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By Stephen Taber

A VEIN may be defined as an aggregation of mineral matter, more or less tabular or lenticular in form, which was deposited from solution and is of later origin than the inclosing rock. This definition differs from the one found in many text-books in that no assumption is made as to the origin of the space occupied by the vein or the manner in which the mineral matter was deposited. In the present paper the writer purposes to discuss the mechanics of vein formation, and does not wish to begin by begging the question. The origin of ore deposits has been diligently investigated in recent years, but, while much has been written concerning the chemistry of the process, the physical side of the question has received less attention. The source of the ore minerals; the chemical composition of ore-hearing solutions; the relative importance of magmatic and meteoric waters as agents of concentration; and the causes of mineral precipitation have all been discussed at length. On the other hand, little has been written concerning the mechanics of vein formation, and the theories given in text-hooks today are essentially the same as those developed by the early Cornish and Saxon miners. Early investigators often regarded both veins and dikes as igneous in origin, but today the theory that vein minerals have been deposited from solutions, either liquid or gaseous, is firmly established. The latter view is supported by the fact that many vein-forming minerals are not found in unaltered igneous rocks; by evidence obtained in the laboratory regarding the solubility of minerals; by the presence of many ore minerals in hot-spring waters; by the occurrence of some veins in regions consisting exclusively of unaltered sedimentary rocks; by evidence as to the temperature at which some minerals are formed; and by the absence of mineral segregation due to difference in specific gravity. There is still, however, much difference of opinion as to whether certain tabular-shaped 'masses should be classed as veins or as dikes. Some of

Jan 8, 1918

By E. Gregory, A. Coucoulas

Carbm dioxide, which exists metastably as a constantly subliming molecular solid in a normal room-temperature environment, has been shown to exhibit many microstructural features which are similar to those observed in metals and ceramics at temperatures approaching their melting points. An examinution has been made of some of the factors affecting a brittleness condition known as "smzdiness" which occurs in solid carbon dioxide. It has been shown to be highly dependent on manufacturing and storage conditions and is thought to be a marked intergranu-lay brittleness which results from a combination of excessive grain growth and a concentration of gas-filled pores at the grain boundaries. In the course of an investigation carried out to explain certain physical and mechanical properties of solid carbon dioxide, observations were made of the microstructure and fragmentation of samples after fabrication and storage under varying conditions. Many similarities between the structures of solid carbon dioxide observed under ambient conditions and those existing in metal and ceramic systems at temperatures approaching their melting points have been observed. There are, however, important differences between solid carbon dioxide and the common metallic and ionic solids which result primarily from the differences in the nature of the bonding forces. Despite these differences, the relative ease with which certain microscopic observations can be carried out, may make solid carbon dioxide a useful material model for the physical metallurgist and the ceramist. It could also prove a valuable material for educational purposes where it is required to illustrate grain phenomena which normally can only be seen with the aid of a high-temperature microscope, and after prolonged chemical or thermal etching.

Jan 1, 1963

By Robert Henry Bradford

This investigation was undertaken at the suggestion of Prof. Henry M. Howe, of the Department of Metallurgy, Columbia University, who, in a letter to the author, dated October 23, 1900, wrote as follows, suggesting the subject of this dissertation : "The extraction of silver from copper mattes by either the Ziervogel or the Augustin process depends upon converting the silver into silver sulphate by means of the sulphuric anhydride evolved from the decomposition of ferrous sulphate and cupric sulphate, which are formed during the roasting operation itself from the iron and copper sulphides present. "It occurred to me, some time prior to the autumn of 1897, that these processes might be made much easier by adding to them, at the proper stage, ferrous or cupric sulphate, or both, in the form of green or blue vitriol. That is, instead of having to rely solely on our ability to generate these sulphates in this very delicate roasting operation, my idea was that we could add a small quantity of already-prepared sulphate at the proper state of roasting, viz., at or before the period when the solphatizing of the silver occurs. The comprehensive audit of the accounts of a mining company is extremely important in its relations to the legal situation and obligations of the corporation, the personal liability of the directors, and the interests of the investing public. A consideration of the subject as affecting the professional duties and fixing the responsibility of a mining engineer engaged in the expert examination of a mine or in charge of mining operations, is equally important, though this phase of the question is not often presented systematically.

Jan 1, 1903

Jan 1, 1902

By means of top-slicing methods, wide veins, masses, or thick beds of soft ore may be mined, where the caving of the overburden is of no consequence. The ore is mined in a series of horizontal floors or slices, taken in descending order, from the top of the deposit. Each floor is mined in small sections, the roof of each section being allowed or forced to cave before an adjacent section is attacked. The method as used in two mining districts—Marquette, iron, and Pachuca, silver-gold—is described in the two papers following:

Jan 1, 1925

Jan 1, 1958

[United States PAGE Alabama 226 Alaska 226 Arizona 226 Arkansas 227 California 227 Colorado 230 Connecticut 231 Delaware 282 District of Columbia 232 Florida 232 Georgia 232 Idaho 232 Illinois 233 Indiana 234 Iowa 234 Kansas 234 Kentucky 234 Louisiana 235]

Jan 1, 1928

By D. B. RUSHJIORE

(New York -Meeting, February, 1912.) TORCHES were used by the early Romans for mine-lighting, and these were followed by open lamps or earthen jars filled with tallow or oil, and later by candles. In early coal-mining, explosive gases seldom occurred, and, if they were encountered, the danger of explosion was materially diminished by the absence of any ventilating-system and the consequent insufficient circulation of air to form with the methane an explosive mixture. As the art advanced, the danger of fire-damp became more apparent, and methods for testing the air were resorted to as early as in the fifteenth century. The method of testing consisted in lowering a clog in a, basket down the shaft. As soon as he encountered fire-damp he would commence to howl, after which he was withdrawn, and a leafy bush was fastened to the end of the rope and run rapidly up and clown the shaft. This so disturbed the accumulation of gas as to cause it to rise out of the shaft. Later this odd method of testing was improved upon through the discovery that a light inserted in a body of fire-dam p would produce a blue flame. Candles were used for this purpose, and, when fire-damp was thus discovered, brushing or some other primitive method of fanning was resorted to for driving out the gas. In some instances the gas was burned away, regardless of the danger thereby incurred. A man, wearing a well-moistened coat and a mask with glass spectacles, descended in the mine a few hours before each shift. With a long stick, to which was fastened a burning torch or candle, lie would crawl on the floor with the stick so raised that the light would sweep the roof and ignite the gas which it encountered. In this position the flame of the explosion would pass over him, after which he would retreat from the gases resulting from the combustion. The occurrence of serious accidents resulted in

Jul 1, 1912

Cycle, automatic, in mine hoists, LV, 17. Cylindrical furnaces, repairing partly collapsed, XXXVI, 215-222. Dacite-porphyry, San Jose, Tamaulipas, Mex., percentage composition, XXXVI, 186. DAGGETT, ELLSWORTH: The Extraordinary Faulting at the Berlin Mine, Nev., XXXVIII, [liii], 297. Daiquiri, Cuba: geology, LIII, 3, 43. iron deposits, LIII, 40. Magdalena mine, LIII, 9, 23, 24. mines, bibliography, LIII, 59. situation of mines, LIII, 42. [ ]

Jan 1, 1918

By J. E. Tobey, David R. Mitchell, J. H. Kerrick

DETAILED knowledge of purchase specifications established by coal consumers is essential to the successful design and operation of a coal-preparation plant. ANTHRACITE Specifications should be considered by both the consumer and the producer as guide posts outlining a certain path for both to follow. Plants differ, therefore specifications must differ to meet the varied requirements. Specifications are not of themselves a "cure all" or an assurance of complete satisfaction in fuel utilization. Specifications should not be regarded as a license to engage in an orgy of buying any and all coals that may happen to fall within their limits. This would lead to the indiscriminate mixing of coals which may vary in their burning characteristics. Different coals of equal grade tend to be individualistic in their burning characteristics. Rather, specifications should be used to help simplify coal selection, to reduce the actual number of coals used over a given period; in other words, to have a stabilizing influence on coal or customer turnover. In the final analysis, the use of too many coals per year in a plant is costly to both the consumer and the producer. Too many sources usually result in higher operating and maintenance costs for the consumer and higher sales costs for the producer. Finally, the statement included in the report accompanying the com¬prehensive Coal Selection Charts prepared by the Coal Committee of the National Association of Purchasing Agents, and released in 1938, is significant. This Committee worked diligently for a period of 15 years seeking to find a scientific and reliable method for selecting coals. The two following paragraphs are quoted from its report: More important is the fact that no ready-made classification or set of specifications can possibly replace the judgment and resourcefulness of an experienced combustion engineer or fuel technologist, nor the usual need for full scale plant tests under the exact conditions of use before a final decision is made ...

Jan 1, 1943

By H. C. Goodrich

THE earliest record of copper production from the state of Utah comes from "The Resources of Utah," by. Mr. Fabian, in 1872, wherein it is stated that the. Mammoth mine of East Tintic was located in 1870 and that the ores yielded a large percentage of copper, silver and gold. It is also stated that shipments had been made to Swansea, England, which assayed between $200 and $300 per ton. The Mammoth-Copperopolis mine was located in, 1870 and sold the year following to an English syndicate. Some copper was shipped to. England and in 1873 there was constructed a 15-stamp mill and two copper smelting furnaces; these were operated a few months and before the end of the year were closed down and the property sold for debt. . This property -vas reorganized in 1879 and is at the present day a producer, though its principal product now is lead and silver. While a certain amount of copper has always been coming from the various lead-silver camps of Utah, the real history of copper in Utah should start with the discovery of the mines in Bingham Canyon, located about 25 miles to the southwest from Salt Lake City.

Jan 1, 1925

By R. P. Ehrlich, D. A. Dahlstrom

In the hydrometallurgical circuit, many phase separation steps are usually necessary. Typical steps are pregnant liquor - leach residue separation by counter- current decantation or continuous vacuum filtration, clarification of liquids prior to precipitation, ion exchange or solvent extraction, dewatering of final product, etc. The paper discusses the more recent advances in these areas and considers general operating parameters and cost factors. In addition, emphasis is placed on future needs because of the growing importance and necessity of hydrometallurgical processing of minerals.

Jan 1, 1973

Jan 1, 1887

By Lawrence A. Roe

Talc, when it can be isolated as a pure mineral, has a composition of 63.36% SiO2, 31.89% MgO, and 4.75% H2O. However, as an industrial commodity, talc rarely approaches theoretical purity. Nevertheless, the impure talc products of commerce find a multitude of uses and few substitutes in many industrial applications. Minerals commonly associated with and sold together in talcose mixtures are tremolite, chlorite, dolomite, mica, and magnesite. Steatite was originally a mineralogical name applied to pure talc. In today's commerce steatite generally refers to the massive variety of talc suitable for electrical insulator manufacture. Block steatite ore can be machined into various shapes. Impure varieties of massive or block talc are still commonly referred to as soapstone. Soft massive talc, suitable for crayon manufacture, has been referred to as French chalk. It has been common practice to discuss talc, soapstone, and pyrophyllite under the same general heading. In the case of soapstone and talc, this is a natural thing since many different types of platy, soft minerals exhibiting a high degree of lubricity (commonly referred to as "slip") have been grouped together and called soapstone or talc. Further, there is a mineralogical relationship of pyrophyllite to montmorillonite and talc to hectorite. Thus, talc and pyrophyllite are sometimes referred to as clay minerals. When finely divided talc or pyrophyllite are combined with water in proportions to make a slurry, the end product does have the appearance of a clay-water mixture. Soapstone for utensils and ornaments was mined by prehistoric Indians on Santa Catalina Island, Calif. In the mid-1800s, soapstone from deposits along the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains was used by white settlers for building and ornamental stone and in the linings and foundations of furnaces (Anon. 1956). Previous to 1916, the annual recorded production in California did not exceed 2000 tons. In the period 1912 to 1918, output rose sharply when the Talc City, Western, and Silver Lake mines were put into operation. From 1916 to 1935, the state's annual output of talc was in the range of 9,000 to 20,000 tons. In the mid-1930s, the use of talc in wall tile grew rapidly. In California, the production of talc grew to 63,000 tpy in 1943. The post-war building boom helped California production to grow to 120,000 tons in 1951. In 1968, production was 165,000 tons, 1969 was 145,000 tons, 1970 was 185,000 tons, and 1972 was 155,000 tons. Talc mining in New York state dates to about 1878 when a Colonel Palmer and associates opened the first commercial talc mine on the Nelson Freeman farm near Talcville, New York. In 1893, this operation was sold to the International Pulp Co. which changed its name to the International Talc Co. in 1944. Total production from seven New York mines, in 1948, was 130,000 tons. A new talc operation, the Gouverneur Talc Co. owned by the R.T. Vanderbilt Co., began operations near Balmat, N.Y., in 1948. The initial capacity of the processing plant was 200 tpd (Gillingham, 1950). Subsequent expansions have increased capacity to over 600 tpd. The Vermont talc industry began just after the start of the 20th century. Talc was discovered in the area of the present Johnson, Vt., talc mine in 1902. The American Min¬erals Co. initiated plant operations at Johnson in 1904. The Magnesia Talc Co. opened a plant at Waterbury, Vt., in 1913 (Burmeister, 1963; Trauffer, 1964) and acquired American Minerals Co. in 1923. The Waterbury mine has a long history as a producer of talc crayons. The Eastern Magnesia Talc Co. was formed in 1924 by a merger of the Eastern Talc Co.

Jan 1, 1975

By R. G. Ward, P. L. Sachdev

Using an improved maximum bubble pressure technique, the densities of iron silicates at 1400°C have been measured under nitrogen. At the wiistite composition the density has been measured by bubble-blowing experments with both argon and nitrogen and calculated from the measured volume of a known mass of melt under nitrogen. The densities under nitrogen are significantly different from those measured under argon for melts containing less than 28 wt pct SiO2. THE constitution of liquid slags is not well understood, largely because no single property or parameter can be measured which gives conclusive evi- dence of the types and packing of the ions present. Of the many property measurements which can provide information leading to a picture of the constitution of slags, density gives the most direct evidence and has been studied extensively. The work reported here is part of a program of study of densities in multicomponent melts in which the iron oxide-silica system is the solvent. These melts are important as they are fundamental to basic steelmaking, and they allow the study of basic silicate compositions which have hitherto been largely neglected. As considerable disparity exists

Jan 1, 1965

By J. D. Prater, H. R. Spedden, E. E. Malouf

Application of research findings to the old art of leaching copper from copper-bearing mine waste has resulted in a significant contribution of copper to over-all copper production. For example, at the completion of the current expansion program at the Kennecott properties in the United States, copper produced from waste dump leaching will amount to about 25% of the total production, whereas formerly only 2% was derived from this source. This planned expansion of copper leaching focused attention on the problem of developing more efficient methods for the recovery of copper from greatly increased volumes of copper-bearing so1utions.l Detailed investigations made in laboratory pilot plant and plant tests for the recovery of copper from copper-bearing solutions have included electrowinning, solvent extraction, ion exchange and cementation with iron in launders, precipitation drums, activated launders, and precipitation cones. The results of these investigations have led to the development of a precipitation cone-type recovery system having advantages over older methods.

Jan 4, 1966

By Stanley W. Ivosevic

The South-Central Osa Peninsula produced around 30,000 kg (100,000 troy oz) of gold since prehistoric times. Gold freed by erosion from quartz lodes in the Mesozoic Nicoya ophiolite complex was reconcentrated through three generations of Quaternary sedimentary deposits. Resultant gold placers grade upward from 1 g/m3 (0.03 troy oz/m3) and are of moderate size.

Jan 1, 1980

By J. H. Fletcher

AIR has been cooled, heated, washed; humidified and dehumidified for many purposes and in many industries. At a number of metal mines air is conditioned to reduce the high humidity and unbearable heat found in deep workings, and at some mines air is washed to allay siliceous dust. Steam is introduced into the intake air at many coal mines, particularly in winter, for the purpose of keeping loose coal dust so moistened that the hazard of an explosion is lessened. This paper will describe a further successful application of air conditioning in a coal mine, where, for over three years, all intake air has been cooled to a constant temperature for the sole purpose of preventing roof falls.

Jan 1, 1931

By Louis A. Panek

Ground movements in the zone adjoining an active cave were measured at four sites in the San Manuel Mine. Measurements were made to detect extension and inclination, basic components of displacement, which can readily be duplicated by mine personnel using relatively simple equipment. The displacements demonstrated the development of a zone of strain relief surrounding the active cave, within which the ground tends to migrate toward the cave, and extension cracks develop tangential to the cave. This expansion of the ground surrounding an active cave can be exploited to promote future caving; it also creates special problems with respect to the design of an effective ground support system for mine openings in the production area.

Jan 1, 1981

By R. E. Hoffman, R. A. Ward

The self-diffusion coefficient in high purity nickel has been measured over the temperature range 870' to 1248°C. The results are described by the relation D = 1.27 exp[—-66,800/RT 1cm2ec-1. The measured activation energy correlates satisfactorily with absolute melting point, heat of fusion, and heat of sublimation. KNOWING the rates of self-diffusion is important in the understanding of many metallurgical reactions. However, in spite of the rather widespread interest in nickel, both commercially and in fundamental investigations, no measurement of the self-diffusion in solid nickel has previously been re- ported." In connection with a program of measuring rates of diffusion in some nickel alloys, self-diffusion in pure nickel has been investigated over a rather wide temperature range by combining a sectioning technique and a surface counting technique.

Jan 1, 1957