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By F. S. Knoll

The expanding role of electrostatics as applied to minerals and related fields is covered in this paper. New and existing forms of electrostatic separation are classified into two broad groups: separation of charged particles and separation of neutral particles. The basis for each form of separation is discussed along with particle examples and results obtained.

Jan 1, 1986

By C. A. Hartnagel

The production of petroleum in New York state in 1942 amounted to 5,410,000 bbl. This represents an increase over each of the four preceding years, and, with the exception of 1937, is the largest production since the peak of over six million barrels in 1882, shortly after the discovery of oil in Allegany County. The oil industry in New York is virtually stabilized and there has been little or no exploration for new sources of supply in recent years. The boundaries of the present fields were established more than 30 years ago and since then no additional reserves have been found. Deep drilling for natural gas during the past 10 years both within and without the oil fields has failed to find oil in quantity below the present producing sands of Devonian age. Oil Since 1882, the New York fields have produced approximately 140 million barrels of oil. Of this amount, 65 million was produced up to the year 1919 by ordinary pumping methods; that is, without flooding by water or the use of other secondary-recovery methods. In the year 1919, when a law was passed making the use of water-flooding methods legal, the oil production, of the state amounted to only 851,000 bbl. In the 23 years since 1919, there have been produced in the state 75 million barrels, or 10 million more than in the previous 37 years, which included the period of flush production. Price.—On March 26, the price of crude oil was raised from $2.75 to $3.00 per barrel, hut this increase had little or no effect on the number of wells drilled. In the Allegany field, which accounts for three fourths of the state's oil production, 1259 wells were completed in 1942, 7 less than in 1941. The smaller number of wells drilled was not only due to the shortage of labor but also was caused by the fact that in water-flooding territory a definite program for drilling wells is followed, and the flush period of an oil well is not usually reached in time to profit by any given price increase. Daily Production.—All of the oil wells in New York state, some 21,000 in number, are small producers. The average daily oil production is 7/10 bbl. per well. Under good flooding conditions, a maximum production of 5 to 8 bbl, a day is reached about one year after the flood begins to act on the well. In 5 years the daily production usually is less than one barrel. Although most of the oil in New York is produced by flooding, an estimated 2500 old wells produce without flooding. Some of these produce as little as 1/20 bbl. a day and are pumped only at intervals. The small producing Wells are mostly on lands leased to the larger oil companies and later will be included in a flooding program. At present, they are pumped only because the owners of the land insist on the royalty. Government Aid Needed.—Because of its good lubricating qualities, New York oil is one of those for which there is an insistent and growing demand, but even at its present price of $3.00 per barrel, many of the operators are producing at a loss.

Jan 1, 1943

By C. A. Hartnagel

The production of petroleum in New York state in 1942 amounted to 5,410,000 bbl. This represents an increase over each of the four preceding years, and, with the exception of 1937, is the largest production since the peak of over six million barrels in 1882, shortly after the discovery of oil in Allegany County. The oil industry in New York is virtually stabilized and there has been little or no exploration for new sources of supply in recent years. The boundaries of the present fields were established more than 30 years ago and since then no additional reserves have been found. Deep drilling for natural gas during the past 10 years both within and without the oil fields has failed to find oil in quantity below the present producing sands of Devonian age. Oil Since 1882, the New York fields have produced approximately 140 million barrels of oil. Of this amount, 65 million was produced up to the year 1919 by ordinary pumping methods; that is, without flooding by water or the use of other secondary-recovery methods. In the year 1919, when a law was passed making the use of water-flooding methods legal, the oil production, of the state amounted to only 851,000 bbl. In the 23 years since 1919, there have been produced in the state 75 million barrels, or 10 million more than in the previous 37 years, which included the period of flush production. Price.—On March 26, the price of crude oil was raised from $2.75 to $3.00 per barrel, hut this increase had little or no effect on the number of wells drilled. In the Allegany field, which accounts for three fourths of the state's oil production, 1259 wells were completed in 1942, 7 less than in 1941. The smaller number of wells drilled was not only due to the shortage of labor but also was caused by the fact that in water-flooding territory a definite program for drilling wells is followed, and the flush period of an oil well is not usually reached in time to profit by any given price increase. Daily Production.—All of the oil wells in New York state, some 21,000 in number, are small producers. The average daily oil production is 7/10 bbl. per well. Under good flooding conditions, a maximum production of 5 to 8 bbl, a day is reached about one year after the flood begins to act on the well. In 5 years the daily production usually is less than one barrel. Although most of the oil in New York is produced by flooding, an estimated 2500 old wells produce without flooding. Some of these produce as little as 1/20 bbl. a day and are pumped only at intervals. The small producing Wells are mostly on lands leased to the larger oil companies and later will be included in a flooding program. At present, they are pumped only because the owners of the land insist on the royalty. Government Aid Needed.—Because of its good lubricating qualities, New York oil is one of those for which there is an insistent and growing demand, but even at its present price of $3.00 per barrel, many of the operators are producing at a loss.

Jan 1, 1943

In May 1952, a total grant of $750 was made for the establishment of a scholar- ship in petroleum engineering for the academic year of 1952-1953, to be ad- ministered by AIME and to be known as the AIME-Socony-Vacuum Scholarship in Petroleum Engineering It will be given In the general field of petroleum engineering The scholar selected must be an undergraduate who is expected to complete academic work during the period of the award In other words, upon completion of the award period, the recipient is expected to be ready to enter industry The establishment of this Scholarship and the selection of the Scholar there under will Impose no ob1igation upon the Scholar or upon Socony- Vacuum with respect to employment The Scholarship is being administered by the Mineral Industry Education Division of the AIME

Jan 1, 1952

By Colin Fink

THE important developments within the past few years in electrochemistry, in particular in the electric furnace art, in electrometallurgy and in the methods of combatting corrosion are to be the subjects of my discussion. Fig.1 shows the rise of the electric steel furnace industry in this country and Canada. Many prophesied that the electric furnace was largely a war baby and that the sudden rise in the industry, due to the outbreak of the great war, would be fol-lowed by an equally sudden drop after the armistice. However, the curve shows that this, prophecy was not correct; the number of furnaces in operation in this country and Canada has continued to increase steadily, so that at the end of 1925 there were over 525 electric steel furnaces in successful operation. What does this mean? It has a big significance, namely that the en-tire steel industry has been revolutionized, to a certain extent, that we have been able to introduce certain alloys and steel products that we were unable to pro-duce before. On the table is. a sample of metallic chro-mium, analyzing more than 98 per cent chromium, made in the electric furnace. Before the war, the only commercial method of producing chromium was that by the Goldschmidt process. If chromium oxide is mixed with granulated aluminum, a violent reaction occurs, resulting in the production of metallic chro-mium. However, the price of chromium so made will always be above that of the raw material, which at the present time is about 27 cents a pound.. Furthermore, the chromium metal could only be turned out in small quantities, whereas in the electric furnace, large quan-tities, ton masses, can be produced today. The advent of chromium produced in the electric furnace has brought about an entire new phase in the alloy indus-try. The fuel-fired furnaces can turn out a low-carbon chromium steel that runs about 3 per cent chromium, whereas in the electric furnace, 60 per cent ferro-chromium is daily produced in large masses with almost entire elimination of carbon. It is difficult indeed to turn out ferrochrome very low in carbon. New steels are being produced today, for example the steel with which everyone has become familiar within the 'last few years, "stainless steel,". and which would have been impossible without the low-carbon ferrochrome. The elimination of most of the carbon made it possible to roll the chromium steels into thin sheets and manu-facture them into knife blades.

Jan 2, 1927

By Charles Meyer

The year 1955 was a busy one for mining geologists, for the expanding world-wide business activity kept the demand for mining products generally high, stimulating operators to develop local ore reserves and to expand their efforts to find new deposits. The uranium rush was still on, although probably past its maximum rate of climb. Prospecting was also stimulated by the increasing demand for rare metals, and this created new and fascinating targets for exploration. On the whole, it was a boom year when the prospector's chronic optimism found few repressions.

Feb 1, 1956

By G. Lavagnino

The old Telegraph mine lies on both sides of Bear gulch, a short branch of Upper Bingham canon, and nearly in the center of the group of mines called the Bingham Mines, about twenty-seven miles southwest of Salt Lake City. It is considered, by local miners as the most important mine of the district. The geological formation consists of Weber quartzites, with subordinate conformable limestones and shales, alternating with porphyritic rocks. These widen towards and connect with the massive backbone of the Oquirrh mountains, while the quartzite develops itself on the slope broken through by Bingham canon. The porphyry not only runs between the strata, but also cuts across them, isolating large portions near the mountain mass, and again on a smaller scale it penetrates some joints in the quartzite. It is a crystalline felspathic rock, containing variable proportions of quartz, mica, hornblende, chlorite, and iron pyrites as accessories. In places, it takes a less distinct or almost uniform fine-grained structure. It has a gray or greenish, and, when much altered, also a reddish or even white color. The quartzite is a fine-grained or almost compact grayish-white or bluish or reddish quartz-rock, containing in places fine scales of mica and grains of iron pyrites as accessories. The raised, folded, or broken masses show well-defined bedding-joints, and their general dip is 35 to 50 degrees towards north or northwest. In the porphyry occur metalliferous veins with a prevailing N.E.S.W. strike. These are in general narrow veins; their principal contents are not dissimilar from those of the other deposits; but there is considerably less oxidation near the surface and the ore is mostly richer in silver and gold. In the quartzite the ore-deposits generally occur on the joints of bedding. The more important deposits occur either in clearlydefined contact-veins or, more often, in somewhat vaguely-defined mineralized zones, that could be called contact-zones. These comprise several masses of more or less altered or decomposed rocks and the newly-distributed products of their mechanical and chemical decomposition, such as breccia and clay in seams or in more irregular bodies..

Jan 1, 1888

By I. Havenaar

EXPERIMENTAL DATA In an article by C. K. Ferguson and J. A. Klotz,1 experiments on the filtration of drilling muds under borehole conditions are discussed. Experimental data on mud filtration through the wall and the bottom of the hole are presented. From the data on bottom-hole filtration it was concluded that the filtrate does not flow freely into the formation, but that the pores of the formation are plugged by the mud. A quantitative interpretation of the data can be civen, by using a formula for bottom-hole filtration, dehved below. This formula is based on the following assumptions, 1. Each time a blade of a drag bit, or a cone of a roller bit, moves along the bottom of the hole, the mud cake is completely removed. 3. A new mud cake is immediately formed on the freshly produced surface, and losses of "whole" mud into the formation are negligible (this is equivalent to an immediate plugging of the pores). 3. The filtration of the mud on the bottom of the hole follows the classic law: V = A +1—(Eq. I), where t is the time required to yield a volume of filtrate V, A is the surface area of filter cake, and C is a constant. The application of this equation means that any eroding effect of the mud stream on the mud cake is neglected. The formula for the calculation of the volume of filtrate, Q,, flowing in one second through the hole bottom (diam. d cm), when using a bit with n cones or blades rotating at a rate of rn revolutions per second, is derived as follows: The mud cake is formed on the bottom of the hole in the time t =1; the filtrate volume V which passes n through the bottom In this time 1s given by Eq. 1: After1/nmsec the mud cake is removed. In one m second this process takes place nm times. Therefore the volume of filtrate, obtained in one second is given by This equation has now been applied to the experiments of Ferguson and Klotz. The constants C were derived by means of Eq. 1 from the API filter losses of the muds used by the authors (t = 1,800 sec; A = 45.16cm2). A three-cone bit was used (n = 3) at 90 rpm (m = 1.5). The calculated figures are compared with the experimental data in the table below. The calculated values of Q, are usually lower than the experimental values. This may be due to the following causes. 1. The value of C used in the calculation is based on the API filter test (filtration pressure of 100 psi), whereas the experimental data were obtained with a filtration pressure of 200 psi. Although the effect of the pressure on C is not large, C decreases somewhat with increasing pressure, and this leads to a higher filtration rate. 2. Mud losses and the eroding action of the mud stream on the cake are not entirely negligible. 3. The values of Q, derived by Ferguson and Klotz from their experiments are too high, because of their assumption that all pore liquid within the formation drilled is picked up by the drilling mud. It is found, however, that the calculated values of Qf, except in the case of oil base muds, are of the right order of magnitude. ACKNOWLEDGMENT The author wishes to thank the management of the Koninklijke/Shell-Laboratorium, Amsterdam, for permission to publish this note.

Jan 1, 1957

By Joseph Hodgson

Introduction SINCE about 70 per cent. of the total cost of mining is due to underground work which is out of sight, it is essential that expenditures should be made here to the best advantage. A great many mistakes have been made which were expensive, but perhaps these have not even been detected by mine owners. In the future these may be minimized to some extent, especially if there is cooperative effort on the part of each employee. I have been interested in this subject for some years and have tried to deduce principles and methods. These have proved highly advantageous and may also be of help to others. Some corporations, like the United States Steel, and the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Co., have done a great deal in this field by having stated meetings of their organizations, with the view to interchanging ideas among their men and educating them along the lines of concerted effort. Since no man knows all about the various branches of mining, it is advisable that frequent meetings of the operating department be held for the interchange of ideas and that all members of the organization have an opportunity to express themselves on the various subjects. It has often been found that in discussions between heads of departments, foremen and bosses, many valuable suggestions may be obtained which promote the best interests of the company. The method regarded as the most conducive to cooperative effort, and pursued by the organization, is to analyze and develope the different phases of various mining subjects at regular meetings.

Jan 5, 1916

It is too late to gloat over the fact that minerals have furnished 67 per cent of the primary wealth of Pennsylvania. It is high time that Pennsylvanians do some constructive thinking in terms of the present and future with regard to the remaining mineral heritage.1 The discovery of a deposit of pyrophyllite in the South Mountain region of the Cumberland Valley indeed emphasizes the increased importance of a more exact inventory of the metal and mineral resources of Pennsylvania. Active geological work and research have been in progress for many years, but the surface has been little more than scratched. The results obtained thus far in survey and research have been extremely beneficial to the Commonwealth and a fundamental hub of its industrial development. But these activities are wholly inadequate in the face of rising demands for the future. The need for an accelerated program to continue a study of Pennsylvania's mineral resources on a more intensive scale was never more acute.2 In part, this has been caused by the insatiable demands of industry. It has been caused also by wasteful use and ignorance.

Jan 1, 1950

Some early production records of the early companies operating in the Deep River field are said to be still in existence, but the writer has been unable to find them. (Table 63.) [ ]

Jan 1, 1942

Very few data are available about production in this county. The amount mined was used locally, or shipped by river, until 1839 when the canal was completed to Dunnsburg. Only partial records for four years remain of canal shipments. Considerable coal was used locally by the iron works at Farrandsville for some years. Rail shipments started in 1861 and those shown are the estimated shipments of these mines as compared with the mines in other counties served by the Philadelphia and Erie Railroad, the total tonnages being given in the annual reports to the Auditor General. It is not likely that any coal used by the railroad is included in these figures. (Table 40.)

Jan 1, 1942

South Dakota produced very little coal in the period discussed, and little prior to 1883. The first record of the use of coal mined in the state was in 1874, and the tonnages in Table 74 are estimated. [ ]

Jan 1, 1942

By T. H. Janes

NATURAL abrasives of some type are found in all countries of the world. In order of their hardness the principal natural abrasives are diamond, corundum, emery, and garnet, which are termed high grade, and the various forms of silica, including pumice, pumicite, ground feldspar, china clay and, most important, sandstone. The properties qualifying materials for use as abrasives are hardness, toughness, grain shape and size, character of fracture, and purity or uniformity. For manufacture of bonded grain abrasives such as grinding wheels, the stability of the abrasive and its bonding characteristics are also important. No single property is paramount for all uses. Extreme hardness and toughness are needed for some applications, as in diamonds for drill bits, while for other purposes the capacity of the abrasive to break down slowly under use and to develop fresh cutting edges is of greatest importance, as with garnet for sandpaper. In dentifrices, soaps, and metal polishes, of course, hardness and toughness are objectionable.

Jan 10, 1954

While coal was mined in New Mexico in 1860, production was on a small scale during the period considered here, and Table 77 contains all the data found. [ ]

Jan 1, 1942

By C. W. Ryan

THIS paper contains a brief sketch of the geology of soapstone in the Piedmont section of Virginia, in the southern portion of Nelson County; also a description of methods of prospecting, developing quarries, quarrying and and milling methods in that section. The paper is intended for those who have little information regarding soapstone; undoubtedly men of practical experience will find many points for criticism.

Jan 1, 1929

By Walter Crafts

STRUCTURAL steels containing chromium have become widely used in the last 20 years. In the earlier part of this period the major applications were in chromium-molybdenum aircraft tubing and similar special high-strength steels. During the past 10 years there has been a notable expansion in the use of chromium-bearing steel for structural purposes when welding was utilized for fabrication. The chromium-bearing steels introduced by Saklatwalla1 (chromium-copper), Kinzel2 (chromium-manganese-silicon), and Schultz3 (chromium-copper) are being extensively used at the present time.

Jan 1, 1939

By Gilbert H. Cody

The present article calls attention to the activities of a committee on coal research of the sister society of Economic Geologists. The field of coal geology crosses the boundary between the two societies and joint meetings are as applicable here as in the metallic and other nonfuel fields of mining and natural resources recovery. The six fields of coal geology are briefly described and some of the ways in which they touch on coal mining, preparation, and recovery briefly indicated.

Jan 2, 1950

By William Kent

DURING the discussions at the Philadelphia meeting in February last, † several speakers expressed their doubts of the general accuracy of chemical analyses of steel made by "iron works chemists," and especially of determinations of manganese. Since the meeting,. the discussion of the "practical value of chemical analyses" has been continued at some length in the columns of the Iron Age. †Transactions, vol. ix, p. 529.

Jan 1, 1882

By Thomas S. Carnahan

UNION MINIERE D HAUT-KATAIGA operates a group of mines and metallurgical works in the Katanga province of the Belgian Congo. It is especially prominent as a copper producer, but its output of accessory metals, such as cobalt, radium, silver, tin and gold have been considerable. The Belgian Congo covers 920,000 sq. mi. of central Africa, with a native population of about 8,500,000. In addition, Belgium controls by mandate the districts of Ruanda-Urundi (formerly a part of German East Africa) with an area of some 20,000 sq. mi. and a population of about 3,500,000 natives. Most of the native population of the Belgian Congo is found on the wide fertile plains of the great rivers, living under primitive conditions in a tropical climate, where it has survived throughout the centuries in spite of tropical diseases and intertribal wars. In more recent times, especially during the last two centuries, 'the natives have been subjected to frequent raids by the slave traders, which made their existence even more precarious, and if continued much longer would probably have resulted in their complete extermination.

Jan 1, 1932