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By A. A. Brant

"Improving geological and geophysical evaluation should serve to reduce the early-stage risk assessment and there-by contribute to exploration expenditure stimulation. The limitations of present-day methods are reviewed, particularly as to anomaly causes, depth penetration and quantitative physical interpretative abilities. Some of the problems now under study are discussed. Future developments expected include the treatment of quantitized geologic and geophysical data, as well as continuing attempts toward computerized interpretation."

Jan 1, 1967

By H. A. Steane

"This presentation will cover some crushing and grinding considerations in plant design and operation. There is nothing basically new in the subject matter presented here; however, the viewpoint and interpretation may be novel and some of it controversial.The presentation is based on experience gained in the metallurgical design of plants for Placer Development Limited from 1960 to the present. The plants are listed on SLIDE No. 1.These plants have conventional crushing, followed by rod mill and ball mill grinding. I would like to think that autogenous grinding plants are the answer for eliminating secondary crushing plants and reducing the capital and operating costs; however, the autogenous plants seem to have some problems of their own and I have had no experience with them.Fineness of Grinding RequiredFirst let us consider the fineness of grinding required.The fineness of grind will affect the recovery obtained, and the relationship must be determined. If the grinding is too coarse, some of the valuable mineral, either free or locked in middling grains, will not be floated. However, as grinding is probably the greatest single operating cost, we do not want to grind any finer than is justified economically.Finer grinding should not be carried beyond the point where the net smelter return for the increment saved becomes less than the added operating cost. Even this fineness will be beyond the economic limit because of the additional capital cost for the equipment needed to achieve it. These factors will be discussed in more detail later.The Bond work index is the commonest method of expressing a measure of the effort that has to be expended in grinding. It is the kilowatt-hours required to reduce a ton of rock from an infinite size to 80% passing 100 microns. The formula allows a calculation to be made for other size ranges."

Jan 1, 1976

By W. Philippoff

ALTHOUGH Gaudin1 and more recently Sutherland2 have calculated the probability of collision of a falling mineral particle with a rising bubble, there is no published information concerning the details of the mechanism of attachment of a collector-coated particle to a bubble. During the past year the writer has developed a theory for the mechanism of attachment, which has been substantiated experimentally.' Funds for the investigation and for some of the equipment used have been supplied by the Mines Experiment Station of the University of Minnesota. Motion picture studies of the phenomena involved in the collision between mineral particles and bubbles, such as those of Spedden and Hannan,3 show that the contact can be completed within 0.3 millisec. Formulas developed for rigid bodies have hitherto been used' for the calculation of the motion of bubble and particle, but it is obvious that a bubble cannot be regarded as a rigid body. On the contrary, Spedden and Hannan's pictures show a great degree of deformation during the collision. The time of attachment was calculated as the time the particle drifted past the bubble. Time of Collision The theory presented in this paper enables calculation of the time of collision; using the concept that the bubble, or more generally, a liquid-air interface, acts as an elastic body. The elasticity, defined as the restoring force on a mechanical deformation, is caused by, the surface tension and is the result of the principle of the minimum of free surface energy. It is well known that an elasticity together with a mass determines a frequency of vibration. The vibrations of jets and drops caused by the elasticity of the interface are known to comply exactly with the classical theory of capillarity.5 However, the vibrations of isolated bubbles, as distinct from foams, have not been investigated previously. The following equation, presented elsewhere,' has been deduced for these frequencies: [3fB = 9.20•'./V•Vn- (n-1) • (n+2) /8[1]] in which fB is the frequency of a harmonic of the bubble in cycles per second, V the volume of the bubble in cc, n a number determining the order of the harmonic, and n = 2 the basic vibration. The first (basic) harmonic describes a change of the spherical bubble to an ellipsoidal bubble. The higher harmonics are more complicated, for the circumference of the bubble is divided approximately into as many parts' as the order of the harmonic. As an example, Spedden and Hannan's published motion picture of, a vibrating bubble corresponds to the sixth harmonic. Eq 1 shows that only the first and third harmonics are simple multiples (1 and 3), all the others being irrational fractions of the basic frequency. This means that the shape of the vibration can change with time and is in general unsymmetric in respect to the time axis. Such conditions prevail when there is a distributed elasticity or mass, as in the case of vibrating membranes or rods. The constant 9.20 is valid for water at room temperature, but a general solution involving the physical constants of the liquid has not been found. The case of the floating particle is much easier to treat I than that of the bubble. It can be assumed that the elasticity is caused exclusively by the interface and that the mass is concentrated in the particle together with some adhering water. The following expression for the frequency of a system, of one degree of freedom can be applied: [1E/m[2] fP = 27] Here f, is the frequency of the particle vibration in cycles per second, E the elasticity in dynes per cm, and m the mass in grams. The classical theory of impact phenomena gives the time of collision during the striking of a spring (in this case the surface of the bubble) by a mass, as: [t~ = 2/f = 7r\/m/E[3]] It is now possible to develop an expression for the elasticity of a floating cylindrical particle. The force equilibrium of a cylinder floating end on at the air-liquid interface is given by the well-known equation (Poisson' 1831) [aP = 4 D2.pL•g•h +7rD•y sin a[4]] which accounts for the buoyancy and the action of the surface tension where P is the force acting on the particle in dynes (weight-buoyancy), D the diameter of the cylinder in cm, pL the density of the liquid in grams per cc, g the acceleration of gravity = 981 cm per sec2, h the depression of the cylinder below the surface of-the liquid in cm, y the surface tension in dynes per cm and a the supporting angle' or the one required to insure equilibrium, a being smaller than the contact angle ?. Although demonstrated by Poisson, it has not

Jan 1, 1952

By T. M. Girdler

IN THESE perilous days of world- wide uncertainty, this Institute and the profession represented by it take on new importance in the economic life of the nation. I have long been impressed by the fact that the objects of the A.I.M.E. are purely professional and scientific. The country has benefited from your honorable tradition of adherence to those objectives over a period of 68 years. The Institute's policy of refraining from controversial matters - has made possible the serious, balanced, and uncolored consideration of the particular problems that come before it.

Jan 1, 1939

By R. E. Allen

THERE was once a time when a practical oil man would appraise or buy a producing property on the basis of from $200 to $500 per barrel of average daily settled production. Curtailment-has, for the present at least, caused a virtual abandonment of the "barrel -of settled production" as a yardstick of, oil property value and in its place has come the "barrel of allowable production," which, although an artificial thing, is nevertheless now the principal factor governing the rate of ?pay out? or investment return. The potential production of a well, settled or otherwise, is of less importance in determining the present worth of a well than is the rate at which it may be produced. Speaking only of true potential for the moment, it is obvious that of two similar wells having the same potential, the one having the highest rate of allowable production would be worth proportionately more than the one of lesser allowable. The discount factor for deferred return and risk can easily vary the present values of the two wells by as much as 20 per cent when allowable rates are not greatly different.

Jan 1, 1934

By Oliver C., Ralston

THE following data were obtained during Tan exhaustive research into the possibilities of concentrating United Verde massive sulfide copper-zinc-iron ores by flotation. The composition of these ores approximates the following mineralogical analysis: 3 to 15 per cent chalcopyrite; 3 to 11 per cent marmatite (ferruginous sphalerite) ; 47 to 69 per cent pyrite; and 10 per cent quartz. The remainder is usually schist gangue. The sulfide minerals are finely dis-seminated; chalcopvrite and marmatite begin to be liberated on grinding at about 100 mesh, but complete liberation from gangue (pyrite in this case is considered a gangue mineral) is

Jan 1, 1935

In a previous paper in these Proceedings(l) it was shown from a study of the bore'logs and analyses then available, that the brown coal seams of the Latrobe Valley areas show progressive changes in composition with increase of stratigraphic depth, equivalent to a rise in rank: These changes appear as:(i) An increase in ultimate carbon and hydrogen, calculated on a dry, ash-free basis, and(ii) An increase in calorific value, calculated on the, same basis, each of the order of 1% per 100 ft. of depth, and(iii) A decrease in moisture content of the order of 0.5% to 1.0% per 100 ft. of depth. The decrease in moisture content was found to be less regular than the other changes. In some bores the moisture content remained more or less constant throughout a single seam, or fluctuated slightly, decreasing stepwise on passage to the seam below.It was noted that individual analyses within a bore showed irregular fluctuations, tending to mask the general trend in composition change. This was particularly so for the moisture content, which had been determined for 10 ft. lengths of core, whereas the other components were determined for 50 ft. lengths of core. Averaging of the moisture contents over 50 ft. lengths reduced the masking effects of these irregularities. The suggestion was made that these irregularities arose from variations in the relative proportions of pollen, resin, wood (lignite) and woody attritus composing the core. Such variation in the coal seams has since been established in some detail for the...

Jan 1, 1948

By D. Harrington

For many years the Federal Bureau of Mines-in cooperation with other agencies-has been making investigations and compiling and publishing reports and statistics on accidents in the various branches of the mineral industry.4 Its assistance has been enlisted also in health, safety, and ventilation problems' incident to the driving of many large tunnels in the United States in recent years. As part of this work the Bureau has compiled considerable statistical and other information on accident experience in the tunneling branch of the heavy-construction industry. It has always been difficult to obtain up-to-date information on tunneling methods and tunnel accidents. Published accounts of tun¬nel construction furnish much interesting material of engineering, historical, or fiscal value, but usually little or no attempt is made to discuss and critically analyze the means taken to preserve the health and life of employees.

Jan 1, 1941

By Ionel Gardescu

IN connection with some of the experiments carried out by the writer on the behavior of gas and oil in a sand reservoir,1 an interesting phenomenon was observed which may throw some new light on the problem of recovery of oil from a natural reservoir. The experiments are intended to show the effect of the surface area of the occluded gas masses, originally present in a reservoir, on the further evolution of gas from the oil and its consequent effect upon the rate of production of oil. The apparatus used in the experimental work is shown in Fig. 1. It consists primarily of a sand reservoir R and a displacement chamber D, which is used to induce small variations in volume. The reservoir and displacement chamber form a unit, and a lowering of the plunger D is equivalent to increasing the volume occupied by the oil and gas in the reservoir. The reservoir was first filled with dead oil and maintained under pressure until it was ascertained that most of the free gas had gone into solution. The volume of free gas present in the reservoir was computed from the coefficient of compressibility of the fluids by means of the dis-placement chamber D, reading to 0.005 c.c. and a special gage J reading to 0.02 lb. per sq. in. The oil was saturated with gas under pressure in reservoir S by circulating the oil for a long period of time through the gear pump B. Subsequently, the saturated oil was circulated through the sand reservoir following the circuit S6, B, S5, R4, the sand reservoir R, R1, R2, F4, F1, back to reservoir S. In the following experiments the sand reservoir R was filled with gas-saturated oil at a pressure of 415 lb. per sq. in. with no free gas present. This was ascertained by. closing off all the outlet valves, and determining the coefficient of compressibility of the system by means of the dis-placement chamber D.

Jan 1, 1932

By Smortchevskyk N. J.

THIS paper describes the electrical features of the locomotive now (August, 1962) under construction for Craigmont Mines. Intended for non-specialists, it avoids details of design and calculations interesting to electricians only. The paper is divided into three sections. The first deals very briefly with the mine layout and with operating conditions -existing and expected. Reference is made to economic considerations leading to the selection of the type and size of locomotive, as well as to traction diagrams and the calculations. This material is not included in the paper because of its length and because it does not represent anything new. The second section deals with engineering and economic considerations and shows, in some detail, why the A.C. system was chosen. The third section describes the basic components of the locomotive, including the voltage regulator, the rectifiers, the control arrangement and the filter, and deals with considerations affecting the selection of their rating and design. A concluding sub-section describes, very briefly, the track and trolley details and the power distribution switchgear.

Jan 1, 1963

By Thomas T. Read

THE official title of our topic for today is "Resources of Metals and Other Strategic Minerals," but in accepting the invitation to open this discussion I claimed the privilege of being allowed to talk about problems other than resources for the two reasons that a great deal has already been said about resources and because we can never discuss them with the degree of certainty that an engineer likes. Resources are uncertain for many, reasons. One is that we do not know what is in the earth. It is four thousand miles to its center and although oil wells 1 ½ miles deep are becoming common and engineers are now talking of drilling holes 2 miles deep, even when they do they will have advanced only one two-thousandth part of the total distance. Only a relatively few mines are over a mile deep as yet. We know certainly that it is comparatively expensive to work at such great depth, but it would be a very foolish man who would assert it will be' impossible, one or two hundred years from now, for engineers to obtain from great depths mineral supplies that are now being obtained at or near the surface. As long as- I can remember I have been hearing that our petroleum resources were in imminent danger of speedy exhaustion, and yet the yearly output is now of the same order of magnitude as the total resources were once estimated, with ' the cry of over-production the loudest it has ever been. Tapping progressively deeper and deeper sources of supply, has produced this result. Even in the thin layer that we are now working much-exploration still remains to be done. .

Jan 1, 1929

By III, Peter J. Rogers, J. Gordon Ogden

A study is described which attempts to identify the chemical factors of common concern to environmental and exploration geochemistry as indicated by recent work in both disciplines in Nova Scotia. Cores taken in lake sediments define geochemical baselines for the modern and pre-industrialisation periods. The investigation of lake and stream drainage indicates the presence of numerous chemical and organic factors that can be attributed to man's activities, such as construction and energy consumption. Geochemical surveys of lake and stream sediments are used to locate potentially toxic, high risk areas in Nova Scotia. Rapid change occurs in most surface drainage systems with the possibility of numerous chemical reactions taking place. It is found that spatial and temporal variations in the chemistry of modern and recent sediments are of interest to exploration and environmental surveys.

Jan 4, 1992

By Samuel S. Adams

The Permian Salado Formation of west Texas and southeastern New Mexico is composed of halite and subordinate amounts of anhydrite, clay and potassium and magnesium-bearing evaporite minerals. Aspects of the geochemistry of the Salado Formation have been investigated through studies of the stratigraphy, mineral assemblages, textures and minor element content of the salts. These studies provide information on the origin of the evaporites when combined with data on equilibria in saturated salt solutions. The principal potash ore zone in the district is composed essentially of halite (NaC1) and sylvite (KC1). Data on the color, bromide content, and proportions of halite and sylvite suggest that this simple assemblage is the product of a series of replacements rather than primary precipitation. The bromide content of the salts also indicates that the brine which precipitated the Salado Formation was derived from the dissolution of older evaporites rather than the simple evaporation of sea water.

Jan 1, 1966

By Paul W. Richardson

"Introduction And AcknowledgmentsTHIS PAPER outlines the geology and discusses the geological problems of the Mindamar mine. It is impossible to acknowledge the contributions of ideas of all the geologists who have worked in the area. Among the more important contributors are K. DeP. Watson, W. S. James, B.S.W. Buffam, and L. J. Weeks, and John MacPherson, the resident geologist at the mine.A mineralogical and chemical study of the ore and country rock is being carried •on by Dr. Watson at the University of California, Los Angeles.General InformationThe Mindamar mine is on Cape Breton Island, forty miles south-west of Sydney (Figure 1). The nearest railway stations are at St. Peters, which is thirty-two miles southwest of the mine, and at Sydney. Good gravel-surfaced roads connect the mine to the railways.The mine is producing at the rate of 600 tons a day of ore containing zinc, lead, copper, and minor amounts of silver and gold. At the present time the mill feed averages 9 .per cent combined metals, of which zinc makes u:p 7 1per cent and lead and copper each 1 per cent.General GeologyThe ore being mined ,by Mindamar occurs in a shear zone parallel to a northeasterly striking, vertically dipping, series of rocks consisting of rhyolite tuff, rhyolite, minor more basic flow rocks, and diorite (Figure 2). In the vicinity of the mine, these rocks have been termed the Mine Series. They belong to the Bourinot group, which has been assigned by L. J. Weeks to the Middle Cambrian. At the latitude of the mine, the Bourinot group is bounded on the northwest by the Stirling fault and extends eastward for two miles."

Jan 1, 1953

By T. Binnert Haites

INTRODUCTION NUMEROUS examples of troubled zones, interfering with the normal development of coal seams, have been cited in the literature. From a geological point of view they can be subdivided into structural and sedimentary troubles. Of the latter type, wash-outs are usually the most bothersome. Some years ago, A. A. Thiadens and the author arrived at the conclusion that they represent fossil river-beds. A method of predicting the course of these rivers was developed, which has been successfully applied in the Netherlands coal measures, and more recently by P. Stassen in some of the Belgian coalfields and by the author in the Sydney coalfield. The Sydney coalfield has long .drawn the attention of geologists, and three main periods of systematic geological research may be distinguished. The first period, 1872-1900, is covered by the studies of Ch. Robb and H. Fletcher (32, 10-13) (1). Their detailed sections of the cliffs have lost nothing in value, and are frequently consulted today.

Jan 1, 1951

By Neilson Rudd

Many deep well waste disposal. operations have adopted the technology of the petroleum industry but fail to make full use of the knowledge and experience upon which this technology is based. Inexperience in subsurface exploration commonly leads industrial personnel to an over simplified understanding of the complex subsurface rock/fluid environment and overly optimistic "degree of exploration /adequacy of knowledge" ratios. Several fundamental differences between disposal and petroleum production are discussed. In particular, the evolution of understanding of the subsurface in relation to degree of exploration is demonstrated by summarized case histories of such other forms of subsurface fluid exploitation as oil pro¬duction and underground gas storage, tracing subsurface interpretations from the initial exploratory concept to that of fullest development. Evolutionary changes in interpretation and their significance as applied to deep well disposal are stressed.

Jan 1, 1971

By H. C. Rickaby

Introduction The township of Swayze, from which the Swayze gold area derives its name, is in the Sudbury mining division, approximately 150 miles northwest of Sudbury. The gold area may be regarded as situated at the southwest corner of a triangular area whose northeast and southeast corners are at Porcupine and Shiningtree, respectively, and whose sides are between 70 miles and 90 miles in length. On a geological map, it would be found that belts of Keewatin greenstones and sediments form the sides of this triangle, and that they surround a large granite mass. Prior to the summer of 1931 the Swayze corner of this triangle had probably been less prospected than the other parts and comparatively little was known of it from the standpoint of gold mining possibilities. The extensive belts of iron formation to the south and west of Swayze received some attention about the year 1909, and during the years 1927 and 1928 some prospecting was done in the townships of Greenlaw and Cunningham, south of Swayze, but chiefly for base-metals- copper, zinc, and lead. In the summer of 1931 a very promising discovery of gold-bearing quartz was made by J. G. and J. L. Kenty, working for the Brett-Trethewey Mines, Ltd., in association with Northern Canada Mining Corporation, and Northland Prospectors, Ltd., and this property, now known as the Kenty Gold Mines, Ltd., has been actively developed with very encouraging results. Following this discovery a6d during the summer of 1932 much prospecting took place in the area, as a result of which a number of other discoveries of gold were made, chiefly to the west of the original find. They are distributed over a wide area, which includes the townships of Rollo, Raney, Swayze, Denyes, Halcrow, and Greenlaw.

Jan 1, 1933

By Asbjørn Solheim

The service life for aluminium reduction cells is often limited by the cathode carbon, due to preferential wear along the periphery of the cell leading to the so-called "W" wear pattern. The reason for this preferential wear is not well understood. Two mechanisms are suggested in the present paper; 1) non-stationary dissolution of aluminium carbide into a layer of sludge that periodically forms and disappears, and 2) electrochemical formation and dissolution of aluminium carbide within an aluminium carbide layer containing bath-filled pores. The latter mechanism may be related to the high local current density at the periphery of the cathode.

Jan 1, 2011

By R. A. Wyman

What unusual features are there about finding, winning, and using the industrial minerals of Canada which may be of interest and yet not widely known. Have you, for example, ever wondered where the raw material for those distinctive greenish grey statuettes, so readily recognizable as Eskimo carvings, comes from? Although stone suitable for carving is obtained at several northern locations, in recent years the Federal government, the Quebec government, and one or two private companies have shipped supplies of various rock types from other sources to central distribution points in the Canadian north for the express purpose of providing Eskimo artists with raw materials for carving. Canada is well endowed with industrial minerals, the extent and variety of which may be observed by a perusal of Table 1. In this table, materials currently produced are shown in the left-hand column; materials which are bordering upon economic viability are listed in the middle column; and materials which have been found in Canada in possible exploitable quantity, but for which [ ]

Jan 1, 1970

By Jackson S

An investigation into different aspects of importance in the understanding of explosibility of hybrid mixtures of coal dust, air and gases potentially found within mine workings through a comprehensive laboratory program of explosibility tests was conducted. Plotting of test results revealed that conditions of potential explosibility could be described using two dimensional flammability limit surfaces- for coal dust/oxygen; methane/oxygen; and coal dust/methane mixtures. From these plots, the three dimensional flammability envelopes defining the explosibility of the coal dust/methane/oxygen mixtures can be defined and illustrated for a coal sample. The surfaces of the three dimensional envelope describe limits which separate inert mixtures of coal dust and methane at varying oxygen levels from those concentrations which are ignitable under defined conditions. It is considered appropriate to generalise that the geometric shapes of these limit regions are applicable to all type classifications of coal dust. There are practical applications of these results to the underground environment.The action of free radical initiators in the propagation of a methane gas explosion was examined for its applicability to the flammability of coal dust/gas/air mixtures. The oxides of nitrogen or NO x radicals have influence upon the lean limits of flammability of hybrid mixtures and this is illustrated by use of three dimensional coordinate geometry. Gases can be introduced to the underground environment through the exhaust gases of diesel equipment. It is concluded that radical species can substantially increase the flammability of gas and dust flames and as a consequence raise risk of mine atmosphere explosibility.

Jan 1, 1998