Search Documents

By G. Hergert

SUMMARY Three gradients have been identified in regard to the average horizontal ground stress increase with depth. [S (0-900 m) = 9.86 MPa + 0.0371 MPa/m SHa (900-2200 m) = 33.41 MPa + 0.0111 MPa/m SHae (extreme)= 12.36 MPa + 0.0586 MPa/m] The extreme stress values are not caused by mining geometry and are of limited extent only. In some cases geological disturbances like faults and rock type boundaries suggest an explanation but in other cases the unusually high stresses cannot be explained readily. It is interesting to note that in the same locations the vertical stress components are very much higher than those derived from overburden weight and that the vertical stress gradient is similar to the gradient obtained from the extreme horizontal stress components. INTRODUCTION Ground stress determinations have been carried out in mines in Ontario and Manitoba, Canada, over more than a decade (Herget, 1980). Most of the sites are located in the Superior and Southern Tectonic Province of the Canadian Shield, which consist of Archaen and Proterozoic rocks comprising volcanics, metamorphosed sediments and granites. The youngest orogenic deformation occurred during the Grenville Orogeny (955 million years ago).

Jan 1, 1982

By Joseph W. Richards

This method of briquetting flue-dust, or flue-dust mixed with fine ores, or, in a few exceptional cases, coke-dust, has come into large commercial use in Europe, and a small plant is already in operation in the United States. It promisea to become of such great importance to the iron industry of the United States that the following description will certainly interest the majority of our pig-iron producers. Discovered in 1908, the process Tests upon the observation of Dr. Schumacher that blast-furnace flue-dust, while possessing of itself no binding or cementing properties, acquires strong cementing properties if mixed with a very small amount of certain salt solutions, the amount of which is so small that the resulting cementation appears to be rather by catalytic action of the salts added than by the mass-action of such chemicals. To be more specific, fresh blast-furnace flue-dust mixed with from 5 to 10 per cent. of its weight of magnesium chloride or calcium chloride solution—that is to say, with from 0.25 to 2 per cent. of its weight of magnesium chloride or calcium chloride—acquires the property of setting within a short time, from 15 to 60 min., and forming a hard cemented briquette. Alkaline solutions appear to have no action such as described, and they even interfere, if present, with the action of the magnesium and calcium solutions. When treated in this way the flue-dust briquette sets very hard, apparently from pure excess of cementing- and setting-power. It is, therefore, possible to mix with the flue-dust a considerable proportion of inert ore or like material, which has no setting-power by this process, and thus to make a compound briquette containing large quantities of ore mixed with flue-dust, but in which the flue-dust may be regarded as the cement or binding-material. A particularly strongly cementing flue-

Jan 1, 1913

By J. C. Irvine

Meramec Mining Co., a joint venture of Bethlehem Steel Corp. and St. Joe Minerals Corp., mines and pelletizes iron ore at the Pea Ridge mine. The Pea Ridge property is located near Sullivan, Miss., about 113 km (70 miles) southwest of St. Louis. The ore body was delineated in the mid-1950's by St. Joe during a lead exploration program. The first test holes drilled on the Pea Ridge magnetic anomaly revealed the presence of a large magnetite deposit; further drilling in 1956 and 1957 confirmed that the ore body was mineable. Meramec Mining Co. was incorporated in 1957 and shaft sinking began late in the year. Production began in April 1964. The ore body is overlain by about 400 m (1300 ft) of flat-bedded sediments. It is tabular, about 800 m (2600 ft) long and up to 180 m (1600 ft) thick. It dips about 80° and is of unknown depth. The ore is mainly high-grade magnetite with small zones of specular hematite. The wall rock is a Precambrian rhyolite porphyry.

Jan 9, 1976

By Warren Weaver

SOME of the advantages of the inductive method of electrical prospecting were emphasized in a paper by Dr. Max Mason.1 Since this emphasis was misunderstood by some to indicate a too exclusive interest in inductive methods, we are especially happy to help correct this impression by reporting on some of our work on surface potential methods. EARTH CURRENTS AND SURFACE POTENTIALS When two electrodes, A and B, are placed on the surface of the ground a distance d apart, and a 100-volt battery is connected across the elec- FIG. 1.-LINES OF CURRENT FLOW AND SURFACE POTENTIAL IN MILLIVOLTS IN THE CASE OF A HOMOGENEOUS EARTH. trodes, current flows from the positive electrode A to the negative electrode B. The current does not pass directly from A to B along the straight line joining these two points. In fact, a negligible amount of the

Jan 1, 1928

By Sharon Brady, Catherine O’Donoghue, John V. Beall, Paul C. Merritt

Between 1950 and 1965, more than 80% of all phosphate rock produced in the world each year was used as fertilizer, either directly applied to the soil or processed into mixed chemical fertilizers. Of the potassium salts produced, 95% followed suit. A variety of uses in industrial chemicals and consumer products absorbed the remaining percentage of each. Future trends in these two commodities will be dominated by what happens to the fertilizer market. Farming is much the same as mining the soil. Plants remove the minerals little by little. Phosphate and potash comprise two of the three primary nutrients removed in this way, the third being nitrogen. Phosphate stimulates early root formation and growth, whereas potash is a salt necessary to root strength.

Jan 10, 1966

By Oswald J. Heinrich

During the last twenty years much has been done to investigate and define the Mesozoic formatibn of the United States along the Atlantic States, as well as in' the Territories. The investigations of Professors Hitchcock, Emmons, Hayden, H. D. Rogers, and those now in progress in connection with the geologicd surveys of Penn-

Jan 1, 1879

By C. W. Goodale

I. INTRODUCTION. In the summer of 1909 the Boston & Montana reduction department of the Anaconda Copper Mining Co. completed a new flue system, at a cost of about $1,100,000, and -is this includes the largest and highest chimney in the world, and some new features of flue construction, a description will be of interest. At the Spokane meeting of the Institute in September, 1909, a brief mention was made of this flue system, in discussing Mr. Brunton's presidential paper on the Progress of Metallurgy in the West, and a promise was given that when a long enough time had elapsed, so that operating results could be given, a paper would be offered. The smelting plant includes blast furnaces, MacDougall roasters, gas-fired reverberatories, and converters.

Jan 8, 1913

By Robert H. Weber

INCREASING acceptance of perlite products, chiefly in the fields of lightweight structural aggregates and thermal and acoustic insulation, has led to expanding market demands that have encouraged many new producers to enter the field. In some instances, however, the failure of these producers to anticipate the variable response of perlite to conventional processing methods has led to difficulty in establishing an economical flowsheet by which a predictable specification product could be obtained. It is not the writer's intent to provide a solution to these problems, but rather to summarize their nature. It is to be hoped that members of the industry who have hurdled some of these obstacles will document solutions arising from their experience. In this treatment the term perlite will not be restricted to the petrographic definition but will apply to all volcanic glasses. Expansible obsidians and pitchstones are accordingly included in this broader industrial classification. Chemical Properties: Although perlite has been reported to range in composition from that of rhyolite to that of andesite, it is probable that most of the glasses have the composition of rhyolite. When recalculated to an anhydrous basis, the five analyzed glasses from New Mexico, representing five distinct physical types from widely separated deposits, show an amazingly uniform oxide composition. Water content is the only major compositional variable; total water ranges from a low of 0.37 pct (non-expansible obsidian) to a high of 8.95 pct (expansible pitchstone). The wide range in expansion characteristics exhibited by these samples cannot be related to significant variations in the composition of the nonvolatile fraction and has been only partially correlated with variations in water content.

Jan 1, 1956

By F. P. Dewey

Rich Hill is situated in the famous car-wheel iron region of Southwestern Virginia, and although it contains many iron ores, this paper will be devoted chiefly to its car-wheel ore. Geologically, Rich Hill is somewhat difficult to describe, as the strata of the region are seriously folded and contorted. It lies at the base of one of the primordial spurs of the Blue Ridge, the ore appearing as a sedimentary deposit on the limestone No. 2, sometimes showing an imperfect stratification, but generally being an

Jan 1, 1882

By John A. Church

In a recent paper read before the Institute it was said of faults that "the sensible expression of the fracture is an earthquake." This notion, which has been expressed before, though usually as a theory and not as an admitted conclusion, is based upon the early belief that faulting is a violent rupture of the earth's crust. Faults are of different kinds, from great dislocations of the earth —hundreds of miles in length—down to the still more mysterious displacements with which miners have to deal. The latter are usually quite short, from 1000 to 20,000 feet in length, but are distinguished even above their greater brethren by the excessive pro-

Jan 1, 1893

By George Rice

SINCE my earliest recollection, the coal business has been in a state of unrest. It has always been a matter of bewilderment to the serious thinking, the instability of this most important industry; second only to agriculture in its effect on the great development of this country, and even more important in certain aspects, because without fuel railroads could not run, agriculture could not get its products to market, nor would the great manufacturing enterprises have been possible. I will not attempt to discuss the present serious -labor dispute or similar disagreements of the past; in the settlement of which more or less successful attempts have been made to equalize, temporarily at least, natural conditions through "joint agreement" as to prices paid labor; but will confine my views to the general underlying conditions of which the disputes are symptoms, and try to show how these must be remedied before there can be any hope of stabilizing conditions.

Jan 5, 1922

By E-Tu Zen Sun

Yunnan, a mountainous province in southwestern China, began to assume its place as an important producer of copper toward the end of the Ming dynasty (latter part of the 16th century), and since then has continued, with minor interruptions, to occupy a leading position as one of the few areas in China where relatively significant amounts of this metal can be produced. Among the copper deposits of this province, those of the following three localities have stood out as being the most significant. 1. Tung-ch'uan, in northeastern Yunnan. Here the ores are primarily bornite and chalcocite, with copper content ranging from 2% to 15% the most noteworthy T'ang-tan mine producing ores averaging 12% copper. Estimated total reserve of pure copper in this area is approximately 1,000,000 metric tons.

Jan 7, 1964

By Percy Gillie

THE Tralee preparation plant, owned and operated by the Semet-Solvay division of Allied Chemical and Dye Corp., is located on the Virginian rail- way, near Mullens, Wyoming County, W. Va., and the mine, which is in the Winding Gulf district, produces coal exclusively from Pocahontas No. 3 seam. The property, comprising 4900 acres, is leased from the Pocahontas Land Corp. Prior to 1930 four separate mines were operated in this tract, some having been started about 1916.

Jan 11, 1953

By A. Perry Thompson

I. GENERAL DISTRIBUTIONS APPEARANCE, AND RELATIONS MINING in Butte has seldom encountered covellite in commercial quantities. The notable occurrences, extending vertically and laterally perhaps several hundred feet, presented scattered, bladed lenses of this mineral in a matrix of quartz, pyrite, enargite, bornite, and chalcocite. But under the microscope covellite is seen to be widespread in the Butte ores, though in such small quantity that megascopic examination will not discover it. In early mining operations covellite was found in the Gray Rock vein, a member of the Blue vein system. As described by Sales,1 it persisted as an occasional ore mineral, associated with quartz, pyrite, tetrahedrite, bornite, chalcocite, and minor amounts of sphalerite, from the 700-ft. to the 1,200-ft. level of the East Gray Rock and Diamond mines. Crushed quartz-monzonite and later quartz completed the vein filling between

Jan 4, 1915

By T. N. Williamson

The art of drilling tunnels is still in its infancy, although it is 70 years since the first tunnel driver was put into operation. (It was used to drive 6000 ft of tunnel under the English Channel.) But during the next 60 years neither government agencies nor private enterprise could find much of a future in tunnel drivers. It was difficult to justify the heavy investments, labor was opposed to the machines, and there had been some spectacular failures. In the last ten years, however, there have been changes. Tunnel drivers are being tried with increasing frequency-in spite of the fact that a large number of them have had to be abandoned on site.

Jan 7, 1965

By R. A. L. Black

Between March and June 1962, the privilege of holding a Carnegie Corporation Fellowship enabled R. A. L. Black to travel extensively in the northeastern and western U.S. and in Canada, seeing mining schools, mining research establishments and a cross-section of the American and Canadian mining industry. Visits were paid to 12 university mining schools, 7 research establishments and 19 mining operations. The author had previously spent two months in Britain in a similar manner and eventually returned to his home in South Africa after a short period studying mining problem in Australia. Thus, although the following remarks are mainly concerned with the educational problems of mining in North America, a comparison of impressions of American and Canadian conditions could be made with impressions gained from first-hand experience of other mining centers in the English-speaking world. The conclusion was reached that the problems and conditions of mining, research and mining education are very similar in all areas visited.

Jan 4, 1963

By R. P. Carreker, R. L. Fullman, J. C. Fisher

THE existence of the phase TiAg has not been reported previously. Other investigators have denied the existence of compounds in the Ti-Ag system.13' However, phases of equi-atomic proportion have been reported by Raub, et al.' in the (similar) systems of titanium with gold and copper and zir- conium with silver. Raub's work indicated that titanium and silver are immiscible in the liquid state. No evidence of this was found although a very wide melting range exists which makes the preparation of homogeneous alloys difficult. TiAg is apparently formed by a peritectic reaction between /3

Jan 1, 1954

By Smith Bracewell

First evidence of bauxite in Jamaica resulted from an analysis of a soil sample collected at Bull Savannah in 1938 during a systematic local investigation of the island's soil types. Results of subsequent work indicated the possibility of the occurrence of deposits of commercial grade and dimensions, and in 1942, with a view to emergency development of the deposits as a war measure, the Jamaican Government declared all bauxite in the colony to be Crown property.

Jan 10, 1958

By A. Eugene Lillstrom

I N the development of iron mines and production of iron ore from the Marquette range, drilling blast-holes is an important phase of the mining cycle. The ground drilled in ore production can be classified into two main categories, soft hematite and hard hematite or magnetite. Within these categories the material exhibits a wide range of penetrability by percussion drills. Development work encounters various types of rock. Slate and altered basic intrusives constitute the softer types commonly encountered. Harder materials are represented mainly by greywacke, quartzite, iron formation, and diorite.

Jan 12, 1951

By T. W. Healy, D. R. Dixon

The mechanism of activation of ZnS by metal ions and the subsequent flotation induced by xanthate has been considered as a surface redox reaction. By ultraviolet (UV) irradiation of ZnS suspensions, the normally inert ZnS is caused to react with xanthate in the absence of activator. By similar UV irradiation, the rate of adsorption-exchange of activator ions at the ZnS-H2O interface is also increased. Mechanisms of these reactions are proposed and compared to current electrochemical and semiconducting models of sulfide flotation.

Jan 1, 1976