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By Simon H. Ash

The coal-mining districts of Washington are mainly west of the Cascade Mountains; Fig. 1. The mines are on the foot hills of the slope, the lignite fields of Lewis and Thurston counties extending into the valleys west of the mountains. An exception is the Roslyn field, a small but important area on the eastern slope. If western Washington is divided into three areas from north to south, the bituminous coal fields and most of the active operations will be found largely in the middle area. The southern portion contains lignites over a large area. In the northern portion, mining is practically restricted to one mine, the Bellingham, which is working a subbituminous coal seam near the city of Bellingham. The degree of alteration that the coal of a particular field has undergone may be gaged roughly by the position of the field with reference to the Cascade Mountains. The lignites of Tenino, Tono, Mendota, and Castle Rock, on the railway line connecting Seattle and Portland, occur in a region of low relief, in which the Eocene coal measures have suffered only minor disturbances. Subbituminous coals occur in the foot hills, as at Renton, Newcastle, and Bellingham. Coalg high in fixed carbon are found nearer the mountains, where the measures have been sharply tilted and folded, as at Black Diamond and Carbonado. The two typical anthracite fields are located still higher, in the rugged mountains where outcrops appear both in deep gorges and on ridges at elevations approaching 5000 ft. At Carbonado is found the only semianthracitc seam worked on a commercial basis. The occurrence of this seam in a region of bituminous coal is due to the nearness of an igneous sill, which has changed its character from bituminous to semianthracite. Purpose of Paper On account of the various faults and dips and the varying nature of the wall rock, many difficulties are encountered in mining and winning the coal. The paper gives some of the methods used in mining and, in some detail, the conditions that affect the efficiency of these methods.

Jan 1, 1925

June was the month in which AIME was founded in the year of 1871. For some reason, February was selected as the month for the legal Annual Meeting. One can't help thinking wistfully of Annual Meetings in June but of course this is not the reality. Because the Centennial Ceremonies are taking place in February, that month has been chosen as the one in which MINING ENGINEERING, the monthly magazine of the Society of Mining Engineers, a constituent society of AIME, is publishing its Commemorative is- sue to celebrate the event. SME and ME take a proprietary air about AIME. This is mostly because AIME started as the American Institute of Mining Engineers. Metallurgy was added to the name in 1919 and Petroleum in 1956. The official abbreviation of "AIME" has been retained, however.

Jan 1, 1971

By P. Barnes

In vol.33 of the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, London (part 2, for 1870-71), may be found a statement of the cost of two blast furnaces, together with a somewhat detailed description. The attempt will he made in this note to restate these items of cost, so that the information may be rendered perhaps more accessible to our members than in its present place of record, and also in order that the items may be more intelligibly compared among themselves, or with similar items in other cases.

Jan 1, 1879

By J. J. Lander, L. H. Germer

Molybdenum and tungsten have desirable corrosion and temperature resistant properties, but the metals in bulk are expensive and their fabrication is difficult. Such considerations led to a search for a method of plating them upon base metals. This search was successful and led furthermore to a number of developments which could not have been foreseen. Neither pure tungsten nor pure molybdenum has been electroplated successfully, although the literature of electroplating is liberally sprinkled with the description of unsuccessful attempts. The process of plating these metals by thermal reduction of their halides has achieved onlv limited usefulness because of technical limitations and because of limited range of product quality. Plating by thermal decomposition of the carbonyls does not suffer from limitations of the same sort and the properties of the plate are readily controllable. This paper describes the plating of molybdenum and tungsten, and of compounds and alloys of these metals, by pyrolysis of their carbonyl vapors. Chromium also has been plated in this manner, but the experiments upon chromium have been less extensive and the results much less satisfactory. Probably the most important of the products which we have obtained are the alloys with carbon, and the carbides of the metals. Either molybdenum or tungsten can be deposited upon a base metal as a coherent and adherent coating. By adjusting the plating condition the carbon content of the coating can be made to have any value from substantially zero to about 35 atomic pct. The hardness is dependent primarily upon the amount of carbon in the plate and can be regulated over a very wide range, some coatings containing considerable carbon being harder than sapphire. In addition to products already known this method of plating has yielded new carbides of molybdenum and tungsten and alloys supersaturated with carbon. These new products are possible because, in the process of plating, carbonyl can be decomposed at temperatures as low as about 150°C, and thus in the presence of other substances reactions occur which could perhaps not be produced in any other way. In addition to carbides and alloys with carbon, sulphides and oxides of molybdenum and tungsten have been produced and studied. There are certain other advantages of the carbonyl method of plating. It is not required that the base have good electrical conductivity as in electrochemical processes, and the base need not have the temperature stability required in plating from a halide. Thus low melting glasses, as well as other ceramics, can be plated almost as readily as metals. In particular, the plating of glass with

Jan 1, 1949

Jan 1, 1924

By F. C. Miller

THE metallurgical fuel of Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico has been a very tardy member in the caravan of western industrial progress. The history of western coke has naturally been closely related to the development of the metallurgy of iron and steel and the precious metals, in the State of Colorado. It was at Leadville, with a population of 300 in 1877, that the Sentinel was published by Richard S. Allen. The Sentinel gave very full accounts of the various mineral discoveries at the new town of Leadville, which found their, way to the more widely circulated journals of the East, and attracted the attention of many people. At the close of 1878, a census showed a total of 5040 persons. The first smelter was established in 1877, at Malta, two miles from Leadville, by A. R. Meyer, but was not successful. It was succeeded by the Harrison Reduction Works, in 1878. The La Plata began with one furnace in June, 1878, and in 1879 had four furnaces in active operation. These furnaces used charcoal for fuel, and, because of hot tops, suffered a tremendous loss in lead and silver. This difficulty was overcome by the erection of 50 single-bank 10-ft. beehive ovens at Crested Butte, Colo., in 1880. The slack coal sent to these ovens was very pure, and yielded a coke carrying as little as 4.5 per cent. ash. Among the pioneers in the Leadville district were Grant, Eddy, James, Billings, Eiler, and Dickson. To these men the West owes the present expansion of its mining industry, and the erection of metallurgical processes for the treatment of precious metals.

Jan 8, 1918

By S. F. Emmons

It was said by many who discussed Professor Posepny's admirable paper on the "Genesis of Ore-Deposits," read at the Chicago meeting of the Institute, in 1893, that its most valuable feature was the clear distinction which it drew between the influence upon ore-deposits of the " vadose " circulation of waters descending directly from the surface, and that of the deep underground circulation of waters generally coming from the depths, and assumed by the author to be ascending through more or less open spaces under the influence of heat. A little later the effect of the oxidizing action of the vadose circulation upon ore-deposits was ably and exhaustively treated by Prof. R. A. F. Penrose, in a paper on " The Superficial Alteration of

Jan 1, 1901

By Basil Prescott

Resume.-The district of Santa Eulalia lies 12 miles to the southeast of the city of Chihuahua, Mexico. The ore deposits occur in a Cretaceous limestone of unknown thickness, overlain by a series of rhyolitic tuffs and flows. The limestone is very gently folded and is cut by several systems of fissures, of which only those with a general north-south strike are pre¬mineral and control the deposition. The deposits are of two main types; the earlier silver-bearing iron sulphide types occurs as high-grade tabular bodies resembling veins and as large masses of relatively low-grade ore. The gangue of this type is composed of lime-iron silicates that point toward a close association with an igneous rock mass which has not yet been encountered. In the later silver-lead-zinc type the ore occurs in vertical chimneys and horizontal mantas, principally as oxides, though at a depth of 1,500 ft. some sulphides have been encountered. During oxidation the ore chambers have increased in size owing to the solution of the walls by the sulphuric acid generated in the process, and a substitution has taken place of nearly one-half part by weight of the original constituents of the ore, by newly introduced elements and radicals. Both types are believed to have come from greater depths than those yet reached by mining, and their ultimate source, from a consideration of similar deposits, is believed to be an igneous rock in contact with the limestone at some horizon below. The deposits are believed to have been formed at unusually great depths, as indicated by the proved great vertical range of the silicate minerals coupled with the absence of the igneous rock, and by the practically unchanged character of the silver-lead-zinc ores as far as developed. The volcanic capping is believed to be distinctly later than the economically important ore deposition.

Jan 2, 1915

By F. D. Rosenthal, F. J. Dunkerley, G. J. Mills

Activities, free energies, and heats and entropies of mixing of liquid Pb-Zn alloys have been obtained by the electrode-potential method between 400° and 650°C. The large positive deviations observed from Raoult's law are in agreement with the phase diagram, which indicates a wide immiscibility field. A vapor-pressure method was used to extend the activity measurements to 900°C, allowing the maximum of the immiscibility gap to be estimated by thermodynamic calculation. Data on the mono-tectic and eutectic points compare favorably with previously existing work. SEVERAL long-standing methods have been in use for the study of phase diagrams from measurement of the activities of the component metals.' The use of thermodynamic analysis for interpreting equilibria data is comparatively recent, however. Such analysis is usually undertaken by first evaluating the principal thermodynamic functions as, for example, the enthalpy, entropy, and free energy of the alloy constituents. These, in turn, quite often can be correlated with the interatomic potential energies and atomistics of the system, from which a clearer understanding of the causes leading to deviations from ideal behavior is gained. The present study of liquid Pb-Zn alloys is concerned with a determination of these quantities by electrode-potential and vapor-pressure measurements, using these values in calculations involving phase equilibria and to obtain a theoretical insight into an alloy system exhibiting strong positive deviations from ideal metallic solution. A considerable portion of the previously reported work is based on thermal analysis. Supplemented by optical studies of solid alloys, these techniques have revealed the essential nature of the immiscible mixtures that are formed. It is difficult, however, using the phase-

Jan 1, 1959

By N. P. Pinto

Compacting below the recrystallization temperature was studied. Ideal density was attained at 550° to 600°C using 25 tsi. Compacts have strength and hardness higher than cold worked beryllium. The recrystallization temperature of this highly stressed metal is that of cast, cold worked beryllium and appears independent of pressing temperature. THE process metallurgy of beryllium is beset by many difficulties that hinder the production of sound beryllium shapes of controlled properties. Most of these obstacles are traceable directly to the low density, low ductility, and high affinity for oxygen of the metal. Castings are susceptible to cracking and porosity, and controlled grain size is not easily attained, yet is critical to further working. Any process must carefully avoid oxygen pickup. Conventional metallurgical processes, including melting, casting, forging, rolling, and extruding have been treated previously,'" as have the conventional powder metallurgical methods.' More recently, a method has been advanced for producing powder compacts of high density by hot pressing at 1000" to 1100°C, using pressures of 0.25 to 0.5 tons per sq in. (tsi).3 Here, Seybolt and coworkers attained theoretical density of 1.85 grams per cc using pres-sure-temperature combinations of 500 psi-1100°C, 750 psi-1075"C, and higher. The warm pressing of beryllium is a practical method for producing bars of controlled properties and appears to have certain advantages, particularly when high strength and hardness are required. Other investigators have studied the hot pressing of various pure metals, such as copper,"-" gold," iron,10-11 and aluminum." Their results indicate that ideal densities may be attained by compacting at temperatures less than 50 pct of the absolute melt-

Jan 1, 1955

By G. E. Goodspeed

THE Cornucopia gold quartz veins form a parallel vein system traversing metamorphic and granodioritic rocks. Field and petrographic evidence suggests that metasomatism has played an important role both in the emplacement of the granodiorite and in the formation of the veins. Structurally the veins appear to be related to the major tectonic features of the Wallowa Mountains and to be narrow shear zones rather than filled fissures. Petrographic studies indicate a complex history of formation starting from initial alteration along fractures or joints followed by recurrent fracturing and a quartz-forming stage, and closing with continued shearing and microbrecciation, which permitted the upward percolation of the later ore- forming solutions. The precipitation of ore minerals from these solutions formed ore shoots. Postmineral effects include the injection of Tertiary basaltic dikes, a slight amount of cross faulting, and some movement along the planes of the veins as well as oxidation.

Jan 1, 1939

By W. T. Turrall, M. J. Cook

A discussion of modern developments in beneficiation of fine sizes of anthracite, this paper includes a description of the plant flowsheet, an analysis of operating results, and a summary of fundamentals of mineral separation relative to plant operation.

Jan 9, 1953

By Henry T. Mudd

FLUORSPAR is a nonmetallic mineral aggregate or mass containing a sufficient quantity of fluorite (CaF2) to be of commercial interest. It has only moderate value per unit of weight and its cost as a percentage of the cost of finished consumer products is nearly negligible. Nevertheless, it has wide and great industrial importance. In periods of national emergency it is a mineral without which many very necessary manufacturing processes would be greatly handicapped; a few could not exist. Fluorite contains 51.1 pct calcium and 48.9 pct fluorine. Industrial grades of fluorspar prepared for the consumer normally contain from 85 to 98 pct fluorite, depending on the use. The ores may contain as little as 30 pct fluorite, depending on many factors such as accessibility to transportation and markets, character of ore, and prices. Fluorite is a lustrous, glasslike mineral, generally translucent to transparent; it may be clear and colorless or range in color from slightly bluish through various shades of violet, amethyst, purple, green, and yellow. It crystallizes in the isometric system and possesses perfect octahedral cleavage. Commonly it occurs in masses of very pure crystal- line material with aggregates of cubical crystals in open spaces, but - it is also found in fine to coarse granular form. Banded veins and masses with fibrous, radiating structure occur locally. It is usually found associated more or less intimately with other minerals and rocks, from which it must be separated for commercial use. The specific gravity of fluorite is 3.18 and the hardness is 4 in the Mohs scale, compared with 7 for quartz and 3 for calcite. It is distinguished from calcite by its failure to effervesce with dilute hydrochloric acid. Heated with sulphuric acid, it gives off fumes of hydro- fluoric acid, which etch glass.22,25,33.34,35.41

Jan 1, 1949

By Louis A. Panek

Ground movements in the zone adjoining an active cave were measured at four sites in the San Manuel Mine. Measurements were made to detect extension and inclination, basic components of displacement, which can readily be duplicated by mine personnel using relatively simple equipment. The displacements demonstrated the development of a zone of strain relief surrounding the active cave, within which the ground tends to migrate toward the cave, and extension cracks develop tangential to the cave. This expansion of the ground surrounding an active cave can be exploited to promote future caving; it also creates special problems with respect to the design of an effective ground support system for mine openings in the production area.

Jan 1, 1981

By J. F. Kemp

PAGE Introductory Description of Deposits of this Type,.....244 Topography of the Ducktown Region,...247 Geology and Petrography,...248 The Mineralogy of the Ores and Gangue,..249 The older minerals : Amphibole, 250 ; Pyroxene, 250; Garnet, 251; Zoisite, 252; Calcite, 258 ; Quartz, 259 ; Apatite, 259 ; Rutile, 259. The Sulphides: Pyrite, 259; Zincblende, 259; Galena, 260; Pyrrho tite, 260; Chalcopyrite, 260. Later minerals, not belonging to the Gossan: Quartz, and certain sul phides, 261 ; Graphite, 261. The Formation of the Ore,...262 The Gossan Minerals,...........263 Bibliography,............265 Introductory Description of Deposits of this Type. Ore-bodies of more or less lenticular shape and lying parallel with the foliation of schists and slates form a group of

Jan 1, 1902

By E. P. Pfleider, E. G. Malmlow, F. Landau

Friction drive hoists, long popular on the Continent, are now being installed in the U. S. and Canada by the Swedish firm of ASEA. Invented by C. F. Koepe and used first in 18.77, the principle is the same as that in elevator installations throughout the world. Inherent advantages of this system of hoisting were not fully developed until the recent introduction of the multiple-rope principle and design of concrete tower installations. Operators have a choice of independent operation of single skips and cages using counterweights, or use of skips or cages in balance. Also, hoisting control may be automatic, push button, or manual.

Jan 1, 1955

By R. A. Harrington

THE structure of anodic films formed on aluminum and other metals under varied conditions is not well known despite the wide use of such films both as protective coatings and as the dielectric medium in elec-trolytic condensers. The present work was undertaken as a survey of the possibilities of electron diffraction in the investigation of anodic films, especially in comparing the properties of anodic films formed under dif-ferent sets of conditions and subjected to various subsequent treatments. In addition, an effort has been made to compare surface films formed on aluminum by anodic treatment with surface films formed by heating, immersion in chemicals, etc, The electron diffraction method in many cases has been successfully applied to the study of thin surface films. Its principal advantage is that it can be used without removing the films from the base material upon which they have been formed. The low penetrating power of electrons, in the "reflection" diffraction method which has been used in this work, prevents the appearance of diffraction patterns from substances at depths greater than about 100 Angstrom units (10-6 cm.). Different investigations of the structure of anodic films have shown widely varying results, depending on the methods used in preparing the films. Apparently under some conditions these films are crystalline and under other conditions they are amorphous, and it has been difficult to say which type of structure will be found in any particular case. Schmid and Wassermann's' X-ray diffraction patterns of eloxal? films show two broad, diffuse bands, which these investigators attribute to finely divided cubic y-Al2O3-§ Burgers, Claassen, and Zernicke3 obtained sharp X-ray

Jan 1, 1940

By C. H. Loux

THIS paper deals primarily, with the advantages realized from the adoption of methods more suitable than those previously used. The improvements noted include: (1) modification of practice in shrinkage stoping, (2) use of sublevel caving over grizzlies, (3) improved haulage and loading, (4) use of contract wages wherever possible. The Washington mine is on Jonestown Hill, one mile south of Oxford, in northwestern New Jersey. It is producing 16,000 tons of concentrates a month, which are being shipped to the Alan Wood Steel Company's furnaces at Swedeland, Pennsylvania.

Jan 1, 1933

By M. H. Loveman

The orebody described below has been rediscovered and developed within the last 3 years. It has, however, been known and worked by the Chinese for hundreds of years. When assay values and size are considered, it contains what is probably one of the largest single bodies of zinc and lead sulphides yet found. The tonnages developed at other places, as at Broken Hill, are much greater but the average zinc and lead sulphide contents are considerably lower than at Bawdwin. Bawdwin is situated in the semi-independent State of Tawng Peng, one of the numerous units which make up the Northern Shan States. These States are under British rule and are generally considered as a portion of Burma. They are governed as a separate administrative unit, however, under the Lieutenant Governor of Burma. Each State is under its own chief, or Sawbwa, who has considerable power over his own subjects. Bawdwin is approximately in latitude N 23°6', longitude E 97°201, about 50 miles south of the nearest point on the Chinese border and 450 miles north of Rangoon (Fig. 1). The period at which mining was first begun at Bawdwin is unknown. The most reliable records have been obtained by deciphering local Chinese inscriptions and from these it is concluded that the work dates back to at least the beginning of the 15th century. The first undoubted reference to the mines by a European is by Syrnes in 1795. Crawford in 1827 estimated the output of silver from the mines at $600,000 anually. At about the middle of the 19th century the rebellion of the Chinese Mohammedans in the neighboring Chinese province of Yunnan so weakened the power of the Chinese that the incursions of hostile tribes (Kachins) made work extremely dangerous. The mines were finally abandoned by the Chinese about 1868. The . closing down of the mines was probably not entirely due to outside causes but may have been influenced somewhat by the increasing difficulty of handling the water, as the workings gradually descended below the water level of the district. Several attempts were made by the Burmese kings, Mindon Min and Thebaw, to resume operations, but because of a

Jan 1, 1917

By Charles Meyer, Reno H. Sales

AT Butte, successive zones of sericitized and argillized quartz monzonite occur around every ore-bearing fracture regardless of its size, attitude, or relative age. The two types of alteration always occupy the same relative positions; sericite adjacent to the ore-bearing vein, clay minerals always between the sericitized rock and fresh quartz monzonite, except where overlap of alteration effects between adjacent fissures has eliminated the lower grade mineralogical products, as is the case in much of Butte's Central zone of pervasive sericitization. As long as active circulation continued in the channel, each zone migrated away from the fissure, that is, it grew at its outer edge and simultaneously receded at its veinward edge because of encroachment by the next innermost zone. The different mineralogical and chemical responses within the wall rocks to the attack by the ore fluid are dependent not on a drastic about-face change of composition of the fluid in the channel relative to its ability to alter the quartz monzonite but on continuously varying conditions of physico-chemical environment within the wall rock outwardly from the vein.

Jan 1, 1947