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By William L. Horner, James A. Lewis, Marion Stekoll

THE data in this paper show a relationship between measured productivity index and certain commonly measured reservoir characteristics. Comparison is made of theoretical radial flow assuming certain drainage radii and the tentative relationship shown by these data. Among the more important measurements found to correlate with productivity index are permeability, formation thickness, oil viscosity at reservoir conditions, and formation-volume factor.

Jan 1, 1942

By Frank J. Windolph

Grinding Practice-These tests were run in the 9 ft diam by 8 ft long grate discharge ball mills at Climax. Each mill functions in closed circuit with a 78 in. Akins duplex high-weir classifier, and a circulating load of 300 pct is maintained. The size of the mill feed is 6 pct on 3/8ths, which is ground to pass 28 mesh. Testing Methods-Each grinding section is equipped with a conveyor scale on the ball mill feeder belt, a watt-hour meter on the ball mill motor, and an automatic sampler for the ground product. These instruments are exceptionally valuable to the mill testing program.

Aug 1, 1956

By H. R. Froning, R. O. Leach

In wertability alteration flooding, a chemical agent is rnoved through a reservoir by the flood water to increase oil recovery by decreasing the degree of wetting of the rock by the oil. Substantial amounts of the chemical may be lost during movement through the reservoir. The extent of the loss, and therefore the economics of the process, depends in some cases on factors which are difficult to reproduce in the laboratory. Therefore, a short-duration, low-cost field test method is needed to permit evaluation of chemical requirements under actual field conditions. This paper describes a small scale rest conducted at a single well for measuring chemical requirements, thereby giving a more reliable evaluation of this important factor in the applicability and economics of the process. In the rest a small wafer slug containing the chemical agent and a nonadsorbed tracer is displaced into the reservoir by a known volume of wafer. The well is then placed on producrion. Chemical loss per barrel of pore volume contacted is calculated from [he fractional recoveries of the agent tested and the nonadsorbed tracer. The method has been used to determine within the actual reservoirs the chemical requirements for both a sandstone and a dolomite reservoir. Several chemical agents are potentially available for wettability alteration flooding, although none is universally applicable. For some applications of the method, chemical costs per barrel of additional oil recovered can be substantially less than one dollar. INTRODUCTION Wettability alteration flooding provides a means of increasing oil recovery from reservoirs by decreasing the degree of wetting of the rock by the oil and increasing the displacement efficiency of the flood water. Earlier studies demonstrated a relationship between oil recovery during waterflooding and the degree of wetting of a rock surface by an oil. The application of wettability alteration flooding to the Harrisburg field of Nebraska provided a field test' of this recovery process. Subsequently, additional laboratory and field tests have developed additional procedures for evaluating wettability alteration flooding, and have indicated where the process may be applicable. Applicability of this process to specific reservoirs is determined by a progression of tests to determine sus- ceptibility of the reservoir to alteration of its wettability, to indicate the degree of recovery improvement and to estimate the amount of chemical required to process the reservoir. The economics of applying improved oil recovery processes depends not only upon the degree of improvement in oil recovery achievable by the process but also upon the process costs and the timing of the income and the investment. Emphasis in this paper is on the expenditure aspects of the process. The work reported in this paper indicates that the chemical investments required for wettability alteration flooding are substantial. For evaluating the economics of a potential flooding application it is imperative that a sound estimate of the chemical requirements be made for the reservoir. Generally, true reservoir conditions are not adequately simulated in laboratory chemical propagation tests. Because of wide well spacings, many years might be required to obtain chemical propagation data from conventional pilots or inter-well tests. Consequently, n short-duration, low-cost method is needed to determine chemical requirements in the field. The potential applicability of wettability alteration flooding is discussed, as well as the economics of wettability alteration with respect to the inherent and imposed restrictions on the timing of income and investments. DETERMINATION OF CHEMICAL REQUIREMENTS In the process of moving a chemical bank through reservoir rock, some of the chemical agent lags too far behind the flood front to be effective or is otherwise lost to the reservoir system. The extent to which these losses occur overshadows the reductions in chemical concentration due to diffusion and to mixing with the reservoir fluids. Experience indicates that almost without exception, chemicals which induce a wetting change undergo either sorption reactions or chemical reactions with mineral constituents of the pore surfaces. Other reactions may occur between the added chemical and the reservoir oil and water. Even in limiting consideration to reactions of the relatively inexpensive inorganic salts, bases and acids, the reactions may be exceedingly complex. Reservoir pore surfaces consist of more than silica in sandstone reservoirs, and more than calcite or dolomite in carbonate reservoirs. Many mineral species are present, each exhibiting specific tendencies to react with an injected chemical. The reactions which occur can consume enough of the agent to have an important effect on economics. These reactions can cause a change in pH of the chemical bank, or may remove some of the active chemical by precipitation, adsorption or reaction to form a new chemical which may or may not be effective in

By Duk-Won Park, Syd S. Peng

INTRODUCTION More than five years have elapsed since the first shortwall panel was installed in a US mine in 1972. By the latest count, 11 mines have tried the shortwall method on 34 panels. Potentially, the shortwall method (see Figure 1) offers the combined advantages of longwall and continuous mlning. But just like any other mining method, shortwall is not a panacea. It is only applicable under a set of stringent conditions. Coal operators at eight of the eleven mines are satisfied with shortwall mining, though there are only five mines presently producing coal from shortwall panels.

Jan 1, 1981

By James T. Wood

STRATIGRAPHY structure and closure of the Paloma field are discussed, with some details regarding the present state of development. The Paloma anticline, a large dome modified by faults, is the largest single closed dome in the southern San Joaquin Valley without surface outcrop or topographic expression. It owes its discovery to geophysics. Of nine wells drilled to the Stevens sand, seven are productive. The ultimate productive area may approximate 3000 acres when the limits of the field are determined.

Jan 1, 1942

By T. A. Ring

The bed filtration of colloidal particles has been modeled by performing a differential particle balance. The balance considered the localized particle deposition rate to be the sum of three rate resistances: mass transfer to a region near the surface, adhesion onto a partially filled surface, and resuspension from a partially filled surface. The differential particle balance equations, one for the free particles and one for the adhered particles, were solved by a finite difference algorithm. Results of this model are compared to experimental filter breakthrough curves.

Jan 1, 1985

By I. Iwasaki, K. A. Smith

A chlorination process for treating metal sulfide flotation concentrates is described. The process involves low temperature chlorination combined with sulfur chloride conversion and selective oxidation to produce nonferrous metal chlorides, elemental sulfur, and ferric oxide in a three-stage fluidized bed reactor. The nonferrous metal chlorides may then be water leached, separated, purified, and electrolyzed to recover copper and nickel metals and to regenerate chlorine for recycling.

Jan 1, 1986

By E. P. Pfleider

THE history of fundamental research in mining is not one of which the profession can be particularly proud. It has been one of the slowest industries in applying the fundamental sciences to the solution of many of its more difficult problems. True, many of the processes are not adaptable to laboratory techniques, and much of the work must, of necessity, be done in the field. It is for this reason that the mining executive seldom has been conscious of the value of research on a laboratory scale on problems pertaining strictly to mining. Most of them, however, fostered much testing in the allied fields of ore dressing and metallurgy.

Jan 7, 1951

By Richard Klimpel

In this paper various formulae are developed which can be used to estimate stream flow rates or weight ratios given information on the stream components. The type and level of experimental error present in the stream component analyses does have an important bearing on the numerical values (and reliability) of the weight ratios calculated by the various formulae. A simple but theoretically sound method is shown for selecting appropriate estimation formulae for any given engineering operation. The derived formulae are applied to sets of experimental classification data for illustration purposes.

Jan 1, 1980

By Frank M. Howell, Claude E. Schmidt

To counteract the spiralling costs of labor and materials against the fixed sale of its product, namely, gold at $35 per oz, Homestake Mining Co. has revised the milling flowsheet once and effected increases in the daily milling rate twice in the past 12 years. During this period the mining department has been able to hold production costs steady by increased productivity through technical improvements and utilization of the most modern mining by CLAUDE E. SCHMIDT and FRANK M. HOWELL, JR. 46-MINING ENGINEERING, APRIL 1963 equipment. The flowsheet alteration occurred during 1951-1953 when the two crushing plants at the shaft head frames were converted to a three-stage crushing system with the third stage closed circuited to produce a minus 5/8-in. product as rod mill feed.

Jan 4, 1963

By Tayler H. Bingham

Personal consumption expenditures represent roughly two-thirds of total of GNP. While these expenditures directly account for only a small portion of total natural resource consumption, they account for a significant proportion indirectly. The reason is that all economic activity can be shown to be interrelated and that the intermediate production sectors, which are the primary users of natural resources, represent the interindustry transactions necessary to produce all final goods, including consumer goods. This paper provides a discussion of the methodology and quantitative estimates in physical units of the interrelationships between 15 major nonenergy resources and 6 energy resources and 477 personal consumption expenditure items.

Jan 1, 1977

By Adrian Brown

Over the last decade, a number of large slopes have been excavated in rock which contains families of joints or faults which dip steeply into the cut slope. Despite the absence of "adverse" structures, these slopes have exhibited alarming movement rates at very modest heights (as little as 100 meters) and slope angles (as little as 20º). Classical stability analysis suggests that such slopes should be unconditionally stable. This paper describes the toppling mechanism which has been found to be the cause of the observed movements and develops a general method for analysis of it. Simple cases are analyzed in order to provide charts which allow quick evaluation of the likelihood of this phenomenon occurring. The safety implications of such movements in slopes are also examined.

Jan 1, 1982

Jan 1, 1939

By J. L. Rodda

A large amount of time has been devoted to the microscopical study of the copper-zinc alloys, emphasis naturally being placed upon the commercially important alloys of the system. Suitable methods are available for microscopically recognizing the two phases richest in copper, Per cent,by weight FIG. 1.-COPPER-ZINC EQUILIBRIUM DIAGRAM. (Frond National Metals Handbook, 1933.) but none appear to have been developed for the positive identification of the other phases. This is, however, accomplished, for the phases normally encountered, by an electrolytic method described in the following pages. Five phases of the copper-zinc diagram (Fig. 1) are considered for the purpose of this paper: the solid solution of zinc in copper, alpha (a); the intermediate phases, beta (ß), gamma (y), and epsilon (e); and the solid solution of copper in zinc, eta (n). Beta prime is not considered a separate

Jan 1, 1936

By R. W. Smith, Z. Sadowski

The stabilities of finely divided mineral suspensions were determined as functions of pH and concentrations of polyethylene oxide, sodium ligninsulfonate, sodium dodecybulfate, and sodium oleate. In addition, the electrokinetic potentials of the minerals were determined under identical pH and additive concentration conditions. Flocculation or dispersion of the suspensions is discussed in terms of both the amount and manner of adsorption at the appropriate solid-liquid interface as it is influenced by additive concentration and pH.

Jan 1, 1986

By Robert A. Lothrop, Richard B. Porter, Robert P. Porter

Changes became necessary in dredging methods employed in Idaho through passage of the Dredge Mining Protective Act (1954). Among other provisions, the law requires dredge operators to construct settling ponds of sufficient capacity and character to reasonably clarify the water used in the mining process before such water is discharged into the stream. Porter Bros. Corp., a placer mining company with many years operating experience in Oregon and Montana, became interested in strategic mineral placers in Idaho in 1950 when it was learned that prospectors had discovered a radioactive mineral deposit in Bear Valley Creek, 95 miles northeast of Boise. The company acquired mining leases and proceeded with exploration and development work on the property. After extensive research had resulted in the determination of successful separation processes, contracts were negotiated with the federal government and deliveries of columbium-tantalum and uranium concentrates commenced in 1956.

Jan 5, 1960

Meeting of Sept. 25, 1914.-The Committees to have charge of the arrangements for the Annual Meeting in New York, Feb. 15 to 18, 1914, were appointed. It was voted that the Secretary of the Institute take up with the Chairmen of the Local Sections the question of arranging for the transportation to the meetings of the Institute of the members of the respective sections. The Board of Directors unanimously voted to extend to each and all of the members of the Local Committees of the Salt Lake Meeting its hearty thanks for their efforts which resulted in the very successful meeting. The President was authorized to sign the letter to the President of the United States in regard to the appointment of some representative of the mineral industry upon the Federal Trade Commission. An appropriation of $250 was granted to the Southern California Local Section. The By-Laws of the Utah Local Section were approved. Upon recommendation of the Committee on Membership, 133 members, 7 associates and 13 juniors were elected to membership. BRADLEY STOUGHTON, Secretary.

Jan 11, 1914

Detailed Geology of Certain Areas in the Mineral Hill and Warm Springs Mining District. By A. L. Anderson. T. H. Kilsgaard and V. C. Fryklund. Jr. Idaho Bureau of Mines and Geology. University of Idaho. 73 P. Maps, Illus.-Divided into three parts, this pamphlet covers the geology and ore deposits of the Hailey-Bellevue Mineral Belt, the Triumph-Parker mine mineral belt, and the ore deposits of the Mayflower Area. Numerous maps and illustrations are included for each area. Government Administration of the Copper Industry, World War 11. By John W. Douglas. 1950.51 P. $1.-This pamphlet covers in detail all the steps relating to control and operation of copper and copper products, and is of particular interest to primary producers, brass mills, wire mills, and foundries. Of particular current interest is the booklet's coverage of the steps leading to the Controlled Material Plan, into which industry is now once again heading. Copies can be obtained for $1 from John W. Douglas, Republic Foil & Metal Mills Inc., 55 Triangle St., Danbury, Conn.

Jan 12, 1951

Jan 1, 1939

A GREAT and incomparable speculation is whether the discovery of A compounding the powder used for guns came to its first inventor from the demons or by chance. With this invention he certainly far surpassed all men of every age from the creation of the world up to that day when it was announced by him-men so very learned, indeed like angels and of divine intellect, powerful in every knowledge and power. These had not only revived-arts and sciences and discovered new ones with their intellects, but they had information about all natural

Jan 1, 1942