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By Howard B. Gundersen

CURRENTLY the mining industry faces the twin tasks of producing metals in the largest possible amounts and doing it with a dwindling and less experienced labor supply. A manpower shortage during this emergency appears inescapable. It therefore becomes necessary to develop the highest possible efficiency. Employee training is a concomitant of economical, high production. Training keeps employee morale high, reduces waste, improves skills, and increases production without speed-up or overload of workmen or supervisors.

Jan 9, 1951

By Edgar Bain

OF THE important phenomenon of the hardening of steel, Professor Sauveur1 says: "It would seem as if the methods used to date for the elucidation of this complex problem have yielded all they are capable of yielding and that further straining of these methods will only serve to confuse the issue, the point having been reached when this juggling, no matter how skilfully done, with allotropy, solid solutions, and strains is causing weariness without advancing the solution of the problem.. The tendency of late has been to abandon the safer road of experimental facts and to enter the maze of excessive speculations, in which there is great danger of some becoming hopelessly lost. The conclusion seems warranted that new avenues of approach must be found if we are to obtain a correct answer to this apparent enigma. With some degree of fitness we may say, this of other problems. It seems likely that one of the new avenues of approach to many metallographic problems is the study-of crystal structure, or more accurately, the atomic arrangement by means of the X-ray spectrometer. The crystal structure of some materials has been carefully worked out by the mineralogist, but his methods are, in general, unsuited to commercial metals and a method that yields even better information is at hand as the result of work on the diffraction of X-rays by Laue and the Braggs2 and later by Hull,3 St. John, and others. It should be understood that the contour of free crystals, which is the subject of measurements by the crystallographer, is the result of the atomic structure and, in general, bears a simple and obvious relation to it. The use of the X-ray spectrometer4 has been described frequently, so the procedure will not be given here.

Jan 2, 1922

By F. R. Ingalsbe

THE proposed revision of the mining law as set forth in the Arentz Bill, now before Congress, is centered about the pretty commonly acknowledged f act that the present law is outlawed both by the large mining companies and the United States Land Office. By common agreement, the law of the apex is non-opera¬tive as between adjacent properties in many instances, and this practice is becoming more common. - If this is a fact, there is no escape from the conclusion that the law is antiquated and should be revised to meet modern conditions more equitable. The thing to be considered seriously is in what direction and to what extent the laws should be changed. Before deciding this, it is logical to inquire in what particulars the present law is troublesome or useless. This was all threshed out by the committee of the Bureau of Mines that worked out the proposed bill, but their testimony was not placed before the public, so far as 1 am aware. Most mine managers and engineers connected with producing properties are a unit in agreeing that the law as applied to the underground extension of orebodies, that is, the "law of the apex," as it is called, is the source of more litigation and expense than any other phase of the law, or perhaps than all other phases combined. This being true, it seems that this part of the law should be changed. Another phase which is troublesome and will continue to be so long as there is unpatented mineral land on the Public Domain, is the discovery requirement. The present law requires that a dis¬covery be made before a claim is staked and the courts certainly agree that such must be the case before patent issues.

Jan 7, 1922

By R. E. Sabaski

Total grinding mill system life is dependent upon the original selections and specifications of its components: the mill, its drive, drive motor, motor control, and power system. This paper discusses the complex considerations involved and the critical decisions which must be made by the buyer, the mill manufacturer, and by the gear vendor during the proposal and ordering stages. Interrelations between the mill manufacturer and the gear vendor, application of ACMA standards, how drive standards and specifications are refined through steady-state and computer-simulated torsional analyses are included, along with correlational field testing, as demands for larger sizes challenge the current state of the art.

Jan 1, 1984

By B. A. Joyce, R. W. Bicknell, R. J. Bennett, P. J. Etter

Epitaxial layers of silicon have been grown on single-crystal quartz and alumina by two types of chemical reaction the hydrogen reduction of trichlorosilane and b) the pyrolysis of silane. These reaction systems are described. The cqsfallography of the two systems, as determined by electron and X-ray diffraction, is discussed, and epitaxial mechanisms suggested. The electrical behavior is briefly considered, and the design and properties of field-evert devices fabricated in the epilaxial material are also discussed. RECENT work carried out in these laboratories" has shown that it is possible to obtain epitaxial deposits of silicon on single-crystal quartz and alumina. The purpose of this paper is to describe the method of preparation of these layers using both the hydrogen reduction of trichlorosilane and the pyroly-sis of silane, to compare the crystallographic behavior of films on the two substrates, and to present some initial results of the electrical behavior of silicon layers on alumina. The structural study has been carried out using electron and X-ray diffraction and electron microscopy. The electrical assessment has been made in terms of conductivity and mobility determinations by the van der pauw3 technique, and by measurements on metal-oxide-semiconductor assemblies. 1) FILM PREPARATION Both quartz and alumina substrates, approximately 1 sq cm in area and 0.4 mm thick. were prepared from slices cut parallel to within a few degrees of (11.0), (10.0), and (00.1), and polished mechanically down to about 0.3 p diamond grade. Chemical polishing of alumina slices, using phosphoric acid at elevated temperatures, has also been used; epitaxial silicon layers have been grown on these substrates, but the process is not entirely reliable, possibly because the large strain present in the Verneuil-grown alumina crystal affects the chemically prepared surface. The two reaction systems are fairly conventional and are described briefly below. a) Trichlorosilane-Hydrogen System. The apparatus is shown schematically in Fig. 1. The substrate was heated by induction, with a fused-quartz encapsulated graphite hemicylinder as susceptor. The procedure for carrying out a deposition was to heat the substrate to reaction temperature in a stream of

Jan 1, 1965

By Tracy Jarrett

IN making gold alloys possessing certain physical properties, such important factors as corrosion resistance, color, hardness and melting points must be considered. All of these requirements depend directly upon the composition. It is possible to obtain the same colored gold alloy by using different compositions, but in doing so one may bring in some undesirable property. Other investigations have been carried on in this field by F. E. Carter,1 E. M. Wise,2 and L. Sterner-Rainer.3 To make a complete study of the effect of composition upon these properties, a systematic investigation was carried on involving a range of copper content from 85 to 65 per cent. Elements such as zinc, silver and nickel were used to replace in part the copper content. The gold content in all the alloys remained constant. Only 10-karat gold alloys of those containing 41.6 per cent gold will be considered. All of the alloys were made in an induction furnace. Each alloy was cast in a 3 by ¼ by ¾ -in. ingot. The method of obtaining the melting points and making color determinations was described in a previous paper.4 The Rockwell B scale with the ball and 100-kg. weight was used for all hardness determinations. The submersion of test pieces in concentrated nitric acid is one of the standard corrosion tests used in the optical trade. A test piece in the 50 per cent cold-worked condition, ½ by 2 by 0.043 in., is blanked from a strip using a. die, and the weight, loss per square inch of surface is taken as a means of comparison. The time for this test is 2 ½ hr. of actual sub-mersion of the test piece in the acid. This standard test was applied to all of the 10-karat gold alloys discussed in this paper. The tensile tests were made upon strips of the dimensions shown in Fig. 1. The test pieces after blanking were annealed at 1300° F. for 20 min. and cooled in air. The "drop of the beam" method was used in determining the yield point, as there was a very marked "drop" when the yield point was reached.

Jan 1, 1939

By D. H. Fleming

DURING 1950 the jet-piercing process was used commercially in the piercing of primary blast- holes in magnetic taconite at the preliminary taconite plant of the Erie Mining Co., Aurora, Minn. The Erie Mining Co. purchased a jet-piercing ma- chine and associated equipment in 1949, and the machine has been in operation since its installation in the summer of that year. An overall view of the pit with the JPM-1 jet-piercing machine in operation is shown in Fig. 1.

Jan 7, 1951

By M. Stern, I. S. Servi, W. W. Webb

ZINC has been considered an ideal material for investigations of the behavior of dislocation walls in metals. It has appeared particularly useful for studies of the mechanisms of plastic deformation and the motion of low-angle boundaries under stress, because orientated crystals are easily grown and cleaved. Moreover, the hexagonal structure makes the introduction of controlled tilt boundaries relatively simple. Apparently, another of the many reasons for selecting zinc as a working material is its commercial availability at the 99.999' pct purity level. However, most elements are only slightly sol-

Jan 1, 1959

By E. J. Wasp, T. C. Aude, F. B. Raymer

Abstract-The following paper deals with technical aspects of terminal facilities for western coal pipelines. The information is taken from the Ohio and Black Mesa pipelines and the proposed one in Wyoming. This paper first discusses the feed terminal, the product that it must produce, and the reasons for coal cleaning. Then, in the delivery terminal section, the various methods of dewatering the coal and some recent innovative ideas on bunkering the dewatered product and storing the dewatered coal in large outdoor piles are discussed.

Jan 2, 1978

By L. E. Schiffman

This paper describes the operation of two kerosine flotation plants in Alabama for cleaning -10 mesh bituminous coal. One plant treats washer sludge, the other raw coal. Data on capacity efficiency and capital and operating costs is given. Methods for increasing cell capacity are discussed.

Jan 10, 1950

By J. David Lowell

On a low desert ridge six miles south of Cairo lie the remains of the world's earliest known mining town, Maadi of predynastic Egypt. Copper artifacts, including ingots and an ax head which was spoiled in casting, indicate that copper ore was smelted in Maadi, and radio- carbon dating has placed the activity at least as early as 3300 B.C. This is the oldest documented date for the use of smelted copper, the first industrial metal used by man. Copper was mined and smelted almost as early in Asia Minor and on the island of Cyprus, but the greatest development of the budding copper industry was in Egypt, where specific historical records show that about 10,000 tons of copper metal were produced in the period from 1850-1580 B.C. Contrast this production of 35 tons per year with the present world production of about 7 million tpy.

Jan 1, 1970

By Robert Y. Grant

This study outlines the history of metal mining in Japan and the characteristics of the industry as they existed from 1925 to 1945. Mining and milling operations are described together with the role of the Japanese Government. A description of post-hostilities conditions and the present state of the industry is included.

Jan 11, 1951

By John S. Brock

INTRODUCTION The Oxford Dictionary says that the word "promoter" has usually been used in an opprobrious sense since at least 1876. This popular image of mining promoters is of cigar-chomping shysters and Brooklyn-Bridge vendors, improving their standard of living with the aid of funds raised through the sale of stock to little old ladies. It is unfortunate that mining promoters are considered crooks until they can prove their integrity and honesty by finding a mine. A common rule of thumb states that for every 1,000 prospects, 100 come to be drilled, and one becomes a mine. However, it is also a statistic that there have been mining promotions, where money raised has gone elsewhere than into the ground; Junior exploration companies can be handy vehicles for unscrupulous financial activity. One must remember though that every stock exchange has had its share of sound mining promotions that, because of the one in 1,000 odds, have failed for legitimate reasons. The promoter must be able to rationalize the worth of a mineral discovery which, on an industry- average basis, probably cost more to find than the discounted value of its net return, which return is not an assured percentage of invested capital, and furthermore, is ultimately from a wasting asset. So, it is easy to understand why the promoter must constantly justify the credibility of his operation to his grubstakers during the course of the "five phases of exploration," those being (1) euphoria, (2) disillusionment, (3) search for the guilty, (4) punishment for the innocent, and (5) distinction for the uninvolved. The promoter with the exploration organization that does not have the benefit of positive cash flow, by definition for the sake of this article, works for a promotional outfit, a Junior Company, that must raise its exploration budget from a variety of sources. Promotion, as discussed here, will not entirely refer to the formation and operation of a joint- stock company but rather to the overall methods of raising risk capital for mineral exploration ventures from outside sources. THE NECESSITY OF PROMOTION In Canada, the publicly financed Junior Company has had an enviable record of mine-finding success. In the Province of British Columbia alone, the discovery of fifteen out of twenty-four mines has been as a result of the activity of the Junior Company (B. C. & Yukon Chamber of Mines, 1977). In the Province of Ontario, one research study indicated that between 1951 and 1974 the 'Juniors' spent only 28 percent of the total exploration funds but were responsible for 62 percent of all economic discoveries (Freyman, 1978). The reasons for the success of the Juniors are tied to a variety of factors, the main one being personal initiative based on incentive. In other words, the principals, or their employees have 'a piece of the action.' The smaller companies can operate faster and more efficiently than their larger counterparts. The Junior Company is also destined to take some bigger risks, the 'long shots,' many of which efforts by virtue of the Junior's perseverance coupled with a touch of 'ore is where you find it' philosophy, result in major discoveries. The individuals, syndicates, private and publicly financed Junior Companies, because of high costs of exploration and development, cannot hope to finance most mineral prospects all the way to production. Exceptions do exist, those being the lower capital cost, small, high-grade deposits. Private investors and publicly financed Junior companies, therefore, can usually afford to finance most exploration through the initial drill-testing stage. The major resource company will enter a mining deal with a Junior Company usually by way of option or joint venture agreement, and will finance to production to earn an equity in the prospect or the Junior Company or both. The conventional lending institutions, banks and government agencies, will usually only participate through loaning a portion of capital

Jan 1, 1985

1. A passenger rickshaw in China. 2. A Pekin cart carrying coal, on dirt roads; the cost works out to 15 or 20 c. per ton-mile. 3. Coolie with wheelbarrow. This one has a small load, but barrow men carry ordinarily 250 lb., occasionally 400 if with a helper. He goes about 18 miles a day and the cost is about 25c. gold per ton-mile, though it varies widely. 4. Coolie delivering coal balls in Pekin. He carries about 65 lb. On some roads with a different arrangement a coolie carries 133 lb., making about one ton-kilometer per day. 5. Truck used by the Government Fuel Yard at Washington. Carries 71/2 tons in an hour as far as a barrow man carries 1/4 ton in a day.

Jan 8, 1928

By C. M. Heath, B. W. Gonser

Soft solders are used principally in the automotive, can-making, building construction and electrical industries, but their field of usefulness extends well beyond these principal users to a vast list of miscellaneous applications where metal joints are required. The most common soft solders and the only ones considered in this discussion are those composed of lead and tin, with or without various relatively small percentages of impurities or additions. A small amount of antimony is often purposely added. As an indication of the importance of these lead-tin solders, 8620 long tons of tin were consumed in 1934 in the United States for making new solder, and during most of 1935 from 900 to 1000 long tons often were used each month. In addition, many thousands of tons of secondary solder are recirculated annually. A great many factors influence the properties of joints made with soft solders. Fluxes and the fluxing procedure used to prepare the surfaces to be joined in order to give a true metal-to-metal contact are among the most important of these factors. The temperatures used, cleanliness of the work and general soldering technique have their effect, but when results are unsatisfactory they are usually attributed to the metallic solder itself and the raw materials from which it is made. Sometimes criticism of the solder is justified. The wrong composition may be chosen for a given job, impurities may be present that ruin certain desired qualities, or uniformity may be lacking. A solder may even be looked upon with suspicion because of its ancestry, regardless of its true composition and behavior. To clarify the effect of slight differences in composition as found in commercially refined solders, a comparison of properties of solders grouped according to their origin has been undertaken. This investigation seeks to give practical information on the properties of tin-lead solders produced from virgin metals, from commercially refined secondary solder, and from an electrolytically refined crude

Jan 1, 1936

By C. Norman Bowers, Blaine B. Wescott

MARKED improvement in the serviceability of sucker rods has been effected in the last two years, partly because of the insistent necessity for greater economy in the operating costs of crude oil production growing out of the general industrial depression and partly because many of the recently developed fields have imposed more severe operating conditions upon both surface and underground equipment. The latter is particularly true of Kansas, where practically all of the oil produced. is associated with damaging amounts of hydrogen sulfide brine and where the method of establishing potential production demands equipment capable of being operated at maximum capacity without interruptions. The decline of flush production in the Oklahoma City field created new problems in deep-well pumping on a scale heretofore unequaled and the increased proportion of water it has been necessary to produce in the fields of the Greater Seminole area presented conditions that were acutely in need of betterment. The problem in the latter fields was complicated by the shift towards sulfide characteristics, which accompanied water encroachment, and it is probably true that nowhere, at the present time, are pump¬ing conditions generally as severe as in this territory. The Mid-Continent district, therefore, has become the proving ground for the numerous materials that have been proposed for sucker-rod fabrication. The information that ultimately will be obtained from an unprecedented amount of field experimentation will pay ample dividends when the decline of East Texas increases the demand for the vast reserves of sour crude in West Texas. It is a rare occurrence in industry that the use of such a simple piece of equipment as a sucker rod presents so complicated a problem for solution. As proof of this, it is only necessary to consider the numerous types of sucker rods on .the market at the present time and contrast this condition with that of less than four years ago, when it was the common aim of manufacturers to develop a single sucker rod for all conditions of

Jan 1, 1935

By John Fulton

The Connellsville coal-field is a separate strip of the upper coal measures, flanking the Chestnut Ridge along its western side. It extends from a point a few miles south of Uniontown, in Fayette County, following a northeasterly course parallel to the trend of Chestnut Ridge, through Fayette and Westmoreland counties, with its terminal prongs resting 011 the southern portion of Indiana County, north of the town of Blairsville. This belt of coking coal will average about three miles in width and over sixty miles in length, affording nearly, if not quite, two hundred square miles of this large coal-bed.

Jan 1, 1885

By H. D. Wilde

At the Sugarland and Raccoon Bend fields in the Gulf Coast area, all wells are drilled with rotary tools and the casing is always set in cement that is placed by the circulation method. After the cement is set, the rotary mud that fills the hole is not withdrawn or bailed out; consequently, it is not customary to give the cementing job a direct test either by putting pressure on the hole to see whether the cement will hold or by observing whether an effective water shut-off is secured. About three years ago, this company started the practice of coring the cement left in the bottom of the casing and examining the core thus secured. If the core was hard and strong, the cementing job was judged a success but if the core was incoherent, soft, and crumbly, the job was considered a failure. Of course, there were intermediate types of cores and it was not always a simple matter from this examination to decide whether the job was a success or failure. After about two years, a summary of the core examinations that had been made indicated that of cementing jobs made at depths of 1000 ft. or less, 60 per cent.. were failures; of those between 1000 and 2000 ft., 80 per cent. were failures, and of those between 3000 to 6200 ft., 100 per cent. were failures. This sta,rtling table emphasized the need of the study of the conditions under which the wells were cemented and of adopting means to reduce the percentage of failures. In addition to these core tests, two wells gave direct evidence that the cementing jobs were not always successful. In one, a four-year-old well at Goose Creek, the casing was perforated, and when fluid was circulated some of the old cement wss brought to the surface. Most of it was powdery and the few chunks that were brought up were soft and crumbly. The other was a well at Raccoon Bend which during a blow-out brought a number of chalky, soft and crumbly pieces of cement to the surface. Suggested Explanations of Cementing Failures Efforts were made at once to explain the causes of these cementing failures. As all of the cements used were of a high grade and gave

Jan 1, 1930

By W. O. Crosby

The crystalline belt of the Atlantic Seaboard, south of New York, attains its maximum breadth of 220 miles on the northern border of North Carolina; arid in this State it is most widely characterized by the occurrence of gold in workable deposits. Half a dozen auriferous belts have been recognized by Nitze and Hanna.' These are, in the main, coincident in position and trend with the NE.—SW. zones of metamorphic slates and schists, which, more than any other feature, give character to the geological map of North Carolina. The central gold-belts, accompanying the main zone of slates and as-

Jan 1, 1908

By A. C. Fieldner, W. A. Selvig

Ash in coal has always becri regarded as an undesirable substance, as the heat content of a coal dccreases in direct proportion to its ash contcnt. It represents so much inert materid that has to be transported, handled when the coal is burned, and finally disposed of. W. R. Roberts, in an address bcfore the Engineers' Society of Western Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, on Sept. 29, 1925, said that on an annual output of five hundred rnillion tons of coal, a reduction of 3 per cent. of ash means fifteen million tons of refusc and a decrcase of $30,000,000 in freight charges. Ash also often prevents effieient utilization of the coal through the formation of clinker causcd by the mcltirig of the ash constituents when subjected to heat. The mineral constituents of coal may be of such nature as to make the coal unsuited for speeifie uses as for instance, high-sulfur coal for making metallurgical coke. While the usual proximate analysis of coal gives the amount of ash, it gives no information as to the nature and coniposition of the ash nor of the minera1 constituents from which the ash is produced. For the efficient washing of coal to remove ash-forining constituents it is desirable to know the composition and distribution of the ash-fonning constituents. Obviously such information is also desirable for the most efficient utilization of coal. Nature and Composition of Coal Ash Coal ash may be defined as the inorganic residue remailning after cornplete ignitior of coal. It is dcrived from the mineral constituents of thc coal. The ash-forming constituents may be roughly classified as inherent impurities and extraneous impurities. The former are mixed intimately with the coal substance, and arc derived either from the original coal-forming material or from external sources such as sedimentation and preeipitation while the vegetal coal-forming plant remains accumulated. The latter are present in the coal bed as partings, bands or nodules of pyrite! slate, shale, calcit,e, bone, etc. These are formed either during the laying down of the coal bed, or subsequently. Flag-

Jan 1, 1927