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By Paul C. Ragland, P. Geoffrey Feiss

The Piedmont province of the southern Appalachians is the focus of interest for many exploration geologists. In the past, only those deposits with significant surface exposure were exploited. Thus, few deposits have been found and relatively little exploration has been conducted in recent years. Modern geochemical and geophysical techniques can alleviate this problem of concentrating on exposed ore bodies by allowing us to "look through" the soil and saprolite to detect the presence of significant mineralization at depth. This paper will attempt to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of several geochemical exploration techniques in the Piedmont province of Cabarrus and Stanly counties, N.C. The area chosen for study is shown in Fig. 1, lying almost wholly within the Mt. Pleasant quadrangle, N.C. The area is on the eastern boundary between the Charlotte belt, a zone of plutonic and intermediate grade metamorphic rocks, and the Carolina Slate belt, a series of complexly interbedded volcanic and sedimentary rocks of predominantly low metamorphic grade. The area is considered to be an early Paleozoic active, continental margin. 1 As is typical of most of the piedmont, outcrop is sparse. Figure 2 is a sketch map of the general geology of the area under study, showing the Charlotte belt rocks in the north-western quadrant and slate belt rocks to the east. Within the area are a number of old mines and prospects, the most famous of which are the Furniss and Phoenix mines in Cabarrus County. All are reported to have contained Au and Cu. Ag and Pb were reported from some. A summary of the deposits is given in Table 1.

Jan 6, 1979

By N. J. Themelis, R. V. Flint

In a four-year period between 1973-76, the Metal Mining Division of Kennecott Copper Corp. conducted a company-wide program of operations improvement which involved line and staff personnel from all company functions. Specialist teams performed detailed studies of all operational aspects at Kennecott's four copper mines and concentrators, four smelters, and two electrore-fineries. The specific recommendations that resulted may transform the Metal Mining Division into the country's lowest cost producer of copper by the mid-1980s. In this article, N. J. Themelis and R. V. Flint describe the mechanics of MMD's integrated approach to operations improvement.

Jan 6, 1979

By Lewis M. Cook, Robert H. Morse

The use of portable radon detectors has become routine in reconnaissance uranium surveys where water and sediment samples are analyzed in field labs for radon and radium, and in detailed work where drill hole locations are pinpointed by field determinations of radon in soil gas from shallow holes. During the drilling program itself, however, very few operators are taking advantage of radon and radium analyses to decide whether a barren drill hole was a near miss or whether the immediate area can be written off. The technique is effective both above and below the water table.

Jan 6, 1979

By T. M. Gurr

The United States is the world's leading producer of phosphate rock. In 1975 according to the US Bureau of Mines' statistics, 44.3 million tonnes (48.8 million st) of phosphate rock were produced in the United States, 1 which is 40.6% of the world's production.2 The major phosphate producing areas of the United States are located in Fig. 1 and the production for 1975 is listed as follows:

Jan 6, 1979

By Paul A. Bailly

Around 4500 B.C., the Pharaoh of Egypt ordered a military campaign to the Sinai Peninsula and the shores of the Red Sea, to search for copper deposits which Egypt needed for jewelry, vases and weapons.5 To my knowledge, this is the first recorded expedition aimed at the discovery of minerals. The diligent Egyptian soldier-prospectors made discoveries through visual detection and manual effort, the approach which has given us the bulk of our mines to date. In the Rio Tinto District of Spain where Roman miners followed the Phoenician traders, we find the first evidence of discovery of hidden ore bodies in the absence of mineralized outcrops. This is how Joralemon 13 describes these Roman discoveries to the southwest of the Rio Tinto hills, under the flat plain of Seville:

Jan 6, 1979

By R. L. Sandefur

Professor Kim's excellent review article1 on ultimate pit planning contains a statement of the apparently widely held but incorrect belief that "kriging provides information on the confidence limits around the estimate which no other extension technique is capable of supplying." If a geostatistical approach is valid, there are several good reasons for using kriging but uniquely provided confidence limits is not among them. If kriging is possible, then confidence limits can be calculated for any other linear estimate.

Jan 6, 1979

After a three-year period characterized by inflation, recession, depressed metal prices, lack of demand, enormous world inventories, and rapidly escalating costs, the Canadian mining industry is showing welcome signs of recovery. A rise in world metal prices and particularly strong demand for gold, uranium, and coal have stimulated the industry in early 1979. In this atmosphere of growing optimism, over 3000 mineral industry executives, economists, geologists, and mining and metallurgical engineers convened in Montreal, April 26-29, for Canada's largest mining convention, the Annual General Meeting of the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy.

Jan 6, 1979

By W. Joseph Schlitt, William D. Southard, Bruce P. Ream, Lawrence J. Haug

The operation of Kennecott's Bingham Canyon copper precipitation plant, one of the world's largest, is described. This description includes a brief historical review of precipitation at Bingham and the general layout and operation of the present cone cementation facility. Current practices are based on results of studies undertaken to define improvements needed in each unit operation. These improvements were required to meet changing plant conditions and were implemented primarily within the constraints of the existing facilities. Specific unit operations included were the cone precipitators, the cone discharge thickener, the cone effluent settling basins, and the plate and frame filter presses. As a result of these improvements, loss of precipitated copper decreased and the degree of precipitation increased, raising copper recovery by 9 t/d. At the same time, iron consumption was reduced by 22.5 t/d. Problems in drying the cement copper were also overcome so that a product containing 12 - 15% moisture could be consistently delivered for smelting.

Jan 6, 1979

Uranium was the prima donna of 1978, and the exploration pace was fast and furious in traditional uranium producing areas such as the Powder River Basin, Grants mineral belt, San Juan Basin, and Uravan mineral belt. Adding fuel to the fire were several significant discoveries: The Date Creek Basin of western Arizona, the McDermitt caldera of northern Nevada, and Tallahassee Creek in Colorado's intermontane basin. Advances in solution mining haw resulted in deeper drilling on the Texas Coastal Plain, and the price of uranium has encouraged widespread exploration in frontier areas and non-sandstone environments.

Jan 5, 1979

For the US coal industry, 1978 was a nightmarish recurrence of 1977 as the United Mine Workers strike cut into production during the first three months of 1978, followed by the strike against the Norfolk and Western Railway during the summer and early autumn. Coking coal production was floored by the one-two punch of environmental constraints on US coke ovens and competition from low-cost, high-quality imports. At the same time, US ex orts of coal fell to their lowest level since 1962. And in the face of all of this, steam coal consumption was sluggish as utilities burned huge amounts of oil to conserve coal stockpiles during the UMW strike. This was followed by decreased electrical demands due to mild summer weather in many parts of the country and dramatically improved availability of hydroelectric power.

Jan 5, 1979

Escalating energy costs and tough environmental standards were two major factors affecting the minerals processing area in 1978 For the most part, new startups and research and development initiatives were directed toward improving process dynamics, investigating alternative processing strategy, and lowering unit costs. In the flotation area, the trend to larger machines continued. Scientific investigation of the modeling and process control of flotation was apparent, as was the research and development of new flotation reagents.

Jan 5, 1979

Industrial minerals enjoyed a fairly successful year in 1978, despite the sluggish economy, inflation, and environmental restrictions. A glance at US Bureau of Mines statistics shows that, in general, production of industrial minerals increased from + 1% (salt) to as much as 26% (sulfur, other than Frasch or recovered). A few industrial minerals showed a decline; fluorspar production, for example, registered a 23% decrease in 1978 from 1977 due to the closing of three domestic mines. Bromine, natural sodium sulfate, Frasch sulfur, and vermiculite also had production decreases of 2-6% in 1978.

Jan 5, 1979

For the seventh consecutive year, the value of nonfuel mineral raw ma¬terials produced in the US set a new record, reaching almost $20 billion-up 12.7% from the previous year, according to the US Bureau of Mines. The Bureau reported that this mineral production was the basis for about $200 billion worth of processed materials of mineral origin.

Jan 5, 1979

By Immo H. Redeker

Abstract-North Carolina is the leading state in the US in lithium mineral production. Spodumene is mined in open Pits and concentrated by flotation by the two companies, Lithium Corp. of America and Foote Mineral Co. North Carolina State University has a mineral research laboratory in Asheville, N. C., with trained personnel, batch and pilot plant facilities to assist in the state's mineral development. The NCSU Minerals Research Laboratory assisted both lithium-producing companies with spodumene concentration problems and has lately worked closely with Lithium Corp. of America to develop the best flowsheet for spodumene and byproduct recovery. The concentration of North Carolina spodumene and byproducts from pegmatites is presented and illustrated with figures.

Jan 4, 1979

By Adrian C. Dorenfeld, John T. Oleksy

Fuel problems of two lesser developed countries (LDC 's) are presented. In particular, the paper reviews cement technology and the fuel-intensive cement industries of the Philippines and South Korea. Based on current financial and cost data, analyses are presented of the proposed substitution of high-sulfur and slow-sulfur American coal in place of fuel oil. The analyses show that economic substitution of coal for oil is not only based on relative prices for coal and oil, as expected, but also to be an inverse function of degree of intensity of energy use, and a direct function of financial incentives such as accelerated depreciation, taxes on the savings made by the use of coal, and cost of capital.

Jan 4, 1979

By P. S. Martin, B. J. Guarnera

As an energy source, lignite is short on selling points-it contains large amounts of moisture and often large amounts of ash, resulting in low heat content. The moisture produces rapid oxidation upon exposure and self-ignition commonly occurs within two to three weeks, resulting in major transportation and storage problems. Nevertheless, as interest in alternate fuel sources increases, lignite deposits in the Coastal Plain of the US are attracting more and more attention. Two lignite mines are operating in Texas and additional developments are planned in that state, Arkansas, and Louisiana. At present, Texas lignite is burned only at mine-mouth generating facilities, but more exotic uses such as gasification are projected in the future.

Jan 4, 1979

By R. N. Woody, S. J. Work

Crushing development at Duval Corp.'s Sierrita concentrator in Sahuarita, Ariz., has been a continuing effort since plant startup in January 1970. The original crushing system was designed to produce 65 000 t/d (72,000 stpd) of ore. However, in the summer of 1970 the Sierrita plant was averaging only 43 000 t/d (47,000 stpd) due to coarser than expected secondary crushing plant feed, lower than design crusher operating availability, and inability to achieve design tertiary crusher power draught at an acceptable hydraulic support pressure.

Jan 4, 1979

By Thomas E. Bruner

With drilling costs playing a pivotal role in the economics of most mineral exploration programs, there has been a significant effort over the past decade to trim expenditures in this area. One result of these cost-cutting measures has been the substantial shift to use of rotary drills. By the mid-1970's, rotary drilling accounted for six times as much footage as core drilling in exploration work. Among the various rotary drilling techniques, the use of dual-tube drilling for continuous sampling is attracting growing interest. Factors such as drilling speed and cost advantages, coupled with favorable comparisons between chip samples and solid core samples, have helped to spark this interest.

Jan 4, 1979

By F. Rosenblum, P. Spira, F. Kitzinger

The possibility of increasing the efficiency of mineral processing plants by means of computer control has prompted metallurgists to examine their flowsheets more critically in order to develop practical control strategies. Control schemes in use to date generally rely on the automation of traditional and previously manually regulated control loops, e.g., the addition of reagents to maintain a constant assay or a constant pH. This approach is predicated on the availability of well established primary sensors such as pH electrodes or on-stream analyzers. Noranda Research Center, in cooperation with Noranda Group concentrators, has developed a froth level monitor and a pulp density meter adaptable to this type of control. Although some of the basic principles on which they are based have been known for some time, their incorporation into the design of reliable, direct-reading instruments which can be interfaced with a computer is believed to be novel.

Jan 4, 1979

Roger A. Markle was sworn in as director of the US Bureau of Mines on September 27, 1978, ending a 20-month period during which the Bureau was without a leader. Some Bureau observers wondered out loud if this delay was a signal that Interior was slowly pulling the rug out from under the agency. When Markle was finally tapped for the director's position-coal industry executive to lead an agency that had been stripped of its fossil fuel R&D functions as well as its safety and health enforcement role--the speculation was fast and furious: One camp had it that Markle was brought in to phase out the Bureau; others said that Markle's directive was to revitalize the organization by charting a new Bureau course. In March, with the proposed Department of Natural Resources making headlines, ME went to Washington to interview Markle about his first six months as director and the goals he has set for the Bureau's future.

Jan 4, 1979