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By Karl L. Konnerth

THE rapidly increasing use of machinery for the mining of coal and operations incidental thereto has materially changed conditions from a safety standpoint. A few of the coal-producing states have recognized the need for specialized electrical equipment for use in mines and have introduced certain requirements in their State safety regulations, notably Pennsylvania. This paper discusses the principal problems involved in maintenance of such equipment. PERMISSIBLE: EQUIPMENT "Permissible" electrical equipment is equipment that has met certain prescribed standards for use in mines where hazardous conditions may occur and has been recommended by the U. S. Bureau of Mines. Such machinery is available on the market for most coal-mining operations--for instance, coal cutting, transportation, drilling, loading, working-place illumination, shot-firing and pumping. A notable exception is the trolley-reel gathering locomotive which, although its parts may be explosion-tested by the Bureau, has not been approved as permissible for the following reasons: I. The trailing cable is subjected to more severe service than on other equipment. 2. State regulations do not require that a working place be examined for methane before a locomotive enters it. 3. Even with two-conductor cable, imperfect or inadequate bonding may cause the emission of sparks at the wheels of the locomotive and at rail joints. 4. As the locomotive is equipped with a trolley pole, and as the trolley wire may be installed and used in unsafe territory in spite of rigid State regulations, a trolley-reel gathering locomotive is always a potential hazard. MAINTENANCE The proper procedure for maintenance of permissible equipment may be divided into three parts: (I) inspection, (2) actual maintenance and (3) changes or improvements to existing machines. To secure the fullest benefits through the use of permissible equipment it is necessary that all men involved understand the principles underlying the safety features of this equipment and realize the significance of defects, so that neglect and indifference in the maintenance thereof may be eliminated. Inspection From the standpoint of safety it is desirable no doubt to make a suitable inspection of permissible electrical equipment once a week, but the opening of every enclosed compartment at each inspection may do more harm than good. The openings to such compartments are closed with various types of covers very accurately machined, often made of the softer alloys to reduce weight, and fastened with a multitude of bolts, screws, washers, and other small parts. Frequent handling of these covers may cause sufficient damage to defeat their original purpose and intent.

Jan 1, 1941

By Pol Duwez, Paul Pietrokowsky

The crystal structure of the compound TisGeS has been determined from X-ray powder diffraction data. Related silicon and tin compounds have been found to be isomorphous. Unit cell dimensions, axial ratios, and parameters for equivalent atomic positions are given. THERE is, at present, only meager information pertaining to the solid state reactions of titanium with the elements in group 4B of the periodic table (silicon, germanium, tin, and lead). The only two compounds whose crystal structure has been established are TiSi² and TiGe² (references 1 and 2 respectively). These two compounds are isomor-phous and have an orthorhombic symmetry D242h— Fddd. The titanium-rich regions of the constitution diagrams of titanium-silicon, titanium-tin, and titanium-lead have been investigated by Craighead et al.³ While valuable information concerning the alpha solid solubility of these three elements in titanium was obtained, no light was shed on the existence or nature of the titanium-rich compound in these systems. The present study is concerned with the crystal structure of the intermediate phases Ti5Si ?, Ti³Ge³, and Ti5Sn³, which were found to be isostructural. The alloys were prepared by mixing the pure metal powders in the desired proportions, pressing the mixture into pellets, and melting them in an electric arc furnace in the presence of a helium atmosphere.& After melting, the specimens, weighing approximately 5 g, were sealed in evacuated quartz vials, homogenized at 1038°C for three days, and quenched from that temperature. Powder diffraction patterns were made with a 143.2 mm diam Debye-Scherrer X-ray camera in which the Ievins and Straumanis film arrangement was utilized. Filtered copper radiation was used throughout the entire investigation. A study of the powder patterns of a series of alloys of various compositions indicated the presence of a compound around a composition corresponding approximately to a ratio of 3 titanium to 2 silicon, germanium, or tin. From a visual examination of the diffraction patterns, it was evident that the silicon and germanium alloys were iso- morphous. For small angle reflections, the powder pattern of the tin compound was analogous to that of the silicon and germanium compounds, but after the first ten reflections, the similarity was no longer clear. The powder pattern of the germanium compound was selected for indexing, since it exhibited a weak small angle reflection and clearly resolved doublets in the back-reflection range. Good agreement between observed and calculated values of (1/d)² was found by indexing the pattern on the basis of hexagonal symmetry. For the hexagonal system:

Jan 1, 1952

Discussion of the paper of E. G. Woodruff, presented at the Butte meeting, August, 1913, and printed in Bulletin No. 78, June, 1913, pp. 1001 to 1010. F. A. LINFORTH, Butte, Mont.:-I have not had an opportunity of reading this paper thoroughly, but I would like to call attention to the possible use of the contours on fault planes. It is obvious that if the contours of fault surfaces call be determined, we will be able to determine the axes of the hollows in the fault surface. It seems probable, and there are examples to point to the accuracy of, the assumption, that the axes of these hollows may be the direction of movements on the faults, and if that is true it will aid materially in locating faulted ore bodies or the shoots of ore on the opposite sides of faults. A few such contour maps of faults have been attempted on some of the faults of the Butte district, and those faults which are believed to have the nearly normal movement exhibit for the axes of these hollows a line nearly up and down in the plane of the fault, but in those cases where the throw is believed to bee nearly horizontal we find that the axes of the hollows are almost horizontal lines. In other words, the movements on faults, I believe, would be more nearly indicated by the larger grooves in the fault surfaces than by the small slickensides and minor hollows that are seen, so that contour maps might be valuable in geology in that way. C. W. GOODALE, Butte, Mont.:-I received a letter from Mr. Woodruff asking me to take part in the discussion of his paper, but I have not had time to give the paper any study. I can certainly add my opinion to that of all the engineers here that the topographic maps of the government are of great aid to the engineer. When I visit a new district, the first thing I do is to see if that district has been covered by the U. S. Geological Survey avid if topographic map has been issued. And I find that some of the younger engineers frequently come into my office to see if I have such maps. I know in some cases the reports made out by engineers contain copies of these topographic maps, or clippings from them. I am sure that. the topographic maps furnished by the government are of very great value to our engineers.

Jan 11, 1913

By William J. McCaughey, Richard L. Barrett

FOR sixty years-in fact, ever since the inception of the basic steelmaking process -basic slags have been the subject of study by chemists, metallurgists and petrographers, with the purpose of providing a better understanding of the reactions between the slag and the metal during the refining process. The result of this work and of the researches of mineralogists and physical chemists into the chemistry of oxide systems is a considerable body of literature dealing not only with slags themselves but with equilibrium relationships in systems synthesized from pure components. Since any actual slag is a multicomponent system more complex than any yet worked out in the laboratory, a complete solution to the problem is still far away. The writers have recently published a paper1 which they believe sheds light on the role of the slag in the elimination of phosphorus and it is the purpose of the present paper to discuss the metallurgical applications of that work. Since the pioneer investigations on the constitution of basic slags carried on by Stead and Risdale, Carnot and Richards, Hilgenstock and others in the 1880's, a considerable body of literature on this subject has appeared. Many of the more important of these papers were summarized in the previous paper,' therefore they will not be reviewed here. PETROGRAPHIC STUDY The present writers have had occasion, over a period of years, to examine petrographically a great number of basic steel- making slags having a very wide range of chemical compositions and made under various conditions of operating practice. Although certain of these slags exhibit some unusual features, it is a remarkable fact that the great majority of mature slags show certain typical characteristics, which persist throughout the wide range of chemical compositions. The typical mature slag usually appears under the microscope to consist of two phases. The phase of primary crystallization is light colored and doubly refracting. If separated mechanically and subjected to chemical analysis, it is found to consist essentially of SiO2, CaO, and P2O5. Sometimes, although not usually, two such silicate-phosphate phases are found. The other conspicuous phase is dark in color and optically isotropic, and occurs as the interstitial material between the grains of the light colored phase. This dark colored interstitial phase when analyzed is found to consist essentially of FeO,Fe2O3, MnO, and MgO. In some slags high in iron oxide, particularly those from low-carbon heats, dicalcium ferrite is found. This phase is dark reddish brown in color and anisotropic.

Jan 1, 1944

By J. Laskowski

J. Laskowski (Associate Professor, Dept, of Mineral Processing and Coal Preparation, Silesian University of Technology, Gliwice, Poland) -Referring to the papers by J. A. L. Campbell and S. C. Sun, I must say that I am very pleased to see that type of work, because it is the only way to progress towards an understanding of flotation mechanisms. All those interested in the science of the surface chemistry of coals would find these papers a valuable contribution to the literature. In their extensive research, the authors attempt to synthesize their findings into a theory of coal flotation. To do this, the zeta potential of bituminous coals and their lithotypes, as well as that of an anthracite coal, was measured and H+ and OH- ions were found to be potential determining ions. The measured ZPC of bituminous coals was at a pH range from 3.5 to 4.6 and for the anthracites between 2.0 and 4.5. The authors have pointed out that since the hydrophobicity is pH-controlled, the flotation mechanism should also be. The Campbell and Sun papers confirm a good many of the conclusions on surface properties of coals reported in recent years. It is noteworthy to point out that the ZPC found in the paper on bituminous coals was approximately pH 4, similar to the ZPC for the anthracite coal. In fact, we have been investigating different coals from low to high ranks. Thus, the plot of the pH for ZPC against rank could be derived and this curve-an electrocapillary one-indicates a pH near which the hydrophobicity of the coal surface should be at maximum. This can be proved by so-called salt flotation, which, in a sense, can be treated as method of surface charge measurement. It is obvious that the salt flotation experiment is possible when the native hydrophobicity of the mineral surface is high, e.g., when the solid surface does not have an orienting influence on an adjacent water layer and the hydration layers are controlled by the electrical double-layer potential. The addition of electrolyte or a change of pH which decreases the thickness of the stabilizing double-layer "opens up" the hydrophobic surface micro-area mosaic. Thereby the surface becomes hydrophobic and particles become floatable. The orienting influence of surface on hydration layer increases even after very slight oxidation and flotation is affected by it. It seems that such an explanation agrees reasonably well with those of Campbell and Sun.

Jan 1, 1972

The following paragraphs have been extracted from a recent publication of the U. S. Department of Commerce; Miscellaneous Series, No. 65, " German Trade' and the War, " which portrays the industrial, commercial and economic conditions of Germany, at the present time, and has been compiled largely from sources published in Germany. Iron and Steel The Krupp company, the greatest of the German munition works, was faced at the outbreak of the War with the disappearance of its great international business, but this was amply compensated by orders from Germany and her allies, and the activity of the company has been greatly extended. The general meeting of December 1914, voted an increase in the capital to 250,000,000 marks. The gross profits of the company, amounting to 61,900,000 marks in 1912-13, have been more than doubled during the war. The gross profits were 128,260,000 marks in 1914-15 and 143,360,000 in 1915-16. Large sums have been written off; 10,000,000 marks have been placed in the pension fund during the war, and 5,000,000 were appropriated for workmen's dwellings in 1915. Thirteen million marks have been devoted to war assistance in the last three years. The assets of the company were valued at 967,000,000 marks at the end of 1916. For the year 1916-17, the company paid a dividend of only 10 per cent., but set aside 85,425,000 marks for depreciation. The Bismarckhütte in Upper Silesia, capitalized at 16,000,000 marks, with a bonded indebtedness of 7,907,500 marks in 1913-14, reported 3,912,000 marks of net revenue from operation for that year. During the three years of war the revenue increased successively to 8,077,000, 11,805,000, and 16,994,000 marks. While the capital remained unchanged, and the bonded indebtedness was but slightly reduced, the dividends paid during the last four years were increased from 9 per cent. in 1913-14 to 15, 25, and 30 per cent. during the war. During the year 1916-17 the amount written off, chiefly on the works and plant account, was 10,553,000 marks, or nearly as much as the total set aside during the three preceding years. The turnover for that year reached a sum many times the amount of the capital. At the end of 1916 the company's shares were quoted at 275, as against 144 at the end of 1913.

Jan 8, 1918

The Alligator Ridge Project is owned jointly by Amselco Minerals Inc. and Occidental Minerals, with Amselco being the operator. It is the latest of Nevada' s gold heap leaching operations , having gone into operation in October of 1980 after a design and construction period of only seven and one-half months. Alligator Ridge is located about 77 km (48 miles) northwest of Ely, Nevada. Three separate but adjacent ore bodies will be mined: Vantage I, II and III. The first lies virtually at the surface and is totally oxidized; the second is somewhat deeper and contains some carbonaceous material; and the third is at the lowest horizon and contains substantial carbonaceous ore. The ore is a Carlin- type siltstone which has been silicified, especially at depth, and contains finely disseminated free gold. Exploration drilling on Alligator Ridge resulted in the defining of an ore reserve of about 4.54 million mt (5 million st) averaging 4. 12 g Au per mt (0. 12 oz Au per st). A pilot heap leaching program was run during 1979. Because of the high content of fine material in portions of the ore body, one test heap of 5,000 tons was leached, after being crushed to 19 mm (314 in.), in the conventional manner using cyanide and caustic while a second heap of 2,500 tons of ore was agglomerated with cement before leaching. Results of this work were reported at the 1980 American Mining Congress meeting by Paul Chamberlin (see Bibliography). The test work clearly indicated the superior leaching qualities of the agglomerated ore, and the plant was designed on this basis. Run-of-mine ore is crushed in an open-air crushing plant using a jaw crusher followed by two cone crushers, one standard and one shorthead. Provision was made to bypass the shorthead when the ore is wet from rain or snow. Crushed ore at 19 mm (314 in.) size is mixed with cyanide solution and cement, with the ratio of the latter to the ore being 2 to 5 kg per mt (4 to 10 lb per st). The resulting moisture content is about 870, and the fines are effectively bound to the coarse particles so that migration of the fines in the heap does not take place during leaching. For agglomeration, Amselco uses a rotating drum 2. 75 m 0 by 6 m long (9 ft 6 by 20 ft). For the same agglomeration, Candelaria uses three "grasshopper" conveyors, with introduction of caustic- cyanide solution at the conveyor transfer points. Provision was made for future addition of cement slurry at these same points.

Jan 1, 1981

By T. A. Klinefelter, R. G. O’Meara, Glenn C. Truesdell, Richard W. Smith

THE investigation of domestic tales was undertaken by the Bureau of Mines, Department of the Interior, in cooperation with the University of Alabama, at the request of the U. S. Army, on Dec. I, 1941: "Considerable concern has been expressed by the Supply Arms and Service over maintaining continued availability of supplies of the necessary raw materials. These ceramic products are used by the Signal Corps in all army radio equipment, and to a greater degree in the new ultra-high-frequency equipment. The Air Corps has become a user of large amounts of radio-grade ceramics for aircraft spark-plug covers required for high-altitude operations. In addition, the use of this material is essential to the proper functioning of the radio air-navigation aids of the Civil Aeronautics Board." HISTORY The use of steatite and talc in ceramic bodies goes back a great many years. If pure, tales shrink little under heat-treatment and are very resistant to heat shock. The massive form, commonly called "steatite" by the trade, cuts and works easily, and this was naturally the first method used in obtaining articles of talc. When gas was in general use for illuminating purposes, a large business was carried on in the manufacture of tips for gas burners.1 With the development of uses for electricity, low-tension insulators were made in a similar manner; and, in fact, the forming of shapes from massive talc continues. However, as the business increased, cuttings and waste became more and more of a problem. In the twenties, one of the larger producing firms had a cooperative agreement with the Bureau of Mines at its Columbus station to work out a body using the finely powdered material. Somewhat earlier, manufacturers of spark plugs used the finely ground talc as part of the body and to some extent in wall-tile bodies. Somewhat later it came into use for kiln furniture and similar products and still more recently it has been used in some dinnerwares. With the development of the radio and the high-frequency fields generated, it was found that a dense steatite porcelain was far better than even high-tension electrical porcelain, which is a clay-flint-feldspathic type of body. Until the war increased the demand, the several pioneer steatite-porcelain manufacturers were able to furnish adequate supplies. When war began in Europe and Asia, three important foreign sources of raw material were cut off; i.e., the French, Italian, and Manchurian tales. Domestic producers of high-grade porcelain are few, and the trade

Jan 1, 1943

Discussion of the paper of G. Howell Clevenger and Bhupendranath Ray, presented at the New York Meeting, October, 1913, and printed in Bulletin No. 82, October, 1913, pp. 2437 to 2475. ALLERTON S. CUSHMAN,* Washington, D. C.:-I am very much interested in the subject matter of this paper. I have had occasion to speak to this question before. There has recently been so much written and said and claimed about the effect produced by the addition of small quantities of copper to steel that there is certainly an impression abroad that a new and wonderful cure-all has been discovered. Are we facing a method of alchemy by which, at the expenditure of very little trouble and only a few cents' worth of copper per ton, the well-known characteristics of steel with respect to some features are so marvelously changed as in effect to produce a new metal ? I am a great believer in the future of the iron and steel alloy field. I do not think that with all the advances we have made in metallurgy we have begun to scratch the possibilities of usefulness to mankind in the exploration of the alloy field, and I include in that alloy field even what might be designated as the dilute alloy field; that is to say, where a very small quantity of a metal alloyed with iron and steel confers upon it some new or extraordinary qualities. With respect to many of the physical characteristics of the copper-iron or copper-steel alloys I am not particularly competent to speak. With respect, however, to the investigation of corrosion problems and with respect to claims made with regard to resistance to corrosion, I am competent to speak insofar as I have specialized to some extent in that field and have given up a great deal of my time for a great many years to a study of it. Some years ago, being particularly interested in the study of corrosion problems, I received the very generous permission of a large manufacturing concern to use their large open-hearth furnaces any way I saw fit for exploring this particular field. There is not a metallurgist in this room who will not realize the generosity of a manufacturing company who would permit a man to pursue a theory and give him as his material to work with 60 tons of molten metal. At all events, I threw copper into the open-hearth furnace. I explored this alloy field, not in a ittle crucible in which I had to take out portions and have them

Jan 12, 1913

By C. W. Phillips, R. S. Busk

With most cast metals the grain size may vary within wide limits, depending upon the conditions at the moment of freezing. These conditions are subject to control in magnesium-base alloys, by proper melting and superheating techniques, enabling production of quite uniform and fine-grained castings, almost independent of section thickness. However, such variations of grain size as do exist, in common with all metals, are reflected in corresponding changes in mechanical properties. It is the intent of this paper to present data giving the relationship between grain size and mechanical properties. Data are also included on the combined effects of grain size and micro-porosity. In addition, a short discussion of factors influencing the grain size of sand castings is included. Measurement OF Grain Size By grain size is meant the statistical distribution of volumes occupied by the individual crystallites in a metal section. Since this is almost always impossible of direct measurement, several methods of estimating and expressing the size have been evolved. Most exact methods make use of the microscope. This involves study of a single plane cut at random through the metal. What is seen in the microscopc are polygons, each the cross section of a grain. The diameters or areas of these polygons are then measured and the grain size is expressed as an average diameter, number of grains per unit area, average area per grain, or, rarely, average volume per grain. Rutherford, Abom, and Bain3 have discussed extensively the errors involved when using a plane section to estimate volume. They clearly point out that the tendency is to underestimate the true grain size because of the nature of the measurcment. The A.S.T.M. recommends that measurement be made by comparison with a standard chart, by means of Jeffries' planimetric method4 or Heyn's intercept method. The Society recommends that the notation be in terms of the number of grains per unit area (as is the grain-size number used for steel) or as an average diameter, expressed in inches or millimeters (as for copper and brass). The method of measurement used for this study was comparison with a standard chart, which has been described by P. F. George.5 The chart was constructed by photographing at Ioo diameters a uniform specimen with an average grain diameter of 0.003 in. The average diameter of this specimen was determined by numerous measurements, using both the Jeffries and Heyn methods. The other grain sizes were then obtained by appropriate enlargemcnt of the master sample. Careful comparison of the chart method with other methods on identical samples indicates that though the differences be-

Jan 1, 1945

By C. R. Hayward

THE CHAIRMAN (ALBERT SAUVEUR, Boston, Mass.).-I am sure we are indebted to Prof: Hayward for his addition to our knowledge of the influence of sulphur on steel. As he has said in this paper, sulphur has had many defenders in recent years. It seems to me, however, that, while it may be old school to believe in the detrimental action of sulphur, it is not yet old school to believe in segregation; that while it may be that 0.1 per cent. of sulphur has no very great effect on the physical properties of steel, a ladle analysis of 0.1 per cent. of sulphur may readily result in 0.2 or 0.3 per cent. sulphur being present in the segregated portion of the ingot, and that, it seems to me, might be a rather serious matter. J. S. UNGER, Pittsburgh, Pa.-Prof. Hayward has presented the results of an investigation along a line to which I have devoted considerable time and attention, and I am particularly pleased to note that his results are in accord with my own and further tend to prove the fact that the old, established prejudice against sulphur is based more on belief than actual facts. I have felt for years that tooo much stress was placed on the harmful influence of certain elements in steel such as sulphur, phosphorus, copper, etc., but it has only been within recent years that efforts have been made to, establish the truth. Practically all the investigations made to date have proven that these elements within reasonable limits are harmless and, in fact, that for certain purposes the addition of these elements is beneficial. In referring to copper, J. E. Stead, Vice-President of the British Iron and Steel Institute, said at their last meeting: "Even today one comes across steel specifications in which copper is barred, which can only be regarded as ail indication of ignorance, if not stupidity, of those who prescribe the composition of steel, for it has been long ago proved that copper in steel, instead of being an evil, is quite harmless, and is sometimes distinctly beneficial." Sulphur owes its evil name to the early days of the manufacture of steel. Chemical analyses were crude, and failure due to either poor raw materials or metallurgical treatment were many. Sulphur being a comparatively easy element to determine with reasonable accuracy, particular attention was called to the amount of sulphur, and the failure was attributed to it, without giving any consideration to other causes. A pre-

Jan 4, 1917

By C. W. Phillips, R. S. Busk

WITH most cast metals the grain size may vary within wide limits, depending upon the conditions at the moment of freezing. These conditions are subject to control in magnesium-base alloys, by proper melting and superheating techniques, enabling production of quite uniform and fine-grained castings, almost independent of section thickness. However, such variations of grain size as do exist, in common with all metals, are reflected in corresponding changes in mechanical properties. It is the intent of this paper to present data giving the relationship between grain size and mechanical properties. Data are also included on the combined effects of grain size and microporosity. In addition, a short discussion of factors influencing the grain size of sand castings is included. MEASUREMENT OF GRAIN SIZE By grain size is meant the statistical distribution of volumes occupied by the individual crystallites in a metal section. Since this is almost always impossible of direct measurement, several methods of estimating and expressing the size have been evolved. Most exact methods make use of the microscope. This involves study of a single plane cut at random through the metal. What is seen in the microscope are polygons, each the cross section of a grain. The diameters or areas of these polygons are then measured and the grain size is expressed as an average diameter, number of grains per unit area, average area per grain, or, rarely, average volume per grain. Rutherford, Aborn, and Bain3 have discussed extensively the errors involved when using a plane section to estimate volume. They clearly point out that the tendency is to underestimate the true grain size because of the nature of the measurement. The A.S.T.M.. recommends that measurement be made by comparison with a standard chart, by means of Jeffries' planimetric method' or Heyn's intercept method. The Society recommends that the notation be in terms of the number of grains per unit area (as is the grain-size number used for steel) or as an average diameter, expressed in inches or millimeters (as for copper and brass). The method of measurement used for this study was comparison with a standard chart, which has been described by P. F. George.', The chart was constructed by photographing at i00 diameters a uniform specimen with an average grain diameter of 0.003 in. The average diameter of this specimen was determined by numerous measurements, using both the Jeffries and Heyn methods. The other grain sizes were then obtained by appropriate enlargement of the master sample. Careful comparison of the chart method with other methods on identical samples indicates that though the differences be-

Jan 1, 1945

By George Hulst

PRIOR to 1914, there was little demand for antimony in this country; its use was limited almost entirely to the manufacture of type and bearing metals. Practically no antimony ore was mined here, the market being supplied principally from China, and the alloy was produced by a direct mixing of lead and antimony. The great world war, with its demand for shrapnel in hitherto undreamed of quantities, precipitated a great boom in the price of antimony. Nominally quoted at 6 c. to 7 c. in 1914, the price increased by leaps and bounds to 45 c. in March, 1916. Under the stimulus of high prices many shall mines were opened, for it became profitable to work ores containing as low as 20 percent. antimony. High-grade sulfide ores (stibnite), containing 55 per cent. to 60 per cent. antimony, were received from Bolivia, China, and Alaska. Low-grade sulfide ores, running from 20 per cent. to 45 per cent., were produced in Nevada, California, Idaho, Utah, and Mexico; much of this ore was fairly rich in silver. The principal oxide ores came from Mexico and Oregon. The following analyses are representative of various types of antimony ore: Se Pn Cu Ao Au SIC), Fe S CAO ZN As Oxide Ore 25.09 46.02 0.95 0.40 10.98 0.30 0.22 Sulfide ore 5.5.20. 15.12 1.05 19.87 ? 0.40 0.25 Sulfide Ore 37.16 11.30 0.10 34.0 7.60 0.50 17.05 7.40 0.36 0.10 Sulfide Ore 41.55 15.00 0.20 76.0 0.04 5.60 0.25 18.17 0.85 0.25 0.10 The International Lead Refining Co. fortunately was equipped to handle these ores through residue and blast furnaces. The charge consisted of a variety of sulfide ores containing Sb 20 to 60 per cent. and Si02 6 to 45 per cent., oxide ores containing Sb 20 to 40 per cent. and SiO2 10 to 45 per cent. Secondary materials, such as battery plates, battery mud, lead oxide, paint, etc., together with refinery skims, softener skims, and other refinery byproducts, were treated along with the antimony ore to furnish the lead required. All silver-bearing antimony ores were treated in the residue furnace, the sulfur, iron, and copper forming matte that carried part of the silver, the balance going into lead bullion. The

Jan 9, 1919

Frontino operates three underground lode mines at Segovia in the area of northwest Antioquia, Colombia, which has been an important gold producing district since the late 1800s. Auriferous pyrite, the pre-dominent sulfide, carries very finely disseminated gold. Other minor sulfides are galena, pyrrhotite, and sphalerite in quartz gangue with the host rock being granodiorite. Silver is associated with the galena and also occurs as a sulfo-salt. In 1.973 and 1974, at an annual milling rate of 145,000 mt (160,000 st), average mill heads were 7.80 g per mt (0.23 oz per st) Au; 20.0 g per mt (0.58 oz per st) Ag; and 0.37% Pb; with a production of 1,150 kg (35,700 oz) Au and 4,500 kg (141,000 oz) Ag. Over 300 mt (330 st) of Pb concentrate were shipped. The ore is crushed to minus 16 mm (5 18 in. ) and fed to a rod mill with the discharge passing over a 1.07 m by 1.07 m (42 in. by 42 in. ) jig operating in closed circuit with the underflow from a cyclone in closed circuit with two ball mills. Cyclone overflow is bulk-floated for sulfide recovery from which the tailings are sent to the river as waste with the flotation concentrate joining the jig concentrate for cyanidation. The combined gold bearing concentrates, after cyclone classification, are reground to a very fine mesh in closed circuit with cyclone classification, with the overflow going to the primary thickener. Regrinding, classification, and thickening is done in cyanide solution, and the primary thickener produces a pregnant solution for Merrill -Crowe precipitation. The thickener underflow is the feed to the agitators, thickener, and filter from which the overflow and filtrate are sent to precipitation. The washed filter cake is repulped and floated for the recovery of a galena concentrate for shipment. About 40% of the recovered silver is in this concentrate. In the refinery the precipitate is melted into a dore bullion. This 600 mt (660 st) capacity mill employs several interesting techniques. Gold recovery of 85% to 90% from a complex sulfide denotes good practice. While total power at 42 kwh per mt (46 kwh per st) is high, it would be recognized that the grinding units are small in size and the flowsheet is complicated due to the gold occurring in the sulfide minerals. The extremely low-cost electric power is generated by

Jan 1, 1981

THE translators wish to record their appreciation of the help given by many individuals with whom they have discussed various details of the work. They are particularly indebted to Mrs. Anne Noble McKeachie, who initiated their collaboration; to Miss Cora Adamson, who spent many hours in making an accurate copy of a much-mutilated &st draft of the translation; and to the Yale University Library which gave access to its excellent collection of books on all aspects of the history of the sciences. The reader will share with the translators their obvious indebtedness to Mr. Carl P. Rollins, Mr. James W. Boyden, and the staff of the Printing-Office of the Yale University Press. The publication of this translation by the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers has been made possible by a grant from the Seeley W. Mudd Memorial Fund, administered by a committee composed of Harvey S. Mudd, H. DeWitt Smith, and George Otis Smith. The translators are gratified that their work has been judged to fall within the scope of this Fund, which was established for the advancement of the sciences of mining and metallurgy by the encouragement of research and the dissemination of knowledge, and especially for the furtherance of such activities as might benefit the younger members of the profession. While Biringuccio's book would scarcely serve as a dependable text for the young mining student or metallurgist, it can give him a sense of his membership in a long-standing and honorable profession and enable him better to see his own work in true perspective. It is hoped that this English edition of a sixteenth-century Italian work will be read by the practicing metallurgist as well as by those who have already found pleasure in exploring the past of their profession. A man always feels more at home in a foreign country with men of his own craft than in his birthplace with those of different interests: As in space, so in time, and the modem metallurgist who may be unmoved by the literary and artistic Renaissance will quickly appreciate the spirit of that exciting period as he talks shop with Biringuccio on a visit to mine, smelter, forge, and foundry; as he sees in different forms the very furnaces and machines whose operation and response he knows so well; and as he discusses with this engineer of four centuries ago such topics as the best kinds of fuel or refractory for a given operation, and the importance of adequate supplies of power and material.

Jan 1, 1942

Silver ore was first discovered in 1866 at Manhattan, and a few ore shipments were treated in a mill at nearby Belmont. The district was abandoned from 1869 to April 1, 1905, when rich gold float was discovered on what was to be called the April Fool claim. By early 1906, 4, 000 people lived in Manhattan. The San Francisco earthquake, in April of 1906, caused the withdrawal of capital from Manhattan and most of the mines were shut down. Later that year and in 1907, however, more strikes were made. The camp prospered until the mid-1920s, but a steady production of several hundred thousand dollars per year was sustained even during the great depression. Then, in 1939, Nevada's first bucket-line dredge was installed below the town and operated until 1947, producing $4.6 million in gold. The Houston International Minerals operation at Manhattan was started in July of 1980 at a throughput of about 545 mt per day (600 st per day). In contrast to the early day underground operations, Houston's mine is open-pit and processes low-grade disseminated ores. The ore is a metamorphic schist containing 2. 7 g Au and 1. 03 g Ag per mt (0. 08 oz Au and 0. 03 oz Ag per st). Some coarse gold, up to 1 mm in size, is present. Mining and haulage is done by a contractor. Stockpiled mine-run ore is crushed in three stages comprising a jaw crusher and two cone crushers, with screens ahead of the cone crushers. Crushed product, at about 19 mm (3/4 in.) size, is stored in a silo. Grinding is by single stage ball mill with the discharge passing over two hydraulic traps for coarse gold removal. These traps will be replaced in late 1980 by a two-cell Pan American jig treating the cyclone underflow. The jig hutch product, along with the hydraulic trap product that has been stored, will be treated further for gold recovery. The gravity tails will then be cycloned with the underflow being recirculated in the ball mill and the overflow being treated by flotation. A rougher concentrate is made in twelve No. 48 Galigher cells with the float tails being cycloned. Cyclone underflow is refloated in another four No. 48 cells; the overflow is treated in sluice boxes for further gold recovery before being sent by gravity to the tailings pond. Bulk flotation concentrates are cleaned three times with the final concentrate being thickened. The thickener underflow is then batch cyanided in mechanically agitated tanks and washed with barren liquor

Jan 1, 1981

AT a luncheon attended by engineering leaders representing every section of the country, Col. Arthur S. Dwight, president of the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers, and Charles F. Rand, chairman of the Engineering Foundation, past president of the Insti-tute and its present treasurer, on Thursday, July 20, were decorated with the Croix de Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur by the French Government for distinguished service in engineering tending to closer and more felici-tous relations between the two countries. The decorations were conferred by Consul General Gaston Liebert. In a speech extolling the war work of the American engineer, M. Liebert declared that Germany had been definitely foiled in her attempt to cripple France industrially for a generation by wrecking the coal mines of northern France. Three-fourths of these mines, M. Liebert said, were in full working order and the remainder will be in complete operation within two years. The Germans thought that it would take from 15 to 20 years to accomplish this. M. Liebert said that reconstruction is going on rapidly in northern France, two-thirds of whose indus-tries are now working. The French Government, he said, is planning water-power improvement on a vast scale, which will soon make unnecessary for France to import a single ton of coal. He urged that French students be sent to America to study engineering. In presenting the decorations, Consul General Liebert eulogized Colonel Dwight and Mr. Rand as personify-ing the spirit and service of the American engineer, which, he said, was a powerful factor in the victory over Germany. He spoke of the growing friendliness between the United States and France and described this ceremony as an epoch in international relations. Calvin W. Rice, secretary of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, who presided, repeated that international unity among engineers was the dream of Andrew Carnegie, who saw in the efforts of the engineer and the scientist the hope of civilization. Mr. Rice said in part: In the Declaration of Independence occurs the statement that all men are created free and equal. Jefferson was familiar with the writings of Rousseau. In fact, he was a remarkable linguist notwithstanding that he wrote the Declaration of Independence when only 32 years of age. He was one of the very few ambassa-dors in the history of the United States who could speak the language of the country to which they were sent. The interpretation of the passage in the Declaration of Independence is that all men have equal opportunity, not that they are born with equal ability.

Jan 8, 1922

By A. L. Holley

There is a growing demand for pure and cheap material for fine open-hearth steel; a material not only very free from phosphorus, but from carbon and silicon; so that it may he rapidly converted into steel. Iron and steel scrap are not trustworthy as to quality, and they are often dear. There are three methods of purifying cheap materials for the open hearth. 1. Mechanical puddling, as done at Creusot, which removes 90' per cent. of the phosphorus from the pig iron. 2. Krupp's washing process (the conduct and results of which 1 fully described in a former paper*), which eliminates 70 to 80 per cent. of the phosphorus and most of the sulphur and silicon from pig iron. Neither of these processes would sufficiently purify, for very fine steel, those very impure pigs which are cheapest in many parts of the United States. 3. The process of producing directly from the ore an iron which is practically pure chemically, although mechanically mixed with the impurities of the ore. This is the oldest of iron processes ; one form of it, the CataIan forge, employed to produce charcoal blooms, is still in use, but its great cost is rapidly throwing it out of competition. Among the modern attempts to produce iron direct from the one, on a large scale and at a cheap rate, several have been in various respects successful. Dr. Siemens's process of treating a ton and a half or more of ore and the coal to deoxidize it, in a rotating gas furnace, and bringing out, in some four hours, a ball of chemically pure iron so soft that the fluid and impure slag may be sqneezed out of it, is the most attractive and the most highly developed of all the modern direct processes. I hare watched it, from time to time, since 1874, and have noted a steady improvement. It may now be said to have passed the experimental stage, although, like older processes, it must be adapted by practice to special materials. The cause which has been more potent than all others, including the defects of the best direct processes, to bring these processes into disrepute, is the wasteful treatment of the direct product. With one or two exceptions (when failure mas due to other and obvious causes), the direct product has been made into wrought iron (weld iron). Even Dr. Siemens has, at Towcester, in England, and at Park, Bro. & Co.'s, in Pittsburg, set up his apparatus for this purpose. Is it likely that

Jan 1, 1880

By Alfonso W. Ovalle, Héctor R. Albornoz

INTRODUCTION The El Teniente Mine of Codelco-Chi le has extracted 588 mil lion tons of ore in its 77 year history for a total copper output of 8.800.000 tons. The mine production has been obtained mainly by traditional block-caving where grizzlemen using a hand held lever send ore through long-raises to load trains. At present the mine is about to introduce mechanized block-caving using LHD equipment to extract the primary rock. This paper describes this method which will be tested starting next month by caving an 11.000 square meter block. THE PRIMARY ROCK PROBLEM The secondary enrichment sulfides of the El Teniente ore body have characteristics which makes a standard unmechanized block-caving practice very successful. In the 60's parts of blocks encountered primary ow in the Teniente 1 and Sub-13 levels which proved to be extremely hard to extract. These foretold the obstacles that arised in the central part of the Teniente 4 level. Preparation of a completely primary 8.100 square meter block started in 1970. Its undercutting was completed by the end of 1972 and by 1973 the problem of mining the primary rock was clearly visualized. The numbers below describe the difficulties in mining this block: -Long-hole drilling rate is 90 m (270 ft) per shift in secondary rock and 37 m (110 ft) in primary. - Undercutting which is completed in 9 shifts in secondary took 180 shifts in the primary block. - Average grizzlymen productivity in secondary is 250 tons per shift while in primary it is only 25-30 tons, both at 343 mm (13 1/2 in. ) grizzly opening. - Powder consumption for secondary blasting increased from 8 grams per ton in secondary to 84 in primary. - The protection pillar between the under- cutting and the production levels was 60% broken in primary while 20% is usual for secondary. - Extraction advanced 5 cm per day in primary while a 50 cm per day rate is the aver- age in secondary. This is the main reason that after 8 years this primary block has a 20% extraction. Secondary blocks take 1.5 to 3 years to complete their extraction. - 80% of the boulders in primary rock are larger than 343 m (13 1/2 in.) with 10-20 % of them larger than 3 meters. -Direct cost of production (preparation, undercutting, extraction and haulage), using the traditional block-caving design for secondary rock, increased 3.5 to 4 times when used in primary rock. The following indicators of Table 1 show the rock characteristics differences.

Jan 1, 1981

By A. L. Holley

THERE is a growing demand for pure and cheap material for fine open-hearth steel ; a material not only very free from phosphorus, but from carbon and silicon; so that it may he rapidly converted into steel. Iron and steel scrap are not trustworthy as to quality, and they are often dear. There are three methods of purifying cheap materials for the open hearth. 1. Mechanical puddling, as done at Creusot, which removes 90' per cent. of the phosphorus from the pig iron. 2. Krupp's washing process (the conduct and results of which I fully described in a former paper*), which eliminates 70 to 80 per cent. of the phosphorus and most of the sulphur and silicon from pig iron. Neither of these processes would sufficiently purify, for very fine steel, those very impure pigs which are cheapest in many parts of the United States: 3. The process of producing directly from the ore an iron which is practically pure chemically, although mechanically mixed with the impurities of the ore. This is the oldest of iron processes ; one form of it, the Catalan forge, employed to produce charcoal blooms, is still in use, but its great cost is rapidly throwing it out of competition. Among the modern attempts to produce iron direct from the one, on a large scale and at a cheap rate, several have been in various respects successful. Dr. Siemens's process of treating a ton and a half or more of ore and the coal to deoxidize it, in a rotating gas furnace, and bringing out, in some four hours, a ball of chemically pure iron so soft that the fluid and impure slag may be squeezed out of it, is the most attractive and the most highly developed of all the modern direct processes. I have watched it, from time to time, since 1874, and have noted a steady improvement. It may now be said to have passed the experimental stage, although, like older processes, it must be adapted by practice to special materials. The cause which has been more potent than all others, including the defects of the best direct processes, to bring these processes into disrepute, is the waste-ful treatment of the direct product. With one or two exceptions (when failure was due to other and obvious causes), the direct product has been made into wrought iron (weld iron). Even Dr. Siemens has, at Towcester, in England, and at Park, Bro. & Co.'s, in Pittsburg, set up his apparatus for this purpose. Is it likely that

Jan 1, 1880