyrite from gangue minerals; (5) chal-

Jan 1, 1933

By Thomas T., Read

IT will be recalled that when educational instruction for the mineral industry began at Freiberg, at the beginning of the eighteenth century, the original aim was to organize and systematize the procedures previously followed by young men in gaining -familiarity with the technology then in use. There must have been many other ideas current, even then, as to just what a young man needed to learn in order to become capable of assuming 'responsibility for the supervision and direction of such technical work. The problem in Europe was decidedly different .from that in nineteenth-century America, because some of the European mines were actually owned and operated by the governing authority and the others were supervised, regulated, and taxed by it. The American problem was the e5cient performance of technical operations; the European one was regulatory supervision. It was natural, therefore, that in the development of educational processes in Europe stress was laid on those factors which conserved and protected the interests of the state. The study of mineralogy and geology, leading to correct judgments as to the workability and value of mineral deposits; assaying, which gave the means of quantitative measurements, as did surveying; chemistry, which furnished a better basis of understanding for assaying, mineralogy, and geology; and physics and mathematics, which are the bases for the understanding and efficient use of mechanical appliances, became the core of systematic instruction, for the mineral industry. It was early recognized that men could learn more than was already known about all of these subjects and education took on that dichotomy which still characterizes it; the teaching of established knowledge to the unlearned, and that of extending of the bounds of knowledge, now loosely termed research, which after two and a half centuries of work still shows

Jan 1, 1941

By L. F. Reinartz

ANOTHER year has rolled by. We are twelve months further away from the start of the depression and. therefore that much nearer to recovery. The accumulated needs and wants 'of our lame, virile population are ready to burst their bonds as soon as confidence returns and credit is stabilized. The steel industry has been harassed by uncertainty of the Government's attitude toward organized labor's de¬mands, and irregularity in volume of production. Steel labor, if left to its own devices, would in most instances, march shoulder to shoulder with the management of steel plants in their effort to pull the industry nut of the ?red.? Cooperation between management and men has improved considerably during; the year.

Jan 1, 1935

By William Campbell

(Cleveland Meeting, October, 1912.) THE structure of iron and steel, though the object of so much study and research for the past 25 years, is by no means thoroughly understood. In the first place, we have three or more distinct iron-carbon thermal diagrams, each with its own supporters, and each representing a theory of the structure and constitution of cast-iron. In the second place, by reason of the fact that austenite, the solid solution of carbon in iron, decomposes in the solid state into ferrite, or pure iron, and cementite (Fe3C), and that quenching from above this transition-range, no matter how rapid, cannot entirely prevent the change and thus preserve the austenite by itself at ordinary temperatures, it happens that under the microscope we find, in addition to the ferrite, Fe3C, and austenite, which the thermal diagram of steel requires, it series of transition-products with distinctive structures, to which have ,been given the names martensite, troostite, sorbite, etc. Now these transition-products, in addition to the solid solution, austenite, have been the source of much controversy, at times very bitter. One side would insist that, say, troostite was an entity, which the other side would deny, pointing out that it must be a transition-mixture, with a particular structure. That austenite was a solid solution of carbon in iron has been denied by one school ; we have been told that Fe24C dissolved both Fe3C and Fe, and thus gave rise to a whole series of quenching-products-all this in spite of the fact that no matter how the thermal diagrams differ in regard to cast-iron, they all agree in regard to the solid solution, austenite, for Fe24C finds no place on the diagram. Thus it happens that while the authorities fight both in regard to the iron-carbon diagram and the structures met with in hard- * Associate Professor of Metallurgy, Columbia University in the City of New York.

Dec 1, 1912

By Louis E. Reber

Jan 1, 1922

By H. O. HOPMAN

(Canal Zone Meeting, November, 1910.) I. INTRODUCTION. THE substance of this paper was prepared for the Seventh International Congress of Applied Chemistry, held in London, May, 1909, under the title, Some Developments in Blast-Roasting. In the absence of the author, a -short abstract of the paper was read, and the abstract only will appear in the proceedings of the congress. The present paper has been partly rewritten and considerably enlarged by information gained since the original was prepared ; also some illustrations have been added. Blast-roasting' is a generic term for the process of forcing air through finely-divided. metallic sulphide with the object of roasting and agglomerating in a single operation. At first the process was confined to a galena-concentrate ; lime, limestone, or gypsum was added, to serve both as a diluent to keep separate the particles of galena that they might be thoroughly oxidized, and as a flux that the partly-roasted ore might be agglomerated by the formation of some slag. Later it was extended to treat other metallic sulphides. The leading processes were the Huntington-Heberlein and the Savelsberg of Europe, and the Carmichael-Bradford of Australia. In the United States and Canada, the Huntington-Heberlein process has found application in some instances with galena-concentrates, for which it was originally intended; but this class of ore is not often treated alone, hence the process has had to be modified to suit conditions. The Savelsberg process has been transplanted to this country in about its original form. The Carmichael-Bradford is not used at present. The changes called for in the Huntington-Heberlein process to adapt it to the class of lead-bearing ores usually smelted have been the 1 A. S. Dwight, Engineering and Mining Journal, vol. lxxxv., No. 13, p. 649 (Mar. 28, 1908).

Jun 1, 1910

By Charles C. Goddard

Since discovery of silver-gold lode deposits in 1864, the Butte district has produced more than $2.25 billion worth of copper, zinc, manganese, silver, and gold, an unprecedented value in the mining world. Exhaustion of the gold placer deposits along Silver Bow Creek, southwest of Butte, forced the early-day placer miners to turn their attention to the bold out- crops of the many veins exposed on the hillsides above the placer diggings. These outcrops bore silver and gold, and enough so that many lode claims were located. Such famous silver mines as the Alice, Moulton, Magna Carta, Nettie, and Blue Bird were developed. These and many smaller operations contributed to making Montana the leading silver-producing state in the 1880's. As depth was gained in the silver mines in certain parts of the district, occurrence of zinc minerals became troublesome. Zinc was not recoverable at the time, and in the chloridizing, roasting, and amalgamation of the ores, silver and gold recovery was greatly reduced. A period of active silver mining continued until 1892, when a decline in the price of silver brought the silver mining period to a close. Elsewhere in the district it was discovered that while some of the veins contained silver ores in the oxidized portions, the predominant minerals that were deeper were copper-bearing. Marcus Daly exposed rich copper ore on the 300 level of the Anaconda mine in 1891, and mining in the district disclosed that copper was destined to be developed in abundance. Early copper ore shipments were made to Swansea, Wales.

Jan 3, 1959

By G. C. McLachlan

Two papers dealing with Noranda's milling operations have already been presented. The first1 of these covered the initial metallurgical problems connected with the treatment of the ore, while the second2 described the development of the mill from a 500-ton unit in 1928 to one with a daily capacity of 3000 tons less than six years later. At the time the second paper was written the equipment whirh had been installed to bring the mill capacity up to 3000 tons was being tuned into production and for this reason, though each step had previously been tested by a large-scale pilot operation, it was thought advisable to withhold metallurgical data until any starting-up difficulties had been overcome and anticipated requirements fulfilled. These requirements called for an improvement in gold recovery without any lowering of the previous ratio of concentration, and the pages that follow deal with the methods by which this result was obtained. An idea of the character of Noranda concentrating ore will be gained from an inspection of the following mineralogical analysis of the ore treated by the mill during 1933: MineRal Content Mineral ConteNt Chalcopyrite, per cent..... 6.8 Silica and silicates, per cent............ 18.3 Pyrite, per cent........... 22.1 Gold, native and as telluride, oz. per ton 0.15 Pyrrhotite, per cent....... 51.5 Silver, probably as argentite, oz. per tou 0.35 Magnetite, per cent....... 0.5 Thesr figures, which are typical, show that over 73 per cent of the ore treated consists of pyrite and pyrrhotite. Determirnation of the proportion of unrecovered gold associated with each of these minerals was therefore of primary importance in developing a suitable method for improving gold recovery. As pyrrhotite is magnetic, this information was obtained by making magnetic sorting tests on samples of the mill tailing and screening the material thus segregated. This showed that the magnebtic material finer

Jan 1, 1935

By Charles W. Perry

The options of enhanced oil recovery, coal syncrude, and shale syncrude are compared by approximately equivalent economics. The physical constraints for the major enhanced oil recovery processes are described, followed by new estimates of cost. The range for all three options in terms of light syncrude equivalent are $22 to $40 per barrel in 1980 dollars.

Jan 1, 1982

By T. B. Nolan, R. N. Hunt

In terms of present metal prices, analysis of extant records of the Eureka district indicate past production of the magnitude of $200,000,000 in recovered silver, lead, and gold. Production to date has been thoroughly oxidized ore from massive replacements, fissures, manta, and pipe-like bodies-in large part from the massive Eldorado (middle Cambrian) and Hamburg (middle to late Cambrian) dolomite horizons. In the productive area of about 6 square miles carbonate rocks comprise 80 per cent of the section, which includes early Cambrian to late Ordovician horizons. Four-fifths or more of the district's production came from a block of Eldorado dolomite in Ruby Hill that was moved in over younger horizons on strands of a regional thrust fault. The lower 500 to 600 feet of the block was much fractured and brecciated and became host to the ores. The Ruby Hill fault, a late normal fault, limits the Ruby Hill block of dolomite on the north for its entire length of nearly a mile and terminates the downward extent and exploitation of its ores. It introduced an hiatus of some 40 years in the district's development. Drilling of the past 20-odd years, followed by underground work, has now exposed the down-faulted extension of the Ruby Hill block of Eldorado dolomite and its contained ores, dropped 1800 feet in a dip shift to depths beneath the surface of 2000 to 3000 feet. The ores at depth are the sulfide counterpart of those mined in early years on the footwall side of the fault. The ores of the district may be attributed to the same source as the intrusive quartz diorite outcropping in a limited way south of Ruby Hill but found at depth elsewhere in drill holes. The long north-south axis of the district, its anticlinal structure, its major faults, and the distribution of the intrusives and, in their relation to the surface, the ores themselves, all suggest that erosion has not cut deep enough to expose the extent of intrusives and the ores consequent upon them.

Jan 1, 1968

Jan 1, 1902

By Robert L. Clayton, Arthur Baker

Two massive sulfide zinc-copper ore bodies are in quartz-sericite schist (probably formed by regional metamorphism of sediments) and andesite of the Precambrian Yavapai Series, on opposite sides of a large rhyolite mass. The Copper Queen ore body is conformable with bedding of its schist host rock, but the Old Dick ore body probably crosscuts the strata. A lens of low-grade mineralization in chlorite schist, associated with the Old Dick ore body, crosscuts through 150 feet of strata. The ore bodies are almost entirely enclosed by premineral faults with less than 150 feet of displacement. The minerals of the ores are pyrite, sphalerite, and chalcopyrite, with minor arsenopyrite and galena and small amounts of intimately associated chlorite, sericite, and calcite. Old Dick sphalerite-chalcopyrite intergrowths have mutual boundaries, and sphalerite grains contain abundant exsolved chalcopyrite. Copper Queen sphalerite-chalcopyrite intergrowths have extremely ragged boundaries, the sphalerite contains no exsolved chalcopyrite, and the ore overall has a schistose texture. The pre-mineral fault on the hanging wall of the Copper Queen ore body has had 100 feet of post-mineral displacement. Wall rocks of the Old Dick ore body locally have been sericitized. Andesite and quartz-sericite schists for at least several hundred feet around both ore bodies have been chloritized erratically and contain traces of copper.

Jan 1, 1968

By AIME AIME

The Washoe plant, 1 in Anaconcla. Mont., together with the local street-railroad, ranches a. foundry and machine-shop a brick-plant and the Montana hotel, form a property under one management; to which should be added the mines in Butte owned by the company, from which part of the ore-supply of the plant comes. The Anaconda Copper Mining Co., controlled by the Amalgamated Copper Co., was reorganized under the laws of Montana in 1893. A map of the plant, showing the numerous departments and illustrating the details of tracks, pipe-lines, and charging-stations for compressed-air locomotives, is given in Fig. 1.

Jul 1, 1906

By John B. Hastings

THE occurrence of such a large amount of gold in the Hartsel granite, even though the surmised existence of similar areas is not new, brings freshly to mind the pegmatite type of magmatic differentiation lately brought again to attention by occurrences at Silver Peak, Nev., described by Spurr; and in Alaska, described by both Spurr and Brooks. In both localities graunitic rocks or dikes are thought to pass into metalliferous quartz-veins. An interesting association in this connection is the occurrence of diamonds in residual pegmatitic clay of San Juao de Chapado, Brazil, described by Derby :1 (P. 142) "Bodies of pegmatite are quite common in the older rocks of Brazil, both in the. diamond regions and elsewhere, occurring not only in the gneiss and granite, but in the schistose series as well. Those that have been examined are dike-like in their mode of occurrence and granitic in composition." (P. 143) "The question of the eruptive or secretionary origin of pegmatites has long been a subject of discussion among geologists. . . . The recent studies . . . seem to have clearly established that most if not all of them are essentially eruptive masses, though possibly modified in some way by aqueous agencies. Even before becoming acquainted with the literature of the subject this view had seemed to me to be the only acceptable one as regards the typical pegmatites of Brazil." What is pegmatite ? J. F. Kemp says ". . . veins or dikes-it is an open question which is the more correct term-are met formed of very coarsely crystalline aggregates of the same minerals that constitute granite. These are called pegmatite and in them is the home of graphic granite, the curious intergrowth of quartz and feldspar, such that a cross fracture of the blades of quartz suggests cuneiform characters. . . . In regard to the larger veins or dikes it seems improbable that true igneous fusion could have afforded such coarsely crystalline aggregates, and so we are forced to assume such abundance of steam and other vapors, i.e, mineralizers, as to almost, if not quite, imply solution."

Jan 5, 1908

P. H. Dudley, Yew York, N. Y. (communication to the Secretary*) :—The characteristics of Professor Home's metallurgical papers are, that he is able, from the mass of confusing evidence on the subject, to make an analysis and present hypothetical and essential principles in concrete form for consideration and discussion. I can appreciate, from the practical side of the subject, the labor of collecting and investigating the data which was essential to prepare the paper. Much of it necessarily came from material of preceding years of manufacture in which time was allowed for chemical reactions of the re-carburizer, and for the elimination of the oxidation-products before teeming the ingots. This practice gave a favorable time-element to free the metal from slag and other impurities— a requisite condition for the production of sound steel in the ingots. But, in allowing them to become cold before they were charged into the furnace, a subsequent time-element entered as a detrimental factor in the development of the pipe or shrinkage-cavities, which gave an ingot-structure deficient in soundness, at least in the upper portion. (The term slag is used in a general rather than in a strictly technical sense.) Traces of manganese sulphide are often associated with manganese silicates in the same thread or seam, and at other places they are separate and distinct. Interpretations from material thus manufactured must be made with due allowances for the methods of fabrication and the requirements of service. The only way we now have to estimate what the degree of soundness of the ingot-structure was, in the early foreign and American manufacture of steel rails, is by examination of the worn and failed material after years of service. We must remember also that the poorest material was long since consigned to the scrap-heap without any full record of its history. The rails from a given ingot cannot now be identified ; and in many

Jan 1, 1909

Jan 1, 1897

By P. J. Clifford, A. B. Brown

The development of computerised mine planning has been hindered by the cost of processing the large data bases associated with mineral deposits and the inherent inconvenience of performing an interactive process on a time-shared computer. A dedicated computer is ideally suited for the purpose but reasonably priced micro/mini-computers have not had the capacity to store the volume of data or the processing capability required. Hardware development has cleared the way for the development of truly interactive mine planning software, covering the complete range of activities associated with mine planning, from geological assessment to short-term scheduling of operations, incorporating them into a single system using a common database. The integrated system, comprising software and dedicated hardware, adds previously unattainable speed, flexibility and clarity to the planning process because it has been tailored exclusively for that purpose.

Jan 1, 1983

By Elwin L. Fisk

The Cordero mine is located in the Nevada portion of the Opalite Mining district that straddles the Oregon-Nevada state boundary. The mercury deposits of the district occur along the margins of the broad east-west graben valley of McDermitt Creek. The only other major producers, the Opalite and Bretz mines, on the northern margin of the graben have thus far exploited only shallow deposits within 100 feet of the surface. Through December 1965, Cordero has produced 94,680 flasks of mercury, the most of which came from the large underground cinnabar deposit. Nearly all of the mercury ore deposits in this district have been found in Miocene rhyolitic intrusives, flows, tuffs, and lake beds. These rhyolites have been argillically altered at depth and extensively silicified at or near the surface. These silicified areas or "opalite" masses were the original cinnabar-bearing outcrops.

Jan 1, 1968