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By A. E. Back

[Several processes for recovering manganese from low-grade ores have been proposed3/4/5/ in which an aqueous slurry of the ore is leached with gas containing nitrogen, oxygen, and sulfur dioxide as obtained from burning sulfur or roasting sulfide ores. The manganese dioxide is dissolved, and most of the sulfur dioxide is oxidized to sulfate, but an appreciable quantity of dithionate is usually formed, together with acid from oxidation of the sulfur dioxide. The over-all reactions may be represented as follows: (1) Mn02 + S02 = Mn++ + S04--. (2) Mn02 + 2S02 = Mn++ +S206--. (3) H20 + So2 + 1/2 02 = 2H+ 5S4--. (4) H20 + 2S02 + 1/2 02 = 2H+ + S206---.]

Jan 1, 1952

By J. V. Batty

In the course of the investigation of manganese mineral occurrences in the United States, Bureau of Mines examining engineers collected several lots of ore from the Black Rock, Kramer, and. Morgan-Cromar properties, Tooele and Juab Counties, Utah. Extensive laboratory tests were made to determine the amenability of the ores to standard ore-dressing methods of concentration. The Black Rock claims 1 and 2 are 42 miles northwest of Jericho, Tooele County, Utah. A. J. Huber of Salt Lake City and Ross Rydalch of Tooele, Utah, are the owners. The deposit-is reported to be a definite manganese fissure vein in quartzite along which considerable shearing and cross fracturing have occurred. Laboratory work was conducted on a 2-ton sample of run-of-mine ore procured by a Bureau of Mines examining engineer and two smaller, higher-grade samples submitted by the owners as a result of later development. The Kramer deposit is described as a bed of manganese oxides in quartz. The property is being worked by L. E. Kramer, Tooele, Utah, and is 41 miles northwest of Jericho) Tooele County, Utah, approximately 1 mile north of the Tooele-Juab County line. A 1-ton run-of-mine sample was submitted for testing by the examining engineer.

Jan 1, 1952

By W. R. Purcell, C. S. Brooks

The internal surfaces of rocks which are in contact with interstitial fluids are known to influence in some degree the recovery of hydrocarbons from pay zones. Despite the admitted importance of the influence of solid surfaces on hydrocarbon recovery, little information is available concerning the extent of surface of reservoir rocks. In this paper a description is given of the apparatus and procedure employed in the determination of the surface areas of sedimentary rocks, and values are reported for a variety of sandstone and limestone cores. In addition, consideration is given to the Kozeny equation, which relates surface area to porosity and permeability. A colliparison is made between the surface areas as calculated from this equation and the geometrical areas of a series of packs of spherical glass beads. Also, for a group of sandstone cores. Kozeny areas are compared with surface areas as determined by the gas adsorption method employed in this investigation. INTRODUCTION It has long been recognized that many processes which are of importance to hydrocarbon production are controlled in some degree by the extent of the surface of the reservoir rock through which the hydrocarbons move. For example, the recovery efficiency that is obtained in a given reservoir is certainly determined in part by the action of interfacial forces between the reservoir fluids and rock, and this action is influenced in turn by the extent of solid surface. Despite the admitted importance of surface effects to problems of petroleum recovery, little information is available concerning the extent of surface of reservoir rocks." It is the purpose of this paper to describe an apparatus which has been employed for the measurement of the surface areas of rock samples and to present the values which have been obtained for a variety of sandstone and limestone cores. In addition, the relationship of surface area to permeability and porosity, as given by the Kozeny equation, will be discussed. METHOD OF MEASURING SURFACE AREA The method of determining surface areas as employed in this work has previously found wide use in studies of porous solids such as catalysts. The method involves the measurement of the amount of physical adsorption of an inert gas, such as nitrogen or argon, on the bare surface of the solid at reduced pressure and constant temperature near the normal liquefaction temperature of the gas. With the aid of the theory of isothermal adsorption as developed by Brunauer, Emmett, and Teller,' it is possible to ascertain the amount of gas (and hence the number of molecules) which is required to cover the solid surface with a single layer of molecules. From a knowledge of the covering area per molecule the total surface ares of the solid can be computed. Since the Brunauer. Emmett, Teller (BET) theory has been adequately discussed elsewhere: it will suffice here merely to present their final equation as ordinarily employed for surface-area calculations. This equation relates the volume of gas, V, which is adsorbed at pressure, P, to the liquefaction pressure, Po, of the gas, and to the volume of gas, V.,, that is required to form a monomolecular layer: In this equation C is a quantity which is related to the heats of adsorption and liquefaction of the gas; for a particular solid-gas system at Constant temperature, C is considered to have a constant value. The basic adsorption data can be presented in the form of Equation (1) by plotting the quantity P/V(Po- P) as a func-

Jan 1, 1952

By Lamar Weaver

THE introduction of the tungsten-carbide bit and the single-use bit to the mining industry has had far-reaching effects on the advancement of drilling techniques. Six years of testing these new bits has disclosed new factors not previously considered. The mining industry, which is ordinarily slow to change, has accepted the new methods of drilling as a possible relief for the reduced manpower available to the mines. In 1950 an extensive program of testing was begun at the Calloway mine of the Tennessee Copper Co. to gather data on rock-drill bits and drill steel: When these tests are concluded the information should be sufficient to establish a drilling program. The scope of this article is a progress repor the years 1950 and 1951. The deposits of the Ducktown, Tenn. mining district are massive sulphide replacement lenses in folded and metamorphosed Cambrian schists and graywackes. The primary ore consists of pyrrhotite, pyrite, and chalcopyrite with minor amounts of zinc blende, bornite, specularite, magnetite, quartz, chlorite, and iron-magnesium-lime silicates. The deposits are high-temperature hydrothermal replacements. The drilling conditions vary from a hard highly siliceous rock to the softer material of the ore body, thereby giving a range of hardnesses to be considered. Single-Use Bits Test work was done first on two single-use bits to determine life expectancy, costs, rate rate of penetration, gage wear, and ease of use. At the same time a test was conducted for comparison using the conventional detachable steel bits to obtain the same for

Jan 1, 1952

By Sheldon Rideout, E. L. Kamen, B. S. Lement, Paul A. Beck, W. D. Manly

The 1200°C isothermal sections of the following ternary phase diagrams were investigated: Cr-Co-Nil Cr-Co-Fe, Cr-Co-Mot and Cr-Ni-Mo. In all these systems the u phase was found to form extended solid solutions. Two new ternary phases of unknown structure were identified. The existence range of intermediate phases of transition elements was correlated with 3d electron vacancy concentrations. THE occurrence of extensive ternary d solid solutions in the Cr-Co-Ni and in the Cr-Co-Fe systems was described in a brief note.' More recently d- solid solutions were also found in the Cr-Fe-Mo system by two independent groups of investigators.2,3 The existence of binary d phases in the V-Co and V-Ni systems, predicted in ref. 1, was experimentally discovered recently by Duwez and Baen and independently by W. B. Pearson, J. W. Christian, and W. Hume-Rothery.5 Duwez and Baen stated two general conditions for the occurrence of the d phase in alloys of the transition elements: "(1) The atomic diameters of the two metals do not differ by more than 8 per cent. (2) One of the two metals has a body-centered cubic structure while the other is face-centered cubic, at least in one of its allotropic forms." In the course of an extensive research program conducted at this Laboratory under the sponsorship of the NACA, several ternary systems, containing d solid solutions and also certain new ternary phases, were investigated. The present report describes the investigated portions of the 1200°C isothermal sections of the following ternary phase diagrams: Cr- Co-Ni, Cr-Co-Fe, Cr-Co-Mo, and Cr-Ni-Mo. It was found that the range of existence of the d phase in these four ternary systems, as well as in one of two ternary systems which were investigated by others, can be fairly consistently described in terms of electron vacancy concentrations. This supports the suggestion of Sully and Heal" that the d phase is an electron compound. Experimental Procedure The ternary alloys were prepared by vacuum induction melting in zirconia and alumina crucibles. Lot analyses of the metals used are given in Table I. Specimens of all alloys were annealed at 1200°C in an atmosphere of purified 92 pct helium and 8 pct hydrogen mixture. Alloys consisting mainly of

Jan 1, 1952

By F. Kurata, P. C. Davis, T. L. Gore

An experimental method and apparatus for the study of the low-temperature phase and volumetric behavior of volatile mixtures are described. The phase diagrams, including the critical points, and the volumetric behavior of a natural gas and a mixture of the natural gas with methane at temperatures from -40°F to -200°F and pressures to 1.200 11si are givrn. INTRODUCTION Knowledge of the phase and volumetric behavior of mixtures of the light hydrocarbons at low temperatures is becoming increasingly important as interest in low-temperature separation processes increases. Distillation at low-lemperatures has been used for some time to recover ethane and ethylene from natural gas and refinery gas for petrochemical uses. Removal of excess nitrogen from natural gas by distillation has been proposed as a means of increasing the capacity of gas transmission lines and of improving the marketability of the gas.1,2 Evaluation of the latter process has been hampered, however, by the scarcity of data from which the phase behavior of natural gases at low temperatures might be predicted. While existing correlations of vaporization equilibrium constants may be used to predict the behavior of such mixtures at lower pressures, high-pressure computations often require knowledge of the location of the critical point of the system involved. Although correlations have been developed for the prediction of the critical temperature and pressure of certain types of hydrocar-bon systems, they do not apply to very volatile systems such as nitrogen-bear-ing natural gases. This paper describes the initial stages of an investigation of the low-temperature behavior of a numher of natural gases and other gases of commercial interest. The experimental method and apparatus are described. and the phase and volumetric behavior of a natural gas and a mixture of the natural gas with methane are presented. PREVIOUS WORK The published low-temperature vapor-liquid equilibrium data for hydrocarbons and mixtures of hydrocarbons with nitrogen and helium are listed in Table I. Most of these data are for binary systems, and the data of Stutz-man and Brown" at 100 psi are the only data on a natural gas. The data of Bloomer and Parent3 on the methafie-nitrogen system, which have been phblished since this study was completed, are a valuable addition to the knowledge in this field. Prior to the publication of these data the only published critical point data on systems having critical temperatures below the ice point were those of Ruhemann.1 on the methane-

Jan 1, 1952

By J. Fred Johnson

COROMANT is the trade name of the alloy-steel drill rod tipped with a chisel-type tungsten-carbide bit manufactured by Sandvik Steel Works Co., Ltd. Other names, such as Swedish or air-leg method of drilling, are used in various localities. Coromant drilling in Sweden was the natural sequence of the adaptation of tungsten-carbide inserts to the already established routine of drilling. By the middle thirties the percussion drill had reached practically its highest attainable efficiency as a drilling machine. Since then improvement has been in metallurgy of component parts to increase life or lessen weight, in the development of pneumatic and automatic feeds, in the use of jumbos to more quickly and easily handle machines, and in changes in drill rods and bits. By 1937, drilling in the United States and Canada was done by relatively heavy mounted drifters with positive hand or automatic feeds. In Sweden, on the other hand, emphasis had been placed on light equipment and drifting was done with pneumatic bars and reverse-feed stopers. In 1938, one of the most prominent American drill manufacturers developed an air-leg for successfully drilling the extremely variable but relatively soft iron ores of some of the northern Michigan mines. Also in 1938, a comparative Swedish test, also in soft iron ore, of a 50-lb jackhammer mounted on an air-leg, against a 100-lb reverse-feed drifter on a pneumatic bar, showed the net drilling time was increased by the air-leg set-up from 51 to 71 pct, in drilling 6-ft rounds in a 6 1/2x6 1/2 ft drift. Miners were becoming scarce in Sweden even at that time and, since the lighter equipment made the work easier and more attractive, the airleg was then made use of in some types of soft rock. In 1940, for instance, a large tunnel for a hydroelectric plant was driven with this equipment. By 1943, when tungsten-carbide inserts came into the picture in Sweden, a great many of the kinks in percussion drilling with this hard-metal had been worked out in Germany under the stress of war conditions. However, only 10 pct of the drilling machines manufactured in Sweden were jackhammers for use on air-legs and only the one manufacturer made air-legs in the United States. American practice had largely supplanted integral forging of drill bits by the detachable steel bit. Canada and South Africa were using the one-pass throwaway bit but Sweden was still using the same old integral forged bit. After a long study of the trend toward simplicity

Jan 1, 1952

By C. O. Lee, Z. W. Bartlett, R. H. Feierabend

DESPITE the fact that American brimstone production has increased 2 ½ times since the prewar period 1935-1939, the demand for sulphur exceeds the supply. To alleviate this situation efforts are being made to increase the production of sulphur and bring the shortage to an end. The most important developments are being undertaken on the Gulf Coast. One new brimstone mine has been put into operation and three others are being developed. These projects are expected to account for a large part of the additional sulphur production now anticipated for the free world.1,2 Except for a small amount of byproduct sulphur from sour natural gas and refinery gases, American brimstone is produced by the same process devised by Frasch 60 years ago, consisting essentially of the injection of superheated water at about 325°F into sulphur-bearing formations through wells which are drilled from the surface by standard oilfield methods. Sulphur deposits vary in depth from a few hundred feet to 2500 ft from the surface; in a typical deposit the sulphur occurs as crystalline aggregates in porous limestone and gypsum in concentrations varying from 5 to 40 pct, the thickness of the formation ranging from a few feet to several hundred.3 The deposits are usually surrounded by formations impermeable to the flow of hot water, the top and sides being enclosed by impermeable sediments and the bottom by dense impermeable anhydrite. As the hot water leaves the well bore, it percolates through the formation and transmits its heat to the rock and sulphur. When the sulphur reaches 240°F it melts, separates from the rock, and flows through the hot channels downward to the bottom of the well. Here it is freed from incoming water and from formation water, which saturates the porous rock, by gravity separation, liquid sulphur being 1.8 times as heavy as water. It then is pumped to the surface in a relatively pure state, 99.5 pct or better. Chief contaminants are organic impurities, such as petroleum residues, which are soluble in sulphur and tend to discolor it.4 Sixteen deposits of commercial magnitude have been discovered in the Gulf Coast area. Five of these deposits have been depleted and abandoned with production totalling more than 26,886,000 tons. Eight properties are operating and have produced 65,875,000 tons to Jan. 1, 1952, for a total Frasch-type production of 92,761,000 tons. Three new deposits are under development. Aforementioned deposits are listed in Table I. Each of these deposits has been found in the caprock overlying shallow intrusive salt plugs or domes and buried in several hundred to as much as 2500 ft of sediments. All salt domes do not contain sulphur; only 16 sulphur deposits have been found in a total of 231 salt domes which are known to exist in the Gulf Coastal states of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Ten of the salt domes lie in the Gulf of Mexico offshore from the Texas and Louisiana coasts. Additional offshore domes may be found, but their value as a sulphur potential is questionable owing to the great hazard and high cost that can be visualized at these exposed locations where depths of water reach 50 ft. Marsh operations of Freeport Sulphur Co. are in the southeast section of Louisiana. In general, the country is low, flat, relatively uninhabited marshland broken by many shallow lakes and bayous which extend for irregular distances inland. Geologically, the coastal area is of sedimentary origin, having been built up gradually under the sea by deposition of material carried down by large streams to their deltas. Offshore bars were formed enclosing

Jan 1, 1952

By J. E. Owen

A model of a porous body is presented in which the pore space consists of a system of voids and interconnecting tubes. Relationships between porosity and resistivity formation factor are determined partly by calculation, partly by experiment. Con triction effects characteristic of the model are shown to be sufficient to account for high formation factors. It is shown that constriction may be combined with moderate amounts of tortuosity to give model pore systems exhibiting to a first approximation porosity and resistivity properties similiar to those of natural porous bodies. INTRODUCTION The relationship between the electric resistivity of a fluid-filled porous body and the geometry of its pore space is so complex that the calculation of the resistivity of a natural porous rock is a practical impossibility. Both the resistivity of a body and its porosity are measurable quantities, however, and previous successes at relating them have been reached by an empirical approach. Efforts at obtaining theoretically derived formulae relating them have generally been unsatisfactory. One of the reasons for this may lie in the pore geometry that has been assumed. THE TORTUOSITY CONCEPT A Parameter called the formation factor is useful in dis-cussing the resistivity of a fluid-filled porous body. This parameter is the ratio of the resistivity of a fluid saturated porous body to the resistivity of the saturating fluid. Formation factors are often available from measurements on cores or from electric logs, and many attempts have been made to correlate formation factors and porosities of geological formations. Whenever a successful correlation is found, the engineer working with electrical logs has a useful tool for the determination of porsities of pay section?. One of the more successful formulae applicable to these correlations is the familiar equation empirically obtained by Archie.' which F is the formation factor. $ is the porosity, and rn is an exponent called the cementation factor. When the for- mula applies, the cementation factor usually is found to be between 1.3 and 2.2. The values for formation factors experimentally obtained are often higher than simple pore geometry would lead one to expect. In an effort to account for such high values certain formulae have been derived based on a so-called "tortuosity concept." In deriving these formulae a synthetic porous body is usually assumed in which the solid material is an electrical non-conductor. and in which the pore system consists of three sets of fluid-filled tubes of uniform diameter connecting opposite faces of the body which, for convenience, is considered to be cubical in shape. The three sets of tubes account for the whole of the effective porosity of the body, and usually, it is specified that they do not interconnect. By considering that the pore tubes are not straight but tortuous, their resistance to the flow of electric currents can be made as high as needed to explain high formation factors. Such an explanation has some basis in fact, but it appears that the tortuosity concept is often incorrectly applied when other factors are largely responsible for observed high resistivities. Recently, Wyllie and Spangler have recognized that tortuosity as calculated by conventional formulae has little if any physical significance.' RESISTIVITY AND THE CONSTRICTION CONCEPT Any explanation of high formation factors which depends solely on tortuosity of uniform pore paths necessarily ignores the effect that variations in the cross-sectional area of the conducting paths have on the resistivity of a body. Although, as previously pointed out, the calculation of such paths for an actual body is impossible, it will he shown that a synthetic pore network can be devised which will yield to analysis, and lead to results in agreement with the experimental data represented by Equation (1). The porous body to be considered is assumed to be homogeneous and isotropic or, for present purposes, identical in its characteristics in the three directions parallel to its coordinate axes. It will he assumed to be built of identical unit cubes, each of which contains a single pore network connecting all faces of the unit cube. A unit of such a pore network is shown

Jan 1, 1952

By D. E. Thomas

Oxidation rate constants were determined for Cu-Pd and Cu-Pt alloys as a function of alloy composition and temperature. Reaction products were identified. Relationship between oxidation rate constants and diffusion constants in the reaction zones is discussed. THE mechanism of oxidation of alloys is consider--'¦ ably more complex and not so well understood as that of pure metals. The oxidation of a one-phase binary alloy of which one component is a noble metal should logically be the simplest case of alloy oxidation, for in this case one is concerned presumably only with the oxidation of the base metal and the diffusion process by which it reaches the reaction site. This had led a number of investigators to study such systems. Probably the earliest work was that of Tammann and Rienacker' on the tarnishing of Cu-Au alloys at temperatures up to 300°C. These alloys oxidize according to the logarithmic law, that is, the film thickness is proportional to the logarithm of the time. The rate of film formation was found to decrease with increasing gold content. Raub and Engel² investigated the oxidation of Au-Cu, Cu-Pd, Au-Ag-Cu, Au-Pd-Cu, and Ag-Pd-Cu alloys at 750°C in air. These alloy systems form a continuous series of solid solutions at the temperature of oxidation with the exception of those containing silver. Au-Cu alloys oxidize parabolically, the rate constant decreasing slowly with increasing gold content up to about 15 atomic pct* Au, and more rapidly thereafter. An alloy with 14 pct Cu forms only a very thin layer of CuO on the surface and probably also a subscale.† Alloys containing more than 14 pct Cu have scales consisting of CuO and subscales of Cu,O embedded in nearly pure gold. The Cu-Pd alloys obey the parabolic law except for slight deviations for alloys containing 53 and 84 pct Cu. The overall oxidation rate decreases rather smoothly with increasing palladium content. A scale consisting of a thin layer of CuO and a thick layer of Cu²O and a subscale of Cu²O embedded in nearly pure palladium was observed for alloys containing 84, 53, and 30 pct Cu. An alloy with 19 pct Cu formed only a subscale of CuO embedded in nearly pure palladium, and an 8 pct Cu alloy formed only a thin film which was presumed to be PdO. The ternary alloys considered by Raub and Engel oxidized in much the same way as did the binaries. Wagner and Grunewald³ found that Ni-Au alloys, oxidized at 900°C in oxygen, formed a scale of NiO and a subscale containing NiO and gold. The overall oxidation rate increases with increasing gold content, passes through a maximum and then decreases to zero for pure gold. The fact that gold increases the oxidation rate was attributed to "pores" in the scale. Kubaschewski' investigated the air oxidation of alloys of platinum or gold with up to 10 pct Cu or Ni at temperatures in the range 300" to 1550°C. Parabolic behavior was noted for all alloys except Au-Ni, with rates decreasing in the order Au-Cu, Au-Ni, Pt-Ni, Pt-Cu. The diffusion coefficients for the latter three systems are known, and they decrease in the same order. However, activation energies for the oxidation of these alloys do not agree with the activation energies for diffusion in the respective alloy systems. Kubaschewski and Goldbeck7 nvestigated the oxidation of Ni-Pt alloys in air at temperatures of 600"

Jan 1, 1952

By The Mill Staff

"IntroductionCOMMENCEMENT of operations at the new No. 7 shaft and 10,000-ton mill at Creighton mine was a major step in the programme of conversion to all-underground mining by the International Nickel Company of Canada, Limited. Planned ten years ago, the orderly transition has been greatly speeded-up to offset the heavy drain on production imposed by World War II and also to meet the increased demand for nickel caused by the current international situation. Development of new mining methods, and process changes in the reduction plants, have made possible the economic recovery and utilization of ore of lower grade than formerly used and of varying metallurgical characteristics. By 1953, when the Company's open-pit mining operations are scheduled for completion, the hoisting capacity of its five underground mines in the Sudbury district will have been increased to 13,000,000 tons per year, compared with 5,700,000 tons of underground ore hoisted in 1950.Two types of ore occur at Creighton. One is a breccia and stringer type that contains a high percent-age of massive sulphides and is located in sheets along shears and in large and small pockets on the underside of the main norite mass; the other type, forming the main part of the ore zone, is mineralized norite that occurs as a •sheet up to 400 feet thick overlying tl1e breccia ore. In both types of ore the minerals of economic interest are pentlandite, which is intimately associated with pyrrhotite, and chalcopyrite. Early mining was confined to the breccia ore; this ore was mined by open stoping methods. The hanging-wall was later allowed to cave, with the result that the old stopes are now filled with caved low-grade ore."

Jan 1, 1952

By Edward H. Robie

In late November and early December a considerable portion of our time was devoted to obtaining a business manager for Institute headquarters. The advisability of creating such a position was suggested in 1949 in the report of the Johnson committee. In that year, however, the Institute had a deficit of $72,000 so every effort was made to minimize expense. At that time most of the duties that normally would be assumed by a business manager were given to Newell Appleton who became office manager, convention manager, purchasing agent, and assistant to the secretary. So many responsibilities were his that he could not devote the necessary time to all of the many things that needed attention. H. H. Vasoll, representing a firm that made a study of Institute head office procedures early last fall, made a recommendation that "a business manager and controller from outside the present organization" be obtained, who would supervise the work of accounting, addressograph, purchasing, book and journal orders, filing, and mailing depts. He further recommended that Mr. Appleton be made administrative secretary, in which position he would act as head of an "Institute Activities Dept." He would devote his time to convention planning, meeting arrangements, travel accommodations, membership control and promotion, and public relations, and would assist the Secretary on special problems. Thus, Mr. Appleton retains some of his former responsibilities and will take more of the load off our shoulders in the conduct of affairs at Institute headquarters. The rest of his former work will be in the province of the newly created "Business Office Dept." Peter J. Apol is the man finally selected for the post of business manager. He is a young man of 32, a native Michigander and a graduate of the University of Michigan where he received a B.S. degree in business administration in 1940. He then spent three years in the Navy and has the rank of Lieutenant in the U. S. Naval Reserve. Three more years were spent in the U. S. Maritime Service as chief purser, and another year as chief paymaster for the Pope & Talbot Steamship Co. The past four years have been spent as head of the Greenland Construction Co., Greenland, N. H., chiefly engaged in building construction. Mr. Apol will endeavor to increase the efficiency of Institute headquarters operations and remove all possible causes for complaints of individual members. He will coordinate as seems advisable the work of various departments and install such modern business office machinery as seems applicable to our needs.

Jan 1, 1952

DEFENSE Materials Procurement Agency has been moving rapidly to encourage copper industry expansion programs. Although copper production is at a high level, a shortage exists on a world-wide basis as well as on the domestic scene. Projected expansion programs will not ease this current demand for most of them are 2 to 5 years off. Refining facilities are adequate but there is a shortage of ore and scrap, and it is for this reason that the expansion programs are directed at developing more sources of supply. The domestic expansion programmed thus far and understood to have been arranged with price escalation should the domestic price go to 271/20, were summarized by American Metal Markets as follows (dates of announcement are given in parenthesis: .1-Copper Cities Mining Co.'s, $15,000,000 expansion near Miami, Ariz., to be operating about 1954. DMPA will buy 22,500 tons of copper a year up to a given amount on an agreed price of 23¢ per pound, with some exceptions and depending upon salability at a higher price to other purchasers in the U. S. (September 25th). 2-An RFC loan of $60,000 to North Butte Mining Co. to be paid off on the basis of deliveries at a purchase price of 241/20 per pound (September 25th). 3-A $25,000,000 expansion program by Phelps Dodge to provide 38,000 tons per year by late 1954. DMPA would purchase it at a price of 22¢ per pound up to 112,500 tons providing other purchasers in the U. S. will not pay a higher price (September 26th). 4-Anaconda Copper Mining Co. $40,000,000 expansion in Nevada to provide more than 30,000 (might be increased to 45,000) tons per year. DMPA would purchase the copper at 250 per pound for a limited period of time if it is not salable to industrial users at above this price. Production would start around 1953 (November 14th).

Jan 1, 1952

By T. E. Morimoto

Summary The Research Council of Alberta has made a series of tests with the cyclone washer to investigate the influence of the following operating variables: underflow apex diameter, .specific gravity of medium, pulp ratio, density distribution of the feed, and size analysis of the feed. The results obtained for all the variables studied, except size analysis of the feed, are included in this paper. The tests were made with smaller underflow apex diameters and lower specific gravity .suspensions than have been recommended by Cerchar for the sharpest separations. However, what is considered to be sufficiently good cleaning was accomplished with a suspension of 1.30 specific gravity and an underflow to overflow diameter ratio of 0.56. It was found that the sharpness of separation was not affected appreciably by variations in specific gravity of suspension or underflow apex diameter provided that the density of separation was within the normal range of washery operation. Cyclone performance was not too adversely affected by decreasing the pulp ratio. The minimum figure which gave reasonable separation was 4 to 1. The tests with various density distributions of feed revealed .that the degree of washing difficulty had no detrimental effect on the .sharpness of separation given by the cyclone. Introduction A major problem of the bituminous coal industry today is that of reducing the ash content of the finer sizes (minus 1/4-inch) of coal. This problem is particularly acute in Alberta, where, because of tectonic movement subsequent to deposition, the coals have been rendered friable, and bands of impurities have been intimately mixed with the clean material. As a consequence, most Alberta coals, as mined, contain a large proportion of fines and have a high inherent mineral-matter content. The advent of mechanized mining and stripping operations ?has further aggravated this problem.

Jan 1, 1952

ONE of the largest hard rock operations ever undertaken on the continent is part of the Aluminum Co. of Canada's gigantic British Columbia development in the mountainous wilderness back of the north coastal port of Prince Rupert. To provide electric power for the huge aluminum smelter under construction at Kitimat, 400 miles northwest of Vancouver, Alcan is reversing the flow of a 5000 sq mile drainage area by blocking the eastward-flowing Nechako River with the largest sloping clay core dam in the world. The backed-up waters of a 110-mile chain of lakes will be tapped at their eastern end by a 10-mile tunnel piercing a mile-high mountain range. From this tunnel water will pass through penstocks to a subterranean powerhouse after a drop of 2600 ft and empty into the Kemano River almost at tide water. A projected battery of eight turbine-driven generators will produce more than a million horsepower, although, initially, three generators of 140,000 hp each will be installed. Power will travel 50 miles across another mountain range, over a glacier, and across an arm of the ocean to what will ultimately be the world's largest aluminum smelter-a plant 2 ½ miles long. Ore smelted at Kitimat will come from Jamaica, but carving the tunnel, penstocks, and powerhouses cavern out of the heart of a mountain is so vast a job that most of the problems of a major mining operation are encountered. The powerhouse cavern alone is a big hard rock job. This chamber lies 1400 ft back from the mountain face and will eventually be 1100 ft long, 80 ft wide, and an average 118 ft high. Now under construction, the roof of this cavern will take the form of a parabolic arch. The prime contractors, Morrison-Knudsen Co. of Canada, are to excavate a length of 700 ft by May 1954. This section will provide a main control room, erection bay and space for eight generating units. The roof arch is to be lined with reinforced concrete and a plan now under study provides for concrete curtain walls separated from the rock sides of the cavern to prevent moisture accumulation. Cavern Excavation Excavation of the cavern began with the driving of an 8x8-ft exploratory drift 1500 ft long. Two horseshoe-shaped access and tailrace tunnels were bored to serve excavation work. These tunnels are approximately the same length as the exploratory drift and 25 ft high. The floors of both tunnels were graveled to permit the use of rubber-tired equipment. Eventually, the tailrace tunnel will be enlarged to 40 ft height to drain water from the turbine pits below the powerhouse floor. When the tunnels reached the cavern location, a mucking tunnel, approximately 25 ft square, was driven the projected length of the powerhouse at the floor level of the cavern. Another tunnel, 10 ft square, was carried in the same direction from the exploratory drift at the level of the arch spring line, 65 ft above the cavern floor. To connect these two tunnels, seven shafts 10 ft wide and approximately 80 ft long were driven through to the lower mucking tunnel, 65 ft below. These shafts were located on 120-ft centers, the length of the powerhouse cavern. Blasting is done from this upper tunnel to the final line of the roof arch. Two bulldozers, an International TD-24 and a TD-9, doze blasted material to the shafts where it drops to floor level. From here, the rock is loaded by Eimco loaders and power shovels into rubber-tired Koehring Dumptors and Euclid end-dump trucks. The arched roof section will be completely excavated and concreted before vertical blast holes are drilled down from the level of the arch spring line to the floor of the cavern. The arched roof section with its parabolic curve will have a width of 80 ft and a rise to the crown of 47 ft.

Jan 1, 1952

By Orville R. Lyons

THE relative performance of coal washing equipment, or the effectiveness with which any type or make of equipment removes impurities from coal, has been most difficult to evaluate in the past. The most widely used yardstick is the Frazer and Yancey efficiency formula developed in 1922,1 but Yancey in a later article states that "washers treating coals of different density composition or operating at different densities of separation cannot be compared directly on the basis of this criterion."' Prior to and since 1922, a variety of other methods has been used for comparison purposes, including the distribution curve, the error area, and the "ecart probable" or probable error. Yancey and Geer in discussing these methods conclude, "Performance can be evaluated in a number of different ways, with the choice of the proper method to use being dictated by the objectives of the investigation and the data available."' It is true that performance can be evaluated in a variety of ways, but if the equipment is to be evaluated on an effectiveness basis, there should be only one universal comparison method. Varying methods have been used because one universal comparison method has not been found or developed. In the article previously quoted, Yancey and Geer state in clear terms the primary concept for a universal comparison method: "One of the simplest, and certainly one of the most obvious evaluations of washery performance is the quantity of sink material in the washed coal and the float material in the refuse. If the washery products are tested at the density at which the washing unit is operated, the sink in the washed coal and the float in the refuse represent material that has been misplaced." The quantity of misplaced material was used as a criterion of washery performance by Lincoln in 1913,8 by the United States Bureau of Mines in 1938,4 by Hancock in 1947,3 and by the national French research agency Cerchar in recent years.2 In 1950 Anderson' proposed the use of this criterion as an efficiency value to replace the Frazer and Yancey formula. However, none of the above-mentioned investigators used the misplaced material concept in a manner that would provide universal coal-cleaning equipment comparisons. The Correlation Theory The ideal coal cleaning process would treat all sizes and would make a perfect separation at any given specific gravity. All material lower in density than the desired value would report in the coal product and all material higher in density would report in the refuse product. Unfortunately, no known cleaning process achieves this goal and there seems little likelihood that any process yet to be invented will do more than approach it. When coal is treated in volume under operating conditions, it is impossible to avoid mechanical entrapment, fluctuations in throughput and effective gravity of separation, and the creation of turbulent currents, even when a true heavy-liquid bath is used and the feed is closely sized and contains little intermediate gravity material. This being so, it is possible to appreciate the difficulties inherent in trying to obtain a perfect separation when treating a wide range of sizes and a feed containing high percentages of intermediate material, using turbulent currents to help create the effective separation gravity, under operating conditions which normally tend to be on the overload side. When coal is separated from refuse in any coal cleaning equipment, some refuse always reports to the coal and some coal to the refuse; the writer therefore assumed that there should be a relationship between the total amount of misplaced material produced by any given piece of equipment and the difficulty of separation as represented by the percentage of near gravity material in the feed. With small amounts of near gravity or ±0.1 material in the feed there should be less misplacement of material than would occur with large amounts of near

Jan 1, 1952

By Jens P. Nielsen, W. H. Justice

This paper describes an improved acidizing technique which has been applied in acidizing gas wells in the La Gloria Field. Wells acidized in this manner exhibited a much greater increase in deliverahility than wells acidized in the conventional manner. The acid is injected into the well in small slugs separated by a small volume of high pressure gas. The acid and gas are displaced from the tuhing by high pressure gas to reduce the hydrostatic head on the well when the acid is recovered from the well. The well is opened for production as soon as the acid and gas are displaced. This procedure permits a very rapid recovery of the acid which results in large increases in the deliverability of the gas wells. It has been found advantageous in the acidization of gas injection wells to inject the high pressure gas directly after the acid without backflowing the acid out of the well. This practice has made it possible to inject the gas in the injection wells of this field with a much lower pressure differential. This reduces the horsepower required to inject the gas and also decrease:, the number of injection wells required per reservoir. INTRODUCTION The results obtained by acidizing gas wells ill the La Gloria Field have varied considerably in the past. For this reason. a planned study of the acidizing procedure was undertaken in order to obtain more consistent results. The Frio Sands of the La Gloria Field are rather permeable and it was not necessary to acidize many of the wells when they were originally completed. At the completion of an eight-year cycling program in several of the gas reservoirs, it became necessary to recomplete many wells in other reservoirs. It was found that the opan Flow potential of the wells recompleted in different sands was not as large as wells that were originally completted in that reservoir. A study of the drilling records of several of these wells indicated that the sands had originally been subjected to considerable hydrostatic drilling fluid overload while the well was being drilled to the deeper sands of the field. It is indicated that during this eight-year period, the drilling mud and water that were lost into the formation when the well was being drilled had formed a relatively impermeable Eone around the well bore. This impermeable zone around the well bore made it very difficult to obtain high deliverability wells when the original wells are recompleted in other zones. Muskat' has shown that in uniformly permeable and porous formations a zone of partial plugging one ft in radius around the well would drastically decrease the productivity of the well. The analysis for this problem shows that the production capacity of a well is very sensitive to the value of the permeability of the zone immediately surrounding the well bore. This is to be expected in view of the highly localized character of the pressure drop in a radial flow system about the well center. The reduction of the deliverability is not proportional to the thickness of the mud-affected zone as the major portion of the reduction in deliverahility IS caused hy the

Jan 1, 1952

Large scale mining of Mesabi taconites may have moved nearer to realization with the arrival of the latest model Linde Jet-Piercing machine at Reserve Mining Co.'s Babbitt, Minn. property. When the machine is placed in operation it is expected to pierce blast holes in the hard taconite beds up to 10 times faster than is possible with existing drilling equipment. The new primary blast hole drilling machine has been designated the JPM-3, and is the successor to the JPM-1, in operation at Erie Mining Co.'s taconite mines at Aurora, Minn. The size of primary blast holes which can now be pierced has increased from a nominal 61 in. diameter to 71 in. diameter and maximum hole depth has increased from 35 ft to 47 ft. Development has progressed to where 71/2 in. holes can be pierced with the same speed as 61/2 in. holes. Piercing progress is controlled by electronic blowpipe descent controls. Other features of the JPM-3 include: automatic burner ignition from the operating cab; heated and air conditioned operating cab designed for all-year operation; mechanical improvements for sub-zero operation common to the Mesabi, and redesign of wearing parts for longer service with minimum maintenance. The 40-ton machine is self-propelled. Power, oxygen, and cooling water lines trail from the machine. Jet piercing is based on combustion products of oxygen and a liquid fuel such as kerosene. The flame, jetting from a burner at speeds of about 6000 ft per sec, disintegrates layers of spallable rock. The burner is cooled by water which is then directed through orifices around the periphery of the burner. The water changes to steam and carries the spallings out of the hole. The equipment used in Jet-Piercing is essentially a tractor-mounted blowpipe containing a combustion chamber and nozzle, which is in effect a miniature rocket motor, from which the supersonic combustion gases emerge to do their work.

Jan 1, 1952

By Alan Probert

IN his inaugural address in 1949, President Truman made a policy declaration which launched the foreign technical assistance program known to the world as Point Four. Congress passed Public Law 535 defining the scope of the program and holding activities to certain limitations. It also provided $34.5 million for the first fiscal year. The Technical Cooperation Administration was established within the Department of State to coordinate and direct a program to include "economic, engineering, medical, educational, agricultural, fishery, mineral and fiscal surveys, demonstration, training and similar projects." The mineral programs of Point Four have been staffed and managed by two agencies of the Department of Interior, the Geological Survey and the Bureau of Mines. The Geological Survey is concerned primarily with water-supply problems, the discovery of mineral deposits, and the determination of habit, shape, and grade of mineral deposits. The Bureau of Mines is concerned with determining the commercial potentialities of mineral deposits, mineral technology, and the production and distribution of mineral commodities. Mineral projects comprised only 1 pet of the first year's budget. In spite of the relatively insignificant expenditure compared to those for food, agriculture, and health, a commendable record has been achieved.

Jan 1, 1952

By George A. Roberts, Arthur H. Grobe

H. H. Hausner (Sylvania Electric Products Inc., Bayside, N. Y.)—I tested the 18-8 stainless steel powder described by Grobe and Roberts and the results were excellent. The powder was compacted and sintered in purified hydrogen to a very low density (approximately 20 pct and more porosity). Where the other powders show very little ductility when sintered to such a low density, the described stainless steel was surprisingly high in ductility. I would appreciate it if the authors could give us some data on a similar powder but without silicon and also data on 430 stainless steel powder. H. S. Kalish (Sylvania Electric Products lnc., Bay-side, N. Y.)—I should like to verify the excellent results obtained by Grobe and Roberts with their pre-alloyed stainless steel powder. It seems to me, however, that their data are conservative and that even better densities and higher tensile strength can be obtained with these powders by the selection of proper particle size fractions. The accompanying data were obtained by sintering compacts pressed from the powder made by Vanadium-Alloys Steel Co. to 0.8 in. in diam about % in. high in a cylindrical double action die without the use of lubricant. The compacts were sintered for 1 hr at 2370°F in hydrogen purified by passing it through a Deoxo unit (palladium catalyst) and a Lectrodryer. Even the density obtained using the as-received (—100 mesh) compacted at 40 tsi was quite high as was the hardness. This indicates that by increasing the sintering temperature slightly above 2350°F the coining and subsequent secondary sintering operation can be avoided. With the — 325 mesh fraction, however, very much higher density can be obtained and a high hardness. I have no tensile data to present, but I feel that it is not too optimistic to expect. that unusually high tensile strengths and good ductility can be obtained in this sintered material on the basis of the density and hardness data. The sintered stainless steel made by the above-described methods came out of the furnace very bright and clean. The purified hydrogen atmosphere is important in sintering stainless steel to reduce the oxide present in the powder. The result of such a sintering is good densification and good ductility of the sintered product. G. A. Roberts (authors' reply)—We are greatly indebted to Messrs. Hausner and Kalish for their discussions of our paper. Their encouraging remarks are greatly appreciated and their confirmatory data will do much to add to the value of the paper. At the present time it is impossible to provide complete data on a similar stainless steel powder without silicon, but we do know that, in general, the properties are slightly inferior. Data on such a powder and on other stainless steel types are to be published in the near future.

Jan 1, 1952