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By P. D. Wilson

The genesis of some orebodies has been explained by the mingling and chemical interaction of water solutions of different compositions and the consequent precipitation of the mineral load of one or both solutions at their confluence. While this process can be proved in the laboratory, rarely can a positive demonstration be found in nature, for the conditions at the time an ore deposit is being worked are usually entircly differcnt from those that existed when the orebody was formed. For this reason, the present deposition of copper carbonate in the southern end of the Briggs mine of the Calumet and Arizona Mining Co. near Bisbce, Ariz., is of great interest. The developed orebodies in the Calumet and Arizona mines are roughly confined to two broad parallel zones separated at the north by a wedge of Copper Queen ground and at the south by an undeveloped block of Calumet and Arizona ground about 2000 ft. (610 m.) wide. The more westerly zone includes the Irish Mag, Oliver, P. and D., and Cole mines, none of which has been operated since 1919. Much of the water from this division is carried from the 1400-ft., or bottom, level at the southern end of the Cole mine in a long water drift through the undeveloped block to the 1300-ft. level of the Briggs mine at the southern end of the more easterly zone. Most of this water comes originally from outlying areas in the P. and D. mine, passing through parts of the lower. levels of the Cole mine, which are heavily mineralized with iron and copper sulfides. This sulfide zone has been opened up and slowly oxidizing for years. Originally a pure, potable water, the analyses of which are shown under A- in Tables 1 and 2, on its way through the mineralized area in the Cole mine it gathers copper, calcium, magnesium, iron, and aluminum sulfates, a load of dissolved mineral salts almost four times as great as that which it formerly carried; analyses B

Jan 1, 1923

By P. D. Wilson

The genesis of some orebodies has been explained by the mingling and chemical interaction of water solutions of different compositions and the consequent precipitation of the mineral load of one or both solutions at their confluence. While this process can be proved in the laboratory, rarely can a positive demonstration be found in nature, for the conditions at the time an ore deposit is being worked are usually entircly differcnt from those that existed when the orebody was formed. For this reason, the present deposition of copper carbonate in the southern end of the Briggs mine of the Calumet and Arizona Mining Co. near Bisbce, Ariz., is of great interest. The developed orebodies in the Calumet and Arizona mines are roughly confined to two broad parallel zones separated at the north by a wedge of Copper Queen ground and at the south by an undeveloped block of Calumet and Arizona ground about 2000 ft. (610 m.) wide. The more westerly zone includes the Irish Mag, Oliver, P. and D., and Cole mines, none of which has been operated since 1919. Much of the water from this division is carried from the 1400-ft., or bottom, level at the southern end of the Cole mine in a long water drift through the undeveloped block to the 1300-ft. level of the Briggs mine at the southern end of the more easterly zone. Most of this water comes originally from outlying areas in the P. and D. mine, passing through parts of the lower. levels of the Cole mine, which are heavily mineralized with iron and copper sulfides. This sulfide zone has been opened up and slowly oxidizing for years. Originally a pure, potable water, the analyses of which are shown under A- in Tables 1 and 2, on its way through the mineralized area in the Cole mine it gathers copper, calcium, magnesium, iron, and aluminum sulfates, a load of dissolved mineral salts almost four times as great as that which it formerly carried; analyses B

Jan 1, 1923

By O. C. Wheeler

The principal interest in the oil situation in Colombia during the year centered around the enactment of the new petroleum law and the applications for concessions subsequently made by various interests. The year was a comparatively uneventful one from the standpoint of actual operations of drilling and development. There was a falling off both in exploratory work and in the development of producing properties; and as a result of curtailment of production, the output of oil from the country dropped to the lowest level since the completion of the looping of the Andian pipe line to the coast in 1927. Legislation Law No. 371 of 1931, with its Regulatory Decree No. 1270, was enacted during the year and marked Colombia's attempt to encourage more extensive exploration and development of the prospective oil resources of the country. Some of the outstanding provisions of the law are as follows: Tracts may be acquired by a concessionnaire directly and by transfer ranging from 5,000 to 100,000 hectares, except in certain reserved territories east of the summit of the eastern cordilleras where the maximum is increased to 200,000 ha. A security deposit of $1 per hectare, minimum $25,000, is required on government grants, and is returned to the concessionnaire only upon the fulfillment of stipulated terms of the law. Rentals, increasing progressively from 10c per hectare per year the first two years to 50c per hectare the sixth year, are required up to the start of the production period (beginning of development). The concession terminates 30 years after the beginning of the production period and can be extended for 10 years more at the option of the contractor. Wells must be produced at no less than 25 per cent of their maximum capacity. Royalties on oil from national lands vary from 2 to 11 per cent of the gross product, depending on the distance of the concession from the port of loading. Petroleum from private property is subject to a governmental tax varying from 1 to

Jan 1, 1932

Jan 1, 1937

By W. H. Lang, C. H. Cox, H. Snell

The treatment of unaltered western phosphate ores by both wet and dry methods is discussed. The objective of the beneficiation is to produce salable Phosphate rock ( 31% P205), with an economic recovery of P205.

Jan 1, 1981

By W. C. Winegard, C. J. Simpson, C. J. Beingessner

VARIOUS organic compounds, such as borneol, carbon tetr a bromide, and hexachloroethane, solidify as transparent plastics with a fcc structure. Each of these substances undergoes a solid-state transformation from the plastic phase to a brittle phase at temperatures slightly above 20°C. Since it was known that these plastic crystals solidified like metals,1 it was decided to investigate the possibility that solid-state grain growth would occur in the same way as it does in metals. Two-dimensional grain growth in thin films of plastic organic compounds has been studied with the aid of cinemicrophotography. Samples varying in thickness between 250 and 1000 @ were prepared by subliming a thin layer of the compound onto a microscope slide plate which was then covered with a second slide plate.

Jan 1, 1968

By F. E. Steigert, A. H. Geisler

THE permanent magnet alloy comol, which contains 17 pct Mo, 12 pct Co, balance Fe, exhibits a precipitation reaction analogous to that at the iron end of the binary Fe-Mo system. The equilibrium precipitate, (P,), has a structure isomorphous with Fe,Mo, which is rhombohedra1 with parameters a = 8.97A and a = 3038.6&apos; according to the work of Arnfelt and Westgren.&apos; In the ternary alloy the parameters are a = 8.87A and a = 31°0.5&apos;. Oscillating crystal patterns of a single matrix crystal, M, in which P, was precipitated by slow cooling from 1300°C, showed that the orientation relationship of the two lattices is as follows: (110)P3 // (110)* (111)p3 // (110)m There are crystallites of P, in 12 different orientations in a single crystal of the parent solid solution. Microscopic examination shows that the crystallites are generally plate-like with their lateral dimensions parallel to (110) matrix planes. When precipitation in a supersaturated alloy quenched from 1300°C progressed isothermally at temperatures between 600" to 800°C, the evolution of the P, structure could be traced. Diffuse diffraction effects in Laue patterns provided early evidence of the precipitation process. Analyses of these by a previously described technique2 showed that they corresponded to rod-like elements parallel to <110> matrix directions in reciprocal space. With further aging to promote growth of the precipitate, the rod-like elements contracted to points in reciprocal space for normal Bragg reflection from the precipitate as shown by the left diagram in Fig. 1. Thus the diffuse scattering was attributed to the small thickness of the plate-like particles which was inadequate for sharp diffraction. When the precipitate particles were first thick enough to give normal diffraction their structure was different from that of the equilibrium precipitate, P,. The first structure, P1, presumably is a coherent transition struc-

Jan 1, 1952

By G. S. Farnham, D. A. Scott

Partition of certain elements, particularly nickel, was determined for slowly cooled steels, the greater number containing from 0.30 to 0.35 pct C. Approximately 3 pct of the nickel, 18 pct of the manganese, 33 pct of the molybdenum, and 35 pct of the chromium occur in the carbide phase. Partition of one element is not much affected by the presence of another. THE object of this investigation was: 1—to determine the partition of nickel between cemen-tite and ferrite in a medium and high carbon series of annealed steels; 2—to evaluate the effect of chromium and/or molybdenum or both on the partition of nickel in medium carbon annealed steels; 3— to determine the partition of chromium between ferrite and carbide in a series of medium carbon annealed steels; and 4—to study the chemistry of the carbides formed in an AISI 2330 steel during both isothermal transformation, and quench and draw experiments at 1150°F (620°C). The partition of alloying elements between ce-mentite and ferrite in annealed steels has been the subject of many investigations, a summary of which has been given by Austin1. However, there is no satisfactory data available concerning the partition of nickel. It has generally been assumed that virtu- ally all of the nickel concentrates in the ferrite phase in annealed steels. Two investigators"." have reported the finding of nickel in extracted carbide residues. Recently, it has been shown4 that nickel substitutes up to 40 pct for iron in the lattice of cementite produced by the low temperature carburization of iron-nickel powders. In addition to the lack of data on nickel partition, the literature also fails to make reference to the effect of other elements on the nickel content of the carbide in nickel-bearing steels. The partition of molybdenum between ferrite and carbide has been reported"-&apos; for hypoeutectoid steels, isothermally transformed at 1300°F (705°C) and

Jan 1, 1954

By W. T. Jr. Thom

IN PREVIOUS classifications of coal, it has been customary to regard moisture eliminated from coal samples between 20° and 100° C. as extraneous matter, rather than as a constituent part of the coal. It seems, however, that the physical character and use properties of the low-rank coals are directly related to the amount of such moisture present, and recent chemical work has shown1 that such coals contain unstable groupings which decompose between 20° C. and temperatures somewhat above 100° C., with the splitting off of moisture. According to this view, the moisture eliminated from air-dried coal below boiling point is similar in all essential respects to moisture eliminated above 100° C., and is produced by analogous reactions; and inasmuch as the moisture given off above 100° C. has always been treated as a constituent of the volatile matter of coal, it would seem that consistent usage would include as a part of the volatile matter all moisture present as an essential component of the coal as it occurs in nature. As a matter of experience, it seems clear that the general physical and chemical characteristics of the low-rank coals are largely determined by or related to the moisture, whether chemically or physically combined, present in air-dried coal; it is also demonstrable by trial that the low-rank coals cannot be satisfactorily classified on a purely chemical basis by using the moisture free form of analysis. The low-rank coals of the western United States include numerous well-defined types, many of which were referred to in a classification proposed by Ashley,2 in which the physical and use properties of the coals were made the primary basis for their systematic grouping. When testing this classification by replotting analyses of these type coals according to the Seyler scheme of classification,3 a satisfactory parallelism between use properties and chemical constitution of the dry coal was found among

Jan 5, 1925

By H. W. Mathews, J. D. Wheeler

AS predicted by Messrs. Fuqua and Thompson, in last year&apos;s paper on West Texas1, 1935 saw a marked increase in activity in this area over recent years. Both major and independent operators shared in the increased wildcatting operations, which resulted in the discovery of eight and probably nine new fields in this area. During 1935 there were 700 wells completed as compared with 468 in 1934 and only 236 in 1933. Of these completions 579 were producers with a total 24-hr. potential of over 700,000 bbl. It is estimated that the new fields discovered during 1935 added from 200,000,000 to 400,000,000 bbl. to the known oil reserve in West Texas. In addition to these new fields, many of the older producing areas scored marked extensions during the year. New Fields Goldsmith.—-The Goldsmith field, in west central Ector County, gives promise of being the year&apos;s outstanding discovery in this area. The discovery well was completed by the Gulf Production Co. in June at a depth of 4177 ft.; it gaged 275 bbl. of 36° gravity oil in 3 hr. through 85/8-in. casing on its first production test. The field has been extended to the east by wells drilled by Phillips and Pure on their Cowden block. Present indications are that the field may contain 10,000 productive acres, and this, together with the large flush production from only a small penetration into the pay, leads to the belief that Gulf-Goldsmith No. 1 was the outstanding Permian lime discovery of 1935. It is quite probable that production will prove to be continuous to the Landreth-Scarborough No. 1, 33/4 miles to the northwest, which was completed for a small producer late in 1934. Sand Hills (Ordovician).—From the standpoint of creating excitement, the outstanding West Texas test of the year was no doubt Gulf-Waddell No. 1, on the northwest nose of the Sand Hills structure. This test was started late in 1934 as a deep test to the Ordovician. Thc Ordovician was topped above 6000 ft,., considerably higher than expected. Oil shows in the Simpson were passed and the well was drilled down to the

Jan 1, 1936

By J. D. Wheeler, H. W. Mathews

AS predicted by Messrs. Fuqua and Thompson, in last year&apos;s paper on West Texas1, 1935 saw a marked increase in activity in this area over recent years. Both major and independent operators shared in the increased wildcatting operations, which resulted in the discovery of eight and probably nine new fields in this area. During 1935 there were 700 wells completed as compared with 468 in 1934 and only 236 in 1933. Of these completions 579 were producers with a total 24-hr. potential of over 700,000 bbl. It is estimated that the new fields discovered during 1935 added from 200,000,000 to 400,000,000 bbl. to the known oil reserve in West Texas. In addition to these new fields, many of the older producing areas scored marked extensions during the year. New Fields Goldsmith.—-The Goldsmith field, in west central Ector County, gives promise of being the year&apos;s outstanding discovery in this area. The discovery well was completed by the Gulf Production Co. in June at a depth of 4177 ft.; it gaged 275 bbl. of 36° gravity oil in 3 hr. through 85/8-in. casing on its first production test. The field has been extended to the east by wells drilled by Phillips and Pure on their Cowden block. Present indications are that the field may contain 10,000 productive acres, and this, together with the large flush production from only a small penetration into the pay, leads to the belief that Gulf-Goldsmith No. 1 was the outstanding Permian lime discovery of 1935. It is quite probable that production will prove to be continuous to the Landreth-Scarborough No. 1, 33/4 miles to the northwest, which was completed for a small producer late in 1934. Sand Hills (Ordovician).—From the standpoint of creating excitement, the outstanding West Texas test of the year was no doubt Gulf-Waddell No. 1, on the northwest nose of the Sand Hills structure. This test was started late in 1934 as a deep test to the Ordovician. Thc Ordovician was topped above 6000 ft,., considerably higher than expected. Oil shows in the Simpson were passed and the well was drilled down to the

Jan 1, 1936

By W. T. Thom

RegaRding the elements necessarily involved .in working out a scientific scheme of classification, Stansfield and Sutherland, (94)† quoting Grout, (34) make the following statement: All bases (for a scientific classification) should be capable of quantitative determination, or be exactly related to some property capable of such a test, so that, if no natural groups are found, arbitrary lines may be drawn to limit the classes. The best basis for classification should involve inherent and fundamental qualities of the materials considered. Allied to this is the requirement that advantage should be taken of any natural grouping. As a further help in selection, the bases or tests should be easily applied, widely known, and have a wide range of values in the material classified. In order that we may apply the philosophy thus expressed, it is necessary for us to have clearly in mind both the reasons why coals differ and the specific purposes to be served by the classification to be devised. Coals differ because, as modern science has shown, coal beds are actually neither more nor less than buried and altered peat deposits, formed in remote geologic time. And as is generally known, such peat beds consisted of masses of partly macerated and decayed trees, shrubs, plants, mosses and/or algae, deposited under swamp or semiswamp conditions. It is therefore to be expected that coals will vary: 1. Because of differences in the parent vegetation, due either to evolutionary plant changes, as from the fernlike types of the Paleozoic to the coniferous and hardwood types of the late Mesozoic and Tertiary; or due to the differences in floral assemblages (growing at the same time) induced by differences in local environmental conditions. For example, moss, sedge, woody and other peats are today accumulating simultaneously in different bogs in North America. 2. Because of differences in the stage to which bacterial decay proceeded in the peat bed. Peats laid down in stagnant waters suffer

Jan 1, 1932

By Fred B. Ely

The first recorded production in the Dutch East Indies was in the year 1893 but seepages of dl were known to exist in North Sumatra, East Java and the east coast of Borneo at least as early as 1880. During the Of the above amount the Royal Dutch produced............................................. 36,006,079 Nederlandsche Koloniale Petroleum Maatschappij (subsidiary of Standard Oil of New Jersey)....................................... 3,867,769 Total Dutch East Indiea....................................... 39,873,848

Jan 1, 1931

By Edward R. Mueller

The application of a simple analog computer constructed in a home workshop has registered a 10% to 15% gain in truck productivity at the mammoth Pima mine, located 35 km (22 miles) south of Tucson, Ariz. The newly installed dispatching board enables the truck control foreman to make near-optimum dispatching decisions and to monitor each individual truck, identifying any that are off schedule.

Jan 8, 1977

By B. C. Craft, Murray F. Hawkins, John R. Rayne

A reservoir mechanism of sulfur recovery by the Frasch process is presented. Improving the economic, of recovery appears to be largely a well, rather than a reservoir problem. A most important factor is the limitation of the lateral extraction of .sulfur about the wells due to the almost vertical .flow of the injected hot water. Model studies are described which confirin the mechanism of sulfur recovery by presently used methods. Studies on a five-spot system indicate improved econo171ics regarding recovery, recovery rate, therinal efficiency, and well spacing. INTRODUCTION Sulfur mining by the Frasch process is one of the most important methods of sulfur production. Developed by Herman Frasch in 1894, it enjoyed a rapid growth and presently supplies 40 per cent of the world&apos;s sulfur and about 80 per cent of the U. S. sulfur." The Frasch process of mining the underground native sulfur deposits involves melting the sulfur in place by introducing super-heated water into the sulfur bearing formations, and producing the sulfur as a liquid. Many problems are encountered in mining these native sulfur deposits, and sulfur production depends chiefly upon the nature of the sulfur deposit and the underground thermal efficiency of the heat transfer system. THE RECOVERY MECHANISM Sulfur is typically found in salt dome cap rock as crystal aggregates occurring within the cavities, seams, and pores of limestone and gypsum formations.&apos; Sulfur-bearing limestone is typically cavernous, vugular, and fractured. Porosity averages about 20 per cent and sulfur saturation averages approximately 25 per cent by weight.1,15 Vhe sulfur bearing formations are very heterogeneous in nature and physical characteristics vary widely within small distances. Total cap rock thickness may vary from 50 to more than 1,000 ft, and net productive thicknesses from a few feet to a few hundred feet. In most cases the upper portion of the limestone formation is barren of sulfur, varying from 5 to 200 ft in thickness.1,15,33 The immediately overlying sediments and the underlying dense anhydrite formation provide permeability barriers to the flow of water from the cap rock section.&apos;" Sulfur wells are drilled with conventional oilfield drilling rigs. Fig. 1 illustrates the casing program of a completed sulfur well. The cap rock sections are drilled with core bits and continuous core logs are recorded. After coring, the cap rock section is underreamed to a diameter of 9 7/8 in. The bottom of the 8-in. casing is welded closed and rests on the bottom of the drill hole, which extends through the cap rock to a few feet above the bottom of the sulfur-bearing formation. The 8-in. pipe contains 5 ft of 3/4-in. perforations on 6-in. centers and 15 ft of 1-in. perforations on 1-ft centers. The 20-ft perforated section is set opposite the lower 20 ft of the sulfur-bearing formation. The 4-in. sulfur pipe is set inside the 8-in. water line on a seat ring at the top of the 5-ft section of 3/4-in. perforations. The mining water, heated to about 330°F under a pressure of 250 psi, is forced down the annulus between the 8-in. and 441-1. pipes and through the 1-in. perforations to the sulfur-bearing formation. Compressed air, at 400 psi pressure, is supplied through a 1-in. air line near the bottom of the well to provide air-lift of the liquid

Jan 1, 1957

By H. F. JR. Miller

(Butte Meeting, August, 1913.) THE major cause of the deterioration of the open-hearth furnace as its length of service increases, is the melting down, or rather the slagging, of the checker-brick, together with the deposition of dirt in the form of iron oxide, etc., which helps to close the openings, as well as to slag the brick by chemical action. Any construction that will do away with the necessity of having the waste gases come down through the checkers will eliminate the main reason for their deterioration. There are some other well-defined reasons which are subordinate to the main one given above. Some of the defects of the present type of regenerator chambers are as follows: 1. The checkers cannot be cleaned while the furnace is in operation, nor can they be cleaned at the end of the run without taking out all of the checker-brick. This causes high costs for labor and brick. The labor cost is high because all checker-brick have to be handled twice. The brick cost is high because many of the bricks are spalled in the double handling, rendering them useless because a spalled brick will not stand up. 2. The top courses of brick become coated with iron oxide, etc., melt clown, and large amounts of dirt are deposited throughout the checkers, especially at the bottom. The draft of the furnace is decreased by the closing of the top and bottom openings, especially the top ones, and the entire working of the furnace is affected. If an effort is made to clean the checkers the dirt and brick falling down into the holes still further diminish the draft. 3. The distribution of the air or waste gases through the checkers is in many cases uneven, resulting in a lower temperature of pre-heated air and therefore a slower working furnace. Also, the passage of air and waste gases is so crooked that sometimes the chimney is not powerful enough to overcome the friction.

Jan 6, 1913

By R. A. Wagstaff

MANY changes in equipment have had to be made to handle the flotation products at the blast furnace, and these changes have meant an expenditure of considerable money, which has not been compensated by an increase in smelting tonnage. To date, very few new lead mines have been developed, so that the help derived by the innovation of flotation has been directed to old producing properties, where the ratio of concentration is greater now than when gravity concentration was in effect. In some smelting plants there has been an abandonment of complete units due to the introduction of flotation. FLOTATION PRODUCTS DIFFICULT TO HANDLE The physical characteristics of the flotation product do not make for economic handling for lead blast-furnace work, either mechanically or metallurgically. The millman or miner do not know what trials and tribulations they have passed on to the smelterman. To the smelterman it is "the everchanging flotation," for little does he know what new reagent will be perfected tomorrow that may completely change the grade and physical characteristics of the product. Even the mining companies who have complete units of mining, milling and smelting have had a hard time to reconcile themselves to the fact that the unit cost per ton of ore smelted must go up with the increase of flotation product on the blast-furnace charge. The "smelterman&apos;s burden," for that is what flotation has been for the last few years, has not caused the smelter operator to lag or fall down, but has spurred him on with new zeal. The physical properties of the flotation products are as follows: (1) High moisture content; (2) mucky nature of product; (3) fineness of product, and (4) high metal content. NEW MECHANICAL DEVICES FOR HANDLING FURNACE PRODUCT These characteristics have caused the use of many new mechanical devices in smelting practice, for example: New transportation equipment, such as solid-bottom cars, is required; unloading equipment and sampling

Jan 1, 1928

By Robert Livermore

THE Smuggler-Union mine is in the upper San Miguel mining district near Telluride, Colo., and the group of claims now forming the property were first worked in 1875. Development was slow until the completion of the railroad in 1890, when it pro- ceeded rapidly. In 1896 four hundred stamps were dropping in the district, the production was $3,000,000. A geologic section of the country rocks, where ex-posed by erosion from the valley at 8700 ft. to the sum-mit at 13,500 ft., shows the sedimentaries made up of flat-bedded sandstones and conglomerates, of the Jura-Trias, superimposed at 9700 ft. by a series of bedded rocks of igneous origin, andesites and andesite breccia. These rocks extend 3000 ft. to the rhyolite capping, largely fragmentary, which occurs at 13,000 ft. The ore horizon is, so far as known, contained in the 3000 ft. of&apos; andesite and breccia. The Smuggler vein is a fault fissure which, with its extension to the north, the Humboldt vein, contains one of the longest continuously mined orebodies in the world. The length of the orebody so far developed is approximately 9000 ft. The width of the valuable part of the vein is, however, narrow, 3 ft. being the average, and the depth to which it has been worked up to the present is 2500 feet. There are several crossing and branch veins, all of which have been more or less productive. Of these, the so-called Flat vein, discovered in 1915, with its pro-duction of nearly 2,000,000 tons, has been the most important. This vein joins the Smuggler at an acute angle in the northern section of the property. North of the junction the two veins lie side by side and form an orebody of importance which gives promise of exten-sion with depth. The valuable metals of both the Smug-gler and Flat veins are gold, lead and silver. In the former silver is more important than lead, and the reverse relation holds in the latter.

Jan 3, 1928

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Jan 1, 1938

Jan 1, 1960