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By Anthony Folger, Howard R. Lowe, J. F. Dougherty, E. G. Trostel, Joffre Meyer

The status of the natural gas industry in Alberta, Canada, is described with particular reference to the current extent of natural gas reserves and possibilities for additional development. Certain major fields are discussed as representative of the types of gas accumulations within various broad geographical divisions of the provinces. The estimation of the future performance of a gas reservoir is discussed as the basis for an estimate of the future availability of natural gas from presently known reserves. The future availability of the provincial reserves and the estimated future demand for gas within the province are described. INTRODUCTION This paper is a condensation of a detailed study of the natural gas reserves and the future availability of pipeline gas in the province of Alberta as prepared for Trans-Canada Pipe Lines Limited and presented in public hearings at Edmonton and Calgary before the Petroleum and Natural Gas Conservation Board of the Province of Alberta. The study began in October, 1950, and resulted in the preparation of five volumes of data at the expenditure of more than 20,000 man-hours. This paper is designed to afford a broad picture with detail limited to a type example of both natural ga-accumulation and future availability of gas supply. The province of Alberta has an area of 255.285 square miles which, for sake of comparison. is 8,359 square miles smaller than the state of Texas. Natural gas was first discovered in 1883 at the now abandoned Alderson well located some 20 miles southeast of the town of Princess. The first gas in commercial quantities was found at Medicine Hat in 1890. During the last 68 years. 187 localities have been discovered which are capable of gas production, and 73 per cent of these have been found since 1945. Sixty fields currently are producing gas, including 22 non-associated gas accumulations. Location of the oil and gas fields and prospects in the province of Alberta is shown in Fig. 1, together with a list of the localities of measurable gas, Fig. 1A. The estimated total provincial gas reserve as of Jan. 1, 1952, for the 104 fields estimated, is 11.7 trillion cu ft proved and probable, and for the 187 known areas capable of production is in excess of 16 trillion cu ft on a total proved, probable, and possible basis. Five fields (Pincher Creek, Leduc-Woodbend, Viking-Kinsella, Cessford and Medicine Hat) are estimated to have recoverable reserves of more than one trillion cu ft each. A sixth field, Turner Valley, was initially in this group, but its reserves have been depleted substantially. Twenty-four fields, of which the above mentioned six fields are a part, have estimated gas reserves (including the possible category) in excess of 100 billion cu ft. These 24 fields account for 79 per cent of the total provincial reserves. Comparative systemic analyses reflect that 56 per cant of Alberta's gas reserves are contained in sediments of Cretaceous age; 30 per cent in sediments of Mississippian age; 10 per cent in sediments of Devonian age; three per cent in sediments of Triassic age; and the remaining one per cent in Jurassic and Permo-Pennsylvanian sediments. It is expected that the relative importance of the Mississippian, Devonian, and Triassic sediments will be increased as exploration progresses. GENERAL GEOLOGY The western Canada basin comprises the sedimentary area between the Canadian Shield and the Rocky Mountain Front Range, the Arctic Ocean, and the International Boundary. The basin has an approximate area of 765,000 square miles and embraces parts of the provinces of Manitoba. Saskatchewan. Alberta, British Columbia and the Northwest Territories. Generalized columnar sections for the Province of Alberta are shown in Fig. 2. Substantially all of Alberta, except its northeast corner, has sedimentary cover. Sediments of all the geologic systems are represented. except those of Silurian age.

Jan 1, 1952

By W. S. Morris

THE East Texas oil field is the largest in the United States and perhaps the largest 'in the world ; likewise, it is one of the most interesting. The East Texas oil field is a water-drive field. Small amounts of salt water were produced from wells on the western side of the field from the bt-ginning of the development. By the end of 1933 (the field having been discovered in September 1930) water production had reached 9000 barrels per day. By the end of 1936, approximately 2000 wells were producing about 45,000 barrels of water per day, and the problem of salt water disposal attracted the serious attention of the operators. Salt water production in the field has steadily increased and today approximately 450,000 barrels of water per day is produced while the oil production averages about 375,000 barrels. The disposal of this salt water has therefore become one of the major operating problems. Various methods of salt water disposal have been tried in the East Texas field. Evaporation in open pits proved

Jan 1, 1944

By J. J. Carrigan

IN all mining operations a considerable portion of the work performed, especially underground; is accomplished under artificial light, yeti this subject is often not given proper attention. Poor illumination decreases mining efficiency, impairs the sorting or grading of ores, and increases the risk of accidents. In the beginning, and for several years afterward in the metal-mining industry of Butte, Montana, candles placed in candlesticks were carried by the men. Sconces or holders for candles were also provided at stations and curves in drifts to furnish better light for men engaged in. hand tramming. It was also common practice to place clusters of candles on the ground, with no provision for guarding against an underground fire other than the exercise of sufficient care by the men themselves. An accumulation of candle grease from this source was the direct result of the first serious fire in the Anaconda mine, in 1889.

Jan 1, 1936

By Gerhard Derge

A series of studies of the corrosion of tin is under way in the Metals Research Laboratory at the Carnegie Institute of Technology. The complete program includes examination of the corrosion properties of high-purity tin and the changes produced in these properties by the addition of varying amounts of alloying elements. Other studies of this subject have been made recently under the sponsorship of the International Tin Research and Development Council, but these researches have been confined largely to the weakly acid environments commonly encountered in the canning industry.' There is little information available regarding the corrosion of tin under alkaline conditions, but such data would be of value, for a large amount of the metal is used under such conditions. The potential measurements to be described were made because they seemed to offer the most rapid method for obtaining a general view of the conditions to be encountered in such service. These experiments will also serve to establish a technique that will be of value in further studies. It must be emphasized that the results reported are those of controlled laboratory experiments and that the conclusions drawn cannot yet be applied to service conditions; rather, they point to the directions in which more exhaustive experimental work may be done to best advantage. Experimental Procedure The first work was devoted entirely to the problem of obtaining reproducible results from a series of potential measurements. Only the methods finally adopted as standard will be described here, except when the variations from these have furnished results of interest. The cell used is shown schematically in Fig. 1. The electrolyte is contained in the vessel A (an inverted bell jar), whose ground top is fitted to the transite-board lid B. The controlled atmosphere can be admitted

Jan 1, 1938

By A. J. R. Curtis

THE Portland Cement Association was organized more than a third of a century ago by a group of cement manufacturers, to do cooperatively the educational and research work needed to ensure proper use of their product. Specifically, the Association has a threefold purpose: (1) to search out facts to ensure the best possible service from concrete; (2) to give the widest possible circulation to facts affecting the use of concrete; (3) to urge practical application of those facts on actual building projects. An organization of technically trained men conducts many research projects in the Association laboratories, interprets their findings and applies them practically in the field. The net effect of this work has been to improve the design and prolong the life of roads, bridges, industrial, commercial and public buildings, homes, farm structures and concrete products. The results of this technical research and experimentation are made available to the entire construction industry through bulletins and reports. Information is also released to the general public through newspapers, magazines and Association publications. In addition to a1 technical staff in the general office in Chicago, the Association has district offices in 22 cities. Field engineers cover 37 states, the District of Colum-bia and British Columbia, to give service to users of Portland cement.

Jan 1, 1937

By Emery C. Olsen

Most coal mining areas of the Western United States are characterized either by thick beds, steep pitches or heavy cover. Individually, each of these may present inherent safety hazards that influence mining. When all are met at one location, the combined effect is to make the safe operation of the mining property a challenge to management. These combined conditions are met in the coal mines of the Columbia-Geneva Steel Div. of the United States Steel Corp., in southeastern Utah. This coal bed measures up to 16 ft in thickness, the pitch is as much as 25 % and mining is under a cover approaching 3000 ft. The Sunnyside coal bed is found in the Book Cliff Mountains, a great escarpment extending from west of Castle Gate, Utah, some 180 miles to Grand Junction, Colo. West of Green River, Utah, the Book Cliffs swing sharply to the north because of the domelike uplift of the San Rafael Swell to the south- west. It is in this northerly extension of the Book Cliffs that the Sunnyside coal in the Blackhawk Formation of the Mesa Verde Group, Upper Cretaceous Age is found. The strata are transected by numerous faults with from a few inches to as much as a hundred feet of displacement. All of these faults have had some effect on the mining operation, either in roof control or, in the case of major faulting, the pattern of mine development.

Jan 10, 1963

By Malcolm J. McPherson

INTRODUCTION The use of computers to assist the mine ventilation engineer began to grow in the early 1950s when electrical analogue devices were developed for the analysis of mine airflow systems in Europe and the United States (l,2,3). The need for quantitative planning of airflows in mines had become pressing and analogue computers fulfilled a useful purpose for over a decade. From about 1964 onwards, digital computer programs for mine ventilation network analysis became available (4,5) and, superseding the analogues, spread rapidly throughout the major mining countries. The successful implementations of such programs resulted in further research being directed towards the development of simulation programs to model the quality as well as the quantity of air flowing through underground workings. It is no understatement that digital computers have revolutionised environmental planning techniques in modern mining industries. This paper discusses the complex interaction of natural and mining factors which governs environmental hazards in underground mines and further indicates some of the simulation techniques which have entered practical usage or are at an advanced stage of development. THE PROBLEM OF ANALYSING THE MINE ENVIRONMENT The traditional methods of approaching environmental problems underground were based largely on empirical or intuitive techniques. The reason for this lay in the intricate relationships which exist between the many variables that influence the mine environment - and which limit the use of purely analytical methods to the simplest of cases. In order to illustrate the need for simulation techniques, Table 1 shows the three most widespread mine environmental hazards

Jan 1, 1977

By B. Rao Pothini, Hilmar A. von Schonfeldt

One of the key elements essential to a productive and uninterrupted longwall mining operation is roof control. In several of the Island Creek Coal Company's mining sections, polyurethane has been infused 80 into strata to control severe roof failures in the face and gate entry areas. To date about 50,000 kgs (110,000 lbs) of the chemical have been consumed in a number of applications. Roof-to-floor convergence 60 and differential roof sag have been monitored to determine the need for polyurethane infusion and also to evaluate roof stability following the infusion. Stratascopic observations of the roof formed the basis 40 for confirming the need and also for estimating the required quantities of polyurethane. Both chemical infusion and roof control monitoring techniques have been applied successfully under very adverse roof 20 conditions; substantial production benefits have been realized. Operator acceptance of the system has been very good.

Jan 1, 1981

By John Fulton

THE increase in the production of iron has been accompanied by a growing demand for an improved quality, and more especially at the present time, in the manufacture of Bessemer steel, which is rapidly becoming an important branch of industry. This has led the makers of pig iron to a careful investigation of the composition of the materials from which their metal is produced, the inquiry being greatly assisted by a cordial alliance of science and practice. Formerly, chemical science was held in abeyance, or admitted in a hesitating experimental way ; but now it is received as a valuable auxiliary, and its decisions are accepted as final and conclusive. It is called on to assist the iron-maker in determining the quality of his stock, and to detect the presence of injurious elements in his fuel, ores, flux, or iron. The object of this paper is to submit the method now in use at the furnaces of the Kemble Coal and Iron Company in the Broad Top coal and iron region, for removing, by a process of crushing and washing, slate and other impurities from coal, designed, when coked, for furnace fuel. It is not contemplated to claim very advanced progress in this work, believing that it is susceptible of improvement, but to show that some progress has been made in a comparatively new field, and it is hoped in the right direction, since coke is probably destined to become the principal fuel in the metallurgy of iron. The Broad Top coal region occupies an isolated geographical position, standing 25 miles east from the Alleghany field. It is associated with the latter by the structure of its coal, and more closely with the Cumberland field by a similarity in the quality of coal.

Jan 1, 1875

By Helmer Hedstrom

THE purpose of this paper is to direct attention to the importance and the usefulness of phase measurements in electrical prospecting for ore, a subject about which virtually nothing has been published. The paper describes a new field method for ore prospecting, the "Turam" method, which makes use of phase measurements, and which has been used with great success for five years. Of the principal geophysical prospecting methods, the gravimetric and magnetic methods determine the direction and strength of the static fields of force of the earth. By seismic and electrical methods, fields of force are applied to the block of ground under investigation. By these methods a third parameter can be measured, besides the direction and strength of the field; namely, the time of arrival of the applied field at the different observation points. This time of arrival has been practically the only parameter measured in seismic work, while in electrical pros-pecting it has generally not been considered, the measurements having been limited to determination of direction and strength of the applied field.

Jan 1, 1937

US 4,181,588 - Direct extraction of lead from lead sulflde ore. Ore is leached with a solution of ferric chloride and sodium chloride. The leach liquor is filtered to remove sulfur and gangue, then cooled in a crystallizer to precipitate lead chloride The slurry from the crystallizer is subjected to electrolysis to deposit lead chloride on the cathode plate. Solution from the electrolysis cell is used in the leaching step. M.M. Wong and F.P. Haver, assigned to US Secretary of the Interior Jan 1, 1980. 6 pp. (204-115). Filed: 1-4-79 (1,026).

Jan 1, 1982

President-Mrs John R C Mann, 90 Edgemont Road, Scarsdale, N Y First Vice-President-Mrs C P Pollock, 27 Dante Street, Larchmont, N Y. Second Vice-President-Mrs Mendum B Littlefield, 40 Lincoln Street, Larchmont, N Y Third Vice-President-Mrs J B Cunningham, 236 East 2nd St , Tucson, Ariz Fourth Vice-President-Mrs Theodore Loftus, 410 Cowles St, Fairbanks, Alaska Fifth Vice-President-Mrs George L Craig, 109 Calumet Avenue, Calu¬met, Mich Recording Secretary-Mrs Arnold H Miller, 601 West 115th St, New York 25, N Y Assistant Recording Secretary-Mrs R J Mechin, 66 East 79th St, New York 21, N Y Corresponding Secretary-Mrs John A Poulin, 4 East 70th St , New York 21, N Y Treasurer-Mrs Robert W Rowen, 29 West 39th Street, Room 914, New York 18, N Y Assistant Treasurer-Mrs Samuel H Dolbear, 1000 Park Avenue, New York 28, N Y Assistant Treasurer-Mrs Roger H Sherman, 8 Roman Avenue, Forest Hills Gardens 75, N Y.

Jan 1, 1957

In March 1962, over three months ahead of schedule, production began from the Ventersdorp Contact Reef of the Western Deep Levels Ltd. mine on the West Witwatersrand. Few mines have captured the interest of mining men and the public as has Western Deep Levels. It has presented the gold mining industry with a challenge which involved the opening of an ultradeep mine with the attendant problems of exceptionally heavy capital commitments ($77 million to start of production), high rock temperatures and pressures at great depths, cementation and pumping in an area notorious for the volume of subsurface water, and the necessity for entirely new thinking and the application of new ideas. HISTORY Not all the problems facing Western Deep Levels were, however, new. Situated 43 miles from Johannesburg, just off the main road to Potchefstroom, Western Deep Levels was the sixth company to undertake mining operations on what is known as the West Wits line and it could draw on the wealth of experience gained by other pioneer mines in the area.

Jan 12, 1962

By L. G. Huntley

Introduction IN View of the recent advance made in the knowledge of the nature and conditions accompanying the occurrence of oil and gas, and of the recent activity in drilling in Wyoming, Montana, and western Canada, a discussion of the probabilities of obtaining production in such a reservoir as the Dakota sand in general, and in particular districts, is thought by the author to be timely and likely to result in more intelligent operating in certain parts of the territory underlain by this sand. In Canada particularly it is thought that these general considerations have equal if not more significance in a consideration of the oil and gas possibilities of the formations than have the various local conditions.

Jan 6, 1915

By Don Blackmar

THE production of non-ferrous secondary metals has become a large and important industry in the United States, and deals with practically every type of manufacturing concern.. Its business is unique in that it generally buys from its customers as well as sells to them, whether they are individuals, cities, corporations, or the United States government. Its operations are of vital importance to the success and prosperity of many of the nation's most important manufacturers; yet there are few industries about which less is generally known by those outside it, whether concerning the magnitude of its operations or the details of its actual technique. The industry itself is to blame for this meager publicity, because its technical men have made few attempts to openly exchange ideas, in spite of the excellent examples set by the iron and-steel or the copper and brass industries. Whether this is due to the ancient shroud of secrecy generally supposed to cover smelting operations, or because its technical men actually felt that the industry was too puny to be interesting, is hard to say. This paper will consider its subject in a 'general way, attempting to show something of the size and importance of the industry, as well as its fitness to do its work well. Attention will be called to the sound economic reasons for the handling of non-ferrous wastes by specialists, and to the often unseen losses of metals and labor which occur when manufacturers reclaim' their own metallic wastes.

Jan 1, 1928

By Enrique Touceda, Henry M. Howe

This paper gives the composition of the iron and slag at different stages in the " air-furnace" process of preparing " hard metal," or white castriron, for conversion into malleable cast-iron by annealing. The details of the process are given in an appendix. One of us had been trying for years to work some chemist of some of our malleable-iron plants up to a degree of enthusiasm which would lead him to make such an investigation. It would have had the advantage of the greater familiarity with the conditions which one habitually on the spot must have. Failing in this, he made use of an opportunity which presented itself of taking samples here represented, with such fairness as the conditions permitted, holding firmly that a rough approximation to the truth is better than the complete lack of data, or that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. We hope that this attempt may stimulate others effectively to duplicate this work, and thus correct or confirm it. Our results are shown in Table I. and graphically in Figs. 1 arid 2. Discussion.—At the time when the first two samples were taken, the metal and slag were still too sluggish to permit fair sampling, and not until sample 6 were the conditions really favorable, because at the time of the fourth sample the metal was not fully melted, and even at the time of sample 5 it was still sluggish. Indeed, the slag was probably very heterogeneous throughout, because it took up silica and alumina rapidly from the bottom, and because it was so siliceous as to be sluggish at this relatively low temperature. This hetero-geneousness is exaggerated in the two samples of slag 8, apparently by the great viscosity due to its extraordinary acidity. Note that the manganous oxide of one sample is about two and

Jan 1, 1909

Jan 1, 1882

By Carl Henrich

In the winter of 1895 to 1896, during the construction of the Jackson and Cincinnati railroad, running from Addison, Lenawee county, Mich., to Jackson, Mich., in a northerly direction, I had occasion to observe some interesting geological features, described below, in a cut of this railroad made through the low ridge of gravel and sand, dividing the valley of Silver Lake and Silver Creek from the Goose Lake and Goose Creek valley, in Lenawee county. The surface-deposits of this part of the county are, as is well known, of glacial origin. Gently rounded, long ridges of sand, gravel and clay intervene between the marshy bottoms and the lakes of the valleys. The nature of the deposits, varying from a sandy clay or clayey sand to fine and coarse gravel and pure siliceous sand on the one hand, and to a very tough, fine, uniform and often indurated clay on the other, as well as the irregular and sudden changes, sharply divided, between these materials composing the ridges, in the cuts made through them by the railroad, would admit of no doubt that this country owes its present surface-configuration primarily to the action of the last glacial period, which covered its surface with an immense ice-sheet. The well-known ice-markings on the huge granite, schist, greenstone and conglomerate boulders found everywhere imbedded and protruding from the surface, add their testimony to the other characteristics mentioned. Most of the cuts made by the railway through the ridges showed in a marked degree the irregular arrangement and the sudden changes of and between the materials mentioned above. One cut, however, known as Kelly's cut, or Kelly's gravelpit, about 4 1/2 miles north of Addison, and about 1 1/2 miles south

Jan 1, 1897

By Clinton L. Miller

MINING operations have been carried on in the immediate area of the Elizabeth mine during periods of high copper prices since 1793, when copperas and vermillion were first won from the outcrop. Present operations started in 1942 as a war baby. Since then production has totaled 1.7 million tons of 1.8 pct Cu ore. Elizabeth mining operations are on a pyrrhotite- chalcopyrite orebody contained in a gently plunging amphibolite syncline. The oreshoot varies in width from 10 to 40 ft, and in the area under consideration is about 150 ft in vertical extent, and more than 1000 ft long. Surface pits or cuts have been worked in three areas along the outcrop, with one pit just completed and a second in full production. Present production is 24,000 tons per month, of which 6000 to 7000 tons is trucked from the open pit.

Jan 11, 1954

By Gerhard Derge

A series of studies of the corrosion of tin is under way in the Metals Research Laboratory at the Carnegie Institute of Technology. The complete program includes examination of the corrosion properties of high-purity tin and the changes produced in these properties by the addition of varying amounts of alloying elements. Other studies of this subject have been made recently under the sponsorship of the International Tin Research and Development Council, but these researches have been confined largely to the weakly acid environments commonly encountered in the canning industry.' There is little information available regarding the corrosion of tin under alkaline conditions, but such data would be of value, for a large amount of the metal is used under such conditions. The potential measurements to be described were made because they seemed to offer the most rapid method for obtaining a general view of the conditions to be encountered in such service. These experiments will also serve to establish a technique that will be of value in further studies. It must be emphasized that the results reported are those of controlled laboratory experiments and that the conclusions drawn cannot yet be applied to service conditions; rather, they point to the directions in which more exhaustive experimental work may be done to best advantage. Experimental Procedure The first work was devoted entirely to the problem of obtaining reproducible results from a series of potential measurements. Only the methods finally adopted as standard will be described here, except when the variations from these have furnished results of interest. The cell used is shown schematically in Fig. 1. The electrolyte is contained in the vessel A (an inverted bell jar), whose ground top is fitted to the transite-board lid B. The controlled atmosphere can be admitted

Jan 1, 1938