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By Harold M. Smith

This report presents a complete qualitative picture of knowledge of the composition of petroleum as of April 1965. The material is presented in detai 1 on two imaginative maps--one, the Hydrocarbon Hemisphere, depicts the hydrocarbons that have been identified in petroleum; the other, the Heterogeneous Hemisphere, shows the sulfur, nitrogen, and oxygen compounds that have been found. All compounds are placed on the maps according to boiling point. The accompanying text illustrates by structural formulas the several types of hydrocarbon and nonhydrocarbon compounds identified, presents some quantitative data, and points out the possible geochemical significance of a number of the compounds. The possibilities of the Petroleum World of the future are discussed as a function of needed research.

May 1, 1965

By Porfirio Pinto Linares

El presente texto señala la paragénesis y mineralización del distrito de Morococha. Dicho distrito está situado al Este de Lima, en el Perú central y sus principales productos minerales son el cobre, zinc, plomo, plata. Su mineralización está relacionada con el intrusivo del mismo nombre, encontrándose el centro más efectivo de la mineralización en el stock San Francisco, mientras que la paragénesis observada en las estructuras estudiadas es compatible con el zoneamiento existente; ya que las primeras capas depositadas son de cuarzo y pirita, siguiendo la esfalerita, enargita, calcopirita, tetrahedrita, esfalerita y galena; rellenando las cavidades se encuentran los carbonatos.

Mar 1, 1965

By Porfirio Pinto Linares

El presente texto señala la paragénesis y zoneamiento en el yacimiento de Morococha. Dicho distrito está ubicado al este de Lima, cuyos principales productos minerales son el zinc, cobre, plata y plomo. Para dicho estudio geológico se empleó los valores de ensayos para el cobre, plata y zinc principalmente; en algunos casos, los valores para el plomo; de las vetas estudiadas. En el estudio de la paragénesis no se ha hecho un estudio completo al microscopio de la secuencia de los minerales de la veta. Se han aprovechado únicamente, las mejores exposiciones en el subsuelo que ofrecen evidencias excelentes para deducir las características principales de la paragénesis.

Mar 1, 1965

By B. H. Clemmons, C. H. Schack

Extractive metallurgy techniques currently employed to recover silver from primary ores and secondary scrap were reviewed and evaluated to identify and delineate metallurgical problems whose resolution would increase the supply of silver from domestic materials. The survey revealed that practically all primary silver is recovered by froth flotation concentration of various types of ores, followed by smelting and refining of the separate lead, copper, and zinc concentrates. Silver losses during the complex processing are, with rare exception, inconsequential. Furthermore, any silver production gain from base metal ores, which contribute about two-thirds of the total primary silver, is directly dependent on improvement in the market for the base metals. Statistical data on new and old silver scrap are wholly inadequate to make reliable conclusions about scrap processing problems and the possibility of increasing the recovery of silver from the many forms of secondary silverbearing materials. The available information indicates (1) that efficient silver reclamation practices are employed by the larger users of silver, and (2) that recovery of additional secondary silver involves solution of problems of collection rather than of processing. Several possibilities exist for limited increases in silver production from primary ores by improvement in metallurgical practices. Specifically, research is needed to (1) solve the problem of recovering silver from the copper ores of the Copper Range district, Michigan; and (2) devise economically feasible methods for recovery of silver from presently marginal or submarginal ores that because of grade, location, and frequently complex nature cannot presently be exploited by conventional techniques.

Mar 1, 1965

By J. Patrick Ryan, Thor H. Kiilsgaard, Charles W. Merrill, E. T. McKnight

The U.S. Treasury stocks of silver have been reduced at such a rapid rate to meet industrial and coinage requirements that they face exhaustion in 3 or 4 years. Alleviation of the silver problem will require increasing supply or reduc ing demand. This paper examines poss ible long-range resource development and research programs and improved secondary recovery. The possible reduction or elimination of silver in coinage and development and introduction of substitutes in the arts and industry are also discussed.

Feb 1, 1965

By C. F. Davan, C. T. Houseman

The news pages of MINING ENGINEERING and other trade publications have for the past two years carried a great many items about new developments in phosphate and potash, reflecting the surge in world consumption of these products as fertilizer. Today the question often arises concerning how much growth can be further anticipated by the phosphate and potash industries. To answer this question, a 15-year projection of world fertilizer consumption in terms of the three basic plant food nutrients-nitrogen, phosphate and potash-has been prepared. Two of these, phosphate and potash, are basic products of the mining industry. Nitrogen, once an important product of mining, is now mainly a chemical product. Another mineral, sulfur, although not a primary nutrient, depends on the fertilizer manufacturing industry for the bulk of its market. In crop year 1962-63, there began a startling in- crease in world fertilizer consumption. In that year, consumption increased by about 10% and in the following year by 10-12%.

Jan 12, 1965

By J. E. House, J. L. Drobnick, R. R. Swanson, D. W. Agers

Since the commercial acceptance of the liquid ion exchange process in the mineral processing industry, it has been predicted that eventually the hydrometallurgist would have a wide selection of commercially available chemical reagents to make separations efficiently and economically of virtually all metals in solution under a wide range of conditions. Several years ago, General Mills began a research and development program to determine if it were possible to develop a reagent to extract a specific metallic ion from solution at a cost that would allow large scale commercial application. A giant step toward reaching this objective was announced in late 1963, when development quantities of LIX®-63 reagent, a highly selective reagent for the extraction of copper, were first offered to industry. The properties of this reagent were de- scribed in a previous paper.1

Jan 12, 1965

By Thomas B. Dellinger

Since 1950, rotary-drilled, large-diameter holes, "big holes", with depths to over 300 ft and diameters of over 30 in., have become numerous and widespread. 50 such holes have been drilled for access shafts to LPG mined caverns. Over 70 holes have been drilled for various other commercial activities. Over 150 holes have been drilled by the AEC for atomic testing purposes. These holes have ranged up to 300-in. diam with 1600-ft depths, 120- in. diam with 570-ft depths, and 72-in. diam with 4800-ft depths. Equipment is now available to drill a wide range of big holes for varied requirements. At least a dozen drilling contractors are participating or have participated in the drilling of big holes. The accompanying tables show pertinent historical, technical and economic data on over 250 holes. The purpose of this paper is to present a review of the big hole drilling equipment available, a compilation of the available data on large-diameter holes, to show the experience obtained to date and to show that big hole drilling is feasible and available to the industry.

Jan 12, 1965

By H. L. Monroe

Meramec Mining Co., owned 50% by St. Joseph Lead Co. and 50% by Bethlehem Steel Corp., is engaged in mining, concentrating and pelletizing iron ore from the Pea Ridge Mine which is located about 75 miles southwest of St. Louis. The Pea Ridge orebody lies under some 1300 ft of limestone, dolomite, shale, and sandstone. It runs from east to west for about 1/2 mile and varies in width up to a maximum of around 600 ft. The orebody dips about 80" S. The ore is high grade magnetite with some local zones of specular hematite. The Precambrian country rock is rhyolite porphyry.

Jan 12, 1965

By S. L. Tainter

This paper describes the nature of engineering and geologic services for the production stage and a review of pit design factors peculiar to the development period. The Mission pit has passed into the mining phase where development is of secondary importance; however: until the pit reaches its final size, development will be a continuing function occurring simultaneously with mining operations. The deposit occurs in an extensive zone of altered sedimentary rocks which have been fractured by three fault systems, flexed or folded, and intruded by monzonite porphyry. The deposit is a low-grade copper sulfide "porphyry" type orebody within a broad zone of pervasive hydrothermal alteration in sedimentary rocks.

Jan 12, 1965

By William Benzon

Bethlehem Steel's Cambria Division coal cleaning and preparation plant, operated by Bethlehem Mines Corp., is located in Cambria County, Pa., about 2 ½ miles southeast of Ebensburg. Here, above ground, is the most modern coal preparation plant in the world. Below the surface is a new coal mine also referred to as "the most modern that could be built today." The preparation plant has a capacity of 1370 tons of clean coal per hr. It serves three Bethlehem mines, Heisley No. 31, Revloc No. 32, and the new Cambria Slope No. 33.

Jan 12, 1965

By R. L. Tobie, H. W. Seaney

Over the years since 1956 when initial experiments were conducted on underground concreting in an attempt to cope with the ground weight and pressure encountered in the development of a large-scale underground block caving system, the use of monolithic concrete linings has grown to include most of the primary development in the mining area. Although the development cost of concrete linings is higher than either timber or steel-supported openings, the repair and maintenance costs are substantially lower, making concrete the most economical means of ground support. Other ad- vantages are also apparent, in that concrete provides superior fireproofing, better ventilation, and a safer, cleaner working place.

Jan 11, 1965

By Arnold E. Lamm

The author addressed a keynote session for all divisions at last October's SME Fall Meeting in Phoenix, Ariz. Discussing the competition from gas, oil, hydroelectric and atomic energy, he said that the market can only be wrested from them "by endeavoring to lower costs far beyond anything we thought possible a few years ago." He saw the rate of return for the industry as "grossly inadequate." Looking ahead, Mr. Lamm saw only a few extremely large generating plants being built. "Purchase of coal for such plants," he said, "will probably be confined to a single source on long-term contracts. Only those coal companies who are able to locate huge reserves, close to adequate cooling water, capable of being mined and transported at the lowest cost in relation to quality, will be able to compete. . . While the market for coal will be very large in terms of tons, it will be most selective and confined to a few transactions of very great magnitude. "Coal offers a proven and tried method of producing energy. The available strippable reserves of Western coal and mineable underground reserves offer the cheapest source of energy available. History will attest that coal has been a steady and stable source of energy. Up until recently, the energy market of the West has had to depend on natural gas which product has had a long and steady price escalation. Statistics show that, where coal is available, the price of gas is quite stable, but where gas is the only available fuel, it has traditionally followed a steady and upward price trend.

Jan 11, 1965

By Ray W. Ballmer, K. H. Matheson

Since start-up in 1906, Bingham had been a rail pit, beginning with steam locomotives and converting to electric locomotives in 1923. Ore production was maintained by effective utilization of avail- able rail equipment. From time to time, as it became necessary to deepen the pit and as stripping ratios increased, studies of alternative material haulage systems such as diesel locomotives, conveyor belts and trucks were made. Conversion from rail haulage with electric locomotives could not, however, be justified. Because of a gradual decline in ore grade, a program was approved in 1963 to raise ore production to 108,000 tpd. The decision posed a serious problem: due to built-in inflexibility and other limitations, a parallel expansion of the rail haulage system was impractical. (Track and trolley wire relocation causes greater shovel downtime than required for normal maintenance; instability of the dumps and the resulting additional track maintenance increases greatly as the daily volume of waste material increases.) Studies indicated that economically the most favorable course of action would be the replacement of rail haulage on the upper levels of the mine by truck haulage.

Jan 11, 1965

By J. C. Donnell, O&apos

Sinking an inclined ventilation shaft at the Never Sweat mine of The Anaconda Co. has required a unique underground hoisting arrangement because the shaft changes direction from vertical to 71.5º. Access to the project is made through the High Ore shaft to the 2800-ft level, then by crosscut to the bottom of the vertical Never Sweat shaft. The 71.5º incline shaft starts at this point, which makes an unusual operation as the 60-cu ft sinking skip coming up the incline changes into a vertical position above the 2800-ft level before going into the dump scrolls. This requires both rollers and guide shoes on the skip. Coming up the incline to the collar of the shaft the loaded skip enters into a guard before reaching the vertical section. The tendency of the surface- mounted Never Sweat hoist is to lift the front wheels of the skip off the track, so the guard keeps the skip on the rails during the transition.

Jan 11, 1965

By Geoffrey Purcell

For anyone contemplating flotation research with only a very limited amount of mineral available for testing, the choice of suitable experimental equipment is by no means obvious. Hallimond's original and delightfully simple cell1 has been modified by subsequent investigators2to give quantitative and reproducible results on small samples. However, the modifications have necessarily compromised its simplicity, and the services of a skilled glass blower are required to duplicate the cell. Vacuum flotation tests3 at best qualitative and may, under certain conditions4, be quite impracticable. A hundred years ago, Thoreau observed that "our life is frittered away by detail," and his advice was to "simplify, simplify," The success of the simple cell described below, which was developed by the author and differs somewhat from Hallimond's original, suggests that Thoreau's advice still has merit a century later. CELL CONSTRUCTION The cell [Fig. 1 (a) and 1 (b)] consists essentially of a 25-ml pipet from which has been cut the con- stricted top. The length cut off is not critical since this merely determines the final volume of the cell. Cell volume may be varied in this way from 20 to 50 cc. A pyrex extension tube, equal in diameter and approximately half the length of the cut pipet, is attached to the top of the pipet by means of 2 ½ in. of close-fitting tygon tubing. When assembled, the two pyrex tubes should be spaced about ½ in. apart. Another length of tygon tubing is added to the extension piece for sealing purposes. A ¾ -in. disc of porous material (teflon cloth is ideal), secured in place over the pipet tip with another piece of shaped tygon tubing, completes the cell assembly. Tygon tubing may be shaped by pushing it over the pipet tip or some similar form and heating carefully over a low flame. For flotation [Fig. 1 (c) 1, the pyrex extension tube is rotated approximately 70º from the vertical and held in position by a wire hook and eye. Floated material, after reaching the free surface, falls and rests on this inclined plane. The barrier formed by the bent tygon tubing ensures that floated material does not slide back and return to the vertical portion of the cell.

Jan 11, 1965

By George W. Lower, Robert B. Booth

The use of cyanides in the extraction of gold and silver is well known1 Such extractions employ concentrations of cyanide in the range of 0.02-0.25% sodium cyanide equivalent in leaching cycles of 24-48 hr and frequently longer. Copper minerals, even though minor components of precious metal ores, dissolve in these cyanide leaching solutions, consume cyanide, cause fouling of mill solutions, and thus interfere with the precipitation and recovery of gold.2,3,4 This paper presents a summary of laboratory investigations on the use of cyanide solutions as extractants for copper from various copper-bearing ore fractions. In view of the metal contents involved, it will be apparent that larger quantities of cyanide are required to extract copper than for the extraction of precious metals. In cyanide solutions of concentrations generally favorable to copper extraction, sulfide and oxide copper minerals were found to dissolve rapidly at room temperature and atmospheric pressure.

Jan 11, 1965

By K. P. Wang, Virgil L. Barr

The U.S. Minerals Attaché Program, similar to the scientific and technical attache programs of other industrialized nations, is designed specifically to keep surveillance on significant worldwide developments in minerals, metals, and fuels. Knowledge of international minerals developments is essential for both domestic planning and conduct of foreign affairs. CONTROLLED BY DEPT. OF STATE Ten minerals specialists-eight minerals attaches and two petroleum attachés-man this far-flung, worldwide program for the U.S. Government as best they can. Minerals attach& also handle oil, in posts lacking petroleum attaché. The legislative authority for the Minerals Attaché Program is the Foreign Service Act of 1946 and succeeding amendments and Presidential Executive Orders. Therefore, this program is controlled by the Department of State. Interior (representing the Bureau of Mines) and State collaborate in policy formation and direction by means of a "memorandum of agreement" which covers establishment of posts, selection of officers, contents of reports, and supplemental training. State also has about half a dozen nonspecialist officers to complement the work of the minerals and petroleum attaché. It is not the intention here to evaluate the administrative arrangements of this program but rather to describe it and to provide examples of the important job it is doing.

Jan 11, 1965

By H. M. Conger

Kaiser Steel Corporation's Eagle Mountain mine is located in the Colorado Desert, 60 miles east of Indio, California. Iron concentrates from the mine are shipped by rail 164 miles to the' Company's steel mill at Fontana, and also to Longbeach, California for export. Temperatures are typical of the lower desert ranging from a high of 120 degrees in the summer to a low of 25 degrees in the winter. The average, annual rainfall of about two inches comes mainly as cloudbursts during the summer months. From its inception, the Eagle Mountain mine has had the problem: of breaking its mine rock. Practices followed from 1949 until 1962 were very costly, did not produce uniformly good fragmentation, and were incapable of sustaining, high production. During this period, every conventional type of explosive was tried and found to be unsatisfactory for one reason or another.

Jan 11, 1965

By John V. Beall

When the mineral seekers came, they brought romance, excitement and, too often, transitory riches. It has been so for uncounted centuries. While the rich ore lasted, living was high and money flowed-mostly out of town. The whole creation was like a circus. The headframe went up like the center pole of the big top. The reduction works was an ingenious affair; an opportunity for self-expression by the mining engineer on the job. When the high grade gave out or the bottom dropped out of the market, the whole show folded. Machinery was scavenged for the next location. About all that was left were the raw footings, like giantsteps on the hillside; and the headframe above the silent diggings. Mostly, the people went away too. Arizona Territory was like that at the turn of the century. It can still happen. But, in copper, the age-old pattern has been disrupted. From Mineral Park in the northwest to Chino in the east and Cananea in the South, a growing number of companies have emerged-large, stable, productive. Southwest copper is truly a mighty industry, accounting for one fifth of world new copper production. In this period of scientific development, changes are fast, often dramatic. But even mining engineers, or possibly more so because they have an intimate knowledge of the industry, fail to appreciate the evolutionary changes that have shaped Southwest copper into what it is today.

Jan 10, 1965