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By T. Suganuma

Mitsubishi-Cominco Smelting Co. is a joint venture of Mitsubishi Metal Mining Co. Ltd. (M.M.M.) of Japan and Cominco Ltd. of Canada. The smelter, which is located alongside M.M.M.'s Naoshima copper smelter, was completed in May, 1966 and has a capacity of 36 000 metric tons per year of refined lead. The concentrate feed for the smelter from Pine Point Mines Ltd. is high grade with low impurities; particularly silver, bismuth, antimony, and arsenic, which facilitated a simple plant layout and operation. Concentrate, fluxes, recycle granulated slag and return sinter are drawn from bins by automatic control over weigh belt feeders, sintering is carried out on a 20 m2 Lurgi updraught sintering machine, furnacing in a 3.0 m x 1 ½ m water jacketed blast furnace equipped with an Asarco continuous tapper, refining in four 120 metric ton kettles and casting on a 25 metric ton/hour automatic casting machine. The S@ gas from sintering is cleaned in a high temperature baghouse utilizing glass bags and is then delivered to the M.M.M. copper smelter acid plants. The furnace gases after cleaning in a low temperature baghouse are vented to atmosphere.

Jan 1, 1970

By Forbes Wilson

IN February 1952 Freeport Sulphur Company started exploration work on a group of lateritic deposits at Moa Bay, Cuba. As a result of successful exploration work and a vast amount of metallurgical research over the past five years, these deposits will soon become a new Free World source of nickel and cobalt. Moa Bay lies on the north coast of Oriente Province, the easternmost part of the island, about 600 miles east of Havana and about 40 miles east of the U. S. Government nickel plant at Nicaro.

Jan 5, 1958

By L. E. Snow, L. F. Pett

AT the Utah Copper Pit of Kennecott Copper Corp. a versatile mobile drill unit has been developed and tested. Through increased drilling speed and additional available drilling time, an improvement of 233 pct in drill performance has been realized. Operators using drill power can quickly and easily convert the unit from a vertical to a toe hole drill. Drilling is done with the machine in line with the unit or at right angles to it. Table I covers the 1950 drill record at the mine, showing the types of machines used and the footage obtained. [ ] Development of the new units was prompted by a desire for solution of the following problems: 1-The ever-expanding operations within the Utah Pit, requiring some 65 miles of transmission pipe lines radiating from a central compressed air plant, have now taxed this compressor plant beyond capacity. While 100 lb per sq in. pressure is maintained at compressors, transmission losses from innumerable small leaks result in low terminal pressure at the drills. Fig. 1 illustrates that while terminal pressure varies according to size of air hose and fittings used, the average drill is operating on air pressures within the 60 to 70-lb range. The compressor plant is operated primarily for air rock drills. All drilling is done on day shift, but it is necessary to run two of the three 3720 cu ft capacity compressors during night shift in order to prevent drastic loss of pressure through leaks. On day shift all three compressor units are operated at capacity, so that there is no reserve safeguard available for extensive repairs to any compressor. The calculated volume of compressed air required for operation of 25 drills is but 33 pet of three day-shift compressors. While compressed air is being used to a minor extent for purposes other than drilling, it is felt that satisfactory substitute facilities could be provided in the event that air lines were no longer available. 2-Drill performance has increased beyond the capacity of present 3 ½ -in. drifter machines. 3-The installation, maintenance, and moving of air lines in routine mining is a growing problem. The 2-in. level lines are placed outside electrification towers and must be moved to new location upon completion of each shovel cut. In addition to these moves it is often necessary to dismantle level lines so that excessive shovel spillage, or material covering track following a blast, can be pushed in the clear with bulldozers. Where level room is limited, it is often necessary to remove air lines in giving bulldozers room to prepare grades for wagon drills. In spite of precautions taken, many level lines become buried, twisted, and constricted, with excessive air loss resulting. Excessive back break in blasting often leaves several sections of air line suspended in mid-air. Occasionally air lines come in contact with defective electric transmission towers, so that holes are burned through pipe. 4-Rail-handling of drilling equipment such as wagon drills from one location to another requires considerable locomotive crane crew time. Any new unit developed should travel under its own power. 5-Present practice requires accessory material including hose, water pressure tanks, water barrels, drill steel, and bits to be transported by means of push cars when drill locations are changed on any level. 6-In order to supply numerous drill locations with material, many stock piles of new drill rods, drill bits, and other essentials must be left at strategic points, usually in the vicinity of powder magazines. This practice makes for poor housekeeping and contributes to the loss of supplies. Planning the Unit It was felt that a mobile drill unit which would rectify the foregoing problems should meet certain demands: 1-It must furnish compressed air to operate a 4-in. rock drill at a pressure of 90 to 100 lb.

Jan 1, 1952

By John A. Church

IT is a well-known fact that under similar conditions a ton of pig iron can be made from any ore with less fuel when charcoal is used than when coke or anthracite is employed for heating. The cause of this superiority is entirely undiscovered, and no explanation has yet been offered which has won even temporary acceptance. Such as they are the hypotheses heretofore presented are of two general kinds, and they come from those two divisions of the working force which are so often antagonistic in all professions, the scientific and the practical men. The theory of the scientific men is drawn from the chemical reactions which are known to go on in the furnace, and it is well expressed in a recent paper by Prof. Akerman, of the Stockholm (Sweden) School of Mines. It makes the superiority of charcoal as a fuel in the blast furnace to depend upon its quick and thorough reduction of carbonic acid. This property belongs to charcoal in virtue of its porous structure. Its cells have a diameter of only one twenty-four hundredth of an inch, and one grain of charcoal has been computed to have a surface of two and four-tenths square feet. According to the theory in question, carbonic acid is formed by the first impact of the air upon the fuel; but in charcoal furnaces the acid is immediately reduced to oxide by taking the necessary amount of carbon into combination, and the gas reaches its highest reducing power even in the near vicinity of the tuyeres. Coke, being harder, does not produce so strong a reducing gas in that part of. the furnace. Carbonic acid is formed as in the case of charcoal, and remains longer before its reduction to oxide is completed. Anthracite is the

Jan 1, 1879

By J. J. Bodmer

THE four different modes, more or less practiced for subdividing slag (that is, producing slag sand), are the following : 1. Crushing the slag from the lump in Blake's crusher, by edge runners or other suitable means. 2. Blowing water, steam, cold or hot air, into the stream of viscous slag whilst it runs from the furnace. So treated, the slag takes

Jan 1, 1874

By H. S. Bell

IT SEEMS unnecessary to dwell upon the advantages of the modern pipe still as compared with the older type of distillation equipment used by oil refiners. The relatively low installation cost, coupled with remarkable operating efficiencies of pipe stills, precludes the consideration of other types except in rare instances where some peculiarity of product or plant may have an influence. The question of the actual heat required to distil petroleum is quite involved. We have extensive data on the latent heats of the various hydrocarbons under different conditions of pressure. We also have information regarding the specific heats of various oils and the effect of temperature thereon. Because of the complexity of petroleum and of each fraction, it seems impossible to theoretically analyze the partial-pressure effect of the great number of hydrocarbons upon one another during distillation. If a distillation curve and percentage analysis of any crude or product are available, it is possible to construct a curve with ordinates representing per cent. distilled and B. t. u. per pound or per gallon, or other desired unit. To do so the crude is split into fractions, of 5 or 10 per cent. The boiling point and gravity of each fraction being determined, it is possible to evaluate the heat required. As each fraction is removed, the residue must be raised to a higher temperature and latent heat supplied for the successive fraction. As the calculations progress, the latent heats decrease while the specific heats increase. Such a curve is illustrated by Fig. 1 for a typical 39.9 B° North Texas crude.

Jan 1, 1928

By AIME AIME

DREAMS do come true at times, although it is evidently better to believe in engineers than to "believe in fairies" if most dreams are to be translated into fact. It was a fine dream that David H. Moffat had when he projected a railway directly west from Denver; a dream of opening a new empire in northwestern Colorado, and of quickening transportation from the Middle West to the Pacific slope. But Moffat had been a miner and had become a banker. He knew that dreams, untranslated into works, benefit no one and pleasure only the dreamer, so he employed an engineer, H. A. Sumner, to study and plan the route to be followed by the rails. Previous main lines had run to the north, the Union Pacific, or the south, the Santa Fe. The Denver and Rio Grande, it is true, wriggled its way bravely across Colorado but, in order to reach a point 74 miles in an airline west of- Denver, travelled 281 miles following two canyons and crossing Tennessee Pass at 10,240 ft. Valuable as such a road is, it could never accomplish what Moffat had in mind. It was known that no low pass could be found directly west of Denver but up to 9000 ft. the topog-

Jan 1, 1925

By CHARLES E. W.

I. LOCATION. THE Mojave mining district is situated in a group of small hills centering around Soledad peak, in the Mojave desert, Kern county, Cal. These hills are about 4.5 miles SSW. of Mojave, a railroad town at the junction of the Santa Fé and Southern Pacific railroads. The town of Mojave is about 50 miles north of Los Angeles, to which it is connected both by telegraph and by rail. The distance on the Southern Pacific railroad is 102 miles, covered in 3 hr. and 45 min. by express train. A sketch-map of this region is shown in Fig. 1. The Mojave district is relatively isolated. The only other mining towns in this section of California are Randsburg and Johannesburg, in a district (containing the well-known Yellow Aster mine) at the northern end of a low ridge of hills, which begins about 20 miles NE. of Mojave, runs nearly N. for 35 miles, and varies in width between 3 and 6 miles. As will be seen later, the origin and formation of these hills are not the same as those of Soledad peak. II. CLIMATE AND VEGETATION. The climate and vegetation of the Mojave district are typical of the arid regions of the southwestern United States. During the winter and spring there is some rainfall, and the tempera-ture is generally from 60° to 70° F. in the day-time. The rainfall in the spring is often very considerable for short spaces of time, and cloud-bursts are not infrequent. In summer there is continual sunshine, with temperatures, as a rule, exceeding 100° F. in the day-time, while 115° F. in the shade of a house is not at all unusual; but at night the temperature falls considerably. No rain falls during the summer. The vegetation

Jan 1, 1906

By John S. Alexander

THE spirit of this age encourages the substitution of mechanical for hand labor wherever possible, experience proving that the employer, employer and consumer share alike in the resulting benefits. Through the efforts of the inventor, millions of the laboring class have been raised from being mere contributors of muscular force to be brain workers and directors of those ingenious contrivances now so widely used in the various branches of agriculture, manufacturing, printing, etc. While the genius of invention has accomplished so much in other departments, it seems remarkable that she has not long ere this descended into the coal mine with her wheels, levers, and eccentrics, and provided the toilers there with some device by which their unusually laborious work could be lessened. Until within a very few years, however, little special attention was given to this subject, owing largely, no doubt, to the fact that coal miners as a class were prejudiced against innovations of this kind and ignorantly clung to muscle as the only means of wresting from nature her treasures stored within the coal measures. Thanks, however, to the enterprise and skill of some Scotch and English mine proprietors and inventors, the present decade has seen rapid strides in the right direction, and mechanical coal mining has become a fixed fact in some portions of Great Britain. Making her acknowledgments to the mother country for these earnest and successful efforts, America now comes forward with the Monitor Coal-Cutter as the result of a trial on her part to advance the common cause of economical coal production; for upon cheap fuel the future greatness of both nations largely depends. The object of this paper is to give a few items in regard to this Monitor Coal-Cutter, which, so far as the writer is informed, is the

Jan 1, 1875

By A. P., Svenningsen

ECONOMICAL handling of a minimum of 25,000 tons of minus 3/4-in. ore per day, grinding it to 2 per cent on 65 mesh, and effecting a high recovery of the copper at the lowest possible cost were the principal aims in the design of the new Morenci concentrating plant. Dealing with a tonnage of this magnitude, it is obvious that lost motion cannot be tolerated. When ore is carried on a conveyor an unnecessarily long distance or elevated to a greater height than necessary, or when pulp flows in a launder by a circuitous route thereby losing elevation and distance, we have lost motion which is always costly both from the standpoint of construction and operation. In addition to the 25,000 tons of ore which must be handled, 100,000 tons of water per day has to be carried through the plant in the treatment of the ore. Though water is not so difficult to handle as the ore, the combined tonnage represents a figure which could easily run into a considerable monetary loss per day if all phases of the design were not carefully followed with the idea of eliminating any unnessary handing of materials.

Jan 1, 1942

By C. W. Dunham

FOR discharging and diffusing the gases from the reverberatory furnaces and converters the Morenci Reduction Works has been provided with one of the largest reinforced concrete chimneys ever built. It is 612 ft. high from the bottom of the foundation to the cap at the top, and has a minimum diameter of 24 ft. inside the lining near the top and 38 ft. 10 in. at the bottom. Its estimated capacity, at the elevation of 4338 ft. above sea level, is about 1,000,000 cu.ft. of gas per minute at a temperature of 500° F. and an atmospheric temperature of 90°. Under these conditions the draft will be at least 3 in. of water at the flue inlet. The gases enter the chimney through a steel balloon flue 33 ft. high and 15 ft. wide, the bottom of which is 19 ft. above the ground.

Jan 1, 1942

By Roman Y. Poderny, Vladimir V. Rjevskii

In the USSR, the Moscow Institute of Radio Electronics tronics and Mining Electro-Mechanics (MIRGEM) has started what it hopes will become a nationwide movement to educate mining students in the precise specialties that industry has come to require. Courses for mining engineers, the MIRGEM faculty proposes, should dovetail as exactly as possible with specific jobs available in the mining profession. Acting upon this thesis, MIRGEM revised its own curriculum in 1962 and has since presented an over-all plan for Soviet mining education before two mining school conferences as well as the Ministry of Higher Education and a number of major Soviet industrial ministries. The plan was universally approved with some suggested revisions. SOVIET MINING EDUCATION TODAY At present, mining education in the Soviet Union covers the exploitation of solid minerals and raw materials, including coal as well as ferrous and nonferrous metals. The extraction, storage, and refining of oil and gas is treated as a separate discipline. In all, there are 33 Soviet universities and institutes that train mining engineers for careers in the industrial, research and educational fields.

Jan 9, 1966

By Michael J. Callow

THE PROPERTY of Mount Isa Mines, Ltd., is located at Mount Isa, Northern Queensland, Australia, at roughly 20" south latitude. It is 600 miles from Townsville on the east coast, the port for Mount Isa, 1200 miles from Brisbane and approximately 1600 miles from Sydney in New South Wales. Living conditions in the camp, though wild and crude at the commencement of building, are now excellent and little has been left undone to provide comfort and attractiveness. The climate being warm and dry, many of the buildings are built on posts, 8 to 10 ft. off the ground, with spacious screened-in verandas. Club houses, stores, school, hospital and ice plant have all been provided by the company as well as modern conveniences, such as running water, shower baths, electric lights, septic tank arrangements, tennis courts and amusement grounds.

Jan 1, 1932

By Edward D. Peters

IT frequently occurs in the establishment of reduction works, in an entirely new and untried mining district, that the metallurgist in charge finds considerable difficulty in determining the process best adapted to the ores which he receives for treatment. At the first glance it would seem easy enough to decide what style of furnace is best adapted for beneficiating any one class of minerals. If the ore possessed a quartzose gangue and was comparatively free from base metals, while salt could be obtained at a reasonable price, one would naturally resort to a chloridizing roasting, and pan or barrel amalgamation for the extraction of its silver contents. If galena or carbonate of lead was the prevailing mineral, and charcoal could be obtained at moderate figures, the blast-furnace would beneficiate the ores most advantageously. But if, as is usually the case in Colorado, the ores consisted of an intimate mixture of galena, zinc-blende, copper-pyrites, and noble silver minerals, associated with an overwhelming mass of siliceous heavy spar, or limestone gangue, the common reverberatory furnace can be used to the greatest advantage; and, although the product is only a copper matte, I do not hesitate to affirm that it can be treated, and the silver, gold, and copper produced at nearly the same price for which silver and lead can be separated. In Germany, blast-furnaces are frequently used for this same purpose, both for argentiferous and non-argentiferous copper ores ; but any one who will take the trouble to examine the statistics of smelting at Fahlun, the Oberharz, and other Continental works of this description, will see that the expenses are far too great, and the production much too small to think of employing this method in our mining districts, where only the softest and most miserable kind of charcoal is obtainable. I propose in this paper to give an accurate account of the expenses incurred at the Mount Lincoln Smelting Works in treating the same kind of ore, and producing the same end-product in both blast and reverberatory furnaces. I have taken for comparison a favorable campaign of the blast-furnace, and a good average month's running of the reverberatory. In the blast-furnace estimate I have included the calcining and concentration of the matte produced during that campaign, as I always, when possible, concentrated the regulus made

Jan 1, 1874

By Ray W. Ballmer

"For his leadership in developing and managing large, complex, and technically innovative mines, particularly the outstanding and successful Bougainville mine and for his lecture, 'The Moving Targets of Mine Development '. " Recipient of the 1981 D. C. Jackling Award

Jan 1, 1982

By T. M. Chance

THE first bituminous coal cleaning-plant to use the sand-flotation process1 was placed in operation on Oct. 1, 1925, at the tipple of the East Broad Top Railroad & Coal Co., at Mt. Union, Pa. The general principles governing the design of plants of this type and typical operating results of anthracite sand-flotation units have been previously outlined.2 I will, therefore, confine myself to a description of this particular plant and to some of the elements of design it incorporates. THE ORIGINAL MT. UNION TIPPLE The plant was installed to transfer coal from steel narrow-gage cars of 60,000 and 70,000 lbs. capacity to standard-gage equipment. The coal was hauled some 30 miles from the East Broad Top field. This coal, mined by the Rockhill Coal & Iron Co. and other operators, is a low-volatile slow-coking coal with- ash of high-fusion point. It is normally a high-grade coal that does not contain an excessive amount of free impurities, but it requires careful handling to secure a fair domestic yield, and, naturally, the need for narrow-gage transshipment increases the difficulty of the problem. The narrow-gage cars were discharged into an 8-car track hopper equipped with two feeders passing the coal to two 42-in. apron intake conveyors. Twin units were installed throughout in this original plant, two lump-and-egg shaking screens, two lump picking-tables, two egg picking-tables and two stoker conveyors. The stoker coal was loaded without cleaning. The loading tracks and booms were in duplicate and with the layout as originally installed either unit could be run independently, each unit shipping a different class of coal or both units making the same product.

Jan 2, 1926

By F. E. Buch

THE Smelter is designed for a production capacity of 10,000 short tons of blister copper per month, when operating on the present concentrate grade. The Smelter lay-out is shown in Fig I. The major units of equipment comprise two reverberatory furnaces, three 13 by 30 ft Peirce-Smith converters, two straight line casting machines, one being served by a 13 by 30 ft holding furnace and the other by a ladle tilting quadrant, two converter ,aisle cranes and two converter blowers. The plant is compact and the general arrangement of standard gauge railway tracks and conveyor belts provides for a smooth flow of incoming materials and metallurgical products. Concentrate is received by conveyor belts and fluxes in standard railway trucks. The local track system is covered by an electric trolley locomotive. The Smelter treats a wet (10 pct moisture) flotation concentrate containing approximately 53 pct total copper and 0.9 pct oxide copper. The predominating minerals are chalcocite, chalcopyrite and bornite accompanied by small quantities of malachite and cuprite. The gangue is highly siliceous and requires limerock as a flux. Metallurgy would be straightforward were it not for the necessity for eliminating k bismuth which occurs as an impurity in the ore along with the copper. Directly or indirectly most of the Smelter problems can be traced to the necessity for bismuth removal. Copper recovery, based on new copper treated, averages 97.5 pct. GENERAL DESCRIPTION Flotation concentrate, containing to pct moisture, is conveyed from the filter plant to the smelter storage bins by conveyor belts, the material being weighed in transit by a revolving drum type of weigh-hopper manufactured by Samuel Denison and Son, Ltd. The weigher consists of a steel drum with dished ends carried on a horizontal shaft and rotated by an 8 hp squirrel-cage motor through a worm and spur reduction gear. A feed mouth in the drum permits of filling and discharging. The whole unit is supported on a framework resting on weighing levers, which in turn connect to transfer levers, thence to an indicator of the steelyard type situated 16 ft from the centre line of the drum. The indicator is of the "Denison" patent equilibrium controlled ticket stamping type, insuring mistake-proof records by a combination of electrical and mechanical movements which prevent the operator from printing until the cover enclosing the steelyard is closed and until the poise-weights have been set correctly to the weight of the hopper and contents. The machine is capable of weighing 30 short tons at a time but the usual load is 28 tons. After obtaining the gross weight the drum is rotated and discharged into a receiving bin situated below it. The empty drum is weighed and the net weight re-

Jan 1, 1947

By C. A. O’Connell

Surface exploration drilling at Mufulira started in 1928, with drillhole No. 1 intersecting ore near the eastern fringe of the deposit. Subsequent drilling along strike intersected ore until the western fringe was fixed some 7500 ft west of drillhole No. 1. Further intensive drilling down dip disclosed a large triangle of ore with its apex 3350 ft deep. It contained approximately 11 6 million tons of ore at 4.41% total copper in three superimposed orebodies. The east and west limits of the orebodies were presumed to have a pronounced rake to the north with a strike length of 8000 ft. Subsequent exploration underground seemed to bear out this presumption to the 1150 ft level. In 1947, attention was directed to the area west of the known orebodies in conjunction with plans for increased production and increased depth of the mine workings.

Jan 12, 1962

By H. S. Ten Eyck

Fertilizer normally is spoken of as having three main components: nitrogen, phosphorus and pot- ash. Certainly, however sulfur must also be considered a basic component of fertilizers, even though in many instances it does not end up as a part of the end product. In addition, with heavier cropping and the resultant drain of plant foods from the soil, we have now reached a point where the minor elements necessary for plant growth have become a major factor in the fertilizer industry.

Jan 7, 1967

By James K. Richardson

Today, the enigma of the "missing man" in the metal mining industry equals, and frequently surpasses in objective importance, the problems of ore development, drilling, sampling, pumping, milling techniques, geophysical prospecting, or any one of a hundred highly technical subjects. Unfortunately, as engineers, we have confined our attentions, in the main, to the scientific phases of mineral technology, relegating our man power problems to the background. But what good has all our scientific study and preparation been if we can't get the ore mined, milled, or smelted? What has happened to our labor supply? Where is the good old miner who could timber, drill a round, lay track, or do any job underground?

Jan 1, 1949