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By W. A. Lang, K. C. Gilbart, E. Stansfield

It has long been known that coal is unstable and oxidizes in air, even at ordinary atmospheric temperatures; also, that such oxidation affects the analysis of coal. Nevertheless little or no precaution is taken to prevent oxidation in the ordinary methods of analysis, and the possibility of error due to oxidation is sometimes ignored even in researches on coal. Although the general nature of coal oxidation is well known, and many workers have made careful studies of the rate of oxidation of different types of coal exposed to oxygen at different temperatures, yet the amount of oxidation coals undergo in the ordinary process of analysis, and its influence on the determined analysis, is not well known, and the published data are widely scattered through the literature. This paper is a collection, from this laboratory, of data that bear on the subject, together with a brief summary of three methods employed here to evaluate the oxidizabil-ity of coal. The post-Carboniferous coals of Alberta range all the way from anthracite down to lignite. As some of them are notably susceptible to oxidation, the necessity for care was early forced upon our attention, and oxidation has been reduced either by the removal of air with a vacuum pump or by the displacement of air with natural gas (methane). The two routine analytical operations most liable to involve oxidation are the preliminary, partial drying of the crushed coal (called air-drying) and the determination of moisture. The first is a prolonged operation on coarse coal at ordinary temperatures, and the second a short treatment on powdered coal at higher temperatures. Oxidation also occurs in coal samples stored in ordinary sample bottles. In order to gain information for this study, determinations were recently carried out on the same samples in air, in natural gas, and in vacuo. Sixteen coals were tested; three would be classed in the United States as coking bituminous coals, two as noncoking, nonslacking, bituminous coals, and the rest as subbituminous. Table 1 gives typical analyses of these coals as mined.

Jan 1, 1934

By H. Ries

SPECIAL sands are those that are employed for special purposes. They have a limited use, as compared with sands for concrete and plaster. The sands discussed in this chapter are those used for foundry purposes, glass manufacture, filter beds, abrasive purposes, sandblasting, engine sand, sand for sheet asphalt, and furnace sand. These sands are almost invariably high in silica, consisting chiefly of quartz grains. In some-for instance, glass sands-freedom from ingredients other than silica, such as iron oxide, is important. Certain grades, like filter sand, require rather careful sizing, and in foundry sands the bond, usually clay, is important. One deposit may sometimes be used to supply several grades or types of sand by appropriate methods of screening and washing. The special sands discussed here are usually obtained from deposits of unconsolidated material but sands high in silica are derived occasionally from soft sand- stones that can be disintegrated easily. Requirements are not the same for all uses, and, while certain properties may be demanded, there are no officially adopted standard tests except for foundry sands. FOUNDRY SANDS Definition-Foundry sands include those siliceous sands that are used to make the forms for casting metals. If these are employed for making molds, they are known as molding sands; if for the cores that form the hollow spaces in the casting, they are called core sands. Naturally bonded sands are those containing a variable, though not usually large, amount of clay, which serves as a bond. Synthetic sands, now much used, represent an artificial mixture of sand with usually fire clay or bentonite. Core sands may be bonded with oil, cereal binders, resin, pitch, or other materials. The foundrymen apply the term "sharp sand" to one that is free from bond. Properties-The important properties to be tested at room temperature are texture or fineness, permeability, strength, deformation, and flowability. Those tested at elevated temperatures are compressive strength, expansion and contraction, sintering point, and durability. More attention probably has been given to research on the properties

Jan 1, 1949

By Wallace Ralston

The East Texas area includes the northeast 38 counties of the state of Texas. It covers all, and extends beyond, the borders of what is commonly described as the East Texas Basin. It is one of the most important oil and gas-producing areas of the Mid-Continent Province. It includes four important oil fields—Van, East Texas, Cayuga and Long Lake— and the recent extension of Rodessa field into Cass County, Texas, may prove to be of major size. Four commercial gas fields are in this area— Bethany, Waskom, Cayuga and Long Lake. Up to January, 1936, all of the oil has been produced from the Upper Cretaceous formations, and most of that from the basal member, the Woodbine sand. Gas is produced from both the Upper and Lower Cretaceous formations. Development in Fields East Texas Field.—This field continued to dominate the drilling and production situation throughout the United States. There were 4036 wells completed in this field during 1935; that is, 365 more wells than were completed during 1934. Drilling activity was due to close spacing of wells and the addition of 10,000 acres to the field. The field is now drilled to a density of one well to 6½ acres, which is certainly more wells than necessary for economic production of the field. The close spacing of wells is due mostly to the type of proration, which is per well allowable based on a potential test, and does not take acreage into consideration, and also to the numerous small acreage tracts such as town lots and excess strips. The field now has 19,519 producing wells. The allowable production for the field during 1935 was 161,118,659 bbl.; estimated production, including illegal or "hot oil," was 174,200,150. The illegal production of oil gradually decreased throughout the year, until an estimated low was reached of 20,500 bbl. daily during the months of November and December. The price of oil remained at $1.00 per barrel throughout the year. As stated, about 10,000 acres were added to the field during the year, making a total of 128,000 productive acres. There is a possibility that

Jan 1, 1936

By P. D. I. Honeyman

CHANGING trends in concentration, involving regrinding with the subsequent production of a finely divided, high-grade flotation product, presents a real problem to the modern copper smelter. In the treatment of such a material, handling difficulties are numerous and potential possible losses may be very great. In many plants, of course, preliminary roasting of the furnace charge remains an economical necessity. Under such circumstances, the operator has no alternative except to follow orthodox roaster reverberatory practice, though taking all possible precautions to avoid excessive dust losses and bad working conditions. In other plants, roasting is not only unnecessary but would be highly undesirable, and at best the charge would be merely dried before entering the reverberatory furnace. In the latter case the possibilities of raw charging loom large. The Miami plant of the International Smelting Co. handles the entire output of concentrates of the several mining companies operating in the Globe-Miami district. All of these companies produce a flotation concentrate which, at the Miami Copper Co. particularly, is all reground and is high in grade. In addition, the Inspiration Copper Co. ships a substantial tonnage of high-grade cement copper to the smelter from its leaching plant. Following the flow sheet of the original plant, all such material received was bedded, dried in Wedge furnaces and smelted in reverberatory furnaces. At times during the history of the plant it has been necessary to carry the drying operation further, to a partial roast, before reverberatory smelting. Since the charge contained over 80 per cent flotation concentrates, the handling of which in a dried condition was at best a dusty job, unusual precautions were taken to cut down dust losses. The Wedge furnace plant was equipped with a Cottrell treater and all hoppers and calcine cars were carefully designed to cut down dust loss in transferring the so-called calcine from hoppers to car and from car to furnace. In the furnace itself the dusting problem was a severe one. Arch erosion was very rapid and flues and waste-heat boilers rapidly filled up with a partly smelted flue dust.

Jan 1, 1932

By Marvin P. Barnes

Definition The term mineral inventory is a relatively new designation, born of the computer age and grown to common usage with the development of computer techniques for extending drill-hole sample values to regularly gridded data blocks representing in situ mineral values. The term has been generally accepted by geologists and engineers because it has a precise meaning which avoids many of the ambiguities of ore reserve. A mineral inventory is an estimated inventory of mineral in place and is usually achieved by dividing the deposit into regularly spaced gridded blocks to which are assigned estimated values using various extension techniques. A mineral Inventory makes no presumptions about the minability of the blocks or their cutoff grade. A mineral inventory estimate may be good or poor according to how much is known about the deposit, how extensively it has been sampled, and what techniques have been employed to assign estimated grade to the blocks Such an inventory, however, does not change with time, economic conditions, or mining technology, but only with new and better data and methods. Thus, the mineral Inventory is an excellent designation for describing mineral value distributron within a deposit's geological setting

Jan 1, 1979

By J. D. Wheeler, H. W. Mathews

The increased activity in West Texas, which started in 1933, has continued through 1936 at a constantly accelerated rate. During 1936 there were 1442 wells completed in the area as compared with 700 in 1935 and 468 in 1934. Of these completions, 1313 were producers with a total 24-hr. potential in excess of 1,750,000 bbl. From among the 1442 wells, eight are considered to be discovery wells for new West Texas fields. New Fields Bennett.—The Bennett field, which added Yoakum County to the oil-producing counties of West Texas, was actually indicated as an oil-producing area during 1935, but the discovery well, Honolulu Oil Corporation, Ltd. and Cascade Petroleum Company's Bennett No. l, was not given a production test until April 1936. The discovery well made 15 bbl. per hour through 3/4-in. choke with a plugged-back total depth of 5264 ft. First oil in the hole was from 5088 to 5090 ft., which is several hundred feet below the top of Permian lime. Producing limits of the field are unknown, as the second test had not reached the pay at the close of the year. Henderson.—-To date indications are that the Henderson pool, in northern Winkler County, is the most prolific area opened during 1936. This field, which lies to the north of the old Hendrick pool, is producing from the same reef-type dolomitic lime producing in the older field. The Henderson field was opened by the completion of R. H. Henderson, J. B. Walton-Humble 1-A in April 1936 for a natural flow of 2306 bbl. per day through tubing. Total depth of the discovery well is 3049 ft. Later development has indicated the productive area to be a rather narrow zone running slightly west of north. Present area of from 1000 to 1500 acres has been proved for production. Keys and Emperor.—The Keys and Emperor pools in the belt of sand pools running across Winkler County appeared for the first time on State proration schedules during 1936. This report considers these pools as links in joining the belt of sand production across Winkler County, for

Jan 1, 1937

By Irving Crosby

ELECTRICAL prospecting by potential methods has been applied to mining problems for some years and determinations of the depth to bed rock have been made, but so far as is known it has not been used previously in the solution of civil engineering problems, such as investigating the foundations of dams. During the past winter and spring the senior author has been engaged as consulting geologist in studying the site of a large darn on the upper Connecticut River and has had the satisfaction of introducing electrical prospecting to foundation problems. The valley across which the dam is to be built is underlaid by a deeply buried preglacial gorge which is filled with glacial deposits. An extensive drilling campaign was in progress, but the work was unusually slow and expensive on account of the number of boulders in the overburden. The necessity of speeding up the work was pressing and it was decided that much of the needed information could be obtained by geophysical methods. After investigating the various methods and conferring with the company engineers and with the consulting engineer, Albert Crane, a contract was made with the Schlumberger Electrical Prospecting Methods, and an observer with apparatus was sent to the dam site the first of April, 1928. The problem was to determine the depth to rock at various points in order to prepare a contour map of the bed-rock surface and outline the buried gorge in the vicinity of the dam site. Over one hundred determinations of depth have been made and the bed-rock topography, is now known in considerable detail. In addition, some information has been obtained about the nature of the overburden. The drilling has been continued; in fact, two additional drills have been put to work, and the electrical determinations have been checked at several points. At one of these the depth to rock given by the electrical work was 142 ft. and the drill found rock at 147 ft., an error of less than 4 per cent. The electrical work has also been checked by the geological study, and it has been found that when the electrical determinations are in agreement with the geological expectations they are probably reasonably accurate. When the electrical interpretation of the sub-surface topography is incon-

Jan 1, 1928

By H. S. Geismer

Campbell,' in 1896 said: "The Birmingham district in Alabama has certain great advantages for there are few places in the world where fuel and ore are so near together, although, unfortunately, both are of inferior quality; the ore being low in iron and high in phosphorus and the coal giving a weak and impure coke." This statement could not have been questioned in 1894, but by 1896 several Robinson-Ramsay washers had been put into operation and weak and impure coke was a thing of the past. The Warrior coal field of Alabama contains six seams that yield coking coal of excellent quality. In descending order, they are Brookwood, Milldale, Pratt, America, Mary Lee, and Black Creek. In each of these, however, bands of rock and bone coal of varying thickness are stratified with the coal; and while some of these impurities can be separated from the coal by the miner, much of it must be loaded out with the coal. Consequently, unless the coal is washed before being coked, it will yield a coke of varying ash and sulfur content quite unsatisfactory for blastfurnace use. At present, the Gulf States Steel Co. is producing run-of-mine coal at its Virginia mine, from the America seam, that is uniformly low enough in ash to permit of coking without washing, but this is the only exception to the above statement. Alabama was the first state to experiment seriously with coal washers, was the first to install washers on a large scale and, up to the present, has maintained the lead. The Alabama State Mine Inspector reports that during 1923 20,919,303 tons of bituminous coal was mined in Alabama; 12,858,499 tons of which was delivered to coal washers for treatment.

Jan 1, 1925

By E. P: Mathewson

Discussion of the paper of E. P: Mathewson, presented at the Butte Meeting, August, 1913, and printed in Bulletin No. 78, June, 1913, pp. 1033 to 1037. PROF. JOSEPH W. RICHARDS, South Bethlehem, Pa. :-Speaking to the question of the development of the basic lining, and speaking from a somewhat considerable study of the history of the process, ,I think Mr. Mathewson's conclusion (in the last paragraph. of his paper) is perfectly justified and is very fairly stated. Messrs. Smith and Pierce worked at developing their process for many years ; copper men had been trying their level best to get away from the silica lining of the converters and had uniformly failed. On one page of Mr. Mathewson's paper we read that at the old works of the Anaconda Company, at Anaconda, the experiments " were abandoned on the score of cost and lack of advantages." On the next page, after describing the work of Messrs. Smith and Pierce, we have the statement that the Anaconda Company lined a shell with mangnesite brick and the ?results were excellent." I think Mr. Mathewson's statement that to Smith and Pierce belongs the credit of developing a long-discredited idea, is correct. C. D,. DEMOND, Anaconda, Mont. :-It seems to me that the matter of the lining is important; my impression is that they used tar in their basic lining and that did not seem to be at all successful at Anaconda, but silicate of soda was very successful. MR. RICHARDS :-I did not know that they- had abandoned the use of tar. MR. DEMOND :-I said I thought that was the practice. At Anaconda that was not at all satisfactory in the basic linings. Silicate of soda was very satisfactory and is so.

Jan 11, 1913

By R. W. Smith, K. H. Lee

Bond type simulated closed-circuit grindability tests and batch grindability tests were run on six pure minerals plus a limestone and a taconite ore. The simulated closed-circuit tests were made at five different meshes of grind. The minerals tested varied widely in hardness and breakage pattern. For all simulated closed-circuit tests both Bond and Holmes work indices were calculated and compared. The Bond grindability testlm6 has been widely and quite successfully used for predictions of such items as ball mill power requirements and as an aid in plant comminution equipment selection. The test is interesting in that although run as a series of batch tests it is over-all a simulated closed-circuit test with a circulating load of 250%. The simulated closed-circuit feature is probably the primary reason for the notable success of the test. Perhaps the major criticism that can be brought against the test is that it is time consuming, since it normally takes a trained technician about an eight-hour shift to perform it.4 For many purposes this is an acceptable time requirement. However, if a grindability test is to be used for mill control purposes it should be performed in as short a time interval as possible, preferably under an hour. Sometimes in industry strictly batch tumbling mill tests are run and an attempt is made to correlate such batch tests with plant mill operation. Then an attempt is made to adjust operating tumbling mills based on data from the tests. The tests, however, frequently do not correlate well with operating data. The purpose of the present work was to explore some of the similarities and differences between a simulated closed-circui.t grindability test and a batch type test. Six different minerals plus a limestone and a taconite ore were tested in the experimentation. These materials varied widely in hardness, breakage characteristics, etc. Standard dry Bond grindability tests were mn on all materials at 48, 65, 100, 150 and 200 meshes of grind. Feed material was prepared by stage cmshing to -6 mesh. Initial feed volume was 700 cc. Care was taken to maintain the standard constant weight (about 20125 gm) and number of balls (283) during all the tests. Rotational speed was 70 rpm. Table I lists the materials studied along with pertinent data regarding the materials and Bond grindabilities obtained. In addition, dry batch tests were performed on all materials. These tests were made in the same mill as was used for the Bond tests. An identical ball charge and an identical feed volume were used. After rotating the mill for a predetermined number of revolutions at the same rotational speed as for the Bond test, the material was removed and separated from the ball charge. A screen analysis was performed on this product. Knowing the original size distribution of the feed and the size distribution of the product, it was possible to calculate the grindability or grams of a particular mesh produced per revolution of the mill. After the screen analysis of the product, the various fractions were recombined and placed back in the mill for further grinding. After grinding for additional revolutions of the mill the procedure was repeated. Thus, it was possible to obtain grindabilities for each material at a number of meshes of grind and for various revolutions of the mill. Grind-abilities obtained from batch tests are shown in Table 11. COMPARISON OF BOND AND BATCH GRINDABILITIES Figs. 1A through 1D show relationships between batch and Bond grindabilities. Figs. lA, lB, 1C and 1D show respectively graphs indicating the relationships for batch tests run for 100, 300, 500 and 700 revolutions of the mill. For a particular material on each graph, points are shown for 200, 150, 100, 65, and 48 meshes of grind except for several missing coarse meshes of grind for galena which did not fall conveniently on the figures. For each material and graph the point nearest the origin is for 200 mesh, the next for 150 mesh, the next for 100 mesh, etc. Considering Fig. lA, it is interesting to note that all relationships shown are essentially straight lines. There are, however, considerable differences

Jan 1, 1969

By John T. Ryan

DEFINITE improvement in its accident fatality rate in the coal-mining industry was recorded during 1941, based on preliminary figures for the period from January through October. Total production during this ten-month period was approximately 91 percent of the total production in all of 1940. The ten-month accident rate for both bituminous and anthracite mining in 1941 was 2.15 killed per million tons of coal mined, compared with a rate of 2.66 for the full year of 1940. The bituminous rate decreased from 2.55 in 1940 to 1.99 in ten months of 1941, and the anthracite rate from 3.62 to 3.53 in similar periods. The decrease is more apparent for the bituminous branch of the industry, as the high figure in 1940 was due to seven major disasters which brought death to 276 men. The same number of major explosions during ten months of 1941 caused only 64 lives to be lost. The severity of the explosions has been lower this year but a definite need still exists for reduction in this type of accident.

Jan 1, 1942

Background The annual awards, which have been given by the US National Committee for Rock Mechanics since its inception in 1969, recognize out- standing research in rock mechanics. Such recognition has always been accompanied by a plaque or certificate for the winners and a presentation at the symposium awards banquet. Starting this year, the US National Committee will give the winners even more recognition and allow the rock mechanics community to benefit from the papers by publishing abstracts of the work in the proceedings of the 25th US Symposium on Rock Mechanics and in various society journals and news letters. "We hope this will stimulate the production of more research papers," said William R. Judd, former chairman on the subpanel of awards. "It's beneficial for researchers to have their work published as an award paper." There are four categories of awards: Basic Research, Applied Research, Case History, and Student Masters' Thesis. Approximately ten papers are nominated annually for each category; however, in some years awards are not made in all four categories. For instance, there were not enough case history nominations in 1983 for an award, but there were two equally outstanding recipients of the award for applied research. The winners of the 1983 research awards reflect the wide variety of professions involved with rock mechanics. They are introduced on the following pages by category, and accompanied by an abstract of the paper

Jan 1, 1984

By L. K. Smith, E. M. de Kock, J. van der Walt

A unique and systematic approach for analysing alternative methods of ventilating and cooling large hot mines is presented. The important factors that have a bearing on ventilation and cooling requirements and practices, such as air flow through the mine, geographical distribution of heat loads, micro ventilation considerations etc., are dealt with. Analysis of these leads to the definitive ventilation and cooling strategies, air and water process design, detail specifications and design of associated plant and equipment.

Jan 1, 1982

By D. L. McCain

Slurry transportation of coarse coal from the mining face to the preparation plant has proved successful in a West Virginia underground mine. Coal has been pumped from the mining section for several months. The system is currently being provided with the flexible link to the face to allow for continuous transportation. Some future plans for coal mines and projections for broader applications of the transportation method are given.

Jan 1, 1976

By Dietmar Espig

Very useful general relationships between operating parameters and the operating results for open- and closed-circuit grinding under steady- state conditions are described. The basic idea of the developed methods consists of the introduction of a known reference state. The relations derived from very simple approximations to individual processes allow one to evaluate fineness and mass flow of the desired state after changing the parameters (feed rate, fineness of the feed material, mill length, transport behavior through the mill, classifier characteristics). It was also possible to derive some general relationships, e.g., * an equation for the influence of the operating parameters of the mill on the fineness of the mill output * a criterion to establish if the desired state of a closed grinding circuit is steady state at all * a possibility to substitute the common influence of the transport behavior of the mill and of the classifier by-pass fraction with the coarse stream on the mill outlet product by means of a fictitious worse transport behavior. The applicability of the described methodology to many problems in grinding practice, including questions of controlling grinding circuits, is demonstrated by some examples. In particular, a working diagram of the standard closed grinding circuit has been established.

Jan 1, 1984

By R. D. Hagni

The following is a case study illustrating the use of thin sections and polished sections of crude ore to predict metallurgical response. By examining polished sections of the metallurgical products, the textural and mineralogical reasons for unsatisfactory separation can be explained. An area of oxidized Negaunee Iron-Formation located south of Negaunee, Michigan, in the Marquette Iron Range, has been considered for roast reduction-magnetic separation. Preliminary metallurgical studies and subsequent pilot plant testing produced varied results. These results prompted this microscopic study which began with an examination of 126 thin sections and 82 polished sections prepared from 126

Jan 1, 1967

By Thomas Elliott

It is now clearly evident that 1963 is witnessing a record year for prospecting and exploration in British Columbia and Yukon Territory, as substantiated by the following facts: ? About 60 large mining companies and many smaller ones are active in the search for new ore deposits. ? More than 500 prospectors and exploration geologists have been in the field this season. ? It is estimated that $10 million has been spent this year on the search for new ore deposits. ? Claim staking in B. C. to July 31, totalling 14,250, is up 2000 over 1962. ? Helicopter companies report a record total of 25 aircraft chartered to mining groups, with additional numbers used in oil-gas exploration. ? Leading assayers state that business with the industry is double that of the previous year. ? Diamond drillers report an increase of approximately 25% in the amount of contracts now on hand. The question is often asked, "Why is mining so active in Canada's Pacific Northwest?"

Jan 12, 1963

By J. A. Herbst, K. Rajamani, M. Siddique

This paper presents an investigation of the accuracy of population balance model predictions for ball mill scale-up. Experiments performed in 25.4 x 29.2 cm (10 x 11.5) batch mill are used to estimate linear grinding rate parameters that, in turn are scaled according to specific power draft to predict performance in 381 x 292 mm (15 x 11.5 in.) and 762 x 457 mm (30 x 18 in.) batch and continuous ball mills, respectively. Results are presented for wet and dry grinding of two homogeneous solids, limestone (soft) and quartz (hard), and one heterogeneous solid, a complex molybdenite ore. In all cases good agreement between predicted and experimental product size distributions was obtained.

Jan 1, 1983

By d&apos, C. McCoul, C. Antonio, R. Krohn

MOST of the commercial colored gold alloys for jewelry applications are based on the Au-Ag-Cu-Zn system. Although work has been done on the constitution of the Au-Ag-Cu system.'-4 there are no reports in the literature on the effects of zinc additions in these alloys. We have metallographically determined the a =al + a2 transformation temperatures in 91/2- and 131/2-karat alloys in which varying amounts of zinc have been substituted for copper and silver. Samples were cast in the form of 1/2-in. round bars

Jan 1, 1970

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Jan 1, 1938