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By W. F. Boericke

NOT the least interesting sights that New York has to offer the visiting mining engineers are the extensive tunnel operations that are being pushed in connection with the subway construction. While a "hard rock" man might feel at home on these jobs, the engineers driving the subway tunnels have necessarily had to encounter some new problems pe-culiar to the largest permanent mining camp in the country. To drive a heading 36 by 18 ft. in hard rock, with a station section to follow 52 by 27 ft. across-and to do it in the midst of a city's traffic-demands engineering skill of a high order. Not the least of the problems overcome by the engineers in charge was to provide adequate ventilation for the men at the face at all times, so that there would be no delay in the work. With a crew of 40 men (32 drill runners and helpers on the machines alone, working two shifts) a hold-up due to inability to get back promptly to the face after shooting would affect costs quickly. AIR VITIATED BY EXHAUST FUMES FROM MOTOR TRUCKS A complication not encountered by metal miners, but which the subway engineers had to meet, was pollution of the air in the tunnels by fumes from the exhaust of the motor trucks used to haul away the broken rock. As shown in the cut, motor trucks were constantly em-ployed to remove the heavy tonnage broken as the tun-nels went ahead, amounting, according to R. J. Van Wagner, chief engineer of the Del Balso Construction Co., to 48 cu. yd. per ft. of tunnel advance. As the length of the tunnel under his management was 900 ft., it was essential for the safety of the men that suffi-cient air be introduced to dilute the poisonous fumes so that no ill effects would be felt for the entire distance that the trucks had to travel. The presence of the ex-haust fumes was especially noticeable on foggy days.

Jan 2, 1928

By E. A. Moulder

The mining industry is continually faced with problems involving dewatering, pollution, water supply, leaching and hydrochemical mining and prospecting. Greater application of the principles of ground-water hydrology to solution of these problems promises improved operating efficiency, increased safety and better public relations. Estimating the magnitude of dewatering for a proposed mine may be a major factor in determining the feasibility of proceeding with mine development. Diverting the source of ground water to an abandoned mine may save costly treatment of acid-mine drainage. Development of a large ground-water supply near an ore deposit may enhance the possibilities of a leaching operation. Detection of certain dissolved minerals in water from springs or wells may lead to hitherto unknown mineral deposits. Current efforts of industry, educational institutions and government are making these kind of events more commonplace. Dewatering of Mines The magnitude of dewatering problems was dramatized by a flooding that occurred last year in a gold mine in South Africa. During drilling operations at the West Driefortein mine, a major fracture was encountered from which large volumes of water issued necessitating evacuation of 1350 men from the mine. Dewatering required an increase in pumping of more than 80 million gpd. Models of ground-water systems are being used to test alternate plans for dewatering mines. Using the models in conjunction with computer optimization programs may lead to minimizing costs of operation. In addition to computer simulation of aquifers associated with phosphate deposits in North Carolina mentioned in last year's report, two USGS employees developed a model to estimate the amount of pumping required to dewater a mine site in Colorado.

Jan 1, 1970

By E. W. Mehal, R. H. Cox

A planar Gunn oscillator was developed for use in a monolithic microwave integrated circuit. The device was designed to operate in the frequency range of 20 to 30 GHz with a continuous wave output. Selective epitaxial deposition was used to form the n+n-n+ device structure in (111)-B semi-insuluting GaAs. The active n- region was about 5 µ thick and was doped to about 2 x 1015 electrons per cu cm by the reactor background. The mobility was -5000 sq cm v-1 sec-1. The n+ epitaxial deposits were doped to 1 x 10" electrons per cu cm using S2Cl2. Planarity of the three DURING the past few years, new microwave devices in discrete form have been developed utilizing GaAs. The next logical step is to combine these devices in a successive deposits was quite good; total overgrowth was less than 1 µ. Metal ohmic contacts were applied to the n+ or n- regions using a Ag-In-Ge alloy. The n+n-n+ devices had symmetric IV characteristics and could be operated C. W. for both directions of device bias. Metal ohmic contacts made directly to the n-region always Produced asymmetric devices. C. W. operation was obtained over the 22 to 28 GHz frequency range. The best performance obtained was 1.5 mw C. LV. output at 28 GHz. microwave integrated circuit. A potential application would be a radar receiver operating in the millimeter wavelength region. The key component in such an integrated circuit is a microwave oscillator, recently described by Gunn.1, 2 Under the influence of a large electric field, high-resistivity GaAs exhibits a bulk negative resistance, and high-frequency current oscillations result. Since relatively high voltage and

Jan 1, 1969

POLITICAL developments, the impact of Korean warfare necessitating immediate rearmament plans, and recent developments in mining taconites have focused attention on their immediate exploitation to fill the gap created by diminishing reserves. The question of rich foreign ores versus low grade development is past-we need both sources with emphasis on the immediate large scale mining of taconites. In the past three months several things have occurred which add to the taconite picture: (1) Pellets have been used successfully in the blast furnace by Armco. (2) In Congress HR 8512 was introduced by Congressman Blatnik of Minnesota to amend the lending powers of RFC to permit long term loans on basic mining developments, particularly the taconites, which may be needed for the strengthening of the national economy. (3) Walter S. Tower, president of the American Iron & Steel Institute, announced that American steel companies are planning expansion of 6,000,000 tons of steelmaking capacities in the next few years. (4) The outbreak of war in Korea has obliged the United States to rearm and make plans for a semipermanent defense establishment to which 10 to 12 pct of the national income will be budgeted. (5) Startling new advances have been made in the Linde Air Products Co.'s jet-piercing drilling. The United States is now confronted with the problem of increasing its steel capacity and at the same time of securing enough iron ore to supply this increase as well as make provision for the rapidly decreasing supply of rich iron ore on the Mesabi range. Taconites, the low grade iron ore at the east end of the Mesabi, of which there are literally billions and billions of tons of easily concentratable magnetic ore, are the immediate answer. According to the Wall Street Journal on July 24: "Reserve Mining Co., backed by such steelmakers as the Armco Steel Corp., Wheeling Steel Co., Republic Steel Corp., is reported ready-as soon as the pending bill clears (HR 8512)-to seek a $100 million federal loan to build a taconite processing plant at Beaver Bay, Minn., to produce about five million tons (of pellets) annually of 60 pct to 65 pct in iron ore . . ." Experimental work indicates that pellets may be the final form, rather than nodules, agglomerates, or sinter. At Ashland, Ky., the Reserve Mining Co., which has obtained a

Jan 9, 1950

By K. C. Gilbart, E. Stansfield

This test was described in a privately circulated First Progress Report on Slacking Characteristics of Coal, by A. C. Fieldner and W. A. Selvig, May 1, 1928. The test was described in detail in U. S. Bureau of Mines Report of Investigation 3055, in November, 1930,1 The test, in brief, is conducted as follows: A sample of freshly mined coal consisting of 18 to 25 pieces approximating 1 1/4 cubes, and weighing 500 to 600 grams, is taken for the test. The sample is subjected to a "blank sieving" of carefully regulated degree, on an 8-in. circular sieve with 0.263-in. square openings, and the undersize and oversize weighed. The oversize is placed on a sheet-iron pan and dried for about 24 hr. in an A.S.T.M. air-drying oven maintained at 30" to 35" C. through which a current of warm air is drawn. The sample is then cooled to room temperature and immersed for one hour in water at the same temperature. The water is then drained off, the sample dried for 24 hr. as before, cooled, sieved as before, and the oversize and undersize weighed. The percentage weight of the undersize is calculated and reported as the first cycle loss. This loss, corrected by subtracting the percentage loss in the blank sieving, is termed the slacking index. The sample may be subjected to further cycles of wetting, draining, air-drying, sieving and weighing. In a letter (August, 1932) W. A. Selvig approved making the blank sieving on a duplicate sample, rather than on the sample used for the test, where sufficient coal was available. This method is now employed in these laboratories. The accelerated weathering test has been employed in the laboratories of the Research Council of Alberta, at Edmonton, since 1928, but not found entirely satisfactory as repeat determinations with samples taken from the same or adjacent mines frequently showed serious differences. Differences must be expected as the coal may vary in the seam, and the selection of a typical set of lumps approximating 1 1/4-in. cubes

Jan 1, 1934

By F. Z. Schellenberg

Systematic exploitation in the Pittsburg coal-seam on a large scale is simple where the boundaries of the property do not interfere by forcing drainage-, ventilation-, and transport-lines of entries to be run to particular confined fronts. A prime condition governing development is the natural direction of the seam's perpendicular cleavage-planes, giving long lines of smooth faces near together and parallel, bearing about 65' to the left of the meridian and therefore crossing the basins. The gradients of dip into the basins change from 10 per cent. at the east rim to practical flatness northwestward across the great coal-fields, a hundred miles wide; the dip being halved in rate at each successive crossing-over of an anticlinal crest. Elevations above sea-level on this transverse section, in scope of present development, differ by 1,000 ft. between low trough and high outcrop. Local irregularities of dip are found, but the main feature to be recognized is the pitch of the basins—the general rise northeastward at 20 ft. per mile, from 100 ft. below sea-level at the low point near the SW. corner of Pennsylvania to 1,500 ft. and more above tide, and the appearance then, at the surface, of the lower coal-seams carried in the next deeper-lying thousand feet of rock-measures; below which series come the oil- and gas-sands of Oliphant's charted column of strata, reaching down altogether 3,000 ft. below the Pittsburg coal-seam. Because of the general regularity of occurrence of the coal-seam, the mine-map depicting the courses of economic operation to be undertaken and the steps in controlled exhaustion, need be but a projection of two dimensions on the horizontal plane of space, and this for the most part composed of natural, almost unbroken lines, on the face and on the end of the coal, co-ordinating rectangularly.

Jan 1, 1911

By D. R. George, J. R. Ross, J. D. Prater

In the United States nearly 200,000 tons of copper per year are being produced, by leaching waste rock and oxidized copper ore with dilute sulfuric acid-ferric sulfate solutions and precipitating the copper on scrap iron. The flow of solutions is in excess of 80 million gpd. A survey conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Mines in late 1965 at 14 mines in Arizona, Utah and Nevada, showed that with a few exceptions, the solutions contain from two to a maximum of 15 ppm U3O8, and there is strong evidence that these represent equilibrium concentration and not merely an accumulated in-process inventory resulting from recycling the solutions for many years. Consequently, it is believed that uranium could be recovered at a constant rate as long as mining and leaching operations continue. Preliminary surveys and estimates by the USBM indicate a production potential of possibly 1000 tons of U3O8 per year at a cost of less than $8 per lb if the major process streams from most of the large copper mines in the western United States were to be treated. Laboratory research by the USBM showed that the uranium could be efficiently recovered as a specification-grade uranium concentrate by a combination of ion exchange resin and solvent extraction of liquid ion exchange techniques. A joint pilot plant investigation by Kennecott Copper Corp. and the USBM was conducted on solutions from the Bingham Canyon mine to evaluate a new system of countercurrent ion exchange developed during the laboratory studies. In subsequent small-scale continuous tests, recovery of uranium from the pregnant eluate by solvent extraction and chemical precipitation techniques was investigated.

Jan 1, 1968

By John T. Galey

Oil and gas development in southern Pennsylvania during 1937 was marked by considerably increased activity in deep-sand drilling. Nine tests were completed to the Oriskany sand: one in Independence and three in South Beaver townships, Beaver County; one in Franklin township, Butler County, two in Slippery Rock township, Lawrence County; one in Mt. Pleasant township, Washington County, which is drilling below the Oriskany, and one in Fairfield township, Westmoreland County. Two of these wells, both of which were in the Blackhawk pool, South Beaver township, Beaver County, obtained wet gas with open-flow volumes of 1.5 million cu. ft. and 3.1 million cu. ft. and closed-in pressures of 1900 Ib. The remaining seven were unproductive in the Oriskany. Two wells, one in Hampton township, Allegheny County, which is shut down temporarily as a result of a gas pocket, and one in South Beaver township, Beaver County, are drilling to the Oriskany. One deep test on the Chestnut Ridge anticline, South Union township, Fayette County, was completed after considerable difficulty as a dry gas well in the Onondaga limestone. At this locality the cherty limestone is porous as a result of fracturing. Three additional tests are under way in the area, one in South Union township, a second in North Union township, and a third in Wharton township. Completions Oil.—Despite price cuts and production curtailment of Pennsylvania Grade crude, caused largely by a decreasing demand from export markets, operation in the shallow oil areas continued at a fairly high rate and a number of good wells were completed. Some of these were new wells in close proximity to old production and others were old wells drilled into deeper pays. One new well of a number of producers drilled to the Nineveh Thirty-foot sand in the Harvey pool, Center township, Green County, made 400 bbl. of oil and 500 million cu ft. of gas the first 24 hr. The Chambers dam pool of Amwell and South Franklin townships, Washington County, yielded a number of Fifth Sand producers with initials as high as 200 bbl. Several wells in the old Mars-Butler field

Jan 1, 1938

By P. Gianella Vincent

Barite deposits are of widespread occurrence in Nevada but there are few pro-ducing properties; most of the latter are in northern Nevada. The production of the state is small at present-in the neighborhood of 15,000 tons annually-but is steadily increasing. The barite occurs in veins and also as replacement deposits in lime-stone. The bulk of the production has come from the replacement deposits. It is thought that the barite was deposited from rising hot waters similar to-and probably contemporaneous with-those responsible for some of the metallic ores of the state. This paper discusses only the deposits in northern Nevada. THE commercial mining of barite did not begin in Nevada until 1916 but although the production has been small there has been a rapid increase in tonnage during the past several years. Barite is widely distributed in the state and production comes from at least nine of the seventeen counties. Apparently this is not generally known, as only two counties are mentioned in a recent publications dealing with barite. The increase in output is due largely to recently discovered barite deposits in northern Nevada. The principal production has come from the northern portions of Lander and Eureka counties; smaller amounts from Elko County. The discussion in this paper is confined largely to the deposits in these counties. Most of the producing area is tributary to the Western Pacific and Southern Pacific Railroads, whose tracks lie along the Humboldt River. Barite is known from other northern counties but so far the production has been small. The output has come entirely from veins and replacement deposits, the latter largely in sedimentary rocks. In general, the barite from veins is white; that from the replacement deposits usually is dark gray to black, although some is light gray or white. Most of the veins contain sulphides and many barite-bearing veins have been worked for their content of base or precious metals.

Jan 1, 1940

By W. E. Keck, Paul Jasberg

TheRe is a considerable tonnage of iron ore in the Menominee Range of Michigan that is unsalable only because it has too large a content of sulphur. Beneficiation of such ore is economically desirable, as a relatively large quantity of finished concentrate would be obtained (deleterious sulphur mineral content being generally less than 5 per cent) and because large blocks of such ore have been developed incidentally during search for low-sulphur ore. Research on the flotation beneficiation of these high-sulphur ores consisted of: (1) a study of the flotative properties of the principal mincrals in a nearly pure state, (2) flotation of synthetic mixtures of these pure minerals and (3) application of this experimental information to samples of the ores. Gypsum in iron ores is extremely deleterious; but when sufficiently free from impurities it is a valuable commodity. In 1934, the United States produced 1,500,000 tons of calcined and uncalcined gypsum valued at $13,700,0001. Of this quantity and value, Michigan produced approximately 19 per cent1. Thus this investigation may also prove to be of interest in connection with the gypsum industry if minerals separation, such as flotation, becomes necessary in the future processing of gypsum. Data on the flotative properties of gypsum would also be of interest to the science of flotation because such information has been extremely limited. The technical literature reveals one reference to the flotation of gypsum, in which was discussed the use of the mineral, with several others, to determine the relation between the floatability of minerals and the pH of the flotation solution2. This investigation necessarily was not comprehensive in regard to gypsum, but it did show that the mineral could be floated with oleic acid under varying pH conditions.

Jan 1, 1938

By E. De Golyer

THE petroleum production of the world, in 1923, for the first time reached the billion-barrel mark. A preliminary estimate of production is 1,014,413,000 bbl., an increase of 159,604,000 bbl., or 18.6 per cent. over the 854,809,000 bbl. produced in 1922, the year of next highest production. This increase resulted from an increase of 178,469,000 bbl. in the production of the United States; the total for the rest of the world shows a loss of 18,865,000 bbl., a loss caused by the decrease of approximately 32,278,000 bbl. in Mexican production. The Mexican decrease more than offset increases in the production of Russia, Persia, Roumania, Venezuela, Sarawak, and various minor fields. The increase in production for the United States, and consequently for the world, was the result of flush production from development to maximum capacity during the year of eight, bonanza fields-fields reaching daily yields of 100,000 bbl. or better. It might be ascribed more exactly to the production from the three flush fields of the Los Angeles basin. Their production alone was greater than the increase in the world petroleum production, or the increase in the production of the United States, and it was cheap oil from these fields that demoralized the oil markets of the world. The Basin fields were. the features and dominating factors in the oil industry of the world during 1923. The bonanza fields of 1923, their estimated production for the year, and peak are given in Table 1.

Jan 3, 1924

By AIME AIME

T HOUGH Ira B. Joraletnon has not had an eastern address since 1907, he is a New Yorker by birth, having been born at Antwerp, in the northern part of the state, on July 27, 1884. He got his scholastic training at Harvard, which gave him his A.B. degree in 1905 and an A.M. two years later. For the next fifteen years except for the war period, he was with the Calumet & Arizona Mining Co., with headquarters at Warren, Ariz., being assistant man- ager when he left that company in 1922. During the first World War he spent a year and a half in France, where he achieved the rank of major in the signal corps, air division.

Jan 1, 1941

By AIME AIME

M R. WEIGEL'S present position as Chairman of the Institute's nonmetallics group arises from twenty years of experience in that field, from 1921 to 1926 as mineral technologist for the Bureau of Mines, in Washington, and since then for the Missouri Pacific R.R. Co., with headquarters in St. Louis. This rail- road serves an extensive region in and about the southern central states, from Omaha to the extreme southern tip of Texas, and from southern Illinois to Pueblo, Colorado, and it is Mr. Weigel's job to get as much freight for the road as possible from the mineral industry in this area. Much of the present and potential mineral production is in the non- metallic group.

Jan 1, 1940

By AIME AIME

FRANK T. SISCO is a native of Lawrence, Kansas. He received his earlier education in Clinton, Iowa and his university training at the University of Illinois. His experience in the steel industry has included service in the chemical, testing, and metallurgical departments of the Illinois Steel Co., of South Chicago; the Hess Steel Corp., of Baltimore; the IJ. S. Naval Ordnance Plant at Charleston, W. Va.; and the American Steel and Wire Co., Waukegan, Ill. He severed for seven years as chief of the metallurgical laboratories of the U. S. Army Air Corps at Wright Field, Dayton, before coming to New York in 1930 to become metallurgist and editor of the Alloys of Iron Research, the position he now holds.

Jan 1, 1940

By F. E. Wood

Since the earliest discoveries of oil in the Rocky Mountain area the spirit of cooperation in drilling and production programs has prevailed. There has scarcely been a field which has not been developed in an orderly manner through mutual agreement between competitive operators. An appreciable saving has resulted, as many unnecessary wells have been eliminated. We have unit operation plans and agreements which were developed at an early date. Rock River, found in 1918, has been a unit operation. One of the first prorate agreements ever attempted was made in Salt Creek in 1921. Teapot, first developed in 1922, has been a unit operation; the lessee, the Government, and the lessor, one operator. South Casper Creek, found in 1918, has been developed as a unit. Rex Lake, found in 1923, is a unit operation. The list might be extended materially but it serves to indicate that the Rocky Mountain region enjoyed the fruits of unit operation at an early date. It is concluded from this unitization study in the Rocky Mountain region that there is an appreciable saving in both development and production costs as well as the elimination of waste of a natural resource. Certainly, when unit operation conserves an irreplaceable natural resource as well as capital, any legal or political impediment to its successful development will be overcome. If one company supervises the operations in one field, it appears to be a unit operation. This may not be true if the lands involved have been leased from a great number of lessors. Royalty holders create a most intense competitive operation. The Rocky Mountain region has its full quota of such diversified interests. The original study calls for consideration of two types of fields, unit and near-unit operation. This Committee has felt that if an agreement of any character has brought about a saving it is an approach to unit operation. The fields have been classified into four types: 1. Unit Operation.—Any field whereby the competitive drilling-drainage feature is or will be absent in the development and operation of the pool.

Jan 1, 1930

By D. Harrington

EFFICIENT ventilation of metal mines consists in having such complete control of air currents that. there is always supplied at places where men work sufficient moving air to allow working at maximum capacity without injury to health; and in case of underground fire or of surface fire in the vicinity of mine openings, underground air currents may be quickly reversed if desired, or air may be sent into or excluded from any region and fire fumes confined to only part of the mine workings, instead of penetrating practically the entire mine. Health and safety of workers in mines as well as proper safeguarding and operating efficiency of mining properties are so intimately associated with proper ventilation of mines (both coal and metal) that they are inseparable, yet mine ventilation is only too frequently neglected, especially in metal mines. The metalliferous operator, generally not confronted with inflammable gas or explosive dust which so frequently force ventilation of coal mines, usually disregards air supply altogether except such as may be obtained from compressed air; and generally, even when attention is given to metal-mine ventilation, the air currents rarely are found where they are needed, namely, the working places, especially the working faces. After several years' study of miners' consumption, the writer is. convinced that long continued breathing of air impregnated with large quantities of any kind of finely divided dust, such as is found in a large number of the working places of our mines, will ultimately produce some respiratory disease, whether it be asthma, bronchitis, or phthisis; and the progress of these diseases is hastened. if there are also present high temperatures, high humidities, or harmful gases or if there is present (and allowed to remain to be breathed) large quantities of the finely divided dust when air temperatures are low, hence favorable to maximum performance of work with accompanied maximum breathing into the respiratory passages of the harmful material. It is generally accepted

Jan 2, 1922

By W. S. Landis

WHEN dealing with a new reagent, one is concerned with three principal factors: available supply, cost, and results. The atmosphere contains an inexhaustible supply of oxygen mechanically mixed with nitrogen (omitting rare gases and minor impurities) in the proportions of one volume of oxygen to four volumes of nitrogen. (All figures are based on slide-rule precision and minor impurities are neglected.) Expressed in terms of weight, 1 ton of oxygen represents a volume of 22,500 cu. ft. and is contained in a volume of 112,000 cu. ft. of air. Water, also an inexhaustible supply, is a chemical compound containing 89 per cent. oxygen and, 11 per cent. hydrogen. Of the hundreds of schemes proposed for the enriching of air or separation of oxygen, nothing of value has yet appeared. From the standpoint of mechanical separation, liquefaction followed by rectification is the only process that has been developed to a really commercial stage. Theoretically, it should be a .simple matter to separate the mechanical mixture of nitrogen and oxygen; but fractionation can be performed only by converting to the liquid phase and this phase can be obtained only at lower than critical temperatures. The problem, therefore, is not so simple and the cost of the actual operation bears no relationship to the theoretical simplicity of the process. The largest single unit of the required apparatus so far placed in commercial use will handle only 60,000 cu. ft. of air per hour through a compressor which operates at a little over 250 lb. per sq. in. After this apparatus has operated continuously for 14 to 18 days it must be shut down for 6 to 8 hr. to be thawed out, have accumulated impurities removed and again cooled down for production. The cost of such a unit erected in batteries, with necessary spares for maintaining production, and including prime movers, hoisting and all auxiliary equipment, will be about $125,000. To produce one ton of oxygen per hour requires two operating machines of this size; and if the production is to be absolutely continuous a spare unit must be provided. To operate a plant of two units requires 10 or 11 men, excluding boiler attendants, if steam is generated in the plant.

Jan 11, 1924

By William Catron, Cyril U. Colledge

BECAUSE the rich La Colorada orebody of the Cananea Consolidated Copper Co. does not outcrop at surface, after its discovery (by churn drill) and before mining was begun, a large amount of development work was done to learn the shape and extent of the ore and to provide for economic and effective mining. As these openings progressed, the actual shape of the orebody became known and with this knowledge came the realization that mining this rich and unusual deposit without loss of ore or danger to workmen presented several difficult problems. This paper will describe one of these problems; namely, the handling of an inverted cone-shaped core of barren rock, on the periphery of and below which the ore occurred. It was clear that as the ore was mined out from around and under this inverted cone of rock, weighing about 3,000,000 tons, it would hang over the workings, held suspended only by its own tensile strength and threatening to crash into the stopes below with disastrous results to men and mine. The method of mining developed during the years 1928, 1929 and 1930 anticipated and provided for the eventual collapse of this core of rock. In November 1936 the core settled down gradually on the edges of the stopes descending a total of about 50 ft. vertically. The men in the stopes had ample warning and no lives were endangered. There were no air blasts in the mine. The core broke loose from its top support at the 500-ft. level along old fracture planes and evidently is crushed to the ninth level. Movement was of short duration; the following shift went to work in the stopes as usual. No ore was lost. GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE The shape of the orebody is illustrated in Fig. 1. The geology of the Colorada orebody has been described by V. D. Perry1 and by W. G.

Jan 1, 1938

By Charles Allen

THE Athens mine is in the city of Negaunee, Mich. It is one of the larger producers of soft hematite ore on the Marquette iron range. The property is held under lease by the Athens Iron Mining Co., and is operated by the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Co., which is a partner with Pickands, Mather & Co. in the Athens company. The mine was opened in 1913, and shipments of ore commenced in 1918, the total reaching 3,063,711 tons up to Jan. 1, 1932. Diamond-drilling from surface, together with a knowledge of geological conditions in neighboring properties, gave a comprehensive picture of the location, size and shape of the orebody before shaft-sinking started. Striking east and west, the orebody entered the east boundary of the property at a depth of about 1500 ft. below surface. A pitch of 15° to the west carried it down to about 2500 ft. on the west boundary, about double the depth of that of any soft-ore property heretofore worked on the Marquette Range. The width of ore averaged close to 500 ft., and the thickness 300 feet. The depth of the deposit and its size, together with an overburden of quicksand, which in places reached a thickness of 150 ft., presented unusual mining problems. The use of a caving system made surface drainage into the orebody inevitable, because the north boundary of the deposit was a vertical diorite dike 200 ft. wide, and the south boundary a northward-dipping impervious slate. S. R. Elliott, manager of the mining department of the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Co., who was super-intendent of the mine at that time, conceived the idea of starting at the bottom of the orebody and working upward, reversing the usual mining procedure. This innovation divided the Athens orebody into a series of steps, or blocks, the first of which was adjacent to the western boundary, and therefore in the lowest portion of the deposit. Top-slicing was to start under the capping in this first block by raising from the bottom level, and development and mining were to progress upward in successive blocks to the east. A complete description of the Athens system of mining was

Jan 1, 1933

By Eric Sinkinson

MANY of the magnesite ores of the western part of the United States contain such large amounts of silica and hydrous silicate minerals that the value of the ores is either low or nominal. Expensive and carefully controlled mining methods are necessary to prevent excessive dilution of the higher grade ores by introduction in mining of small pieces of the hanging walls or footwalls of the deposit. This difficulty is further complicated by the various states of decomposition of the country rock of the deposits in which many of the ores occur. The problem the authors attempted to solve arose from a request to float an impure magnesite containing varying proportions of siliceous gangue with calcium carbonate. The ore is normally enclosed in-serpen-tine masses, somewhat decomposed, and in mining it wall rock is inci-dentally added, so that variable amounts of siliceous material occur in the samples. The silica, alumna, and iron oxide are so closely associated with the magnesium carbonate in the magnesite that ordinary mechanical separation at coarse mesh sizes is of no avail. It is well known that calcium carbonate can be floated by suitable reagents, therefore it seemed reasonable to suppose that magnesium carbonate minerals would behave in a similar manner, but experimental trial proved that this supposition was unfounded. Therefore the first step in the problem was to find out what differences of behavior there were between magnesium and calcium carbonates under flotation conditions, or when suspended in water. In water at 18° C. magnesium carbonate is slightly more soluble than calcium carbonate; in fact; MgCO3 is soluble to the extent of 0.0106 grams in 100 c.c. of water at 18° C. and CaCO3 to the extent of 0.0013 grams. However, magnesium carbonate in water gradually changes to the basic carbonates of a composition (3MgCO3.Mg(OH)23H20) or (4MgCO3.Mg(OH)25H20), depending upon conditions, and calcium carbonate to calcium hydroxide, Ca(OH)2. The relative solubilities of these hydroxides in water are the reverse of the solubilities of magnesium and calcium carbonates. The range in published figures for solubility

Jan 1, 1936