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By Harlowe Hardinge, R. C. Ferguson

Laboratory and plant data covering 12 different operations show that lower than "standard" ball mill speeds increase grinding efficiency. In the case of high pulp-level mills, the gain is so great that the increase in capital cost of the larger lower speed mill will pay for itself in less than a year's time.

Jan 1, 1950

By M. von Heimendahl, G. Thomas

The microstructure of TD-Ni has been examined by transmission electron microscopy in the extruded, annealed. and deformed states. The tensile properties hove been correlated with the observed microstructures and the results ore com-pared with those obtained from pure nickel. The important conclusions are that the thorin particles in TD-Ni act as strong burriers to dislocntion motion during both deformation (slip) and annealing (climb). During deformation. the dislocations tangle around the particles and a cell structure is devleloped after 10 pct or more strain. The cell size appears to be determined by the spacing of the largest particles and is about five times smaller than that in pure nickel for the same strain. The higher work-hardening rate in TD-Ni compared to nickel is probably due to the more rapid rate of dislocation multiplication in the alloy as a result of dislocation-particle interactions. The Th0,particles inhibit recrystallization and twin growh so that some strengthening may arise from the high density of small annealing twins. THE strengthening of materials due to the presence of a dispersed second phase has been the subject of considerable experimental and theoretical investigation in recent years. One of the newest dispersion-strengthened alloys to be developed is TD-Ni,1 a system of approximately 2 vol pct thoria (ThO2) dispersed in a matrix of commercially pure nickel. This material is fabricated by powder-metallurgical techniques and offers high-temperature stability and useful mechanical properties virtually to the melting point of the base metal. While the mechanical properties of this system have been investigated,2,3 there have been no reports in the literature concerning the microstruc-ture of TD-Ni and its correlation to mechanical properties. This paper describes a transmission electron microscopy investigation of the micro-structure of TD-Ni together with its mechanical properties. The results are compared with the structure and properties of pure nickel.

Jan 1, 1964

By F. X. Meyer

THE United States Smelting Refining and Mining Company maintains an ore-purchasing department for procurement of custom tonnages of milling and smelting ores and concentrates for treatment at its Midvale plant. Arrangements with other companies provide for treatment of Company and custom zinc concentrates. Location of the Midvale plant in the heart of the Western mining country makes it possible to serve shippers from these nine producing states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Washington. Shipments from most of these states travel over main-line railroads, delivery being made at Midvale within a short time after billing of the shipment. Shipments varying in size from a few sacks to carloads can be handled at

Jan 1, 1948

Jan 1, 1903

By W. Bradley, R. G. Hall

This paper will attempt to show how a metallurgical problem at one California quicksilver mine was solved, and how the solution was applied successfully at another mine. The pronouns "we" and "our," as used below, refer '0 the Bradley 'lining Co. of San Francisco. The term "concurrent firing" for the purpose of this paper can be defined as feeding and firing a a kiln at the same end—that is, of course, the upper end' This is as opposed to "countercurrent firing," the orthodox method, in which a kiln is fed at the upper and fired at the lower end. The terms "quicksilver" and "mercury" are used interchangeably. Early References The earliest work on nonferrous metallurgy, we believe, was The Pirotechnia of Vannocio Biringuccio,l its first edition having been printed in Italy in 1540. Quoting from its chapter entitled "Concerning Quicksilver and Its Ore": Quicksilver ... is one of the gods and has divine strength in itself, and also, to the annoyance of the alchemists, it is winged. Hence, when it sees that it is in gravest danger, it loosens itself from . . . every bond . . . and fies away into the heavens, escaping from the hands of those who crucify it. Almost laughing, it leaves all its adversaries mocked and scorned, with their phials and filters empty . . . How thorough a job, under certain conditions, it can do of mocking its adversaries and leaving their phials and filters empty, was found out four centuries later at the Sulphur Bank mine, on the east shore of Clear Lake, in Lake county, California, The other mine mentioned in the title is the Reed, in Yolo County, California, 35 miles by road southeast of Sulphur Bank, Reed and Sulphur Bank ranked respectively Nth and seventh in U. S. production in 1943. The earliest direct reference we can find to furnacing troubles at these mines was by Thomas Egleston in 1890.2 Speaking of Sulphur Bank, Egleston says: of there is more sulphur than cinnabar in the ore, which is a detriment to both . . . making the sulphur impure, and rendering the cinnabar difficult to work on account of the soot. In some of the early . . . furnaces the accumulation of soot from the excess of sulphur has been known to penetrate as far as the fan blower at the end of the . . . condensers, and completely prevent its revolution. In order to get rid of the inconvenience of this accumulation . . . , as well as to get a commercial value from the sulphur, it (the sulphur) is now separated by steam and sold. It is claimed that the sulphur alone pays all the expenses of ... the mine. The mine was first worked for sulphur, and the cinnabar it contained was considered to be an inconvenience, and was carefully picked out and thrown away, as its richness and value were not

Jan 1, 1949

By C. O. Rison

HIGH explosives, particularly nitroglycerin, have been used in torpedoes for the purpose of shooting oil and gas wells for more than 60 years. The early history of the oil industry in Pennsylvania is not clear as to who actually torpedoed the first well, although in 1865 the Roberts Torpedo Co. procured a patent covering the process. Gunpowder was first used, although nitroglycerin was substituted shortly afterwards. Wells are shot for the purpose of increasing the flow of oil and gas A shot-hole in the producing horizon, with its contributory fissures and fractures, increases the area of and stimulates drainage into the hole. The shot-hole also acts as a collecting basin from which the oil is pumped. As a rule, hard or close-grained sands or limes are shot, other more or less porous and soft formations usually do not require shooting. and might be injured by blasting. Shooting is also resorted to in mechanical trouble such as straightening crooked holes, sidetracking pipe or tools, and for severing frozen strings of casing or drill pipe. Explosives arc also used sometimes to extinguish oil or gas-well fires although that work, which involves unusual conditions and methods, does not properly come within the classification of oil-well shooting. Some Factors to Be Considered in Shooting Wells Although nitroglycerin has been used extensively for more than half a century in shooting oil and gas wells, there is still a great deal of uncertainty as to the proper method of shooting or the amount of explosive required to produce best results in a particular formation. The possibility of shooting unproductive or cavey formations above or below the productive horizons, shooting into lower water, destroying casing seats, and the splitting or collapsing of casing strings, are factors that require consideration. The engineering departments of a number of the larger oil companies are making a study of methods of shooting, and the amounts of liquid nitroglycerin or other explosives required in shooting various productive

Jan 1, 1929

By C. H. Page, Brenne

Theoretical modelling of a proposed sub-level open stoping mining system was carried out to assess pillar instability and potential for hanging wall caving. This modelling was done, at first, without detailed information concerning the rock mass structure and classification. After mining commenced, the deviance in behaviour from that predicted by the modelling indicated that the structure was having an appreciable modifying effect on behaviour. Further analysis was carried out with detailed engineering geological information and a recently developed pillar design method. The outlined procedure produced results for pillar size and strength that explained the behaviour that had been recorded.

Jan 1, 1983

By L. K. Jetter, C. J. McHargue

The use of axis charts for representing the texture of cold-rolled thorium sheet was compared with conventional pole figures. Four texture components were deduced from the axis charts and shown to be consistent with the pole figures. It was shown that consideration of the pole figures alone could lead to an apparent component which is the average of two actually present. It was also shown that the spread about the "ideal" textures and the amount of material associated with each could be readily obtained Fom the axis chart method. BECAUSE of the crystallographic nature of the deformation mechanisms in metals, plastic flow results in the alignment of certain crystallographic directions with the primary flow directions. In the study of the "preferred orientation" thus developed, one wishes to discern the distribution of the crystallographic directions with respect to some reference direction, usually a direction related to the fabrication procedure, such as the rolling direction. The pole-figure method, introduced by ever,' involves the plotting of the distribution of the poles of some family of planes on a stereographic projection which places the reference direction(s) at the north pole and/or in the center. By noting the angles between the reference directions and concentrations of poles on several such pole figures, one can deduce the crystallographic directions which are aligned with the reference directions. If the preferred orientation is relatively simple and well-developed, one to three pole figures may be sufficient for obtaining the desired information; if there are several texture components, more pole figures may be needed. A significant improvement in the method of representing the textures in wires and rods resulted from the introduction of the "inverse pole figure" or axis-distribution chart by Harris.2 Such a chart gives directly the distribution of the reference axis relative to the standard stereographic projection. There has been widespread acceptance of this method for the representation of fiber textures, and methods have been proposed for converting observed diffraction intensities into axis densities.2-6 The suggestion by Mitchell and Rowland3 and Jetter, McHargue, and williams5 that sheet textures could be represented as distributions of rolling, normal, and transverse directions have been criticized on the basis that they offer no significant advantage over a combination of two ordinary pole figures and that it has not been proved that sheet textures can be treated as quasi fiber textures.6 If the purpose of a texture determination is to study some property which is related to the orientation of a particular crystallographic plane or direction, then conventional pole figures certainly are sufficient. For example, the distribution of the slip planes in face-centered cubic metals (the (111) pole figure) serves to indicate the variation in mechanical properties of sheet. On the other hand if the study is directed at an understanding of the factors influencing texture formation, it is desirable to know not only the preferred orientation but the kind and degree of spread from it and the relative amounts of material in each component, if there are more than one. Axis charts give this information as well as the orientation distributions. Consider the procedure for deducing a texture component from a pole figure for the (111) planes

Jan 1, 1961

By P. H. Brace, N. A. Ziegler

THE study of the relations between gases and metals is one of perennial interest to all who are connected with the production of high-grade metallurgical products. The data reported here are the outcome of work of which the object is to determine the effects of dissolved gases upon the properties of metals and to gain a more detailed knowledge of the reactions between gases and molten metals, particularly iron, under definitely controlled conditions. We have attempted to reduce our margin of error by dealing with relatively large quantities of metal, from 4 to 13 lb. (2 to 6 kg.), and keeping the ratio of refractories to metal as small as practicable. The ingots produced are large enough to provide adequate material for making determinations of magnetic and other physical properties. In choosing the bell-jar type of furnace we were influenced by the results of considerable experimentation along the same general line which indicated that, for the scale on which we were to work, it was important to have the furnace structure independent of the vacuum enclosure. The use of a bell-jar surrounding the entire furnace accomplishes this and also gives great freedom of observation during operation and ready accessibility for the replacements which are necessary after each run. Our choice of analytical method was made in the light of the results secured by H. M. Ryder, who used a method similar in principle for the analysis of very small quantities of gas extracted from strips of metal heated electrically in high vacuum. We have presented some selected preliminary experimental data as being illustrative of the quantity and nature of the gases which occur in iron of different origins, but do not urge any hypothesis at this time. THE FURNACE Our furnace may be described as "a high-frequency induction furnace of the bell-jar type." It is similar in a general way to that described by Cain and Peterson' though we have introduced certain refinements of

Jan 1, 1928

By T. R. Lippard

PURE gypsum may be broken down into its constituents as follows: [ ] Standard specifications (ASTM Designation C22-25) state that a material shall not be considered gypsum if it contains less than 64.5 pct by weight of CaS042H2O. Anhydrite, the second calcium sulphate mineral found in nature, may be broken into its constituents as follows: [ ] PROPERTIES OF GYPSUM AND ANHYDRITE Pure gypsum is colorless to white but various impurities change its color to shades of gray, brown, red, or pink. It has a hardness of 2 in the Mohs scale and can be scratched with the fingernail. The specific gravity of pure gypsum is 2.3 to 2.4, so that rock gypsum, free from moisture, weighs about 145 lb per cu ft. Gypsum crystallizes in the monoclinic system in tabular crystals that exhibit good cleavage

Jan 1, 1949

By C. A. WARNER

AN OIL and gas mining lease contract, as entered A into by and between 'the lessor and the lessee, contains certain express covenants stipulating, in part at least, the exact performance thereof; it also contains certain implied covenants, among which may be included that of protection of the leased premises against drainage by the drilling of necessary offset wells. In the drilling for, and production of, oil and gas, however, it not infrequently happens that the lessee, acting in good faith, does not deem it prudent to, drill a test thereon even though the location for such test is offset by a producing well on an adjoining lease. Such conclusion, on the part of the lessee, is generally construed by the lessor as constituting a breach of the implied covenant mentioned above, and he may take proper action to secure satisfaction therefor. The action against the lessee is generally for cancellation or relinquishment of the lease, together with, or apart from, claims for damages allegedly sustained through failure to properly protect against drainage of the leased premises.

Jan 1, 1931

By William G. Pariseau

The flexure of geologic strata, a phenomenon of interest to geologists and mining engineers alike, is examined as a sheet bending problem in Coulomb plasticity. Fonnulae for the distribution of stress, strain, and displacement increments; volume change; change in the length of the central surface; and power of dissipation, as well as for the neutral surface shift are given. Strains of any magnitude are considered. The analysis shows that deeply buried strata may bend and develop "tensile" cracks under generally compressive states of stress. It is also shown that bed separation and high capacity props are desirable in mechanized longwall mining, a result in keeping with operating experience. Although speculative at this time, the analysis provides a rational working hypothesis as regards the problem of strata flexure and control. | he purpose of this paper is to present an analysis of the flexure of geologic strata as a problem in the bending of a sheet of material failing in accordance with a Mohr-Coulomb criterion. The flexure of strata has an obvious academic interest to the geologist concerned with the mechanics of folding. It is of interest to the economic geologist as it relates to the structural control of certain types of ore deposits. It has an intimate association with mine subsidence phenomena, and is of concern to the mining engineer. Strata flexure is also the dominant feature of roof behavior about longwall workings. An improved understanding of strata flexure through a rational mechanical analysis thus appears desirable not only from the academic view but from the economic one as well. In the field, the most commonly observed feature of folding, subsidence, and longwall roof behavior is the permanent and therefore inelastic nature of the strata movement. Fig. 1 illustrates the physical disposition of strata in the vicinity of a longwall face. Inasmuch as most rocks (with the possible exception of certain evaporites) do not exhibit significant viscoelastic behavior, at least not over time spans of engineering interest, a plastic analysis is indicated. The analysis is meant to apply to strata whose deformation is dominantly that of bending such as might be expected in the remote roof about a longwall face.

Jan 1, 1970

Jan 1, 1885

By HUGH E. McKinstry

OPENING the sessions of the Mining Geology Committee, the program on postwar mineral controls drew a larger attendance than any other session of the entire meeting. In view of its general interest, the papers of this session, or a substantial portion of them, are printed elsewhere in this issue. Whether control of mineral resources can help to promote peace, how controls could be applied and to whom, are questions so far-reaching that naturally no pat answer was agreed upon. In fact the discussion took on something of the flavor of a debate between those who favor strict control and those who felt that attempting to ration nations in peacetime would defeat its own ends. Discussion from the floor emphasized the difficulties in administering any international control and the $64 question, that no one cared to answer, asked by a courageous young lady who was induced to mount the rostrum for the purpose, was whether the United Nations should exchange mineral controllers to police each other.

Jan 1, 1944

By Jack A. Simon, M. E. Hopkins

Coal is defined as a combustible rock that originated in the accumulation and physical and chemical alteration of vegetation. Coal can be ignited and burned like the wood that was man's earliest fuel, but coal gives more heat than the same amount of wood and has many industrial uses. Unlike wood, coal is not generally found on the surface of the ground but is mined from the solid rock of the earth. Before taking up the occurrence, formation, and the unique character of coal in the rock sequence, let us briefly consider the general character of all rocks in the crust of the earth. Relatively little is known about the very earliest history of the earth, although a number of logical theories have been developed. Manned exploration of the moon and the rocks returned to earth continue to provide some answers to questions concerning the earth's origin and history. The period of earth history with which we concern ourselves here begins after great areas of water had evolved on earth and substantial land areas of once molten (igneous) rock existed. Weathering and other processes that attacked the surface of the rocks reduced them to small particles. Water provided by rainfall transported this material, ultimately, to large bodies of water where it was deposited. Thus was initiated the geologic sequence of sedimentary rocks that lie above the once molten igneous rocks. The crust and upper mantle of the earth are made up of several large plates along which differential movement (primarily horizontal) takes place. Such movements, although small, are occurring today. These horizontal movements are accompanied by vertical movements causing important changes in the relative position of the continents and oceans. Low-lying coastal swamps with favorable climates are ideal locations for coal accumulation and burial by river-borne sediments, and large areas

Jan 1, 1981

By R. D. Carnahan

The authors are to be complimented on their timely study of solution-hardening effects in a bcc metal. Unfortunately there are some misleading aspects of the paper that should be discussed and clarified which is the purpose of this letter. In particular the writer is concerned about the allusions to rate theory of deformation that are inferred by the authors. This position is taken on the basis first of the "weaker" temperature dependence of the yield and flow stresses of the alloy relative to pure niobium and second of the strong temperature dependence of the Young's modulus of elasticity. It is by now well-recognized that any collection of data points used to determine a flow-stress temperature-dependence relationship must be established under isostructural conditions, i.e., similar or identical sessile and mobile dislocation densities and arrangements. Admittedly this is a formidable experimental undertaking and not what would be expected in an exploratory investigation of the present kind. As an alternative to the former one can consider, however, the temperature dependence of flow stresses at comparable strains. In the present study the authors have elected to use the lower yield stress and ultimate strengths to exhibit the temperature dependence of their alloys except for the data points taken at liquid nitrogen temperature. Here they have used the proportional limit for the yield stress and the fracture stress for the ultimate strength. This seems to be an unrealistic choice particularly in view of the fact that this temperature is below the duc tile-brittle transition region for the alloy and no supporting data points were obtained between -55" and -196°C. If the authors' data in Fig. 2 are extrapolated and data points selected at a constant strain, for example a strain of 0.01, the reader can quickly verify that a temperature dependence exactly paralleling that of pure niobium is obtained.

Jan 1, 1967

By Richard H. Olson

"Rarely in our technological society does the discovery of a new class of inorganic materials result in such a wide scientific interest and kaleidoscopic development of applications as has happened with the zeolite molecular sieves." The foregoing, the opening sentence in a landmark volume on zeolite molecular sieves by D. W. Breck (1974), is, if anything, an understatement. Zeolites were recognized as a new group of minerals in the 1750s, but it was not until 1930 that the first analysis of the crystal structure of a zeolite mineral was made. In the late 1940s research workers at Union Carbide Corp. began a program of zeolite synthesis and study which has resulted in one of the major research achievements of all time. Naturally, with the vast research and development efforts devoted to the synthetic molecular sieves, Union Carbide became concerned in the mid-1950s about its position should minable deposits of natural analogues be discovered. Zeolite minerals have diverse origins, and even a brief discussion of these is beyond the scope of this paper. The early work on zeolites was confined to igneous rock occurrences (e.g., amygdules and veins) which were formed by "space-filling;" these crystals tend to be euhedral, thereby rendering them appealing to both mineralogists and collectors. During the first year or so of Union Carbide's exploration (which began in mid-1957) attention was devoted solely to such igneous occurrences. A landmark paper by Bramlette and Posnjak (1933) heralded the potential significance of the occurrence of zeolite minerals as alteration products of vitric ash and similar materials. In the summer of 1958, full attention was directed by Union Carbide to the search for deposits of this type in the western United States. Since then, such exploration has been continu-

Jan 1, 1975

By S. H. Penn

One of the more challenging aspects of the unfolding age of space travel centers about the opportunity for man to use the natural resources of other worlds. The first of the extraterrestrial worlds to be exploited will be the moon. After only a scant few thousand years of scratching the earth's crust, man will embark upon a venture that for centuries has excited the imagination of many (while staggering that of most) and may become a reality within the next decade. There has never been a time when so much money and effort will have been expended to exploit an area about which so little is known. Paradoxically, this effort combines much of the detached objectivity so typical of our analytical time with the proverbial optimism of the indefatigable prospector. As the earliest manned lunar missions will be brief and exploratory in nature, astronauts will not be expected to attempt to exploit any of the possible lunar natural resources. In later missions, with a more extended period of time available for the astronauts to stay on the moon, it may be desirable or even necessary to "live off the land". The resulting exploitation of lunar resources will be intended primarily to reduce the dependence of manned missions upon terrestrial logistic support and to reduce the cost of maintaining lunar bases.

Jan 3, 1966

By Pei-Yung Huang, C. R. Hayward

In order to understand more fully the actual state of copper lost in copper reverberatory slags, a systematic study on the various reactions between certain metallurgically important copper compounds and synthetic copper reverberatory slags was undertaken by the authors in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1942 to 1945.1 This paper, being only a part of the work completed, is published first because it furnishes the first experimental evidence of the formation of copper ferrite from reactions between cuprous oxide and copper reverberatory slags. Choice of Slag Composition The choice of the composition of the synthetic reverberatory slags to be used was much deliberated. Commercial copper reverberatory slags, neglecting minor constituents, avcrage :2,3 45 to 47 pct FeO; 38 to 42 pct SiO2; 5 to 6 pct CaO; 5 to 6 pct A12O3. Since the ternary system CaO-FeO-SiO2 has been much more thoroughly studied4 and is much simpler than the quaternary system CaO-FeO-SiO2-Al2O3, it was decided to use calcium oxide only instead of calcium oxide and alumina in the synthesis of the slags. Fortunately the composition of the average copper reverberatory slag with calcium oxide substituted for alumina lies in the region of the phase diagram clarified by the investigators. A survey of the phase diagram (Fig I) suggested two compositions: (I) the composition near the invariant point S, which is made up of 46 pct ferrous oxide, 37 pct silica and 17 pct calcium oxide; (2) the composition near the invariant point K with 45.5 pct ferrous oxide, 43 pct silica and 11.5 pct calcium oxide. Composition S has the advantage that the percentages of ferrous oxide and of silica almost exactly coincide with those of the average reverberatory slags, and that of the lowest melting point (1093º ± 3ºC) in the whole ternary system. The calcium oxide content, however, obviously is high. Since we have already substituted calcium oxide for alumina, and since calcium oxide is more basic than alumina, the fulfil- slag is decidedly too basic. Composition K has a slightly higher melting point (1150O + 3OC) and a higher silica content, but this is preferred because the slag is saturated with respect to tri-dymite and thus should not corrode siliceous refractories. Besides, it is less basic than composition S. The filial slag composition, therefore, was chosen to

Jan 1, 1949

By L. L. Wyman

SINCE the observations of Heyn,1 relative to the embrittlement of copper after having been heated in hydrogen, this subject has received considerable attention from later investigators. The published works of Archbutt2 and of Bengough and Hill3 give the reasons for this embrittlement-the formation of steam by the reaction between cuprous oxide and hydrogen. From Ruder,4 Pilling,5 Moore and Beckinsdale,6 Bassett and Bradley,7 and from Smith8 can be obtained quantitative data concerning the action of hydrogen and other reducing gases on copper samples having various oxygen contents. This problem has been discussed from a practical standpoint by Fuller9 who calls attention to some of the instances of this embrittlement encountered in the manufacturing field. The examples he cites may be considered typical cases of copper embrittlement which were incident to the process of manufacture. In many cases, such difficulties are overcome by changes in the manufacturing process.

Jan 1, 1931