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By Gilbert Soler

Page Introduction. By Gilbert Soler.........................657 Deoxidation of Basic Open-hearth Steel. By T. S. Washburn.............658 Slag-metal-oxygen Relationships in the Basic Open-hearth and Electric Processes. By J. S. Marsh. (With discussion)...........................672 The Total Oxygen Content of Plain Carbon Open-hearth Steel during Deoxidation and Teeming. By Michael Tenenbaum and C. C. Brown. (With discussion)......685 The Occurrence of Oxygen in Liquid Open-hearth Steel—Sampling Methods. By T. E. Brower and B. b. Larsen..........................712 Effect of Deoxidation on the Strain-sensitivity of Low-carbon Steels. By H. K. Work and G. H. Enzian. (With discussion)........................723 The Relation among Aluminum, Sulphur, and Grain Size. By C. E. Sims.......734 Some of the papers and discussions that appear on the following pages were presented at the meeting of the Iron and Steel Division in Cleveland, Ohio, on Wednesday, October 18, 1944. with L. F. Reinartz and H. K. Work as Chairmen; the remainder were scheduled for the New York Meeting of the Institute in February 1945, which was canceled.

Jan 1, 1945

By O. O. Laudig

It is a well-established fact that some ores do not reduce as readily in the furnace as others, thus seriously affecting out-put, and consequently, cost of product. With the object of obtain ing some information upon this subject, the following experi ments were made in the laboratory of the Buffalo Furnace Company. Efforts were made to obtain, as nearly as possible, represent ative ores from some of the most important mining districts in the United States. The ores received were from the Mesabi, Marquette, Gogebic, Menominee and Vermilion ranges of the Lake Superior district and from Southwest Virginia. Requests

Jan 1, 1897

It appears that Utah is about to add another mining district to its already impressive roster. This time it is the Great Salt Lake, whose high-mineral content waters are being subjected to intensive study aimed toward the recovery of potassium, magnesium and lithium compounds by solar evaporation techniques. Among the firms conducting such experiments is Lithium Corporation of America, which, in a joint venture with West Germany's Salzdetfurth A.G., is operating evaporating ponds and running engineering tests at a site near Little Mountain, about ten miles west of Ogden. Here, on the clay flats along the northern portion of the lake, LCA holds leases and options totalling about 55,000 acres in the Bear River Basin.

Jan 7, 1966

By Felix B. Shay

THE Agua Fria mine is in eastern Honduras at Lat. 140° 06' N., Long. 86° 36’ W. Danli, the seat of the local municipal government, is the nearest town. The property is approximately 44 miles east of Tegucigalpa, the terminus of a truck road from the Pacific coast. The mine lies at an altitude of 3300 ft. with surrounding elevations as high as 6000 feet. For 20 years the oxidized croppings of the Agua Fria vein had been worked intermittently when in 1927 an attempt was made to open the property. A shaft was sunk 300 ft. and considerable ore was blocked out, but before a mill could be installed financial difficulties arose and the mine reverted to the original owners. Erle P. Halliburton, of Los Angeles, purchased the property in 1934. At that time a careful consideration of all factors involved showed that air transport was the only practical method of moving the equipment and machinery necessary to commence production. The other alternative was by muleback, which required sectionalizing all equipment to a maximum load of 200 lb., and during the rainy season this type of freighting was subject to serious delays. It was decided to purchase a trimotor Ford powered by three Pratt and Whitney Wasp B motors developing 400 hp. each. There were several reasons for the choice: (1) this type of plane was available at a reasonable price, owing to its replacement by faster models on most of the airlines in the United States; (2) the ship was capable of carrying a pay load of 3000 lb. over the required distance; (3) since this airplane had been widely used there would be no difficulty in securing competent personnel or in purchasing spare parts. It was necessary to rebuild the plane for cargo service. The windows were removed and the fuselage was entirely covered. A hatch was cut in the top of the fuselage to receive heavy crane loads and pieces of freight that were too large or too long to go through the rear door. The seats were removed and the interior of the plane was lined with Duralumin sheets. A heavy-duty landing gear was installed and the floor was reinforced. The nearest site for an airport was two miles north of the mine. The necessary grading was done by a small track-type tractor with a wheeled grader, which was brought in overland. Six weeks was required for bring-

Jan 1, 1940

By W. M. Wojcik, R. F. Kowal

Oxygen and sulfur distributions in commercial, 5-ton ingots of killed, medium carbon steel are described. Oxygen distribution is found to vary with deoxidation practice. Irregular distribution of oxygen within ingots makes necessary special precautions in sampling of rolled products for analysis of oxygen. Oxygen distribution is discussed in terms of recently published solidification concepts which had been successfully applied to simpler cases of segregation. These concepts have been found inadequate to explain observed oxygen distributions. Convective movements of the liquid metal, as determined by tracer elements, are shown to be capable of accounting for the observed distributions of oxygen. IN an effort to explore the origin of surface and subsurface imperfections in pierced steel products, a study of oxygen and sulfur segregation was made on ingots cast in open-top and hot-top molds. The results of our previous investigations1"3 have indicated the importance of the location and amount of oxide inclusions in an ingot. Inclusions close to the surface of the ingot have been found to contribute greatly to the formation of imperfections in the surface of finished products. This study of the effects of deoxidation and casting practice on segregation and the resulting oxygen distribution in ingots was initiated to determine the parameters controlling the location of inclusions in an ingot. Segregation of solute elements during solidification of low-melting binary alloys has been studied in the past.1, 5 Formation and growth of inclusions in iron melts have been studied under specific conditions."- In spite of these and other recent studies,10-12 segregation during solidification of commercial, killed steel ingots is not well understood. Consideration of solidification rates, of segregation during solidification of the chill, dendritic, and central zones, and of material balances for the segregated elements has indicated that a simplified theoretical solidification model is not adequate. However, the observed high oxygen contents in localized volumes of the dendritic zone can be rationalized if additional effects of convection currents in the ingots, precipitation, and rapid growth of new phases are considered. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE Steelmaking and Processing. A group of nine killed. medium carbon steel heats having compositions listed in Table I have been studied. The deoxidation and mold practices used were varied to give a wide range of steel oxygen contents. The amounts of aluminum added to the ladle and the ingot casting practices (hot top and open top) were the main variables. The steel was made by a duplex practice in 160-ton tilting basic open-hearth furnaces. All nine heats were top-cast into 24 by 24 in. big end down, fluted molds, to a height between 60 and 76 in., using both open tops and exothermic hot tops. The deoxidation practice and the tapping and teeming details for each heat and ingot studied are given in Tables II and III, respectively. Hot-top practice is indicated by the letter H following the heat designation. Furnace and ladle temperatures were measured by standard disposable-tip, Pt/10 pet PtRh thermocouples. Teeming-stream temperatures were obtained as described by Samways et al.,13 by immersing a Pt/10 pet PtRh thermocouple, covered by a silica sheath, into the teeming stream under the nozzle. The output of this thermocouple was recorded with Leeds & Northrup Speedomax potentiometer. Calibration of the latter thermocouples was based on the freezing point of a pure iron/oxygen alloy (2795°F). The accumulated errors of measurements were within ±10°F. The thermocouple measurements were supplemented in this investigation by continuous recording of a ratioing, two-color pyrometer (Shawmeter), protected from smoke by a blast of clean air within the sighting tube, and calibrated to read with better than ±10°F accuracy. Following teeming of three heats, P, R, and T, tracer elements were added to the steel in the molds to obtain a record of the progress of solidification. As soon as the teeming stream was shut off, a 0.010-in.-thick steel can containing a mixture of crushed standard ferro-titanium and ferro-vanadium (0.05 pet of each alloy element) was plunged into the middle of the steel pool to a depth of 6 in. In about 30 sec no indication of the can or its contents remained. The surface of the open-top ingots solidified in 20 to 30 sec. A study of liquid metal movement and the precipitation of oxides was facilitated materially by use of the tracer technique as titanium has a low distribution coefficient between solid and liquid steel while vanadium has a high distribution coefficient.

Jan 1, 1965

By T. KIRKE ROSE

A Discussion of the paper by H. O. Hofman and M. G. Magnuson, read at the Lake Superior meeting, September, 1904. (British Columbia Meeting, July, 1905.) T. KIRKE ROSE, London, Eng. (communication to the Secretary*`) :-The authors have shown that, under certain conditions, the rate of dissolution of gold by chlorine and bromine is re¬duced by the addition of 10 per cent. of silver to the gold, and that the action is almost stopped when the silver amounts to 30 or 40 per cent. of the alloy. Even if full recognition is given to the practical way in which the work was done, how¬ever, it is to be regretted that Prof. Hofman and Mr. Magnuson did not determine the temperature at which the experiments were carried out. From the details given it may be inferred that the temperature was raised by chemical action by about 20° C. when 21 g. of sulphuric acid were added, and that the mixture was then slowly cooled down during the experiment. When bromine or very weak chlorine solutions were used, there could not have been any perceptible heating action. As the action of both chlorine and bromine is aided by heat, it follows that the stronger solutions of chlorine were given an unfair advantage over the weaker solutions and over bromine. If the temperature had been the same in each case, I do not think that the conclusions given oil p. 432 of the Bi-Monthly Bulletin, March, 1905, 1 would have been found to be justified. (This is speaking generally. In barrel-treatment the conditions are similar to those in the experiments.) The superior speed of bromine as compared with chlorine at equivalent strengths is not yet disproved, and the differences noted between strong and weak solutions of chlorine may have been largely a function of the temperature. Moreover, the authors used somewhat coarse particles of gold

Sep 1, 1905

By F. O. Garrabrant

Power is furnished to the Climax Molybdenum Co. by the Public Service Co. of Colorado over two 100,000-volt lines to a bank of three 3333-kva. transformers 100/13.8 kv. These transformers are so designed that with the addition of forced cooling their capacity may be increased 33? per cent at 12,000-ft. altitude. Under present conditions, these transformers are operated at 140 Per cent of their rating with forced air cooling. On the secondary side of this bank there is a 15-kv., 1200-amp. Westinghouse oil circuit breaker provided with automatic reclosing relays allowing three successive short circuits before lockout. From this breaker 13.8-kv. power is transmitted to a central switching station (Fig. I) where all circuits radiate to the different operations of the property. Each circuit is protected by a 23-kv., 600-amp. oil circuit breaker with by-pass and isolating disconnecting switches. Mine Power at 13.8 kv. enters the mine through a ventilation raise over a three-conductor, size 1-0 varnished cambric insulated, leaded, steel-wire armored cable, insulated from 17 kv. This power is received and distributed through one switching station and four underground substations, shown in Fig. 2. No. 370 substation (Fig. 3) contains three a 13,800/440-volt, single- phase Pyranol transformers protected on the high-voltage side by a 600-amp. manually operated oil circuit breaker. This station serves 20 slusher-hoist motors, a 45-kw., three-phase, 220-volt electric furnace, a Massco hot miller for tempering and milling Timken detachable bits and a hoist with 175-hp motor on the No, 3 development shaft. Also at this shaft are three pumps. One two-stage pump, 1200 gal, per min., 500-ft. head, 3600 r.p.m., driven by a 150-hp. motor, is at the bottom of the shaft, Two deep-well pumps, 500 gal. per min., 500-ft. head, are at the collar of the shaft. under normal operation the one pumping 1200 gal. per min, is controlled by a float switch to take care of the water. If this pump fails, or if its capacity is insufficient, the first 500-gal. pump is automatically started1 and if still more capacity is needed the second 500-gal. pump automatically starts. Time delay relays are provided on the deep-well pumps, so that if power fails the column will have time to drain before the Pumps restart. On failure of any Of these, an alarm is sounded in the train dispatcher's office, so that mechanics can be sent to ascertain the cause of failure and make repairs. The cable from No. 37' substation is run to the switching station, in which are four 15-kv., 600-amp. direct-current sole-noid-operated oil circuit breakers. The current for Operating and tripping is furnished by a 125-volt storage battery. All breakers are operated from the switchboard in the compressor room. One circuit from this switching station goes to the

Jan 1, 1946

The year 1934 saw a very thorough and intensive search for oil in Italy, both by the Government-subsidized company, the A.G.I.P., and by the few smaller operating companies. Approximately two-thirds of the exploration work, however, has been done in the Province of Emilia (northern Italy). The A.G.I.P. has been particularly active in the Emilia district and has sunk several rotary holes between Voghera and Ferrara on structures located by geophysical means in the Po Valley. Only insignificant amounts of oil have shown up in these tests to date but gas has been found in fair quantities, and apparently the company is not yet prepared to abandon its search in this part of the country without further effort. In Central Italy, the same company has put down four tests with cable tools and of these two were "dry holes" and the other two found only traces of oil. The A:G.I.P. also sank two wells in southern Italy and it is believed that in these the indications were sufficiently encouraging for the exploration work to be continued. No serious drilling has yet been done in Sicily by the A.G.I.P. or any other company. The annual subsidy granted to the A.G.I.P. by the Government for the duration of its five-year plan has been considerably reduced for 1935 and this may interfere with the completion of the coming year's program in all its details. The Società Petrolifera Italians, which is the chief producing company in the country, has continued the development of its two fields, Salsomaggiore and Vallezza, and at the same time has intensified its program of exploration. Rotary machinery has been introduced and is undergoing a thorough trial, and prospects of finding new pools at greater depths are considered good. The charcoal adsorption plant at Vallezza has operated satisfactorily throughout the year and has produced nearly 3000 bbl. of high-grade gasoline. Besides the exploration well at Rile dell'Olio, which is still drilling, another wildcat test has been started at Torre-di-Traversetolo. All operations of this company are confined to the district of Emilia. The Società Petroli d'Italia has continued to operate the old fields of Montechino, Gratera and Velleja, and has a well now exploring at greater depths in that general area. Of the two exploration wells in the Torino

Jan 1, 1935

By E. E. Malouf

With the continued development of low-grade porphyry copper deposits by open pit mining, substantial amounts of copper-bearing strip material have been accumulated in waste dumps adjacent to the many large mines. Since the end of World War II, the production of copper from leaching these copper-bearing wastes increased from approximately 4% of the total copper production to 10% by the early 1960's. Projected increases will probably raise this figure to 20 to 30% by the early 1970's. Furthermore, a gradual recognition of the economic feasibility of leaching mined-out areas is evident and will undoubtedly contribute additional production. Waste dumps in canyons and gulches on the periphery of open pit mines, mine stopes, caved areas, and abandoned open pits often contain substantial quantities of leachable rock ranging in concentration from 0.1 to 0.4% copper. Recent developments in the leaching of copper, mainly the recognition of bacterial oxidation of sulfide minerals combined with better under- standing of the control of the salt content of the leach solutions, both by adjusting the pH and/or by hydrolysis, are resulting in a greatly expanded recovery of copper from these hitherto uneconomic mine rejects. 11.5-1. Mechanism of Leaching. Leaching processes for the extraction of metal values from mine ore or waste may be classified for convenience as either chemical leaching or bacterial leaching. Chemical leaching is considered to be the extraction of soluble salts by metathesis in acidic, basic, or neutral water solutions. The reactions involved may be evaluated by chemical thermodynamics. Bacterial leaching, although a chemical process, is dependent on biological catalysis and this is generally a much more complex process. This justifies its separate treatment in the application to leaching. Acid ferric sulfate solutions are commonly employed in the mining industry to leach valuable metals from metal sulfide ores. The leaching mechanism is a reduction-oxidation reaction in which minerals are oxidized at the expense of ferric sulfate. Such chemical leaching is profitable when

Jan 1, 1968

By Michael Tenenbaum

THE importance of semikilled steel as a high tonnage grade has long been recognized. The increasing severity of the applications for which semikilled steel is used makes it desirable to obtain further information regarding the features of open hearth practice and ingot structure that can affect steel performance in subsequent rolling and fabricating operations. Accordingly, an investigation is being carried out studying the structure of various types of semikilled steel ingots. This paper reviews some of the observations made and information gathered in this investigation. By definition, semikilled steel may be considered to include all nonrimming steels in which the natural shrinkage occurring during ingot solidification is offset to an appreciable degree by gas formation. Accordingly, this type of steel includes the entire range intermediate between rimmed and fully killed steel. The resultant ingot structures range from those of steels that have been capped to suppress a weak rimming action to those steels that have been killed in the furnace or ladle to the extent that no mold deoxidizer is required. A survey reported to the 1946 AIME Open Hearth Conference' reviewed the practices being used at 28 major plants for the deoxidation of semikilled steel. It was found that most plants divide the deoxidizing additions between the ladle and the mold many of the plants adding only minor amounts of deoxidizer to the bath or none at all. Silicon, aluminum and titanium were the only elements used for ladle and mold deoxidation. Mold deoxidizers were added as capping additions or as uniformly fed additions. Several practices were reported in which the steel was deoxidized in the ladle to the extent that little or no mold deoxidation was needed. No reference was made to grades capped by using special mold designs or special closures over the top of molds. Accordingly, specific examples of this type of practice will not be considered in this paper. It appeared from this survey of deoxidation practice that semikilled steel can be divided into three types, namely, capped semikilled, in which aluminum is added near the end of pour or after shut-off, intermediate semikilled steels, in which aluminum is fed uniformly throughout the pour, and semikilled steels requiring no mold deoxidation. In an attempt to cover the ingot structures obtained by the range of practices reported in the preceding survey, three series of experimental heats were made using increasing amounts of aluminum, silicon and titanium for ladle deoxidizers. The ladle deoxidizers were added as stick aluminum, 50 pct ferrosilicon and 20 pct ferrotitanium (4 pct carbon), respectively. Two methods of studying ingot structures were used. Ingots were removed from production, burned longitudinally and machined to allow observation of the central pipe and coarse blowholes. During the machining operation much of the finely porous subsurface structure was obliterated. Accordingly, observations were also made

Jan 1, 1947

By John F. Wiggert

DURING the early years of Homestake operations, shaft signaling from the cage tenders to the hoisting engineers was done by mechanical means. Small steel cables or jointed steel rods were suspended in the shaft compartments and counterbalanced with weights or springs. These cables or rod strings were connected to the mechanically operated gongs at the engineers' stations by means of bell cranks and steel wires. The system was simple and economical and served the purpose well until the mine reached a depth of 1000 ft., then the system became slow and cumbersome and required a considerable amount of muscular effort to operate it with much speed, because of the inertia of the heavy moving parts. The mechanical signaling was superseded by a simple electrical system consisting of a single pair of wires in steel conduit for each shaft compartment. In the shaft at each station a pull switch was connected to the wires. The switches were operated by means of bell cords, which extended from station to station. This electrical system was a great improvement over the mechanical one, but it had one serious drawback, which also applied to the older system; namely, the engineer did not know where a signal originated. Later on this signaling was improved to overcome this drawback, and to give the engineer a positive indication of a signal's origin. In this system a separate return wire from each pull switch is carried to an annunciator at the engineer's station, where it indicates the signal's origin. While the annunciator system used by Homestake is very safe and reliable, it has the inherent drawback of all wire-connected systems in that it is impossible to send a signal from a moving cage. A number of years ago Homestake became interested in the possibility of using some sort of radio transmission for shaft signaling. The company did much experimental work with purely radio signal transmission, but no practical way was discovered to use radio transmission in a mine shaft for signaling to or from a cage. Therefore, all efforts were directed to devising a practical way of using the hoisting rope as part of the circuit. It was realized that the return circuit from the rope would need to be through electrostatic coupling between the cage and the earth or ground sides of the shaft, because the guides would not always be wet enough to make possible good electrical contact between the cage and earth, therefore relatively high-frequency alternating current was chosen as the medium of transmission. Soon a practical system was developed for transmitting an electric current from a moving cage over an electric circuit of which the hoisting rope was a part. A high-frequency electric current is used as a carrier to transmit the signals or mes-

Jan 1, 1941

By P. K. Chatterjee

The overall success of many strip coal mining operations depends primarily upon the efficient use of draglines to remove overburden. These machines require enormous capital investment and unless used efficiently the profitability of a venture is adversely affected. It is important that the dragline works continuously and it is imperative that the walking path and other facets of its operation be predetermined exactly so that the desired production rate is achieved with a minimum of non-productive time. Details of dragline operations which are of particular interest are walking path, prediction of best cut and positioning to maximize production, the angle of swing which produces the swiftest operation, optimum fill factor allowable for the type of material and conditions of ground, the maximum depth from which it can excavate and operating level with respect to the elevation of the high wall. The aims of the present paper are: 1. To establish a cut-off point in the cost-depth ratio. 2. Predict the most economic method of stripping in a given area using graphical plots of walking path implemented with information necessary to ensure optimum production. The optimum operating efficiency of the dragline in relation to the terrain and other conditions imposed on its operation will be evaluated. The model is based upon operating data which has been collected from site observations of a large strip coal mining operation in Central Queensland, Australia.

Jan 1, 1977

By E. Amott

A test is described in which the wellubility of porous rock is measured as a function of the displacement properties of the rock-water-oil system. Four displacemet operations are carried out: (I) sponlaneous displaceti?ent of water by oil, (2) forced displacement of water by oil oil in the same system using a centrifuging procetllrre, (3) spontaneous displacement of oil by water. and (4) forced displacment of oil by water. Ratios of the spontaneous displacement volumes to the total displucenlent volumes are used as wettability indicates. Cores having clean mineral surfaces (strongly preferentially water-wet) show displacement-by-waler ratios approaching 1.00 and displacement-by-oil ratios of zero. Cores which ([re. strongly preferentinlly oil-wet give the reverse resu1ts. Neutral wellability cores show zero values for both ratios Fresh cores from different oil reservoirs have shown wettabiltties in tlris te.st covering rrlti~ost 111e conlplrtt, range of thr: te.st. Notvever, nlo.s/ of tlle fresh California cores tested were slightly prcfere111icrlly wclter-\vet. The chrrnge.~ in coro u ('liabilities, as indicated hy this te.st, r~.sril/ing from various CO~P hanrlling procedures tt,ere oh.served. In sonie ca.sc,s /Ire ~,cttahilitio.c. of fresh cores were changell by drxi:~g or 11y e.x/rclct ing with iolcreiii~ or. dioxunc~; in o/h~r cases they were 1101 changed. Co~ltrrc/ of cort,.s ~.ith filtrc~t~c. from water-base rlrilling rilrrrls crlrc.sed littlc change in we/ /ahility ivhile contnct with filtrates frorii oil-hus~ ri1rlcl.s tlecrrascrl the prefcrerlcc, of the, cores for )I.NI Usitig thi,s test to ri.crl~lute n~r~ttubili~y, N .vt~ldy was iilarle of /lie correlmtio~i of wettability with wa/erfloocl nil recovery for orttcrop Ohio sand.stone and for Al~ln-tlunl. Resul/.v indicate thml no single correlatioti between these factors applies to different porous rock syste~n. It is thought that diflerences in pore gen~netry resrrlt in diflrrerrce.~ in this correlurio~z. INTRODUCTTON Most investigators who have reported on the wettahility of porous rock have described such rock as prcferentially water-wet or preferentially oil-wet. In some cases a third classification, neutral wettability. has been used. The efficiency of water floods in each of these wettability groups has been described in numerous publications. Several methods for characterizing porous rock wet tability more precisely have been reported,' " but it appears that because of one weakness or another. none of these has been generally accepted. Early in our studies in this field, it was found that the displacement efficiency of oil by water in a particular porous rock having a strong preference for water was quite different from that in a similar rock having only a moderate preference for water. Thus, there appeared to be a need for a practical, reasonably precise wet tability test. one which could classify porous rocks into 10 to 20 different groups rather than the two or three broad groups listed above. The test developed to meet this need is described in this paper. Also, changes in wettability, as indicated hy this test, resulting from various core handling procedures are discussed. Finally, data showing the corrclation of wettability with waterflood oil recovery for two different types of cores are presented and discussed. Some confusion has resulted from the failure of certain writers to define clearly some of the wettability terms they have used. Accordingly, the following commcnts concerning definitions are offered. The wc t ta-hility of a solid surface is the relative preference of that surface to be covered by one of the fluids under consideration. It is felt that this is the generally accepted definition. The fluids being considered must bc specified (or understood) before the term wettability has any significance. In the work reported here these fluids are water (3 per cent brine) and oil (kerosene). The term preferential wettability is sometimes used, but we think that the word preferential is redundant here and should not be used. Tn line with the definitions of Jennings', a preferentially oil-wet solid surface is regarded as a surface which will show an oil advancing contact angle less than 90" (measured through the oil) in the water-oil-solid system. Oil will spontaneously displace water, if both are at the same pressure, from such a surface. A preferentially water-wet surface is analogous. This is consistent with the wettability definition above. As Jennings has said, frequently the term oil-wet is used to mean the same thing as preferentially oil-wet. However, oil-wet also has been used occasionally referring to an oil-covered surface when the availability of water was limited. To avoid confusion from this source, we do not use the terms oil-wet and water-wet. DESCRIPTION OF WETTABTLITY TEST The following points were considered desirable in a wettability test for our purpose. 1. The test should be a displacement test resembling

By C. D. Broadbent

Open pit blasting can be a low cost routine or a high cost bottleneck depending on geology, environment and the operator's ability to master site conditions. Because blasting is a repetitive operation, there should be ample opportunity to optimize the process; but ordinarily this optimization is rarely achieved and then only if conditions remain consistent and predictable. Often, however, and particularly with porphyry coppers, hidden differences in rock characteristics nullify the operator's best efforts. At a porphyry copper deposit being mined by Kennecott Copper Corporation, all of the following rock types occur; oxidized and fresh porphyry, altered and silicified limestone, explosion breccia, rhyolite, sandstone, shale and several others. The units can cover large areas or be limited to a few tens of feet in maximum dimension. They are rarely visible on the bench surface and often do not show up in the bench slope. Even though the blastability of these rocks varies substantially, a generally-uniform blasting pattern was formerly used with disappointing results. Secondary blasting was often required and high bottoms occurred frequently, overblasting wasted drilling time, and explosives caused excessive throw.

Jan 4, 1974

One of the first all-hydraulic crawler drills in service at a US open-pit mine has significantly exceeded the penetration rates of comparable pneumatic crawler rigs, according to Atlas Copco Inc. Overall production with the hydraulic unit has been double that of pneumatic crawlers in use. The installation is at the Foote Mineral Co. surface mine at Kings Mountain, N.C., where the company is engaged in mining spodumene, a combination of lithium, aluminum, and silicates. The ore is found in pegmatite dikes, a tough and abrasive host rock with compressive strength of tip to 5800 kPa (40,000 psi).

Jan 9, 1978

Henry Louis, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England (communication to the Secretary): I think very highly of the novel and ingenious device of Prof. Richards for analyzing the movement of the various elements of the jig; it is a method that certainly seems to promise valuable results, if we could only make certain that these various indicator-appliances have no effect upon the action of the jig. I would like, however, to suggest that in future experiments the connection between the plunger indicator-rod and the pencil should be made by means of parallel motions, so as better to reproduce the rectilinear motion of the piston. I should expect, if this were done, that the " curve " of the plunger in the Harz jig, at any rate, would be represented either by straight lines or else by quite regular curves, according to the method by which the plunger is set in motion; the apparent combinatioil of straight line and curve seems difficult to explain. With respect to the water-curve, I am afraid I am completely at fault, but no doubt Prof. Richards can explain my difficulty. In Fig. 2, the areas of the screen-side and the plunger-side of the jig are equal. If the piston be a fair fit and the bottom of

Jan 1, 1897

By A. Bruce Matthews

Of the many opportunities in the mining industry to invest funds to improve operations, there is always some limit in every company as to how much can be spent each year for the acquisition of capital assets. Generally, there are many more opportunities for investment than funds to make the investments. As such, one of management's goals is to select the most profitable of all the opportunities available. Each opportunity must be carefully analyzed for its potential percentage rate of return. This percentage return or return on investment concept is an accepted financial yardstick of business profit- ability. For today's mining engineers, this problem resolves itself in the job of determining how to in- vest most productively the cash that is flowing from their operations so that it will multiply in value. There are four basic types of capital investments: Strategic investments, such as selecting a plant site, are those that affect virtually all long-run plans of a company. Change in a company's product line and expansion of company facilities are two other types of capital investments.

Jan 3, 1963

By Wallace W. Wilson

This DaoerAA calls to attention for the first time, to the writer's knowledge, a purported recovery of oil by substantially horizontal gas cycling that is considerably in excess of 50 per cent of the oil originally in place. The average angle of dip along the path of travel of the gas is less than one degree of arc. The best recovery by gas cycling previously brought to the writer's attention1 occurred in the case of the Mile Six Field in Peru, where about 68 per cent of the original oil in place has so far been recovered. In this case, however. the recovery was greatly aided 1)y the high dip angle of about 17.5". An approximate estimate of recovery was made by the method developed by the writer' for the case of the Cook Ranch Field, using an average relative permeability ratio function dictated by past experience with a number of good quality sandstones. A result of about 40 per cent recovery of the original oil in place wa* obtained after the 8.5 pore volumes of cumulative gas cycling undergone by the Cook Ranch Field. Tile writer desires to emphasize what appears to him as the sound engineering practiced at Cook Ranch, and also the care attending the taking of data and the high quality of the calculations made. It is impossible to take issue on factual grounds with any of the conclusions drawn in the paper. It is, however, desired to point out the difficulty of explaining the unexpectedly favorable oil recovery on ordinary theoretical grounds. It would be of interest to know whether relative permeability ratios have been measured on the Cook sand. The operator is inclined to attribute some of the excess benefit to settling of the oil across the bedding planes into the lower part of the sand. It is difficult for the writer to appreciate the importance of such an effect, inasmuch as the concomitant opening of excessive vacated pore space in the upper part of the sand would he expected to cause excessive bypassing of the gas. REFERENCE 1. Welge. H. J.: "A Simplified Method for Computing Oil Recovery by (Gas or Water Drive." Trans. AIME, (1952), 195, 91. AUTHOR'S REPLY TO MR. WELGE Welge has poined out clearly the difficulty of applying material-balance procedures in calculating the Performance of low-pressure, dispersed gas injection operations. There can be no argument that even with the most favorable assumptions of K,/K,, and with cumulative gas cycling in excess of normal expectations, the calculated oil recovery will be considerably less than the 72.5 per cent recovery realized from this project to Jan. 1, 1951. There probably are at least two reasons for the unusually high recovery from this reservoir, the effects of which would be difficult or impossible to calculate by known methods: 1. The operator did not use the same injection wells for the entire operation, and exercised considerable control over producing GOR by changing the locations of injection wells whenever well performance indicated excessive bypassing. Fifty-six wells were used for injection, not over 29 of which were in use simultaneously. This procedure resulted in frequent shifting of the fluid movement patterns in the reservoir and undoubtedly increased the ultimate recovery. The writer knows of no satisfactory procedure for calculating the effect of this practice. 2. Vertical movement of oil across the bedding planes of the reservoir rock hy gravity drainage tended to maintain a relatively high oil saturation, and hence a favorable K,/K, ratio, in the lower sections of the reservoir. As pointed out by Welge, this condition has aggravated the tendency for high producing GOR, but at the same time it has resulted in increased oil recovery. As may be seen from the performance charts for the various battery areas, operating (GOR'S have been quite high for the last several years of reported history.

Jan 1, 1952

By R. A. Oriani

The partial molal volume of hydrogen is one of the parameters that describe the elastic interaction between the solute and the stress fields about inclusions, dislocations, and cracks. As such the partial molal volume is probably of importance in the elucidation of phenomena such as hydrogen embrittlement and hydrogen yield point. A knowledge of this quantity would also be helpful in thinking about the state of dissolved hydrogen in iron. However, because of the very low lattice solubility of hydrogen in iron the usual ways of determining the lattice expansion are not practicable. It is therefore of interest to apply the thermodynamics of stressed bodies to two sets of measurements of the effect of elastic stress upon the permeability of hydrogen in order to deduce a value of the partial molal volume, VH, of hydrogen dissolved in a iron. Beck ..' and previously de Kazinczy, observed that a uniaxial tensile stress increases the permeability of hydrogen in iron and in various steels. Beck et 01. employed Armco iron and A.I.S.I. 4340 steel, whereas de Kazinczy used a steel the composition of which was 0.13 C, 0.23 Si, 0.46 Mn, 0.006 P, and 0.038 S. Upon releasing the stress the permeability increment disappeared if the stress was below the elastic limit. Both investigators employed cathodic charging to introduce the hydrogen. de Kazinczy measured the permeation through a thin-walled tube by collecting the gas, whereas Beck et al. measured the permeation through sheets of various thicknesses by a very sensitive electrochemical technique. Both investigators measured the steady-state permeation at constant rate of hydrogen ion discharge, and Beck measured in addition the hydrogen diffusivity by a time-lag technique which is independent of the boundary conditions. Beck et al. and de Kazinczy found a linear relationship between log (J,/Jo) and the stress, where Ju/Jo is the ratio of the flux of hydrogen when the metal is under uniaxial tensile stress, a, to the flux under zero stress, for the same temperature and charging current. Beck et al. found in addition that the diffusivity of hydrogen is not changed by stress. Both investigators concluded that the observed change in permeability is due to an increase in hydrogen concentration, and furthermore that the increase in concentration is due directly to the thermodynamic effect of stress upon concentration. Accepting this assessment of the situation for reasons given below, one may use the equation3j4 in order to evaluate I/H, the partial molal volume of hydrogen. This equation is valid for the domain of a/E «¦ 1 (where E is the Young's modulus) and under the assumption that hydrogen expands the lattice isotrop-ically. From the data of Beck el al, one calculates V7H - 2.0 cu cm per g-atom, and from those of de Kazinczy one obtains 1.8 cu cm per g-atom. That the increase of concentration with stress is indeed of thermodynamic origin is attested to by the facts that the experimental results conform to the thermodynamic relation, Eq. [I], and that the results are the same whether a pure iron1 or each of two different steels172 is used. Neither of these facts wou1.d necessarily be expected if the effect of stress were, rather, to increase the ratio kn/k, of the kinetic factors of the following competing reactions: H(ads) — H (dissolved) Such a change of kinetics at the surface could be an alternative explanation of the effect of stress on the permeability. Although this writer does not deem this explanation to be the correct one for the reasons given above, it must be admitted that unambiguous proof that the phenomenon has a thermodynamic origin does not yet exist. Two kinds of experiments may be suggested. One is to plate a variety of metals on the input surface of the steel and repeat the stress experiment at a variety of hydrogen charging currents. The other is to employ somewhat thicker specimens in order to be able to apply uniaxial compressive stress. Eq. [I] shows that ln(c,/c,) depends on the sign of the stress, but it is difficult to see a physical basis for which k2/kl would depend on the sign of a. The present value of V^ in a iron agrees with phragmen's5 estimate, which he based on comparisons with the lattice expansion by hydrogen of titanium, zir-

Jan 1, 1967

By W. Rosotoker

Using an expression for the free energy of a homogeneous phase as a function of composition, a relationship is derived which interrelates the phase boundaries extending from the allotropic transformation of the solvent metal. Comparisons between observed and calculated phase boundaries in the systems Fe-Ni, Fe-Mn, Fe-W, Ti-Mo, and Ti-Cb are presented. IT is the purpose of this paper to illustrate how the general free energy equations for two phases in equilibrium may be used to derive an expression which interrelates the phase boundaries extending from the allotropic transformation of the solvent metal. The free energy per gram atom of a disordered solid solution may, for many purposes, be represented by the equation:' F = ½NZ [C-V,, + (1-C) VbB + 2C (l-C)V] + K(T) +RT[C-lnC+ (l-C)ln(l-C) ] [1] where N is Avogadro's number; Z, the coordination number; C, the concentration of the solute element in atomic percent; the subscripts refer to concentrations at phase mixture boundaries; VAA, VBB, and V,, are the bond energies between like and unlike adjacent atoms, respectively, at the interatomic spacing characteristic of the phase. The bond energies are usually assumed to be independent of small changes in the lattice parameter occasioned by solute additions and variations in temperature; V = VAB ---------------—— ; K(T) is the sum of the heat con- tent and heat entropy; R, the molar gas constant; and T, the temperature in degrees Kelvin. The free energy of a homogeneous phase is there- fore the sum of an internal energy, a specific heat, and a configurational entropy term, respectively. The compositions of two phases in equilibrium at a given temperature are governed by the minimum total free energy principle. Graphically, this is represented by the points of tangency of the tangent common to the free energy vs. concentration curves of the two phases. Analytically, this may be expressed as: ( df) = (df) [2] dc dc Expanding both sides using eq 1, the following equation is obtained after convenient readjustment of the terms: RT In[(ca)(1-c)]-½N (Vaa-Vbb)(Za-Zb) +NV [Za(l-2Ca)-Z,(l-2C,)] [3] The following assumptions have been made at this point: 1—The specific heats of the two phases are independent of composition variations within the range under consideration. Accordingly, the K(T) terms disappear on differentiation. 2— (Vaa)o = (VAA); (VBB). = (VBB); Va = V, Theyjustification for these assumptions can lie only in the successful application of the resultant equation. It may be noted that Zener2 has used assumption 1 in the calculation of the boundaries limiting the (a+j3) phase mixture in the Cu-Zn system.

Jan 1, 1952