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By Howard L. Hartman

6.1-1. Introduction. Of necessity, the first of the unit operations conducted during the exploitation phase in surface mining is production drilling. It precedes blasting, with which it is associated as the two unit operations employed to break or fragment consolidated material (usually rock) in place. The purpose of production drilling is to provide the cavity for placement of the explosives. So far, no alternative to blasting has been devised for fragmenting very resistant rock in situ, although some forms of excavation (ripping, bucket wheel) are suitable without prior blasting for softer rock, such as weathered shale or mudstone, decomposed sediments, etc. For the vast majority of surface mines, however, drilling and blasting are pre- requisite to excavation and essential to the production cycle. Drilling is also used in surface mining for purposes other than providing blastholes. It finds application during exploration for obtaining samples and during development for drainage, slope stability, foundation testing, etc. Only in the exploitation phase of surface mining, however, are unique or specialized drilling methods and equipment employed; and the discussion in this Section is directed primarily to that application of drilling. Drilling is the most common means of rock penetration, the operation of placing a directed hole in rock. Closely akin to drilling for exploitation purposes is the cutting or freeing of dimension stone in quarrying. This operation, usually termed channeling or sawing, also takes the form of directional penetration of rock; but instead of producing a cylindrical hole, it yields a kerf or cut. The material thus freed from the solid is both a shaped and sized product, an objective of vital importance in the dimension stone industry. In sawing, holes are sometimes drilled to insert tools, but this drilling is a minor part of the sawing operation and employs conventional methods. Cutting, as a unit operation for freeing stone in quarrying, may be considered equivalent in purpose to drilling and blasting in other forms of surface mining.

Jan 1, 1968

By E. W. Parker

Anthracite, as sent to market, comes under three general terms of description: characteristics, source and size. Anthracite is generally classified as white ash, red ash, or Lykens Valley. The white ash coals are sometimes further described as "hard" or "free-burning." Lehigh white ash would come under the former description and Shamokin white ash under the latter. As a rule, it may be said that the nearer the origin of the coal to the western extremity of the anthracite region, the softer and more free-burning it is. Indeed, for many years the coal from Trevorton, at the western tip of the Middle Western field, was classified as "semianthracite" in the shipment reports. Lykens Valley coal is always a red ash coal, with a higher volatile content than the general run of anthracite, and consequently free-burning. The name does not exclusively indicate the neighborhood in which the coal is dug, but rather refers to the beds from which it is obtained. These beds lie, not above the Pottsville conglomerate, as is the rule, but encased in it. The extreme eastern limit of the Lykens Valley beds would seem to be about Tremont, in Schuylkill County, and the Natalie mine, near Mount Carmel. There are, of course, traces of these beds farther to the east, but they do not seem to be workable. There are as many as six of the Lykens Valley measures found in the conglomerate at some points, but to a large extent they are unworkable. Whether this coal is obtained in the Lykens Valley proper, where the beds were first identified, or from the Shamokin Valley, it is always Lykens Valley coal, and it has long been considered a premium coal, especially desirable for domestic use, particularly when a quick, hot kitchen fire is desired. Coals are, of course, frequently marketed under special names—Jeddo, Scranton, Kingston, Old Company Lehigh, Famous Reading, Lacka-wanna, etc.—which, of course, have the trade significance which their producers and vendors have built up. General Description of the Various Coals, with Name of Seam and Producing District This is partly covered in the paragraphs above. Lykens Valley coal is produced from one or another of the six Lykens Valley beds lying within

Jan 1, 1930

By Charles E. Glass

The stabil ity of engineered embankments subjected to earthquakes has received considerable attention in the last 10 years, but most of the effort has been directed toward stability of earth dams. Based upon past performance, earthquake- induced failures on non-impounding mine waste structures will likely correspond to small, local slumps or debris slides, and their stability should be considered as an integral part of mine economic planning. As such, stability considerations should include earthquake hazard, characteristics of earthquake ground motion, dynamic slope stability, and the impact that waste-dump failures have on mine operations. Numerous techniques have been proposed for analyzing the stability of embankments subjected to earthquakes. Before choosing an analysis technique, it is worth noting two important differences between the dynamic response of waste embankments and natural slopes. First, waste embankments respond as structures having unique modes of vibration, which causes embankment motions to differ from nearby ground motion. Second, because of embankment response, accelerations can be different at embankment crests than elsewhere in the structure and occur at frequencies that do not correspond to input ground motion. Because of these factors, embankment response should be calculated prior to slope stability assessment. In this paper several analysis techniques designed to calculate slope stability are evaluated, and conventional pseudostatic techniques are shown to be inappropriate for dynamic considerations. Techniques to calculate dynamic stability should include embankment response, all characteristics of earthquake motion, and roughness along failure planes as input, and should provide a displacement time-history of the slide mass as output. Two techniques satisfy this criterion, and in this paper the LADRS technique is recommended for its versatility and simplicity.

Jan 1, 1985

By K. D. White, Chester W. Washburne

Colombia has an almost ideal situation with lespect to the world's markets, being only a short distance from the Panama Canal and the West Indies. The sailing distance from its Caribbean ports to New York is less than that from Tampico. Geographically, Colombia consists of three systems of broad mountain ranges separated by two long narrow valleys. The Cauca River valley separates the Western or Coastal range from the Central range. On the west side of the Coastal range are the Atrato and San Juan Rivers. The Central and Eastern ranges are separated by the Magdalena River valley. In the department of Santander the Eastern range divides, one branch continuing northward as the Cordillera of Perija, the other turning eastward across Venezuela as the Cordillera of Merida. Between these ranges is the great basin occupied by Lake Maracaibo. These valleys consist mainly of long narrow reentrants or tongues of Tertiary sediments between the older rocks of the mountain ranges. The late Miocene and younger sediments seem to have been deposited in separated basins, but the Cretaceous and possibly some earlier Tertiary strata were laid down more or less continuously over a great part of Colombia and Venezuela. These strata were subsequently folded into the present ranges. The deposition of the Cretaceous and of some of the Tertiary was in a great sea, the main land mass being in Brazil, with land probably along some of the cores of the present mountain systems. The sediments, except the Lower Cretaceous, vary markedly in character and thickness. An illustration is seen in the massive series of non-marine conglomerates and sandstones of the upper Magdalena River valley, near Honda, which are almost wholly wanting in the coastal sections where marine sediments prevail. The oldest rocks bearing on the search for oil are the black carbonaceous and bituminous shales, limestones, and cherts of the upper part of the Lower Cretaceous. These probably are the main source of oil in both Colombia and Venezuela. They include thick bodies of true "oil shale." Above the carbonaceous and bituminous beds, lies a series of many thousand feet of clastic sediments. The most noticeable and easily recognizable formation among these clastic sediments is the "coal-bearing series," which may be either upper Cretaceous or Eocene. The

Jan 1, 1923

By Samuel G. Lasky

FAULTING at Kennecott, with its attendant fracturing, is unusual, complex, and important. As study and knowledge of the various fault systems have progressed, appreciation of that importance has helped in the selection of proper horizons for exploration and in the avoidance of useless crosscutting and drifting. During the study of this faulting and fracturing, a suggestion concerning the formation of the ore-bearing fissures occurred to me. Further study in the available portions of the approximately 45 miles of workings in the Kennecott mines for the purpose of checking up the the suggestion led to the hypothesis which this paper will attempt to present. Briefly, the hypothesis may be stated as follows: The formation of transverse faults that stop against a main system is connected with changes in the strike or dip of the main fault, and such cross faults or fractures lie in the moving block of the main fault system and indicate a change in strike or dip of the main fault. It has been found that each kind of change tends to produce definite effects and that careful study of the evidence can often suggest the exact type of change. Outline of Kennecott Mines Geology The mines at Kennecott are on the northeast flank of a broad anticlinell where erosion has exposed the Upper Triassic Chitistone limestone resting conformably on the Permian or Triassic Nikolai greenstone.2 These two are the only formations exposed in the immediate vicinity of the mines that bear relation to the ore deposits. The Nikolai greenstone is a series of altered basaltic lava flows, the actual thickness of which is unknown. The Chitistone limestone is the ore-bearing formation. At its base is a bed of about 5 ft. of red, green, or black shale which shows strong evidence of movement wherever it is exposed underground—one of the

Jan 1, 1929

HenRy Clay FRick, a pioneer in modern coke and steel industry and, in more recent years, one of the outstanding financiers of America, died on Dec. 2, 1919, at his home on Fifth Avenue, New York. Although he had been ill since election day, when he had an attack of indigestion which developed into ptomaine poisoning, his death was a surprise to all. He is survived by his widow, Adelaide Howard Childs Frick; a son, Childs Frick, one unmarried daughter, Helen C. Frick, and four grandchildren. A quiet funeral service was conducted at the Frick home on Wednesday afternoon by the Rev. Dr. Leighton Parks, pastor of St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church. This was attended by members and very intimate friends of the family, Trustees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Officers of the Links Club, and Directors of the United States Steel Corpn. Henry Clay Frick was born Dec. 19, 1849, in West Overland, Westmoreland Co., Pa. His father, John W. Frick, was a farmer of Swiss ancestG, and his mother, Elizabeth Overholt Frick, a member of an old Mennonite family. Until he was sixteen, he spent his time at school, on his father's farm, and in his grandfather's distillery, where he kept books. He attended Otterbein University, in Ohio, for a year. Frick, learning that coke was an essential of the already rapidly developing steel business, early invested every cent he could get in coking-coal lands. With the help of an associate of his grandfather, he formed the corporation of Frick & Co., coke dealers, and acquired fifty-one ovens in the Connellsville region and 300 acres of soft-coal lands. During the panic of '73, with the help of Judge Thomas Mellon, a Pittsburgh 'banker, he bought out his partners and while coke was selling at 90 cents a ton enlarged his purchases of suitable lands. Later, the price of coke increased until it was selling at $5 a ton. Before he was 30 years old, Frick was rated a millionaire. Association with CaRnegie In 1878, he sold an interest in the business Do E. M. Ferguson of New York, and later a share to Mr. Ferguson's brother. Four years later the business was reorganized into the H. C. Frick Coke Co. with vast coal lands, great banks of ovens, and a capitalization of $2,000,000. Then began his association with Andrew Carnegie. He exchanged a part of his coke interest for shares in Carnegie Brothers of Pittsburgh,

Jan 1, 1920

CONTENTS PAGE CARMICHAEL, NORMAN, and KIDDIE, JOHN.-Development of Mine Transportation in Clifton-Morenci District. Discussed by Norman Carmichael, Charles Legrand, B. B. Gottsberger 1 BARER, THOMAS C.-Fresnillo - Glory-hole Mining Practice. Discussed by Charles A. Mitke, B. B. Gottsberger, E. R. Thomas, Enoch Perkins..: 3 BRADLEY, P. R.-Estimation of Ore Reserves and Mining Methods in Alaska Juneau Mine. Discussed by R. M. Raymond, A. H. Rogers, Enoch Perkins, H. G. Moulton 6 BIRCH, STEPHEN.-Geology and Mining Methods of the Kennecott and Beatson Mines. Discussed by R. M. Raymond, Alan M. Bateman, Enoch Perkins 8 LEES, CHARLES E.-Mining Methods and Costs at the Iron Cap Copper Co., Copper Hill, Ariz. Discussed by A. L. Walker, A. Neustaedter 10 BELL, CHARLES N. -Mining Methods of the Telluride District. Discussed by Charles S. Hurter 10 Development of Mine Transportation in Clifton-Morenci District Discussion of the paper of NORMAN CARMICHAEL and JOHN KIDDIE, presented at the New York Meeting, February, 1924, and issued, as. Paper No. 1310-M, with MINING AND METALLURGY, March, 1924. NORMAN CARMICHAEL.-We realized the objections too the gable-bottom car, but were almost forced to its adoption by the same reasons that caused us to retain the 20-in. gage. To use another car would have meant a vast number of changes, for our transportation system was quite extensive; all mine chutes and ore bins were arranged for that car. Had we been laying out, new works, many of our decisions would have been different. MEMBER.-If you were planning it now, would you not put in box bottom cars with a rotary dump? NORMAN CARMICHAEL.-We surely would. One objection to the gable-bottom car is the spill. No, matter how carefully the cars are kept up,: there is always leakage and spill. The cost of keeping and maintaining the cars in a good state of repair, so as to keep that loss at a minimum, is not necessary for a box-bottom car.

Jan 6, 1924

By R. A. Kinzie

THE major operating costs in a cement plant are labor, power, and fuel. The opportunities and methods of savings in labor and power parallel other industries. Because our industry's use of fuel is large and its method of use is unique, the devices adapted for saving fuel are of interest. In normal practice the raw material in the form of a dry powder or a mud is fed to a rotating inclined cylinder where it is dried, calcined, and clinkered. In a Lepol kiln the raw material is rolled up into little balls with water in the nodulizer, fed to a traveling grate on which it is dried and partially calcined and tben to a short kiln where the process is finished. The more usual methods of saving heat have been the use of long kilns with chains in wet process plants and the use of waste heat boilers in dry plants (fig. 1). At the Santa Cruz plant we have used a Lepol system kiln and achieved a fuel 'economy of 4.7 gal per bbl of clinker or about 704,-000 Btu per bbl. This can be compared with our old kilns using the same fuel and raw material which consume 7.8 gal per bbl or 1,130,000 Btu per bbl. These are gross Btu and not the net figures usually used in reports of foreign companies. Our average consumption for 1948 was 708,000 Btu per bbl of Lepol clinker, based on cement sold, and oil purchased. The overall fuel consumption for 1948 was 6.61 gal per bbl. The Lepol system consists of a nodulizer, a grate, and a kiln. There is the usual accessory equipment which is similar to that used in other cement plants. The following description covers the equipment in operation at our plant. The nodulizer is a cylinder 8 ft 10 in. in diam by 18 ft long set on a slope of 1/2 in. per ft, and rotated at about 10 rpm. It is driven by a 50 hp wound rotor motor drawing about 9 kw. The inside of the shell is cleaned by a continuously operating scraper which draws 0.1 kw. The dry raw material is fed to the nodulizer where, being sprayed with water, it rolls into small spheres about 90 pct being between 1/2 and 1 in. in diam and containing about 15 pct water. The nodules fall on the traveling grate where the hot gas from the kiln is pulled down through the

Jan 1, 1951

By Paul Weir

During the past decade, methods of producing bituminous coal in the state of Illinois, which ranks third in production among the states in which bituminous coal is mined, have undergone great changes. From less than one million tons in 1923, the strip-mine production has gradually increased to a high of 11,725,870 tons in 1937. From a negligible amount prior to 1927, the amount of coal mechanically loaded underground had increased to a high of 28,374,362 tons in 1937. The amount manually loaded in 1937 reached a low of 12,332,023 tons. In this same year, this state ranked first in strip-mine production, also in mechanically loaded production. For this reason a study of the influence of mechanization on location of production in Illinois may be helpful in anticipating what may happen in other producing states. The reason for the changes in methods lies in the differences in costs of production. The Bureau of Research and Statistics of the National Bituminous Coal Commission has made public the following costs of production by various methods in the state of Illinois (district 10) for the last nine months of 1937: all mines, $1.7602 per ton; strip mines, $1.4319; mechanical loading mines, $1.7457; hand loading mines, $2.1793; all underground mines, $1.8703. These are weighted averages for the entire district. Inasmuch as production in 1937 was reported from 58 counties scattered over two-thirds of the area of the state and from five different seams varying in thickness from less than 3 ft. to as much as 12 ft., it is apparent that the location of production must be influenced by the extent of mechanization possible in the various producing counties. SHIFT in Production The term "mechanization" is commonly used to designate the coal-loading operation. However, in a broader sense it embraces the use of any and all mechanical and electrical equipment on the surface and underground. Strip mining is an intensive form of mechanization. The mechanical cleaning of coal is a form of mechanization. Cutting machines and motor haulage likewise are forms of mechanization, hence

Jan 1, 1940

By Charles Becker

THE practice of drying phosphate in Florida is as old as the industry, which began a little more than half a century ago. The methods, however, have changed considerably. At first, the natural process of exposure to the sun and air was used, later supplemented by wood fires beneath open-air stationary dry kilns and drying towers of various designs. It was not until the early nineties that rotary driers came into use, and at first they were of very small design and fired with wood. As the industry grew and tonnage increased, so likewise grew the number and size of rotary driers, until today the largest installations are 6 ft. up to 7 ft. 6 in. in diameter, and 55 to 60 ft. long, fired with crude oil. The reasons for drying phosphate rock are: (1) to eliminate freight on water in the shipment and (2) to facilitate the good grinding qualities required by the buyers in their acidulation. Phosphate pebbles vary materially in natural characteristics and each property has a direct bearing on the processing. In making comparisons of cost and operating conditions, the following are usually taken into consideration: 1. The hard dense pebbles, which contain very little interior moisture and 6 to 8 per cent total moisture, usually produced from the low-grade deposits. 2. The lighter, porous pebbles, which contain 4 to 5 per cent interior moisture and a total moisture ranging from 9 to 15 per cent. 3. The product of recovery operations using oily reagents, containing from 15 to 25 per cent moisture. 4. The size of the pebbles. Usually the plus 5-mesh material is considered as "coarse rock"; the minus 5-mesh plus 24-mesh is "fine rock," and the minute particles below 24 mesh are called "concentrate." 5. The amount of moisture allowed in the dried product. The practice is generally to dry down to 1.5 to 2 per cent moisture. There is, however, an actual range in guarantee of from 1 per cent maximum to 3 per cent maximum.

Jan 1, 1936

By J. F. Lazenby, W. F. Abercrombie

The role of the laboratory is described in relation to the prospecting and exploration of kaolin clays. Test method's used to evaluate crude ore samples of kaolin clay for commercial consideration are reviewed. A background of the kaolin mineral and known means of prospecting this mineral are presented. Common analytical methods are discussed with special emphasis on those in use today.

Jan 1, 1983

By Laurence W. Casteel

Indian Creek Mine, newest of the St. Joseph Lead Co. properties, is located in southeast Missouri on the flanks of a buried porphyry ridge. Here the orebodies are very irregular in size and shape and have a regional pitch of about 15°, which may vary locally from 0 to 90°. To maintain an economical grade of ore, selective mining is imperative. The room and casual pillar method is employed with 20-ft diam pillars 35 ft apart where possible. Stopes vary in height from 10 to 55 ft. All are too small to supply a loading unit continuously.

Dec 1, 1956

Jan 1, 1937

By Mary Sue Coates

Characterization of the rock mass in which deep underground structures are to be located is of critical importance to the feasibility and design of the structures. The process involves areal studies, subsurface exploration and extensive testing to obtain comprehensive data on the rock units which will enclose the excavated structures. The Illinois Deep Hole Project provides an example of characterization of rock at great depth describing the types and variety of tests and studies which were utilized and the results obtained.

Jan 1, 1984

By G. W. Mao, A. M. Gaudin, D. W. Fuerstenau

Jan 1, 1960

By William J. Bronkala

Magnetic Separation is a proven means of effectively obtaining purification and/or concentration of mineral products. In addition, magnetic separators are widely used for tramp iron removal in the protection of mineral processing machinery such as crushers, conveyors, mixers, etc. This paper summarizes the various types of magnetic separators available and outlines their basic selection and usage. Current magnetic separator costing is provided for general guidance and estimating.

Jan 1, 1978

By E. F. Young

The Porter Tunnel will open up 10 million tons of coal for Philadelphia & Reading which can be taken without hoists or pumps.

Jan 3, 1951

By Louis A. Panek

Rock-mass fracturing was measured on oriented drill core and along scanlines in three mines extracting mineralized porphyry deposits. Fracture families identified in the core were consistent with those found along scanlines, but fracture frequency in the core was twice that measured along scanlines. The excess fractures, which occur within 45º of a right angle to the core, apparently are produced during drilling, which implies that fracture spacing in drill core is an ambiguous quantity dependent on the drilling procedures, on the orientation and cohesion of the planes of weakness, and on the actual fractures present in the rock mass.

Jan 1, 1984

By W. K. Lewis, Lombard Squires, W. I. Thompson

The authors presented an article2† last year on colloidal properties of clay suspensions in which they attempted to sustain the position that the behavior of clay suspensions is due primarily to the mechanical interference of the platy particles, the nature and extent of the interference being profoundly influenced by the character of the surfaces of the particles, which in turn is determined primarily by the nature and amount of adsorbed foreign materials held on the surface of the particles by forces which are predominantly chemical in type. The following discussion is a continuation of that article to extend these same interpretative points of view to the behavior of clay gels. Insight into the mechanism of gelation is certainly of outstanding importance in the handling of drilling muds. In the former article it was suggested that the thin, flat plates that constitute the ultimate clay particles may build up aggregates by the overlapping of the ultimate plates face to face much longer and perhaps also much wider than the ultimate plates themselves, but not appreciably thicker. Exhaustive microscopic examinations of characteristic clays show no tendency for the larger particles, clearly visible under the microscope, to orient themselves in this way. It is true that the gelation of the clays is due primarily to the smallest particles, unresolvable other than by the ultramicroscope, so that the possibility of the deve1opment by them of an overlapping structure is not excluded. Furthermore, as one approaches the limit of resolving power of the microscope, the difficulty of observing accurately the shapes and relative positions of particles incresses excessively. However, in the absence of any observable tendency toward overlapping orientation of the large, visible particles, one hesitates to ascribe such a tendency to the smaller particles beyond the range of visibility. Should it develop that one must exclude the assumption of overlapping orientation, the explanations offered in the previous article are changed in only one respect; namely, one would now have to assume that the ultimate particles themselves have length, and probably also width, very large in comparison with their thickness.

Jan 1, 1936

By Mark Sheppard

DuRing the winter of 1937, the writer visited a West Virginia stone quarry at which the overburden is stripped hydraulically. The quarry is in a bed of limestone, about 200 ft. thick, which outcrops on a hillside above a small river; the quarry face is 175 ft. high. The top of the stone is cut in all directions by erosion channels, which are filled with a tough, red clay. Some of the larger channels are 30 ft. deep and 8 ft. wide. The thickness of the clay overburden ranges from a few inches to 10 ft., the average being estimated as less than 3 feet. The topography of the district is rugged, and the hillside above the quarry face is not suited to the use of the usual mechanical methods of moving dirt. Until hydraulicking was started 10 years ago, the overburden was dug by hand labor, dumped to the quarry floor and transported to the dump in quarry cars. Cleaning deep channels was a slow and expensive process. When hydraulicking was started, the top of the quarry face was over 200 ft. above the level of the river. The pipe line was carried in a semicircle around the top of the quarry about 200 ft. from the face and about 50 ft. above it. As there is no adequate supply of water above the quarry, the water must be pumped from the river. As quarrying progressed the pipe line was moved until the discharge points are now over 300 ft. above the river. Water is pumped from the river by a four-stage centrifugal pump having a 5-in. intake and a 4-in. discharge. It is direct-connected to a 200-hp., 2300-volt, 1760-r.p.m. induction motor. At 1760 r.p.m. the rated capacity of the pump is 750 gal. per minute under a head of 600 ft. The pump is installed in a house of frame construction on the river bank, about 10 ft. above normal water level, which also houses the pump for the mill-water supply. Above the pumps are hoisting bays into which the motors are raised whenever the river reaches flood stage. An 8-in. suction line, equipped with a strainer and a foot valve, takes the water from a concrete sump at the edge of the river. The pipe line from the pump consists of 1750 ft. of 8-in. spiral steel flanged pipe and

Jan 1, 1938