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By Luis Salazar

Internal improvements are the great seals; stamping upon the history of nations their epochs of peace, in which notable enterprises are conceived, and fresh impulses given along the path of progress. Such forerunners of national benefits have never been so notable in Mexico as in the last four decades of the nineteenth century, during which the national faith in the consolidation of peace has been a guaranty of the development of all the elements of national prosperity. Among all the improvements which have been realized with the unanimous approbation of the people, the railroads occupy a preferred place, for upon them depends the expansion of commerce, of agriculture and of mining, the three great factors of the wealth of Mexico. In a country so extensive as the Mexican Republic, where the inhabitants are greatly scattered, and great distances separate the producer from the consumer, the only way to encourage home industry, and the development of commerce, agriculture and mining, is to construct railroads, which shorten distance, facilitate transportation and minimize its costs. The mountainous character of the country makes the navigation of its rivers practically impossible, except very near to

Jan 1, 1902

Percolation infers the passage of a liquid through, the interstices of any material or materials permitting it. Leaching is the process of extracting soluble matter by percolation. Lixiviation is analogous to leaching. Percolation and leaching may occur simultaneously. A filter may be used either to strain suspended or finely divided matter from a liquid, when it is known as a clarifier, or to separate a liquid from a solid. Clarification usually infers the addition d: some settling or flocculating agent which permits the decantation of the clear supernatant liquor. The simple separation of solid from liquid, such as occurs when a thickened flotation concentrate is filtered, is usually termed dewatering. The word filtration is used more to cover the complex process of separating, as far as possible, solid from liquid by vacuum or pressure, removing the residual solution by wash, and at the same time leaching any recrystallized, absorbed, or undissolved matter, by percolation with the solvent. The final product of metallurgical treatment should be reported as a recovery when the yield is refined metal. When the metallurgical operations are incomplete and a concentrated but not refined-product is obtained, the metal content should be reported as an extraction.

Jan 1, 1919

Jan 1, 1959

By Philip D. Wilson

FEAST and famine-or, chronologically, famine and feast-have characterized the aluminum supply program during 1943. Fortunately for the war effort the famine phase is over and aluminum production is now in the happy position of being abundantly able to supply all the requirements of the armed services plus a monthly surplus which is building up a substantial stock pile as a reserve against any contingencies. But the present condition of oversupply cannot be attributed to the super-efficiency of the aluminum production program which was designed to take care of the over-all requirements of the war with little or no margin of safety. The present more than comfortable situation is due primarily to the fact that the armed services generally have not consumed anything approaching the amount of aluminum which their requirement estimates indicated.

Jan 1, 1944

By Hugh M. Roberts, R. D. Longyear

Introduction ............................ 27 GEnERal Geology........................... 29 The ORebodY in Western Falco~ridgI TownsRip........... 31 Quartzite-Graywacke Formation................... 33 Greenstone............................ 33 Norite ............................. 33 Metamorphism.......................... 35 The Orebody........................... 36 Mineralogy ........................... 37 Grade of Ore........................... 42 Genesis oF tEe Ores . :....................... 43 Summary of Various Hypotheses.................. 44 Magmatic Segregation by Crystallization of Sulphides........ 44 Gravitational Segregation of Molten Sulphides at the Base of the Magma 45 Intrusion of Molten Sulphides after the Consolidation of 'he Nurite.. 45 Deposition by Hydrothermal Solutions.............. 46 Magmatic Segregation by Extraction from Crystallizing Norite... SO The Relationship between the Exploration and Theories of Origin .... 50 Volume Relations of Norite and Sulphides............... 62 Intimate Association of Norite and Sulphides............. 53 Granitic Material........................ 54 Uniform Content........................ 54 Sulphides in Walls......................... 54 Absence of Typical Hydrothermal Minerals.............. 55 SUmmaRY................................ 56 Introduction During 1916 and 1917. the E. J. Longyear Co. of Minneapolis. Minn., carried out a campaign of exploration for nickel-copper ore in the Sudbury District of Ontario. The work was initiated by W. E. Smith. a resident of Sudbury. who called the attention of W. J. Mead. Chief Geologist

Jan 1, 1918

By H. D. Kessler, M. Hansen, R. J. Van Thyne

The phase diagram of the titanium-rich portion of the system Ti-Cr-Fe to 70 pct Ti was established by means of isothermal sections at 900°, 800°, 750°, 700°, 650°, 600°, and 550°C, using arc-cast alloys. An isotherm at 800°C was determined for the section bounded by Ti, TiFe2, and TiCr2. Micrographic analysis was employed as the principal method of investigation, supplemented by X-ray diffraction and incipient melting studies. A ternary eutectoid, ß ? a+ TiCr2 + TiFe, occurs at approximately 8 wt pct Cr, 13 wt pct Fe, and about 540°C. AMONG the first titanium-base alloys in commercial production were the Ti-Cr-Fe alloys. For this reason, the Materials Laboratory, Wright Air Development Center, sponsored an investigation of the system. No information on the constitution of the titanium-rich corner was available. Vogel and Wenderott studied titanium-poor ternary alloys.' As part of this program, the binary systems Ti-Cr and Ti-Fe have been determined previously by the authors.' Other investigators have also studied the binary systems Ti-Cr,3-7' Ti-Fe.³,8-10 Both of the binary systems are characterized by the eutectoid decomposition of the ß phase. Most of the effort of the present work has been concentrated on the titanium-rich corner with compositions of less than 30 pct total chromium and iron content. The determination of isothermal sections was the experimental approach used to obtain the ternary phase diagram. Vertical sections were used to check the consistency of the isothermal sections. While this investigation was in progress, a study of the Ti-Mo-Cr system at Armour Research Foundation disclosed the existence of a high temperature modification of TiCr2 above 1300 °C.11 This allotrope has a hexagonal structure of the MgZn2 type, iso-morphous with TiFe2, whereas the low temperature modification of TiCr2 is cubic," of the MgCu2 type. The existence of allotropy in TiCr2 of course means a more complicated set of phase relationships in this general region than if the phase were monomorphic, as was first assumed. Additional studies were made late in the investigation in order to clarify the part that the hexagonal TiCr2 phase plays in the ternary phase relationships. These will be discussed in a separate section. Because they are of greatest practical significance, the phase relationships in the titanium-rich corner will be presented first, omitting the equilibria involving the hexagonal modification of TiCr2 in an effort to simplify the presentation somewhat. Experimental Procedure Materials: The titanium used in the preparation of the alloys was iodide crystal bar (99.9 pct pure) produced by the New Jersey Zinc Co. High purity chromium and iron were obtained from the National Research Corp. Table I gives the analyses of these materials. Melting Practice: Over 100 alloy ingots weighing 10 to 20 g were melted in a nonconsumable electrode arc-melting furnace. As the techniques are identical to those reported previously,12,13 they will not be detailed here. The ingots were melted in the cavity of a copper melting block insert under a slight positive pressure of helium. No measurable hardness

Jan 1, 1954

By A. R. Krause, C. Laird

In order to establish whether or not there is a real temperature effect in fatigue (independent of environment) , poly crystalline copper and Cu- 7.9 A1 alloy have been cycled at 298° and 7° K in vacuo and the fatigue lives compared with those in air and in liquid nitrogen. The lives of both copper and the alloy were found to be highly temperature-dependent in the absence of environment. This result casts serious doubt on the validity of the cell structure hypothesis for stage I crack propagation as presently formulated, because it predicts that there should be no such tempevnture dependence. On the other hand, the plastic blunling process is consistent with the result. Effects of environment aside, the homogenization of slip which accompanies testing at low temperature, and at low strains, seems to be the main cause for increased fatigue life. At high strain amplitudes, the fatigue lives of wavy slip materials, typically copper, are independent of temperature.' It is well-known, however, that low-strain lives greatly as as the temperature of testing is decreased. By contrast, the lives of planar slip materials, such as Cu-7.9 pct A1 alloy, increase to an even greater extent with decreasing temperature throughout both the high and low strain ranges.1'2'5 The mechanism of this temperature effect is associated with the earliest stages of fatigue failure,'" crack nucleation, and stage I growth,"' which is slow propagation along slip bands to the depth of a few grain diameters. Such life behavior has been interpreted on at least two different bases. On the one hand, those interested in the temperature effect at high strain amplitudes1 believe that stage I growth occurs by the plastic blunting process of crack propagation.7'9 They explain the effect in planar slip materials by the homogenization of slip* which accompanies fatigue testing at low temper- atures and serves both to delay crack nucleation and to decrease the rate of stage I propagation. On the other hand, Holt and Backofen,2 who have studied the effect in low strain fatigue, believe that stage I growth can be interpreted by a cell structure hypothesis.10-12 They have challenged2 the conclusion that there is a real temperature effect in this regime of fatigue testing and have interpreted the increased fatigue lives almost entirely in terms of the "environmental-protective'' effect of the liquid nitrogen and helium baths used to obtain low temperatures. This interpretation by Holt and Backofen2 may offer a means of discriminating between these two mechanisms as currently formulated and used to explain stage I growth. On the basis of the plastic blunting process applied to stage I crack propagation,7* the low strain fatigue lives of both wavy and planar slip materials should be increased with decreasing temperature. This follows because both materials show increased slip homogenization in this strain regime."13 Consequently, crack nucleation in intensified bands will be delayed and the linking of such small cracks into larger stage I cracks will be difficult. In addition, the blunting process required to lengthen a stage I crack from the order of 2 to 10 (where the strain concentration of the crack begins to overcome the slip homogenization property of the material) will also be retarded. These delays will give rise to longer lives in both kinds of material. In contrast to the blunting hypothesis, no temperature dependence has been predicted on the basis of the cell structure hypothesis, because it is well-known that materials cycled at low temperature show no differences in type of dislocation structure for a given strain amplitude.18"20 If the lives of wavy and planar slip materials do show a temperature dependence when the environment is eliminated as a variable, then it is questionable whether cell structures per se have a fundamental role in fatigue fracture. Accordingly, specimens of copper and Cu-7.9 wt pct A1 have been cycled at 298° and 77°K in vacuo and the fatigue lives compared with those in air and in liquid nitrogen, in order to establish whether or not there is a real temperature effect in low strain fatigue. Since it is difficult to measure the strains in specimens when cycled in vacuo, S-N curves have been used as the basis of comparison. In studying the influence of temperature on fatigue life in ordinary environment, Holt and Backofen2 used the superior basis of E-N curves. However, they also published S-N curves and thus established the relationship between E-N and S-N curves. This relationship is used to support the S-N comparison reported in the present investigation. EXPERIMENTAL Materials. The copper employed in this investigation was of 99.99 pct purity and the cu-7.9 pct A1 was prepared from metals of the same purity. The stock, of 3 in. initial diam, was reduced in size by rolling

Jan 1, 1969

By Worthen Bradley, R. G. Hall

THIS paper will attempt to show how a metallurgical problem at one California quicksilver mine was solved, and how the solution was applied successfully at another mine. The pronouns "we" and "our," as used below, refer to the Bradley Mining Co. of San Francisco. The term "concurrent firing" for the purpose of this paper can be defined as feeding and firing a rotary kiln at the same end-that is, of course, the upper end. This is as opposed to "counter-current firing," the orthodox method, in which a kiln is fed at the upper and fired at the lower end. The terms "quicksilver" and "mercury" are used interchangeably. EARLY REFERENCES The earliest work on nonferrous metallurgy, we believe, was The Pirotechnia of Vannocio Biringuccio,1 its first edition having been printed in Italy in 1540. Quoting from its chapter entitled "Concerning Quicksilver and Its Ore": Quicksilver . . . is one of the gods and has divine strength in itself, and also, to the annoyance of the alchemists, it is winged. Hence, when it sees that it is in gravest danger, it loosens itself from . . . every bond . . . and flies away into the heavens, escaping from the hands of those who crucify it. Almost laughing, it leaves all its adversaries mocked and scorned, with their phials and filters empty . . . How thorough a job, under certain conditions, it can do of mocking its adversaries and leaving their phials and filters empty, was found out four centuries later at the Sulphur Bank mine, on the east shore of Clear Lake, in Lake County, California. The other mine mentioned in the title is the Reed, in Yolo County, California, 35 miles by road southeast of Sulphur Bank. Reed and Sulphur Bank ranked respectively fifth and seventh in U. S. production in 1943. The earliest direct reference we can find to furnacing troubles at these mines was by Thomas Egleston in 1890.2 Speaking of Sulphur Bank, Egleston says: Sometimes there is more sulphur than cinnabar in the ore, which is a detriment to both . . . making the sulphur impure, and rendering the cinnabar difficult to work on account of the soot. In some of the early . . . furnaces the accumulation of soot from the excess of sulphur has been known to penetrate as far as the fan blower at the end of the . . . condensers, and completely prevent its revolution. In order to get rid of the inconvenience of this accumulation . . . , as well as to get a commercial value from the sulphur, it (the sulphur) is now separated by steam and sold. It is claimed that the sulphur alone pays all the expenses of . . . the mine. The mine was first worked for sulphur, and the cinnabar it contained was considered to be an inconvenience, and was carefully picked out and thrown away. as its richness and value were not

Jan 1, 1945

By Joseph G. Franzone, Alan K. Kuhn, Jerry J. Oliver

INTRODUCTION Tailings produced by many uranium milling operations consist of fine sands with some silt and slimes. When fine sandy materials are placed by hydraulic methods behind an impermeable dam, they are deposited in a loose state and some portion remains saturated. These saturated, loose fine sands are highly susceptible to liquefaction, the phenomenon in which a monotonic or cyclic disturbance causes excess pore water pressure and, concurrently, a total loss of strength in the sand. Once liquefied, the fine sand flows, causing collapse of supported structures. The potential for such a liquefaction failure was identified and successfully treated at Sohio Western Mining Company's L-Bar Uranium Operations near Seboyeta, New Mexico. The Sohio tailings dam is an earthfill starter dam with tailings raises constructed upstream of the starter dam crest. Beginning with the start of mill operations in 1976, tailings were deposited hydraulically in the impoundment behind the starter dam. As the tailings level approached the crest of the starter dam, beached tailings were excavated and placed in lifts by a dozer to form two raises above the crest of the starter dam. As the impoundment has gradually filled with tailings, the decant water pond level has risen. Correspondingly, the water level in the tailings dam, upstream of the chimney drain, has also risen. By August 1980, the phreatic surface was above the crest of the starter dam and stability analyses indicated that the tailings dam did not have the safety factor of 1.0, under static loading with liquefaction, implicit in the 1980 New Mexico State Engineer's requirements. The problem related directly to the high phreatic surface in the loose sandy tailings behind a dam structure that was not capable of resisting failure which might develop in liquefied tailings. Two methods of stability enhancement were considered for the Sohio dam. One method was reinforcement of the dam using a clay buttress placed against the downstream slope. The other method was installation of horizontal drains through the starter dam to drain decant water and lower the phreatic surface. Either method would increase the stability of the dam. However, the comparative analysis of the methods indicated that horizontal drainage offered significant advantages in cost and could provide a more direct remedy of the source of the problem, the saturated section of tailings. In addition, a drainage system would be more amenable to modification and more quickly installed than a buttress. On the other hand, a clay buttress could be more directly controlled, would involve routine earthwork, and has successful precedent. Therefore, the buttress approach would involve less risk. After weighing the advantages of both methods and the costs versus risks, the horizontal drainage approach was selected. Consequently, a horizontal pipe drain system was recommended and designed (D’Appolonia, 1981a). This paper describes the design and installation of the drainage system and its initial performance. PIPE DRAIN SYSTEM DESIGN Design Criteria and Parameters To increase the stability of the dam to acceptable levels, the drainage system had to lower the phreatic surface behind the dam to the level calculated to give a minimum safety factor of 1.0 under conditions of liquefaction. In addition, the system needed to be essentially self-operating, easy to maintain, and economical. To accomplish these objectives, the following design criteria were established: 1. The pipe drains must lower the phreatic surface at least 4.3 m (14 ft.) at the midpoint along the dam (the deepest section) and by proportionately smaller amounts toward the abutments to satisfy safety factor requirements.

Jan 1, 1982

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Jan 1, 1940

By E. A. Ernst, N. F. Carpenter

The benefits derived from an acidizing treatment are a function of the penetration achieved by the acid before complete spending. Additional penetration may be achieved by (1) controlling acid leak-08 into formation pores in the channel faces, and (2) retarding the reaction rate of the acid. A recently developed chemical additive consists of a synthetic polymeric material which absorbs hydrochloric-acid solutions, when suspended therein, swelling up to 40 times its original volume. These swollen particles have the ability to deform and seal-08 formation pores, providing fluid-loss control. In addition, they provide a diffusion barrier between the fracture face and the acid solution, prolonging the spending time of the acid. Field applications of this new technique have shown promising results. A method of conducting acid fluid-loss tests, using carbonate cores, is believed to provide fluid-loss data that are more representative of formation conditions than the conventional filter-paper determinations. INTRODUCTION The concept of oilwell acidizing has changed since its first commercial application, 30 years ago. Originally, it was visualized that the acid penetrated thousands of tiny pores and flow channels in the matrix rock, enlarging them by dissolving the carbonate walls. The resultant permeability increase was assumed to be the responsible factor in increasing production from the well. Recent laboratory studies,' however, have shown that this does not provide the complete picture. Although this type of individual pore penetration by the acid does take place during acid "soaks", designed to overcome "skin effect" due to mud invasion in the immediate vicinity of the wellbore, many years of experience have shown that considerable pressure is required to attain any appreciable injection rate into the fine capillary pores of the rock. During most acidizing treatments, the bottom-hole pressure build-up due to the restriction of flow into the formation exceeds the "breakdown" pressure of the rock so that a fracture is induced. In most cases, such fractures open up along natural, incipient fissures and zones of weakness in the rock and, therefore, tend to follow the natural stress pattern of the rock—whether it be horizontal, vertical or inclined. Because of the comparatively greater permeability of the channel in relation to that of the matrix, the bulk of the acid volume is diverted into the newly opened fracture. Here it quickly penetrates the formation, opening and ex- tending the fracture in much the same manner as a conventional fracturing fluid. Unlike the fracturing fluid, however, most acidizing solutions contain no propping agent; thus, the open fracture will again close when the injection pressure is relieved. Laboratory studies2 have shown that in many cases the etching of the fracture faces, resulting from the reaction between the acidizing solution and the carbonate rock, is nonuniform due to the heterogeneity of the rock structure. As a result, the two fracture faces no longer match when pressure is released, and support pillars and intermediate voids remain, forming a high-conductivity channel for well fluids. Unfortunately, this is not true over the entire area of the fracture, but only over that portion of the fracture where the rock has been partially dissolved by the acid. The acid solution spends as its travels away from the wellbore; once it has completely spent, even though it may provide additional mechanical fracture extension, no additional benefit due to etching of fracture faces can be expected. Studies of acid reaction rates under formation conditions,3 observing the effect of different variables upon spending time, have shown that the reaction was often so rapid that very little penetration of the formation occurred before the acid was spent. Study was undertaken to devise methods of increasing the penetration of the acid before spending, so as to provide greater benefit from the acidizing treatment by etching a greater portion of the fracture faces. Several techniques were devised to accomplish this purpose. First, chemical additives were developed which were designed to retard the reaction rate of the acid, causing it to penetrate a greater distance from the wellbore before finally becoming spent. Another method was to increase the injection rate of the acid. However, it was found that the resultant increased shear tended to accelerate the reaction rate of the acid, partially offsetting the benefits of the higher injection rate insofar as achieving increased penetration before spending was concerned.' Another approach to the problem of achieving increased penetration was the development of fluid-loss additives for acid solutions, which would minimize the volume of acid lost into formation pores in the fracture faces and provide maximum fracture extension for the volume of acid injected during the treatment. The use of fluid-loss additives is now considered the most effective method of providing maximum fracturing-fluid efficiency.~ Unfortunately, this latter technique does not solve the problem of rapid reaction rate, with consequent limitation of the fracture area benefited by reaction with unspent acid. A newly developed acid additive overcomes many of these limitations by providing the dual benefits of fluid-loss control and mechanical retardation of acid reaction

By L. J. M. Smits

A theoretical equation is developed describing membrane potentials of shaly sands as a function of the cation-exchange capacity per unit pore volume of the rock and saturating water salinity. This equation is based on the same simple physical model as that employed earlier7 describing the electrical conductivity of shaly sands. Experiments conducted with NaCl solutions showed that the equation is obeyed, except in the case of saturated salt solutions where minor deviations were observed. A possible explanation is given for this discrepancy. As the clay content and the porosity of shales may vary appreciably, shale membrane potentials also vary. It was found that membrane potentials of shales can be calculated accurately with the aid of the same theory. Consequently, changes in membrane potentials can be accounted for by simple measurement of cation-exchange capacities per unit pore volume of both shales and shaly sands. Charts are given to facilitate interpretation of the electrochemical part of the SP in terms of cation-exchange capacities and the salinities of mud filtrate and formation water. INTRODUCTION A spontaneous potential (SP) log is a record of the way in which the electrical potential of a sonde varies as it passes down a borehole. Such variations frequently reflect rock texture, e.g., permeable beds intercalated in an impermeable series often are indicated by a sharp change in potential. Nowadays it is recognized that SP logs may be interpreted in terms of formation-water salinity and formation shaliness. The four sources of the SP are illustrated in Fig. 1. El and E4 represent streaming potentials generated by the flow of mud filtrate through mud cake opposite permeable formations and through shale, respectively. An extensive review of the literature on the evaluation of these streaming potentials is given by Lynchl and will not be discussed here. The remaining part of the SP generally is called the electrochemical potential, which is divided into two parts: a membrane potential across the shale (E3, Fig. 1) and a membrane potential in the permeable sand at the diffusion boundary between formation water and mud filtrate (E2, Fig. 1). It was found by wyllie2 that the membrane potential across the shale, E3, is the most important contribution to the electrochemical potential, the shale acting as a semi permeable membrane. When the sand is clean it does not influence the diffusion process, so E2 equals the value of the so-called liquid-liquid junction potential observed when the two solutions diffuse freely into each other. When the sand contains clay, however, this interferes with the diffusion process and affects the diffusion potential generated. The greater the proportion of clay, the stronger this effect will be. Wyllie,3 Doll4 and Poupon et al.5 took this effect into account theoretically, starting from a physical

Jan 1, 1969

By T. D. Yensen

AT the symposium on gases in metals held at the Annual Meeting of the Institute in New York in February, 1933, a suggestion was made1 that the term "gases in metals" as now employed is unsuitable as descriptive of the substances usually involved in that term. The Executive Committee of the Iron and Steel Division thereupon appointed a subcommittee, composed of the authors of this paper, to study the "nomenclature involved in the general subject of gases in metals, including the name itself" and to report its findings to the Executive Committee. The subcommittee decided at once to discuss the subject with an "Advisory Council" composed of representative metallurgists, metallographers and analytical and physical chemists in the Pittsburgh district.2 As a result of conferences held by the subcommittee and with the Council, a report with recommendations was submitted to the Executive Committee at an open meeting on Oct. 5, 1933, during the National Metals Congress in Detroit. The report and recommendations were accepted, and the subcommittee was instructed to proceed with the dissemination of the report for the purpose of having its recommendation generally adopted either as it was or in a modified form as a result of further discussion.

Jan 1, 1934

By R. P. O’Shea

AS part of a program to investigate phase relationships in ternary systems containing semiconducting elements and compounds, an X-ray survey of alloys in the system Pb-Te-Bi was carried out which revealed that the pair PbTe-Bi probably formed a quasibinary system. This portion of the ternary was examined fully by thermal analysis, X-ray, and microscopic procedures. More than twenty-five alloys were made by melting together the proper combinations of the elements in quartz tubes at a temperature of 1000o C. The compositions which were high in PbTe content were prepared in evacuated, sealed, quartz tubes, allowed to freeze in vacuum, and then transferred to Crucibles for thermal analysis. The bismuth-rich alloys were made directly in the crucibles under a protective gas cover. The starting elements were obtained from the American Smelting and Refining Co. and had a purity greater than 99.99 pct. Cooling curves were made with about 50 g of alloy in graphite crucibles which were placed in a covered quartz container in which a protective atmosphere of helium or nitrogen was maintained. The thermocouple protection tube was made of mul-lite and served as a stirring rod when connected to a reciprocating stirring motor. Temperatures were

Jan 1, 1962

By R. A. L. Black, J. E. Jennings

The problems of slope stability in open cast mines are examined. A criterion, the instantaneous stripping ratio, is suggested for use in the design of pit slopes and as an index of control at all stages of the exploitation of the orebody. This criterion may also be related to safety and to the maximizing of profits. Two approaches to safe design of slopes, one from the point of view of soil mechanics and the other from the point of view of rock mechanics, are described and critically compared. The effect on slope stability of the regional tectonic stress field is discussed. Explanation is given of the application of the Terzaghi effective stress concept to problems in both soil and rock environments, including possible effects when borehole deformation techniques are used to measure stresses in rock in situ. A company embarking on open cast mining is faced with two basic questions: 1) will the venture be profitable and 2) can it be carried out with safety? The two questions are obviously interrelated because both depend upon the slope angles adopted for the pit. The cost of open cast mining depends largely upon the stripping ratio, defined as the volume of overburden that must be removed to the volume of ore recovered. The steeper the slope angles, the more favorable the stripping ratio, but the stability of the slopes, and therefore the safety of men and materials in the pit, require that the angles be made relatively flat. Consequently, the design depends upon a compromise: the slopes must be steep enough to result in economical mining and flat enough to ensure safety. Today there is a world trend towards deeper mining by open cast methods. This is mainly due to the higher cost of underground mining and the lower cost of open excavation resulting from the introduction of large modern earth and rock-moving machinery. Deeper open cast mining has led to a very great increase in the volumes of wasted overburden, and much thought is being given to the considerable economic benefits which would result if pit slopes could be made steeper by even one or two degrees. The result has been an increasing interest in research into slope stability problems in the expectation that the application of scientific principles will provide solutions leading both to economies and to more predictable operation of the mines. In at least four places, the U.S., Australia, Western Germany and Southern Africa, comprehensive investigations are at present in progress, and it is the object of this paper to review some of the more important aspects of these programs. RELATION BETWEEN ECONOMY OF OPERATION AND SLOPE ANGLES The main object of any industrial enterprise in a free economy is to make a profit. In mining, where profits must be made from a wasting capital asset, a further definition of the profit motive is imposed, namely that the economic aim should be to maximize the total possible profit. But since profits deferred for a number of years are not as valuable as profits that are immediately available, it is usual to discount deferred profits at some rate of interest which reflects their current or present value in the hands of the investor. Thus, in mining the logical aim can be defined more closely still: to maximize the present value of the total future profits. In commercial terms the present value represents the market value of the operation as a going concern. Many factors enter into the forecast of current and future profits. They include the volume of production, the price of the salable product and the cost of production. Current profits can be estimated with reasonable accuracy by the operating engineers; but it is the task of economists and management to assess future trends in the mineral markets and in the economy as a whole, and together with the engineers, they can then estimate the future cost and profitability of the mining operations. In open cast mining, the rate of ore production once decided on remains a virtually constant factor unless a major change in the capital structure of the mine is made. But one factor over which the operator has a considerable measure of control is the ratio of the volume of ore mined to the volume of waste over-

Jan 1, 1963

By R. C. Edwards, T. G. Kirkland, Will Mitchell

A scrubber of new design has been invented for the beneficiation of glass and chemical sands. The machine is described and its capacity and metallurgical efficiency compared with the performance of other sand cleaning devices. THREE years ago, when the Process Research Laboratory at Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Co. sought a remedy for the increasing cost of disposing of great quantities of spent sands from foundries, R. C. Edwards developed a continuous inclined paddle scrubber which removed a substantial amount of the charred coatings from the grains with a surprisingly small amount of degradation of the sand itself.' The satisfactory results obtained on foundry sand, using this piece of equipment in conjunction with classification, suggested that a similar procedure could probably be applied to the cleaning of other sands, such as those required by the glass and chemical industries. This paper describes the flowsheet and the results of tests performed on impure natural sands. The four materials tested were silica sands obtained from widely separated geographical areas. Three of the sands tested contained various amounts of iron oxide and the fourth an excessive amount of calcareous bonding material. The iron oxide was present predominantly in the form of grain coatings, which were scuffed by the paddle scrubber, and in all cases a product was manufactured which would meet one of the sets of specifications imposed by the glass industry.' The Edwards paddle scrubber used in these tests consists of a rubber-lined steel cylinder 18 in. in diam and 48 in. long, mounted on a frame so that its slope can be varied 5" to 35" from horizontal. This variable slope permits controlled flow of material through the machine. Rubber paddles rotate inside the cylinder and are secured to a center shaft 2 in. square, which extends through the entire length and is turned at both ends so that it can be supported by sleeve bearings centrally fixed in the end plates of the shell. At the upper or feed end it extends through the bearing on the end plate into a sheave, to which the motor drive is connected by means of Texrope transmission. The four sets of paddles mounted on the shaft, two in each set, are made of rubber belting, 1/4 in. thick, 9 in. wide, and 16 in. long. The two paddles in each set are secured on opposite sides of the square shaft, but in the same longitudinal position along the shaft axis. In other words, the two paddles in the set operate 180" apart. Each successive set is mounted 90" from the preceding one. One end of each paddle is bolted to the square shaft and the other weighted by a steel bar, lx1 1hx9 in. long, which is attached about Yz in. from the outer tip of the paddle. By centrifugal force at proper shaft speed, these weights force the paddle surface to rub smoothly against the rubber lining of the cylinder. During operation, the sand forces its way between the paddle face and the surface of the cylinder, providing the necessary abrading action as the pulp flows by gravity down the length of the cylinder. The capacity of the machine is limited by the amount and the hardness of the coating material and by the quality of product desired. The degree of scrubbing is governed by the retention time in the scrubber, which in turn may be changed by varying the feed rate, water content of the feed, and

Jan 1, 1953

By R. C. Edwards, T. G. Kirkland, Will Mitchell

A scrubber of new design has been invented for the beneficiation of glass and chemical sands. The machine is described and its capacity and metallurgical efficiency compared with the performance of other sand cleaning devices. THREE years ago, when the Process Research Laboratory at Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Co. sought a remedy for the increasing cost of disposing of great quantities of spent sands from foundries, R. C. Edwards developed a continuous inclined paddle scrubber which removed a substantial amount of the charred coatings from the grains with a surprisingly small amount of degradation of the sand itself.' The satisfactory results obtained on foundry sand, using this piece of equipment in conjunction with classification, suggested that a similar procedure could probably be applied to the cleaning of other sands, such as those required by the glass and chemical industries. This paper describes the flowsheet and the results of tests performed on impure natural sands. The four materials tested were silica sands obtained from widely separated geographical areas. Three of the sands tested contained various amounts of iron oxide and the fourth an excessive amount of calcareous bonding material. The iron oxide was present predominantly in the form of grain coatings, which were scuffed by the paddle scrubber, and in all cases a product was manufactured which would meet one of the sets of specifications imposed by the glass industry.' The Edwards paddle scrubber used in these tests consists of a rubber-lined steel cylinder 18 in. in diam and 48 in. long, mounted on a frame so that its slope can be varied 5" to 35" from horizontal. This variable slope permits controlled flow of material through the machine. Rubber paddles rotate inside the cylinder and are secured to a center shaft 2 in. square, which extends through the entire length and is turned at both ends so that it can be supported by sleeve bearings centrally fixed in the end plates of the shell. At the upper or feed end it extends through the bearing on the end plate into a sheave, to which the motor drive is connected by means of Texrope transmission. The four sets of paddles mounted on the shaft, two in each set, are made of rubber belting, 1/4 in. thick, 9 in. wide, and 16 in. long. The two paddles in each set are secured on opposite sides of the square shaft, but in the same longitudinal position along the shaft axis. In other words, the two paddles in the set operate 180" apart. Each successive set is mounted 90" from the preceding one. One end of each paddle is bolted to the square shaft and the other weighted by a steel bar, lx1 1hx9 in. long, which is attached about Yz in. from the outer tip of the paddle. By centrifugal force at proper shaft speed, these weights force the paddle surface to rub smoothly against the rubber lining of the cylinder. During operation, the sand forces its way between the paddle face and the surface of the cylinder, providing the necessary abrading action as the pulp flows by gravity down the length of the cylinder. The capacity of the machine is limited by the amount and the hardness of the coating material and by the quality of product desired. The degree of scrubbing is governed by the retention time in the scrubber, which in turn may be changed by varying the feed rate, water content of the feed, and

Jan 1, 1953

By Leon Merker

FLAME fusion growth of strontium titanate crystals was undertaken to obtain large transparent crystals on which physical data could be gathered. The fact that strontium titanate is a cubic crystal and probably has a high index of refraction indicated that it might be useful in optics. No large boules* of strontium titanate had been synthesized previously, and none have been found as natural occurrences. The flame fusion process, invented by Verneuil in 1904,1 was first applied to grow large crystals of ruby and has since been used extensively to grow crystals of corundum and spinel on a commercial scale. Only during the past nine years has this technique been applied to the growth of large single crystals of other high melting compounds such as rutile,2 mullite,3 and ferrites4 One of several significant advantages of the flame fusion technique over more conventional methods of growing crystals from a melt is that the crystals are grown without the use of melt containers. This fact alone excludes other methods of growing crystals from a melt whenever there are compounds with a melting point near 2000°C or above. Growth of the crystal, similar to that of a stalagmite, takes place inside a circular refractory furnace that does not contact the crystal, Fig. 1. This eliminates a serious source of impurities as well as the likelihood of multi-crystalline solidification along the container walls. The flame fusion technique is particularly advantageous for research because it produces large crystals quickly and at lower cost. A corundum crystal 25 mm long and 12 mm in diam can be grown in 2 to 3 hr. Operating conditions permit observation of the growing crystal during any stage of the process. The various flame patterns and a wide range of oxidation-reduction conditions can be investigated in a relatively short time. It should be pointed out that formation of the foot of the boule is the most critical step in growing an unfractured boule. When the tip of the sintered cone is fused to initiate crystal growth, the original area of fusion should be kept as small as possible so that one crystallite can assume dominance over all the others and propagate as a single crystal. If the boule start happens to consist of several crystals, usually the entire boule also contains several crystals. In many cases these tightly cohering crystals exhibit different crystallographic orientations. Although the basic technique of the original Verneuil process has been retained, refinements in method and burner design have been developed in recent years. For example, boule growth may be initiated on a seed crystal rather than by fusion of a sintered cone. The danger of multicrystalline or twinned boule starts is thus eliminated, and this procedure may also be used to grow boules of predetermined crystallographic orientation. Prior Art: Of the many attempts to produce artificial gem crystals, most early efforts% ere directed toward synthesis of .rubies and sapphires and diamonds. None of these efforts resulted in a process that was commercially practical. Without exception only tiny crystals of corundum were obtained, and those at excessive cost. Verneuil announced his process in 1904; Ravier6 in 1934 presented a detailed description of a commercial boule production plant. Descriptions of the German synthetic stone industry, the process details, and the equipment used have been published by Barnes7 and by Merker.'

Jan 1, 1956

The performance of a two-horizon depletion-type reservoir produced through combination wells is analyzed. By introducing some simplifying approximations, it has been possible to obtain formulas which are easy to handle. Only ordinary differential equations are used, and the development of the analysis can be followed without difficulty by the non-specialist. A rigorous analysis has been made of this problem. It has been found that the approximations introduced in the simplified analysis are fully justified and that errors seldom will be more than 2 per cent. The report shows the effect of the rate of withdrawal upon the relative depletion of the two horizons. Numerical examples are given. INTRODUCTION In its simplest form an oil reservoir consists of a continuous, homogeneous body of porous and permeable rock, enclosed at the top and the bottom by impermeable material. The flow of fluid through such a reservoir has been the subject of numerous papers, and the mathematical analysis of well performance, pressure build-up, etc., has reached a high degree of refinement. One of the basic assump tions introduced into these analyses is the homogeneity of the reservoir. In non-homogeneous reservoirs, these computations still can be carried out satisfactorily, provided small irregularities in the physical properties of the rock are distributed in a random fashion. The flow equations are derived as solutions of the continuity equation, and their solutions are dependent upon the assumption of many constant factors in the reservoir: permeability to oil, compressibility of the reservoir fluid, viscosity saturation, etc. When these axe assumed to be constant, the continuity equation can be solved rigorously. When these assumptions do not hold and corrections are introduced, it becomes very difficult and often impossible to solve analytically. The present analysis is concerned with production from a two-layer depletion-type reservoir in which the layers have different permeabilities. Instead of using the continuity equation, results were derived from some simple physical ideas. In a single-layer reservoir in which the oil is at a pressure above the bubble point, the rate of production often has been assumed to be directly proportional to the pressure drawdown. In the simplified analysis it has also been assumed that the drop in average reservoir pressure is directly proportional with the cumulative withdrawal. These considerations in the past have been the basis of the analysis of reservoir performance and have been applied to a variety of problems, often with marked success. In the problem under investigation these relationships are shown to be compatible with the equation of continuity, but the approach has the advantage of leading to ordinary differential equations in which changes in constants can be introduced without making the analytical solution impossible. It has the additional advantage that it can be understood more readily by the large group of engineers who are not reservoir specialists. For that reason, detailed steps in the mathematical developments have been shown in full. SCOPE OF ANALYSIS The analysis in this paper has been applied to a two-layer depletion-type reservoir in which both horizons are produced simultaneously in the same well. Because of the difference in permeability, it is obvious that the depletion of the two zones will proceed at different rates. For various problems it may be of interest to know the degree of depletion of the two zones at any arbitrary time and to in-

By R. C. Edwards, Will Mitchell, T. G. Kirkland

A scrubber of new design has been invented for the beneficiation of glass and chemical sands. The machine is described and its capacity and metallurgical efficiency compared with the performance of other sand cleaning devices. THREE years ago, when the Process Research Laboratory at Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Co. sought a remedy for the increasing cost of disposing of great quantities of spent sands from foundries, R. C. Edwards developed a continuous inclined paddle scrubber which removed a substantial amount of the charred coatings from the grains with a surprisingly small amount of degradation of the sand itself.' The satisfactory results obtained on foundry sand, using this piece of equipment in conjunction with classification, suggested that a similar procedure could probably be applied to the cleaning of other sands, such as those required by the glass and chemical industries. This paper describes the flowsheet and the results of tests performed on impure natural sands. The four materials tested were silica sands obtained from widely separated geographical areas. Three of the sands tested contained various amounts of iron oxide and the fourth an excessive amount of calcareous bonding material. The iron oxide was present predominantly in the form of grain coatings, which were scuffed by the paddle scrubber, and in all cases a product was manufactured which would meet one of the sets of specifications imposed by the glass industry.' The Edwards paddle scrubber used in these tests consists of a rubber-lined steel cylinder 18 in. in diam and 48 in. long, mounted on a frame so that its slope can be varied 5" to 35" from horizontal. This variable slope permits controlled flow of material through the machine. Rubber paddles rotate inside the cylinder and are secured to a center shaft 2 in. square, which extends through the entire length and is turned at both ends so that it can be supported by sleeve bearings centrally fixed in the end plates of the shell. At the upper or feed end it extends through the bearing on the end plate into a sheave, to which the motor drive is connected by means of Texrope transmission. The four sets of paddles mounted on the shaft, two in each set, are made of rubber belting, 1/4 in. thick, 9 in. wide, and 16 in. long. The two paddles in each set are secured on opposite sides of the square shaft, but in the same longitudinal position along the shaft axis. In other words, the two paddles in the set operate 180" apart. Each successive set is mounted 90" from the preceding one. One end of each paddle is bolted to the square shaft and the other weighted by a steel bar, lx1 1hx9 in. long, which is attached about Yz in. from the outer tip of the paddle. By centrifugal force at proper shaft speed, these weights force the paddle surface to rub smoothly against the rubber lining of the cylinder. During operation, the sand forces its way between the paddle face and the surface of the cylinder, providing the necessary abrading action as the pulp flows by gravity down the length of the cylinder. The capacity of the machine is limited by the amount and the hardness of the coating material and by the quality of product desired. The degree of scrubbing is governed by the retention time in the scrubber, which in turn may be changed by varying the feed rate, water content of the feed, and

Jan 1, 1953