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By W. S. Tower

STEEL is the basic metal, the main metallic prop of the modern industrial world, a good gage for measuring the state of our complex economy. Any who had doubts on that score should have had them dispelled by the many evidences of public concern over the affairs of the steel industry in recent months. I do not need to relate the various criticisms of the industry, nor the questions about its policies and performance which have come in a rising flood, especially from unthinking and irresponsible sources. But judged from the standpoint of production, or from plans to improve and expand facilities, or from technical progress, the facts about the steel industry are proof of

Jan 1, 1948

By R. E. Grant

THE Cerro de Pasco Railway Co., owned and operated by the Corporation, is a common carrier whose chief functions are transportation of ore and concentrates from the mines at Cerro de Pasco to the smelter in Oroya, and haulage of coal from the coal mines at Goyllarisquisga to the coal washery at Fundicion. Connecting with the Peruvian Central Railway at Oroya, the C. de P. Railway maintains joint, daily freight and passenger service from Lima and the port of Callao to Cerro de Pasco, terminal of the C. de P. main line and gateway to the Huanuco Valley. Extending from Oroya to Cerro de Pasco the main line is a standard-gauge roadbed of 70-lb. rail, 132 km. long with a maximum compensated grade of 2.25 per cent and a curvature of 16°, climbing from an elevation of 12,272 ft. above sea level at Oroya, lowest station on the line, to 14,208 ft. at Cerro de Pasco. The highest point reached by the C. de P. is on the coal branch at Alcacocha where the rails are 14,385 ft. above the sea.

Jan 1, 1945

By Saluja, Sunder S.

Man had to learn to break rocks as early as the Stone Age, when they formed his main source of raw material. He started with chipping and over the years has reached a stage where he can employ atomic blasts and break, with one blast, millions of tons of rock. In between these two extremes there have been several stages of development including fire setting, use of the expansion of water on freezing in chipped cracks in cold climates, the use of low or deflagrating explosive black powder in about the 17th century, the use of high explosives with the discovery of nitroglycerine in 1846 by Sobrero, followed by the monumental discoveries of the great Swedish scientist Alfred Nobel in the latter half of the nineteenth century.

Jan 1, 1968

By W. A. Koehler, M. E. Hinkle

INTRODUCTION THE oxidation of pyrites and marcasite in coal-mine strata to produce discolored acid mine drainage has long been explained by chemical reactions occurring in three stages: I. The iron sulphide minerals are oxidized by air in the presence of water to produce a nearly colorless solution of fer¬rous (iron) sulphate and some sulphuric acid. 2. The ferrous sulphate and part of the sulphuric acid combine with additional oxygen to form ferric (iron) sulphate. 3. The ferric sulphate hydrolyzes to form a reddish-brown precipitate and additional sulphuric acid. Nevertheless, chemical data alone are not sufficient to explain all observed facts. The first stage seems to proceed more slowly in the chemical laboratory than in nature. The second and third stages nor¬mally occur to a marked extent within a few days with raw mine water. However, the visible discoloration that characterizes these latter stages will not develop for months if the mine water is sterilized. By means of bacteriological techniques, two organisms have been isolated from acid coal-mine drainage. These are believed to have a part in promoting the chemical reactions summarized above. One organism is considered to be Thio¬bacillus thiooxidans, which is known to be able to convert elementary sulphur or sodium thiosulphate to sulphuric acid. Its relation to the formation of acid mine drainage has not yet been established. Apparently it does not promote the oxida¬tion of ferrous iron compounds in mine, drainage to the ferric state. The second organism has not been identi¬fied by name but is described as "Gram negative, non-spore-forming rods approxi¬mately 0.4 micron wide by o.8 to 1.0 micron long." A pure culture of this when added to sterile mine water will cause the latter to become amber and develop the typical rusty precipitate. However, it has not been found to convert sulphur com¬pounds to sulphuric acid. Further research is planned to determine whether or not these microorganisms play a significant part in the first stage of oxidation whereby pyrites and marcasite minerals go into solution. Some of the conditions found in abandoned sections of coal mines, such as a reduced percentage of oxygen and increased percentage of carbon dioxide in the air, as well as the existing temperature and acidity ranges, will be tolerated by and may even be favorable to these organisms. ACID COAL MINE DRAINAGE Acid coal mine drainage has been the concern of coal mine operators, industrial¬ists, sportsmen and public officials for many years. The amount of acid flowing into our streams in the coal-producing areas varies considerably from mine to mine and from

Jan 1, 1948

By Alfred R. Powell

Late in 1944 a group of petroleum and coal technologists was organized in Washington under the sponsorship of the Petroleum Administration for War and the U. S. Bureau of Mines. This group, known as the Technical Oil Mission, was placed under the authority of the Technical Industrial Intelligence Committee of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, which was then promoting the organization of other missions to be sent to Germany to obtain technical information regarding various industries in that country. The objective of the Tehnical oil Mission was to obtain technical data on German production of synthetic oil from coal and all other commercial practices and research projects connected with the oil industry. The primary purpose was to obtain such data as were immediately essential to assist the war against Germany and Japan, with secondary emphasis on technical information that would assist American industry after the end of the war. since oil-production facilities in Germany and the occupied countries controlled by Germany were the top targets for strategic bombing, the Technical Oil Mission was the first group under the Technical Induslrial Intelligence Com,mittee to enter Germany. A few members of the group flew to London in February 1945 and the majority of the remainder followed in March. In London they were joined by an equal number of British investigators and the combined mission was then sent into Germany under the authority of the Combined Intelligence Objectives Subcommittee (CIOS). A summary of the more important information gained by this combined British and American mission is presented below. German Oil Production The oil available to Germany, both natural and synthetic, and including production from occupied countries, reached a peak in late 1943 and early 1944 Production at this time was at the rate of 1,200,000 metric tons Per month, equivalent to 100,000,000 bbl. per year, or about 7 per cent of the wartime production in the United States. Of this production, jo per cent was crude oil from Romania and Hungary, 12 Per cent was crude oil from Germany itself, including Austria, 9 per cent cumprised coal-carbonization products, that is, tar and light oil, and only the remaining 29 per cent was synthetic liquid fuel made from coal or tar. Synthetic liquid fuel made in Germany was equivalent therefore to less than 2 per cent of wartime production of crude oil in the United States. The success of the strategic bombing campaign against German oil-production facilities is demonstrated by the fact that by September 1944 the Ploesti fields of Romania and much of the syrlthetic oil production had been eliminated, so that the amount of oil available to the German war machine was only 25 per Cent of the peak qualltity mentioned above. By early 1945, when the combined British and American oil mission was entering

Jan 1, 1947

By Alfred R. Powell

Late in 1944 a group of petroleum and coal technologists was organized in Washington under the sponsorship of the Petroleum Administration for War and the U. S. Bureau of Mines. This group, known as the Technical Oil Mission, was placed under the authority of the Technical Industrial Intelligence Committee of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, which was then promoting the organization of other missions to be sent to Germany to obtain technical information regarding various industries in that country. The objective of the Tehnical oil Mission was to obtain technical data on German production of synthetic oil from coal and all other commercial practices and research projects connected with the oil industry. The primary purpose was to obtain such data as were immediately essential to assist the war against Germany and Japan, with secondary emphasis on technical information that would assist American industry after the end of the war. since oil-production facilities in Germany and the occupied countries controlled by Germany were the top targets for strategic bombing, the Technical Oil Mission was the first group under the Technical Induslrial Intelligence Com,mittee to enter Germany. A few members of the group flew to London in February 1945 and the majority of the remainder followed in March. In London they were joined by an equal number of British investigators and the combined mission was then sent into Germany under the authority of the Combined Intelligence Objectives Subcommittee (CIOS). A summary of the more important information gained by this combined British and American mission is presented below. German Oil Production The oil available to Germany, both natural and synthetic, and including production from occupied countries, reached a peak in late 1943 and early 1944 Production at this time was at the rate of 1,200,000 metric tons Per month, equivalent to 100,000,000 bbl. per year, or about 7 per cent of the wartime production in the United States. Of this production, jo per cent was crude oil from Romania and Hungary, 12 Per cent was crude oil from Germany itself, including Austria, 9 per cent cumprised coal-carbonization products, that is, tar and light oil, and only the remaining 29 per cent was synthetic liquid fuel made from coal or tar. Synthetic liquid fuel made in Germany was equivalent therefore to less than 2 per cent of wartime production of crude oil in the United States. The success of the strategic bombing campaign against German oil-production facilities is demonstrated by the fact that by September 1944 the Ploesti fields of Romania and much of the syrlthetic oil production had been eliminated, so that the amount of oil available to the German war machine was only 25 per Cent of the peak qualltity mentioned above. By early 1945, when the combined British and American oil mission was entering

Jan 1, 1947

By D. J. Brown

Froth flotation is now used to recover millions of tons of fine coal,(-1/2 mm), every year. For example, in Great Britain, 4-million tons of flotation concentrate was produced in 1960, about 3% of the mechanically cleaned out- put and 2% of the total salable output. Coal flotation is not so widely practiced in the U. S. as it is in Europe since much American coal occurs in thick seams of high grade and does not require cleaning. However, in the U. S., as elsewhere, the increasing mechanization of coal mining machinery has lead to a lowering in size and grade of product from the mine and to an increasing need for cleaning of coal to improve the grade before sale. With an increasing proportion of fines in the product, froth flotation has assumed a greater importance as a cleaning process for coal. In the last three years, over 40 flotation plants have been put into operation in the Appalachian area of the U. S.80 Fine coal recovered by means of froth flotation may be used as a powdered fuel alone or mixed with coarser grades. The removal of this fine coal from washery water makes possible the recirculation and re-use of the water and also leads to improved and more consistent operation of jigs and other separating machines which function less effectively when there is a build-up of fine solids in the washery water. Finally, froth flotation is of assistance in the production of a clarified effluent which may be discharged from the washery without polluting local rivers, streams, or wells. The 1961 cost of installing a new coal flotation plant in Great Britain would be about $19,000 per ton of dry solids input per hour, including the cost of new buildings and coal and shale filtration and water clarification equipment. The figure for the gravity concentration of the large coal, the main plant, would be about $4,800 per tph. The operating cost for the new coal flotation plant would be about $1.10 per ton. Even at this level of cost the cleaning operation is economic in Great Britain for coking coals. In the U. S., a froth flotation cost of 14$per ton of cleanfilter cake was quoted early in 1958 for one operation,l though admittedly this was a special case. Assuming a cake moisture con- tent of 30%, it is estimated that this cost is equivalent to a figure of 256 per ton of dry solids input, for the incorporation of coal flotation in an existing washery. A cost oh 416 per ton of concentrate was quoted76 in a recent analysis of flotation economics, this cost being brought up to $1.11 per ton after payment of royalty, welfare and association dues and taxes. Capital cost was $120,000 for a plant producing 133 tpd of concentrate. Before considering the treatment of coal by flotation it is appropriate to survey some of the properties of coal which are of importance in the process.

Jan 1, 1962

By ARTHUR THACHER

PRIMITIVE man supplied his wants as they arose; as he became more civilized he anticipated them by producing more regularly and storing the products for future use. This tended to cheapen' production and prevent ' violent fluctuations and therefore tended to increase consumption. In order to anticipate our wants, we must know what these wants will be, and this can be .determined only by statistics. 'While we have made great progress in gathering statistics, they are still far from what they should be; especially metal statistics. We determine fairly, well the amount produced, but this does not answer all inquiries because of the erratic conditions of mining, it is necessary to carry larger stocks of metals than of most other articles; moreover, as metals are more or less durable, it is difficult to determine the actual consumption. We often count under consumption what is being produced and sold, while the actual consumption is what is being worn out.

Jan 1, 1921

By M. J. Coolbaugh

Mining of potash more than 3000 ft beneath the water-bearing sediments in Saskatchewan presented the unique challenge of designing stable mine workings and assuring protection from overhead water in a material that was believed to flow plastically, but whose behavior as a plastic material was not sufficiently known. Under the stress conditions ordinarily encountered in mining most rocks behave as elastic materials; that is, they compress slightly under pressure, and rebound when the pressure is released. Salt and potash, however, are different. Even under the relatively low pressures encountered at shallow depths, these materials become slightly plastic and yield to stress by flowing.* The plastic properties become more pronounced at greater depth and pressure, and the question arises as to whether or not the plastic flow will be rapid enough and exert enough pressure to destroy underground structures or interrupt the mining process.

Jan 5, 1967

By H. M. Bannerman, E. N. Cameron

INTRODUCTION DURING the years 1942-1944, about 125 New England deposits were mined for sheet and punch mica, and many others were briefly prospected. During this period the Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior, carried on detailed studies of the deposits and the pegmatite bodies that contain them. The primary purpose of the studies was to provide geological information that would contribute toward efficient mine development and operation. The studies were aimed directly at practical production problems. Detailed maps showing the structure of the deposits were prepared, and geological findings were closely correlated with data on specific yields and costs of mining and processing. The result is information that permits a reasonably accurate appraisal of the mica deposits of New England and the mining industry that they support. At a time when the future of the industry is in doubt, it seems desirable to submit this appraisal for consideration. Domestic mica deposits supply only a small fraction of the country's needs in normal times, for only the richest domestic deposits can compete with the low-cost mines of India and Brazil. However, the possibility that this country may be cut off from its supplies in time of war gives domestic deposits an importance much greater than their peacetime production would imply. New England supplied about 22 per cent of domestic output in 1943 and 1944, the peak years of wartime production. Its actual contribution to the war effort was greater, for the proportion of sheet mica of high quality in the New England product is higher than the average for domestic mica. The data analyzed below were collected for the Geological Survey by D. M. Larrabee, A. H. McNair, J. J. Page, V. E. Shainin, G. W. Stewart, and the co-authors of this paper. The cooperation of officials of Colonial Mica Corporation and of mine operators and owners in furnishing information is gratefully acknowledged. D. M. Larrabee, A. H. McNair, and V. E. Shainin have made various suggestions based on critical reading of the manuscript. ANALYSIS OF WARTIME OPERATIONS In considering the data presented in this report, it must be remembered that the scale of mica operations is very small compared with that of many other mining industries. The typical New England mica mine of 1943 and 1944 was worked by a crew of five or six men. Equipment was varied but on the whole extremely simple. The first stage of operation at a deposit was normally opencut mining. Drilling was done mostly with jackhammers powered by portable compressors driven by gasoline engines. Muck was shoveled by hand into buckets with a capacity of 1/3 to 2/3 ton and commonly hoisted by derrick to a dump adjacent to the cut. As operations were carried to greater depth, and the transition to underground mining was made, these methods were modified to a degree depending largely on the attitude of the deposit mined. At steeply dipping deposits,

Jan 1, 1946

By Joseph E. Pogue

NEW economic forces are at work in the petroleum industry.. In order to visualize these forces and clearly see their bearing on the producer, refiner and marketer, it is necessary to see in perspective the economic evolution of the business. For several decades prior to 1913 the outstanding feature of the petroleum industry was a trend toward integration, culminating in a huge combine, the Standard Oil Co. An important aspect of this integrative trend, however, was its concentration on the combination aid control of refining and marketing, leaving crude oil production, for the most part, to the exigencies. of small-unit competition. It is a noteworthy coincidence that during this era the law of oil and gas was formulated and applied, whereby these substances had to be reduced to possession to establish ownership; and the forces of competition in crude oil production were thereby intensified. It was to the interest of an industry, safeguarded in its control of manufacturing and markets, to have supply stimulated by legal convention as well as by individual initiative in order that the growing demand could be met without interruption. And so over-production of crude oil during this era was no handicap, but rather an aid, to the progress of the industry.

Jan 1, 1929

By J. L. CAHUTHERS

MANY different methods are used for transporting coal from the working face to the tipple. The common methods are animal haulage, locomotive haulage, conveyor systems, and combinations of these three, supplemented, at times, by the miner pushing his own car. Haulage may also be classified into gathering and main line. Gathering haulage is the collecting of loaded cars to a point whence they are hauled to the tipple. In this there is perhaps more lost-time than on the main line because there are .more units in the operation to be synchronized. Also, conditions on the gathering haul- age, such as bad track, poor timbering, insufficient motive power, etc., cause delays; usually these are corrected on the main-line haulage.

Jan 1, 1931

DR. PeRsifor Frazer, Philadelphia, Pa. (communication to the Secretary):* Mr. Campbell's very interesting contribution, after complimentary mention, finally decides against the acceptance of the classification proposed by me in a paper bearing the same title and read at the Wilkes-Barre meeting, May, 1877.2 That paper was written primarily for the Second Geological

Jan 1, 1906

By G. W. Brownell, H. T. F. Lundberg, R. W. Pringle, K. I. Roulston

The rapid improvement of the airborne scintillometer and the perfection of its efficiency for counting low energy gamma radiation has made it possible to work out a technique to map in great detail the radiation pattern at the earth's surface. On such maps low radiation over certain areas appears to indicate the existence of oil accumulations, forming a pattern similar to that obtained by the geo-chemists. RADIOACTIVE analyses of samples from the surface of oil fields were carried out more than 10 years ago in Alberta by the alpha particle ioniza-tion chamber technique,' but large enough tracts could not be covered in these investigations to make possible any evaluation of the method as a means of oil exploration. Considerable interest has recently been revived, however, as a result of certain striking advances which have been made in the instrumentation available -for the measurement of radioactivity. It is the object of this paper to indicate the nature of these improvements in radiation technology and then to describe the attempts that have been made to interpret the radioactive patterns obtained in the course of airborne recordings with the new instruments. Since the survey can be carried out from the air and records can be accumulated over vast areas in a short time, the result may easily lend itself to statistical treatment. Areas have been surveyed in Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Quebec, Texas, New Mexico, Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, and Montana. Producing fields in Alberta and West Texas have been flown over several times in different directions, Fig. 1. The operations were then extended into unknown territory and drill holes were put down on the anomalies which looked promising. The results from these drillings were encouraging and have given hopes for the development of an entirely new method of oil exploration. Any large scale method for the survey of radioactive anomalies must be based on the measurement of gamma rays, as beta and alpha rays have much too short a range to be of any significance. Thus the essential improvement which has made the present stage of this work attainable is the development of new highly sensitive detectors for gamma radiation. In the past the only detectors of any consequence that were available were the ionization chamber and the geiger counter, but both of these suffer from the defect that only a small proportion of the gamma rays passing through the counter are detected, possibly 0.1 to 0.2 pct. The recent development of the scintillation counter2,3 has completely transformed the situation and has had a considerable impact on many branches of nuclear technology. The detection of alpha particles in zinc sulphide screens by visual observation of the individual scintillations which these particles produce dates back to the early spinthariscope of Rutherford and Crookes, but the combined use of an appropriate scintillating phosphor and photomultiplier tube had to await the technical development of the latter many years later. With this development came the modern era of the scintillation counter and a knowledge of phosphors which have a large light output under the bombarding action of gamma radiation. Some of these phosphors are relatively dense and are capable of stopping a large proportion of the incident gamma radiation. As the sensitive region is the whole volume of the crystal, a very high detection efficiency, 50 pct or more, can be obtained for medium energy gamma rays. Scintillation counters for geological purposes were first developed in 19494-6 in an attempt to utilize this remarkable improvement in efficiency, which has the attractive consequence that only a small portion of the normal background of the counter is due to cosmic radiation. In 1949 tests were made in northern Saskatchewan by Lundberg Explorations Ltd. with portable scintillation counters which gave excellent results in the search for uranium and served to indicate unknown uranium deposits in areas previously closely surveyed with geiger counters. Portable scintillometers (registered in Canada) are now commercially available and in regular use,' and the adaptation of the instrument to radioactivity oil well logging has also been very successful.8 Initial attempts to measure radioactivity from aircraft with scintillation counters were made during this period in the same area and yielded most encouraging results. It would be appropriate to consider some specific requirements for airborne investigations. The essential problem to be met in the detection of any radioactive source is the necessity of obtaining a signal greater than the statistical fluctuations of the background counting rate for the instrument. It is possible to show that Nt>2k2 is the condition for detectability of a signal where N = average background counting rate for the detection. t = time constant of the counting rate meter, used to determine the average number of counts arriving in a certain predetermined time interval. N' = average source counting rate at the detector. k = N/N', and N>>N'. Sample values are given in Table I. Assume that the aircraft carrying the equipment is travelling at 120 mph, in which case it will cover 176 ft in 1 sec. Assume also, as a first approximation, that a point source target is in range when the air-

Jan 1, 1954

AUGUST began with a reminder that warfare was still in progress in the world, in that the Greeks, still at war with Turkey, threatened Constantinople in spite of the small British and French forces of occupation and opened a vista of international dangers. There was in this, moreover, a recollection that religious questions in India had prevented the British from permitting a real settlement of the Turkish question, wherein the absence of Russia as a great power is missed. Civil warfare also continued in Ireland and China. Even in the military way the world is far from being at peace. Bloody fighting between the Fascisti (anti-communists) and the com-munists in Italy led to several provinces being put under martial law, but after a while these disturbances were quelled. In the latter part of the month the assassination of Michael Collins in Ireland produced a great shock. From China, however, there came rather favorable news, indicating the early reintegration of that country, which sooner or later ought to play an important part in world affairs. Economically, instead of there being any improve-ment, there grew a clearer perception of how bad things really are. Italian politics were in chaos through inability to find anyone to accept the premiership and assume the all but hopeless task of averting national bankruptcy. The French, too, began to see their own position in true colors, and especially to see how in reconstruction they had incurred debts on the strength of what they hoped to collect from Germany, with at last the understanding that the Germans could not pay and that France herself was thereby put in a desper-ate economic position. As for the Germans, them-selves their Reichsbank defaulted on ordinary bills early in August. As the month wore on the value of marks fell more and more and at the end it appeared that Germany was on the verge of economic collapse. On Aug. 7, another international conference (with America again absent) was assembled in London, this being the thirteenth since the war, and there was a general feeling that it would be the last. The prime question was what is to be done about the German reparations, but underlying was the whole subject of the entente. The conference opened like a meeting of importunate creditors, doubtful whether the debtor had any tangible assets. On Aug. 14 this conference broke up without coming to any useful conclusion. Indeed, the acrimony among the premiers was so sharp that even the entente between Great Britain and France was endangered. The international situation was saved only by the Reparations Commission excusing the Germans from the payment of 50,000,000 gold marks that come due on Aug. 15 But although the entente was nominally preserved there is no longer any illusion about the interests of Great Britain and France being different and that henceforth they will play their own hands. The London conference was really an effort to maintain the partnership, and it failed.

Jan 9, 1922

By Karl J. Dreher, Charles C. Hennig, Gregg A. Scott

INTRODUCTION Theodore Roosevelt Dam is a cyclopean-masonry, gravity-arch dam located on the Salt River northeast of Phoenix, Arizona. Construction of the dam began in 1903 and was completed in 1911. The dam is about 85 m high with a total reservoir capacity of about 1.7x109 m3. Raising the dam is now being considered to provide additional water storage and flood control. This paper describes preliminary analyses performed to assess foundation stability for increased loading resulting from raising the dam and reservoir water surface about 12 m. The foundation of Theodore Roosevelt Dam consists of variably metamorphosed limes tones, sands tones, mudstones, and shales. Bedding uniformly strikes nearly normal to the river (N 40º W) and dips upstream at 25 to 30º. The rock is cut by four prominent joint sets as indicated by the joint contour diagram shown in figure 1A. The diagram was developed from surf ace observations and vertical drill core oriented relative to the bedding. Sampling biases account for the differences in concentrations of various joint sets. However, field observations indicate that all sets are relatively prominent, planar, and continuous. SEEPAGE ANALYSES Consistent with practice at the time of construction, no foundation drainage was installed at Theodore Roosevelt Dam. Finite element seepage analyses were therefore performed to study the potential for large uplift pressures in the foundation. The dam has steep abutments and is curved in plan as shown in figure 1B. The effects of modeling the seepage two-dimensionally, radially symmetric about the dam's axis center, and three-dimensionally were therefore com-

Jan 1, 1982

By S. S. Nosseir

INTRODUCTION General Quebec Cartier Mining Co. (QCM) , Canadian subsidiary of U . S. Steel Corporation, operates two iron ore concentrators at the North Shore of Quebec, Canada. In its own operation at Mount-Wright, over 45 million tons per year of crude ore are ground, fully autogenous in six 32' x 11-1/2 Dominion Engineering mills. At Fire Lake/Lac Jeannine operation, property of Sidbec Normines Incorporated (SNI), over 11 million tons per year of crude ore are now ground, fully autogenous, in twelve 18' x 5' Hardinge mills. The Lac Jeannine concentrator was originally constructed by Q.C.M. in 1960 and. was since operated, in beneficiating the Lac Jeannine ore deposit until fully depleted in 1977, at an annual capacity of 18 million tons of crude per year. In 1976, the new company, Sidbec Normines, was incorporated by Sidbec Corporation, British Steel Corporation and Quebec Cartier Mining Co., in proportional holding of approximately 51 to 41 to 8 percent respectively. Since the acquisition of the Fire Lake ore deposit and Jeannine concentrator by the new company, QCM has continued managing the mine and concentrator operaions for S idbec Normines Inc . Flow-Sheet Design Jeannine concentrator comprises twelve identical mill lines grinding the ROM from 8" top size to 14 mesh nominal size range. Driven by 600 H.P. motor at 13.4 RPM corresponding to 73% critical speed, each mill is operated in a closed circuit with two 5' x 12' vibrating screens dressed with 2.5 x 25 mm slot opening cloth. The ground product or screen undersize at an average grade of 33.4% Fe is beneficiated by gravity separation to produce 66.5% Fe concentrate grade at 42.7% weight recovery. At the rougher stage, each mill line con-tains 128 Humphrey 13- 1/2" pitch spirals which produce a final tailing, middling and concentrate products. The rougher concentrate - so produced - is classified by 64 Humphrey pocket sizers into an underflow, which is a final concentrate product and an overflow which is further upgraded by 64 cleaner spirals. The cleaner concentrate together with the pocket sizer 's underflow are dewatered on a 13'[6] horizontal filter. The rougher middling together with the cleaner tailing are recycled in a closed circuit with the spirals. The rougher tailing after dewatering by hydrocyclones is disposed of by a

Jan 1, 1982

By K. J. Rosengren

INTRODUCTION Mount Isa Mines Limited operates a major mining complex at Mount Isa in northwest Queensland, Australia. The location is arid and remote, some 600 miles distant from the nearest port of Townsville on the eastern coast (Fig. I). Current mine production is 6 million long tons per annum comprising 3.8 million tons of copper ore and 2.2 million tons of silver-lead-zinc ore. Copper ore production is scheduled to increase to 5.8 million long tons per annum by 1973 and a new silver-lead-zinc mine is being developed at Hilton, 13 miles north of Mount Isa. The Mount Isa and Hilton orebodies occur in a single stratigraphic member, termed the Urquhart Shale. This shale is conformable with several other sedimentary formations striking north-south and dipping approximately 65º west. The silver-lead-zinc orebodies occur in bands conformable with the shale bedding and tend to be of tabular shape, varying in width from a few feet to nearly 200 ft. The copper orebodies occur in breccia bodies, locally known as "silica-dolomite", within the Urquhart Shale and tend to be more irregular and massive with widths up to several hundred feet. The detailed geology is described by Bennett (1 2). At present, production comes almost entirely from underground operations with only about 25,000 tons per year of carbonate ore from open pit operations. The mining method used in the copper orebodies is sublevel open stoping with pillar recovery by pillar blast before stope filling or by sublevel caving after stope filling. A large primary sublevel caving operation was also carried out until recently in one of the orebodies. The wider lead orebodies are mined by sublevel open stoping, with or without pillar recovery, while cut and fill stoping is used in the narrower orebodies. Details of the mining methods are given by Davies (3). The company's interest in open pit mining stems from a large open pit which was mined out in 1965 and a further large open pit planned for future production. In addition, the company is currently evaluating several large ore deposits in Australia and New Guinea. All of these orebodies would be mined by open pit methods and rock mechanics studies of slope stability are now a standard feature of all open pit evaluations.

Jan 1, 1972

By LOWELL LAWRENCE

MAGNETITE minim and milling in the Eastern States continued at a low rate of production during 1934. The year's output was 50 per cent greater than in 1933, but when one considers that the 1934 output was only 1.5 per cent of the combined plant capacities of the eastern iron ore producers, the far-reaching effect of unrestricted importation of foreign ores and pig iron is apparent. The Chateaugay Ore and Iron Co., at Lyon Mountain, N. Y., produced 1.00,136 gross tons of concentrated and sintered ore up to Nov.1, when operations were closed clown. At Mineville, the Witherbee, Sherman Corp. confined its productivity to part-time operation of its Old Bed and Harmony mines front May 1 Lo Oct. 27. This period of activity was brought about by the use of Mineville ores in the recent blast made by the Green Island furnace at Troy, N. Y. The Forest of Dean property at Fort Montgomery, N, Y., has continued closed down during the year.

Jan 1, 1935

By Howard I. Smith

The mineral trona was discovered on Government land in 1938, about 18 miles west of the town of Green River, Wyo., in the core of the John Hay, Jr., well, a test well drilled for oil by the Mountain Fuel Supply Co. in sec. 2, T. 18 N., R. IIO W., sixth principal meridian. Although no oil or gas was reported, the drilling led to a discovery of great potential economic importance and exceptional scientific interest. Trona is a relatively rare mineral found at various places in playa deposits but not previously found at any great depth. It is composed of hydrous sodium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate (Na2CO3 NaHCo3.2H2O). Pure trona con-tains the equivalent of 70.35 per cent of sodium carbonate. Total sodium computed to carbonate times 1.42 equals the percentage of trona in the absence of other sodium carbonate minerals in the sample. Analyses Two short pieces of core sent to the author a few days after the completion of the Hay well were analyzed by R. C. Wells† and found to be exceptionally Pure trona. A brief article on this discovery has already been published.1 Arrangements were then made through W. T. Nighten-gale‡ for the author to inspect and sample the core. The company log of the well included notations of sodium salt crystals from a depth of 1190 to 1820 ft. Not being able to identify all the minerals present, the author selected several specimens of the core for petrographic examinations and sampled the sections of trona for analysis. J. J. Fahey, of the Geological Survey, examined the specimens and reported most of the crystals to be a new anhydrous sodium carbonate and calcium carbonate mineral (Na2CO 3.2 CaCO3), which he named shortite,² after Maxwell N. Short." He analyzed the samples of trona, with the results shown in Table I. In addition to the 10 ft. 1 in. of trona in the first section, it is reasonable to assume that the 9 ft. 8 in. for which no core was available for sampling is either i mostly trona or some other soluble salt, but it should not be included in calculating | reserves. In the part of the core between i 1590 ft. 3 in. and 1600 ft. 4 in. the material insoluble in cold water, amounting to about 5 per cent, was estimated petrographically I to contain 70 per cent clay, 25 per cent shortite, and 5 per cent pyrite. Accompanying Minerals Fahey later secured about 600 ft, of the core for a detailed examination and study

Jan 1, 1942