Search Documents

By Robert L. Davidoff, Rodney D. Rosenkranz

In order to determine copper resource data and production costs for major market economy mines and deposits, the Bureau of Mines has performed detailed engineering and economic analyses on 271 of the world's most significant copper deposits. At the demonstrated resource level, copper potentially recoverable from these deposits is estimated to be 325 million metric tons, 180 million tons of which would be from Pacific Rim countries. Chile has the largest known copper resources of any country and accounts for nearly 45 percent of the copper avail- able from Pacific Rim countries. At $1.00 per pound, in January 1981 dollars, an estimated 80 million metric tons of copper are potentially economically recoverable from Pacific Rim deposits. At this same price, analyses indicate that these deposits could economically produce about 2 million metric tons of copper per year. Sensitivity analyses reveal that if operating costs were to decrease 25 percent, with copper at a price of $1.00 per pound, total copper economically recoverable from Pacific Rim countries could increase by about 10 percent; a 25 percent increase in operating costs could lower economically recoverable copper by 50 percent. Analyses also indicate that byproduct prices are important. If byproduct revenues increased 25 percent, at a copper price of $1.00 per pound, an additional 2 million metric tons of copper could be recovered; if byproduct revenues decrease 25 percent, about 5 million metric tons less of copper metal would be available. Since the January 1981 date of this study, inflation and decreases in copper and byproduct prices have greatly affected the profitability of the world copper industry. Many producing mines have curtailed or suspended production, and development of many non- producing deposits has been postponed.

Jan 1, 1982

By C. P. Karr

For several years, the Bureau of Standards has been working in cooperation with an Advisory Committee on non-ferrous metals on various phases of the production and testing of zinc bronzes. The work has dealt especially with the type of metal known as "Admiralty bronze" in England and as "Government bronze" in this country and consisting of 88 copper, 10 tin, and 2 zinc. Several reports have been made on this subject and these should be considered in connection with this paper.' First Series of Five Foundry Tests A very brief summary of the first series of five foundry tests has been made12 but for the sake of clearness the results are given here in different form. The five foundries cooperating in this investigation were: Ohio Brass Co., Mansfield, Ohio; Titanium Alloy Mfg. Co., Niagara Falls, N. Y.; Packard Motor Car Co., Detroit, Mich.; National Cash Register Co., Dayton, Ohio; Bureau of Standards, Washington, D. C. The object of the work was to determine whether uniform results could be obtained with this alloy in different foundries working under definite instructions. One of the participating foundries prepared, from virgin metal, a stock of ingots of the composition 88 copper, 10 tin, 2 zinc, and at the same time poured nine test bars from this melt of virgin metal. The results of the physical tests of these bars are shown in Table 1. Examination of this table shows that the highest and most nearly uniform results were obtained when the virgin metal was cast flat in chill molds and the lowest and- most variable results were encountered when it was cast, vertical in green-sand molds. In this, as in all other tables, the mean deviation was obtained by the usual method of taking the average of the differences of the individual values from the average values.

Jan 1, 1921

Endurance Properties of Non-ferrous Metals Discussion of the paper of D. J. McADAM, JR., presented at the Syracuse Meeting of the Institute of Metals Division and issued, as Paper No. 1506-E, with Mining AND METALLURGY, October, 1925. H. F. MOORE,* Urbana, Ill. (written discussion).-This paper says that the results of tests of some non-ferrous metals made at the University of Illinois and in the testing laboratories at McCook Field are abnormal when they do not agree with results obtained by the author. The writer can see no inherent reason why results of the type uniformly reported in this paper are any more normal. The knee of the stress-cycle, or S-N, diagram comes at different lengths of life for different metals. For steel, the knee occurs after from 1,000,000 to about 4,000,000 cycles, and for some non-ferrous metals not before 20,000,000 of 30,000,000 cycles. The writer can see nothing inherently abnormal in finding certain nonferrous metals for which the knee of the stress-cycle curve occurs at 1,000,000,000 cycles or higher. The writer has had experience with both the cantilever and the rotating-beam testing machine, and thinks that the chance of whipping action in the cantilever machine is a more serious handicap than the action the author has pictured. Furthermore, the writer questions whether the author has shown the existence of a clearly marked and definite endurance limit for all the non-ferrous metals he has tested including the following: Nickel (CT and A-16, Fig. 1), monel (CS-5.5 and BK, Fig. 2), bronze (F and CK, Fig. 4), aluminum bronze ( BJb-1, Fig. 6).

Jan 12, 1925

By Stephen Birch

LATOUCHE, or the Beatson plant of the Kennecott Copper Corpn., is located in the Prince William Sound district of Alaska about 80 miles west of Cordova and 60 miles from Seward. Ore was discovered and claims located on Latouche Island in July, 1897. The mines were worked in a desultory manner until 1910, when the property was acquired by the Kennecott Copper interests. The first shipment of ore was made in 1904; only the higher grade ore was mined and no attempt was made to treat the ore until it was taken over by the Kennecott, company. Since that time the mine has been developed to produce 1500 tons a day and a mill has been erected for treating this tonnage, using flotation entirely. The orebody is more or less lenticular in shape with a maximum width of about 280 ft. and a length of about 800 ft. The southern end of the lens is split by a horse of waste for about 400 ft. The hanging-wall limit is a well-defined fault associated with a band of pyrrhotite, having an average dip of 60°. There is no defined foot wall, the value of the ore governing the limits of the mining; in one part of the mine, however, it is defined by a minor fault. The orebody is located in a shear zone of the country rock of graywacke and slate. The principal mineral is chalcopyrite associated with pyrite and quartz. The mine is located a few hundred feet from tidewater; the mill is located on the beach and the ore is hoisted direct from the mine through a vertical shaft into the mill bins. Until the past year practically all the mining had been conducted in open pits. During the past two years, the ore above the 200-ft. level has been developed and a system of stoping devised to recover this ore; however, this system has not been in use long enough to give any definite results as to costs or efficiency. It consists, principally, of dividing the orebody into stopes, across the full width of the orebody, 70 ft. wide with a pillar 30 ft. wide between the stopes. Raises are driven through the stopes at intervals of about 60 ft. and all the ore is broken by drilling from these raises; in other words, similar to a shrinkage stope, doing the drilling from the raises instead of setting up on the broken ore as is customary. The ground is very much broken up by clay slips and seams running in every direction. Shrinkage stoping had been

Jan 1, 1924

By Stephen Birch

Latouche, or the Beatson plant of the Kennecott Copper Corpn., is located in the Prince William Sound district of Alaska about 80 miles west of Cordova and 60 miles from Seward. Ore was discovered and claims located on Latouche Island in July, 1897. The mines were worked in a desultory manner until 1910, when the property was acquired by the Kennecott Copper interests. The first shipment of ore was made in 1904; only the higher grade ore was mined and no attempt was made to treat the ore until it was taken over by the Kennecott company. Since that time the mine has been developed to produce 1500 tons a day and a mill has been erected for treating this tonnage, using flotation entirely. The orebody is more or less lenticular in shape with a maximum width of about 280 ft. and a length of about 800 ft. The southern end of the lens is split by a horse of waste for about 400 ft. The hanging-wall limit is a well-defined fault associated with a band of pyrrhotite, having an average dip of 60". There is no defined foot wall, the value of the ore governing the limits of the mining; in one part of the mine, however, it is defined by a minorfault. The orebody is in a shear zone of the country rock of graywacke and slate. The principal mineral is chalcopyrite associated with pyrite and quartz. The mine is situated a few hundred feet from tidewater; the mill is on the beach and the ore is hoisted direct from the mine through a vertical shaft into the mill bins. Until the past year practically all the mining had been conducted in open pits. During the past two years, the ore above the 200-ft. level has been developed and a system of stoping devised to recover this ore; however, this system has not been in use long enough to give any definite results as to costs or efficiency. It consists, principally, of dividing the orebody into stopes, across the full width of the orebody, 70 ft. wide with a pillar 30 ft. wide between the stopes. Raises are driven through the stopes at intervals of about 60 ft. and all the ore is broken by drilling from these raises; in other words, similar to a shrinkage stope, doing the drilling from the raises instead of setting up on the broken ore as is customary. The ground is very much broken up by clay slips and seams running in every direction. Shrinkage stoping had been

Jan 1, 1925

By G. E. Archie

Data given in this paper indicate that certain relations exist between different characteristics of sandstone. These relations are not rigid, for all sandstones are more or less heterogeneous. Not every increment of a given horizon follows exactly the relationship; however, studying a reservoir as a whole from a large number of samples, definite trends are found to exist. Apparently nature's processes of sedimentation and diagenesis are such as to give some degree of uniformity. Average relationships are valuable because electrical measurements in a borehole comprise a considerable volume of rock near the hole. Also, it is desirable that a given producing reservoir be studied as a unit. In a permeable reservoir whose pores are filled with a saline solution, it was found that the total porosity and the type of sandstone influence the relationship between its electrical resistivity and the RO and the resistivity of the brine R,. The relation can be expressed by the following empirical equation, Ro = R10O— [i] where 0 is the porosity expressed as a fraction and the numerical value of the exponent lies between 1.8 to 2.0 for consolidated sandstones, and is about 1.3 for clean, unconsolidated packs. This equation indicates that an appropriate electrical log can be used to estimate the porosity of a saline water-bearing reservoir when Rw and the type of rock are known. The fraction R0rw, is called the "formation resistivity factor." It reflects the effect of the nonconducting rock structure on the resistivity of the salt water that fills the tortuous paths through which the electricity must pass. The formation resistivity factor F is found to be related to permeability k. In this case the type of rock plays an important role, as shown by the relation F = ak-b [2] where the values of a and b must be determined experimentally for each horizon. Therefore Eq. I rather than Eq. 2 is used when it is desired to determine the value of F, because small changes in rock structure particularly in the pore size are not critical. Another useful relation, R = R0S- [3] where R = resistivity of rock when partially saturated with brine and partly with oil or gas, S = fraction of the pore space filled with brine, and n equals approximately 2 for both unconsolidated and consolidated sandstone, shows that the connate water of an oil or gas reservoir can be estimated in situ from a resistivity log. Equation 3 shows that in order to estimate the water content of a reservoir a knowledge of R and Ro is essential. The first value can be obtained from the electrical log when all factors influencing the resistivity curve can be properly taken into account. The latter may be obtained when a log is available on the same horizon where it is entirely water-bearing and has

Jan 1, 1946

By G. E. Archie

Data given in this paper indicate that certain relations exist between different characteristics of sandstone. These relations are not rigid, for all sandstones are more or less heterogeneous. Not every increment of a given horizon follows exactly the relationship; however, studying a reservoir as a whole from a large number of samples, definite trends are found to exist. Apparently nature's processes of sedimentation and diagenesis are such as to give some degree of uniformity. Average relationships are valuable because electrical measurements in a borehole comprise a considerable volume of rock near the hole. Also, it is desirable that a given producing reservoir be studied as a unit. In a permeable reservoir whose pores are filled with a saline solution, it was found that the total porosity and the type of sandstone influence the relationship between its electrical resistivity and the RO and the resistivity of the brine R,. The relation can be expressed by the following empirical equation, Ro = R10O— [i] where 0 is the porosity expressed as a fraction and the numerical value of the exponent lies between 1.8 to 2.0 for consolidated sandstones, and is about 1.3 for clean, unconsolidated packs. This equation indicates that an appropriate electrical log can be used to estimate the porosity of a saline water-bearing reservoir when Rw and the type of rock are known. The fraction R0rw, is called the "formation resistivity factor." It reflects the effect of the nonconducting rock structure on the resistivity of the salt water that fills the tortuous paths through which the electricity must pass. The formation resistivity factor F is found to be related to permeability k. In this case the type of rock plays an important role, as shown by the relation F = ak-b [2] where the values of a and b must be determined experimentally for each horizon. Therefore Eq. I rather than Eq. 2 is used when it is desired to determine the value of F, because small changes in rock structure particularly in the pore size are not critical. Another useful relation, R = R0S- [3] where R = resistivity of rock when partially saturated with brine and partly with oil or gas, S = fraction of the pore space filled with brine, and n equals approximately 2 for both unconsolidated and consolidated sandstone, shows that the connate water of an oil or gas reservoir can be estimated in situ from a resistivity log. Equation 3 shows that in order to estimate the water content of a reservoir a knowledge of R and Ro is essential. The first value can be obtained from the electrical log when all factors influencing the resistivity curve can be properly taken into account. The latter may be obtained when a log is available on the same horizon where it is entirely water-bearing and has

Jan 1, 1946

[Cyanidation: Fresnillo, Mexico. 112. 734, 739. Abs.. YB84. 34 gold ore: before or after amalgamation. respective merita. 118, 538 high residue avoided by milling in water, 118, 542 Homestake mill, 112,607. 614 impoverishing gold ore before cyanidation justified. 118, 539 Kirkland Lake district, 112, 648, 649. Abs., YB84.32 literature prior to 1932. See Source Book. McIntyre Porcupine mines, 118, 638 mercury as an aid to extraction of gold, 118, 53 8]

Jan 1, 1936

By J. Burns Read

IT IS the purpose of this paper to summarize, as far as possible, the metallurgical information and experience gained by the Ordnance Department, during the War, in the manufacture of artillery cartridge cases, to describe the tests to which artillery cartridge cases were put, and to summarize the knowledge and experience gained in this testing. The authors wish to acknowledge the aid given by manufacturers, army officers, and civilian employees of the Ordnance Department in obtaining these data. Artillery cartridge cases are cold drawn from circular disks punched from strips of rolled brass. The manufacture involves from 25 to 30 main operations, which are done almost entirely on a punch press. Descriptions of the operations have appeared in various periodicals and, therefore, will not be given here. After each cupping, or drawing, operation, except the last, the cases are annealed at from 540° to 650° C. (1000° to 1200°F.), to remove all the hardening stresses set up in the metal and to allow complete recrystallization. After each annealing, the cases are pickled in niter cake or sulfuric-acid solution and then washed in water to remove all traces of acid. In some instances, the cases are then immersed in a cyanide-salt solution, and afterwards rinsed in water, to remove the thin layer of copper that forms on the surface of the cases during the acid pickle. The last cold-drawing operation is followed, by the heading operation which, by flattening the head of the case on the outside, causes the metal to flow on the inside to approximately the proper finished dimensions. The mouth, or open end, is then annealed at 430° to 480° C. (800° to 900° F.) by immersion in a salt bath or by gas flames. After being washed, the cases are tapered, when they are ready for machining, inspection, and testing.

Jan 4, 1922

By Howard B. Gundersen

CURRENTLY the mining industry faces the twin tasks of producing metals in the largest possible amounts and doing it with a dwindling and less experienced labor supply. A manpower shortage during this emergency appears inescapable. It therefore becomes necessary to develop the highest possible efficiency. Employee training is a concomitant of economical, high production. Training keeps employee morale high, reduces waste, improves skills, and increases production without speed-up or overload of workmen or supervisors.

Jan 9, 1951

By G. Howell Clevenger

PAGE Introduction,............891 L Nature of Precipitates,.........892 11. Experimental Work Upon Alloys,......895 Silver,............895 Gold,............896 Conclusions,............896 111. Present Methods of Refining,.......897 1. Refining by Roasting,.........897 2 Refining with Acid,..........898 3. Smelting with Lead,.........902 Tavener's Method,..........903 Merrill a Method,.,........903 Comparison of Costs of Acid-Refining and Smelting Processes,. . 904 Detailed Costs of Refining Cyanide Precipitates at Lead, So. Dak., September 29, 1903,.........904 Cost of Acid-Refining at the Horseshoe Mill, Terry, So. Dak.,. . 907 IV. The Removal of Zinc by Distillation,.....908 Experimental Distillations,.....,...910 Analysis of Precipitates Used for Distillation-Experiments,. . 910 Discussion of the Results of the Distillation-Experiments,. . 915 V. General Conclusions,.........917 VI. Outline of a Proposed MEthod OF Treatment,.... 917 Introduction. Attempts to discover, for the cyanide process, a better precipitant than zinc have been unsuccessful. Hydrogen sulphide, sulphurous acid, ferrous sulphate, etc., precipitate gold and silver from cyanide solutions either not all or incompletely.

Jan 1, 1904

By A. D. Mutch

This contribution is prompted by the fact that the writer has recently published an article" which has in part the same general conclusions as B. S. Butler's, namely, the form of the standard mineral paragenesis in hypogene deposits and the parallel transition from early high temperature acid to late low temperature alkaline or neutral solutions. Since the writer also recognizes that he is not fully qualified to discuss the formation of ore deposits as a chemical problem, this discussion will be limited to summarizing other observations and will suggest how Butler's Table II might be made more effective. The form of Butler's table is not unlike that widely used by European geologists30 in which the various minerals are related to the types of ore fluids-pegmatitic, pneumatolic and hydrothermal. Thus the decrease in temperature and change in pH of the ore- bearing fluids as recognized by Butler may also be paralleled by perhaps even greater changes in composition, density, and character.

Jan 5, 1958

By H. L. Hazen

The uranium mill at Gunnison, Colorado, started crushing ore Dec. 31,1957, and has now been operating four months. The acid leached ore is washed by counter-current decantation through a system of four classifiers and four thickeners and most of the dissolved uranium reports in the overflow from the first washing thickener. This uranium is extracted from the aqueous pregnant solution by solvent extraction using di-2-ethyl hexyl phosphoric acid and tri-butyl phosphate dissolved in a high-flash-point kerosene as the extracting organic. The pregnant organic is then stripped with soda ash solution. The uranium bearing soda ash solution is filtered to remove insoluble carbonates and any sediment reaching that part of the circuit. The clarified carbonate pregnant solution is then acidified to 3 pH, heated to 180°F to drive off the last traces of CO2, and the uranium finally precipitated as yellow cake with MgO.

Jan 11, 1958

By R. A. Wood, R. I. Jaffee, H. R. Ogden, D. N. Williams

Strain-induced porosity has been found to occur in titanium and other materials at tensile strains greater than the uniform elongation of the material. Porosity in titanium increases with increasing strain and temperature, being most severe at 300° to 800°F. Strain-induced porosity is believed to be a normal part of the mechanism of deformation in ductile materials. DURING the past few years there have been numerous references to the occurrence of voids in laboratory test specimens of metals subjected to strain.l-7 These voids have been referred to as intercrystalline cracking, strain-induced porosity, intergranular cav-itation, voids, and porosity. They appear to occur at grain boundaries or interfaces, and are generally associated with large amounts of strain and have been found mostly in creep specimens and to a lesser extent in tensile specimens. Because the phenomenon does not occur unless the material has been strained,

Jan 1, 1960

By W. H. Emmons

ALTHOUGH gold is one of the rarer metals, it is widely distributed; it is found on all of the continents and in each of the grand metallogenic provinces of the earth. It is prominent particularly in the shield areas of the earth; these areas have produced a large part of the world's lode gold and in most of them gold lodes are more important than the lodes of other metals. The Scandinavian shield is the only one that has not produced much gold. Nearly all of the world's gold has been derived from lodes and from sands and gravels where gold placers formed by the destruction of lodes. The gold derived from magmatic segregations, from pegmatites and from contact metamorphic deposits is quite subordinate to that derived from auriferous lodes. The lodes include all veins and related deposits that are formed by hot waters that move along fissures or other openings and that deposit vein matter in the fissures and by replacement of the country rocks along the fissures. All of the shield areas of the earth are characterized by large areas of granitic rocks including granitic gneisses, granodiorites and other acid intrusives which here are included in the general term "granite." The granites are intruded into schists, ancient lavas and other rocks which here are designated as the "invaded" rocks. The granites are parts of what once were great batholiths: that is, they are the remaining portions of great deep-seated bodies that slope outward, have very irregular roofs and so far as known have no floors but extend downward to great though unknown depths. Some of them are scores or hundreds of miles across and contain islands or "roof pendants" of the invaded rocks at places where the roofs of the batholiths were low-that is, where erosion has not yet completely unroofed the batholiths.

Jan 1, 1932

THE relation of labor to the accident rate in mines is admirably epitomized by Thomas T. Read in his paper presented at the St. Louis meeting, in the sentence "Reliance for accident prevention must be upon the individual worker himself." In connection with the inspection of mines for the fixing of merit premium rates for insurance under workmen's compensation, it has been the practice of The Associated Companies to allow 60 per cent.of the credits for safeguarding of the physical hazards of the mine and 40 per cent. for the human element. By "human element" is meant. that inherent tendency of the industrial worker to be careless, negligent or disobedient, in respect to his own safety, and after that also f his fellow workman. This is a tendency not only of the laborer or of the skilled miner, but of all human beings, working or traveling, anywhere. This element of mine safety, sometimes called the moral hazard, has been admirably shown by statistics compiled from the records of the Department of Mines of the Union of South Africa to be clue in about equal measure to the carelessness of the miner and to that of the operator. These statistics show that about one-half the fatalities in mines are clue to the so-called hazard of the industry, or what is sometimes called the dangers inherent to work or misadventure. Of 2497 fatalities investigated, including over 200,000 employees, for a period of over 2 ½ years, it was found that 17.5 per cent. were due to faulty plant or material, fault of the foreman, or of the management-in short were-clue to the operator; 17.1 per cent. to disobedience of orders, carelessness or ignorance of injured persons; and 5.9 per cent. through fault of others, including fellow workmen. The fault of the operator is evidenced by failure to give proper warning, failure to inspect, failure to furnish proper equipment, and neglecting to comply with the recommendations of the inspector. That education and training of the mine operator as well as of the mine worker

Jan 2, 1918

By Ellsworth Daggett

THE ore smelted in the Winnamuck furnace during the year 1872 consisted, for the most part, of oxidized ores from the Winnamuck mine, only sixty tons of outside ore (from the Spanish mine) having been smelted. The latter, like the principal Winnamuck ore, was oxidized or so-called carbonate ore. There was mixed with these oxidized ores three hundred to four hundred tons, or 7 to 10 per cent. of galena, some of which was mined with the oxidized ore, while a part was mined separately from the lower portion of the mine, and afterwards mixed with the ore, with a view of preventing the formation of deposits of metallic iron in the furnaces. The average assay in silver of all the ore handled was 51.46 oz. per ton, most of it existing as chloride of silver. The lead contents were 34.98 per cent., all, or nearly all, in the form of carbonate of lead. The relative amount of silver is not at all constant, the best silver ore often being poorest in lead. The predominant gangue was silica, several determinations of which have been made on representative samples, yielding in three such samples 26, 38, and 58 per cent. silica, the latter test being ore containing but little lead. The average contents in silica are about 35 per cent., with 6 to 7 per cent. sesquioxide of iron, and small quantities of alumina and lime. Mechanically, the ore was very fine, and so thoroughly disintegrated that it presented few distin¬guishing characteristics, rendering sorting or separating of ore from waste difficult, and often impracticable. Experiments on a small scale have been tried, with a view to separate the silica by washing; but these were unsuccessful, as the finest slime, requiring a long time to settle in still water, contained a large amount of silver; and on a careful sizing and washing of the sands and coarser parts, the silver contents were found to be less dependent upon specific gravity

Jan 1, 1874

By Ellsworth Daggett

The ore smelted in the Winnamuck furnace during the year 1872 consisted, for the most part, of oxidized ores from the Winnamuck mine, only sixty tons of outside ore (from the Spanish mine) having been smelted. The latter, like the principal Winnamuck ore, was oxidized or so-called carbonate ore. There was mixed with these oxidized ores three hundred to four hundred tons, or 7 to 10 per cent. of galena, some of which was mined with the oxidized ore, while a part was mined separately from the lower portion of the mine, and afterwards mixed with the ore, with a view of preventing the formation of deposits of metallic iron in the furnaces. The average assay in silver of all the ore handled was 51.46 oz. per ton, most of it existing as chloride of silver. The lead contents were 34.98 per cent,, all, or nearly all, in the form of carbonate of lead. The relative amount of silver is not at all constant, the best silver ore often being poorest in lead. The predominant gangue was silica, several determinations of which have been made on representative samples, yielding in three such samples 26, 38, and 58 per cent. silica, the latter test being ore containing but little lead. The average contents in silica are about 35 per cent., with 6 to 7 per cent. sesquioxide of iron, and small quantities of alumina and lime. Mechanically, the ore was very fine, and so thoroughly disintegrated that it presented few distinguishing characteristics, rendering sorting or separating of ore from waste difficult, and often impracticable. Experiments on a small scale have been tried, with a view to separate the silica by washing; but these were unsuccessful, as the finest slime, requiring a long time to settle in still water, contained a large amount of silver; and on a careful sizing and washing of the sands and coarser parts, the silver contents were found to be less dependent upon specific gravity

By Albert Ledoux

SEVERAL years ago my firm was representing the Mt. Lyell Co. of Australia, which was shipping its blister copper to a refining works in the United States. After the contract had been running for many months, the superintendent of these works discovered that if water was poured upon the surface of the bars much of it would disappear into the interior through blow holes. -Some experiments made by him showed that this could be a considerable amount, so that copper which had been rained on before it was weighed, although the surface appeared dry, nevertheless would contain water. It had frequently occurred in our experience-as samp-lers that the drillings from a lot taken by boring would come out quite wet, and in some cases, indeed, water would drip into the sample pan placed below the bars, due to the fact that the drill had penetrated a cavity or cavities containing water, which presumably got into the cavities at the time the copper was water-cooled after casting, there being, perhaps, no outlet to the surface. So far as I know, until this discovery at the refining works, no. one had thought that rain could penetrate into the interior of blister copper; at least in any quantity sufficient to be considered.

Jan 10, 1922

By Richard Pearce

H. M. Howe, Boston, Mass. (Communication to the Secretary): One by one our venerated idols are shattered, our cherished beliefs are filched away. Mr. Pearce's interesting experiments on the effect of an intermixture of coal in expelling arsenic from roasting copper-ores seems at the first blush to spike one of the great cannons of our faith. Plattner, however, is so positive that coal does lead to the expulsion of arsenic that we may well pause before accepting Mr. Pearce's results as final, and ask whether there is not some explanation of the discrepancy between them and Plattner's statements. Plattner states that while ferric arseniate decomposes easily under the action of carbonaceous matter with expulsion of arsenic as arsenious oxide (As2O3) and sub-oxide of arsenic (it is now generally thought, I believe, that this supposed sub-oxide is really but a mixture of metallic arsenic and arsenious oxide); cupric arseniate, on the other hand, undergoes this decomposition with difficulty, usually forming a certain proportion of arsenide of copper. Now, may not the whole matter lie just here? Mr. Pearce experimented on an ore containing its arsenic as enargite, sulph-arsenide of copper. This, in roasting, would probably give rise to arseniate

Jan 1, 1890