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By E. P. Pfleider

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

Jan 7, 1951

By L. A. Adorjan

The tensile strength of agglomerate models due to capillary forces has been determined by computation of the exact surface profiles. Graphs showing tensile strength as a function of moisture content and contact angle me given for spheres in cubic arrangement. Another model of cones attached to cube faces, in cubic packing, provides a better representation of angular particle agglomerates. An algebraic formula approximating tensile strength as dependent on surface tension, particle size, moisture content, contact and cone angles was developed. The phenomenon of "capillary evaporation" due to high negative capillary pressures is explained and its influence on tensile strength of agglomerates is evaluated.

Jan 1, 1977

By J. Nolan, B. Ande’n, E. Lindgren

Field testing was conducted at the Strassa Iron Ore Processing Plant to evaluate high-gradient magnetic recovery of iron from the plant's tailings. The installation is the first commercial application of the Sala Continuous High-Gradient Magnetic Separator (HGMS) Model 480 Carousel. The objectives of the five-month testing program included optimization of the operating parameters using SSDEVOP techniques to maximize iron recovery, along with establishing a long-term operating history for the SALA 480 HGMS Carousel. The effectiveness of the optimization procedure, the net benefit in term of iron recovery, and equipment performance are discussed in the paper.

Jan 1, 1983

RICHARD R. HICE, Beaver, Pa. (written discussion *).-The matter of selective. mining is probably of more importance in Pennsylvania than is washing, and perhaps washing would not be necessary at some plants where now practised if proper care were taken in the mining. I have in mind one plant where the sulfur content of the entire bed is more than 2 per cent., yet if the bottom 12 in. and the top 12 or 15 in. are separated, the main portion of the bed, some 6 ft., will not contain more than 1.25 per cent. sulfur; and yet in this mine the entire bed .is worked together, the resultant coke, as a matter of course, not being fit for use in iron smelting. Not sufficient notice is taken of the "Double-thick" Upper Freeport coal in Allegheny and Butler counties. This is a very valuable deposit. Other areas where there is a, top member of the Upper Freeport coal are also known, which add to the value of this bed as a coking coal. This double Freeport coal is especially suited for byproduct coking. I cannot be as optimistic as regards the "low-sulfur" Pittsburgh coal in Greene county as the authors. If the term low-sulfur is to he confined to coal with not exceeding 1.25 per cent. sulfur, there is probably little

Jan 10, 1919

By Immo H. Redeker

Abstract-North Carolina is the leading state in the US in lithium mineral production. Spodumene is mined in open Pits and concentrated by flotation by the two companies, Lithium Corp. of America and Foote Mineral Co. North Carolina State University has a mineral research laboratory in Asheville, N. C., with trained personnel, batch and pilot plant facilities to assist in the state's mineral development. The NCSU Minerals Research Laboratory assisted both lithium-producing companies with spodumene concentration problems and has lately worked closely with Lithium Corp. of America to develop the best flowsheet for spodumene and byproduct recovery. The concentration of North Carolina spodumene and byproducts from pegmatites is presented and illustrated with figures.

Jan 4, 1979

By Andrew A. Blair

The increased importance and value of chemical analysis in connection with metallurgical operations is largely, if not entirely, due to the increased accuracy of the analytical methods used for the quantitative determination of the foreign elements always associated with the metal operated upon. This applies especially in the working of iron and steel, and to the determination of the amounts of such elements as phosphorus, carbon, and silicon. The influence of greater or smaller amounts of these elements upon the physical properties of iron and steel will be better understood when the proper experiments shall have been made upon samples whose chemical composition is known with almost absolute certainty. From the present standpoint of analytical chemistry, it is easy to see that at least one reason for the failure of many attempts to solve this problem, is the inaccuracy of the analytical methods used. Even at the present time the frequent want of agreement (over and above the unavoidable error due to manipulation) between chemists working on the same sample, leads one to think that there is still at least a choice in the methods used. It is true that very frequently a faulty method in the hands of a skilful analyst may be made to give corroborative results

By Joseph Hartshorne

The nature if this process and the general course of its development have already been described by me in two papers read before the Institute.* Since the latter paper mas read, in February, 1898, the development at Kladno has been almost altogether in the direction of using metal direct from the blast-furnace. This has now been the regular practice for about a year. The molten metal is brought from the furnace in ladles, without the intervention of any mixing- or accumulating-reservoir. The plant remains practically the same as originally described by me,† except that the primary furnace has been enlarged as much as was permitted by the existing conditions. This was done primarily in order to increase the capacity of the

Jan 1, 1901

By S. J. Im

Bupyung Silver Mines daily treats average 14 tons of concentrates containing 9,000 g Ag per ton. Bupyung Silver Refinery uses Merrill Crowe process to recover the silver from the leach solution containing 1.0 g/l Ag; Series of experiments were carried out to recover the silver from the solution by means of direct electrowinning in place of Merrill Crowe process. The recovery of the silver was 99% when the cell voltage and the retention time were 1.9 v and 3.0 hours, respectively. Power consumption was 3.2 Kwh/kg of Ag. It was found that impurity buildup was not significant during the recycling. The direct operating cost for the electrowinning was evaluated to be $ 0.35/kg of Ag.

Jan 1, 1984

By John A. Church

AT a time when the treatment of gold and silver ores by fusion, in opposition to the mill-process, is attracting so much attention in this country, it may be useful to consider what is done in a well-conducted foreign work. For this purpose I will ask the reader to accompany me to Lend, in Austria, a small but thoroughly organized

Jan 1, 1873

The greatest single obstacle in the path of constructive action in making conservation a reality is the inherent discord in the hearts of men. A perfect society doubtless is many millenniums removed from the present generation, but it must be admitted that progress toward a conservative use of our natural heritage with the altruistic concept of the greatest good for the greatest number for the greatest time can be attained only by a society in which discord is reduced to a minimum compatible with the limitations of human nature. Daily industrial discord is witnessed between management and labor which passes the bounds of arbitration and results in stoppages of production, waste of productive capacity, idle capital, idle labor, and the complete loss of the most unrecoverable element of all-time. The conservation of material things cannot progress independently of the conservation of the efforts of the human worker, and the results of these efforts are proportional to life itself as measured in hours and years. Unfortunately discord passes international boundaries, and the story of war is as old as the story of mankind. Our recent attempts of international control of nations appear to be dismal failures. The prestige and power of the League of Nations and the present United Nations declined rapidly after they were unsuccessful in stopping the first outbreak of hostilities after their or-

Jan 1, 1950

By W. M. Duncan, F. S. Kendorski, C. V. Jude

After shotcrete had been in use for a short time al the Climax Mine of the Climax Molybdenum Co., Climax, Colo., it was noted that regular longhole undercutting blasts would severely damage or detach slusher drift shotcrete linings. If this were to be a usual occurrence, the widespread application of shotcrete would have to be reexamined or abandoned. Concrete drift linings are affected less by blasting because of occasional significant gaps between the placed concrete and rock and the greater thickness of poured-in-place linings. Research Project Organized A research project was organized to determine: 1) the seriousness of the problem, 2) more complete in-use shotcrete strength data, and 3) possible solutions.

Jan 12, 1973

By E. S. Greiner

THE hot working of chromium was first reported by Hunter and Jones; who used small pellets of the material obtained by the reduction of chromium chloride with sodium. Later, the working of chromium at 600° to 1100°C was reported by Marden and Rich,2 and at 1250°C by Kroll3 The hot rolled material3 had a Brinell hardness of about 150 (62.5 kg, 2.5 mm ball, 1 min) and was brittle at room temperature. Except for that associated with hardness indentations, no plastic flow in chromium at room temperature has been reported to the author's knowledge. Studies described here have shown slip markings in chromium after deformation at room temperature.

Jan 1, 1951

By Bernard Lallement

INTRODUCTION Geostatistics have been used for five years at the B. R. G. M. to compute the ore reserve estimation. At present this technic is also used at the beginning of the exploration project to determine the best way to prove the orebody. The best way is a compromise between the cost of the exploration and the precision of the estimation. It is clear that geostatistics cannot be used without any data, but very often an exploration project is decided on an orebody which has already been drilled. Old data can therefore be used. This was the case this year for two orebodies: an iron deposit and a lead deposit. The iron deposit was explored by drifts and has now to be proved. We used geostatistics to determine the best drilling pattern. The variograms computed with these old data showed that an anisotropy existed between the two directions of the orebody, which meant that the drill pattern had to be rectangular. The lead deposit was explored by drill holes and a short drift in part of the orebcdy. The problem was to choose between a regular pattern of drill holes or a long drift and some added drill holes. The case of this study will be exposed afterwards. On the other hand, if the orebody is completely unknown, the exploration project generally forecasts two exploration steps (the first step

Jan 1, 1977

BEFORE I go any farther, I wish to show you the different kinds of guns, as I have been able to understand them from the finished works, for no one is found to have written or spoken of this. To my knowledge, it is not universally known who was the inventor of this horrible and fearful instrument. It is believed that it came from. Germany, discovered by chance at least three hundred years ago, according to Cornazzano, * from a crude and small beginning like the printing of letters. I believe, .indeed it seems to me certain, that guns evolved from the effect of powder, and then the forms were varied and changed according to the desires and different abilities of those who made or wished to use them. †

Jan 1, 1942

By Zden[e]k P. Bažant

Due to their heterogeneity, most rocks fracture with a zone of distributed cracking ahead of the fracture front. This makes linear elastic fracture mechanics inapplicable. The present study describes a mathematical model in which the progressive microcracking is taken into account by strain-softening stress-strain relation. In a simpler version of the model, the triaxial strain-softening stress- strain relation is obtained by direct adjustment of the elements of the compliance matrix. This formulation is rigorous only if the principal stress directions do not rotate during fracture formation within the fracture process zone. As a more sophisticated and generally applicable model, the so-called microplane model which is an analogue of the slip theory of plasticity is outlined. Comparison with fracture data for various rocks are given.

Jan 1, 1984

By A. R. Rule, D. C. Dahlin, D. E. Kirby

The US Bureau of Mines is currently engaged in research to characterize complex, low-grade western phosphate rock and to develop methods for economic recovery of phosphate, as part of a government effort to assure an adequate supply of fertilizer minerals. Western phosphate varies from soft, friable, altered phosphatic shale to hard, tightly cemented, unaltered phosphate rock. To supplement current methods of beneficiation (normally restricted to sizing), the USBM has developed a flotation procedure that includes depression of phosphate minerals with H2SiF6 and anionic flotation of carbonate minerals, followed immediately by cationic flotation of silicate minerals. Tested on several different ore types, the procedure has yielded phosphate concentrates that range in grade from 28 to 31% P2O3 with a phosphate recovery factor of 60 to 70%.

Jan 1, 1978

By John E. Caffrey

The Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969, Title III, Interim Mandatory Safety Standards for Underground Coal Mines, is devoted to protection of workmen from hazards of electricity, roof, ribs, fire, and explosions. The Rules and Regulations, promulgated through the Federal Register, provide the criteria by which the law would be administered. Certain aspects of the law involve features that could be summarized under entrapment. These are sections 303 (y)(1), (y)(2) and 317 (f) (4). This paper is intended through the use of the figures to describe how these features of the law affect mine ventilation design, what are the problems, and possible solutions to them.

Jan 1, 1974

By H. C. Fiedler

THE development of the cube-on-edge secondary re-crystallization texture in Si-Fe strip depends upon the ability of inclusions to restrain normal grain growth. This ability is determined by the number and size of inclusions, which, for a given composition, is controlled by the thermal history of the material during the prior processing.' It has been shown2 that increasing the silicon content decreases the solubility of sulfur, and it is the purpose of this note to show the consequences of this decreased solubility for secondary recrystallization. Heats were made as previously described and cast into graphite molds.' The compositions are shown in Table I. Slabs 1 in. thick were cut from the ingots and either hot-rolled from 1000°C in the as-cast condition or after one of the heat treatments described later. The processing to the final gage of 12 mils followed the previous procedure.' To avoid cracking, the 5.2 pct Si alloy was cold-rolled at 150" to 200°C rather than at room temperature. The percent cube-on-edge texture developed by isothermal heat treatments was determined by dividing the maximum torque measured on disk sam-

Jan 1, 1968

By Roswell Johnson

A CANVASS of the various institutions known or suspected to be giving courses dealing with petroleum and gas revealed the courses listed in the accompanying table, which includes a summary of the number of class hours, as a whole, of the courses listed. It will be observed that the situation is grati-fying. Courses are presented in different institutions in the main geographic sections of the country, so that students have no difficulty in obtaining education in this field. The committee believes that the courses that are offered in many institutions are so inadequate in amount as to make it unwise for students who have not had additional work to consider themselves trained in this field. We strongly urge the few schools now presenting the most adequate courses to develop these more fully, bringing their work up at least to 300 hours, and let other schools concentrate their energies in other fields.

Jan 6, 1922

By Raphael G. Kazmann

Is electricity from nuclear-fueled power plants a partial solution to the energy shortage? According to various public and private institutions, the answer is an emphatic "yes." According to various other groups, the answer is an equally emphatic "no." I believe that a true and scientifically valid "yes" or "no" answer at this stage is premature because of conflicting claims and inadequate data regarding these two fundamental aspects: (a) the duty of uranium, i.e., the actual number of kilowatt-hours that can be generated from a ton of natural uranium through the use of light water reactors; and (b) the availability of uranium in the US to meet the lifetime requirements of the reactors scheduled for construction in the 1975-1985 period, as well as to supply the requirements of those reactors now in operation.

Jan 8, 1975