Search Documents

By John V. Beall

W hen the blasts went off on West 11th St., just off 5th Ave. in New York City, James Michaels, editor of Forbes magazine, was in his office a few doors away reviewing color layouts with his production manager. Having once been a reporter, he grabbed his trench coat and dashed for the street to be con- fronted by the demolished townhouse which had been turned into a bomb factory by youths. To Michaels, this shocking episode supplied the exclamation point to thoughts he was formulating that an era had ended and a new one was beginning in the economic and social climate of the U. S. "For twenty years corporate profits, the stock market, middle income pay have gone up and up. . . The illusions of twenty years are in confrontation today with changed needs," he said. "International omnipotence is economically beyond our means, . . The anti-pollution and community renewal people are not nuts in tennis shoes who will go away. . . That corporation presidents can report an increase in earnings every year is an illusion that will be dropped. . . There has been a $200 billion shrink in value of stocks and bonds since Nixon came into office" were some indicators Michaels mentioned.

Jan 1, 1970

By F. C. Appleyard

As one of the more important Industrials Minerals, gypsum occupies a significant place in the economy of the United States, particularly in that segment which can be loosely called the Construction Industry. For many years, products made from gypsum have been a major building material, and the usefulness and versatility of these products is such that their widespread use is expected to continue. In 1968, according to U.S. Bureau of Mines statistics, the value of all gypsum products sold in the United States was 405,000,000 - and although this value has dipped from the 1964 high of $ 432,000,000, it is expected to trend upward in the next few years to equal and surpass this figure as the construction industry recovers from its current squeeze of "tight money" and high interest rates. There are many factors to be measured in determining the potential value of any mineral deposit, and how it might fit within its particular industry. What, then, are the qualities which a gypsum deposit must have in order to profitably participate in the four hundred million dollar plus business which is the gypsum industry? First let's consider the geology of gypsum, the geographic distribution of deposits, and the more important factors such as size, grade, capital requirements, and operating cost. Then, an understanding of the uses of gypsum, various types of products, and location of markets would be helpful, along with such other factors as the structure of the industry, price trends, etc.

Jan 1, 1970

Tin mineralization in both eastern and western Tasmania shows a spatial correlation with middle Palaeozoic biotite granites and adamellites. The range of composition of these granitic rocks is restricted with respect to Mg, K, and Na content. Because this compositional restriction is shown by granitic rocks from other tin provinces, the concept of a genetic relationship between these granites and the associated tin mineralization is reinforced, and similar concentration mechanisms may be involved.Gold mineralization is largely restricted to eastern Tasmania and in contrast to the tin mineralization is rarely spatially associated with the middle Palaeozoic granitic rocks, although most authors have suggested a genetic correlation with hornblende and/or biotite granodiorites.Although few analyses are available, the granodiorites that are spatially associated with gold deposits exhibit similarities to granitic rocks from gold provinces elsewhere. These features suggest a possible genetic relationship between gold mineralization and the granodiorites.The composition of granitic rocks may be used as an aid to exploration in delineating areas of potential tin and gold mineralization in granite terrains.

Jan 1, 1970

By G. C. Nowlan, A. Illis, H. J. Koehler

At its iron ore recovery plant at Copper Cliff, INCO produces about 17 million pounds per year of a pure, acid-soluble, dense nickel oxide from nickeliferous pyrrhotite. The process used is also applicable to a broad range of ammoniacal nickel-bearing streams. The product has been widely accepted by the chemical, ceramic and electronic industries.

Jan 1, 1970

By J. Grumer

The Bureau of Mines, under the sponsorship of the Space Nuclear Propulsion Office, conducted a laboratory-scale hydrogen safety study which determined several combustion characteristics of hydrogen diffusion flames. Experiments show that ambient air may enter the top of a hydrogen flare stack when the hydrogen flow is low. A new concept, supported by photographic evidence, predicts that diffusion flames burning in air on a wide, upright pipe (stack) and fed with slow, upward flows of buoyant gas will induce a downward flow of air along the walls of the pipe that can support combustion within the pipe. Predicted flamedip limits agree roughly with experimental values determined on 6-, 12-, and 18-inch-diameter stacks and increase with increasing stack diameter. Measurements were made of the limiting flow at which a hydrogen diffusion flame blows out in still air. By means of an empirical application of the critical boundary 8 velocity gradient concept, these data lead to a blowout limit of about 10 reciprocal seconds for a hydrogen diffusion flame. Burning rates of large hydrogen diffusion flames ranging from about 0.03 to 1 ft/sec were used to predict approximate flame heights on flare stacks. Temperatures of larger hydrogen diffusion flames up to about 3,600° F were observed, but the most representative value appears to be about 2,600° F. It was found that crosswinds do not strip significant amounts of unburned hydrogen from its diffusion flame and that water-cooled flare stacks are not likely to be damaged when flame is blown back into them by opposing winds.

Jan 1, 1970

By James J. Olson

The Bureau of Mines recorded both particle accelerations and velocities from one-stick and production blasts at Eagle-Picher Industries' Shullsburg mine, Shullsburg, Wis., to test the effectiveness of square root scaling in grouping underground blast vibrations and to determine the effects of rock type and mine geometry on blast vibrations. Although the charge weights of subsequent delay periods sometimes exceeded the charge weight of the zero-delay period, both acceleration and velocity records showed that the zero-delay portion of the Shullsburg production blasts produced the highest vibration amplitudes. Because of the restricted range of charge weights in the Shullsburg experiments, no statistical determination of an appropriate scaling factor could be made. However, the square root scaled peak particle velocity data from the Shullsburg production blasts grouped well within the approximate band-width of vibration data obtained by the Bureau from quarry blasts in many different rock types. This indicates that scaling by some factor, perhaps the square root or cube root of the charge weight, may be an effective way to group and study vibration data from underground blasts. Further research is needed to determine which scaling factor is best for underground blasting.

Jan 1, 1970

"THE PACIFIC CONTINENTAL MARGIN OF CANADA is de-fined, for the purposes of this paper, as the area sea-ward from the present mainland coast of British Columbia to the foot of the continental slope. It thus coincides with A. Sutherland Brown's Insular Tectonic Belt. The region is limited to the north and south by the political boundary with the U.S.A., the location of which is still in dispute.The region can be subdivided into: (1) an interior trough comprising the Queen Char-lotte, Comox and Nanaimo basins; (2) a medial uplift comprising Vancouver Island and the Queen Charlotte Islands; and (3) a marginal shelf which is extremely narrow (Jess than 5 km) west of the Queen Charlotte Islands, widens to 160 km in Queen Charlotte Sound and is about 35 km wide west of Vancouver Island, where it is underlain by the Tofino sedimentary basin, with its• extension, the Juan de Fuca Basin, at the southern end.The medial uplift consists of a highly disturbed anticlinorium of mainly Mesozoic rocks, with a core of Palaeozoic. The rocks include thick sequences of eugeosynclinal volcanics and sediments. There is strati-graphical evidence of repeated interruption in sedi-mentation. By late Jurassic, the main eugeosynclinal phase was over and a successor basin was initiated in the interior' trough. This became filled, during Cre-taceous and Tertiary time, with sediments ranging in environment from bathyal turbidites to terrestrial conglomerates and coals. West of the medial uplift, another successor basin developed in early Tertiary times and became filled with mainly deep-water marine sediments. A third effusive sequence marks the base of the Tertiary on Graham Island and over most of the Hecate Strait region and Tofino Basin."

Jan 1, 1970

By Jean L. Leroy

The Lead Smelting works of Metallurgie Hoboken S.A. are located on the banks of the river Scheldt a few miles South of Antwerp. Lead refining began at Hoboken in 1687, when it was restricted mainly to desilverizing lead bullion from Central America. Since then, various changes have been made to develop the works into a comprehensive and integrated custom smelter and refinery. Multiple hearth roasting furnaces, down-draft sinter machines and blast furnaces of standard design are used for the treatment of "complex" lead ores and secondary materials. A lead refinery based on the Harris process, with Parkes desilverizing followed by vacuum dezincing and Kroll Betterton debismuthizing was commissioned in 1967. Facilities for the recovery of precious metals, bismuth, antimony, arsenic and sulfuric acid are available. Special problems arise from the presence of large quantities of copper in the materials treated.

Jan 1, 1970

Some of the problems associated with drill core evaluation of alluvial tin deposits and correlation with plant-scale recovery are discussed. Panning churn-drill cores on site tends to undervalue such deposits because of failure to recover completely all the available liberated cassiterite, and secondary gravity processing may also fail to give an accurate determination of potentially recoverable tin. However, by using a combination of heavy liquid separations, x-ray fluorescence analysis for Sn, and normal methods of reflected and transmitted polarized light microscopy, a quantitative assessment of alluvial material can be carried- out. The information obtained may include the liberation characteristics and distribution with size of the cassiterite, the nature and quantities of the various gangue minerals, and the amount of potentially recoverable cassiterite in the material as compared with the amount locked with light gangue minerals and hence difficult or impossible to recover. In addition, an analysis of the efficiencies of the various gravity processes, such as panning, jigging, and tabling, used to determine "recoverable tin" in the alluvial material, can be carried out. A detailed example is given of this type of investigation, in which an assessment was made of a churn-drill core from Uncia, Bolivia.

Jan 1, 1970

By Joseph W. Mullan

The today status of air pollution control legislation and regulations can best be described as an exaggerated state of environmental limbo. The '70's began but one and one-half months ago yet it already has been very appropriately named "the decade of the environment." This certainly will be the decade for new legislation - new regulations and hopefully "Clean Air." Already Washington is faced with legislators playing "pollution politics" to the crowds. Students have redirected their efforts from Vietnam to the cleansing of the environment and everyone including the man on the street has become an environ¬mental expert. This is the decade we all face, but where are we today? Pollution is not a new problem. It has been with us for centuries and while much is left to be done, much has already been accomplished. I will try to make some comparisons of what I believe to be the good and bad points in the national air pollution control picture and hopefully will generate within each of you sufficient concern as to which comparisons are sound.

Jan 1, 1970

By G. B. Gait

This report is the third in a series concerning the Bureau of Mines program for microfilming maps of abandoned mines in the Pennsylvania anthracite region; a catalog of the microfilmed maps of mines in the Lackawanna Basin of tile Northern anthracite field is presented. Previous reports IC 8274, published in 1965, and IC 8379, published in 1968, were catalogs of microfilmed maps of mines in the Eastern Middle anthracite field and Wyoming Basin, Northern anthracite field, respectively , Additional catalogs will be published as the microfilming of significant mining areas is completed.

Jan 1, 1970

By M. C. Flemings, R. Mehrabian

In a recent series of papers,1-3 it was shown that a variety of apparently different types of macrosegrega-tion result from the same basic mechanism, the inter-dendritic flow of solute rich liquid to feed solidification and thermal contractions. The important parameter governing sign and extent of segregation was shown to be (v.?T)/ where v is interdendritic flow velocity, ?T is temperature gradient, and E is rate of temperature change. It was proposed in one of the previous papers that the "negative cone of segregation" often found at the base of large ingots results from the large value of (v. VT)/E expected to pertain there. The reason why this parameter is expected to be large in that location is the high flow velocity to be expected there, as discussed earlier,' and as shown schematically in Fig. 1. In this note, two experiments are summarized which are intended as laboratory simulations of the inter-dendritic flow behavior sketched in Fig. 1 and, therefore, of the "negative cone of segregation". Experimental procedures employed are as described in the the earlier work.3 Alloy cast was nominally Al-4.5 pct Cu. Fig. 2 shows one of these ingots, a "prism" ingot, 6 cm high by 12 cm wide by 10 cm long, unidirectionally solidified from a water cooled base. In this ingot, in-terdendritic flow velocity increases near the upper portion of the ingot because of the gradually decreasing ingot cross-section. Calculations were presented earlier of the negative segregation to be expected in this type of ingot,' and results presented in Figs. 2 and 3 agree closely with those of earlier calculations. A more direct (although less easily calculable) simulation of the "negative cone of segregation" is the

Jan 1, 1970

By Marvin P. Barnes

An attempt has been made to compile and code geologic data relating to twenty of the major porphyry copper districts of North America in such a manner as to permit the use of modern electronic digital computers to retrieve, compare, and build statistical mathematical models from the input. In the exploration process as part of his broader efforts to evaluate the potential of some prospective region, district, or ore body, the experienced geologist consciously or subconsciously compares and fits the observed geologic features to similar phenomena associated with known ore bodies with which he is acquainted. Thus an adequate conceptual "model" of the total geologic environment and type of ore body sought is an essential requirement for the successful exploration effort. Numerous such models of porphyry coppers already exist in the minds and notes of many experienced geologists today. These models are, of necessity, couched largely in qualitative terms and though they may be quite definite in the mind of the porphyry copper expert, the total concept of what constitutes a porphyry copper deposit and environment is difficult to convey in very precise terms. There probably is no such thing as a typical porphyry copper deposit. However, it is well understood that most of the deposits that have been studied have many geological characteristics in common. A logical question then might be: What characteristics are most common or how often do they occur in common, and what is their relationship to other common characteristics ?

Jan 1, 1970

By Frank W. Bowdish

Studies of sulfidization and flotation of chrysocolla involving the use of pH and sulfide ion instruments, a Zeta meter, microflotation techniques, and sensitive determinations of adsorbed sulfur have given new insight into the mechanism of the process. Factors that affect the recovery of sulfidized chrysocolla by flotation appear to be the pH at which it is sulfidized, and certain alterations of the surface that occur during aging after sulfidization. Such aging results in increased recoveries. The surface charge, as measured by electrophoretic mobility, of chrysocolla shows an unexpected negative increase as pH values are changed from 6.0 to about 4.5, and this appears to be correlated with increasing sulfur adsorption and flotation recovery over the same or even wider pH ranges.

Jan 1, 1970

By Lewis M. McNay

Description of methods employed and cost data are given for surface-mined land reclamation in Moraine State Park, Butler County, Pa. This project was conducted under the authority of the Appalachian Regional Development Act; a total of 177 acres of land was rehabilitated for specific land use purposes. The use of large equipment expedited the project work, and similar results could be anticipated on similar reclamation programs.

Jan 1, 1970

By George A. Yurko

The Cominco smelter, located at Trail, British Columbia, Canada, produces 180 000 metric tons of lead bullion annually in conventional blast furnaces. The resulting slag from these furnaces, 210 000 metric tons annually, containing 18 per cent zinc and 2.5 per cent lead, is treated directly in the slag fuming plant for the recovery of these metals and other valuable metals present in smaller quantities. Slag fuming is carried out on a 55 metric ton batch process in completely water-jacketed furnaces where the slag is blown with a mixture of powdered coal and air. The coal-to-air ratio is con- trolled to maintain strongly reducing conditions, thus, fuming the metals from the slag. The metal vapours are subsequently re-oxidized with air above the bath. The mixture of oxides is carried from the furnace by the gases through waste heat boilers and cooling flues to a baghouse where they are collected. The slag fuming plant, under normal conditions, will treat 700 metric tons of slag daily. The throughput in the plant is dependent on the fuming rate of zinc, which is a function of the composition of the slag, and on the economics, which dictate the extent to which zinc is fumed from the slag. Zinc and lead collected daily as fume average 113 metric tons and 17 metric tons, respectively, corresponding to recoveries of 89 per cent zinc and 98 per cent lead from the slag. The waste heat boilers produce 61 metric tons steam per hour, which is distributed to other processing plants.

Jan 1, 1970

By G. R. Leverant, C. P. Sullivan

Re crystallized TD-nickel mi-2Th0,) in both coated und uncoated conditions was fatigued at 1800°F at total strain ranges varying .from 0.2 to 0.75 pct. The fatigue life of uncoated inaferal, Nf, was related to the total strain range, ?eT, by (2Nf/021AeT = 0.014. A duplex Al-Cr pack coating increased the fatigue life by about a factor of two. The cracks that led to failure in both coated and uncoated material were initiated at the outer surface, indicating that the mechanical properties of the surface layers were important in determining fatigue life. Crack propagation and subsurface crack initiation in the TD-nickel occurred preferentially at grain boundaries with cavitation at thoria particle-matrix interfaces an integral part of the grain boundary fracture process. The importance of both the grain morphology developed during thermome chanical processing of TD-nickel and the distribution of thoria particle sizes to fatigue resistance are discussed. THE fatigue properties of only a few dispersion-strengthened metals have been studied at temperatures 0.5 Tm;1,2 among these have been lead and aluminum containing oxide dispersions. TD-nickel is a material of interest for application in aircraft gas turbine engines, but little fundamental information is available on its behavior under cyclic loading conditions. In this study, the low-cycle fatigue properties of TD-nickel were determined at 1800°F with emphasis on the 101-lowing; 1) the relation of the grain morphology produced during thermomechanical processing to crack initiation and propagation; 2) the role of thoria parti-cles in the fracture process; and 3) the effect of an oxidation resistant coating on fatigue life. I) MATERIAL AND EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE The TD-nickel was supplied by DuPont as a 5/8-in. thick plate which had been subjected to a proprietary series of thermomechanical treatments with a final anneal at 2000°F for 1 hr in hydrogen. The composition of the material is given in Table I. At the test temperature of 1800°F, the 0.2 pct offset yield stress was 15,000 psi, and the elongation and reduction in area were 4.6 and 3.0 pct, respectively. The microstructure of this material has been previously described.&apos; Briefly, it consists of an array of lath-shaped grains, about 0.15 mm in thickness, with the long dimension of each grain parallel to the primary working direction, Fig. 1(a). The presence of very small annealing twirls, Fig. l(b ), together with the absence of extensive dislocation networks, Fig. L/C), indicated that the material was in the recrystal- Table I. Composition of TD-Nickel ThO2 2.3 vol pct C 0.0073 wt pct lex 0.01 wt pct Cr 0.01 wt pct Cu 0.004 wt pct S 0.001 wt pct Ti <0.001 wt pct Co <0.01 wt pct Ni bal lized condition. Commercial TD-nickel sheet has a similar grain size and shape, but unlike the present material is not recrystallized as evidenced by the absence of annealing twins and the presence of a well-developed dislocation substructure.4 The plate material had Young&apos;s moduli in the rolling direction of 22 x 106 psi and 13 x 106 psi at room temperature and 1800°F, respectively, indicating a texture with a strong {100}<001> component in agreement with previous observations on recrystallized TD-nickel sheet.596 The 2.3 vol pct of thoria particles were uniformly distributed although some clustering and stringering of larger particles was occasionally seen. The average diameter of the particles was 450 and the calculated mean planar center-to-center spacing was 2100Å. Two specimens were coated with a duplex A1-Cr pack coating. The coating was somewhat nonuniform from one position to another along the gage length. An area of the coating after testing is shown in Fig. 2. Electron microprobe analysis revealed the following zones in the various lettered regions indicated in Fig. 2: A) a bcc matrix of B-NiA1 with some chromium in solid solution along with a fine dispersion of a chromium-rich second phase which was probably precipitated during cooling from the test temperature to room temperature; B) fcc y&apos;-Ni,Al with some chromium in solid solution; C) porosity; D) a two-phase mixture of a chromium-rich solid solution containing nickel and aluminum and a small volume fraction of a nickel-rich solid solution having approximately the same composition as the immediately adjacent portion of region E, E) the TD-nickel substrate containing chromium in solid solution to a depth of 5 to 10 mils. As expected from the nature of the diffusion processes involved,7 the thoria particles were present only up to the layer of porosity, region C, Fig. 2. The measured thickness of the coating proper, zones A to D, after testing was 1 to 2 mils. The specimen design and testing techniques have been previously discussed.&apos; Stressing was axial and parallel to the lath-shaped grains (i.e., parallel to the rolling direction). The total strain range was controlled between zero and a maximum tensile strain varying from 0.2 to 0.75 pct. (The test at 0.2 pct total strain range was switched to load control at 1030 cycles at which point the peak tensile and compres-

Jan 1, 1970

By J. C. Williams, M. J. Blackburn

MANY aspects of the formation of the metastable w phase in titanium-transition metal alloys have been described in several recent papers.1-4 These papers have reviewed earlier work on the w phase and have further defined most of the important features related to the formation of this phase, e.g-., its crystal structure, composition, and morphology. There are, however, several important points regarding formation of the w phase in titanium alloys which have been described in less detail. Two of these are the relationship between lattice misfit and w phase morphology and the influence of lattice misfit on the mode of formation of the equilibrium a phase. In this communi- cation we will present transmission electron microscopy results relevant to these two points. The alloys used in this study were prepared by non-consumable electrode arc melting, each 30-g button being remelted a minimum of twelve times. The alloy compositions we have studied are listed in Table I. Thin foils were prepared using standard techniques described elsewhere. Two distinct c&apos; phase morphologies have been reported in earlier papers. The phase is ellipsoidal in the Ti-Mo3 and Ti-Nbl system and cubical in the Ti-V3 system. Results of the present study show that the w phase is also cubical in Ti-Mn, Ti-Fe, and Ti-Cr alloys as illustrated in Fig. l(b) to (d). Fig. l(a) shows the ellipsoidal morphology in Ti-MO3 for comparison purposes. It was suggested in an earlier paper3 that the w phase morphology may be controlled by the lat-

Jan 1, 1970

By D. E. Kirby

The electrochemical reduction of AlC13 was investigated as a process for the production of aluminum. An externally heated, single-compartment cell with a rammed refractory lining was used with molten KCl-NaCl-AlC13 electrolyte. Aluminum was deposited qt 700° to 760° C with a current of 100 to 200 amperes on a molten aluminum cathode. Chlorine was evolved at a graphite anode and collected and measured to provide a quantitative evaluation of the AlC13 reduction. Aluminum was removed from the cell by siphoning or ladling. Granular AlC13 was added periodically to replenish that depleted from the electrolyte. Concentrations of 7.5 to 17.5 percent AlC13 in the electrolyte were optimum for operation. Anode current efficiencies of 83 to 85 percent were attained, using anode current densities of 5.9 amperes per square inch and an anode-cathode distance of 4 inches. The chemically bonded, alumina liner was resistant to attack by aluminum and chlorine but susceptible to erosion at the surface of the electrolyte. Titanium diboride proved suitable for the electrical connection to the molten aluminum cathode. Aluminum of a purity equal to or better than 1100 series metal was electrowon continuously from commercial AlC13 for a period of 4-1/2 months.

Jan 1, 1970

By L. C. Noakes

In 1947, only a year after its own establishment, the Australian Bureau of Mineral Resources, Geology and Geophysics formed a Mineral Economics Section. Originally, this Section consisted of a mineral economist, four geologists and three auxiliary employees. Then, in 1954, it was reorganized into a professional body of six members, all mineral economists, one of whom was the chief mineral economist. At this time, a mining statistical officer from the Bureau of Census and Statistics was attached to the Section to bring about a closer liaison between these two agencies. The addition of another mineral economist in 1961 brought the Section&apos;s professional staff to its present strength of seven. In recent years, the Mineral Economics Section has gained considerable support by becoming part of the Mineral Resources Branch of the Bureau of Mineral Resources. This Branch, which has the general role of monitoring the performance of the mineral industry in Australia, has two other specialized sections- Mining Engineering and Petroleum Technology-which bolster and complement the Mineral Economics Section.

Jan 1, 1970