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By Francis T. Freeland

In the West many precious-metal mines are worked in patches by lessees, under conditions which closely resemble those of what is called " tribute-work" in Cornwall.* The company has its own foreman or inspector, and usually employs the engineman, blacksmith, pumpman, and perhaps other general workmen. As an inducement to work on a new piece of ground, where no ore is in sight, the company may advance a " footage"

Jan 1, 1896

By Francis L. Sperry

Up to within a few years, the consumption of nickel has been more directly dependent upon the available supply than that of any of the other useful metals. The Gap mine, in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania,* has been, for the last quarter of a century, the only property in this country furnishing nickel in paying quantities. Its yearly output was about 300,000 pounds of metallic nickel, or nearly half the amount used annually in the United States. Foreign nickel from mines on the New Caledonia islands, in the South Pacific, found entrance into our markets as the production of the Gap mine fell off. The price of nickel was constantly maintained, and no special effort was made to extend its use. Over-production was cautiously guarded against, and all surplus metal was held by the banking-houses of the Rothschilds, who assumed the bonded indebtedness of the Sociètè le Nickel. The opening of the Ontario nickel-mines has, however, brought about a radical change; and nickel from the Sudbury district can be delivered in New York within four days, and in European markets within two weeks, as against two months consumed in transporting South Pacific ores. Former prices have been irretrievably smashed, and European trade-journals comment favorably on the influence which Canadian nickel has had in making lower prices, and breaking the backbone of the " nickel trust." Production and Costs. The quantity of nickel produced and the prices which it commanded may be briefly summarized as follows: The total production of the world from 1840 to 1860 was about 100 to 250 tons yearly of metallic nickel; from 1860 to

Jan 1, 1896

By H. B. C. Nitze

Monazite is a phosphate of the rare earths, cerium, lantha num, and didymium (Ce, La, Di)PO,. It also contains thoria (Tho,) and silica, which are present in varying percentages, probably as impurities.

Jan 1, 1896

By William R. Webster

In view of the great interest now taken in the tests of castiron and details of foundry practice, with the number of investigators at work, and recent improvements in the methods of research, it would seem that the time is ripe to attempt the solution of some of the many problems with which iron founders have to contend. Recent papers and discussions on these subjects* have opened up s large field for investigation, and have emphasized the importance of many considerations generally overlooked. With the view of promoting a comprehensive and systematic discussion, I have attempted to tabulate, in conveilient form, some of the most important points for investigation, on the general plan suggested, with such good results, by our former President, H. M. Howe, for the discussion on the Physics of Steel, at the Virginia Beach meeting, last year. This table can, no doubt, be modified or enlarged to advantage, and put in shape to serve as a guide or reminder to all who are interested in this line of work. Suggested Lines for Discussion and Investigation. I.—Correspondence between chemical composition and melting point, fluidity, shrinkage, fracture, chill, micro-structure, and other physical properties. II.—Influence of: I. Cupola mixture, use of steel and other scrap, oxidized or clean material, 2. Manner of melting, flux, etc., 3. Casting temperature, A. Fracture. 4. Manner of handling melted metal and B. Micro-structure. method of casting, C. Physical properties. 5. Size and form of casting, D. Shrinkage. 6. Kind of mould, green sand (under dif- on 1 E. Chill. ferent conditions of ramming, amount F. Residual stress. of moisture, and skin-dried), dry sand, G. Condition and quan loam, and chills, tity of carbon and 7. Rate and mode of cooling castings, other elements. 8. Manner and temperature of heating for annealing, 9. Additions of nickel or aluminum,

Jan 1, 1896

By J. J. Ormsbee

Attempts at coal-washing have been made in the southern states during the last twenty years; but it is only within the last four or five years that the practice has become at all general. It might perhaps be claimed as one of the blessings derived from our departed " booms;" for, during their sway, the supply of coal of all qualities, good and bad, could not equal the demand; but, with the subsidence of the inflated demand, came imperative calls for fuels of better quality; and washers, previously regarded as luxuries, became necessities. Among those now in use in this section are representatives of the following types or classes: the trough washer; the jig washer; the percussive table; and those washers in which a constant upward current of water effects the separation. Without having full statistics, it is safe to say that there are in successful operation in the South more washers of the last class than of any of the others. The purpose of these notes is to present data with regard to the constructiOn, operation, and results of one of these current-washers, based mainly on the plant at No. 2 Slope, Pratt Mines, Alabama. The coal is mined from the well-known Pratt seam, having here an average thickness of 3 feet 6 inches. It has distinct cleavage-planes, and breaks in cuboidal lumps; is bright black in color, firm in structure, and air-slacks only after considerable exposure. It burns freely, leaving a gray or buff-colored ash. The lump- and nut-coals are used for domestic and steampurposes (chiefly, however, for locomotive firing), and the slack for making coke. The specific gravity is 1.272. Analyses of Pratt Coal. I. 11. 111. IV. Min. Resources Authority. Phillips. McCalley. of U. s.,1892. Lupton. Fixed carbon,. . 67.90 61.600 64.30 63.82 Volatile material,.. 29.80 31.480 32.08 31.85 Moisture,.,...... 1.508 1.07 1.02 Ash,.... 2.30 5.416 2.08 3.31 Sulphur,. .. 0.83 0.918 0.47 0.70

Jan 1, 1896

By E. T. Cox

The Albion phosphate-district embraces a territory about 4 miles wide and 6 miles long, in a northerly and southerly direction, situated in Levy county, Florida. The Florida Central and Peninsular railroad, running from Fernandina, a shipping port on the Atlantic, to Cedar Keys, on the Gulf of Mexico, passes through the center of the district. The post-office and railroad station is in the town of Albion. The physical features of the district present a series of white aqd whitish-gray sand-hills and ridges, rising about 130 feet above tide-water. The sand lies in a loose body, like that seen on the ocean beaches. In places the hills have the appearance of sand-dunes, such as are seen along the Platte river, in Nebraska. Beneath the sand are found the phosphate-deposits, which are partially exposed in places, but, for the most part, lie buried to a depth of 15 feet and more. In this district the phosphate is designated as " hard rock,"

Jan 1, 1896

By Richard W. Lodge

The following work, performed by Mr. W. A. Tucker, of the class of 1893, in the mining department of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, seems to me to be worthy of publication. I believe it has always been considered that the presence of arsenic especially interferes with the extraction of gold by the cyanide method. Mr. Tucker's work, although made on a laboratory scale, certainly seems to disprove this view, and to show that even with a very large percentage of arsenic present in the ore, a high extraction may be obtained without an excessive consumption of potassic cyanide. The ore from which the concentrates were obtained was a gray argillaceous schist. and slate, with stringers and veins of quartz running through it. It carried free gold and about 12 per cent. of sulphides. The ore was crushed with stamps; the free gold was collected in the ordinary way on silver-amalgamated copper plates; and the sulphides, which consisted chiefly of arsenopyrite and pyrite, with very small amounts of galena and chalcopyrite, were concentrated and collected by means of a Frue vanner. A carefully-taken sample gave: Gold,........6.17 ounces per ton. Arsenic,.......30.6 per cent. The latter figure would correspond to about 66.5 per cent,. of arsenopyrite in the concentrates. The work to be done was outlined as follows: 1. Sizing the concentrates; 2. Assaying the different sizings; 3. Treating these different sizings with ECy of different degrees of strength for different periods of time.

Jan 1, 1896

By Carl Henrich

The Ducktown copper-mines are located in the southeast corner of Tennessee. The name Ducktown was originally given to a district occupying the southeast corner of Polk county, which in turn occupies the southeast corner of the State. Fig. 1 is a map of the vicinity of Ducktown, taken from the topographical surveys of the United States Geological Survey. The Ducktown district is bounded on the east by Cherokee county, North Carolina (the boundary-line between the two States running here a little east of north along the western slope of Pack mountain), and on the west by the eastern foot-hills of Little Frog mountain. On the north, Stansbury mountain, really a chain of low mountains or hills, forms the dividing-line between Ducktown and Turtletown districts. On the south, the Ducktown district extends beyond the Ocoee river to the Georgia State line.. This line, in going west, gradually recedes southwards from that river into the foot-hills of Big Frog mountain, the highest mountain of the neighborhood, which rises about 4300 feet above sea-level, while the surface of the Ocoee river, where it leaves the Ducktown district, is less than 1500 feet above sea-level. It will be seen from this description, and from a study of the map, that the Ducktown district occupies the northern part of a kind of basin, bounded on the east by Pack mountain and on the west by Little and Big Frog mountains. Between these mountains the Ocoee river, draining the basin, cuts its way to the Hiwassee and the Tennessee rivers in a narrow gorge, through the crystalline slates and schists, which from their excellent exposure in this Ocoee gorge have received the local

Jan 1, 1896

By H. O. Hofman

The mining and metallurgical laboratory, as we understand the term in this country, is a place .in which mechanical and chemical working-tests are made on ores, fuels and furnacematerials. It is of quite recent origin. The first laboratory of this kind to be used in connection with teaching was put into operation in 1871 at the Massachusetts Institute of Techilo1ogy. † The idea had already existed in the mind of President W. B. Rogers when he wrote, in 1864, his pamphlet 'on " The Scope and Plan of the School of Industrial Science of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology;" but several years elapsed, and an extended visit to the mines and mills of Colorado, Utah, Nevada and California was required before this idea could take a form adapted to the purposes of original research as well as of instruction. The laboratory was given from the first into the charge of Prof. R. H. Richards, who, by improving its methods and enlarging its scope, has brought it to the position which it occupies to-day as the leading representative of its class. Private laboratories for making tests upon ores had previously existed here and there, especially on the Pacific coast, for silver and gold ores; but in the educational field the

Jan 1, 1896

By E. W. Codington

The pebble-phosphates of Florida occur in a district roughly bounded on the north by the 28th parallel, on the east by an irregular line running a few miles east of Peace river and on the west by the Gulf of Mexico, and covering an area of about 4000 square miles. There seems to be no reason why the deposits should not extend farther south along the gulf coast. That section remains unprospected, transportation-facilities being non-existent. It is not intended in this paper to discuss the geology of these formations; but a word as to their probable origin will be perhaps the best method of giving a correct idea of their present position. Starting with a low, flat surface, with even less of superficial undulation than appears at present, an im-

Jan 1, 1896

By G. M. Wells

A view of the map of Floridat shows the phosphate-deposits to lie on the western side of the State, extending southward over

Jan 1, 1896

By Willard S. Morse

The purpose of this paper is to record the results obtained in the use of the Russell process at Aspen, Colo., covering a period of fourteen months, from November, 1891, to December, 1892, during which time over 30,000 tons of ore, purchased outright, on sample and assay, were treated. No explanation of results will be attempted, nor will the chemistry of the process be discussed. The plant was designed by C. A. Stetefeldt, of San Francisco, and built by the owners by day-labor. The entire plant is run by water-power, supplied by a flume 3600 feet long, and a pipe-line 2200 feet long, with a head of 170 feet. A Pelton water-wheel, 8 feet in diameter, is used, from which power is transmitted by wire-rope to the main counter-shaft in the mill, a distance of about 250 feet. From the mill to the samplingworks, about 150 feet, power is also transmitted by a wirerope. A Pelton water-wheel, 3 feet in diameter, supplies power to the dynamo for lighting the plant. The works are located adjoining the Santa Fe railroad tracks, and all ore and supplies are unloaded directly from the cars to the works. The sampling-works are provided with crushers and rolls, the latter being used only on samples, and not on the entire ore. The Cornish hand-quartering method is used in sampling ore for purchase. After crushing and sampling, the ore goes to the bedding-floor, where it is made up into mixtures suitable for the mill. The drying-plant consists of four Stetefeldt double shelfdryers, six shelves high, and is provided with dust-chambers and a stack 65 feet high for draft. These dryers are fired with gas

Jan 1, 1896

By Walter Renton Ingalls

The ores of zinc which are important as sources of that metal are of two classes, viz., the sulphide and the oxidized. The latter includes six varieties: zincite (the red oxide) and franklinite (the oxide of zinc, iron, and manganese), which are found abundantly only in New Jersey; and the hydrous and anhydrous carbonates, the hydrous and anhydrous silicates, which are of widespread occurrence. The hydrous carbonate is known mineralogically as hydrozincite, zinconise, or zinc-bloom; the anhydrous silicate is recognized as willemite. With respect to the anhydrous carbonate and the hydrous silicate, however, there is a confusion of name which is of old standing. Attempts to clear it away were long ago made by the mineralogists with the result that there is now a more or less national uniformity of nomenclature; but there is still an international disagreement, sometimes very perplexing and always leading to inexactness in expression, which may be considered an adequate excuse for this return to a time-worn subject. The name calamine, together with Galmei of the Germans, is commonly supposed to be derived from xadµela, which was used by the Greeks to designate the peculiar kind of ore employed with copper in their brass-making, and also the accretions which formed in the brass-founder's furnaces. Agricola, however, says that it is from calamm, a reed, in allusion to the appearance of the material, cadmia fornacum, which collected 011 the furnace-walls. But whatever the derivation of the word, it was used until within one hundred years to include all the oxidized

Jan 1, 1896

By George S. Ramsay

The Appalachian system contains the largest area of all known Carboniferous coal-fields. Beginning near the north line dividing Pennsylvania and New York, it extends southwest through West Virginia, southeastern Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee and terminates in Alabama—a distance of about 950 miles. The northeastern part of this field will be considered in this paper. The general dips of the measures are toward a trough about parallel to the Ohio river, from the Allegheny mountains and ridges on the west. The Potonlac field is an exception; the dip in this case being northeast, the folding to the east of the Allegheny mountains in Pennsylvania being of a greater degree and diminishing southwestward. The cause of the general dip to the west of the mountains seems to be the westward movement of the thrust east of the mountains, with the large Nittany fold including other folds to the east of the escarpment, raising the mountains high above the coal-fields to the west, making a general slope toward the Ohio river southwest, and crossing waves of anticlinals west ward. The synclinals contain the coals, while in many cases on the top of the folds or anticlinals some of the veins (or, in some cases, all) are eroded. The Coal-Measures of this field are generally divided into three principal divisions, known as the Upper, the Barren, and the Lower Coal-Measures, but there is a tendency to divide them into five groups, which is more convenient. Beginning at the bottom, the first would be the Conglomerate ; second, the Lower Coal-Measures; third, the Barren; fourth, the Upper Coal-Measures, and fifth, the Upper Barren or Permian Measures.

Jan 1, 1896

By C. W. Merrill

The cyanide process in the United States, notwithstanding numerous failures made under the direction of the owners of the patent-rights, and others, has now passed its experimeiital stage, and can, undoubtedly, be made successful when intelligently applied to suitable material. Much, however, remains to be known as to the exact conditions under which this process is applicable to the treatment of gold-bearing ores. If the owners of the patent-rights in this country have ever scientifically investigated the matter, they have never published any valuable informatioil on the subject. Other parties who are now using the process (often independently of the patentees), have nothing to gain by publishing their experience; and, moreover, many of the chemical reactions described in the text-books refer to the use of solutions of potassium cyanide many times stronger than are used in the metallurgical process.

Jan 1, 1896

By Walter Renton Ingalls

Vague references to tin-deposits in Mexico are scattered throughout technical literature, and that country has been looked to as a likely source of a part of the world's supply of till at no very distant date; but thus far nothing but occasional small lots have come forward, so that the notion has arisen that these mines are either mythical or unworkable. So far as I am aware, there has not yet been published any description of the tin-deposits of Mexico except a few brief references; and this paper, based on a study of them made in 1892, is therefore offered.

Jan 1, 1896

By Charles Willard Hayes

Shortly after the discovery of black phosphate on Swan creek, in Hickman county, Tennessee, prospectors familiar with the Florida phosphate came to the region and began the search for rock similar to that found in Florida. Among these was Mr. E. Slattery, who located at Linden, in Perry county. He gave a piece of the Florida rock to Mr. C. C. Sutton, and the latter discovered on Tom's creek a deposit which bore a strong

Jan 1, 1896

By Richard W. Lodge

Mr. H. R. Batcheller, of the class of 1894, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, while experimenting with chlorine gas on a certain lot of roasted concentrates, met with the following difficulties: 1. A poor extraction of the gold. 2. A very large consumption of chlorine gas. 3. Inability to precipitate all of the gold from the solutioil containing the AuC1,. 4. The bullion obtained was very base. These difficulties were the same whether the chlorine was generated from H2SO47 MnO29 and salt, or whether H2SO, and bleaching powder were used. They may be accounted for partly by the presence of some arsenic left in the roasted ore, and partly by the presence of copper in the solution containing the AuCI3. It was therefore suggested to try the effect of bromine on a similar lot of ore. The use of this element is, of course, nothing new, but in the following experiments it seemed to present many advantages over chlorine. The material worked upon consisted of some concentrates containing 2.31 ounces of gold per ton, and 34.26 per cent. of arsenic, which would correspoild to about 74.4 per cent. Of

Jan 1, 1896

By Richard F. McFarlin

INTRODUCTION Phosphate, one of the three major elements essential for all living plants and animals, has been mined in Florida for over a hundred years. Comprising roughly 80% of the U.S. total and 25% of the world's supply, the bulk of the 35 to 40 million annual ton output is converted to chemical fertilizers. With the exception of one mine in north Florida near the Georgia state line, today's mining activities are centered in the middle of the peninsula just east/southeast of Tampa in Polk, Hillsborough and Hardee counties. These "bone valley" deposits extend into Manatee and DeSoto counties, but there is little active mining there as yet. Because strip mining is, perhaps, the ultimate environmental insult and because Florida has a proactive environmental community, it is not surprising that the mining of phosphate rock has become increasingly controversial. This paper describes how phosphate rock is currently mined, the environmental problems presented by mining and processing the rock, and some mitigating technologies being employed to answer such problems. THE PHOSPHATE DEPOSIT AND ITS EXTRACTION Florida's phosphate deposits containing the calcium phosphate mineral, carbonate-fluorapatite, are between ten and fifteen million years old. The typical "bone valley" matrix is 15 feet thick and lies under 20 to 30 feet of overburden.(Fig. 1) Both the sandy overburden and matrix are unconsolidated and can be removed with standard 45 to 65 cubic yard, walking electric draglines. After removing the overburden, which is windrowed nearby, the dragline operator casts the matrix into a "slurry" pit where it is broken up by high pressure water monitors. Pit pumps (with boosters where necessary) transport the matrix slurry through 16 to 20 inch pipelines to a washer where the three components of the matrix (sand, clay and apatite) are separated. The phosphates contained in central Florida matrix are approximately half pebble/half flotation feed, through the pebble ratio decreases as the industry mines southward. Again, the matrix is roughly equally divided among sand, clays and apatite. The phosphatic clays, 75% of which are less than one micron in size, leave the washer as a 3 to 5% colloidal suspension. The impoundment of these waste clays is one of the environmental challenges to be discussed later. The sand (silica) is separated from the similarly sized phosphate particles by a double float process (fatty acid followed by a reverse mine or cleaner float), and the sand tailings are then pumped to disposal or reclamation sites. The apatite flotation product is combined with the screened phosphate pebbles and stacked to dewater before shipping.

Jan 1, 1992

By Bruce Congleton

One year ago this month, we in Central Florida witnessed the beginning of a most exciting and glamorous attraction. After three years of construction and anticipation, Walt Disney World opened its gates near Orlando and during its first year of operation received a flood of over 10 million visitors---half of all who came to Florida last year! The side effects of this newest addition to Florida have been phenomenal. Traffic on heavy days has been backed up for 30 miles from the amusement park along a major interstate highway. Hotels and motels have been jammed packed for months, and reservations are still difficult to make. Gasoline stations, restaurants and souvenir shops are doing a booming business. Everywhere you look as you ride the highways of Central Florida you see the signs of growth. New hotels spring up almost overnight. Golf courses galore. New housing projects and apartments sprawl where orange groves used to be. New roads criss-cross areas which were once deserted. There seems to be no end to the steady influx of tourists and new residents to the Sunshine State. And it's mainly because that we are the Sunshine State that they come. Air and water pollution is and has been at a minimum in Florida. Pollution and emissions are fighting words among some groups dedicated to preserving the bountiful environment we share in Florida. Little wonder then that some of these people display concern when they learn that just 50 miles from the entrance to the Magic Kingdom of Disney, phosphate draglines strip away thousands of acres of land each year to extract one of our nation's most precious

Jan 1, 1972