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By D. R. Skidmore, C. J. Konya

To quantify the effects of proper stemming on air-blast and flyrock reduction for a surface mining operation, a study was undertaken with funding from the Office of Surface Mining. Known weights of explosive charges were detonated in a simulated blasthole when confined with various types and size distributions of stemming. Results showed that proper selection of material type and size distribution can reduce necessary stemming length by 41 % and airblast levels by 23%. A relationship was obtained for minimum length of stemming for explosive confinement as a function of stemming size distribution and borehole diameter over a range of explosive pressures.

Jan 1, 1984

By J. M. Dumore

If in a vertical, downward miscible displacement, the transition zone between the displacing and displaced fluids is neglected, a criterion for stable displacement can be obtained by considering a small hypothetical protrusion of one of the fluids into the other. This criterion leads to the definition of the well-known critical rate, uc = kg p/p. The consideration is further extended by taking into account the transition zone that develops as a result of diffusion and mixing. A generalization of the previous criterion leads to the definition of another characteristic rate, the stable rate, which in actual miscible drives will be less than the critical rate. In such drives, the entire transition zone is stable at rates less than the stable rate. At rates between the stable and critical rates, the displacement is only partly stable, i.e. part of the transition zone adjacent to the displaced fluid is in an unstable position. From that part of the transition zone viscous lingers will develop. At rates greater than the critical rate the entire displacement is unstable and viscous lingers will develop more strongly. Results of laboratory experiments are in agreement with the expected behavior based on the theoretically deduced stability of the displacement. INTRODUCTION The simplest form of miscible drive in an oil-bearing formation is the injection of a fluid that is completely miscible* with the oil under reservoir conditions. In general, such a fluid, a solvent for example, is less dense and less viscous than the oil present in the formation. If it is injected into a horizontal homogeneous layer, gravitational forces will lead to the formation of a gravity tongue of solvent in the upper part of the layer and the adverse solvent-oil viscosity ratio will cause viscous fingers to develop. If, however, the solvent is injected up-structure into ,a dipping layer, gravity has a favorable effect, because it tends to keep the less dense solvent up-structure. Tongue formation and viscous fingering are consequently reduced and it is even possible that they will be suppressed completely. Viscous fingering and gravity tonguing are the consequences of the instability of the displacement. A stable displacement cannot result in growing viscous fingers and/or growing gravity tongues. Since large amounts of oil can be bypassed if there is viscous fingering and/or gravity tonguing, the stability of a miscible drive is very important with respect to the recovery efficiency of the drive. The stability is of particular importance in miscible-slug drives, as it determines how quickly the miscible slug between the displaced and displacing fluids will be distorted and broken up, after which the drive is no longer completely miscible. Stability is thus a most important factor in determining the success of a miscible drive, and it is considered that the aspects of stability considered in this paper will make a useful contribution to existing theories. Consideration is given only to vertical downward displacements, in which no gravity tongues can develop and which are therefore simpler than downward displacements in sloping layers. THEORY CRITERION FOR STABLE DISPLACEMENT Let us consider a vertical column of a homogeneous permeable medium saturated with oil. A solvent less dense and less viscous than the oil is injected at the top of the column at a constant rate; in the column the velocities of oil and solvent are assumed to be uniform. Diffusion and mixing of oil and solvent will at first be neglected, i.e. we assume that solvent and oil are divided by a sharp interface. An additional assumption is that the interface is horizontal. Continuity of pressures exists at the interface, because no capillary forces are present between the two miscible fluids. Consequently, at the interface (Z = I)):** Ps = Po - P-where Ps is the pressure at the solvent side and

Jan 1, 1965

By George Holderer

THE relation between man-hours of labor and production may be correlated for any industry, and already it has been widely used in piece-work studies. It is not in general use as yet for recording labor efficiency of an enterprise or an industry. An exception to this is the Cement Institute, which tabulates the man-hours used in each operation and FIG. 1.-LABOR PRODUCTIVITY IN COPPER MINING. thus gets the total man-hours per barrel of cement. The writer knows of one steel company that keeps a complete record of man-hours for every operation from mining the ore to finishing the product. No doubt many others find the information useful, and such a study could be of value to the mineral industries.

Jan 1, 1935

By W. M. Raynor

LARGE quantities of "midnight oil" have been consumed by researchers in attempting to develop a process to produce cold ductile zirconium at low cost. The tantalizing facts that zirconium is a bright, silvery, tarnish-proof metal and is 2 1/2 times as abundant in the earth's crust as copper, and thirteen times as plentiful as lead have resulted in much speculation on uses, ranging from automobile radiator grills to kitchen sinks. but unfortunately no low-cost process of producing it has so far been found. In the case of zirconium, we cannot say that "virtue is its own reward" for the principal virtues of the metal, namely, corrosion resistance at ordinary temperatures and ability to absorb gases at high temperature, are the very characteristics that defeat all of the usual recovery methods such as sintering, plating, or direct chemical reduction. The only method giving a pure metal sufficiently low in oxides, nitrides, etc. to be truly cold-malleable is the one developed by Van Arkel and DeBoer in 1925. This process involves decomposition of zirconium tetraiodide in contact with a hot filament and pre

Jan 1, 1947

By C. F. Clausen

"Cement" means binding agent or glue. It is derived from the Latin word "Caementum," the name of a limestone, chips of which were used in mortar more than 2,000 years ago in Italy. During the middle ages "cement" or "cement" generally denoted mortar. Today it means any binding material. The Thomas Register lists nearly 200 classifications for "cement" including automobile cement, household cement, rubber cement, etc. The material most commonly associated with this word, however, is portland cement which, when mixed with water and allowed to hydrate, is a ceramic binding material used to cement aggregates (crushed stone, gravel and sand) together in "concrete," the most universally used building material of today. It is estimated that more tons of concrete are used annually than all other building materials put together including steel, lumber, gypsum, bricks, tiles, aluminum and glass. Its use in foundations, building construction, sanitary work, dams, railroads, and highways, makes it difficult to conceive of modem civilization without concrete. A survey made in October 1955 showed the following uses of portland cement: [Percent Highways20 Nonresidential buildings20 Residential buildings15 Military construction10 Sewer and water works8 Public utilities10 Other (conservation, farm, and maintenance and repair)17 100] As of today, the percentage for highways is probably even higher. Ceramic binding materials have unquestionably been used in construction work for thousands of years. The mortar between the blocks of the great pyramids was calcined gypsum (plaster of paris). The use of calcined and slaked limestone goes back earlier than the Roman Empire. Gypsum, however, is relatively soft, and common lime mortar is not "hydraulic," i.e., it does not harden under water. The Greeks and Romans discovered later that an addition of a finely divided active siliceous material (Santorin earth or Pozzolana) would react with slaked lime to form a stronger, and hydraulic, cement. The Appian Way in Italy, Colosseum, and the great Aqueducts built by the Romans were made with this type cement, and some of these structures are still in existence today. However, not until 1756 did some serious research result in the development of better cements. In that year the English engineer, John Smeaton produced a stronger cement by burning a limestone containing considerable proportions of clayey impurities. Other investigations and improvements were made by Bryan Higgins, Bergmann, Joseph Parker, L. J. Vicat, J. F. John, James Frost, and I. C. Johnson.2 Traditionally, but perhaps unfairly to others, the invention of the prototype of today's portland cement is credited to the English mason Joseph Aspdin who in 1824 obtained a patent and gave the product its name, because in color the mortar produced from it resembled a natural building stone obtained from the British Isle of Portland. The contributions of Johnson and Aspdin were primarily the important step of preparing a synthetic mixture of lime and clay without depending on raw materials found in nature which might contain such elements in desirable proportions. However, even these early

Jan 1, 1960

By A. F. van Everdingen

The pressure drop in a well per unit rate of flow is conrolled by the resistance of the formation, the viscosity of the fluid. and the additional resistance concentrated around the well bore resulting from the drilling and completion technique employed and, perhaps, from the production practices used. The pressure drop caused by this additional resistance is defined in this paper as the skin effect. denoted by the symbol S. This skin effect considerably detracts from a well's capacity to produce. Methods are given to determine quantitatively (a) the value of S, (b) the final build-up pressure, and (c) the product of average permeability times the thickness of the producing formation. INTRODUCTION Equations which relate the pressure in a well producing from a homogeneous formation with pressures existing at various distances around the well are generally used within the industry. The relation ii quite simple when the fluid flowing is assumed to be incompressible. It becomes somewhat more complicated when the flowing fluid is considered compressible so that the duration of the flow can he considered. In each case the major portion of the pressure drop occurs close to the well bore. However analyses of pressure build-up curves indicate that the pressure drop in the vicinity of the well bore is greater than that computed from these equations using the known, physical characteristics of the formation and the fluids. In order to explain there excessive drops it is necessary to assume that permeability of the formation at and near the well bore is substantially reduced as a result of drilling. completion and, perhaps. production practice. This possibility has been recognized in the literature. A method to compute the pressure drop due to a reduction of the permeability of the formation near the well bore. which is designated as the skin effect. S, is given in the following paragraphs. To start, equations normally used to describe flow in the vicinity of a well are given without considering this effect. These equations then are modified to include the effect of a skin on the pressure behavior. Finally a method is given to estimate the effect of the skin on the pressure and production behavior of a well. PRESSURE EQUATIONS Incompressible Fluid Flow If p is defined as the flowing pressure in a well of radius the pressure at distance r from the well has been shown to be:" The total pressure drop between the drainage boundary, and the well bore is given by These equations are valid only if the flow towards the well occurs in a horizontal homogeneous medium and the fluids are incompressible. The assumptions imply that all fluid taken from the well enters the system at r a condition rarely encountered in practice. Compressible Fluid Flow, Steady State A more realistic equation is obtained if it is assumed that the compressibility, c, of the flowing fluids is small and has a constant value over the pressure range encountered. After the well has been producing for some time so that its rate has become constant and steady state is reached, the pressures throughout the drainage area are falling by the same amount per unit of time, and the pressure differences between a point in the drainage area and the well are constant. When these conditions are met. the rate of production, q, from a well is equal to where dp/dt is the pressure drop per unit time. The fluid flowing at a distance from the center of the well is equal to From the last equation and from Darcy's law it can be shown that The equation holds for a depletion-type reservoir of radius drained by a well located in its center, provided the compressibility of the fluid per unit pressure drop is small and constant, and no fluid moves across the boundary Compressible Fluid Flow — Nonsteady State Table 111 of reference (5) shows the relationship between the pressure at the well bore and the reduced time, The pressure-drop function, p represents the drop below the original reservoir pressure, p caused by unit rate of production for several values of R, the ratio of drainage boundary radius to well radius, r In most reservoirs the values of approach infinity. and under these conditions the values of p shown in Table I of reference (5) can be used where p then signifies the difference between the pressure in the well and the prevailing reservoir pressure per unit rate of flow. The total pressure drop below prevailing reservoir pressure amounts to where the factor converts the cumulative pressure drop per unit rate of production to cumulative pressure drop for actual rate. q. For values of T > 100 the P function may be written (equation VI-15 of reference 5) as Using the time conversion the difference in pressure between reservoir and well becomes If values for the physical constants of the formation and the fluids are inserted, it is found that T exceeds 100 after a few seconds of production (or closed-in time), so that the approximation becomes valid almost at once. A simple relation between the pressure in the well and in the reservoir can also be derived by considering the well as a point source"" '" instead of a unit circle source, that is, by using Lord Kelvin's solution instead of the unit circle source

Jan 1, 1953

By D. H. Yardley

GEOCHEMICAL investigation of trace elements in surface materials was begun near Ely, Minn., in 1953 along the basal contact of Duluth gabbro with Giants Range granite (Fig. 1). This article presents data on the distribution of copper and nickel in till and in stream sediments in the area and proposes an explanation for the types of distribution found. The Duluth gabbro, one of the world's largest basic intrusives, intrudes rocks which range in age from Keewatin to middle Keweenawan. Within the test area the gabbro is in contact with granite except for short sections where it is in contact with remnants of iron formation. Sulfide mineralization occurs within the gabbro, near and parallel to the basal contact for a distance of several miles. Schwartz and Davidson1 have described the geologic setting of the mineralization.

Jan 7, 1958

For some years MINING ENGINEERING has published abstracts of the articles appearing in each issue and also of the Transactions papers published in the Quarterly. Beginning this month, a list of key words is being given with each abstract as an aid to indexing the articles for ease in retrieving them when they are needed. The value of a home or office system of indexing and retrieving technical articles is hard to over-estimate. How often is it that a technical problem comes up and someone says: "Oh yes, I've read something about that." Many hours can be expended tracing down that nebulous source. A modest indexing and retrieval system will save those tedious hours, and the person who is able to produce technical documents when they are needed will achieve an enviable status for being on the ball.

Jan 1, 1964

It is too late to gloat over the fact that minerals have furnished 67 per cent of the primary wealth of Pennsylvania. It is high time that Pennsylvanians do some constructive thinking in terms of the present and future with regard to the remaining mineral heritage.1 The discovery of a deposit of pyrophyllite in the South Mountain region of the Cumberland Valley indeed emphasizes the increased importance of a more exact inventory of the metal and mineral resources of Pennsylvania. Active geological work and research have been in progress for many years, but the surface has been little more than scratched. The results obtained thus far in survey and research have been extremely beneficial to the Commonwealth and a fundamental hub of its industrial development. But these activities are wholly inadequate in the face of rising demands for the future. The need for an accelerated program to continue a study of Pennsylvania's mineral resources on a more intensive scale was never more acute.2 In part, this has been caused by the insatiable demands of industry. It has been caused also by wasteful use and ignorance.

Jan 1, 1950

By W. M. Bertholf

IN 1945 tests were made in the coal washery of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Corporation, at Pueblo, Colo., to determine the value of the Humphreys spiral. So far we have demonstrated that it is of definite value to us in rewashing a portion of our table middlings; and we are fairly certain that this is not necessarily the only place in which it can be used to advantage. Because of manpower and material shortages, experimental work has been discontinued for the present. Three of the spirals are being installed for use in rewashing the middlings, and testing and experimental work will proceed when this installation is completed. All evidence secured so far points to the fact that the spiral can make an effective separation of heavy material below 8-mesh; but that it is ineffective in removing larger, heavy material. This, of course, will limit its use to fine coal or a classified feed containing no heavy material larger than 8-mesh. In considering the results of our tests, it should be noted that the feed was our table middling, and that any real separation of this material is a "moral victory," as there is little material that could be properly called coal and practically no heavy rock, the consequence being that previous attempts to clean the middlings have not been at all successful. Several articles dealing with the spiral and its use in treating heavy minerals have already been published,1 but for the benefit of those who have not seen these we include a brief description of the spiral and of the way it operates, taken from Bulletin 4 of The Humphreys Investment Co.: The Humphreys Spiral Concentrator consists of a spiral conduit of modified semicircular cross section. Ore pulp is fed to the top and, as it flows downward, the heavier particles concentrate in a band along the inner side of the pulp stream (Fig. I). Outlets for removal of products are located at the lowest points in the cross section of the conduit. Wash water, added at the inner edge of the stream, flows outwardly across the concentrate band. The width of concentrate band removed at the outlets is controlled by adjustable splitters. Concentrate is usually removed from the upper portion of the spiral and middling from the lower portion. Tailing is discharged from the lower end. Tests are usually made in closed circuit, since this provides a maximum of information with a minimum amount of sample. Fig. 2 shows the spiral set up for closed-circuit testing, and gives a good idea of the general arrangement of such an installation. The small cyclone separator is used to provide clean wash water without introducing additional water into the circuit.

Jan 1, 1946

By Paul C. Merritt

For more than 100 years, British Columbia has been considered a mountainous mining province, rich with potential but relatively poor in actual production. Times have changed. Today, Japanese interests and money have altered the difficult, if not once impossible, economic conditions and market factors which until recently precluded any great growth of the British Columbia mineral industry. The mining boom now underway in British Columbia has carried the total value of mineral production in the Province to a record height in 1962 as it rang up a 27% increase over that of 1961. Breaking the $200 million barrier for the first time, total value of British Columbia's mineral output reached $229- 276,385. Of this amount, metals accounted for 70%; industrial minerals, 6 %; structural materials, 9 %; and fuels, 15%. The substantial increase is attributed to the record production of copper, iron, asbestos, natural gas and petroleum, in addition to the continuing high production rate and favorable prices of other mineral commodities.

Jan 12, 1963

By S. G. Malghan

Steel consumption forms a significant part of the operating cost of a minerals processing plant. An estimated 250 kt (276, 000 tons) of steel in the US and over 500 kt (551, 000 tons) worldwide are consumed each year in wet grinding alone. The depletion of ore grades and the need for finer grinding of abrasive ores are expected to increase steel consumption even more. Through continued research and development by the mining industry and the suppliers of steel products, several methods to reduce steel consumption have evolved. This paper critically reviews the mechanisms involved in steel wear and the currently available methods, materials. and operating conditions for reducing steel consumption. Particular attention is given to liner design modifications and substitution of rubber liners for steel liners.

Jan 1, 1983

By W. F. Pruden

On June 30, 1960, ground was broken for the construction of the facilities to mine, concentrate, and agglomerate the iron ores of the Atlantic City, Wyo., area which has become known as the "Atlantic City Project." This was a historic occasion for Columbia-Geneva Steel Division of United States Steel Corp. When completed, the installation will be the first integrated iron ore beneficiation plant west of the Mississippi River producing an agglomerated product. This Project, named for a nearby ghost mining town, is located in central Wyoming on the south-east flank of the Wind River Mountains. It is 16 miles north of the South Pass, where the early pioneers who followed the Mormon and Oregon Trails crossed the Continental Divide. White men first penetrated into this area in October, 1812, when Robert Stuart Party brought the returning Astorians through South Pass on route to St. Louis from the Columbia River area. Further interest in the area developed when gold was discovered in the sands of Rock Creek and the towns of Atlantic City and South Pass City were founded.

Jan 5, 1961

By Donald F. Saunders

Means and relative standard deviations were calculated for eU, eTh, K, and their ratios for aerial gamma-ray spectral data in 29 quadrangles at 1:250,000 scale. Known or suspected uraniferous provinces were characterized by: 1) Higher eU, eTh, and K means (due to generally higher radioelement concentrations); 2) Higher relative standard deviations for eU, eU/eTh, and eU/K (reflecting the presence of local uranium enrichments); and lower mean eU/eTh and eU/K values (showing uranium loss from "average" rocks to form local enrichments). "Uranium favorability indexes," i.e., combinations of the sensitive variables, show an excellent qualitative relationship to known occurences and geologic favorability. Results appear to confirm the existence of long-term crustal uranium provinces formed at the time of emplacement of the oldest known rocks.

Jan 1, 1980

By L. Bruce McRae

A programme of work was initiated so that the possibility for the agglomeration of Transvaal chromite-fines by pelletization could be investigated. The use of cementitious binders did not yield promising results, binder additions of up to 10 per cent failing to produce an agglomerate that would be suitable as feed for an electric-smelting furnace. Further laboratory and pilot-plant studies showed that high-quality pellets could be made from chromite bonded with small amounts of bentonite and hardened by heat treatment at temperatures of the order of 1000°C. An investigation was also done into the reduction behaviour of pellets containing amounts of stoichiometric carbon up to that required for complete reduction. The results showed that the maximum degree of reduction that could be obtained was approximately 75 per cent, and that these pellets had the physical properties that would make them amenable to smelting in a submerged-arc electric-smelting furnace.

Jan 1, 1977

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 M. H. Mueller, P. A. Beck, W. P. Chernock

HARRIS introduced the term inverse pole figure for the diagrams previously used by Barrett' to represent the volume fraction p(a,ß) of material in various orientations with respect to the fiber axis in a specimen with fiber texture. The direction of the fiber axis with respect to the crystal lattice is specified by the two independent angle variables a and ß. In such a diagram p gives the fiber axis density distribution over the various crystallographic directions. The p(a,ß) may be given in a two-dimensional diagram by means of contour lines (p=con-stant) in a stereographic projection. The inverse pole figure incorporates in a single contour line diagram all the information given conventionally in pole charts for various (hkl) reflections and, therefore, it represents a considerable degree of condensation. Also, it gives this information directly in terms of the volume fraction of the specimen in various orientations, and it obviates the necessity of referring back and forth between the various pole charts in an attempt to interpret them in terms of orientations. Inverse pole figures undoubtedly represent the most adequate method for describing a texture in a quantitative manner and, at least in the case of fiber textures, this method is certainly a practicable one. Harris described1 a simple procedure for determining at least the rough outlines of a quantitative inverse pole figure. This method depends on the measurement of the intensity of X-ray reflections from various (hkl) planes lying parallel to the same specimen surface. In the case of a rod, reflections from a plane specimen surface perpendicular to the rod axis (fiber texture axis) are to be used. Harris has shown that the measured intensities I,,, reflected by crystal planes (hkl), aligned perpendicularly to the fiber axis of a specimen with unknown fiber texture, and the corresponding intensity Iu nkl from a random specimen are related to the p(a,ß) value for the unknown texture by the following equation IAkl/I°Aklw=c/c°.p(a, ß) [1] where C and C° re parameters depending on the crystal imperfections (extinction), surface preparation (e.g., thickness of oxide layer), the absorption coefficient in the specimen, effective line breadth, and instrumental factors. The values of the variables a and ß1 defining the crystal orientation, depend only on the indices hkl of the reflecting plane perpendicular to the fiber axis. Since p, as described by Harris1, is normalized in such a way that upon integration over the total orientation range its mean value is 1, the parameter C/C may be calculated approximately by the summation of Eq. l over all available X-ray reflections hkl, corresponding to a set of discrete orientations (rather than by integration over the complete range of orientations represented by the continuous variables a and ß). From the summation of Eq. 1 1/n SI AKL/I° Akl = C/C. SP(a,ß)/n is obtained where, as stated above 2p(a,ß) =1. n Therefore

Jan 1, 1959

By O. N. Carlson, K. E. Solie

The brittle-ductile transition temperatures of single and poly crystalline chromium metal were studied as a function of nitrogen concentration and chromium nitride distribution. It was observed that In recent years there has been an increasing interest in chromium-base alloys for high-temperature applications. The principal disadvantages, however, have been the difficulties of fabrication and the design problems associated with a material of such limited ductility. Various studies have been the effects noted in the poly crystalline material are essentially reversed in the single crystals. These observations are discussed in terms of existing theories for the brittleness of chromium. conducted recently directed toward a determination of the cause of this brittleness and to find ways for minimizing its effects. Allen et al.,' Wain Abrahamson and rant,' and weaver4 have carried out studies on the effects of interstitial impurities on the brittle-ductile transition of chromium metal of various degrees of purity. These investigations have shown that oxygen has little or no effect on the transition temperature of chromium in all conditions studied but that carbon increases the transition temperature under all conditions tested. Nitrogen was found to increase the transition temperature in the wrought condition and in the quenched or cast conditionS but reportedly has no effect in the furnace-cooled condition.

Jan 1, 1964

By J. Walter Scott

IT is usual practice in the copper industry to use open horizontal molds for casting tough-pitch copper wire bars.1 A wire bar cast in this manner is partly characterized, by heavy wrinkles and a comparatively deep skin of oxide on the top of the bar, corresponding to the open side of the mold. On the theory that the rough, high-oxide surface might have an adverse effect on the rolling and drawing properties of a wire bar and might account for some of the irregularities of mill behavior, several bars which had been planed to remove the wrinkled surface were processed into wire. These bars responded to mill treatment more satisfactorily than did the regular wire bars. Realizing that machining the surface of one face of each bar would not be commercially feasible, it was decided that casting the metal into a vertical mold and cropping off the pouring end would accomplish. approximately the same result. Several wire bars of commercial size (250 lb.) were so cast and processed into wire for comparative test with bars cast in the usual horizontal molds. It is the purpose of this paper to present the results obtained from this investigation, in which commercial bar sizes and processing technique were used throughout. The results show that in general copper wire bars cast vertically are superior to those cast horizontally.

Jan 1, 1930

By Raymond H. Young, Paul Sennett

INTRODUCTION Kaolin clay, consisting largely of the mineral kaolinite, is widely used as a white pigment. In the United States, for instance, pigment kaolin production was nearly 6,000,000 tons in 1976 (1). Production for this year should be significantly above this level. Current prices for kaolinite 'pigments range from about $20.00/ ton to$260.00/tony,depending on the amount of processing needed to make the final product. Although much of this pigment kaolinite is used as an inert filler where product specifications are not very rigid, a large quantity of kaolinite is converted to products where very restrictive specifications exist. These specifications set severe limits on such properties as viscosity in a water suspension, particle size distribution, color, and brightness. This discussion will concentrate on methods available to improve the color and brightness of pigment kaolin and will review the advantages and problems associated with these various methods. The term "brightness" refers to the reflectance of the pigment to blue light (2). Since even the brightest commercial kaolins have a somewhat yellowish color, the blue reflectance (or brightness) is a reasonably good measure of their nearness to a perfectly white material. I KAOLINITE STRUCTURE AND SOURCES The mineral kaolinite is an aluminum silicate and can be represented by the formula (OH) 8Si4A14010. The formula is frequently written

Jan 1, 1979