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By Price E. R.

The coal industry was beset with work stoppages and strikes throughout the year, and there was some loss in markets to oil and gas. These conditions, along with the mild decline in industrial activity, the steel strike, and the reduction in exports, contributed to an unfavorable year for the industry. All coal mines are working three days a week at the time of writing, and in estimating production for the year, it will be assumed that the mines will continue to work on that basis through December. Total production of bituminous coal in 1949 is estimated at 420 million tons, which is 179,518,229 tons under the production in 1948. Anthracite production is expected to reach 39,400,000 tons as compared with 57,139,948 tolls in 1948, a loss of 17,739,948 tons. Coal stocks, as of January 1, 1949, were 69,373,000 tons but at the end of the year will have dropped to approximately 22 million tons. Regardless of the difficulties during the current year, the industry has made substantial

Jan 1, 1950

By Jeremias K. Chitunda

Significant cost savings and improved ground stability are two initial indications from the current wet process shotcrete ground support program at the Lakeshore mine. The area of shotcrete for ground stability is not strange to the Lakeshore operation. Since the beginning of the project, various shotcrete techniques have constantly been experimented with, incorporating all the latest technological developments. Over the years, the use of shotcrete has been employed as a primary, temporary, or permanent support, singly or in combination with rockbolts and steel sets. The extent of shotcrete usage compared with steel sets and rockbolts has varied from time to time as dictated by the overall state of the art. In 1972, for example, the ratio of the linear drift footage supported with shotcrete to that supported with steel sets averaged 1.0. In 1973, that ratio was about 3.0. Overall, for the Lakeshore mine, there are about 8000 drift ft of shotcrete, 8000 drift ft of steel sets and timber, 750 drift ft of formed concrete, 21,000 drift ft of rockbolts, and 3700 drift ft of combined type support.

Jan 12, 1974

By H. J. French

At the request of a committee of the Engineering Division,' National Research Council, a study of the properties of boiler plate at various temperatures up to about 900' F. (482" C.) has been instigated. The following is a report of preliminary tests made on two grades of 1/2-in. plate and includes a description of the apparatus used in the determination of the proportional limit. Detailed reference to- the many published investigations in connection with the properties of steel at various temperatures will be omitted from this report. Suffice to state that results obtained for variation in tensile strength, elongation, and reduction in area with temperature are in substantial agreement with the effects now generally considered to be correct. Comparison of proportional limit values with results obtained by other investigators will be found in the conclusions. Materials Used The steels tested were $1/2-in. (12.7 mm.) open-hearth boiler plate of firebox and marine grades. The specified tensile strength and the analysis for each are shown in Table 1. In the manufacture of this material, a

Jan 1, 1922

By W. M. Corse

AS THE outstanding contribution of the Committee on Correlation of Research of the Institute of Metals Division for 1932, may be mentioned the publication of Bureau of Mines Information Circular 6637, entitled "Research Activities in the Mineral Industries of the United States." This circular was compiled by A. C. Fieldner and Alden H. Emery, members of the Committee, in cooperation with the Bureau, and comprises a285-page list of research problems reported to the Bureau as engaging the attention of the various mineral industries. To obtain this information questionnaires were sent to 106 governmental agencies, 338 trade and professional associations, 524 colleges and universities, 9 endowed research institutions, and 1847 private companies and consulting laboratories. In order that the returns should be as complete as possible, the original mailing list included names from which it was not expected much pertinent information would be obtained. However, the procedure was justified as significant returns were obtained from many of these.

Jan 1, 1933

By P. W. Guild

DURING 1956 the application of geology and related scientific disciplines to the search for new mineral deposits went forward on an ever widening front. Spurred on by record-breaking consumption of many of the established commodities and new uses for minerals and metals that were hardly known a few years ago, the profession is figuratively leaving no stone unturned in the effort to insure that adequate raw material supplies will be avail- able for the future. More money was spent and more people were engaged along more lines of research than ever before. A huge project to map much of the Canadian Shield area by photogeologic methods stands at one extreme; application of isotope ratios to ore finding stands at the other; between them the more traditional techniques are being increasingly refined. In the Fiftieth Anniversary volume of Economic Geology, published late in 1955, Alan Bateman sketches the development of fundamental concepts as recorded in the pages of the journal over the first five decades. An additional 24 review articles cover individual aspects of the field and constitute a base for further advances.

Jan 2, 1957

With a total value to date of well over $200,000.000.00 for its ore production, the Tintic mining district, which is about 100 miles southwest of Salt Lake City, ranks as one of the three main ore producing areas of Utah. In it are located the biggest silver mines of the country, silver having been the chief metal produced in the camp since its start. Tintic's silver production to date has a total value of over $1 00,000,000, approximately half of the value of the camp's ore production, the balance being roughly divided among lead, gold and copper. Discovery of the camp was made in the late sixties. Lack of transportation and ore reduction facilities delayed extensive development of the area for nearly a decade. In recent years Tintic's ore production has ranged from 350,000 to 400,000 tons annually. In 1924 the camp produced one-eighth of the silver produced in the nation with an output of 7,729,700 ounces. Its lead production was 77,765,000 pounds and its gold production 26,285 ounces.

Jan 1, 1925

By Gary E. Melickian

Last year's review was characterized as a year of politics and began an era of legislation. The 1972 review can be similarly characterized, with even more rigid health and safety regulations and environmental legislation. The mining industry should be aware of what's happening in the nuclear power and other fields as a result of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969, where the environmental impact of most major construction activities are already under close scrutiny. Section 102 of NEPA requires that all federal agencies include a detailed statement on specified environmental conditions as part of every report on proposed actions significantly affecting the quality of the human environment. All such environmental reports must consider the same general conditions: • The environmental impact of the proposed action. • Any adverse environmental effects which cannot be avoided should the proposal be implemented. • Alternatives to the proposed action. • The relationship between local short-term uses of man's environment and the maintenance and enhancement of long-term productivity. • Any irreversible and irretrievable commitments of resources which would be involved in the proposed action should it be implemented.

Jan 2, 1973

By G. H. Shefelbine

DISCOVERED during the time of the Spaniards, the Namiquipa silver-lead-zinc mines in Chihuahua, Mexico, remained idle until 1916, when mining claims were first denounced. About 1922 a Japanese company, the Santo Domingo Mining Co., was formed to mine the oxide silver ore. The company built a 75-tpd cyanide plant and mined in the area for a number of years. Because of an error in surveying in one of the company's mines situated in another district, mining was carried over into a claim owned by General Marcel Caraveo, at that time governor of Chihuahua. Santo Domingo Mining Co. lost the resulting lawsuit and consequently had no capital to continue operating at Namiquipa. Later, Ray Brown and Eugenio Caballero formed a company to operate the mine, shipping crude ore to the American Smelting and Refining Co. smelter at Avalos, Chihuahua. The cyanide plant was changed to flotation with a capacity of 75 tons per 24 hr. In 1936 the property was again closed owing to labor trouble, a drop in the price of silver, and increased water in the mine.

Jan 10, 1957

By Karl W. Mote

CALIFORNIA'S iron and steel industry had its beginning in San Francisco in 1849 when the first iron casting was poured at the old Union Iron Works. Soon after, in 1856 at Grass Valley, enough iron ore was smelted to supply pig iron for the castings of a quartz mill there. From 1880 to 1886, iron ore was produced from the Hotaling mine in Placer County and converted to pig iron in a local blast furnace using charcoal. From 1907 to 1914, the Noble Electric Steel Co. produced pig iron from iron ore mined at the Shasta Iron Co. mine, and followed this for three years in the production of ferro-alloys. Between 1917 and 1941, the State's industry in- creased its capacity for open hearth and electric furnace scrap treatment, but the real impetus was supplied by the need for more steel at the beginning of World War II. The result was the State's first integrated steel plant-the Kaiser Steel Corp. facilities at Fontana.

Jan 7, 1958

By K. L. Sehgal

Minerals are the basis of modern civilization: their exploitation and effective utilization are a yard- stick for measuring the comparative prosperity of different nations. This is particularly true in India where industrialization is just beginning to pick up speed. Production targets for our Fourth Five Year Plan (1966-71) are far ahead of the figures for, say, 1950 (the year we won independence) and show the extent of the expansion. Many problems remain to be solved, not least of which is the shortage of raw materials. India is no novice at utilizing minerals. Archaeological ruins at Harappa and at other historical places in the country show evidence of the fact that the ancient Indians not only knew the art of winning minerals from the ground over 6000 years ago-they were also well acquainted with metallurgy. Some of the present sites of mineral exploitation are the same as those our ancestors worked for many centuries.

Jan 9, 1965

By T. K. Smith

The comments contained in the discussion of the paper concerning the prediction of fracture gradients are of considerable interest, since the subject is of a very controversial and timely nature. It is regrettable and Fairhurst2 contradicts the author's statement in the third paragraph of Other Applications. These references create significant doubt that Eaton's Eq. 1 predicts fracture pressure during the injection of fluid into old wells. 3. No evidence is presented in this paper to support the author's Conclusions 2 and 3. While an empirical coefficient related to back-calculated field data is correlated with depth (Eaton's Fig. 4), there is no reason to suspect that this coefficient might be the Poisson's ratio of the various formations involved. 4. Until the field data supporting the empirical approach proposed by the author are presented and evaluated, the accuracy claimed in Conclusion 5 is without substantiation. References 1. Geertsma, J.: "Problems of Rock Mechanics in Petroleum Production Engineering", Proc., First Intl. Symposium on Rock Mechanics, Lisbon (1966) 585. 2. Haimson, B. and Fairhurst, C.: "Hydraulic Fracturing in Porous-Permeable Materials", I. Pet Tech. (July, 1969) 811-817. that the comments are those of a critic and do not offer an alternative and better method for the prediction of fracture gradients. Nevertheless, a reply is in order.

Jan 1, 1970

By Lyon F. Terry

INCREASING domestic demand for products, a sharp reduction in exports to Europe, and a rise in imports from South America were the chief features of the economic side of the industry in 1940. As the war progressed it became evident that exports to former European customers were being cut off or drastically reduced, leaving heavy inventories of products in the hands of many American refiners who had anticipated larger demands from the belligerents. Stocks of motor fuel reached burden-some proportions early in the year for the added reason that refining operations were stimulated by heavy demand for heating oils. Excessive tanker rates for Gulf to Eastern Seaboard movements during the first part of 1940 contributed to the accumulation of products on the Gulf Coast, where refinery gasoline prices were forced to extremely low levels by midyear. Tanker rates receded to normal during the summer but have since risen again to the approximate equivalent of pipe-line tariffs from the Mid-Continent.

Jan 1, 1941

By Ernest J. Stocking

ENGINEERS are the key men in our war program today. Upon the technical knowledge and skill of the engineer and upon his administrative and executive abilities rests the entire success for the production of vital materials of the war. Naturally the work load of the engineering examining unit of the U. S. Civil Service Commission has increased greatly since our active participation in the war. At present, over 550 separate requests for certification of eligibles are received by the engineering unit per week. These represent more than a fourth of the total requests received for personnel by the Commission's central office at Washington and represent a recruitment work load of three to four times that carried by the whole Commission previous to January 1940. These requests represent a minimum of a thousand vacancies to be filled each week, while an average week will produce, at present, approximately 1400 vacancies and a weekly maximum may approach well over 2000 vacancies.

Jan 1, 1942

By AIME AIME

ANDREW FLETCHER, newly elected Treasurer and Director, has spent his entire mining career in the employ of the St. Joseph Lead Co. and brings to the Institute Board a career rich in financial experience and varied in interest and accomplishment. "Drew" Fletcher was born in New York City on Feb. 6, 1895. After graduating from the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale in 1916 as a mechanical engineer, he became a shipyard mechanic in Wilmington, Del. The next thirteen years saw. him gradually enlarging his responsibilities until he ultimately became the head of the W. & A. Fletcher Co., in Hoboken, N. J., ship repairers. In 1929 his program for merging the Fletcher plant with five other New York shipyards was finally consummated in the formation of the United Dry Docks, Inc., which subsequently was purchased by Bethlehem Steel, with the result that today the old Fletcher yard and organization has been expanded into one of the finest ship repair units in the United States.

Jan 1, 1944

By E. C. Reed

Drilling activity in Nebraska during 1945 continued to decline slightly over that of the previous year. Eight tests for oil and gas were completed during the year, of which seven were wildcats and resulted in dry holes. The eighth test, an inside location in the Dawson field of Richardson County, yielded an initial production of about 3o bbl. per day with 86 per cent water from the Hunton formation. Five wells were drilling at the end of the year, two of which were wildcats. Two of the drilling wells were deepening operations in the Dawson and Falls City fields and the third was an inside location in the Falls City field, which appears likely to result in a producer. Most of the operations were in Richardson County but two wells were drilled in Dawes and Gage Counties and one each was drilling in Holt and Washington Counties at the end of the year. There were no new discoveries of oil or gas.

Jan 1, 1946

By Charles Catlett

(San Francisco Meeting, October, 1911.) WHILE the occurrence of phosphorus in coking-coal has assumed less importance with the development of the open-hearth method of steel-making, it may not be without interest to note the form in which phosphorus exists in one particular coal-seam. In the examination of what is known as the Big seam, which outcrops a few miles west of Columbiana, Ala., my attention was called to the distribution through the coal, in the form of minute veins and particles, of a resinous-looking substance. A small amount of this was selected, and was provisionally identified as evansite (Al6, P2 014. 18 Aq). Subsequently, through the courtesy of Dr. Sharshall Grasty of the Geological Department of the University of Virginia, I was able to secure an additional amount of material, which was purified down to about 0.3 g. This was examined by Prof. John J. Porter of the University of Cincinnati, and gave the following partial analysis

Nov 1, 1911

By H.A. Bedworth

AlloTs of copper and silicon have been known for one hundred years or more but the commercial development of this type of alloy has taken place during the past few years. In 1905, Sperry l proposed the use of copper-silicon alloys for springs and other purposes for which copper-tin bronzes were used. Some attention was given to this proposal at the time but no one succeeded in producing a practical alloy containing more than a fraction of a per cent. of silicon. The equilibrium relations of the copper-silicon system were studied first by Rudolfi2 and later by Sanfourche 3 and Corson. 4 The constitution of the system has also been recently investigated by Matuyama, 5 and in the laboratories of the American Brass Co. by Smith. 6 Some of the physical properties of the copper-silicon alloys have been investigated by Norbury7 and by Geiss and Van Liempt.8 Summarizing the results of various investigators of the constitution of copper-silicon alloys, the solubility reaches its maximium value, 6.7 per cent. silicon, between 721" and '782" C. At 852" (1. the solubility is 5.25 per cent., while at 400" C. it is only 4.1 per cent. silicon. The copper-silicon alloy begins to get so hard at about 3 per cent, silicon that it is difficult to manage. It was found by Jacobs that the addition of manganese to this alloy considerably improved the working

Jan 1, 1929

By H. A. Bedworth

AlloTs of copper and silicon have been known for one hundred years or more but the commercial development of this type of alloy has taken place during the past few years. In 1905, Sperry l proposed the use of copper-silicon alloys for springs and other purposes for which copper-tin bronzes were used. Some attention was given to this proposal at the time but no one succeeded in producing a practical alloy containing more than a fraction of a per cent. of silicon. The equilibrium relations of the copper-silicon system were studied first by Rudolfi2 and later by Sanfourche 3 and Corson. 4 The constitution of the system has also been recently investigated by Matuyama, 5 and in the laboratories of the American Brass Co. by Smith. 6 Some of the physical properties of the copper-silicon alloys have been investigated by Norbury7 and by Geiss and Van Liempt.8 Summarizing the results of various investigators of the constitution of copper-silicon alloys, the solubility reaches its maximium value, 6.7 per cent. silicon, between 721" and '782" C. At 852" (1. the solubility is 5.25 per cent., while at 400" C. it is only 4.1 per cent. silicon. The copper-silicon alloy begins to get so hard at about 3 per cent, silicon that it is difficult to manage. It was found by Jacobs that the addition of manganese to this alloy considerably improved the working

Jan 1, 1929

By D. R. Hay, E. Scala

STUDIES of structure-sensitive properties, especially mechanical behavior, have shown that grain and subgrain structure play an important role. The mechanical properties of tungsten, in particular, are sensitive to the nature of the intergranular structure. Substructure and dislocation networks in single-crystal and polycrystalline tungsten have been studied by Nakayama et al.' Various orders of substructure were observed ranging from a microscopic first order (grain diameter: 2 to 8 mm) to a microscopic second order (grain diameter: 50 to 300 p), and, within the latter, dislocation networks forming an even smaller order of substructure. In their single crystals, grown by arc fusion, the degree of misorientation in each order was small: 16'3OU, -11, and -10" for the first-, second-, and third-order substructure, respectively. To study the properties of polycrystalline tungsten, powder metallurgy tungsten is generally used. However, in a mechanical property investigation, the zone-melted or arc-fusion crystals are more desirable than the powder metallurgy product due to their higher purity and absence of porosity and other defects inherent in consolidation by powder metallurgy. Grain boundaries can also be produced in melted stock by working and recrystallizing. However, material with subgrain mis orientations of the order of several degrees (high-angle substructure) has not been reported previously and is the subject of this communication. Crystals were grown by electron-beam, floating-zone melting. The starting material, Sylvania Pure-tung welding rod, was given one zone pass at a traversal rate of -2 mm per min. Through control of the zone temperature, it was possible to influence the degree of crystal perfection. By maintaining the zone at a high degree of superheat, high-perfection crystals could be grown. However, at temperatures only slightly above the melting point, the zone-melted crystals contained a high-angle substructure. A sensitive control of the zone temperature was not possible due to the difficulty of estimating the temperature of the zone and of providing a constant supply of power to the sample. Therefore, an empirical method, using the shape of the molten zone as a criterion, was adopted as an indication of temperature. At high degrees of superheat, the surface tension of the molten zone decreases and a neck forms at the top of the zone, whereas at low zone temperatures the diameter of the zone remains reasonably uniform. Although it was not possible to obtain a continuous variation of misfit angle, the conditions could be directed toward the growth of either high- or low-angle substructure by maintaining only a slight neck in the zone (sufficient to establish that it was molten) or a well-necked zone, respectively. Mass spectrographic analyses of both types of material revealed no significant differences in the concentrations of their impurities. The degree of misorientation at high angles was obtained by measuring the angular spread of spots corresponding to a single reflection on a Laue back-reflection photograph. Fig. 1 shows a typical Laue back-reflection photograph of a crystal with a 3-deg spread. By measuring the angular deviation of the spots corresponding to a single reflection from the mean center of the spots around which constant angular deviation contours were drawn, an average angular spread of misfit could be calculated. The angular average was weighted by the number of spots observed in each angular interval. At angles greater than 5 to 6 deg the spots from different reflections begin to overlap, and cannot be associated with a particular reflection. Laue back-reflection photographs taken at different locations on samples .with approximately 3-deg spreads showed only a small difference in angular misorientation, less than 8' of arc, within individual specimens. The microstructure was examined using Berg-Barrett X-ray extinction contrast microscopy. Berg-Barrett photographs taken directly on the as-grown surface, Fig. 2, show an essentially equiaxed subgrain structure of -0.1 mm in average grain diameter in both high- and low-angle crystals. Fig. 2(a) is a photograph of a sample with a low misfit angle and Fig.

Jan 1, 1968

By A. M. Gaudin, J. G. Morrow

FLOTATION requires the existence of a definite contact angle. This contact angle, the surface tension of the solution, and adsorption at the solid-fluid interface are quantitatively related. Adsorption of dodecylammonium acetate on hematite was measured for a wide range of concentrations of reagent in solution. Similar measurements for quartz have already been made. Contact angle measurements were then made on polished surfaces of hematite and of quartz immersed in aqueous dodecylammonium acetate solutions, and a functional relationship was sought between adsorption density at the mineral-solution interface and the contact angle. Finally, the surface tension of the aqueous amine acetate solutions was measured. These data were combined to give an evaluation of the work of adhesion for the three-phase system. Specular hematite was crushed and then ground dry in a laboratory porcelain mill, with flint pebbles, to pass a 200-mesh screen. The ground product was sized in a Haultain infrasizer, and one of the granular sizes (cone No. 3) was used in all adsorption tests. A hand magnet was used to remove magnetite and abraded iron. Quartz was removed in a Frantz isodynamic magnetic separator. The purified hematite was leached in aqua regia, washed with distilled water until the washings appeared free of electrolyte by conductance measurement, dried in a low-temperature oven, and stored in a pyrex container. The specific surface of the closely sized hematite was determined by the krypton gas adsorption method.' Three measurements gave an average value of 1350 sq cm per g. Chemical analysis showed Fe -69.37 pct, insol = 0.72 pct. The quartz used in the flotation tests had been prepared by Chang" for an earlier investigation. Demineralized distilled water was used for all test solutions. Dissolved salt content was of the order of 0.03 ppm, expressed in terms of sodium chloride, as estimated from conductance measurements. Dodecylammonium acetate was obtained from Armour & CO. in two forms, the unmarked compound and a preparation marked by carbon 14 in the hydrocarbon chain of the aminium ion. Specific activity of the active salt was 0.134 millicurie per g. The important physico-chemical constants for the primary amine salt have been reviewed by de Bruyn. The calculated effect of hydrolysis of amine salt on pH of aqueous solutions and the effect of pH on the distribution ratio of the alkylammonium ion to free amine are of particular interest. All other chemicals used in this investigation were of analytical reagent grade. A column method' was used for adsorption work. Attainment of equilibrium distribution in the adsorption column depends on the solid-solution contact time, hence upon the volume of solution passed. It was assumed that contact time required for equilibrium would be a maximum for the lowest reagent concentrations. On this premise it was demonstrated experimentally that the passage of 500 ml of solution through the mineral bed was adequate. An aliquot (1 to 5 cc) of the solution to be analyzed was transferred to a small pyrex cup and allowed to evaporate to dryness at room temperature; 4 or 5 mg of unmarked amine acetate were added to the dried sample and the cup and its contents were transferred to the combustion system for analysis. Evaporation at room temperature must be emphasized, as even slightly elevated temperatures result in loss of reagent. A laboratory model G Beckman pH meter equipped with a glass electrode was used to measure pH of amine acetate solutions. The technique of internal gas counting of radioactive carbon dioxide in a Geiger-Muller counter was used. Developed originally by Brown and Miller,- his method was adapted to the analysis of carbon-14 marked flotation reagents by Chang, de Bruyn, and Bloecher. nalytica1 method and procedures have been described in detail by Bloecher.' Contact angles were measured by the captive-bubble technique." The mineral specimens were carefully selected to avoid cracks and inclusions of other minerals. All specimens were mounted in plastic and polished to produce a smooth surface. The final polishing and contact-angle measuring

Jan 1, 1955