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By John E. Conley

THE slate industry of the United States has shown a marked decline in value of products made annually since the peak year 1925, although there has been moderate improvement over the lean years 1932 to 1934. In 1940, the value of all slate products sold was approximately 5 ¾ million dollars for a total output of 473,450 short tons. The quantity sold was a little less and the value a great deal lower than the annual averages for the past two decades. Enormous quantities of waste materials result from the quarrying, splitting and milling of slate. Obviously, utilization of such waste material is desirable, not only from the viewpoint of economical operation but also for the purpose of conserving natural resources. One possible use is to produce expanded or puffed lightweight aggregate for use in concretes. Such concretes are strong enough for specific uses, and the advantage of lightness could be obtained in such structures as the walls and roofs of buildings, suspension-bridge roadways and various other applications where weight is a factor. Conceivably, these uses could consume an appreciable annual tonnage. USE OF WASTE SLATES FOR MAKING AGGREGATES The lightweight-aggregate industry has been discussed elsewhere4.5 and need not be covered in detail in this paper. The materials commonly utilized are naturally occurring aggregates such as volcanic cinder, tuff and pumice; by-product materials, such as ordinary cinders and air-cooled slags; and the specially manufactured products, including Haydite, Pottsco, Gravelite, Cel-seal, Superock and Waylite. Slates, however, have not been given the consideration they merit, especially in the United States. In the British Isles, some work has been done3 on certain Welsh slates by the Building Research Station to stimulate the use of these wastes. REQUIREMENTS FOR RAW MATERIALS As pointed out by Hughes,4 the light-weight-aggregate industry is segregated in regions adjacent to large cities in order to localize the market and avoid the necessity of long freight haulage. Waste slate from the deposits of eastern Pennsylvania, northern Maryland, and Virginia would meet the basic requirement of any low-priced structural raw material. One apparent advantage is attained when slate waste, normally discarded, is utilized in the manufacture of a by-product. Mining or quarrying costs usually have been assessed against the main product. Some additional grinding might be desirable, but this operation would be relatively cheap, as most slates grind easily. It is believed that virtually all slates, when properly heated, will expand to some degree. However, types that will expand from 3 to 7 times their original volume are preferred. Fig. I illustrates the expansion of a Pennsylvania slate. The cube originally

Jan 1, 1942

By John E. Conley

THE slate industry of the United States has shown a marked decline in value of products made annually since the peak year 1925, although there has been moderate improvement over the lean years 1932 to 1934. In 1940, the value of all slate products sold was approximately 5 3/4 million dollars for a total output of 473,450 short tons. The quantity sold was a little less and the value a great deal lower than the annual averages for the past two decades. Enormous quantities of waste materials result from the quarrying, splitting and milling of slate. Obviously, utilization of such waste material is desirable, not only from the viewpoint of economical operation but also for the purpose of conserving natural resources. One possible use is to produce expanded or puffed lightweight aggregate for use in concretes. Such concretes are strong enough for specific uses, and the advantage of lightness could be obtained in such structures as the walls and roofs of buildings, suspension-bridge roadways and various other applications where weight is a factor. Conceivably, these uses could consume an appreciable annual tonnage. USE OF WASTE SLATES FOR MAKING AGGREGATES The lightweight-aggregate industry has been discussed elsewhere4.5 and need not be covered in detail in this paper. The materials commonly utilized are naturally occurring aggregates such as volcanic cinder, tuff and pumice; by-product materials, such as ordinary cinders and air-cooled slags; and the specially manufactured products, including Haydite, Pottsco, Gravelite, Cel-seal, Superock and Waylite. Slates, however, have not been given the consideration they merit, especially in the United States. In the British Isles, some work has been done' on certain Welsh slates by the Building Research Station to stimulate the use of these wastes. REQUIREMENTS FOR RAW MATERIALS As pointed out by Hughes,4 the lightweight-aggregate industry is segregated in regions adjacent to large cities in order to localize the market and avoid the necessity of long freight haulage. Waste slate from the deposits of eastern Pennsylvania, northern Maryland, and Virginia would meet the basic requirement of any low-priced structural raw material. One apparent advantage is attained when slate waste, normally discarded, is utilized in the manufacture of a by-product. Mining or quarrying costs usually have been assessed against the main product. Some additional grinding might be desirable, but this operation would be relatively cheap, as most slates grind easily. It is believed that virtually all slates, when properly heated, will expand to some degree. However, types that will expand from 3 to 7 times their original volume are preferred. Fig. I illustrates the expansion of a Pennsylvania slate. The cube originally

Jan 1, 1942

By D. A. Sloan

THE Young Davidson mine is of particular interest because of the extremely low costs and also because of the novel method devised for pillar recovery. The outstanding feature of the mining system is its simplicity and regularity. The successful operation of this property was de-finitely assured by the rise in price of gold in 1934. The mine is situated in the southeastern part of Powell township, about forty-five miles southeast of Timmins, Ontario. The local town, two miles distant, in Matachewan, which is twenty-five miles northwest of Elk Lake, the terminus of a branch line of the Temiskaming and Northern Ontario railway. Mining is confined to one of a group of five claims. The ore occurs in a body of syen.ite porphyry which is intruded along a contact of Timiskaming conglomerates with Keewatin altered ruffs and greenstones. This intrusion extends in a north-easterly direction from Davidson creek for 3,300 feet, of which length 700 feet lies within the Matachewan Consolidated property. The maximum width of the mass is 700 feet; it tapers off as it extends east-ward. The Orebody.-The syenite porphyry is of three types, probably all differentiates of the same magma, but only one of them is gold bearing. This is a cherry-red, coarsely crystalline type which forms the central part of the mass. It is more brittle and more fractured than the others, and consequently has allowed easier access to the gold-bearing solutions. The gold has been brought in by a branching system of quartz veins and along minute fractures. It is mainly in the form of very fine 'free' gold, but also occurs in pyrite, which is the chief metallic mineral.

Jan 1, 1942

By J. Shanks

A S far back as 1925, Brazeau Collieries, Limited, became interested in .briquetting. This was brought about by complaints from their principal customer that stack losses, due to a high percentage of fine coal in their mine run, were excessive. The Company considered oil spraying of the fines. This, after some experiments and tests had been made, was ruled out as uneconomical and impracticable. When sufficient oil to be effective was put into the fines, it caused the coal in the tender of stoker-fired engines t0 arch over the screw feeder. The Company ultimately placed their problem in the hands of the Re-search Department of the University of Alberta. Experimental work was carried on by this department over a period of more than a year. The results obtained and the experience gained in this research work were conveyed to Brazeau Collieries in a report dated October 31st, 1929, and in a supplementary report dated February 2nd, 1935. Most of the results obtained in experimenting with Brazeau coal are embodied in a brochure, reprinted from the proceedings of the Second International Conference on Bituminous Coal, Vol. 19-24-28, entitled Principles in the Briquetting of Coking and Non-Coking Bituminous Coals, by E. Stansfield and W. A. Lang. All who are interested in briquetting should read this brochure. In the writer's opinion, iris the most important treatise on the subject printed in recent years. The results given in the paper are, of course, those obtained in laboratory investigation. It was pointed out to the writer that it would be most interesting to have such results correlated with those obtained in commercial practice. In this short paper, an attempt is made to do so.

Jan 1, 1942

By Alec M. Crowell, J. W. Sanders

While the production of crude oil and condensate in South Arkansas increased only 1.7 per cent over the 1940 figure, complete utilization of gas produced with the oil and condensate, and heretofore wasted, was beginning to be evidenced. There were 26,229,264 bbl. of oil and condensate produced in South Arkansas during 1941, as against 25,790,380 bbl. for the year 1940. (Fig. I.) Since 1936, deep producing sands have been discovered in 18 fields and during that period only 40 per cent of the total state production has come from Upper Cretaceous formations while 60 per cent came from the Lower Cretaceous and Jurassic formations. The gas produced with crude oil and condensate from the latter formation contains large quantities of hydrogen sulphide, the maximum being 6900 grains per 100 cu. ft. in the Patton pool of Lafayette County. Gas Utilization During the latter part of 1940 and the early part of 1941, pilot plants were placed in operation to determine whether the hydrogen sulphide and deleterious material in South Arkansas gases could be removed economically. The Federal Government desired to build a large aluminum plant in the Ouachita Valley and was seeking cheap fuel for the generation of electricity. The fact that the gases were produced with appreciable quantities of crude oil and condensate made it available at a very low price, since the state's conservation law prohibits the flaring of any gas. As a result of these experiments the first large-scale unit for the processing of gases containing hydrogen sulphide was placed in operation on Sept. I, 1941. The plant is in the Magnolia oil field, Columbia County. It processes residue gas from the Shell Oil Company's gasoline plant in that field and also raw gas from the Village field, 6 miles east of the Magnolia field. The gas entering the desulphuri-zation unit is laden with approximately 1400 grains of hydrogen sulphide per 100 cu. ft. and is stripped to a content of 4 grains per 100 cu. ft. The capacity of the plant is 15 million cu. ft. of gas treated daily under a pressure of 160 lb. per sq. in. The cost of treatment, exclusive of depreciation, is appreciably less than I per 1000 cubic feet. Two other plants of much greater capacity have been announced and priorities have been granted, which should bring the total amount of gas treated to 150 million cu. ft. daily. The gas to be treated will have a maximum hydrogen sulphide content of 4500 grains per 100 cu. ft. and will be processed under a pressure of 600 lb. per sq. in. These developments are something entirely new in field practice for the industry. The fact that this heretofore wasted gas is available at very low cost has led to the location of some eight war industries within the state, in addition to the alu-minum plant. Recovery OF Sulphur The Susearch Corporation and the Southern Acid and Sulphur Co. placed in operation during 1941 pilot plants to de-

Jan 1, 1942

By A. S. Knight

THE breaking and handling of ore is obviously the most important consideration when the layout of a new mine is contemplated. The problem must be attacked with due regard to the claim area of the property, the dip of the orebody, the anticipated percentage of payability, the width of the reef, and the amount of dislocation anticipated by dykes, faults, or sills. Among these, as far as East Geduld is concerned, the three most important items are: Area. 2,640.5 claims. Average dip 12° (from flat to 35°) Average channel width 36 inches. We are fortunate on the Witwatersrand in 'chat there is usually sufficient information available from surrounding properties to determine, within narrow limits, the factors mentioned above. With this information avail-able, the choice of layout is not limited, and it will be found that on the Witwatersrand each group has developed its own technique to suit its individual requirements. On East Geduld, the layout of the property for handling ore is known as the endless-rope haulage system. Following is a brief description of the general principles followed.

Jan 1, 1942

It is always the case with heavy and cheap materials that the area within which they can be economically used depends upon the cost of transportation, and in those days of poor roads and no mechanical means of haulage on them, coal could only be moved a few miles from the mine by any other means than water. The need of better means of transport to the areas west of the mountains had been urged by Washington and many other leaders, but the first turnpike over the Alleghenies only reached the Ohio River at Wheeling, W. Va. in 1818. The James River and Kanawha road reached the Ohio in 1831, that from Winchester, Va. to Parkersburg in 1838, and the road through the Cumberland Gap was completed in 1797. None of these affected the coal industry excepting indirectly by building up some of the river towns which coal could reach. The inadequacy of roads alone to carry the traffic of the rapidly growing interior communities was demonstrated only a few years after the National Pike was completed, and in the early 1820's several of the states embarked upon the construction of a canal system, which had been under discussion for some years. The Erie Canal was opened in 1825 from Lake Erie to the Hudson River through New York; Pennsylvania, Virginia and Maryland had already started similar projects designed to bring traffic to their principal cities from the interior. The Pennsylvania Canal was started from Columbia, as a railroad extended from Philadelphia to that point, and it followed the Susquehanna and Juniata Rivers to Hollidaysburg; thence to Johnstown, a distance of 36 miles, where it consisted of partly railroad and partly inclined planes, the boats being hauled up, and lowered down the planes; from Johnstown the canal followed the Conemaugh, Kiskiminitas and Allegheny Rivers to Pittsburgh, 104 miles. Boats first reached Pittsburgh by this route in 1834. The Chesapeake and Potomac Canal followed the Potomac River from a point above Alexandria above the falls, to Cumberland. This canal was chartered in the eighteenth century and a portion of it was used by traffic in 1800. It was too small to be of much use and was abandoned, and later after many legal and financial vicissitudes was completed to Cumberland, traffic from there starting late in 1850. This date, however, was long after the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad had been completed to

Jan 1, 1942

By AIME AIME

THE graduating class whom I am particularly addressing are going into the world at least a month earlier than normal, because of the war. You have been free to choose your work. You have chosen to be mining engineers. The principal importance of your engineering education to date has been in teaching you how to think and how through books to have ready access to the accumulated experience of previous generations, as well as the current experience of the day. You should by now have acquired something of the engineering point of view, the open skeptical mind. the power to observe, experiment, and draw conclusions, form theories and test these by further experiment, and weigh the inherent probability of conclusions drawn by others. I am asking you today to consider certain facts and the conclusions I am drawing from those facts.

Jan 1, 1942

By Paul M. Tyler

FOR the same reason that water is not missed until the well runs dry, the roles of many industrial minerals in wartime are often overlooked. In contrast to the growing shortages of many metals, our supplies of most nonmetallic minerals are limited only by our machinery for taking them from the ground and by our processing facilities. With few exceptions, the demand for increased supplies has been met without fanfare or delay. Only Brazilian quartz crystals, certain kinds of mica, and, latterly, industrial diamonds are on the so-called strategic list, although asbestos, beryl, corundum, cryolite, fluorspar, crucible-grade graphite, ilmenite, iodine, kyanite, monazite, nitrates, rutile, and zircon have caused more concern among those responsible for procurement and are included in our preclusive buying programs. Such specialties are needed urgently, but they are far less important in the over-all picture than the more abundant minerals.

Jan 1, 1942

By Andrew Meyer

As a producer of gold and platinum, Colombia is most emphatically an important country. Last year it produced 656,000 oz. of gold-twice as much as any other country in South America, in fact accounting for a third of the production of that continent. In platinum, world data for 1941 are not available, but in 1939 Colombia exported 39,000 oz., apparently ranking fourth among the world's producing countries, being exceeded only by Canada, Russia, and the Union of South Africa. Colombia was always a mining country. Centuries before the Conquest, Indians mined gold, copper, silver, salt, and emeralds. The Spaniards simply intensified mining. The Bank of the Republic states that from 1493 to 1940 52,177,427 oz. of gold was produced by Colombia, and official Chocó statistics show that about $60,000,000 worth of platinum was mined between 1908 and 1941. These figures are impressive indeed considering that only rich pockets and surface showings were mined by the ancients.

Jan 1, 1942

By George W. Powel

IN the nation's effort to raise its magnesium metal supply to meet the ever increasing demand, the Government is relying not only on standard established practice but has extended its support to developments not so well proved-at least, not commercially proved. Within the past few months considerable progress has been made, not only in the definite output of metal but in the exploitation of new processes, the successful adaptation of which should, in a reasonably short time, assure an adequate supply of magnesium. Recent months have also witnessed a reshuffling of the favored methods as well as of the likely raw materials, with the mineral dolomite gaining in interest over its richer but less abundant competitor, magnesite, while the lowly sea water appears to be losing ground to the higher magnesian brines of Michigan and western Texas. Every month sees a new alignment and there are signs that still newer methods or raw materials will be in use before the industry finally stabilizes itself.

Jan 1, 1942

By Paul F. Kerr

QUARTZ of a certain kind, is one of our strategic minerals, and Brazil is probably the one important available source. Crystals of quartz of suitable size and perfection for piezoelectrical application are rare; their most outstanding use is in radio work. Clear quartz, or "crystal," free from twinning, cracks, foreign particles of other disturbing lines of growth, and gaseous or liquid inclusions, is cut into plates which provide excellent control of frequency in broadcasting. The squares or rectangles are less than a millimeter in thickness and ordinarily on the order of 1 in. along each side. They are cut at definite angles with respect to the axes of the crystal, and ground with opposite surfaces parallel. Each small slab must be a section of one crystal, uniform throughout in atomic alignment. The thickness of the chip controls the frequency of a broadcast and it is most important to have the plates oriented and ground with utmost precision. Opposite surfaces are parallel to within 0.001 mm. and expansion or contraction due to the temperature is limited to one part in a million.

Jan 1, 1942

By Clyde E. Williams

MODERN steelmaking has gradually evolved from an inefficient small-scale operation, utilizing tiny units, to a highly efficient one utilizing large units almost completely mechanized. The leading position of the United States in the steel industry is due to the possession of easily assembled high-grade raw materials and large-scale highly developed plants. Modern integrated steel operation is largely one of material handling. Mining and transportation of iron ore, coal, and fluxes, coking the coal in by-product ovens, smelting the ore with coke and limestone in blast furnaces, converting the resulting pig iron into steel in the Bessemer, or in the open hearth when supplemented with scrap, and fabricating the resulting steel ingots in the shapes of commerce all are done on a huge scale, mostly by machinery, most of the labor being employed either in operating the machine or keeping it in repair. At the same time the quality and uniformity of the product have been greatly increased by the development of scientific knowledge and operating skills. Thus, the steel industry in this country is highly developed both mechanically and technically.

Jan 1, 1942

By Leo J. Neill, O&apos

Abrasives are essential to the manufacture of munitions - airplanes, gas, shells, tanks, and in fact every product that involves metal forming or finishing. An indication of the importance of abrasives in the national defense and aid-to-Britain programs is the close peace-time correlation between demand for abrasives and automobile production, which in recent years has consumed more than 35 percent of the total output of abrasives. Unprecedented demands on the abrasives industry are forecast by the rapid expansion in airplane output, tie increased mechanization of all armed forces, and the consequent speeding up not only of the factories where finished munitions are made but also of the steel mills and other factories were additional large quantities of abrasives are needed for snagging or rough-grinding semifinished products before they can be used by the fabricators. A recent survey by the artificial abrasives manufacturers indicates that they can readily increase their output 75 percent compared with the previous peak of 1937 without building new plants. By overhauling production schedules, their maximum production possible could be increased to 182 percent of the 1937 output, and the nature of the industry is such that plant capacity could be increased rapidly if need therefor should arise. No figures on the estimated requirements for abrasives in 1941 or 1942 have as yet been compiled, but the industry feels that it can meet demands as they develop.

Jan 1, 1941

By Paul Armstrong

THE first discovery of lead and zinc ore on Calumet island was made in 1893 by John Lawn, who then staked a portion of the property now owned by Calumet Mines, Limited. His discovery was developed by James and Calvin Russell, who are said to have shipped a few tons of sorted ore, averaging 39 per cent zinc, 13 per cent lead, and 11 oz. silver per ton. In 1898, the property was being operated by the Grand Calumet Mining Company, who mined and shipped, for treatment in a Belgian smelter, 1,100 tons of ore averaging 32 per cent zinc, 9 per cent lead, and an unreported content of gold and silver. After some indecisive exploration by an American syndicate in 1907, the property lay idle until1910, when the Calumet Metals Company-later reorganized as the Calumet Zinc and Lead Company-re-commenced exploration. After sinking an 85-foot shaft-the McDonald shaft-and doing a few hundred feet of drifting and cross-cutting, this Company, in 1912, erected a 150-ton daily capacity gravity-concentration plant, in which some 800 tons of ore, mined from the McDonald shaft and Bowie pit, were milled. Owing to very disappointing mill recoveries, the property was shut clown and-after several years of idleness-in? 1916 the mill and mining plant were destroyed by fire and the Company went into bankruptcy. In 1918, an unknown operator shipped to an Omaha, Nebraska, smelter 22 tons of ore, probably sorted from the dumps of the Ste. Anne shaft and Galena pits, averaging 44 percent lead, and 0.26 oz. gold and 61 oz. silver per ton. The British Metals Corporation (Canada), Limited, in 1926, optioned the property. They unwatered the McDonald shaft and, after doing an additional 300 feet of cross-cutting and drifting on the 85-ft. level, estimated there were some 33,000 tons of ore between this level and the surface. Surface exploration, including trenching, on other showings on the property gave discouraging results and the option was dropped.

Jan 1, 1941

By Earl T. Hayes

[This work represents a continuation of the efforts of the Metallurgical Division of the Bureau of Mines to ascertain and apply knowledge of mineral physics to process metallurgy.]

Jan 1, 1941

By Oliver C. Ralston

The Nonmetals Division studies problems relating to the use of minerals, many of which are important to national defence for purposes other than the extraction of metals. In fact, virtually all of the work of the division has been diverted to investigations pertaining to better use of the Nation's natural nonmetallic is resources as weapons of defense. The experiment stations of the division are at Norris, Tenn.; Tuscaloosa, Ala.; Seattle, Wash.; and College Park, Md. Studies involving the application of electric power to the nonmetallic minerals are conducted at the Electrotechnical Laboratory at Norris, and investigations on mineral-dressing treatment are conducted mainly at the Southern Experiment Station at Tuscaloosa. The cleaning and preparation of coal are studied at both Tuscaloosa and the Northwest Experiment Station Lit Seattle (other projects relating to utilization of coal are conducted by the Coal Division of the Bureau of Mines). Problems covering the use of minerals and fundamental problems as to their properties are studied at College Park.

Jan 1, 1941

By S. J. Broderick

[The term "nonmetallic minerals? as commonly used is the mining industry, refers to those minerals of industrial importance that are mined essentially for uses other than for the metals contained. The field comprises several hundred rod minerals of industrial importance, of which 70 have can adequately described in the textbook Industrial Minerals and Rocks. A few o f the more important nonmetallic products are sand and gravel, salt, phosphates, clays, refractories, limestone, and cement materials. Some of the minerals, such as bauxite and pyrolusive, have both metallic and nonmetallic applications, but in this report only the nonmetallic mineral phases are considered. In the organic field of nonmetallics only coal is considered, as, the others - petroleum, natural gas, natural bitumens, and hydrocarbons - are of no importance in water softening.]

Jan 1, 1941

By C. E. Rodgers

WHEN the writer was engaged early last year by Canadian Comstock and its subsidiary, the Metropolitan Electric Company, to act as Consulting Mining Engineer in connection with the layout and equipment of the new ore-dressing laboratories at Laval University, Quebec, the metallurgical laboratory section of the School of Mines building was completely erected, including plastered walls, partitions, etc., and finished concrete floors. At that time, however, no equipment had been ordered, except three Dominion ball-mills and two Bell screening machines. ADVANCED OR CONTINUOUS LABORATORIES The continuous laboratory section of the Department occupies the basement and three floors of the building, with an approximate floor area of 9,000 square feet. Because of limitations imposed by the design of the building (height and arrangement of rooms, strength and design of floors, etc.), modifications of layout from what otherwise seemed most desirable were, of necessity, made. These included: (a) Omission of automatic sampling of the dry ore. (b) Complete elimination of inclined belt-conveyors through floors. (c) Exclusion of bucket elevators for either dry or wet ore transfer. (d) As a substitute for grill-covered drains and floor sumps, drainage from sections or from individual pieces of equipment was piped to a disposal system in the basement. (e) Substitution in several instances of fabricated steel in place of the usual concrete foundations for machinery. (f) Reducing floor cutting and area of such opening to a minimum. Ore storage and chute capacity above the basement level was also minimized to reduce total weight.

Jan 1, 1941

By C. M. Campbell

IN 1934 Newfoundland, after extravagant operation based on exaggerated ideas of what she had to work with, became bankrupt, ceased to be a self-governing Dominion, and passed into the hands of a Commission. Since the days of Dawson, Canadians have been taught that no country in the world is as rich as their own. This idea has become a religion; contrary views are heresy, and are suppressed even by technical organizations and government departments. Following the alleged habit of the ostrich, we have buried our heads in the sand and have refused to face the facts. This policy of "to have today and to hell with tomorrow" is now bearing fruit. After forty years of operation on the basis of unlimited natural wealth, with resulting over-expansion, wholesale depletion of capital assets, and huge borrowings, we are, now that our wealth has been shown to be very limited, face to face with the status of Newfoundland. Already, in this Province, commission government of bankrupt municipalities is not uncommon. The ostrich is referred to as the most foolish bird in the world. That is not the case-no ostrich ever hid his head in the sand. In the clear air of his home on the South African veldt, an area characterized by low bushes, he is a conspicuous object. When danger approaches, he lowers his head; matches his background, the bushes; and danger passes him by. This leaves the Canadian, with his head still in the sand, to fill the r61e cast for the ostrich. Fortunately, a few Canadians never did get their heads covered; others are getting them out far enough to see what is going on. Their comments are very much to the point. "Nowhere in the world," says Mr. Meighen, "has more harm been done to any country by an exaggeration of its resources and potentialities than has been done in Canada'.

Jan 1, 1941