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By W. J. Kennedy, J. D. Gardner

A systematic method is presented for analyzing and improving energy costs in surface mines. Each mine is divided into drilling and blasting, overburden haulage, ore haulage, crushing and grinding, and lighting system. Specific methods of improving the energy costs of each system are discussed. Contributions of simulation and queueing to energy cost reduction are also discussed.

Jan 1, 1985

By Charles H. Doolittle, Royal P. Jarvis

The following notes are contributed, not with the idea of offering a complete history of the development of this very important process as applied to the Leadville district, but with the hope that the practice, as it was carried out in the Bi-Metallic Smelter, may still be of interest to others. The Bi-Metallic Smelter, at Leadville, Colo., was the first to make a commercial success of the process described in the following pages, which consisted essentially of smelting raw silver- and copper-bearing sulphide ores in blast-furnaces to form a matte, which was generally re-smelted with siliceous ores for a second high-grade matte. Robert Sticht, in his excellent monograph on the subject,' has outlined briefly the plant belonging to this company. He says, in effect: The Boulder, Mont., enterprise set the example for others with whom the patentee (W. L. Austin) had been negotiating, and the old La Plata lead-smelter at Leadville, Colo., was fashioned into a crude, temporary experimental plant for the Bi-Metallic Company, and the feasibility of the process demonstrated by a trial run. Subsequently, the plant was considerably improved, and, being supplied with very favorable ores, continued to run without interruption from August, 1892, to June, 1893. In September, 1803, smelting was resumed in a completely remodeled establishment, some $200,000 having been expended upon the new work. Thus, aside from the Montana experiments, which, under the direction of W. L. Austin, began as early as 1885 at Toston, and continued with indifferent success for six or seven years, the Bi-Metallic plant at Leadville may be said to have

Jan 1, 1911

By Porter W. Shimer

It docs not seem to be generally known that some American pig-irons contain notable amounts of vanadium, and while the present investigation is far from covering the whole range of irons, it is hoped that, at least, it may serve to call attention to the importance of looking for this element. The majority of the pig-irons investigated were made in the Lehigh Valley and neighboring furnaces, using more or less New Jersey magnetite in their mixtures. Many of these ores, and probably all of them, contain a little vanadium as well as titanium; the ore from one of the largest of these mines contains 0.05 per cent, of vanadium and 0.60 per cent. of titanium. Dr. Thomas M. Drown was the first to detect the presence of vanadium in the incrustations1 occurring on certain pig-irons, and he also found this element in a number of magnetites, but the methods for its accurate determination had not, at that time, been well worked out. In a general way, it may be said that the Lehigh Valley pig-irons contain from 0.02 to 0.05 per cent. of vanadium and from 0.10 to 0.20 per cent. of titanium. These elements follow the silicon; that is, the furnace-conditions which produce a high-silicon, low-sulphur iron will cause the maximum reduction of vanadium and titanium, and

Jan 1, 1913

By C. O. Brawner

Simple, specific rules for achieving slope stability in open-pit mines are impossible to devise. Each pit has a different mining program and a different set of environmental conditions, and its final slope design must be based on an individual evaluation of the actual site. The overall philosophy of pit stability, however, is tending towards a limit design concept. Since slope angle has a great influence on the economics of most open-pit mines, efforts are being made to reduce the theoretical factor of safety for slope stability to very near 1.0. (Factor of safety is here defined as shear strength/shear stress on the most probable plane of failure.) Actually, where detailed, statistically significant testing has been done and a comprehensive ground control program is being instituted to warn of movement at an early stage, safety factors as low as 1.1 or 1.2 may be justified. The cost of the necessary procedures, however, is high. There are many factors that influence stability, but this article will be confined to three-rock structure, groundwater, and blasting.

Jan 8, 1969

By Richard Moldenke

ONE of the gravest problems of the iron foundry today is the accumulation of sulfur in commercial scrap and its effect on the castings made therewith. The ordinary jobbing castings today show a sulfur content of 0.18 per cent., and occasionally as high as 0.22 per cent. The product of the foundry during the war is undoubtedly .to blame for this rapid increase and conditions will become worse as the millions of tons of gray-iron castings of the war period return to the foundry in the form of commercial scrap. In the ordinary cupola remelting of pig and scrap, at least 0.02 per cent. sulfur is taken up; often double that amount. The high cost and difficulty of obtaining pig iron during the war period compelled the use of considerable scrap in the mixtures; frequently charges containing. 90. per cent. of bought scrap were melted. Naturally the sulfur content of the castings increased. Until the advent of the basic-hearth electric furnace, the only method of holding the sulfur within reasonable limits was to use high percentages of pig in the foundry mixtures. Pig iron seldom contains over 0.05 per cent. sulfur, if well made. With pig iron forming 60 percent. of the .charge and the gates, runners, rejections, and bought scrap the other 40 per cent., the sulfur content of the castings can easily be held down to 0.10 per cent. Pig iron, however, costs more than scrap even when melting loss differences are considered, hence as small a percentage as possible will be used.

Jan 2, 1921

By Shiou-Chuan Sun, R. F. Wesner, J. D. Morgan

A new apparatus termed a "distribution analyzer" is introduced to ascertain the optimum conditions of electrostatic separation of minerals. It was found that with similar surface condition, testing environment and a constant feed rate of not higher than one layer of particles fed on the grounded roll of the separator, the behavior of each component mineral in a synthetic mixture or ore is roughly similar to that of the same mineral when tested alone.

Jan 3, 1950

By H. A. Kuhn

The Pittsburgh coal field in Western Pennsylvania is conceded to be the most important in the world.

Jan 1, 1915

By Charles L. Elliot

Worldwide manpower utilization reached a new high at 10,482 professional man-months and expenditures increased to $19.9 million for mining geophysical activity during 1965. This is up from 9323 man-months and $14.5 million in 1964. Worldwide geophysical activity measured in percent distribution of the total manpower utilization and expenditures is presented in the accompanying Figs. 1 and 2. In terms of the total manpower utilization, ground surveys accounted for 61%, airborne surveys 18%, and mining geophysical research activity 21%. For expenditures, the breakdown was ground surveys, 49%; airborne surveys, 3901o; and research, 12%. Industry was responsible in general for 74% of the manpower utilization and 80% of the expenditures. Manpower costs in 1965 averaged $1900 per professional man-month.

Jan 11, 1966

By E. V. Given

Designing a tailing dam is a major step toward fully integrated mill operation. In the case of large concentrators considerable planning is necessary, and the site of the tailing disposal area may very well dictate the location of the concentrator itself. Before a suitable location can be selected several pertinent factors should be investigated: estimated life expectancy of the mine and, if possible, approximate total tonnage; knowledge of daily mill capacity; and the possibility of future mill expansion. In addition, the area should be able to store tailing for many years and, from a cost and maintenance stand- point, gravity flow will probably be desired.

Jan 7, 1959

By Carl Henrich

In the winter of 1895 to 1896, during the construction of the Jackson and Cincinnati railroad, running from Addison, Lenawee county, Mich., to Jackson, Mich., in a northerly direction, I had occasion to observe some interesting geological features, described below, in a cut of this railroad made through the low ridge of gravel and sand, dividing the valley of Silver Lake and Silver Creek from the Goose Lake and Goose Creek valley, in Lenawee county. The surface-deposits of this part of the county are, as is well known, of glacial origin. Gently rounded, long ridges of sand, gravel and clay intervene between the marshy bottoms and the lakes of the valleys. The nature of the deposits, varying from a sandy clay or clayey sand to fine and coarse gravel and pure siliceous sand on the one hand, and to a very tough, fine, uniform and often indurated clay on the other, as well as the irregular and sudden changes, sharply divided, between these materials composing the ridges, in the cuts made through them by the railroad, would admit of no doubt that this country owes its present surface-configuration primarily to the action of the last glacial period, which covered its surface with an immense ice-sheet. The well-known ice-markings on the huge granite, schist, greenstone and conglomerate boulders found everywhere imbedded and protruding from the surface, add their testimony to the other characteristics mentioned. Most of the cuts made by the railway through the ridges showed in a marked degree the irregular arrangement and the sudden changes of and between the materials mentioned above. One cut, however, known as Kelly's cut, or Kelly's gravelpit, about 4 1/2 miles north of Addison, and about 1 1/2 miles south

Jan 1, 1897

By K. D. Eigenbrod

A case history is presented of a landslide that occurred adjacent to a highway in the valley of the North Saskatchewan River, about 12 miles upstream of Edmonton, Alberta. The slide took place in the late fall of 1965 following excavations associated with highway improvements that deepened the slope and cut it back to 20º. The slide occurred in the Upper Cretaceous Edmonton Formation. Till covers the bedrock at the location. The bedrock consists of interbedded mudstone, claystone, and sandstone with layers of bentonite and coal. The field investigation consisted of a series of pits at the toe of the slide and seven boreholes around it. Undisturbed samples were taken with a Pitcher Sampler and piezometers were installed at various depths in the section. The slide had taken place on a horizontal bentonitic clay layer and it crossed softened mudstone in the back slope. Three piezometric levels were detected but no water pressures were found along the horizontal portion of the slip surface because it was in contact with a free-draining coal layer. Borehole evidence revealed that the bentonitic clay layer was sheared in place beyond the confines of the slide zone. Although this slide was a first-time occurrence, it was part of a much larger slide block that moved presumably when the valley was being formed. Laboratory tests were carried out to determine the shear strength parameters of the bentonitic clay and the back slope material. These parameters together with the observed water pressure distribution in the slide area gave a factor of safety of 1.01 in a non-circular limiting equilibrium analysis. The case history is particularly instructive in indicating the care that must be taken to obtain representative information for stability analysis when geological and groundwater conditions are non-uniform. The origin of the sheared clay is discussed.

Jan 1, 1972

By John S. Sumner

The various electrode arrangements used in induced polarization (IP) surveying can be classified according to the geometry of the electric field being measured. The simplest geometry (Wenner, Schlumberger, gradient) is the parallel or plane-wave electric field, while the three-array and pole-dipole array measure the field about a point current electrode. In the dipole-dipole array the characteristics of a dipolar field are approximately measured. The drill hole arrays employ variations of these fundamental geometries, depending on the objectives of the survey. This report compares the relative advantages and disadvantages of each of the commonly used surface and drill hole IP electrode arrays. Factors of each array that are considered are signal-to-noise ratio, EM coupling rejection, speed and cost, and resolution of polarizable bodies. It is concluded that certain arrays are better suited for different exploration objectives and for different geological conditions. Also the type and capabilities of the IP surveying equipment and method limit the choice of arrays.

Jan 1, 1973

By Sherwin F. Kelly

PLAIN mining engineers usually avoid any gathering of geo¬physicists because of the incomprehensibility of their discussion to the uninitiated. This being so, gradients, gravity and gammas will be deferred to the end of this review, the first part of which will be devoted to what has been done in applying geophysics to the solution of real field problems. From the West, J. J. Jakosky reports that International Geophysics has had its activities fairly well 'divided between mining (both placer and lode), oil structural work, and clans-site and reservoir investigations. In oil exploration, electrical methods are used for depths down to 2500 ft., beyond which they utilize seismic methods. They find in their placer work that the many 'magnetic anomalies encountered in the bedrock of the Southwest render the electrical techniques more satisfactory, and with them they are obtaining thickness and tonnage of gravels, depth to and contour of the underlying bedrock as well as important structural features therein, and water-table elevations.

Jan 1, 1934

By S. H. Ash

Foreman remains key man in any safety program, as men attracted to the industry must be trained in safety thinking. Diesel engines underground aid safety and widespread use of roof bolting is reflected in reduction of roof-fall fatalities.

Jan 2, 1953

In March 1956 a conference on geochemical methods of prospecting for ore deposits was held in Moscow. This conference was the culmination of a ten-year period of extremely rapid increase in both research and routine application of geochemical prospecting methods in the USSR. This activity was divided among groups centered in extremely widely separated bases of operation, ranging from Moscow and Leningrad in the West, Yerevan in the Caucasus, and Alma-Ata in Central Asia to Chita near the Manchurian frontier in the Far-East. The All-Union Conference on Geochemical Methods of Prospecting for Ore Deposits, as the meeting was called, was the first opportunity for these scientists from many parts of the country to meet and exchange experiences. It also served to introduce members of the different research laboratories located in the city of Moscow itself, where adequate channels of technical communication had not yet been established. As a result of the Conference, it was resolved that a concerted effort should be made for the participants to publish the results of their work. Two books have appeared as a direct response to this resolution. I. I. Ginzburg prepared a synthesis of the field of geochemical prospecting for minerals based on the material presented at the Conference. This volume has been translated into English and is now available. In addition, the individual papers presented at the Conference were assembled into a symposium volume and published in 1957 under the editorship of V. I. Krasnikov. Unless otherwise noted, these two books have supplied the source material for the present appraisal of the status of geochemical prospecting in the USSR. It is thus about four to five years old. In the years following the conference, the literature has carried a substantial volume of technical papers, together with a few monographs pertaining to specialized aspects of geochemical prospecting.

Jan 6, 1960

By Ancel St. John

AT THE New York meeting of the Institute of Metals Division in February, 1927, Jeffries and Tarasov presented a paper on Tungsten and Thoria,1 in which the experimental facts were interpreted in accordance with the prevailing point of view that the thorium is present as the oxide, thoria. In discussing that paper the writer of this article stated that his own investigations, which had been unavailable to Messrs. Jeffries and Tarasov, showed that the so-called "thoriated" tungsten filament failed to disclose any sign of the oxide when subjected to X-ray diffraction analysis, but did give plenty of evidence of the presence of metallic thorium and, in certain cases, of a material believed to be an alloy of tungsten in thorium. Since these results were completely at variance with the results reported in the paper under discussion and with other papers which had preceded it from time to time in the past, it was felt that further discussion should be withheld until the new evidence could be presented adequately. Arrangements were therefore made to present that evidence at this meeting. MATERIAL EXAMINED The material examined was high-emission filament such as is used in radio tubes, supposed to contain about 0.75 per cent. thoria. The actual analysis was not stated. SCOPE OF THE INVESTIGATION The investigation was undertaken because of a feeling that the thorium present in filamentary material of this type exists as metallic thorium or as an alloy of thorium and tungsten and not as the oxide. Attention was therefore directed to determining: 1. The minimum amount of thoria detectible in a mechanical mixture of thoria powder and finely divided tungsten. 2. The amount of thoria detectible in the filament. 3. The condition of any thorium present in other form than as thoria. 4. The amount of thorium dissolved in the tungsten.

Jan 1, 1928

By W. G. Woolnough

Production of oil in Australia is negligible at present. A very small quantity of crude is being recovered from lean pumpers in Victoria, and a little activity is evidenced in Queensland, where two new wells were sunk during 1934. One of these, at Warooby Creek near Roma, obtained a noteworthy gas flow, but no oil production has been recorded. Geological investigation is going on in Western Australia, but no drilling activity is apparent. The "boom" in oil prospecting came to an end when the wave of depression swept over the country, and the investing public turned its attention actively towards gold. There is great activity in gold prospecting at present. I still maintain as strongly as ever that the prospects of obtaining flow oil in Queensland, Western Australia and Victoria are good, and that really scientific methods must ultimately succeed. Active and excellent geological work is being carried out in the Mandated Territory of New Guinea, and it is reported that drilling is likely to be undertaken next year. Matters in Papua are at a standstill. The question of extraction of oil from the oil shales of New South Wales and Tasmania is perennially active, and attempts to exploit this source commercially are renewed from time to time. Hydrogenation of coal is also receiving a good deal of attention.

Jan 1, 1935

By N. C. Gay, P. J. Van Der Veever

The Klerksdorp gold mining district, South Africa, experiences a relatively high level of seismicity with many seismic events of magnitude greater than 4. These large events appear to have foci close to fault planes, most of which displace the strata by several hundred metres over a wide area. To help understand the mechanism of these large mining- associated seismic events, in situ stress measurements were made at 4 sites using "CSIR doorstopper" strain relief techniques. The sites were chosen close to, or some distance from fault planes and other structures. The results show that at all 4 sites a relatively large horizontal stress is oriented approximately north- west. The magnitude of this stress ranges from 0,78-1,O of the vertical stress. A marked horizontal stress anisotropy, varying from 13-30 MPa is also present. The dominant structural features are large, north-east striking normal faults which extend across the entire length of the goldfield. Displacements across these faults vary from a few centimetres to several hundred metres. Bedding plane faults across which large displacements may occur are also common as are north and north-west striking dykes. The majority of the faults strike at approximately 90º to the maximum horizontal stress and at all sites a large compressive stress plunges in the direction of dip of the strata and fault planes. Thus a significant shear stress may act across suitably oriented planes causing them to be in a state of potentially unstable equilibrium. This abnormal stress situation would exist along the entire length of the fault

Jan 1, 1982

By Henry S. Brown, Jean E. Tilden

Pyrite, pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite, and sphalerite from deposits distributed within the Piedmont and Blue Ridge provinces of North Carolina and adjacent areas were examined by atomic absorption spectrophotometry for cobalt, nickel, manganese, lead, tin, chromium, molybdenum, and gold. The ore samples were also examined petrographically. Cobalt and nickel, in general, enter pyrite and pyrrhotite rather than chalcopyrite and sphalerite. Manganese generally enters sphalerite rather than the other phases where an alternative is possible. The presence of tin in sulfide minerals was noted in a group of deposits east of the known occurrences of tin oxide (cassiterite) in the Kings Mountain belt, which may indicate the presence of a more extensive tin belt in the southeastern Piedmont than was previously recognized. Pyrrhotite from a group of four deposits in Jackson and Clay Counties, North Carolina, differs from pyrrhotite from other Ducktown-type deposits in having cobalt/ nickel ratios less than one, finer grain sizes, and colloform texture. These differences suggest that that this group of deposits has had a history different from that of the other Ducktown-type deposits studied. No significant conclusions could be made based on the distribution of lead, chromium, molybdenum, or gold.

Jan 1, 1975

By A. M. Nicholas

WHEN attempting to lift mill pulp containing a considerable percentage of wolframite, in an ordinary bucket elevator, difficulty was encountered from the tendency of the tungsten minerals to settle, on account of their high specific gravity. Lifts not exceeding 20 ft. (6m.) could be accomplished without particular difficulty, because there was insufficient time for consolidation of the heavy minerals in the bottom of the bucket; but with higher lifts, the heavy tungsten minerals would settle so solidly that when the bucket turned over at the top of the elevator the contents could be only partially dumped. In this case it ,was necessary to lift the material a distance of 34 ft. (10m.); hence some means had to be adopted to prevent settling, at least to such an extent that the material could be dumped from the buckets. To reduce the carrying time to a sufficient extent would have required a belt speed of 475 ft. (144.7m.) per minute, which was not feasible. It was decided to try, by vibrating the belt about midway of its span, to keel) the material sufficiently agitated during elevation to prevent settling. Underneath the rising side of the belt was placed a 12-in. (30.48-cm.) idler pulley, 18 ft.-(5.5 in.) up in the total lift of 34 ft. The idler pulley was set eccentric by 3/4 in. (19 mm.) and it was hoped that the vibration thus imparted to the belt, running at a speed of 280 ft. (85 m.) per minute, would prevent settling in the buckets. It was found that the pressure of the belt on the idler, due to the small inclination of the elevator, was not sufficient to overcome sliding on the idler, and the agitation was insufficient to accomplish the desired purpose. The idler was then connected to the drive shaft of the elevator through an intermediate pulley, gearing down to a speed of 20 r.p.m., so that a positive vibration was imparted to the belt; this imparted enough motion to the belt to prevent settling and the contents of buckets clumped satisfactorily.

Jan 2, 1918