Search Documents

By A. R. Matthews

This description of the organization of the Consolidation Coal CO. is intended to include only the portion that is charged with the responsibility of the actual operation of an individual mine, although it has seemed advisable to include several of the all-division personnel, who necessarily come in direct contact with the mine officials. The Consolidation Coal Co. has a staff and line organization and, while most of the contact between these two wings is made between officers ranking above those discussed in this paper, field representatives of several of the staff departments play such an important role in the control of certain phases of activity at the mines that a true picture of the mine organization cannot be had unless these men are included. The demands made upon the producer of large quantities of coal have certainly never been so exacting as they are today. Reductions in the number of accidents and in the cost of individual accidents has passed from the category of a desirable achievement to an unqualified necessity. Although the market price of coal today is lower than it has been in many years, consumers have never been so critical of quality. This market condition is especially severe on the producer to whom one bad shipment may mean the loss of a contract. And the battle to keep the reduction of production costs abreast with constantly dropping prices wages incessantly. For the legitimate producer this situation demands a mine-operating organization that is comprehensive, versatile, efficient and economical; and it is in an attempt to meet these conditions that our present system has been designed. To say that this line-up is incapable of being improved or that it is applicable to all conditions would be to assume a degree of presumption which certainly is not intended here, but our system does meet the conditions which we are called upon to face today with a smoothness and thoroughness which we consider reasonably satisfactory. Authority or Consultation On the chart of Fig. 1 an attempt is made to show as clearly as possible the authority and responsibility of each mine official, together with the

Jan 1, 1931

By Francois E. Heuze

The Crestmore Mine of the American Cement Company lies at the eastern end of the Jurupa Mountains, 50 miles east of Los Angeles. Originally, a quarry was opened in 1908 for "limestone" used in the manufacture of cement. The mining operations eventually went underground employing first a modified system of block caving and later the "room and pillar" scheme. The limestones are relatively small roof pendants preserved in an enveloping and intrusive quartz diorite. They occur as two irregular lenticular bodies roughly parallel at the top and tending towards convergence at depth. Their dip varies between 25 and 30 degrees E. The presently mined lower bed, Chino limestone, is typically composed of alternating bands a few inches to a few feet thick of medium to coarsely granular white crystalline limestone and somewhat yellowish limestone (brucite marble). A "room and pillar" scheme of mining is currently employed in the lower body of the Crestmore Mine. The levels are horizontal and access is provided by a spiraling road starting in the old quarry. The present depth of operations is an average 750 ft below the surface. Fig. 1 gives a three-dimensional general sketch of the mine. The long axis of the rooms is in an E-W direction, normal to the strike of the beds. Fig. 2 is a horizontal map of the 130 level, the deepest level mined presently. It is in this level that most of the in-situ investigations have been conducted. The present investigation was made possible by a non-restrictive grant of the American Cement Company to the University of California. The program included a series of in-situ tests using flat-jacks, plate bearing,

Jan 1, 1968

By Morgan Walker, C. D. Watson, Reid W. Bond, D. L. Trax

Common practice in the Mid-Continent until recently was to prolong the natural flow of oil wells as long as possible by agitation, and then swab for a short period until the well was put on the pump. Comparatively recently the gas-lift has superseded the swabbing and agitating period and in some cases encroached on the natural flowing life, particularly where it was evident that the potential oil capacity of the well was greater than the gas supply, or lifting medium. The majority of wells are finished with either 6¼, 65/8 or 8¼-in. casing and connected to a separator through a flow line which is usually 65/8 in. The flow line is generally designed to eliminate sharp turns and has reduced the gas-oil ratio and therefore increased the efficiency in a good many instances. Until recently all wells were allowed to flow without restriction against the possible trap pressure until it was deemed advisable to put them on gas-lift. This resulted in a fairly efficient flow during the early life of the well if the well was rather large but was usually inefficient in small wells and in the later flowing life of large wells, on account of the large area in the casing and therefore excessive slippage. Recently, considerable effort has been made to increase the efficiency of small flowing wells by running tubing to eliminate as much slippage as possible. With large wells there is a considerable trend toward back-pressuring, or beaning to find out whether it is possible to reduce the gas-oil ratios and increase the flowing life. The greater number of fields that have been back-pressured have been produced in that manner through necessity, either to restrict production for proration purposes or, in fields producing by hydraulic pressure, to reduce water encroaching. The recent Cromwell sand development in Little River is an example where both back-pressuring by means of high-pressure traps and beans and flowing through tubing were used to conserve gas, reduce the high gas-oil ratio and prolong the flowing life. It

Jan 1, 1930

By H. J. Wasson, L. W. Mayer

The existing large stocks of raw materials have induced misgivings in the minds of many as to near-view prospects for a return to higher commodity price levels. Until stocks are materially reduced—and this operation will probably extend over a protracted period—a buyers' market will continue. Meanwhile the matter of production cost becomes more and more a factor of consequence to industrial management, finance and the investing public. With many commodities a general level of costs exists with which the public has been made familiar. Certain conditions surround these industries which, at the outset, determine whether there is a basis for sound commercial results. In other words, it can generally be determined in advance whether or not the cost of production is sufficiently below the normal average price to return a reasonable profit over the years. With all domestic agricultural products there are available exhaustive Government studies in the field of production costs. Such figures as the average cost of wheat, cotton, sugar, etc., are reiterated constantly. There are many products of foreign origin such as coffee, rubber, raw silk, etc., the production costs of which are to most of us matters of deep mystery. Forest products also are so diversified that few but specialists know what a thousand feet of lumber really cost at the mill, especially where remotely located. However, with respect to products of mines, production cost information has been widely disseminated. The literature is replete with such data. Here we find that without any special help from outside agencies the industry itself has given publicity to a large variety of cost figures. For example, we know, or know where we can ascertain, the cost of producing a pound of copper from Chile, Arizona or the Lake Superior district. In many cases we can secure from the company reports a vast amount of detail leading up to the cost per ton of ore and the cost per unit of the metal yield. These records are of great assistance to the mining industry as a means of estimating on new exploitations. This industry has been production-cost-minded almost from the beginning.

Jan 1, 1931

By Sriram Padmanabhan, Jan M. Mutmansky

The subject of quartz occurrences in respirable coal mine dusts has been of increasing concern in recent years. The primary impetus for this concern has been provided by better measurement technology that has detected an increased number of mines with high quartz content in their respirable dusts. This paper presents the results of statistical analyses of quartz levels in multi-stage impactor samples from eighteen different coal mining sections located in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Colorado and Utah. The quartz and kaolinite determinations were then determined by combining impactor stage loadings to provide larger dust masses and applying the infrared spectrometry procedure outlined in Bureau of Mines/MSHA Method P7. The results will be presented using two categories of data collected during two separate phases of the research: (1) quartz concentration data from mines where quartz was known to be present in relatively high concentrations, and (2) quartz concentration data from mines chosen at random. The aspects of the occurrence of quartz in coal mine airborne dusts that will be reported include the size dependence of the quartz content, quartz variations with location in the mining section, and variations due to mining region. The results of the study show a strong pattern of size dependence of the quartz content in mines for which high quartz concentrations exist. A similar, though less pronounced, pattern exists in mines chosen at random. Quartz levels appear to have a varying relationship to section location and strong geographical patterns do not appear to exist in the data collected. Kaolinite content was found to be similar to that of quartz with patterns that are somewhat more consistent.

Jan 1, 1989

By D Ziaja, W Jaspers

A brief history of the development of pneumatic flotation cells from early in the 20th century to the present day and a comparison to conventional cells demonstrates the efficiency and simplicity of design and operation of the ænew generationÆ of pneumatic cells. Recent successful testwork on phosphate minerals in the USA and a variety of coal types in Australia confirm the utility and efficiency of the design. The key aspects of this technology are improved recovery and selectivity with lower capital expenditure and operating costs.

Jan 1, 2005

By Paul D. Tomlingson

The difficult and often harsh working environment of the mining industry can stress both personnel and equipment to the extreme. Often, the unintended consequences of this environment lead to confrontations between departments, as each goes about its tasks of mining, maintaining or supporting these activities. On occasion, the confrontations may result in criticism of other departments for perceived or real sins or omissions. The offended department may not be able to change the circumstances, but can only complain while frustration persists. The most effective solutions are the actions of the mine manager. By establishing mutually supporting roles of each department and specifying conditions for the interactive conduct of maintenance, the mine manager can better assure that the inherent problems of the mining environment are neutralized.

Jan 1, 2011

By E. P. Pfleide, L. W. Gibbs. J. R. Gross

A method using computer techniques is described for the comparative evaluation of truck performance over any given haul road using readily obtainable manufacturers' data. An additional computer program is utilized to calculate individual cycle times for each truck and shovel combination, fleet requirements for any desired production rate, and to estimate comparative costs. The introduction of a large number of variables into the program permits management to determine the critical system factors having the greatest bearing on costs. Thus, the method described can be used not only for analysis of needs for a new surface mine but for cost improvement in existing mines where changes in truck and shovel operations are contemplated. The systems analysis approach to the solution of problems in the mining industry is gaining in industry acceptance. This is a logical development in view of the fact that a mine constitutes one of the most dynamic systems of production. In contrast with a manufacturing plant, situated in a location selected through choice and utilizing a regulated source of quality controlled raw materials, the miner must go where the ore is and he is faced with ever changing physical conditions. He is subjected to the vagaries of nature, and he can never mine the same ore twice. What is systems engineering? There seems to be no concise and universally accepted definition of the term and its meaning is still fairly local. It deals largely with trade-offs of subsystem characteristics to achieve some desired result in an overall system. This concept of suboptimization can be explained by an example. If the objective of a mining company is to produce a certain quality ore at minimum cost, the optimum operation is not achieved by minimizing all costs, since all phases of mining are interrelated. Reduction of blasting costs might well increase loading, hauling, and crushing costs out of proportion to the resulting saving in explosives. Hence tradeoffs are necessary. It is evident then that an optimum system is achieved through a blending of suboptimal components which taken together yield the desired result. OBJECTIVE For our mathematical model we will assume the existence of a hypothetical new organization called Taconite Mining Co. (TMC). TMC has made an analysis of their orebody, their proposed operation, and

Jan 1, 1968

By Basil B. Zavoico

The developments in the Russian oil industry during 1935 marked a very definite turning point from the time when the industry was being educated to the modern methods of oil-field finding and development, refining, transportation and marketing, to the time when the industry has thoroughly assimilated the modern technique and is now firmly standing on its own feet, as is shown by the remarkable qualitative, if not quantitative, progress in 1935. The oil industry promises that 1936 will be a record year in every respect with both quantity and quality approaching the desired high levels and standards. More particularly the Soviet Government is beginning to be successful in the development of new fields and such new production in geographically strategical points of the country will be in the coming years a factor of great importance in the industrial life of the country. The most notable achievements of the last year have been: the very successful development of the Ishimbaevo oil field in the Lower Oural-Permian Basin; the discovery and development of several promising oil fields in the Puta district of Azerbaijan, while large flush production of Baku area was extended 50 miles due southwest into the Saliani-Aliat district, where a 3000-bbl. well was completed early in 1936 at Pirsagat. Also, an apparently important discovery was made at Zikh, on the Apsheron Peninsula proper. These discoveries, as well as several important strikes in the deeper producing sands in the older fields of the Apsheron Peninsula, have greatly augmented the proven reserves of Russia and made them available either at the points where transportation facilities were already present or at points not too far distant from major industrial centers of the country. Of course, not all objectives were achieved during the past year, and several major difficulties remain to be solved in the coming years, the more important of which are: (1) supply of equipment and of parts; (2) the unavailability of competent technical men in sufficient numbers, which more particularly affects the distant fields; and (3) the problem of distribution of oil products throughout the country, especially the question of handling the needs of small consuming areas, which, while individually unimportant, in the aggregate require huge distribution.

Jan 1, 1936

By Richard B. Moore

The successful commercial production of helium during the last few years has added greatly to its scientific interest. When the quantity of an element available for experimental purposes increases within a few years by 200,000 per cent., both public and scientific interest in the element are greatly stimulated. Before the war, probably, there was not more than 10 or 15 cu. ft. of helium in existence. The larger part of this was owned by Prof. Kam-merlingh Onnes, and was used by him in connection with his low-temperature work at Leiden. By experimental work during the war and immediately afterwards, the Canadians, under Prof. J. C. McLennan, produced about 60,000 cu. ft. of helium of various grades of purity. Up to Dee. 1, 1921, when the plant at Fort Worth was shut down because of lack of funds, there had been produced during the experimental work by the U. S. Government, during the war and afterwards. 2,300,000 cu ft. of helium averaging between 92 and 95 per cent. purity. After the new appropriation was made in 1922, the production plant was again started and at the time of writing was making about 15,000 cu. ft. of helium a day. Only three of the five units were being operated because of the inability to get sufficient gas to run at full capacity. The gas supply is owned by two companies and on account of a disagreement between them, it has been possible for some time to get gas from only one. It is expected that when all five units are running steadily, the daily production will be between 30,000 and 40,000 cu. ft. of gas averaging from 93 to 95 per cent. purity. All three experimental plants used during the war have been shut down. The Air Reduction plant, using the Claude system, and the Linde

Jan 1, 1923

By Basil B. Zavoico

The developments in the Russian oil industry during 1935 marked a very definite turning point from the time when the industry was being educated to the modern methods of oil-field finding and development, refining, transportation and marketing, to the time when the industry has thoroughly assimilated the modern technique and is now firmly standing on its own feet, as is shown by the remarkable qualitative, if not quantitative, progress in 1935. The oil industry promises that 1936 will be a record year in every respect with both quantity and quality approaching the desired high levels and standards. More particularly the Soviet Government is beginning to be successful in the development of new fields and such new production in geographically strategical points of the country will be in the coming years a factor of great importance in the industrial life of the country. The most notable achievements of the last year have been: the very successful development of the Ishimbaevo oil field in the Lower Oural-Permian Basin; the discovery and development of several promising oil fields in the Puta district of Azerbaijan, while large flush production of Baku area was extended 50 miles due southwest into the Saliani-Aliat district, where a 3000-bbl. well was completed early in 1936 at Pirsagat. Also, an apparently important discovery was made at Zikh, on the Apsheron Peninsula proper. These discoveries, as well as several important strikes in the deeper producing sands in the older fields of the Apsheron Peninsula, have greatly augmented the proven reserves of Russia and made them available either at the points where transportation facilities were already present or at points not too far distant from major industrial centers of the country. Of course, not all objectives were achieved during the past year, and several major difficulties remain to be solved in the coming years, the more important of which are: (1) supply of equipment and of parts; (2) the unavailability of competent technical men in sufficient numbers, which more particularly affects the distant fields; and (3) the problem of distribution of oil products throughout the country, especially the question of handling the needs of small consuming areas, which, while individually unimportant, in the aggregate require huge distribution.

Jan 1, 1936

By S. Paul Lindau

THREE years ago it was decided by the management to granulate the matte that is produced in the smelter of the St: Joseph Lead Co. at Herculaneum, Mo., thereby doing away with a large amount of labor in handling the matte and in subsequent crushing. On Mar. 1, 1915, the granulator was put in operation and up to Jan. 1, 1916, 18,735 tons had been, granulated. The four blast furnaces have a daily output of about 280 tons of pig lead and 100 tons of matte assaying about 11.0 per cent. Pb. It is expected that projected improvements in roasting methods will eliminate more sulphur from the charge, and cut down the matte-fall, to about one-half of the present figure. The blast furnaces are tapped into movable forehearths or settlers, 6 ft. by 4 ft. by 22 in., the slag overflowing into 27-cu. ft. slag cars which are hauled to the clump by electric locomotives. Previous to the adoption of granulation, the matte was tapped from the forehearths into small slag pots which were dumped after cooling. The matte cakes were broken with sledges, and transported to the crushing plant for fine crushing and screening. Here the matte was reduced to ¼ -in. size before being fed to the roaster bins.. A Wedge and a Holthoff mechanical furnace are used for preroasting before sintering on the Dwight and Lloyd machines. The matte is returned to the furnaces as an iron flux until the .gradually accumulating copper content reaches about 7 per cent., after which it is put aside to be concentrated in a small copper blast furnace, the resultant high-grade matte-being sold. When the matte does not settle readily from the slag, two settling devices are often used, the second one being a large catch-pot, which gathers any matte that may overflow from the forehearth, the slag then overflowing from the catch-pot into the slag cars. When full of matte, the catch-pot is removed, allowed to cool, and the contents broken and crushed.

Jan 10, 1916

By Charles U. Keranen

The Tilden Mine is an iron ore mining, processing and pelletizing facility located on the Marquette Iron Range in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. It has a designed capacity to produce 8 million long tons of pellets annually from 21 million long tons of crude. It is a partnership owned by The Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company, Algoma Steel Corporation, LTV Steel Corporation, the Steel Company of Canada, Wheeling Pitts- burgh Steel Corporation and the Sharon Steel Corporation. Cleveland- Cliffs manages and operates the Tilden. The crude ore averages 35% iron and is primarily non-magnetic iron oxide and silica. The major ore mineral is martite. Hematite, earthy hematite, goethite and magnetite are also present. The principal gangue mineral is chert. The ore grains are mostly in the 10 to 25 micron size range which necessitates very fine grinding for liberation. The concentrating process is the most complex one used in the iron ore industry. The unique technology for Tilden was developed in the mid and late 60's. The design and construction occurred in the early 70's and operation of the first phase which was of 4 MLTPY capacity began in October. 1974. Expansion of the facility to the current 8 MLTPY capacity was completed in 1979. Chemicals are the key to the beneficiation process at the Tilden Mine. The flowsheet utilizes selective flocculation - desliming, cationic silica flotation and concentrate dewatering by thickening and filtering. Nine different process chemcals are used. The control of the reagent feed systems is highly auto- mated. The entire concentrator is operated from a central control room. The concentrator flow diagram is presented in figure 1. The plant consists of 12 primary autogenous grinding lines, a common crushing circuit to handle an intermediate product within the primary grinding section, 24 pebble mill lines with cyclones and deslime thickeners, 12 flotation lines, 4 concentrate thickeners and slurry tanks, 8 lines of filters with six machines per line, and 2 tailings thickeners. A pumping system was installed in 1980 to permit the direct return of tailings thickener overflow water back to the reuse water pumphouse.

Jan 1, 1986

By W. M. Peirce, E. A. Anderson

A FEW metals have been known since the dawn of history. Many have been prepared in quantity only within the present century. Zinc falls into an intermediate category, although there is some evidence of its existence in elemental form in Greece as early as the third or fourth century B.C. Nevertheless, the first important use of zinc antedates the earliest records of civilization. This first use was in the alloy, brass, which is roughly one third zinc. This continues to the present time as one of the major uses of the metal. The first production of brass, in light of present knowledge, was perhaps one of the 'most romantic and fortuitous of technical discoveries. Copper, the major constituent of brass, had been given to man by Nature in the native state; that is, as lumps of fairly pure copper. The art of melting and working it had been learned. But zinc does not occur as the metal in Nature and even if some early metallurgist happened to heat zinc ore with a reducing agent, the reduced metallic zinc passed off as vapor and was lost. Doubtless some early coppersmith, melting copper in accidental contact with zinc ore, reduced the zinc, and the vapor was absorbed by the molten copper. Its color, hardness, and other properties were thus wonder- fully changed. And so the earliest metallic form of zinc, as nearly as we can deduce, existed in the alloy brass. Probably knowledge of the kind of rock with which to heat copper to change it to brass, the best

Jan 1, 1953

By Richard B. Moore

The successful commercial production of helium during the last few years has added greatly to its scientific interest. When the quantity of an element available for experimental purposes increases within a few years by 200,000 per cent., both public and scientific interest in the element are greatly stimulated. Before the war, probably, there was not more than 10 or 15 cu. ft. of helium in existence. The larger part of this was owned by Prof. Kam-merlingh Onnes, and was used by him in connection with his low-temperature work at Leiden. By experimental work during the war and immediately afterwards, the Canadians, under Prof. J. C. McLennan, produced about 60,000 cu. ft. of helium of various grades of purity. Up to Dee. 1, 1921, when the plant at Fort Worth was shut down because of lack of funds, there had been produced during the experimental work by the U. S. Government, during the war and afterwards. 2,300,000 cu ft. of helium averaging between 92 and 95 per cent. purity. After the new appropriation was made in 1922, the production plant was again started and at the time of writing was making about 15,000 cu. ft. of helium a day. Only three of the five units were being operated because of the inability to get sufficient gas to run at full capacity. The gas supply is owned by two companies and on account of a disagreement between them, it has been possible for some time to get gas from only one. It is expected that when all five units are running steadily, the daily production will be between 30,000 and 40,000 cu. ft. of gas averaging from 93 to 95 per cent. purity. All three experimental plants used during the war have been shut down. The Air Reduction plant, using the Claude system, and the Linde

Jan 1, 1923

By P. Hadzeriga

There are two places in the world where potash, trade name for potassium chloride, is economically recovered from naturally occurring brines by solar evaporation. One is at the Dead Sea and the other at Wendover, Utah. American Potash and Chemical at Trona, Calif. recovers potash from natural brines, but uses fuel to accomplish evaporation. Solar evaporation is always desirable, because of low costs, however artificial evaporation may be economical if a group of very valuable salts are recovered. This is the case for the American Potash operations at Trona. Solar evaporation is limited by low working temperatures, which in most areas of the world is between 18 and 45°C. In many cases the average working temperature is about 25°C. However, solar evaporation will have to accommodate itself to the highs and lows of each 24 hour period, and to the different average temperatures during the months of the year. Therefore, solar evaporation, although more economical than artificial evaporation, has a tem- perature limit which greatly reduces the chances of its application. The feasibility of solar evaporation as a means of recovery of values from a particular brine, may be evaluated by the use of phase diagrams showing the several components present. This paper is restricted to the five component system: C1-, SO4=, Na+, K+, Mg++, and H2O, which correspond to brines found at Wendover, Utah, the Great Salt Lake, and sea water bitterns. THE BONNEVILLE OPERATION AT WENDOVER, UTAH For more than 25 years Bonneville, Ltd., now a division of Standard Magnesium and Chemical Co. (recently acquired by Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corp.), has been recovering potassium chloride from the brines found in the desert area just east of Wendover, Utah. Solar evaporation of the brines is possible as a consequence of relatively low precipitations (year average: 4.8 in.), and of dry and hot summer months. The brine, collected by a series of approximately 67 mi. of ditches crossing the desert, is fed into solar evaporation ponds. Evaporation which takes place from around the middle of May to about the end of September, permits the crystallization of approximately 90% of the originally present NaCl on what is called the "General Pond Area". Further evaporation,

Jan 1, 1964

By O. A. Bascur

An expert process operation advisor system can increase plant efficiency, even in a complex, natural environment where not all elements of the production process can be measured directly. This system, develaped and tested in a Frasch process sulphur mine, monitors key process variables with extended qualitative pattern processing and provides on-line advise to the operators of sulphur production wells. An expert system framework captured common sense rules generated from years of experience obtained in the operation of a sulphur well monitoring system. The existent operating procedures were enhanced by process analysis using a qualitative modeling approach which provided extended rules for on-line classification of a well operational status and an expert alarm system. The methodology for development and implementation of the process advisor is presented in this report. Qualitative process modeling, statistical process control and heuristics were incorpomted into the process advisor resulting in a more efficient use of heat, an extended well operational life and the resulting cost savings. The computer process advisor also allowed the operator to concentrate his attention on the weak wells or wells in trouble. A process management system improved plant operation by automatically storing well data into a commercial database for operator validation. The enhanced relational data base system provided valuable and timely information for planning and decision making. The synergistic combination of on-line process analysis tools, expert control systems and database technology is shown to facilitate the flow of materials, energy and infomation in a modern plant.

Jan 1, 1990

By Earl R. Johnson

Ore broken at the mine or quarry face generally is loaded by power shovels into large trucks or rail cars and hauled to a primary crushing plant where it is reduced to a more workable size for ease in handling. The primary crushing plant is customarily located as close as possible to the center of gravity of the ore body and the projected limits of the mine pit to minimize the cost of hauling and to increase safety from flying rock as a result of blasting operations. A belt conveyor is used to transport the crushed product to a nearby ore treatment plant or, should this plant be located some distance away, the ore is loaded directly into cars and hauled by rail. Between trips the crusher product is accumulated in bins or stock piles. In all open pit mining and quarrying operations, the power shovel, the transportation equipment, and the primary crushing plant should work as a team, complementing each other. When establishing the design and selecting the equipment for these closely integrated operations, capital and operating costs for each unit operation must be weighed to achieve an optimum balance. Rising labor costs have given impetus to the universal trend toward greater efficiency, higher speed and larger equipment, and higher degrees of automatic control. The result is that power shovels have increased in size, haulage trucks are larger and faster, and only coarse crushers with feed openings adequate to receive run-of-mine lumps of ore with a minimum of secondary blasting are selected for new installations. These coarse crushers also have large through-put capacities, even when adjusted to produce a 6- to 10-in. size of product, thus making it possible to use a single stage of coarse crushing at the average mine. The use of a single crusher results in a compact crushing plant layout consisting of a dumping pocket for receiving loads of run-of-mine ore, a coarse crusher followed by a surge chamber for the crushed product, and a feeder to withdraw the ore at a uniform rate to deposit it on a belt conveyor. A

Jan 1, 1968

By H. E. Gross

Recently, areas of abnormal rock pressure have been drilled on the Gulf Coast of the United States. These pressures may be caused by the recent and pronounced raising of some of the structures without loss of the formation pressure that existed when the reservoir was developing and the producing sand much more deeply buried. It is possible also that a permeable fissure may connect a shallow accumulation of gas with the gas cap of a much deeper reservoir of oil, gas and water. The pressures are so great that dependence on blowout-prevention equipment alone is hazardous to life and property. Fortunately, wells with excessive casing-head pressures, such as the Stanolind Oates No. 1 of the South Houston field, an 8700-ft. gas well with 6000 Ib. per sq. in., and the near-by Stanolind Candelari No. 1, and 8100-ft. gas well with 5000 Ib. per sq. in., have not blown out and cratered. A case is on record of drill pipe in a well in Harris County, Texas, (Oates No. 1) rotating for 8 hr. through blowout-prevention rams holding a back pressure of 2900 Ib. per sq. in. at the casinghead after the mud was altered by salt-water intrusion. Such conditions warrant the use of extremely heavy muds having low viscosity, made from galena (PbS) or specially prepared mixtures of hematite (Fe²O³) and galena suspended by bentonite. In some Gulf Coast wells, sodium silicate mixed with concentrated brine is used to drill through heaving shale formations. Such a fluid inhibits heaving remarkably, but it is expensive and costs as much as $10 per barrel. Barite has been used to weight this mixture. However, this mineral too rapidly increased an already excessive viscosity and it was thought that galena might be better for weighting such drilling fluid. The operator was anxious to try the latter, but none was available in the district. Laboratory Study of Heavy Muds To foster the use of the plentiful and extremely heavy mineral, galena, research has been done recently at the University of Oklahoma to determine the mud-making properties of this substance. For comparative

Jan 1, 1938

By R. L. Lloyd

UNLIKE the development of sintering lead, copper and zinc ores, the sintering of fine irony material had its birth, not as a result of gradual growth along lines aimed at the production of sintered and agglomerated product, but because the success of the sintering operation in other lines had been brought to the attention of the ironmasters, who were immediately attracted by the prospect of being able to convert their own fines-into a similar product. The abundance of iron ores in the United States and their comparative cheapness had led iron men into the habit of not paying particular attention to the fine material blown out of their blast furnaces. Hundreds of thousands of tons had been stacked up and used only during times of shortage of ore and then usually without any preliminary preparation, though many attempts had been made to briquette it. Briquettes proved good material, but the operation of briquetting was too expen-sive when applied to iron-ore fines. The development of the iron-ore blast furnace in the United States tended toward large units, high columns and heavy blast pressure, and this tendency is still peculiar to this country, whereas in the other countries the tendency has been to smaller units, lower columns and lower blasts. The high blast pressures and swift driving of the American blast furnace tend, of course, to produce more flue dust than European practice, and this production of flue dust was augmented when large quantities of soft ore, of which the Mesabi is typical, came on to the market. These ores are desirable chemically but physically they are soft, friable and fine, and when they are used in the iron blast furnace the flue dust produc-tion is increased. The necessity of rehandling the flue dust lead to briquetting on an extensive scale. The binders used were either chemical or mechanical, and in one system the briquettes were kiln fired in very high temperatures. Rotary kilns, coal or oil fired, were used extensively, and gave a product of hard and more or less nodulized material, but at considerable cost. This was the situation in regard to iron flue dust when the late James Gayley and his associates became interested in the idea of sintering the iron blast-furnace flue dusts under their own fuel (included coke dust) of which they carried between 15 and 30 per cent.

Jan 10, 1922