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By R. C. Mahon

THE importance of ground water control in glacial drift overlying mines is widely recognized. Adequate handling of the problem results in considerable saving in overall pumping costs, as the cost of pumping the larger quantity of water under low heads from surface wells is more than offset by the decrease in the quantity of water to be pumped from the mine under high heads. Eliminating or partly reducing seepage of water through the ledge reduces moisture content of the ore, a factor especially important in iron ore mines, where a reduction of 1 pct in moisture effects a very material saving. An important though indeterminate saving is also brought about by the elimination of water in the working places underground. The Homer and Wauseca mines of Hanna Coal & Iron Co. at Iron River, Mich., cover 480 acres. When these mines were started it was possible to operate on only one 40-acre tract, as the depth of water over the remainder of the property was too great to permit operation. Although the average depth of the ground water over the area being mined at that time was less than 50 ft it was necessary to pump 1200 gpm from the mine, the greater part from a depth of 750 ft. The slate footwall and graywacke hanging wall are almost impervious, and it was apparent that seepage into the mine was mainly through the iron formation in which the orebodies were located. Analysis of the water in the iron formation showed it to be of the same character as that in the glacial drift, while the water in both walls was heavily mineralized, also indicating that the water passed much more freely through the iron formation. The first attempt to take off the water above the ledge was by means of drainage drifts driven 15 to 20 ft below the ledge, Fig. 1. Various schemes were used to get the water into these drifts: 1—Holes 15 to 20 ft long were drilled from the back of the drifts to the ledge, but these were difficult to drill and blocked easily. 2—Sections of the drifts were blasted down. This gave a large flow for a time but eventually almost total blockup occurred. 3—Raises 4x4 ft were driven above the drifts to within 8 ft of the

Jan 1, 1955

ONE of the fundamental reasons for the extreme rapidity with which the Porphyries developed after the trail had been blazed at Bingham was the amenability of the deposits to prospecting and proving of the ore either by churn-drilling or by diamond-drilling. At Ray churn-drill data formed the principal basis for early calculations of ore reserves; and in 1913, Inspiration floated its first bond issue for $6,000,000 on the strength of the estimate of 45,000,000 tons of sulphide ore assaying just over 3 per cent copper. The money was obtained in spite of the fact that no one ever had actually laid eyes on more than a minute fraction of that ore. The customary method of developing a copper deposit before the Porphyry era had been to sink shafts or drive adits and then to follow and expose the veins or lodes with horizontal and vertical underground workings-drifts, crosscuts, raises, and winzes. The excavated material sometimes was sampled in bulk; but always the walls of the openings would be channeled at intervals to obtain small samples representative of the ore left in place. This process was known as "blocking out" ore. It was costly and it required a great deal of time to prove the existence of immense tonnages. The early development at Utah was done in this way; likewise, at Miami. This fact helps to explain why only 3,000,000 tons of ore was reported as being developed when J. Parke Channing wrote the report on which the original Miami financing was based in March, 1908. Fortunately, his 3,000,000 tons averaged 3'per cent copper. At Ray, Seeley W. Mudd estimated 3,000,000 tons of ore in June, 1908, developed principally by underground working; but by the end of 1909, Henry Krumb was able to report 50,000,000 tons as the fruit of a little more than a year of churn-drilling.

Jan 1, 1933

By H. E. Mills

THE local auditorium of a little Alabama mining town was crowded with expectant men, women and children, as the bulletin board had announced the addition of visiting entertainers to supplement the local talent and motion pictures which usually made up the program of the regular monthly safety meeting. In the audience, near the stage, sat a group of bright-faced boys in boy scout uniforms, discussing the picture just completed. As the lights flashed on a crash and scream was heard from the outside, a shrill whistle and word of command from the scoutmaster, and five of the scouts ran out of the hall, while the mine super-intendent stepped on the stage and requested everyone to keep their seats. The scouts returned, three of them carrying a limp figure in their arms, while the other two cleared the doorway and aisle of excited spectators. They marched to the stage and, placing the apparently badly-injured boy on the floor, proceeded to give an expert demonstration of first aid to the injured. The scoutmaster then explained to the audience that the whole affair had been arranged for their benefit, and invited the local first-aid men to come up on the stage to examine and criticize the boys' work. This gave an opening for several talks on the value of first-aid training and accident prevention, which is the main object of the monthly meetings. This demonstration was given by the first-aid team of Troop One, and the entertainment was provided by members of Troop One and Twenty-eight of the Bir-mingham Scout Council, organized by the writer for the purpose of promoting interest in the welfare and safety meetings in the mining villages of the State. During the past year they have visited a number of such meet-ings and presented programs similar to the one men-tioned above. However, in order to assure a good attendance, entertainment features must also be pro-vided, and the serious part of the evening program was interspersed with excellent vocal and instrumental mu-sic, dancing and novelty acrobatic acts furnished by the visiting scouts. In addition to the numerous first-aid teams of the Birmingham Council, there are hundreds of scouts scat-tered throughout the mining district whose knowledge of first aid, safety first, life-saving, personal health and public health are a constant source of protection to their community. All of these subjects are covered by merit badge pamphlets and are required of an eagle scout.

Jan 2, 1927

By Arthur H. Redfield

In estimating the unmined petroleum reserves of Central America, it is not feasible to employ the methods that have been worked out in thc oil fields of the United States. No producing wells have been brought in and no drilling sections have been made public. It is accordingly necessary to fall back on a crude "barrels per square mile" estimate. The method chosen is a comparison of the structure of the foreign field of unknown reserves with that of some supposedly analogous North American field of which the reserves have been estimated. This method makes no pretense at scientific accuracy, but furnishes a working basis for an estimate. The areal geology of Central America is illustrated in the inap prepared by Sapper and more recently in the geologic map of North America accompanying U. S. Geological Survey Professional Paper No. 71, "Index to the stratigraphy of North America." Disregarding for the present the narrow Quaternary coastal plains and alluvial deposits of the river valleys, three chief zones may be distinguished. These arc: A zone of late eruptive and effusive rocks; a zone of highly folded prr-Cambrian(?) or early Paleozoic crystalline schists and slates, considerably intruded by pre-Tertiary plutonic rocks; and a zone of more or less folded sediments, chiefly of Cretaceous or Tertiary age. The zone of late eruptive and effusive rocks of Central America begins in southeastern Chiapas, Mexico, and extends, with increasing breadth, across southern Guatemala, across practically the whole of El Salvador, and across southern Honduras to the valley of Rio Goascorhn, where the igneous zone attains a width of about 100 mi. (160 km.) East of the Goascordn Valley late eruptives and effusives play a subordinate part, being confined largely to thc Departments of Valle and Choluteca. Dikes and sills of igneous rocks intrude the sedimentary formations of central and northern Honduras. Late igneous rocks cover about four-fifths of the area of Nicaragua. In Costa Rica, late igneous rocks form the diagonal ranges of the Sierra de Guanacaste and the Cordillma Central, and play a part in the upbnild-

Jan 1, 1923

By R. A. Kinzie

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

Jan 1, 1951

By P. Barnes

(Resident Engineer, 1873-75.) SEVERAL statements have been made to the Institute, somewhat detached from each other, as to the cost of some parts of these works, but they have not included any extended description of the. buildings or machinery. The general plan of the work connected with the water supply differs, in some important details, from that which has been common either in the Pittsburgh district or elsewhere, and a somewhat extended description may be of interest to the Institute, in connection with a note of the cost of the work. The plan as a whole, and nearly all the important details, were developed by Mr. William P. Shinn, C.E., the general manager of the Company. The immediate and responsible charge of the work was in the hands of Mr. John C. Lewis, C.E., to whom had been committed all the work of this general description, including the laying-out of the whole of the foundations, the erection of the buildings, and the grading and laying down of the entire railroad system. The continuous operation of the machinery and other fixtures of these waterworks, for more than three years, has fully demonstrated the correctness and economy of the plan adopted. No casualties of any moment have befallen the apparatus, and no improvements have been suggested as important except that the gate at the river end of the conduit should have been made more completely water-tight, so that the whole length of the conduit could be pumped out dry without resort to any temporary dam in the conduit itself. In general terms the works of the Edgar Thomson Company are situated on a plateau, about 52 feet above the low-water level of the Monongahela River, and about 2000 feet from its bank. The site of the works is bordered on one side by Turtle Creek, a small stream which drains a considerable area of coal mining territory. This creek is about 100 feet from the group of buildings which have been erected, but it flows into the Monongahela River at a point, about 1200 feet further up than that selected for the entrance to the water-works conduit. It was ascertained by analysis that the water in the creek contains an important percentage of sulphate of lime, while the water of the river is of unusual purity, in respect of any salts

Jan 1, 1879

By F. W. McQuiston

INTRODUCTION IDARADO Mining Company's mill and surface plant are at the portal of the Treasury tunnel at elevation 10,625 ft, 12 miles south of Ouray, Colo. In 1943 and 1944 this tunnel was extended in a westerly direction to tap the Black Bear vein, and, together with the recently completed 1100-ft inclined Treasury raise, provides access to the Black Bear mine. In 1945 a 250-ton mill was placed in operation to process development ores containing much needed copper, lead and zinc for war requirements, and to serve as a pilot testing unit for larger scale milling operations. In the years 1902 to 1927 some 329,000 tons of ore were produced from mine workings on the Black Bear vein that extended downward from elevation 12,325 ft at the Black Bear tunnel portal to elevation 11,618 ft, the lowest level of the mine. The ores were taken to the Cascade and Smuggler-Union mills near Telluride over two aerial tramways. Gold bullion, a copper-lead concentrate, and a zinc concentrate were produced. ORES The Black Bear is a compound fissure vein that has undergone several stages of mineralization. The first important stage is represented by complex ores of copper, lead and zinc in a quartz gangue. Precious metal content in this stage is low. The galena is argentiferous and varying amounts of tetrahedrite, freibergite and bornite tend to increase the normal copper content represented in chalcopyrite. The zinc occurs as a true sphalerite with little or no iron. Later re-openings of the fissure took place more or less co-extensively with the successive introduction of (1) abundant quartz gangue containing minor amounts of chalcopyrite, galena and sphalerite; (2) free gold in a fluoritic quartz gangue; and (3) barren, low-grade quartz with minor amounts of pyrite as the only important sulphide. The sulphides show practically no oxidation and little mineralogic intergrowth. Because of the common overlapping of these successive stages of mineralization within a given mining area, considerable dilution of the base-metal content takes place, thus lowering the average mill-head grade. PLANT PRACTICE Metallurgical testing was started shortly after the Black Bear vein was encountered on Treasury tunnel level in 1944. Laboratory tests showed good flotability of the minerals in the ore and indicated an economic separation could be made of the copper, lead and zinc minerals into their respective concentrates. The success of the separation is close reagent control to maintain a balance between promotion and depression of the sulphides. To maintain this balance reagent consumption for the three metal separation is considerably higher than in ordinary lead-zinc flotation.

Jan 1, 1947

By F. L. Wolf, A. A. Grubb

There is a tendency on the part of practical foundrymen to accept with reluctance the results of tests on sands, binders, and such materials made in the chemical laboratory alone. They feel that such tests frequently emphasize and measure properties that are of minor importance and fail to take account of characteristics that are important in determining the value of the material in actual practice. Experience seems to indicate that the most thorough and conclusive test for any new foundry material is an actual run in the foundry alongside of a standard material of known value. Such a test, however, involves certain difficulties and necessitates certain precautions. It is not always easy to obtain a fail trial for a new material. We all have certain prejuclices, which unconsciously affect our judgment to a marked degree. A practical test frequently involves so many workmen, each of whom reacts in a different manner to the test, that the personal equation becomes very complex and the true results of the test are obscured. There are times, too, when a thorough experimental trial of a material would interfere too much with the. rush of work in a department or would hazard the quality of the product to such an extent as to make it inadvisable. Under such conditions a laboratory test is advisable before the material is sent into the foundry. These tests should be made as practical as possible and so closely related to foundry practice as to give a true index to the value of a product for the purpose desired. Core sands and molding sands are as numerous "as the sands of the sea" and valy as much in quality. Old sources of supply are continually failing and new ones must be opened, so that we must continually search for new and better grades of sand. During the past year, the Ohio Brass Co. has developed tests for sands, cores, and binders which bear a close relation to the particular use to which these materials are put in the foundry and which arc fairly indicative of their value. While the tests thus far have been confined to cores and core sands, it is expected that tests for molding sand will bc developed in the future.

Jan 1, 1921

By H. E. Rorschach

Activity in Oklahoma oil fields made 1937 one of the best years since 1926. During the year, 3454 wells were completed, an increase of about 25 per cent over the year 1936. Purchasers reports filed with the Corporation Commission of the State of Oklahoma showed a total of 221,842,-788 bbl. of oil purchased from leases in 1937, an increase of about 10 per cent over 1936. The assembly of a complete table of all of the oil fields in Oklahoma has not yet been achieved. Many of the early records of operators and pipe-line companies are incomplete. Table 1 includes all of the new fields, and this year there has been added work done covering pools discovered in previous years, so that most of the important fields in the state of Oklahoma are included therein. The outstanding development of the year was the discovery of the producing horizon classified as the Wilcox in western Payne County by the Mid-Continent Petroleum Corporation on a unitized block in sec. 18, Tp. 18 N., R. 2 E. This block is operated hy the Mid-Continent and owned in conjunction with the Carter Oil Co., Transwestern Oil Co. and Sinclair-Prairie Oil Co. Another important development of the year was the extension of the deep zone in the old Fox-Milroy area of Carter and Stephens Counties. Some of the other discoveries made during the year 1937 are South Cromwell, discovered by Sinclair-Prairie Oil Co.; Cromwell extension of the Fitts pool in Pontotoc County; discovery of the Langston area in Logan County; discovery of the Sporn area in Lincoln County by Skelly Oil Co. and the discovery of the North Wellston area in Lincoln County by Standard Oil & Gas Co. Table 2 shows the new oil areas discovered in Oklahoma during the year 1937 and areas that were discovered in 1936 but developed in 1937. Fox-Milroy Area.—Three wells were completed to the deep producing zone during the year. One of the wells completed in the early part of the year uas the Carter Oil Company's No. 1 Harley in sec. 24, Tp. 2 S., R. 4 W., 3 1/2 miles northwest of the original discovery well, the Ruth

Jan 1, 1938

By John H. Melvin

THE Omaha District, Corps of Engineers, has been doing subsurface exploration work for a number of years, both by contract and with its own forces. Certain practices and procedures concerning the recovery of large diameter cores have been developed which will be described in this paper. GEOLOGY Most of the drilling to date has been in connection with structures on the main stem of the Missouri River above Sioux City, Iowa. A wide variety of subsurface conditions has been encountered. The bedrock formations appear in regular order from the oldest to the youngest, traveling upstream; or in other words, the general regional dip is to the northwest. The oldest formation is the Carlile shale, a compaction or noncemented waxy shale of Cretaceous age. Because of its uncemented, soft nature this shale has a tendency to grind or wash away when drilled. It also has a tendency to rebound or expand when the overlying pressures are removed. A 25-ft bed of sharp, friable sandstone called the Codell member is present near the top of the Carlile shale. This member is a cemented sediment, but in drilling, many of the sand grains are broken loose and exert extensive abrasive action on the core barrel and bit. Above the Carlile shale is the Niobrara chalk, a soft calcareous deposit with shaly horizons and some thin beds of bentonitic clay. The average thickness of this deposit is about 145 ft. It is soft enough to be sawed or bored with ordinary woodworking tools, yet is compact enough to be used as building block. The Pierre shale, the formation above the Niobrara chalk, is over 800 ft in thickness and is the most widespread material in the area. It is a dark colored, compaction shale containing numerous thin bentonitic clay seams and at certain horizons, hard manganese concretions. The shale has numerous faults and in addition, along the valley walls, has undergone considerable - slumping. Joints, fault planes and slickensided surfaces are common features encountered in drilling and add to the difficulties of high core recovery. East of the Missouri River the bedrock is generally covered with from 100 to 200 ft of glacial till, composed of clays, silts, sands, gravels and boulders. The valley itself is filled with alluvial deposits, mostly of the sand and gravel sizes, and contains a buried preglacial or interglacial channel over 100 ft in depth. The overburden deposits require sampling in connection with engineering studies and must also be cased before the underlying bedrock can be cored. The diameter of the required overburden samples can thus have an indirect effect on the size of core recovered from the bedrock. West of the river, which in most cases is the western boundary of glaciation,

Jan 1, 1947

By A. J. Langhammer

Broadly speaking, it may be said that the engineer has two major responsibilities: One is to recommend the choosing of proper machinery and equipment; the other, to assist in the simplification of design, determination of method, and advise about the most suitable material to be used. The products of powder metallurgy enter broadly into both these fields. The oil-cushion, self-lubricating bearing surface on a machine part makes for better machinery and factory equipment, often proves a life-saver in curing difficulties where bearings are overloaded or inaccessible for lubrication, or on installations that with normal practice constitute a problem entailing frequent repairs. On the other hand, other parts may require low porosity approaching solidity. In the second field, powder metallurgy provides many possibilities for improved products, improved performance, solving of technical problems, saving of weight, quiet operation, higher factors of safety, greater flexibility, attractive economies, and so on. Parts We of the automotive industries are making many powdered-metal war-machine parts, both ferrous and nonferrous, including gears, external and internal; ratchets, both external and internal; levers; pillow blocks; sliding blocks; cams; gibs; hubs with external and internal splines, and similar units. Powdered metals play an important part in our war work, as they did in peacetime in the manufacturing of passenger cars and trucks. The art of powder metallurgy is not a panacea. Although on certain parts such operations as turning, boring, facing, reaming, counterboring, milling, countersinking. chamfering, broaching, hobbing, profiling. trepanning, gear cutting, grinding, etc., can be eliminated, there will always be the need for machine tools. Advantages of Powder Metallurgy Simple machining operations often are eliminated by using powdered metal, and also many other intricate operations, some of which are of the type impossible to perform on the most modern production equipment; for instance, an external spline on a flange hub, where the spline must continue to the flange face and at full depth. Another important feature is that some of the machine parts may require a self-lubricating surface at one or more points; for example, proper lubrication of a sliding splined spool, while ordinarily most digcuit, is accomplished automatically with a self-lubricating powdered-metal bearing. Frequently machine parts are made with physical, mechanical and technological advantages unobtainable from cast or forged metals of similar analysis. Thus powder metallurgy offers the designing engineer broader latitude. Similarly, the engineer may take advantage of powder metallurgy in his teamwork with other departments. Another important advantage in powder metallurgy for machine parts is the relatively short time required for tool-up.

Jan 1, 1945

By E. H. Rose

The question is often pondered whether the flotation process is still an art or has become a science. The fact is that flotation is a science in so many variables that only art can blend them. It is demonstrable that no less than one hundred variables are involved in any flotation operation, most of them immeasurable on a routine basis. The behavior of every one of them is always governed by orderly and unchanging law, as no man can doubt. There is nothing truly indefinite about that behavior; the only indefiniteness is in our knowledge of it, either in general or from hour to hour in the circuit. In dealing with a simultaneous equation in, say, one hundred variables, all not only affecting the outcome to some degree but many influencing each other as well, it is small wonder that the mineral-dressing profession presents a case history of debate and controversial opinion. The statement of the subject of this symposium—a symposium on flotation machines—seems to delimit and define the matters to be considered and at least the general nature of the conclusions sought. Nevertheless, in such a meeting it is not possible to meditate upon all the variables that do in one way or another affect performance of flotation machines. To attempt it would be much like trying to operate a hundred-ring circus. Perverse variables being what they are, one could expect the elephant in ring 36 to squirt a trunkful of water at the tightrope performer in ring 37 to ruin that artist's act, just as our learning to depress pyrite in the early 1920's ruined the act of the formerly faithful old Callows. Honest Disagreements Selective flotation dates from 1922 or 1923, when several plants established their regular flotation operations on a selective basis. Since then, two decades of efforr have gone into the development of better and better flotation machines. Many have come and gone. The competition has simmered down to perhaps a dozen machines, each one of which is staunchly defended by some operators as being the best for their particular jobs, and as scornfully dismissed by at least a few others elsewhere as being positively the poorest for theirs. These disagreements are honest disagreements, honestly arrived at after plenty of sweat. In many a flotation plant, one machine has been tried out against another under conditions as fair as they could possibly be made. Sometimes the results are on a par but more often one machine shows a consistent and unmistakable margin of superiority over the other. In equally honest and enlightened tests, machine A may win over machine B in one place, and machine B over machine A by as great a margin in another. This paper purposes to identify some of the more prominent reasons why this is so,

Jan 1, 1947

By P. W. Bridgman

During the war, the Navy undertook the construction, under my direction, of an experimental gun embodying features designed to lessen the cost and time of production. These experiments were initiated after representations as to their desirability had been offered by myself, by the Naval Consulting Board, and by the National Research Council. The first drawings were made in June, 1917, and the experiment was completed in November, 1918. For the sake of clearness it will pay to recapitulate briefly the fundamental idea of gun construction. It is well known that if a hollow cylinder is subjected to internal fluid pressure, the maximum stress occurs in the inside layers, the outer parts carrying much less than their due share of the stress. This inequality of stress is more pronounced the thicker the walls of the cylinder. If such a cylinder is pushed to the elastic limit, failure in elasticity will take place long before the outer lagers have reached the limit of their capacity. Economical use of the material would demand, however, that all parts of the cylinder reach the limits of their capacity simultaneously. This may be brought about, at least in cylinders of not too great thickness, by producing in the inner layers an initial compression, and in the outer layers an initial tension. The effect of internal pressure is at first to relieve the compression of the inside layers, while increasing the tension of the outside layers. If the initial stresses are properly distributed, all parts of the cylinder will reach their elastic limits simultaneously, thus giving a cylinder of maximum strength for its weight. In gun construction as hitherto practiced, this initial distribution of stress is produced either by winding the inner tube with wire, a common English practice, or by shrinking hoops over the inner tube, which has been the standard American practice. Either process is long and expensive, particularly with the larger guns, 12- or 14-in., which require

Jan 1, 1922

By D. B. Carson, D. L. Katz

Natural gases under pressure form crystalline hydrates with water. Experimental data are reported on four-phase equilibrium for the methane-propane-water, methanc-pentane-water, and methane-hexane-water systems. Temperatures and pressures for equilibrium between gas, water-rich liquid, hydrocarbon-rich liquid, and hydrate were measured, as well as the percentages of methane and propane in the hydrate. The data indicate that natural gas hydrate behaves as a solid solution and that pentanes and heavier hydrocarbons do not enter into the solid phase. Vapor-solid equilibrium constants are presented that permit the approximation of the conditions for hydrate formation, from the composition of a gas. Introduction Natural gas hydrates have been the object of considerable research in recent years, because of the trouble they have caused in the natural-gas and natural-gasoline industries. Natural gas hydrates are white crystalline compounds of water and gas, which, under pressure, exist at temperatures considerably above the freezing point of water. Because of the relatively high temperatures at which the hydrates exist, they become a nuisance in high-pressure gas operations where water is present, since their formation causes partial or complete plugging of valves and pipes. From a practical standpoint, the trouble incident to hydrate formation has been solved by dehydration of the gas before it enters the plant or pipe line, or by other remedial measures. Extensive work on gas hydrates in the latter part of the nineteenth century, by Villardl and others, gave data on methane hydrate and on ethane hydrate. Schroeder summarized these theoretical studies2 Hammerschmidt3 introduced the information on gas hydrates to the gas industry and Dcaton and Frost4-6 gathered a considerable number of data on the behavior of natural gas hydrates. Recent papers7,8 have extended both the data and the theory of these hydrates. At present, data are available on tem-peraturcs and pressures of hydrate forma. tion for pure methane, ethane, propane, n-butane, methane-ethane mixtures, meth-ane-propane mixtures, methane-butane mixtures, and some Is natural gases, all- in the Presence of excess water. However, up to the Present time no method has been available for predicting the temperature at given pressures or the pressure at given at at which natural gases will form hydrates if hydrates with water. 'This Paper Presents data on the methane-propane-water, methane-pentane-water and methane-hex-""e water systems in four phases, one of which is the hydrate. he application of the phase rule to the methane-~ro~ane-water data Proves that hydrates behave as solid solutions. The data of this paper and those in the literature were used to develop vapor-solid. equilibrium constants,8 which permit prediction of conditions of hydrate formation from the analysis of a natural gas.

Jan 1, 1942

By H. Brevers, Maurice Rey

Through circumstances connected with the war, the senior author lost his records, therefore it has been impossible to include numerical data in this paper. The arsenical quicksilver ore investigated had been roasted, with poor metallurgical results. The vapor-tension temperature curves of mercury and arsenious trioxide are similar, and the arsenical compound hampers the coalescence of mercury drops in the condenser and is the cause of large stack losses. The ore was a gray limestone carrying small amounts of carbon and mineralized with cinnabar and two arsenic minerals, realgar (As2S2) and arsenopyrite (FeAsS). The proportion of realgar often exceeded that of cinnabar; the proportion of arsenopyrite was smaller. The grade of the ore varied between 0.8 and 4 per cent Hg. The problem was to make a high-grade mercury concentrate, as free from arsenic as possible. The water used throughout the testing was hard, having a pH of about 8. Flotation of Realgar Realgar showed a very strong tendency to float. It formed a film at the surface of the pulp and floated in abundance with only pine oil. Therefore an attempt was made to float the realgar before the cinnabar, but this was not very successful; the percentage of mercury in the realgar concentrate could never be brought below 2 or 3 per cent. Cinnabar slimed easily and floated with pine oil, so that some of it always accompanied the realgar. There was also the question of the cinnabar-arseno-pyrite separation. On further investigation it was found that realgar can be floated not only with pine oil but even better with a combination of hydrocarbons and pine oil. Washing the ore with ether revealed that it contained hydrocarbons, which helped to float the realgar. In this connection it belongs to the same class as carbon, sulphur and talc. It can be floated also with a xanthate, when activated by a heavy-metal salt. The conditions favoring the two types of flotation are opposed, as activation by a copper salt facilitates xanthate flotation (in fact, is even necessary to it), whereas it hinders pine oil and petroleum flotation. One type of flotation can be termed non-polar and the other polar, a distinction that has been stressed in a previous paper.' Depression of Realgar and Flotation of Cinnabar Many chemicals were tested in an attempt to float the cinnabar and depress the realgar. Finally starch rendered soluble with caustic soda was tried, also several grades of commercial soluble starch, and dextrin was found to be the best and the most convenient reagent. Several of these starch preparations have a strong flocculating effect on the pulp, which is a distinct disadvantage. Dextrin, with its low flocculating power, is excellent. It is noteworthy that starch preparations are also depressants for carbon and talc, so that the fact apparently has a general

Jan 1, 1943

By Winthrop P. Haynes

The symposium on production for the year 1943 contains few papers on the foreign situation. It has always been the policy of officers in charge of the symposium to refrain from publishing information that might possibly injure national or private interests. At the close of the war we hope again to publish full and accurate records of production abroad. A noteworthy feature of the reports on Texas this year is the map on page 469, which shows the districts covered by the statistics. Excerpts from Circular to Authors In order to facilitate interpretation of the data in this chapter, we print the following excerpts from the Circular to Authors. The field is the unit in this tabulation. In cases of fields extending across State boundaries, such as Rodessa, it is suggested that each State author treat the section of the field in his State as a unit, and by a footnote indicate that the field extends into an adjacent State. Each place in the table may represent one of three possibilities; either the proper entry is determinable and can be supplied by the author, or an approximate figure can be supplied which is the author's best guess and should be entered followed by an x, or it does not apply to the particular field and the space is left blank. Contributions of great value may be made by the author in many cases where entries are not subject to precise determina-tion. In such cases the author should use his good judgment and make the best entry possible under the circumstances. The entry of a zero is a positive declaration, and it is an important declaration where it is in order. It is thought that the nearest whole numbers are suficiently accurate for our purposes except as to percentage of sulphur in oil. If an author desires to report any other figures to tenths, he may do so. The quantity of gas produced should include, where possible, gas sold or otherwise marketed, and gas blown into the air, burned as flares or otherwise wasted. Segregation of these figures would be interesting if the authors can make such segregation. In any event, the figures should represent as nearly as possible the total quantity of gas removed from the reservoir. Under the columns on ''Depth," the average depth to the top of the productive zones and to the bottom of the productive wells, when subtracted, should give the approximate thickness of the productive zone. For fields where this is not true because of unusually high dip or for some other reasons, it is suggested that the authors indicate in their text the approximate average thickness of the productive zone. The net thickness of the producing formation should be the thickness of the producing zone, less the estimated amount to cover the portions of the zone that do not yield oil, such as dense shales, etc. It is recognized that for some fields the authors can only make rough guesses; in such cases, they should enter their best estimate followed by an x. Average production per acre-foot need not be reported as it can be calculated by those interested from the figures given. In classifying wells as to producing methods, enter all wells that are not "flowing" in the column headed "Artificial Lift." If possible, add footnotes to indicate whether the lift is "pumping," "gas lift" or "air lift."

Jan 1, 1944

By E. S. Moore

Although nickel was in use in alloys long before the Christian era, the metal was not discovered until 1751, when Cronstedt recognized it in niccolite from Sweden. The Chinese apparently used a nickel alloy, known as "pahfong" thousands of years ago and Persian coins dating farther back than 200 B.C. consist of a copper-nickel alloy similar to some of those now in use in coins. The pure metal was first prepared about 1775 and the metal was refined for commercial purposes some years later. The nickel industry did not attain much prominence until the ores in New Caledonia were discovered. Exports of ore from that country began in 1875 and since that date there has been an ever-increasing world output of nickel and a great expansion in the uses of the metal except during short periods of commercial and industrial depression. Previous to 1875, for a number of years, Norway was the chief producer, although the metal was mined also in Sweden, Finland, Italy, Germany, Austria, France, China, the United States and other countries. With the discovery of nickel deposits in the Sudbury district, Ontario, a new factor was introduced into the nickel industry and Sudbury has since become the overwhelmingly dominant feature in the world's nickel markets. Although nickel was first discovered in Canada as early as 1848 near the north shore of Lake Huron and nickel-copper sulfides were found in 1856 by surveyors working close to the present location of the important rnine at Creighton, in the Sudbury field, it was not until 1883 that any importance was attached to this field. In that year copper sulfide attracted attention where the main line of the Canadian Pacific railroad was being projected across Canada to the Pacific coast. Mining began near this discovery in 1889 but in the meantime operations had begun in 1886 in other parts of the field and by 1890 about 100,000 tons of ore had been raised. In the Sudbury field, as in Norway and at the old Lancaster Gap mine in Pennsylvania, the ore was first mined for its copper content and difficully in the refining of the copper led to the discovery of the important proportions of nickel in the ore. No. 3 property of the International Nickel Co., now known as the Frood, the greatest deposit in the

Jan 1, 1932

By E. H. Rose

The question is often pondered whether the flotation process is still an art or has become a science. The fact is that flotation is a science in so many variables that only art can blend them. It is demonstrable that no less than one hundred variables are involved in any flotation operation, most of them immeasurable on a routine basis. The behavior of every one of them is always governed by orderly and unchanging law, as no man can doubt. There is nothing truly indefinite about that behavior; the only indefiniteness is in our knowledge of it, either in general or from hour to hour in the circuit. In dealing with a simultaneous equation in, say, one hundred variables, all not only affecting the outcome to some degree but many influencing each other as well, it is small wonder that the mineral-dressing profession presents a case history of debate and controversial opinion. The statement of the subject of this symposium—a symposium on flotation machines—seems to delimit and define the matters to be considered and at least the general nature of the conclusions sought. Nevertheless, in such a meeting it is not possible to meditate upon all the variables that do in one way or another affect performance of flotation machines. To attempt it would be much like trying to operate a hundred-ring circus. Perverse variables being what they are, one could expect the elephant in ring 36 to squirt a trunkful of water at the tightrope performer in ring 37 to ruin that artist's act, just as our learning to depress pyrite in the early 1920's ruined the act of the formerly faithful old Callows. Honest Disagreements Selective flotation dates from 1922 or 1923, when several plants established their regular flotation operations on a selective basis. Since then, two decades of efforr have gone into the development of better and better flotation machines. Many have come and gone. The competition has simmered down to perhaps a dozen machines, each one of which is staunchly defended by some operators as being the best for their particular jobs, and as scornfully dismissed by at least a few others elsewhere as being positively the poorest for theirs. These disagreements are honest disagreements, honestly arrived at after plenty of sweat. In many a flotation plant, one machine has been tried out against another under conditions as fair as they could possibly be made. Sometimes the results are on a par but more often one machine shows a consistent and unmistakable margin of superiority over the other. In equally honest and enlightened tests, machine A may win over machine B in one place, and machine B over machine A by as great a margin in another. This paper purposes to identify some of the more prominent reasons why this is so,

Jan 1, 1947

By C. Richard Tinsley

INTRODUCTION Documentary complications arise from the risk apportionment in project financing which generally means that once the project is up and running and has satisfied the lender's completion test, the loan agreement specifically limits the lender's recourse to the project and its assets. It is the purpose of this paper to describe the special considerations which apply to industrial minerals projects and explore the reasons why so few project financings are negotiated in this industry. SIZE Small projects do not warrant the relatively high costs of negotiating and documenting project financing. The extent of the documentation is directly proportionate to either (a) the degree of risk apportionment, or (b) the amount of control given to lawyers to negotiate the documents. Although one would like to believe that project-finance documentation could be off-the-shelf, it is almost always necessary to tailor the documents to the mine development itself and the individual desires of the borrower. Accordingly, the documentation costs and initial expenses are seldom less than $40,000, and for complex projects can reach $400,000. In addition, banks often charge an up-front fee to partly compensate them for their staff time and partly to increase their yield on what is deemed to be a "riskier" loan asset. Another factor is the generally lower debt:equity ratio when bankers are uncertain of the accuracy of the cash flow projections. The ratio of the amount of cash flow left over after debt service to debt service itself is a key tool for project finance (debt service coverage). Bankers will require a higher coverage ratio for industrial minerals projects because of the relatively higher uncertainties in the following categories: Prices Markets Geology/Quality Transportation Environmental This, in turn, means that lower debt:equity ratios are the norm for new industrial minerals projects. INDUSTRY STRUCTURE It is hardly worthwhile to generalise about a field as diverse as industrial minerals, but there are four other structural reasons why project financing has not been widely applied. 1. The most obvious example is the predominance of small-sized operations, largely a function of transportation economics. Geological conditions also contribute to their dispersion. 2. Often, the product is only a small part of a company's business in contrast to many petroleum, metals, or coal companies whose sole business is the production of the raw material. The construction industry is a good example here for cement, gypsum, crushed stone, sand and gravel, and the drilling-mud services business for barite and bentonite. A company is unlikely to jeopardise its main business through the failure of a project financing on one of its key inputs. The corrollary is that the mined input is often regarded as a cost centre and not run on the sort of economic basis suitable for project financing. 3. There may be a reluctance to reveal key aspects of an industrial minerals venture to an outsider for purely competitive reasons. Unlike the other minerals industries which readily share technical information at plant visits and

Jan 1, 1985

By D. C. Jones

THE term "coal-mine mechanization" is definable in several ways. In its general application it can mean the use of machines instead of manpower in each of the various mining activities necessary for the produc¬tion of coal-so that under this definition a mine that uses mechanical coal cutters could be classed as a mechanized mine. Common usage, however, insists that a mechanized mine is one in which machines are used for the entire process of mining or extraction and transportation of the coal. For the purpose of this paper, then, the second definition of "coal-mine mecha¬nization" will be used, and practices employed in mines where the greater part of the production is obtained through the use of mechanical loaders and conveyors will form the basis for this discussion. PHYSICAL CONTACT HAZARDS If we were to group all the hazards that accompany the use of mechanized equipment in a mine, the predominant class would be that which, for want of a better name, might be termed the "physical contact" hazards; that is, all the sources of danger that lead to accidents through physical contact of workmen with ma¬chines. A survey of accidents in a group of mechanized mines indicated that this class of hazards may be responsible for more than half the number of accidents in mechanized mining. For example, of 21 mining-machine accidents at one mine, 14 were of the physical contact type of 14 loading-machine accidents at the same mine, 8 were the result of physical contact. Certain of these hazards an controllable through the use of guards-¬a guard over the cutting-machine bits whet the machine is being trammed from place to place, or a chain or some similar locking device around the cutter chain, so that an accidental blow or push against the bit control will not cause the cutter chair to move. Other hazards, such as the possibility of. a loader operator having hi foot crushed by a crawler tread, or , brakeman being hit by a loader boon swung too far to one side while a car is being loaded, might be subject to control through the use of guard devices, but the reduction or elimination of all physical contact hazards by such methods doe: not appear feasible. Every accident of the physical contact type should be investigated to discover whether guards could have prevented it, but often the only way in which to combat these hazards will be through the awakened consciousness of each workman as to the danger that exists if he indulges in unsafe practices. A good approach to control of accident: in any mine is the establishment of a set o: safety rules or operating rules. The intent of such rules is to provide guides for the workmen to follow in the operation of equipment. Frequently the workmen have no regard for such rules, and observance is obtained only through compulsion or the part of management. An interesting development in connection with the formation of safety rules occurred during a training program for employees in the

Jan 1, 1946