Search Documents

By H. L. Hinds, L. L. Trautman

The refining of precious metals from steel wool cathodes is completed by direct fire smelting or acid treatment of the cathodes to dissolve the steel wool followed by fire smelting. To further the refining of the cathodes, the Miller process and the Wohlwill process are used.

Jan 1, 1984

By Oliver Bowles

AMONG mining men as well as in the popular mind the conviction has held sway that mining is pre-eminently a western industry. True it is that gold, silver, copper and other metals have made the States of California, Colorado, Montana, Utah. Nevada and Arizona famous. The prominence attained by these States as mineral producers is, however, not measured alone by the money value of the products of their mines. While the metals are without doubt indispensable in industry, the glamour of the precious metals, and the lure of copper, lead and zinc have given to their ore deposits a sentimental interest that often quite out-weighs their commercial importance. Today a great group of more commonplace minerals are finding a place in commerce and industry rivaling that of the metals, but there is little sentiment attached to them, and,. therefore, they attain relatively little publicity. This is the great group of the non-metallic minerals, exclusive of fuels and oils, including stone, sand and gravel, cement, lime, gypsum, asbestos, mica, phos-phate rock and many others. Almost unnoticed they have grown in production to almost unbelievable pro-portions. The estimated value of metal production for 1925 is given as $1,380,000,000, of the non-metals (ex-cluding fuels) $1,294,000,000. The non-metallic industries are not new, many of them date back almost to pre-historic times; but, as the greatest of them (on a tonnage basis) provides raw materials for the construction industries, it required the activities of the present age of construction to bring about their enormous development. Many of them enter manufacturing as well as con-struction. Non-metallic minerals constitute the back-bone of our great chemical industries. While construction and manufacture reach to all parts of the country their widest development has been in the great industrial centers of the eastern Seaboard and the middle West. Consequently the raw materials of mineral origin required for these great industries have attained a remarkable growth in the eastern half of the- United States. In compiling figures of mineral production for 1924, for which more complete data are available than for later years, the surprising fact is brought to light that the non-metallic mineral produc-tion alone of some of the eastern and middle-western States exceeds by a substantial margin the total min-eral production of some of the western States that have been classed as essentially mining States. Thus the non-metallic mineral production, exclusive of coal and petroleum, of the State of Ohio, was approximately $150,000,000; of Pennsylvania $175,000,000; and of New York $107,000,000. For the same year, 1924, the total mineral production of Utah was $84,357,000; of Montana $70,632,000; of Colorado $61,488,000; and of Nevada only $26,226,000. Even Minnesota, with its enormous iron ore production, reached only $107,845,-000, or a sum about equivalent to the non-metallic min-eral production of the State of New York.

Jan 8, 1927

By R. A. Greenkorn, R. C. Smith

Hele-Shaw cells are used to model creeping flow through porous media (where Darcy&apos;s law is valid). The effects of inertia on flow about obstructions in a Hele-Shaw cell can be calculated by a perturbation method if one can determine a solution to Laplace&apos;s equation. Results of a computer solution for flow about circular, square and elliptical obstructions are presented. These results show that or a modified Reynolds number of less than I, the inertia terms are small; and for values of less than 3, the average streamline predicts the ideal flow. Therefore, the analogy might be used for studying flow in porous media up to a modified Reynolds number of at least 3. INTRODUCTION The nature of fluid flow in porous media is of interest in the fields of soil mechanics, ground water flow, petroleum production, filtration and flow in packed beds. Because it is very difficult to study the phenomenological behavior of flow in porous media, homologs and analogs are used to study flow characteristics. A Hele-Shaw model, made of two closely spaced plates - usually glass — is often used as an analogy to two-dimensional flow in porous media. Hele-Shaw2 showed experimentally that the streamline configuration for creeping flow around an obstacle located between two closely spaced parallel plates is the same as for two-dimensional, ideal flow about the same obstacle. Stokes7 verified these observations mathematically. The usual equation of motion for flow in porous media is Darcy&apos;s law. The form of the mathematical statement of Darcy&apos;s law is identical, within a multiplicative constant, to the expression for the average velocity over the plate gap in the plane of a Hele-Shaw model. These models may be used to describe flow in both homogeneous and heterogeneous porous media. In the mathematical proof of the Hele-Shaw analogy it is assumed that the convective terms in the Navier-Stokes equations are negligible and that the equations of motion degenerate to Laplace&apos;s equation, with pressure the dependent variable. Whenever a Hele-Shaw model is used as an analogy to flow in porous media, .the validity of this assumption is in question. Riegels5 showed that if convection is not neglected, the velocity distribution around a cylindrical obstruction in the flow field depends on a Reynolds number, the plate spacing, and a dimension characteristic of the obstacle. Riegels&apos; solution, a perturbation solution, uses the boundary condition that the flow rate into the obstacle averaged over the plate gap at any point on the obstacle is zero. The method requires that a solution to Poisson&apos;s equation for the perturbation pressure be found. Riegels evaluated this solution for the case of the cylindrical obstruction. His method may be simplified by eliminating the need for solving Poisson&apos;s equation for the perturbation pressure. Instead, an analytic expression for the perturbation pressure gradient is obtained (valid for arbitrary shapes) and used to eliminate pressure from the equations for the perturbation velocities. The results show, for symmetrical shapes, that if NRe < 1, the convective acceleration terms are small, and that the average velocities represent ideal flow up to at least NRe = 3, where: L is a characteristic dimension of the obstacle perpendicular to flow, b is the plate spacing, u is viscosity, v, is velocity of approach and p is density. THEORY* Incompressible fluid flow through a Hele-Shaw model and a porous medium are analogous because the equations for the average velocity components in two-dimensional flow are identical if:

Jan 1, 1970

By Oscar Kuchs

IN January and February of the current year, at the Tooele plant of the International Smelting Co., Tooele, Utah, a modification of the usual method of converting, for the treatment of copper-lead matte from lead blast- furnaces, was developed and put into successful operation. In brief, the method consists in blowing molten matte direct from the blast furnaces in basic-lined converters, without the addition of siliceous fluxing ores, to the almost complete elimination of the lead contained, and to the production of copper bullion, the resulting lead fume being recovered by the filtration of the converter gases through woolen fume bags. The process is carried out in conjunction with the converting of reverberatory copper matte, the heavy iron slag, together with the copper precipitated, being transferred to converters blowing copper matte. The purpose of this transfer is to reduce the copper oxide formed, due to the necessary overblowing of the lead-matte charge, and to utilize, as far as possible, the value of iron from the lead matte, for the fluxing of siliceous dry ores. The final slag from the copper converters is then skimmed off and transferred molten to a reverberatory smelting furnace treating copper ores. This variation from general converting practice was the outgrowth of results obtained during 1913 when it was endeavored to convert copper-lead matte in the usual manner, with the direct addition of siliceous fluxing ores. To make clear the reasons lying back of the process it is necessary to recount at some length the results of operations during that year. In the design of the lead plant it was planned to treat the copper-lead matte from the furnaces by direct converting without reconcentration and thereby to recover the copper, silver, and gold as quickly as possible. A converter plant of ample capacity, treating copper matte, already being in operation, it was only necessary: to install a bag house, a fan, and the necessary flues to complete the equipment.

Jan 7, 1914

By Lennart Wellenius

LAISVALL - ONE OF THE BOLIDEN MINES Until the Aitik Mine (2,000,000 mtpy) started in 1968 the Laisvall Mine (1,200,000 mtpy) was the biggest unit of about 20 producing mines, belonging to the Boliden Company Ltd. As shown in Fig. 1 the mines are spread over a wide area. Most of them are small complex ore mines (50,000 - 300,000 mtpy), for which reason the total mine production does not exceed 5,500,000 mtpy. When our company was invited to present a paper, Laisvall was chosen because it is the biggest European galena-mine in production today. The Laisvall Mine is situated in the county of Norrbotten, Sweden, at the eastern border of the Caledonian mountain-chain. The road distance to Slagnäs, the nearest railway station, is 60 miles. The railway between Slagnäs and BOLIDEN&apos;s smelting plant, the Rönnskär Works, is 140 miles long. PRODUCTION STARTED IN 1943 In the Autumn of 1938 a boulder was discovered, consisting of sandstone with galena, on the shore of the Lake Stor-Laisan. The boulder came from an Eocambrian sandstone formation, which is overlain by Cambrian-Silurian rock.

Jan 1, 1970

By AIME AIME

ABOUT 55 attended the general session of the Nonferrous Metallurgy Committee on Wednesday afternoon. In opening the proceedings the Chairman, Frank G. Breyer, served notice of his intention to make an early start this year in securing papers for his committee. He voiced the thought that more importance should be attached to the prompt publication of data on new advances in practice; the record of technical progress should be written before the sharpness of the current image becomes blurred by the veil of time. As an illustration, Mr. Breyer declared that great strides have been made in the zinc industry during the past nine years, whereby zinc ore is converted directly to the oxide in large mechanical furnaces, yet the literature is confined to patents.

Jan 1, 1933

By S. Suphi Yavasca, A. M. Gaudin

This paper is intended as a contribution to our knowledge of the mechanism of comminution and of the work of crushing. In a previous paper1 it was shown that with quartz comminution proceeds as follows: 1. The size distribution of broken fragments made by a single fracture is such that the new surface on each grade is the same. 2. Multiple fracturing results in a size distribution such that in the he sizes the surface per grade is the same in every grade; in coarse sizes the surface per grade decreases gradually with increasing size. In that paper it was mentioned that determinations on minerals other than quartz were in course of completion in order to establish the generality of these observations. In this paper, condensed data1 are presented for galena, pyrite and glass. Galena and pyrite are crystalline materials and glass is noncrystalline. Galena has excellent cubic cleavage. Pyrite, although cubical, does not have marked cleavage. Quartz, on which the original determinations were made, does not cleave and although crystalline (hexagonal) breaks conchoidally. Glass breaks much like quartz. It is apparent, therefore, that the minerals selected represent some range in character of the solid without covering all possible types. Glass Fifteen glass marbles were crushed individually in the pendulum crusher described in the preceding paper,&apos; then subjected to careful screening for 30 min. Six sized fractions were selected and cleaned in a hot 0.12 N solution of hydrochloric acid, washed with distilled water and dried on a hot plate. This was followed by an examination with a binocular microscope, to remove foreign matters not eliminated in cleaning as well as to eliminate "compacts" of fine particles. These compacts are groups of he irag-ments that seem to be mechanically stuck together as a result of localized compacting during the comminution operation. The presence and the abundance of these compacts may be related to the amount and direction of the forces applied in different crushing devices. Since, properly, such compacts should be entirely eliminated in the sizing analyses, it is necessary to remove them to the last before making surface determinations on sized fractions. For example, with a — 28 + 35-mesh glass the surface areas of two samples, one cleaned with acid and under the binocular, the other only washed, were 102 and 172. cm&apos; per gram, respectively. Examination of the samples under an Ultropak microscope showed that washing alone failed to remove the compacts and also that it fails to remove certain fine dusts attached to the particles. Cleaning with acid loosens the fine dusts and

Jan 1, 1947

By S. Suphi Yavasca, A. M. Gaudin

This paper is intended as a contribution to our knowledge of the mechanism of comminution and of the work of crushing. In a previous paper1 it was shown that with quartz comminution proceeds as follows: 1. The size distribution of broken fragments made by a single fracture is such that the new surface on each grade is the same. 2. Multiple fracturing results in a size distribution such that in the he sizes the surface per grade is the same in every grade; in coarse sizes the surface per grade decreases gradually with increasing size. In that paper it was mentioned that determinations on minerals other than quartz were in course of completion in order to establish the generality of these observations. In this paper, condensed data1 are presented for galena, pyrite and glass. Galena and pyrite are crystalline materials and glass is noncrystalline. Galena has excellent cubic cleavage. Pyrite, although cubical, does not have marked cleavage. Quartz, on which the original determinations were made, does not cleave and although crystalline (hexagonal) breaks conchoidally. Glass breaks much like quartz. It is apparent, therefore, that the minerals selected represent some range in character of the solid without covering all possible types. Glass Fifteen glass marbles were crushed individually in the pendulum crusher described in the preceding paper,&apos; then subjected to careful screening for 30 min. Six sized fractions were selected and cleaned in a hot 0.12 N solution of hydrochloric acid, washed with distilled water and dried on a hot plate. This was followed by an examination with a binocular microscope, to remove foreign matters not eliminated in cleaning as well as to eliminate "compacts" of fine particles. These compacts are groups of he irag-ments that seem to be mechanically stuck together as a result of localized compacting during the comminution operation. The presence and the abundance of these compacts may be related to the amount and direction of the forces applied in different crushing devices. Since, properly, such compacts should be entirely eliminated in the sizing analyses, it is necessary to remove them to the last before making surface determinations on sized fractions. For example, with a — 28 + 35-mesh glass the surface areas of two samples, one cleaned with acid and under the binocular, the other only washed, were 102 and 172. cm&apos; per gram, respectively. Examination of the samples under an Ultropak microscope showed that washing alone failed to remove the compacts and also that it fails to remove certain fine dusts attached to the particles. Cleaning with acid loosens the fine dusts and

Jan 1, 1947

By Roswell Johnson

PENNSYLVANIA will be remembered, as long as oil is produced, as the cradle of the industry of petroleum in North America. It was on Oil Creek, near Titusville, Venango Co., .that Cola Edwin L. Drake, superintendent for the Seneca Oil Co., brought in the first commercial oil well on Aug. 28, 1859. Great difficulty was experienced in getting the well down to the producing depth of 69 ft. (21 m.) with the spring-pole system then in vogue for punching shallow water wells, so the novel expedient of driving an iron tube through the surface clays and quicksand was finally resorted to. The well had an initial yield of 25 bbl. a day on the pump, but soon went off, though 2000 bbl. were produced by the end of the year. With the Drake well a success, a young industry sprang into being, the rapid growth of which has been second to none in the country and the value of whose product is only surpassed by that of coal. For years the only producing territory, the Pennsylvania-New York field attained its greatest production in 1891, when the bringing in of the McDonald pool, between Pittsburgh and the West Virginia line, gave a total of over 33,000,000 bbl. At present the field, combined with West Vir-ginia and southeast Ohio, gives 25,000,000 barrels. GEOLOGY AND STRATIGRAPHY In general, the Appalachian field is a huge geosyncline, the axis of which runs roughly northeast-southwest, from north of the New York state line south through Brookeville, Kittanning, Pittsburgh, Washington, through the southwest corner of the state of Pennsylvania into West Virginia. Minor folding has accompanied or followed the dominant fold of the field, and it is from these structures near the Pennsylvania-West Virginia line and their influence on the accumulation of oil and gas that I. C. White, state geologist of West Virginia, obtained his evidence for anticlinal guidance of prospecting.

Jan 2, 1920

By S. Suphi Yavasca, A. M. Gaudin

THIS paper is intended as a contribution to our knowledge of the mechanism of comminution and of the work of crushing. In a previous paper&apos; it was shown that with quartz comminution proceeds as follows I. The size distribution of broken fragments made by a single fracture is such that the new surface on each grade is the same. 2. Multiple fracturing results in a size distribution such that in the fine sizes the surface per grade is the same in every grade; in coarse sizes the surface per grade decreases gradually with increasing size. In that paper it was mentioned that determinations on minerals other than quartz were in course of completion in order to establish the generality of these observations. In this paper, condensed data2 are presented for galena, pyrite and glass. Galena and pyrite are crystalline material and glass is noncrystalline. Galena has excellent cubic cleavage. Pyrite, although cubical, does not have marked cleavage. Quartz, on which the original determinations were made, does not cleave and although crystalline (hexagonal) breaks conchoidally. Glass breaks much like quartz. It is apparent, therefore, that the minerals selected represent some range in character of the solid without covering all possible types. GLASS Fifteen glass marbles were crushed individually in the pendulum crusher described in the preceding paper,1 then subjected to careful screening for 30 min. Six sized fractions were selected and cleaned in a hot 0.12 N solution of hydrochloric acid, washed with distilled water and dried on a hot plate. This was followed by an examination with a binocular microscope, to remove foreign matters not eliminated in cleaning as well as to eliminate "compacts" of fine particles. These compacts are groups of fine iragments that seem to be mechanically stuck together as a result of localized compacting during the comminution operation. The presence and the abundance of these compacts may be related to the amount and direction of the forces applied in different crushing devices. Since, properly, such compacts should be entirely eliminated in the sizing analyses, it is necessary to remove them to the last before making surface determinations on sized fractions. For example, with a - 28 + 35-mesh glass the surface areas of two samples, one cleaned with acid and under the binocular, the other only washed, were 102 and 172 sq. cm. per gram, respectively. Examination of the samples under an Ultropak microscope showed that washing alone failed to remove the compacts and also that it fails to remove certain fine dusts attached to the particles. Cleaning with acid loosens the fine dusts and

Jan 1, 1945

By A. L. Holley

THOSE who are familiar with working gas furnaces will perhaps admit that the ordinary producer is the least satisfactory feature of the- whole system, chiefly by reason of its great waste of fuel, both above and below the fire. The waste of fuel in cleaning the fire has not, as far as I am aware, been carefully measured ; it has been roughly estimated at various works as averaging twenty per cent. to twenty-five per cent. The coke that falls into the ash-pit is largely mixed, if not stuck together with clinker; when this coke is not recovered and utilized (and where coal is cheap it does not pay to recover it), the waste is certainly as high as above estimated. Cleaning a fire on a grate (especially a fire of dirty coal, like much of our Western coal), by inserting a few temporary grate-bars, then withdrawing the regular grate-bars and letting the whole lower part of the fire tumble into the ash-pit, must necessarily be wasteful of fuel, but it has been found to be the most practical system. The fire under a boiler should be thin, to insure perfect combustion; hence it may be moved from one side to the other, so that .the clinker and ashes may be uncovered and removed. But a producer fire should be so thick that carbonic oxide only shall rise from it ; a thick fire cannot be thus manipulated. In several of the French works the ordinary producer without grates is employed ; the whole body of the fire rests on the floor of the ash-pit. It did not seem to me that less fuel was wasted here than with grates in cleaning fires. The bottom layer of the fire had to be drawn out with hooks, and there was nothing to prevent much coke from coming away with the clinker and ash. A producer shaped like a cupola furnace has many advantages, but if grates are employed the waste of coke in cleaning is not lessened. But the waste at the bottom of the fire is only a part of the waste in the ordinary producer. Mr. Emmerton, chemist to the Joliet Iron and Steel Company, has lately made a number of gas analyses from the producers of that company, worked with impure Illinois

Jan 1, 1880

By R. V. Ramani, R. M. Mishra, Y. J. Wang

The validity of the concept of mine resistance in ventilation systems is examined. Mine resistance is the proportionality constant relating the head generated by a fan and the quantity flowing through it when the fan is connected to a mine circuit. It is the total effect of all branches in the mine ventilation circuit. Its importance lies in the fact that for new mine projections, and in the extensions of existing mines, ventilation calculations are usually based upon adjustments of the mine resistance. In ventilation circuits with regulation, and/or with multi-fans, simple adjustments of the mine resistance curve do not lead to correct solution. A ventilation system consists of several interconnected subsystems where one subsystem behavior affects that of the others, and the total system. Through a series of simple but realistic examples, the authors demonstrate the importance of the systems concept in mine ventilation, and its practical application to coal mine ventilation planning. Starting from an initial system with no leakage and one fan, more complex ventilation networks with several leakages, sections and fans, are analyzed to show that ventilation system design on the basis of total systems approach is the correct procedure.

Jan 1, 1979

By Philip Henry

THERE is a difference of opinion among engineers on the subject of depreciation in general, and still more on its application to any given case. The committee which was appointed by the American Society of Civil Engineers to make a report on Valuation of Public Utilities, states "There is no subject connected with valuation about which there are more diverse views than those relating to depreciation;" and in the discussion which took place upon the presentation of the preliminary report of this committee in January, 1914, that part of the report dealing with depreciation called forth more discussion than any other. From this discussion it was evident that the word " depreciation" was not always used in the same sense, so it is quite important that some definition be adopted. As this paper relates to the proper method of treating depreciation by corporations or individuals operating oil properties, both of which must make a return of annual net income to the government in connection with the income tax, it will be in order to adopt the definition of the Internal Revenue Bureau. Under date of Mar. 29, 1910, the Commissioner of Internal Revenue of the Treasury Department stated "Deduction on account of depreciation of property must be based on lifetime of property, its cost, value and use." Again, on Form 1035, "Return of Annual Net Income" for miscellaneous corporations (Section 2, Act of Congress approved Oct. 3, 1913), a deduction from gross income is allowed for "Total amount of depreciation for the year." This item is defined more particularly as follows: "The amount claimed under Item No. 5 (b) for depreciation should be such an amount as measures the loss which the corporation actually sustains during the year in the value of buildings, machinery, and such other property as is subject to depreciation on account of wear and tear, exhaustion, or obsolescence. The amount taken credit for on this account in order to be allowable should be so entered on the books as to constitute a liability against the assets of the corporation. The amount claimed under this item should not cover losses in the value of stocks and bonds. Decrease in the book value of securities owned, so far as such decrease represents a decline in the actual value of such securities, should be deducted under item 5 (a) of the return.

Jan 1, 1915

By J. A. Jaekel, W. C. Aitkenhead

Uranium deposits in the Spokane Indian Reservation, as well as those around Mt. Spokane, are essentially low grade, much of the ore containing less than 0.2 pct U3O8. The Mining Experiment Station of the Division of Industrial Research, State College of Washington, has been engaged in intensive research on the amenability of these low grade ores to froth flotation. The results: successful flotation of autinite, chief mineral constituent. At the outset of this work the goal was a concentrate of 1 pct U3O8 with a 90 pct recovery from ores containing less than 0.2 pct U3O8. Most of the work has been done on argillite ore from the Midnight mine on the Spokane Indian Reservation. The goal has not been attained using this ore, but samples of the granite ore from Mt. Spokane yielded successful results. For example, a concentrate containing 11.2 pcl U3O8 was produced from a Mt. Spokane high grade ore containing 1.27 pct U3O8 with a recovery of 97.8 pct. Another Mt. Spokane ore yielded a concentrate of 5.0 pct U3O8 from an ore containing 0.13 pct U3O8. with a recovery of 85 pct. This same ore gave a recovery of 93.5 pct when the grade of concentrate was reduced to 2.0 pct. It has been concluded that a successful method for floating autunite has been developed and that the mediocre results from the Midnight argillite ore are probably caused by the presence of some other uranium mineral or minerals less amenable to these reagents. The experimenters tested a third type of Washington ore, found on the Northwest Uranium Mines Inc. property on the Spokane Indian Reservation. This is a conglomerate of pebbles and small boulders of partially decomposed granite and is shot through with autunite. Its characteristics lie between those of the Midnight ore and the granite ore from the Spokane district. It responds better than the ore from Midnight but not as well as that from Mt. Spokane. As the fatty acids are the only type of collectors showing promise, investigation has been concerned with these acids and the optimum conditions for their use. The first method for treating the argillite ore from the Spokane Indian Reservation made use of Cyanamid&apos;s R-708 as a collector, a tall oil product described as a substitute for oleic acid. Although the investigators proved that R-708 is a collector for autunite when mixtures of autunite and silica sand are used, results on the ore were mediocre. Tests of other fatty acids revealed that the solid fatty acids of the saturated series are collectors for autunite and that their collecting power increases with the length of the carbon chain. The even carbon members of the whole series were tested from the 10 carbon acid (capric) to the 22 carbon acid (be-henic). The least expensive collector, stearic acid (18 carbon), proved to be a good one, so this was used in most of the tests. In first attempts with stearic acid, the collector was dissolved in various hydrocarbons and the solutions were added to the flotation cell. Cyclohexane, gasoline, fuel oil, kerosene, and other solvents were tried. Small amounts of high grade concentrates could be brought up, but recoveries were low. Finally emulsions of stearic acid were tried. It was discovered that stearic acid alone has little collecting power except when conditioning is carried out at high temperature. When hydrocarbon solvents were also present, it proved to be an excellent collector. An example of one emulsion that proved satisfactory for some ores is given as follows: 1 part stearic acid by weight, 1 part sodium oleate by weight, 1.2 parts kerosene by weight, 100 parts water. In some successful tests part of the stearic acid was replaced by oleic acid. The emulsions were made by agitating the stearic acid and sodium oleate together with hot water, then adding the kerosene and agitating while cooling. In the five tests reported in Table 1, 650 g of ore were ground with 650 cc water in a laboratory rod mill. The pulp was filtered to eliminate excess water and the ground ore transferred to a stainless steel beaker for conditioning at high pulp density. In most of the tests sodium hydroxide was added to the conditioner during agitation, then the collector emulsion, and finally the sodium silicate. The amount of alkali was adjusted to give a pH of 8.5 to 9.0 in the flotation cell. After conditioning the pulp was transferred to a laboratory flotation cell and the test completed in a normal manner. It is interesting to note that a deposit of high grade concentrate forms on the conditioning agitator and in the conditioning vessel, and at times on the agitator of the flotation cell itself. A few grams of concentrate running as high as 4 pct U3O8 were recovered from the conditioner when Midnight ore containing less than 0.2 pct U3O8 was treated. In the examples given in Table I this conditioner concentrate is calculated as part of the total concentrate. The authors have not yet fully explored the possi-

Jan 1, 1960

By O. A. E. Jackson

Pebble milling has been practiced in the reduction works of South Africa gold mines for well over 50 years. Originally flint pebbles were imported from Denmark to grind stamp-mill amalgamation- process tailing, which contained a good deal of extractable gold, but local operators soon found that large pieces of ore could be used for the same purpose. The ore is a hard, tough conglomerate in which quartz pebbles are cemented together by a matrix of redeposited silica interspersed with pyrite crystals. The gold, rarely visible, occurs as fine particles mostly segregated at the interface of the pebble and matrix, although a small fraction occurs within the pyrite crystals. There is seldom any gold in the pebbles themselves.

Jan 11, 1959

By Louis Bender

AFTER investigating the work of coal-dust fired reverberatories of the Canadian Copper Co., at Copper Cliff, Ontario, the management of the Washoe Reduction Works decided to experiment with and ascertain the advantages of using coal dust as a fuel in their reverberatories. Consequently, during the month of June, 1914, reverberatory furnace No. 8 was changed in order to use powdered coal as a fuel. The results obtained by this method of firing are gratifying and show a decided saving in cost of smelting as compared to grate firing with lump coal. The furnace, as remodeled; is 124 ft. long by 21 ft. wide, and varies in height from 8 ft. 6 in. at the back end to 5 ft. 7 in. at the skimming end. The general construction of the furnace is similar to that of the other furnaces at this plant. There are no side doors to this furnace, as it was thought that with the present arrangement for feeding no "fettling" or "claying" would be required. The interior of the furnace can be inspected through the burner port holes, after shutting off the burners and giving a few seconds&apos; time for the gases inside the furnace to clear away. The charging is done on either side of the furnace from longitudinal hoppers, extending a distance of 74 ft. from the back end of the furnace. Leading from the hoppers into the furnace are 6-in. pipes, spaced 194 in. apart, through which the charge is intermittently dropped. The charge is kept well above the slag line at all times; in this way the side walls are protected and no fettling is needed on this portion of the furnace. The remainder of the furnace requires fettling. After operating for three months, we found that the bricks were eaten into along each side wall from the skimming door back to the point where the charge had been dropped. The depth of this cutting away was 8 in. close to the front end and gradually tapered to zero at a distance of 50 ft., and was greatest on the side of the furnace having the larger flue connection. Hoppers will be put in for the entire length of furnace, from which fettling material will be dropped, to prevent this cutting.

Jan 1, 1915

US 4,185,078-In the recovery of rhenium values from an aqueous sodium molybdate solution contained in the hydrometallurgical processing of roasted molybdenite, improved results are realized by using a described extractant consisting of a quaternary ammonium compound and benzene or other highly aromatic solvent which dissolves a quaternary ammonium-rhenium complex Essentially all rhenium is recovered from the solution and the extractant can be regenerated and recycled. This patent is a continuation-in-part of US Patent No. 4,049,771, dated Sept. 20, 1977. L R. Quatrini and M.B MacInnis, assigned to GTE Sylvania Inc. Jan 22, 1980. 6 pp (423-49). Flied. 7-19-78 (926,167).

Jan 1, 1982

By G. K. N. S. Subasinghe

An attempt has been made to explain the behavior of a pinched sluice in terms of the established theories of fluid mechanics and mineral processing. A method has been developed to calculate the underflow discharge by assuming a logarithmic velocity distribution and free gravity fall through the discharge slot. The concentration profile of solids over the depth of flow has been shown to comply with Bagnold&apos;s theory of dispersive shear, rather than turbulent sediment transfer. Even although the results can be explained qualitatively by the Bagnold theory, their complete quantitative analysis will not be possible until more work is done. Consequently, an empirical equation has been developed to predict underflow pulp densities. It has been shown that the process of the segregation of the heavier mineral beneath the lighter can be described by a first order law. From the results obtained, a computer model of the pinched sluice has been developed. This predicts the underflow grade, pulp density and flow rate in terms of the feed and operating conditions. The model can also be used to determine the effect of a change in operating conditions, and for the optimization of rougher, cleaner, and scavenger circuits.

Jan 1, 1984

(Under this heading will be published notes sent to the Secretary of the Institute by members or other persons.) The position of converter blower at a side-blow Bessemer steel casting plant is vacant. The State Legislature of Utah has provided for the establishment of a metallurgical research department at the State School of Mines, Salt Lake City. Applications will be received for, the position of head of this laboratory, and further details may be obtained by applying to Prof. Joseph F. Merrill, Director, University of Utah, Salt Lake City. An engineering company owning patents for improvements in steel manufacture which have been adopted at many works in America, desires. to secure the services of a technical iron and steel metallurgist as assistant to its chief metallurgical engineer.

Jan 6, 1913

By R. S. Handy

The No. 2 unit of the West Mill of the Bunker Hill & Sullivan Mining & Concentrating Co., which went into commission Apr. 17, 1912, is structurally a twin of the No. 1 unit, which was started Nov. 9, 1909. Up to the point where the ore enters the concentrating-de-partment, it follows precisely the process described by G. Cae-tani in his article entitled, Milling of Lead-Silver Ores,&apos; under the heading, Preparation of the Mill-Ore. The process from this point forward, in the No. 2 section, is outlined on the accompanying flow-sheet. In describing it I shall attempt to analyze the products of each separate process. The constancy of the tonnage and the uniformity of the quality of the feed render this practicable. No. 1.—550 tons of feed, all having passed 30 mm., is washed into two 15-mm. trommels, 4 ft, in diameter, 60 in. long, 17 rev. per min., 1 in. slope, 3/8-in. gauge steel.

Jan 1, 1913