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By H. H. Einstein

Swelling ground is one of the most feared problems in tunneling. Although usually not causing sudden failures during construction, the very large and longlasting deformations give contractors and designers the impression of facing an inevitable phenomenon against which there is no technical defense. Examples are concrete liners up to 1 m (3 ft) thickness that have been cracked or crushed, tunnel inverts that are heaving at 0.1 m (0.3 ft) per week during construction and continue to heave during decades. This paper summarizes essential components of design construction procedures where tunnels in swelling rock can be built to perform satisfactorily. It is important to point out that design and construction cannot and should not be separated. The way the tunnel will be built has to be an integral part of the design. Swelling can be defined as time dependent volume increase and is distinguished from squeezing, another time dependent phenomenon occurring in tunneling. Squeezing involves exceeding the shearing resistance while swelling usually does not. Swelling of rock masses can occur as swelling of the intact rock, swelling of wall rock, of gouge and of filler in the discontinuities of a rock mass, and as a combination of the above. Swelling mechanisms have been discussed elsewhere (ISRM 1983).

Jan 1, 1984

By P. G. Linder

The mechanical concentration of ores has not attained any considerable extent in Sweden, by reason of a scarcity of ores calling for this kind of treatment. Of rich iron-ores there is still an abundant supply; and magnetic concentration, which in the future undoubtedly will become of great importance, not being as yet demanded by necessity, has not advanced beyond a few experiments. At the copper-mines mechanical concentration has been superseded by chemical processes; the lead mines are worked out; and it is (with one exception) only the mines producing blende, or blende and galena intimately mixed, that have adopted mechanical methods for enriching their low-grade ores. While the concentrating-plants in Sweden are few and their output is comparatively insignificant, the methods employed, the general features of the work and the results obtained under extremely unfavorable conditions, may offer some points of interest to persons who are engaged in this branch of industry and have similar problems to deal with. Before going into a detailed description of the several plants, I will offer a few remarks that hold good for all of them and constitute a general review of Swedish concentration and its conditions. At all the works the ore to be treated is a mixture of blende and

Jan 1, 1895

By James A. Brierley, Corale L. Brierley

Microorganisms have been considered as agents which may be of importance in catalyzing hydrometallurgical processes for the extraction of metals from low-grade ore minerals. Various microorganisms and their role in bacterial leaching are described. Bacterial leaching as applied to copper, uranium, zinc, lead, and coal is discussed.

Jan 1, 1981

By Samuel L. Hoyt

THE present report represents that part of the work that has been done by the War Minerals Investigation, Manganese Section, of the Bureau of Mines, on the use of manganese alloys in open-hearth practice. The magnitude of the work and the number of people participating in one way or another make it difficult to acknowledge adequately the services of all who have contributed to the success of the work. It would, be amiss, however, to pass to the body of the report without mentioning the hearty coöperation and willingness to assist of the various manufacturing interests. With such a sympathetic attitude toward this investigation, our work was assured of success. Inasmuch as the unhappy circumstances that rendered this investigation necessary have now passed, this report is made in 'the hope that the results may prove of some permanent value to the peace-tine operation of our open-hearth industry. Broadly speaking, the purpose of the manganese investigation was to consider the most suitable means of utilizing our domestic supply of manganese and thus relieve, to the maximum extent possible, our shipping of the burden of importing manganese ores. It was not held that any decided shortage of manganese 'was imminent but rather that every legitimate means should be utilized for making our ship tonnage available to European service. While we have considerable metallic manganese in this country, it occurs largely as a low-grade mixture with iron or silica or with both. The open-hearth investigations, therefore, were carried on to determine the extent to which domestic or low-grade alloys could properly be substituted for high-grade alloys without materially impairing the steel production as to either quality or quantity. Also, it was held that such an investigation would yield valuable results to the steel industry as well as contribute, in no small way, toward

Jan 2, 1919

By W. E. Horst

Flotation feed was hell constant for batch laboratory tests and continuous pilot and commercial plant tests on a spodumene ore to determine the relation.ship between flotation behavior and the size and type of flotation machine. Results. showed that additional retention time would be needed in the plant flotation circuit to duplicate laboratory or pilot plant performance when operating Dariables of the. plant flotation machines remained unchanged. During the past few years of operation at Kings Mountain, N. C., full-scale flotation has generally yielded poorer metallurgical results than those obtained in the laboratory or pilot plant. After 2 min in each size of Denver flotation machine in the spodumene rougher circuit, pilot recovery (41.7 pct) was almost three times that of the plant (13.6 pct) and about twice that of the laboratory (21.0 pct). Pilot and commercial plant data are based on continuous operation, and laboratory results on batch testing of rougher performance. The ore is a pegmatite containing spodumene, feldspar, quartz, mica, and amphibolite. Data were accumulated to evaluate the scale-up relationships between laboratory, pilot plant, and plant flotation cells. Flotation rate constants and dimensional analysis were used to define the relationship existing between flotation behavior and scale of operation. Measuring Flotation Rates: Efficiency of the rougher stage was measured by flotation rate, defined as the recovery that can be attained within a given time." • The problem of measuring flotation rates has been studied by many investigators, whose methods have varied. Published studies an flotation kinetics have been summarized recently by Gaudin.l When comparing flotation rates, it is more satisfactory to compare straight line relationships between recovery and flotation time than exponential curves resulting from plotting cumulative recovery vs cumulative flotation time. To convert the exponential curves into straight line relationships, rate equations were applied similar to those used in chemical kinetics to study the velocity of chemical reactions. Two rate equations have been used in this investigation to measure efficiency of the various cells: 1.5 order Rate Equation dR/dt=k (A-R)1.0 [Eq.1] Second Order Rate Equation dR ---- - K(A - R)2 [Eq. 2] dt Upon integration Eq. 1 becomes 1/(A-R)1/2=k/2 t+1/A1/2 [Eq. 3] and Eq 2 becomes: or fEq. 4] t/R=1/A2K+t/A [Eq. 4] where R = cumulative recovery [percent recovery of total value (spodumene) in flotation feed]. A = initial concentration, pct (100 pct of mineral to be separated). t = flotation time (minutes). k = flotation rate constant for 1.5 order rate equation [units: 1/(percent) 0.5 (min)1. K = flotation rate constant for second order rate equation [units: 1/(percent) (min) 1.

Jan 1, 1959

By John S. Alexander

DURING the past few years the block coal of Indiana has been talked about and written upon to such an extent, that almost every one at all interested in such subjects, has been made acquainted with the area and geographical position of the field, the quality and peculiar properties of the coal, the thickness of the veins, the manner of mining, etc. The writer, therefore, taking for granted that to those present all this is familiar ground, desires more especially to call attention to the position this coal takes in the market, and at those points of consumption where it is brought in direct competition with rival fuels. Chicago, thus far, has been the chief consumer of Indiana block coal, the distance from the mines at Brazil, via Terre Haute and the 25

Jan 1, 1873

By E. R. Dean

A wire-feed mechanism has been employed to fabricute metal alloy film resistors to various sheet resistivities on oxidized silicon substrates. The effect of several thousand hours storage in air at elevated temperatures on the resistance and temperature coefficient of resistance is presented. Unprotected films of- sheet resistivity between 100 and 500 ohms per sq fabricated at 300°C substrate tenzperatures were unstable when stored at 150°Cfor extended periods. The higher sheet resistivity films exhibited the greatest instability; however, even the 100 ohms per sq films drijted excessively for device application. When stored at still higher temperatures, the normalized resistance increases to maximum, then decreases until a minimum value is obtained, then finally increases in resistance until open. The use of a protective overcoating of SiO has had considerable benejicial effects on the film stability, so that 250 ohms per sq films deposited on 300°C substrates are now stable after 1000 hr storage at 250°C and possess a temperature coefficient of resistance less than 200 ppm per C. The use of a low substrate temperature during depositon (100°C) enables the preparation oj resistors with very low tenperature coefficients of resistance (10 to 20 ppnl per 'C). However, these films are less stable than their higher substrate temperatuve counterparts. During extended storage, the resistance of the protected films always decreases with lower substrate films exhibiting larger normalized resistance decreases. This resistance decrease is accompanied by a linearly related increase in the temperature coefficient of resistance. The electrical behavior of these films may be explained by postulating That the structure of the films is in the transition region between thick continuous films and ultrathin island structure films so that the conductivity is the restlt of both electron scattering and tunneling-activated charge carrier creation between neighboring grains. The annealing behavior when thermally aged is the result of defect anneal, grain growth, and selective oxidation. TheRE is a considerable interest in thin metallic films for use as resistor elements in microelectronic circuits.1,2 These resistor films must be stable when exposed to elevated-temperature storage or operating ambient, possess low temperature coefficients of resistance (hereafter referred to as T.C.R.), and be of a high enough sheet resistivity to be useful. The resistivity and T.C.R. of a thin metallic film are determined by the structure and thickness of the film. Hence the stability of the film when exposed to stress would depend on the stability of the structure. The resistivity of a thin film is the result of the electrons' interaction with the lattice vibrations (electron-phonon scattering), scattering of electrons due to impurities, defects, and grain boundaries and specula reflection from the film surfaces.3' All of these effects serve to reduce the electron mean free path and result in a resistivity higher than the ideal bulk. In ultrathin films possessing essentially an island structure consisting of a planar array of aggregates separated by a few to a few tens of angstroms, conduction is dominated by a combination of tunneling and activated charge carrier reation. Thin films would be characterized by relatively low resistivity, positive T.C.R., and reasonable structure stability whereas ultrathin films possess unstable structures, negative T.C.R., and exhibit high resistivity. Feldman6 has investigated films intermediate between the two regions and postulates that the resistivity of a film in the transition region is composed of two linearly additive parts: that due to the resistance of the grains and that due to the gaps. The grain resistivity would represent the scattering of the conduction electrons by defects, surfaces, and phonon interaction while the gap term represents the tunneling contribution. For gold and platinum films, he found as the film structure becomes progressively less continuous, corresponding to thinner films, the absolute value of the T.C.R. becomes progressively smaller until negative values are observed with respective zero T.C.R.'s at about 35 and 150 ohm per sq, respectively. Recently the author7 investigated the behavior of a multicomponent alloy of nickel, chromium, and iron and found the T.C.R.'s of these films decrease with decreasing substrate temperature during deposition. The lower T.C.A. associated with lower substrate temperatures was attributed to an increased contribution to the total resistivity from the negatively temperature-dependent gap tunneling since it is well-known that thin films deposited on low-temperature substrates consist of a higher density of smaller grains than the same sheet resistivity films deposited on higher-temperature substrates. Under conditions of thermal anneal, the author found that, when various sheet resistivity films fabricated at 300°C substrate temperature are exposed to extended storage in air at 300°C, the thinner films increase in resistance until open, while the thicker films

Jan 1, 1967

By Eugene Jablonski

Statistical data on the Polish producing business are available only for the first half of 1939. Because of the invasion of the country during September by Germany and Russia all sources of information have stopped, and it is impossible to get even an approximate picture of the status of the industry after that date. The long declining trend of Polish production, which was finally checked during 1938, kept a further upward tendency during the first half of 1939, and there is good reason to believe that the upward trend would have been maintained. It is true, there was little hope of reviving the slowly dying Boryslaw field, although there still remained a slight possibility for an extension in its southwestern direction. Repressuring plans were still discussed, but. could not be put into effect because of extremely complicated and split-up lease ownership. The Gorlice-Lipinki ficld continued to be the main factor in the increase of the country's production. During the first half of 1939 this field received a further important extension in a southern direction. The Schodnica field continued to use repressuring with success. At the end of June, 21 exploratory wells were drilling, 14 of which were within thc Carpathians and 7 in the Miocene geosyncline of the Carpathian Foreland. All of the wildcat wells drilled within the Carpathians were on the struct,ural cxtcnsion of old established fields, but part of the wildcats of the Foreland were on new geological and geophysical prospects. The Opary gas field of the Foreland discovered last year has been further developed. The Government-owned Polmin completed its third gasser. This well penetrated two sands; the upper one, 118 ft. thick, was found at 1312 ft., with an initial pressure of 570 lb. and capable of produeiring 10 million cu. ft. per day. The second sand, 91 ft. thick, was found at 1690 ft., yielding 20 million cu. ft., with a pressure of 760 lb. The well Mieczyslaw, drilled about 3 miles further north on the flank of the structurc, found the first sand watered. The Pioneer No. 5, at Chodonice near Przemysl, which reported somc gas last year, was 5696 ft. deep at the end of June, still drilling in Miocene. Anothe well in the same vicinity drilled by the Gasolina was 1708ft. deep.

Jan 1, 1940

By Eugene Jablonski

Statistical data on the Polish producing business are available only for the first half of 1939. Because of the invasion of the country during September by Germany and Russia all sources of information have stopped, and it is impossible to get even an approximate picture of the status of the industry after that date. The long declining trend of Polish production, which was finally checked during 1938, kept a further upward tendency during the first half of 1939, and there is good reason to believe that the upward trend would have been maintained. It is true, there was little hope of reviving the slowly dying Boryslaw field, although there still remained a slight possibility for an extension in its southwestern direction. Repressuring plans were still discussed, but. could not be put into effect because of extremely complicated and split-up lease ownership. The Gorlice-Lipinki ficld continued to be the main factor in the increase of the country's production. During the first half of 1939 this field received a further important extension in a southern direction. The Schodnica field continued to use repressuring with success. At the end of June, 21 exploratory wells were drilling, 14 of which were within thc Carpathians and 7 in the Miocene geosyncline of the Carpathian Foreland. All of the wildcat wells drilled within the Carpathians were on the struct,ural cxtcnsion of old established fields, but part of the wildcats of the Foreland were on new geological and geophysical prospects. The Opary gas field of the Foreland discovered last year has been further developed. The Government-owned Polmin completed its third gasser. This well penetrated two sands; the upper one, 118 ft. thick, was found at 1312 ft., with an initial pressure of 570 lb. and capable of produeiring 10 million cu. ft. per day. The second sand, 91 ft. thick, was found at 1690 ft., yielding 20 million cu. ft., with a pressure of 760 lb. The well Mieczyslaw, drilled about 3 miles further north on the flank of the structurc, found the first sand watered. The Pioneer No. 5, at Chodonice near Przemysl, which reported somc gas last year, was 5696 ft. deep at the end of June, still drilling in Miocene. Anothe well in the same vicinity drilled by the Gasolina was 1708ft. deep.

Jan 1, 1940

CHARLES F. WILLIS,* Bisbee, Ariz. (written discussion ?).-There are few mine officials who will not say that there is, great need of vocational schools in mining communities, but the absence of success of so many of these ventures makes them wary about establishing such schools. They have neither the time nor the facilities to study the systems and to analyze the factors that have made certain schools a success and others a failure. In the first place, it is difficult to secure the proper instructors. Educators cannot make the appeal to the workmen, because of their lack of experience, and experienced men who are capable of the appeal are not usually educators, knowing nothing about the presentation of the subject. Then, too, there is ordinarily no objective in a mine school. The workman is not reached by a school that makes him merely a more valuable man to his employer, unless he can participate in the gain. An objective, as promotion or financial gain, would appeal to the man and would make for regular attendance. Usually vocational schools are run like all others-a number of subjects at a time, continued from one day to another. This is impractical for the workman, whose mind cannot work like the mind of a school boy. The school boy is spending most of his time in school work, while the man is doing it as a side issue, and he cannot be expected to pick up tonight's lesson where last night's left off. The workman is accustomed to the idea of completing a job and doing one thing at a time; his mind is trained that way, and for this reason a school that works on the principal that each lesson is a complete job, with no reference to the previous or following lesson, will go a long way toward removing one of the things that has caused many failures. The usual vocational schools .in mining communities are either very elementary, or are run by the engineering staff and, consequently, are too advanced. There is no plan between. It is believed that there is a possibility of a halfway type, but this is a subject that is large enough for a paper by itself and is entirely, too broad to be presented as a discussion.

Jan 6, 1919

By D. J. Crouse, W. D. Arnold

The potential behavior of radionuclides released in an underground nuclear detonation to fracture copper ore for subsequent in-situ leaching and copper recovery was studied with regard to contamination of the copper product and hazards to operating personnel. The laboratory test results indicate that only small fractions of the radioactive fission products would be dissolved on leaching the ore. Tritium (as tritiated water) would be the dominant radionuclide in the circulating leach liquor, assuming use of a fusion explosive. The test results showed solvent extraction to have important advantages over cementation for recovering copper from the leach liquors. While the radioactivity of the copper metal product produced by either method should be extremely low, the solvent extraction process provides a more effective separation of copper from the radioactive contaminants and entails fewer radiation protection problems. For these reasons it is the preferred process.

Jan 1, 1976

By Magnus Troilius

The following is a very rapid method for determining copper in steel. I have found it to give results very closely agreeing with those obtained by galvanic precipitation of the copper. Five grams of steel are dissolved in a mixture of 100 C.C. of water and 10 C.C. of sulphuric acid. When all is dissolved, add 2 C.C.

Jan 1, 1883

By G. C. Stone

At the conclusion of my paper on the same subject read at the Boston meeting of the Institute, I offered to send some of sample No. 2 to any chemist who wished to analyze it. Eight chemists wrote to me for samples; so far I have received results from five. I give these results in a table (on the following page), together with the results previously obtained: As to the chemists and their methods : K is an iron-works chemist whom I only know by correspondence; lie writes: "No. 27(13.64) was obtained by the method I generally use, as follows : Dissolve 0.8 grams spiegel in hydrochloric acid and a little potassium chlorate, in a half-liter flask. Boil off most of the acid, add ammonia in slight excess, redissolve in acetic acid, using rather more than is really necessary, and then add 8 or 10 grams of sodium acetate and make up to the mark with warm water. Boil hard for fifteen minutes, then allow to settle (cool?), until the liquid reaches the mark, and withdraw 300 C.C. of the nearly clear liquid. Add to this an excess of hydrochloric acid, evaporate to dryness, take up with hydrochloric acid and water, and separate the iron by two precipitations with ammonia (I have often tested the ferric hydrate for manganese, but have never found any, if the separation by ammonia was properly made). Finally, precipitate the manganese as phosphate." Nos. 28, 29 (13.35, 13.07) were by Ford's method." No. 30 (13.50) was by Troilus's method He writes, " I may add the results are quite as good as I expected, although for any element except manganese, they are not close enough for anything like accurate work." L is a firm of commercial chemists of large experience who have made a specialty of iron work. Their method is as follows : Dissolve

Jan 1, 1884

R. MOLDENKE, Watchung, N. J. (written discussion*).-It is some-what difficult to discuss the paper of Mr. Stork, when the description of the cupola melting occurrences indicates that his practice is open to question. The evident burning of much of the steel charged,. coupled with the remarkably low silicon content of the mixture as shown by the resulting product, throws the entire melting practice into that of making cupola malleable. If anything is wanted here, it is a. high bed to melt upon, and yet Mr. Stork in the very beginning of his paper speaks of the evils of oxidation due to a "high" bed, etc. The experienced foundry-mall would judge at the outset that Mr. Stork has kept his bed in the cupola too low, and naturally got a lot of oxidation from the blast. The oxidation of steel when used in large quantities in cupola mixtures is a well-known phenomenon, and is readily understood. One has but to. put a file into the forge fire and watch it burn when heated high enough. The melting point of steel being higher than cast iron, heavy pieces may dig way into the bed before being completely melted away, the last por-tions being directly exposed to free oxygen from the blast. Another situation not to be forgotten is the oxidizing effect of carbon dioxide at high temperatures. A serious oxidation of the steel is quite conceivable if in the zone of maximum carbon dioxide and minimum carbon monoxide-free oxygen being entirely absent. Hence the well understood practice of never melting a mixture with much steel unless the bed is kept exceed-ingly high; or again the above-mentioned malleable practice. Mr. Stork mentions the impossibility of deoxidizing a heat. after the steel contained has been oxidized. This is true to a great extent with the ordinary deoxidizers, such as silicon and manganese, but can be brought about by vanadium, titanium, magnesium, etc. Proper melting, however, makes this unnecessary.

Jan 10, 1919

By G. Reinberg, C. D. Clarke

MOST underground mining operations are dependent on pumping installations to keep the mine unwatered. The reliability of such installations is obviously of paramount importance. The volume of water to be handled is often considerable, and the total head is relatively high. In these cases, both capital cost and operating expense of the pumping installations will become significant factors in overall mining costs. To insure reliability and to keep efficiencies, and hence operating cosl;s, within acceptable limits it goes without saying that mechanical maintenance of a mine pumping installation must receive scrupulous attention at all times. Large mine pumping installations today almost invariably use multistage centrifugal pumps, since positive-displacement units would not be economically competitive except under very unusual conditions of small volume combined with extremely high heads. Centrifugal pump maintenance, under ideal circumstances, would be confined to parts subject to normal running water, i.e., bearing surfaces, stuffing box packing, and shaft sleeves. Under adverse conditions, however, metal may be lost from the wetted surfaces of a pump by erosive or corrosive action of the pumped fluid, and maintenance costs can easily attain enormous proportions. The following definitions are those most generally used for the phenomena encountered. Erosion is a general term meaning mechanical removal of material from a surface. As applied to pumps, it may be the result of simple abrasion, such as that produced by suspended solid matter in the liquid being pumped. In common with other hy-

Jan 1, 1957

By L. C. Graton

Civilization did not begin until metals became the material of tools, implements and machines. - RICKARD, Man and Metals. HISTORY is no more an end in itself than is a backsight the sum total of a survey. This Institute may view with satisfaction the remarkable development of the mineral industry since its founding three score and fifteen years ago, its own enlarging service to that industry, and the contribution thus made toward the enhanced welfare, opportunity and mutual understanding now in greater or less degree reaching and benefiting all peoples of the globe. But neither this professional society nor the dynamic mining industry as a whole wishes on this anniversary to direct its gaze chiefly toward the past. The foremost purpose of historical review should be to throw into clear perspective the strong points and the defects in the forward march thus far, primarily as the basis for conceiving and designing a still sounder progress henceonward. At various times since the Institute's founding, the theories of ore deposition have been considered from the historical view point.l-7 For the present occasion it seems fitting to lay prime emphasis on the practice and utilization of geology in its varied relations to the problems of the mining industry. It is hoped that the reader will understand and accept the degree to which the whole is sampled by parts familiar to the present writer, and the disproportionate attention to thought and achievement within the United

Jan 1, 1947

By George J. Young

DURing the spring of 1910 1 visited a number of open-pit brown-coal mines and underground workings in the vicinity of Halle, Halberstadt, Leipsic, Cologne and Bonn. The notes which I took and the observations which I made at the time have been condensed and make up the principal part of this paper. Certain supplementary information has been taken from several sources which are given in the paper. The mining of brown coal is one of the important industries of Germany. The coal varies in color from dark brown to almost black and is soft like loam. Pieces of wood and strips of bark and even parts of tree trunks are frequently encountered in the excavation although the coal for the most part consists of a pulverulent, more or less matted mass of small particles of vegetal matter. It is a product between peat and lignitic coal. An analysis, taken from Coal Resources of the World shows the approximate composition of the material: Moisture, 53.73 per cent.; ash, 4.98; fixed carbon, 18.08; volatile carbon, 23.31 per cent. Thc principal characteristic is the amount of moisture. This seldom runs less than 48 per cent. The ash is usually low and ranges from 5 to 10 per cent. The sulphur content is usually less than 0.5 per cent. The heating effect of the fuel ranges from 2,000 to 2,500 calories. The commercial deposits are confined to the Tertiary period although

Jan 1, 1916

By George C. Stone

Since the Troy meeting I have received several additional results of analysis of the same sample of spiegel, which I give below: P. I know only by correspondence. His methods are : for results Nos. 47, 48 (13.03, 13.26) dissolve In hydrochloric acid, evaporate, oxidize with nitric arid, filter from silica, separate iron as basic acetate, precipitate manganese as sulphide, dissolve in hydrochloric acid; and precipitate as carbonate. No. 49 (13.72) was obtained by Eggertz's method. Nos. 50, 51 (13.10, 13.10) were dissolved and oxitfized as before, the iron precipitated by oxide of zinc, filtered and washed four times with cold water; and the manganese titered hot with permanganate. P. regards these two results as low. Nos. 52, 53 (13.75, 13.69) were dissolved and treated like the last two, the precipitated iron was again dissolved, separated, and titered as before; the results are the sum of the manganese joined in both

Jan 1, 1884

By J. Wayne Erickson

Hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent to discover or purchase uranium resources that cannot, or should not, be mined with conventional methods if human, natural and financial resources are to be conserved. Three years ago, an industry-supported research stud was initiated to determine whether a safer and more efficient (in terms of cost and environment) uranium mining method could be designed to replace existing techniques. As a result of this study, the "underground in situ" method was conceived and developed to the stage where it is now feasible. This approach involves: (1) sinking a shaft; (2) driving a drift on the ore horizon the length of the ore body; (3) drilling almost-horizontal long holes the width of the ore body; and (4) oxidizing and leaching the uranium drawn from these holes. The method is unique in that the uranium is removed with a minimum of disturbance to the natural hydrology of host or surrounding sands.

Jan 11, 1978

By C. Richard Tinsley

At least three major consortia are gearing up for actual mining tests in the near future, two prospective entrants are seeking partners, and significant behind-the-scene changes are occurring in attitudes at the Law of the Sea Conference. On top of this, the prospects for passage of a deep-ocean mining bill through Congress arc steadily improving, although Administration objections persist and the threat of a Ford veto remains.

Jan 4, 1976