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By Daniel L. Murphy

The iron ore province of Quebec and Baffin Island trends from the southern shore of Baffin Island northeasterly through the Labrador Trough to Matonipi Lake, approximately 185 miles northwest of Seven Islands, but future geologic field studies will very likely extend the limits of the province to include the ferruginous and associated rocks of the Lake Mistassini area. Recent improvements in the beneficiation of low-grade iron ore have stimulated widespread exploration for deposits amenable to concentration, particularly along the southwest extension of the Trough. GENERAL LITHOLOGY Pleistocene and recent deposits of clay, sand, gravel and erratic boulders cover roughly 60% of the land surface. All of the bedrock is of Precambrian age (Table I). Paragneisses and paraschists together with metasedimentary iron-formation, marble and quartzite are abundant and, for the most part, appear to be metamorphic equivalents of the relatively unmetamorphosed rocks of the Labrador Trough to the north beyond the "Grenville Front." Bodies of amphibolite are widely scattered. A large portion of the metamorphic rock shows some degree of permeation by granite material as well as alteration by hydrothermal solutions. The youngest bedrock consists of a complex containing slightly altered ultramafic to monozonitic intrusives.

Jan 9, 1962

By A. W. Fahrenwald

THE function of the classifier in modern fine-grinding practice is to remove a finished product from the grinding-mill discharge, leaving material that needs further comminution. The classifier, therefore, makes two products: (1) "finished" product, which overflows the rim of the classifier tank, sometimes referred to as "slimes" or as "classifier overflow," and (2) "unfinished" product, which settles to the sloping bottom of the classifier tank and is removed by dragging or raking. This product is generally referred tows "sands" or "oversize." One of the outstanding features of the closed-circuit classifier is its ability automatically to return the unfinished product of the ball-mill discharge to the feed end or scoop box of the ball mill. This is a distinct advantage because it avoids dilution of the ball-mill feed, and, furthermore, the particular method of removing the settled sand, by raking it up the inclined bottom of the classifier, gives a classifier discharge containing a minimum of water. This leads to maximum classifier efficiency, in this type of classifier, because the maximum volume of water is displaced upward by the settling sands. The closed-circuit classifier is required to deliver a finished pulp of closely specified density requirements, therefore added hydraulic water generally is not permitted.

Jan 1, 1930

By Shiou-Chuan Sun

THE presence of an excessive amount of tough froth in the flotation of minerals, particularly coals, may create trouble in dewatering, filtering, and handling. Froth is also a nuisance in many chemical industries.1 This paper presents a study on the destruction of extremely tough froths with intense high-frequency sound. The data indicate that sound waves can be employed for continuous and instantaneous defrothing. A powerful high-frequency siren was used in obtaining the data. Also tested was an ultrasonorator of the crystal type with a frequency range of 400, 700, 1000, and 1500 kc per sec and a maximum power output from its amplifier of 198 w. The results, not presented, indicate that as now designed this machine is not suitable for defrothing. Although the sound generators of the magnetostriction type 2 3 and of the electromagnetic type 4 5 were not available, it is believed they are capable of producing the required sound intensity for defrothing. The use of ultrasonics for defrothing was suggested by Ross and McBain 1 in 1944. Ramsey 6 reported in 1948 that E. H. Rose mentioned a super-sonic device that broke down flotation froth but with low capacity. The writer has not been able to find any published literature containing practical experiments.

Jan 10, 1951

By M. F. McCarty, R. S. Olson

New organic flocculants of high-molecular weight are replacing lime, glue, and starch in liquid-solid separation. Of these synthetic materials, poly-acrylamides are outstanding. Polyacrylamides form a class of compounds varying widely in composition and activity. Separan 2610, one of the first of these flocculants' released to the mining industry in 1954, is described' as a high-molecular weight polymer of acrylamide with or without a copolymer material and with some replacement of amide by carboxylic groups. MECHANISM OF FLOCCULATION In practice, flocculation makes solids settle faster and filter better. But two opposing factors control it. The random motion that causes particles to collide favors Van der Waals' forces, which hold the particles together. The effect of zeta potential opposes this contact, and particles are mutually repelled. Flocculation can be achieved by reducing the magnitude of the zeta potential; this is the mechanism of flocculation by lime addition. The way in which polyacrylamides accomplish flocculation is not fully understood, but the action is undoubtedly comp1ex and probably varies considerably depending on the system. To begin with, the active groups of these compounds have an extremely high affinity for solid surfaces, probably by hydrogen bonding." Initially some active groups of the molecule attach themselves to the solids with a large portion of the molecule extending into the solution. Two particles can become tied together by long flocculant molecules in the following ways—by bonding between the active groups of two flocculant molecules on different particles, or by an extended molecule from one particle attaching itself directly to the surface of the other particles." These flocculant bridges prevent the particles from moving apart through random motion, but when such motion moves them together other active groups on the flocculant bridge bond to the solids, holding them in the closer position. This process is repeated until the particles are close together. Although bridging is probably a major flocculation mechanism, it is not the only phenomenon involved. Relatively neutral acrylamide flocculants reduce the magnitude of the zeta potential by increasing the viscosity of solution in the immediate vicinity of the solid surface which contains the mobile counter ions of the double layer. In other words, it moves the shear surface which bounds the zeta potential out into the solution containing counter ions which tend to neutralize the zeta potential. This effect is probably more pronounced during the initial adsorption period, before the flocculant molecules are pulled close to the solid. In some cases the slight charge of the polyacry-lamide molecule tends to neutralize a zeta potential. However, this is not a primary flocculation mechanism, as evidenced by the fact that the polyacrylamides will flocculate solids with either positive or negative zeta potential. Adsorption of polyacrylamide flocculants by a solid is substantially an irreversible reaction. Since the flocculant molecule is attached to the particle surface by many active groups of high bonding strength, desorption would require the simultaneous breaking of many bonds—an unlikely occurrence. UNIQUE PROPERTIES The irreversible adsorption of certain polyacrylamides, the flocculant's high affinity for solid surfaces and its rapid adsorption make it effective, but these unique properties require special techniques to achieve maximum flocculation. If flocculants of this type are added to a pulp as a relatively concentrated solution, the solids in the

Jan 1, 1960

By Shiou-Chuan Sun

Most previous work on sedimentation of coal1 and mineral2,3 suspensions has been conducted in graduated 1-liter glass cylinders of 6-cm diam. With this type of large container it is often difficult to see through the suspension and tedious to perform a large number of tests. Furthermore, the heavy glass walls and the graduation lines of glass cylinders cause internal and stray reflections, respectively. To obviate these difficulties, an Atlab Emulsion Viewer from Arthur H. Thomas Co. was adopted as an alternative apparatus. Equipment: The viewer,4 shown in Fig. 1, consists of: 1) a stainless steel frame rack holding 21 flat-bottom Nessler tubes or an ungraduated replica 1.64 cm ID and 1.80 cm OD, 2) a movable masked 150-w lumaline lamp behind the tubes, and 3) a scaled glass panel with 100 vertical divisions in front of the tubes. The tubes are snugly held by springs in slots formed by spacer bars, which also serve as shields to eliminate stray light. The lumaline lamp is mounted behind a slit in a movable housing so that it can be positioned behind the suspension to be examined. The lowest or 100-division line on the front glass plate is leveled with the upper side of the bottom of all tubes. The scaled portion of each tube, roughly 19 cm high and 40 ml in volume, is used to study coal and mineral suspensions.

Jan 1, 1959

By David White

THE environmental conditions under which coals are deposited are revealed by the stratigraphy of the coal basins and coal beds and by the details of the structure and the physical constitution of the coals themselves. THE LAND SURFACE Generally Low Relief or Base Level In the Paleozoic coal fields, which have longest been worked, are most important, and are best known, we find relations, in general, as follows A post-Mississippian uplift with, in most cases, very moderate deformation, followed by erosion by which the uplifted regions, especially the bolder of the new topography, were largely worn down, while the older and less deformed regions were more or less extensively base leveled. Base leveling of most of the region continued as the deposition of coal measures proceeded. Consequently, in most coal fields the Pennsylvanian, or upper Carboniferous, lies unconformably on the Mississippian or on older formations. There are but few regions in which sedimentation is seen to have been apparently continuous from the Mississippian into the Pennsylvanian ("Coal Measures").

Jan 1, 1925

By R. O. Scattergood, P. Beardmore, M. B. Bever

THE stored energy and microhardness of a Au-Ag alloy deformed by explosive loading were measured previously as functions of shock pressure' and compared with corresponding data for drawn wires.' The difference of the two processes has been explored further by investigating the annealing behavior of explosively loaded specimens and drawn wires. Sheet specimens, 0.042 in. thick, of a Au-Ag alloy containing 82.6 wt pct Au were explosively loaded in stacks of four.3 Wires prepared from the same melt of alloy were drawn through dies.' The annealing kinetics were determined by microhardness measurements on separate specimens for each annealing temperature and time. Several values of the stored energy were measured by tin-solution calorimetry Experimental details are given elsewhere. Wires were drawn until the microhardness or stored energy equalled the corresponding values of the explosively loaded specimens as nearly as possible. Wire drawn to a true strain 7 of 0.09 had approximately the same hardness and stored energy as specimens explosively loaded to a shock pressure of 70 kbar. The microhardness of specimens

Jan 1, 1963

By James P. Graham

In this paper the authors present the background information to preheating and its development and describe the facilities available at the British Carbonization Research Association. The results obtained at BCRA including those collected during commissioning of the new plant at BCRA are summarized and reference is made to the research work planned for the next stage. The enlarged test-plant facilities at the British Carbonization Research Association embrace both 10-t (4.2 m high) and 17-t (6.5 m high) test ovens and two types of preheater, the preheated coal being charged by either gravity or pipeline. During the commissioning of the new equipment, an extensive programme on preheating was initiated and the paper includes the results obtained so far. These cover tests on wet and preheated coals and commercial blends, the use of Rosin- and Cerchar-type preheaters and charging by both gravity and pipeline systems to the 10-t and 17-t ovens. Accordingly, for the first time a direct comparison is possible of both the performances of the plants and the qualities of the respective products. The paper also outlines the findings from a study of the carryover of solids during the charging of preheated coal and of the treatment of those solids.

Jan 1, 1977

By W. B. Mather

GEOLOGICAL studies have revealed the occurrence of hundreds of pegmatite dikes in north- east Brazil, Fig. 1, in the three states of Rio Grande do Norte, Paraiba, and Ceara. Heretofore data have not been available on the possible production of lithium minerals from these areas, and in March, April, and May 1953 the author undertook a reconnaissance survey covering a cross-section of the pegmatites. Sixty-one pegmatites were examined. The pegmatites of Rio Grande do Norte and Paraiba are located in an arid region (Seratao), and except in the most southerly portion there is a mini- mum of vegetation and overburden. The region is easily prospected and relatively accessible by jeep or truck. The pegmatites examined in Ceara are in an area of lush vegetation along the flanks of the Jaqueribe River valley. It is therefore more difficult to prospect, and the dirt roads, as a means of access, leave much to be desired. For all practical purposes rail transportation, except in Ceara, is not available. The rocks of the area1-4 are composed of Pre-Cambrian schist, gneiss, quartzite, and marbles. They have been intruded by granites, monzonites, and diorites and cut by quartz veins and pegmatites.

Jan 9, 1954

By E. D. Gardner

APPARENTLY the widespread agitation for the codification of our mining laws has had its effect, and it is quite possible that Congress will take up the question during this present session. The greatest objection to our present statutes pertaining to metalliferous deposits seems to be directed against the law of the apex. Those who are not in favor of changing this law are very far in the minority and they apparently realize that it is useless to urge its retention. Next in importance to the repeal of the law of the apex, seems to be a widespread advocacy for the repeal of the law requiring discovery of mineral before a valid location of a mining claim can be made. To a lesser extent there appears to be a desire to have the law changed so as to allow patent for claims without mineral discoveries. The purpose of this article is to review the arguments in favor of the proposed change of the discovery requirement, to show some of the evils that may be expected to result therefrom, and to consider whether a system may be devised to correct the undesirable features of the present law in this respect and at the same time not expose the mining fraternity and the general public to the evils which would result from the repeal of this fundamental requirement. Under the law as at present framed, the validity of a mining location is dependent upon the fact of discovery of mineral within the boundaries of the land claimed.

Jan 9, 1916

By Louis A. Mattson, Winthrop A. Rowe, John T. Cumberlidge, Victor M. Mejia

The parent ultramafic of Nickel Mountain is an alpine-peri-dotite. Compositional layering and late stage dunites suggest the intrusive crystallized in the upper mantle or lower crust. The ultramafic mass was fault emplaced in the upper crust, probably during upper Jurassic time. Soil, saprolite and silica boxwork nickeliferous ores were formed over the Nickel Mountain peridotite during the development and later destruction of the Klamath peneplane. A complex fault pattern was produced by irregular gravity displacements along fault surfaces during the relative uplift of Nickel Mountain. The majority of the ores occur in the fractured hanging wall of these gravity faults. Consequently, structure mapping is important for mining purposes. Ore types at Riddle are classified on the basis of MgO, Fe, and Si02 contents as well as textures. The chemical, mineralogical and textural differences of the various ore types reflect differences in weathering histories. Satellitic ore bodies occur peripherally to Nickel Mountain. These are erosional remnants of landslides and large gravity fault blocks from Nickel Mountain.

Jan 1, 1976

By William Blauvelt

Tun technical and engineering problems in the manufacture of coke are today the problems of the byproduct oven. Except in a few special localities, practically no beehive ovens have been built in the United States for the last 5 or 6 years except as renewals of old plants, and during these years the total number of beehive ovens in existence has been steadily falling. On the other hand, the number of byproduct ovens has increased from 4624 in 1911 to a total of about 7660 in operation at the end of 1917; with 2800 building, this makes a total of about 10,460 which will be in operation in 1918, or shortly thereafter. Preliminary Government estimates place the total production of coke for 1917 at 56,600,000 tons, the largest tonnage in the history of the industry. Of this 34,000,000 tons or 60 per cent. was beehive, and 22,-600,000 tons, or 40 per cent. was byproduct coke. Some time in 1918 the production of byproduct coke should pass the beehive output, and when the byproduct ovens now building are completed the total byproduct capacity will be about 40,000,000 tons of coke per. annum, which is over 70 per cent. of the record-breaking total coke production of 1917. The reasons for these changes in the coking industry are familiar to all of us, and need not be discussed here.

Jan 3, 1918

• Phelps-Dodge Corp. signed an agreement with the Defense Materials Procurement Agency to increase copper production from the east ore deposit of the company's Copper Queen branch at Bisbee, Ariz. The company agreed to undertake a $25 million expansion program, including construction of a concentrating and leaching plant at the Bisbee mine and enlargement of the Douglas smelter. The Government agreed to buy the first 112,500 tons of the first 150,000 tons produced at 22e per lb if the company could not sell at a higher price. The new facilities will have a yearly capacity of 38,000 tons and should be in production by late 1954 or early 1955. • American Smelting & Refining Co. has started construction of a new building to house the Central Research laboratory at South Plainfield, N. J. It will have approximately 75 individual laboratories and an equal number of offices and shops. Modern apparatus to be installed will include electron microscopes, electric and fuelfired furnaces, miniature copper refineries and zinc plants, wire drawing machinery, and large pilot plant laboratory. In the new building scientists study the base metals, and the development of new uses for a number of Asarco by-products, arsenic, and little

Jan 11, 1951

The research project on size reduction, sponsored by the mining industry through financial support from individual companies, is now embarking on a second three-year program. The first 3-year program had as its objectives assimilation of the literature on comminution and development of simulation programs encompassing the basic mechanisms of grinding. This involved investigating conditions under which a particle in a mill is captured, the stress to which it is subjected, its break probability, and the resulting particle size distributions. The results were used to obtain the most representative simulation models based on current knowledge of mechanisms. As part of this work a set of computer programs has been developed for the following cases: . Batch mill, by numerical integration for completely general selection and breakage functions. . Continuous open-circuit mill by same method as above. . Continuous open-circuit mill by general numerical integration method, including transient behavior

Jan 1, 1969

By L. S. Panyity

The question of natural-gas supply is receiving careful consideration in many parts of the country, as in the winter months it is quite a problem to have on hand sufficient gas to satisfy the demand. Increasing the output of wells by the application of vacuum has been tried with various results and large companies have attempted to keep up the supply with gas compressors. The possibility of storing natural gas in the sands of exhausted gas pools has been 'tried in a few instances with satisfactory results. This method may prove of practical value in solving the problem, especially in the case of towns that formerly obtained gas from their immediate vicinity but now must search for new pools. In all cases, only part of the available supply is utilized during the warm weather, so that many wells are shut-in, yet during the winter months, the supply is not sufficient even with all the wells on the line; in such cases it would be of great value if a large volume of stored gas were on hand, obtained through wells that would have been standing idle during the summer. Idle producing wells having considerable "rock pressure" will force gas into the exhausted, or storage wells, and this gas will be used only when the regular supply falls short (Fig. I). If two gas wells of different

Jan 1, 1920

By R. E. Smallman, J. C. Terry

J. C. Terry and R. E. Smallman (Llniuersity of Birmingham, England)—In a recent publication53 Wood and Westbrook have reported the results of an investigation of the tensile behavior of fl-phase AgMg alloys. These results agree in broad outline, but differ in the details, with those obtained in the above laboratory and, consequently, some discussion of their paper would seem appropriate. In our experiments, tests were carried out on extruded wires, 2 mm diam, in a hard-beam tensile machine, and while an oil bath was used for the tests up to 150°C, above this temperature the oil bath gave rise to serious contamination of the specimens and hence tests above 150°C were made in vacuo. This procedure is different to that adopted by Wood and Westbrook. The ß-phase alloys exhibit differences in mechanical behavior when they are tested in different temperature ranges. In agreement with Wood and Westbrook, three characteristic ranges are observed which may be classified as low, intermediate, and high temperatures, respectively. Our experiments show that in the low-temperature region, the shape of the stress-strain curves is similar to that reported. However, in addition, it is observed that the temperature at which the low-temperature region ends is markedly dependent on strain rate, and increase with increasing strain rate as shown in Fig. 18. The temperature at which a transition from the low to the intermediate temperature takes place is about 0.4 to 0.45 of the absolute melting point, Tm. This transition temperature coincides with that at

Jan 1, 1963

By Richard E. Chism

If internal commotion can be called life, the Mexicans have certainly lived more in the last seventy-five years than any other people. To the oppression of the Spanish viceroys succeeded the sanguinary tumults of the Revolution of Independence, after which the Supreme Congress bequeathed its heritage of uncertain power to the empire of Iturbide, the only one ever established by Americans upon American soil, with an American at its head. That shortlived reign mas followed by years of ceaseless, bloody, and, to the superficial observer, meaningless revolutions—the deeper political and ecclesiastical significance of which it is beyond the scope of this paper to discuss. Then came foreign intervention, the ill-fated Austrian's brief supremacy, and the final triumph of the patriot cause under rugged old Benito Juarez, who crowned the victory of arms by a series of reforms breaking forever the temporal power of the Church and ushering in the calmer era which has lasted from the first accession of Diaz to the present day. During all those troublous times, the revolutionary ocean, that rolled so deeply over all other relics of Spanish dominion, had left almost unaltered the ancient laws of Spain, still lifting themselves above the tide, like landmarks of a flooded world. Many of these laws were obsolete ; some were absurdly inadequate to the demands

Jan 1, 1886

By R. L. Wiegel

This article proposes a physical model for an idealized binary mineral system and for the process of liberation by size reduction. Based on this model, equations are derived relating the amount of each component liberated as a function of the ratio of the volumetric abundance of the two mineral components and the ratio of the mineral grain size to particle size. A definite relationship is shown to exist between the mineral concentration within a locked particle and the frequency of occurrence of such a particle. These relationships are used to obtain theoretical expressions for the concentration-recovery diagram. Physical mineral beneficiation processes are based on breaking a mineral aggregate to liberate the dissimilar mineral grains and then making use of their physical properties to separate the mixture into its components. The effectiveness of the process is therefore dependent on how well the minerals are liberated and how efficiently they are separated. Although a substantial amount of work is being done to improve our understanding of mineral separation processes, the study of mineral liberation itself has been almost completely neglected. The purpose of this theoretical study is to shed some light on the liberation phenomenon by: 1) proposing a physical model for an ideal binary mineral system, 2) treating mathematically the fracture of this system into liberated and locked particles, and 3) deriving an expression for the liberation characteristics of this system. The results of this study are useful in understanding the effect and importance of various parameters in liberation, and provide a basis for comparison with real mineral systems. 'RANDOM' MODEL It is recognized that liberation can be caused by detachment which results from fractures occurring at the mineral grain boundaries, or by size reduction which restricts the occurrence of dissimilar mineral locking to a portion of the resulting particles. The detachment effect is dependent on the relative strengths of the mineral grains and the bonds between them, and must be treated empirically for each mineral system. The size reduction effect, however, can be treated analytically if certain assumptions are made concerning the shape and geometrical arrangement of the mineral grains.

Jan 1, 1968

"Butte is in many ways an ideal location for a mining school. The student lives in the atmosphere of his intended profession. By the time he has spent four years at the school and in the community he has a fairly clear idea of what kind of a business he is entering upon, and is freed from any illusions about its being a primrose path he is about to follow. The mines and mills and smelters are his lecture rooms in part, and the shovel, pick and drill form part of his equipment. Most of the students work in the mines during part of their school life, which serves the double purpose of assisting them financially and increasing their practical knowledge.The School of Mines is a state institution, amply endowed and exceptionally well equipped. The school is strictly technical and no attempt is made to prepare men for any other work but mining engineering. The mining men of the community take an active interest in the welfare of the school and are of much assistance in securing employment for its graduates.The teaching staff is entirely composed of men who have had practical, commercial experience in their various specialties, and no expense is spared in securing suitable men for the faculty."

Jan 1, 1913

By Alfred F. Brainerd

There has been no enterprise undertaken in this and adjoining States which has attracted so much interest, or has been watched so closely as this, the first successful attempt to convert our ordinary high-phosphoric pig-iron into steel from native material. Our iron-masters have noticed intently every attempt to convert high-phosphorus pig-irons into steel by the Clapp-Grifith process in this country, and the basic process on the Continent, and studied the various patents aiming to accomplish the same purpose, and the various litigations arising among various patentees over their rival claitns; but up to August, 1887, nothing was done, and no move had been made to introduce any process for making steel. At the time above named, Mr. James Henderson, of New York, came to this place with a view of introducing his patent furnace and other metallurgical processes and appliances. After some delay and personal interviews between parties interested and the inventor, a party of gentlemen, all of moderate means, and entirely unacquainted with the manufacture of either steel or iron, decided to form themselves into a body corporate, known as the Henderson Steel and Manufacturing Company, with a capital stock of $20,000,

Jan 1, 1889