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By B. M. Larsen

Jan 1, 1948

By James V. Thompson

ENGINEERS from industrialized countries are frequently called upon to examine mining operations in primitive areas and make recommendations regarding mechanization and modernization. They often set forth with self-confidence, knowing full well that all that is needed is their experience and several shiploads of mining machinery, and at times they mentally provide the answers before the problems have been clearly stated. In primitive areas it is absolutely essential that the examining engineer spend enough time at the site to acquire a thorough understanding of what is being done now and why it is done the way it is. The objective here is to state in simple terms some of the problems that may be encountered, in- as much as solutions, if they can be found at all, will differ with each experience.

Jan 8, 1958

By Charles W. Frey

SUCCESSFUL mining today means proper mechanization. Before any mine can begin production on a paying scale, some machinery must be installed. There must be pumps to remove water, fans and blowers to provide proper ventilation, elevators and hoists to raise materials, and a source of power to turn the countless wheels on which the world's mineral supply rolls from its earthhound source to the market. Only the prospector with his burro and the anthracite "bootlegger" continue to mine without mechanical aid, and with the recent years even these can be discounted, for the burro has given way to the Model T, and the "independent" coal miner must have a truck to haul his coal away. The few types of machinery mentioned above are but a beginning. The

Jan 1, 1938

By E. P. Pfleider

Important economic planning by industries, companies, financial firms and governments is predicated on estimates of future growth potential. Prior to the passage of the Taconite Amendment by the people of the State in November 1964, various admittedly conservative forecasts were made of the future of Minnesota's iron ore industry. Since that date, 3 new taconite plants are under construction, 2 are being expanded, one has just gone "on stream," and a seventh is in the design stage. These plants have a total capacity of about 35 million tons of pellets annually. The pessimism of 1964 today is being replaced by unbounded optimism. In the light of such recent developments, it becomes essential to update forecasts related to production, employment and capital investments. New projections show 50 to 58 million tons of pellet production from Minnesota by 1975. This tonnage, together with some 6 to 8 million of natural ores, should provide an annual full-time employment of 15,000 by the mining companies, plus 700 in related railroad and power producing activities and 1000 in plant construction. Total capital investment in new plants should reach $1.5 billion by 1975 and $2 billion by 1990. These current estimates indicate that the conservative goals as set in 1964 for the year 1990 should actually be achieved by 1975 or 1980. BACKGROUND Various forecasts1,2,3 have been made of the future consumption and production of iron ores within the United States. The most recent of these is by Harrison,1 delivered at the American Mining Congress meeting in Las Vegas in October. His estimates reflect the latest iron ore developments on a world wide front as well as the accelerating trend toward pellets. Minnesota's Natural Resources council prepared a detailed report in 1964 outlining the various factors that affect the future of Minnesota's iron ore industry. It presented estimates predicated on the

Jan 1, 1967

By Donald McLaughlin

INCREASING variety of interests among mining geologists is becoming more and more marked, as the frontier of their science and of its applications continues to expand. Each of the traditional lines of inquiry provides its crop of new and better defined problems, and answers to them are being found in far more precise terms than in the past as older uncertainties .are swept away with the sharper techniques and the even sharper ideas of modern geology. A glance over the assemblage of projects and publications in 1939 reveals conspicuous activity in many different parts of the front, such as the attack on the controversial question of the acid or alkaline character of ore-forming solutions, the place of mineral districts in the larger structural framework of continents, and the place of ore shoots in the local patterns of districts. Instructive comparisons are being made which cut across lines of older correlations or which reinforce them by pointing out heretofore ne-

Jan 1, 1940

By MERLE HOWARD GUISE

WHEN I was a boy I walked into Fairbanks in 1905. I was but a soft chechako, and arrived with blisters covering my feet, as a result of "mushing" the 400-mile trail on foot. Because of them, the display windows of the trading posts were first to catch my eye-dog and horse collars, harness and sled parts! And because of my enthusiasm for things adventurous, I looked long upon the prospectors' gold pans, shovels, rifles, camp equipment, and what not. Today those windows are filled with motor car accessories, tires and repair parts; yes, even thermos bottles and vacuum cleaners! There were many chance meetings with little parties of prospectors in my youth, and it always set my blood to tingling. Sometimes it was a 70-year-old sun-baked son of the Arizona desert, wrangling his stubborn, faithful jenny away from some outfitting store, at others a shovel-ended poling b0at in northern Canada, \vith the partners and the dogs towing upstream along the bank, or an old sourdough, with tug-rope around neck and hand on the spruce sapling gee-pole, mushing along behind his two or three old, plodding malamutes, dragging a little Yukon sled piled high with rusty sheet-iron stove, pick and shovel, cross-cut saw and axe, rifle, bales of dog salmon, and other paraphernalia. These meetings envisioned the panning of old creek beds and draws in the search for as yet undiscovered pay-channels; they meant the toughest kind of work sinking a hole to bedrock in some far-away valley of promise; they suggested wood fires to thaw the frozen muck and gravel and crude windlass and hand-made tub to hoist the water and the mud; but loudest of all they spoke of Adventure.

Jan 1, 1929

By WM. P. BLAKE

THE salt-beds at Salton, on the line of the Southern Pacific railway, in San Diego county, California, have been successfully worked for many years by the corporation known as the East Liverpool Salt Co., and the salt has been largely used upon the Pacific coast generally and in the interior. But the industry has lately been destroyed by the overflow from the Colorado river. The salt is dissolved, and the waves of the Salton sea now roll 50 ft. above the site of this once thriving and growing business. The salt-bed was evidently the residual accumulation from the waters of an ancient lake, which I have named Cahuilla, from the name by which a large part of the valley-the home of the Cahuilla tribe of Indians-is known. The deposit covered a comparatively small area in the lowest part of the valley, 280 ft. or more below the sea-level. This depressed area is now generally known as the Colorado desert, but has a soil of wonderful fertility wherever water can be had on its surface. The deserted beaches, and the water-lines, only a few feet above tide-level, upon the rocks of the bordering mountains, as well as a great abundance of shells in the soil, all bear decisive testimony to the former occupation of the valley by water. The depression is topographically the northern end of the Gulf of California, from which it is now separated by the delta of the Colorado river, extending practically from the mouth of the Gila river across the valley to the coast mountains on the west side. We may conclude that the imprisoned salt water was gradually displaced and freshened by the inflow and outflow of the river, so that the lake was changed to fresh or brackish water, with enough salt in it to give a bed at the bottom upon

Jan 1, 1908

By Hugh H. Waesche

OF all the military services, the Signal Corps is the most concerned with piezoelectric minerals because of its function as a supply service to the strategic and tactical military forces. Consequently this paper is written from the point of view of one associated with that organization. The Signal Corps is responsible for the research, development, and supply of communications, radar, and components to the using services of the Department of the Army and to some extent the other branches of the National Defense Department. Their work therefore includes the study of the sources, characteristics, and application of quartz and other piezoelectric materials. These materials have become a vital consideration in strategic planning and are essential for efficient tactical operation by all the Armed Forces. The Signal Corps at the beginning of World War II was responsible for both Army Ground and Air Force electronic equipment. Since that time this Army service organization has probably done more in the development of frequency control devices using piezoelectric materials than any other group.

Jan 1, 1949

By John A. Church

Jan 1, 1903

By ERNEST F. . SURCEIARD

work have been published from time to time by the Survey.' A detailed report on the Birmingham district, with maps, has been completed, and will be published within the next year." In the following paper it is aimed to present only an outline of the geologic relations of the ores, since the Appalachian geology of Alabama has been discussed by many previous writers, but to describe rather fully the ore of the Birmingham district, and to discuss its relations and probable extent. IT. OUTLINE OF THE GEOLOGY. 1. Stratigraphy. The pre-Pennsylvanians rocks exposed in and along the borders of the valley-regions of Alabama, range from middle Cambrian to Mississippian (Lower Carboniferous), and at the SW. extremities of the valleys these rocks are overlain by coastal-plain deposits of Cretaceous and Tertiary age. A generalized section of the pre-Pennsylvanian Paleozoic rocks for the valley-regions is given in Table I. TABLE I.-Section of Pre-Pennsylvanian Paleozoic Rocks in Valley-Regions of Alabama. System. Formation and character. Thickness. Ft. Shale and sandstone 300 to 2,200 Carboniferous (Mississippian- Limestone and shale 300 to 800) I Sandstone and shale 50 to 200 1 Fort Payne chert and limestone 100 to 300 Devonian Chattanooga shale 0 to 30 Silurian Clinton (" Rockwood ") shale, sand¬ stone, and iron-ore 200 to 700 Ordovician Chickamauga ("Trenton") limestone.. 200 to 800 Cambro-Ordovician Knox dolomite and chert 1 2,200 to 2,700 basal dolomite 500 to 600 Cambrian Conasauga shale and limestone 1,000" to 1,500 - I a Base not. exposed.

Nov 1, 1908

By O. J. Hollister

Jan 1, 1888

By Donald C. Myntti

INTRODUCTION A major segment in a successful heavy equipment maintenance and repair program is the provision of well-laid out and well-equipped shop and service facilities The facilities described here will be those required for a large, high tonnage hard rock open pit mine utilizing rotary drills, shovels, haulage trucks, support equipment, and service trucks. The term support equipment covers the equipment required to support the drill, shovel, and truck operations, these are crawler tractors, road graders, front-end loaders, water trucks, rollers, rubber-tired tractors, etc. Service trucks are the automotive type consisting of rubber-tired over-the- road equipment. The primary structures generally involved in the total maintenance effort are as follows. (1) the main shop with an attached warehouse (the structure could also house the tire and lube shops plus the equipment cleaning stalls), (2) a service station with bulk petroleum product storage tanks, (3) a heating plant, (4) a security station (lf this is a corporate requirement), (5) operating department and employee assembly buildings, and (6) an electrical substation. Under certain conditions, many of these facilities with the exception of the substation could be combined In one or several structures. This arrangement could have a great advantage especially in areas where the heating of the structures is extremely critical.

Jan 1, 1979

By Paul M. Tyler

OF THE 92 elements generally accepted by chemists as constituting the primary building blocks of matter, all but the very rarest have been investigated with a view to employing them in steel manufacture. The surprising thing is that so few have been found commercially acceptable. Despite the relatively small number of elements involved, the use of alloys in steel making is one of the most complicated and probably one of the least well understood of modern industrial enterprises. The action of individual elements in steel making has been described often and a profuse and somewhat acrimonious literature covers pretty much the whole field of ferroalloy ore supplies. In the middle ground between the miner and the -steel maker developments are less carefully watched by most observers and except for an occasional description of the technique of some conversion process or the tariff hearings in Congress, little is said about them. The present paper has been submitted in the hope that it will stimulate broader constructive economic thinking. It undertakes to describe in' relatively nontechnical terms this great and growing though highly complex industry and to study its relations to national progress.

Jan 1, 1932

By W. H. Adams

One of the most attractive subjects for technical writers is the gigantic industry of the manufacture of sulphuric acid. This is no doubt, natural when we take into account that it has grown in this country during the past twenty years, from a production of 60,000 tons in the year 1867, to that of nearly 450,000 tons in 1887. We may well excuse much of the literature which but repeats the same old story, as it serves to bring to the public notice, at proper intervals, the hidden resources of our land; and this constant application of essential truths will sooner or later be the means of freeing us from dependence upon the Old World for necessary chemical products. The present increase in manufacture of this acid in the United States is almost wholly from pyrites ores, which we have in unlimited quantities close at hand. The largest consumption of such acid is for treatment of other native products, petroleum, rock-phosphates, etc.; and, considering the knowledge we have gained during the past twenty years, it is safe to say that the industry is but fairly established, and the causes which have operated to place us in our present proud position are but natural incentives for a further growth and an increased consumption of the many other undiscovered or undeveloped resources of our American soi1. In one of his earlier editions Muspratt says: " It would seem that the manufacture of sulphuric acid, though as extensively carried on as any other business, yet seems to be the least understood; and the ignorance of some manufacturers appears to be only equalled by that of writers, who, in their description of the production of this acid, give figures of apparatus, and vaunt as improvements, things which have been exploded for years. It is possible to find in the works of eminent men drawings of apparatus, for the production of sulphuric acid, which never could possibly have worked one day—some, in fact, could never have worked at all."

Jan 1, 1888

By J. C. Bayles

Jan 1, 1886

T. T. READ, Secretary of the Committee on Industrial Organization, presents the following very interesting monthly ad interim report: Reports from London are to the effect that 750 housing schemes for workers, involving the erection of 128,000 new dwellings, have been submitted to the Local Government Board. Birmingham alone needs 14,000 new houses, and the Housing and Town Planning Committee of the City Council considers that 5000 new houses must be built each year for the next 20 years. Nine hundred acres of land has been acquired, on which to build 10 to 12 houses per acre for the next two years. The town of Dudley, which built 300 modern dwellings in 1915-1916, submitted schemes for another 500 houses. There is a shortage of building materials required, specially brick. Financial assistance has been received for reopening brick yards that were closed during the war. W. E. Dickson, vice president of the Midvale Steel & Ordnance Co., is reported in the daily press as stating that his corporation is planning to spend $8,000,000 in improving its plant and assisting its employees in building their own homes. The company will advance 90 per cent. of the cost of the house and extend payments over a period of 12 years. Methods of work employed in building 256 houses at Quincy, Mass., for the workers of the Fore River shipyards are described, by Joseph Meltzer, in the Engineering News Record for May 29, 1919. The approximate cost was about $3500 per house, not including water supply, sewers, streets, and sidewalks. "Comparative Costs of Tenantry and Home-Owning;" "A Plain Talk on Helping Home-builders;" and "More Plain Talk on Home Building" are the titles of three publications of the Information and Education Service of the Department of Labor. These publications should be' of a good deal of service in convincing employees that it is to their interest to own their homes rather than to live in rented houses. The same Service has issued pamphlets discussing the cost of materials.

Jan 7, 1919

By H. D. Wilde

DURING 1934 conditions in the production division of the petroleum industry were reasonably satisfactory but nevertheless a decided feeling of insecurity existed largely because of the uncertainty of controlling production to consumptive demand. Over-production, especially in the East Texas field, threatened a general collapse of crude prices but in spite of this, posted prices were high. Stimulated by the prevailing posted prices, wildcatting activities were wide-spread. Although a number of small discoveries were made, particularly in the Gulf Coast belt and Oklahoma, no fields of major importance, unless it was the Fitts pool in Southern Oklahoma, were brought in. Meanwhile, the Petroleum Division of the A.I.M.E. continued its activities. It sponsored the collection of production and geological data on both foreign and domestic fields. The data on all but a few producing districts in the world were published in the "Petroleum Development and Technology" volume of the "Transactions" and comprise one of the most complete tabula¬tions of this sort ever published. Work of this kind is being continued.

Jan 1, 1935

ARIZONA Tucson University of AriZona, Mining Engineering Society. B CALIFORNIA Berkeley University of California, Mining Asso. B University of California, Library. B & T Los Angeles Chamber of Mines and Oil. B Southern California Local Section. T Public Library. B & T Oakland Oakland Free Library. T San Francisco California State Mining Bureau. T Mechanic's Merchantile Library. B Mining and Scientific Press. B Stanford University Stanford University Geological and Mining Society. B San Diego Public Library. B COLORADO Boulder University of Colorado, Library. T Denver Bureau of Mines. B Colorado Scientific Society. B Mining American. B Denver Public Library. B & T Golden Colorado School of Mines Magazine. B Colorado School of Mines Library. T Colorado School of Mines Scientific Society. B

Jan 1, 1923

By HORACE H. EJIRICH

(New York Meeting, February, 1912.) PREFATORY NOTE.-The first part of this paper was sent to me by Mr. Emrich nearly nine months ago ; and. I held it, waiting for the second part, which he had promised to forward soon, so that I might submit the whole to some of his former professional associates, and advise him of their criticisms and suggestions before offering his work to the Institute. But, five days before the second part reached me, I received by telegraph the news of Mr. Emrich's sudden death. The paper has therefore not had the benefit of such a revision by the author as might have made it in some respects clearer and more complete. Nevertheless, I believe that experts in the branch of metallurgy with which it deals will find it both original and suggestive.-A. EILERS. I. PARTIAL REFINING IN THE ANODE-FURNACE. During my connection with one of the large New Jersey copper-refineries, and probably before that period, from 15 to 20 per cent. of the copper-bullion received was the very foul, leady blister-copper produced from lead blast-furnace matte. It had been customary to mix a small part of this blister with each charge of purer pig-copper, in the effort to dilute it as much as possible before casting into anodes; but tank-house conditions were such that I was led to try making entire furnace-charges of this blister, and refining it as much as possible in the furnace-afterwards casting to anodes and refining electrolytically, in tanks and solution separate from the main bulk of the purer copper. In making this experiment, notes were made, for several furnace-charges, of everything thought to have a bearing on the question, and some interesting facts were brought out, both in the furnace-working and afterwards in the tanks.

Jun 1, 1912

By Arthur Mitchell

POSSIBLY in no other of the non-ferrous mining districts of this country has the use and develop-ment of mechanical loaders been carried to such an extent as in the "lead belt" of Southeast Missouri. It has become apparent to the four mining companies in the district that it is imperative to apply satisfactory mechanical methods to the chief remaining stage of the entire operations-mining, milling, smelting and refining-in which manual labor is still largely used to handle material in process. With increasing wages and with the reduction of the metal divisor by the extension of mining into lower-grade orebodies, the shoveling cost per ton of lead produced has become relatively so large that in an effort to reduce it there is ample justification for considerable capital expenditure. Hand shovelers load about 18 tons of ore per shift and the average grade is less than five per cent. lead. Further, the ore is relatively heavy, about 21 cu. ft. to the ton when broken, and is often so coarse and so closely compacted after shooting that it requires much more block-holing, sledging, and muscular effort to shovel than, for example, does the cherty and more granular ore of the Joplin district or the finer ore in the headings of a drift mine. No mining company desires to pay for mere back muscles if it be economically feasible to avoid it, and labor saving machinery should be susceptible of operation by older employees, who are no longer capable of the more strenuous manual occupations.

Jan 4, 1923