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By T. H. Aldrich

There are two conditions generally prevailing upon the earth—those within atmospheric influence, tending towards oxidation, and those away from atmospheric influence, tending towards reduction. Practically all mineral substances from mines of any depth a.re in a reducing condition. Since the cyanide process, in order to dissolve silver or gold, requires that the prevailing conditions under which it operates shall be oxidizing, and the materials usually acted upon bei~lg of a reducing character, it becomes necessary to supply oxygen to the solution carrying the cyanide. This oxygen is usually supplied through the medium of dissolved air in the solation, or through the medium of various chemical compounds, which upon combining vith the solution or the ore give off a part of their oxygen. Strange as it may seem, practically all mineral substa~~ccs are partly soluble in water, especially water carrying alkali or cyanide. The greater the surface exposed and the finer the material is ground, the greater mrill be the rate of dissolving of the reducing-agents from the ore into the cyanide solution. In most cases, if the solution carrying the ore particles is agitated with air, the air will dissolve into the solution faster than will the reducing-agents; but in some cases the reducing-agents will dissolve more rapidly on account of easy solubility or greater surface exposed. It is a dissolving race between the oxygen from the air and the reducing-agents from the ore, and if the reducing-azents predominate, cyanide will not dissolve the gold from the ore. In many cases it will dissolve some of the gold, because in a mass of irregular shape some of the gold particles might be exposed upon the outside surface of a particle of rock; but if the solution had to penetrate through cracks, the side-walls of which were lined with reducing-agent-

Jan 1, 1912

By Morgan Walker

INTERMITTENT injection of gas in gas-lift pumping is a variation of the common practice in that the gas is' .delivered to the well for a short, period, called the "on time," followed by a period during which none is admitted, called the "off time," instead of being admitted continuously at a constant rate or by intermittent flowing in which it is occasionally delivered to the well in just sufficient quantity to flow off the accumulated head of fluid. The term "gas" is used throughout this discussion but it should be remembered that in so far as the operation is concerned either air or natural gas may be used. The equipment at the well is the same as commonly used in gas-lift installations and gas may be admitted to either the tubing or the casing. It seldom occurs that all the wells on a lease can be pumped economically by intermittent injection from one header. Wells that. have flow characteristics which permit their being handled together have their intake lines grouped at a central compressor station. Well groups may consist of two or more wells. The total volume of gas delivered by each group of compressors goes to one well at a time through a quick opening valve, each well connected to the header receiving its charge of gas in turn. Special cases may require a deviation from this arrangement. The distribution of the gas to the different wells is effected by an automatic timing device which operates quick-opening valves on the intake lines. The timing mechanism may be actuated by electricity, liquid or gas pressure. The essential factor in the operation of the timing mechanism is that as one intake valve is closed another must be opened.

Jan 1, 1928

By T. B. Counselman

THE importance of concentration of iron ores too low in grade to be smelted direct is shown by Table I, showing 1940 ship- [ ] ments from the Lake Superior district. Canadian ores are omitted. [ ] Only in Minnesota is concentrating, other than crushing and screening, practiced at present. Tonnage produced by various methods of concentration is shown in Table 2. The curves in Fig. I show the gradual increase in tonnage of concentrated ores shipped, compared with total shipments from Minnesota. Most of the concentration work is performed on the Mesabi Range. This range is about 100 miles long, and not over 3 miles wide from the line at which the formation tapers out to a feather edge on the north to the place on the south at which, some 600 ft. thick, it is overlain with slates. CLASSES OF ORE The Mesabi Range contains three classes of iron ore. First is the unaltered taconite, or banded iron-bearing chert. It is estimated that there are some 60 billion tons of this material, which contains, roughly, 25 to 30 per cent iron. This material is virtually untouched, since no commercially successful method has yet been found for concentrating it to a grade suitable for the blast furnace. Intensive experimental work is in progress, and the problem is gradually being solved. In 1922 the Mesabi Iron Co. spent several million dollars erecting a large-scale pilot plant for concentrating and sintering the magnetic taconites on the east end of the range. An important tonnage of high-grade sinter was shipped to lower lake furnaces, proving that the taconite can be concentrated to a satisfactory grade. The costs, with equipment and methods then in use, were too high for

Jan 1, 1941

By B. W. Prof. Frazier

(Read at the Wilkes-Barre Meeting, May, 1877.) THIS interesting application of the laws of thermodynamics to metallurgical practice has not been discussed by any writer, within my reading, except the late Prof. Gallon of Paris. In his Cours de Machines,* Prof. Callon has given a short but lucid discussion of this subject in the admirably clear style for which he was remarkable. Although the interest attached to the subject is rather theoretical than practical, I have thought that an attempt to explain the mechanical action exerted in the hot-blast oven might not be entirely devoid of utility, especially in the suggestions which it involves. The statement, that the mechanical work performed in heating the blast is, when high temperatures are produced, considerably greater than the work performed by the blowing-engine, may seem incredible to many who are practically acquainted with the subject, appearing, as it does, to conflict with the results of their experience. It is, nevertheless, literally true, and I shall attempt in this paper to prove it, and to explain why it has not rendered itself palpably manifest in practice. Before proceeding to the mathematical demonstration, it will be well to recall to mind the definitions of some terms employed by writers in mechanics and thermodynamics. The actual energy of a moving body, as defined by Rankine, is the work which it is capable of performing against a retarding resistance before being brought to rest, and is equal to the energy which must be exerted on the body to bring it from a state of rest to its actual velocity. The value of that quantity is the product of the weight of the body into the height from which it must fall to acquire its actual velocity. * Vol. I, chap. x, [§ ] 4, p. 312.

Jan 1, 1878

By R. W. Prouty

THE methods of sampling and ore estimating used at the Copper Queen Branch, Phelps Dodge Corpn., as applied to the Copper Queen mines at Bisbee, Ariz., fall into two divisions because of the difference in occurrence, manner of prospecting, and methods of mining: that for the underground operations and that for the Sacramento Hill steam-shovel operations. The orebodies of the Warren district may be divided into three classes: Replacements of limestone, replace-ments of porphyry, and replacements of contact breccia The first class is more or less intimately related to porphyry intrusions, although in badly fractured country this relationship may not be well shown. These orebodies are mainly oxide and carbonate ore and very irregular, both in size and outline, although usually roughly lenticular and following the bedding of the limestones. There is usually quite a sharp boundary between the ore and waste in the carbonate and oxide orebodies and sampling is not necessary to determine the limits of commercial ore. In the sulfide orebodies it is exceedingly difficult, without sampling, to deter-mine the boundary between commercial ore and the surrounding low-grade or barren pyrite. Calculations made a few years ago showed that these orebodies had an average thickness of 35 ft. As some of the ore-bodies have a thickness of from 100 to 300 ft., it can be seen that the smaller ones form a difficult problem both in prospecting and in estimating.

Jan 11, 1922

Background The annual awards, which have been given by the US National Committee for Rock Mechanics since its inception in 1969, recognize out- standing research in rock mechanics. Such recognition has always been accompanied by a plaque or certificate for the winners and a presentation at the symposium awards banquet. Starting this year, the US National Committee will give the winners even more recognition and allow the rock mechanics community to benefit from the papers by publishing abstracts of the work in the proceedings of the 25th US Symposium on Rock Mechanics and in various society journals and news letters. "We hope this will stimulate the production of more research papers," said William R. Judd, former chairman on the subpanel of awards. "It's beneficial for researchers to have their work published as an award paper." There are four categories of awards: Basic Research, Applied Research, Case History, and Student Masters' Thesis. Approximately ten papers are nominated annually for each category; however, in some years awards are not made in all four categories. For instance, there were not enough case history nominations in 1983 for an award, but there were two equally outstanding recipients of the award for applied research. The winners of the 1983 research awards reflect the wide variety of professions involved with rock mechanics. They are introduced on the following pages by category, and accompanied by an abstract of the paper

Jan 1, 1984

By William E. Souder, Eugene R. Palowitch

INTRODUCTION The longwall method of mining coal underground is now a highly developed and accepted mining technology. However, it was only through a long history of successes and failures that this technology now has the potential for reversing the declining trend in underground mining productivity in the United States. From its early beginnings in the United States during the 1800's, several species of longwalls have evolved. The evolutionary record consists of a series of overlapping birth-death eras, with each era giving way to another unique longwall technology. Typically, an era begins when some new longwall technology appears in response to a new technical opportunity or economic need. This new technology is adopted initially by only a few innovators. Later, other imitators get on the bandwagon and the technology diffuses throughout the user population. But evolving technical demands and socio-economic circumstances eventually cause many of the adopters to discontinue its use. This paper chronicles seven eras in the history of the evolution and utilization of longwall technologies in the United States. Some of the important factors that have influenced this history are discussed. Some distinctions are drawn between the operators who were first to adopt longwalls (innovators), and the imitators who followed. Statistics are presented which show that longwall mining is being adopted at an exponentially increasing rate, substantiating the forecast for a significant number of new longwall installations in' the future. Potential barriers to this increased utilization of long- walls are noted.

Jan 1, 1981

By Richard H. Zinszer

APPLICATION of electric logs has been used in correlation of subsurface structure to determine the size and shape of the oil reservoir. [ ] Such a knowledge is hardly complete until saturation and productivity are determined for the various horizons. It is difficult to use electric logs successfully for this purpose because of the many factors that influence the curves. In this work an effort was made to establish an empirical correlation between formation resistivity for a series of electric-log curves and water saturation and oil productivity of sand. Electric logs were obtained by recording with 10 different electrode spacings through the same interval of a well. In the analysis of these curves all factors except two, a dependent and independent variable, were held constant. The interval studied had been cored and a large number of samples were analyzed in the core laboratory in order to compare the values of permeability and saturation with the measured values of formation resistivity. Results of this analysis indicate: (I) the depth to which mud filtrate enters a sand body, (2) a correlation between permeability and sand resistivity for shallow penetration depths, and (3) that the water saturation for an oil sand can be determined from the measured sand resistivity after making suitable correc- [ ] tions for sand thickness. The proceduer in the last method depends on a correction for thickness factor and a theoretical curve. The accuracy of the theoretical curve is now being tested in the laboratory.

Jan 1, 1944

By R. L. Loofbourow

We are concerned with the destabilizing effects of water inflow and remedies which can be used to reduce that cause. The number of these remedies which have already been demonstrated in mining may be a surprise. Several possible remedies, well known in other work seem worth trial. In saw mines the destabilizing effect of inflow is negligible; in others it can be disaster. Inflow can reduce stability in mining for very nearly, if not all minerals, whether by open pit or under- ground methods. It might cause trouble in saw under water work. As examples of these effects consider hydrostatic pressure on the walls of fractures and ' lubrication' of clay seams. Skin protection by paint or gunite is not likely to help. It is generally necessary to go deeper, for example to drain the ground more effectively or to reduce inflow. The improvement of stability is but one of a score of possible advantages attainable with water control. Most of these advantages would help costs as wet mines go deeper for leaner ore while coping with more restraints and higher costs of per, labor and supplies. Investigation is promising!

Jan 1, 1983

By Jon Kogut

This paper describes three programs, currently in use within MSHA, for graphic analysis of accident frequency data. The first program, TREND, plots confidence bands for curved trends in data compiled over a period of time. In addition to detecting statistically significant upward or downward trends, the program can be used to determine whether an observation at a particular time deviates significantly from the historical pattern. The second program, POIPORP, plots interval estimates for the risk of accident in each of several environments, given an observed number of incidents and exposure time at each environment. POIPORP is designed to quantify the uncertainty implicit in incidence rates based on limited information and to facilitate statistically valid comparisons among the rates. The third program, CINDY, plots dynamically adaptive control charts for accident or injury experience at a given location. These charts are used to detect statistically significant departures from a changing standard or a previously established trend. All three programs are written in FORTRAN IV, utilizing DISSPLA and IMSL. They exemplify forms of statistical analysis that would not be practical without a computer. Use of the programs is illustrated with applications to coal mine fatality and injury experience.

Jan 1, 1983

By T. A. Rickard

In a previous paper (ante, p. 411) some description was given of the occurrence of the auriferous alluvium, extensive deposits of which lie among the highlands of the province of Otago, New Zealand. The present paper will describe some of the methods by which that alluvium is exploited. The alluvial mining of New Zealand is not yet hindered by " debris legislation." The mines are for the most part situated in a country of little agricultural value, and large rivers with rapid currents act as tailings conveyors. In time, however, steps will have to be taken to restrict the discharge into the Clutha of the tailings which are slowly raising the river-bottom. The methods of California have been followed in Otago with such alterations as peculiar local conditions require. The distinctive feature of the alluvial mining of Otago is the prominence given to the hydraulic elevator. The all-important factor in this form of mining is the control of an abundant water-supply at a suitable height above the level where it is to be utilized; and in this respect the gold-fields of the south island of New Zealand are most favora-

Jan 1, 1893

By W. R. Bendy

GRINDING is a large and costly part of Portland cement manufacture. Prior to clinkering in the rotary kiln, raw materials are ground to a fineness of 80 to 90 pct passing 200 mesh. Then, after burning and cooling, the resulting clinker is ground to about 92 pct passing 325 mesh. In the cement industry the most favored method of grinding has always been by impact and attrition of a ball charge in a rotating mill. Other types of mills, in which materials are ground between die rings and rollers, or between die rings and large balls, are sometimes used for single-stage grinding and often for preliminary grinding followed by grinding in ball-type mills. Their efficiency is usually high, but maintenance and repair costs are high also, and the ball-type mill continues to be the most widely used.

Jan 10, 1957

By William P. Blake

The magnetic iron ores of the Rees & Wilder tract, Unaka Mountains, East Tennessee, and North Carolina, so far as examined by me, are peculiar in containing considerable quantities of the mineral zircon in dark red-brown crystals, ranging in size from one-tenth of an inch, or less, to five-tenths of an inch in length. As zircons are decomposed by fusion with alkalies, the constituents may exert some favorable influence upon the iron product, which is generally acknowledged to be of superior quality. New Haven, April 20th, 1878.

Jan 1, 1879

By Howard H. Fields

Any mining engineer with a desire to operate independently, with some financial backing, and with no fear of heavy responsibility and long hours, should be able to make a comfortable living in Mexico. Barring a few inconveniences such as a lack of satisfactory liability or accident insurance, the difficulty of obtaining repair parts for vehicles, and the length of time required receive returns from shipments, the operation of a small mine is not at all difficult. It is, in fact, a little easier to find a good prospect in Mexico than in the U.S.

Jan 11, 1950

By E. V. Crane

A tremendous volume of the metal rolled annually into sheets strips and coil stock finds its way to a host of stamping and manufacturing plants which are the quantity production units of the country. Considerable in volume, too, are the rolled and extruded rods which go into forging and manufacturing plants for conversion into the same general line: those widely sold metallic necessities and luxuries of the household, the office, transportation, farming and building construction. Yet, in spite of its age and its importance, the stamping trade has been doing its "engineering" largely by trial and error. Its distinctive method is shearing out and plastically working metal to finished shape in a few quick strokes with high loads and expensive tools which are warranted only by large quantities to be produced. The principal operations have many features In common with rolling and wire-drawing methods. Combinations of stresses are diffcrent, however, and details of operations are infinite in variety. An engineering study of the subject begins with stress analysis, but must go back to metallurgy for its foundation. A grouping of pressed-metal working operations according to whether the metal is (1) sheared, (2) bent, (3) drawn or (4) squeezed has proved useful. All of these groups include instances of both hot and cold operations. For discussions of metal working properties, the division between hot and cold working is taken as the recrystallization range of temperature. This, of course, brings tin, lead and often zinc into the hot-work range at or near room temperature. The outstanding hot-working press field is in forging: particularly of brass; all of which is included in the squeezing group. Shearing Operations The shearing group of operations, including blanking, piercing, trimming, shaving, slitting, shearing, notching, parting and numerous variations and combinations of these enters once or more into the production schedule of practically every stamped or forged article. The transverse stress, set up in shearing, as shown in Fig. 1A, is a combination of an angular compressive thrust and a tensile stress which is also at an

Jan 1, 1931

By A. W. Gauger

Fox perhaps one hundred years scientists have been engaged in attempts at devising a satisfactory method of classification of coal. During this time many charts, tables and graphs have been proposed, some of which have had considerable merit, but no one system has been found to be applicable to all ranks of coal, nor has any one system received general acceptance. In many of the proposals, water eliminated between room temperature and 105° C. has been regarded as extraneous matter and calculations have been made to the air-dry or water-free basis. Such methods of. calculation do not lend themselves to satisfactory grouping of the high-moisture coals.1,2 A consideration not only of the properties of the high-moisture coals and their behavior on drying but of the generally accepted ideas of the coalification process and the role of water in this process indicates that water is an essential constituent of all coals and therefore should not be neglected. For example, in such low-rank coals as the lignites of the Northern Great Plains' deposits the inherent moisture of the lignite as mined plays a very important part in the physical properties thereof. Freshly mined lignite contains upwards of 30 per cent water and is extremely tough and resistant to shock. Upon exposure to the atmosphere, the lump loses part of its moisture and checks and splits, leaving a friable and broken up residue. So far as we have been able to determine, water is the only thing lost in this process and we are forced to the conclusion that moisture plays an extremely important part in the structural properties of the original lignite. With reference to the coalification process, Mack and Hulett3 pointed out in 1917 the important part that water played therein. They observed that water cannot be removed from peat or coal by pressure alone, but only as the result of chemical reaction, and suggested that peat in its early stages may be largely a hydrosol. Slow chemical changes occur over a long period of time until finally the mass becomes more largely a hydrogel. These views are substantiated to some extent by the experi-

Jan 1, 1932

J. C. WRIGHT.-The problem of organizing and maintaining a vocational class for those employees who are engaged in the mining industry depends on several most important factors. The first is the sympathetic cooperation of employer and employee; the second is to find the subject matter that must be presented to these men; and the third is to find the instructor who can present that subject matter. This is perhaps the most difficult, for we usually find a man who knows the material that is to be presented but is not a teacher or does not know how to organize his material. The man must know the subject matter from the standpoint of absolute contact with industry in order to be a successful teacher. I have come into contact with two kinds of schools organized in connection with mining occupations. In one type the instruction leans very largely toward elementary subjects, arithmetic, reading and writing and spelling; it is not of such a character as to help or improve the working man in his occupation in the sense that we are attempting when we speak of vocational education. In the other type of school, an engineer is usually employed as a teacher. He immediately begins to give the things with which he is most familiar and the instruction becomes such as only those who possess a high-school or college education, perhaps, are able to receive. In between these two schools is the school we are trying to, promote, a school that will meet the needs of those employed. MARGUERITE W. JORDAN,* Altoona, Pa. -Vocational education has become the business man's problem; for he is the keeper of that white elephant, labor turnover, and anything that will decrease the size of the monster is worthy of serious consideration. This vocational education can do; for it can supply many of those deficiencies in upbringing and. environment that make for the discontent and restlessness of our varied classes of unskilled labor: the Anglo-Saxon mountaineer; the Southern negroes who have crossed Mason & Dixon's line by the thousands, "searching satisfaction for our minds;" and the still greater number who have sought across the sea America, "the promised land.

Jan 4, 1919

By J. D. Price, W. M. Bertholf

In preparing a paper on coal washing in Colorado and New Mexico, it is difficult to refrain from entering into a discussion of the historical aspects of this subject, for the story of coal washing in these states goes hack well into the last century. This phase of the subject could well make a complete paper in itself, and of necessity this present discussion must be limited to current operations. Therefore, we are taking into consideration only those washing plants which have operated for some period during the years of 1947 and 1948. Summary Of the eight million tons of coal mined in the two states in 1947. ap- proximately two million tons were washed in wet washing plants, using concentrating tables or jigs. The one table plant accounted for 70 pct of the output of washed coal, and two large Baum jig plants accounted for an additional 26 pct, leaving only a small residual tonnage to be accounted for by other types of jigs The necessity for washing coal is occasioned by the desire or necessity of reducing the ash content of the coals— sulphur is not a problem in this area. All washeries, except the table plant, are at or near the tipple, hence wash only one kind of coal. At the table plant a large number of different coals are washed. Only at the table plant is there any occasion for drying any considerable quantity of fine coal— other plants size and/or dewater on shaking screens. The results of washing at the smaller plants are judged by the number (or lack) of complaints about the quality of the washed coal. This is probably as good a system as can he devised for small, intermittent operations. The efficiency of the Baum jig ap-pears to be quite high. This is to be expected as long as the automatic control of the refuse gate operates properly. The efficiency of the concentrating table is not as high as that of the Baum jig, especially when the "difficulty" of washing is taken into consideration. When dealing with coals in which the "bone" is larger than the "coal," the table appears to be at a definite disadvantage, because of its sizing action.

Jan 1, 1950

By Harry T. Davis, Jasper L. Stuckley

The object of this paper is to record and interpret field and laboratory observations made by the writers during five years of study of the barite deposits of North Carolina. Deposits of barite are known to occur in three localities in North Carolina (Fig. 1) two of which—the Hot Springs and Kings Mountain —contain material of economic value. The Hot Springs area begins near Bluff, some 6 miles south of Hot Springs, and continues northeast by Stackhouse; a total length of 7 miles. The Kings Mountain deposits lie along a belt that extends from the north end of Crowders Mountain in a southwestward direction, along the east side of this and Kings Mountain, to Kings Creek, South Carolina. The third locality is 3½ miles southeast of Hillsboro, Orange County, a short distance west of the highway leading from Hillsboro to Chapel Hill. It is not known when barite was first discovered in North Carolina, but production from the Hot Springs area began some 50 years ago. The state has never produced large quantities of barite—usually there have been less than three producers—and definite figures are not available, but reasonably reliable estimates indicate a total production of 300,000 tons. From 1901 through 1920 barite mining was on a seemingly prosperous basis and a large tonnage was shipped from the Hot Springs and Kings Mountain areas. With the depression of 1920 the industry began to decline and production practically ceased in 1926. Geology of the Barite Areas In the Hot Springs area barite is found in the Max Patch granite of Archean age and the Snowbird formation of Cambrian age. The Max Patch granite is of two varieties, one gray to whitish and the other red. The gray granite is coarse, at times porphyritic, and composed of quartz, orthoclase and plagioclase feldspar, with a little biotite and muscovite. The red granite is also coarse and differs from the other only in having conspicuous pink and red feldspar. Both varieties have been much metamorphosed and weathered in places, so that they contain secondary

Jan 1, 1935

By Harry T. Davis, Jasper L. Stuckley

The object of this paper is to record and interpret field and laboratory observations made by the writers during five years of study of the barite deposits of North Carolina. Deposits of barite are known to occur in three localities in North Carolina (Fig. 1) two of which—the Hot Springs and Kings Mountain —contain material of economic value. The Hot Springs area begins near Bluff, some 6 miles south of Hot Springs, and continues northeast by Stackhouse; a total length of 7 miles. The Kings Mountain deposits lie along a belt that extends from the north end of Crowders Mountain in a southwestward direction, along the east side of this and Kings Mountain, to Kings Creek, South Carolina. The third locality is 3½ miles southeast of Hillsboro, Orange County, a short distance west of the highway leading from Hillsboro to Chapel Hill. It is not known when barite was first discovered in North Carolina, but production from the Hot Springs area began some 50 years ago. The state has never produced large quantities of barite—usually there have been less than three producers—and definite figures are not available, but reasonably reliable estimates indicate a total production of 300,000 tons. From 1901 through 1920 barite mining was on a seemingly prosperous basis and a large tonnage was shipped from the Hot Springs and Kings Mountain areas. With the depression of 1920 the industry began to decline and production practically ceased in 1926. Geology of the Barite Areas In the Hot Springs area barite is found in the Max Patch granite of Archean age and the Snowbird formation of Cambrian age. The Max Patch granite is of two varieties, one gray to whitish and the other red. The gray granite is coarse, at times porphyritic, and composed of quartz, orthoclase and plagioclase feldspar, with a little biotite and muscovite. The red granite is also coarse and differs from the other only in having conspicuous pink and red feldspar. Both varieties have been much metamorphosed and weathered in places, so that they contain secondary

Jan 1, 1935