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By H. T. Clark, S. Feigenbaum

The importance of measuring the temperature of molten steel in the open-hearth furnace has been recognized for many years. Poor temperature control may be costly to steelmaking operations and lead to a lowered quality of the steel. Low or excessive temperatures may shorten the life of the furnace, ladles and molds. Rates of reactions in the furnace and efficiencies of deoxidizers are known to change materially with a change in the temperature of the metal and slag. Ladle skulls and mold and stool stickers cause steel to be scrapped instead of being converted into useful products. Finally, the structure, segregation and surface condition of ingots are affected by the teeming temperature. Mill investigations of the effect of bath temperature upon steelmaking operations have been largely qualitative in character, based upon observations by practical melting men. The physical chemist has used the empirical information available and has reached reasonable and useful conclusions with respect to the various melting processes. The introduction of a reliable direct-reading pyrometer will permit accurate quantitative evaluation of the effects of temperature and should furnish a more rational basis for study of the thermochemistry of steelmaking. The problem is not merely one of making a small numbcr of temperature measurements in the open-hearth furnace. This has been done by several methods to a * Assistant Manager, Research and Development, Jones and Laughlin Steel Corporation, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Issued as T.P. 2031 in MEtals Technology, June 1946; also in Open Hearth Proc., 1946. † Open-hearth Metallurgist, Jones and 1aughlin Steel Corporation, Aliquippa. Pennsylvania. degree of precision that was apparently satisfactory. Considerable effort by a number of investigators has been directed rather to the development of an open-hearth bath pyrometer that would be both accurate and practical for routine measurements. To be practical, the pyrometer should be inexpensive to operate; that is, the installation, operating and maintenance costs should be exceeded by the tangible benefits to the open-hearth operator. Temperatures from 2800' to 3100°F. are. encountered in the open-hearth furnace. The surface of the molten metal is covered by several inches of slag, which prevents direct observation of the metal surface for optical or radiation measurements. Both slag and metal are highly reactive at these temperatures and will attack to a greater or lesser extent any material immersed in them. Adequate protectioil of thermocouples, which of necessity must be brought to the temperature of the bath, has generally resulted in a large, heavy assembly made up of brittle materials, unsuited for handling on the open-hearth floor. The life of the equipment was short and maintenance was an important consideration. Earlier Work Any of a number of Physical Properties of liquid steel could conceivably be used a a basis for temperature measurement. Efforts to the present time, however, have been confined largely to measuring either the thermal electromotive force generated between two dissimilar materials immersed in the steel or the intensity of radiation from the surface of the steel. These

Jan 1, 1947

By Lloyd W. Trevoy

Titanium and zirconium heavy minerals occur in the tailings streams from processing plants which use the hot-water extraction process for recovery of bitumen from tar sand. In a research program conducted by Syncrude Canada Limited, the crude tailings stream was upgraded to produce quality zircon and titanium mineral products. To process the tailings through conventional upgrading equipment, bitumen residues must first be removed from the mineral grains. Then, by gravity separation, fines and coarse sand grains were removed and a 71% heavy minerals concentrate was prepared which was further separated by high-tension equipment into zircon and titanium minerals concentrates. The zircon concentrate was upgraded by gravity, magnetic and high-tension cleaning to produce a high-quality 98% zircon product. The titanium minerals concentrate was separated into rutile, leucoxene and ilmenite fractions. Heavy minerals distribution in tar sand drilling core samples has been evaluated for various locations on Syncrude Lease 17, and expected annual production levels of heavy minerals have been estimated. A preliminary evaluation has been made of the potential for zircon, leucoxene and rutile production and for further upgrading of ilmenite and leucoxene to synthetic rutile for titanium dioxide pigment production.

Jan 1, 1978

By Roy E. Thomas

Soon after the Waelz p1an.t for the fire concentration of low-grade zinc ores was put into operation in the early part of 1929 at Katowice, it was found that the conveyor equipment for transporting the hot residue from the furnace dust chambers was inadequate. Hand tramming with water cooling was used for a time, but that method was injurious to the workmen as well as costly. The problem was to find some practical mechanical means of conveying flue dust at temperatures of from 450" to 600°C. as it was drawn from the dust chambers. After considerable preliminary investigation it was decided to install pneumatic equipment for conveying the hot materials to a central mixing plant, where it would be mixed with slime and from which it would be returned to the furnace feed hoppers. The first pnenmatic equipment was installed in 1930, and has been in successful operation since that time. The pneumatic method of transportation has shown a considerable saving in operating costs over the former methods of dust handling and a decided improvement in working and hygienic conditions at the plant, through the elimination of the dust hazard. Additional pneumatic equipment mas installed in 1933 for conveying the furnace fume from the baghouses to the roaster plant. At the same time pick-up lines were provided for collecting the cleanings from the vertical and horizontal cooling pipes that are between the furnace dust chambers and the baghouses. The latter installation has practically eliminated a dusty and costly hand-tramming operation. A third extension was made to the pneumatic system in 1938 for conveying 'the zinc-lead-cadmium fume from the roaster-plant baghouses and flues to a new re-treatment plant for secondary products. The success of pneumatic conveying at the Waelz plant was the determining factor in the decision to install another pneumatic unit at the Saeger zinc-roasting and sintering plant. The new unit at Saeger was installed early in 1938 for the transportation of flue and Cottrell dust, small amounts of flotation concentrates to the sinter machines, and

Jan 1, 1944

Coal cleat and faulting influence failure, gas release, and choice of preferred mining directions, locations, and sequences. Unfortunately soil and younger rock cover restrict direct mapping of these structures ahead of mining operations. Aerial photographs of cover contain indirect indications of concealed structures in arrays of linear photostructures. These arrays are commonly too complex for interpretation by simple visual inspection.Analytical techniques applicable to complex arrays are illustrated for a covered part of the Galilee Coal Basin, Queensland. These techniques are: optical determination of sets in arrays of photostructures; correlation of these sets with sub-surface structures; filtering of m-rays for particular sets; detection of anomalies associated with concealed structures in the density distributions of particular sets; fitting filtered arrays to trajectories; correlation of trajectories with the regional directional variations of concealed structures; contouring of ratios of sets to discriminate anomalies associated with concealed fractures and variations in the total and bed thicknesses of cover; kinematic and dynamic inference on the basis of fracture-trace angular and spatial relationships.

Jan 1, 1979

By D. S. Speakman

The copper-zinc orebody at Sherritt Gordon's Ruttan Mine occurs in a structurally complex area of the Rusty Lake greenstone belt in northern Manitoba. Problems in interpreting drill results indicated a large deviation, and the structural complexity an erratic deviation, of drill holes. This was confirmed when a surface hole was intersected 420 feet to the left of line on the 800 level. This problem acted as a catalyst in promoting a search for a suitable down-hole survey method. The instruments investigated included magnetic multishot and gyroscopic units as well as the ABEM Reflex-Fotobor. Only the Fotobor came close to meeting the company's needs of simplicity, reliability, accuracy and ownership. In this paper, the methods of operating this instrument, as well as the data extraction and reduction techniques, are described. Data on the accuracy and repeatability of the instrument are presented, and a tabular presentation of the results of surveying on 86 holes totalling 64,000 feet of drilling is made. Preliminary statements of the results of ongoing research on causes of hole deviation are presented and recommendations for minimizing deviation are given. The use of the survey device is recommended in areas of structural complexity, for very steep or backsight holes and where expected ore intersections are missing.

Jan 1, 1978

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 G McCullough, B Mutsaers, J Jessop

"*This is an abstract only* Geometallurgical initiatives have demonstrated considerable value to operations that have trialled them. However, it is extremely difficult for these initiatives to become properly embedded into the operations and for that value to be realised on an ongoing basis.This paper will explore some of the historical reasons why this is the case. Some of these reasons include the limited tools available to manage an integrated operation. These, in turn, have resulted from poor communications infrastructure, inadequate sensor capability and the way technical mining software has evolved over the last 30 years.This paper will then investigate how the evolution of technology in recent years can help overcome these constraints and compare progress with similar industries.CITATION:McCullough, G, Mutsaers, B and Jessop, J, 2013. Obstacles to embedding geometallurgy decision-making into operations and how to increase maturity of this critical capability, in Proceedings The Second AusIMM International Geometallurgy Conference (GeoMet) 2013, pp 139-140 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne)."

Sep 29, 2013

By Michael R. Lewis, Dennis P. Moore

Untensioned, fully grouted, steel bars (dowels) up to 30 m long and 45 mm in diameter were used to reinforce rock slopes several hundred metres high, excavated for a hydroelectric project near Revelstoke, British Columbia. These dowels were successfully used to prevent surface rock from loosening, to prevent sliding on interconnected discontinuities and to prevent sliding of relatively intact rock on a thin shear zone. Because the interaction between rock slopes and dowels is not well understood, critical slopes were extensively monitored. Based on the experience from Revelstoke and elsewhere, it appears to be worthwhile, in most circumstances, to reconsider the need for tensioning rock anchors.

Jan 1, 1982

By Xuanxue Mo, Kaihui Yang, Steven D. Scott

Abstract -The Changning-Menglian metallogenic belt in western Yunnan, China, is characterized by the occurrences of both Pb-Zn-Cu and Cu massive sulfides in Permo-Carboniferous mafic volcanic sequences. These deposits were formed in a back-arc basin at a rifted continental margin in the Paleozoic Tethys Ocean. Pb-Zn-Cu deposits are associated with alkalic basalt, andesite, and lesser felsic volcanic rocks intercalated with limestone, which probably formed along an immature rifting segment on a continental basement. These volcanic rocks are enriched in K, Ti, LREE, and other incompatible elements, and have the attributes of alkalic within-plate basalt. An extensive unit of sulfide- carbonate-silica shale in proximity to massive sulfides contains high values of Mn, As, Mo, W, Sn, Sb, and Hg, and has REE patterns that are similar to the volcanic rocks. This, together with the graded bedding in the footwall volcanic rocks, suggests that the sulfides precipitated in a shallow, unstable, and carbonate-saturated volcanic basin. A stringer zone is traced downward for 500 m below the massive sulfide orebodies. It is characterized by an upper sericite-quartz zone and an extensive lower skarn alteration with enhanced W, Sn, and Bi. Lead isotope data show both continental basement and magmatic sources may have supplied the ore metals. Cu deposit and occurrences are hosted by tholeiitic units that represent the mature spreading segments in the back-arc basin. The tholeiitic lavas have LREE-depleted or flat REE patterns similar to MORB or back-arc mafic lavas. The cupriferous massive sulfides are overlain by an extensive unit of chlorite-magnetite or ochre, suggesting a relatively oxygenated oceanic basin. Ni and less Co mineralization is found in dolomite veins of the stringer zone. Enhanced concentrations of Ni, Co, Au, and As are found in the massive sulfides and in sulfide-rich tuffites. The geological setting and mineralization of the Changning-Menglian belt has similarities with modern back-arc basins such as the Manus Basin in the western Pacific.

Jan 1, 1999

By J. S. Miller

THIS paper describes the method of mining a steeply pitching anthracite seam on a heavy pitch in the Orchard vein in No. 1 Tunnel of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Co. The Orchard vein in the Nesquehoning district has a thickness of about 15 ft. on the level of the gangway, which is sufficient thickness for the gangway to be driven full width in coal. Above the gangway, the vein becomes thinner and near the surface is about 8 ft. thick. The coal is of good hard quality and carries a fairly good roof. The pitch of the vein is between 65° and 70°. Usually the breast-and-pillar method has been employed in the mining of the steeply pitching veins in this section. This method produced good results as far as the mining of the breast was concerned but the recovery of the pillar was difficult as to full extraction and expensive as regards costs. To recover these pillars after the breasts were driven, three methods were commonly employed; they were known as the pillar-breast method, pillar-skipping method, and pillar-chute method. The pillar-breast method consisted in putting a battery in one corner of the pillar (Fig. 1), coupling the manways A and B of the two adjacent breasts for two or three lengths ahead of the working face of the pillar being cut, and working the pillar as a breast. This method was used by the more skilled miners of the earlier days but has practically been abandoned. A slight variation of this method is used to some extent. In this case, the pillars are left wider than ordinarily and of sufficient width for the full-width breast to be driven in and a small pillar left on each side of the pillar breast between it and the regular breasts. With the completion of the "pillar breast," the ribs are drilled full of holes, loaded, and fired.

Jan 3, 1925

By K. M. Kim

A site-specific blasting model has been developed for the Asarco Mission mine. The main inputs to the model are the in-situ block size (F80), the post-blast fragmentation (P80) and the intact tensile strength (To). The output from the model is the specific blast energy (ESE). Modern techniques are being used to obtain the input parameters for the site-specific blast fragmentation model. In particular, image processing software is used to obtain both the in-situ block size and the post-blast fragmentation, and the Schmidt hammer is used to obtain the tensile strength at numerous locations throughout the rock mass. An initial model was developed using five test shots in one area of the mine that contains Argillite and is relatively homogeneous. This also included calibrating Schmidt hammer readings against actual Brazilian tensile measurements. The model for Argillite will be updated as more tests are conducted, and the model will be extended to the other four primary rock types at the Asarco Mission mine.

Jan 1, 2011

By Melinda Channel, Alan W. Weimer, Jonathan R. Scheffe

"There is a need to develop cost effective renewable energy processes for the production of clean fuels that can simultaneously mitigate the U.S. energy/global environmental security issue. If H2 can be obtained cost effectively via the splitting of water using concentrated sunlight, then it’s possible to operate a fuel cell using renewable H2 or to synthesize other fuels based on renewable H2 for generating electricity or for running internal combustion engines. For example, H2 can be reacted with sequestered carbon dioxide (CO2) to produce syngas (H2/CO) via reverse water gas shift (RWGS), i.e. H2 + CO2 ? CO + H2O. The syngas can be catalytically methanated to form synthetic natural gas (SNG) or it can be catalytically reformed to produce liquid fuels such as “green” gasoline via the MTG process (syngas? methanol ? gasoline). The desert SW United States is home to world class sunlight. Fundamental ferrite thermodynamics will be reviewed, an example of the beneficial effect of ferrite surface area on reaction kinetics will shown, and process economics will be investigated for a 100,000 kg/day facility to produce H2.Introduction and Background ThermodynamicsSpinel ferrites of the form MxFe3-xO4, where M generally represents Ni, Zn, Co, Mn, or other transition metals, have been shown to be capable of splitting water according to the two step cycle shown below:MxFe3-xO4 + solar thermal energy ? xMO + (3-x)FeO + 0.5 O2 (1)xMO + (3-x)FeO + H2O ? MxFe3-xO4 + 2H2 (2)This is an inherently clean and sustainable process, as the only net inputs are solar energy and water, and the net outputs are hydrogen and oxygen. Ferrite water splitting cycles are advantages compared to other high temperature water splitting cycles, such as the ZnO/Zn and Mn2O3/MnO cycles, because thermal reduction has been demonstrated at significantly lower temperatures[1, 2]. As a result, overall efficiency may be increased due to the fact that radiation losses increase as the fourth power of temperature, and material considerations for reactor design should be more flexible. Additionally, cycle repeatability has been demonstrated with relative ease as compared to other thermochemical cycles [3-6]. However, the amount of hydrogen per mole that is generated is significantly less than for other high temperature thermochemical cycles due to the fact that only Fe3+ is capable of being reduced at the temperatures of interest[6]. In addition, water oxidation kinetics appear to be very slow, likely due to diffusion or surface area limitations created by near surface oxidation [6, 7]."

Jan 1, 2010

US 4,185,193-Method of assaying the vicinity of a borehole for uranium ore or thorium ore. A pulsed neutron source IS operated to irradiate the earth formations with fast neutrons. A detector responds to the delayed fission neutrons emitted by the ore as a measure of ore concentration and to the delayed neutrons from oxygen-17 as a measure of the neutron output of the source. The measurement of ore concentration is corrected In accordance with the measured changes in the neutron output of the source. R L. Caldwell, assigned to Mobil Oil Corp. Jan. 22, 1980 4 pp (250-269). Filed: 5-18-78 (906,907).

Jan 1, 1982

By John H. Weigand, Stephen V. Crum

"VIBRONICS, INC. instrumented and monitored a residential structure for response to,blasting at aMidwestern surface coal operation. The residence was owned by the mining company and was extremely close to the operation. Blasting was conducted within 120 feet (36.5 meters) of the test structure. Up to seventeen (17), four (4)-channel seismographs were used during the monitoring period. The basement walls and floor were monitored. VIBRONICS, INC. also monitored a brick chimney in the basement and attic. Structural responses were then compared to outside vibration measurements taken in the soil near the foundation."

Jan 1, 1998

By E. K. Landis

The question of magnetic concentration is assuming considerable importance, and the efficiency of the different concentrating-machines is widely discussed. As the amount of iron left in the tails must vary with commercial requirements, and with the nature of the minerals in the tails, the writer feels justified in calling attention to some points often overlooked. In almost every such commercial operation a point is reached beyond which it does not pay to go, the material saved by further operations being obtained at a cost too great. The amount of iron left in the tails from concentration must depend, therefore, upon the cost of crushing, the size to which the ore is crushed, the nature of the minerals in the gangue, and the nature of the ore itself. Some ores are so intimately mixed with their gangue that a large loss of iron in the tails is unavoidable. In many cases the gangue contains hornblende, pyroxene, serpentine, etc., which carry considerable iron as silicate, or otherwise combined, and this iron a magnetic machine cannot extract, since the minerals themselves are not magnetic. It is evidently unfair to charge the machine with this loss of iron; and hence a satisfactory test of any such apparatus would require that the iron present in the ore as magnetite should be determined, and the proportion in the tailings of such iron only should be the measure of the loss, as compared with theoretical efficiency.

Jan 1, 1892

By R. L. Lewis

The White Pine Mine is the second largest active underground copper mine in the United States, covering an area of approximately 34 km2 in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. A numerical flow model of the White Pine Mine was constructed to evaluate engineering controls that would reduce the rate of mine water discharge after closure. Of the passive controls evaluated, the placement of low-flow bulkheads within the mine workings was predicted to offer the greatest benefit, reducing the rate of discharge by as much as 35 percent.

Jan 1, 1996

By John Hanna

The Mineral Resources Institute (MRI) has developed a unique process for selective fatty acid flotation of phosphate minerals from siliceous ores. The process takes advantage of preferential adsorption and high reactivity of fatty acid collectors towards apatite over silica surfaces under slightly acidic conditions of pH 5-6.5. The process was successful in upgrading various phosphate samples from Florida and North Carolina containing 7.7-15.3% P205 and 62.3- 77.2% Insol to concentrates assaying 28.1-33.1 % P205 and 4.1-9.9% Insol with high P2O5 recovery of 81.8-92.2%. Depending on the type of silica impurities present one or more cleaning steps, with or without sodium silicate, would be required to improve the grade of the rougher phosphate concentrate.

Jan 1, 1992

By George G. Binder Jr., James W. Lacey, Arthur L. Draper

An experimental investigation of miscible fluid displacement has been made in linear porous media under highly adverse mobility ratio conditions. Various refined oils were displaced at field rates by liquid propane in both horizontal and vertical models 9 to 36 ft in length. In horizontal tests, mixed zones or transition zones form between the two liquids early in the displace-lents. Initially, the zones grow rapidly. III 2-in. diameter models, the mixed regions become nearly stable zones from 6- to 20-ft long. From then on these quasi-stable zones apparently grow only by molecular diffusion. The lenghts of the quasi-stable zones appear to be almost independent of the core material in which displacement;; are made and increase with increasing rates of injection and oil/solvent viscosity ratios. The lengths of the quasi-stable zones. measured in 2-in. diameter models at viscosity ratios and injection rates anticipated in the field indicate that essentially piston-like displacements of oil by solvent would occur. However, the mixed zone lengths increase markedly as the model diameter increases. In vertical displacements controlled by gravity drainage, only short trans-sition zones form. The entire lenghts of these zones can be accounted for by molecular diffusion. Therefore, in reservoirs having characteristics allowing a high degree of gravity drainage, nearly complete oil recovery should be attainable by miscible fluid displacement. INTRODUCTION The oil industry is faced with an ever increasing cost for finding new oil reservoirs. This, coupled with the fact that conventional methods of oil recovery usually leave from 1 to 3 bbl of oil in the ground for every barrel produced, has aroused considerable interest in developing more efficient methods. An integral part of the mechanism of many of these new methods of recovery is a miscible fluid displacement in which oil is displaced by a much less viscous materiai such as liquid propane. A numher of irlvestigators have explored the mechanics of miscible fluid displace-ment,'.2.1.'."." but in the experiments reported many of the important factors have been varied only over a limited range far removed from norma1 oilfield values. This paper presents the results of an experimental study of oil displacement by liquid propane at field rates from linear, natural-sandstone models of various sizes. Both horizontal and vertical flow tests were made. EXPERIMENTAL APPARATUS AND PROCEDURE Refined oils with viscosities varying over a wide range were displaced at several rates by liquid Propane from both horizontal and vertical flow systems. The behavior of the displacement was observed by propane-oil analyses of the effluent and, when possible, by differential pressure measurements along the cores. A schematic flow diagram of the apParatus used to conduct the experirents is shown in Fig. 1. The cores used in the tests were 9-ft lengths cut from natural consolidated sandstone and turned to the desired diameter. These were cast in steel tubing with a low melting point (160°F) alloy which expands on solidification. Flanges welded to the ends of the steel pipes permitted sealing the ends or butting one core to another. Pressure seals were maintained with O-rings. The cores were cleaned by flushing

By H. J. Bickel

This paper is concerned with general concepts and statistical devices used in projecting overall energy requirements. Particular emphasis is given to the use of individual end- use markets as an approach to developing future overall energy requirements, and translating these requirements into fuel consumption.

Jan 1, 1962

By S. C. Thorley, J. R. Menasce

Trackless mining in low profile (LP) and extra low profile (XLP) platinum stopes has forced equipment designers to re-evaluate their equipment profiles to match the undulating reef. Low profile equipment designed to work in conditions with smooth and flat floors will simply not function with undulating floors and roofs and will become wedged between the floor and roof, beached on undulations due to lack of ground clearance, or suffer excessive mechanical damage. Tyres, too, need special evaluation, as conventional tyres for trackless mining do not work in an extra low profile environment.

Jan 1, 2004