Search Documents

By D. L. King, C. D. Rubert, R. W. Christy, B. A. Schepman

R. W. Christy (Manager of Sales, Sanitary Engineering Equipment, Link-Belt Co.) and C.D. Rubert (Barrett, Haentjens & Co.) — Messrs. King and Schepman have presented an excellent paper which outlines the general practice in the design of thickener mechanisms. Lifting devices, controls, special applications and underflow pumping arrangements have been reviewed in detail. Pumping arrangements were illustrated which eliminate the need for an expensive tunnel beneath the thickener floor. Most of those illustrated have the common feature of a relatively long underflow suction line extending from the hopper floor to the pump located on the bridge at the periphery of the tank. The authors limit these arrangements to comparatively dilute or thin slurrys. It is implied that dense and coarse concentrates, which are difficult to pump, cannot be handled unless a tunnel is constructed. Fig. 1 shows an underflow pump arrangement which negates the need for a tunnel but which permits the operator to convey a heavy dense slurry. The pump is mounted directly on the fixed hoist platform and the impeller is located at the base of the steel center column. Priming water is not needed. The column

Jan 1, 1963

At their last meeting, the Directors of the Institute passed the following resolution regarding Robert W. Hunt, who was president of the Institute in 1883 and 1906. This resolution was engrossed and presented to Captain Hunt at a dinner given to him in Chicago, December 9, on the occasion of his eightieth birthday. Resolution At that time it was announced that $5000 had been guaranteed as the nucleous of a fund, the income of which will be used for prizes to be awarded each year, under the supervision of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, for the best papers on iron and steel subjects. The Board of Directors of the American Institute of Mining Engineers extend to their distinguished colleague, Robert W. Hunt, a hearty greeting upon his eightieth birthday anniversary. They congratulate him upon his notable achievements as a pioneer in ,the manufacture of iron and steel, and his long and admirable service both as a practical director and as a wise critic and counselor in that art. They remember with gratitude his successful administration, for two separate periods, of the Presidency of the Institute, and they recall with pride the honor conferred upon it through the award to him of the John Fritz Gold Medal. Not least is their satisfaction in the retrospect of forty-four years of his membership in the Institute, with its unbroken record of loyal friendship acid delightful companionship; and they pray, that this record may be continued for happy years to come. In witness whereof, they have ordered this minute to be entered upon the records of the Board, and a copy duly attested to be sent to Captain Hunt.

Jan 1, 1919

By G. A. Vissac

O. R. LYONS *—I wish to thank Mr. Vissac for his compliment. I hope that his paper is not only well received, but that it will serve to bring forth more papers on the subject of thermal drying. One of the primary purposes of the work performed by Battelle for Bituminous Coal Research in investigating the thermal drying of coal was to stimulate other investigators and to get them to contribute their knowledge in the form of papers such as this one. We at Battelle and the personnel of Bituminous Coal Research are very gratified that Mr. Vissac and other persons have responded in this matter of the thermal drying of coal. I wish to state that I think that Mr. Vissac's paper is a very clear and easily understood description of a method of calculating the design requirements for a screen type drier, and I think that it would be exceedingly valuable to operators and to those who intend to purchase any type of thermal drier and use it in the future, if the manufacturers or operators who have such information for other types of driers would provide the same type of information for the other makes of driers now on the market. 1 also wish to point out—an idea that is new to me, and I know is new to most of the operators of driers in the United States-—the idea of recovering the heat that is normally lost in the coal and in the exhaust gases. This heat is not being recovered at most (of the thermal drying operations in the United States, and the possibility of recovering it should be called to the attention of every single one of those operators. I know many of them have never given any thought to the matter, but they will be interested once they realize the ease with which it could be done and the savings that could be realized. I also wish to compliment Mr. Vissac for presenting the method of analysis that he uses to determine the difficulty of drying any particular coal. It is a very simple method, and yet it seems to me that it should be a very effective, very efficient method for determining the difficulty of drying for his particular problems. C. Y. HEINER*—I do not know that I can add anything very illuminating to what Mr. Vissac has said. I think anything that Mr. Vissac said in regard to coal drying is a contribution because, to my personal knowledge, he has studied the matter carefully for many years and made many valuable contributions. I am not too familiar with coal drying problems in the east, but I know in the west we have not made enough coal drying studies. I think coal operators too often just take the coal as it is and make more or less the best of it. There are relatively few washing plants in the west now, and so the problem has not come to the front as much as it probably will in the future. In this connection, it seems to me that this matter of drying the raw coal, as Mr. Vissac brings up, is an extremely important one. We have not a continuous miner ourselves, yet, but we expect to get some this year, and we think the percentage of fine coal-—that is, minus 3/16 in.—will double. We have about 20 pct minus 3/16 in. in the 8 in. by 0 size now, and we think we will likely have 40 pct, which will have a surface moisture of the order of 8 pct. To wash it satisfactorily, we will have to dry the raw coal first in order to screen it, and after that, I suppose, there will have to be dry cleaning of some sort. We have not really used dry cleaning on fines in the west yet to my knowledge, but it is a matter that has to be faced by the industry, and I am very hopeful that Mr. Vissac's study will assist us in that connection. W. L. McMORRIS*-In my company we are preparing largely metallurgical coal for a great number of byproduct coke plants. The most outstanding thing to me about the requirements of moisture in the finished product is that there is a different requirement for almost every coke plant. Each operator has a different set of factors on which he establishes his coking costs where they involve moisture. For our corporation operations in Birmingham, my company does not produce the coal, but in Birmingham they are getting away with moistures very much higher than our plant at Clairton, Pa., would tolerate. The moisture that we have to produce for the plants along the lakefront where they are subject to much more severe weather is something else again. We have not tackled heat drying, primarily because our customers do not know what heat drying will do to the coking characteristics of the coal. If the temperature of drying can be held down

Jan 1, 1950

By J. W. Pugh, J. D. Nisbet

THIS study of the ternary has been made as one phase of a metallurgical investigation which began nearly four years ago in the General Electric Company's Research Laboratory in Schenectady, N. Y. The objective of this program is the discovery of new metallurgical information which will lead to the development of better high-temperature materials. Combinations of the four pure base elements—iron, chromium, nickel, and cobalt—are being studied at the present time. It is essential in an investigation such as this to know as much as possible about the constitutional diagrams involved. The study of the iron-chromium-nickel system has been made to this end. Preliminary Explanation of Experimental Procedure: In all, fifty-five alloys at steps of 10 at. pct were made for the investigation of this ternary. Several ternary alloys in the chromium rich corner had to be omitted because their extreme brittleness made testing impractical. All alloys were vacuum melted with hydrogen reduction and centrifugally cast. The apparatus and technique of this process has been described in detail by Nisbet.1,2 The purity of the alloys prepared in this way is considered to be quite good. Impurities are listed as follows: Pct Carbon.............................0.02 Oxygen................................0.02 Nitrogen.........................0.005 Magnesium..................0.03-0.05 Sulphur...........................trace Hydrogen....................trace Phosphorous..................trace Silicon........................ trace After casting, all samples were given a homo-genization treatment which consisted of holding them for 15 hr at 1150°C (2100°F) and water quenching. Testing was begun with the samples in this condition. The tests employed in the study of this system were (1) dilatometer, (2) hardness versus aging temperature, (3) tensile strength and elongation versus temperature, (4) microstructure analysis, and (5) electrical resistance versus temperature. Dilatometer tests were made at the rather rapid heating rate of 1093°C (2000°F) in one hour on a Bristol-Rockwell type instrument. Hardness data were taken on specimens cooled from 204", 427", 649°, 760°, 871°, 982°, and 1093°C under conditions which are thought sufficient to bring the specimens to equilibrium in all but the cases of the very sluggish transformations. Electrical resistance data for several specimens were taken for both heating and cooling conditions in a vacuum furnace especially designed for this work by D. W. Bainbridge, formerly of this laboratory. Provisions were made for heating and cooling standard specimens at a constant rate, while autographic records of resistance and temperature were made simultaneously. Micrographs of all the alloys were made in the quenched condition. Some question may exist as to how such physical values as hardness, tensile strength, and elongation were interpreted to indicate a change in phase. Original data were recorded on physical property versus temperature graphs, each of which was made from the data of a single alloy (fig. la). From these, another series of graphs were plotted with the physical property as a function of composition for constant temperatures (fig. 1b). Sharp deviations in the slope of these composition versus hardness curves often indicate a change in phase. The example of fig. 1 will serve to describe this experimental technique. The plotting of a single point from graph "a" to graph "b," and finally to the phase diagram "c," is illustrated. The location of the point on graph "b" is indicated as point (1). If all the alloys of the A-B binary system were solid solutions at temperature X, the hardness in this curve would be expected to rise at a fairly even rate as A is diluted with B to a maximum at some intermediate value between A and B, as

Jan 1, 1951

By P. Ramachandraraa, T. R. Anantharaman

THE technique developed by Duwez, Willens and Kle-ment' for rapid solidification of molten alloys in small quantities by ejecting them on to a highly conducting substrate with the aid of a shock wave has come to be known as "liquid quenching" or "splat cooling" in literature and has already been applied to alloys of many binary systems.' The very high cooling rates of the order of l060 to 1080 per sec obtained in this technique and the consequent drastic undercooling of the melt have led to such striking results as formation of new amorphous and crystalline metastable phases and extension of solid-solubility limits in many alloy systems. The cooling rates in these experiments can, however, be neither accurately measured nor effectively controlled and hence the occurrence of either more than one metastable phase or appreciable differences in constitution in splat-cooled alloys of the same composition cannot be ruled out.3 In fact, workers in two laboratories have reported formation of two different cubic metastable phases in liquid-quenched Au-Si alloys containing 17 to 20 at. pct si.4,5 The present note deals with some new and interesting results obtained in a Ag-21 at. pct Ge alloy and a Au-27 at. pct Ge alloy subjected to the liquid-quenching treatment at different cooling rates. Two alloys of nearly the same composition had earlier been rapidly solidified by the standard "gun technique" in the same laboratory and shown to solidify in nonequilibrium structures, viz., an hcp phase (a = 2.987Å;c =4.718Å) in the Ag-Ge system6,7 and both hcp (a = 2.885Å; c = 4.754Å) and tetragonal (a = 11.627A; c = 22.491Å) phases in the Au-Ge system.3 Apart from different substrates (copper and stainless steel), different melt temperatures (50º to 500°C above the liquidus), and different capillary sizes (0.4 to 1.5 mm diam) in the "gun technique", slower cooling rates of the order of l050C per sec were also obtained in the present work by replacing the substrate by water at room temperature in a modification of the technique due to Olsen and Hultgren.8 No attempt was made to measure the cooling rate in any experiment. The products varied from fine powder (>40 pct by wt—200 mesh) obtained by quenching in water to thin flakes and foils (11.0 sq mm to 4.0 sq cm) produced by splat cooling. They were subjected to the Debye-Scherrer method of X-ray examination in each case. In case of the Ag-Ge alloy, in addition to the expected metastable hcp phase,6 a coexistent tetragonal phase (a = 5.093,Å; c = 7.009Å) was detected in some experiments. Eight weak X-ray reflections from this phase could be identified, two of them being the same as reported earlier.7 With increase in the cooling rate, the dominant hcp phase seems to be first accompanied by traces of silver or germanium and then either homogeneous or mixed with traces of this new tetragonal phase. The splat-cooled Au-Ge alloy showed generally the expected hcp and tetragonal phases,3 but sometimes traces of germanium were also present. Further, two new tetragonal phases with the following lattice param ters could be clearly identified in samples quenched

Jan 1, 1970

By B. L. Landrum, P. B. Crawford

The rise of a new laboratory model for studying tran-sient fluid flow problems, is described. The theory of he model is based on the analogy between the equa-ions which describe the flow of compressible fluids in porous media and the conduction of heal m solids. The "thermal model" is used to study the Iransient Pressure distributions during fluid displacement in five Standard well patterns. The studies indicate quantita-ively how die pressures change with lane at any poit in the reservoir. It was found that, in general, the equipressure contours are more radial about the wells early in the program than after steady-state conditions are established. In addition two studies of fractured five-spot patterns are presented to illustrate the opplicability of the model for a wide range of reservoir conditions. INTRODUCTION In reviewing the oil recovery techniques involving fluid displacement it was found that a very considerable quantity, if not all of the fluid within the pattern, mav be displaced (during a time-dependent or transient period rather than the usually applied steady-state conditions. Since the oil is displaced during a transient period, it was believed desirable to study the nature of the transients for several of the commonly used fluid displacement patterns. A literature review indicated fairly complete studies of the streamlines and isopotentials for steady-state: yet few data were available on the transient displacement process. Several simulated steady-state multiwell displacement programs were carefully mapped by Foster and Lodge on an electrical conducting sheet as early as 1875, hut the more recent work of Muskat provides the best source for steady-state phenomena having direct petroleum production applications. In order to study the transient phenomena a new lab-oratory model was developed which is based on the similarity of the equations that describe the flow of fluids and the conduction of heal. The equations describing heat flow were developed early in the nineteenth century. Regorous solutions tor most transient problems are in gcneral complex and usually limited to fairly restricted houndary conditions.2 the thermal model may be used to obtain approximate solutions for many transient problems without some of the restrictions required for analytical solution. The application of the analogy between heat conduc-. tion in solids. electrical flow and fluid flow, in a porous media has long been recognised. Techniques originally developed for the solution of heat conduction prol?lems have in many instances proved useful in ohtaining solutions to fluid flow prohlcms. Ir is not surpri5ing then that a heat conduction or thermal model might bf usefull in sludying transient fluid flow. As an example ol the problems suitable for the study with the thermal model, transient pressure distributions during fluid displacement programs are studied for the five-spot, line-drive, staggered line-diibe. seven-spot 211 two fractured patterns. A model was constructed of an iron plate of geometry similar to the reservoir patterns under study. The principle of mirror images as suggested by Bryan was employed in shaping the model. A temperature differential was obtained by soldering two sections of copper tubing to the plate at points analogous to the well location in the field. Hot and cold water was passed through the tubing. The temperature distribution, analogous to the pressure distribution in the field. was obtained a a function of time from thermocouplcs distributed over the plate.

By A. E. Chute

The shortage of sulfur is not only continuing but appears to be worsening, attended by steadily rising prices. At the same time emphasis on air-pollution abatement is also increasing. These two factors, a rising market and the growth of environmental attention, have encouraged producers to carefully review all possible sulfur sources. As a result, production of sulfur from hydrogen sulfide occurring in petroleum is receiving greater attention than ever before. Until about a decade ago, the practice of recovering sulfur from hydrogen sulfide separated from gases (either found naturally or generated in desulfurization of liquid petroleum) was wide1y recognized but contributed little to total free-world sulfur production. However, during the past ten years, the production of sulfur from this source has increased so rapidly that it now accounts for a substantial portion of total production. This trend shows no signs of slackening, and current forecasts predict that recovered sulfur may become the dominant source of supply within ten years, exceeding mined sulfur production. This paper is intended to list sulfur sources and relationships, and to discuss the potential of producing sulfur from petroleum. The processing involved, in addition to product storage and transportation will also be discussed along with important economic aspects of sulfur recovered from hydrogen sulfide. For many years, most of the world's elemental sulfur has been produced from salt domes, predominantly by the Frasch process. During the past decade, however, another production source has developed so quickly that it is expected to surpass the Frasch production sources within a short time. This new source lies in the petroleum gases and liquids from which dramatically increasing quantities of elemental sulfur are being recovered. In the phraseology of the trade, the sulfur so obtained is know as "recovered sulfur," a term which does not, as one might expect, include sulfur recovered from other sources such as smelter gases. The growth rate of recovered sulfur compared to that of Frasch sulfur, total elemental sulfur, and total Free World sulfur in all forms is shown in Fig. 1 Since 1963, sulfur consumption has exceeded production,with the natural result that the price of sulfurhas continually increased. The posted price reported for f.o.b. Port Sulphur, La., has risen from as low as $18 per ton in 1962 to $32.50 per ton in mid-1967. With freight and other charges, delivered prices have of course run much higher, amounting to $45 or $46 per ton on the east and west coasts. In some cases, spot sales for as much as $60 have been reported. Although it is playing an ever-increasing role in the sulfur market, recovered sulfur was originally a by-product of the removal of hydrogen sulfide from natural and petroleum refinery gases. Today, however, it is often the most valuable product of a multi-product processing facility. Since there are two major sources of recovered sulfur—production and refining processes —natural gas is included with liquid petroleum for purposes of this discussion. Sulfur from these sources is produced in the form of gaseous hydrogen sulfide which is removed from a gas stream and converted to elemental sulfur. Gases in which hydrogen sulfide occurs naturally are natural gas and the gas produced from a high=pres-sure crude=oil or condensate field.

Jan 1, 1969

By Walter Miller

AFter a year's continued impact of war, the task of the petroleum-refining industry stands out clearly and looms up in larger aspect. This time it is not, as it was so largely in the first World War, simply a matter of increased quantity—more and more of the same petroleum products that had substantially been standard for years. In this era the emphasis is largely on newer and improved materials which had been produced, if at all, in comparatively insignificant quantities, and for which manufacturing equipment was not available on a large scale. At the beginning of 1942 four great product needs (besides a number of lesser ones) confronted the industry: 100-octane aviation gasoline, toluene for T.N.T. production, high-quality lubricating oils for aviation and Army equipment service, and petroleum chemicals for synthetic rubber manufacture. The difficulty in presenting a review of engineering progress in petroleum refining during 1942 is that there is so little one is free to say about so much which has been and is being accomplished. At the opening of 1942 the program was to increase the then existing capacity of 50,000 bbl. a day of aviation gasoline to over 150,000 bbl. daily by building new plants at an estimated installation cost of $150,000,000. Later in the year. after the announcement by President Roosevelt of a large increase in the program for war-plane building, additional contracts were made between the Reconstruction Finance Corporation and rehers to raise the capacity to 250,000 bbl. per day. The greatly increased scope of the war activities in all parts of the world, the obligation of the United States as the arsenal of the United Nations, and the greater importance and use of bomber, transport, and cargo planes will undoubtedly bring about plans and installations for a further increase in production of aviation gasoline over the present announced plan. In this connection, Jesse Jones, Reconstruction Finance Corporation Chairman, announced that as of Oct. 31 the R.F.C. had through its subsidiary Defense Plant Corporation entered into contracts for the construction, expansion, or equipping of 28 plants to increase 100-octane aviation gasoline production, but gave no data on 'capacity involved or completion dates. His list did not, of course, include a number of existing plants, and some installations being made by companies who are themselves financing the construction. Production from existing operating installations was materially increased in a number of instances as a result of pooling knowledge of improvements in operation and also by the exchange of Components going into 100-octane blend to enable greater quantities of aviation gasoline to be produced from the over-

Jan 1, 1943

By Walter Miller

AFter a year's continued impact of war, the task of the petroleum-refining industry stands out clearly and looms up in larger aspect. This time it is not, as it was so largely in the first World War, simply a matter of increased quantity—more and more of the same petroleum products that had substantially been standard for years. In this era the emphasis is largely on newer and improved materials which had been produced, if at all, in comparatively insignificant quantities, and for which manufacturing equipment was not available on a large scale. At the beginning of 1942 four great product needs (besides a number of lesser ones) confronted the industry: 100-octane aviation gasoline, toluene for T.N.T. production, high-quality lubricating oils for aviation and Army equipment service, and petroleum chemicals for synthetic rubber manufacture. The difficulty in presenting a review of engineering progress in petroleum refining during 1942 is that there is so little one is free to say about so much which has been and is being accomplished. At the opening of 1942 the program was to increase the then existing capacity of 50,000 bbl. a day of aviation gasoline to over 150,000 bbl. daily by building new plants at an estimated installation cost of $150,000,000. Later in the year. after the announcement by President Roosevelt of a large increase in the program for war-plane building, additional contracts were made between the Reconstruction Finance Corporation and rehers to raise the capacity to 250,000 bbl. per day. The greatly increased scope of the war activities in all parts of the world, the obligation of the United States as the arsenal of the United Nations, and the greater importance and use of bomber, transport, and cargo planes will undoubtedly bring about plans and installations for a further increase in production of aviation gasoline over the present announced plan. In this connection, Jesse Jones, Reconstruction Finance Corporation Chairman, announced that as of Oct. 31 the R.F.C. had through its subsidiary Defense Plant Corporation entered into contracts for the construction, expansion, or equipping of 28 plants to increase 100-octane aviation gasoline production, but gave no data on 'capacity involved or completion dates. His list did not, of course, include a number of existing plants, and some installations being made by companies who are themselves financing the construction. Production from existing operating installations was materially increased in a number of instances as a result of pooling knowledge of improvements in operation and also by the exchange of Components going into 100-octane blend to enable greater quantities of aviation gasoline to be produced from the over-

Jan 1, 1943

By Herbert J. French

Herbert 1. French (Member 1934), vice president of the International Nickel Co. Inc., assistant vice president of the International Nickel Co. of Canada Ltd., and AIME Howe Memorial Lecturer for 1956, died in Rochester, Minn. on Aug. 17, 1955, after a long illness. Before his death, Mr. French had laid the foundation of research on which the Howe Memorial Lecture (p. 770) was based. His associates at Inco, 0. 0. Miller and J. W. Sands, were able to complete the project, present the lecture, and prepare it for publication, following Mr. French's general outline. Born in New York on May 27, 1893, he graduated from the School of Mines, Columbia University, with a degree in metallurgical engineering in 1915. Mr. French gained his early engineering experience with the American Smelting and Refining Co., serving as a chemist and as-sayer at the company's Murray, Utah, installations. He later returned east and became a metallurgical engineer for the General Vehicle Co., Long Island City, IT. Y., a subsidiary of the General Electric Co. In 1917 Mr. French was appointed civilian inspector of materials for the U.S. Army Signal Corps, and continued this work when it was later absorbed into the Bureau of Aircraft Production. Subsequently he was appointed district inspector in Philadelphia for the Pittsburgh (Ordnance Metallurgical) office, later transferring to Pittsburgh. After World War I Mr. French became an assistant physicist on the metallurgical staff, U. S. Bureau of Standards, Washington, D. C. During his years with the Bureau, he was successively associate physicist, metallurgist, senior metallurgist, and assistant chief, division of metallurgy. In 1929 Mr. French joined International Nickel as a metallurgist at the company's Bay-onne, N. J., research laboratory. Transferring to the development and research division, New York, in 1931, he took charge of alloy steel and iron development, becoming assistant manager of this division in 1943. Mr. French's appointment as an Inco vice president came in March 1947. Previously, he was appointed assistant vice president of the International Nickel Co. of Canada Ltd. in January 1947. Mr. French served the War Production Board during World War II as senior technical consultant in charge of the metallurgical and specifications section of the iron and steel branch. When this section of the WPB was organized into the steel division, he was appointed chief of the metallurgical branch. From March 1944 to September 1945 Mr. French served as assistant director. Herbert French was well known not only for his prolific contribution to the metallurgical literature, for which he received numerous awards, but also for his prolonged service to the profession through its technical societies. He was a past president of ASM, and was the Campbell Memorial Lecturer for that group in 1933. Mr. French was honored by the American Society for Steel Treating in 1931 when he was awarded the Henry Marion Howe Medal. A series of lectures he gave in 1941 before the Fourth Western Metal Congress in Los Angeles was later published in book form under the title Alloy Constructional Steels.

Jan 1, 1957

By R. D. Lord

The search for the best practical means of storing sulfide bearing tailings, where there is no residual excess of carbonate material is discussed in this paper• Usually the sulfide content decomposes, with the aid of bacterial action, and the resulting sulfuric acid escapes, along with any heavy-metal solutes, through embankments that are usually porous to some degree• The problem is typified in the tailings of the uranium operations of Elliot Lake, Ont., where mining started some 20 years ago• The approach to tailings disposal paralleled the practice for other hydrometallurgical plants treating gold and base-metal ores• Impoundment areas were designed to retain solids, and a clear and neutral overflow was considered satisfactory practice• Now experience has shown that these areas, some of which have been idle for over a dozen years, release acids in seepage and overflows to an unacceptable degree• To protect natural water courses, neutralizing plants are operated wherever required• Lime slurry is fed continuously into the tailings outflows in a quantity sufficient to raise the pH to 8•5 and precipitate heavy metals that may be in solution• The objection to this procedure is that the plants will require servicing indefinitely, unless a better remedy is found• The problem differs only slightly from that common to base-metal concentrators in that here the ore has been leached with sulfuric acid for the recovery of uranium• Any native content of calcareous material has been digested, and only that added for final neutralization is available to maintain a pH unfavorable to bacterial activity• Chemical oxidation slowly lowers the pH and when this reaches a level of 4•5 or less, bacteria become active and greatly accelerate the formation of acid. The bacterial process is probably at least ten times as fast as the chemical oxidation• Location and Processing The operations referred to, uranium and one copper mine, are located at approximately 46°N and 82°W longitude• This is typical Canadian Shield country, a land of lakes, deeply glaciated and rocky, with sparse soil which supports mixed forest cover• Drainage is to Lake Huron, 25 miles to the south• Average temperature is 45°F, ranging from -40° to +95°F• Annual precipitation is 38 in•, about half of which is snow• The ore is Precambrian, quartz-pebble conglomerate, with mineralization in the matrix• From 5 to 10% pyrite is present• All known means of pre-concentration have been tested, but a bulk sulfuric acid leach has proved the most efficient. Tailings have from the outset been neutralized before release• Current practice is to add ground limestone to bring the pH to 4•5, and then lime to raise the value to 10•5• Environmental regulations have recently been increased and the foregoing meets the new standards• Separate measures are taken to precipitate radium• Remedial Measures Since the outstanding environmental problem is the oxidation of pyrite by bacterial action, the solution is to contain the products, or arrest the process• Given the ambient temperature, favorable half of the time, four items are essential to the activity• 1) Pyrite• 2) Moisture pH < 4•5. 3) Oxygen• 4) Bacteria• Removing any one of these out of the range of tolerance will bring the reactions under control• A variety of proposals considered, and a number tested for the arrest of the process, are: (a) render embankments impermeable, (b) provide an impermeable cover, (c) cover with an oxygen absorbing layer, (d) provide a vegetative cover, (e) flood the site, (f) remove pyrite from current tailings, (g) add excess limestone to current tailings, (h) poison the bacteria• Bank Seal-On existing impoundment areas, where the embankments are several thousand yards in length, it is believed that any program of injecting sealants can have small chance of success• However, a moisture barrier is an indicated specification for future construction, and this can be highly expensive• Surface Seal-Depending on the configuration of the deposit, the downward travel of water should be prevented, and oxygen excluded• Burying a plastic membrane just below the surface has been considered, as has the application of a liquid sealant that would penetrate the surface. The objection to these remedies is the excessive cost of dealing with large areas and the expectation of only temporary benefit as a result• Frost penetration is over 4 ft, and frost action breaks up asphalt paving and all but heavy concrete in a few years• Organic Layer-An oxygen-absorbing layer, such as bark fines from paper mills has been proposed as a surface treatment• Cultivated into the tailings such material might be expected to arrest subsurface oxidation for some years• Estimates are 100 tons per acre of bark fines, or 35 tons per acre of sawdust, and these enormous quantities do not so far give assurance of providing a long-term remedy• Vegatative Cover-Several obvious benefits would result from a good growth of grass or other vegetation on abandoned tailings• While restoring the natural green of the tract the growth would prevent wind-blown dust and reduce erosion• Subsurface oxidation should be reduced, as well as the upward movement of ground moisture as occurs in dry weather. To this end, considerable research and field testing has been carried out to arrive at a formula - a prescription which will provide a self-sustaining growth on the tailings surface, or at least one that would survive with reasonable maintenance attention. Many test plots have been run with different combinations of surface treatment and seed mixtures. Generally, by addition and close cultivation of limestone, lime, and fertilizers, technical success has been demonstrated• Plants with a high tolerance for acid soil seem the more hardy, and a pH above 3 is indicated so that nutrients can be absorbed• Recommendations are for 12 to 15 tons of

Jan 1, 1977

By E. S. Tankins, G. R. Belton

A simple solution model, based upon the formation of molecular species, is developed for strongly electronegative dilute solutes in liquid binary-metallic solvents. Two approximations are considered for the relative concentrations of the species: the random and the quasi-chemical. Equations are presented for the partial molar free energy, enthalpy, and entropy of mixing of the solute. An experimental study has been made of equilibrium in the reaction H2 6) +0 (dissolved) = H2O(g))for the liquid Cu-Co alloys. The standard free energy of solution of oxygen is presented as a function of composition for the alloys at 1550°C and as a function of temperature for five of the alloys. The experimental results for these alloys and also for Cu-Ni alloys are shown to be in reasonable agreernent with the theory in the random approximation. A knowledge of the thermodynamic behavior of dilute solutes in liquid metals and alloys is of importance in understanding and designing refining and alloy-making processes. Accordingly, several attempts have been made to derive suitable solution models to forecast the effect of a third component on the activity coefficient of such a solute in a metal. Alcock and Richardson&apos; reviewed the literature prior to 1958 and also showed that a regular solution model gave a reasonable description in the case of metallic solutes but failed to account for the behavior of the more electronegative solutes sulfur and oxygen. These same authors2 later modified their model by using the quasi-chemical approximation3 to calculate the average composition of the first coordination shell surrounding each solute atom. This modified model was shown to lead to a better qualitative description of the behavior of the electronegative solutes; however, quantitative agreement with experimental data for oxygen in alloys could only be achieved by assuming a very small coordination number. The authors concluded that the major source of error in the model was the assumption that pairwise interaction energies were independent of composition. Substitutional and interstitial random solution models by Wada and saito4 are essentially similar to the first model except that the required interchange energies were derived from the modified solubility parameter equation of Mott, instead of from experimental binary data. Most recently Hoch5 has presented a statistical model for interstitial solutions and has applied the model to the Fe-C-O system. However, as the various interaction energies needed in the model had to be derived from the ternary data, the model does not promise well as a means of forecasting ternary behavior. Each of the above models carries the assumption that the strongly electronegative solutes have the same configurational environment as metallic solutes; i.e., the solute can be treated as a substitutional or interstitial atom in a quasi-crystalline lattice and is surrounded by a normal coordination shell of solvent atoms. There are, however, a number of facts which suggest that this is unlikely. First, the heats of solution are large, being more typical of molecule formation rather than alloying. For example, the heats of solution of monatomic oxygen and sulfur in liquid iron are -90 kea16,8 and -74 kea1,7, 8 respectively. These are to be compared with maximum heats of solution of metallic solutes in liquid iron of about -13 keal (silicon is an exception with -28.5 kea17). The large depression of the surface tension of liquid iron by trace amounts of the electronegative solutes oxygen, sulfur, and selenium9 suggests, by analogy with aqueous systems, the possible existence of polar molecules in the liquid. The effect of these solutes is at least three orders of magnitude greater than normal metal solutes.10 As has been pointed out by Richardson,11 the electron affinities and ionization potentials of oxygen and sulfur are such that it is likely that they exist in metallic solution as negatively charged ions. If this is so, and it is assumed that electrostatic forces play an important role in determining the configuration, it is unlikely that the stable configuration will be that of an isolated ion surrounded by a symmetrical coordination shell of solvent ions. It is more likely that the energy of the system would be lowered by the formation of solute-solvent screened dipoles. The above arguments suggest the formation of "molecular species" between solute and solvent atoms. The idea of the existence of molecular species in such solutions is not new, however&apos;, for Marshall and chipman12 have explained in a semi-quantitative manner the C-O equilibrium in liquid iron by postulating the species CO. Chen and Chip-man13 interpreted their measurements on the Cr-O equilibrium in iron in terms of the species CrO. Zapffe and sims14 have also postulated the existence of such species in liquid-iron alloys.

Jan 1, 1965

Discussion of the paper of GEORGE S. Rice, presented. at the Pittsburgh meeting, October, 1914, and printed in Bulletin No. 94, October, 1914, pp. 2459 to 2492. WILLIAM GRIFFITH, Scranton, Pa.-I notice in the discussions and literature that emphasis is placed on rock dust, shale dust, and limestone dust, and I infer that these different. sorts of rock are ground up to produce this dust. -Is that right? MR. RICE.-That is correct, but we do not have to grind the limestone dust we are using in the experimental mine, as that is obtained from a quarry, and is used just as it comes; we can get it very cheaply, as it is a by-product of the quarries. MR. GRIFFITH.-Have any experiments been made with ordinary dirt out of the fields; could not that be used as ground dust? MR. RICE.-If you dry it and powder it enough so it will float in a, strong air current it might be all right for the barriers, but if it is damp there will be a tendency for it to mat together; then it would be quite useless for making a dust cloud. There might also be another disadvantage if used through the whole mine, if it had very much free silica in it, which is bad for the lungs. Limestone and selected shale dust would not affect the health of miners. MR. GRIFFITH.-In order to do very much good with any of those barriers, they ought to be rather extensively used throughout the mines, and there are few mines that have facilities for grinding up this rock into such a fine dust. If the ordinary earth from a plowed field could be used, even if it were not quite so good, it is more accessible and very much cheaper; therefore, in using it, with the universality of the supply through-out the country, it would tend to stop explosions. MR. RICE (communication to the Secretary*).-In closing, it is well to again emphasize that I do not advocate barriers being a "cure-all" for explosions. It will be generally agreed that prevention is best, not only by means of improved methods of using explosives, and ventilation to prevent accumulations of firedamp, but also by either thoroughly wetting the dust throughout the mine, or else so treating it with rock dust or other inert dust that an explosion cannot start. From my observations I believe that rock dusting. is a practicable method, and has the merit of visibility, and remaining effective for considerable periods, whereas the watering method has to be daily followed up, and if neglected for a short period the mine may become in a dangerous condition. The Germans

Jan 4, 1915

By Morgan Walker

ONE of the most serious problems in the produc- tion of natural gas is the removal of water from the wells. As a gas well approaches its period of exhaustion, the removal of water by properly de-signed devices becomes increasingly important. Sev-eral methods are used for dewatering gas wells. If the .gas velocity and pressure are high enough, the water in the well will be carried out by the gas on opening the well to atmospheric pressure and allowing the gas to flow unrestricted except for the resistance of the casing. This method of dewatering a gas well is detri-mental to the producing sand, and very wasteful if used frequently. When the well has declined in production a string of tubing is often run in the well, with a packer set at the top or bottom of the well. If the top of the tubing is opened to atmospheric pressure and the gas is allowed to flow unrestricted as in the above method, the water can be discharged at the top of the well, provided the velocity of the gas is high enough. However, if the water has accumulated in the well until the water pres-sure is equal to or greater than the gas pressure, the ,water cannot be brought to the surface. In dewatering :a gas well by this method the operator sometimes finds -that if the packer is set near the top of the well and -the casing is tight, the water can be blown out when .it is impossible to blow it out with the packer set at the top of the sand. This is largely due to some gas leaking into the tubing through the collars. This method of dewatering gas wells is also wasteful. Water can be pumped out of a gas well with virtually the same equipment, as used for pumping oil, but the method involves installing a separate pump for each well, and difficulties are encountered in attempting to pump water under high gas pressure.

Jan 3, 1927

WHAT was certainly the greatest event of January, and perhaps it will prove to be the greatest of 1923, or even of the next decade, was the meeting of the premiers of the principal Euro-pean powers in Paris on Jan. 2, to consider what should be done with respect to German reparations. The French and British were unable to come to any agree-ment, and the conference broke up on Jan. 4. The French and British parted friends, but each with the determination henceforth to pursue its own economic and political way. This event was profound in its significance and perhaps will be calamitous) in its consequences. Following the disruption of the Conference at Paris, the French immediately began preparations to occupy the Ruhr district on the ground that Germany was in default on coal deliveries, without waiting. for Jan. 15, the next due date for reparation payment. This action by the French led to orders being issued by President Harding on Jan. 10 for the withdrawal of the remainder of the American troops on the Rhine. Thus ended the physical participation in. European affairs by the American army, whose vanguard landed in France in June, 1917. The French occupation of the Ruhr Valley, i.e., the great industrial region of western Westphalia, was made with a large military force. The Germans offered no physical resistance, and passed under French control with sullen resentment. The coal miners to a con-siderable extent refused to work and there was more or less disorganization of railway service. Before the end of the month the opinion was expressed that the French occupation was an economic failure and there were reports of French blast furnaces being blown out for lack of coke.

Jan 2, 1923

By George F. Comstock

IT has been reported recently1 that the hardenability and toughness of forging steels may be improved appreciably by the use of complex deoxidizers containing titanium, aluminum, and vanadium. In the light of these results, an investigation of similar deoxidizers containing various hardening and grain-refining elements was proposed. These deoxidizers included three manganese-silicon-aluminum-titanium al- [ ] loys with and without boron and calcium, three titanium-aluminum ferroalloys with vanadium, molybdenum and zirconium, respectively, an aluminum-zirconium ferro-alloy, and plain ferroboron. Their approximate compositions are given in Table I, and the results obtained so far in the investigation of their effects on steel are presented in the later parts of this paper. METHOD OF USING DEOXIDIZERS The deoxidizers listed in Table I were used in three series of 0.40 per cent carbon steels, which were melted in a small basic-lined induction furnace and cast in the form of I7-lb. ingots about 2.75 in. square. The basic charge for each heat was 10 lb. Armco iron and 6 lb. of clean low-carbon sheet-steel scrap. When melted, this charge was deoxidized with 15 grams of ferrosilicon, then about 500 grams of pig iron was added to give the desired carbon content. After the pig iron was dissolved, nickel [ ] shot and high-carbon ferrochromium were added if required, and additions of 80 per cent high-carbon ferromanganese and 50 per cent ferrosilicon were made to provide the proper amounts of those elements. Aluminum was added to every heat 2 min. after the silicon, for grain-size control and preliminary deoxidation. One minute later the special deoxidizer was added to the clean bare surface of the molten steel, and 2 min. afterward the steel was poured into the ingot mold, using a hot-top and pipe-preventing compound after pouring to decrease the depth of the shrinkage cavity. The special deoxidizers were used mostly in the form of about ½ to ¾ -in. lumps,

Jan 1, 1942

By Paul Soros

The cost of shipping British coal by water to domestic and ex- port users has been expensive. The traditional transportation system functioned as follows: coal in up to 50 different grades was accumulated in railway cars at several loading ports; on the arrival of a vessel, cars were dumped in the desired order to produce the required blend. It was a direct rail- road-to-water interface. Railroad freight was high because of the poor utilization of the large number of small (14, 18 or maximum 28-ton capacity) hopper cars required. Ocean freight was high because the ships were small, mostly on the order of 1500-3000 dwt and even these took a long time to load. Assembling and loading larger cargo presented a challenge in logistics to the ports, the railways and the coal washeries. The accommodation of larger bulk carriers was hampered by a tidal range of up to 24 ft which led to the development of impounded harbors, with locks that limit the size of vessels.

Jan 12, 1973

By George F. Comstock

It has been reported recently1 that the hardenability and toughness of forging steels may be improved appreciably by the use of complex deoxidizers containing titanium, aluminum, and vanadium. In the light of these results, an investigation of similar deoxidizers containing various hardening and grain-refining elements was proposed. These deoxidizers included three manganese-silicon-aluminum-titanium al- loys with and without boron and calcium, three titanium-aluminum ferroalloys with vanadium, molybdenum and zirconium, respectively, an aluminum-zirconium ferroalloy, and plain ferroboron. Their approximate compositions are given in Table I, and the results obtained so far in the investigation of their effects on steel are presented in the later parts of this paper. Method of Using Deoxidizers The deoxidizers listed in Table I were used in three series of 0.40 per cent carbon steels, which were melted in a small basic-lined induction furnace and cast in the form of I7-lb. ingots about 2.75 in. square. The basic charge for each heat was 10 lb. Armco iron and 6 lb. of clean low-carbon sheet-steel scrap. When melted, this charge was deoxidized with 15 grams of ferrosilicon, then about 500 grams of pig iron was added to give the desired carbon content. After the pig iron was dissolved, nickel shot and high-carbon ferrochromium were added if required, and additions of 80 per cent high-carbon ferromanganese and 50 per cent ferrosilicon were made to provide the proper amounts of those elements. Aluminum was added to every heat 2 min. after the silicon, for grain-size control and preliminary deoxidation. One minute later the special deoxidizer was added to the clean bare surface of the molten steel, and 2 min. afterward the steel was poured into the ingot mold, using a hot-top and pipe-preventing compound after pouring to decrease the depth of the shrinkage cavity. The special deoxidizers were used mostly in the form of about ½ to¾-in. lumps,

Jan 1, 1942

By George F. Comstock

It has been reported recently1 that the hardenability and toughness of forging steels may be improved appreciably by the use of complex deoxidizers containing titanium, aluminum, and vanadium. In the light of these results, an investigation of similar deoxidizers containing various hardening and grain-refining elements was proposed. These deoxidizers included three manganese-silicon-aluminum-titanium al- loys with and without boron and calcium, three titanium-aluminum ferroalloys with vanadium, molybdenum and zirconium, respectively, an aluminum-zirconium ferroalloy, and plain ferroboron. Their approximate compositions are given in Table I, and the results obtained so far in the investigation of their effects on steel are presented in the later parts of this paper. Method of Using Deoxidizers The deoxidizers listed in Table I were used in three series of 0.40 per cent carbon steels, which were melted in a small basic-lined induction furnace and cast in the form of I7-lb. ingots about 2.75 in. square. The basic charge for each heat was 10 lb. Armco iron and 6 lb. of clean low-carbon sheet-steel scrap. When melted, this charge was deoxidized with 15 grams of ferrosilicon, then about 500 grams of pig iron was added to give the desired carbon content. After the pig iron was dissolved, nickel shot and high-carbon ferrochromium were added if required, and additions of 80 per cent high-carbon ferromanganese and 50 per cent ferrosilicon were made to provide the proper amounts of those elements. Aluminum was added to every heat 2 min. after the silicon, for grain-size control and preliminary deoxidation. One minute later the special deoxidizer was added to the clean bare surface of the molten steel, and 2 min. afterward the steel was poured into the ingot mold, using a hot-top and pipe-preventing compound after pouring to decrease the depth of the shrinkage cavity. The special deoxidizers were used mostly in the form of about ½ to¾-in. lumps,

Jan 1, 1942

By Stephen Zorn

INTRODUCTION The process of financing mining projects in developing countries has changed greatly in the past 15 years. New methods of financing, notably the use of syndicated Eurocurrency project loans, have appeared, and direct equity financing by transnational mining corporations has become less significant. These changes are of particular importance to developing countries which have many mineral deposits still awaiting development, or even discovery. If major new mines are to be financed, host governments will need to obtain more sophisticated information than has hitherto been widely available as to the various sources of finance currently available and as to possibilities for innovative approaches to financing, such as the combination of several different kinds of financing in a single package. This paper reviews the major sources of mining finance potentially available to developing countries and highlights those problems in obtaining adequate financing that developing country producers have begun to experience in the last few years and that are likely to persist through the 1980s. Section I surveys the major types of mining finance; section II reviews specific financing problems, including (a) the withdrawal of the transnational corporations from developing countries, (b) inflation and the size of new projects; (c) developing country indebtedness, and (d) competition among projects in different countries. SOURCES OF DEVELOPING COUNTRY MINING CAPITAL1/ There is a wide range of financing mechanisms which are potentially available to developing countries with economically viable mining projects., Moreover, these financing mechanisms have not been fully exploited by developing countries, and more aggressive pursuit of financing by the governments of these countries may well reveal greater possibilities in respect of any particular project than may initially have appeared. However, virtually all the funds available from these sources are available only to projects which meet the standards of viability acceptable to lenders and others in the business community. If a project does not, for example, promise to generate a discounted cash flow rate of return of at least 15 per cent on total funds employed, or if it does not appear likely to generate sufficient cash flow in the early years of production to cover debt service requirements with a comfortable margin in reserve, most of the sources of financing will not be available. Only where a government has its own financial surplus (as in the case, for example, of the industrialization program of the Saudi Arabian government) can it effectively undertake projects which do not satisfy the definition of economic viability that is accepted at any given time by the worldwide financial community. Internal Sources In Developing Countries Internal financing capacity in developing countries is restricted to a relatively small number of countries - typically those large enough to support a well-rounded industrial sector, in which mining is only one of a number of dynamic industries. While there are large mining companies in certain other countries, the ability of such companies to finance new projects (or even, in some cases, to generate the cash necessary to maintain existing levels of production) is highly problematical. Within developing countries, the possible sources of internally-generated mining finance are the following: (1) state-owned enterprises; (2) private capital; (3) the banking system, and in particular those financing agencies that have a special involvement with the mining sector; and (4) direct budgetary appropriations.

Jan 1, 1985