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By Alan E. Gallie

SHERRITT Gordon Co. was formed in 1927 to exploit a copper zinc orebody located in the bush 90 miles north of The Pas, Manitoba. The mine went into production in 1931, operated for a year and a half, and closed because of the low price of copper. Reopened in 1937, it operated continuously until mined out in 1951, producing 8.5 million tons of ore. From 1937 on Sherritt Gordon conducted an energetic prospecting program throughout northern Manitoba, giving particular attention to the belt of favorable greenstone rocks north of the Churchill River. From 1937 to 1941 a number of gold showings were located but nothing of economic value was found.

Jan 3, 1957

By E. C. Rien

When the electrical system for a surface or open pit mine is designed, four major considerations should be satisfied in the following order: safety, reliability, flexibility, and cost. Careful planning initially will make expansion for future growth economical as well as possible without extended shutdown of operations. Electrical requirements in surface and open pit mining can be divided into three categories: main substation, plant power, and pit distribution. These systems are integral to each other, but will be dealt with separately here. 11.2-1. Main Substation. A main substation for a mining operation may vary from a 500 kva transformer supplying 480-v power to motor-driven pumps and conveyors, to a 50,000 kva substation serving a large beneficiation plant or a large strip mining operation. Regardless of size, it should be designed with the realization that a failure of the main substation will totally shut down the operation (Fig. 11.2-1.). Location of a main substation usually is a compromise between expense of running the incoming high-voltage transmission lines and the voltage drop of long secondary runs. Based on a geological survey for immediate and future areas of excavation, the main substation should be located as near to the center of load as possible. The site should be out of the blasting area, readily accessible to authorized personnel, and situated where prevailing winds will keep it free from dust or snow. DISCONNECTS AND OVERLOAD PROTECTION. The main substation should have a primary disconnecting device-either a pole top gang-operated switch and fuses of adequate interrupting capacity or, preferably, an oil circuit breaker with properly coordinated relay protection.

Jan 1, 1968

By Philip B. Dettmer

In the last two decades we have witnessed many new developments in the art and science of mineral beneficiation. Competition and the pressures of inflation have caused operating managements to search for every possible way to squeeze out a few more cents savings per ton of product. One illustration of this is the trend toward the use of larger grinding mills. A few years ago a 1000 hp ball mill was considered a giant. Now we have many examples of successful grinding mill installations of 3000 to 4400 hp connected load per mill. The trend toward these larger mills is increasing every year, and we have not seen the upper limit yet. For example, three 6600 hp cement finish mills are presently being built for a plant in Missouri.

Jan 4, 1965

By F. G. Miller, R. C. McFarlane, T. D. Mueller

During the process of gas storage in pressure-depleted oil reservoirs, it has been observed that in some instances additional liquid oil is recovered and that the composition of the storage gas is materially altered. A mathematical study was made of the dynamic behavior of such a depleted oil reservoir undergoing gas injection. The important variable considered in this study, not included in previously published work, was that of compositional effects on the phase behavior of two-phase flow. Pressure, saturation and component composition profiles were developed for a linear, horizontal and homogeneous porous medium containing oil and gas but undergoing dry gas injection. Special new techniques were developed to overcome the problems of numerical smoothing which arise in the solution of the equations representing such systems. The method of solution includes the development of partial differential equations describing the behavior of the system, representing these equations by finite difference approximations, making certain simplifying assumptions and, finally, applying methods of numerical analysis with the aid of a high-speed digital computer. In an example calculation, results using the mathematical model are compared with field observations made on a gas storage project in Clay County, Tex. This field project involved a depleted oil reservoir used 'for gas storage and gas cycling purposes. As a result of these processes, the reservoir yielded substantial amounts of secondary oil, both in the form of stock tank oil and as vaporized products in the produced gas. The methods derived in this study may be applied to a variety of oil reservoir problems which are dependent on compositional effects. In recent years the number of oil reservoirs being used for gas storage purposes has increased greatly, and there has been at least one published account of additional oil recovery resulting from gas cycling a depleted oil reservoir after repressur-ing with dry gas for storage purposes. Additional oil recovery from oil reservoirs resulting from gas storage operations could become an important secondary recovery process. This is especially true since the use of natural gas in large metropolitan areas continues to increase and more gas storage volume near these areas is needed. These facts provided the motivation for the work reported here. This paper reports on a study of the inter-relations of composition, saturation and pressure changes which occur when hydrocarbon gas is injected into an oil reservoir system. From an understanding of the process, prediction methods may be developed for use in forecasting the secondary recovery products from gas storage operations in oil reservoirs and, consequently, .the economics of such projects can be developed. The process of storing hydrocarbon gas in an oil reservoir and the cycling process both involve the transient multi-phase flow of oil reservoir fluids with changing fluid compositions. There is a scarcity of work published on the subject. One of the first laboratory models developed to study a problem similar to the one posed here was published in 1948 by Standing, Lindblad and Parsons. l They developed a model to study gas condensate recovery by gas cycling, including the effect of heterogeneous reservoir permeability. Their results showed the compositional effects of injecting a gas of known composition into a two-phase condensate reservoir of known composition. A major finding of their study indicated that maximum oil recoveries from gas cycling projects result when low cycling pressures are used. Previous to their work it was generally considered

By N. H. Fisher

Geographical Distribution 'he most important known deposits in Australia of what are commonly referred to as the beach-sand minerals are along the most easterly part of the Australian coast, between Southport, 17 miles north of the Queensland-New South Wales border, and Ballina, 50 miles south of the border, and most of the production has come from this area (Fig I). Smaller deposits are known to occur farther to the south at intervals for several hundred miles, and beaches have been worked at Yamba, 96 miles south and Woolgoolga, 150 miles south of the border and at Swansea, 60 miles north of Sydney. Important deposits have been shown to exist on north Stradbroke Island and others have been located farther to the north, as far as Tin Can Bay at the south end of Frazer Island. (Fig 2). Table I gives the list of operators with the location of their deposits and workings, their approximate maximum monthly capacity expressed in tons of heavy mineral produced by their concentrating plants before separation into individual mineral concentrates, their methods of mining and concentrating the minerals, and the products obtained. This table applies as of June 1948, but all the operators are remodeling or improving their plants and plant practices will be modified accordingly. In addition, active boring campaigns have been carried out by Alluvial Gold, Ltd., of Sydney, in the Cudgen-Cudgera area, and by Zinc Corporation Ltd., of Melbourne, on Stradbroke Island, and in other places. Physiography Submergence of the order of 100 to 200 ft at the close of the Pleistocene period left the pre-existing hills as promontories and the valleys as deep inlets. Wave action has built bay-bars and sandspits in a northerly direction from the headlands, and lakes and marshes have formed between these bars and the initial post-submergence coast line. These lakes and swamps have been or are being filled in by river-borne sediments or wind-blown sand. Beasley1 has presented evidence that suggests a recent emergence of the coast line of about 10 ft. The evidence for this belief is the presence of a black sand seam 1/3 mile inland and 17 ft above sea level (Fig 3), and although it is not entirely certain that this seam is of beach formation and owes nothing to windblown concentration, other evidence supports the suggestion of recent emergence. Such emergence would undoubtedly aid the formation of bars and sandspits and the easterly progress of the beach front, leaving a series of parallel dunes (Fig 4). This belt of north-south coastal dunes ranges up to 56 mile in width and as many as 15 lines of dune have been counted (Fig 3). The foredune is generally the highest, upto 25 ft high, and there is in many places a flat platform in front of the dune known as the berm. The dunes behind the foredune are lower and less well defined

Jan 1, 1949

By Arthur H. Wilson

INTRODUCTION The stratified deposits of the coal measures are strongly laminated and exhibit a high degree of anisotropy. The stronger rocks in the sequence possess joints and shear planes, the coal itself has a closely spaced cleat pattern, and the softer rocks are capable of flowage. To calculate the general distribution of stress in such a medium by analytical means based on the theories of elasticity is difficult, and has not yet been satisfactorily achieved. Nevertheless, some estimate is required to aid the design of supporting pillars and permit the correct siting of main roadways. This is important when laying out districts for longwall extraction, particularly if the results of previous experience are not available in the area to be exploited. Although elastic stress analyses, including finite element analysis, may not be very appropriate, the basic equilibrium conditions will apply. These, combined with logical deductions based on observed fact, can be used to give appropriate solutions which experience has shown to be capable of giving acceptable results in the design of pillars associated with longwall workings. Constancy of cover load is one of the fundamental equilibrium conditions. When mining below ground, the cover is not removed, therefore the average vertical load after mining must equal the initial cover load. If mining produces a local decrease in load in any particular area, it must be balanced by an equivalent increase in load nearby. Bending moments in the strata above are capable of compensating for the turning moments which this redistribution of load may produce, and the existence of a "rear abutment", much discussed between 1950 and 1960, is not an essential equilibrium requirement. If the distribution of vertical stress is plotted three-dimensionally, then the load on any small element of area 6S will be o.6S, where o is the average stress. This also represents the volume of the "stress envelope" which lies above 6s. By making the individual areas very small and summing together, it is possible to show that the total load on any particular area can be found by calculating the volume of the stress distribution envelope which lies above it. A similar consideration applies to the stress distribution in a two-dimensional situation. If the stress distribution curve is drawn, then the area below any portion will represent the load per unit depth of section. For example, Figure 1 represents the possible stress distribution across a caved waste and associated ribside. If AW is the load deficiency [ ] These loads must balance, therefore area AW = AS, and if one can be deduced, the other will then be known. Attempts have been made to measure stress distributions in the ribside and in the waste. Stress meters in soft rocks such as the coal measures have not proved very effective. Those based on the measurement of strain have experienced difficulty in strata capable of flowage, high modulus stress meters suffer from cross sensitivity, and overcoming to obtain absolute stress is almost impossible. Load measuring instruments left in the waste have also proved largely ineffective, mainly as a result of the difficulties of protecting the leads in a caving environment. Certain logical deductions, however, can be made about the conditions in the waste. CONDITIONS IN THE WASTE Over the area of the waste the surface trough which develops is remarkably consistent, despite the geological variations which occur from coalfield to coalfield. In Britain, an accuracy of 210% is claimed for subsidence prediction based on width of extraction and depth of cover (National Coal Board, 1975). The subsidence in the USA is more variable (Adamek and Jeran, 1981), particularly with respect to the point of inflexion, but the same general pattern occurs. At the shallower depths the somewhat harder roof strata involved in the caving in the USA may suffer less compaction, giving reduced values of subsidence. Subsidence at intermediate horizons below the surface

Jan 1, 1982

By H. Landsberg

In a previous report1 it was pointed out that a successful attack on roof troubles has to be preceded by extensive scouting. As Lord Kelvin once said, scientific progress can be made only if accurate data are available: "unless you measure, you do not know." The Convergence Recorder For the observation of roof movements in mines the convergence recorder has shown that it will enable us to get some of the necessary information. Results with convergence recorders were first published by Winstanley and other English investigators for rapidly moving longwall faces. In their investigations the speed of work and the heavy overburden produced a considerable amount of absolute values of convergence in a short time. Under the conditions frequently encountered in our investigations in Central Pennsylvania, under shallow, overburden and in mines with slowly proceeding extraction, the movements observed were much less in absolute value, for an equal interval of time. This mas partly because the mines in which our studies were carried on frequently had idle days, sometimes four or five in succession. Therefore continuous records were not employed and a simple convergence gauge was built. In its first models, it consisted only of two telescoping tubes pressed against roof and floor by a coil spring. At the side of the lower tube a rule divided into 1/2-mm. divisions mas fixed and a knife-edge, which was attached to the upper tube, mas slid over the scale in case of convergence between roof and floor. While the larger motions could be read on this device, it seemed to be desirable to increase the accuracy by inserting between the two tubes a dial meter reading in 1/1000 in. Such a gauge was first built in April 1937 and installed for experimental purposes in a bituminous coal mine in Pennsylvania (Fig. I). It was read at least once daily, 24 hr. apart, and if feasible at shorter intervals. After several months of experience it can be said that this type of gauge answers the scientific as well as the practical needs. It is easier to handle than the recorder; no clock is used, there are no pen troubles. The price of

Jan 1, 1938

By Charles White Merrill

Money is one of the most .pervasive elements in human life. The compensation for a workman's daily efforts is expressed as a wage and is measured in money. What an individual may consume depends largely on his income which also is expressed in terms of money. If he would start an enterprise its size would be determined in large part by the amount of money available for capitalization and its success would be measured in net income expressed in money. In short, the most widely used common denominator for comparing merchandise, real property, jobs, enterprises, gross national product, or personal success is money. Despite this use of money by almost everyone past infancy to express his appraisal of the in- numerable values he sees around himself, the complexity of the device called money makes its nature and workings a mystery to most users. Some of the difficulty in understanding money results from the fact that it has three distinct but interrelated functions: (1) a medium of exchange, (2) a unit of account, and (3) a store of value. In many statements about money the discussion moves from one function of money to another without the speaker or the listener recognizing the changes. For example, the housewife says "We took the money we had saved up to make the down payment and after twelve monthly payments the television will be ours." When this housewife spoke of "saving up the down payment" she referred to money in its function as a store of value; when she spoke of "the down payment" she was using money as a medium of exchange; and when she referred to the "monthly payments" she spoke of money as a unit of account. Another cause of confusion in understanding money is its paradoxical nature in that it represents both the power to produce and the power to consume. For example, when the rich uncle dies one nephew may regard his inheritance as an opportunity to buy a farm and leave the ranks of the wage earners to become an independent producer, whereas the other nephew may regard his portion as the means of living in complete leisure as a pure consumer.

Jan 1, 1959

By C. H. Frick

BEFORE presenting the main topic, as indicated by the title, this paper will give some of the high-spot history of the anthracite industry. INTRODUCTION The earliest recorded use of anthracite was in the year 1762, when a company of Connecticut pioneers discovered anthracite near the present city of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. In the early days of the industry, the coal was used only in large pieces, the smaller pieces being discarded to waste piles. As the output of the industry increased during the nineteenth century, uses were developed for somewhat smaller sizes down to and including pea coal. Early in the twentieth century, sizes smaller than pea, such as No. I and No. 2 buckwheat, were developed and used. Accu¬mulations of piles from current mining operations were still increasing; that is, the smaller sizes were still being discarded. It was not until after World War I that preparation of the so-called steam sizes began commercially. This was largely No. 3 buckwheat, which is screened through a 3f 6-in. round-hole screen and over a 332-in. or a M 6-in. round-hole screen. USE OF SMALLER SIZES The earliest recorded experience in burning the small sizes of anthracite for steam production, other than in a previous small experiment, was in the year 1913, when a size known as "boiler fuel" was introduced-a mixture of rice and barley (No. 2 and No. 3 buckwheat). At that time, there was still no method known for burning the still smaller sizes. TABLE I.-Screen Sizes Used for Small Sizes of Anthracite [ ] At the present time, various sizes down to and including No. 5 buckwheat are being prepared (Table I) from current mining and bank-reclaiming operations. The sizes of No. 4 and No. 5 buckwheat and smaller are generally being used for steam production in large boilers. The Pennsylvania Power and Light Co., following World War I, used 680,000 tons of anthracite per year, burned largely on stokers for production of steam, whereas for the year 1943 it used 1,940,000 tons of stoker sizes and 400,000 tons of smaller sizes for grinding and burning in pulverized form. This company has taken a very large part in the research and development of ways and means of burning these smaller sizes of anthracite, including the grinding of the very small sizes. This paper is particularly concerned with the latter feature.

Jan 1, 1946

By F. B. Plummer

THE practice of introducing acid into oil wells to increase production of oil and gas has been in use since 1894, when it was first used in the Pennsylvania. oil fields30.? It is only since 1928 that it has been used to any extent in the Mid-Continent18. The process has proved successful in increasing production, at least temporarily, in depleted oil fields where the producing formation is highly calcareous and where water drive is not too pronounced. In the Zwolle field in Louisiana, where the producing horizon is a chalk, increases of 100 per cent have been recorded25. In north-central Texas, where the oil is produced from the Marble Falls limestone, equally pronounced increases have resulted3. The production also in some fields yielding oil from quartz sand cemented with calcite has been benefited. The evidence of actual increase in total recovery of oil, however, has been questioned by some engineers18. It has been pointed out that the results of the treatment of a well in a new district, where the process has never been tried out, can never be predicted with certainty, since other factors besides percentage of calcareous content: of the oil sand play a large part in determining the success of the method. Numerous articles have been published on acid treatment and on the effects of acid on limestone1-35, yet very little has been written con-cerning experimental work on the actual effect, of acid on capillary pores and larger oil-coated voids of oil sands. This is due partly to difficulties in duplicating field conditions in a laboratory and partly to the fact that the process has been carried out largely by contracting companies that have been unwilling to publish details of their results for fear of loss of business to competitors. The authors, using equipment developed to measure the radial permeability of oil-sand cores29, have developed a method of investigating the results of acid treatment which has enabled

Jan 1, 1935

By Kjell Lidin, Christer Nordström

INTRODUCTION LKAB produces iron ore in several mines in northern Sweden, and has been doing so for nearly 100 years. Total production to date is 600 million tonnes of finished products of various kinds (pellets, lump ore, fines). Close to 400 million tonnes have been produced by sublevel caving. This method has been the company's standard method for more than 20 years. A review of the development of equipment over the past 15 years and an outlook up to about 1990 leads to the following general re- flections concerning probable trends. Trends for all equipment are increasing precision and stricter environmental requirements will necessitate cabs, remote control etc to an increasing extent. Conventional sublevel caving can be broken down into the following unit operations: 1. Planning incl prospecting drilling. 2. Horizontal drilling. 3. Fan drilling. 4. Charging and blasting. 5. Loading and haulage at sublevels. 6. Ore drawing in chutes. 7. Rock reinforcement. 8. Production service. This lecture will deal in brief with each of these unit operations and the trends we are experiencing for them. A number of slides illustrating equipment

Jan 1, 1981

By Howard A. Meyerhoff

Nonmetallic rock and mineral products are so diversified that any generalizations regarding the industries based upon them are of doubtful value and can be misleading. They are geared to every phase of the national economy and respond sensitively and immediately to any economic change, but the responses vary with the individual products. They are also affected by political and competitive factors to a degree that is disconcerting and, at times, ruinous to operators, owners, and stockholders of mineral properties. It is not unusual to find these special factors functioning in reverse of general trends insofar as individual products are concerned. As this summary is being written in the final weeks of 1949 production statistics for the year are not complete, but it is obvious that few, if any, new production records will be set, and that 1949 level, will, in general, be lower than those of 1948. The decline in output is not alarming and reflects in large part the tendency of users, who have been finding sources of supply more dependable to rely on prompt deliveries rather than on inventories to meet immediate needs. Except for the government's program of stock piling which, insofar as it has worked at all, is of more direct interest and benefit to foreign than to domestic producers, industrial inventories have been further reduced, and the neater balance between production and consumption has freed capital for the manufacturer and has cut down the serious hazard of substantial inventory losses. There are no quantity products and only a few special products that cannot be supplied in quick response to current demands. Normal development of a few nonmetallic industries has been retarded by the government's unpredictable application and irrational interpretation of antitrust laws, and by extension of preferential tariffs to new countries and new products. Synthesis is likewise a potent threat. in certain fields, but otherwise it is difficult to make a review of 1949 read much differently from a review of 1948. Changes have been qualitative rather than quantitative, except for a few operations that have been pinched out by the relentless competition that characterizes many of the industrial mineral industries.

Jan 1, 1950

By William B. Senseman

FOR reasons well known to mining engineers, wet grinding is quite universal in plants having to do with the extraction of metallic values from crude ores. In the processing of the nonmetallic and industrial minerals, dry grinding is the more common method. The crude materials usually contain less moisture than is required for wet grinding and the products usually are marketed in dry form; most of them as powders. To grind wet, therefore, would entail the addition of water and an expense for drying the product, which is not justified. Furthermore, the material would be a dried cake that would still have to be pulverized or disintegrated before use. For producing fine products, air separators have largely replaced the earlier practice of sizing with screens and bolting reels. Mills in which the air-separating feature is an integral part of the design are now commonplace. Mill designs are many and air systems have developed along various lines, but for the purpose of this discussion, only the fundamental idea need be emphasized the idea of using air for sizing and removing pulverized material from a grinding mill. About 20 years ago, when the use of mills equipped with air separation had become common practice, heated air or gas was introduced to such a system for the removal of moisture. The purpose of this discussion is to outline the developments and trends that have followed this experiment. It is an important development, for mills equipped with air separation are now universally used for pulverizing not only nonmetallic and industrial minerals, but a great variety of other materials. All such mills are essentially the same. Dried material is pulverized, removed by an air stream, trapped in a cyclone collector, and relatively clean air from the cyclone is returned through a fan to the mill. There is no theoretical need for a vent from the system. The practical need is to vent the air that leaks into the system, and, since the cyclone is not 100 per cent efficient as a dust collector, this vented air carries some dust with it. The initial attempt. at drying was made on a system like that described, by the addition of a furnace. The minus pressure within the mill draws hot gas from the furnace. Infiltration air, along with the drying gases and evaporated moisture, is vented as before. The first application was made to a mill used for pulverizing coal. The coal contained very little moisture, so very little drying effect was needed for the success of this experiment. Actually, some calculated efficiencies of over 100 per cent were obtained before due allowance was made for the conversion of mill power into useful heat. When moisture is low,, the heat obtained from the conversion of mill power is an appreciable part of that required. That drying can be effected in the short time interval available in a grinding mill of this type is better understood by visual-

Jan 1, 1945

By H. Landsberg

In a previous report1 it was pointed out that a successful attack on roof troubles has to be preceded by extensive scouting. As Lord Kelvin once said, scientific progress can be made only if accurate data are available: "unless you measure, you do not know." The Convergence Recorder For the observation of roof movements in mines the convergence recorder has shown that it will enable us to get some of the necessary information. Results with convergence recorders were first published by Winstanley and other English investigators for rapidly moving longwall faces. In their investigations the speed of work and the heavy overburden produced a considerable amount of absolute values of convergence in a short time. Under the conditions frequently encountered in our investigations in Central Pennsylvania, under shallow, overburden and in mines with slowly proceeding extraction, the movements observed were much less in absolute value, for an equal interval of time. This mas partly because the mines in which our studies were carried on frequently had idle days, sometimes four or five in succession. Therefore continuous records were not employed and a simple convergence gauge was built. In its first models, it consisted only of two telescoping tubes pressed against roof and floor by a coil spring. At the side of the lower tube a rule divided into 1/2-mm. divisions mas fixed and a knife-edge, which was attached to the upper tube, mas slid over the scale in case of convergence between roof and floor. While the larger motions could be read on this device, it seemed to be desirable to increase the accuracy by inserting between the two tubes a dial meter reading in 1/1000 in. Such a gauge was first built in April 1937 and installed for experimental purposes in a bituminous coal mine in Pennsylvania (Fig. I). It was read at least once daily, 24 hr. apart, and if feasible at shorter intervals. After several months of experience it can be said that this type of gauge answers the scientific as well as the practical needs. It is easier to handle than the recorder; no clock is used, there are no pen troubles. The price of

Jan 1, 1938

By W. W. Smeltzer

The linear formation rates of wustite films have been determined over the temperature range 590° to 1030°C using a vacuum microbalance technique. These rates are dependent directly on the partial pressure of carbon dioxide, Activation energies for film and scale formation in carbon dioxide and oxygen atmospheres are equivalent to either the dissociation energies of carbon dioxide and oxygen, or the activation energy for the diffusion of cation vacancies in wustite. Of the metals, iron is the most widely used basic constituent of durable alloys despite its intrinsic property of converting at a relatively rapid rate to the oxides from which it is derived. This property has accounted partially for many investigations on the oxidation of iron at low and high temperatures. Interpretation of the results have been complicated by formation of multilayers containing the various oxide phases. To aid in elucidation of the oxidation kinetics, measurements have been carried out in this investigation on the growth of the wustite surface layer. There are several studies directly related to the objective of this investigation. The growth of multilayer scales has been demonstrated to be diffusion controlled in oxygen at atmospheric pressure over the temperature range 450" to 1200°C by Davies, Simnad, and Birchenall.' To gain an insight into the diffusion mechanism, Himmel, Mehl, and ~irchenall' determined the self-diffusion coefficients of iron in wustite, magnetite, and hematite. These results were used to evaluate the oxidation rates of iron and its oxides, taking as a basis the theoretical parabolic rate equation developed by Wagner., The evaluations were compared to experimental data and were shown to provide essential confirmation of this theory. Fischbeck, Neundeubel, and salzer4 have demonstrated that the oxidation of iron in carbon dioxide and other atmospheres at high temperature obeys a linear relationship. Because the Arrhenius temperature coefficients of the reaction rate constants changed at the A, point they concluded that the passage of iron into the oxide controlled the reaction. This viewpoint has been accepted by Benard and ~albot' to explain the occurrence of linear rates in oxygen before the onset of diffusion-controlled parabolic oxidation. This basic premise of a rate-controlling reaction at the iron/oxide interface has been questioned recently by Hauffe and Pfeiffer.' Since the formation of wustite may follow a linear or parabolic relationship depending on the pressure of the gaseous re-actant, they propose that linear oxidation is determined by a chemisorption reaction while parabolic oxidation is controlled by diffusion. As confirmation of this viewpoint, Hauffe and pfeiffer6 and Pfeiffer and ~aubmeyer' have established that the linear scaling constants of wustite formation at 1000°C in carbon-dioxide or low-pressure oxygen atmospheres

Jan 1, 1961

By H. H. Stout

IN the early fall of 1925, the writer was conducting, in the Ledoux and Co. labora-tory, New York, experiments directed to-ward ascertaining the effect on its impurity content when cathode copper was subjected to a current of various gases at an elevated temperature below the melting point, The apparatus consisted of a vertical 1-in. dia. silica tube about 12 in. long, heated on the outside, The cathodes were broken to pass a8-in. mesh, and a current of various differ-ent gases was passed up through a 4-in, long column of these loose cathode particles in the vertical tube furnace. Temperature was maintained to i500° to 1600°F. and the gas treatments lasted from 3 to 6 hr, The writer observed that whenever reducing gas (H2 or CO) was used, these cathode par-ticles stuck together at points of contact with each other. The cohesion was so marked and tenacious that an examination was made of the fractured surfaces, when cathode particles were broken from the cluster. Crystal growth was always found to have taken place across the surfaces where separate particles were in contact, but only after all oxides, sulphates, etc, had been completely removed. The idea of a possible new process was then conceived and was disclosed to A. M. Smoot (V. P. Ledoux and Co.) with intent to obtain his views. The first conception as given Smoot was "to gas-clean broken cathodes, put them in an extrusion press, solidify and extrude them at around 1500°F," Smoot's reaction, after a few moments considera-tion, was, "It looks perfectly all right to me."

Jan 1, 1940

By D. P. Harris

This paper surveys a few of the quantitative exploration models that might be of interest to an ex-plorationist seeking to apply methods of operations research to mineral exploration. A general development of each model is presented, and the model is evaluated relative to the exploration activity. Finally, a philosophy of exploration and mineral resources is presented, and a possible exploration strategy incorporating concepts of some of these models consistent with this philosophy is proposed. The high cost of conducting an effective exploration program has generated an increasing interest in methods of optimizing the allocation of the resources of a firm engaged in mineral exploration. As a step towards this, mathematical models have been formulated which are designed to quantify those variables of mineral exploration in such a manner that they can be integrated with all phases of the firm's operations so as to optimize its profit objective. QUANTITATIVE MODELS General: Exploration models express at least two concepts: mineral occurrence and effectiveness of search. In simplest terms, an exploration model might be formulated mathematically as follows: P(X) = F(X) . G(X), where P(X) = the unconditional probability of discovery of X deposits, F(X) = the probability of occurrence of X deposits, and G(X) = the probability of discovery of X deposits, conditional upon their existence in the search area. With these general models as a basis of reference, some of the specific exploration models are examined below. The Allais Model: DEVELOPMENT - M. Allaisl performed the first study in which a philosophy of exploration was formulated into a probability framework. His objective was to estimate the economic profitability of the exploration of the Algerian Sahara. Allais divided the Algerian Sahara into blocks of land (called cells) 10 km square and defined the random variable, X, as the number of mining districts per cell. Thus, F(X) would describe the probability of 1, 2, or n mining districts occurring within any cell of the search area. Allais reasoned that his best information as to the form of the distribution, F(X), was the number of mining districts per cell that had been found in well explored areas in the world, such as the Western States of the U.S. He found that the Poisson function produced a reasonably good fit to the distribution of districts in these explored areas: where? is a parameter, such as the average number of districts per cell. Thus, by determining the value

Jan 1, 1968

By C. S. Barrett

Measurements of impact hardness of ß-brass are reported for a wide range of temperatures. Abrupt softening is observed when temperatures are raised above 425ºC, accompanied by abrupt widening of deformation bands in the deformed samples. Current theories of these effects, and of the lack of twinning, are discussed. HARDNESS1 and flow stress2 of a sample of ß-brass at room temperature depend upon the temperature from which the sample is quenched. It is believed that the state of order in the superlattice is responsible for this dependence—not the order within individual domains, which reaches near-perfection during the quench from any temperature, but the size of the domains which is presumed to be a minimum in the hardest samples, those quenched from temperatures near the critical disordering temperature of 468°C. Measurements of impact hardness made over a range of temperatures and microstructural studies of samples deformed both rapidly and slowly over a range of temperatures, reported herein, should be of aid in reaching a more complete understanding of the underlying factors controlling the properties of the disordered body-centered-cubic material and the ordered material. It appears that such data have not

Jan 1, 1955

By J. S. Johnson, W. C. McCulloch

All phases of plant operation must be synchronized so that the A number of interruptions in the flow of material may be reduced to a minimum. In the majority of plants operating under a labor agreement, time lost during the operating shift cannot be made up with overtime. With the work week restricted to 35 hr., the ratio of productive time to total time justifies extra effort in keeping the plant operating at capacity during the productive shift. This does not apply when central plants with adequate storage are operated by multiple shifts. In such installations the problems become similar to those of any factory or mill where added units, parallel circuits, or excess capacity serve to maintain the average production during intervals of maintenance shut- down. These plants, by special agreement, may run continuously, barring mechanical interruptions. The control of plant operation is in those procedures that are practiced to obtain from the run-of-mine product a high recovery of clean coal products to meet adopted trade standards and consumer specifications at the lowest possible cost. Correlation of all factors for continuous operation requires more than mechanical perfection in the plant. The run-of-mine coal must be delivered to the preparation plant without delays and the clean coal and refuse products taken away. Power supply and water requirements must be adequate. Signal systems must be established for emergency stops and to facilitate resumption of coal flow.

Jan 1, 1943

By V. S. Rood, J. A. Norden

The general system of workings at the Utah-Apex is similar to that found in many of the western metalliferous mines. There is a vertical three-compartment shaft extcnding to the surface, from which the various levels have been driven to the orebodies. The 1000-ft. (305-m.) level, about 3/4 mile long, was driven as a haulage and drain adit. Geology The formation is a flat north-dipping series of alternating limestone and quartzite beds. Extensive north-south faulting and fissuring have taken place, resulting in the formation of large replacement orebodies in the crushed zones in the limestone. The orebodies are irregular in shape and size, but follow closely the trend of the mineralizing fissures. The ore consists of galena, pyrite, sphalerite and small values in silver and gold. Large masses of non-commercial pyrite are frequently found in or adjacent to the orebodies, and more or less pyrite is found for some distance in the walls of the orebodies. Lenticular bodies of a black pyritic shale also occur in the zones where extensive faulting has taken place. Mining Methods and Condition of Workings Geological conditions, mentioned before, have made the ground extremely heavy. In mining above the 1000-ft. level, square-set and filling methods were used, but not altogether successfully. The crushing of timbers extended even into the filled portions of the stopes. The filling material itself, consisting of limestone, shale, and pyrite, possessed swelling qualities which added to the difficulty of maintaining

Jan 1, 1920