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By R. H. Wightman, C. D. Chandler, P. B. Nalle

SURFACE quarrying at the Crestmore Div. of Riverside Cement Co. in California was started in 1909. In the early 1920's it was considered that these deposits were nearly exhausted for the equipment available at that time, and in 1927 the company began a block caving system. This mine continued operating until February 1954. In 1941 trucks and crawler-mounted shovels had reached a stage of development that permitted reopening the quarries in conjunction with the underground mine. In 1948 surface reserves and the well developed limestone of the caving system neared depletion. To go deeper with the caving system was unattractive because of the economics, changes in physical structure of the rock at depth, and the perched water table

Jan 4, 1957

By F. D. Rosi, Walter R. Hibbard, R. I. Herron, H. T. Clark, O&apos

Introduction and Previous Work In the search to find a copper-base alloy with high strength properties, it was considered that the addition of a small amount of an age-hardening element to a binary system with useful strength properties might result in a series of alloys of theeretical and practical importance. The copper-nickel system was selected for its basic properties and chromium was added as the age-hardening element in view of the small percentage involved and its decreasing solubility with decreasing temperature. A study of the Cu-Cr binary alloys was undertaken as a preliminary investigation. However, in view of the response of these alloys to heat treatment, the scope of this phase of the investigation was widened.

Jan 1, 1949

By Rodney Lawrence, Tim Hackett

INTRODUCTION The western USA contains significant coal reserves in seams 10 feet or more in thickness which lie too deep for surface mining. As part of a demonstration of the use of two legged shield supports in the United States, Kaiser Steel Corporation, under contract to the US government used the longwall method to mine a ten foot thick coal seam in New Mexico. Caliper type shield supports and double drum shearers were used in three longwall panels. During the test, technical, production, and safety data were collected to objectively evaluate the performance of the shields in mining the thick coal seam. This paper presents discussions of practical operating experience and summary statistics to aid the mining industry in planning longwall mines in similar conditions.

Jan 1, 1981

By William Buell

As used in connection with open-hearth or other high-temperature operations, "insulation" refers to a multitude of substances, natural or manufactured, that have the one principal property of preventing the flow of heat by conduction to a greater degree than refractories can prevent it, the principal properties of the latter being resistance to tem-perature and/or chemical action. The term "control" as commonly applied to the mechanization of management functions is inappropriate without qualification, for without some degree of control of every operation we could produce no steel worthy of the name. Although grouped together in this paper, insulation and control in open-hearth furnaces have little, if any, interrelationship, therefore the paper is made up of two distinct parts.

Jan 1, 1935

By Thomas N. Williamson, Victor Zeni

A 6-ft diam core drilling machine has successfully completed seven mine shafts in Virginia and West Virginia to depths as great as 465 ft. There is no practical depth limitation to this new system-a potential method in formations not easily penetrated with other large-scale drilling programs-and higher penetration rates and larger diameters are possible in some formations already being drilled successfully by other methods. The core barrel on the machine is fitted with rolling cutters such as those used on oil field rotary bits, so that less torque is required than with other large- scale drilling systems. The core is made with a wider kerf than is achieved with other coring methods, providing more working room for core drilling.

Jan 4, 1957

By Ben L. Seegmiller

Localized open pit slope failure was avoided as an apparent result of a practical rock mechanics program conducted at the Twin Buttes copper operation. The key to the program was the application of cable bolting, a technique that artificially supports open pit slopes using properly installed post-tensioned cables. As a result of the research and testing program, extensions of the cable bolting principal became significantly apparent. • The economics of artificial stabilization appear to be overwhelmingly favorable, and • Best practical applications are "final" pit slopes, slopes beneath permanent structures and potentially slope failing areas. Success of this research is manifested by the fact that similar stabilization systems are presently under consideration for Twin Buttes as well as other open pit operations.

Jan 12, 1974

By Howard M. Wells

The investment worth of a mineral deposit can only be realistically evaluated in relation to specified engineering design criteria which fully detail the proposed method of exploitation. The operational design of a mine falls essentially within the technical discipline of the mining engineer, under the constraint that the technical design should be aimed at optimizing the financial attractiveness of the project. In the case of a marginally viable proposition it becomes vitally necessary to identify the best set of design parameters which together will add up to an optimum investment proposal. This paper examines some fundamental logic of optimization for a "wasting asset" type of investment such as a mine, with special reference to the rate of annual production and the strategy of selective mining.

Jan 1, 1979

By John R. Reynolds

Mercury has long been neglected in American mining industry. The plights of domestic producers have been many and their compensations few. The mercury market has been dominated in the past, as it will be in the future, by the Spanish and Italian producers. Other major producing countries are Yugoslavia and Mexico. Probably no other mineral commodity has fluctuated so much in price. A 76-lb flask of mercury sold for $195 in 1943, $76 in 1948, and $325 in 1954. This wide fluctuation has resulted in spasmodic domestic production. U. S. mines produced 51,929 flasks in 1943, and only 4535 flasks in 1950. In 1955 the estimated production was 18,400 flasks. Domestic consumption in 1955 was 57,200 flasks.

Nov 1, 1956

By J. L. Huiatt, G. M. Potter, R. B. Tippin

The US Bureau of Mines and Great Salt Lake Minerals and Chemical Corp. have developed a froth flotation process for concentrating potassium salts from Great Salt Lake solar evaporites containing about 6% K2O. The crude evaporites, which were predominately halite (NaCl) with smaller amounts of kainite (KCl.MgS0, 2.7Hp0) and schoenite KeS0,MgS04.6H,0), were conditioned in a saturated brine solution., thus converting nonfloatable kainite to the floatable mineral schoenite. Schoenite was then selectively floated with a medium-molecular-weight fatty acid. Continuous small-scale pilot-plant testing indicated that 80% of the potassium could be recovered from the crude evaporites in flotation concentrates assaying about 13% K2O.

Jan 1, 1976

By Kenneth Robertson

THERE is probably less known of this subject than of any other connected with the metallurgy of iron. In all the books that treat of this matter, there ore given analyses of slags, their chemical formulae, the loss of iron, etc. ; but few, if any, give the character of the iron mode at the time; none give analyses and physical characteristics of the ores and limestones used, and they present merely isolated examples from various furnaces, and consequently one is more frequently puzzled than enlightened after reading them. During two years I have had occasion to analyze the slags and many of the pig-irons from two furnaces, and for this article I hove made analyses of all the different grades of pig mode by them. A

Jan 1, 1873

By V. F. Swanson

A petrographic study was made of the type and sources of mineral contamination occurring in Florida phosphate rock products. Emphasis was placed on contaminants in the screened rock (+1 mm), since this portion of the product undergoes no physical beneficiation except for scrubbing to remove slimes. Since iron and aluminum contents of the finished product affect the salability, special emphasis was placed on identifying types and sources of these contaminants and relating chemical composition to visual characteristics. Wavellite derived from the overburden was the major aluminum contaminant with some aluminum being included as secondary clay balls. Iron occurred as phosphates in the overburden and as colloidal oxides included in the phosphate pebbles. Chert and limestone contamination derived from the Hawthorne formation underlying the phosphate matrix.

Jan 1, 1972

By Howard S. Strouth

Investors and mining companies in the U. S. have recently shown increased interest in the Union of South Africa. This has been sparked partially by the founding in the U. S. of a large investment trust which will hold substantial shares in many of the leading gold and uranium producers. The average U. S, mining man's judgment of the Union, however, may be somewhat clouded by recent headline news. We are inclined to take a strong dislike to the stern measures of the present Union government with regard to its native majority. Others possibly think of South Africa in krms of a British colony which, under pressure of rising African nationalism, must eventually be abandoned. These concepts frequently suffer for lack of precise information.

Jan 5, 1959

By L. A. Roe

Magnetic separation occupies an attractive position in the field of ore beneficiation. It is a simple yet effective method, used for some 150 years and steadily growing more important. This type of beneficiation orginated in 1792, when William Fullarton was issued a British patent covering the separation of iron ore by magnetic attraction. What is magnetism, and why are some materials capable of being magnetized and others not? The study involves many unknowns, and even a partial answer to these questions would be a dissertation in solid state physics and perhaps other fields of science. But the last two decades have revealed basic facts as to why certain materials are magnetic and what happens to them when they are magnetized.

Jan 12, 1958

By H. S. Hanna, C. Rampacek

The problems and limitations encountered in the Physical beneficiation of the Appalachian Red Iron Ores are discussed. Two major problems are identified - the high phosphorus content and the fine dissemination or encapsulation of mineral impurities in the iron-bearing minerals. A process that combined extreme fine grinding techniques with magnetizing roasting or flotation-separation methods is suggested. By these methods, concentrates assaying 60-61 % Fe, exceeding the widely accepted upper limit of 56% Fe set for these ores, were produced with 75-90% iron recovery. Moreover, it was shown that the phosphorus content of these concentrates could be reduced from 0.25% to 0.03% phosphorus by acid leaching. A brief discussion on production costs based on current and future developments in iron ore processing is given.

Jan 1, 1983

By Y. Wang, M. M. Singh, H. L. Hartman

Knowledge of the state of stress at the bottom of a drillhole is of practical importance in rock drilling, since the induced stresses must exceed the strength of the rock in order to cause fracture. This note reports on a numerical method to determine the stress distribution at the bottom of a borehole induced by a static bit load and overburden and fluid pressures. The procedure adopted is similar to that for the plane-strain, discrete model employed by Harper and Ang.1,2 The rock medium is considered to be homogeneous, isotropic, and elastic-perfectly-plastic. METHOD OF ANALYSIS AND PROGRAMMING The discrete model adopted consists of two types of points: mass points and stress points. The configuration and numbering notation are depicted in

Jan 1, 1967

By H. M. Roberts

H. M. ROBERTS, Minneapolis, Minn. (communication to the Secretary*). -The rifling of drill cores is a frequent source of interest to men engaged in diamond drilling. Previous to the appearance of Dr. Crane's paper, there has been little record of connected observation or rigid speculation as applied to the cause of rifling. Replying to one of Dr. Crane's letters of inquiry, I ventured my opinion that the cause of rifling was a complex problem in physics, which I had not attempted to solve up to that time, except to ascribe it to the general cause of rotation and vibration of the rods. The question is worth attention not only as a matter of curious scientific interest but also for the reason that it stimulates thought on

Jan 10, 1916

By Francis S. Kendorski

Caving offers the lowest cost per ton of ally large-scale mining method, but its successful application demands an ore body that conforms to several rigid requirements. The deposit must be of wide areal extent, massive and not spotty in ore values, and insensitive to ore dilution. It must also be a rock mass that breaks up readily. There are only three active caving operations in the US-Climax, Henderson, and San Manuel-but caving methods have recently-taken on new importance as deeper, lower grade mineral occurrences and ore bodies are found. These deposits are too deep for surface mining methods, and too low grade to support any type of underground mining except a bulk method such as caving.

Jan 6, 1978

By Walter R. Hibbard, Robert I. O’Herron, Fred D. Rosi, Howard T. Clark

INTRODUCTION AND PREVIOUS WORK IN the search to find a copper-base alloy with high strength properties, it was considered that the addition of a small amount of an age-hardening element to a binary system with useful strength properties might result in a series of alloys of theoretical and practical importance. [ ] The copper-nickel system was selected for its basic properties and chromium was added as the age-hardening element in view of the small percentage involved and its decreasing solubility with decreasing temperature. A study of the Cu-Cr binary alloys was undertaken as a preliminary investigation. However, in view of the response of these alloys to heat treatment, the scope of this phase of the investigation was widened. [ ]

Jan 1, 1948

By Parke A. Dickey

POTENTIAL differences between strata of shale and sandstone have been recognized for about 15 years, and they form the basis of the electrical logging of oil wells. Hitherto these potentials have been ascribed solely to electrochemical reactions caused by the disturbing effects of the water in the drill hole through which they are generally measured. Observations by the author in wells empty of water and in a mine shaft suggest that potential differences between sandstones and shales are natural and specific properties of the rocks, although they are modified to measurement by the disturbing effects of the water in the drill hole. The cause of these potentials probably is to be sought in the relative polar adsorptive capacities of quartz and clay particles.

Jan 1, 1944

By Strathmore R. B. Cooke, Iwao Iwasaki, C. S. Chang

PYRRHOTITE has long been considered a gangue mineral to be eliminated as tailing in the treatment of various sulphide ores. However, in recent years the world-wide lack of sulphur resources has called attention to this mineral as a potential source of both sulphur and iron. Its importance as an economic mineral, however, has not been particularly emphasized. For this reason very little is known about its response to flotation, except that it can be depressed easily in alkaline circuit, by long aeration,1,2 addition of oxidizing agents3 or by starch.4 The object of this work was to study the floatability of pyrrhotite. This includes the effect of oxidation by aeration, of copper activation, and of change in pH.

Jan 2, 1954