Search Documents

By T. L. Joseph

THE extent to which hot metal from the blast furnace affects open-hearth practice and the quality of steel produced has been discussed widely. Open-hearth operators have attributed difficulties experienced in making satisfactory steel to characteristics of the pig iron not disclosed by ordinary analysis. The commonest criticism of the iron has been that it is "physically cold" or "dirty." Often when the blast furnaces are working irregularly the quality of the iron is questioned. A cold hearth, slipping and hanging, the use in the past of unsintered flue dust, and the use of ores difficult to smelt have been associated with the production of iron of poor quality. The difficulty of the situation is that we have no proven yardstick for quality aside from ordinary analysis. Uniformity in analysis is recognized as being important, but the difficulty of changing the open-hearth practice when the iron analysis varies widely may not always be fully appreciated. Although the problem of correlating the characteris-tics of steel with those of pig iron is admittedly obscure, the effort of producers of quality steel to investigate all factors that may have a bear-ing on the final product is justified. This report contains data on the oxides in several hundred casts of basic iron produced in a furnace during the course of normal operation on Lake ores. Incidental to the study of the oxides in the iron, it was desir-able to follow closely the temperature of the iron. The effect of tempera-ture of the iron upon the silicon and sulphur present is discussed. A general relation between the basicity of the slag and the sulphur in the metal was developed. The amount and composition of oxides in the hot metal and in the steel bath during various intervals between melt-down and tap are discussed. Heats of rimmed steel, lulled steel, and semikilled steel were investigated. The hot metal on individual heats was either all taken from a mixer or consisted partly of direct metal and partly of

Jan 1, 1937

By Dever C. Ashmead

Coal companies in the anthracite region are studying various methods of mining, seeking one that will shorten considerably the life of the gangway and thus decrease the maintenance charges. In steep pitching measures, the maintenance charges of the gangways are high because of the cost of replacing timbers and cleaning up falls. Therefore, if the length of the gangways can be decreased and the mining made more concentrated, the life of the coal gangways will be decreased and the maintenance charges per ton of coal produced will be smaller. The practice in the anthracite region is to drive long coal gangways and to work the breasts as the gangway from which they were driven is advanced. In many cases these gangways are from 4000 to 6000 ft. in length; and some are even longer. As these must be maintained not only until they have reached their limit but until second mining begins (which may be some years later), the maintenance charges are high. If the gangway is allowed to close, when the time comes to remove the pillars the cost of re-opening it may be as expensive as the original driving cost. The Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Co., at its Wanamie Colliery at Wanamie, Pa., has been using a system of mining that, as far as the writer knows, is not used in any other place in the anthracite fields. The

Jan 1, 1925

By Fred P. Dewey

IN preparing material for the exhibit of the National Museum at the New Orleans Exposition in 1881, it was decided to attempt to photograph the interior of a coal-mine, in order to get a strictly truthful representation of a thick coal-seam, and to show incidentally the methods of mining. While we have many drawings, both mechanical and artistic, illustrating the subject, they are not satisfactory for these purposes, simply because they are drawings. Aside from this, much interest attaches to pictures of inaccessible places, and the enlarged copies (30 inches by 40 inches) of the photographs we succeeded in obtaining, have attracted a large amount of attention from the visitors to the Museum. The Kohinoor colliery, Shenandoah City, Pa., was selected as most suitable for the attempt, principally on account of the fine exposure of the Mammoth bed, and the comparatively level character of the workings, in that colliery. This is one of the many anthracite-mines of the Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Company. A detailed section of the fiftyfoot or Mammoth bed in this colliery is as follows: Feet. Inches. 1 0 Clod. 1 7 0 Coal. 1 0 Slate. Top Split. 8 0 Coal. 1 6 Slate divider.* 6 0 Coal. 1 0 6 Slate. 2 6 Coal. 0 5 Slate. 1 8 Coal. 1 2 Charcoal. 5 0 coal. 1 0 Bone and Coal. „ „ Coal. [ Bottom Split. 0 6 Bone and Slate. 3 0 Coal. 0 10 Bone and coal. 1 2 Coal. 0 2 Bone. 4 4 Coal. 0 1 Bone. 0 8 Coal.

Jan 1, 1888

By R. A. MacGregor

The Stanrock mine of Stanrock Uranium Mines Ltd. is located on Quirke Lake in the Elliot Lake area of northern Ontario, about 25 miles north of Lake Huron. The property was developed and brought into production at a rate of 3000 tons of ore per day during the uranium boom of the mid-1950's. The mine workings are from 1200 to 2100 ft below sea level. Mining was done by the room-and-pillar method with 65 to 80% extraction. The plant is located at an elevation of 1400 ft above sea level. The orebodies are conglomeratic beds, 6 to 40 ft in thickness and dipping 5º to 40º. The ore is a quartz pebble conglomerate with a pyritized sericitic matrix. The ore minerals are brannerite, frequently intergrown with anatase or rutile, uraninite, and some monazite and minor coffinite and thucolite. Sulfides constitute 5 to 10% of the ore as pyrite with minor amounts of pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite and galena.

Jan 3, 1969

By V. C. Perini

The North Central Texas district as herein defined includes the counties of Brown, Callahan, Coleman, Comanche, Coryell, Eastland, Erath, Fisher, Hamilton, Haskell, Hood, Jones, Lampasas, Mills, Nolan, Palo Pinto, Parker, San Saba, Shackelford, Stephens, Stonewall, Summer-ville, Taylor, Throckmorton and Wise. These counties as listed are the counties of District 7B, State Railroad Commission. In the new designation of districts for the Transactions, the North Central Texas district includes most, but not all, of the counties of the previously classified West Central Texas district. This district covers the south central crest and the west flank of the Bend flexure north of the Llano uplift. The west flank of the Bend flexure is on the east boundary of the Permian Basin of West Texas. The greater part of the oil and gas produced in this district has been from Pennsylvanian strata. Some oil and gas has been produced from the lower Permian (by the latest, selection of the Pennsyl-vanian-Permian boundary) and minor amounts from the Mississippian and Ordovician sediments. Increasingly important quantities of oil and gas are to be expected from the older sediments by deeper development in proven fields and by new discoveries. Most of the oil and gas in the district has accumulated in localized, well-defined structural traps in limestone and sandstone reservoirs and in traps due to stratigraphic changes in sedimentation, mainly porosity traps in limestone and sandstone lenses, both usually associated with some structural feature. These features are found by surface and subsurface geological structural mapping, by core drilling and by geophysical surveying. Geochemical methods are also the basis for some wildcatting. The demand for sweet crude oil from this district is firm for local and national consumption, but the market price for the oil remains practically the same as in 1941. The price is not adequate to meet the requirements of the average independent operator with the continued advance in production, tievelopment and wildcatting costs. Stripper wells are being plugged daily and should be jealously saved for the future local and national reserves, especially in view of the fact that new discoveries of commercially important oil and gas reserves are not keeping pace with consumption. An expected economic disruption attendant upon the national war effort has arisen and continues in the future outlook for this district. The lack and delay of securing replacement parts for almost all oil-field equipment has handicapped and delayed operations and has decreased efficiency in wildcatting, development and production. Sufficient experienced drilling, scientific and office personnel is lacking because of inductions in the armed forces and migration to war industries during the period before manpower conservation became effective. The office personnel of the average oil and gas producer continues to be swamped by the increasing demands for reports by state and federal bureaus. An average of IQ days

Jan 1, 1944

By V. C. Perini

The North Central Texas district as herein defined includes the counties of Brown, Callahan, Coleman, Comanche, Coryell, Eastland, Erath, Fisher, Hamilton, Haskell, Hood, Jones, Lampasas, Mills, Nolan, Palo Pinto, Parker, San Saba, Shackelford, Stephens, Stonewall, Summer-ville, Taylor, Throckmorton and Wise. These counties as listed are the counties of District 7B, State Railroad Commission. In the new designation of districts for the Transactions, the North Central Texas district includes most, but not all, of the counties of the previously classified West Central Texas district. This district covers the south central crest and the west flank of the Bend flexure north of the Llano uplift. The west flank of the Bend flexure is on the east boundary of the Permian Basin of West Texas. The greater part of the oil and gas produced in this district has been from Pennsylvanian strata. Some oil and gas has been produced from the lower Permian (by the latest, selection of the Pennsyl-vanian-Permian boundary) and minor amounts from the Mississippian and Ordovician sediments. Increasingly important quantities of oil and gas are to be expected from the older sediments by deeper development in proven fields and by new discoveries. Most of the oil and gas in the district has accumulated in localized, well-defined structural traps in limestone and sandstone reservoirs and in traps due to stratigraphic changes in sedimentation, mainly porosity traps in limestone and sandstone lenses, both usually associated with some structural feature. These features are found by surface and subsurface geological structural mapping, by core drilling and by geophysical surveying. Geochemical methods are also the basis for some wildcatting. The demand for sweet crude oil from this district is firm for local and national consumption, but the market price for the oil remains practically the same as in 1941. The price is not adequate to meet the requirements of the average independent operator with the continued advance in production, tievelopment and wildcatting costs. Stripper wells are being plugged daily and should be jealously saved for the future local and national reserves, especially in view of the fact that new discoveries of commercially important oil and gas reserves are not keeping pace with consumption. An expected economic disruption attendant upon the national war effort has arisen and continues in the future outlook for this district. The lack and delay of securing replacement parts for almost all oil-field equipment has handicapped and delayed operations and has decreased efficiency in wildcatting, development and production. Sufficient experienced drilling, scientific and office personnel is lacking because of inductions in the armed forces and migration to war industries during the period before manpower conservation became effective. The office personnel of the average oil and gas producer continues to be swamped by the increasing demands for reports by state and federal bureaus. An average of IQ days

Jan 1, 1944

By Robert Palmer

So MUCH has already been written on this vast subject of ground movement and subsidence, and so many data collected and commented upon, that in this paper the author proposes to confine himself to the submission of some plans showing what has actually occurred in the mining of several of the orebodies which have, come under his direction during the last 20 years or so at Rio Tinto, Spain. Some notes are added for the purpose of describing the plans. The author does not attempt to give his opinion as to the reasons why the subsidences have occurred in the manner in which they are found, but confines himself to giving as true a picture as possible of the movements that have taken place.

Jan 1, 1930

By M. H. Caron

D. C. Ralston—The fact that none of the organizations that have worked on these ammoniacal leaching processes have contributed discussion of Mr. Caron's papers today is a matter of some disappointment. Adaptations, modifications and improvements have been made by several organizations or individuals and to complete the record I want to document a number of them. The Nicaro Nickel Co. operated a Government owned plant at Nicaro, Oriente, Cuba, during the past war. A report on the project was written for Reconstruction Finance Corp. and is in the document file collected by the Office of Technical Services, Commerce Department and filed with the Library of Congress, where it can be consulted or bibliofilm or photostat copies obtained by asking for copies of PB 97271. Nicaro Nickel Co. has obtained a series of U.S. Patents, my list (probably incomplete) of which bears the following numbers: 2,400,098; 2,400,114; 2,400,115; 2,400,461; 2,400,612; 2,458,902 and 2,473,795. International Nickel Co. has also studied the problem and U.S. Patent 2,478,942 shows that some of the complications involving occasional low extractions have been unraveled. Forward, Samis, and Kudryk, of the University of British Columbia, have also published a study of copper-nickel sulphide concentrate.' Others are interested and it is evident that this type of hydrometallurgy is likely to find a happy application in the not-too-far distant future. Caron's two papers practically amount to a summation of his life's work on the important subject of nickeliferous iron ores and the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers is fortunate to have been chosen the medium of publication. M. Rey—The ammonia leaching process has been the subject of certain studies in New Caledonia, but at the present time, the conditions are not very favorable to its adoption. The process is a combination of a thermal and a hydrometallurgical process. As a result, the first costs and the operative costs are rather high. To counteract this unfavorable situation, it would be necessary to make a very high extraction. But unfortunately, the process is delicate and in spite of all of Caron's valuable work, there are still many unknown factors. It is difficult to obtain regularly a high extraction, exceeding 75 to 80 pct. It would be interesting to have the opinion of Inter-national Nickel on the process and to know what the Dutch are doing in Celebes. M. H. Caron (author's reply)—I am quite familiar with the different types of nickel and cobalt ores as found on New Caledonia, and it may be pointed out that the Celebes ores are quite the same in their properties. Their behavior when treating the ores by the ammonia-leaching process is also alike and in my opinion, there is no reason why a high extraction of the New Caledonian ores could not be obtained if the process is properly applied. For the sake of completeness I may add that one of my patents has not been discussed in the papers. This patent deals particularly with the treatment of serpentine nickel ores. (Netherlands No. 62693 40a, French No. 965.786 April 21. 1948. and Cuban No. 13.625 Jan. 1950.) O F. A. Forward, C. S. Samis, and V. Kudryk: Trans. Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. (1948) 151 (Bull. 434) 350-355.

Jan 1, 1951

By C. Legrand

THE CHAIRMAN (B. B. GOTTSBERGER, Miami, Ariz.).-I think this experience of the Burro Mountain Copper Co. with oil engines as described by Mr. Legrand comes at a very opportune time. The fuel almost universally used in the mine power plants of the Southwest is oil. Additional economy in its use for power production is much to be desired. In the case of the Miami Copper Co., we have lately found it necessary to enlarge our power plant and, based on the experience of the Burro Mountain Copper Co., we have decided to install oil engines similar to those in their plant. I think it would be very interesting to have some discussion on this subject. Mr. Langton, did you tell me you had prepared some remarks?

Jan 12, 1916

By Henry Howe

THIS paper is a discussion of the extremely valuable one of Mathewson and Phillips, The Recrystallization of Cold-Worked Alpha Brass on Annealing,1 which not only gives us a wealth of important data reached with great intelligence, but also shows both uncommon powers of imagination and a perfectly fair spirit. Let me try to analyze some of their results, and to enunciate some of the laws to which these results point. For brevity I refer to them as "The Authors." The page numbers in parentheses refer to their paper. 1. The Visible Aspects of Recrystallization.-Plastic deformation in a single direction, as in cold-rolling, draws the grains out in that direction, that is, inequiaxes them, without destroying their apparent individuality. Each grain seems to endure the drawing out without changing either its volume or its orientation materially, for the etching tint of each grain seems to be as uniform after as before the drawing out, save for the "etch bands,"2 shown in Figs. A to D of the Authors' Plate I. As the drawn-out metal is heated progressively, on reaching a certain "disintegration temperature" these old grains seem to break up, probably into submicroscopic fragments, and this apparent disintegration is followed by a coalescence of these fragments, so that their number decreases and their size increases, till they may become very much coarser than before the drawing out. Ruder3 coarsened the grains of silicon steel in this way till single grains reached an area of 50 cm. (7.75 sq. in.). The deformation itself probably breaks each grain up into many very small fragments, but the fact that each grain continues to have a uniform etching tint different from that of its neighbors indicates that these fragments retain the initial common orientation of the grain. The apparent disintegration which we observe, then, is rather an abandonment of community of orientation for individuality of orientation, by the fragments formed earlier during the deformation. Hence we

Jan 10, 1916

By S. C. Sun, T. Chao

The reaction of gaseous sulfur trioxide with different aluminum-bearing minerals for the conversion of their alumina content into water soluble sulfates has been investigated. Theoretical considerations indicate that this reaction is thermodynamically feasible and that preferential sulfatization can be accomplished. The five minerals tested were gibbsite, boehmite, diaspore, kaolinite, and halloysite. In general, over 90% sulfatization could be achieved in 1 hr when using sodium sulfate as an additive at a temperature between 500° and 600°C. It was found that sulfates of the light alkali and alkaline earth metals exhibited some effectiveness in promoting the sulfa-tizing reaction. Selective sulfatization of alumina in a mixture of calcined halloysite and ferric oxide was accomplished. The gas-solid type of sulfatizing reactions have become increasingly important in recent years for the treatment of the oxides of such nonferrous metals as cobalt,' nickel,' manganese,3 zinc, and copper.4-6 Similar reactions were attempted in the present investigation for the recovery of aluminum from the low grade aluminous ores. Unlike the Bayer process in which silica is a serious contaminant, or the acid processes whereby iron usually causes difficulties, the reactions between gaseous sulfur trioxide and various aluminous minerals could hopefully be selective for aluminum. THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS Reactions between aluminum-bearing minerals and gaseous sulfur trioxide have been shown respectively in Table I and Fig. 1 to be thermodynamically favorable for temperatures below 1000°K approximately. Calculations of the thermodynamic functions were where ?G, ?H, ?Cp and ?S are changes in free energy, enthalpy, constant-pressure specific heat, and entropy of the system under consideration, respectively; T is the absolute temperature, R the universal gas constant, and K the equilibrium constant. Thermochemical data so far available for these calculations were based on sources given by T. Chao.7 In Table I, the free energy values indicate that reactions between the gaseous sulfur trioxide and

Jan 1, 1968

By Clinton H. Crane

WHEN I agreed to accept your Committee's suggestion that I talk to you at this meeting on the future of copper, lead and zinc mining, I could not help wondering why I had been chosen to be a prophet. Knowing the pious nature of your committee, I thought I had better look up and see what the Bible says about being a prophet, and what the dictionary definition of a prophet is. The word "prophet" comes from the Greek and is defined as "one who speaks through a divine inspiration." Also, in the Gospel of Saint Matthew, Christ tells us that a prophet is "not without honor save in his own country and in his own house." That gave me pause until I remembered that after all, I had started my professional career as a Naval Architect, not as a Mining Engineer, and consequently, this might be a clue to the fact that the eminent geologists of this society, who know infinitely more about the world's crust than I do, were passed over in this assignment. In thinking back, I then remembered that the first really successful prophet was Noah and that Noah was a Naval Architect. Here then was the answer. One more quotation from the Bible I shall take as my text: In Ecclesiastes, chapter I, verse 9: "The thing that hath been is that which shall be." Now, with this preamble, and not being bound by anything save inspiration, I will proceed to prophesy: As far as the next 15 to 25 years are concerned, from the studies made by

Jan 1, 1947

By R. F. Rolsten

The preparation of pure metals by the thermal decomposition of volatile halides was developed byde boer' and van Arkel.2 This has proved to be a useful technique for the refining of columbium,the mechanical and physical properties of which are seriously altered by such interstitial contaminants as oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, and carbon. The conventional deposition surface of a resis-tively heated metal filament was replaced, Fig. I, with an indirectly heated clear quartz surface. The impure columbium (feed) was contained in the annular space between the Vycor deposition bulb and the perforated molybdenum retaining cylinder. The head assembly was attached to the deposition bulb by fusing the Vycor at "A". This unit was then connected to a vacuum system composed of a three-turn glass coil to eliminate fracture due to vibration or expansion, a McLeod gage, a cold trap, a two-stage mercury diffusion pump, and a mechanical pump. The entire system was cold outgassed, and the 10 to 20 g of iodine in the auxiliary bulb (reservoir) was held in dry ice to prevent excessive loss of iodine. The columbium was hot outgassed at 800" to 825oC with the pressure maintained at l0-5 to 10-6 mm Hg for 48 hr and cooled under vacuum to 200° to 240oC. Iodine was sublimed from the reservoir and collected in the deposition bulb. The feed material temperature was adjusted to give the desired iodide vapor pressure and the finger temperature of 1000" C was independently attained and measured with a platinum-platinum 10 pct Rh thermocouple located in the center of the nichrome wire helical heating element, "F." The system was attended until temperature equilibrium was established, whence it operated without attention. This is a definite ad- vantage over the conventional "hot-wire" technique which required either constant attention or automatic control. In operation, the iodine vapor originally introduced into the vessel reacted with the crude metal to form a columbium iodide. This iodide vapor diffused to the hot deposition surface where it thermally decomposed, depositing columbium and releasing iodine. This liberated iodine then diffused back to the crude columbium where iodide was formed again. Thus, by repetition of this process, the iodine carried pure columbium from the crude material to the filament, where it deposited. The success of the "iodide" process in producing ductile metals depends on preventing the transfer of oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, and carbon from the feed material to the deposit. In many cases relatively minor quantities of these interstitial contaminants impair the ductility of metals. The material produced by the iodide process has such exceptional ductility that it is frequently and mistakenly assumed that iodide metal is always of very high purity. This assumption is not necessarily true since a number of metallic impurities can also be transferred. In the present investigation, the temperature of the feed material was adjusted to iodinate selectively and the deposition temperature adjusted to decompose the iodides selectively. By this technique, some metals present in the feed material were prevented from codepositing with the columbium. It is quite important to have the feed material symmetrically located around the deposition surface in order to obtain a uniform deposit at the maximum rate. For example, Runnalls and pidgeon3 observed that, when the base of a titanium filament was about 1 cm from the feed material, deposition was rapid on that section close to the feed, but that the rate decreased with distance from the feed so that a

Jan 1, 1960

Kaiser Sees Bright Future for Jamaica Kaiser Aluminum Co. has a big stake in the British West Indies, the Island of Jamaica in particular. There, Kaiser is busy developing one of the most promising bauxite finds in recent years. The $12 million operation was officially opened in February. Facilities have a rating of an annual capacity of 2 million tons and will supply Kaiser plants with ore for years. The ore comes across the Gulf of Mexico, up the Mississippi to stockpiles at Baton Rouge. The stockpile at Baton Rouge would throw many an old river boat skipper for a loss. Where no mountain once existed now stands a man-made bluff of bauxite, known as Bauxite Peak.

Jan 6, 1953

By H. Papazian, Robert A. Lad

SINCE it can be shown both theoretically'' : and experimentally that disordered Cu3Au has a greater internal energy than the ordered alloy, it might be expected that its chemical reactivity would be greater. Experiments were initiated' to test this hypothesis. This note will describe some recent results obtained in the study of the rates of corrosion of ordered and disordered polycrystalline Cu3Au by aqueous FeCl., The work of Robertson' has indicated that the attack by such solutions is intergran-ular and highly orientation dependent. It was of interest to see whether the order-disorder effect was great enough to overcome the variations from specimen to specimen which would arise from this type of attack. The polycrystalline alloy specimens (0.020 in. wire, 1¾ in. long) were preannealed in ½ atm H, at 700°C for 2 hr. The subsequent heat treatments to produce order and disorder were performed in M atm He. Disordered specimens were obtained by heating at 450°C for 2 hr and quenching in water. Ordered specimens were produced by heating for 2 hr at 450°, furnace cooling to 380°, and soaking at 380°C for 80 to 90 hr. Room temperature was reached by cooling to 150" at a rate never exceeding 7" per hr, and water quenching from 150°C. The specimens so produced exhibited electrical resistivities characteristic of the two states; of the order of 11.27x10 ohm-cm for the disordered, and 4.28x10 ohm-cm for the ordered specimens. The corrosion rates were studied at 30°C in ferric chloride solutions of several concentrations (?,¼, 1.5, and 1 molar). The specimens were attached to a stirrer during the tests. Tests were interrupted at intervals, and the specimen weight change was determined after washing and drying. Analysis of the solutions showed that the attack was limited to the copper. The higher corrosion rate for the disordered alloy, as illustrated in Fig. l, is typical of the results obtained. The effect of variation in ferric chloride concentrations is indicated in Table I for typical specimens. The variations in the ratio of reactivity for disordered and ordered specimens at the different concentrations are within experimental error, and the best value is estimated to be near 1.4. The experimental variation was due in part to the mode of attack, as mentioned, and in part to the fact that films were formed on the specimens under some conditions. Electron diffraction patterns of the films were very complex and indicated the presence of metallic iron, as did chemical analysis. In an attempt to eliminate the difficulties arising from the mechanism of attack, single crystal specimens were used. A greater reaction rate was again measured for the disordered specimens, but the reproduci-bility was no better than that for the polycrystalline metal. This would indicate that film formation was primarily responsible. It was concluded that the reaction with aqueous ferric chloride served to demonstrate that the reactivity of disordered Cu3Au is greater than that of the ordered alloy. However, the difficulties with film formation did not permit determinations of a precision great enough to warrant extension of the study to partially ordered alloy systems.

Jan 1, 1957

By Linda P. Bono

Some mining engineers are pursuing their destinies in places far removed from what they might have envisioned back in the classroom. The path they follow to work each day may wind down Wall St., Park Avenue, LaSalle, or Market; their offices are in modern skyscrapers which offer all the amenities-air conditioning, thick carpets, attractive decor, and executive lunchrooms, to name just a few. The papers on their desks are a combination of financial figures and feasibility studies. But even in these surroundings there are indications of what these men do and where their professional interests lie-minerals are everywhere, from vast collections to one symbolic paperweight. . . there are sometimes specks of dirt under fingernails from a recent on-site inspection, belying the traditional banker's garb. . . and there are the wistful comments about finding it necessary to get out in the field.

Jan 9, 1978

By Charles W. Bauer

Most of the aluminum produced in the United States today is derived from foreign bauxite deposits. Earth Sciences, Inc. initiated a program to evaluate domestic non bauxite sources for alumina in the 1960's. In the initial evaluation of alunite, domestic resources were not sufficient to support development. An exploration program led to the discovery of large deposits of alunite in Utah and several other western states. Identification of alunite is difficult as both its physical and chemical characteristics are similar to the minerals with which it is associated. Most of the significant alunite deposits in the western United States are replacement type deposits. These deposits have formed as a result of hydrothermal alteration of volcanic, sub-volcanic, and igneous rocks. Typical alunite deposits contain between 30 and 50% alunite and 50 and 70% quartz, with minor amounts of other minerals. Four mineralogical zones are common in these systems. They include a siliceous zone, a quartz-alunite zone, a kaolinite zone, and a chlorite-montmorillonite zone. Total US reserves of alunite were estimated at 20 Mt fat 30% alunite) by the US Bureau of Mines in 1941. More recent work by the US Geological Survey estimates reserves of 252 Mt and potential resources at 1.4 Gt. Reserves and resources estimated for 23 properties on which field work has been done by ESI are considerably higher. Most of these properties have reserves and potential resources of several hundred million metric tons. The combined demonstrated reserves of these properties are estimated to be about 650 Mt. Inferred reserves are estimated at 2.5 Gt and potential resources at 8 Gt. It appears that the US has sufficient reserves and resources for alunite to be considered as a potential nonbauxite source of alumina.

Jan 1, 1982

By D. Walton, B. Chalmers

A preferred orientation is known to occur frequently in the columnar zone of castings. This has been attributed to a preferred direction of growth. However, no satisfactory mechanism was proposed by which the preferred direction of growth led to the preferred orientation. The purpose of this work has been to establish this mechanism. It has been found that in general the observed preferred orientations only develop when the preferred directions of growth reveal themselves by dendritic growth. A mechanism based on this premise is found to be in agreement with the experimental data obtained in the course of this work. WHEN a liquid metal is allowed to solidify in a mold, it usually freezes in three stages, distinguished from each other by the size and shape of the grains. The first zone to freeze (the chill zone near the mold wall) consists of relatively fine grains that are equiaxed in shape and random in orientation. The next zone consists of crystals that are elongated in the direction of heat flow, i.e., normal to mold wall. These crystals are much larger in cross section than the crystals of the chill zone and have a very strongly preferred orientation. This is the columnar zone. The final zone, which is absent in very pure metals, is again equiaxed and randomly oriented, but usually has a much coarser grain size than the chill zone. The purpose of this study is to describe and account for the crystal size and orientation in the columnar zone. The occurrence of a preferred orientation in the columnar zone is well known, and in 1940, Greninger' suggested that it is apparently related to dendritic growth although at that time the only data were for metals with the face-centered-cubic structure. Table I shows that the direction of dendritic growth and the crystal axis that follows the heat flow direction coincide in all cases so far studied. The term "dendritic growth" is used here to represent the branched type of morphology that is characteristic of growth into supercooled melts.' In addition to the supercooling which is necessary before nucleation will occur at the mold wall, the necessary supercooling for continued dendritic growth can be provided in a mold by heat flow into the already formed solid at an interface whose Liquidus temperature is depressed by an accumula-

Jan 1, 1960

By C. H. Mathewson, E. M. Thalheimer

In planning the present experiments, we have made a particular effort to secure that adjustment of working conditions which would render the forthcoming tests most serviceable by way of indicating the comparative properties of the three different commercial grades of copper used. More specifically, we have endeavored to obtain certain definite information with respect to the relative behavior under test of ordinary electrolytic copper and furnace-refined lake copper containing (a) a moderate percentage of arsenic and (b) a rather large percentage of arsenic, in addition to the usual content of silver and other impurities. These comparisons were made systematic and comprehensive by testing throughout a series of (eight) reductions running from 0 to 70 per cent. in the case of cold-rolled metal, and throughout a series of (15) temperatures running from 100' C. to 1,000" C. in the case of annealed metal. In other words, a survey of properties similar to that made by Grard,' in the case of electrolytic copper, was here repeated (with modifications) and extended to two other commercial varieties of copper. The great importance of copper both as a material of construction and as the base of our most important alloys (aside from steel) has led to innumerable investigations of its properties, particularly in commercial forms. Naturally, the merits of furnace-refined lake coppers us. those of the very pure electrolytic product have furnished the subject of much experimental work and animated discussion, wherein the effect of arsenic has by no means been overlooked. In the literature of the past 10 years,

Jan 1, 1917

The high-grade orebody at Miami was mined successively by top-slicing, shrinkage, stoping and under caving. The method described in this paper was developed to enable the low-grade orebody (36,000,000 tons assaying 1.06 per cent copper) to be mined at a low cost without further dilution of the grade. The method is clearly described and illustrated by drawings and photographs, and the original paper should be consulted as it is impracticable to abstract it, beyond noting that the mining cost is just under 40 cents per ton and the average grade of ore now being produced yields less copper than the mill tailing of 1915, the tons mined per day having increased from 4000 to 18,000 in the same period. Vertical and Incline Shaft Sinking at North Star Mine By Arthur B. Foote, Grass Valley, Calif. (Tech. Pub. No. 324: Class A. Metal Mining, No. 36) THE main shaft of the North Star mine is an inclined one following the main vein at an average dip of 26 deg., a vertical shaft intersects it at the 4000-ft. (incline) level, the incline continuing to the 6300-ft. level. At this point the vein was found to give out and a new vein, called the No. 1, was found to dip in exactly the opposite direction.

Jan 1, 1930