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By Richard E. Chism

Some years ago, when I was seeking an illusive fortune and gaining a precarious existence in the primeval forests of Brazil, there penetrated, even to my headquarters in that far-off land, the story of a new-found mining district, where mountain peaks were ribbed with silver, and valleys teemed with virgin gold. Such were the stories that caused hundreds of men to seek their fortune in Sierra Mojada, and to return heaping curses, loud and deep, upon the vivid imaginations that had evolved the glittering fiction. Nevertheless, the rumors had some foundation of truth. The ribs of silver exist, if not the placers of gold; and a flourishing town, of some three thousand people, with two leading mining companies and several smaller ones, in operation, represents what was permanent in the excitement of 1879. Geographical Situation. The town of Sierra Mojada is situated in the State of Coahuila, Republic of Mexico, in latitude 27' 24' N., and longitude 26' 40' W. of Washington, 4' 36' W. of the City of Mexico, and 103' 43' TV. of Greenwich. It lies about 70 miles, in an air-line, N. E. of Escalon station, on the Mexican Central Railroad; but by the present wagon-road, which makes a long detour to turn the mountain range, the distance to the station is about 105 miles. The nearest towns are Huajuquilla, in the State of Chihuahua, about 125 miles due west, and Cuatro Cienegas, in the State of Coahuila, 112 miles to the eastward. Between these points and the town of Sierra Mojada, and to the north of this town, the country is an immense desert, entirely uncultivated, almost uninhabited, and very little known. This

Jan 1, 1887

By Elmer W. Pehrson

OPINION seems widely divergent as to where we stand with respect to future mineral supply. From some quarters we hear that the United States is about to become a "have-not" nation and about to experience the evil consequences such a situation would entail. Others claim that we are still a treasure house of stored-up mineral wealth, the surface of which barely has been scratched. The data to be presented here support the conclusion that neither of these viewpoints is correct and that we are far from exhaustion of those mineral resources that are basic to our industrial economy. However, exhaustion is well advanced in a number of important subsidiary minerals so that we can no longer drift along with the easy-going philosophy that the earth will provide. The time has come when we must recognize the true situation and do something about it.

Jan 1, 1945

By Hallet R. Robbins

KOREA, the ancient " Hermit Kingdom," is a peninsula jutting out from the coast of eastern Asia. By the natives it is called " Chosen," which, translated, means " Land of the Morning Calm." It lies between the Yellow sea and the Sea of Japan. On the north it is separated from Manchuria and the Russian province of Primorsk by the Yalu and Tiumen rivers ; on the south the Korean straits interpose a rough voyage of 120 miles to the nearest point in Japan. The entire country is situated between the parallels of 34° and 42° N. latitude. The surface of the country is made up of successive ranges of unglaciated mountains, separated by narrow, fertile, and more or less densely populated, valleys. Through all the obscure centuries of its history, Korea has succeeded in maintaining a monastic seclusion, over which, from time immemorial until the late Chino-Japanese war in 1894, China exercised a shadowy sovereignty. Although Korea had been forced into slight foreign contact previously, her first foreign treaty was signed with Japan in 1876. Under the restraining guardianship of China, the Japanese treaty bore but insignificant innovations for Korea; but when, in 1883, a treaty was made with the United States, the first of the western nations, a decade after the American gunboats, under Commodore Rodgers and Lieutenant Schley, forced their way up the Salee river, shooting daylight through the ancient walls and fastnesses, Korea awoke from her sleep of 4,000 years. The Korean peninsula suddenly became the arena where rival nations' enterprises and individuals met in fiercest conflict. Out of this struggle grew two singularly successful American

Jan 7, 1908

By ELLSIVOKTH DAGGETT

THE Berlin gold quartz mine is situated in Nye county, Nevada, on the west flank of the Shoshone range, about 40 miles south and 30 miles west from the town of Austin, the county-seat of Lander county. The distance from Austin is about 60 miles by stage-road. The outcrop of the vein, at the top of the incline-shaft, is situated just at the base of the mountain proper, almost exactly at the intersection of the mountain-side with the gravelly bench that slopes for about three-quarters of a mile to the flatter sage-brush plain, or desert valley, below. The -vein itself consists almost entirely of quartz, with perhaps 2 per cent. of sulphide of iron, copper, lead, zinc and antimony, and perhaps a trace of some of the compounds of tellurium with gold and silver, although none of the latter have been as yet positively identified. The relative proportion, by weight, of silver and gold in the ores, varies in different parts of the vein, from 12 silver for 1 of gold, to 7 silver for 1 of gold. The quartz vein-filling is usually frozen fast to the walls, and is very hard and compact, seldom showing the friable, fissured, or shelly structure often to be found in quartz veins. Comparatively little evidence of relative motion of one wall of the vein upon the other is to be found-a fact indicating that during the formation of the vein, and prior to the extensive movements herein described, little disturbance had taken place. No evidence whatever of metasomatic origin has been observed. On the other hand, occasional occurrences of comby structure, in which the axes of the quartz crystals are at right angles to the plane of the vein, rather indicate deposition from solution in a pre-existing fissure. Spurs, or branches, and small parallel veins, while not en-\

Mar 1, 1907

By H. Rush Spedden

When Robert H. Richards wrote Ore Dressing, the famous four-volume work published in the first decade of this century, the ore dresser was still largely concerned, with the mechanical treatment of ores. Since then, however, economics have transformed him into a mineral processing engineer who must increasingly deal with closely integrated facilities designed to produce a commodity for manufacturing. Moreover, this change will grow marked as the complex low- grade ores of the future make it ever more necessary for him not only to use the best combination of pyrometallurgical, hydrometallurgical and physical separation processes, but also to integrate these processes at the mine site. Nor are economic pressures the only ones propelling the processing engineer into a new era. The ecology drive has thrown him into a new situation in which his economic base is radically altered, and it could well precipitate as drastic a revolution in his technology as that which took place when flotation was developed.

Jan 1, 1971

James GayleY, New Pork City (communication to the Secretary*) :—The main thing that is sought after in this matter is that all purcliases shall be made by analysis. This is done already in special lines, as in the manufacture of various grades of steel in which phosphorus, silicon and sulphur are specified within narrow limits, and I quite agree with Mr. Cook that specifications, which are over-rigid in unessential particulars, should be avoided, as they defeat their own purpose because unreasonable requirements permitting no variation are practically not fulfilled, and it is impossible to specify grade

Jan 1, 1905

By Paul Gemmill

Production was first recorded from the Pioche district in 1864, and it has continued to show an inherent ability to take on new life after periods of depression in the metal markets. Production from replacement leadsilver- zinc sulfide ore bodies in limestones of Cambrian age now accounts for several times the gross value of silver production from rich fissures in Lower Cambrian Quartzite. Aggregate production of some 6 million tons represents a gross value over $100-million. Future output is expected mostly to be from limestone replacement deposits of which the most productive are "channels" of ore up to several hundred feet wide and several thousand feet long with thicknesses from a few feet up to 50 feet. Such channels are restricted to the lowermost limestone bed of the district, about 250 feet above the basement quartzite. The "blotter-like" characteristic of this highly productive Jimesto~e bed in absorbing mineralization is believed to be, at least in part, due to lithology, including free carbon in the bed, which has created a unique set of conditions for delicately balanced mineralizing solutions that rejected any tendency to replace siliceous wall rock and were properly constituted for replacement of Limestone. All recognizable orogenic history is considered to be related to the Basin and Range faulting that created the mountain ranges. The faults developed after mid-Tertiary time and after widespread extrusives that are themselves involved in the faulting. Flat faults, formerly believed to be part of regional thrust faulting, are now interpreted as gravity slide faulting that can be shown to be large in magnitude and not simply local landslides. Large slide faults generally have concealed the great magnitude of mountain-bordering faults. Mineralization that accounts for ore is later than the faulting. Most faults are pre-mineral since they influence the shape of ore bodies, and some clearly have been offset by fault fissures containing ore. Post-mineral movement probably has been an important component of some large, initially pre-mineral faults. A single period of mineralization was begun by the introduction of large quantities of ironmanganese carbonate, and, in places, carbonate manganese with minor values in sulfides. Closely following the carbonate invasion, massive sulfides were brought in, usually replacing part of the carbonate body though in some places the massive sulfides replaced limestone that was not previously mineralized. Manganese mineralization is not a "halo" but leaks of manganese to higher formations and to the surface are the most significant exploration guides. The Pioche district is expected to be long lived with technological developments in ore treatment being important to the exploitation of low-grade manganiferous ores, while aggressive exploration is expected to find important quantities of bedded lead-silver-zinc ores of the massive sulfide type.

Jan 1, 1968

By Freeman Bishop

Having obviously cleared the way for fast confirmation by the Senate Interior Committee, the Administration recently named Elburt F. Osborn, vice president of Penn State University, as director of the Bureau of Mines. Interior Committee Chairman Henry M. Jackson (D of Wash.) has moved hearings on the nomination right along, forecasting that they will end in a confirmation. Dr. Osborn not only made a good impression on the Committee, he also made it amply clear that he would be the boss of his job and have right-hand aides to help straighten out conflicts stemming from recently enacted health and safety regulations for miners. Mining engineers in the field hope this clarification can come soon. They are frankly fed up with local, state, regional and national overlapping of restrictions.

Jan 1, 1970

By K. Kim

INTRODUCTION A thorough evaluation of the geologic material being considered must be conducted to determine the feasibility of constructing a large-scale underground facility in a deep geologic formation. The design and construction of a nuclear waste repository in basalt, due to the unprecedented nature of the project, adds significantly to the need for thoroughness of this evaluation and mandates that geoengineering data and analysis be of the highest quality. The investigations required to collect the data encompass in situ measurements and observations, as well as laboratory and field tests. Mathematical (numerical) models, which are required to predict the long-term performance of the repository structure, must be developed to evaluate rock mass behavior at canister, room, and repository scale and eventual 1 y must be validated through in situ tests and monitoring. The information generated from these geo- mechanics investigations is essential for assessing site suitability and will be utilized in the development of the repository design, the engineered barrier design, and the evaluation of repository performance. The Hanford Site near Richland, Washington is one of nine sites throughout the nation being investigated by the U .S. Department of Energy as a possible location for the first high-level nuclear waste repository in deep geologic formations. The process of site characterization is currently in progress. If the site is nominated by the U.S. Department of Energy, an extensive program will be undertaken, the culmination of which will be a decision on the suitability of the site for waste disposal. There are a mu1titude of elements to the proposed site characterization

Jan 1, 1984

By J. W. Mills

This paper's aim is to demonstrate, by reviewing findings and conclusions of earlier authors and through recording and interpreting the outcome of recent laboratory study of the ores, that the ores around the Gem stocks are metamorphosed equivalents of common siderite-sulfide ores far from the stocks, as was first proposed by Hershey (1912, 1913). That is, all the ores probably have the Precambrian age of 1250 million years reported by Long et al. (1960). Those near the Gem stocks, however, were extensively metamorphosed in Cretaceous time during the emplacement of stocks so their resemblance and relation to other veins in the district are camouflaged.

Jan 1, 1985

By J. Ruben Velasco, Roland B. Mulchay

CANANEA has long been recognized as a remarkable field for geologic study. The copper deposits and rocks of the district have been described by many geologists and engineers, but only the most general correlations have been made between Can-anea sedimentary rocks and other known sedimentary sections in the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The present paper describes the Cananea sediments in greater detail than has been done before and attempts to fit the Cananea sedimentary section more closely into the geologic time table. The lack of well-preserved fossils has made it difficult to date the sediments accurately in geologic time, but it is possible to make tentative correlations between the Cananea sediments and the southeastern Arizona sections, based largely upon lithology and general position in the geologic column. It appears that sedimentation at Cananea and Bisbee may have been closely similar during Paleozoic time. Even such generalized correlations, however, may be subject to considerable modification in the future. The present study has led to the recognition of other problems of age and mineralization relationships in the Cananea district. Cananea is located in the north-central part of the state of Sonora, Mexico, at an elevation of 5270 ft. It is about 135 miles northeast of Hermosillo, the state capital, and 25 miles south of the international boundary. By road Cananea is 40 miles from the twin towns of Naco, Ariz., and Naco, Sonora, and about 50 miles from Bisbee, Ariz. It is served by the Nogales-Naco branch of the railroad, F.C. Pacifico, and is connected with Chihuahua and Mexico City by the Aeronaves airline. The headwaters of three rivers flowing to the Gulf of California are located in the Cananea Mountains: the San Pedro River, flowing to the north; the Sonora River, flowing south and west; and the Mag-dalena River, flowing west. Elenita Mountain, the highest point in the district, has an elevation of 8140 ft. The Cananea Mountains extend in a series of north-south to northwest-southeast spurs and ridges and are surrounded by gently sloping gravel plains. The mineralized area, lying across the southern and central parts of the range, is about 6 miles long and at most 2 miles wide. Elevations at the mines vary from 5300 ft at Cananea-Duluth mine at the southeast end of the district to between 6000 and 7000 ft at the west end of the mineralized area at Puertecitos-Elenita mines. Principal production has been from the intensely mineralized and altered area of Capote Basin in the central part of the district and the immediately surrounding area to the southeast. The district has produced over 2 billion lb of copper, substantial molybdenum, and minor amounts of lead, zinc, silver, and gold. Total production through 1949 is estimated at more than $300 million. In 1900 large-scale development was started at Cananea by W. C. Greene. Until World War II only high-grade ores were exploited; low-grade ores were extracted after the installation of a large concentrator in the early 1940's, and subsequent operations have been based upon mining and processing ores containing less than 1.0 pct copper from open-pit and underground workings. Mining and concentration of such low-grade ores, however, are made possible only by continued high copper prices, and active exploration for high-grade orebodies has been continued throughout the important mineralized areas. General Geology Study of the involved rock pattern at Cananea has indicated a complex geologic history for the district. Widespread alteration and mineralization have masked many of the salient features and have led to widely varying geologic interpretations over the years. Further work will probably disclose new information which will modify current beliefs. At Cananea a conformable series of sediments of probable Paleozoic age was deposited on an unknown basement. Following Paleozoic time there was an extended period of erosion common to many districts in the southwestern U. S., and there is no present evidence of marine sedimentation at Cananea after the Paleozoic. The eroded surface was eventually covered with a great thickness of extrusive volcanic rocks. The entire series of sediments and volcanic rocks was later intruded by a variety of deep-seated igneous rocks. These included the Cananea granite, the Cuitaca granodiorite, the El Torre syenite, the Tinaja diorite, the Campana diabase and gabbro and the Colorada rhyolite quartz porphyry. Faulting of early age, probably prior to the deposition of the volcanic rocks, may have been responsible for the present position of some of the intrusive rock masses. In the Capote mine on the third and fourth levels the northwest-striking Rick-etts fault zone, with apparent offset of about 800 ft, has been sealed by a dike-like mass of Cananea granite which gradually increases in size with depth. In lower levels of the mine the granite forms a large southeast-plunging mass generally following the course of the Ricketts zone. The granite is not known southeast of the Capote-Oversight mine areas and the Ricketts fault does not appear in the vol-canic~ southeast of Capote Basin, but several plugs of Colorada quartz porphyry cut the volcanics along the assumed general southeast trend of the Ricketts zone. These porphyritic intrusives may be the up-

Jan 1, 1955

By William B. Plank

RECENT interest in the character of employment of young mining engineering graduates has been stimulated by my studies, during the past ten years, of student enrollment and employment of graduates of the mineral technology schools of the United States and Canada. Enrollment data in the following article are taken from these studies and information about the kind of work engaged in by mining engineers is assembled from my professional experience, sixteen years of which have been as professor of mining engineering.

Jan 1, 1938

By L. W. WALLACE

IN an engineering fashion we have made an assay of the engineering profession, using as a. sample the engineers listed in "Who's Who in America" (1928-1929). We are aware that some will say it is an unfair sample; that it came from the best mine. This is readily admitted, with this qualification: that all engineers and architects by virtue of their training and experience have been freed of most of the dross to which mankind is heir. They are -a selected group to begin with, having all the potentialities those in the sample possess. We are also aware that some will say a part of those included in the sample are not engineers. Our answer to that criticism is this: An engineer is no less an engineer because for the time being he is president of a bank, a university, an opera company, or a hotel company. Moreover, he is no less an engineer because he is a governor of a commonwealth, a United States senator, a member of the Cabinet, or the President of the United States.

Jan 1, 1929

By E. R. Johnson

THE copper concentrator of the Braden Copper Co. is at Sewell, Chile, on the western flank of the main Cordillera of the Andes, at an air distance of approximately 50 miles southeast of Santiago, the capital of Chile. The region is mountainous and space is at a premium because of the rough terrain and the danger of snowslides. The ore, a porphyry copper, is mined by a block-caving method in the El Teniente mine. It is hauled to the crushing plant, a distance of 2.6 miles, through a tunnel because of the severe climatic conditions. The usual large, coarsely set, primary reduction machines found in many ore-treating plants are not required because of the mining method employed and the limiting 12-in. spacing of the grizzlies at the head of each ore pass in the mine. It is the purpose of this paper to describe the numerous improvements made in the crushing section of this large flotation concentrator during the past 15 years to increase the efficiency of the plant and to raise the daily output from around 20,000 to 30,000 tons. The reader should keep in mind that all changes were made within the existing building because of the limited space and the high cost of the heavy mill construction required to withstand the snow loads. The present plant, as well as the former, operates on a 24-hr, 7 days a week basis. FORMER PLANT The crushing plant commenced operations at its present site in 1921, the main equipment being No. 7 1/2 gyratories, followed by 48-in. horizontal Symons disk crushers. Fines were removed by 1-in. stationary grizzlies ahead of each unit. In 1924 a third stage of crushing was provided by the addition of 55 1/2-in. rolls in open circuit. During 1925, the Symons disks were replaced by 73 1/2-in. rolls. All the rolls were changed to closed circuit, with elevators and screens to give a final product of 9 pct plus 3-mesh. The flowsheet of a typical crushing section of this period is shown in Fig I. The ore was withdrawn from a common bin serving the five crushing sections in the plant by means of any number up to six 36-in. wide-apron feeders, which discharged onto a common conveyor belt. This conveyor was equipped with a magnetic head pulley and the crusher attendant was stationed near the discharge end to pick out pieces of mine timber that might be in the ore. The ore was discharged over a 1 3/4-in. spaced bar grizzly and the oversize of this grizzly was crushed by a No. 7 1/2 McCully gyratory crusher set at 1 3/4-in. opening on the closed side. The grizzly undersize joined the gyratory discharge and was conveyed to a set of 73 1/2 by 20-in. Garfield rolls set at I in. These rolls operated in closed circuit with a bucket elevator and two vibrating screens placed in parallel.

Jan 1, 1947

By T. A. Rickard

An educated man is distinguished neither by his clothes nor by his knowledge; he is replarkable not for the things he says, but for the way he says them. You cannot even stand with him under an archway in the rain without finding him out. He may talk only of the weather. His words and his phrases alike may be simple. -at distinguishes him is the arrange- ment of his words; however desultory his talk, it will be method- ical; he has habituated himself to foreseeing the part to be played by each word he uses and the place to be taken by each sentence he utters. On the other hand, the uneducated man, though shrewd and well-informed, will relate facts and events as they recur to him, generally in disorder; in his effort to recollect and in his attempt to rectify forgetfulness he will pause irregularly, filling the intervals with meaningless phrases, such as "and then ", "and: so ", or 'said he to me", "said I to him"; and even the contipuous parts of his story will be told confusedly-because he has not learned the proper use of words.* My own experience as an editor of technical manuscripts has taught me that the misuse of 'that' and 'which' is a fruitful cause of obscurity and confusion. The relative pronouns have distinct functions, and no writer can express himself clearly until he has learned to discriminate between these I functions. For example:

Jan 1, 1931

By John T. Eastlick

The Banner mining district is about 70 miles northeast of Tucson in the southern part of Gila County, Arizona. Production from the district, valued at about $26 million, is chiefly from copper-silver-lead zinc ores. The stratigraphic section consists of Precambrian conglomerates, quartzites, dolomites, and limestones, Cambrian quartzites; Devonian limestones; dolomites, and shales; Mississippian limestones; Pennsylvanian limestones and shales; and Cretaceous volcanic and sedimentary rocks. Deformation of these rocks presumably started near the end of the Cretaceous, and extended into the late Tertiary. The sedimentary rocks were folded, faulted, and intruded by fine grained diorite, quartz mica diorite, and dacite porphyry. At least four distinct stages of mineralization are recognized. In the first stage of contact metamorphism and the second stage of hydrothermal alteration, favorable zones were prepared for ore deposition. Metallization occurred in three of the mineralizing stages. Magnetite, pyrite, and hematite were deposited near the end of the second stage of hydrothermal alteration. The third stage included the main deposition of sphalerite, chalcopyrite, bornite, and galena. In the fourth and final stage, minor amounts of sulfide minerals were deposited with a late anhydrite and quartz gangue. The ore deposits in the form of veins and veinlets, pipes, irregular massive replacements, and bedded replacements are localized by the extent and distribution of metamorphic and hydrothermal alteration, by the proximity to the intrusive contacts, and by the effects of structural development. Oxidized ores of copper, lead, and zinc constituted the principal production of the district prior to 1940, but, for the most part, supergene enrichment was of minor economic importance. The ore bodies of the district are in the mesothermal class of deposits, occurring as normal metasomatic replacement and vein types.

Jan 1, 1968

By Oliver M. W. Sprague

THIS gold problem is full of complications and can hardly be handled adequately or comprehensively in any short period of time. Perhaps I might begin by mentioning a few aspects of the subject about which I suppose there will be no disagreement. The first of these is that we already have a stock of monetary gold in the United States far in excess of what is needed to support any desirable increase in the present volume of currency and credit. The second is that this already superabundant gold stock is certain to be considerably enlarged during the course of the war, and presumably during the months of readjustment following its conclusion. Some billions of additional gold, we may reasonably presume, will come into the country during these next few years, thus increasing the aggregate monetary gold stock from the present eighteen billions to perhaps twenty- two or even twenty-five billion dollars.

Jan 1, 1940

By Frank L. Hess

BERYLLIUM is demanding more of the limelight, and the output of beryllium copper (containing 2% to~ 3 per cent of beryllium) seems to have grown 60 per cent above that of 1936, which was double that of 1935. There is increasing interest in beryllium-aluminum alloys and small quantities are being marketed at $50 per lb. for the contained beryllium. Other alloys also can be produced. Further price decreases for beryllium copper (now $23 per lb. for the contained beryllium) seem , possible and desirable. No difficulty has been experienced in obtaining beryl and a 'reserve stock has been built up. One supplier heretofore found reliable has offered to furnish 200 tons per month. Supplies during 1937 have come from the Black Hills in South Dakota, Colorado. India, and South America

Jan 1, 1938

By C. Morrow

Deformation studies were performed on tuffaceous rocks fran Yucca Mountain, Nevada Test Site to determine the strengths and coefficients of friction under confining pressures from 10-50 MPa at room temperature. Frictional strengths of 30ºsawcut samples increased with pressure and reached values of around 150 MPa at the higher confining pressures. However, the failure strengths of the intact samples were quite unpredictable. The coefficients of friction ranged between 0.7 and 0.9 for all specimens. These data can be used in conjunction with in situ stress measurements at Yucca Mountain, to evaluate the potential for earthquake activity in the region.

Jan 1, 1984

By Robert H. Hafner, Irvin R. Kramer

IN recent years considerable interest has been shown in surface-alloyed metals, particularly those of chromium (chromized steels), which have excellent corrosion [ ] resistance under a variety of severe conditions, and may undergo bending and flanging operations without spalling. An early method1 employed to produce a high-chromium case on steel was developed by Kelley in 1921. It consisted of heating a low-carbon steel in intimate contact with powdered chromium in the presence of hydrogen at temperatures sufficiently high to permit diffusion of chromium into the steel. The usefulness of this process was limited because the extremely high temperatures of 1200° to 1400°C. (2200° to 2550°°F,) caused excessive grain growth and warpage, Louenstein and Ulmer2 packed iron castings in ferrochromium and com- [ ] mon salt, and heated for approximately three hours at 930° to 1040°C. (1700° to 1900°F,). A recent and more practical method of depositing chromium on steel surfaces has been developed in Germany by Daeves, Becker and Steinberg3-8 and in Russia by Izgaryshev and Sarkisov.9 This process consists of passing gaseous chromium chloride over the steel to be chromized at temperatures of 900° to 1000°C., or packing them in a porous, ceramic material that previously had been saturated with chromium chloride. They reported obtaining a chromized layer, 0.004 in, thick, on low-carbon steels. Later, Daeves4 established a relationship between the carbon content

Jan 1, 1942