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By Mark David Rankin

This paper represents a general assessment of the primary factors driving the market for mobile offshore drilling rigs and the utility of those factors as choice variables for the offshore drilling program planner.

Jan 1, 1982

By Henry M. Howe

This paper gives the results of an investigation of the beha vior of the argentiferous cobalt-nickel arsenides of Temiskam-ing, Ontario, in roasting, made in the metallurgical laboratories of the School of Mines of Columbia University in the City of New York. The ore was kindly given by the owners of the La Rose and Trethewey properties at Cobalt, Ontario, and Mr E. J. Hall, Tutor in Assaying in Columbia University, has helped us much. I. Object of the Investigation. The object of the investigation was to learn: 1. The temperature at which the arsenic is most rapidly expelled ; 2. The thoroughness with which it is expelled by prolonged roasting at this temperature; 3. The effect of adding charcoal (a) near the end of the roast and (b) at. the beginning of the roast. II. Nature of the ORe. The important ores mined in the Temiskaming deposits are: native silver—with small amounts of dyscrasite (Ag,Sb), ar-gentite (Ag,S), pyrargyrite (Ag,SbS,)—smaltite (CoAs,), chlo-anthite (NiAs,) and niccolite (NiAs). Mispickel (FeAsS) and cobaltite (CoAsS) also occur in smaller quantities. The average composition of the ore shipped from this district for the first six months of 1905 was: silver, from 4.1 to 4.8 per cent.; cobalt, from 6.9 to 8.2 per cent.; nickel, from 3 to 4.7 per cent.; and arsenic, from 30.9 to 34.6 per cent. The ore which we treated consists chiefly of smaltite. In our 1aboratory-work

Jan 1, 1908

By W. H. Justice

Cycling operations have been successfully conducted in the La Gloria Zone for eight years. The cycling of this zone is now virtually completed. It is proposed that this report shall review the cycling operations of this reservoir so that the industry can more accurately evaluate the cycling process as a production method. The La Gloria project is one of the largest cycling operations in the State of Texas. The gas rights in the field are unitized in three operating units. By mutual agreement Magnolia Petroleum is the designated operator of the project for the 12 operators owning the gas rights. The La Gloria Corp, is the owner and operator of the cycling plant. The development and operation of the field are under the direction of an Operators Committee comprised of a representative of each operator. The Operators Committee is assisted by an Engineering and Geological Sub-Committee. The La Gloria gas field is situated approximately three miles north of Fal-furrias, Tex., and lies principally in the extreme south end of Jim Wells County, with its outer limits extending into the north end of Brookes County, Tex. It is a simple elliptically-shaped dome which has a closure of 350 ft. The field encompasses a surface area of 5,500 acres. The gas reserves are found in 20

Jan 1, 1950

By Roy A. Koski

INTRODUCTION Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company, and its subsidiary companies, operate and manage mining, beneficiation, and pelletizing operations in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, the province of Ontario, Canada, and the State of Western Australia, Australia. The concentrates and natural ores vary mineralogically, physically and chemically. This paper describes the techniques employed in pelletizing the various concentrates and ore fines. The plant operations described are the Republic, Humboldt, Tilden, Empire and Pioneer in Michigan, the Adams and Sherman in Ontario, and the Robe River in Western Australia. Table 1 contains further details regarding design and operating capacities, commissioning dates, and participant ownerships. Allis-Chalmers grate-kiln systems are utilized in Michigan and Ontario, and Dravo straight-grate systems in Western Australia. Currently, the Empire and Tilden operations are being expanded. At Empire the additional pelletizing unit, identified as Unit IV, will have a design capacity of 8 996 metric tonne/d and is scheduled for startup May 1, 1979. The Tilden operation is being doubled with the additional pelletizing unit, identified as Unit 11, having a de- sign capacity of 12 599 metric tonne/d. Startup is scheduled for January 1, 1980. MINERALOGY OF CONCENTRATES AND NATURAL ORES In the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, the operations process ores from the Negaunee iron formation of the Marquette Range. The

Jan 1, 1977

By W. J. Taylor

SOME eight years ago I became interested to a considerable extent in one of the well-known deposits of sulphury iron ore in New Jersey, and, as a consequence, soon became interested in the subject of the elimination of the sulphur. On investigation I found that no department of pig-iron manufacture had received less attention than that of roasting or calcining ores for the elimination of sulphur, carbonic acid, water, etc. My first devices to eliminate sulphur were naturally in the lime-kiln line, with solid fuel mixed with the ore, in the same way as common lime is burnt with small coal. While this process will succeed tolerably well for carbonates or calcareous ores, even though they contain sulphur as sulphates, I soon found it would not answer for our magnetites, which are very hard and dense, carrying from 2 to 5 per cent. of sulphur as pyrites, and become very sticky as soon as any attempt is made to roast them at a high heat. Some laboratory experiments developed the fact that the nearer the gaseous current surrounding the hot ore approached in composition pure atmospheric air the more rapidly the sulphur was oxidized, while in an atmosphere composed largely of carbonic oxide, carbonic acid, and nitrogen, it seemed almost impossible to reduce the sulphur more than one-half, which was a confirmation of the well-known fact that just one-half of the sulphur in pyrites volatilizes very easily, and that the trouble is mainly to remove the remainder. It was thus apparent that the atmosphere surrounding the ore was of as much importance as the temperature. This led to the trial of a kiln to heat the ore by conduction through the brick. It was divided into ore-chambers, which were surrounded with flues, through which the products of combustion of gaseous fuel passed without coming in contact with the ore. We did not, however, succeed by this arrangement in getting more than a cherry-red heat, which, of course, was too low to accomplish anything. I had at this point become convinced – 1st. That gaseous fuel only would accomplish the work successfully. 2d. That since a high temperature was required to insure a rapid oxidation of the sulphur, and also to make the ore open and porous,

Jan 1, 1881

By W. J. Taylor

Some eight years ago I became interested to a considerable extent in one of the well-known deposits of sulphury iron ore in New Jersey, and, as a consequence, soon became interested in the subject of the elimination of the sulphur. On investigation I found that no department of pig-iron manufacture had received less attention than that of roasting or calcining ores for the elimination of sulphur, carbonic acid, water, etc. My first devices to eliminate sulphur mere naturally in the limekiln line, with solid fuel mixed with the ore, in the same way = common lime is burnt with small coal. While this process will succeed tolerably well for carbonates or calcareous ores, even though they contain sulphur as sulphates, I soon found it would not answer for our magnetites, which are very hard and dense, carrying from 2 to 5 per cent. of sulphur as pyrites, and become very sticky as soon as any attempt is made to roast them at a high heat. Some laboratory experiments developed the fact that the nearer the gaseous current surrounding the hot ore approached in composition pure atmospheric air the more rapidly the sulphur was oxidized, while in an atmosphere composed largely of carbonic oxide, carbonic acid, and nitrogen, it seemed almost impossible to reduce the sulphur more than one-half, which was a confirmation of the well-known Pact that just one-half of the sulphur in pyrites volatilizes very easily, and that the trouble is mainly to remove the remainder. It was thus apparent that the atmosphere surrounding the ore was of as much importance as the temperature..• This led to the trial of a kiln to heat the ore by conduction through the brick. It was divided into ore-chambers, which were surrounded with flues, through which the products of combustion of gaseoua fuel passed without coming in contact with the ore. We did not, however, succeed by this arrangement in getting more than a cherry-red heat, which, of course, was too low to accomplish anything. I had at this point become convinced— 1st. That gaseous fuel only would accomplish the work successfully. 2d. That since a high temperature was required to insure a rapid oxidation of the sulphur, and also to make the ore open and porous,

Jan 1, 1881

By A. H. Lindley, R. Shorr, Frazier M. Stewart, F. Crerie

The mineral industry, so important to industrial development, faces a major challenge in creating the most effective financial structure to provide funds essential for seeking, evaluating, developing, and extracting minerals. The acquisition of funds for mineral development and plant erection do not differ greatly from fund-raising in nonmineral ventures because risks are essentially comparable. High-risk exploration funds, however, are more difficult for the mineral industry to acquire. With the world's ever-increasing appetite for minerals, the internally generated cash of major oil and mining companies cannot be expected solely to maintain the world's mineral supply. The augmented costs, risks, and difficulties of exploration have been shared increasingly by the smaller independent operator and by private and public participation drilling programs within the petroleum industry over the past 30 years. Only recently has the mining industry awakened to the need for utilizing exploration and development funds derived from sources other than established mining and banking circles. Almost from its inception, the oil industry was forced to drill deep holes through overburden without the aid of a mineral "outcropping" which required geological, and in subsequent years, geophysical interpretation. The poorly financed, nontechnical prospector, who depended on a mineral outcrop, was not to play an important role in oil exploration as he did in mining. Because of the high cost of drilling and the demands for technical judgment to locate an exploration drill hole, corporate and sophisticated private funds generally financed oil discoveries. When external funds were subsequently required, these financially sophisticated explorers would turn to the banking community from which came numerous ingenious innovations, taking cognizance of existing tax laws. Like the oil explorer, the miner is now faced with probing below the surface, relying solely on regional geology and geophysical anomalies. The day is gone, for practical purposes, when the prospector discovers a deposit from a mineral outcrop. There is little doubt that the mining industry will now follow the course taken by the petroleum industry in acquiring external funds if it is to meet the future raw material requirements of the world. The oil industry has been able to attract bank funds more readily than the mining industry after a mineral discovery has been made because: (1) with few exceptions, an oil discovery can be placed into commercial production and will generate cash at much less expense and time than a mine; and (2) generally, costs of oil production, the value

Jan 1, 1976

By J. Brian Eby

The Gulf Coast area of Louisiana enjoyed a particularly active and profitable year in 1939. Fifteen new producing structures were located and approximately sixty new producing sand horizons in old fields were opened in that period of time. The most important new discoveries are the Eola field, Avoyelles Parish, and the Paradis, St. Charles Parish. The Eola strike was indicated during December 1938, but the well was not placed on production until January 1939. Eola is particularly important because it was the first discovery of oil in a commercial quantity in the Wilcox formation in that area. Sid Richardson, of Ft. Worth, Texas, drilled the first well on the Haas Investment Company's property, which encountered the producing sand at a little below 8500 ft. Within the year 48 wells were drilled, 42 being commercial producers and 6 dry holes. The second most favorable discovery was the Paradis field, which was discovered by The Texas Company's Louisiana Land and Exploration Company's Paradis No. 1 well, in St. Charles Parish, just west of New Orleans. Detailed information concerning this field has not yet been made available but it is reported that the oil sand is as much as 175 ft. thick. The initial production indicated was 1750 bbl. daily and reports suggest a very large structure. In Calcasieu Parish the Humble Oil and Refining Company's Edge-wood Land No. 1 discovered gas in the Oligocene at a total depth of 7042 ft., in the Perkins area. Although two additional dry holes have been drilled in this prospect, it is still believed to have some merit. A new discovery is credited to Cameron Parish with the finding of Miocene oil in the Superior Oil Company's State No. 1 well in Grand Lake. The Chalkley field, Cameron Parish, is credited as a 1938 discovery but was largely developed in 1939 into one of the more important new fields. During the year 13 wells were drilled, 8 being oil wells and 5 dry holes. The oil is found in the Oligocene at depths of approximately 9000 feet.

Jan 1, 1940

By Kendall E. Born

Production of crude oil in Tennessee during 1936 approximated 20,000 bbl., about the same as in 1935. Accurate figures are available only for the Glenmary field in southwestern Scott County and the Boone Camp, Seabolt, and Coon Hollow pools in north central Morgan County. Small amounts of oil were produced in the Poplar Cove region of eastern Fentress County, in Tinsleys Bottom along the line between Clay and Jackson Counties, and in the Lock Branch pool of northern Jackson County. The renewed interest in these three pools, which were abandoned for several years, reflects the effect of rising prices for crude oil in Tennessee. Developments in these fields were begun late in 1936 and therefore have had little cffect on the production for the year. A nurnber of small scattered wells in abandoned fields in Clay County were pumped intermittently during the year, but no production figures are available on this production. The acidizing of a number of wells in Scott and Morgan counties reported last1 year has been responsible for an increase of nearly 4000 bbl. over 1935 in this region. Results have shown, however, that the Glenmary pay (Glenmary and Coon Hollow pools) at about the top of the St. Louis limestone, responds more favorably to acid treatment than does the Boone Camp (Boone Camp and Seabolt pools) horizon in the Fort Payne formation of lower Mississippian age. This difference is probably due to the siliceous and argillaceous content of the Boone Camp pay. The only natural gas marketed off the lease in Tennessee during 1936 was in Morgan County, where approximately 10,000,000 cu. ft. were furnished the towns of Sunbright and Burrville and the immediate vicinity. The gas occurs with the oil in the Boone Camp field and small amounts were put on the line from the near-by Coon Hollow and Seabolt pools. There are 11 gas wells in the area. Development Although the presence of petroleum in Tennessee was noted more than one hundred years ago, this state has never been an important

Jan 1, 1937

By J. Brian Eby

The Gulf Coast area of Louisiana enjoyed a particularly active and profitable year in 1939. Fifteen new producing structures were located and approximately sixty new producing sand horizons in old fields were opened in that period of time. The most important new discoveries are the Eola field, Avoyelles Parish, and the Paradis, St. Charles Parish. The Eola strike was indicated during December 1938, but the well was not placed on production until January 1939. Eola is particularly important because it was the first discovery of oil in a commercial quantity in the Wilcox formation in that area. Sid Richardson, of Ft. Worth, Texas, drilled the first well on the Haas Investment Company's property, which encountered the producing sand at a little below 8500 ft. Within the year 48 wells were drilled, 42 being commercial producers and 6 dry holes. The second most favorable discovery was the Paradis field, which was discovered by The Texas Company's Louisiana Land and Exploration Company's Paradis No. 1 well, in St. Charles Parish, just west of New Orleans. Detailed information concerning this field has not yet been made available but it is reported that the oil sand is as much as 175 ft. thick. The initial production indicated was 1750 bbl. daily and reports suggest a very large structure. In Calcasieu Parish the Humble Oil and Refining Company's Edge-wood Land No. 1 discovered gas in the Oligocene at a total depth of 7042 ft., in the Perkins area. Although two additional dry holes have been drilled in this prospect, it is still believed to have some merit. A new discovery is credited to Cameron Parish with the finding of Miocene oil in the Superior Oil Company's State No. 1 well in Grand Lake. The Chalkley field, Cameron Parish, is credited as a 1938 discovery but was largely developed in 1939 into one of the more important new fields. During the year 13 wells were drilled, 8 being oil wells and 5 dry holes. The oil is found in the Oligocene at depths of approximately 9000 feet.

Jan 1, 1940

By Robert H. Richards

My first paper, read at the Cobalt Meeting of the Institute,' July, 1907, dealt with the behavior of a small Wilfley table when collceiltrating galena from quartz, the table being fed with natural products, with sized products, and with classified products. Since galena, having a specific gravity of 7.5, is among the heaviest minerals ordinarily concentrated by Wilfley table, it was desirable that a similar set of tests upon a mineral of lighter weight should be made. Chalcopyrite, of a specific gravity of 4, would have been the best mineral for this purpose, on account of its great importance as an economic mineral, but in carrying out the test I was obliged to content myself with a cupriferous pyrite, the specific gravity of which was 4.68 and the content in copper 8.80 per cent. Through the kindness of H. 0. Cummins, this material was obtained from Shasta, Cal., in very pure, clean, homogeneous condition. It was broken by rolls to 2 mm. in size, taking care to make a minimum of slimes. The quartz used to mix with it was pure, white, New England quartz, broken in the same way to the same size. In studying the accompanying tables, it should be borne in mind that the material concentrated was of low copper-content, and in many cases the quantity fed to the machine was 1 kg. or less. As a consequence of the smallness of the quantity treated it was very difficult to adjust the table and get it in condition to do its best work before the feed became exhausted, and for this reason many results were obtained which appear irregular.

Jan 1, 1909

By S. R. Gilbert, B. W. Burdett, L. B. Hales

A brief review of grinding control systems is given with a review of the most popularly reported control loops. The trend toward more sophisticated control systems in terms of control strategies and control equipment is discussed, and the reasons for the popularity of distributed control equipment are outlined. The evolution of the interface between the operator and the process and its importance in plant control is described. Finally, the authors' view is given as to the future of grinding control.

Jan 1, 1984

By P. R. Sperry, P. A. Beck, Hsun Hu

As described by means of quantitative pole figures, the inside texture of highly rolled aluminum and copper strips may be approximately described by four equivalent ideal orientations near (123) [121]. If rolled in reversed passes, the surface texture of copper is also near (123) [121], that of aluminum is (100) [011]. The inside texture of highly rolled brass is (110) [112]. The surface texture is the same, if rolled in reversed passes. The surface texture of all three metals is related to the inside texture, but asymmetrical, if rolled without reversal between passes. MANY previous investigations dealing with the subject of the present work were reviewed by Wassermann.1 Barrett,2 Brick,3 and Richards.' The recent introduction of quantitative methods for pole figure determination by Decker, Asp, and Harker,5 Schulz5 and others made it possible to reinvestigate some of the finer points which the earlier more qualitative photographic methods left undecided. The rolling textures of silver and of 70-30 cartridge brass have been quite consistently characterized by the ideal orientation of (110) parallel to the plane of rolling and [112] parallel to the rolling direction. On the other hand, it has been recognized by several investigators that certain other face-centered cubic metals, such as copper and aluminum, developed rolling textures rather different from that of brass. These textures have been variously described by the following ideal orientations, singly or in combinations with each other: (110 [112]: (112) [111]; (135) [335]; (135) [211], etc. The discrepancies usually have been attributed to the lack of sharpness in the textures and to the attendant difficulty of associating "ideal orientations" with pole figures showing great scatter of orientations. It seemed desirable to investigate by the new quantitative methods to what extent the apparent lack of sharpness may have been brought about by the qualitative methods used previously, rather than by the textures themselves, and to decide, if possible. between the various ideal orientations which have been proposed. Another problem, not satisfactorily settled by earlier investigations. concerns surface textures in rolled metals. For instance, in rolled aluminum the surface texture in some cases appeared to be similar to the texture inside the sheet, whereas in other cases it was reported to be entirely different.' The conditions under which such differences may have arisen, and the possibility of the occurrence of different surface textures in other face-centered cubic metals do not appear to have been examined in detail. The present work was undertaken to investigate the above questions. Some of the results obtained have been described- riefly. Experimental Procedure Specimen Preparation: In the present investigation 2s aluminum, electrolytic tough-pitch copper, and commercial 70-30 brass were used. These materials were available in the form of cold-drawn rods. 1 in. diam for tough-pitch copper and commercial 70-30 brass and 11/2 in. diam for 2s aluminum. The cold-drawn bars were alternately annealed and rolled 30 pct lengthwise in several cycles until a penultimate thickness of 0.500 in. was reached. The intermediate and the penultimate anneals were carried out for 30 min at 380°C with 2s aluminum, and for 30 min at 550°C with 70-30 brass. For tough-pitch copper, the intermediate anneals were 30 min

Jan 1, 1953

By John H. Melvin

THE Omaha District, Corps of Engineers, has been doing subsurface exploration work for a number of years, both by contract and with its own forces. Certain practices and procedures concerning the recovery of large diameter cores have been developed which will be described in this paper. GEOLOGY Most of the drilling to date has been in connection with structures on the main stem of the Missouri River above Sioux City, Iowa. A wide variety of subsurface conditions has been encountered. The bedrock formations appear in regular order from the oldest to the youngest, traveling upstream; or in other words, the general regional dip is to the northwest. The oldest formation is the Carlile shale, a compaction or noncemented waxy shale of Cretaceous age. Because of its uncemented, soft nature this shale has a tendency to grind or wash away when drilled. It also has a tendency to rebound or expand when the overlying pressures are removed. A 25-ft bed of sharp, friable sandstone called the Codell member is present near the top of the Carlile shale. This member is a cemented sediment, but in drilling, many of the sand grains are broken loose and exert extensive abrasive action on the core barrel and bit. Above the Carlile shale is the Niobrara chalk, a soft calcareous deposit with shaly horizons and some thin beds of bentonitic clay. The average thickness of this deposit is about 145 ft. It is soft enough to be sawed or bored with ordinary woodworking tools, yet is compact enough to be used as building block. The Pierre shale, the formation above the Niobrara chalk, is over 800 ft in thickness and is the most widespread material in the area. It is a dark colored, compaction shale containing numerous thin bentonitic clay seams and at certain horizons, hard manganese concretions. The shale has numerous faults and in addition, along the valley walls, has undergone considerable - slumping. Joints, fault planes and slickensided surfaces are common features encountered in drilling and add to the difficulties of high core recovery. East of the Missouri River the bedrock is generally covered with from 100 to 200 ft of glacial till, composed of clays, silts, sands, gravels and boulders. The valley itself is filled with alluvial deposits, mostly of the sand and gravel sizes, and contains a buried preglacial or interglacial channel over 100 ft in depth. The overburden deposits require sampling in connection with engineering studies and must also be cased before the underlying bedrock can be cored. The diameter of the required overburden samples can thus have an indirect effect on the size of core recovered from the bedrock. West of the river, which in most cases is the western boundary of glaciation,

Jan 1, 1947

By John H. Melvin

The Omaha District, Corps of Engineers, has been doing subsurface exploration work for a number of years, both by contract and with its own forces. Certain practices and procedures concerning the recovery of large diameter cores have been developed which will be described in this paper. Geology Most of the drilling to date has been in connection with structures on the main stem of the Missouri River above Sioux City, Iowa. A wide variety of subsurface conditions has been encountered. The bedrock formations appear in regular order from the oldest to the youngest, traveling upstream; or in other words, the general regional dip is to the northwest. The oldest formation is the Carlile shale, a compaction or noncemented waxy shale of Cretaceous age. Because of its unce-mented, soft nature this shale has a tendency to grind or wash away when drilled. It also has a tendency to rebound or expand when the overlying pressures are removed. A 25-ft bed of sharp, friable sandstone called the Codell member is present near the top of the Carlile shale. This member is a cemented sediment, but in drilling, many of the sand grains are broken loose and exert extensive abrasive action on the core barrel and bit. Above the Carlile shale is the Niobrara chalk, a soft calcareous deposit with shaly horizons and some thin beds of bentonitic clay. The average thickness of this deposit is about 145 ft. It is soft enough to be sawed or bored with ordinary woodworking tools, yet is compact enough to be used as building block. The Pierre shale, the formation above the Niobrara chalk, is over 800 ft in thickness and is the most widespread material in the area. It is a dark colored, compaction shale containing numerous thin bentonitic clay seams and at certain horizons, hard manganese concretions. The shale has numerous faults and in addition, along the valley walls, has undergone considerable slumping. Joints, fault planes and slickensided surfaces are common features encountered in drilling and add to the difficulties of high core recovery. East of the Missouri River the bedrock is generally covered with from 100 to 200 ft of glacial till, composed of clays, silts, sands, gravels and boulders. The valley itself is filled with alluvial deposits, mostly of the sand and gravel sizes, and contains a buried preglacial or interglacial channel over 100 ft in depth. The overburden deposits require sampling in connection with engineering studies and must also be cased before the underlying bedrock can be cored. The diameter of the required overburden samples can thus have an indirect effect on the size of core recovered from the bedrock. West of the river, which in most cases is the western boundary of glaciation,

Jan 1, 1949

By T. L. Joseph, G. Bitsianes

THE layered structure of partially reduced iron ore was described in a previous paper.' Reduction by hydrogen was found to take place at well-defined interfaces between layers of the solid phases. In the present investigation, a detailed study was made of the wiistite phase that had formed during the partial reduction of a cylindrical compact of chemically pure hematite. An unusually wide band of wiistite permitted a rather detailed study of this phase. The specimen was made from Baker's C.P. hematite in the form of a cylinder 1.5 cm in diameter and 1.8 cm long. A dense ore structure with about 6 pct porosity was attained by heating the specimen in air at 1100°C for 3 hr. To confine reduction to the top surface, a ceramic coating was applied to the bottom and sides of the cylindrical compact. The specimen was then partially reduced in hydrogen at 850°C and subjected to a coordinated sequence of macro-, micro-, and X-ray examinations. A section of the partially reduced cylinder is shown in the macrograph, Fig. 1. Four layers consisting of metallic iron, wustite, magnetite, and unreduced hematite are clearly shown. The effort to force reduction to proceed downward in topochemi-cal fashion was only partly successful, as some reduction occurred along one side and bottom of the cylinder. A rather wide layer of dark wustite phase had formed, however, and permitted sampling for X-ray studies as indicated. To supplement previous work and to study the wustite layer in more detail, ten separate layers were removed for X-ray examination. Broad and diffuse patterns were obtained with the as-filed powders, especially with those of iron and wiistite, and the condition indicated a cold-working and variable composition effect within the respective layers. This condition was corrected by annealing the entire series of powders at an appropriate temperature. For the annealing treatment, the ten powder samples were wrapped in silver foil, sealed under vacuum in small quartz tubes, and heated at 750°C for 16 hr. The specimens were then drastically quenched in cold water to preserve the annealed condition. These annealed specimens were X-rayed in turn and the compiled patterns are shown in Fig. 2. The standard patterns for iron and its oxides have been interjected at appropriate positions for purposes of comparison and phase identification. All of the patterns obtained were clearcut and concise so that positive identifications could be made for all of the phases. The outermost layers A, B, and C were composed almost entirely of iron with a small amount of wiistite being detectable at the X-ray limit of phase detection. Layer D from the iron-wustite interface showed both of these phases. The next four layers E, F, G, and H were all in the dark phase band which had been tentatively identified as wustite by the macroexamination, Fig. 1. The diffraction data with their single-phase patterns of wiistite for these layers checked the visual evidence. Continuing the X-ray analyses after layer H, the macrograph (Fig. 1) shows that layer I came largely from the magnetite zone but included some fringes of the wiistite-magnetite interface. The diffraction pattern for the sample confirmed this observation. Layer J came from the unreduced core of the specimen and its diffraction pattern indicated a preponderance of hematite phase. The reduction behavior of synthetic compacts has thus been found to be similar to natural dense iron ore. The previous results were supplemented with measurements of the diffraction films and calculations of the respective unit parameters. These X-ray data are summarized in Table I and offer some interesting correlations as to the compositions of the various phases undergoing reduction. The iron layers that were analyzed gave lattice parameters close to that of pure iron at 2.8664A. Evidently this iron was present in layers A through D as a pure phase with little or no oxygen dissolved in its lattice. With the wiistite layers an entirely different situation prevailed in that there was a definite and

Jan 1, 1955

By L. C. Glenn

IN the preparation of this paper the writer has drawn freely upon the writings of Orton, Munn, Shaw, Mather, Miller, Hoeing, St. Clair, Jillson, and others, as well as upon his own personal knowledge of the fields of both states. It is to be regretted that certain data gathered by him and his assistants last fall are not available for publication. OIL IN TENNESSEE A few wells drilled for brine for salt making in Tennessee between 1820 and 1840 obtained oil, but no definite search was made for oil until just after the close of the Civil War. Active drilling was then begun in Overton and counties southwest of it on the eastern half of the Highland Rim. A number of strikes were made at shallow depths in the basal part of the Mississippian but the wells were soon exhausted and abandoned. Drilling was revived, about. 1892, when the Spurrier district in Pickett County was developed and was followed by the Riverton district in the same county in 1896. A pipe line was laid from the Wayne County, Ky., fields and about 60,000 bbl. of oil were run before a very heavy slump in the production, a failure to find an extension of the field, and excessive local taxation caused the removal of the pipe line in 1906. There was then no production in Tennessee until the discovery, in 1915, of oil near Oneida, Scott Co., at about 950 ft. (289 m.) in fissures in the Newman or St. Louis limestone. This field, however, soon failed and was abandoned. In 1916, oil was found at Glen Mary, Scott Co., in the Newman limestone at a depth of 1232 ft. (375 m.) A number of wells have since been drilled there, some of which were dry while others, close by, were producers. The largest one yielded, at first, about 340 bbl. per day and produced for several months, when it suddenly went dry. Several of the first wells began at 6 or 8 bbl. per day and are still maintaining that

Jan 1, 1920

The Carlin gold deposit is located in northeastern Nevada about thirty-five miles by road from the town of Elko. Following the staking of six square miles 'of ground, a drilling program outlined a fine ore body mineable by open pitting. The resulting mine turned out to be the largest open-pit gold operation in the world, until the Rosario Pueblo Viejo operation was started in 1975. Because of the high profitability forecast at the then $35 gold price, construction of a 2000 stpd mill was commenced on a crash program and was completed for Newmont Mining Corporation by Bechtel Corporation in ten months. Production was started in early 1965. The gold mineralization occurs in marine-type sediments, chiefly silt- stones and limey shales, and the ore characteristics make for a difficult materials-handling problem. At 5% to 6% moisture the ore is dusty during crushing, but even a light rain or snowfall virtually turns the material into a slurry. Crushing this sticky ore below 314 in. (19 mm) in the dry season and 1 in. (25.4 m) during the winter is extremely difficult and leads to problems with conveyors, chutes, and fine ore storage. The initial flowsheet for Carlin's crushing plant used a 5 ft by 22 ft (1.52 m by 6. 7 m) vibrating feeder -grizzly under the 60 -ton dump pocket for feeding the 42 in. by 48 in. (1067 mm by 1220 mm) single toggle jaw crusher and a 5 ½ ft (1.52 m) standard cone crusher in closed circuit with a 6 ft by 12 ft (1.83 m by 3.66 m) vibrating double - deck screen. Because continual packing of fines in the vibrating feeder pan would cause frequent plant shut-downs to remove the fines with jack hammers, the decision was made to replace the vibrating unit with an apron feeder and stationary grizzly ahead of the jaw crusher. A dribble belt was also installed under the apron feeder. This installation has greatly improved the feeding of the pit run ore to the .primary jaw crusher. Mining at Carlin is done by a 5 yd shovel and 7 ½ and 10 yd front-end loaders, and ore transport is by several sizes of trucks from 30 to 75 tons capacity. These pit haulage trucks dump onto stockpiles adjacent to the primary crusher. Ore is then fed to the dump hopper by front- end loaders only when the crushing plant is operating. This extra handling procedure is necessary because plant delays caused by problems with wet ore in the secondary crusher resulted in the ore setting up or packing in the dump pocket. Solidified material in the dump pocket would in turn delay truck haulage. The substitution of an

Jan 1, 1978

By L. G. Evans, W. W. Simpson, W. A. McKinney

In conventional dump leaching of strip wastes from open-pit porphyry mining operations, many years are required to extract a fraction of the copper from the contained sulfide minerals. Furthermore, none of the molybdenum, gold, or silver is recovered by current leaching practices. Because the copper sulfide minerals and molybdenite generally are distributed in the minute fractures throughout the host rock, the mineral values tend to concentrate in the finer fraction of the strip material. This suggests the possibility of segregating the enriched fines in as-produced or coarsely crushed strip wastes for blending with the ore grade flotation mill feed. In the past, extra handling or crushing of mine wastes to enable better leach extraction has been deemed uneconomical. However, recent articles on mobile crushing plants and conveyor haulage systems indicate possible cost improvements for these techniques over conventional truck haulage of ore and mine wastes. Another potential benefit from removal of the fines from copper-bearing mine waste derives from the increased permeability of the coarse dump material to leach solutions and air. Better permeability should result in faster oxidation of the sulfide minerals, less channeling of leach solutions, and fewer perched solution tables caused by compacted fines. Therefore, in addition to the metal values recovered by flotation, higher copper recoveries by leaching also might be achieved. The Salt Lake City Metallurgy Research Center of the U.S. Bureau of Mines undertook an investigation to determine the feasibility of removing enriched fines from strip waste material for separate treatment by froth flotation for early recovery of part of the copper, molybdenum, gold, and silver. Percolation leaching tests were made on mine-run and sized fractions of the dump material to determine the effect of fines removal on copper extraction. Samples Tested Three 10-ton samples of copper sulfide-bearing mine waste were obtained for the investigation. Partial chemical analyses of the samples are given in [Table 1] and the consolidated results of detailed screen analyses made on the samples are given in [Table 2]. The -1/4-in, fine fractions contain from 16 to 32% of the copper and 19 to 40% of the molybdenum in 11 to 18% of the total waste. The samples also were crushed to -3 in. to determine the feasibility of crushing to obtain a higher distribution of the metal values in an enriched fine fraction while providing a more leachable coarse fraction that could be transported by a conveyor system to a dump. The -%-in. fine fractions screened from the crushed mine waste were almost identical in grade to the natural fines. From 2 to 4% more1/4-in. fines were produced by crushing to -3 in. Copper distribution was increased by about 3% over that in the natural fines, while molybdenum distribution was increased by about 10%. The -1/4-in. fines screened from the mine-run and crushed strip waste were almost as high in grade as the ore being treated at the mills. In addition, the fines

Jan 1, 1974