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By T. M. Morris

The forces acting between a small rod, one end of which was made water repellent, adhering to a much larger air bubble in water were measured. An equation is deduced which correlates these forces and the influence of each force is discussed. The importance of the size of bubbles in a flotation cell is emphasized.

Jan 1, 1950

By Victor Rudenno

Feasibility studies for mining projects traditionally involve in their final stages a lengthy process of repetitive trial and error discounting, in calculating the discounted cash flow rate of return resulting from the respective yearly after-tax cash flows. Also, probability analysis and sensitivity analysis (in particular) require extensive additional calculations with each change of any project parameter . These inefficient repetitive procedures have two unacceptable results: 1. they are not flexible enough to allow ready analysis of dependent parameters , and 2. they require resort to high-capacity centralised computing facilities with their inherent impersonality, rather than a convenient and available desk calculator - a factor of particular importance to top mining management. Such problems can be overcome if the mining project can be represented by a reasonable straightforward mathematical economic model. The most flexible and appropriate model has been found to be one in which a maximum and minimum value for each of n parameters are supplied to a program which determines a large number of systematic combinations of parameter events and then statistically analyses them to determine the resulting coefficients of the model. In this paper the authors discuss the selection of the most appropriate type of model and outline the steps followed in its development and application.

Jan 1, 1977

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

By David A. Summers, Clark R. Barker, Marian Mazurkiewicz

In May 1975 the U.S. Bureau of Mines contracted with the University of Missouri-Rolla, Rock Mechanics and Explosives Research Center to develop a Hydrominer modification to a longwall shearer unit, wherein the rotating pick-laced drums and connecting gear drives are replaced by a water jet cutting ahead.1 The concept of the water jet cutting head is based on using the high localized energy of the water jets to isolate a slice of coal by cutting a slot under, at the back of, and at the top of the web. The plow blade of the head then advances into the cut and wedges the coal cantilever over onto the conveyor (Fig. 1).

Jan 4, 1978

By J. J. Bowman

The term "secondary aluminum" frequently is used loosely and often is considered synonomous with "inferior quality." Under war conditions, when every pound of material must contribute its share to the job at hand, this type of thinking is most unfortunate. Actually, given a supply of segregated scrap, an experienced smelter can produce remelted ingot of good quality, comparing closely to the analysis of the original material, and of considerable value of the war effort. The alloys he can produce are, of course, somewhat controlled by the analysis of the available scrap and, by the very nature of things, some of his production is not suitable for indiscriminate use. However, remelted scrap ingot provided about 273,2 per cent of this country's domestically-produced 1942 aluminum supply and probably will comprise about 39 per cent of the 1943 supply. (Canadian production is excluded from these figures.) That this part of the supply remains important is indicated by a recent report that "requirements" for the second quarter of this year were about 14 per cent greater than the supply, even though that supply will be almost twice the prewar annual production. (And those requirements, incidentally, were prepared after many conservation measures had been taken into account.) Since W. Bonsack recently has published a paper2 on the effects of the various alloying elements and impurities on the properties of aluminum, and such con¬siderations really are the important ones in a discussion of the metallurgy of secondary aluminum, it is planned to restrict this discussion more to a consideration of the sources, general characteristics and possible uses of these materials. For the purpose of this discussion, mill (or run-around) scrap may be disregarded and only plant scrap and obsolete scrap considered. Plant scrap, of course, is that scrap which is generated during the production of some part or assembly from a fabricated form of aluminum, such as sheet, tubing, forgings, castings or the like, and it may consist of solids (including rejected parts or subassemblies) or of machinings. To the extent that the several alloys are effectively segregated and the material is properly identified, the composition after remelting can be rather closely controlled or predicted. Obsolete scrap, on the other hand, is the "junk" which accumulates because of the wearing out or breakage of some piece of equipment. Although it is almost always in the form of solids, the accumulation includes many different alloys (often in the same assembly) and may include a considerable amount of nonaluminum material. The "metallics" recovered from drosses also contribute a portion of this class of material. The composition after remelting, therefore, may vary over rather wide limits and can not be very accurately predicted in any specific instance. SEGREGATION OF PLANT SCRAP Unfortunately, perhaps, it was not very common practice before the war to

Jan 1, 1943

By James T. Kemp

AN historical society of particular interest to mining engineers all over the world was born in Cornwall in 1935. A hundred-year-old winding engine then finished its long labors at the Levant mine on the cliffs near Lands End, England. The engine was to be dismantled and scrapped. A few men living near-by, appreciating that this event was one of the final acts in closing a long century of extraordinary mining and engineering evolution. armed a committee to prevent the destruction of the old mine hoist and succeeded in purchasing the engine. They restored the engine house and in time arranged with the Manor of Trewellard, owners of the land, for a 99-year ground lease on a peppercorn rental.

Jan 1, 1947

By James Norman, O. C. Ralston, John Dasher

MOST mineral products are used in the finely divided state, but some are sold in larger sizes. Coal, gravel, metallurgical fluorspar, phosphate rock, hematite, chromite, and other products are sold in sizes coarser than can be treated by many mineral-dressing methods. Gravity separation of coarser sizes by log washing and jigging is probably as ancient as any process now in use. The performance of jigs on a feed with sufficient difference in density of the minerals is excellent, but many families of minerals are too similar in density to be separated effectively by this method. The use of heavy suspensions of fine solids to separate coarse coal from bone and slate has been in use for some years. This separation by sink-and-float was limited until recently to light minerals. Development of galena and ferrosilicon as suspension media, by Minerals Beneficiation, Inc., at Mascot, Tenn., Pitcher, Okla., and Crosby, Minn., under patents granted during and since 1938, has permitted excellent results to be obtained on minerals of very similar densities up to 3.3. This process has been put in the hands of American Cyanamid Co. for exploitation, and further research now in progress may increase the density of suspension obtainable so that separation, at a density of 4,0 may be practicable before this is published. The Huntington-Heberlein dense-medium process, developed in England, is also being commercialized in the United States by Sink and Float Corporation. Du Pont has developed a sink-and-float separation using halogenated hydrocarbons as parting liquids; at this writing, the method is used commercially only on coal but has been successful in the pilot plant on many other minerals using tetrabromethane at densities up to 2.95. While these processes were being developed to extend the range of separation by difference in density to the coarser sizes, the Bureau of Mines was engaged in developing a process that will extend the range of separation by difference in wettability up to 2-in, size. War work has pushed aside its further development indefinitely. The results are published here with the hope that some use may be suggested that will justify post-war development, and so that readers that may be able to make immediate use of the scheme may have the information. EARLIER WORK It has been known since the time of Herodotus (B.C. 484(?)-425) that water-repellent particles will adhere to sticky surfaces. That early historian reports the

Jan 1, 1942

By Robert L. Thoms, Joseph D. Martinez

The development of Gulf Coast salt domes thus far, although enormously successful and productive, has proceeded in an unscheduled fashion governed by events rather than by a comprehensive plan. Motivation for the sequential progress of exploitation has included mineral discoveries, inventions, technological improvements, new needs, and a dynamic economy. Although it is too late to implement a plan for the entire cycle of exploitation of this resource, it would seem advisable to introduce now a system concept for further development. Viewed from this perspective, general determinative parameters should include economic, environmental, logistical, technical, and resource considerations, and more fundamentally, basic societal goals. Experience gained from planning in the Gulf Coast should provide guidelines for use elsewhere in the world.

Jan 1, 1981

By J. G. Savins

Analytical procedures are described for optimizing the selection of a rheological model when it is desired to express the functional relationship between true shearrate and shearing stress in analytical form. The procedures are extended to two principal model categories — "Generalized Newtonian" and "Viscoplastic" models. Graphical examples are presented to illustrate the utility of certain characteristic deriuative functions in distinguishing between these categories and in determining how well a particular model reflects the flow behavior of rheologically anomalous materials in simple shearing flows. INTRODUCTION Modern drilling fluids and fracturing fluids, being chemically complex, are frequently non-Newtonian — a peculiarity which complicates the solution of problems such as designing flowline and process equipment, and predicting laminar-turbulent behavior, solid-suspending ability and cutting-transport efficiency. Therefore, techniques of data analysis which accurately characterize the behavior of rheologically complex materials are needed for the accurate formulation of solutions of these and similar problems. It is the purpose of this paper to describe the application of a sensitive method of rheological data analysis — the dual differentiation-integration method of optimizing the selection of the functional relation between shear rate and shearing stress — to a variety of materials of interest in drilling and production practices. BASIC CONCEPTS THE DIFFERENTIATION METHOD To a first approximation, the viscosity function for a non-Newtonian system can be expressed in a form analogous to Newton's law of viscosity by the following generalization2.3 between the stress On introducing the restrictions that the system is incompressible and the motion is rectilinear, then l = 0 and l3 = 0 ; and with the further restriction that the flow is slip-free, the viscosity (an invariant) is then determined solely by 12. With this approach one can set up a suite of integral equations relating observed kinematical and dynamical parameters for certain types of flow experiments involving simple shearing motion, e.g., flow in a cylindrical tube, flow between rotating concentric cylinders, and flow between fixed parallel surfaces of large aspect ratio. Taken in the order cited, these integral equations are as follows.

The American Institute of Mining Engineers, the second of the four great national engineering societies established in the United States, was organized in 15,71. Its membership is composed of men engaged in the different branches of mining, metallurgy, geology, and chemistry. It includes both those who have worked their way up from the ranks and graduates from mining schools and universities, and at all times has counted in its membership leading technical educators. By a letter ballot of the members of the Institute, it was voted, at the annual business meeting of the Institute on February 18, 1919, to change the name of the American Institute of Mining Engineers to the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers. The vote for the amendment to the Constitution making this change was a heavy one for such matters. It is the consensus of opinion that this marks an epoch in the history and usefulness of this Institute, and it is expected that the change will presage a large and healthy growth in metallurgical fields. Many metallurgists who knew nothing about min¬ing were loath to join a society of mining engineers, despite the fact that over 35 per cent. of the papers published in our Transactions during the past five years have dealt with metallurgical subjects.

Jan 1, 1923

ALTHOUGH iron ores occur in many parts of Sweden the two principal deposits are those at Grängesberg (see accompanying map) and at Kiirunavaara-Gellivare. Both of these deposits are con-trolled by a holding company, Trajikaktiebolaget Grängesberg-Oxelösund, which sells annually about one-half of, the iron in ore traded in world markets and has a fleet of 24 seagoing ore boats, with a total dead weight capacity of 172,500 tons. Because of its pre-eminence in international iron ore trade a brief outline of its operations will be of interest. ORE DEPOSITS OF GRÄNGESBERG The Grängesberg deposits have been known since the Middle Ages, but up to the middle of the nineteenth century the ore was transported from the mines to the furnaces in winter in. sleighs. Railway building began in 1853, and in 1873 the complicated structure of capital investment was tottering, but the basic bessemer process created a demand for ore high in phosphorus, as this is, and refinancing on the initiative of Sir Ernest Cassel put the principal operation on a firm footing. There are numerous property owners in the district, but they are all controlled by a joint administration board, and 90 per cent of the ore is produced by a subsidiary of the Grängesberg company from proper-ties which it either owns or leases. The ore, a mixture of magnetite and specular hematite, is in lenticular bodies, dipping about 70 E. in. fine-grained gneiss, and contains about 61 per cent Fe and 1 per. cent. P. There are two principal veins; the total ore reserves to a depth of 500 meters are estimated at 150,000,000 tons. As seen in the accompanying illustration, the ores were first worked in open cuts, but eventually underground shrinkage stoping was adopted. Difficulties were encountered in the support of the workings and from the freezing of the ore in the stopes, so slicing was adopted, although block-caving is used in one place. Most of the mining is now done at a depth "of 150 to 190 meters. The present annual output is about 1,400,-000 tons of crude ore, which yields about 1,000,000 tons of concentrate after being subjected to magnetic con-centration and jigging.

Jan 1, 1927

By A. G. Journel

Accurate prediction of recoverable reserves are key to the development and planning of a mining operation. Recovery functions for tonnage, quantity of metal, and ore grade are defined and two approaches for their estimation are proposed. The indicator kriging (IK) approach draws on the data rank orders, whereas the multigaussian (MG) approach relies on a grade multivariate distribution hypothesis. Although based on different premises, both approaches yield remarkably similar, and reasonably accurate, estimates for recoverable reserves.

Jan 1, 1986

By P. D. I. Honeyman

Changing trends in concentration, involving regrinding with the subsequent production of a finely divided, high-grade flotation product, presents a real problem to the modern copper smelter. In the treatment of such a material, handling difficulties are numerous and potential possible losses may be very great. In many plants, of course, preliminary roasting of the furnace charge remains an economical necessity. Under such circumstances, the operator has no alternative except to follow orthodox roaster reverberatory practice, though taking all possible precautions to avoid excessive dust losses and bad working conditions. In other plants, roasting is not only unnecessary but would be highly undesirable, and at best the charge would be merely dried before entering the reverberatory furnace. In the latter case the possibilities of raw charging loom large. The Miami plant of the International Smelting Co. handles the entire output of concentrates of the several mining companies operating in the Globe-Miami district. All of these companies produce a flotation concentrate which, at the Miami Copper Co. particularly, is all reground and is high in grade. In addition, the Inspiration Copper Co. ships a substantial tonnage of high-grade cement copper to the smelter from its leaching plant. Following the flow sheet of the original plant, all such material received was bedded, dried in Wedge furnaces and smelted in reverberatory furnaces. At times during the history of the plant it has been necessary to carry the drying operation further, to a partial roast, before reverberatory smelting. Since the charge contained over 80 per cent flotation concentrates, the handling of which in a dried condition was at best a dusty job, unusual precautions were taken to cut down dust losses. The Wedge furnace plant was equipped with a Cottrell treater and all hoppers and calcine cars were carefully designed to cut down dust loss in transferring the so-called calcine from hoppers to car and from car to furnace. In the furnace itself the dusting problem was a severe one. Arch erosion was very rapid and flues and waste-heat boilers rapidly filled up with a partly smelted flue dust.

Jan 1, 1934

By W. M. Tuddenham, R. J. P. Lyon

In many areas surrounding the orebodies in mining districts rocks have been bleached and altered by the ore-forming solutions and have been oxidized during later weathering processes. A number of the rock-forming silic-ates have been broken down to clay, sericitic micas and chlorites have been developed, and pyrite may be found hundreds of feet outside the economic limits of the orebody. These halos of altered ground are prime targets used by geologists in many districts to delineate promising sites for drilling. Both in the field and in the laboratory it is often difficult to map these mineralogical changes in the halos in detail without numerous petrologic examinations. The secondary minerals are generally fine-grained, and since conversion of one mineral to another is often progressive, many alteration processes have not proceeded to completion (feldspars to clay to sericite mica). Qualitative detection of these minerals is difficult; quantitative determination is frequently impossible.

Jan 1, 1960

By J. A. Fulton, A. B. Foote

Gold was discovered in the Sierra Nevada by J. W. Marshall on Jan. 2, 1848. The town of Grass Valley soon sprang up and contained several stores in 1849; but the population of the town has always reflected the fluctuations in quartz mining. Gold-bearing quartz was found on Gold Hill in September 1850, and in the next two years most of the quartz-bearing veins in the vicinity were located. At first, the quartz was crushed in mortars with spring poles; the IIuff Co. took out $20,000 in this manner during the winter and spring of 1851. The first mill was put up in January, 1851. In 1866, there were in Grass Valley 248 stamps, crushing 71,420 tons of ore with an average yield of $30 to $35; in Nevada City, there were 142 stamps, crushing 14,200 tons, with an average value of $25. Rut in 1918, only two properties in this region, the Empire and the Korth Star, were producing Since then, there has been a revival of mining in the district and the following properties are being opened up: The Golden Center. Grass Valley Gold Mines Co.. Idaho-Maryland Mines Co., while the Su1tana is kept unmatered and work is going on in a half dozen mall propertics Mining Claims At the first meeting of miners in Grass Valley, Jan. 13. 1851, a plot :30 by 40 ft. was allowed for a claim, the boundaries in all cases being perpendicular. In 1852, the quartz miners in Nevada County deeided that "each prospector shall hereafter be entitled to 100 ft. on a quartz ledge or vein and the discoverer shall be allowed 100 ft. additional. Fach claim shall include all the dips, angles, and variations of the vcin." This rule was in force until replaced by the Federal mining laws of 1872; these allowed quartz claims to be 1500 ft along the vein, with all the dips, spurs, and angles, and to have a width of 600 ft. The holdings of the principal companies consist of these early patented mining claims; standard claims, as authorized by the Act of 1872, both patented and unpatented; agricultural tracts, both patented and

Jan 1, 1927

By Fred C. Bond

DISCUSSION Milton C. Shaw and Donald R. Walker (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)—For many years the two empirical rules of comminution bearing the names of Rittinger and Kick have been applied to grinding processes to account for the energy required to crush brittle materials. The basis for Rittinger's rule was the thought that the energy to grind a substance went largely into supplying the additional energy associated with the new free surface, while Kick's law was prompted by the concept of dimensional similarity and is a special statement of the concept of constancy of strain energy to cause rupture. According to Rittinger the energy to grind a given volume varies as the change in the square of the mean particle size, v - A (D2), while according to Kick this energy varies

Jan 1, 1953

By Fred C. Bond

DISCUSSION Milton C. Shaw and Donald R. Walker (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)—For many years the two empirical rules of comminution bearing the names of Rittinger and Kick have been applied to grinding processes to account for the energy required to crush brittle materials. The basis for Rittinger's rule was the thought that the energy to grind a substance went largely into supplying the additional energy associated with the new free surface, while Kick's law was prompted by the concept of dimensional similarity and is a special statement of the concept of constancy of strain energy to cause rupture. According to Rittinger the energy to grind a given volume varies as the change in the square of the mean particle size, v - A (D2), while according to Kick this energy varies

Jan 1, 1953

By O. C. Wheeler

Production in Colombia attained a new high during 1940 when it reached a total of 25,607,976 bbl. Of this amount, the Tropical Oil Co. produced 21;426,492 bbl., including 268,586 bbl. of petroleum condensate, and the Cololmbian Petroleum Co. produced 4,181,484 bbl. from its Barco property. The wildcatting program of different companies in the Magdalena Valley that was initiated during the previous year was continued but with results that were decidedly disappointing. Ten wells were drilled in the Magdalena Valley between the approximate latitudes of Puerto Wilches and Puerto Berrio and nine of these were dry; the tenth was a small producer of no commercial importance. The prospects of finding new fields in the Magdalena Valley thus received a serious setback, since some of the tests drilled were on well developed surface structures. The prospects of the Valley, however, have by no means been exhausted and drilling operations are being continued on other prospects. One additional wildcat was drilled outside the Magdalena Valley on the Colombian Petroleum Company's Barco Concession, which brought to 11 the total number of wildcats drilled in Colom-bia during the year. This well, known as

Jan 1, 1941

By James A. Carney

The quality of water for steam boilers is a serious question in Illinois, and has been the occasion of many investigations, undertaken either for the discovery of sources of a better supply, or for the purification of the supplies already at hand. LOCATION OF SUPPLIES. The sources of supply of which this paper treats lie along the right of way of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad Company, and form a nearly straight line from Chicago, Illinois, on Lake Michigan, to Burlington, Iowa, on the Mississippi River. The supplies consist of surface-, ground- and deep well-waters ; their locations are given in Fig. 1, which is adapted from a map of Illinois published by the Illinois Railroad Commissioners. The influence of the geological formation on the water-supply of Illinois is fully treated in an article in the Seventeenth Annual Report of the U. S. Geological Survey by Mr. Frank Leverett, entitled, " The Water-Resources of Illinois." It is not the purpose of this paper to introduce a geological discussion; and

Jan 1, 1898

By O. C. Wheeler

Production in Colombia attained a new high during 1940 when it reached a total of 25,607,976 bbl. Of this amount, the Tropical Oil Co. produced 21;426,492 bbl., including 268,586 bbl. of petroleum condensate, and the Cololmbian Petroleum Co. produced 4,181,484 bbl. from its Barco property. The wildcatting program of different companies in the Magdalena Valley that was initiated during the previous year was continued but with results that were decidedly disappointing. Ten wells were drilled in the Magdalena Valley between the approximate latitudes of Puerto Wilches and Puerto Berrio and nine of these were dry; the tenth was a small producer of no commercial importance. The prospects of finding new fields in the Magdalena Valley thus received a serious setback, since some of the tests drilled were on well developed surface structures. The prospects of the Valley, however, have by no means been exhausted and drilling operations are being continued on other prospects. One additional wildcat was drilled outside the Magdalena Valley on the Colombian Petroleum Company's Barco Concession, which brought to 11 the total number of wildcats drilled in Colom-bia during the year. This well, known as

Jan 1, 1941