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By B. van Beek, J. Ndlovu, K. T. Hara, J. M. A. Geldenhuis

This paper describes the development of an alternative technique for measuring the matte level height in sulphide smelting furnaces. The initial studies involved applying electrochemical oxygen probes in a smelting furnace to measure the oxygen potentials of the matte and slag phases. However, these measurements were not successful as a result of low temperatures, preventing there ference electrode from attaining equilibrium during the measurements. These trials were followed up by using oxygen probes containing a (Mo + MoO2) reference electrode instead of the(Cr + Cr2O3) reference electrode used previously. It was shown that with some further development work, it should be possible to measure the oxygen potential of these mattes accurately. Further measurements were performed with a magnetic sensor in sulphide mattes. It was shown that an electronic signal, which is proportional to the magnetic susceptibility of the surrounding material, was generated during immersion into liquid matte. These measurements were extended and done in a smelting furnace. Initial results indicated that when the magnetic sensor was dipped through the slag layer into the matte, a signal was generated as soon as the sensor came in contact with the matte. Measurements are ongoing in order to record (on a computer for improved accuracy) the signal as a function of distance when the sensor is immersed through the slag layer into the matte phase. The magnetic sensor measurements may be the solution to a matte level measurement problem that has existed for a few decades in matte smelting furnaces.

Jan 1, 2004

By H. B. Hill

The Salt Flat field, formerly called the Toe -Bruner field, is located northeast of the town of Luling in Caldwell County, Tex. This field, which is a fault structure, approximately parallels and is about 5 miles east of the Old Luling field. The proved area is approximately 1,280 acres, on which 332 producing wells (September, 1930) have been drilled. The majority of the wells are producing from the Edwards limestone at an average total depth of 2,700 feet. A few wells are producing from the Austin chalk or from other formations above the Edwards limestone. The Wilcox formation is exposed, and the fault trace in places is scarcely evident. The strike of the structure is approximately 111. 20 to 45° E. The displacement of the fault is probably 200 to 500 feet. The discovery well was completed in the Austin chalk by the Lutex Oil Co. during April, 1928. In October, 1928, the Sun Oil Co. completed the discovery well in the Edwards pay. This well was an important discovery, as it indicated the potential oil possibilities of the Edwards limestone in echelon fault structures. The discovery led to the development of the third fault field in the Edwards limestone and opened up a large area for future prospecting. The total oil production for the Salt Flat field to and including September, 1930, was 19,833,215 barrels. The most reliable figures available of water production were compiled for a number of leases and wells in the south half of the field. These data show that the water percentage for the average well in this part of the field increased steadily from 30 per cent for January, 1929, to 81 per cent for December, 1929. The estimated daily water production of the entire field for December, 1929, was about 82,000 barrels as compared with a daily oil production of 29,725 barrels; or approximately 2.7 barrels of water were produced with each barrel of oil 14 months after the discovery well was completed in the Edwards pay. Estimates of water production in the (Old) Luling field, which is near the Salt Flat field, place the daily water production at about 150,000 barrels (July, 1929) as compared with a daily oil production of 11,000 barrels. These figures indicate that in the Luling field approximately 14 barrels of water must be lifted for each barrel of oil produced. The Luling field was discovered in August, 1922, and a peak annual production of 10,210,000 barrels was reached during 1924. The production during 1928 was 5,057,000 barrels of oil from an average of 567 producing wells for the year. Although water appeared early in the life of the Luling field, the oil production has been well sustained. Another feature of outstanding interest is the comparatively few producing wells that have been abandoned on account of water during the soven years of operation of this field. Comparison of data between the Luling and Salt Flat fields is of importance because of the nearness of the two fields. The Luling field is a narrow strip or "shoestring" approximately 8 miles long, with a maximum width of 3,400 feet. Production is obtained in the Edwards limestone at an average depth of 2,200 feet on the upthrow side of a fault. Similar conditions of accumulation are found in the Salt Flat field at greater depth to Salt Flat field as outlined (April, 1930) is about 7 miles long? with a maximum width of 2,000 feet. At the time the field work was begun (July, 1929) in the Salt Flat field, drilling operations had been almost completed in the south half of the field, while the north half was still under development. Cross sections and a structure contour map interpret the subsurface conditions in the south half of the field, where the water conditions first became serious.

Jan 1, 1931

By P. H. Royster

On the Continent, ferromanganese has been produced in the blast furnace almost continuously since 1876, but little definite information concerning the practice is to be found in technical literature, and almost nothing in the way of a theory of the manganese furnace. In this country, prior to 1904, but one company had attempted its production in a serious way, and none of the operating data or other information from this company has been, or is, available to the public..In the last 5 years, as a result of the restriction of imports, a number of furnaces have been blown in on this alloy, with the result that in 1918 as many as 18 furnaces were in blast. The majority of the men in charge of these furnaces had had little previous experience in such operations; so the Bureau of Mines, in the summer of 1918, undertook the collection of data from ferromanganese furnaces. Operating data were collected by the Bureau from eleven ferromangahese furnaces, which will be referred to throughout this paper as furnaces A, B, C, F, G, I, J, K, L, M, and P; the dimensions of seven of the furnaces are given in Table 1. The companies from whom this information was obtained, and to whom should go the credit for whatever value this information may possess, are the Bethlehem Steel CO.,

Jan 1, 1920

By N. Saracoglu, J. P. Golightly, R. H. Wallis, J. J. Brummer

"The McClean uranium deposits are in northern Saskatchewan, 11 km west-northwest of the Rabbit Lake mine. Their average grade is 1.8% UJ0 8 and they contain 6,350 tonnes of uranium oxide in seven pods of variable grade and mineral assemblage. They are hosted by both basal Athabasca Group and the regolith developed on the underlying crystalline basement. The major mineral facies are: sulphide, arsenide, 'bleached', and hematite, with the important uranium minerals being coffinite, uraninite and pitchblende.Abundances of carbon and sulphur isotopes are consistent with their derivation from pyritic graphite in basement gneisses. Isotopes of oxygen and hydrogen suggest mineralizing fluids were aqueous and at temperatures of about 200°C. Ar39/ Ar40 laser age determination of illite indicates mineralization began about 1300 m.y, ago and that significant hydrothermal alteration ceased about 1170 m.y. ago though Pb/U data suggest the deposits continued to evolve into the Mesozoic.The deposits are interpreted as the result of oxidizing ground water stripping uranium and other metals from either the Athabasca sandstone, especially the heavy mineral layers, or from the regolith, and precipitating these when encountering a warm reduced fluid emanating from the basement."

Jan 1, 1984

By Russell R. Trengove

The Bureau of Mines developed by core drilling the Cove Meadow copper property, also known as the Patterson property, from May 6, 1949, to August 6, 1949. It is in the Cove Meadow mining district, northwestern Humboldt County, Nev., 102 miles northwest of Winnemucca. The purpose of the work was to determine possible reserves in a mineralized shear zone in andesite that has been partly explored by several surface cuts and two shallow underground workings. Production from this zone to August 1, 1,949, was 98 tons of hand-sorted copper ore assaying 5.1 percent. The development work performed by the Bureau of Mines comprised a study of the geology, mapping the area, sampling the outcrops, and exploring by diamond drilling the shear zone adjacent to the fault. Seven holes were drilled for a total of 1,246 feet. Mineral reserves indicated by the project are confined to a length of 500 feet along the strike.

Jan 1, 1950

Jan 1, 1942

By M. J. Richards, T. X. Ren

Determination of the state of an underground fire plays an important role in fire fighting, rescue and reopening operations. This is normally achieved by the analysis and interpretation of fire gases taken from the fire zone. However, drawing conclusions from gas analysis is not an easy task and needs specialist skills, expertise and experience that are usually beyond the knowledge of the officials in a mine. The complexities of a mine fire and the uncertainties of available information often make effective fire fighting decisions difficult if not impossible. This paper describes a knowledge based expert system that can aid in the diagnosis of sealed coal mine fires. Using a commercially available shell, the expert system has been designed to accommodate a series of diagnostic rules replicating the reasoning logic that would be used by human experts. The system allows the diagnosis of explosibility of the fire zone and trends of various fire ratios to be easily visualised for decision making. By continuously analysing the incoming information, the system is able to provide a rapid assessment of the situation of a sealed mine fire prevailing under specific mining and geological conditions. In addition, short term trends in fire behaviour can be predicted and possible fire control actions recommended. An example is given and shows how this system can be used as an analytical tool in various ways to assist the combating of coal mine fires. Further development of the system is discussed.

Jan 1, 1993

By Gian-P. Lozej, Ross Y. Black, Sami S. Maddah

The Zabirah bauxite is a Cretaceous paleolaterite exposed by postTertiary uplift and erosion of the Phanerozoic sequence. The laterite profile, which is preserved in situ, occupies a prominent angular unconformity over a sequence of sandstones, siltstones and mudstones ranging from Late Triassic to Early Cretaceous in age, and is overlain by a Late Cretaceous terrigenous and carbonate package. The profile is known to be preserved over an area of 250 sq km and at depths below the present surface of up to 80 m. The bauxite layer is hard, compact and predominantly pisolitic, with a variety of subordinate, superimposed textures resulting from post-formation alteration. The bauxite minerals are boehmite and gibbsite. Boehmite generally predominates, and the boehmite:gibbsite ratio averages 2:1, with a marked tendency for the proportion of boehmite to increase down the profile. Kaolinite, a major constituent of the profile, is concentrated in two zones, one above and one below the pisolitic bauxite layer. Iron content is variable and bears a direct relationship to parent-rock lithology. Genesis and preservation of the bauxite are due to the favourable coincidence of a number of geological controls of which the most significant are the local structural and sedimentary regimes, the lithology and chemistry of the parent rocks, and the Cretaceous paleogeography of the region.

Jan 1, 1984

By Jorge Black Florez

El presente texto describe la aplicación del programa de entrenamiento de seguridad para mineros en la Cerro de Pasco Corpotation. Este programa se basa en un estudio realizado entre los años 1956-1959, y consta de tres elementos: hacia quiénes va la instrucción, el tema a enseñar y la metodología a utilizar. La clasificación del personal según este programa, se divide en: obreros, supervisores y miembros de las cuadrillas de rescate minero. Los temas de instrucción son los tópicos generales para toda categoría de trabajador y los temas específicos de acuerdo a la naturaleza de las labores encomendadas. Finalmente se describe la práctica de los entrenamientos, la cual evidencia y reduce el índice de accidentes laborales, como estabiliza la productividad en la minera.

Jul 20, 1961

By J. H. Bassarear, P. F. Thomas

Large-scale equipment can reduce both capital and operating costs for concentrators. Large semiautogemus (SAG) mills can be effectively utilized in big mills but they must be kept fully loaded to tab advantage of their great potential. With varying hardness ores, controlling throughput is difficult and careful design must take this into consideration. A variable speed drive on large primary semiautogemus mills can overcome this problem to a considerable degree. This paper provides a base case using standard accepted technology of two wound rotor single speed 4476 kW (6000 hp) motors to drive the primary SAG mills of a hypothetical 36,364 t/d (40,000 stpd) typical porphyry copper mill. One other fixed speed drive will be described and jive variable speed drive configurations will be reviewed. Capital costs for the entire grinding circuit, from crusher product to flotation feed, were developed for the base case and each of the alternatives. A technical evaluation comparing the advantages and disadvantages of each drive is presented.

Jan 1, 1987

By V. W. Bihlman, H. M. Williams

In the construction of internal-combustion engines, the cooling of the combustion chamber and pistons is of great importance. In certain types of engines, the adequate dissipation of heat from the bearings is also important. One of the important factors affecting heat dissipation from these parts is the thermal conductivity of the material used. A search of the technical literature shows that, in general, the thermal conductivity of the elements1 has been determined accurately by a number of investigators. The data on the industrial alloys are, however, meager. For an investigation of these alloys, the thermal-conductivity apparatus described in this paper has been constructed at the laboratory of the General Motors Research Corporation. It is desirable that an apparatus for work of this nature should give fair accuracy of results with a convenient form of specimen and a reasonable rapidity of operation. A summary of the different methods of determining thermal conductivity is given in the first volume of the " Dictionary of Applied Physics," pages 429 and 470. The method selected as best satisfying these conditions is that of Griffith, on page 443, with the addition of a guard ring similar in principle to the method used by Berget (P. 445). Briefly, the method consists of heating one end of a bar T, Fig. 1, electrically, measuring the amount of heat transmitted through the bar by a flow calorimeter J fastened to the other end, and measuring the temperature gradient along the bar. To compensate for the loss of heat laterally, the test bar is surrounded by a guard ring E, in the form of a steel pipe, which is electrically heated at the bottom and cooled at the top with a

Jan 1, 1923

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Jan 1, 1938

By V. Hema

Granular materials are widely used in process industries, such as chemical, pharmaceutical, cement, food, detergents, and fertilizers. Mixing, blending, calcining, reduction, heating, and granulation of these materials are frequently carried out in rotating cylinders. In all of these processes, the mixing and segregation of these granular materials is important as this controls the secondary phenomena in the rotating kiln such as heat transfer to the material. A significant amount of work is available in the literature but to date these efforts have not been able to capture the important parameters affecting the mixing and segregation in rotating kilns. In addition, the range of parameter values studied so far is rather limited. Simulations of granular materials are based on either discrete elements or continuum models. The discrete element methods (DEM) combine semi-empirical models for the inter particle interactions with the equations of motion from classical mechanics to simulate the explicit paths of all granules in a rotary kiln, thus yielding realistic predictions of the mixing process. This approach is very demanding computationally, which strongly limits the number of granules and the number of revolutions in a simulation. Continuum models dispense with the discrete particles and can therefore be scaled up more easily. But the constitutive relations that serve as the foundation for continuum modeling are difficult to come by, and often only applicable to specific systems and conditions. Here we have chosen DEM simulation for investigating the mixing and segregation behavior of granular materials in a rotating cylinder. This work is directed towards demonstrating the capability of the prediction of the mixing and segregation behavior of granular materials in a horizontal rotating cylinder through discrete element simulation. Further the effect of particle size and rotational velocity on the mixing and segregation behavior is investigated. The simulation results are quantified in terms of mixing index, mixing rate, segregation index and percolation index. Keywords: DEM simulation, granular mixing

Sep 1, 2012

By Y. Kusuda

Since 1981, the Annaka refinery has recovered zinc from zinc leach residues by the Waelz Process. The important considerations of this process are the prevention of the growth of coating accretions in the Waelz kiln and the improvement of the zinc volatilization rate. In this paper, simulation predictions and the results of the industrial operation regarding the prevention of coating accretions in the Waelz kiln and the improvement of the zinc volatilization rate at the Annaka refinery are reported and compared.

Jan 1, 2006

By James P. Bowersox

Modem mineral processing plants handle large amounts of ore and produce large tailing streams. Plant performance can be optimized when the water is quickly recovered with a thickener. The caisson thickener was developed to overcome process and mechanical problems with the conventional traction and center column units. The caisson is a hollow center column that serves as a pump house. The rake arm structure is supported by a hydrostatic bearing which sits on top of the caisson. The caisson thickener with a hydrostatic bearing has operated for many years in several mineral processing applications.

Jan 1, 1981

By Chas. A. Ashburner

The occurrence of oil- and gas-springs in the State of New York has been a fact of historical record since 1627, when the existence of the Cuba oil-spring was first recorded. The utilization of natural gas at Fredonia in 1821 attracted the attention of the public to the possibility of obtaining an illuminating gas by digging and drilling into the rocks. No active search was made, however, for oil or gas by the drilling of wells until after the discovery of commercial oil in Pennsylvania in 1859. In 1862 a well was drilled at Bradford, McKean County, Pennsylvania, but a few miles south of the New York state line, to the depth of 200 feet, in search of the oil-sand which had been found at Titusville, Oil City, and at other points in Western Pennsylvania. Immediately subsequent to this, other wells were drilled in search

Jan 1, 1888

By H. L. Retcofsky

Carbon-13 nuclear magnetic resonance (18CNMR) spectra of nine 2-substituted pyridines, seven 3 -substituted pyridines, and nine 4-substituted pyridines have been obtained and analyzed. Substituents included both electron-releasing groups and electron-with hawing groups. Substituent effects on the magnetic shieldings of the ring carbons, except for those in the 2-positions of 2-substituted pyridines, were found to be quite similar to the effects reported for the monosubstituted benzenes, Thus, at least to a first approximation, the two classes of compounds have similar shielding mechanisms. Shieldings of the carbon atoms in the 5-positions of 2-substituted pyridines and those in the 6-positions of 3-substituted pyridines were found to reflect electron release or withdrawal by substituent groups, The pyridinium cation and the compounds 2,2'-dipyridyl and benzonitrile were also investigated.

Jan 1, 1969

By A Suokas

Boliden Tara Mines Ltd, located in County Meath Ireland, produce in excess of 2.5 million tonnes per annum of ore from the underground resource located 40 miles north west of Dublin. The zinc-lead ore is mined using long hole open stoping techniques, with ore treated on site. The operation is continually searching for new ways to improve productivities at the mine, and have employed a detailed data acquisition and reporting system on site to provide feedback around performance. One area where both Boliden Tara Mines Ltd and Orica Mining Services believed improvements could be made was in the application of bulk emulsion technology through an Orica supplied but Tara operated Maxipump Delivery System for all production and development blasting at the mine. Both parties committed to the evaluation of this technology at the mine, however the capital cost and technical and economic changes meant the project needed to be diligently investigated and any improvements documented. The first stage of this project was for Orica Mining Services personnel to visit the operation, and conduct a detailed analysis of the operationÆs performance over the past 12 months. The next step in moving forward was then to commission and utilise the customer operated emulsion system at the mine. This was then followed with the collation and analysis of data from the demonstration period to examine and document the benefits of the system. This paper is a summary of the observations made during the site inspection and the data analysed to date, and has been used in determining operational and financial improvements in the comparison between a Maxipump Emulsion Service and the current ANFO loading systems.

Jan 1, 2005

By L. W. Holm

Laboratory flooding experiments on linear flow systerns indicated that high oil displacement, approaching that obtained from completely miscible solvents, can be attained by injecting a small slug of carbon dioxide into a reservoir and driving it with plain or carbonated water. Data are presented in this paper which show the results of laboratory work designed to evaluate this oil recovery process, particularly at reservoir temperatures above 100°F and in the pressure range of 600 to 2,600 psi. Under these conditions CO2 exists as a dense single-phase fluid. It was found that a bank, rich in light hydrocarbons, was formed at the leading edge of the CO? slug during floods on long cores. Formation of this bank is probably due to a selective extraction by the C02 and, it is believed, partially accounts for the attractively high oil recoveries. In crddition to the efficient displacernerlt of oil from the pores of the rock by this process, the favorable rnobility ratio related to a C0 2-water flood also contributes to high oil recovery. A further advantage of this process is noted on limestone and dolomite rock, in that the CO1 reacts with the porous medium increasing its permeability. Flooding experiments were conducted on sandstone and vugular dolomite models. The results of this experimental work show the effect on oil recovery of type of porous medium, pore geometry, flooding length, and flooding pressure. The porosity of the cores and rilodels varied from 16 to 21 per cent and their pern~eabilities ranged from 100 to 200 md. A reconstituted West Texas reservoir oil, a West Texas stock tank oil, an East Texas stock tank oil and Soltrol were used to represent reservoir oils in this study. Oil recoveries ranging from 60 to 80 per cent of the original oil in place in these cores were obtained by CO2,-carbonated water floods at pressures between 900 and 1,800 psi, compared with conventional solution gas drive and water-flood recoveries of 30 to 45 per cent on the same cores. Oil recoveries greater than 80 per cent resulted frorn f1oods at pressures above about 1.800 psi. There high recoveries were noted from both the sandstone and the irregular Porosity carbonate cores. In all floods, additional oil was recovered by a solutiorr gas drive resulting from blowdown following the flood. Oil recoveries of 6 to 15 per cent of the original oil in place were obtained during this blowdown period. This additional recovery was found to be a function of oil remaining after the flood, decreasing with decreasing oil saturation. It was also noted that highest oil recoveries by blowdown were obtained when carborlated water rather than plain water followed the CO, slug. INTRODUCTION Miscible phase or solvent flooding processes, which are designed to increase oil recovery -from petroleum reservoirs, involve the injection of small quantities of a petroleum solvent into the reservoir, followed by an inexpensive scavenging fluid which is miscible with the solvent. Essentially complete displacement of oil from the pores of reservoir rock has been obtained by this technique. CO,, although not completely miscible with most reservoir oils at moderate pressures, is highly soluble in these oils at pressures above about 700 psi; there is appreciable swelling and reduction in the viscosity of oil when CO, is dissolved in it. Therefore, CO, could be expected to perform similarly to other oil solvents as a displacing agent. CO, is also highly soluble in water at elevated pressures, so water should be a satisfactory material to drive a slug of CO, through an oil-bearing reservoir. A favorable mobility ratio would be obtained through the reduction in viscosity of the oil and the use of water as a final displacing agent. A number of investigations of the use of CO, to improve oil recovery have been reported in the literature.2,3,4,5,6 These studies, however, have been conducted on uniform porosity sandstone at relatively low temperatures and pressures. The behavior of CO1 as a flooding agent at temperatures above its critical temperature could not be predicted adequately from these studies, particularly for the case of non-homogeneous rock. The purpose of this work was to evaluate the oil recovery efficiency of a process involving the injection of a CO2 slug followed by carbonated water, at reservoir temperatures above 100°F and in the pressure range of 600 to 2,600 psi, and to compare this process with conventional water flooding. The investigations were primarily designed to provide information on the efficiency of the process in irregular porosity carbonate rock. The effects of flooding path length, the presence of free gas, the type of oil to be recovered, and the amount of solvent required were also determined. The essential results of static phase behavior studies and experimen-

By T. L. Joseph

S. T. Killian (Johnstown, Pa.)—This is one of the finest papers I have read. Tying in stoichiometric calculations with furnace performance and practice is a step which had to be taken sooner or later. The noteworthy difference between Dr. Joseph's type of calculations and regular blast furnace calculations is that the Ib mol system is used as a basis. With the Ib mol system, weights, volumes, and chemical reactions can all be expressed in the same equation. In the paper, wind, ore, flux, and fuel are all expressed as lb or lb mols. Probably Dr. Joseph does not realize it, but the vague word coke appears only twice in the entire paper. Lb of C and Ib mols of C are followed through reactions but the word coke appears only as 1560 lb coke per ton of pig and 1700 lb of coke per ton of iron. Obviously in order to understand furnace reactions, the coke should be expressed as lb or lb mols of C. Furnaces can also be compared more easily. In some respects the paper is too thorough and too complete. The effects of the metalloids reduced into the iron upon the top gases represents a difference of less than 3 pct of the CO formed in the bosh. Due to the completeness of the calculations in relation to the CO/CO2 ratio, this was included and was necessary. However, the exclusion might have enabled more furnace men to follow the lb mol system of calculations through the blast furnace to a better degree. By considering only irons of similar analysis, this part of the calculations might have been omitted. However, if this had been done, total rewriting of the paper later would have been necessary in order to make the work complete as it is now. It also would not have been nearly as authoritative. In the paper, there appears the reaction: H2O + CO ? CO2 + H2 [I] Dr. Joseph states that he did not take this reaction into consideration in any calculations pertaining directly to the paper. The piobable reason- for this is that although it contains all the main reacting top gases except N2, it is rather inflexible since it is monomolecular in relation to each of the reacting gases and does not tie in with the gasification of C. Actually the reactions: H2O + C ? CO + H2 [2] 2H2O + C ? CO2 + H2 [31 and the solution loss reaction: CO2 + c ? 2c0 [41 tend to assume an equilibrium through the reaction: H2O + CO ? CO2 + H2 [I] which should be considered a balancing or equilibrium reaction. Reactions 2, 3 and 4 permit furnace conditions to balance with the CO/CO2 ratio and H2 formation. They tie in with the solution loss. Reaction 1 unites them chemically. Probably the best calculation to make at this time would be to try to find the relative importance of the CO2 from the flux and the H2 in the dilution on an actual furnace gas analysis. For this purpose the Dob-scha-Carnegie-Illinois paper—"Effect of Sized and Sintered Mesabi Iron Ores On Blast Furnace Performance" is chosen. This paper was presented before the blast furnace section of the AIME in 1948. This represents the best large scale furnace operation available to me. Unfortunately the changes were brought about by beneficiation of the burden and not by changes on one burden. In choosing the basis for the calculation in relation to the furnace, 100 mols of dry top sgas is chosen. This leaves something to be desired inasmuch as the nitrogen basis is changing but I believe it will be better understood than any other type and it is the easiest to use.

Jan 1, 1952