Search Documents

The value of processed materials of mineral origin was estimated to have exceeded $310 billion in 1990. U.S. raw nonfuel minerals mine production in 1990 was estimated at $33 billion, a 3.1 % increase over that of 1989. The value of minerals production increased in all but 3 of the last 30 years. The metals component of production value has fluctuated much more than the industrial minerals component. This reflects the greater volatility of metal prices. In 1990, total employment in metal mining continued the increase that began in 1987. This growth was partially offset by a slight decline in employment in industrial mineral mining, resulting in an overall in-crease of 1.1 % to 179,100 in 1990. Continuing high (by historical standards) metal prices led to expansions at some mines, as well as opening or reopening of additional mines, resulting in increased employment.

Jan 1, 1991

By IPMI Educational and Scientific Foundation

It is with great pleasure that we announce the availability of this fourth issue of the IPMI Journal, a publication of the International Precious Metals Educational and Scientific Foundation. This digital peer reviewed publication has been created as a vehicle for the sharing of technical information related to the science and technology of precious metals. Since 1976, the International Precious Metals Institute has championed the exchange of information of critical importance to the precious metals scientific and commercial communities through its various communications vehicles. This has included instructional videos, annual conference symposia, special topic committee meetings, regional seminars, and professional and student achievement awards. Due to the breadth of important topics related to all aspects of precious metals, it has been the vision of the IPMI to provide a publication available to the general public that would become a key source of pertinent topics containing high quality publications by experts in their fields of study. Historically, the IPMI has attracted world renowned experts in many fields (including Nobel Laureates Henry Taube, Ei-ishi Negishi, Robert Grubs, Professor Ben Feringa, and David MacMillan) in the dissemination of discoveries, inventions, and industry proven practices. Such information has a total value greater than the sum of its parts as seemingly unrelated innovations from distinct focus areas can be adapted to solve problems. Because of this important characteristic of information exchange, we have decided to create a digital journal, available to the general public, that will not only communicate state of the art discoveries and sound practices, but will also review historical communications from the IPMI’s archives that have value and use even in today’s environment. On behalf of the members and leaders of the IPMI, we hope you will find value in this new publication.

Dec 1, 2022

By S Paciornik

Computer-controlled microscopes with digital image acquisition and analysis led to the creation of the new field of digital microscopy. These techniques not only allow a certain degree of automation but have also brought new possibilities to microstructural characterisation. One of these new and promising possibilities is co-site microscopy, which links different kinds of information obtained from different microscopy techniques. The present work presents the development and implementation of a co-site microscopy methodology that combines images obtained by reflected light microscopy (RLM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). This methodology can improve the SEM analytical capacity by adding colour information from RLM. It involves the whole sequence, from image acquisition at the microscopes to the analysis of the phases using pattern recognition techniques. An automatic registration procedure for the two kinds of images was developed, allowing the adjustment of magnification, translation, rotation and pixel size, and the correction of local distortions. Thus, the images from RLM and SEM can be combined to build a multidimensional data set of each field, which can then be used in a pattern recognition approach to discriminate different phases. The methodology was tested with a copper ore sample, aiming at the discrimination of minerals that are not distinguishable with either RLM or SEM.

Jan 1, 2008

By Cornelius F. Kelley

DURING the war, events moved with unprecedented rapidity. Situations, industrial, economic and financial, arose over night that stressed to the uttermost the ingenuity and ability of those who dealt with them. It was essentially a time demanding action rapid and concentrated, and not one for discussion, either academic or polemic. As a result, matters of importance were necessarily transacted without the desirable opportunity being afforded of enabling a general understanding to be gained as to the relative merit or demerit involved, and in some instances, legislation essential to enable the consummation of an important matter was passed without attracting the public attention then deeply engrossed in the larger aspects of the situation. The result was that so long as the public mind was occupied, little or no concern was given to questions that ordinarily would have invited immediate attention; and in some instances, only when as an aftermath of war a particular subject has become a matter of discussion, criticism not altogether fair is made without first obtaining accurate knowledge as to the conditions that prevailed, the purpose sought to be accomplished, or the results obtained by the action taken.

Jan 1, 1921

By M. D. Cooper

IN spite of the uncertainty in the bituminous coal industry during 1933, progress worth recording has been made. Along with other industries, coal has felt the effects of business stagnation, but even in the worst weeks of the past four years, .the total production of bituminous coal in the United States was seldom less than half the production in some of the best weeks of the more prosperous years, a record better than that of many industries. However, the competition of other fuels and sources of power, together with the increased efficiency in the use of coal, has brought anxiety to producers. This has resulted in pressure for reduction of costs, not always by the wisest means. On the other hand, the effort to survive has directed increasing interest toward research, a wholesome development in a difficult situation. Wages, limitation of hours of labor, and the NRA have occupied much time and thought. Following a period .of wage cutting paralleling price cutting, the industry found itself rather suddenly faced by the President's Agreement, followed in due course by the Code, and then in many places by the agreement with the United Mine Workers. Although there is still some uncertainty in regard to the detailed working out of the new arrangements, there seems to be an honest endeavor by the signatories to the Code and Agreement to work them out in a straightforward manner.

Jan 1, 1934

By Claudia Monreal L., Dafne Herreros

"The Geological Modeling is the undisputed point of split of any type of mining method, the effect that the vision and experience of the geologists is propagated trough the development of the project and is an important part of the final success. The collection of information is taken in stages. In earlier stages uses the greater part of the budget and the strategy to store and manage this data collection, as its performing will define the destiny of the deposit and of the business. With this background the geology and its modeling receive great attention from the industry and care providers being a fertile field in research and innovation. "

Sep 1, 2017

By Raymond B. Ladoo

Talc is a hydrous magnesium silicate having the chemical formula H2Mg3 (SiO8 ) 4 ; it is often called steatite, soapstone or potstorie, and by the trade names talc clay, agalite, asbestine, and verdolite. The term talc may be used to include all forms of the pure mineral, whereas steatite denotes particularly the massive, compact variety, and soapstone the impure, massive form that often contains only 50 per cent of talc. Merrill 1 says: The name soapstone is given to dark-gray and greenish talcose rocks, which are soft enough to be readily cut with a knife, and which have a pronounced soapy or greasy feeling; hence the name. Such rocks are commonly stated in textbooks to be compact forms .of steatite, or talc, but as the writer has elsewhere pointed out, and as shown by the analyses here given, few of them are even approximately pure forms of this mineral, but all contain varying proportions of chlorite, mica, and tremolite, together with perhaps unaltered residuals of pyroxene, granules of iron ore, iron pyrites, quartz, and, in seams and veins, calcite and magnesian carbonates. When pure, talc is soft, having a hardness of 1, but when impure or when it grades into its varieties, the hardness increases to 3 or 4. Talc ranges in color from pure white and silvery white through gray, green, apple green, gray green to dark green, nlso yellow, brown, or reddish when impure. It is rarely, if ever, found in wellformed crystals, but often occurs in foliated plates or in fibrous aggregates. It is commonly compact or massive or in fine granular aggregates. Several analyses of talc from different regions ·are given in Table 1. Talc has several varieties, the most important of which is Rensselaerite. This variety, found in a small area near Gouverneur, St. La.wrence County, N. Y., is a hard, fibrous, -waxlike mineral having the same chemical composition as talc, but lacking its softness and its peculiar greasy feel. Its hardness and its peculiar fibrous form, even when ground, have made its grinding and separation a separate problem. In addition to the varieties of talc and soapstone, the mineral pyrophyllite or agalmatolite, a hydrous silicate of alumina, with the formula H2Al2 (Si08 ), is also mined and sold as talc. It resembles talc in color, feel, luster, and structure, and may be successfully substituted for true talc for most uses. In this paper it will be considered as one of the commercial forms of talc.

Jan 1, 1923

By Theodore H. Boggs

The battle of the gold standard is not limited to one country alone, or even to a single group of countries. It is being waged merrily in many important commercial and industrial quarters. Though it is not always a practical issue calling for immediate attention, it is none the less, quite widely, engaging the thought of bankers and other students of finance. The controversy arises, in the last analysis, because of the desire of men to secure a stable currency. There are two ways of restoring a reasonably stable currency system: (1) the re-establishment of the gold standard, or (2) the deliberate and artificial management of a paper currency. Both systems are well known. The gold standard was in use prior to the war in the principal commercial countries. A currency of inconvertible paper has been at times employed in the past in various countries; for example in Britain from 1797 to 1821, and in the United States from 1862 to 1879. The gold standard, as all are aware, implies the selection of gold as the standard of value. The unit of value is a fixed weight of gold and, so long as the standard remains unimpaired, all other means of payment are maintained at a parity with standard gold coins. And gold coins alone constitute the standard money, inasmuch as their value as bullion equals their value as coins. Under the gold standard this would not be true of any other form of money, although all other varieties of money, including bank notes, government notes and silver coins would be freely convertible into gold money. Strictly speaking, the gold standard also implies that the gold money in turn shall itself be freely convertible, through melting, into gold bullion and freely exportable.

Jan 1, 1925

By Maurice Hunter

The paper outlines recent design developments in the computerization of surface crawler drills for the quarry industry. It references the technology firstly developed for the underground mining and construction industry, where automation and computerization has been in demand for a number of years.

Jan 1, 2003

By Charles Hardy

?POWDER METALLURGY? is the production of semiformed or fully formed metal products by compressing metal powders. It had its beginnings in the fabrication of tungsten and molybdenum bars and wire by compression, sintering, and swaging. Powder metallurgy, although still in its infancy with other metals, has shown remarkable progress in recent years. Production of Metal Powders-The first step in any powder-metallurgy process is the production of metal particles of suitable shape and size. Mechanical processes for producing metal powders, as by crushing, stamping, or grinding, are usually not suitable, as the resulting particles may cause laminations and decreased strength in the finished articles. The principal metal powders now in use on a large scale are produced by electrolysis or by reduction of metal oxides by gases.

Jan 1, 1936

By R. W. Brigstocke

History The birth of the mining industry of Canada took place about 1670. According to Salone (Salone E., La Colonisation de la Nouvelle France, page 205) the first discovery of ore in the country was made by an iron-master, Monsieur de la Potardiere, near Trois Rivieres, Quebec. Under French rule some prospecting was done; but at this time no one seemed to consider the working of mines practicable. It was not until the time that Begon became Intendant, when the Marquis of Vaudreuil was Governor, that mining was attempted. Begon was a patron of industrial arts and did his best to promote home manufactures. The mining industry was developed under his regime and discoveries of copper and lead ores were made in 1730. About this time the St. Maurice Forges were erected to treat bog-iron ore, and they were in operation for many years. Prior to 1747, iron pans to the value of £21,000 were manufactured, together with bar-iron and plough-shares. About 1769, that is, ten years after the conquest by Wolfe, stoves and other articles, and, later, potash kettles, appeared. What is still more interesting to us-or was, at least, to General Wolfe-is that cannon balls made at the St. Maurice Forges delayed his operations. A map dated 1744, a copy of which appears in the report of the Ontario Bureau of Mines for 1913 (Vol. XIX), indicates the extensiveness of the wanderings of the French and also shows the location of the lead mine on the east shore of Lake Timiskaming. Bog-iron ore was turned into metal, with charcoal for fuel, at Norman-dale, Norfolk county, Ontario, in 1813, and at Clementsport, Nova Scotia, in 1825. In a volume published in 1672, reference is made to the occurrence of coal on the Atlantic seaboard, and in 1677 Monsieur Duchesneau, the Intendant, levied a royalty of twenty sous per ton on all coal taken from Cape Breton.

Jan 1, 1932

By F. W. Bradley

GOLD is a large subject. One could talk about its geological or mineralogical occurrences, prospect- i11.g for it, mining of .it, its metallurgy or its marketing; but I have decided to limit my discussion to gold as a business-that is, to its production and marketing. In the production of gold, it is necessary to consider the many possible sources, the quantities available, the capital and operating costs and the chances of price-breaking competition. So in the following remarks I shall endeavour to point out that though gold is found in every formation constituting the earth's crust, though it is possible to-find it free in great concentrated placer deposits on the surface, though there are still large unprospected areas of both the surface and the crust, though it may be possible to produce it by the cheapest labor on earth, and by processes not as yet developed, it still has an unlimited market at a definite price. There is no reasonable fear of disturbance by the finding of bountiful deposits, or by cheapening the cost of production due to devaluation, or by the development of any easy processes for direct, or for by product, production.

Jan 1, 1932

By M. Ataee-pour, S. E. Jalali

So far, a large number of algorithms have been developed for the optimization of pit limits, most of which follow deterministic rules. In this paper, a new algorithm is introduced, which follows a probabilistic logic using the Markov chain process. The algorithm is implemented on a transition matrix that corresponds to the 2D conventional economic block model of the mining area. The probability of mining a block is proportional to the desirability it may provide. Applying this algorithm, the probability of mining each block is obtained, and finally, the optimum pit limits are defined as the pit, which provides the highest probability of mining. In order to validate the proposed model, a numerical example is given and the results of the algorithm are compared to those of a dynamic programming algorithm. A 2D analysis of the problem is discussed in this paper. Although dealing with 3D problems requires larger size matrices, the optimization method is the same and the algorithm does not need any smoothing.

Jan 1, 2006

For the sixth year in a row, the value of nonfuel mineral raw materials produced in the United States set a new record, reaching almost $17 billion in 1977. Data provided by the Bureau of Mines show that the 1977 value of domestic nonfuel mineral production exceeded the 1976 value, $16.7 billion, by 2 percent. The $17 billion worth of minerals was the basis for approximately $770 bill ion worth of processed materials of mineral origin. Output of metals decreased $360 mil lion in 1977, while that of nonmetals increased $670 million. Of the 22 metals produced, output of 12 increased, and the value of 13 increased. Among the 46 nonmetallic minerals produced, the quantity of 27 increased, and the value of 34 increased.

Jan 1, 1978

By C. Travis Anderson

"Nickel is an essential metal in stainless steel, armor plate, and nickel steels and also in nonferrous alleys, such as monel metal and cupre-nickel, which are used in marine service. Nickel is one of the metals that must be greatly restricted in civilian use to provide the amounts needed for our War program. Consequently, it is desirable to investigate every possible substitute.The 5-cent coin no z in use contains 2.3 percent nickel. At the end of 1941, about 450 tons of nickel was being consumed annually to produce these coins. If the nickel used for that purpose in 9141 had been diverted to military use, 15,000 tons of armor plate could have been produced. As nickel is vitally needed for military as well as essential civilian products, it would seem desirable to substitute some other alloy for the 25 percent nickel alloy now being used. The Bureau of Mines has been asked to suggest possible substitutes.The substitute should have physical properties similar to the alloy now being used. It should have a metallic appearance and ring and a reasonably white color, so to be distinguishable from the present 1-cent coin. It should also be reasonably resistant to corrosion."

Aug 1, 1942

Real economic growth for the year will most likely exceed the Administration's estimate of 3.2%, up from 2.9% in 1986, unless consumers change their spending patterns more than expected as a result of the October stock market decline. The economy grew at a real annual rate of 3.7% in the first three quarters of the year, Analysts agree that the stock market decline will slow economic growth-- most have lowered their growth expectations for 1988 by about 1%; but few would argue that the economy will slow significantly in the fourth quarter of 1987. [ ] During this economic recovery, personal consumption expenditures provided the main impetus for growth and a deeping trade deficit, the main hindrance to growth. In 1987, however, personal consumption expenditures grew at a lower rate than the overall economy. Mush of the economic growth resulted from a reduced trade deficit and growing investment by business in equipment to improve productivity and to meet the domestic and foreign demand for products. The declining value of the dollar resulted in a better competitive position for U.S. goods but also contributed to a rising rate of inflation as imports rose in price. Inflation, as measured by the fixed-weighted index for gross national product, was still far below the rates in the early 1980k, however. More than 2 million jobs were created during the year, predominantly in the service sectors of the economy, and the monthly unemployment rate in September fell to the lowest level in a decade. Then, after 13 months of decline, the unemployment rate edged up 0.1 percentage point to 5.9% in October.

Jan 1, 1987

By AIME AIME

BESIDES commanding increasing importance as an alloying element in combination with ferrous and other nonferrous metals, the variety of uses for pure nickel continues to widen. For coinage it is growing in popularity. These coins have been minted for 27 countries in 72 issues representing 69 denominations. Approximately 3,000,000,000 pieces have been struck, the aggregate weight, of which amounts to nearly 14,000 tons. . Danzig, Iraq and Japan are the most recent governments to adopt, pure nickel coinage. France is adding the denomination of five francs to its other nickel currency; they replace silver pieces. Germany is now minting a new issue of one Reichsmark coins of pure nickel. The Japanese program for 1933 called for the issue of 35,000,000 10-sen pieces and 30,000,000 5-sen pieces. In radio tube manufacture the consumption of pure nickel was approximately twice that of 1932. During 1.933 the nickel plating process by which bright deposits may be plated

Jan 1, 1934

By Christopher C. Jobes

Computer-assisted control of a mining machine can place the operator in a safe, remote location. A guidance system aids remote positioning of a mining machine by determining its position and heading. The mechanical position and heading system (MPHS) is one of several guidance systems being developed at the U.S. Bureau of Mines. The MPHS uses linear position transducers (LPT's) to provide navigation information during face maneuvers. This report presents an overview of the MPHS theory and implementation, including recent design modifications made for more successful underground testing. This report also presents the experimental setup and procedure for the underground test. The test showed that the MPHS provides reliable and accurate results and can, therefore, provide useful guidance information for face navigation.

Jan 1, 1992

U.S. Gold Commission Established. - The President, with the authorization of Congress, has named a gold commission made up of 17 individuals, most of them Government officials, to study U.S. policies related to the role of gold in domestic and international monetary systems and report its findings and recommendations to Congress. U.S. Lead Exposure Ruling. - On June 29, the Supreme Court upheld the Government's right to set lead exposure levels for employees at the workplace. The Court ruled in favor of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in a challenge by a group that alleged that OSHA had failed to conduct a cost-benefit analysis prior to issuance of the lead standards. It was the Court's contention that Congress did not require such an analysis when it empowered OSHA to establish workplace standards. The petition to the Court was made by the Lead Industries Association Inc., Battery Council International Inc" American Iron and Steel Institute, St. Joe Minerals Corp., and other lead mining and consuming firms.

Jan 1, 1981

By Adrian Coombs

The York Durham Sewage System (YDSS) Interceptor Tunnel Project is located in the Town of Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada, just north of Toronto. Construction commenced in September 2006 and completion is planned for early summer, 2008. The project involved public and agency buy-in of construction technologies and methods that minimized dewatering, design and construction of sealed shafts with jet grout break-in and out blocks in order that Earth Pressure Balance (EPB) mode could be maintained by the Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) during shaft entry and exit. This paper will discuss the advances that were made possible through the opportunity to apply and test these technologies in order to accommodate the aquifer and artesian conditions present on this project.

Jan 1, 2008