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R. B. BRinsmade, Ixmiquilpan, Hgo., Mexico (written discussion").—how far ahead of the United States are the self-governing British colonies in their application of economic democracy is well illustrated by Mr. Godson's paper. To prove this, I need quote only two of his assertions, the italics being mine: "lt is a stern fundamental principle that a11 natural resources are the inalienable property of the crown.'' "The right to a claim should only exist as long as it is worked or taxed to insure work. Once depart from that sound maxim, there results improper control of the natural resources of the country, which primarily belong to the people." These assertions formed the basis of my criticism1 of Dr. Raymond's paper in 1913, and they should be inscribed in letters of gold above the entrance to the office of every county recorder in the United States. I venture to assert that the existing United States mineral land laws are essentially unfair to the nation and a hindrance to the legitimate miner, because they fail to embody the above quoted principlca; and this applies both to state laws east of the Mississippi and to federal laws in the West. That these laws favor the forestaller and the monopolist, defraud the government of its fair share of the profits of mineral production, and tend to industrial feudalism must be evident to any competent unbiassed observer. The fact that no serious political movement arose to change them, until the conservation agitation of the last decade, may be largely explained by two salient conditions. First, as stated by President Winchell, "for a long time there was such a vast surplus, or excessive amount of unwanted, undesirable land in the West that the land offices did not scrutinize the claim sought to be located;" second, that the millions of individual farm owners throughout the country could easily be aroused, by the special pleaders hired by the great land speculators and monopolists, to use their vast political power for the suppression of any statesmen striving to incorporate in our semi-feudal land laws any such principles as those quoted from Mr. Godson. While agreeing with Mr. Godson that a freehold or fee-simple title, if coupled with obligatory continuous work, may have the same practical effect as a lease, it seems to be the experience of the most active and

Jan 1, 1920

By Franklin R. Carpenter

Pyritic smelting, so-called, as practiced in the Black Hills is pyritic smelting only in the sense that Dr. John Percy uses the expression in his " Metallurgy of Silver," where he describes a process for smelting dry silver-ores in connection with iron pyrites, to form a regulus. The ores treated by this process in the Black Hills are very siliceous, averaging about 74 per cent. of silica, from 10 to 20 of iron oxide, 4 or 5 of alumina, and from 2 to 4 of lime. In 1889, while Dean of the South Dakota School of Mines, I took up the question of their smelting. There were neither copper- nor lead-ores in the Hills; hence pyrite and pyrrhotite, of which there are large deposits, were employed to form a regulus. This mixture of pyrite and pyrrhotite, besides being absolutely barren of gold and silver, carried an average of 30 per cent. of silica. The only basic material available as a flux for the great excess of silica in the ores and in the pyrite was a dolomitic limestone. Moreover, the local coke gave 24 per cent. of ash, 60 per cent. of which was silica—as unpromising a set of conditions as can well be imagined. We had before us the examples of Mr. W. Lawrence Austin, of this Institute, who had experimented at Toston, Montana,"

Jan 1, 1901

By C. B. Foraker

THE Magma mine, of the Magma Copper Co., at Superior, Pinal County, Arizona, is 68 miles east of Phoenix and 21 miles west of Miami, Arizona, on highway U. S. 180. Temperatures and Underground Waters Surface Temperatures.—The average surface dry-bulb temperature at Superior is 72.4°; wet-bulb, 57.4°; with an indicated relative humidity of 38 per cent. The average yearly rainfall from 1921 to 1936, inclusive, was 18.74 in. The maximum condition of the atmosphere is in June, July and August, and the minimum is in January and February. The surface temperatures, of course, influence the temperatures of the downcast shafts; however, the variation between winter and summer causes a difference of only 2" to 3" in the stopes and working places that are not close to the intake shafts. Average atmospheric conditions are shown in Fig. 1. Rock Temperatures.—Rock temperatures on the deeper levels of the mine are as follows:

Jan 1, 1940

By R. W. Raymond

The western public domain acquired by the United States through trcaties, as the result of conquest or purchase, was invaded after Marshall's re-discovery of gold in California, by an overwhelming multitude of prospectors and miners from all parts of the world. he mineral lands of the whole Pacific slope were practically unsurveyed. Congress, disgusted with the experiment of leasing mineral lands, which it had tried for 40 years, and abandoned in 1847, enacted no laws for the management of these public mineral lands, and the pioneers made their own laws governing mining titles. These local regulations applied at first to gulch-mining in the auriferous river-beds only; and they constituted a simple and practical system. adapted to the needs and means of primitive communities—significantly called " camps." They had the means of measuring distances, but not angles; they knew no property except personal property in the form of pickaxes, pans, supplies, camp-equipage, horses or mules, and mining rights. The earliest codes which they developed expressed what might be called the law of the lariat. With the lariat they measured the distance assigned to each miner along the gold-bearing gulch—a double portion to the discoverer, and a single portion to his successors, in the order of their coming. With the lariat, they hung, after such due process of law as was available, the rascal who stole a horse, or a bag of gold-dust, or a mining claim, or killed another man without giving him fair notice and a chance to defend himself. In these pioneer codes, adopted in mass-meetings and enforced by the same authority, two features concern us most: 1. They measured mining property by one dimension only. So many feet of the gulch, held by one man, meant a distance into either bank, and a distance in depth, extending as far as gold might be found.

Jan 1, 1915

By Richard H. Sillitoe

Gold is an important byproduct and, locally, coproduct of porphyry copper deposits, and possesses potential for discovery as the major metal in porphyry deposits in either island arcs or Cordilleran belts. Tungsten and tin occur as major components of several potentially bulk-minable porphyry deposits, as well as being byproducts from the Climax porphyry molybdenum deposit. Whereas porphyry tin systems are localized in Cordilleran back-arc settings, their tungsten counterparts appear to span a range of geotectonic settings, from Cordilleran principal arcs through back arcs to rifts. Although silver is a common byproduct of porphyry cop- per deposits, it tends to be preferentially concentrated with lead and zinc on the fringes of all types of porphyry deposits and/or as late-stage superpositions; the latter situation could be of some interest in the higher parts of porphyry systems. As byproducts, rhenium, uranium, platinoids, and magnetite are exploited occasionally, and rutile and the rare metals, such as tantalum and niobium, merit consideration.

Jan 1, 1983

By A. H. Bell

The general principles of the gas-lift will not be described in this paper. Only specific details that have not been fully discussed in previous papers, or results that do not fully coincide with conditions previously described, will be dealt with. The principal points to be emphasized and for which supporting data are furnished are as follows: 1. Gas-lift installations usually have comparatively high efficiencies as compared with standard pumping equipment, when reduced to a basis of barrels produced per horsepower installed. 2. Advantages of high-pressure plants from the standpoint of operating efficiency and for the application of the gas-lift early in the life of flowing wells. 3. Evidence of increased ultimate yield through conservation of gas by the gas-lift. 4. Possibility of development of new equipment to increase efficiency of the gas-lift. 5. Indications of the advantages of repressuring as a means of stabilizing gas-lift wells and as a means of increasing ultimate yields. TyPes of Installation The gas-lift installations of the more important companies in California have been of the central-plant type wherever field conditions would permit. This has resulted in greater flexibility and lower installation costs per well than could be obtained with individual well units. In general discussions of the gas-lift method of production, the installation costs are frequently referred to as being too high for economical operation. If the field conditions are carefully analyzed and the plant designed with the idea of obtaining high operating efficiencies, the installation cost per well can be lowered sufficiently to compare favorably with individual well-pumping units, when the operating advantages are considered. Much greater production per horsepower can be obtained with the gas-lift than is possible with pumping equipment. Table 1 shows the unit sizes and costs of gas-lift installations of three companies in the Los Angeles basin. The cost of walking beams, rods,

Jan 1, 1928

By H. J. Freyn

The American iron and settl manufacturer finds himself to-day barely at the threshold of enormous possibilities for practicing rational economy in the use of fuels.

Jan 1, 1915

By M. R. Klepper, H. Landsberg

Many of the sedimentary rocks contain small amounts of radioactive constituents. These vary in quantity in different layers. Some recent deposits show rather high activity as; for example, the deep sea oozes and some lake deposits.lv2 Measurements made in boreholes have also shown considerable changes in activity from horizon to horizon. The first to publish data on this fact was Ambronn,3 and recently Russian geophysicists have shown remarkable variations of activity from one layer to the next in various wells. Spak4 felt even that he was able to line up horizons from data measured in two neighboring wells.‡ The measuring of radioactive radiation is fairly difficult. Large errors are possible by the circulation of gaseous emanations in the well and porous strata. It is, therefore, never certain whether the activity of the layer where the instrumental device or collector is located will be measured, or that of some adjacent layer. For this reason it seemed to be advantageous to take samples of rocks into the laboratory and test them there for their contents of radioactive material. Such a method has been followed in the past to distinguish radioactive ore from other rocks. Radioactivity of rocks, especially of the igneous type, was also determined in the laboratory by numerous authors for absolute age investigations.= Corresponding data from studies of sedimentary formations are scarce. Specimens taken from a core of the Bradford oil sandstone were tested by Landsberg and Ingham,7 with the results illustrated in Fig. 1, which shows that within relatively small vertical distances the differences of relative activity were considerable. If one assumes that the distribution of radioactive material is fairly uniform throughout a layer, measurements of radioactive radiation in various horizons would offer additional information for stratigraphic

Jan 1, 1940

NEW MEMBERS The following list comprises the names of those persons who became members during the period Apr. 10, 1916 to May 10, 1916. ALLEN, WILLIAM R.... Pres., Boston and Montana Development Co., Butte, Mont. BARKER, EDGAR EARL, Min. Engr. Mine Supt., Chile Exploration Co., Chuquicamata, Chile, S. Amer. BAYLESS, JOHN Z., Met. Engr Alaska Gastineau Min. Co., Thane, Alaska. BLACKWOOD, ARTHUR E., Mgr., Sullivan Machinery Co., 30 Church St., New York, N. Y. BREYER, FRANK G., Chief Testing Dept., The New Jersey Zinc Co., (of Pa.), Palmerton Pa. CARPENTER, JAY A., Mill Supt... . West End Cons. Mining Co., Tonopah, Nev. CORLESS, GEORGE BRADFORD, Geol., Missouri Bureau of Geology and Mines, Joplin, Mo.

Jan 6, 1916

By Edward Skewes

In view of the importance of the Cripple Creek district, the large amount of the publications concerning it, and the circumstance that many members of the Institute reside in it, or are familiar with it through repeated visits, it is surprising that our Transactions should have remained so long without any contributions on the subject. The same observations may be made with regard to the Witwatersrand, in South Africa, the other great productive gold-field of recent development. And I suppose the explanation is the same in both cases, namely, that the members of the Institute persoilally acquainted with the

Jan 1, 1897

By J. Norman Bulkley

As electrical power is used to a greater extent on the Rand than in any other mining center, it is thought that a short description of the methods used and results obtained may be of interest. In comparing Rand practice with that on other fields, several general factors should be borne in mind: First, the mines are all working on large tonnages of low-grade ore (average. $6.50). The annual crushing rate is about 27,000,000 tons. Second, the mines are all grouped udder the financial and engineering control of mining houses, so that the results of a group, rather than an individual mine, are open for study, and practice follows more uniform lines. Third, coal of fair quality (about 12,000 B.t.u.) can be obtained for $2 to $3 per ton., Good supplies of condensing water are, however, scarce, and have to be carefully stored. Power Supply Power is supplied by the Victoria Falls & Transvaal Power Co., Ltd., and its subsidiary, the Rand Mines Power Supply Co. Both companies, which are practically one from an engineering point of view, operate the following stations, all feeding into the same system.

Jan 2, 1916

By Harold H. Haman

In view of Twentieth Century advances in mineral dressing technology, most modern metallurgists would be inclined to class jigging as an early, somewhat primitive, representation of their art. The practice of metallic sulfide concentration by jigging is becoming rare. This is so, in part, because the type of ore amenable to the process is becoming rare. It is appropriate, however, that this symposium recognize that a significant contribution of domestic zinc remains dependent upon coarse preconcentration by jigging, and that the state of the art be described even though the theory and applications are already well delineated in technical literature. One of the few areas still using jigging as a major concentrating process is The Upper Mississippi Valley. AREA HISTORY AND JIGGING The Upper Mississippi Valley (UMV) has produced one billion dollars worth of zinc and lead at current prices. The district includes the southwest part of Wisconsin, the northwest corner of Illinois and an adjoining narrow strip of Iowa. Within a total area of 4,000 square miles, important sub-districts cover about 400 square miles. As is widely known, early mining in this district involved shallow lead---crevice deposits of galena that were very selectively mined, hand sorted and cleaned, and then smelted at or near the site. The district has produced almost a million short tons of metallic lead, a very large part of this during the fifty- year period following 1830. Zinc mining began at the end of the civil war, but at a very low rate until about 1905.

Jan 1, 1970

By F. Banemann

In discussing the problem of abnormal magnetic polarization, C. A. Heilandl† emphasized the unfortunate fact that our knowledge of the geological and physical conditions relating to such occurrences is very limited and that a more detailed insight into their physical causes would be extremely valuable for interpreting measured anomalies. He also pointed out that to arrive at quantitative physical formulas that would express the conditions that cause abnormal polarization many more occurrences of the kind would have to be recorded. The first part of this paper is a contribution to such descriptions. Abnormal Magnetic Polarization in South Africa The occurrence was mapped in the course of a magnetometric survey carried out about 70 miles to the east of Johannesburg and east of the Witwatersrand gold field, for the purpose of detecting the position of the suboutcrop of certain magnetite-bearing shales that occur in the lower portion of the Witwatersrand system of sediments, shales whose position in section in relation to the ore-bearing members of the same system of sediments are known. In this case the shales are covered by younger strata several hundred feet thick. Lines of magnetometric traverse were run at right angles to the strike for a strongly magnetic body. This body is a shale zone in the Witwatersrand sediments and has a strike of N.20°E. (magnetic) and dips 15" to the east. The field work was done by a vertical intensity field balance (A. Schmidt principle). The plotting is done in such a way that the sign is reversed from that usually employed in the northern hemisphere, so that a positive profile is obtained in abnormal cases while the same conditions in the northern hemisphere would give a negative one. This method of recording should be kept in mind in reading what follows.

Jan 1, 1940

By A. S. Yue

It was deemed desirable to obtain an understanding of the vacuum desulfurization process. McKechnie1 has reported that the sulfur content of nickel- and cobalt-base alloys is reduced in vacuo. Keverian and Taylor2 have observed that vacuum melting causes desulfurization of iron-carbon-silicon alloys. Garnyk and samarin3 have desulfurized transformer steel by vacuum treatment. Experiments were conducted in order to investigate the desulfurization of liquid iron under reduced pressures, and to establish the effect of some alloying elements, and various crucible materials. A vacuum-induction furnace of 50-lb capacity was used. The charge was Armco iron. Silicon was added as 90 pct ferrosilicon, carbon as electrode graphite, and aluminum as high-purity aluminum metal. Magnesia and silica crucibles were used, their inside diameters were 5 1/2 and 5 3/8 in., respectively. The temperature was measured with an optical pyrometer and it was held at 1600 1 15°C. Samples were withdrawn with quartz tubes of 6 mm ID, without disturbing the furnace atmosphere. Pressures were measured with an alphatron gage. The experimental results are shown in Fig. 1. They indicate that: 1) Sulfur can be removed from liquid iron alloys by vacuum treatment; 2) The desulfurization is enhanced by the presence of silicon, carbon, and aluminum, all these elements increase the activity of sulfur dissolved in liquid iron;4 3) The pronounced effect of silicon indicates that probably a volatile silicon sulfide is formed, Alcock and Richardson5 have observed a similar phenomenon; 4) The same rate of desulfurization was obtained when the metal was contained in either magnesia or silica crucibles. Dr. J. Keverian has contributed many discussions and recommendations. M. S. Sutliff has helped in conducting the heats. The permission of General Electric Co. for this publication is gratefully acknowledged.

Jan 1, 1960

By R. S. McBride

The fertilizer industry is a meeting place of mining, manufacturing and agriculture. It is an industry of dynamic change, huge tonnages, and great aggregate value. In the United States from 5,000,000 to 8,000,000 tons of fertilizer are made and used per year, with a value at the works of from $200,000,000 to $300,000,000. The world uses about 50,000,000 tons yearly with an aggregate value between two-thirds and one billion dollars. This world output contains of the essential plant-food constituents, nitrogen, phosphate, and potash, approximately 8,000,000 tons. The corresponding United States quantity, as nearly as can be estimated, is 1,400,000 tons of plant food per year in the aggregate tonnage of fertilizer. With the steady increase in the practice of scientific agriculture throughout the world there has been a corresponding growth in the consumption of fertilizers. In the United States there has, indeed, been but a small upward trend in the tonnage sold, measured in millions of tons of all classes of goods which are made and marketed. The real growth has come through the increasing concentration of the essential plant foods in the mixture. Thus it is estimated that between 1920 and 1930, although there was little increase in tonnage of fertilizer, there was an increase of fully 30 per cent in the content of nitrogen, phosphate, and potash. Hence, the American farmer has actually been using more plant-food to

Jan 1, 1932

By Ira Joralemon

THE sampling of disseminated copper deposits has been described often but the method of combining assays, to give the true shape and value of the orebody as it will be mined has received less attention. As the ore mined during five or ten years at several of the great disseminated properties has averaged materially lower in grade than the published estimates, the question of the sampling and estimating of these orebodies seems timely. In this paper, attention is given particularly to factors that may cause errors in the final estimate. Sampling of diamond-drill holes, churn-drill holes, and underground workings is briefly described in the first part of the paper; then the method of combining assays to give the average grade and tonnage that will be mined is taken up in some detail. The necessity of study of the geology of the deposit and of probable costs is emphasized. Finally, the methods of calculating tonnages are outlined. DIAMOND-DRILL SAMPLING There are three main requisites for accurate diamond-drill sampling. First, the core should be removed and the hole cleaned out at the beginning of every sampling interval, usually 5 ft. (1.5 m.). After the rods are let down, water should be run through them until it becomes clear. The water must be clear before drilling starts. In this way the material knocked down from the sides of the hole by the descending rods is washed away, instead of being left to salt the sludge, sample.

Jan 2, 1922

By William P. Blake

The occurrence of enormous masses of pure copper has given the mining district of Lake Superior worldwide reputation. The first masses brought from there excited great attention, and directed the notice of the mining world to the few particular mines from which they were taken. It may not now be generally known that nearly all the veins which are worked, and which cut across the trap ridge, contain mass copper, and that large masses are continually being raised from them. The largest continuous mass which has been taken out was probably that from the Minnesota, in 1857, which is variously stated as weighing 420 tons and 470 tons. Its length was about 45 feet, its breadth or height 22 feet, and its greatest thickness 8 feet. All such masses are very irregular and ragged in their form and thickness, thinning out generally from a foot to a few inches, and straggling through the vein until they connect with other large masses. This was the character of a mass found in the Phœnix Mine, one of the oldest on the lake, which mass altogether weighed some 600 tons. But this was really a series of masses more or less connected by strings of metal, yet no one large part of it weighed, singly, over 200 tons. A similar series of masses, weighing about 600 tons, was extracted from the Miunesota. Some of the Phœnix masses were four to five feet thick of solid copper. The Cliff Mine has yielded masses weighing from 100 to 150 tons in one piece. One of 40 tons was taken out this year, besides numerous blocks weighing from 1 to 8 tons. This mine and the Central are now yielding mass copper in abundance. It is, bf course, impossible to pick, or drill, or to break out such huge masses of solid metal when they are found, by drifting upon the course of the vein. The method of extraction is as follows: The miner picks out or excavates a narrow passage or chamber upon one side of the mass, laying it bare as far as possible over its whole surface. It is usually firmly held by its close union with the veinstuff, or by its irregular projections above, below, and at the end. If it cannot then be dislodged by levers, the excavation of a chamber is commenced behind the mass, and this excavation is made large enough to receive from 5 to 20 or more kegs of powder. In one

Jan 1, 1902

ON FEBRUARY 4, 1952, the Phelps Dodge Corporation signed Contract GS-00P(D)-12068 with the United States Government. This interesting document dealt with the "Bisbee East" project as part of the Government's program to increase the supply of needed copper by encouraging private enterprise to expand production. The ore deposit involved was a relatively small body of low-grade ore lying east of the remnants of the old Sacramento Hill deposit that was exploited with indifferent success from 1923 to 1931, as related in THE PORPHYRY COPPERS. Planning for the entire enterprise had been directed from the start by Harrison M. Lavender, who in 1945, succeeded Percy G. Beckett as vice-president and general manager for all of Phelps Dodge's Western mines and smelters. The untimely death of Mr. Lavender in 1952 prevented him from seeing his plans brought to fruition; but in his honor the mine was fit- tingly named "The Lavender Pit" and was so dedicated on August 7, 1954. The Copper Queen Branch operates under- ground mines at Bisbee (production in 1955 was 28,000 tons) ; but, as this volume is concerned only with Porphyry operations, this chapter deals only with the Lavender Pit project, or as the Government knows it, Bisbee East. My reason for going into some detail regarding the floor-price contract is that it is fairly typical of contracts made by the Government in connection with a half-dozen other copper-expansion projects; and, incidentally, with various projects involving other strategic metals. Phelps Dodge did not seek a loan or other financial aid. The only encouragement asked consisted of (a) the privilege of a five-year write-off (commonly called rapid tax amortization)

Jan 1, 1957

IN discussing the art of the goldsmith, it is apparent that it is an art requiring skill. He who wishes to be acclaimed a good master therein must be a good universal master in several arts, for the different kinds of work that come to his hands to be done are infinite. Those who work in gold and silver must outdistance all other craftsmen in learning and achievement to the same degree that their materials outdistance other metals in nobility. Therefore, it is necessary first of all to be a good designer, because design is the key that opens the doors not only to the goldsmith's craft but to all others. Then it is necessary that he understand melting and that he know well how to work with a hammer and how to use flat gravers and burins in engraving, as well as files and chisels. He must also possess certain secrets that are needful to the art, which in truth are parts of alchemy, such as softening gold when it is brittle and raw, coloring it when it has little color, soldering, enameling, working in niello, blanching, gilding, and an infinite number of things which must all be known in detail. But above all he who wishes to do this art well must be very patient in working, must know how to mould and how to proceed with the melt and with the file, hammer, chisel, or other implements for bringing his gold or silver work to the final state which he plans. He must also have good judgment in gems and know well how to recognize every [134v] good or defective quality they possess, and to distinguish the false gem from the true, either when set or when unmounted, as there is need; also how to value them both in buying or selling and in satisfying others who seek his appraisal. He should also be experienced not only in the technique of melting but also in the methods of assaying, parting, refining, cementing, and the like, and still many others. But if I wished to tell you of every part

Jan 1, 1942