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By L. E. Shiffman

This paper describes the operation of two kerosine flotation plants in Alabama for cleaning —10 mesh bituminous coal. One plant treats washer sludge, the other raw coal. Data on capacity efficiency and capital and operating costs is given. Methods for increasing cell capacity are discussed. IN cleaning coal it has long been recognized that methods which give excellent results for the coarser sizes may give poor or even no cleaning for the finer sizes. Effective cleaning of the fines, therefore, is usually a separate and distinct problem. For many years the problem of fines was considered of relatively minor importance. Now there is growing interest in methods of cleaning the fine sizes of coal because: 1. There are more fines. Increasing mechanization and the adoption of full seam mining methods have resulted in the production of a greater percentage of smaller particles than were produced by hand loading methods. 2. The fines have deteriorated in quality. The same causes that have led to increased quantity have also operated to decrease quality through greater contamination with slate, rock, and other diluents. 3. The fines have become more valuable. When coal was comparatively cheap, loss of the finer sizes was tolerated but, with the rapid increase in the cost of mining coal, it has become imperative that the maximum amount of clean coal be recovered from the mixture of coal and rock delivered to the tipple. 4. In many cases, the fines have become a stream pollution problem. Increasing governmental activity and legislation to prevent stream pollution often have made it necessary to retain the fine material which formerly was permitted to escape with the washer effluent into flowing streams. The Sloss-Sheffield Steel and Iron Co. operates four coal mines, all within a 20-mile radius of Birmingham, Ala., with a total annual production of 1,-250,000 tons of washed coal. Three of these mines are in the Mary Lee seam and one in the Jefferson seam. Although some steam and domestic coals are produced, the major portion of the coal is used to make coke for blast furnace operation. Fine coal is desirable for coking, and all the coal so used by Sloss is crushed to 1/4 in. Therefore, there is no problem of an outlet for even the finest sizes of coal. Since the coal is used for metallurgical purposes, low ash is of greater importance than would be the case if it were used for steam generation or domestic heating. Based on present blast furnace practice at Sloss, it is calculated that each percentage of ash in the coal carries a penalty of $0.22 per ton of coal. Thus there is a considerable margin for operating costs in a fine coal cleaning method that will result in materially lowering the ash content of the cleaned coal. Development of Fine Coal Cleaning Problem In 1942 Sloss reopened its Bessie mine and constructed at this location a new preparation plant to clean 11/4 in. x 0 coal from the Mary Lee seam.

Jan 1, 1951

By L. E. Shiffman

This paper describes the operation of two kerosine flotation plants in Alabama for cleaning —10 mesh bituminous coal. One plant treats washer sludge, the other raw coal. Data on capacity efficiency and capital and operating costs is given. Methods for increasing cell capacity are discussed. IN cleaning coal it has long been recognized that methods which give excellent results for the coarser sizes may give poor or even no cleaning for the finer sizes. Effective cleaning of the fines, therefore, is usually a separate and distinct problem. For many years the problem of fines was considered of relatively minor importance. Now there is growing interest in methods of cleaning the fine sizes of coal because: 1. There are more fines. Increasing mechanization and the adoption of full seam mining methods have resulted in the production of a greater percentage of smaller particles than were produced by hand loading methods. 2. The fines have deteriorated in quality. The same causes that have led to increased quantity have also operated to decrease quality through greater contamination with slate, rock, and other diluents. 3. The fines have become more valuable. When coal was comparatively cheap, loss of the finer sizes was tolerated but, with the rapid increase in the cost of mining coal, it has become imperative that the maximum amount of clean coal be recovered from the mixture of coal and rock delivered to the tipple. 4. In many cases, the fines have become a stream pollution problem. Increasing governmental activity and legislation to prevent stream pollution often have made it necessary to retain the fine material which formerly was permitted to escape with the washer effluent into flowing streams. The Sloss-Sheffield Steel and Iron Co. operates four coal mines, all within a 20-mile radius of Birmingham, Ala., with a total annual production of 1,-250,000 tons of washed coal. Three of these mines are in the Mary Lee seam and one in the Jefferson seam. Although some steam and domestic coals are produced, the major portion of the coal is used to make coke for blast furnace operation. Fine coal is desirable for coking, and all the coal so used by Sloss is crushed to 1/4 in. Therefore, there is no problem of an outlet for even the finest sizes of coal. Since the coal is used for metallurgical purposes, low ash is of greater importance than would be the case if it were used for steam generation or domestic heating. Based on present blast furnace practice at Sloss, it is calculated that each percentage of ash in the coal carries a penalty of $0.22 per ton of coal. Thus there is a considerable margin for operating costs in a fine coal cleaning method that will result in materially lowering the ash content of the cleaned coal. Development of Fine Coal Cleaning Problem In 1942 Sloss reopened its Bessie mine and constructed at this location a new preparation plant to clean 11/4 in. x 0 coal from the Mary Lee seam.

Jan 1, 1951

By Murl R., Schrock

THE use of diamond-drill holes at the Moctezuma Copper Co., Pilares mine, Pilares de Nacozari, Sonora, Mexico, for the ventilation of raises has resulted from experiments that were made in an effort to secure continuous and efficient ventilation in hot and gaseous raises. The method is particularly applicable in long raises and in raises run from development levels where the source of fresh air is distant. In order that the CO, concentration shall not become excessive, 30 cu. ft. per min. per man must be supplied to a heading for breathing purposes:' The quantity of air that will pass through a diamond-drill hole by

Jan 1, 1929

By E. A. Jones

THE Southeast Missouri division of the St. Joseph Lead Co. normally hauls and hoists over 5 million tons of lead ore each year. This ore is mined in the stopes and headings of 20 mines, hauled to a main line system, see above, and transported up to 6.4 miles to ore-hoisting shafts. Average haulage distance is 2.16 miles. A few years ago a distinguished mining engineer visiting this area for the first time remarked, "You do not have a mining problem; yours is a haulage problem." Its relative importance may be gaged by the fact that mine haulage represents about 25 pct of the total cost of mining ore, the most costly single underground operation

Jan 4, 1953

By James Yancik

The Howe Coal Co. is mining the Oklahoma Lower Hartshorne bed which ranges in seam thickness from 38 to 42 in. and pitches approximately 7° to the northeast. The raw feed to the cleaning plant averages about 20% ash and 1.10% sulfur, being reduced in the cleaning process to 4.8% ash and 0.9% sulfur with a free swelling index of 8 or 8%. This coal rivals the Pocohantas seam in chemistry and coking characteristics but has better fluidity than the Pocohantas seam coal. The coal is presently being prepared for the Japanese steel market in an 85-tph pilot plant designed and constructed by Roberts & Schaefer. The cleaning-plant flowsheet is discussed in detail.

Jan 1, 1972

By George F. Beardsley

The silver-fields of Zeehan and Dundas are located on the "West Coast" of Tasmania, 30 miles from the port of Strahan on the Macquarie Harbor. This harbor is 17 miles long, from 4 to 5 miles wide, and completely landlocked. Its only drawback is a shallow bar with 9 feet of water on it. The hills on the western side of the harbor vary from 200 to 300 feet in height, and are all composed of quartzite or a quartz grit. From 15 to 20 miles back from the eastern shore of the harbor is a conglomerate-capped range of mountains, rising to the height of 4700 feet. The immediate eastern

Jan 1, 1893

By A. C. Butterworth

M OST operators of open-pit mines in the Lake Superior iron ore district are quite familiar with the use of fuel oil in the heavy-duty Diesel engines commonly used in truck-haulage service but some operators, including my own company, Pickands Mather, have had butane-engine trucks in service for several years, and less is known of their operation. One of the first installations of trucks for iron-ore haulage was in 1939 at a deep open-pit mine on the Cuyuna Range. These superseded standard-gauge steam haulage. Trucks then obtainable were equipped with 150-hp Diesel engines, and the speed of these units on an 8 % grade would have been so slow, considering the depth of the pit, that plans for an all-truck haul out of the pit were rejected. About this time one of the engine manufacturers brought out an auto-

Jan 1, 1948

By Paul F. Kerr

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

Jan 1, 1942

By Leo H. Duriez, James V. Neuman

THE Bayard property of the united States Smelting Refining and Mining Company is in south central Grant County in southwestern New Mexico about fifteen miles east of Silver City and one mile west of Santa Rita. The present holdings cover a belt roughly one mile wide by ten miles long, lying west of, and adjacent to, the holdings of the American Smelting and Refining Co., Kennecott Copper Corp., Empire Zinc Co., and Peru Mining Co. The area extends from the village of Bayard on the south to a point three miles northeast of Fierro. The property is a part of the well-known Central mining district which has been New Mexico's leading copper-zinc producer for many years. The property is segregated into three sections, the Bullfrog, Hanover Bessemer, and the Shingle Canyon sections. Of these, the Bullfrog section covers the area between the towns of Bayard and Hanover and includes the Bullfrog No. 1, Bullfrog No. 2, Slate, Hobo,

Jan 1, 1948

By Philip B. Bucky

WITH the exhaustion of the sections of iron ore bodies amenable to opencut mining the iron ore miners raise the question: "How can we mine the extensions of these ore bodies in depth with the same costs as obtained in opencut work?" This question brings to the fore the relationship between mineral exploration and research on mining procedures. The iron miners must either find new de? posits amenable to their known methods of mining or develop new mining methods for deep deposits. It is understood that the oil companies will spend $30,000,000 next year in the search for new oil fields. How much the metal mining companies will spend in the search for new ore bodies is unknown, but without doubt the amount will run into several millions of dollars. If the mining companies that concern themselves with metals, nonmetallics, and fuels will set aside a substantial sum for fundamental and applied research in mining methods, they can not only lower their costs but increase their reserves thereby. Any increases in mining efficiency automatically result in increased ore reserves at no cost.

Jan 1, 1947

By Christopher J. Bise

Introduction In August 1977, the federal Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act was signed into law. It stated that: "The Congress finds and declares that because of the diversity in terrain . . . and other physical conditions in areas subject to mining operations, the primary governmental responsibility for developing. authorizing, issuing, and enforcing regulations for surface mining and reclamation operations subject to the Act should rest with the States." Section 516 of Title V (Control of the Environmental Impacts of Surface Coal Mining) of the Act deals with the surface effects of underground coal mining operations. "Each permit issued under any approved State or Federal program pursuant to this Act and relating to underground coal mining shall require the operator to adopt measures consistent with known technology in order to prevent subsidence. causing material damage, to the extent technologically and economically feasible, maximize mine stability, and maintain the value and reasonable foreseeable use of such surface lands, except in those instances where the mining technology used requires planned subsidence in a predictable and controlled manner: Provided, that nothing in this subsection shall be construed to prohibit the standard method of room and pillar mining." This section raises many questions. Precisely what is the "reasonably foreseeable" future as far as land use is concerned? And what is the "standard method of room and pillar mining"? The first part of the paragraph seems to rule out longwall mining, but isn't longwalling a "predictable" manner of "planned subsidence"? Does the Act take into account variations among mining methods in differing regions or coal seams? With these questions and the need to comply with the Act's provisions in mind, many states may turn to the Pennsylvania Bituminous Mine Subsidence Act of 1966- the only comprehensive subsidence act passed by any state-as a model for their own programs. Thus, it is very important to evaluate Pennsylvania's Act to see whether its basic assumptions can accommodate national application. This paper will note the Subsidence Act's provisions and guidelines, briefly analyze the current state-of-the-art in subsidence damage prevention and control, and list several recommendations for altering the Act's application guidelines for different mining areas.

Jan 1, 1982

By Charles H. Morgan

THE case of Henry Cort comprises: (1) the nature of Cort's inventions;, (2) their value to England and to mankind,; (3) the remuneration received therefor by him or his family; and (4) the suitable permanent record and recognition of his services by the representatives of the art lie founded-a debt long over-due, and still unpaid. I. CORT'S INVENTIONS. Under this head, it is unnecessary here to enter into details. The facts have been repeatedly published, and a brief outline of them will be sufficient for my present purpose. . Henry Cort, born in 1740 at Lancaster, England, became a navy broker in. London about 1765, and gained from that business in about ten years. something more than £20,000, which lie devoted to perfecting the manufacture of iron, building a mill at Fontley, near Portsmouth, and prosecuting, between 1777 and 1783, the experiments which culminated in .his two patents, one for puddling iron and the other for shaping it by rolling between grooved rolls.: Careful study of the contemporary evidence, including Cort's specifications, the testimony (in act as well as word) of his business rivals, the public declarations of eminent authorities, and the history of the times, leaves no possible doubt that Cort was the real inventor, of

Mar 1, 1905

By C. L. Pillar

TWO shafts have been completed since the spring of 1948 when underground development started, and three are now under construction. The new program provides two main ore shafts, Nos. 3A and 3B, spaced 195 ft apart and located on the south- western end of the orebody. It is planned that eventually 35,000 tons of copper ore per day will be hoisted by these identical four-compartment shafts. The third shaft of this new group is 600 ft from the present No. 1 shaft and will provide caged sup- plies for the underground mining operations. This No. 4 shaft has the largest cross-section of any shaft in Arizona.

Jan 7, 1954

By Evan Just

DIRECT subsidies for mine production in this country began as an outgrowth of wartime 'price regulation. The price-fixing authorities realized that the volume of production to be required from domestic copper, lead, and zinc mines would invoke costs of production considerably higher than the established ceiling prices. Accordingly, beginning Feb. 1, 1942 the Premium Price Plan was set up, which undertook to pay premiums to mines for production in excess of quota, of 5¢ per lb of copper and 2Y4¢ per lb of zinc or lead. Quotas, except for small mines, were initially established at the average rate of production in 1941, but were later reduced arbitrarily on an individual basis. Subsequently, additional "B" premiums were set for lead and zinc of 2Y40 per lb and a further "C" zinc premium of 2%¢. Additional copper premiums were negotiated on an individual basis, mainly with small mines. Quotas under each of these successive categories were the production obtained at the next lower premium level. In other words, under ceiling prices of 12¢ for copper, 6,14¢ for lead, and 83¢ for zinc, it was possible for high-cost operations to receive prices plus premiums of 17¢ or more for copper, 12¢ for lead, and 16% 0 for zinc on a portion of their production. On the other hand, some of the larger operators received only slight premiums and in at least one instance none at all. The average price plus premium for copper was 12.25¢ in 1942 and rose to 13.65¢ in 1945. That for lead was 6.99¢ in 1942 and 8.73¢ in 1945, and for zinc it was 9.06¢ in 1942 and 11.200 in 1945.

Jan 1, 1948

By A. E. Hunt

A GREAT deal that has been written heretofore about the properties of aluminum is of doubtful value, owing to the lack of knowledge we have of the purity of the aluminum referred to. Much of the metal heretofore sold in the markets as pure aluminum has been contaminated with from 4 to 10 per cent. of impurities. Indeed, it is only within a very few years that a purer metal than 96 per cent. alumium has been made upon any larger than a laboratory scale. The works of M. Pechinet,of the Societe Anonyme d' Aluminium, at Salindres (Gard), near Marseilles, in France, have long enjoyed the

Jan 1, 1890

By H. C. Weed

THE Inspiration Consolidated Copper Co., located in the Globe-Miami district at Inspiration, Ariz., became a producer of copper in 1915. From 1915 until 1948, 116,278,000 tons of ore were produced from underground workings by the block-caving system of mining. In April 1948, open-pit ore production from portions of the ore body was started and earlier plans for block-caving in these areas were abandoned. The change was due to economic conditions.

Jan 8, 1950

By A. Yazan, M. Sagheer

To meet the demands of the planned development of Turkish steel industry an Iron ore processing plant is under construction at Divrigi, Anatolia and is planned to be commissioned mid of 1978. The plant has been designed for an annual capacity of 4 million tons of crushed magnetitic ore. About 1.9 million tons of coarse concentrate of 25-2 mm size and 1.3 million tons of pellet feed concentrate will be produced by wet screening, dry magnetic concentration of coarse size fractions and wet magnetic concentration of fine size fraction. The fine magnetic concentrate will be reground and filtered to prepare the feed for the pelletizing plant.

Jan 1, 1978

By John E. Caffrey

The Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969, Title III, Interim Mandatory Safety Standards for Underground Coal Mines, is devoted to protection of workmen from hazards of electricity, roof, ribs, fire, and explosions. The Rules and Regulations, promulgated through the Federal Register, provide the criteria by which the law would be administered. Certain aspects of the law involve features that could be summarized under entrapment. These are sections 303 (y)(1), (y)(2) and 317 (f) (4). This paper is intended through the use of the figures to describe how these features of the law affect mine ventilation design, what are the problems, and possible solutions to them.

Jan 1, 1974

ELECTROREFINING Canadian 1,023,691 -Removal of bismuth from slime filtrate in the Betts process refining of lead. The filtrate is subjected to electrolysis in a cell having an anode of crude lead and a cathode of refined lead under operating conditions to preferentially deposit bismuth on the cathode. The substantially bismuth-free filtrate is recycled for use in the process as the electrolyte for producing high-purity lead. S. Hirakawa and R. Oniwa, assigned to Mitsui Mining & Smelting Co., Ltd. Jan. 3, 1978. 8 pp. (204-73). Filed: 2-18-74 (192,810). Same: U.S. 4,026,776, dated May 31, 1977.

Jan 1, 1979

ALKALINE LEACHING; SODIUM HYDROXIDE U.S. 4,091,071 -In the alkaline digestion of bauxite containing goethite, boehmite and/or diaspore, the process is accelerated by adding to the digestion mass an optimum proportion of calcium oxide and divalent manganese ions, advantageously in the form of a calcium carbonate-containing manganese oxide ore, whereby goethite is transformed into hematite, the alumina yield increased, and loss of caustic soda values minimized. J. Boros, assigned to Femipari Kutato Intezet, Aluterv Alumiumipari Tervezo Vallalat and Almasfuzitoi Timfoldgyar. May 23, 1978. 7 pp. Filed: 12-23-75 (643,670). Priority: Hungary, 12-24-74 (AU 330). Same: British 1,528,146, dated Oct. 11, 1978.

Jan 1, 1979