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By S. F. Emmons

[The following notes of observations made during a visit of a few days in the month of October, 1886, which was cut short by a sudden summons East, are offered, in spite of their incomplete and tentative character, in the hope that they may aid the members of the Institute, in their coming visit to this region, to a clearer understanding of the general geological conditions under which the ore-bodies occur.] The Butte mining region lies in a sort of a depression in the mountains which is drained by Silver Bow creek and its various tributaries. On the east it is bounded by high north and south ridges of granite, and on the west by lower ridges, also running north and south, which, as far as examined, were found to consist of rhyolite. High mountains also inclose the depression on the north and south, but at a greater distance than the more immediate bounding ridges on the east and west, the distance between which is hardly more than six miles.

Jan 1, 1888

By C. M. St. John

INTRODUCTION The stress redistribution accompanying the excavation of a deep tunnel may induce failure of the rock. The role of the support system is to control the extent of the failed region and hence to limit closure of the tunnel within an allowable amount. In such circumstances, the design of the support system is generally based on the Ground Reaction Curve (GRC). The GRC is the relationship between the support pressure and the induced displacement at the tunnel wall for a circular tunnel under hydrostatic loading. In the calculation of the GRC (see Brown et al. (1983) for an exhaustive list of reference), the rock is generally treated as an elastoplastic material characterized by cohesive-frictional yield strength and by dilatancy during plastic deformation. A recent analytical development (Detournay, 1983) has allowed the generalization of the GRC concept for some cases of non-hydrostatic in-situ stress fields (Detournay and Fairhurst, 1982). As an application of that development, this paper describes design charts that provide powerful means of performing parametric analysis for tunnels subject to non-hydrostatic loading. BACKGROUND The in-situ stress in a plane perpendicular to the tunnel axis can be decomposed into mean and deviatoric components, Po and So (see Fig. 1). Since it is assumed that the rock is characterized by a Mohr-Coulomb yield strength, the deviatoric invariant So must be less than the limiting value Sl0 given by

Jan 1, 1984

By J. Parke Channing

IT IS most appropriate for mining engineers and in fact for all engineers to perfect themselves in leader-ship, because in the last ten years there has been a growing realization on the part of capital that there is no man who by capacity and training is better fitted to manage industrial production than the engineer. In high places the engineer and particularly the mining engineer is coming into his own. We have Mr. Hoover as Secretary of Commerce, Mr. Hammond as the head of the Federal Fact-finding Coal Commission, and Prince Caetani as Royal Italian Ambassador, all mining engineers. More and more in all industries is the manager more likely to be an engineer than he was five, ten, fifteen or twenty years ago, and the feeling is that the man who has had a technical training, whether from going to a school or from burning the midnight oil, makes a better manager than the man who has not. We find in mining that the best man for a manager is one who has had engineering, training. The manager who comes up from the office, from the purchasing department or from the transportation department may make a fairly good manager but he is never so good as the man who has had a technical training. He cannot speak the language of his staff.

Jan 5, 1923

By P. Somasundaran, D. R. Nagaraj

This study initiated to explore the potential of commercial chelating extractant for beneficiation of minerals revealed "LIX "65N to be an excellent collector for cuprite and chrysocolla. The collector action of the LIX is proposed to result from its chelation with copper species on the surface of the minerals. Thus, the syn-isomer of LIX65N, which is unable to form a chelate with copper ions, failed also to act as a collector. The proposed mechanism takes into account partitioning of LIX between the mineral surface (to form a surface chelate) and the copper chelate dispersed in the bulk aqueous phase (either due to formation of the chelate with dissolved copper, or due to detachment of chelate formed at surface). The efficiency of the collection is dependent upon this partitioning since the bulk chelate is found unable to collect. The marked decrease in flotation obtained when copper was added to the system supports this mechanism. The dependence of flotation of chrysocolla and cuprite on pH and reagentizing time is discussed on the basis of the proposed mechanism. Batch laboratory flotation tests using synthetic mixtures of oxide, sulfide and mixed oxide-sulfide copper minerals with quartz demonstrated the ability of LIX to separate the copper minerals from quartz.

Jan 1, 1980

By Keith Leonard Sutherland

AEROFLOAT 25 is a complex mixture of free cresylic acid with aryl substituted dithiophosphoric acids, sulphides, disulphides, etc. Its complete composition has not been published by the makers or patentees. It is prepared1 by the reaction between phosphorus pentasulphide and carefully selected cresylic acid. We have been informed that this acid contains no phenol and very little cresol, and that it is rich in the higher alkyl phenols, particularly the xylenols. The reaction between a phenol ROH and phosphorus pentasulphide may produce compounds of the following type:2 [ ] Except for the simplest type, the thiophenols (ii), the boiling points of these compounds lie above 300" C. The amounts of the thianthren compounds formed from the five xylenols (if all these are present) will vary according to the position of the substituents. In an attempt to ascertain something of the nature of the reagent, fractional distillation under atmospheric pressure was undertaken. At the outset, hydrogen sulphide was freely evolved, and-particularly below 200°, C.-the fractions had the strong odor characteristic of the

Jan 1, 1939

By A. B. Fly

Borehole mining combines the principles of hydraulic mining, slurry mucking and rotary drilling. The borehole is drilled with conventional equipment and is cased down to the top of the mining zone. The borehole mining tool is comprised of the kelly-swivel assembly, multiple drill-pipe sections, and the jet-pump barrel assembly as shown in Fig. 1. The kelly swivel is fitted with a bail to support the mining tool. The kelly drive bushing engages the rotary table to allow the rotation of the mining tool while it is being operated. The jet-pump barrel assembly is comprised of the sidewall jet nozzles, the jet-pump assembly, the suction screen, and the tricone rock bit. Clean fluid is pumped at high pressure through the kelly hose to the high-pressure swivel on the mining tool. The high-pressure pipe conducts the fluid down to the sidewall jet nozzles, the pump jet nozzle, and the tricone rock bit. The sidewall jet streams cut the formation and wash the cuttings down to the rock bit. High-pressure fluid issues from the water courses to clean the bit and to agitate the cuttings. Rotation of the mining tool causes the rock bit to grind any oversize material enough to permit its passage through the suction screen. High- pressure fluid issues from the pump jet nozzle to provide the lift needed to pump the slurry to the surface. The slurry is discharged into the settling pits where the cuttings are deposited and the clean fluid is returned to the suction of the high-pressure pump.

Jan 3, 1969

By Luis Emylnn Salas

If the ordinary wet method be attempted for silver-bullion containing tin, much trouble is experienced, varying with the amount of tin present. Even with a percentage as low as 0.05, the end-point is masked by a persistent turbidity, while with amounts ranging from 0.5 per cent. upward, the determination of the exact end-point is impossible, owing to the finely divided or colloidal metastannic acid resisting all efforts to cause it to settle, or to give a clear supernatant liquid. The object of the following experiments was to seek a remedy for these difficulties, and to find the conditions whereby the Gay Lussac method might be applied directly to these bullions. Material containing tin is met with frequently in bullion from Mexico or Bolivia; and tin is carried (sometimes in large quantities) in jewelers' sweeps. 1. A bullion was prepared containing Ag, 74; Cu, 25; and Sn, 1 per cent. A weighed amount was treated by the humid assay-method as if it were an ordinary bullion free from tin. Ten cc. of HNO, (1.21) was added, and the bottle was heated until all traces of

Jan 1, 1913

By Henry Louis

IT can scarcely be considered a matter of doubt, in the present state of our knowledge, that the existence of, at any rate, two well-marked allotropic modifications of gold can be recognized, namely (a), the ordinary, yellow variety, and (b) the red, brown or purple, non-lustrous, amorphous variety. There are, indeed, not wanting indications that still other allotropic forms may be capable of existing. It is, for instance, possible that the green colors of gold obtained under certain conditions, or the black powder produced when the alloy of gold with potassium is decomposed by water, may represent further allotropic modifications, although this proposition is open to doubt. It call scarcely be pretended that the two first-named varieties have been absolutely isolated, yet it is, perhaps, quite permissible to speak of the ordinary and the amorphous modifications as having a proved existence. Ordinary gold is sometimes found crystallized in nature, although never in a state of purity. When gold is melted and, cooled slowly, its surface shows crystalline markings, and the fact that it is capable of crystallizing in the cubic system may be looked upon as established. When gold is produced by precipitation, the form which it assumes is dependent on the conditions of precipitation. G. Rose 1 says that gold precipitated by ferrous sulphate from very dilute solutions is so finely divided that no regular form can be recognized, but in more concentrated solutions the precipitate consists of minute cubes. When oxalic acid is used as a precipitant, the gold is coarser and forms octahedral crystals. J. Thomsen 2 has obtained similar results. Working with dilute and with highly-dilute

Jan 1, 1913

By Julius Albert Krug

IN the field of mineral resources, today's problems and those we can reasonably expect in the future are so vast that nothing less than world-wide thinking and world-wide planning will suffice. I can imagine nothing more useful for the Institute to do in celebration of its seventy-fifth anniversary than to hold this conference on world mineral resources. Mineral resources are the basis of any nation's industrial production. Without expanding industrial production, the high standard of living found in the United States could not exist. Without such a standard of living it would be most unlikely that we should have a high level of culture. The hope of the world, as I see it, depends very largely on a general rise in living standards everywhere, and in the general increase of the levels of culture including a sympathetic understanding of the problems of other nations. For this reason, the proper use of the world's remaining mineral resources must be taken into account in any plans to safeguard the peace of the world. Being as exasperatingly human as human beings always seem to be,. we usually wait until almost too late to begin our plans to stave off an impending disaster. We do this as individuals, as components of particular States or Governments, and as citizens of the world. We waited, if not too late, certainly a very long time in getting started on the job of world-wide con-

Jan 1, 1947

By C. O. Brawner

Simple, specific rules for achieving slope stability in open-pit mines are impossible to devise. Each pit has a different mining program and a different set of environmental conditions, and its final slope design must be based on an individual evaluation of the actual site. The overall philosophy of pit stability, however, is tending towards a limit design concept. Since slope angle has a great influence on the economics of most open-pit mines, efforts are being made to reduce the theoretical factor of safety for slope stability to very near 1.0. (Factor of safety is here defined as shear strength/shear stress on the most probable plane of failure.) Actually, where detailed, statistically significant testing has been done and a comprehensive ground control program is being instituted to warn of movement at an early stage, safety factors as low as 1.1 or 1.2 may be justified. The cost of the necessary procedures, however, is high. There are many factors that influence stability, but this article will be confined to three-rock structure, groundwater, and blasting.

Jan 8, 1969

By E. C. Harder

SINCE early in 1916, when it became apparent that the steel industry of the United States could not depend, for the duration of the war, on several important foreign sources of manganese and might have to depend entirely on domestic ores, the U. S. Geological Survey, with the assistance f several cooperating organizations, has made a comprehensive investigation of domestic manganese resources. The work has included field studies in a number of states as well as annual, quarterly, and monthly canvasses among operators concerning current and future production. In order that the interested public might have access to the important results of the studies, preliminary reports concerning the field work as well as periodic summaries of production were issued as promptly as possible. Although large deposits of rich manganese oxides appear to be lacking in the United States, small deposits of high-grade material are numerous and widely distributed and large low-grade deposits are found in several places. The principal districts in which high-grade manganese ore is mined, in the order of their importance as recent sources of production, are: Philipsburg district, Mont.; Butte district, Mont.; Southern Nevada region; Central California region; Bisbee district, Ariz.; Appalachian region of Virginia; Batesville district, Ark.; Tintic district, Utah; and Cartersville district, Ga. Scattered deposits of some importance are found in western Arizona, southern California, eastern Tennessee, southern Oregon, and central Utah. The formation of many manganese oxide deposits appears to be related to the physiographic histories of the regions in which they occur.

Jan 5, 1919

By Walter Weeks

THE subject of the flow of air through a mine under the influence of natural ventilation has proved an elusive one. To my knowledge only cut and try algebraic solutions have been used where multiple paths are involved. The object of this paper is to present a method for the graphi-cal determination of the flow induced by the natural ventilation pressure (N.V.P.) alone or in combination with a fan. The N.V.P., measured in pounds per square foot, induced by two columns of air between two horizontal planes at different elevations, is equal to the difference in weight of the two columns, assuming each to have a cross-sectional area of 1 sq. ft. Pressure in pounds per square foot is converted into inches of water by dividing by 5.19. Methods of calculating the N.V.P. have been discussed in the litera-ture. In this paper, for simplification of exposition, the change in pres-sure due to the weight of superimposed air will be assumed directly proportional to the length of the column. The actual methods of cal-culating the N.V.P. do not affect the solutions to be presented. It must be realized that the precision to be obtained from the small-scale, inked diagrams presented is not as great as would be obtained from large-scale, penciled curves that would he used in practice. The accuracy of the curves does not warrant reading "volumes" closer than the nearest thousand cubic feet per minute.

Jan 1, 1938

By William L. Zeller

IN the past 75 years industrial engineering has been highly developed in many fields, but the coal mining industry has just begun to realize its potential for cutting costs. To receive the maximum benefit, a company should apply industrial engineering from the time a new installation is contemplated, but the principles can also be used to reduce and control the costs of an established operation. One company that had been mechanized for seven years reduced its total labor cost 57 pct by industrial engineering. Of this reduction, 20 pct was brought about by a preventive maintenance, rebuilding, and scheduled lubrication program that eliminated 80 pct of the delay caused by mechanical and electrical failures. Thirty percent of the cost reduction was attributed to rearranging the work force into crews of the most effective size, changing working methods, and training all mine supervision in the principles of the cost reduction program. The remaining 7 pct reduction was brought about by a wage incentive program for all the men in the mine. The productivity of this coal mining operation was increased from less than 8 tons per payroll man to 20 tons. This increased productivity was brought about while using the same equipment, men, and supervision.

Jan 12, 1957

By F.L. Preshidge

R. B. RATHBUN,* Salt Lake City, Utah (written discussion?).¬While the engineer should carefully weigh the merits of the various types of equipment, he must bear in mind that the object of his plant is the recovery of suspended solids, and a thing is unimportant except as it contributes to this end, other engineering principles being duly considered. The controversy regarding the use of synchronous motor-driven rectifiers by which the power for the treater is taken directly from the mains of the local power system, rather than the motor-generator rectifier giving each treater unit its own isolated electrical system, has led many to think that on the type of rectifier depends the success of .the plant. It is in fact a relatively unimportant part of the plant and represents a very small fraction of the investment; the recoveries in dust and fume are practically the same in each case. One large smelting concern has adopted the motor-generator type for all of its plants after years of experience with the synchronous-motor type. Its reasons are practically the same as those set down by Mr. Eschholz for his preference. Given more in detail they are: 1. An independent electric system prevents outside power-line conditions, like voltage fluctuations, from interfering with the operation of the Cottrell plant and eliminates the possibility of the Cottrell plant causing trouble for the power company. The latter, while not very

Jan 12, 1918

NEW MEMBERS The following list comprises the names of those persons who became members during the period Jan. 10 to Feb. 10, 1915: Members AGASSIZ, RUDOLPH Louis, Vice-Pres.,Calumet & Hecla Mining Co., Boston, Mass. AMIDON, RICHARD G., Min. Engr 3659 Girard Ave. N., Minneapolis, Minn. ANDERSON, HECTOR G. S., Min. Engr 323 N. 13th St., Muskogee, Okla. ANDERSON, JOHN CARTER, Petroleum Engr 2307 S. 33d St., Omaha, Neb. CLARKE, ALEXANDER FIELDER, Works Mgr., Firth-Sterling Steel Co., McKeesport, Pa. CROSS, CARLOS GARCIA, Min. Engr Calle Valparaiso 194, Vina del Mar, Chile. DAWSON, THOMAS WILLIAM, Min. Engr., Asst. Chief Engr., H. C. Frick Coke Co., Scottdale, Pa.

Jan 3, 1915

By R. B. Sosman

INTRODUCTION WE have shown in the preceding paper that practically all natural oxides of iron contain a determinable percentage of ferrous iron, and in many cases the percentage approaches that in magnetite itself. Some of these oxides are true homogeneous solid solutions. Others are not homogeneous, and can be separated magnetically into fractions. The nature and cause of this inhomogeneity in certain special cases form the subject of the present paper. MAGNETIC FRACTIONATION OF OXIDES OF IRON The magnetic fractionation of a sample of oxide can be conveniently carried out by powdering the material very fine, and exposing it at various distances from the poles of an electromagnet. The magnet that we used was specially designed 1 to give a strong field together with a steep gradient outside of the poles. It is set in a frame, with the pole pieces directed downward. A glass plate can be adjusted at various distances beneath the poles. If the fine iron oxide powder is placed just beneath the glass plate, successive portions of the powder are picked up by the magnetic attraction and are caught against the glass plate, the most magnetic portions being taken up at the greatest distance from the poles. Some natural oxides can thus be separated into several-fractious of different magnetic susceptibilities. Among other natural iron oxides, we examined the powder obtained by crushing some crystals of hematite from Elba.2 We found that

Jan 6, 1917

By Howard W. Dubois, Charles T. Mixer

Only within the past few years have chemists recognized the importance of the fact, that comparatively large amounts of phosphorus may occur in the siliceous residue left from the acid treatment of iron-ores. We know of one case in which an ore contained about three times as much phosphorus in the insoluble, as in the soluble, form. It was disposed of at a premium, as an exceptionally high-grade Bessemer ore containing 0.010 per cent. of soluble phosphorus, while the insoluble phosphorus brought the total amount up to 0.040 per cent. The magnetite and specular hematite of the Lake Superior districts and the fine ores of the Mesabi range, as a rule, contain very small amounts of insoluble phosphorus. But the mining of the soft hematites and the progressive lowering of the phosphorus-limit in a strictly Bessemer ore, have combined to make the determination of insoluble phosphorus one of the routine-requirements in all analyses of Bessemer ores. The insoluble phosphorus is understood to be that pbosphorus which cannot be extracted by boiling hydrochloric acid of 1.1 specific gravity. The time given for the extraction of the soluble phosphorus will vary, of course, according to the nature of the ore. In ordinary practice the boiling is continued until the residue is white or only very slightly tinged with ferric oxide. This ordinarily takes from half an hour to an hour. The prolonged boiling of ores known to contain considerable quantities of insoluble phosphorus has failed to extract any appreciable amount of additional phosphorus. Very fine grinding and subseqnent sifting through bolting-cloth has not increased the extraction. These statements represent the re-

Jan 1, 1898

By Walter Harvey Weed

THE enrichment of mineral-veins as a result of the migration of material from an upper oxidized or disintegrated part of a vein to a lower level, where it is redeposited, is now, I believe, quite generally accepted as one explanation of the occurrence of bonanzas in gold- and silver-veins, as well as that of bodies of high-grade ores in cupriferous deposits.* Vogt has called attention to the fact that there are numerous examples of such rich shoots which are " of exclusively primary character, and dependent upon the laws which governed the original ore-deposition." To this I would add that there are also other examples which are neither of primary origin nor clue to descending waters, but result from a reopening of the veins and their penetration by ascending heated waters whose metallic contents are deposited by reaction with the primary pyrite (and possibly other minerals), forming "secondary" enrichments. My studies of the copper-veins of Butte, Montana, show: That the veins there are of several ages and systems; that the older primary quartz-pyrite veins were reopened by later movements, correlated with a period of volcanic activity; and that they were penetrated by hot alkaline waters carrying copper and arsenic in solution, which were deposited presumably by reaction with the pyrite of the original vein. The enormous development of the Butte deposits, attendant upon the extraction of nearly 10,000 tons of ore a day, has revealed many facts concerning the nature and distribution of the ores. Enargite, the copper sulpharsenate, formerly a relatively rare mineral, is now found to be the chief ore of some veins,

Jan 1, 1913

By I. Milton LeBaron

Operation of the phosphate flotation plant at the Peace valley mine of the International Minerals and Chemical Corporation, Florida, began in the summer of 1942. Since that time several changes have been made in the flowsheet, with resultant increases in metallurgical results. Three flowsheets, together with the comparative plant results, are given in this paper, together with a discussion of the desliming circuit used for preliminary washing of the flotation feed. Fig. I lists the essential units in the original flowsheet at the Peace Valley plant. The figures for tonnage and grade are average for a period of two months. Mineral Separation Airflow cells are used for both the fatty acid and the amine float. Three immediate difficulties presented themselves in the use of this flow sheet: I. Floating a maximum amount of phosphate in the rougher section to give good recovery sent a low-grade concentrate to the silica float, resulting in high costs for amine reagent in that section.

Jan 1, 1947

By E. E. Malouf

For centuries small amounts of copper have been recovered from acid mine-drainage waters. In recent years, the expansion of copper-bearing waste dump leaching for copper recovery has established a technological basis that is rapidly converting the art of copper leaching into a science. Copper leaching and recovery from solution has become an important adjunct of nearly all copper mining operations. Leaching of copper, whether from copper- bearing ore or waste, follows well established chemical reactions commonly in an acid circuit, but where leaching of copper is to be made in rock that is a high acid consumer, ammonia and ammonia carbonate, as well as cyanide leach solutions, can be used effectively. Current hydrometallurgical processes are being applied at an ever increasing rate to recover the trace amounts of copper in copper mine waste by in-place leaching. Currently approximately 300,000 tons of copper are produced annually in this manner while as recently as ten years ago, only one-eighth of this amount of precipitate copper was produced. Where copper occurs as an oxide in higher concentrations as to be classified as an ore rather than waste, then the hydrometallurgical processes are applied as percolation or agitation leaching in vats, pachuca tanks or prepared heaps. This approach gives better control over the recovery of the leach solutions, particularly in the processes where ammonia or cyanide leaching agents are to be used.

Jan 8, 1972