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By Joseph C. Kieffer

The Duquesne property of the Callahan Zinc-Lead Co. is about 20 miles east of Nogales, in southern Arizona. One mine is near the mill, but most of the mill feed is hauled in by truck from a number of small mines. The same sulphides are found in all the ores, in general, but the amounts vary considerably. All ores contain silver, copper, lead and zinc minerals but one mine ships ore high in silver and lead and low in copper and zinc; while another mine ships ore high in copper and zinc, and low in silver and lead. The common sulphides are galena, carrying most of the silver; chalcopyrite; sphalerite, carrying iron in solid solution; and pyrite, in a gangue consisting of limestone, quartz and garnet. Mineralization is fairly coarse. At the present grind of about 66 per cent minus 200 mesh most of the sulphides are liberated A small amount of chalcopyrite is locked up with the sphalerite and cannot be liberated at an economic grind, and the copper carried into the zinc concentrate with the sphalerite accounts for the comparatively poor recovery of copper in the copper-lead concentrate. Production oF Two Concentrates The milling problem, which was complicated by the extreme variation in the grade of the feed, was first attacked with the idea of producing a silver-copper-lead con- centrate and a zinc concentrate, both with satisfactory grades and recoveries. By February 1941, it was felt that these objectives had been attained, when the grades of the various products and the recoveries were as shown in Table I. A rough outline of the flowsheet and reagents used is as follows: Minus ¾-in. feed to a 7-ft. by 36-in. Hardinge ball mill working in closed circuit with a 36-in. Wemco classifier. The classifier overflow passes to the second cell of an 8-cell bank of No. 18 Special Denver Sub-A flotation machines (volume, 22.5 cu. ft. per cell). A rougher concentrate is removed from the second to the fifth cells inclusive, and returned to the first cell, which is the cleaner. A scavenger concentrate is removed from the sixth, seventh, and eighth cells, and returned to the third cell. Consump-

Jan 1, 1943

By O. Hall

DIAMOND drilling has become a very important factor in mining. It is the most satisfactory method of obtaining proof of the existence of an orebody and of determining the character and extent of the body, in measures where a core can be made. Large investments are based on the information obtained. The method of development, the mine and reduction plants, and subsidiary essentials as railways are often built without other information. The Mond Nickel Co. has drilled about 50,000 ft. (15,240 m.) per yr. for several years and has given considerable study to the question of improving the methods and of overcoming the limitations of this means of securing information. One of the main limitations of the diamond drill has been its inability to drill a straight hole. To depths of 1000 ft. (304 in.) the deflection is often not large but all holes tend to curve and take somewhat erratic courses. A hole running at a small angle to a fissure plane tends to run, along the fissure. If the hole is at a large angle, the tendency is to penetrate the fissure plane at right angles. The face of the bit having one side in solid formation beyond the fissure, the other in the selvage of the fissure tends to turn, the rods curving to the extent of their clearance in the hole. Usually rock measures have somewhat regular fissuring or strata and holes take somewhat similar courses, usually at right angles to the fissuring or strata. Excessive pressure or short or worn core barrels increase curvature. Slow speeds, correct feeds, sharp hits, and core barrels the full size of the hit, tend to decrease curvature but do not prevent it Curvature once started increases rapidly. The disappointments from crooked holes have been numerous. Discoveries have later been found to be on the properties of others. One Canadian company had a hole, supposedly discovering ore 300 ft. (91 m.) from old workings, unexpectedly turn in 8 ft. (2.4 m.) of wooden core from a timber in the old workings.

Jan 9, 1919

By Joseph C. Kieffer

The Duquesne property of the Callahan Zinc-Lead Co. is about 20 miles east of Nogales, in southern Arizona. One mine is near the mill, but most of the mill feed is hauled in by truck from a number of small mines. The same sulphides are found in all the ores, in general, but the amounts vary considerably. All ores contain silver, copper, lead and zinc minerals but one mine ships ore high in silver and lead and low in copper and zinc; while another mine ships ore high in copper and zinc, and low in silver and lead. The common sulphides are galena, carrying most of the silver; chalcopyrite; sphalerite, carrying iron in solid solution; and pyrite, in a gangue consisting of limestone, quartz and garnet. Mineralization is fairly coarse. At the present grind of about 66 per cent minus 200 mesh most of the sulphides are liberated A small amount of chalcopyrite is locked up with the sphalerite and cannot be liberated at an economic grind, and the copper carried into the zinc concentrate with the sphalerite accounts for the comparatively poor recovery of copper in the copper-lead concentrate. Production oF Two Concentrates The milling problem, which was complicated by the extreme variation in the grade of the feed, was first attacked with the idea of producing a silver-copper-lead con- centrate and a zinc concentrate, both with satisfactory grades and recoveries. By February 1941, it was felt that these objectives had been attained, when the grades of the various products and the recoveries were as shown in Table I. A rough outline of the flowsheet and reagents used is as follows: Minus ¾-in. feed to a 7-ft. by 36-in. Hardinge ball mill working in closed circuit with a 36-in. Wemco classifier. The classifier overflow passes to the second cell of an 8-cell bank of No. 18 Special Denver Sub-A flotation machines (volume, 22.5 cu. ft. per cell). A rougher concentrate is removed from the second to the fifth cells inclusive, and returned to the first cell, which is the cleaner. A scavenger concentrate is removed from the sixth, seventh, and eighth cells, and returned to the third cell. Consump-

Jan 1, 1943

By J. Campbell

Long freezing range casting alloys are particularly susceptible to a type of porosity which is observed to form in layers parallel to the supposed position of the isotherms in the solidifying casting. Under favorable conditions (which appear to be typified by low-temperature gradients in the casting giving rise to a wide and more or less uniform pasty zone, and which arise from several factors, particularly: a) wide freezing range alloy, b) high thermal conductivity of metal, c) low thermal conductivity of mold, and d) high mold temperature3) layer porosity has been observed in many different casting alloys: copper,' aluminum, magnesium,' steels, and high-temperature alloys.3 Baker4,5 and later cibula6 argue that layer porosity occurs because of thermal contraction, in a manner analogous to hot tearing. In outline, the theory consists of the establishment of a coherent dendrite network by the impinging of dendrite tips. Subsequent shrinkage imposes tensile stresses on the network which tears perpendicularly to the stress, i.e., parallel to the isotherms. If these tears are not filled by the inflow of residual liquid then layers of porosity result. Baker7 attempted to test whether the porosity was the result of thermal contraction by casting test pieces in a mold designed to accentuate hot tearing. However, no significant increase in porosity was observed. This negative result of Baker's critical experiment appears to be substantiated by numerous observations, particularly the experiments by Lagowski and Meier8 on Mg-Zn alloys covering the range of zinc contents up to 30 pct Zn. These clearly reveal that the maxima for the incidence of hot tearing and layer porosity are well-separated, occurring at 1 and 6 pct Zn, respectively. Furthermore, the thermal contraction maximum occurred at 1 pct Zn, indicating that hot tearing is associated with contraction in the solid state, and not with porosity. These observations are further substantiated by the elementary consideration that the thermal contraction of the casting is likely to produce (if anything, since the temperature difference across casting of high thermal conductivity, such as aluminum and copper, is likely to be negligible) a compressive stress on the

Jan 1, 1969

By John L. Baum

GEOLOGISTS and engineers working around a diamond drill rig have often had the opportunity to observe the magnetic attraction of drill rods pulled out of the hole for core removal. This is sometimes an amusing pastime, but this same magnetic force inadvertently applied to a compass needle can cause it to lose its polarity entirely or to become reverse polarized when placed in the immediate vicinity of stacked rods. The first recommendation, of course, would be to avoid the rods, but in surveying an operating drillhole this is not always possible; therefore steps must be taken to neutralize the magnetic effect of the drill rods. Early in the summer of 1949 the geological department of the New Jersey Zinc Co. undertook at Franklin, N. J., an extensive program of surveying the course of deep diamond drillholes. The majority of the holes were surveyed while in the process of being drilled, and considerable difficulty was encountered. A pattern for the deviation of drillholes had been established for the district from surveys in holes from which the drill rig had been removed. It was observed that a certain operating deep drill- hole being surveyed did not fit this pattern. In the resulting confusion of repeated surveys and cementing a plug for wedging operations, the lower 1800 ft of the hole was lost. Because of this incident studies were initiated to determine the source of the difficulties and to develop safeguards against recurrence of faulty surveys.

Jan 12, 1954

By W. P. Ward

I desire ho put on record a fact in relation to the effect of man ganese on pig iron which I have never seen in print, and which may, perhaps, not have been observed by anyone except myself. In 1875, while experimenting on the production of ferroman ganese in a blast furnace, I had burdened the furnace with a charge which I calculated would produce a 15-per cent. spiegel. The fur nace was very hot, having been running for a couple of days on a very light burden, and making a burnt iron, preparatory to the experiment I proposed to make to produce a high grade of spiegel. I calculated that the charge would begin to work in the fur nace in about twelve hoars after it was put on. After the -lapse of that time I commenced to watch the furnace carefully, but found little or no change in the appearance of the metal, although there was a very decided change in the cinder, showing that the man ganese ore had come in work. The iron was quite gray and very tough. The character of the cinder was good for a spiegel cinder, and 1 could not imagine where the manganese was going to, as it (lid not appear to be in either metal or cinder in anything like the quan tity indicated by the charge. The next morning things were still in the same condition. The furnace was very hot, the cinder good, and the iron very gray. I was then sorely puzzled. I had never heard of a gray iron with over 4 or 6 per cent. of manganese, and had no notion that an iron with more manganese could be gray and tough. With great difficulty a piece for chemical test was broken from a pig. Not less than a hundred blows from a heavy sledge were required to break it off, I took the specimen to the shop and directed that some borings from it should be brought to the laboratory, as soon as possible, whither I myself at once repaired to put things in readi ness for a rapid manganese determination. In about half an hour the machinist came in with the iron specimen in one hand and about a dozen blunted and broken steel drills in the other, saying that it mas impossible to drill the iron. There were several little depressions in the iron, which was malleable enough to be indented by the point of the drill, but not a chip had been cut from it. The metal was never subjected to further physical tests. A chip broken from

Jan 1, 1882

JOHN W. BELL, *Montreal, Quebec, Canada (communication to the Secretary?). The test results in Mr. Taggart's paper will, I am sure, be recognized as a notable contribution, and of great assistance in the study of the performance of the Hardinge mill. I regret, however, being obliged to note that Mr. Taggart still retains. such confidence in the Kick-Stadler method of computing the ?relative mechanical efficiency" of crushing machines. The Rittinger-Kick graph submitted by Mr. Gates and the tests made at McGill University disclosed precisely the same fundamental defect in the Kick-Stadler theory. Consequently, I have been obliged to recalculate in terms of Rittinger surface units the results obtained in the 28 rock-crushing tests cited by Mr. Taggart, in order to find- out what the relative efficiencies really were. In order to show the large discrepancies between the Stadler and Rittinger R. M. R's, the most, efficient result disclosed by each method is represented by the number 100, and the R.. M. E.'s for the other tests have been recalculated on this basis. The results will be found in Table 1. Personally, I look forward to the time when we shall cease to talk about "relative mechanical efficiency" and merely refer to the "efficiency" of a crusher. All that is required to accomplish this is to agree on a standard method for determining the "crushing constant" of a given rock and a standard method for calculating the efficiency. The figures in the fourth column of Table 1 have been derived by assuming a constant of 2,000 for the quartzite crushed in the Yale tests. The Stadler method sometimes indicates changes in efficiency produced by, changes in operating conditions, as I pointed out in a paper describing rock-crushing tests made at McGill University. It is, however, not enough to determine that certain changes increase or decrease efficiency; surely it is equally important to determine the magnitude of these variations. By examination of Mr. Taggart's results, I have been obliged to conclude that the size of feed and amount of reduction greatly influence the Stadler R. M. E. figures, that they are positively misleading. It should be mentioned that since the majority of the tests have been made at the least efficient feed rates, and since, moreover, it is one of the evidently very important factors affecting efficiency, it is possible that different results might be obtained by a high-tonnage feed series, and that

Jan 8, 1917

Abel, Charles Edwin, Student, Univ. of California Los Angeles, Cal. '31 Adams, Horace M.5148 Benton Ave., Downers Grove, Ill. '31 Ahlskog, Harold A., Student, Washington State College Pullman, Wash. '30 Aldridge, John, Student, New Mexico School of Mines Sbcorro,, N. M. '30 Allen, Hugo K., The Univ. of Texas 104 W. 33rd St., Austin, Tex. '31 Ames, Marshall B., Student, Washington State College Pullman, Wash. '31 Ancell, Virgil F., Student,. Missouri School of Mines Rolla, Mo. '30 Anderson, Norman John, Student, South Dakota School of Mines Rapid City, S. D. '32 Annett, Norman T., Student, Mackay School of Mines, Univ. of Nevad Reno, Nev. '32 Apablasa, Salvador C., Student, Univ. of California Los Angeles, Cal. '31 Armstrong, James Arthur, Jr., Student, Michigan College of Min. & Tech., Houghton, Mich. '31 Armstrong, John R. Box 274, Neosho, Mo. '31 Armstrong, Robert H., Student, Lafayette College Easton, Pa. '31 Armstrong, Thomas E., Student, Univ. of California Los Angeles, Cal. '31 Arnot,. Paul H 2617 Haste St., Berkeley, Cal. '31 Ashby: Harve I., Willow Creek Mines Wasilla, Alaska. '31 Aud, Robert A., Student, Lafayette College Easton, Pa. '30 Augenthaler, Robert L., Student, New Mexico School of Mines Socorro, N. M. '32 Augustine, Grant, Jr., Instrument man, Min. Dept., Fairbanks Exploration Co., Fairbanks, Alaska. '31

Jan 1, 1932

By Barnabus Bryan

THE normal statistics of supply and demand of petroleum and its products have little more than local influence on the market movements of oil securities. The two major reasons for this condition might be called the technique of production and the technique of refining. The speed of improvement in each and the complete lack of control of their, inter-relation have resulted in overproduction of both crude oil and gasoline in the face of immense in-crease in demand. The trouble with oil securities has been that of the mushroom radio companies, where too frequent changes have killed the possibility of profits. It is a case of too much efficiency. During the past ten years there has been continual talk of wasting reserves of crude oil. This has been based on "present methods of production." Yet the methods of ten years ago in the oil industry are as antiquated today as the kerosene lamp.. The fear of famine has transformed the industry. The refiner, through the cracking process, has doubled the gaso-line output from a barrel of crude oil, thus doubling reserves and changing a current undersupply into oversupply. When the automobile driver desires he can again double reserves and transform want into abundance by demanding an automobile which will deliver twice as many miles per gallon of gasoline. Entirely apart from refining and in complete dis-regard for its needs, the oil producer has forged ahead at a pace too rapid for his own good. The science of geology has developed with experience and' lavish expenditure into a constant danger to profits in the production of oil. Two and one-half per ;cent of the producing wells in the United States are yielding one-half of the oil, while their flush production is used as an excuse to force down the price of crude oil until 200,000 wells must be abandoned or produce at a loss. The fabulous yield of the new high-pres-sure fields enables the fortunate owners to make a profit regardless of the price of oil. Such a condi-tion is unhealthy from the standpoint of oil itself and as a national policy. It is manifestly absurd to suppose that such a condition can endure for a gen-eration. There will come a day when the sequence of discovery will be temporarily broken, and at that time the consumer will be forced to pay heavy interest on the foolhardy policy of today.

Jan 6, 1927

The following is a, partial list of members and guests who called at Institute headquarters during the period Aug. 10, 1917, to Sept. 10, 1917. L. P. Barrett, Ann Arbor, Mich. Milo W. Krejci, Great Falls, Mont. H. J. Brown, Ridley Park, Pa. Chas. N. La Porte, Peoria, Ill. George M. Cheney, Guayaquil, Ecuador. Askin Nicholas, Bismuth, Australia. W. Lorrain Cook, Chicago, Ill. C. Edwin Nighman, Butte, Mont. John J. Croston, Atlanta, Ga. W. L. Remick, Norfolk, Va. A. F. Duggleby, Santiago de Cuba. T. C. Roberts, Jerome, Ariz. Geo. A. Easley, La Paz, Bolivia. Burr A. Robinson, New Haven, Conn. Burr J. French, Magdalena, Jal., Mex. J. L. Schueler, Peoria, Ill. A. D. R. Galloway, Komfrodua, W. Af. Walter L. Steele, Van Horn, Tex. P. R. Hines, Milwaukee, Wis. F. J. S. Sur, Denver, Colo. T. H. Jenks, Wickenburg, Ariz. C. A. Thomas, Dawson, Y. T., Canada. Paul S. King, Wilmington, Del. E. E. White, Ann Arbor, Mich. Harry Wolf, Golden, Colo. L. W. Bahney has left the Sheffield Scientific School, Yale, to become metallurgical engineer with the Scovill Manufacturing Co., Waterbury, Conn. H. B. Barling, formerly chief engineer of Breitung & Co., of New York, has been appointed manager of the mining department.

Jan 10, 1917

By Henry A. Gordon

Under the title " Hysteromorphous" it is proposed to include deposits which have been formed from original deposits by the influences of the surface-region. The term Hysteromorphous—later-formed—has been used by Prof. Posepny, of Vienna, to distinguish secondary from primary deposits and is more comprehensively applicable than the terms or designations hitherto used for the same thing.

Jan 1, 1896

By Louis D. Huntoon

The Hammond Mining and Metallurgical Laboratory is the gift of Prof. John Hays Hammond to the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University. Professor Hammond was graduated from this school in the class of 1876, and has always shown great Merest in its welfare and progress. In 1903, he offered to build and equip for it a mining and metallurgical laboratory. This offer was gratefully accepted by the trustees; and in October of the same year the architect, W. Gedney Beatty, and I were employed to draw up plans for the building, which is the largest of its kind in this country. The Treasurer's report shows the total gift of Professor Hammond, including land, building, and equipment, to have been $128,741.53. This does not include $5,000 given by Professor Hammond to defray incidental expenses. The detailed cost of the machinery and installation, included in the above sum, is as follows: Macbinery,.......$9,846.00 Pipe and fittings,......925.05 Hangers, shafting, pulleys, belts, etc.,.. Steel-work, tanks, launders, etc.,...272.19 Screens for sizing ore,.....411.37 Lumber,.......1,896.36 General Supplies : Hardware,......$135.96 Tools,.......263.66 Paints,.......204.63 Electric and incidental,.... 439.57 ----------1,043.82 Machine-shop material, . 259.44 Labor,.. 722.29 ----------981.73

Jan 1, 1910

President AIRS. THOMAS T. READ 9 Windmill Lane Scarsdale, N. Y. First Vice-President AIRS. THORNE E. LLOYD 14 Green Hill Road Morristown, N. J. Second Vice President MRS. FRED SEARLS. JR. 1 Gracie Square New York. N. Y. Third Vice-President, MRS. WARREN J. MEAD 88 Rutledge Rd. Belmont Mass. Fourth Vice-President MRS. EDWIN LETTS OLIVER 60 King Avenue Piedmont, Calif.

Jan 1, 1943

By J. C. Karcher

GEOPHYSICAL methods have been more extensively applied to prospecting for oil during 1936 than at any previous time. Their use has been extended to include al- most every oil and gas producing area in the United States. More than ten magnetometer parties, more than nine gravimeter parties, more than five electrical surveying crews, more than fifty torsion balance parties, more than two hundred seismic reflection parties, and several refraction parties were- operating in the United States throughout the year. A tendency has been noted to abandon the use of the pendulum for geophysical prospecting in the oil fields and to increase the use of the

Jan 1, 1937

By Arthur Zentner

The electrolytic zinc plant of today is foreshadowed in the patents issued to Léon Létrange of Paris in 1881 and 1883l. He proposed roasting zinc blende to make the zinc soluble in water or sulphuric acid, thus obtaining a sulphate solution. His purification was apparently that used in the lithopone work of the day. For electrolyzing he proposed anodes of carbon or lead, for cathodes zinc, copper or brass. Numerous patents by other workers were taken out in the first 10 years, most of which dealt with sulphate solutions. It is easy to presume that the formation of chlorine gas in zinc chloride electrolysis caused early emphasis on sulphate work. Lack of success with this invited further work with chloride solutions. Efficient and cheaper oxidizing agents for use in the chloride processes were more generally available. Carbon anodes could be used instead of lead anodes, which were blamed for much of the early electrolyzing troubles and remained in disfavor for many years. Carl Hoepfner received his first zinc patents in 18902. He was the most persistent of those who worked with chloride solutions and met with the largest measure of success. Hc built three plants, only one of which remained in operation. This was built in 1896 at the plant of Brunner, Mond & Co., Winnington, England, now part of Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd. It leached with by-product calcium chloride from the company's Solvay alkali plant and returned to it the chlorine formed in electrolyzing. The zinc plant had a capacity of 5 long tons of zinc, said to have been doubled later, and remained in operation until 1924. No commercial plant using chloride solutions has operated since then. E. A. Ashcroft experimented in the middle nineties with chloride, alkaline and sulphate solutions on materials from Broken Hill, Australia. He built a plant with a rated capacity of 10 long tons of zinc per day, at Cockle Creek, New South Wales, in 1898. This figure was never approached nor was cyclical operation achieved. The work in the plant appears to have been largely with sulphate solutions. The plant suffered from a multitude of troubles: poor roasting, gclatinous silica, liberal use of live steam in solutions to combat the gclatinous silica with considerable

Jan 1, 1937

By A. L. Johnson, S. C. Lyons

A FEW years ago a leading American builder of centrifuges said, "No one uses a centrifuge if the job can be done any other way." This statement was essentially true at that time, not because the basic functional and economic principles involved did not frequently favor centrifugal methods, but rather because so many of the highly specialized features of the mechanical and functional peculiarities of continuous centrifuges had not been fully developed. The idea of using centrifuges in mineral dressing is definitely not new. There are literally hundreds of patents on centrifugal machines and processes for the mining industry. Many of them cover principles that are basic to the functioning of most centrifuges in operation today. In spite of this, until 1935, there were practically no successful applications of continuous centrifuges in the United States in the mineral industry, nor for that matter were there more than a mere handful of such machines in operation in North America in any industry. This was true despite the obvious desirability of machines that could furnish the advantages of high centrifugal settling forces in a continuous operation. The reasons for this are simple, even if not obvious: I. Finely divided solids, when thrown out of fluid suspension under high centrifugal forces, frequently exhibit physical properties (particularly rheological or flow properties) that are markedly different from those they possess when settled out by gravity alone, and machines that are not designed in careful detail to cope with these peculiarities seldom function satisfactorily. 2. Most continuous centrifuges embody a solids-conveying element in the form of a very special screw conveyor. The rotation of this member under conditions of operation calls for drive designs that were not satisfactorily provided until the introduction of the Bird gear unit about 1934. These matters will be touched on later. Continuous centrifuges are now operating successfully in the mineral industry. Some units have singly handled more than 500,000 tons of solids during the past ten years. Generally their operation has been characterized by large unit capacities, complete elimination of labor, minimum supervision, moderate maintenance and power costs. TYPICAL CENTRIFUGE APPLICATIONS Most materials classified by centrifuges are of subsieve particle size. Practically speaking, this means finer than l00-mesh. A unit of measure other than screens is needed in order to consider these products properly. Such a unit is the micron, which is equal to one one-millionth of a meter; roughly 1/25,000 of an inch. The opening in a standard 200-mesh screen is about 75 microns while a 325-mesh opening is roughly 43 microns.

Jan 1, 1947

By John W. Roberts

The Federal income tax law permits as a deduction in determining net income "in the case of mines,... a reasonable allowance for depletion and for depreciation of improvements, according to the peculiar conditions in each case, based upon cost, including cost of development not otherwise deducted: Provided, that in the case of such properties acquired prior to Mar. 1, 1913, the fair market value of the property (or the taxpayer's interest therein) on that date shall be taken in lieu of cost up to that date." The law provides for a reasonable allowance but the regulations provide for a definite method of computation that possesses more the virtue of simplicity than that of reasonableness. Article 210 of Regulations 45 reads: "When the cost or value as of Mar. 1, 1913, or within 30 days after the date of discovery of the property shall have been determined, and the number of mineral units in the property as of the date of acquisition or valuation shall have been estimated, the division of the former amount by the latter figure will give the unit value for purposes of depletion, and the depletion allowance for the taxable year may be computed by multiplying such unit value by the number of units of mineral extracted during the year." This is simple, but is it reasonable? The intent of the law is clearly that the cost of the ore in the ground shall be considered as part of the cost of the same ore when removed and sold. The regulations fail to carry out that intent, because of the unwarranted assumption that all the ore in the mine cost the same amount per ton. This is what gives the Treasury Department's method its simplicity, but at the same time robs it of its reasonableness because the assumption is contrary to fact. It is self-evident that a ton of ore near the surface or exposed by present workings is worth much more than a ton buried so far down in the earth that it cannot be removed for many years. If no improvements in mining methods were expected, the value of deeply buried ore would be further reduced by the greater expense that would be required to

Jan 1, 1922

By Mario L. Villa

During 1939 oil production experienced a new and important increase in Argentina in the productive areas of Comodoro Rivadavia (Territory of Chubut), Plaza Huincul (Territory of Neuquén), and those of the. Province of Mendoza. Production in the Standard Oil Company's field in the Province of Salta declined, but that of the Government oil fields in that province inereased 62.5 per cent.

Jan 1, 1940

By Mario L. Villa

During 1939 oil production experienced a new and important increase in Argentina in the productive areas of Comodoro Rivadavia (Territory of Chubut), Plaza Huincul (Territory of Neuquén), and those of the. Province of Mendoza. Production in the Standard Oil Company's field in the Province of Salta declined, but that of the Government oil fields in that province inereased 62.5 per cent.

Jan 1, 1940

By Arthur Foote

AT THE end of the year 1914, the main North Star incline shaft had reached the 6300-ft. level, and encountered a vein dipping Southwest, or, exactly opposite to the North Star. Subsequent development failed to find the North Star vein continuing beyond this intersection, so the 6300-ft. level proved to be the bottom level of the North. Star vein, and very little ore was found below the 5300-ft. level. The new vein was called No. 1 vein. Development work carried on for the next 10 years discovered a third vein, called No. 2, branching off about 1200-ft. to the east, with a North-south strike and a west dip. No. 1 vein had about 900 ft. of backs above the 6300-ft. level before reaching the boundary line of the property, and No. 2 vein died out about 800 ft. above. During these 10 years, the money spent on development was increased from $54,000 in 1914 to $184,000 in 1924; the ore reserves steadily diminished until it was evident that the mine must close down unless by some means a large tonnage of ore could be developed quickly.

Jan 1, 1930