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By W. H. Triplett

Silver-lead-zinc replacement deposits occur in limestones of the anticlinal Caja range at Providencia, near Avalos, Zacatecas, Mexico. The description deals with intrusives, outcrops, preferred horizons, changes from bedding to fracture, control in depth, and variations in abundance and ratios of minerals throughout a vertical range of 500 m. THE purpose of this paper is to record a few field observations and accumulated office data concerning outcrops, relation of ore occurrences to intrusive and host rock, and mineral zoning. Reasons for some of the phenomena are not clear to the author so the facts are given with the hope that other investigators may be able to furnish the explanations. The Avalos unit of the Compania Minera de Penoles, S. A., operates the Alicante, Bonanza, Providencia, Albarradon, San Eligio, Nazareno, Leona, Salaverna, and Santiago mines situated between Avalos railroad station and Concepcion del Oro on the Coahuila and Zacatecas railroad in the State of Zacatecas, Mexico. Some of these mines are within Penoles property while others are on mining claims leased from the Compania Nazareno y Catasillas, S. A., Mazapil Copper Co., and the American Smelting and Refining Co. The main office and camp are at Providencia, about 170 km southwest of Monterrey, N. L., so the silver-lead-zinc mines of the district are usually referred to as the Providencia mines. The Aranzazu, Catarroyo, and Cabrestante copper-gold mines are situated a few kilometers to the southeast on the same mountain range near Con- cepcion del Oro, the name by which the camp is known. It is operated by the Mazapil Copper Co. The main theme in the following pages is a description of the silver-lead-zinc ore occurrences of the district. Rock Formations Sedimentary Rocks: Many competent geologists have contributed generously to an ample fund of information concerning the sedimentary columns of northern Mexico. Among them are Carlos Burck-hardt, E. Bose, L. B. Kellum, and R. W. Imlay. Carlos Burckhardt, who covered a number of extensive areas in many parts of the Mexican Republic, devoted years to mapping the geology of the Caja, Zuloaga, and Santa Rosa mountain ranges around Mazapil, Concepcion del Oro, and San Pedro de Ocampo, Zacatecas. He did most of the original mapping which has been used as a basis and amplified by others. C. E. Burbridge and, more recently, John

Jan 1, 1953

By R. A. Flinn, John T. Norton

A considerable number of experiments in recent years have definitely established the fact that the internal friction or mechanical hysteresis of a metal under cyclic stress is a property that is highly "structure sensitive." Because of this fact, it has been suggested that an observation of this property, which often is referred to as "damping capacity,'' might be a useful indicator of structural changes taking place when a metal or alloy is subjected to any of a number of metallurgical treatments. Damping capacity is of interest to both engineer and metallurgist, but from a rather different point of view, and the information that each desires from such observations is of a different nature. The metallurgist is in search of various external indications of changes taking place in the interior of a metal; changes which are in themselves not directly observable. Even if the observed phenomenon cannot be explained in fundamental terms, it may be empirically related to certain characteristics of the material and prove of real value in research. Internal friction or mechanical hysteresis occupies such a position, and, although it is not well understood in terms of basic metallic theory, an observation of its changes can serve in a very useful capacity. Of course, there is nothing new in the measurement of damping, but the use of this property in metallurgical research constitutes a vast field, which has received all too little attention. The present work is essentially of an exploratory nature in this field and is an attempt to evaluate the process as a research tool. The phenomenon of age-hardening was chosen as a typical example of a structural change and one method of measuring damping was examined in considerable detail. Methods of Measuring Damping Capacity Many kinds of observations can be made upon a specimen subjected to a cyclic stress from which can be calculated the energy absorbed in

Jan 1, 1938

By C. Edwin Nighman

THE following is a description of the methods used in rescuing men and extinguishing the underground fire at the Pennsylvania mine, Butte, Mont. This fire, which cost the lives of 21 men, began about 9 p.m., Feb. 14, 1916, at or near a ventilating fan on the 1,200 air-shaft station. This shaft at that time was downcast, while the main hoisting shaft was upcast. Owing to the proximity of the fire to the air shaft, the air in the latter soon became heated, and as the fan on the level was not running¬the power having been cut off shortly after the outbreak' of the fire-the aim' shaft became upcast to the 300 level. At this point a blanket of cold air from the surface caused the smoke and gases to he drawn in on that level and carried down again through the workings to the 1,200. A short time after the discovery of the fire, water was turned down the air shaft through a series of pipes around the collar of the shaft, which caused the smoke to recede, below the 300, so that within 2 hr. it was possible to search that level for the missing men. From the above it will be apparent why the air shaft was upcast instead of downcast as under normal conditions, and why men were suffocated at considerable distances from the seat of the fire. The smoke and gases that came up the main hoisting shaft did not diffuse through the workings to any extent. There are doors on all levels in the connections to the main hoisting and air shafts, but-in the confusion and running around many of these doors were left open, and this undoubtedly caused the smoke and gases to spread more rapidly than they would otherwise have done. It was necessary for most of the men on the various levels to pass close to the air shaft in going to the hoisting shaft, and when they encountered the smoke and gases in that vicinity a number turned hack and climbed down with the direction of the air currents and were then suffocated, while all those who passed through the relatively short pall of smoke to the main shaft were saved.

Jan 2, 1917

By Harrison Schmitt

The Parral area, a part of the Parral mining district of Southern Chihuahua, is situated in and near the City of Parral, with the most important mine of the district, La Prieta, lying within the city limits. The famous Veta Colorado and Palmilla veins near Villa Escobedo or Minas Nuevas are a few kilometers to the northeast (see Fig. 1). The chief metals produced are silver, lead and zinc, with some copper and gold. This area was one of the earliest to produce metal in Mexico, according to records at Parral, which show that mining started in 1632. In near-by Santa Barbara, however, mining had begun 85 years earlier. It is said that when silver was discovered in the Veta Colorado, the Santa Barbara gold deposits, at that time nearly exhausted, were immediately abandoned for the more profitable silver mines at Minas Nuevas (New Mines) During the post-revolutionary period, 1923-1928, the author made many trips to the Parral district to do mine examination work for several units of the American Smelting and Refining Co. This paper is an abstract of some of the geologic data collected, together with the results of a microscopic study of the ores and rocks—the latter investigation made at the University of Minnesota—and is intended to supplement one recently published. Topography The Parral district lies in the eastern foothills belt of the Sierra Madre Oeste. The area is about evenly divided between fairly flat to rolling plains and mesas on the south and rounded hills to rough precipitous slopes on the west and north. The relief is approximately 550 m. (1800 ft.). The areas of intrusive monzonite and Jurassic (?) sedimentary rocks give rise to a topography of low rounded hills and relatively flat valleys; as contrasted with the volcanics, with their alternating beds of soft

Jan 1, 1931

By Chung Wang

CHINA now leads the world in antimony production, having contributed during recent years something over 60 per cent. of the world's production. The history of the antimony industry of China dates back to 1897 when the Tai Shing Co. was formed, under contract with the Hunan. Bureau of Mines, for the smelting of the ore to crude; and in 1908 the Wall Chang Mining & Smelting Co. was formed for the smelting and refining of the ore and crude to regulus. The writer was then asked to take charge of the erection and control of this first plant for regulus production in China and has, since then, been more or less connected with the antimony industry in this country. This paper contains the results of many years' experience in connection with the Wah Chang Mining & Smelting Co., Changsha; the Pao Tai Mining & Smelting Co., Wuchow; the Loong Kee Smelting Works and the To-Cheng Smelting Works, Hankow; as well as information gathered from various other small smelters, scattered in different parts of the Provinces of Hunan, Hupeh, Kwangsi, and Kwangtung. An idea of the growing importance of regulus production in this country can be gleaned from the fact that, within a period of about 8 years, the export of regulus from Hunan alone jumped from 3 tons in 1908 to about 6000 tons in 1915; that a production of about 23,000 tons of regulus per year could easily be effected from all the smelters, as tabulated below, most of which were erected a year or two ago under the stimulus of the war booms, if the price at Hankow were to stay somewhere about $900 (Mexican) per ton, half of what it was at its height, thus enabling the utilization of ores from the hinterlands of the provinces; and even under the present ruling of prices and the closing of the less-favored smelters, the production of regulus should not be less than 12,000 tons per year.

Jan 4, 1918

By H. A. Wheeler

That lead and zinc deposits are the result of prolonged,, slow deposition is the idea of most students of ore deposits, and in many cases, where the ore-bearing solutions have been very weak or the precipitating conditions have been very feeble, the ore accumulations have undoubtedly taken a long period of time. As these two vital conditions have been subject to great variations in the different mining camps, the following example is highly interesting in showing that deposition can be very rapid under favorable conditions, geologically speaking, and also extremely recent. In fact, the writer is inclined to regard most, if not all, of the Mississippi Valley deposits of lead and zinc as probably being very young, at least not older than Tertiary, if not Quarternary, in age. The extensive Joplin lead and zinc district, in southwestern Missouri, which is about 60 years old and has numerous mines that were abandoned from 1 to 50 years ago, shows that the lead and zinc today are in an active condition of solution and redeposition, although these two metals occur in the predominant form of sulfides. The mine waters from the older and more or less abandoned portions of the district are frequently so acid, mainly from the oxidation of associated pyrite, as to necessitate the use of wooden pipes and pumps. The first boom in the Oklahoma zinc fields, which is the southwestern extension of the Joplin district, occurred when ore was accidentally struck in drilling a water well. Among the mines then opened up was the Mission mine, at Lincolnville, Ottawa County, Okla. This mine was opened in 1903 in lean "sheet ground," or a flat blanket formation of chert carrying disseminated zinc blende, or "jack," and galena. Theore-body was very free from iron pyrites and the concentrates were very high grade, the "mineral," or lead concentrates, assayed 80 to 85 per cent. lead and the jack, or sphalerite, assayed 60 to 65 per cent. zinc. The orebody was very shallow, occurring at a depth of 76 to 95 ft. (22 to 28 m.) and very wet, requiring three or four pumps to handle the water. The mine was operated until 1914, when it was closed by litigation and immediately filled with water. The second Oklahoma boom, five years ago, opened up the large, active camps of Picher, Tar River, and Century, which are located 2 to 5 mi. west of Lincolnville. They are considerably deeper, being farther down on the westwardly dipping monocline that emanates from the Ozark

Jan 1, 1920

By Charles White Merrill

Money is one of the most pervasive elements in human life. The compensation for a workman's daily efforts is expressed as a wage and is measured in money. What an individual may consume depends largely on his income which also is expressed in terms of money. If he would start an enterprise its size would be determined in large part by the amount of money available for capitalization and its success would be measured in net income expressed in money. In short, the most widely used common de- nominator for comparing merchandise, real property, jobs, enterprises, gross national product, or personal success is money. Despite this use of money by almost everyone past infancy to express his appraisal of the innumerable values he sees around himself, the complexity of the device called money makes its nature and workings a mystery to most users. Some of the difficulty in understanding money results from the fact that it has three distinct but interrelated functions: (1) a medium of exchange, (2) a unit of account, and (3) a store of value. In many statements about money the discussion moves from one function of money to another without the speaker or the listener recognizing the changes. For example, the housewife says "We took the money we had saved up to make the down payment and after twelve monthly payments the television will be ours." When this housewife spoke of "saving up the down payment" she referred to money in its function as a store of value; when she spoke of "the down payment" she was using money as a medium of exchange; and when she referred to the "monthly payments" she spoke of money as a unit of account. Another cause of confusion in understanding money is its paradoxical nature in that it represents both the power to produce and the power to consume. For example, when the rich uncle dies one nephew may regard his inheritance as an opportunity to buy a farm and leave the ranks of the wage earners to become an independent producer, whereas the other nephew may regard his portion as the means of living in complete leisure as a pure consumer.

Jan 1, 1964

By Thomas Darlington

THE obligation of an employer to the State requires certain things of him as matters of good citizenship: for instance, that his workmen shall have a living wage, that child labor shall not be employed, that injuries from accidents shall not- make workmen a charge upon the State, and that the laborer's children shall have opportunity for education and to become good and useful citizens. Affairs of this kind are not taken up as philanthropy, for the officials of a corporation or a large manufacturing concern may not feel at liberty to spend the funds of their company as prompted simply by motives of kindliness; but they may spend company money on such matters because it is good business. For years, the poisonous effects of lead, phosphorus and dust have been emphasized in books on industrial hygiene and their elimination has been urged; but the more important and everyday physiology of the workman himself has been neglected. Part of my object in writing this paper is to show how our knowledge of physiology may be applied to working conditions in everyday life. In the interest of industrial laborers, accident compensation laws have been enacted in 33 States. This has been carried forward rapidly, because it has been shown that it pays both employer and employee. A further step is the recognition of sickness and disablement independent of accidents, not only because of their immediate cost to the worker and to the employer, but because continued efficiency in work and business depends largely upon health. Some measure of the importance of health in industry can be gained by the knowledge that records kept by some companies which now make this the subject of careful inquiry show that the time lost by employees, through illness; is several times as much as that lost as the result of industrial accidents. It is true that accidents frequently result in permanent disability or death, but it is equally true that illness is also a cause of permanent disablement or death. Thus the chief difference is that the loss to the employee through accidents occurring in the course of his employment is now generally recognized as a cost

Jan 2, 1918

By Gerald A. Munson, Fremont F. Clarke

DURING recent years the use of lithium has expanded greatly in industrial, chemical, and metallurgical fields, while at the same time modernized methods of mining and refining lithium have increased production. Technical literature includes many papers describing the geology and mineralogy of lithium deposits. Mining and beneficiating problems, however, have not been thoroughly described. Published reports have failed to emphasize that one of the chief reasons lithium minerals were not extensively mined until recently is the difficulty of beneficiation. Four lithium minerals of pegmatites and the lithium-sodium-phosphate byproduct from the brines at Searles Lake, Calif., have been sources of lithium. Among the pegmatite minerals, only spodu-mene and petaline are known to occur in deposits large enough to support large tonnage operations. Spodumene, a lithium-aluminum-silicate, is the principal lithium mineral mined in the U. S. Lithium Corp. of America, during its rapid development and growth, has successfully employed three different methods of concentration: 1) hand sorting, 2) Heavy Media separation, and 3) froth flotation. Each method, though economic in its sphere, is becoming outdated as extractive techniques improve. The most recent development has taken place at Lithium Corp.'s new operation in North Carolina, where the extractive process yields lithium compounds directly from mined rock without an intervening concentrating step. Until 1954 Lithium Corp. mined only in the southern part of the Black Hills of South Dakota, where the various types of lithium-bearing pegmatite could be used to develop untried processes of beneficiation. Concentrates from these operations are shipped to the corporation's chemical plant in St. Louis Park, Minn., where actual extraction of lithium and production of commercial compounds takes place. Nature of Deposits The geology of the southern Black Hills pegmatite deposits is admirably presented by a U. S. Geological Survey publication.' Only the factors pertinent to exploitation need be mentioned here. Lithium Corp. has been interested primarily in three deposits, the Edison, the Mateen, and the Longview-Beecher No. 2. The history of these deposits dates back to the mining boom of 1880 to 1900 in the Black Hills, when most of the deposits were prospected for tin by the ill-fated Harney Peak Tin Mining Co. The three deposits described here, however, lay idle and unwanted until Lithium Corp. opened the Edison mine in 1943 and the Mateen and Longview-Beecher No. 2 in 1951. Edison Deposit: The Edison deposit is about a mile southeast of Keystone, S. D., on the northeastern flank of the Harney Peak uplift. The deposit consists of no less than four and probably at least six separate pegmatites that coalesce in a central mass from which the individual pegmatites finger outward and downward in complexly folded schist and gneiss beds of the country rock.

Jan 1, 1956

By J. E. Tiffany, S. S. Lubelsky

For blasting in coal mines the U. S. Bureau of Mines recommends that permissible explosives be used exclusively, that these shall be fired electrically, and that where feasible the working place shall be cut or sheared. These recommendations are made to promote safety and prevent mine explosions. Although permissible explosives are not flameless, their lower flame temperature and shorter duration of flanie make their use safer than that of nonpermissible explosives. Mixtures of air with both methane and bituminous coal dust, which are liable to occur in coal mines, may be ignited by coming in contact with any type of flame or spark of sufficient temperature and duration or by the firing of a blast. In a working place where a blast is to be fired, in addition to the use of permissible explosives, adequate ventilation for the dilution and removal of accumulations or outbursts of flammable gas should be provided. Bituminous coal mines should be rock-dusted as a means of rendering the coal dust harmless The efficient use of permissible explosives depends upon the proper preparation of the working place, standardized drilling, the strength characteristics of the explosive, and the use of a proper weight of charge. Experienced shotfirers should load, tamp and fire all holes. The major part of the information and data here presented is based on the results of efficiency tests made in large producing mines of Pennsylvania and Illinois. Bureau of Mines Report of Investigations, Serial No. 2697, describes how a standard method of blasting was worked out and put into operation in a mine in southern Illinois.' This paper contains a description of the methods worked out subsequently in another mine in that district. Descriptions of tests in two Pennsylvania mines are given in Bulletins 11 and 19 of the Carnegie Institute of Technology.2 These tests

Jan 1, 1928

By Clarence E. Sims, George A. Moore

INTRODUCTION IN previous publications of the writers4-7 it has been shown that vacuum extraction of steel can be carried as close to quantitative completion as desired provided the steel is in the austenitic state and sufficient time is allowed. For precise work, the method claims preference because the equipment for holding and heating the sample can be made simple, and because crucibles, boats, and other unnecessary materials can be eliminated and the blanks thus made very small. It is well known that the evolution rate of hydrogen is smaller just above the transformation than immediately below, as would be expected from the increase in solubility when passing into the gamma state. Many attempts have been made to obtain analyses by extraction just below the transition, using times of approximately 2 hr. While it is true that the rate of evolution drops nearly to zero under these conditions, it has repeatedly been shown that the process is incomplete since on raising the temperature into the austenitic range, evolution will be resumed, usually after a considerable induction period. The low-temperature evolution process appears to be useful in some cases for comparative tests where the residual error may be more or less constant between samples. For general use, however, there is no guarantee that the error caused by incomplete extraction is constant; hence, the more laborious but more reliable high-temperature process must be used. At high temperature, an original flash evolution, similar to that at lower temperature, is first observed. After not more than an hour, the flash subsides and evolution settles down to a regular first-order reaction rate for which the half-life* is usually of the order of a few hours for the 5/8-in. diam cylinder at 1050°C. The regular evolution may be followed for whatever period appears justified, after which the residual gas may be estimated as equal to that which was evolved in the last observed half-life period. Tests have shown that the composition of the evolved gas does not vary greatly during the progress of evolution; therefore the residual gas may safely be taken to have the same composition as the portion col-

Jan 1, 1948

By P. Nyul, S. Caplan, M. F. Lamorte, T. Gonda

Therrnal resistance is measured on GaAs laser diodes in the temperature range 77" to 300°K. These data show that typically the thermal resistance increases fifteen times from 77 to 300°K. The increase is attributed to the decrease in thermal conductivity of Gds. Nornzalized thermal-resistance experimental and calculated from published thermal-conductivity data) values are compared and good agreement shown. In many practical applications, it is desirable to obtain high average power output from laser diodes. Average power output is determined in large measure by the external efficiency and thermal resistance of the diode.'-3 The average input power with which a laser diode may be pumped is dependent on the thermal resistance. Thermal resistance has been studied over the temperature range from 77" to 300°K which is usually of interest in practical applications. This correspondence presents data on thermal resistance for GaAs laser diodes and compares them to values calculated from thermal-conductivity data. Junction heating arises from three distinct components: 1) joule heating, 2) nonradiative recombinations, and 3) reabsorption of radiation. In high-threshold lasers, joule heating predominates.4 Typically, the nonradiative recombination is not negligible and contributes significantly to junction heating. The loss caused by reabsorption may be of the order of the joule-heating loss.' The fabrication and the geometry of laser diodes have been described in other publications.5 The data presented were obtained from diodes which were fabricated from the same region of a wafer to minimize differences. Fig. 1 shows four types of heat sinks employed in this study. In types 1 and 2, the laser cavities are alloyed; pressure contacts are employed in types 3 and 4, and indium is plated on the inside faces to improve the intimacy of contact between the diode and the heat sink. The thermal resistance R is defined by the following relationship: where AT is the junction-temperature rise above the heat-sink temperature for the diode power dissipation Pd. For measurement of thermal resistance, a direct current is passed through the junction, in the range from 1 to 50 pct of threshold. The diode is placed in the laser mode by superimposing a current pulse of low-duty cycle on the direct current.3 Junction-temperature rise is obtained from the time-resolved laser spectrum at the leading edge of the current pulse.' Typically, the laser line shift is 2.5A per OK. The resolution employed in these experiments is 0.5A; therefore, the accuracy in the temperature measurement is 0.2K. Typically, the temperature rise is 2" to 20°K. The power dissipation is the difference between the dc power input, and the radiation power exiting the diode. The measurement accuracy is less than 1

Jan 1, 1968

By Peter J. Szabo

INTRODUCTION The time period from the detailed feasibility study to the post investment audity usually ranges from three to eight years depending upon the nature of the mining project considered. It is the only after the post investment audit that we know the adequacy of the assumptions made concerning operational risk assessment in the detailed feasibility or acquisition economics. The post investment audit results from numerous mining projects can best be described by a verse by John Greenleaf Whittier's Maaud Muller. It reads "For all sad words of tongue or pen the saddest are these 'It might have been!"' Dissecting the negative results of numerous mining projects we find faulty assumptions concerning markets, geology, capital investment and operational risk assessment. Although in hindsight many of these assumptions could have been considered impossible or impracticle to have forecast with any degree of certainty, we find that refined assumptions concerning operational risk assessment could have been made with only a modicum of additional "Due Diligence". Anyone who invests in a mining property should employ a much higher discount rate of future cash flow, (usually in the minimum range of 25%-30%), than he would expect from such safe investments as Treasury Bills or high grade Utility Bonds. The nature of this steep discount translates to a large uncertainty concerning the timing and actualization of assumptions contained in the detailed feasibility study. We must remember that when a project gets beyond 20 years, any contribution to the value of the project of cash flow is minimal due to the nature of the discounting process. Thus for each full or partial day lost in the development or early operation stage of a project, the financial impact will be greater than similar lost days later on in the project. Adequate operational risk assissment is particularly critical when bidding on competitive tenders for coal deposists in remote locations such as the Bowen Basin in Queensland, Australia. Because of the market attractiveness of these coal deposits for supplying end users in the Far East, Middle East and Europe, state governments require competitive tender biddings via the Authority to Prospect process. Front end bonuses and super royalty payments must be commited before the actual mining conditions are known. Time to submit firm offers from the actual request for proposal vary from 90 to 120 days. Thus any operational risk assessment must be detailed, realistic and reflective of the actual project. When one searches the literature, one finds limited qualitative data on operational risk assessment in valuation papers. Usually this facet of valuation takes a secondary role to such areas as reserves, markets, and environmental considerations. When one comes to the question of operational risk assessment more often than not one finds the use of "rules-of-thumb", such as tons per man shift, average production, average seam height, etc., are used to forecast results on which banks and other financial institutions are required to make investment decisions. Because of the extremely competitive environment of the 1970's and 1980's numerous financial institutions approved loans without adequate "Due Diligence", and are currently paying a steep price in terms of non performing loans and charge offs. One must always remember that each operation is unique with its own characteristic

Jan 1, 1985

By R. F. Evans, J. M. Avert

Much has been written of the glamour of magnesium from sea water, the Aladdin-like creation of a huge magnesium plant in the Nevada desert using cheap hydroelectric power from Boulder Dam; the marvels of the Hansgirg process for the electrothermal reduction of magnesium oxide by carbon, and the ferrosilicon process for producing magnesium from dolomite. This is the story of the production of magnesium by the electrolytic process, using steam-electric power supplied by a public utility, in a plant at Painesville, Ohio, 30 miles east of Cleveland on the shore of Lake Erie. The story is not without interest, since it involves several unique developments that provide the answer to a question frequently asked: How is it possible to produce magnesium metal economically at such a location as Painesville, Ohio? Basically, the answer lies in making use of facilities already in existence for the production of soda ash, which makes it possible to manufacture magnesium chloride, the principal raw material, cheaply enough to offset the high cost of electric power. To this is coupled the successful conversion of by-product chlorine into a product required for the war program. The source of magnesium for this opera- tion is the enormous surface deposit of high-grade dolomite in the region south of Toledo, within reasonable freight haul of Painesville. This same geological stratum underlies the Painesville plant, but unfortunately at a depth of about 3000 ft.— apparently too great a depth to permit underground mining to compete with the delivered cost of rock from surface quarries in other areas. The cost of dolomite obviously is an important factor, since the rock contains only some 12 per cent magnesium (20 per cent MgO) so that one dollar on the cost of stone means more than $8 in terms of its magnesium content, and more than that in terms of recoverable magnesium metal. Production of Magnesia from Dolomite In the summer of 1941, the Diamond Alkali Co. was well along with construction of a plant intended for the commercial production of refractory and other grades of magnesia from dolomite. The process to be used was designed to make maximum economic advantage of existing plant and operations by tying the production of magnesia in with the manufacture of soda ash in such a way as to make use of the lime [CaO)., value of calcined dolomite. The process finally adopted after a lengthy research and development program has much in common with the old Clerc-Nihoul process, but includes certain innovations found to be necessary or advantageous. Essentially, the process is based upon the following series of reactions:

Jan 1, 1949

By Herbert M. Wilson

We of the employer class represent labor in the social organization and in industry just as truly as do those who labor only with their hands, and, because our labor is chiefly with our brains, the duty is all the more imposed upon us to use those gifts in which we excel in helping steer a clear course through the turbulent waters in which we are now enmeshed. Only their selfish engrossment in the daily tasks they were employed to perform could possibly have permitted the great majority of the intelligent and industrious German people to become terrorized by a handful of the idle, the vicious, and the criminal, whom the elections to the National Assembly showed to be in as pitiful a minority as they are in Russia, in this, and in other countries. It is the leisure unemployment of the I.W.W.'s, the Bolsheviki, and the Sparticans that has enabled them to devote their whole time to a concerted and aggressive struggle against the great majority of those of the world's workers who are unorganized, and who are therefore even in opposition one to the other. In union there is strength, and this was never better illustrated than by these conditions. The great fallacy of our previous attitude toward social and industrial problems has been the belief that labor, by which we commonly mean organized or physical labor, is something antagonistic to and having a different object in life from that great body of unorganized laborers who work with their brains. Our difficulty has been our lack of will or opportunity to think. The hurry of our daily struggle to earn our livelihood under the nerve-racking pressure of modern civilization has left us no opportunity for quiet thought and study. The physical laborer, and above all the laborer in the mines, on the other hand, has all his hours of toil in which to think over, in all their varied aspects, those problems that concern his immediate, personal well-being. As a result he has arrived at perhaps a more true appreciation of the facts of life in their relation to social and industrial conditions than we. Have we not too readily adopted the view that, as the managers of industry under the direction of capital, it has been our duty to think and act in opposition to labor, rather than to realize that we also are laborers, have like aspirations, and should participate in a free and aggressive solution of these problems rather than leave their solution

Jan 1, 1919

By T. S. Washburn

Deoxidation is one of the most complex metallurgical operations in the basic open-hearth process. The necessity for deoxidation arises from the fact that the refining operations that precede it require the oxidation of the steel bath. when the refining is completed and the desired composition of the bath has been obtained with respect to the elements subject to control by 'oxidation. there is usually an excess of oxygen present in the bath from the standpoint of the amount desired in the finished steel. The objectives of deoxidation are to control the amount and type of oxides and, although not directly ilnp1it.d by the term or always considered as a Part of the process, to control the amounts of gases such as hydrogen or nitrogen that will be present in the finished steel. There are other aspects to be consideretl in connection with deoxidizing procedures. In addition to the primary objectives of oxide and gas control. the composition of the steel is affected by the elements introduced during the deoxidizing process. Factors in furnace operations are likewise involved, such as slag composition, temperature control. arid heat time. .ill of these should be considered in establishing the most satisfactory deoxidizing procedure for each grade of steel. The purpose of this paper is to outline the objectives of deoxidation as related to steel characteristics, and to summarize the factors in furnace practice and the economic aspects to be considered in connection with deoxidation procedures. Objectives of Deoxidation The primary objectives of deoxidation are the formation and elimination of oxides. The amount of oxygen present in the bath prior to deoxidation is an important factor, since it is the basis of any deoxidation procedure. The oxygen content of the bath is primarily a function of the carbon content, although it is affected also by the temperature, the oxidation of the slag, and transient conditions within the furnace. The relation of oxygen to carbon in the bath is shown in Table I. Table I shows that under actual operating conditions, the amount of oxygen present in the bath is higher than the theoretical amount. This relation would be expected, since the bath is in a state of metastablc equilibrium during the period that the carbon is being eliminated. The most important feature demonstrated by this table, however, is the rapid increase

Jan 1, 1945

By E. L. Bruce

The district of Patricia, in the province of Ontario, lies northwest of the Albany River and extends northward to Hudson Bay. Formerly this was the unorganized district of Keewatin, the southern part of which was divided in 1912 between the provinces of Manitoba and Ontario. The interprovincial boundary now runs north from Lake of the Woods for 275 miles and thence northeast 375 miles to Hudson Bay. This district is comparable in size to all the older part of Ontario south of the Canadian Pacific Railway east of Lake Huron—thus it is roughly one-third of the whole of the present provincial area. The central part of this great triangle is one of the least accessible parts of Canada. From it streams flow southward to the English River, southeastward to the Albany, northward to Hudson Bay and the Hayes River, and westward to Lake Winnipeg. None of the streams is large and canoe travel is not easy. The only industry it has ever had is the trade in furs. Until the development of the airplane on a commercial basis, the only means of travel was by canoe or dog-train. There is not a mile of railway in the whole district. The two areas to be dealt with lie in the southwestern part of Patricia. Red Lake is 50 miles east of the Manitoba boundary and 75 miles north of the transcontinental railway from Cochrane to Winnipeg. Woman Lake is 50 miles farther east and slightly farther north. The late Dr. D. B. Dowling, of the Geological Survey of Canada, visited Red Lake and spent some time there during his exploration survey from Lac Seul to Berens River in 1893. He also visited the Woman Lake basin during the same journey, but his examination of it was much less detailed, the great area covered by him during the one field season making it impossible to make more than a hurried reconnaissance. Some prospecting in the Red Lake district followed Dowling's exploration, but the distance from railway was too great for any systematic work to be done. In 1922, following the usual plan, the Ontario Department of Mines made a geological reconnaissance of the English River, following :in instrumental survey of that river and its lakes by the Department of Lands. A side trip was taken to examine the rocks of Red Lake described

Jan 1, 1928

By Irving A. Palmer

During the past 15 years in this country there have been few additions to the literature of lead smelting. After the consolidation of the principal smelting companies at the beginning of this period it became the policy of the larger company not to permit the publication of details in regard to many of its metallurgical processes. This led to similar action on the part of some of its competitors. The result, of course, was a decided decrease in the number of papers written upon the practical side of the subject. Even upon the theoretical side the contributions have been few. It would seem that the industry as a whole has suffered from this general unwillingness to exchange information. While it is true that a given company is entitled to the reward that may come from its own development of a new process, it is also true that a still greater reward might be the result of a free exchange of ideas with other plants. This principle has been recognized for a long time in other metallurgical industries, notably those engaged in the smelting of iron and the manufacture of steel. It is pleasing to note that the leading lead-smelting company has very recently decided to modify its policy of secrecy, and to permit the publication of papers covering some details of its metallurgical methods. The statement has been made that there has been but little progress in lead smelting during the period just referred to. This impression is due in part, no doubt, to the scarcity of papers written on the subject. 'There has been, it is true, some discussion of the new sintering processes, but with little reference to detail, and to the effect that blast roasting has had upon the industry as a whole. In spite of the prevailing belief, it may be said that lead smelting, in common with other metallurgical industries, has made steady and substantial progress. It is the purpose of the present paper to discuss briefly some features of the industry as it is now conducted, with special reference to the blast-furnace practice in the larger silver-lead smelting plants of the United States and Mexico.

Jan 1, 1915

By Willis H. Carrier

Particular interest in the ventilation of deep mines, especially those in South Africa, has been created by a very complete system of cooling of the world's deepest mine, the Turf shaft of the Robinson Deep in Johannesburg. The writer visited this mine in January, 1936, and again in 1937. During these visits and subsequently, a considerable part of the theory involved in rock cooling in tunnels was developed and this has been checked by practical observations of the rates of rock cooling made within mines. The purpose of this paper is to set forth the method of attack of the mine problem. The cooling or air conditioning of mines by the use of mechanical refrigeration was not wholly newl-5 when the Robinson Deep installation was made. The first mine to be cooled was the Morro Velho mine, in Brazil. The first installation in this mine was put into operation in December 1920, the refrigerant being ammonia.5 The surface cooling gave considerable benefit but it proved inadequate as greater depths were reached, therefore in 1929 two centrifugal refrigerating machines were installed at the 6000-ft. level. These were used in conjunction with the surface cooling system to furnish additional cooling at the lower levels. This later installation used Carrene as a refrigerant. This nonflammable refrigerant, having a boiling point of 104" at sea level, insured reasonable safety, since all parts of the machine operated at subatmospheric pressure. Very favorable reports have been received on the effectiveness of this installation, but no recent data are available. An interesting feature of that plant is that the condenser water is cooled by spraying it into the exhaust air from the mine at the base of the ventilation upcast, which permits the water to be cooled within a few degrees of the wet-bulb temperature of the air entering the upcast, and the only water that has to be supplied for condensing purposes is that lost by evaporation, or about 0.5 per cent of the volume circulating through the condenser. This plan affords an ideal means for the removal of the heat load from the refrigerating system, and of course also from the mine itself. In many mines, however, especially those in South Africa, there is no

Jan 1, 1940

By Jasper L. Stuckey

It is not known when kaolin mining was first begun in North carolina, Evidence, in the form of excavations and primitive tools, indicates that some of the deposits were worked in prehistoric times. It has been suggested that the prehistoric mining was for mica, but the workings were all in altered or partly altered pegmatite material and the dumps do not represent the amount of material removed. some of the early openings may have been made in search of kaolin or semi-kaolinized feldspar which was sold to English1 traders along the coast and used in some Of the early English porcelains. In 1744,2 an application was made for an English patent to produce porcelain from an earthy mixture obtained from the Cherokee Nation in North America. It is well established, however, that the occurrence of kaolin in western North Carolina was known in England by 1767. In that year, Josiah Wedgewood sent T. Griffiths3,4 to what is now Macon County, North Carolina, to secure a supply Of kaolin for use in England. Griffiths diary, now in Etruria Museum, Stokes-on-Trent, contains a most interesting account of his experience. Kaolin was discovered at St. Austell, England, shortly after the voyage Of Griffiths, which probably accounts for the lack of further interest in American kaolin. Between 1767 and 1888, there are no records of kaolin mining in North Carolina. In the latter year, however, mining was begun near Webster, Jackson County, and, in the intervening period, has become an important industry. 'Or some 20 years, kaolin mining was carried On chiefly in Jackson, Macon, and Swain Counties. About 1904, it was begun in the Spruce Pine district and for the past 20 Yea's most of the kaolin mined in the State has come from Avery, Mitchell, and Yancey Counties. Distribution The kaolins of North Carolina are limited in occurrence to the Piedmont Plateau and Appalachian Mountain area of the State. While kaolins are widespread in the Piedmont Plateau, having been prospected for in Rutherford, Cleveland, Gaston, Granville, Lincoln, Catawba, Ire-dell, Richmond, Moore, Randolph, and Montgomery Counties, the production from that area has never been important. The known deposits of commercial importance are limited entirely to the mountain area of the State. While kaolins occur widely distributed throughout the mountain area and have been prospected for in many counties of that area, commercial production has come chiefly from two districts. One of these includes Jackson, Macon, Swain, and Haywood Counties. The other includes Avery, Mitchell, and Yancey Counties. Geology With few exceptions, all the known kaolin deposits in North Carolina contain

Jan 1, 1948