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"Acta Metallurgica" Robert Madden, Dec '60 Alfred Noble Joint Prize Committee F B Foley, Dec '61 American Association for the Advancement of Science William L Fink, Dec '60, H K Ihrig, Dec '61 American Geological Institute F C Kruger, Oct '60, Thomas L Kesler, Oct '61 American Power Conference Howard A Herder

Jan 1, 1960

By J. Olaf Sund

"The New Brunswick gypsum and an-hydrite deposits make up part of the Windsor group in the Upper Mississippian. The present deposits were formed by surface hydration of the underlying anhydrite beds. The sub-hydrate, hydrate, and di-hydrate stages of gypsum are formed from the anhydrite by this hydration. The anhydrite was precipitated from sea water in embayments that were separated from the sea by a reef or bay-mouth bar. The anhydrite is the original form of the calcium sulphate precipitate.One gypsum deposit near Plaster Rock in northern New Brunswick was precipitated from sea water directly as gypsum, which is its present form."

Jan 1, 1960

By Robert T. MacMillan

Of all the mineral substances utilized by man, salt or sodium chloride has one of the longest and most varied histories. Because all animal life is descended from marine organisms, sodium and chlorine became necessary to life, and as sodium chloride meets requirements most readily, common salt has been essential to human and animal diets from earliest times. As civilization progressed, man learned to evaporate sea water and brines of saline lakes and springs to obtain salt, and gradually ceased to depend on the flesh of animals and the occasional salt outcrops or "salt licks" they frequented. He also learned that salt had a multitude of uses, particularly as a preservative of meat and other foods. The importance of salt in the minds of early men may be readily seen from many allusions in the Bible and other ancient writings. Expressions such as "not worth his salt," and "the salt of the earth" are deeply embedded in the English language. Salt has symbolized friendship, fidelity, purity, and hospitality. It has been used as currency; had religious significance; caused wars; and has been a favorite commodity for taxation. The English word "salary" stems from the Latin word for salt, in which Roman soldiers received part of their pay. Although salt today retains its dietary importance, it has thousands of other uses. Of each 100 pounds produced in the United States less than three pounds is for table use. The other 97 pounds goes for agricultural, industrial, and chemical uses. Fortunately, reserves of salt are enormous and reasonably well distributed on the face of the earth. The sea is an inexhaustible source of salt which may be had at prices which vary with climate and other factors. In addition, large underground salt deposits and many salt lakes, springs and playas are scattered throughout the world. Most countries have access to a salt supply, although some are more favored than others. Properties Crystallized sodium chloride or common salt is known as halite. Its molecular weight is 58.454 and it contains, by weight, 39.34 pct sodium and 60.66 pct chlorine. Alternate positions in the cubic lattice are occupied, respectively, by negative chloride and positive sodium ions; the crystal form is isometric. Crystallization from water produces concentric shells, and when broken, a crystal shows conchoidal fracture. Salt has a hardness of 2.5; its specific gravity ranges from 2.1 to 2.6 for rock salt and is 2.165 for the pure crystal. The refractive index is 1.554; it melts at 800.8 ± 0.5°C and boils at 1413°C. Its heat of fusion is 123.59 cal/ gram. Salt is transparent or translucent and highly diathermous. It is colorless when pure and has a vitreous luster. Salt containing traces of iron oxides has varying shades of yellow, orange, brown, pink, or red. The peculiar shade of red sometimes found in that produced by solar evaporation of sea water has been attributed to tiny organisms. Blue mottlings sometimes seen in halite crystals have been attributed to colloidal sodium. Salt is soluble in water to the extent of 35.7 parts per 100 parts of water at 0°C and 39.8 parts per 100 of water at 100°C. The small difference in solubility with increasing temperature is important in the economics of producing salt by evaporating brine. Salt has a negative heat of solution which is 1.281 kg-cal/ mole at 18°C in 200 moles of water.

Jan 1, 1960

By N. Campbell, W. T. Orvine

The metalliferous deposits of British Columbia are largely confined to that portion of the Cordilleran province lying west of the Rocky Mountain trench. Massive sulphides in the coastal area carry important copper •values together with lead and zinc and are composed mainly of pyrite which replaces schists or shear zones. The massive sulphide ore of the interior, on the other hand, contains lead and zinc with little copper. Pyrrhotite rather than pyrite is... the dominant metallic and deposition took place through selective replacement of sedimentary beds.

Jan 1, 1960

By I. Spector

A SHORTAGE of cement in the Prairie Provinces, together with an aggressive policy on the part of the Saskatchewan Government in bringing new industries to the province, combined to create a favourable set of conditions for the establishment of Saskatchewan's first cement plant on the outskirts of Regina. Built by Saskatchewan Cement Corporation Limited, this single-kiln plant, tl1e latest addition to cement producers on the Prairies, began operations in the Fall of 1956. Location of the plant followed the trend of building cement manufacturing facilities in market areas rather than at raw material sources. In 1957, all assets of the Corporation were taken over by Inland Cement Company Limited and the plant and quarry now operate as Saskatchewan Cement Company, an Inland division. The Regina plant's production makes up approximately eleven per cent of the productive capacity of all plants in the Prairie Provinces. At present, two types of cement are manufactured -normal portland and sulphate resisting.

Jan 1, 1960

By R. R. Nash, W. F. Sheely, E. D. Levine

ThiS note reports on the variation with temperature of critical stress for basal slip of binary solid-solution single crystals of indium and of thorium in magnesium. PROCEDURE Alloy single crystal spheres were acid machined to 3/8-in. diam cylinders with the basal planes of the crystals normal to the cylinder axis and then annealed at 810°K. Stress was applied parallel to the slip system, (0001) [1120]. Experimental details will be presented in another paper.' Two nearly equivalent' techniques of stressing were used. Stress on the magnesium-indium alloy crystals was increased by 1 g per sq mm at 1-min intervals, and the critical flow stress was defined as the lowest stress to pro-

Jan 1, 1960

By A. Kelly, S. Sato

Tensile tests have been performed on aluminum single crystals of 99.99 pct purity at 196°K. The resolved shear stress when the stress-strain curve becomes concave to the strain axis depends on orientation, being always higher for crystals with an initial orientation close to the sides of the unit triangle. Observations have been made, with the optical microscope, of the appearance of slip lines on polished surfaces of the crystals. Particular attention has been paid to the first appearance of cross-slip. It is confirmed that marked cross-slip is first seen when the stress-strain curve becomes concave to the strain axis. Measurements are reported of the lengths of the slip lines observed on top and side faces of the crystals at various stages of the deformation. The lengths of the slip lines vary inversely as the flow stress for all crystals, independent of crystal orientation. From measurements of the lengths and separations of the slip traces it is possible to estimate the number of dislocations which are annihilated at each cross-slip site. It is concluded that the annihilation of screw dislocations of opposite sign is the most important cross-slip process occurring. FRIEDEL1 recently pointed out that the stress-strain curve of many pure metals of face-centered-cubic structure can be considered as composed of three stages. Plastic flow commences with a region showing a small rate of hardening which is approximately linear. This has been called "easy glide*. It is followed by a region of more rapid hardening in which the slope of the curve is again approximately constant and this, in turn, is superseded by a final part of the curve which is concave to the strain axis. Following Diehl2 we may designate these regions as stages I, II, and III respectively. The onset of stage 111 occurs at lower stresses at higher temperatures. The appearance of the slip lines formed during these various stages has been described by a number of workers?-5* The object of the present work was to make detailed observations of the lengths and separations of slip lines for a number of crystals of different orientations deformed at the same temperature and strain rate. Although much previous work has been published on the deformation of aluminum single crystals the importance of measurements of these quantities has only recently been realized—they are essential for experimental tests of recent theories of work hardening.' 9 In aluminum, deformed at room temperature, stage 11 of the stress-strain curve is very weakly marked, as the stress for the onset of stage 111 is attained soon after the end of easy glide. In the present experiments it was decided to use a temperature lower than room temperature so that stage II of the curve was better developed. However, at temperatures as low as 90°K slip lines are not measured easily with the optical microscope.5 For this reason 1960k was chosen as a suitable temperature. Even at 1960k however, stage III of the curve commences at glide strains of 6 to 10 pct and hence

Jan 1, 1960

By E. M. MacKevett

The only source of uranium ore in Alaska that has been mined commercially is the Ross-Adams deposit, a gently inclined, fusiform orebody in alkali granite in which uranothorite and uranoan thoria-nit? ale the chief ore minerals. In mode of occurrence, apparent genetic association with the granite, and to a lesser extent in mineralogy, this type of deposit is uncommon. The mine is in the southern part of Prince of Wales Island (Fig. 1) at an altitude of about 950 ft on the southeast flank of Bokan Mountain. A steep unpaved road 1 3/4 miles long leads to the dock on the West Arm of Kendrick Bay, which can be reached by boat or seaplane from Ketchikan, some 35 miles to the northeast. The southern section of Prince of Wales Island is covered by dense forests interspersed with swampy tracts of muskeg. Most of the higher peaks support only sparse vegetation, and in areas underlain by alkali granite bare rocky slopes prevail to as low as 800 ft. Numerous fiord-like embayments penetrate this part of the island, and their shorelines provide near-continuous rock exposures. Rainfall is heavy, about 150 in. annually. Throughout the year the climate is relatively mild. History and Production: In May 1955 two members of a Ketchikan prospecting group, Don Ross and his wife, found the deposit while working with an airborne geiger counter. Later they confirmed their discovery by ground investigations. During the summer Climax Molybdenum acquired controlling interest in the property and started exploratory diamond drilling, resuming the drilling on a larger scale in the summer and fall of 1956. Climax began mining in July 1957, shipping the ore by barge and train to the Dawn Mining Co. mill at Ford, Wash. The open pit workings, about 370 ft long, between 25 and 75 ft wide. and 25 ft deep (shown in Fig. 2) were shut down in October 1957. As of September 1958 the pit was still inactive, although a small tonnage of known reserves remains in the southern part. The operators believe the 15,000 tons of uranium ore already produced will average 0.80 pct. GEOLOGY The Ross-Adams mine is within a small stock or boss of alkali granite, about 1000 ft from the southeast margin of the granite (Fig. 3). The area around the boss is underlain chiefly by plutonic rocks of intermediate composition and by metamorphosed sedimentary and volcanic rocks. The oldest rocks in the area probably are the metamorphosed volcanic rocks that are well exposed adjacent to the South Arm of Moira Sound. They are considered by Buddington and Chapin1 to be of Devonian age. These light gray to dark gray rocks mainly represent a layered volcanic sequence. They are commonly porphyritic with plagioclase pheno-crysts in an altered, fine-grained groundmass. The

Jan 1, 1960

By R. P. Thomas

Secondary fertilizer minerals are the mineral materials used to supply directly and indirectly the secondary and trace plant food nutrient needs of a fertilizer. Since few soils contain sufficient availability of all plant nutrients for their proper growth, man has prepared mixtures of plant food materials to correct these nutrient deficiencies. These mixtures or fertilizers, when added correctly to a soil, make it possible for abundant and economic crop growth. Many kinds of materials are used as sources of these needed nutrients. They come from natural and synthetic materials and minerals including many beneficiated byproduct compounds. A fertilizer consists largely of carriers of one or more of the three major plant foods, namely nitrogen (N), phosphorus-phosphorus pentoxide (P2O5) and potassium-potash (K2O). Many other nutrients are just as essential for plant growth as the three major plant foods. In fact, the efficient use of fertilizers today depends upon an adequate supply of all these other nutrients. Since these additional materials are usually removed from the soil by plants and supplied in fertilizer in less quantities than the major nutrients, they are called secondary and minor nutrients. In the early days these special nutrients were contained as impurities in the primary nutrient carriers. Today, fertilizers are made primarily from concentrated and synthetic materials which carry very few of these other essential nutrients. Consequently, many secondary and trace nutrient carriers, as salts, byproduct compounds and even minerals have to be added to fertilizers. Secondary Nutrient Carriers The secondary plant foods in fertilizer are next to the major nutrients in abundance. They are calcium, magnesium, sulfur, chlorine, silicon and sodium. Although many of these elements are added to a fertilizer as part of the major nutrient carriers, they are also added in special carriers. The large tonnage of these secondary nutrient carriers used in fertilizers represents only a small percentage of the total production of these materials. A fertilizer producer thinks in terms of materials which supply nutrients instead of minerals. Therefore, these materials will be discussed by elements. CALCIUM Soils need calcium to supply the nutrient needs of plants and maintain the desired physical and biological conditions in the soil. The available calcium is usually 40 to 80 pct of the exchangeable bases. (These bases are ones which can be displaced by other cations and determined quantitatively. They are then expressed as milliequivalents per hundred grams of soil-me.) Direct applications of lime materials such as burnt, ground or hydrated limes are the important sources of calcium for the soil. Most crops, especially legumes, have a high requirement for calcium. The average farmer does not use enough lime to maintain the proper level of available calcium. Hence, it is necessary for many fertilizers to contain soluble calcium materials for efficient use of the major nutrients. The following major nutrient carriers supply some calcium: calcium nitrate, ammonium nitrate mixtures and cyanamid, and many of the phosphates. Both synthetic and natural gypsum are used in fertilizer production. Some crops such as peanuts require a large amount of soluble calcium. Gypsum is the important supplier of this soluble calcium. It is not applied with the fertilizer

Jan 1, 1960

By C. M. Keenan

During the 7-1/2 years (January 1945-June 1952), immediately preceding enactment of the Federal Coal Mine Safety Act, 26 major disasters3/ in the coal mines of the United States caused the deaths of 491 persons. In the next 7-1/2 years under the act (July 1952-December 1959), only 12 major disasters occurred. The total killed was 148. This improvement is commendable. However, the continuing frequency of minor fires and gas and/or dust ignitions in the Nation's coal mines, many of which could have been of major consequence, are cause for serious concern to the coal-mining industry and those affiliated agencies engaged in promoting safety in the industry. The data presented in this report have been prepared to make available to the coal-mining industry and related groups an overall perspective of the disaster potential from mine fires and gas and/or dust ignitions in coal mines after 7-1/2 years under the Federal Coal Mine Safety Act. This act, effective July 16, 1952, which amended the original Federal coal-mine investigative act of May 1941, provides under Title II certain enforcible mine-safety provisions designed to prevent major disasters caused by explosions, fires, inundations, and man-trip and man-hoist accidents in coal mines that employ 15 or more individuals underground.

Jan 1, 1960

By C. J. Walker

The ever-increasing use off natural underground formations for storing natural gas has focused attention on the behavior of such storage formations under varying operating conditions. The need for a means of evaluating in¬dividual wells and groups of wells has become manifest. It is essential that industry and others be able to determine the rates of flow that can be ex¬pected from a given well or group of wells under different conditions and to ascertain whether certain wells are deteriorating. Such questions need more exact answers now than ever before because of the vital role underground gas storage plays in the industrial and domestic consumption of natural gas. The Bureau of Mines--in cooperation with the American Gas Association--has main¬tained an active interest in gas-well testing because of the implications of such test procedures on the consumption and efficient production of natural gas. A basis for testing gas wells was provided by the back-pressure method of Rawlins and Schellhardt (12).4/ They showed that for normal gas wells there is a consistent relationship between rates of delivery of gas and corresponding pressures when the formation pressures are used as the basis of interpretation, The equation for this relationship is as follows: Q = C (Pf2 - Ps2)n where; Q = rate of flow, generally expressed in cubic feet per 24 hours. C = a coefficient.

Jan 1, 1960

By D. W. Levinson, L. E. Tanner

DURING the course of an investigation of the zirconium-iron-tin system the zirconium-iron system was reexamined up to 55 pct* Fe. The alloys pre- visible melting3 and X-ray diffraction studies were made of samples of the alloys. The ferromagnetic properties of ZrFe2were determined by Professor P. W. Selwood* using a modified Faraday balance.4 The zirconium-rich portion of the phase diagram is presented in Fig. 1 and compared with the work of Hayes et al.1 The maximum solubility of iron in ß is somewhat decreased while the eutectic temperature is raised. There seemed to be no change in the eutectic composition of 16 pct Fe. Since the base material was so low in iron content, it was possible to establish the maximum solubility in a between 0.017 and 0.025 pct Fe at the eutectoid temperature. The observation of fine ZrFe, particles in the micro structure of a specimen of 0.012 pct Fe alloy quenched from 700°C indicated that the solubility drops below this composition at 700° C and lower. Further study was made of the intermediate phase ZrFe2. wallbaum5 identified the compound initially as ZrFe2 with a C 15 (MgCu2) structure, placing it at 55 pct Fe stoichiometrically. Hayes et al.1 believed they found the phase at about 47.2 pct Fe and called it Zr2Fe3 but reverted to ZrFe, in the discussion of their paper.6 Jordan and Duwez7 confirmed Wallbaum's work as well as finding the same single-phase structure to about 62.3 pct Fe or Zr0-61 Fe2-18. In order to establish the ternary phase relations in the zirconium-iron-tin systema the exact position of this phase had to be known. This was accomplished by X-ray diffraction, visible melting, and metallographic techniques. Elliott8 obtained a single-phase ZrFe2 X-ray diffraction pattern from an alloy of about 55 pct Fe. This was confirmed in the present study with an alloy of 54.81 pct Fe. However, extra lines (attributable to a or ß zirconium) were found in diffraction patterns of the 47.42 and 49.83 pct Fe alloys. The melting characteristics of these same alloys were studied by suspending 47.42, 49.83, and 54.81 pct

Jan 1, 1960

By C. W. Merrill

The price records of seven representative mineral commodities for the 68-year period 1890 through 1957 have been compiled and analyzed for significant trends. When these records are reduced to real prices in terms of dollars of constant purchasing power or to the purchasing power of industrial wages at average rates, a substantial overall fall in prices is revealed. This downtrend contradicts the widely held concept that heavy drafts on a mineral resource must lead to scarcity, reflected in rising prices. Three metals (aluminum, copper, and pig iron), two fuels (bituminous coal and petroleum), and two nonmetals (sulfur and cement) have been chosen because of their pre-eminence in their respective categories, their significance in an industrial economy, and the ready availability of their price records. It might be added that these seven commodities were selected before any price figures were compiled; none was selected or rejected to substantiate any preconceived notions as to price trends. The overall importance of the seven is demonstrated by the fact that, taken together, they composed over three-fourths of the value of all minerals produced in the U. S. in 1957. The first step in the analysis was to reduce the price records to a basis for significant comparisons. Two such comparisons have been made: 1) The quantities of each of the commodities that could have been purchased for an average hour's wage in each year, and 2) the unit price of each commodity through the years in terms of deflated dollars. These data are set forth in the accompanying table and two charts. The quantities of the mineral commodity purchasable with the average wage for one hour's work in all manufacturing industries through 1926 were based on annual average prices and on average annual wage rates determined by Paul H. Douglas and published in his "Real Wages in the United States, 1890-1926." The series was extended through 1957 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U. S. Department of Labor. Calculations based on these data show that the average worker could have purchased 1.28 lb of copper with his hourly wage in 1890, whereas his hourly wage would have purchased 8.11 lb in 1957, an increase of 633 pct in the 68-year period. An average hour's wage would have bought 10.85 gal of petroleum in 1890, compared with 33.04 gal in 1957. Even more spectacular is the increase in sulfur, of which 25.25 lb could have been purchased with the 1904 average hourly wage; 223.08 lb were purchasable with the wage in 1957—an increase of 883 pct. Comparable price data for sulfur are not available for years earlier than 1904. For every commodity, the calculations show an improvement in the wage earner's purchasing power in 1957 compared with the early years. Measuring purchasing power in terms of wages does not give an entirely fair picture of the availability of a commodity in an economy. When the efficiency of an economy changes and the balance shifts among such elements as raw-material production, manufacturing, and service trade, the economic significance of an hour's work changes. Partly to meet such criticism, but mostly to present another interesting measure of the response of minerals to changing market conditions, a second set of calculations has been made to deflate unit prices for the seven commodities into terms of 1954 dollars. To accomplish this adjustment to a common 1954 parity, the Gross National Product Price Deflator, developed by the Office of Business Economics, U. S. Department of Commerce, was used. Although the results of these calculations are not as striking as those based on labor's increasing purchasing power, nevertheless the declines outweigh the rises in the prices of the mineral commodities. In terms of these deflated prices, aluminum and sulfur are much cheaper today than in the early years; copper was substantially cheaper in 1957 than in 1890; pig iron and petroleum are little changed; and only bituminous coal and cement have increased substantially. Strangely, the two mineral commodities with the strongest reserve positions are the two to exhibit rising real prices. Now this apparent overall downtrend in prices has taken place during a period of almost fantastic increase in the demand for mineral products. The value of minerals consumed in the world during the period greatly exceeds all mineral consumption up to 1890. A stage has been reached in the U.S. in which 95 pct of the energy used is of mineral origin and in which machines, structures, roadways, communication facilities, and most other elements in the industrial economy are primarily of mineral origin. Even agricultural fertility is maintained, in large measure, by mineral fertilizers. A series published in Minerals Yearbook shows that the value of U. S. mineral products has risen from $615 million in 1890 to $18,000 million in 1957, a 29-fold increase. Even in deflated dollars, the increase has been eightfold, while population has expanded less than threefold. Not only are demands of the industrial nations— the U. S., countries of Western Europe, and Japan— increasing at rapid rates, but those countries with agrarian economies are calling themselves underdeveloped and clamoring to industrialize. The ever-expanding mineral requirements in the U. S. and throughout the world show no abatement. Mineral reserves frequently have been described as wasting assets. Much concern has been shown for future users, who have been pictured as finding themselves on a plundered planet. Conservationists have viewed the future with alarm and have demanded legislation and regulations to reduce the drain on mineral reserves.

Jan 1, 1960

By L. G. Carpenter, D. E. Garrett

Probably the largest single tungsten deposit in the U. S. is one that has yet to produce any tungsten; it is not even listed in tables showing U. S. reserves. This deposit is at Searles Lake, Calif., where the brine contains about 70 ppm WO,. Small though the concentration is, the amount of brine in the lake is so great that it is estimated at 170 million lb of WO3 (8.5 million units), equaling the total of all other known reserves in the U. S. This dry lake is located in the basin formed by the Argus and Slate ranges in the northeastern corner of the Mojave Desert (Fig. 1). It consists of a massive salt body some 35 sq miles in extent, varying in thickness from 0 to 120 ft and containing more than 3 billion tons of salt. A central section of about 8 sq miles is exposed salt; the remaining area is overlain by mud. Except for the exposed sodium chloride (10 to 15 ft thick) the body consists of a very complex and heterogenous mixture of soluble crystals, containing at least eight major phases. It is only about 53 pct solid, the voids being occupied by a dense brine which is the raw material for two chemical companies operating in the valley. The deposit is believed to be made up of salts present in the runoff waters from the last two ice stages. Searles Lakes was the third in a chain of five lakes that received waters from the Owens Valley drainage of the Sierra Nevada Mts. After leaving Owens Lake the waters could flood in succession into the Indian Wells, Searles, Panamint, and Death valleys (Fig. 2). During the first two ice stages of the Pleistocene Epoch most of the waters eventually arrived at Death Valley; consequently the lower 3300 ft of Searles Valley contain only mud

Jan 1, 1960

By W. W. Cummings

The Mineral King Mine, owned and operated by Sheep Creek Mines is located in the Purcell mountain range of southeastern British Columbia. Production of lead and zinc concentrates commenced in 1954 some 60 years after the initial discovery. Low cost mining methods have been employed to extract 16,0C'O tons of ore monthly from large ore bodies formed by replacement in limestone. Extensive areas in the limestone are yet to be explored and success in the search for new ore bodies is anticipated.

Jan 1, 1960

By J. S. Berber

Bastnasite is a natural fluocarbonate of the cerium group and affords an abundant and high-grade source of the lighter rare-earth elements. As part of a broad research program in rare-earth element technology, the Federal Bureau of Mines directed extensive experimental work to separating and purifying the rare-earth elements in bastnasite. By the use of a combination of techniques--classical chemical, ion exchange, and solvent extraction--the processing of a bastnasite concentrate to obtain the individual rare-earth elements, or groups of elements, was accomplished. A bastnasite concentrate, containing about 60 percent rare-earth oxides, was sulfated with concentrated sulfuric acid to eliminate the carbon dioxide, fluorine, and silica. Calcination at 1,200° F. made the gangue matter insoluble, thus permitting the separation of the soluble rare-earth sulfates. Essentially 100 percent of the rare-earth elements were recovered by this procedure. Since the rare-earth sulfate solution contained only trace amounts of nonrare-earth elements, subsequent separation procedures were simplified.

Jan 1, 1960

By D. W. Frommer

Mineral dressing research was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Mines under a cooperative agreement with the St. Joseph Lead Co., on three samples of iron ore from the Pea Ridge deposit in central Missouri. The objective was to provide information on how to upgrade these submarginal ores and produce marketable concentrates. Samples were prepared from drill-hole cores of similar composition and character to produce (1) a medium-grade mixed hematite and magnetite, (2) a high-grade mixed hematite and magnetite, and (3) a high-grade magnetite. In all three ores phosphorus and sulfur constituted objectionable impurities; excessive amounts of silica were also present in the medium-grade ore.

Jan 1, 1960

By Robert Stefanko

The most perplexing problem that has confronted mining engineers since the dawn of mining has been strata control. For the purposes of this paper, strata control will be defined as control of ground in the immediate area surrounding the, mine opening. To prevent movement of the surrounding strata into underground mine openings, miners have traditionally relied upon some type of artificial supports placed within the openings and located in a manner determined by trial and error from previous experience. Without the means to measure changes of stress in the supports and within the mine structure itself, an evaluation of the efficiency of the supports and mining system was impossible. Strata control thus remained an art with very little application of science. During recent years a revolution has occurred in mining. The modern mining engineer is contented no longer-with trial and error methods but is utilizing all the technological information at his command to obtain a solution to this age old problem. However, serious problems have arisen due to the lack of certain basic knowledge in three important areas: 1, The original stress distribution within the earth strata prior to mining. 2, Redistribution and concentration of the original stresses with mining activity. 3. The properties of rock that are significant in failure and its prevention.

Jan 1, 1960

By D. Walton, B. Chalmers

A preferred orientation is known to occur frequently in the columnar zone of castings. This has been attributed to a preferred direction of growth. However, no satisfactory mechanism was proposed by which the preferred direction of growth led to the preferred orientation. The purpose of this work has been to establish this mechanism. It has been found that in general the observed preferred orientations only develop when the preferred directions of growth reveal themselves by dendritic growth. A mechanism based on this premise is found to be in agreement with the experimental data obtained in the course of this work. WHEN a liquid metal is allowed to solidify in a mold, it usually freezes in three stages, distinguished from each other by the size and shape of the grains. The first zone to freeze (the chill zone near the mold wall) consists of relatively fine grains that are equiaxed in shape and random in orientation. The next zone consists of crystals that are elongated in the direction of heat flow, i.e., normal to mold wall. These crystals are much larger in cross section than the crystals of the chill zone and have a very strongly preferred orientation. This is the columnar zone. The final zone, which is absent in very pure metals, is again equiaxed and randomly oriented, but usually has a much coarser grain size than the chill zone. The purpose of this study is to describe and account for the crystal size and orientation in the columnar zone. The occurrence of a preferred orientation in the columnar zone is well known, and in 1940, Greninger' suggested that it is apparently related to dendritic growth although at that time the only data were for metals with the face-centered-cubic structure. Table I shows that the direction of dendritic growth and the crystal axis that follows the heat flow direction coincide in all cases so far studied. The term "dendritic growth" is used here to represent the branched type of morphology that is characteristic of growth into supercooled melts.' In addition to the supercooling which is necessary before nucleation will occur at the mold wall, the necessary supercooling for continued dendritic growth can be provided in a mold by heat flow into the already formed solid at an interface whose Liquidus temperature is depressed by an accumula-

Jan 1, 1960

By Donald E. Garrett

The processing of brines from Searles Lake, California, yields one of the world's largest supplies of borax and boron chemicals, second probably only to the massive deposit at Boron, California. Two companies produce from this deposit, the American Potash & Chemical Corp. and the West End Chemical Co., a division of the Stauffer Chemical Co. Two processes are employed in recovering borax from the brines; one is used by both companies and consists of carbonating the brine to form sodium bicarbonate, removing this, and then cooling the liquor to crystallize a crop of borax. Only American Potash uses the second process, evaporating the brine to concentrate it and remove (crystallize) much of its NaCl, Na2CO3, Na2SO4, and NaLi2PO4 content, quick cooling the remaining liquor to remove KCI, and then seeding the filtrate to remove borax. Both methods will be briefly described. Searles Lake is a large evaporite body formed during the most recent two Sierra Nevada ice stages, the Tahoe and the Tioga. Runoff waters from the Sierra Nevada Mountains collected in the large Owens Valley drainage basin and from there overflowed into the Indian Wells basin and then into Searles Lake. In each Lake, evaporation took place. To a large extent the Owens and Indian Wells lakes acted as settling basins, for much of the mud, and insoluble calcium and magnesium precipitates were deposited there. Recent volcanic activity in the mountains to the north and east of Owens Lake had scattered considerable mineral-rich volcanic ash and debris throughout the drainage area, and several hot springs were formed that contained boron and other salts. The present flow rate and concentration of several springs, and the known age of at least the Tioga zone, can fairly well account for all of the boron present in Owens and Searles Lakes.1 The tungsten content can be accounted for in a similar manner.2 Most of the salts thus originally present in the fresh water runoff-from ice, snow, and rain-accompanying these two ice stages were ultimately deposited in Searles Lake. During the Tahoe period, from 25 to 40 ft of massive, mixed salts were deposited, along with six interspersed layers of mud (four inches to two feet thick) representing comparatively brief interglacial periods. Before the final desiccation of the lake, from 10 to 14 ft of new mud was deposited, representing the Tioga stage. The crystals subsequently deposited were from 70 to 90 ft thick, and form the present lake surface. The extent of the salt body is about 34 square miles, of which 12 square miles are exposed salt; the remaining area is covered by recent alluvial deposits (chiefly mud). The present lake is generally dry on the surface but floods to a shallow depth following heavy rains. The crystal body of both zones consists of continuous clusters of salts, and the voids between crystals (about 45 pct of the total volume) are occupied by brine. The level of this brine never recedes more than several inches below the salt surface. The brine pumped to the plants for processing is generally saturated with all of the solid phases present in that area, and thus is a complex mixture containing about 35 pct solids (see Table 3). The brine composition varies somewhat at different areas of the lake and from upper to lower structures, so wells are drilled in the areas and to the depths desired. A casing is cemented in the hole to within a short distance from the bottom, and pumps with about 14-ft suctions are mounted on the casing to pump the brine into the plants. The evaporation process of the American Potash & Chemical Corp. treats upper structure brine, evaporating all of the water from

Jan 1, 1960