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By Clement K. Chase

ION exchange recovery of uranium has been proved successful in many operating plants in various parts of the world. First used in column plants processing clear liquors, ion exchange has more recently been applied in basket resin-in-pulp systems. A logical further development is the application of truly continuous processing techniques to the ion exchange recovery of metals, since previous systems have been semicontinuous at best. Column ion exchange is a valuable technique and has been used extensively in South Africa and elsewhere. However, it requires clear liquors. To produce these clear liquors, considerable investment in filter plant and clarification equipment is necessary. In the cases where it is very difficult or impossible to produce clarified liquors, column ion exchange is not so useful. Moreover, some liquors suffer from post-precipitation after clarification, which can become a serious problem.

Jan 9, 1957

By J. Richard Lucas

The coal industry, one of the great basic industries in the nation, plays a major role in the American economy. Coal is the principal fuel used in generating tremendous quantities of low-cost power so necessary to the nation. Two-thirds of the electrical energy and one-fourth of all energy consumed in the nation is produced from coal. Large-scale production of steel, cement, and chemicals is vitally dependent upon this natural resource. Because of extensive reserves and low mining cost, it is one of the few natural resources in which the United States is a significant exporter. During 1965 in excess of 500 million tons of coal were produced, almost 10% over the previous year; more than 50 million tons were shipped to foreign markets. The utility market gained approximately 8% during the year for a total of 242 million tons.

Jan 2, 1966

By S. H. Ash

Diesel locomotives, trucks, bulldozers, and other diesel-powered equipment are fast proving their superiority for mine transportation purposes. MORE than 100 minerals are mined and processed in the U. S. Management and labor have negotiated wage-scale agreements that have balanced wages and affected cost of labor in such a manner that comparisons can be made of transportation costs. Transportation of materials underground has become of vital importance.1"0 This report describes underground haulage methods and equipment, presents cost analyses, and discusses future plans for underground transportation in metal mines. It does not cover hoisting in shafts or slopes by cage, skip, or cars. Advancements have been made by the metal mining industry in lowering transportation costs in several mines, making it possible to mine orebodies or portions of orebodies not considered economically recoverable a few years ago.7,8 Wumerous reports have been written on transportation at metal mines; this report covers recent haulage at some representative mines throughout the U. S. The term metal mine is used to include all noncoal mines from which up-to-date information was obtainable. The best haulage equipment is subject to break- downs and accidents; but unless the rolling equipment, track, and signal systems are kept in good repair and are operated systematically, these breakdowns and accidents are likely to be frequent, destructive, and more costly than are necessary.10 Rail haulage crews using dependable rolling stock can move trips safely over grades low enough to be traveled without loss of control; this applies particularly if the track is straight and well maintained. Few accidents occur on main haulage lines if visibility and clearance are good and clear track is assured. One-way traffic underground is a recent development contributing to reduction of accidents and increased efficiency in mine haulage (Kelly mine, Anaconda Co., Butte, Mont., and Climax mine, Climax Molybdenum Co., Climax, Colo.)." Locomotives: Six types of mine locomotive used in recent years are trolley, storage battery, combination trolley and storage battery, diesel, compressed air, and gasoline. Electric haulage has been displaced by compressed air locomotives, which have been used successfully in certain instances, especially on dirty and wet tracks and steep grades." Maintenance cost is high, and operating efficiency, from a power standpoint, is low. Compressed air locomotives operate under self-contained power, and the absence of bare elec-

Jan 1, 1957

By Lloyd R. Jackson

IN the past 15 years there has been a great deal of interest in the fundamentals of plastic flow and rupture in metals and a number of papers have presented substantial advances toward a fundamental insight into the mechanism of these two processes. This paper is an appraisal of the present position with respect to the following: I. The relative importance of shear and hydrostatic stresses in controlling the plastic flow of metals. 2. The relative importance of shear and hydrostatic stresses in determining the amount of flow before rupture in metals. 3. The use of generalid strains in determining the effect of plastic flow on the work-hardening of metals. FUNDAMENTALS INVOLVED IN PLASTIC FLOW In attempting to devise a quantitative description of plastic flow in metals, it has been customary to assume that metals are homogeneous and isotropic. The fact that neither of these assumptions is correct complicates the experimental appraisal of relations developed. Never- the less, as will be shown, metals are close enough to being isotropic and homogeneous so that considerable insight into the mechanism of plastic flow can be obtained. The assumptions of .isotropy and homogeneity allow both the elastic and plastic behavior of metals to be described in terms of 12 variables-six being stress variables, and six being strain variables. ) From this viewpoint, it should be possible to represent the stress-strain relations in the plastic range for metals by a surface in 12 dimensions. One boundary of this surface would be the surface of transition from elastic to plastic behavior; the other would be the surface of rupture. These two surfaces would be joined by the surface of plastic flow. The shape of this composite surface would depend on the test temperature and speed of straining. This paper is concerned only with results obtained at constant temperature and constant speed of straining. While such a representation is conceivable, the demonstration of such a surface would present almost insurmountable obstacles. The most fruitful simplification of this concept has been the recognition that the behavior of metals in the plastic region is primarily a result of shear stresses and strains. Based on this viewpoint, it is possible to utilize stress and strain invariants that are independent of hydrostatic components to define an effective stress and strain. In effect, this amounts to reducing the task of representing stresses and strains in 12 dimensions to one of representation in two dimensions. The two invariants (one for stresses . and one for strains) that have received most attention are the following: [ ]

Jan 1, 1946

By C. C. Griggs

FROM its inception, a limestone quarry or mine should be under the direction of a capable engineer. Before it becomes a reality, he should outline the future results, plan the most economical methods for moving the materials and the most efficient equipment, and pilot the undertaking along the narrow pathway of success, avoiding the pitfalls of uneconomical production and the precipitous walls of scanty profits. Inspection of successful limestone properties shows that all have had difficult engineering problems, the solution of which have required keen engineering ability. In approaching a subject of this nature, it is logical to follow the progress of the limestone operation from its inception to the end, as reflecting the engineering required. There are four major divisions: Investigation, equipment, development, and operation.

Jan 2, 1925

By A. G. McGregor

In the Southwest a number of large steel chimneys discharge the gases from the copper smelting furnaces. Some of these chimneys show no deterioration after twenty years, others show serious deterioration after tour years service. A steel stack 20 ft. 7 1/2 in. (6.3 m.) in diameter by 279 ft. (85 m.) high, Fig. 1, used for roaster gases only at the Calumet & Arizona Mining CO.'s plant at Douglas, Ariz., was lined to the top of the bell, 40 ft. (12 m.) from the base, with common brick placed on end, lime and cement mortar being used. Above the bell, the stack was lined with 4 by 4 by 8 in. (10 by 10 by 20 cm.) building tile, placed on end, making a lining 4 in. thick. The tiles were supported on angle-iron rings, riveted to the inside of the chimney shell about 15 ft. apart. The chimney was put into use in the latter part of 1913. Four years later, considerable of the tile lining had fallen out of place and mixed with the flue dust at the bottom of the chimney. About a year later, several flattened and distorted sheets were noticed about 70 ft. below the top. An investigation showed that the thickness of these distorted sheets, which was originally 1/4in., had been reduced one half. One year later, or six years after the chimney went into use, several holes, a square foot and smaller in area, appeared near the flat spots mentioned. Soon afterwards, when the chimney was shut down for repairs, it was found that most of the tile lining for 125 ft, from the top had fallen out and that the steel shell was badly corroded; but where the lining remained in place the shell was undamaged. Many of the tile which had fallen out of place had become soft or flaky and crumbling, others were as hard as when placed. An analysis of the hard and soft tile is shown on p. 2. These tile were of a fireclay mixture, and were used instead of common brick on account of lower cost. The steel forming the upper 125 ft. (38 m.) was replaced, and a 4 1/4-in. (11-cm.) lining of firebrick was laid from the bell to the top of the chimney. The brick were placed on end, wedges and keys being used. After each 8-in. course was set, keyed, and wedged tight, thin mortar —water, sodium silicate, and finely ground silica—was worked into the joints. The brick are supported on angle-iron rings, every 15 ft., in the same way as the tile.

Jan 1, 1921

By H. E. Nold

THE raw materials of the ceramic industry are mostly clays. This raw material is ground, water is added and the mixture pugged into a moist, plastic, rather stiff mass. From this mass the desired units of manufacture are made (bricks, hollow building tile, sewer .pipe, etc.). These units are dried; then placed in kilns and heated until the desired degree of vitrification is obtained.1 For firing ceramic ware, two distinct types of kilns are used; namely, periodic and continuous tunnel. PERIODIC KILNS Periodic kilns are those ordinarily seen in a brick plant. They are either round or rectangular. The raw, dried, formed ware is piled or set in the kilns to depths frequently exceeding 10 ft. The kiln is heated until the ware is matured, then gradually cooled sufficiently to allow men to remove the ware; then the cycle is repeated. The time duration of the cycle may be more than two weeks.

Jan 1, 1933

By John Roberts

THE Federal income tax law permits as a deduction in determining net income "in the case of mines, . . . a reasonable allowance for depletion and for depreciation of improvements, according to the, peculiar conditions in each case, based upon cost, including cost of development not otherwise deducted: Provided, that in the case of such properties acquired prior to Mar. 1, 1913, the fair market value of the property (or the taxpayer's interest therein) on that date shall be taken in lieu of cost up to that date." The law provides for a reasonable allowance but the regulations provide for a definite method of computation that possesses more the virtue of simplicity than that of reasonableness. Article 210 of Regulations 45. reads: "When the cost or value as of Mar. 1, 1913, or within 30 days after the date of discovery of the property shall have been determined, and the number of mineral units in the property as of the date of acquisition or valuation shall have been estimated, the division of the former amount by the latter figure will give the unit value for purposes of depletion, and the depletion allowance for the taxable year may be computed by multiplying such unit value by the number of units of mineral extracted during the year." This is simple, but is it reasonable? The intent of the law is clearly that the cost of the ore in the ground shall be considered as part of the cost of the same ore when removed and sold. The regulations fail to carry out that intent, because of the unwarranted assumption that all the ore in the mine cost the same amount per ton. This is what gives the Treasury Department's method its simplicity, but at the same time robs it of its reasonableness because the assumption is contrary to fact.

Jan 1, 1921

By Curtis L. Graversen, J. H. Hamilton, John C. Nixon, John R. Lewis

RECENTLY there has been much speculation concerning the advantages of using oxygen enriched air or pure oxygen in pyrometallurgical processes. The advantage of using oxygen in the iron blast furnace and elsewhere in ferrous production metallurgy has been given careful consideration and, as a result, several experiments have been tried and a number of papers have recently appeared on this subject.1.2 The use of oxygen in nonferrous smelting likewise poses interesting problems, therefore any experimental data obtained in this area should likewise be of general interest.3 Ashcroft4 in 1933 claimed to have obtained improved results when copper concentrates were roasted in pure oxygen. However, his' paper gives neither data nor experimental details. A few years ago a research program was started in this laboratory which had for its objective the determination of the mechanism of oxidation of metallic sulfides under varying conditions. To date we have studied the oxidation of galena, 5 sphalerite, and chalcocite. It is a well known fact that copper sulfide minerals are oxidized slowly by weathering agents, so that the sulfides of copper which find their way into a tailing pond are gradually changed into watersoluble and acid-soluble compounds. Commercially, the oxidation of copper sulfide minerals is accomplished by roasting them at elevated temperatures in air using a suitable (usually multiple-hearth) roaster. Most copper smelters are equipped with such roasters. In this phase of the study we were especially interested in determining the effect of temperature on: (I) the air oxidation of chalcocite and (2) the oxidation of chalcocite using commercial oxygen. The amount of sulphur removed as sulphur dioxide, the percentages of water-soluble copper, and of acid-soluble copper were determined for the air oxidation tests. In the tests using commercial oxygen, the percentages of sulphur dioxide, water-soluble copper, acid-soluble copper, water-soluble sulphur and acid-soluble sulphur were determined. For these experiments the temperature was varied from 250 to 700°°C. EXPERIMENTAL Preparation of Chalcocite (Cu2S) Natural chalcocite is not pure. Minerals such as bornite, covellite, and chalcopyrite may be present. It was decided, therefore, to prepare some chalcocite in our own laboratory. An intimate mixture of sulphur and finely divided metallic copper in the ratio of 4 g of copper to I g of sulphur was prepared. To this was added a slight excess of

Jan 1, 1948

By G. S. Hume

IN THE autumn of 1922, British Petroleums Ltd. found oil of 14° Baume in a sand 17 ft. thick in its No. 2 well at Wainwright, 120 miles southeast of Edmonton. This greatly encouraged drilling in the Wainwright-Irma area and this past summer several wells were started, three of which are now completed' and the others still being drilled. Of the three completed, No. 4 British Petroleums contains oil; No. 3 British Petroleums gave a show of oil but so far has not given much hope of becoming a commercial producer; and No. 1 Maple Leaf Co., as now finished, is a gas well with a daily flow of gas of about 2,500,000 cu. ft. at a closed pressure of 700 lb. An oil sand is reported . to have been encountered below the producing gas horizon, in the Maple Leaf well but has not been tested. Operations on this well have been suspended for the winter. The Geological Survey of Canada this past summer undertook a geological investigation of this area with the object of defining the structures with which the oil and gas are associated. The 'structure underlying this portion of the plains was supposed to-be a terrace with the western edge dipping into the Alberta syncline and with a monoclinal structure to the east. By accurate leveling on known geological horizons on this terrace, a number of gentle folds were located and it is in these folds that the oil land gas are found. At the British Petroleums Nos. 2-and- 4 oil wells, the western flank of the fold has a gentle dip of only a few feet to the mile to the southwest whereas the strata on the eastern flank dip to the northeast about 40 ft. in 1/2 mile, the strike of the fold being northwest and southeast. How far oil will be found down the gentle southwest dip is unknown but probably the productive part of the fold will not exceed 1 mile in width, and possibly less. No. 3 British Petroleums well is on the strike of the fold 1 mile southeast of the two oil wells. The sand that was productive in Nos. 2-and 4 wells was not present in this well or, if present, was very thin and unproductive. Two other sand horizons, however, were encountered. The upper of these

Jan 3, 1925

By AIME AIME

The history of development of oil and gas areas in the Kirkuk field. Iraq, from the commencement of drilling in 1928 to the end of 1945. is set forth in Table I. The production of the Kirkuk field from the commencement of the use of the Iraq Mediterranean pipe line to the end of 1945 is listed at the end of Table I.

Jan 1, 1946

By A. B. Parsons

NOT every organization on reaching the relatively ripe age of three score and fifteen can say with truth that its purpose and objects remain precisely the same as prescribed by its founding fathers. Of course, constancy of purpose may be something else than unalloyed virtue. It could merely reflect slavish worship of tradition, intellectual stagnation, or sheer inertia. On the other hand, it could establish the fact that the founders were men possessed of broad outlook, of prophetic vision, and of an acute sense of direction. In addition to charting the course with precision, the founders of the A.I.M.E. surely showed a flair for expressing clearly in a few words what others might say obscurely in many words. To quote verbatim from the "call" for the meeting, in 1871, the proposed organization was to have: "two great objectives: "First, the more economical production of the useful minerals and metals. "Second, the greater safety and welfare of those employed in these industries." This text underwent some refining on several subsequent occasions but today the ultimate product, as set forth in the Constitution reads: "to promote the arts and sciences connected with the economic production of the useful minerals and metals and the welfare of those employed in these industries by all lawful means." The original call was dated "Wilkes-Barre, Pa., April, 1871," and was signed by Eckley B. Coxe, of Jeddo, and by R. P. Rothwell and Martin Coryell, both of Wilkes-Barre, each of the three subscribing himself as "mining engineer." The authors proceeded to explain briefly just how it was proposed to achieve these objectives: "In European countries, where the arts of mining and metallurgy have long been the subject of the most careful study, no means have been found so effectual in attaining the end above proposed, as the free interchange of experience among those actually engaged in these industries; and this object has been accomplished mainly through the medium of `Institutes,' `Associations,' or `Societies,' composed of those engaged in these occupations, and by the periodical publication of `essays' or `papers' communicated to such societies by their members. "It must be evident to all practical men that the interchange of the varied experience

Jan 1, 1947

By Arthur F. Taggart

PROGRESS in a technical art is of several kinds. It springs .from many diverse sources. It comprises invention, mechanical improvement, operating advance, analytical study, education. Invention is, by definition, a relatively great, essentially individual step, taken quickly. Operating advance is the slow, cumulated march of practice; in contrast, it moves at the pace of the tortoise, but over, the years its effects rival and, in some cases, surpass those of invention. Mechanical improvement- is a usual concomitant of the reduction of invention. to operating practice; thereafter it is a primary tool of operating advance. Analytical study is the process of mental digestion of the fruits of invention and practice. Its purpose is to render these into a form assimilable by the art as a whole, and by the perennial crop of would be practitioners. Education, disseminating the results of such study, consolidates and maintains the positions gained. Thus, slowly at first, but continuously accelerating, the tide of progress grows- to flood. Such growth, in mathematical parlance, is expressible in the general form y = mxn, where x is time, n is some positive number greater than one, m is another positive number, and y is the state of the action at instant x. When n is 2, the readers will recognize the graph of the equation as one branch of the familiar square parabola, whose property it is to become parallel to the y-axis; i.e., to move at an infinite rate, in that never-never

Jan 1, 1947

By A. Neustaedter

The following method of plumbing a shaft, suggested itself to me as practicable and at the same time more accurate than the methods commonly employed. It consists in obtaining a longer base by suspending the plumblines from the extreme corners, lengthwise of the shaft, and repro-

Jan 1, 1893

By S. W. MILLE

GEORGE F. COMSTOCK,* Niagara Falls, N. Y. (written discussion?).¬I have recently had the pleasure of reading Mr. Miller's interesting paper, and would like to call attention to a reference to this subject which apparently has escaped his notice. It is an abstract of a German research on the subject of nitrogen in steel, and appeared in the Iron Age of Feb. 17, 1916, page 432. Photomicrographs of needles such as Mr. Miller found in his welds are given, and their identity is discussed. The conclusion reached is that the needles are slip lines due to the brittleness of the ferrite crystals caused by their absorption of nitrogen. The deformation necessary to develop the slips is supposed to be accomplished either in cutting or polishing the microsections or by cooling strains after welding. It seems very reasonable to expect that nitrogen would he absorbed by steel in either electric or oxy-acetylene welding, and the reference I have mentioned gives instances of many unusual structures resulting from the presence of considerable nitrogen with carbon in steel. But the nitrogen is .rapidly given off from steel by ordinary annealing in air, hydrogen or vacuum, and this would explain the disappearance of Mr. Miller's needles after annealing. I think the conclusion that the needles are cementite might well be revised in view of this German work on nitrogen.

Jan 5, 1918

By J. F. Poland

Annual pumpage of ground water from the alluvial valleys of California now is about 10 million acre-feet. This heavy pumpage has created problems of over-draft and ocean-water encroachment in many valleys. Steps are being taken to protect and increase the available supply but much additional basic study is needed.

Jan 2, 1950

By M. Cross

INTRODUCTION The development of refining processes involving gas injection into liquid metals has seen the evolution of a variety of designs [I]. During the last few years or so the top, bottom and side blown processes have, essentially, been combined to produce a series of mixed gas blowing schemes (eg. the LBE [2,3] and LD-OB processes [4,5]). Although, a variety of mixed gas blowing processes have been carefully engineered and recorded operational experience now attests to their effectiveness, optimising their design and operational performance is another matter. Detailed process analysis of such operations is impeded by the complex nature of the physical and chemical processes involved: . fluid flow behaviour of the liquid metal and injected gases, . chemical reactions in the vessel, . mass and heat transfer within the fluid phases in the vessel, . influence of the geometry (eg. location of the tuyeres, etc.), . monitoring the operational performance. By and large, design and operating parameters evolve from a combination of laboratory scale experiments, pilot plant work and, of course, practical engineering experience. Conventionally, the gas-liquid system used to model the industrial process is air-water, for a number of valid reasons including – . visual demonstration plus geometric and (to some extent) dynamic similarity, . the fact that the system demonstrates, at least, qualitatively many of the complex features of gas injection - interaction between the gas and the liquid - the nature of the gas flow behaviour - qualitative indications of mass transfer rates Important experimental contributions to the understanding of gas liquid systems include the work of Brimacombe [6], Wraith [7], T.Robertson [8], D.Robertson [9], Guthrie [10] and Szekely [11] (these references provide starting points to identify the major published work in this area). Although air-water systems have been instrumental in providing a great deal of qualitative insight into the fluid flow behaviour of the processes, reliable quantitative predictions are more problematic. A number of workers (notably Brimacombe and colleagues [6, 12])have demonstrated that different gas-liquid systems can lead to wide variations in behaviour. Other limitations of physical modelling include the assumptions of isothermal flow, scale- up of turbulent flow behaviour and the inability to directly include the effects of chemical reactions. The above limitations in physical modelling, therefore, yield a natural role for mathematical modelling provided that it can be made comprehensive enough whilst remaining cost-effective. The major physical processes involved in gas injection systems may be summarised as . behaviour of the gas envelope structure in moving through the liquid metal . the global movement of the liquid metal . momentum interaction between the liquid metal and the injected gas . heat transfer and mass exchange via the chemical react ions. The behaviour of gas envelopes forming at a tuyere and then moving through the liquid has been investigated thoroughly by a large number of workers. Such models are generally based upon simple physic- al concepts derived from visual observation. An early model by Davidson and Schuler (DS), based upon a force balance between the liquid inertia and a combination of the bouyancy and momentum forces on the envelope, has proved to be a useful tool in predicting bubble volumes at detachment [13]. The DS model has been successfully modified in a number of ways [14-17] to cope with heat transfer and reactive transfer rates, etc. Furthermore, the basic ideas summarised above have also been confirmed on industrial converters by both Guthrie [I8] and Brimacombe [19]. Models have also been developed to predict the behaviour of the "chemical" component of some gas-liquid systems. However, one thing is clear; all gas-liquid reactive systems are governed by the degree to which effective mixing occurs. As such, the processes are dominated by the behaviour of the heat and mass exchange of the two phase fluid flow system. It is the pattern of movement of the turbulent liquid metal plus its interaction with the injected gas which must be predicted reliably, if sufficiently comprehensive comp-

Jan 1, 1984

By Leon W. Dupuy

INTRODUCTION A BRIEF elemental discussion of the fundamental factors involved in diamond drilling often fills a need, particularly when a mine operator is contemplating for the first time an exploratory drilling campaign. Mr. James A. Barr, of the Mining Methods Committee of the Institute, has suggested that many engineers must undertake a drilling program of one kind or another and, in the case of diamond drilling, sometimes even are at a loss as to how to start correspondence. The Bureau of Mines has acquired much experience in managing exploratory diamond-drilling activities. Its activities in diamond drilling included exploring for potash in Texas, Utah and New Mexico 1-4 during the 1920's. The Strategic Minerals Exploration program was started in 1939 and was materially expanded during the war to include critical and essential minerals. At the peak of its war-time activity more than 200 engineers were employed, a majority of whom supervised diamond drilling. Many of them had little experience with such work prior to their employment with the Bureau, and it was necessary to instruct them in their duties. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to present the fundamentals of exploratory diamond drilling from the viewpoint of management in such a way that they will serve as a basis on which those beginning exploratory diamond drilling may build an experience and acquire ability to direct exploration as they gain that experience. SELECTION OF METHOD OF DRILLING Selection of the method of drilling is governed by the type of material to be penetrated and by the type of sample needed to determine the quality and importance of a deposit. Types of drills that might be used for a given job include diamond drills, churn drills, hand auger drills, power auger drills, bucket drills, and rotary drills (sometimes called "seismograph rigs"). Each type has a specific field in which it is most useful. While the Bureau of Mines utilized all the types of drilling mentioned, diamond drilling was used on a majority of its exploratory projects. FACTORS GOVERNING SELECTION OF DIAMOND DRILLING The prime consideration in selecting a method of drilling is first to determine what results are desired and then to choose a method that will furnish reliable data in the ground to be penetrated. Use of diamond drills permits recovery of a core as well as sludge at a comparatively low cost. The core provides an excellent means of studying the formation being drilled and furnishes much information that would be difficult to obtain otherwise. Diamond drills will recover a satis-

Jan 1, 1947

By Freeman Bishop

Copper production has been under Government scrutiny for many years because it's known as a concentrated industry which in turn creates what many economists label administrative prices. Neither of these conditions is illegitimate, per se, the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department have said time and again. But Justice spoke up once more. This time over a Puerto Rican copper development planned by American Metal Climax, Inc., and the Kennecott Copper Corp. Bureaucratic Dichotomy Creates Confusion and Conflict In the Copper Industry Ian MacGregor, chairman and chief executive officer of Amax, said Justice in a recent communique questioned the propriety of the proposal of a joint copper venture in Puerto Rico. At the same approximate time, Dr. Hendrik S. Houthakker, chairman of the President's Commission on Copper, was urging copper producers to expand production to help hold down prices by making more copper available to all consumers. This, Mr. MacGregor said, is creating confusion and conflict, since the Administration from one source is chastising the industry for doing what another branch requests.

Jan 1, 1970

By George Packard

THE shaft of the Raven. mine, at Butte, Mont., is an incline 1,700 ft. in length and dipping at various angles. At the top the dip is 70° from the horizontal, but this is gradually flattened until at the 300-ft. level the inclination is only 47°. This angle continues to the 1,100-ft. level, below which it, curves with a 125-ft. radius to 78°. In addition to these variations in dip, the shaft does not lie in the same vertical plane, with the result that the hoisting rope not only rubs at intervals on both the hanging- and foot-walls, but presses strongly against the west, dividers near the collar, while 300 ft. below it runs close to the east end plates. The early operators used no idlers, and wall plates cut 6 in. deep y the rope resulted. Later operators first attempted to overcome the excessive friction, and the wear of rope and wall plates, by introducing solid cast-iron idlers, 3 in. in diameter. To allow for the travel of the rope from side to side some of these had to be 3 ft. long and were very heavy. Judging from the appearance of the old idlers of this type found at the mine, they often failed to turn in the bearings, which is not surprising when it is considered that they would have to make 1,000 rev.. a minute under ordinary hoisting conditions. The next rolls were made of wood, 6 in. in diameter, with an iron band about each end, and a pintle of 1-in. round steel driven in at the ends to serve as a shaft. These wore rapidly, and were soon replaced by rolls made from water pipe, 5 or 6 in. in diameter, cut to the desired length and fitted with a wooden cylinder into which the pintle was driven. Where the idlers were used on the hanging-wall of the shaft the original bearing was simply a piece of 2 by 1-1 in. strap iron, 10 in. long, turned up at the end in a circle of 18 in. in diameter to receive the shaft. A small hole served for oiling, and common black oil was generally used, although filtered oil from engine bearings and compressor bearings was also used. When the rolls were to be placed on the foot-wall the bearings were made from two pieces of 1 by 3 in. steel, 6 in. long. A half circle was cut on the flat side of each piece and the two half circles together formed a bearing. Oil holes were provided, and in some cases holes were bored through the two pieces so that they could be screwed or spiked to the wall plates.

Jan 8, 1914