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By Jack White, Ralph B. Adair

THE Mufulira mine in Northern Rhodesia is 13° south of the Equator and at an altitude of 4100 ft above sea level. The concentrator was planned in 1930 to treat about 10,000 tons of ore per day, but before construction work had gone very far the size of the plant was reduced to 1500 tons daily capacity. Then just as the construction was finished in December 1931, the price of copper did not warrant the commencement of operations and it was not until October 1933 that the mine re-opened. Extensions have been made to the plant in 1034, 1935, 1936 1937, 1940 and finally in 1945. The capacity of the plant when the 1945 extension is completed will be 9500 short tons per day. The various extensions have been carried out with the minimum confusion and with great skill on the part of the designers and the erection engineers. In dealing with the plant in this paper it is proposed to give an outline of the present practice and only to refer to past practice when it is considered of particular interest. ORE TREATED The ore consists of fine grained highly siliceous, felspathic and argillaceous quartzites, the latter containing graphitic carbon and locally termed graywacke. These rocks are considerably altered near the surface and on the fringes of the ore body. Despite extensive efforts at mixing, both underground and in the crushing plant, many sudden changes of ore take place in the mill feed. The minerals are chalcocite, bornite and chalcopyrite with relatively unimportant amounts of malachite, native copper, azurite, covellite and chrysocolla. Gold is present at about 1 oz to a thousand tons, and silver at about 2 dwt. per ton. With increasing depth the nonsulphide content or, as commonly termed locally, the oxide content of the ore is decreasing and is now less than 0.25 pct against a high of 0.77 pct. CRUSHING OPERATIONS The first stage of crushing is done underground where the oversize from 12-in. grizzleys is fed to a 56 X 72-in. jaw crusher. At the Selkirk shaft two 10-ton skips deliver the run of mine ore at a rate of 450 tons per hour to the 400-ton capacity shaft bins. One 6 ft wide Ross chain feeder and one locally made air-operated finger feeder feed the two 30-in. McCully crushers. Ahead of each crusher is a 6 X 9-ft spring grizzley spaced at 5 in. on a 35° slope. Neither the Ross chain feeder nor the finger feeder is entirely satisfactory and for the wet, muddy and sticky ore that has to be handled it is planned to replace these with two 6-ft wide apron pan feeders. The McCully crushers deliver a minus 5-in. product, at a rate of over 500 tons per

Jan 1, 1947

By J. B. Austin, R. H. H. Pierce

IN developing a consistent picture of the thermal expansion of the commercial chromium steels, which cover a range of, carbon contents, it is desirable to know the expansion in the limiting case of the binary, carbon-free, iron-chromium alloys. We have, therefore, determined the thermal expansion of a series of five special alloys, ranging in chromium content from 3 to 10.5 per cent, with not more than 0.03 per cent carbon, over a temperature range extending beyond the transformation region; this low carbon content enables us to draw reasonably reliable conclusions as to the behavior of the carbon-free system. Moreover, the measurements serve to determine the beginning and the end of the alpha-gamma transformation; and they emphasize once more the fact that a transformation temperature determined by any method in which the specimen is .cooled at an appreciable rate is apt to be seriously in error, particularly if the metal contains a transformation-retarding element such as chromium or managanese. The lag, or undercooling, observed at the ?-a transformation is explained in terms of the influence of temperature on transformation velocity; the rather unusual shape of the ? loop is attributed to a change with temperature and with composition of the distribution of chromium between the alpha-iron and gamma-iron solid solutions. The exact composition of the alloys which were obtained through the courtesy of Dr. W. Rohn, of the Heraeus Vakuumschmelze A-G., is given in Table 1. Determinations of the linear thermal expansion and of transformation temperature were carried out in the vacuum dilatometer previously described,1 using a rate of heating and of cooling of 3.0° to 3.5° per minute unless otherwise stated. Magnetic susceptibility, which was measured in studying the rate of transformation, was determined with a magnetic balance, which also has. been described.2

Jan 1, 1935

By AIME AIME

THE two illustrations below, furnished through the courtesy of J. P. Messervey, Deputy Inspector of Mines, Department of Public Works and Mines, Province of Nova Scotia, show a fourth-level stope in the salt mine at Malagash, N. S. Fig. I was taken when the stope was begun, and Fig. 2 shows how it looked two months later, the photographs being taken from the came point. This stope is at a depth of about 300 ft. and is on the MacKay seam, which is the central band of white salt running through the Malagarh deposit. As run be seen. the vein is vertical. and varies from a foot to 50 ft. in thickness. The

Jan 1, 1932

By John Dasher, M. C. Chang

The Crucible mine in Pennsylvania, operating on Pittsburgh seam coal, is rated at 5000 tpd. The washing plant, built in 1943, is rated at about 400 tph, using hydroseparator boxes to wash the coarse coal (4 x 5/16 in.) and hydrotator units for the fine coal (5/16 x 0). It is generally acknowledged that gravity concentration equipment cannot be used efficiently to beneficiate coal finer than about 65 mesh. Before the present flotation circuit was installed, Crucible recovered its fine coal slurry, predominantly -24 mesh material, by passing it through a battery of five 14-in. and one hundred and ten 3-in. Hey1 & Patterson cyclones in parallel with a 75-ft Dorr thickener. About two thirds went to the cyclones and one third to the thickener. Underflows from cyclones and thickener were filtered, respectively, in one 12-disk Eimco and two 4-disk Oliver filters fitted with stainless steel cloth. The resulting cakes were added to the coarse metallurgical coal. The filtrates, overflow from the 3-in. cyclones, and thickener overflow were recycled to the coarse coal plant.

Jan 3, 1959

By B. C. Mariacher, I. Hoffman

In 1952, beneficiated phosphate ore first began to move from the Oron plant of Negev Phosphates Ltd. in the Negev Desert to the super-phosphate plant at Haifa, Israel. Since that time this company has continually sought to overcome its natural handicaps affecting the operating efficiency and quality of the product in an effort to bolster the agricultural program of Israel and the development of an exportable commodity. The most serious deterrent to the development of a beneficiation process was the total absence of water. The Oron plant lies approximately 30 miles south of the irrigated regions of Israel with the nearest producing water well located about 10 miles to the northwest. The urgency of early phosphate production made it necessary to consider only dry processes in the initial operation. Fortunately, the ore was amenable to a dry process which yielded a usable concentrate assaying about 28.5 pct P2O5; but phosphate recovery was low. A description of the characteristics of the Negev ore should help to clarify the principles upon which the dry concentration is based.

Jan 5, 1961

By John Conley

THE production of lime by the burning or calcination of limestone, including all varieties from true dolomites and magnesian limestones to high-calcium types, continues as one of the essential basic industries. In 1937, a total of 4,124,165 tons of lime valued at approximately $30,091,000 was produced in the United States.1 The importance of any contribution to our knowledge on the mechanism of the lime-burning process is, therefore, obvious. The burning of limestone has been practiced since the earliest days of our civilization, and the literature on the various phases of the industry is voluminous. Calcination of the various types of limestone has been studied by many previous investigators, but some points require addi-tional research. Each occurrence of limestone provides an opportunity for specific investigation, because the characteristics of stones in different localities vary. Knibbs13 has given an excellent discussion of available data on the theory of lime and magnesia burning. The thermal dissociation of calcium carbonate has been studied more recently by Johnston,2 Smyth and Adams,3 Ralston et al.,4 Furnas,5 Potapenko,6 and Southard and Royster.7 As a result of these investigations the dissociation temperature at atmospheric pressure has been established as 894° to 898° C. The dissociation of dolomite and magnesite, although studied by several investigators, 4,6,8 still requires clarification by additional data. The calcination of limestone was studied for a twofold purpose: (1) to extend our information on the mechanism of the lime-burning process and (2) to standardize the conditions for calcination of high-calcium and dolomitic limestones for subsequent hydration tests on the lime.

Jan 1, 1939

By H. K. Shearer

There is little of importance to be added to the production record of south Arkansas, north Louisiana and Mississippi as a result of developrnents during 1931. No discoveries of any probable commercial value were made, and the only additions to proven acreage were extensions to the Zwolle producing area. " Includes 29 parishes: Avoyelles, Bienville, Bossier, Caddo, Caldacll, Catahoula, Claiborne, Concordia, De Soto, East Carroll, Franklin, Grant, Jackson, LaSalle, Lincoln, Madison, Morehouse, Natchitoches, Ouachita, Rapides, Red River, Rich-land, Sabine, Tensas, Union, Vernon, Webster, West Carroll and Winn. Tables I and 2 show the number of wells completed in 1931 in 25 counties of south Arkansas and 29 parishes of north Louisiana, with the

Jan 1, 1932

By James A. Barr

[CONTENTS PAGE Foreword. By JAMES A. BARRI A New Core Barrel for Prospecting for Phosphate in Florida. By I. M. LEBARON 2 Prospecting for Phosphate in Tennessee. By W. F. GUENTHER 6 Machine Prospecting in Tennessee Brown Phosphate. By H. O. PICKARD, JR8 Diamond Drilling through Flint Horizons in Tennessee. By HENDON R. JOHNSTON9] Foreword PROSPECTING methods used in Tennessee have gradually improved with the years, as required by depletion of the easily accessible and shallow deposits and the universal trend toward mechanization, and as necessitated by exploring deeper beds, often occurring under limestone and flinty overburden. In the early days it was a very simple matter to dig pits by hand, using a plentiful supply of local farm labor to expose relatively shallow deposits of "brown rock" under shallow clayey overburden that would stand up without timbering. Visual inspection of the exposed phosphate and expert judgment of the"grade" analysis, aided by a "biting" test to reveal presence of unwanted silica, furnished most of the information required. All this might be helped by a few samples sent to the local chemist[t] who supplemented his income by judicious trading or tanning a few bear skins. The extra curricula activities did not affect the accuracy of the analysis which hold up even under present day standards. Some shot and core drilling was done in Hickman County, mostly for the limestone-like blue Phosphate deposits. The next step was the use of a 4-in. posthole auger, hand operated as described by Guenther, followed by- a completely mechanized rig, as described by Pickard. Both these methods are practically adapted to the prospecting of the relatively soft brown rock deposits at moderate depths of clay overburden. For prospecting in areas of deeper overburden, such as are often found in Hickman County, up to 150 or even 200-ft depths, a modified core-drilling method is described by Guenther. Johnston describes a special diamond-drilling technique, developed by TVA, to penetrate flint horizons, which was adopted by the International Minerals and Chemical Corporation to prospect in Hickman County where deposits had previously been prospected at considerable expense and with difficulty, by Small, temporary, hand-dug shafts.

Jan 1, 1947

By Frank Julian

After the solution of an iron ore, or metallic iron, in an acid, for the determination of phosphorus, it is necessary to evaporate the solution to dryness and to heat the residue to effect the complete separation of silica. Authorities differ as to the temperature required, some recormmentling not over 100' C., others as high as dull redness. For the purpose of securing some indications as to the degree of heat which may be safely or advantageously employed, I selected a gray pig-iron, a piece of Bessemer steel rail, and a sample of Ludington ore having the following composition; the phosphorus in the pig and steel being determined by Giutl's ferric chloride method:

Jan 1, 1884

By W. C. PAGE

HARVEY S. MUDD has the unusual distinction of having virtually inherited a Directorship in the -A.I.M.E., for he was appointed to the Board to fill the unexpired term of his father in 1926. Since then he has served as a Director continuously until 1936, and now he is a candidate for Vice-President. One of the first words that young Harvey tried to say was "ore," for he was born in Leadville, Colorado, in the heyday of that camp, where Seeley W. Mudd for years ran the Small Hopes mine. Stanford and Columbia gave him his mining education, and the Shattuck-Arizona, at Bisbee, his first job. Afterwards he examined many

Jan 1, 1937

By Frederick O?Neil

SCOPE OF THIS REPORT THE object of this paper is to describe the present status and possibilities of liquid oxygen as an explosive based upon the investigations, research and practical work of the Ingersoll-Rand Co., and of the Air Reduction Co., from early in 1922 to date. The following work was done. 1. A study of the history and physical theory of L. 0. X. as an explosive. (No attempt will be made in this paper to give the history or theory, as this has already been covered by the literature on the subject.) 2. An investigation of the use and the practice with L. 0. X. in the iron mines of Lorraine where L. 0. X. has its largest application in Europe. Although L. 0. X. is extensively employed in the; iron mines of Lorraine, many of the mines using it exclusively, and blasting with it a total of approximately three million tons of iron ore per year, the fact that the mining practice in Lorraine1 is to drill comparatively shallow holes and blast only a few holes at a time, renders the data obtained there of very little value in estimating the possibility of replacing dynamite with L. 0. X. in American mining methods. In fact, in the iron mines in Lorraine, L. 0. X. replaced black powder, or its equivalent. 3. Laboratory research work on properties of absorbent materials. 4. Work in the Bureau of Mines explosive laboratory at Pittsburgh, Pa., on the properties of L. 0. X. cartridges. 5. Practical work underground with L. 0. X. cartridges in the Witherbee-Sherman iron mines at Mineville, N. Y. 6. Practical work in the quarries of the Calcite Quarry Co., Myers-town, Pa. 7. Practical blasting in several quarries and open-pit mines.

Jan 2, 1926

By Reynold Q. Shotts

INTRODUCTION THE small domestic underfeed stoker as now designed is unusually sensitive to the coking and plastic properties of coals, and when the attempt is made to burn the high rank coking and caking coals of the Appalachian fields, serious trouble may occur. Part of the trouble may be caused by the ash content and clinkering characteristics of the particular coal in use, but more often it is the result of an excessive accumulation of coke in the form of "trees" or masses in the fuel bed. Often the zone of burning becomes so restricted that the fire goes out, and in extreme cases the fire may be lifted completely out of the fuel bed and away from the air ports. Even if the fire is preserved, excessive coking may cause response to subsequent heat demand to be slow and irregular. Coke trees seem to grow. most readily during periods of hold-fire operation, so that in order to preserve the fire in mild weather it is often necessary to set the timer for such a long operating period each hour that much unneeded and unwanted heat is developed, causing discomfort. During demand periods the fire may pick up so slowly that the intense burning which develops just before stoker cut-off causes a serious overshooting of the thermostat. Stoker coal performance tests which have been made in a number of laboratories 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 are one method of approach to the problem of selecting stoker coals. As yet these tests have not been standardized and they are expensive and time-consuming. The value of the results probably increases with the length of the test. Sherman and co-workers at Battelle Memorial Institute believe that even a one-week test is not too reliable a trial2 and it is quite likely that others will agree. A great advantage of such tests is that characteristics of coals, other than the tendency to form coke masses, may be evaluated from them. The selection of stoker coals would be greatly facilitated if there existed some simple measure of the tendency of a coal to form coke in a fuel bed. Although possessing all of the disadvantages of any small-scale laboratory test, the test for the free-swelling index of coal has been found useful for evaluating the probable effects of swelling properties upon combustion. 7 Ostborg, Limbacher and Sherman, have shown that the test can predict, roughly, the tendency of coke to accumulate in the fuel bed of a domestic stoker. They also gave instances of its value in predicting combustion behavior in some large installations. The use of the test for free-swelling index has become well established and has been adopted as a standard by the American Society for Testing Materials.8 When domestic stoker coal investigations began at the State Mine Experiment Station in the summer of 1944, it was decided

Jan 1, 1948

By W. Mostowitsch, H. O. Hofman

The mineral gypsum, CaSO4 + 2 H2O, has been used for many years as a sulphurizing and basic flux in several smelting-operations. Thus, in smelting oxide nickel-ore in the blastfurnace, it is commonly added to the charge to furnish the sulphur necessary for collecting the metal in a matte, and a base for slagging the siliceous gangue. In the concentration of lead-copper matte in the reverberatory furnace it has been used for years at Preiberg, Saxony,1 for a similar purpose, and for producing at the same time a copper-matte with less than 0.15 per cent. of Fe. The latest use gypsum has been put to is in the blast-roasting process of Carmichael-Bradford.2 The term " blast-roasting," given by A. S. Dwight3 to the Dwight-Lloyd method of roasting and agglomerating: is a happy generic term which covers the ground better than the " lime-roasting " of Ingalls5 or the " pot-roasting " of Austin: in that it leaves the operation independent of the character of the flux and the form of apparatus, and retains the characteristic feature of this class of processes—namely, that of using forced draft. In the Carmichael-Bradford process the dehydrated material, mixed with galena-concentrate, acts as a diluent and a flux. The process differs in this from the Huntington-Heberlein7 and the Savelsberg8 processes, in both of which limestone is used.

Jan 1, 1909

By S. Warren Hobbs

The section of the Northwestern United States that includes the northern Rocky Mountains and adjacent areas to the west and east is one of large mineral production and important mineral potential. The metallic ore deposits vary widely in age and type and their geologic settings are similarly diverse. A brief resume of the region's physiographic characteristics and geology sets the framework for the selected ore districts that are described in following papers and makes it possible to place these ore deposits in their proper reference to space and time.

Jan 1, 1968

By Harrison Schmidt

Since the U. S. Geological Survey published the data on the Central Mining District collected by Lindgren and Gratonl and by Paige2 much new information has been obtained by development and mapping, but none of it had been published until recently when Kniffin3 published on Fierro, Lasky4 on the Ground Hog mine, Thorne5 on Santa Rita and Landon6 filed a thesis on the Fierro-Hanover-Santa Rita area at the University of Chicago. During the years 1927-1930 much of the writer's time was spent in mapping the geology and ore deposits of this district, particularly in the area of the zinc deposits at Hanover. Some of the data collected are presented here. Previous publications have been freely drawn upon and additional data used that were generously supplied by L. M. Kniffin, Wilfred Wright and Gerald Ballmer. Thanks are due Augustus Locke, Samuel G. Lasky, Kniffin, Wright and Ballmer for suggestions and critical readings of the manuscript, and to the Empire Zinc Co. (a subsidiary of the New Jersey Zinc Co.) for the privilege of publishing material compiled largely at its expense. The relation of the Central or the Santa Rita-Hanover-Fierro district to the Silver City district is shown on Paige's geologic map in the Silver City folio.7 Granodiorite porphyry and quartz-monzonite porphyry

Jan 1, 1935

By Harrison Schmidt

Since the U. S. Geological Survey published the data on the Central Mining District collected by Lindgren and Gratonl and by Paige2 much new information has been obtained by development and mapping, but none of it had been published until recently when Kniffin3 published on Fierro, Lasky4 on the Ground Hog mine, Thorne5 on Santa Rita and Landon6 filed a thesis on the Fierro-Hanover-Santa Rita area at the University of Chicago. During the years 1927-1930 much of the writer's time was spent in mapping the geology and ore deposits of this district, particularly in the area of the zinc deposits at Hanover. Some of the data collected are presented here. Previous publications have been freely drawn upon and additional data used that were generously supplied by L. M. Kniffin, Wilfred Wright and Gerald Ballmer. Thanks are due Augustus Locke, Samuel G. Lasky, Kniffin, Wright and Ballmer for suggestions and critical readings of the manuscript, and to the Empire Zinc Co. (a subsidiary of the New Jersey Zinc Co.) for the privilege of publishing material compiled largely at its expense. The relation of the Central or the Santa Rita-Hanover-Fierro district to the Silver City district is shown on Paige's geologic map in the Silver City folio.7 Granodiorite porphyry and quartz-monzonite porphyry

Jan 1, 1935

Since the U. S. Geological Survey published the data on the Central Mining District collected by Lindgren and Gratonl and by Paige2 much new information has been obtained by development and mapping, but none of it had been published until recently when Kniffin3 published on Fierro, Lasky4 on the Ground Hog mine, Thorne5 on Santa Rita and Landon6 filed a thesis on the Fierro-Hanover-Santa Rita area at the University of Chicago. During the years 1927-1930 much of the writer's time was spent in mapping the geology and ore deposits of this district, particularly in the area of the zinc deposits at Hanover. Some of the data collected are presented here. Previous publications have been freely drawn upon and additional data used that were generously supplied by L. M. Kniffin, Wilfred Wright and Gerald Ballmer. Thanks are due Augustus Locke, Samuel G. Lasky, Kniffin, Wright and Ballmer for suggestions and critical readings of the manuscript, and to the Empire Zinc Co. (a subsidiary of the New Jersey Zinc Co.) for the privilege of publishing material compiled largely at its expense. The relation of the Central or the Santa Rita-Hanover-Fierro district to the Silver City district is shown on Paige's geologic map in the Silver City folio.7 Granodiorite porphyry and quartz-monzonite porphyry

Jan 1, 1935

By Harrison Schmidt

Since the U. S. Geological Survey published the data on the Central Mining District collected by Lindgren and Gratonl and by Paige2 much new information has been obtained by development and mapping, but none of it had been published until recently when Kniffin3 published on Fierro, Lasky4 on the Ground Hog mine, Thorne5 on Santa Rita and Landon6 filed a thesis on the Fierro-Hanover-Santa Rita area at the University of Chicago. During the years 1927-1930 much of the writer's time was spent in mapping the geology and ore deposits of this district, particularly in the area of the zinc deposits at Hanover. Some of the data collected are presented here. Previous publications have been freely drawn upon and additional data used that were generously supplied by L. M. Kniffin, Wilfred Wright and Gerald Ballmer. Thanks are due Augustus Locke, Samuel G. Lasky, Kniffin, Wright and Ballmer for suggestions and critical readings of the manuscript, and to the Empire Zinc Co. (a subsidiary of the New Jersey Zinc Co.) for the privilege of publishing material compiled largely at its expense. The relation of the Central or the Santa Rita-Hanover-Fierro district to the Silver City district is shown on Paige's geologic map in the Silver City folio.7 Granodiorite porphyry and quartz-monzonite porphyry

Jan 1, 1935

By Thomas Fraser, H. F. Yancey

PRIOR to the war just ended, Germany was the greatest coal producer in continental Europe. In 1943 the production of coal, bituminous and higher in rank, together with brown coal calculated to the equivalent amount of bituminous coal, is estimated to have been about 240 million metric tons, according to the War Department. Before the war production in Germany exceeded consumption. No other country in continental Europe except Poland had a large surplus. However, England's surplus was the largest in Europe as a whole. Before World War II the Ruhr Basin normally supplied about 70 pct of the total production of high-rank coal, the Saar and Aachen about 6 pct each, Upper Silesia about 14 pct, and Silesia and Saxony the remainder. Nearly one third of the brown coal was produced in the Rhineland, a little less than one half in central Germany west of the Elbe River, and about one fourth east of the Elbe. Bituminous coal and brown coal together constituted by far the most important energy resources of the old German Reich. Bituminous coal furnished nearly 70 pct of the total energy requirement, brown coal supplied about 25 pct, and water power, wood, petroleum and alcohol together aggregated only 7 pct. Because it was the most important single mineral resource of Germany, an excess of coal enabled the Reich to import nearly all the other mineral products that she lacked, such as iron ore from Lorraine. The area adjacent to the coal fields was supplied with gas from an interconnected grid. Similar electric grids are based on brown coal with the power stations at the mines. Coal tar provided the foundation for the development of the extensive German chemical industries as exemplified by the I. G. Farbenindustrie. For almost a century, German scientists have been adequately supported both by the State and by industry in studying improved methods of utilizing coal. In Germany the mineral rights were reserved by the State and ordered extraction of coal was enforced. Each lease comprised a relatively extensive area, which accounts for the generally large size of the mines and mining companies. In 1938 there were 160 mines in the Ruhr, with a total output of 125 million tons but go pct of the production was controlled by 20 companies. By far the largest single coal-mining company in Germany was the Gelsenkirchener Bergwerke A. G., which produced nearly 27 million tons in the Ruhr in 1937. Second was Saargruben A. G., a State-owned company operating in the Saar, which produced more than 13 million tons. Third was Bergwerksgesellschaft Hibernia A. G., with 10 million tons, also in the Ruhr. Briquettes are made from both bituminous coal and brown coal, but in 1938

Jan 1, 1946

By Frank C. Greene

Drilling in Missouri in 1944 was nearly treble the rate of 1943 because of continued development of the Tarkio pool in Atchison County and the preparation of a pool in Jackson County for a water-injection project. The pipe line from the Prairie Point gas pool in Platte County was in operation throughout the year of 1944, but several of the shallow oil pools in Cass and Jackson Counties were off production during much of 1944 because of a shortage of help. Table I gives a summary of activities by counties. The total footage drilled was 41,475 .ft., of which 21,187 ft. was by rotary tools and 20,268 ft. by cable tools.

Jan 1, 1945