Tests Of Rock Drills At North Star Mines, California

Discussion of the paper Of ROBERT H. BEDFORD and WILLIAM HAGUE, presented at the Salt Lake meeting, August, 1914, and printed in Bulletin No. 92, August, 1914, pp. 1807 to 1816. W. L. SAUNDERS, New York, N. Y. (communication to the Secretary *) . -Messrs. Bedford and Hague have given us a very interesting and practical paper. No better excuse for such a paper could be desired than the statement made that the expense of drilling. in this mine is one-third of the cost of delivering the ore at the mill. This statement. should be written in red letters, because it applies to a great many mines besides the one referred to and because it is generally true that in a mining plant, as also in papers read before the Institute, more attention by fat is given to the metallurgical side of mining than to the excavation of the ore, and no study of the excavation work is properly made that does not involve a careful inquiry into the merits of the rock drill used. Next in importance to the selection of a good rock drill, in a case where the actual drilling cost is one-third the cost of delivering the ore, is that. the drill should be maintained in order and kept up to its highest efficiency. The best rock chill may run down in efficiency through accidents, wear, or other conditions which are sometimes beyond supervision or control. The machine is usually in the hands of men who know how to get workout of it, not men who know how it works. The best drill runners are not machinists,. but miners. They could not tell you how the valve operates or the principle of the rotation, but they know how to get the work done. A testing machine, particularly the type described in this paper, may he of the greatest value in maintaining a uniform state of efficiency.