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By Bauer. Larry G.

The vast coal reserves in the Wyoming, Montana, North and South Dakota region are sufficient to supply the total energy needs of the United States for several hundred years. Not only is there an abundance of this sub-bituminous and lignite coal available, but it is easily obtainable by strip-mining . The overburden varies from several feet to several hundred feet. This western coal has yet another asset, namely, a low sulfur content. Whereas eastern and midwestern coal has a sulfur content of 2.5%, the upper Great Plains coal contains sulfur in the 0.5% range. The importance of the sulfur content of the coal is a direct result of federal government emission standards for sulfur dioxide (SO2). Hand (1) points out that "sub-bituminous coals and lignites have a propensity for retaining this sulfur in the ash under certain conditions which is not evident in higher rank coals." This would tend to reduce further the SO2 concentration in the combustion gases of boilers. Western coal is no panacea, however, in that it is far removed from most population and industrial centers. Furthermore, the moisture content of the coal varies from 20 to 40%. This moisture is almost exclusively inherent, that is, it is chemically and physically bound to the organic matter of the coal. It is believed that the water forms a part of the coal structure perhaps as water of hydration of organic salts or organic acids, perhaps by hydrogen bonding, or perhaps by simple adsorption (2). The primary market for this coal is the electric power industry. Lesser markets will be as coke for the steel industry and possible as a raw material for coal gasification and coal liquefaction plants.

Jan 1, 1983

By J. C. Rengel

Why and how the nuclear industry entered the electric power generation business is discussed in terms that nuclear energy was an undoubtedly additional energy resource and that it had promise of becoming a virtually inexhaustible generating power if breeder reactors could be devised. The growth of nuclear power, its total generation capacity, are related to the need of increasing energy requirements. The use of atomic energy for power generation will grow if it can compete economically with other fuels. The rate of growth, the time scale and direction of technical development is dependent on ore supplies. It is predicted that by 1980, 50% of all new power installations will be nuclear stations. INTRODUCTION Ten years ago, the nuclear industry was virtually unborn, the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 had just been signed, and peaceful applications of atomic power was little more than a phrase. Serious discussion of the practical application of nuclear energy to electric utility installations in the West was highly unlikely. The questions: Why and how did the nuclear industry enter the electric power generation business at all?; What is the predicted growth of nuclear power?; What technological changes do we predict?; How will the above changes affect the utilities? will in part be answered by this paper. WHY NUCLEAR POWER? The only justification for the West as for any other section of the country for atomic power is economics. Whatever energy source will provide the lowest generation cost will prevail; the only electric utilities which have shown an interest in nuclear power are those to whom it means lower generation costs. It is true that the Government sponsored the development of this technology long before there was any evidence of better economics; but a Government must take a very long-range view and it is the only type of organization that can afford to look more than twenty or thirty years into the future. The Government looked at projections such as shown in Fig. 1, which shows various rates of energy consumption, and matched these against estimates of fossil fuel resources. This showed that we will exhaust our low-cost fossil fuel supplies within 75 to 100 years and our total known fuel supplies within 150 to 200 years. The decision to invest in nuclear energy rested, therefore, on two arguments: a) It was undoubtedly an additional energy resource; and b) It has promise of becoming a virtually inex-haustable resource if breeder reactors could be devised if, while generating power, the reactors would produce more fissile materials than they consumed. This decision produced an unexpected bonus: nuclear power became competitive with fossil power much earlier than had been expected and, as shown in Fig. 2, forced the coal industry to take a hard look at its own position. I believe that the drop of coal prices shown here is the direct result of the entry of nuclear power into the energy supply business. At this point, it ought to be explained why and under what conditions nuclear power can be cheaper than fossil power. Fossil fuel cost to the utility is composed of two factors: a) Mining; and b) Transportation. As a result, the cost of fossil fuel to the utilities varies from 126, 106 Btu to 306, 106 Btu and higher. Nuclear energy is highly concentrated and the transportation factor becomes insignificant. Today the cost of nuclear fuel to the utility ranges between 156

Jan 1, 1967

By S. S. Solomons, V. H. Tillmann, L. Smaniotto

INTRODUCTION The Zinc Corporation, Limited and New Broken Hill Consolidated Limited (ZC/NBHC) mines are situated at Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia (refer Fig. 1). Both companies are wholly owned subsidiaries of Australian Mining and Smelting Limited (AM&S). Annual production from both mines is 2.3 million tonnes of lead, silver and zinc ore mined by a variety of underground methods. From 1911 to 1968, conventional overhand cut and fill stoping (both open and square set timber) was used almost exclusively, though some trials with shrinkage and sublevel stoping were undertaken. The trial stopes used short holes in conparison with today's sublevel open stopes. Mechanised cut and fill methods with regular rockbolt support were introduced in the early 1960's and undercut and fill stoping replaced square set timber stoping for pillar extraction in the late 1960's. Since 1968, increasing emphasis has been placed on longhole open stoping (LHOS) although some areas of the orebodies are comrnrnitted to the abovemehtioned methods since existing stope development makes it impracticable to change. In 1979, approximately half the total production was mined by LHDS and it is expected that the LHOS proportion will increase in the future. A vertical crater retreat method of longhole mining has also been successfully introduced to replace the undercut and fill stoping of some pillars and it is expected that this stoping method will be used in some future primary ore extraction. This paper reviews the progress of LHOS technology at ZC/NBHC with emphasis on the stope planning and design process and the importance of rock mechanics applications. The objective has been to maximise the primary extraction of the orebody giving due consideration to stability and safety. This has led to the design of a novel sloped wall longhole stoping method which should eliminate the formation of pillars by mining the orebody in a "continuous" manner incorporating a sloped sand interface between the blocks of ore being mined and the previously mined sandfilled stope. The expected results include the complete extract of the orebody without the formation of pillars and with minimal dilution of ore with sandfill. The evolution of the method can be best illustrated by following the mining progress of the relatively new Southern 'B1 Lode orebody at the NBHC mine. GEOLOGY Southern '8' Lode is the southern extension of the 'Bt Lode orebody, which is currently being mined further to the north in ZC/NBHC (refer Fig. 2). The ore block being developed and stoped extends for a vertical height of 90 metres from No. 17 level down to approximately ten metres above No. 19 level. The ore minerals are sphalerite and galena with the zinc:lead ratio averaging approximately 3:l with a minor amount of silver associated with the galena. There is a sharp contact between the ore and the country rock on the footwall and keel, while the hanging wall gradates into medium and low grade material. The gangue is primarily quartz together with garnet, biotite, feldspar, gahnite, sericite and minor apatite. In various horizons within the orebody, grey feldspar, quartz and garnet pegmatites occur as stratiform layers. The ore and country rock are competent with some inconpetent boundaries.

Jan 1, 1981

By Joseph E. Pogue

Proration in the petroleum industry has come to mean a method for curtailing the production of crude petroleum by artificial effort, and it is in this sense that the term is employed throughout this paper. Although a contrived curb on supply has been invoked at various times in the past in particular fields and to meet specific situations, it is not until the past few years that this procedure has become general and assumed a dominant role in the oil business. In the sense that we now understand it, proration had its inception in the Seminole area of Oklahoma in 1927, from which time and place the practice spread to include practically all the flush oil fields of the country, especially those of California, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. At present there is perhaps no phase of the oil business that commands more attention than proration, nor one that engages more time and effort on the part of executives in the business. The practice of proration, indeed, has not only become an integral part of the policy of most companies and operators, but it has also taken on the aspects of a "movement" involving two schools of thought with considerable feeling, and at times some bitterness, on both sides. In this atmosphere it is difficult to find calm, dispassionate consideration of proration, for most discussions are either vigorous exhortations by its proponents, or else sharp condemnations by its opponents; although it appears that the majority of the industry is clearly "in favor of" proration. It is hoped that this analysis will be taken as an attempt to appraise the movement as an economic force, without bias and without regard to the incidence of the conclusions upon any preconceptions that the industry may entertain. Evolution of Proration To appreciate the causes that brought proration into being, it is necessary to view briefly the development of the petroleum industry over the past twenty years, approximately the span of the gasoline era., For the first ten years of the period, the industry was seeking capital

Jan 1, 1932

By Richard Amberg

While the old-time melter was satisfied to bring his metal out in the desired condition, and therefore took care to have the slag liquid enough, the importance of a thorough knowledge of the slag is at present recognized in all up-to-date melting-shops. Formerly slag or cinder was considered a necessary evil, accumulating in some mysterious way wherever a man was striving to produce a clean metal. Nowadays we deliberately aim at a well-defined slag, which varies with the nature of the process and the product. In steel-making we need slag for two main purposes, namely, refining and protecting the metal. To refine metal, essentially oxidizing and reducing processes are required, while to protect the metal we need a reducing or, still better, a neutral atmosphere. Although an absolutely neutral condition between steel, on one side, and the containing vessel and the slag, on the other, is an imaginary conception, the various furnaces in use for the production of liquid steel maybe arranged with respect to the attainment of this ideal in about the following order of merit: converter, open-hearth, crucible, and electric furnace. In dealing with the subject we will find it convenient to avail ourselves of the terms of physical chemistry, which yield a simple conception of the matter and an expedient way of expression. Slag and metal at large are not mixable with each other, and we will therefore call them the two " immiscible phases," though there are certain compounds which dissolve in both phases under conditions to be considered later. Reactions be-

Jan 1, 1913

By Robley D. Evans, Gerald L. Schroeder

Advanced techniques for control of radon (Rn) daughter product concenrrations (working levels, WL) in the uranium mines are discussed. Understanding the physical laws which govern the flux of radon into a mine, the growth and decay of the radon daughters, and the particulate nature of the daughters when suspended in air allows ventilation personnel to improve the quality of mine air with no increase in ventilation rate. The task of controlling, in a mine atmosphere, the short-lived nuclides produced in the decay chain of radon is a unique problem and as such should be approached with ventilation techniques specific to the problem. For most mines this has not been the case. Rather, procedures for removing these airborne radioactive nuclides have been borrowed directly from ventilation experience in mines where dilution ventilation was the traditionally accepted approach for air purification. With radon daughter products, this has often led to frustrating difficulties and expense. Primary origin of the airborne radioactivity is the a-ray-emitting noble gas, radon (222Rn, Rn), a nuclide formed by the decay of radium (226Ra, Ra). Radon, being a gas, may escape from its parent crystal and diffuse through the parent mineral into the interstices of the rock body. In a sandstone structure, about 20% of all the radon formed may find its way into the interstices of the rock. If a cavity such as a mine is nearby, the radon may diffuse through the rock interstices into the mine. While radium is usually highly concentrated in uranium ores, it is also found in varying concentrations in all minerals. Radon is therefore present in all minerals. In normal glacial till, the equilibrium interstitial radon concentration often equals 5000 pCi (picocurie, also uuCi) Rn per liter of pore volume.' In normal granitic rocks, the interstitial radon concentration often approaches 30,000 pCi per 1. Considering these typical, high-radon concentrations, radioactivity from airborne of daughter products is a potential problem unique not only to the uranium mining industry and should be considered as a potential hazard in all underground environments.

Jan 1, 1970

By Henry B. Fernald

THE Federal income tax treatment of expenditures for exploration and development for mines and other natural deposits (other than oil and gas) was materially changed by special provisions of the 1951 Act that are continued in the present 1954 Code." These present provisions for mines in stance they are the same as the 1951 amendments to the 1939 Code, Secs. 23 (cc) and (ff), respectively, except that for exploration the allowable annual deduction is increased to $100,000 (from $75,000) and minor changes in case of property transfers are made with respect to the four-year limitation. Before 1951 the statutes made no specific pro- visions regarding development and exploration for mines, but the rules were prescribed by Treasury regulations: 1) Before the mine entered the production stage, all development and exploration expenditures for mines, less net receipts, were to be capitalized recoverable through depletion or written off as losses when determined worthless. 2) After a mine entered the production stage, development expenditures were deductible as expenses-currently if ordinary expenses, but on a deferred basis if extraordinary in scope. This recognized the two separate periods, one before and the other after beginning of the production stage. There was no distinction between an exploration and a development period, but exploration was included as part of development.

Jan 1, 1958

By W. D. Grundy, Frances Wahl Pierce, Jean-Paul Marbeau, Carol Waite Conner

Resource and coal quality estimates of three coal deposits in the Western United States were estimated by kriging, a geostatistical method that yields unbiased estimates with maximum achievable precision. Derived geostatistical models were used in kriging to estimate the tonnages of the deposits and to derive contour maps of thickness, structure, and sulfur content. Where data were available on quarter-mile spacing, kriging was used to obtain detailed information applicable to mine planning and design. Where data were sparse, kriging was used to do a preliminary evaluation of total resources. Geologic studies were required to correlate the individual coal beds and to identify complicating conditions such as the presence of faults, burnt zones, channels, and regional changes in thickness and elevation. Where these conditions were identified, they were explicitly integrated into the estimation procedure.

Jan 1, 1983

By E. Stansfield, J. W. Sutherland

It is well known that the ash left when coal is burned is not the same either in chemical composition or in weight as the mineral matter originally present in the coal. This mineral matter has been referred to as "mineral impurity," "ash-forming constituents" and "corrected ash." The authors prefer the simple name used in the title and throughout this paper. The mineral matter in a sample of coal cannot be isolated unchanged and then weighed; but if the relation between the weight of mineral matter in the coal and the weight of ash remaining when the coal is burned can be ascertained, the weight of mineral matter in the sample can be calculated from the determined weight of ash. When the weight of mineral matter in the sample is known, the weight of pure coal can be found by subtraction. This pure coal must be the basis of accurate coal classification. W. F. Wheeler,l,3 W. Brinsmaid,2 S. W. Parr, and many subsequent workers have studied the relation between mineral matter and ash. Wheeler and Parr and others have deduced formulas for calculating this ratio, and used heavy-solution separations for checking the accuracy of their formulas. Brinsmaid hand-picked and analyzed two separate samples (and mixtures of these) and based thereon a graphical method of deducing the ratio. In the Fuel Testing Laboratories of the Scientific and Industrial Research Council of Alberta, a graphical method, based on heavy-solution fractionation of coal samples, has been used with marked success for the past 7¼ years for determining the mineral matter-ash ratio. This method resembles that employed by Brinsmaid in 1907.

Jan 1, 1930

By Robert Ammon

The milling practice at Mascot, at present, consists of dry crushing to % in., jigging, fine grinding, and flotation. The ore arrives at the mill from two mines, No. 1 mine shaft being located in the mill proper, and No. 2 mine shaft being situated about 2000 ft. east of the mill. No. 2 mine is served by a coarse-crushing plant and aerial tramway to the mill bins. In jigging the No. 2 mine ore, 50 per cent. of the mill feed is rejected by the jigs as a jig tailing ranging from 5/8 in. to 10 mesh; the balance of this ore, after removing a jig concentrate, is ground to flotation feed. In jigging No. 1 mine ore, approximately 80 per cent. of the mill feed is rejected as a coarse jig tailing, and the balance is ground to flotation feed without the removal of a jig concentrate. The difference in the treatment is due to the fact that No. 2 mine ore carries a higher content of zinc than that from No. 1 mine. Of the total concentrates produced, 30 per cent. is made on jigs and 70 per cent. by flotation. At present, 1350 tons of No. 2 ore and 800 tons of No. 1 ore are treated each 24 hours. The recoveries for a typical week are as follows: Heads.......................... 3.55 Jig concentrates................ 61.30 Jig tails......................... 0.80 Flotation concentrates........... 60.60 Flotation tails................... 0.09 Extraction..................... 86.50 The associated minerals are a straw-colored sphalerite, dolomite, calcite, pyrite, quartz, and a small amount of greenockite, which occurs as a stain and sometimes small crystals along with sphalerite, but is comparatively rare. Pyrite is present in small quantities, usually less than 0.5 per cent.; quartz occurs in bands a few inches thick. A complete analysis of the ore is as follows: PEr Cent. Per Cent. Calcium carbonate.............. 48.11 Zinc sulfide.................... 5.43 Magnesium carbonate........... 35.36 Cadmium sulfide............... Nil Silica.......................... 8.73 Lead sulfide................... Nil Alumina....................... 1.04 Iron oxide...................... 1.33 Total....................... 100.00

Jan 1, 1925

By R. L. Curfman

In May 1960, six months after conversion of one- half of the Uranium Reduction Co. mill from acid to alkaline leach, severe corrosion was encountered in the 112 stainless steel wash baskets in the resin- in-pulp portion of the uranium circuit. Fortunately the corrosion was limited to the stainless steel screen cloth and bolts. The frames were not affected. Each resin-in-pulp wash basket serves as a container and a vehicle for approximately 40 cu ft of ion-exchange resin. Four baskets are installed in each tank through which uranium-rich solution flows as the baskets move up and down mechanically in the tank. The ion-exchange resin has an affinity for the uranium in the solution which causes it to be deposited on the resin in solid form. By reverse action with different chemical solutions, the uranium may be stripped from the resin for further processing and purifying. This section is the first step in the actual recovery of the uranium.

Jan 9, 1962

By C. M. Smith

PILOTED by Cadwallader, Evans, Jr., as chairman, the Coal Division got under way Monday morning for the first of three consecutive sessions. N. F. Patton started the ball rolling with a paper on the economics of anthracite distribution, which was ably discussed by H. J. Rose, W. S. Blauvelt, and others. Mr. Patton pointed out many incongruities in freight rates, dealers' margins, and other factors which are disturbing the distribution of anthracite, one result being that trucks are hauling at least six million tons of anthracite annually, half of which is stolen. In the discussion of the papers the desirability of greater uniformity in the production and shipment of coal from month to month was urged; with larger summer price concessions as a means toward this end. "Performance Expectancy of Domestic Underfeed Stokers for Anthracite," by Allen J. Johnson, brought this important platter down to date by showing the range in capacities and efficiencies to be expected from well-made stokers, and by detailing other of their operating characteristics. One of his most interesting points is that the efficiency of domestic stokers is practically equal to that of handfiring for good installations and operations of both

Jan 1, 1935

By Joseph F. Oesterele, Richard S. McCaffery

This investigation was undertaken to determine the quality of different iron blast-furnace slags as desulfurizing agents, and the possibility of using, in the blast furnace, materials of higher sulfur content than is now common. The solution of the problem would render possible the use of higher sulfur iron ores for pig iron and cokes containing more sulfur than now employed, and the economic manufacture of irons and steels of lower sulfur content. It is generally assumed that the sulfur that reaches the lower part of the iron blast furnace is removed from the pig iron by combining with lime to form calcium sulfide. Most of the sulfur introduced with the charge is in combination with iron or manganese or, perhaps in the coke, as a carbon compound.1 The iron and manganese sulfides are more soluble in the iron than is calcium sulfide, and as the latter is generally said to to be more soluble in the slag than the iron and manganese sulfides, this greater solubility of calcium sulfide in the slag tends to free the metal from sulfur. This greater solubility of the calcium sulfide is used not only to reduce the sulfur contents of the pig iron in the blast furnace, but by this means also low-sulfur steels are produced in the open-hearth and electric furnaces. The reaction2 FeS + CaO + CO = Fe + CaS + CO2 requires a high temperature and strongly reducing conditions in the presence of lime. The constitution of blast-furnace slags, first studied scientifically by Vogt13 indicated certain ranges of composition of the slag in which a

Jan 1, 1923

By Richard S. McCaffery, Joseph F. Oesterele

This investigation was undertaken to determine the quality of different iron blast-furnace slags as desulfurizing agents, and the possibility of using, in the blast furnace, materials of higher sulfur content than is now common. The solution of the problem would render possible the use of higher sulfur iron ores for pig iron and cokes containing more sulfur than now employed, and the economic manufacture of irons and steels of lower sulfur content. It is generally assumed that the sulfur that reaches the lower part of the iron blast furnace is removed from the pig iron by combining with lime to form calcium sulfide. Most of the sulfur introduced with the charge is in combination with iron or manganese or, perhaps in the coke, as a carbon compound.1 The iron and manganese sulfides are more soluble in the iron than is calcium sulfide, and as the latter is generally said to to be more soluble in the slag than the iron and manganese sulfides, this greater solubility of calcium sulfide in the slag tends to free the metal from sulfur. This greater solubility of the calcium sulfide is used not only to reduce the sulfur contents of the pig iron in the blast furnace, but by this means also low-sulfur steels are produced in the open-hearth and electric furnaces. The reaction2 FeS + CaO + CO = Fe + CaS + CO2 requires a high temperature and strongly reducing conditions in the presence of lime. The constitution of blast-furnace slags, first studied scientifically by Vogt13 indicated certain ranges of composition of the slag in which a

Jan 1, 1923

By Loyd R. Kern

A procedure for determining the behavior of a reservoir under a gas or water injection program was reported by Buckley and Levertt in 1942.1 This method, which allowed the calculation of the phase saturation distribution behind the front of a displacing fluid, has been extended to apply to a more general situation. The reservoir may initially contain flowing quantities of the displacing fluid, or the fluid in the reservoir may be above saturation pressure SO that solution effects are present. Production may occur behind the front as in the case of a well which is produced after breakthrough of the displacing fluid. The calculating procedure is simplified in that the graphical integration necessary to determine breakthrough saturation is eliminated by performing a direct integration and the graphical differentiation necessary to determine saturation distribution is eliminated by representing the displacing phase fraction of the flowing stream by an empirical equation. This representation results in simple expressions for the producing gas or water/oil ratio and cumulative production. INTRODUCTION A method for the calculation of the saturation distribution behind the front (interface between the displaced and displacing phases in a gas injection or water flooding operation) was reported by Buckley and Leverett in 1942. The method leads to a curve for the saturation distribution which is double-valued; consequently, part of' the curve was interpreted to be physically meaningless. That part of the curve which has physical significance was determined by a graphical integra-tion (material balance). In this paper it is shown that the integration may be performed analytically with a resulting equation for the saturation of the displacing phase at the front. The case in which the displacing fluid is initially flowing and the case in which the reservoir is initially above the saturation pressure so that some injected gas goes into solution are included in the integration. The calculations are considerably simplified by representing the fraction of the flowing stream which is oil by an exponential function of saturation. The methods is extended to apply approximately to reservoirs in which wells located between the injection well and the front are produced. An illustrative example utilizing the methods presented is included. RESERVOIR BELOW SATURATION PRESSURE In the case of a water flooding operation or in the case of a gas injection operation in which no gas goes into solution in the displaced oil, the equation for saturation in a linear flow system as a function of time and position as given by Buckley and Leverett is where* q = total reservoir volume flow rate, rvb/day A = cross sectional area of system, sq ft / = porosity of formation x = distance from injection point, ft t = time, days Pj = saturation of the displacing phase /dx velocity of planes of constant saturation, ft/day *The nomenclature used here is not the same as that used by Buckley and Leverett A complete nomenclature is given in Appendix A.

Jan 1, 1952

By Robert W. Fullerton, Donald T. King

INTRODUCTION AND THEORY by Robert W. Fullerton In coal preparation plants, as in any industrial operation where raw materials are handled, nuisance problems arising from the generation of dust are inevitable. Devices for the control or collection of dust are there- fore essential components of the plant process equipment. The general term "aerosol" is applied to small particles suspended in a gaseous medium, usually air, whose velocity under the force of gravity is small enough that the particles remain suspended for a reasonable length of time. Aerosols can be classified as dust, smokes, fumes, mists or fogs. Dust includes particles originally formed by pulverization of materials by such processes as crushing, grinding, drilling, blasting and abrasion. Smoke includes particles formed from the burning of organic materials. Fumes are particles formed by processes such as condensation and sublimation, usually at high temperatures. Mists or fogs are particles formed by the condensation of water or other vapors on some nuclei. The size of aerosol particles is generally designated in units of microns, there being 1000 microns to a millimeter and 25,400 microns to an inch. Particles of about 10 microns or above are visible to the naked eye. Table 14-1 shows size characteristics of the general classifications of particles discussed above and includes typical examples of particles commonly en- countered. Table 14-1 also shows the relationship between micron size and standard screen mesh sizes. Smoke and fume are usually in the range of 0.01 to one micron, dusts are in the range of one to 400 microns, mists are in the range of 0.1 to 100 microns, and fogs are in the range of one to 100 microns. For purposes of dust control, particles greater than 10 or 20 microns in size are considered large, particles one to 10 microns are considered fine and particles below one micron are ultrafine. Sources of Dust Because coal is relatively friable, the mining and subsequent handling operations break part of the coal into dust that can be readily carried by currents of air. In a coal preparation plant mechanical handling operations such as unloading, transferring from one belt to another, screening, cleaning, and crushing in a dry state result in the generation and release of varying amounts of additional dust. The dust problem, of course, is much less serious in plants employing entirely wet processing. In addition to dust from handling operations, thermal drying of the fine coal product frequently presents another dust collection problem. Most coal driers are

Jan 1, 1968

By Jun-Yan Chen

Ground control problems in sublevel caving become evident as the rock pressure increases with depth. Recently, a finite element analysis of the stability problem of the sublevel caving method was completed by the author. This paper summarizes the results of stress analysis in sublevel extraction drifts under different field stress conditions by using linear elastic and nonlinear elastic-plastic finite element modeling techniques. A critical stress concentration will occur in the uppermost sublevel drifts beneath the caved area or blasted ore area. During the blasting and drawing cycle, a tensile and shear failure condition could develop in the center extraction drift when it would be mined last. Under a high horizontal stress field condition, almost all tensile stress in the back of the extraction drifts will be eliminated and only slight yield can be seen in the floor of the extraction drifts. Compared to the cases under the stress field where vertical stress is the dominant factor, the total yielding zone will be greatly reduced because of an in- creasing horizontal stress field with depth. However, it is predicted that the center of each ore column side will experience excessive shear stress that probably will result in ore failure. The two major conclusions drawn from this study to improve the overall stability of sublevel caving are: (1) the drift width must be carefully controlled and an appropriate stoping sequence selected; and (2) the sublevel caving method can be used in deep min

Jan 1, 1983

NEW MEMBERS The following list comprises the names of those persons who became members during the period Jan. 10 to Feb. 10, 1915: Members AGASSIZ, RUDOLPH Louis, Vice-Pres.,Calumet & Hecla Mining Co., Boston, Mass. AMIDON, RICHARD G., Min. Engr 3659 Girard Ave. N., Minneapolis, Minn. ANDERSON, HECTOR G. S., Min. Engr 323 N. 13th St., Muskogee, Okla. ANDERSON, JOHN CARTER, Petroleum Engr 2307 S. 33d St., Omaha, Neb. CLARKE, ALEXANDER FIELDER, Works Mgr., Firth-Sterling Steel Co., McKeesport, Pa. CROSS, CARLOS GARCIA, Min. Engr Calle Valparaiso 194, Vina del Mar, Chile. DAWSON, THOMAS WILLIAM, Min. Engr., Asst. Chief Engr., H. C. Frick Coke Co., Scottdale, Pa.

Jan 3, 1915

By E. F. Kingsbury

One of the well-known and important uses of the noble or precious metals has been for electrical contacts. In fact, the elements of this group, comprising gold, silver and the six platinum metals, have been called "noble" because of their ability to resist heat and corrosion, properties which were early found to be of importance in good contacts. Of these, platinum and its iridium alloys, palladium, and silver, have been extensively used. In recent years the electrical industry has been responsible for about one-eighth of the total consiimption of the platinum metals in the United States. Information is not available as to what part of this one-eighth has been used for contacts but it is certainly an important one. Substitutes for Platinum During the past 20 years a considerable number of contact alloys have been proposed in the patent literature largely with the aim of more or less replacing platinum by gold or silver, and some of these alloys are finding increasingly widespread application as the reliability of their performance becomes established. From even the partial data at hand it appears that this substitution by the less precious metals has replaced at least one-half of the amount of platinum that the entire electrical industry would otherwise be consuming at the present time. While the subject is of considerable interest to the metallurgist it is even more so to the electrical engineer and it is surprising that the literature records no systematic and comprehensive investigation along these lines. Practically all the scattered work on noble metal contacts has centered around platinum as a standard and has had two more or less distinct aims. One of these has been the replacement of platinum by cheaper matcrials, and the other, the dcveloprnent of materials of superior electrical performance. The merit of a contact metal has been assumed to be dependent on its infusibility, and since thc more precious metals have the higher melting points there has naturally been an association of the two qualities in the sense that the more precious were

By W. R. Hibbard, J. D. Nisbet

The high temperature properties of Fe-Cr-Co-Ni base alloys and the effects of hardening element additions on these properties are rationalized on the basis of general principles of alloying. DURING the past few years the base elements in high temperature austenitic alloys have gradually been changed from iron-rich materials to nickel-rich, then to cobalt-rich and more recently to various iron, cobalt, and nickel combinations, all with an approximately constant chromium content of 20 pct. Concurrently, the hardening additions of the incongruous* elements, have been shifted from small amounts of a single element to various ratios of molybdenum, tungsten, columbium, carbon, titanium, and aluminum with the percentages of these constituents continually increasing. It has been known that the typical soft high temperature alloy (such as Inconel) consisted of face-centered cubic austenite, but the effect of varying the composition of the base elements, iron, chromium, nickel, and cobalt, has not been broadly analyzed. Therefore, it was reasoned that the first major problem in the understanding of the properties or the further development of high temperature alloys was to study systematically the effect of composition upon the mechanical properties of face-centered cubic Fe-Ni-Co-Cr austenitic solid solutions. The matrix of the strong high temperature alloys (such as Inconel X) is usually also a face-centered cubic solid solution of iron, nickel, chromium, and cobalt but with additional phases which can be generally classified as intermetallic compounds and carbides. It is usually observed that combinations of the hardening elements, tungsten, molybdenum, columbium, tantalum, titanium, aluminum, carbon, and others have been used in these strong high temperature alloys. Thus, it was reasoned that a second major problem in studying these alloys was to understand the effect on mechanical properties of adding

Jan 1, 1954