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By Max Stern

ROOM and pillar coal mining methods employed in the United States keep the roof at original height by leaving untouched pillars of coal in the face area. But, German coal mines of the Ruhr district are exclusively operated on the longwall system. With this method the whole length of the coal face advances and the roof in the face area sinks 10 to 15 pct of seam thickness. Behind the face the roof may drop 50 to 80 pct of seam thickness due to the high rock pressures encountered at average mining depth of 2250 ft. Mining depth is increasing 20 to 30 ft per year.

Jan 5, 1953

By J. W. Pamplin

SOME 40 miles east of Tampa is the center of the Florida pebble phosphate deposits. These are of Pliocene age and consist of several members of the Bone Valley formation.1 Physically the phosphate-bearing formation, locally called the "matrix," varies in thickness from nothing to about 25 ft., usually averages 10 ft., and consists mainly of clay, quartz and phosphate pebble, the latter particles varying in size from colloidal to one inch diameter. The pebbles range in color from dark gray, through white, to cream, and in hardness from that which must be broken with a hammer to that which can be scratched with the fingernail. They assay from 66 to 80 per cent bone phosphate of lime (called "B.P.L." in the trade) or tricalcium phosphate (Ca3P20s) and are secondary apatites. They form from 15 to 50 per cent by weight of the matrix, Over the matrix lies a varying thickness (5 to 40 ft.) of overburden composed of quartz and clay. Briefly, mining consists of two operations2 in open pits about 200 ft. wide by ½ mile or more in length. In the first step overburden is removed by large electric draglines at the rate of about 700 cu. yd. per hour. This is followed closely by hydraulic mining of the matrix at the rate of about 300 cu. yd. per hour. This matrix yardage is moved from an improvised sump in the floor of the pit to an ore-dressing plant, some-times a mile distant, by one, two or three "pit-cars" (pumping units) working on a 12-in. pipe line called the "rock line" to distinguish it from the high-pressure water line feeding the hydraulic giants, which is known as the "hydraulic line." This 700 yd. of overburden and 300 yd. of matrix-1000 yd. in all-amounts to about 1500 tons of material moved each hour. The over-burden is dumped into the mined-out pit alongside the pit being mined. The matrix moves to the ore-dressing plant at the rate of about 7 ½ long tons in 4000 gal. of water per minute-a ratio of approximately one to two by weight, or one to six by volume. This constitutes the "mill heads," but in the pebble district it is called the "matrix."

Jan 1, 1938

By T. L. McCall

The late Walter Herd1 in 1929 gave a full description of past and present conditions in No. 2 mine, Springhill, Nova Scotia, developed theories regarding the cause of these bumps and made certain suggestions regarding possible methods of future development. Recapitulating briefly from Mr. Herd's paper, the seam is bituminous coal, averages 9 ft. in thickness and has a well defined parting containing fusain about 14 in. from the roof. This roof coal is somewhat stronger than the rest of the seam and has a tendency to cling to the roof. The pitch of the seam where it is now being worked is about 20". The first manifestations of bumps began when the room and pillar workings had reached a depth of cover of 1900 ft. and under continuously increasing depth of cover these bumps increased to such an extent, both in number and severity, that in the year 1924 it became apparent that some change in the system of extraction was necessary. After closely studying all the factors involved and benefiting largely by valuable outside advice obtained by the Provincial Department of Mines of Nova Scotia,2 the system of working was changed from room and pillar to longwall retreating. Mr. Herd's paper described in detail three remarkable bumps in the year 1928 in April, July and October that affected the 5700-ft. and 5900-ft. East levels, the last bump being so severe both in intensity and in extent of damage done that this district was abandoned. The longwall workings to the west of the slope had been stopped in the year 1926 owing to an inbreak of water, coming from the flooded waste of No. 3 seam lying some 400 ft. vertically overhead. This inflow was not excessive, but a large quantity of water being impounded in the old workings it was considered advisable to take the prudent course and not incur the risk of possibly increasing the flow by further working. This district has remained idle ever since.

Jan 1, 1934

Jan 1, 1949

By James W. Clark, William C. Dixon, Kevin L. Wiley, Thomas R. Couzens

This paper is a description of certain geologic aspects of the Inspiration mining operation. It is not a geologic description of the Inspiration deposit nor an exposition of all the geologic work. Involved in the development and exploitation of the deposit. A few specific examples of the application of geology and geostatistics to the mining process are given to illustrate the progress that has been made in making the Inspiration Mine more efficient and cost effective, and a statement of the philosophy of geologic applications is offered.

Jan 1, 1985

By H. H. Stoek

Among the mining and metallurgical achievements of the latter part of the nineteenth century, not the least is the incep tion and successful prosecution by mining men of a technical educational movement which in magnitude surpasses any similar movement ever before set on foot. The following account of this undertaking has been prepared at the request of the Secretary of the Institute :*

Jan 1, 1899

By F. A. Schaufelberger

Early work on chemical precipitation of metals from metal salt solutions is reviewed. The chemistry and thermodynamics of precipitating copper, nickel, cobalt, and cadmium metals by reaction with hydrogen are discussed. Mechanisms of metal precipitation, nucleation, growth, and agglomeration are reviewed, as well as some solubility phenomena of gases and solids at elevated temperatures. Experimental data presented deal mainly with the reaction of copper sulfate solution with Hz.

May 1, 1956

Jan 1, 1952

Jan 1, 1959

By Ted H. Eyde, Dan T. Eyde

Industrial minerals deposits present sampling and grade control problems not normally encountered in metal mining operations. No longer are industrial minerals simply crude ground mineral products but are in fact high purity chemical raw materials. Operators of industrial minerals mines and processing plants now must meet increasingly stringent specifications established by the consumer of the final products. Meeting these stringent specifications requires not only sophisticated processing techniques but equally important careful sampling and grade or quality control at the mine. A well-trained geological staff can assure an adequate supply of uniformily high quality feed to the processing plant. In the final analysis this results in significantly higher operating profits.

Jan 1, 1985

By David Phillips, George Jura

WHEN Bridgman1 determined the volume-pressure relationships of bismuth to 100 kg Cm-2, he found two small volume discontinuities at 45 and 64 kg em-2. Probably every investigator in high pressures has determined the electrical resistivity of bismuth in this pressure range. Until Zeitlin and Brayman2 reported discontinuities in the resistance of bismuth at these pressures, no one had found resistance discontinuities

Jan 1, 1968

By J. R. Maxwell

Large capacity flotation cells with volumes ranging in size from 300 to 2000 cu ft are used in the Opemiska concentrator, Opemiska Copper Mines (Quebec), Canada. This paper gives a description of the flowsheet with metallurgical comparisons using Maxwell vs. conventional cells, total power consumption used, and estimated maintenance costs.

Jan 1, 1973

By E. T. Dumble

In continuation of the geological work begun in Sonora, Mexico, a partial account of which has already been given in the Transactions of the Institute,* a similar reconnaissance was made of Cochise county, Arizona, and a part of the Whetstone mountains. The investigation resulted in the identification of beds of similar age and character to those of the Sonora region, and in the discovery of interesting deposits, which, so far as I call ascertain from the literature at my command, have not been described heretofore. Route.—Starting from Nogales, we followed the railroad to Crittenden, and then drove to the southeastern slope of the Whetstones. After a brief examination of some reported coalbeds we continued our route, following the wagon-road between the Whetstones and the Mustang mountains to Huachuca, and eastward to Tombstone. Crossing the Dragoon mountains at South Pass, we traveled south and west by way of Turquoise and Antelope Spring into the road from Tombstone to Bisbee. Our route over the Mule mountains lay through Mule Pass and Bisbee, where we stopped a day or two. Thence, crossing Sulphur Spring valley, we drove around the southern end of the Swisshelms, and N. through the valley between these mountains and the Chiricahuas, to White river. From that point our way led through Rucker canon into the San Simon valley, then northward along the eastern face of the Chiricahuas, and by way of Fort Bowie to Willcox, Arizona, from which place we returned to Nogales. It was greatly regretted that the extremely wet weather prevented us from including in our examination the Huachuca

Jan 1, 1902

By N. Arbiter, C. C. Harris

Analysis of ball and pulp flow in ball mills indicates that three factors may become critical with increasing mill diameters: ball size, fraction critical speed, and average pulp flow velocities. Ball diameters may need to be decreased and fraction critical speeds increased with ores which show decreased breakage rate coefficients above 1.2 mm (14 mesh). With 5.5-m (18 ft) and larger mills at higher circulating loads, pulp flow velocities may become capacity limiting and also may limit increases in ball mill diameters.

Jan 1, 1985

By Mark D. Tabak

Measurments of the transient photoconductivity in fillns of amorphous selenium with blocking- contacts haue been used in studying the transport properties. The results shozu that the transport of free carviers cannot be explained in terms of a model using bulk trapping. Measurments of the photocurrent-applied field characteristic as a unction of sample thickness do not pvoduce the scaling lau,s approps-iate lo a range-limited model. THE investigation described here was undertaken to explore the mechanisms of transport in amorphous selenium films. These films are used in xerography, where a photoconductor is charged electrostatically and then exposed to light to form a latent image. The sensitivity that one can expect when operating in this mode is directly related to the transport properties of the photoconductor material. The study of photoconductivity at high fields in insulating materials is often complicated by contact effects. Injection from the contacts can easily mask the fundamental transport processes that are being studied. A technique is described in this paper that allows a study of photoconductivity and transport processes in amorphous selenium films without the complicating effects introduced by contacts. Accordingly, the samples are prepared using insulating films between the sample and the metal electrodes, where the electrodes are capacitively coupled to the surfaces of the sample under study. A transient measurement is performed with pulsed light, and the photocurrent measured near the beginning of the pulse before the field is distorted by polarization at the blocking elec- trodes. A similar method has been described by Manyl using pulsed electric fields in studying the high field transport in insulating cadmium sulfide. EXPERIMENTAL It is possible to eliminate undesirable contact effects and maintain uniform high fields across the sample by using blocking electrodes and measuring the current-field characteristic under transient conditions. The sample configuration is shown schematically in Fig. 1. Each of the gold electrodes is separated from the amorphous selenium film by a layer of insulating plastic (Formvar) approximately 2000~ thick. The electrode on the front surface is semi-transparent to allow illumination of the sample. The whole configuration is mounted on a KEL-F substrate, which is a transparent insulating plastic having a thermal expansion coefficient that allows low-temperature measurements without cracking the selenium film. Fig. 2 shows a block diagram of the measurement apparatus. Light was obtained from a 450-w Xenon arc lamp, the intensity of which was controlled by stainless-steel screen filters and monitored by a pho-tomultiplier which was calibrated periodically against a thermopile. A camera shutter operated at 1/200 sec provided the light pulse and a synchronized signal to the oscilloscope. The photocurrent transient is ob-served with a high-speed picoammeter (response time of 1 msec) the output of which is displayed on an oscilloscope. The applied voltage is constant throughout the transient measurement. The selenium films were prepared by evaporation of four 9's pure selenium shot supplied by Canadian Copper Refiners. Spectrographic analysis showed about 1 ppm of Te and Fe, 5 ppm of C1, and 0.05 ppm

Jan 1, 1968

By S. Singh, R. C. Deshpande

RECENTLY metallographic studies of copper slugs recovered after firing shaped charges in deep containers of water were reported.' The present note describes the metallographic examination of a steel

Jan 1, 1960

By H. Soto, I. Iwasaki

Primary amines are strong collectors of apatite and they can selectively float sedimentary phosphates from calcareous ores. However, secondary and tertiary amines and trimethyl ammonium salts are ineffective. Kerosene reduces the collector requirements became hydrocarbon is co-adsorbed along with the amine on the mineral surface. The heats of reaction of aminium ions with such anions as phosphate, carbonate, and sulfate were measured in a microcalorimeter. They are discmsed in terms of the solubility of the precipitates formed and their relationship with the adsorption mechanism of primary amines on phosphate minerab. Experimental evidence supports a view that primary amines are adsorbed through chemical interaction between the aminium and phosphate ions at the mineral surface.

Jan 1, 1986

By F. F. Schmidt, H. R. Ogden, E. S. Bartlett

ThE solubility of carbon in tantalum has been reported to be very low at temperatures below 1500 C,1'2 increasing to at least 0.02 wt pctl at the eutectic temperature of 2800°C. The solubility limits at low temperatures were based on metallo-

Jan 1, 1963

By E. R. Morgan, J. C. Shyne, V. F. Zackay

NITROGEN used as an alloying element in steel has received increased attention in recent years. Its merit as an austenite stabilizer and hot strengthener has long been recojinized, particularly by European investigators.' Recent work' indicates that nitrogen contents of 1/2 pet or more allow the addition of several percent of ferrite-forming hot strengtheners, such as molybdenum, without subsequent austenite decomposition at elevated temperatures. The room temperature properties of such alloys are characterized by high yield and tensile strengths with excellent ductility, even after cold working, as shown in Tables I and 11. The 1350°F creep-rupture properties of Cr-Mn-Mo-N steels are comparable to those of commercial alloys such as Timken's 16-25-6, containing 16 pct Cr, 25 pct Ni, and 6 pct Mo, as shown in Table 111. Cr-Mn steel containing 1/2 pet N must be made under pressure if ingot gassing is to be avoided. However, there are difficulties attendant to this practice. Pressure melting restricts the ingot size, and the equipment required is costlier and more complicated than comparable air melting facilities. An effort was made, therefore, to determine more economical methods of adding nitrogen. The pressures generated in centrifugal casting usually range from 5 to 10 atm and are sufficient to prevent the gassing of high nitrogen Cr-Mn steels. A centrifugal casting was made of an alloy containing 16 pct Cr, 18 pct Mn, 2 pct Mo, and 0.73 pct N. A risk, 8 in. diam and 11/2 in. thick, was cast at 1000 rpm. It has been calculated that a pressure of 9 atm was developed at the periphery of the disk at this speed. Metallographic inspection of specimens taken from the disk revealed no gas holes or other defects. The elevated temperature properties of radial and circumferential specimens taken from this casting are given in Table IV. The creep-rupture life of this cast nickel-free austenitic steel was equivalent to that of the wrought Cr-Mn-Mo-N steels. Although centrifugal casting appears to lend itself to the manufacture of high nitrogen austenitic steels, its applicability is limited to relatively small sizes. A process applicable to the production of large ingots of high nitrogen steels is suggested by low carbon rimming steel practice. Gas holes formed during ingot solidification are not detrimental so long as they weld shut during hot rolling. An economic advantage of gassing ingots is the increased ingot-to-slab yield, especially if the ingots are mechanically capped. Also, it is probable that higher nitrogen levels can be achieved with mechanically capped ingots than with hot-topped ingots. A series of gassy heats was made under both atmospheric and higher pressures, as indicated in Table V. Several of the air melted ingots were mechanically capped by chilling the molten ingot tops with a steel plate. The ingots were allowed to freeze in steel molds without hot-tops unless otherwise indicated. A comparison of Table 111 with Table V shows no significant difference in the creep-rupture properties of the gassy and the nongassy ingots after hot work- ing nor between the gassy ingots produced under different conditions. References 1 F. Rapatz: Application of Stainless and Heat Resisting Steels Alloyed with Nitrogen. Sinhl and Eisen ( 1941) 61, pp. 1073-1078. 'V. I?. Zackay, J. F. Carlson, and P. L. Jackson: High Nitrogen Austenltlc Cr-Mn Steels. Trans. ASM 119551 48, PP. 509-523.

Jan 1, 1957

Papers in Classes A-Metal Mining, B-Milling and Concentration, H-Industrial Minerals, and I-Mining Geology are distributed in MINING TECHNOLOGY, which is issued every Other month. Papers in Classes C-Iron and Steel Division, D-Nonferrous Metallurgy and E-Institute Of Metals Division are distributed in METALS TECHNOLOGY, which is issued twice quarterly. Papers in Class G-Petroleum Division are distributed in PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY, which is issued every Other month. TECHNICAL PUBLICATIONS in Classes F-Coal Division, J-Mineral Industry Education Division, K-Mining Administration, and L-Geophysics, are issued as separate pamphlets. Contributions are papers that when printed Or mimeographed are available, but Only On request. All the TECHNICAL PUBLICATIONS Of the F, J, K Or L classes, the TECHNOLOGYS and the CONTRIBUTIONS issued in 1945 are available at Institute headquarters, unless Otherwise noted. They are also On file in many public, university and technical libraries and, when so indicated in the list, the papers may be found in the TRANSACTIONS. An Institute member is entitled to One copy Of any TECHNOLOGY, TECHNICAL PUBLICATION Of the F, J, K Or L classes, Or printed Or mimeographed CONTRIBUTION. Copies Of TECHNOLOGYS and TECHNICAL PUBLICATIONS Of the F, J, K Or L classes listed have been mailed to members Of the Institute according to their registration by classes. CONTRIBUTIONS will he sent upon request. A member may purchase an additional copy Of a TECHNICAL PUBLICATION Of the F, J, K Or L classes, a paper in a TECHNOLOGY, Or a CONTRIBUTION at One cent a page; minimum charge, 25¢.

Jan 1, 1946