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IN THE early evening of October 15, 1954, a large specially designed truck, convoyed by a second smaller one, arrived at Silver Bell, Arizona, completing a ten-hour 110-mile journey from Phoenix. The big truck was driven through gaps left in a previously prepared concrete foundation, the load was jacked up, the large girders that constituted the bed of the truck were pulled away, and the load was then lowered into place on the foundation. A crew of two men, the two truck drivers, finished the job in a little more than an hour. When they were through, a complete and attractive three-bedroom house, prefabricated in Phoenix, was almost ready for occupancy. About all that remained to do was to connect the utilities-water, electricity, plumbing, and gas. The kitchen and bathroom equipment and appointments were superior in every respect, and there was a built-in car port for the automobile of the prospective residents. This family domicile was one of more than one hundred, each averaging about $8,000 in cost, that the American Smelting and Refining Company has provided for its employees engaged in mining and milling 7,500 tons per day of low-grade Porphyry copper ore. Aside from the fact that it is more economical-partly because of the variety of union craftsmen needed to build and equip a house-to do the work in a city 110 miles away, the significant point is the high quality of housing that is provided for what may be called in nostalgic vein the "mining camp" of 1955. Silver Bell is typical of all the Porphyries in this respect though the community is relatively small. At San Manuel

Jan 1, 1957

By G. Bassi

RECENTLY Wallbaum¹ found that copper wires with different degrees of deformation up to 98.7 pct area reduction recrystallize giving a [112] texture, while deformation over 98.7 pct gives either a [l00] texture at low temperatures or a [1ll] texture at high temperatures. Furthermore it was found that the recrystallization temperature as a function of deformation up to 98.7 pct decreases as expected, but increases over that deformation. Wallbaum concluded that the different textures have different recrystallization temperatures. The [112] texture has the lowest and [Ill] the highest. At the same time Bassi² found that for high deformation (over 99 pct area reduction) and for an annealing temperature of 400°C, the [l00] texture first forms and with prolonged annealing time the [12] texture appears through grain growth. This secondary texture does not appear if the wire is annealed at 1000°C before the deformation. From these two papers it might be concluded that the [I12] texture can appear either as a primary or as a secondary texture after annealing. The texture formed in a special case depends on the previous history of the wire. Probably the texture of the wire prior to the last deformation is important. To investigate this, wires were produced by adequate deformation and annealing to give a [l00], a [112], and a [lll] texture. The wires then were given a series of different deformations and were annealed at various temperatures, after which the textures were studied. Experimental Work The copper used was electrolytic tough-pitch (Cu 99.90 pct and 0, 0.04 pct). Three wires with the different initial textures were made in the following way: The [l00] and [112] by drawing a 16 mm rod to 1 mm and annealing it 16 hr at 200°C and 2 hr

Jan 1, 1953

By R. G. Ward

The temperature gradient in the subhearth metal or "salamandern of the iron bhst furnace results in the establishment of gradients in the concentrations of silicon, manganese, carbon, and sulfur. The temperature and compositional variations observed in three blast furnaces are analyzed according to irreversible thermodynamics and the systems appear to be close to the steady state condition. Apparent heats of transport, Q, for silicon, manganese, carbon, and sulfur are found to be respectively -17.5, -5, -2.1, and+22k cal per g mol. In conclusion the significance of thermal diffusion in extraction metallurgy is briefly discussed. INCREASING interest has been shown in recent years in the application of irreversible thermodynamics to metallurgical problems. In particular studies have been made of the transport of matter in thermal gradients1-' and under chemical gradients imposed by a binary solvent However, no detailed example in extraction metallurgy has been reported although gradients are the essence of many extractive processes. The case of the distribution of elements in molten blast furnace iron under a thermal gradient is discussed here. DATA In blast furnace operation the hearth bottom is often extensively destroyed by molten metal, and the metal may penetrate perhaps 10 ft into the furnace foundations forming a "bear" or "salamander". Several hundred tons of molten metal may thus exist beneath the level of the conventional tap hole and remain relatively undisturbed for several years under a thermal gradient. This system is subject to little convective stirring because the temperature decreases from top to bottom, and mechanical stirring due to movements in the stack and to tapping operations is unlikely to penetrate far into the metal. The system may thus be regarded as static

Jan 1, 1963

By M. A. Mallinger

A series of laboratory tests was conducted to determine the limits of practicability in regulating the weights of various cement slurries. It was found that slurry weights of 12 to 19 lb per gallon could be obtained by adding bentonite to decrease the weight and barytes ore to increase the weight. It was also found that barytes ore was not usable in all cements. LIGHTWEIGHT CEMENT SLURRIES INTRODUCTION During the drilling and completion of oil wells the magnitude of the hydraulic pressures exerted on certain formations is critical. In many cases considerable care must be exercised to prevent drilling mud weights from becoming too high, and in those wells where loss of circulation is a problem, the use of normal weight cement slurries will generally result in lost returns during casing cementing operations. While mud weights can easily be controlled, it is necessary to exercise care in the selection of weight reducing additives for cement slurries in order that slurry weights may be reduced sufficiently to prevent the loss of a large portion of the cement to the thief formations without seriously affecting the setting properties of the cement. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS An extensive search revealed that a large number of materials .that might have been otherwise practicable as a weight reducing additive were not acceptable for use with oil we cements because the imposition of pressure on the slurries caused the additive being tested to be compressed or to absorb water from the slurries, resulting in negligible decrease in the slurry weight. This search for lightweight additives disclosed that bentonite, a material very commonly used for reducing the weight of drilling muds and cements, produced the best results without undue harmful effects on the properties of oil well cements. It was found that there was a limit to the amount of benton-

Jan 1, 1950

By Brigitta Hassler

INTRODUCTION In the early 1960's research was begun in Sweden to improve the agglomeration of our domestic iron ore concentrates (5). Different agglomeration methods that were used in the building material industry were studied under the economic support from the Swedish Technical Council, the Swedish Board of Technical Development and by the Swedish industry. The research work was performed at the Division of Mineral Processing at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. All known agglomeration methods were reviewed and the methods were developed to produce superior quality agglomerates (6). The term cold bonding (in contrast to sintering) was introduced to describe the induration operation in these processes and this has been accepted internationally. Even though we used it mostly for steam autoclaving methods, it has come to describe a class of processes that use binding methods by pore filling. Schumacher in Germany discovered around 1907 that a strong material can be produced by mixing slaked lime with fine ground quartz and subjecting to a steam atmosphere under pressure at about 185ºC. This started development of lime-sandstone building materials and later on, in Sweden, the light-weight concrete. Schumacher also used the same reaction for briquetting iron ore concentrates by adding silica and lime, and autoclaving. The product seems to have been accepted for blast furnace burden and the process was used on an industrial scale until the 1920's. The sintering method has a small melting phase as diffusion medium and in the steam-autoclaving method a small quantity of water condensate at about 200°C serves the same purpose. Thus the induration process by the hydrothermal hardening methods is similar to that of sintering or heat treatment.

Jan 1, 1977

INTRODUCTION Engineering studies of many near surface coal deposits that are amenable to strip mining can be enhanced and expedited by the application of computer techniques for defining coal reserves and overburden and intraburden yardage and their stripping ratios. The case study discussed herein could be from the western coalfields of Colorado, Wyoming, or Montana; the lignite deposits of the Dakotas or Texas, or from the strippable coal seams of the midwest. Because the techniques can be applied so universally, the actual map locations are not identified. The same computing principles apply to one seam or multiseam deposits, and the capability of the computing programs and plotting routines to display the coal seams in plan and sections provide excellent base maps for further engineering planning and mine layout studies. MANAGEMENT OF DRILL HOLE DATA Drilling for coalfield information is usually done at much wider centers than for other mineral deposits. The geologic logs of the holes are generally quite simple, and frequently record only major lithologies and depths to the top and bottom of the coal seams, together with hole collar survey information. A header card is prepared for each drill hole showing: Hole ID Northing Fasting Elevation Azimuth Dip The header card can be followed by any number of downhole lithologic intercept records: [Hole Depth Lithology Hole ID From-To Coal] Less data errors occur if the computer cards are punched directly from drill hole logs, thus eliminating opportunities for mistakes in transcribing data. All arithmetic manipulations should be left to the computer to avoid as much human error as possible. The SURVEY program is run over the raw data file and all lithologic intercepts are computed and defined in XYZ space. BOUNDARY SURFACES-COAL SEAMS AND LITHOLOGIC UNITS The most useful computer program for defining coal seams in 3D space is a linear inter-

Jan 1, 1980

By A. E. H. Bergmann

INTRODUCTION The Sachtleben Chemie GmbH in Duisburg, a subsidiary of the Metallgesellschaft AG, operates a new sulfuric acid plant that employs fluid bed roasting of pyrite concentrates. The plant produces about 300,000 tons per year of pyrite cinders from the fluid bed roasting unit. The cinder product consists of 58 percent iron and is about 80 percent by weight smaller than 50 microns. This cinder product was found to be a competitive source material for the cement industry as the iron-containing additive. However, the extreme fineness of the cinder and its dusting tendency were undesirable and an agglomerating technique became necessary. In order to keep the price of agglomerated pyrite-cinders at a competitive level, the agglomerating method must be chosen such a way the capital and operating costs are low. Initial experiments were carried out on a laboratory scale to make an appropriate choice of the agglomerating method. Major goals of agglomerating the cinders were to improve the transportation, storage, and proportioning and metering properties. Minimum specifications are put on the size, size distribution and shape of the product. Criterion for handling is that a minimum of minus one mm. fines are produced after several handlings, while for storage, it is also desirable for the agglomerated product to survive several months in open air. Thermal agglomeration processes such as sintering one known to produce excellent products, but are by far too expensive for our application. For the same reason, granulation, balling, and pelletizing tests with addition of organic binding agents, such as tylose, starch, sulfite wash, molasses, etc. were not continued. The costs for the binding agent was considerable, which is probably due to the high pore volume of our cinders (35 %). Furthermore, the pellets or granules

Jan 1, 1977

By W. N. Lacey, B. H. Sage, W. M. Morris

The volumetric behavior of isobutane at temperatures below its critical temperature has been studied by several investigators. Seibert and Burrelll measured the vapor pressure of isobutane from the ice point to the critical temperature. Dana and co-workers2 determined among other thermodynamic quantities the density of the saturated liquid and the saturated gas and the vapor pressure from approximately 0 to 130 F. Sage and Lacey3 studied a number of the thermodynamic properties of this hydrocarbon from 70" to 250" F. The specific volume in the gas and liquid region was determined at pressures up to 3000 Ib. per sq. in.? throughout this temperature interval. In addition, the vapor pressures were measured at 30" intervals. These data taken together serve to establish the thermodynamic behavior of isobutane at temperatures between 0" and 250" F. with reasonable accuracy. However, apparently there are no data available at the higher temperatures. For this reason an investigation of the volumetric behavior of isobutane at temperatures between 100" and 460" F. was carried out with apparatus that has been described in another paper (p. 136, this volume). Materials The isobutane used in this investigation was obtained from the Philgas Division of the Phillips Petroleum Co. That company's special analysis upon this sample indicated it to contain less than 0.03 mol per cent of impurities. In order to avoid traces of noncondensable gases, this hydrocarbon material was subjected to two successive fractionations at a high reflux ratio in a column approximately 4 ft. long and % in. in diameter, which was packed with small glass rings. The middle portion of distillate from the first fractionation was used in the second fraction-ation and a portion of the overhead from this second distillation process was repeatedly condensed at liquid-air temperatures at a pressure only slightly above the sublimation pressure of isobutane at this temperature.

Jan 1, 1940

E. A. Peretti (University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Ind.)—Mr. Deitz and Professor Halpern are to be congratulated on a fine piece of work which adds to our knowledge of precious metal—cyanide-solution reactions. I should like to offer the following comments: The authors state, "the rate plots were always linear, indicating a zero order reaction rate." This appears to conflict with the data of Fig. 6 which clearly show the rate to vary with the NaCN concentration. It seems to me that the rate curves are linear because of the experimental setup. The volume of solution is so large that over a three-hour period the change in NaCN concentration is very small. A rough calculation for the experiments of Table I where the initial NaCN strength was 0.0096 mol per liter show a change of NaCN concentration of about 0.0009 mol per liter at the end of three hours. In short, over the period of time that the experiment was in progress, the NaCN strength was practically constant; hence the rate of dissolution remained practically constant. Eq. 10, as written, specifies that 1 mol of H202 and 2 mol of hydroxyl ion are formed when 2 mol of silver react. Is this true? The effect of H,O2 on the rate was made in solutions having an oxygen pressure of 4.8 atm. Were any tests made in solutions containing hydrogen peroxide, but no oxygen? G. M. Willis (University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia)—The authors have shown that, under their experimental conditions of high O2 concentrations, the rate of solution of silver in aqueous cyanide solutions is controlled by diffusion of O2 or CN- to the metal surface. With diffusion control, it is generally not possible to obtain further information about the mechanism of a process.

Jan 1, 1955

By Herman Poole

When finely divided ferrous sulphide, FeS, is roasted at a moderate, carefully-regulated temperature, the iron and sulphur are oxidized, the first products being probably ferrous oxide and sulphurous acid. In the presence of oxygen of the air the ferrous oxide soon becomes ferric oxide, and, in the presence of oxygen and the ferric oxide, the sulphurous acid oxidizes to sulphuric acid. These facts are well known, having been established by Plattner many years ago. As a further reaction, some of the sulphuric acid parts with a portion of its oxygen to oxidize more ferrous oxide to ferric oxide, and a portion of it escapes uncombined, or else unites with the iron oxides to form sulphates. Ferrous sulphate is usually soon oxidized to ferric sulphate, and if the heat becomes sufficient, this is then decomposed into sulphuric acid and ferric oxide. As a result of these reactions a mass of more or less pure ferric oxide is formed which is generally made porous by the escaping gases and, if rabbled properly, practically all the sulphur is expelled. If ferric sulphide or ordinary pyrites, FeS2, is roasted, a portion of the sulphur sublimes and usually burns to form sulphurous or sulphuric acid, although at times and under favorable conditions, some of the sulphur is driven off uncombined, and can be collected as such. Under ordinary methods of roasting, however, only a small portion escapes combustion. By the combustion of the sulphur an increase of heat is developed and, as a consequence, the reactions mentioned take place more rapidly and actively,—more sulphuric acid is formed and the oxidation is more complete—nearly all the iron being left as ferric oxide with practically no sulphate or ferrous oxide. When the iron sulphide is in lumps the roasting proceeds generally as with fines, but with some changes due to mass. The

Jan 1, 1906

By J. S. Johnson, W. C. McCulloch

ALL phases of plant operation must be synchronized so that the number of interruptions in the flow of material may be reduced to a minimum. In the majority of plants operating under a labor agreement, time lost during the operating shift cannot be made up with overtime. With the work week restricted to 35 hr., the ratio of productive time to total time justifies extra effort in keeping the plant operating at capacity during the productive shift. This does not apply when central plants with adequate storage are operated by multiple shifts. In such installations the problems become similar to those of any factory or mill where added units parallel circuits, or excess capacity serve to maintain the average production during intervals of maintenance shutdown. These plants, by special agreement, may run continuously, barring mechanical interruptions. The control of plant operation is in those procedures that are practiced to obtain from the run-of-mine product a high recovery of clean coal products to meet adopted trade standards and consumer specifications at the lowest possible cost. Correlation of all factors for continuous operation requires more than mechanical perfection in the plant. The run-of-mine coal must be delivered to the preparation plant without delays and the clean coal and refuse products taken away. Power supply and water requirements must be adequate. Signal systems must be established for emergency stops and to facilitate resumption of coal flow. ORGANIZATION Probably the most important item for successful operation of a preparation plant is a capable organization interconnected with the mine organization. A typical organization chart for companies operating in the Pennsylvania anthracite region is shown in Fig. 1. The breaker foreman is in direct contact with the plant preparation operation and reports to the outside foreman, who, in turn, reports to

Jan 1, 1943

By R. R. Seeber

In the copper-mining district of northern Michigan a fair-sized mine usually operates two or more shafts along the strike of the lode, these shafts being usually at least 1,000 ft. apart. The tonnage to be hoisted from each shaft is large—from 13,000 to 25,000 tons per month. The hoisting-engines used are generally steam-driven, non-condensing, duplex engines with Corliss valves, supplied by steam from separate boiler-plants where the distance between shafts is great. In an attempt to centralize power-plants and secure central-station economies, the Winona Copper Co. installed an electric hoist of the Ilgner type, with Ward Leonard control. A brief description of this plant has already been published.' The only point of variation from the simple Ilgner set lies in the connection of two generators to a single induction-motor by flexible couplings. These generators serve motors which operate hoisting ing-drums at separate shafts, viz., No. 4 shaft, Winona, and No. 1 shaft, King Philip. The hoist for No. 4 shaft is about 1,700 ft. from the power-plant, arid in this building the motor-generator set is placed. No. 1 King Philip hoist is 1,500 ft. from the motor-generator set. The equipment of the motor-geaerator set is as follows: In the middle of the set is a 12-pole, 450-h-p., 600-rev. per min., 2,080-volt, three-phase, 60-cycle, variable-speed induction-motor, connected on each side to a 20-ton fly-wheel which is 10 ft. in diameter, and to a 6-pole, 170-km, 575-volt, interpole, direct-current generator. On each side of the shaft is placed a separate exciter, which delivers current at 125 volts. The lubrication of the four main bearings that support the fly-wheels

Jan 1, 1911

By Frederick Clapp

ALTHOUGH many oil fields have been, and still are being, discovered in Oklahoma, the geology and structure of most of them have not become familiar to the general public because of the delay in securing government geological surveys and the reluctance of oil companies and other interested parties to give out their "inside information." Therefore, until official surveys are available, it behooves us to publish geological results as soon as possible. Fortunately the writer has been authorized by the Cement Field Oil Co. to publish his data on the Cement field, Caddo County at this time. LOCALITY AND DESCRIPTION The Cement field is situated in the part of Oklahoma known generally, until recently, as "Healdton fields," and lies 60 mi. (96 km.) northwest of the Healdton field proper. Like the Healdton field, it forms an approximate ellipse, trending northwest and southeast through the village of Cement on the St. Louis-San Francisco Railroad, on which it is reached in 2 ½ hours from Oklahoma City. In its geological structure, the field constitutes an anticline over 13 mi. (21 km.) long and from 1 to 3 mi. wide; the point of greatest width being not far from its intersection by the above-named railroad. The major axis trends north 75° west from the village of Cement; but eastward appears deflected (if field interpretations are correct) to about south. 45° east. About 5 mi. south lies an approximately parallel syncline, which may be conveniently called the Cyril syncline, the south and west boundaries of which may be distant many miles, but forming a closed basin', south of the Cement anticline. The position of the offsetting synclinal axis, which is believed to lie north and east of Cement, has not been discovered.

Jan 2, 1920

By Donald C. Moore

INTRODUCTION Published laboratory procedures used by the major crusher manufacturers for estimating crusher size are based upon techniques developed in the mid 1940's. Specifically, the two largest U.S. crusher manufacturers are using the Bond impact procedure. Although the procedure is still in use, there is little confidence in the results. Unless the laboratory results fall within a preconceived range, personal experience is used for selecting the number of crushers and connected horsepower (Coleman, 1978). There have been numerous theoretical studies of the communition of particles. However, no procedure has been widely acclaimed for predicting crusher power requirements. Experimental studies have included breakage by slow compression, slow speed impact and high speed impact. Theoretical results have increased our knowledge of the comminution process, but the procedures have not been capable of analyzing the complex mechanism of industrial crushing machines. The purpose of this chapter is to review the empirical crushing procedures that have been used, including advantages and disadvantages. A new procedure which has been in development at Allis-Chalmers Corp. from 1977 to 1982 is detailed. Actual results of the new procedure on a concentrator feasibility study are included. EXPERIMENTAL GOALS The goals of a laboratory crushability procedure are accurate predictions of: (1) Rock crushability, measured as energy per unit mass. (2) Crusher product size analysis. A procedure capable of predicting these parameters should be inexpensive and require a minimum amount of sample. CRUSHABILITY TESTS Bond Impact Procedure F. C. Bond (1946) detailed the development of the pendulum impact device that is still used by the leading crusher manufacturers (Bond; Rexnord, 1976). The device (Fig. 1) is comprised of two bicycle wheels with 13.6 kg steel hammers tangentially attached to the rims. The hammer faces are 50 mm apart at rest. On opposite ends of the hammers lifting

Jan 1, 1982

By R. L. Fleischer

IN 1925 a criterion for localized deformation in a single crystal was derived by Taylor and Elam.' They noted that for a single active slip plane the slip plane area is constant, but the direction of the stress with respect to the slip direction changes during deformation so that, when the increase in stress due to this rotation is large enough relative to the work hardening, instability occurs. (By instability is meant continued slip on the active slip plane.) The instability criterion may be written t>dt/d?/m tan2? [1] where t and ? are resolved shear stress and strain, m the Schmid factor for resolving shear stress, and ? is the angle between the slip direction and the axis of tension. The formula points out that regardless of the atomic mechanism involved, for large flow stresses and low work hardening rates, slip on a single plane—once started—should continue. The case of alloying provides a direct possibility of adjusting the parameters in Eq. [I]: As an alloying element is added to a pure metal, the flow stress is raised and the work hardening in easy glide may be either decreased2 or unaltered.3 Since flow stresses in easy glide may rise to the kg/mm2 range for alloy crystals while easy glide slopes may be less than % kg/mm2, 2 it is possible for the inequality to be satisfied. Indeed Garstone and Honeycombe3 report that slip becomes coarser with increasing stress in the easy glide range, where the flow stress would be increasing and the slope would be essentially constant. Another case where high flow stresses and low hardening rates accompany coarse slip is that of quench hardening.4 Maddin and Cottrell report that quenched aluminum crystals display slip markings resembling those of a brass. A similar effect has been observed after irradiation.'

Jan 1, 1960

By Read Winterburn

This discussion covers only one method of pressure drilling—that developed in the Kettleman Hills field. Thus it is probable that many departures from the procedure herein described would be advisable, and perhaps necessary, in using this method of drilling wells in other localities. Purpose of Pressure Drilling By the early part of 1936, formation pressures in the heavily produced north end of the Kettleman North Dome field had declined to range from 1000 to 1500 lb. per sq. in. This low pressure, combined with the depth of the wells (8000 to 9000 ft.) permitted water to be filtered out of the mud into the producing sands during drilling operations. The loss of water was indicated by loss of fluid from the suction tank while drilling, accompanied by an increase in mud weight. It was found that when water was added to the mud stream at such a rate as to keep the fluid level in the suction tank constant, the mud weight would not vary. This indicates that water only was forced into the sands. The rate of this loss at various wells ranged from 2 to 5 bbl. per hour. At some places complete loss of circulation occurred, and drilling mud to the extent of 200 to 1000 bbl. had to be pumped into the sands before returns were regained. It was believed that these conditions had already begun to harmfully affect production, and that such effect would become more pronounced as formation pressures continued to decline. Pressure drilling with oil was introduced because it eliminated the danger of loading the formations with mud and water. The method also afforded a convenient means of testing as drilling progressed, lessening the amount of formation testing, which had become necessary because of encroaching edge water.

Jan 1, 1938

By Tribhawan N. Srivastava

The Henderson Mine started production in 1976 utilizing a unique, push-pull, mine ventilation plan. As the mine expands in size, the mine ventilation requirements will increase and a more comprehensive system for maintaining ventilation will be needed. A computer simulation study was completed and has resulted in a revised, systematic, mine ventilation plan which is being implemented as mine development proceeds. Based on the computer simulation study, the new ventilation plan takes into account mining of the orebody simultaneously from both the 8100 and 7700 production levels. Present experience and empirical data indicate that volumes of air needed to adequately ventilate both production levels cannot be obtained utilizing the existing mine layout. The total volume of air needed for the mine excluding haulage tunnel will increase from 708 m3/s (1 500 000 cfm) to 1652 m3/s (3 500 000 cfm), thus a new No. 5 exhaust shaft and connecting drifts are being developed to expand the mine ventilation system to service both production levels. The original ventilation plan for the 7500 haulage level was to bring air from the No. 2 and No. 3 intake shafts and exhaust it through the 94X raise to the 8035 exhaust level and then through the No. 1 exhaust shaft to surface. Control of air volumes in loading drifts was initially planned to be achieved by air doors and air curtains. Air doors on the 7500 level require large cutouts, expensive installations and constant maintenance. The computer simulation study indicates that air- flow in the 7500-level production drifts can be con- trolled exclusively by air curtains which are less expensive to install and more effective in regulating airflows than air doors. Air from the 7500 level can be exhausted through a new raise to the new 7635 exhaust level and then through the new No. 5 exhaust shaft.

Jan 1, 1982

By T. B. Crowe

MucH has been written upon the precipitation of metals from cyanide Solution by zinc. We often read of the many factors that influence precipitation, such as zinc surface, purity of zinc, percentage of lead, temperature of solutions, strength of solutions in cyanide or alkali, etc. -Little do, we hear, however, of the part that oxygen plays in precipitation. Caldecottl says: "As the dissolving of gold is essentially an oxidation process, so its precipitation is one of reduction." All who have studied or worked with cyanide solutions will agree that Caldecott's statement is true.' . In the cyanide work in the mills of the Portland Gold Mining Co., we have always found oxygen to be the greatest enemy to precipitation. Oxygen Antagonistic to Good Precipitation A few years ago, while making some experiments on the effect of pressure upon the dissolving rate of gold from our ores, to prove a point, I made some bottle tests under vacuum. The results were surprising, and showed that under vacuum practically no gold dissolved, which confirmed my belief that Elsner's equation was true and also led me to investigate the amount of dissolved air carried by solutions at atmospheric pressure. The experiment consisted in partly filling an acid-bottle with mill-solution and connecting it by a rubber hose to a vacuum pump. When the vacuum was suddenly applied, a cloud composed of thousands of small air bubbles rose out of the solution, showing qualitatvcily' the amount of dissolved air that was contained in the solution, and also proving that the relief of atmospheric pressure on the solution permitted this dissolved air to escape. In studying literature on the subject, we find Henry's law—"The amount of gas dissolved by a liquid is proportional to the pressure to which the gas is subjected."

Jan 1, 1919

E. M. Fitchett (Johnstown, Pa.)—The fact stated by the authors that: "In the laboratory, without marked efficiency decreases, the authors have deposited zinc successfully from solutions containing as high as 1 g per liter of germanium," (p. 465, paragraph 3) is most unusual. A similar statement is made in the summary and conclusions: "Germanium alone, within normal operating limits does not cause large efficiency losses." The limits are not defined. These facts are directly contrary to much of the published history on the effect of germanium in zinc electrolysis. A description of the conditions leading to such a successful electrolysis would be of interest to all engaged in the production of electrolytic zinc. It is unfortunate that the authors of this paper did not determine the actual concentration of germanium and cadmium in the solutions which they electrolyzed after a zinc dust purification. This purification will take out a variable amount of these impurities, depending upon the composition of the dust, type of agitation, presence of activating agents, etc. Probably every electrolytic zinc plant in this country has accurate methods, both wet and spectrographic, for determining germanium and cadmium. These specific methods, adopted from the standard analytical literature, are often available to educational institutions for the asking. The headings of Fig. 2 and of the two tables, with their definite concentrations of germanium and cadmium (which are not so definite according to the footnotes) could possibly be somewhat misleading, since the actual amounts of germanium and cadmium present during electrolysis are not known. Even the 1 hr electrolysis time might be too short for a study of this type; 12 or 24 hr tests might be much better. Commercial solutions have been known that gave over 90 pct ampere efficiency during the first hour of electrolysis, but no metal at all after 24 hr.

Jan 1, 1953

By C. Erb Wuensch

The Eagle mine is situated in the Kerber Creek mining district, Bonanza, Saguache County, Colo. The climate and topography of this district arc similar to those of mining camps of the Rocky Mountain region that lie 9000 to 12,000 ft. above sea level. The district is at the northeasterly edge of the San Juan volcanic region, in which successive Tertiary lavas have built up a high plateau resting upon earlier sedimentary formations, or the underlying pre-Cambrian complex. The latter was exposed in places by erosion previous to the eruptions. In the Bonanza district, proper, only volcanic formations, andesites and latites, are found. Dr. H. B. Patton,1 in his survey of the district, discriminates between several varieties of lavas and maps these as distinct flows. They are local variations within the same lava and it is impossible to determine any distinct line of demarkation between them. Structurally they are members of the same flow. There are three general types of vein occurrences: 1. Lead-zinc-copper-silver-gold veins in well-defined fissures with a quartz gangue; ill these, the various sulfides show a zonal arrangement. 2. Massive gray copper ores high in silver, in irregular fractures in the form of small lenses and pockets, in which little or no quartz is found. 3. Manganiferous quartz veins very low in silver and gold at the surface which, with depth, become important silver veins containing subordinate amounts of gold. These veins have a quartz gangue with an abundance of Phodochrosite. The silver is associated with small amounts of sphalerite, galena, and pyrite; fluorite also is present. The Eagle is the only mine that has been developed in the manganiferous quartz type of vein. It was discovered ill the fall of 1582, but little more than assessment work was done on the property for a number of

Jan 1, 1923