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By Wilbur E. Sanders

At some period during the operation of metalliferous and other commercially valuable mineral-deposits in connection with their underground mining, when the developments therein have become so extensive that their description is tedious and confusing, some scheme for naming or numbering the various workings and their parts is necessary for convenience of reference. A simple and symmetrical yet expansive system of classification must be devised, one that is capable of being extended to cover all possible exigencies and conditions of future operations within the property. Such a scheme, properly arranged, greatly simplifies communication between the various departments of the mining business, as, for instance, between the administrative and the operating departments of the concern, and is of the greatest assistance to the officers of the mine in enabling them to locate and describe particular points and parts of workings and specific kinds of work. Again, in the proper segregation and differentiation of mine-accounts, when they are carried out with that detail which will furnish ready information concerning the cost of a particular piece of work, or the various items and totals of expense connected with the development, operation and repair of each or all of the mine-workings, some such method of clesignatioi~ becomes a necessity. Moreover, such a plan is acl- mirably adapted to the needs of the mining engineer, who, in connection with his reports upon mining-properties, is sometimes required, in his descriptions of certain blocks of ore, to locate lists of assays of samples taken from many and various places, and to designate workings and parts of workings that are located in different parts of the mine, sometimes at points wide apart. To write out in full a sufficient description of any particular

Jan 1, 1907

Owing to circumstances which are entirely unavoidable, the cost of rendering to Institute Members the services which they have been ac-customed to expect from the Institute has increased enormously, especi-ally during the past year. The cost of printing has increased 20 per cent. and another 30 per cent. is expected. There is no recourse; the Institute must pay this or cease publishing. The increase for supplies and office force will be very great. Justice to our employees, whose cost for living expenses has risen by leaps and bounds, demands an increase in. wages, wholly aside from the fact that the employees need not and will not stay. The Institute is, therefore, faced with the alternative of greatly re-ducing its service to the members or else of asking from them a small increase in clues. An amendment to the Constitution has been offered by the members increasing the clues to $15 per year, which cannot become effective until 1921. This still leaves us as the engineering society with the lowest annual clues, except only one, whose dues are $15 per year. To help meet the immediate emergency, the Directors have exercised the authority vested in them by the Constitution and By-Laws and requested the members to pay $3.00 for the Transactions to be issued during the year 1920, which is very much less than the cost of publication. It is the opinion of the Board that the members will prefer to pay this slightly additional expense rather than to have the Institute take a backward step in respect to the services which it is rendering, and which has been increasing constantly in amount, as well as in unit cost, during the past seven or eight years.

Jan 12, 1919

By Howard Scott

THE GREAT advances made in mechanical engineering during recent years through the use of alloy steels, as illustrated by the development of the airplane and automobile, may be ascribed primarily to the application of nickel as an alloying element. The ternary system iron-carbon-nickel has a wide industrial application and forms, further; the fundamental basis of the even greater class of the widely used quarternary steels such as nickel-chromium, nickel-silicon, and nickel-vanadium. As is not uncommon with such cases of virile growth in an industry, the application of the alloy steel in a largely empirical manner has outstripped its scientific development so that a fertile field for metallographic research still remains. In this field, the basic nickel steels require first consideration and are the subject of the present investigation, which is offered as a preliminary to the study of the more complex alloys of industrial importance. Of the principal tools of metallography-microscopic examination, determination of -mechanical properties, and thermal analysis-the last has developed much more slowly in its application to industrial needs so that the situation often exists that heat treatment operations are based on empirically determined temperatures; that is, temperatures determined without regard to the actual transformation characteristics of the alloy. This situation is undesirable as there is no uniform standard for comparison of results. It is due, outside the usual difficulties involved in temperature measurements, to the pioneer character- of much of the published work; to the lack of definiteness of the Ac2 transformation,1 particularly in low-carbon steels; to the failure to define operating conditions completely; and to the paucity of information correlating thermal characteristics with results of heat treatment.

Jan 2, 1920

By O. E. Kiessling

Viewed from the standpoint of an economist, the task which faces the petroleum producing industry is one of intelligent adjustment so that technology can perform the job of efficient exploitation, while at the same time the interests of producers and consumers remain adequately protected. The crux in the task of making this adjustment lies in the difficulty of arranging the instrumentalities of production to accord with the physical characteristics of oil. For example, oil is exploited under a competitive economic system based on private ownership and contract, with the hope that profits will attract capital and enterprise, and with competition supposedly acting as the regulative factor. Whether such a scheme of industrial organization works is partially dependent upon the ability of the producer to withold or produce his commodity as he sees fit, in accordance with market demand. But in the oil industry, the enterpriser does not have complete control over the expansion and contraction of production, for, because of the decisions of the courts that ownership in oil depends upon its possession, desire for immediate output becomes the controlling force in production. Consequently, the theoretical commands and restraints of free enterprise are not operative because there is no security of property, and the result is loss due to the following economic maladjustments: (1) Production not completely responsive to price control. (2) Production at excessive cost. (3) Loss of oil, a highly exhaustible natural resource. If economic maladjustments are to be eliminated, there should be a change in the organization of production so as to provide efficient exploitation of the oil and at the same time to insure individual property interests. The latter is necessary if economic considerations are to become primary factors in regulating production. To attain these ends, the entire pool should be developed as one big engineering project and some scheme

Jan 1, 1928

By HOWARD I. YOUNG

F. W. SPERR, Houghton, Mich.-Why does 10 to 20 per cent. of the ore formation have to he lost? It is not clear to me why it should not all be taken out, from the conditions as I saw them underground this afternoon. H. I. YOUNG.-The grade of our ore is so low that we cannot stand the expense of timbering to support the roof, which, in a sheet-ground mine, would be from 25 to 50 per cent. of our total mining cost at present. After the orebody is mined out, we can often recover 10 to 20 per cent. of the material that is left. F. W. SPERR.-I think it should be a very simple mining engineering problem to mine all of that mineral without the use of a stick of timber. Similar work has been done in the mines of Grand Rapids Plaster Co. The usual operation in deposits of this kind is to open up and excavate as far as the roof will stand; when it caves, start in and dig somewhere else. But in the case I referred to they learned that by working the ground more systematically and leaving in a sufficient amount of pillar, they could later draw those pillars and get them all, and avoid uncon¬trolled breakages which would be likely to occur if they tried to hold up the overburden permanently. From the point of view of safety and also from the financial point of view, I contend that it is better to keep the caving under control and make it do what you want it to do, rather than to take out what you can conveniently for the time being and after a while be compelled to let the overburden do what it pleases.

Jan 1, 1918

The Committee, appointed early in May, met and organized in Washington, May 9, 1923, and were then advised that such data as they required would as far as obtainable be submitted to them in tabulations, and that they could not be allowed to see the individual reports nor know the identity of the operators on whose reports the figures submitted were based, therefore the Committee's valuation is based on data received from your statisticians, and on tonnages estimated by your staff and by the United States Geological Survey. Various methods of valuation for mining properties have been suggested, but all authorities seem to agree in accepting, as the fairest and most practicable and logical, a capitalization of the estimated future earnings, when such estimate can reasonably be made. Hoover and Finlay both emphasize this. The United States Supreme Court says in Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway Co., v. Backus, 154 U. S. 439: But the value of the property results from the use to which it is put and varies with the profitableness of that use, present and prospective, actual and anticipated. There is no pecuniary value outside of that which results from such use. The amount and profitable character of such use determines the value. The Committee on Federal Taxation of the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers, appointed in 1919, in its report states: A proper value of a mining property is the present value of the prospective net earnings, taking into account probable variations in output and value. Ingalls ("Wealth and Income of the American People," p. 97) says: The fundamental principle of mine valuation is the present worth of an annual dividend accruing during the period of years corresponding with the lie of the mine. It is a convention that the estimated period shall not be more than 30 years.

Jan 1, 1924

THE COMMITTEE, appointed early in May, met and organized in Washington, May 9, 1923, and were then advised that such data as they required would as far as obtainable be submitted to them in tabulations, and that they could not be allowed to see the individual reports nor know the identity of the operators on whose reports the figures submitted were based, therefore the Committee's valuation is based on data received from your statisticians, and on tonnages estimated by your staff and by the United States Geological Survey. Various methods of valuation for mining properties have been suggested, but all authorities seem to agree in accepting, as the fairest and most practicable and logical, a capitalization of the estimated future earnings, when such estimate can reasonably be made. Hoover and Finlay both emphasize this. The United States Supreme Court says in Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway Co., v. Backus, 154 U. S. 439: But the value of the property results from the use to which it is put and varies with the profitableness of that use, present and prospective, actual and anticipated. There is no pecuniary value outside of that which results from such use. The amount and profitable character of such use determines the value. The Committee on Federal Taxation of the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers, appointed in 1919, in its report states: A proper value of a mining property is the present value of the prospective net earnings, taking into account probable variations in output and value. Ingalls (" Wealth and Income of the American People," p. 97) says: The fundamental principle of mine valuation is the present worth of an annual dividend accruing during the period of years corresponding with the life of the mine. It is a convention that the estimated period shall not be more than 30 years.

Jan 1, 1924

By T. Lane Carter

It is a curious fact that while in our Transactions there are papers dealing with mining-districts in all parts of the world, in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia, there is not one which describes the mining possibilities of Nicaragua, our near neighbor. To be most interested in distant objects, like the moon, and to neglect what lies at our feet, appears to be a trait of human nature. The neglect of Nicaragua is not confined to the American Institute of Mining Engineers. In no other transactions am I able to find papers dealing with mining in Nicaragua, some parts of which are as much in need of discovery and research as the North Pole. I hope this paper will be the precursor of many others to be printed in our Transaclions, dealing not only with the miniilg possibilities of Nicaragua, but with the whole of Central America, where there are vast areas a,waiting skill and capital for their development. Much of this capital and skill should come from the United States in the future, although it is probable that European capitalists, when they appreciate fully the possibilities, will investigate more and more the mining-resources of Nicaragua and ot'her Central American republics. Fig. 1 is a sketch-map of Nicaragua showing the principal mining-districts. 11. History. Mining in Nicaragua did not begin yesterday. It was commenced by civilized man when the Spanish conquerors pene-' trated into the interior and forced the natives to procure the precious metal for them. It is strange that the Spaniards did not find more gold, and work on a scale as extensive as in Colombia and other parts of South America. Probably in Nicaragua the Indians covered up most of the rich prospects

Jan 1, 1911

By David H. Browne

The trite maxim that man is a tool-using animal might nowa-days be amended by saying that man is a tool-choosing animal. The chipped flint, at first all-sufficient, gave way to hammered bronze, and that, in turn, to wrought-iron and steel. As our knowledge of metals increases, we learn to specialize; we temper and anneal; we alloy and intermix; and we fashion for ourselves a metal suitable to our necessities. The knowledge of the properties and uses of the various metals and their alloys has become the capital of every constructive engineer, and the currency of every intelligent brass-founder aid blacksmith. Prom year to year, the specifications of the designer become more rigid, and the steel-maker is forced to study more closely the qualities obtainable by changing the treatment, or altering the composition, of his metal. Of making alloys there is no end. We have heard much, during the last decade, of manganese-steel and chrome-steel, of aluminum and tungsten, of titanium- and silicon- and copper-steels, and of every conceivable union into which steel could be coerced or cajoled. Without denying to each of these alloys novel and valuable properties, it. must be admitted that, of all alloys, the one which shows the greatest range of adaptability, and has met the largest measure of popular approval, is nickel-steel. Introduced to public notice by Mr. Riley, in 1889, its field of usefulness has been rapidly enlarged, until, at the present day, the use of nickel-steel is as thoroughly recognized as that of carbon- or manganese-steel. Concerning the properties of nickel-steel numerous articles have appeared in the technical journals. For the man in a hurry, who wishes to look up the properties and limitations of nickel-steel, these articles might almost as well be in the lost

Jan 1, 1900

By R. L. Vaughn, H. R. Cooper

Effective procedures for automating X-ray assaying by use of a computer are described. These methods have advanced the reliability and accuracy of X-ray data, resulting in improved assay measurements for operations and process control. Assaying by X-ray fluorescence has been increasingly used in the mining industry, both for analyzing solid H.R. COOPER and R.L. VAUGHN, Members AIME, are Systems Manager-Process Control and Senior Systems Analyst, respectively, Scientific & Engineering Computer Center, Ken-necott Copper Corp., Salt Lake City, Utah. TP 68B236. Manuscript, Sept. 16, 1968. Discussion of this paper, submitted in duplicate prior to Dec. 15, 1969, will appear in SME Transactions, March 1970, and AIME Transactions, 1970, Vol. 247. samples for smelter, mill, and mine quality control and for continuous stream analysis of mill pulps. The important advantages of X-ray methods in laboratory assaying are reduced analysis cost, and for on-stream analysis, immediate assay information on concentrator streams. Of the numerous reports concerning X-ray analysis in mining operations, one is referenced which can be noted particularly in conjunction with this report.' Continuous X-ray analyzers have been installed at Kennecott and other mining companies for operations guidance and trend information for a number of years. However, complete operational acceptance of X-ray data has been slow, due* to the difficulty in maintaining

Jan 1, 1970

By H. A. Winne, B. R. Prentice

THE announcement of this World Conference on Mineral Resources briefly traced the development of the metals industries over the past 75 years The various phases were characterized as iron and steel for the railroad era, then copper and the electrical age, through alloy steels to the age of light metals in World War II, ending with the curtain rising on the atomic age at the end of the war The interests of mining and metallurgical industries in the atomic age may perhaps be divided broadly into three - groups (1) production of the special materials required by atomic-energy installations and processes, (2) use of atomic power in the mining or refining of materials, (3) use of radioactive isotopes and radiation in metal and chemical processes both for laboratory study and in the production of materials for use in any field In the production of special materials, the mining and metallurgical, scientific and industrial groups have already contributed much to the start of the atomic age The mining, refining and fabrication of the basic uranium to a degree of purity and form suitable for production of plutonium in the Hanford Engineering Works is just one example. The production of graphite for the Hanford piles, sufficiently free of neutron-absorbing impurities to allow a chain reaction with natural uranium, was a signal achievement These, together with many

Jan 1, 1947

By David R. Mitchell

IT is impossible to mention by name all the men and organizations that contributed to this volume. The original manuscripts of the chapters contained acknowledgments of various lengths, but space limitations make it impossible to print them. Suffice it to say that virtually everyone active in coal preparation in the United States contributed directly or indirectly to the contents of the volume. Special thanks are given to manufacturers of preparation machinery for their courtesy and willingness to furnish data, photographs and drawings. I am extremely grateful to Lupo Cinco, Alfred C. Arnold, Alfred E. Flowers, James M. Krese, J. H. Kelley, E. E. Vaccaro, E. J. Sandy, Edward Steidle, Jr., Joseph Fiedorek, David Scanlon, and Joseph T. Weber, former mining engineering students who contributed much of their leisure time for proofreading, checking references, and drafting, and without whose assistance it would have been difficult to prepare the manuscripts for publication this year. All sizes are for round-hole screens and tons are 2000 pounds, unless otherwise stated or indicated. Much of the manuscript material was prepared and edited during the war year of 1942 and I wish to offer my sincere thanks to contributors for their willingness to cooperate during these trying times. No doubt errors and omissions will be found in this book and for these I ask the readers' kindly indulgence.

Jan 1, 1943

By Shun-ichi Satoh

A NEW method of treating steel by ammonia has recently been intro¬duced into the metallurgical industry, by means of which piston cylinders of internal combustion engines, shafts and other similar steel products can be made more resistant to wear than formerly. In 1929 the writer' published the historical notes and some experiments upon nitrification. He believes that the corrosion of nitrified steel is a matter of importance and worth studying; and as there have been few studies thereof, he has conducted experiments in this respect. L. Guillet,2 in 1927, reported corrosion tests made on nitrified and cemented steels with acid and salt solutions. In 1928, 0. Hengstenberg3 reported the high resistance of nitrified steel to water vapor and air. V. 0. Homerberg4 stated that nitrified steel has high resistance to water, air and salt solution; and G. Hagg5 studied nitrified layers of iron by means of the X-ray. Though F. Hanaman6 in 1913, measured the single potential difference of steel treated with ammonia at above 650° C., no one, it seems, has ever measured the single potential difference of the so-called nitrified steels having extraordinary hardness. The writer measured the single potential differences of nitrified special steels in various solutions with the object of studying the corrosion problem and, if possible, of knowing whether any new physical property would be caused by nitrification.

Jan 1, 1932

By Henry Wurtz

OBSERVING in the Engineering and Mining Journal, of January 16th, 1875, page 35, a report of a brief discussion upon the nature and origin of this unique and interesting coal, I take the liberty-on thus finding it a subject of interest to members of the Institute, and especially as my name came into this discussion-to communicate some results which may serve at least to overthrow certain erroneous ideas that have prevailed. While I would not claim to have made much approach to an understanding of this mineral-the whole of what I call Apozoic Mineralogy being as yet dark and almost unknown ground-yet I believe I have shown that few minerals of such importance and abundance, and so long before the world, have been so singularly misunderstood. On first examination of a sample of the substance to which the name of carbonite has been given, my surprise was not small, at failing to recognize in it one individual characteristic of true coke; neither the hardness, lustre, color, streak, porosity, sonorosity, structure, fracture, nor any of the so-called "pyrognostic" characters. Indeed, comparison with any coke, or variety or modification thereof, seemed altogether fantastic. Therefore the controversy regarding supposed trap dykes, whose existence at the locality is denied by some, seems useless, as we have no question of a natural coking, there having been no coking at all.

Jan 1, 1875

By Henry Wurtz

Observing in the Engineering and Mining Journal, of January 16th, 1875, page 35, a report of a brief discussion upon the nature and origin .of this unique and interesting coal, I take the liberty— on thus finding it a subject of interest to members of the Institute, and especially as my name came into this discussion—to cornmunicate some results which may serve at least to overthrow certain erroneous ideas that have prevailed. While I would not claim to -have made much approach to an understanding of this mineral—the whole of what I call Apozoic Mineralogy being as yet dark and almost unknown ground—yet I believe I have shown that few minerals of such importance and abundance, and so long before the world, have been so singularly misunderstood. On first examination of a sample of the substance to which the name of carbonite has been given, my surprise was not small, at failing to recognize in it one individual characteristic of true coke; neither the hardness, lustre, color, streak, porosity, sonorosity, structure, fracture, nor any of the so-called "pyrognostic" characters. Indeed, comparison with any coke, or variety or modification thereof, seemed altogether fantastic. Therefore the controversy regarding supposed trap dykes, whose existence at the locality is denied by some, seems useless, as we have no question of a natural coking, there having been no coking at all.

By R. W. Raymond

On the 27th day of March last, the day on which the Florida sessions of the last meeting of the Institute began in Ocala, occurred the death of one of its most distinguished honorary members, Bergrath Franz Posepny, of Vienna, formerly professor of the science of ore-deposits in the mining school at Przibram, Bohemia. Prof. Posepny had greatly increased his fame among American mining engineers, besides laying the Institute under special obligations of gratitude, by the elaborate, brilliant and suggestive treatise on " The Genesis of OreDeposits," which he contributed to the International meeting, held at Chicago, in 1893. This essay, constituting the first complete publication of the substance of his course of lectures at Przibram, enriched and perfected by the matured results of his investigation and reflection down to the date of its cornpletion, was a free gift of almost unprecedentecl value to the society which had distinguished him by honorary membership. In estimating the generosity of the author, it must be borne in mind that the copyright of such a work, the fruit of years of study and of practice as an instructor, is of no little value to a European professor, and constitutes one of the legitimate rewards of his (otherwise not highly-paid) labor. Moreover, Prof. Posepny performed under peculiar difficulties

Jan 1, 1896

By W. W. Dudley

Inflow of ground water is an important engineering and safety consideration during construction of large openings underground. The initial step in predicting groundwater inflow involves hydraulic tests in exploratory drill holes. Zones within the area of interest are isolated in the drill hole by inflatable packers and are tested by measuring the water level responses to applied hydraulic stresses. These responses may then be translated into significant hydraulic characteristics of the tested rocks such as transmissivity, hydraulic conductivity, hydraulic potential, and storage coefficient by using a type-curve solution. Once the geometry and necessary hydraulic characteristics have been determined for the rock in the vicinity of the proposed opening, a model can be developed using certain assumptions that will lend itself to treatment with available mathematical methods. The mathematical method applied to the model considers conditions of partial penetration and nonsteady-state, leakyartesian, constant-drawdown discharge of ground water. A type-curve solution results in a curve that gives the variation of discharge (inflow) with time. This technique of predicting ground-water inflow has been used in planning construction of cylindrical chambers for use in underground nuclear experiments by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. These chambers have been constructed in low-permeability rocks at depths as much as 6000 ft and under hydraulic heads of thousands of feet.

Jan 1, 1973

By Sooi P. Chong

Expansion of concentrator capacity at Iron Ore Company of Canada's Carol Lake plant resulted in a dramatic increase in the production of fines. With iron recovery from the fines running only 18%, Carol Lake engineers initiated an extensive test program which resulted in the installation in July 1977, of a full-scale plant utilizing Reichert cone concentrators. Results to date have indicated a 100% increase in iron recovery from the concentrator's fines product. Carol Lake is located near the western boundary of Labrador, Newfoundland, some 960 km (600 mi) northeast of Montreal. Concentrator operations began in 1962 with a design capacity of 7 million t/y (7.7 million stpy). The bulk of the concentrate was pelletized at a 6 million t/y (6.6 million stpy) pelletizing plant completed in 1963. The remaining concentrate was sold in the international market. The concentrator was first expanded in 1966 to 10 million t/y (11 million stpy) capacity. In 1967, the pellet plant was expanded to match the increase in concentrate production. Sales increases led to a further expansion in 1973. By 1977, more than 40 million tons (44 million st) of crude ore were processed to recover in excess of 17.42 million tons (19 million st) of concentrate and 10.4 million tons (11.5 million st) of pellets.

Jan 12, 1978

By J. Richard Maier

Short-range mine planning (less than five years) previously was accomplished using contour and isopac maps, pencil and paper, an abacus, and our lucky quarter. Through the use of both micros and mainframe time sharing, Glenrock Coal Company (GCC) has been able to virtually put the old equipment away (except the problem solving quarter). In the process, GCC has saved many man-days and eliminated the more tedious parts of mine planning, such as picking elevations off a map with an engineer's scale and repetitive calculations. These savings have allowed GCC to do a more extensive job of mine planning as well as offer more alternatives, making GCC better prepared for possible economic changes. Mine planning, simply, involves looking at what has been done and deciding what needs to be done using various constraints. The application of this concept is not as easy as it sounds. The need for experience and insight cannot be replaced by a machine, but machines can supplement a person's ability by doing the bookkeeping and the repetitive work. Through the application of computers and their accessories, GCC has brought mine planning to a more modernized state. The following paper will detail the development and use of one system as used at GCC. Please note: In the figures and tables following, some of the data has been altered to protect confidential information used in mine planning.

Jan 1, 1983

By Caner Zanbak, Erdogan Yüzer, Mahir Vardar, Kemal A. Erguvanli

The Hasancelebi iron deposit in Eastern Turkey is a very low grade (average 20% oxide) magnetite body consisting of 720 million longtons of proven reserve at a 10% cut-off limit. The ore-bearing scapolitic oclcs cover an area of approximately 4300m x 300m, and the thickness of the outcropping deposit exceeds 300m. Prefeasibility project studies revealed that a one degree decrease in a 45° final slope angle of the proposed pit would require excavation of approximately 10 million cubic meters of excess waste material, for a projected pit bottom 300 meters below the valley floor. There- fore, determination of the final slope angles of the open pit was considered to be the most important task in the feasibility analysis of this project. In this investigation, the main emphasis was given to collection, compilation and evaluation of the engineering geological, hydrogeological and rock mechanics data of the highly fractured and weathered rocks. Due to the presence of intense fracturing, the rock wedge analysis method was used for projected 30m-high benches and the circular failure analysis method was used for the stability of the projected final pit slopes. The proposed bench slope angles ranged between 60° and 80°, whereas the projected final slope angles varied between 30° and 48°, depending on the slope heights and groundwater levels.

Jan 1, 1983