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By E. T. Dumble

THE first specimens of this material which came under my notice, as found in the State of Texas, were sent to me by Mr. J. C. Melcher, of Fayette county, soon after the organization of the State Geological Survey. I wrote him concerning it, and had the locality and manner of occurrence described, but 1 had no opportunity to visit and examine the deposit until the present field-season. Later, specimens were collected by Dr. Penrose and myself on a trip made by boat down the Rio Grande, from Eagle Pass to Hidalgo, in June, 1889. At the time of collection I marked the substance "Albertite," doubtfully, but, on examination, it proved to be nearer Grahamite. The geological horizon of the two occurrences is Tertiary. The first locality mentioned is in the upper part of the beds called by us Fayette beds, and provisionally correlated with the Miocene, or Grand Gulf of Hilgard's Mississippi section, while the latter is in the lowest strata of the Eocene which are exposed on the Rio

Jan 1, 1893

By Richard Keyon

El presente texto describe la geología, depósito, litología y fisuras de la mina de Toquepala. El depósito está situado en un terreno compuesto de volcanitas Mesozoicas y Terciarias, intrusionadas por apófisis dioríticas del batolito andino. La alteración hidrotermal se generaliza en la zona de mineralización. Los minerales de arcilla se presentan en abundancia en algunos sitios, pero su porcentaje está indeterminado. El cuarzo y la sericita constituyen los principales productos de alteración, y en muchos casos las texturas de la roca original han desaparecido.

Jul 1, 1958

By I. Pordea

The materials used for the construction of buildings contain natural radionuclides of the U238 and Th232 series and are ? 50% due to land radioactivity. Another component of natural radioactivity is K40, with ? 40%. The presence of these radiopollutants in the final products (i.e. bricks, concrete) due to body irradiation is by two pathways: external irradiation and internal irradiation. External irradiation is due to gamma radiations emitted by Pb214 (RaB) + Bi214 (RaC) from the U238 series, by Ra228 (Mezothoriu I) + Ac228 (Mezothoriu II) + Tl208 (ThC??) from the Th232 series and by the K40 radionuclide. Internal irradiation is due to inhalation of radon (Rn222) and Rn220 (Tn) plus short life descendents (Po, Pb, Bi), radionuclides which are present in concrete. A fraction from radon present in concrete enters into a house leading to internal irradiation by inhalation. In Romania, the maximum concentration of radon allowed for new buildings is 200 Bq/m3.

Jan 1, 2008

I am honoured, deeply honoured, that so distinguished a group has assembled to acknowledge the signifi- cance of the work of my Melbourne flotation research laboratory, to review progress since Principles of Flotation (Wark, 1938) was published, to highlight the present state of knowledge, and to point the way for future research. The flotation research which began in 1929 was sponsored by a group of mining companies2 at the instigation of Harry Hey of the Electrolytic Zinc Company of Australasia Limited. There were never more than three of us work- ing in rather cramped conditions in a laboratory made available by the Department of Chemistry at the Uni- versity of Melbourne, but what we lacked in space was more than offset by a freedom unparalleled in indus- trial research in Australia at that time. I pay special tribute to my first colleague, Alwyn Cox; to my wife who worked with us for several years; and to Keith Sutherland who followed Cox in 1936. They were my sole colleagues up to 1938 when Principles of Flo- tation (Wark, 1938) was published.

Jan 1, 1984

In connection with the presentation of his paper in oral abstract, Mr. Hansell exhibited samples of briquettes, showing their porosity, and the change of surface produced by burning. Alfred H. Cowles, Sewaren, N. J.—I am familiar with this furnace, and I wish to point out that the larger it is, the greater is its efficiency, and the longer its life. In Europe, experiments have been made with small, short furnaces of this character, accommodating narrow cars; whereas Mr. Hansell says that there is in this country a furnace 180 ft. long .and 10 ft wide. The American furnaces, moreover, differ in design from those used in Europe; and we may expect from these larger furnaces not only greater efficiency, but also greater durability —the latter advantage being due to the fact that, in these large furnaces, projecting brick walls of greater thickness can be provided, to prevent the heat from attacking the sides of the cars, by means of bricks which, over-reaching these iron surfaces, furnish a protective cover to them. In other words, in these

Jan 1, 1913

By Kenneth Robertson

ALL, strangers visiting this district are struck with the peculiar manner in which the pig-iron is graded. There are eleven regular grades, besides which, when gray forge is ordered, one-half of Nos. 1 and 2 Mill are shipped. Occasionally there is another grade Known as Silver Mill, which is made so seldom that I cannot describe it, and have no sample to exhibit. Most of you have found it difficult to grade properly and uniformly under the simpler system which obtains elsewhere, and can consequently readily imagine the increased difficulty with us. Each furnace employs an " expert," and even with this precaution, the system is not conducive, at all times, to amicable relations between buyers and sellers. I am told that it was adopted at the time Southern irons were seeking a market; but it still remains, although the time has come when our iron is sought for and has obtained for itself a place in the markets of the country. The grades are as follows:

Jan 1, 1889

By J. C. Swartz

Measurements of the effect of precipitation stresses on the solubility of cementite (Fe3C) precipitates in a iron are reported. Solubilities were determined from measurements of the Snoek relaxation due to interstitial carbon after quenching from various equilibrium treatments. Stress-free precipitates were obtained by a spheroidizing treatment of vacuum-melted Fe 0.06 wt pet C. Subsequent equilibration treatments were designed to suppress nucleation of other precipitates. The results for stress-free cementite give a heat of solution of 14.8 i 0.2 keal per mole and an entropy change of 1.1 i 0.2 eu in the temperature range 400" to 715°C. Comparison with previous data indicates that the heat of solution increases about 6 keal per mole as temperature increases from 700" to 1000°C. Data on self-stressed cementite in quench-aged specimens of Fe 0.013 wt pet C indicate 1) an apparent heat of solution of 12.1 i 0.4 keal per mole in the range 280" to 690°C, 2) a strain energy of- 1.1 keal per mole Fe3C accompanying precipitation at 280°C, and 3') a gradual decrease in the strain energy of precipitation with increasing equilibration temperature. In com-parison with 2 and 3 the strain energy calculated for an isotropic model is 1.7 keal per mole Fe3C. The lower values obtained from the experiment indicated substantial stress velaxation by dislocation motion. WHEN a supersaturated solution of carbon in a iron is aged at temperatures in the range 200o to 700oC, the carbon clusters by interstitial diffusion and forms cementite (Fe3C) precipitate particles. Unstressed cementite has a volume per iron atom 9 pet higher than that of a iron;' hence, cementite precipitate particles are usually under pressure from the iron matrix. The pressure would tend to increase the solubility of cementite in iron.' This report describes anelastic measurements of the solubilities of self-stressed and stress-free cementite in a iron. Previous determinations of the cementite solubility are summarized in Table I. The method of cementite formation for each reference was studied to ascertain the state of stress of the cementite. The results judged to be for stress-free and stressed cementite are distinguished in the table. In the next section an estimate of the stress effect is obtained which is clearly too small to account for the large difference between the previous results in parts A and B of the table. THEORETICAL Let AGO be the standard free-energy change of the reaction Fe3C (eem.) = 3Fe (a) + C (in a) [1] in the absence of stresses. Since cementite precipitates appear to be rather pure10 and the carbon is so dilute in the iron,8 the cementite and iron of Eq. [ I] for the stress-free case have essentially unit activities and the activity of carbon equals its atom fraction xoC Then the stress-free equilibrium is expressed by RT In XoC = -?GO 121 To first approximation the change in the chemical potential of carbon due to the precipitation stresses equals the elastic strain energy W accompanying precipitation of a mole of cementite.2 Hence, in the presence of the precipitation stresses the equilibrium is described by RT In x sq = -?G° + W [3] where xsC is the mole fraction of dissolved carbon in the stressed case. An approximate value of W can be obtained from analysis of the inclusion problem in elasticity theory. The inclusion is a small portion of the matrix phase which has suffered a transformation while still imbedded in the matrix. In the absence of the constraint of the matrix the transformation would be equivalent to a uniform dilational strain eT. Both the matrix (a) phase and inclusion (0) phase are assumed to be homogeneous, isotropic materials. When the a and 0 phases have the same elastic moduli, which is approximately true for iron and cementite,11 the total strain energy per mole ß is12 2µVß(eT)2(3 +4 µx)-I [4]

Jan 1, 1968

By D. M. Davidson

The economics of geologic exploration have changed materially in the past decade primarily due to the change in three basic factors, namely, increased wages and salaries, increased cost of materials, and a greater complexity in methods of exploration. Following the general economic pattern over the past ten years, exploration costs, have, in general, increased, although there is one heartening exception. A comparative picture is complicated because of advances in techniques which ensue from the introduction of new methods and devices largely for aerial exploratory work, Some of these methods were either in their infancy or unknown before World War II. Geological exploration may well be considered as a form of applied research. True, it has peculiarities from this standpoint some advantageous, others disadvantageous, Some of the advantages lie in the fact that exploration success does not involve the production of a new product which necessitates advertising expense and marketing problems. In normal times there is a well established market for the fruits of a successful mineral find. The outstanding disadvantage of exploration lies in the enigma of deciding when to quit if the sought fop prize is elusive. In the search for buried treasure, man?s curiosity is apt to color his judgment. Even the so-called detached scientist may fall 'all too readily into the wishful thinking of the old- time prospector who is lured on by the thought that the next pull from the drill hole, or the next round from the face will reveal a bonanza. It involves mature judgment and experience to ascertain the stage in exploration when further work is not justified.

Jan 1, 1958

By E. M. Wise

IT is known qualitatively that the recrystallization behavior of platinum is dependent upon the amount and particularly the nature of impurities present, the amount of prior cold-work and the annealing time and temperature, but published data are limited. A study of the effects of cold-work and annealing temperature on the hardness of a sample of very pure platinum was undertaken to supply part of this information. CONCLUSIONS 1. The platinum used in the experiments had a probable platinum content of 99.99+ per cent, and had the following mechanical properties in the completely softened condition: Vickers hardness number, 39.4; ultimate tensile strength, 19,340 lb. per sq. in.; proportional limit, very low; elongation, 37.5 per cent in 2 inches. 2. The effect of cold-rolling on the hardness is shown in Fig. 1. The hardness increases rapidly up to 10 to 15 per cent reduction and more slowly up to about 75 per cent reduction, beyond which it increases more rapidly. 3. The recrystallization temperatures for a 15-min. anneal, after cold-rolling 19, 39.5, 50.8, 66, 80.5 and 89.5 per cent reduction in thickness, are approximately 765°, 700°, 635°, 600°, 545° and 425°C., respectively. 4. The recrystallized grain size of this platinum is a function of the percentage of cold reduction, being larger the lower the percentage of cold-work. 5. Little or no grain growth resulted from subjecting recrystallized samples to higher temperatures or annealing for longer times.

Jan 1, 1940

By M. A. Trevits

The explosion hazard presented by methane gas in coal is confronted daily in the mining industry. Research has developed several viable methods for gas control in addition to conventional dilution by ventilation. Such methods include the drilling of horizontal or cross-measure boreholes from a mine opening and vertical boreholes hydraulically stimulated in advance of mining or for gob gas drainage. The long-term production history of five gas drainage installations was studied. Three installations were completed in the Pittsburgh Coalbed: two in West Virginia and one in Pennsylvania. The remaining installations were completed in the Mary Lee Coalbed in Alabama and the Sunnyside Coalbed in Utah. The types of drainage methods utilized included horizontal and vertical boreholes. The length of production studied ranged from 860 days to 36 years. The cumulative production from the five sites was in excess of 155 Mm3, representing a significant volume of gas.

Jan 1, 1985

By W. W. Atkinson

This paper describes some concepts developed in a geologic data recording system at the Victoria, Nevada breccia pipe-skarn copper mine. The recording system is not fundamentally new, but represents expansion of earlier ideas. The paper is based on the philosophy that a high quality geologic data base is necessary and that it should be complete, clear, standardized, neat, quantitative, and readily useable. It may be multi-colored or simply black and white. Graphic, descriptive and quantitative recording of data is essential. A format for core logging is presented and discussed and as well as a multiple overlay system for recording data gathered in surface mapping.

Jan 1, 1983

Here are the details . . . . . of how a $2.5 million research gamble, now backed by five years of intensive development in cooperation with the Chemical Construction Corp. resulted in a hydrometollurgical process that yields pure metal powders from sulphide concentrate - a process that offers potential savings of $2.5 million a year.

Jan 6, 1953

By G. R. Belton, Y. K. Rao

A galvanic cell, using liquid MgCl2 or MgC12-CaC12 mixtures as the electrolyte, has been used to determine activities in Mg-A1 liquid alloys between 700' and 880°C. The incovporation of a chlorine electrode in the cell also allowed measurements to be made of the standard free energy of formation of MgCl2(l). The results are shown to be in good agreement with thermo-chetrlical values from the literature, and this is taken as evidence that the small, known solubility of magnesium in iMgCl2 introduces no significant error in galcanic cell measurements. Within experimental error, the activity coefficients and relative partial molar enthalpies at 800°C are shown to be represented by the following "subregular" solution equations: logy~~ =-0.68(1 -xMgj3 log yAL =-1.02(1 - XMf + 0.68(1 - XMf H.M = -4400(1 - %)3 / cal Mg 7Ag' HZ =-6600(1 - xA1)' + 4400(1 - XMf cal SCHNEIDER and toll' have used a transpiration technique to measure the vapor pressures of magnesium over Mg-A1 alloys between 544" and 594°C. amsstad,' however, has since suggested that the extrapolation to zero flow rate, used by these authors in interpreting their apparent pressure vs flow rate data, gives unreliable results. Rogers, Tomlinson, and Richardson,3 in interpreting the results of solution equilibria between Mg-A1 alloys and liquid MgC12, also considered the measurements of Schneider and Stoll to be unreliable and preferred to derive activities for the alloys from the earlier boiling point determinations of ~eit~ebel~ and the partial molar heats recommended by Kubaschewski and ~atterall.~ These latter heats were based substantially on the early calorimetric work of Kawa-kami but, unfortunately, his work on other systems has sometimes been found to be inaccurate.7 Rogers et al., in the above-mentioned paper,3 tentatively concluded that the most likely species responsible for the limited solubility (0.3 mole pct at 800°C) of magnesium in MgC12 were Mg° (neutral) and Mg2++. Two more recent studies8,9 have supported Mg2++ as the soluble species. In the present study, activities in Mg-A1 alloys have been determined by means of a galvanic cell involving liquid MgCl2 or MgC12CaCl, mixtures as the electrolyte. Since the reactive nature of magnesium precluded simple Faraday yield experiments, a chlorine electrode was incorporated in the cell in order that the performance of the cell could be checked by measurements of the heat and free energy of formation of MgC12. This procedure was considered necessary since it has been suggested1' that the solubility of a metal in a molten salt might introduce electronic conductivity; also, previous determinations of the standard electrode potential for MgC12 differed by as much as 70 mv11-13 EXPERIMENTAL Materials. Analyses of the materials used in preparing the alloys and the electrolyte mixtures are presented in Table I. The alloys were prepared by induction melting weighed amounts of the metals in a graphite crucible held under an argon atmosphere. Pure anhydrous magnesium chloride was prepared by heating the mixture MgCl, . 6H20 +NH4C1(1:1) to 650°C, followed by melting under dry argon. The melting point of the dry MgC12 was found by differential thermal analysis to be 714.8oC, which compares well with the accepted value of 714C.14 This agreement was taken to be an indication of the high purity of the dried salt. Table I. Compositions of Materials, wt pn Impurity Mg Al MgCI2 CaCI, Ba - - 0.005 Ca - - 0.010 Cu 0.02 0.02 Fe - 0.10 0.001 0.010 Pb 0.01 - 0.001 0.005 Mn 0.15 0.001 Si - 0.10 Sr - - 0.005 MBSO* - 0.040 ARGON TUNGSTEN CHLORINE LEAD—411 11 II ALUMINA 'A I / ave GRAPHITE on irA~_ ( ^"l ROD MAGNESIUM S>ILICA~^ /, OR ALLOY-. I /A] ___________ -«^- _ ELECTROLYTE I y FRITTED DISCS Fig. l—Arrangement of chlorine and metal electrodes in electrolytic cell.

Jan 1, 1970

By J. S. Marsh

OPPORTUNITY to pay tribute to the memory of Professor Henry Marion Howe is a strenuous assignment as well as an honor. Upon recalling Howe lecturers and lectures of the past 25 years, glancing over the list of those earlier, and rereading Howe's books, I arrive at several conclusions: 1—Many lecturers either worked under or knew Professor Howe. 2—It is virtually impossible to pick a subject on which Professor Howe did not touch. 3—There is precedent for a technical paper based upon pursuit of a single subject. 4—There have been listening lectures and reading lectures. There is solid comfort only in 2: the subject field is wide open. I did not know, nor even ever saw, Professor Howe, so can supply no fitting reminiscence. As a college student I was dimly aware that he counted among the giants. Fuller appreciation of his stature came with reading his books and papers, growing acquaintance with some of his associates, and the intrinsic dignity of the climax of the Annual Meeting, beginning at four o'clock of a Thursday afternoon in the auditorium of the Engineering Societies Building in New York. As for producing the technical paper sort of thing, it is my lot to have reached an age and assignment such that to do so would be to filch information from those who did the work and whose story is theirs to tell; for this I have no enthusiasm. As for the final conclusion, Professor Howe was one of the chosen few so highly expert at expository writing that he could produce a lecture or paper that reads as though it would also have listened well. One of his tricks was the free use of words not ordinarily part of the technical vocabulary, provided that such words were likely to communicate most precisely what he had in mind. How wonderful it would be for all who must read reports by the ton if ability at exposition could be taught with the effectiveness open, say to, differential calculus! Perhaps Professor Howe should be required college reading even if for no other reason than to prove that technical writing need be neither dull nor diffuse. My assignment is clearly still strenuous. Another point to consider is the fact that metallurgy is now so tremendously diversified that hope of finding a topic of universal appeal is negligible, even if one were competent enough to be permitted free choice. That which follows is, therefore, a compromise composed of necessity and of the obligation to attempt to avoid boring to slumber those of you who are not especially interested in the general subject chosen. The Iron and Steel Div. is now essentially a process metallurgy division, heavily concerned with the smelting of iron and the making of steel. The American Iron and Steel Inst. figure for present steel capacity of this country is 125,828,310 net tons; how this is divided among processes is indicated by the production totals for 1953, shown in Table I. The glamor girls and boys make the front page and so it is with steelmaking processes. If there is an Antarctic Daily Bugle, it undoubtedly has carried stories of revolutionary development, such as oxygen processes and vacuum melting, and stories of the incomparably rosy destiny of electric arc melting. All such certainly have their place and their future; meanwhile, it is the sturdy and old reliable open hearth that accounts for the bulk of production reported back on the financial page, and it is the old reliable that is most likely to continue to account for the bulk for some perfectly sound raw material, technologic, and economic reasons. This, plus the fact that next year marks a centennial (for it was in 1856 that Frederick and William Siemens conceived the regenerative open hearth), is reason enough to talk about open hearth furnaces, but is not the real one. The real reason is that in some years of association with open hearths, I have accumulated—in addition to a genuine liking and respect for them—certain odds and ends of fact and fancy that this lecture provides a unique chance

Jan 1, 1956

By Fernando J. A. S. Barriga

Exploration for active seafloor hydrothermal vent fields has been highly successful, and more than 300 such fields have been discovered to date. Some will most probably be mined, given their high metal grades (Cu, Zn, Au and others). However, the current practice detects active systems, and activity rates, not the size of the deposits. This strategy may leave undetected some of the best targets, for several reasons as follows: 1. Large hydrothermal plumes are a measure of dispersion of ore components, not of efficiency in the generation of orebodies; 2. Deposits formed a few hundred years (or more) before present will generally have ceased their activity and will not be detected by plume studies; 3. Deposits formed under a cover rock (up to a few meters of sediments, volcaniclastics, or the like) may exhibit only minor seafloor hydrothermal activity, possibly diffuse flow. Cover rocks will often host hanging wall rock alteration, expressed in geochemical and mineralogical haloes. It has been demonstrated in many instances, especially for deposits formed in the geological past, now exposed on land, that ore genesis under a cover rock is one of the most suitable processes for generating large massive sulfide deposits. One of the great challenges for submarine resource knowledge will be to develop adequate exploration strategies for sizeable orebodies, not necessarily hydrothermal vent fields, sometimes hidden under a cover rock.

Jan 1, 2011

By Lee W. Saperstein

P.L. 95-87 contains explicit demands for land-use planning in its reclamation and designation sections. Both sections require recognition of local land-use plans; however, the sections are not well integrated. Accommodations to these planning requirements may be found in suggestions based on British mineral planning practice. Better links can be created among local land-use planners, the state's permitting authority and designation office, and mine designers. Mining companies should take more interest in local land-use plans and in resource inventories; states should consider devolving to local government responsibility for accepting mine permit applications and designation of unsuitability petitions.

Jan 1, 1982

By W. M. Myers

Water has been commonly used as a collecting medium in many instruments employed in the sampling of dusty atmospheres in mines** add industrial plants, and for this purpose has much to recommend it, particularly the following factors:1.,Water is a very efficient dust collector.2.,Distilled water of great purity may be readily obtained at slight expense. The analytical error introduced by the extremely small amount of foreign matter in carefully distilled water is very small,3.,Water is a very convenient medium with which to work as all the analytical operations of diluting, aliquoting, and filtering are readily and speedily carried out. Water has therefore been used extensively in such instruments as the Palmer apparatus, the Greenburg-Smith impinger, and the dust collector recently described by Drinker, Thompson, and Fitchet. The Bureau of Mines has conducted investigations in many metal-mining districts of the country, determining of dust the nature and amount of dust present in working places, its effect the health of workers, and what precautions may be taken to decrease the hazard of exposure to dangerous dusts. The Bureau is therefore interested in any factor that affects the accuracy of dust sampling.

Nov 1, 1923

By Xiaobing Yang, Animesh Jha, Greg Doughty

"Successful use of inert anodes should reduce the CO2 footprint in aluminum production. The search for a “holy grail” inert anode for metal electro-winning from constituent oxides using molten salt bath as an electrolytic medium is continuing. In this article we demonstrate the engineering approaches for the fabrication of intermetallic anodes, based on a quaternary Al-Ti-Cu-M (M:Ni, Fe) system for primary aluminium production. In particular, we examine the microstructural and electrochemical properties of alloys, based on the quaternary compositions. We explain the aspects of phase stability under anodic potential, which leads to the loss of anodic materials in the temperature range of 850-1050oC. The results are analysed in the context of oxidation reaction and formation of oxide layers which readily dissolve in the cryolite melt and prevent passivation. The paper also describes the conditions under which the reduction of aluminium at the graphite cathode occurs which also strongly depends on the molten salt chemistry for the nucleation of molten aluminium at the cathode.1. IntroductionOxygen-evolving inert anodes are an alternative to the conventional consumable carbon anodes for the production of primary aluminium. In this paper the materials selection criteria chosen for the engineering of anode is based on the understanding of the thermodynamic stabilities of aluminide intermetallic phases, some of which are formed and remained stable in fluoride melts. For example, the formation Al3Ti dispersed in aluminium metal via molten-fluoride flux reaction is well known in the context of aluminium casting and grain refining [1-3]. It is for this reason in our research we concentrated on the engineering of stable intermetallic phase mixture in the Al-Ti-Cu ternary system, shown in Figure 1 [4]. In this figure two compositions in the Al3-0.5zTi1-0.5zCuz family are shown with the substitution of 7 atomic % and 11 atomic % copper. However initial investigations showed that these two compositions were unsuitable due to the formation of low-temperature liquid (~540oC) and intermetallic phase, Al2Cu along the Al-Cu binary edge during solidification. The Al2Cu phase segregated along the boundaries of Al3Ti and Al5Ti2Cu, and dissolved away when electrolysis was carried out using these anodes above 800oC. The presence of consequential porosity in the anode material increased the corrosion of the alloy through local heating due to high current density at 0.8 A cm-2. The early tests were carried out with cryolite melts, shown in Figure 2, having 3 weight percent of Al2O3 in the bath at 850oC."

Jan 1, 2010

By Jeffrey C. Wynn

Since the early 1970's, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has carried out exploration geophysical research on non-basemetal strategic mineral commodities, including uranium, lithium, gold, potash, and chromite. The chromite study (largely completed) and the potash study (still going on) carried out during the past 4 years have not been aimed at the discovery of new ore reserves, but instead were designed to complement exploration by private mining companies. The USGS has carried out research not normally conducted by these companies, but which can be used by them in their efforts to increase production of strategic minerals. Results of the chromite and potash studies highlight the importance of: 1) a laboratory-research phase (petrophysical and petrographic studies) at the beginning of work on any new commodity; 2) an operative or functional ore-deposition model to serve as a conceptual framework, and the necessity to continually test, refine, and modify it during the study; 3) indirect geologic/geochemical indicators, secondary associations, and the use of multiple physical properties; and 4) the use of a systematic inverse-cost sequential-exploration (i.e. lowest resolution and lowest cost first) strategy to keen the exploration economically reasonable. The keystone to the success of the study is frequent and substantive dialogue among geologists, geophysicists, and geochemists.

Jan 1, 1981

By E. L. Smith

The development of larger size flotation machines, which started in the 1950's and 1960's, is still proceeding. The largest mechanical flotation machines avail-able today have unit volumes in the range of 38.2 to 43.9 M3 (1,350 to 1,550 cft). Designs for mechanical flotation cells of unit volumes as large as 70.8 m3 (2500 cft) are available. The development of these "giant" flotation machines has been and continues to be motivated by the increasingly critical forces of higher energy and capital costs, decreasing ore grades, and lower (real) prices for the products. As an expansion of a previous publication, this paper reports the further development of an improved mechanism for these large flotation machines. The starting point in the develop¬ment of a new mechanism was the identification of design and performance features of existing machines where improvements were desirable. The result of this work was a mechanism which s is an improvement over existing designs. This new design is characterized by an efficient overhung stator and a vortex profile rotor. The overhung design of the stator removes unnecessary and undesirable baffling in the lowest parts of the tank, while maintaining a quiescent froth layer. This results in lower power consumption and better pulp circulation and solids suspension. The vortex profile rotor acts as an efficient pump, with higher pulp recirculation rates as evidenced by the increased air dispersion capabilities, good solids suspension, and low power consumption.

Jan 1, 1983