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By D. F. Haley

The molybdenite deposits at Climax, Colo., have recently attracted considerable notice, because of their great size, as compared with other known deposits of the same mineral. Climax station, on the Colorado Southern narrow-gage railway, was at one time the Fremont Pass station on the Denver & Rio Grande. It is 141/2 miles northeast of Leadville, and exactly on the divide between the headwaters of the Arkansas and Blue Rivers. Climax station is 11,300 ft. (3444 m.) above sea level. The working tunnel of the molybdenum mine is about 1 mile from the railroad, and 900 ft. above it, at an elevation of 12,200 feet. The climatic conditions are severe, and snow can be expected during any month of the year. Winter sets in not later than Nov. 1, the snowfall is very heavy, and the ground remains covered with snow until June 1, and sometimes even later. From June 1 to Oct. 1, there is much rain and a little snow falls in the late afternoon nearly every day. In October, 1917, there was one of the biggest snowstorms and blizzards of the year. Being just on the divide, constant strong winds blow the fine, dry snow with such force that, during most of the winter, outside work of any kind is accomplished under most trying conditions. Within a few miles of Climax, some of the richest gold placers of Colorado occur. One of them, McNulty Gulch, was just across on the northeastern flank of Bartlett mountain. This mountain, therefore, was well prospected, and the presence of a bluish mineral and a yellowish one resembling sulfur was known to the old prospectors. They thought for many years that the blue mineral was graphite, and it is difficult to say when it first became definitely known that it was molybdenite. Claims had been staked as early as 1896, but it is evident that the prospectors at that time were looking for gold. In 1902, several claims were acquired by H. Leal, who drove a tunnel about 900 ft. (274 m.) long, probably to intersect a fault, which shows on the surface, and was thought to be a possible gold carrier. Gold was not found in paying quantities, but throughout its length the tunnel passed through a fractured silicified granite, showing a fairly uniform distribution of a fine-grained bluish mineral, which was finally determined as molybdenite. For several

Jan 1, 1920

By Charles Legrand

(San Francisco Meeting, September, 1915) THE problem of mine pumping is so much affected by local conditions, and those conditions are so liable to changes during the life of a mine, that the best system to use is difficult to determine. The experience of the;, writer has been that, in general, for copper mines, electric pumping is most satisfactory unless the quantity of water to be pumped is great or. the mine does not use electric power for any other purpose. As a rule, however, figuring on the cost of necessary power plant, the total cost of: installation is greater with electric pumps than steam- pumps. As the water is liable to be gritty, outside-packed plunger pumps are to be recommended, and if the water is not acid, or only slightly so, chilled cast-iron plungers pay for their extra cost very quickly in diminished cost of packing. With chilled plungers it is possible to use metallic, packing instead of soft packing, if the water, is not too gritty nor the lift too high. In vertical pumps this packing is satisfactory for lifts up to 400 ft., in the experience of the writer; and may be found satisfactory for higher lifts. For water slightly acid, cement-lined pump bodies have given good satisfaction. For acid. water, both plungers and pump bodies should be made of acid-resisting bronze. For high lifts, especially with gritty water, a satisfactory pump valve is difficult to find. To reduce the unbalanced pressure on the valve at time of opening it is advisable to have narrow seats; this, however, brings high pressure on the seats when the valve is closed. On large valves for lifts of 600 to 1,000 ft. we have used leather, hard rubber, vulcanized fiber, and soft brass; for clear water the latter has given best satisfaction. The difficulties due to grit make it advisable to have large sumps where water can settle, and if possible, to have two of them so that they can be cleaned alternately. At the mines of the Old. Dominion Copper Mining ,& Smelting Co.; Globe, it was found that a small air. ejector discharging into a mine car is a very convenient way to clean mud and sand from a sump. .

Jan 9, 1915

By Nathaniel Arbiter

In attempting to assess the contributions of Antoine Gaudin to the profession which he illuminated for almost a half-century, we will need to examine a very broad canvas. He was active in three significant areas: as a teacher; in research, both through his own endeavors and those of his students; and as a consultant to the mining industry and to the Government. Beyond these specific contributions, there was the major personal influence he had on scores of students, friends, and colleagues in the profession. If a single measure of the man's contribution is to be found, it will be the extent and direction in which he influenced the practice of his profession. To find this we should examine the state of miner- al processing when he began his activities in the 19201s, the progress which has taken place over the past half-century, and the part his activities played in this advance. However, there is a provocative and broader examination which I have chosen to make instead. This is to examine the past century in mineral processing through the lives of three men who, by common agreement, stand on the heights, both in teaching and in their contributions to industry: Robert H. Richards, Arthur F. Taggart, and the man whose memory we honor this evening, Antoine M. Gaudin. Their careers, by coincidence, cover just a century. This is also AIME's first century, and the first century of mineral industry education in the United States. In fact, mineral processing itself on any significant scale in the country encompasses only a century and a quarter. BEGINNINGS OF PRACTICE IN THE U.S. Before the 1840’s, U.S. mining, except for coal and iron ore, was on a small scale and was confined to the eastern states, with processing practically nonexistent. The 1840's saw the beginning of Michigan native copper production, including ore dressing; the 1850’s, iron ore production in Minnesota; and the 1860’s, lead production and processing in Missouri. But the most explosive event was the California gold rush after 1848, which not only brought tens-of-thousands of fortune hunters to the West, but also catalyzed broad mining activities and processing within the following decades. This was not only in California but, after the first fever of the gold rush subsided there,

Jan 1, 1976

By D. F. Haley

THE molybdenite deposits at Climax, Cool., have recently attracted considerable notice, because of their great size, as compared with other known deposits of the same mineral. Climax station, on the. Colorado Southern narrow-gage railway, was at one time the Fremont Pass station on the Denver & Rio Grande. It is 1412 miles northeast of Leadville, and exactly on the divide between the headwaters of the Arkansas and Blue Rivers. Climax station is 11,300 ft. (3444 m.) above sea level. The working tunnel of the molybdenum mine is about 1 mile from the railroad, and 900 ft. above it, at an elevation of 12,200 feet. The climatic conditions are severe, and snow can be expected during any month of the year. Winter sets in not later than Nov. 1, the snowfall is very heavy, and the ground remains covered with snow until June 1, and sometimes even later. From June 1 to Oct. 1, there is much rain and a little snow falls in the late afternoon nearly every day. In October, 1917, there was one of the biggest snowstorms and blizzards of the year. Being just on the divide, constant strong winds blow the fine, dry snow with such force that, during most of the winter, outside work of any kind -is accomplished under most trying conditions. Within a few miles of Climax, some of the richest gold placers of Colorado occur. One of them, McNulty Gulch, was just across on the northeastern flank of Bartlett mountain. This mountain, therefore; was well prospected, and the presence of a bluish mineral and a yellowish one resembling sulphur was known to the old prospectors. They thought for many years that the blue mineral was graphite, and it is difficult to say when it first became definitely known that it was molybdenite. Claims had been staked as .early as 1896, but it is evident that the prospectors at that time were looking for gold. In 1902; several claims were acquired by H. Leal, who drove a tunnel about 900 ft. (274 in.) long, probably to intersect a fault, which shows on the surface, and was thought to be a possible gold carrier. Gold was not found in paying quantities, but throughout its length the tunnel passed through a fractured silicified granite, showing a fairly uniform distribution of a fine-grained bluish mineral, which was finally determined as molybdenite. For several

Jan 8, 1918

By R. P. Heuer

In recent years an increasing amount of research work has been done on refractory materials for use in copper-smelting furnaces. A few of the larger refractories manufacturers have erected special research laboratories which are fully equipped to study the refractory problems of the smelter. A typical laboratory of this type was described in the January, 1929, issue of Mining and Metallurgy, in an article entitled "Methods of Research Newly Applied to Refractories," by W. F. Boericke. This particular laboratory is equipped for the manufacture of full-size refractory brick. It aims to study on a fairly large scale the behavior of various refractory raw materials and the effect of improved methods of manufacture. The refractories manufacturer has at his disposal the naturally occurring refractory oxides in various degrees of purity, mixed or combined with other oxides. In order to supply the copper smelter with a refractory brick that will permit the most economical operation of the smelting furnaces, it is necessary to have the optimum combination of a number of both physical and chemical properties in the brick. Unfortunately, nature has not provided any raw materials in which the perfect combination of these properties exists. It is, therefore, a problem for man's ingenuity to seek out the most desirable raw materials and develop methods of manufacture that give, in the resultant product, the necessary combination of properties in as full a measure as is possible. In the laboratory it is possible to carry out fairly broad experiments with this objective. It is first necessary to obtain and process the raw materials, then to manufacture them into brick and finally, to test these bricks under conditions designed to interpret or simulate in the laboratory the actual conditions in the smelting furnace. It is necessary for the research engineers to determine certain fundamental properties in the brick which may be subjected to laboratory measurements and to interpret these measurements in terms of brick performance in smelting-plant practice. Such procedure is not what might be called an exact, scientific one but it has been found that great progress can be made when these principles are applied. For example, the resistance of refractory brick to spalling and thermal change can be related to the thermal expansion of the refractory, its thermal conductivity and heat capacity and its

Jan 1, 1934

THE assay of all metal ores is made by means of fusion and they are brought to their fineness in the same way as if they were a large quantity. However, I have told you of lead, tin, copper, and iron in their own places, that they are smelted in order to obtain a good assay so that one may know from its weight whether the quantity justifies the expense. This is their assay, for it does not matter whether it be done with great exactness. But the eye is turned with much more care to the assaying of silver and gold, since they are things of value, and one tries to have a more exact knowledge of them. Thus, when you have found the mountain and the vein of ore in it, and have also uncovered it or extracted it from the mine, it is necessary to make an assay of it, for though it is often apparent to the experts what kind of metal it contains, nevertheless they do not know for sure what virtues or evilness it may have unless the light of the assay itself shows them. Therefore it is necessary to extract a quantity in some way that is as free from rock and as good as possible. To a part of this, without any addition, a smelting fire must be applied in order to see whether it can be smelted easily. If it does not smelt by itself, you must consider and try to understand what causes this, for many times it comes from the rock which accompanies it and which contains much dryness and earthiness. I do not believe that one can know this with other judgment than by experiment with powerful and strong fires. Therefore, if the efforts of ordinary methods do not succeed, it is necessary to try to soften them by means of the company of fusible things-now with marble, now with ground glass, now with lead, galena,* or litharge from lead, or with iron scale, or else with the slag of other ores. With small operations even borax, saltpeter, or ochre is used and similar things, as I shall tell you in detail in the discussion of the preparation of ores for smelting. In short, try to see whether they can be overcome by adjustment of the fires or by virtue of the means

Jan 1, 1942

H. G. KNOX,* Norfolk, Va. (written discussion?).-There is one subject that Mr. Hobart seems to have inadvertently omitted from his very valuable paper, and that is corrosion. The shipbuilder, perhaps more than anyone else, has constantly to guard against it, our chief reliance being paint and galvanizing, where practicable. The corrodibility of a welded. joint is salt water must be determined before deciding whether this type of construction is to supersede riveting. At the present time, this question cannot be answered, although considerable work has been started in an attempt to arrive at a conclusion. The British Admiralty and several British shipbuilders have studied it extensively. Their experiments and conclusions have been very carefully followed and reported in this country by Naval Constructor Goodall of the British Navy. To date, these show that no undue fear need be felt from corrosion. At the Norfolk Navy Yard a series of plates welded with various electrodes were submerged in dilute sulfuric acid, such as is used in cleaning prior to galvanizing. While this test may not be conclusive in any quantitative way, it does show a marked difference in the corrodibility of welds made with different electrodes tinder different conditions. To thaw any conclusions from this accelerated this accelerated test would be, however, ill advised. In riveted joints, the exposed heads and points of the rivets always show the greatest tendency to corrode. This is clue to two reasons: first, as they are raised above the surrounding surface the paint is more susceptible to abrasion; and, second, electrolytic action is set up between rivet and plate. These same reasons lead us to expect a tendency of the welded joint to corrode. Various methods have been suggested for decreasing the probable inherent corrodibility of the weld, in addition to the customary coat of paint. These generally embody the introduction of alloys, principally copper; into the electrode material. Plating the electrode with copper is not effective in that the deposited copper segregates in the weld and actually increases the electrolytic action. As far as is known, no extensive test on the so-called copper-bearing alloy steels, which might be made up into electrodes, has been carried out, but when obtainable, electrodes of this alloy will be subjected to service tests.

Jan 6, 1919

Harry HaRkness Stoek, whose sudden death on March 1,1923, was a great shock to his friends in all park of the country, was a man of remarkable personal characteristics and mental ability. Through an acquaintance with him of nearly 35 years, during 12 yeam of which I was intimately associated with him both in business and socially, I learned to appreciate his many high qualities, his strict adherence to high professional and social ideals, and his lovable traits of character. In this appreciation I was joined by every one who was thrown in close personal contact with him. He was a conscientious student, not given to hasty judgments, but when he formed an opinion he was positive in upholding it. At the same time, he was most courteous and kindly in combatting that which he believed was erroneous. In fact, I never knew a person of his attainments more modest, forceful and kindly, or one who had a keener sense of clean humor. In his private life,he was a devoted husband and father, a consistent communicant and worker in the Episcopal Church, and was charitable in all things. In fact, his whole life was marked by helpfulness to others and a determined and successful effort to "make the world better by his having lived in it." Doctor Stoek was born in Washington, D. C., Jan. 16, 1866. His early education was obtained in the public schools of that city and he graduated from the Central High School in the first class to graduate from a high school in Washington. He entered Lehigh University in 1883, graduated in 1887 with the degree of Bachelor of Science, and after a year of post-graduate study in mining and metallurgy he received the degree of Engineer of Mines. During the summer vacation in 1885, he served as an assistant in the Department of Mineralogy in the National Museum at Washington, and during the summer of 1887 acted as U. S. Government inspector of dredging on the Tharnes River, Connecticut. From June, 1888, to January, 1900, he was assistant engineer for the Susquehanna Coal Co., at Wilkes-Barre, Pa. From January, 1890, to June, 1893, he was Instructor in Mining, Metallurgy and Geology at Lehigh University, and had charge of all courses in mining and metdlurgical design, and the visits of students to mines and metallurgical

Jan 1, 1923

By George Watkin Evans

The need for mechanization in coal mining wherever it can be successfully introduced is evident when we take into account the fact that during recent years the coal-mine employee's wages have increased and his hours have been shortened. Coal is no longer King, and a brief study of statistics covering the production of coal, petroleum and natural gas and the development of water power will convince anyone that coal has had very powerful competitors during the past 10 years. Petroleum production in the United States between 1918 and 1936 increased from 100 per cent to 309 per cent. Water power increased from 100 per cent in 1918 to 270 per cent in 1936. Bituminous coal slipped from 100 per cent in 1918 to 75 per cent in 1936. The anthracite industry slipped from 100 per cent in 1918 to 50 per cent in 1932, but climbed to 55 per cent in 1936. In 1918, the State of Washington produced a little over four million tons of coal and the production of California oil, at that time, was a little less than one hundred million barrels per year. By 1929 the production of California oil had increased to a little over 292,000,000 bbl. or nearly 300 per cent as compared with 1918. By 1934 the production of coal in the state of Washington had dropped to about 1 1/3 millions of tons per year. Our neighbors in British Columbia had their coal production reduced from a little over 2 1/2 million tons in 1920 to less than 1 1/3 million in 1933. The North western Improvement Co., a subsidiary of the Northern Pacific Railroad Co., owns coal properties in various parts of Washington and Montana. The Northern Pacific is one of the very few railroads using any considerable quantity of coal in its operations. Practically all of the American railroads in the Pacific Northwest, except the Northern Pacific, are using cheap California fuel oil or electricity. This problem, of course, is not a new one in coal mining, and all of the progressive coal companies in the country have tried to meet competition from an overproduction of petroleum and an overproduction of natural gas as well as enlarged developments of hydroelectric plants.

Jan 1, 1938

By Walter Stern

The self-potential or spontaneous polarization method is one of the oldest in the field of electrical exploration. When applied in prospecting for ore bodies, it is one of the most rapid and inexpensive means of locating indications of ore bodies at shallow depth. Usually, the procedure is to survey the equipotential lines of the electrical field that is generated by the electrochemical activity of the ore near the ground-water level, and to localize the so-called negative centers or points of greatest negative anomaly. Another field procedure involves the measurement of potential differences along potential profiles, generally laid out at right angles to the assumed strike. Again, in such survey, the basis for establishing the presence of ore is the location of negative potential anomalies. The earlier writers on the subject, notably Schlumbergerl and R. C. Wells,2 did much to clarify the fundamental electrochemical phenomena involved. Interpretation of the field data, however, remained largely qualitative. In 1925, A. Petrovsky3 analyzed the relation between the shape of the potential anomaly curve and size and depth of an Ore body by assuming the subsurface body to be a polarized sphere.' Along similar lines of approach, Edge and Laby5 considered the ore body a dipping sheet with limited extent in the direction of strike, while Poldini6 based the theory on the assumption of a dipping bar. The following study endeavors to enlarge upon these earlier investigations and attempts, on the basis of the potential distribution of a polarized bar, to indicate certain characteristics of the anomaly curve that make possible the determination of depth, size and dip of a subsurface body. The Spontaneous Polarization Field Set Up by an Ore Body If a sulphide ore body is subjected to oxidation varying in degree in its upper and lower parts according to the difference in the concentration of oxygen within the surrounding medium, an electrical potential field is set up. The form and distribution of this field will be investigated herein with special reference to its components on the earth,s surface. Under the simplifying assumption that the ore body may be considered as a dipole with the point sources Q1 and Q2 situated at its upper and lower ends (Fig. I), the potential of the spontaneous polarization at point P is given by the following equation:

Jan 1, 1946

Discussion of the paper of E. C. HARDER, presented at the Pittsburgh meeting, October, 1914, and printed in Bulletin No. 94, October, 1914, pp. 2573 to 2586. I. C. WHITE, Morgantown, W. Va.-I have seen some of the great iron-ore deposits described in this paper. -One of these in the State of Minas Geraes appears to be an immense mountain of iron ore about 2,000 ft. in height. All over its surface from bottom to top may be seen large masses of rich iron ore, varying in weight from a few pounds to several tons, and from all that one can judge without exploitation, the quantity of available ore is certainly very large in this particular mountain. Whether it will prove a mere surface deposit or shell, like the famous Iron Mountain of Missouri, is for future exploration to determine. The question of transportation is the main factor in determining the availability for exportation of these Brazilian iron ores. There is no coal in Brazil that can be manufactured into coke without expensive previous treatment, since the best of the raw coal in the States of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catharina, and Parana, contains about 35 per cent. of ash, of which about 6 per cent. is sulphur, and coal of this composition cannot be utilized in iron smelting without purification. When I was chief of the Brazilian Coal Commission in 1904 to 1906, I had a cargo of this coal shipped to Balk, Germany, and treated in the great coal-testing plant of the Humboldt Engineering Works, located just across the Rhine from Cologne. It was found that by crushing and washing the Brazilian coal, it yielded 33 per cent. of briquetting coal, containing only 10 to 12 per cent. of ash (of which 1 per cent. was sulphur), and 42 per cent. of slack coal, with 25 per cent. of ash and low in sulphur, so that about 33 per cent. of the Brazilian coal could be converted into coke of fair quality, as shown by the following average of three analyses, using air-dried coal, of briquets made from the Barro Branco coal bed, State of Santa Catharina: Moisture 1.56 Volatile matter 31.66 Fixed carbon 56.73 Ash : 10.05 Total 100.00 Sulphur 1.34 Phosphorus 0.003 B.t.u 13,395

Jan 4, 1915

Discussion of the paper of O. P. Hood, presented at the Pittsburgh meeting, October, 1914, and printed in Bulletin No. 94, October, 1914, pp. 2607 to 2611. R. V. Norris, Wilkes-Barre, Pa.-I have had a little experience with gasoline locomotives and I want to indorse very strongly Mr. Hood's point with regard to the danger of carbon monoxide poisoning. I think .the terrible danger is not fully realized. I was foolish enough some time ago, in investigating a gasoline locomotive, to attempt to walk out of the mine entry behind it, and for several days I felt very seriously the carbon monoxide effects. The use of gasoline locomotives ought to be confined to mine entries where there is a very large amount of air. One of the grave dangers is their great convenience and the temptation to run them into chambers for just a few moments to get a car or two. GEORGE S. RICE, Pittsburgh, Pa.-Apparently one of the great dangers is in the style of the gasoline engine. When my attention was. first directed to the type of gasoline locomotives which I saw in the foreign mines-France, Belgium, and Germany, I was most favorably impressed with them, and they have given no trouble on account of fumes, so far as I could learn. Large numbers of them were being used, but all were of small capacity, and of a kind in which the speed control is by a governor of the hit-or-miss type, the engine running continuously. Their power capacity was very low, if I remember correctly it was not over 4 or 5 h.p., but they were used under favorable conditions where the grades in the mines were slight, since the entries or tunnels bad a slight grade in favor of-the load, making about the same pull for the empties against the grade as for the load with the grade. I understand the hit-or-miss valve arrangement enables a setting that will give more perfect combustion than can be insured with the valve controlled by the operating man, as in the automobile type of valve and engine used in this country. Apparently the European type of locomotive does not have the capacity to permit use under the conditions existing in this country, where most of our entries or tunnels have variable grades and long heavy trips of mine cars are used.

Jan 4, 1915

By Edward F. Fitzhugh

Quantitative appraisal of the chances of finding various tonnages and grades of ore clarifies any exploratory development proposal. Ways are discussed of appraising chances in conformance with probability principles, and graphs are suggested to show tonnages, grades and the corresponding judged expectancies. Introduction When exploratory development of a mineral deposit is contemplated, three interrelated questions normally must be answered before a sound decision can be reached. How much will the program cost? How much will the anticipated ore add to the immediate value of the mine? And what is the chance of developing this ore? To justify development, the deposit should present a favorable disparity between the three factors, cost, chance and return. If, for example, there is a 50-50 chance of success, the ore that is sought should have an immediate worth (after deducting all subsequent charges that it must bear) of more than twice the cost of the development. Likewise, if the chance of finding the ore is but one in five, that ore should enhance the immediate value of the mine by more than five times the cost of developing it- With sound economic and operating assumptions, the cost of exploratory development and a present value of anticipated ore may be estimated within reasonable limits. Less general attention has been given to appraising ore chances in comparable terms. The exploratory experience of the mining industry is broad enough that knowledge, vision and judgment may be combined to yield more tangible evaluations of Ore expectancy than are now customary' A way of making such appraisals is suggested herein. The mathematics of probabilities cannot be applied directly to the search for ore. By coupling applicable principles of probability, however, with pertinent experience gained in mineral exploration, an estimate often can be made of the chance of finding a certain tonnage and grade of Ore in a specific location. Such estimated, or judged, expectancies for the several blocks of ground in a deposit may be combined in a simple chart to show the relationship of the various exploratory possibilities and the potential magnitude of the deposit' An engineer or geologist may find that the quantitative thinking required for an appraisal of this type is an aid in clarifying and coordinating his views and recommendations. For a person wishing to understand these views, an ore-expectancy

Jan 1, 1949

Discussion of the paper of S. E. Bretherton, presented at the Butte meeting, August, 1913, and printed in Bulletin No. 80, August, 1913, pp. 1481 to 1487. S. E., BRETHERTON, San Francisco, Cal.:-Since preparing my paper, our chemist, F. L. Wilson, has been experimenting with Leadville, Colo., oxidized zinc ore and Leadville zinc sulphides containing lead, operating upon 40-1b. lots at a time. His results on Leadville sulphides are as follows: The raw ore contained a trace of gold, 5.04 oz. of silver, 19.1 per cent of zinc, and 7.24 per cent of lead. After roasting the ore contained a trace of gold, 5.72 oz. of silver, 0.75 per cent of copper, 21.7 per cent of zinc, and 8.29 per cent of lead. The loss in weight by leaching was 38.8 per cent. The extraction was 42.8 per cent of the copper, 80.6 per cent of the zinc, 7.1 per cent of the lead, 0.64 per cent of the silver, and no gold. The little .silver that is extracted would be thrown down with the copper when precipitating it from the zinc and both thrown hack into the residue to be smelted. There would be no trouble in smelting the residue with nearly all the sulphur eliminated and containing less than 7 per cent. of zinc. On zinc carbonates containing silicates the results are not satisfactory. H. O. HOFMAN, Boston, Mass. (communication to the Secretary*) :¬The paper by Mr. Bretherton upon the application of ammonia and carbonic acid to the recovery of zinc as oxide from roasted sulphide ore is of interest to me, as the first installation of the Schnabel process for the extraction of zinc from a mixture of zinc oxide, lead oxide (with some cupric oxide), and pellets of enriched lead, produced in steaming liquated zinc-silver-lead crust of the Parkes process, was made at Lautenthal, Harz mountains, where I was chemist. In that capacity I carried out numerous experiments on the Schnabel process, was active in the erecting of the plant, and later had charge of it. After the Lautenthal plant had been in operation for some time a similar one was built at Hoboken-les-Anvers, but both have been abandoned, as the wet process could not compete with the distillation of the liquated zinc-silver-lead crust, now used universally in the Parkes process.

Jan 11, 1913

By Arthur Notman

DURING the past fifteen years there has been a great change in the methods of treating employ-ment and discharge throughout industry. Perhaps nowhere has this change come more abruptly than in the metal mining districts of the West. In 1909, when I went to work for the Phelps Dodge Corporation in Bisbee, their operations were roughly arranged accord-ing to shafts in seven divisions, each employing from 100 to 250 men underground, and the mechanical department employing some 250 men, mostly on the surface. The underground divisions were each in charge of a foreman who had under him a night foreman and from two to four shift bosses on' each of two shifts. These foremen reported to the underground superinten-dent and he in turn to the superintendent of the mine department. The mechanical department was in charge of the master mechanic who reported to the superintendent of the mine department. RUSTLING A JOB IN THE OLD DAYS It was customary for men seeking employment to "rustle" the division foreman at the shaft during the lunch hour or at the close of the day shift and the master mechanic at the shops. There was no real attempt at interviewing the applicants for underground work. They simply filed in and out of the foremen's office-50 to 150 strong-in ten or fifteen minutes. If the foreman needed men, and he generally did; to replace those that he and the shift bosses had removed during the morning, he picked out those he knew or strangers who took his' fancy. The former in many cases were chosen for negative reasons rather than positive. In selecting the latter, the foreman felt that if they failed to show ability promptly, he could replace them the next day, and often did so. Even if these foremen had been skilful and well trained in the art of selecting men, it would have been impossible under the pressure of other duties to exercise that skill and experience in so doing. The conditions in the mechani-cal department were little better. About all that can be said in favor of such a method was that with a sur-plus of labor it "got by." The labor shortage brought about by the war disclosed its fundamental weakness.

Jan 6, 1923

By Joseph Hays

MORE years ago than I care to admit I conferred the title of "combustion engineer? upon my-self since nobody else would confer it. I thought at the time, and for some, years thereafter, that my field was limited to the precincts where the fuel was being burned, but I found that I could stand in the door of the furnace room and hear distressed heat units calling for help all over the plant. Some of them were over-worked, others were compelled to do useless work, and still others, anxious to render a proper account of themselves, were not permitted to do any sort of work at all and were utterly wasted. The combustion engineer has something to do at that interesting occasion when the heat unit is being born in the furnace, but his responsibility does not end there. He must follow the little fellow throughout the entire period of its hectic existence in the plant and see that it gets a fair chance and a square deal everywhere. I fear that the general impression of the combustion engineer's duties is much as mine was in the beginning; that his job is limited to the implements and processes incident to the specific operation of converting fuel into active, heat energy and of applying it to the boiler, the still, or what-not, with the least possible waste. But is it not true that a heat unit saved in a remote corner of the plant means just as much to the fuel account as another saved at the furnace? And if nobody else is looking after the heat units out on the range why should the combustion engineer spend all of his time hanging around the corral? If combustion engineer is not a broad enough title to cover the man in charge of a general heat unit rescue campaign call him any-thing else you please. The job is all that counts. The name means nothing. A skunk by any other name would smell as bad. The greatest field I have ever found for general "heat rescue" work is the oil refinery. In refining we first put heat into the oil and then take it away from the vapor. The greatest heat losses occur during the cooling operation, but there are losses, many of them preventable, either wholly or partly, at every step of the several processes in oil refining.

Jan 3, 1928

By J. F. Bryson

A FULL description of past mining conditions in eastern Kentucky coal mines with reference to the cause of coal bumps and the preventive methods was given by the writer in a previous paper.1 At that time the method had been tried for a period of 13 months, successfully. The method has been enlarged add carried on for over two years, and is still successful. Recapitulating briefly from the previous paper: The No. 3 mine of the Mary Helen Coal Corporation, Coalgood, Ky., operates in the Harlan seam, and is worked by a room-and-pillar method. Cover varies from 1200 to 2000 ft. and the immediate roof over the coal is a hard, massive, sand rock, estimated to be from 70 to 90 ft. thick. The average height of coal throughout the mine is 46 inches. The reason for adopting the method were that in this mine five men had been killed by coal bumps between 1931 and 1934; many other men had been injured and coal-cutting machines had been thrown from under the cut. The morale of the workmen was at a very low ebb. Many remedies had been tried in other mines troubled by coal bumps, one method being to leave chain and room pillars in every 500 ft., to serve a bumping block; the idea being that if a bump took place it would act on the pillars left in the gob. Another method adopted was to board up a pillar, leaving a small opening at the bottom sufficient for shoveling coal. In this system the idea was that if a bump did occur on the pillar, the boards would stop flying coal so that no one would be injured. Many other methods were tried and it is safe to say that each mine troubled by coal bumps tried various remedies, none of which proved effective. On considering all that had been attempted in an effort to eliminate coal bumps, and the information gained by experience of coal bumps in various mines, it was thought that a long face with gob support would eliminate the trouble. Accordingly, on Jan. 15, 1935, a long face was started with wood cribs on 20-ft. centers. When the former paper was written on this method, the long face had been brought back a distance

Jan 1, 1937

By S. E. Bretherton

MOST metallurgists appreciate the great need of a process for the extraction and recovery of valuable metals from complex ore, where the presence of one metal increases the cost of extracting the other metals to such an extent that not any of the metals can be extracted at a profit. We need only refer to some of the mines in Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico, where oxidation has taken place and the sulphur, zinc, copper, and some of the iron and other metals have been leached out, large bodies of oxidized ore remaining, rich in lead, silver, and sometimes gold. These metals have been concentrated by the removal of the other metals, leaving a very desirable ore for treatment in the blast-furnace for the production of lead bullion, and recovery of the silver and gold. If lead is not present, the gold and silver are usually recovered by some method of milling, or the ore is shipped to a smelter, where it is mixed with lead ore or copper-iron sulphide ore from some other mine. In these same mines, when developed to greater depth below the leached or oxidized zone, the ore is found to contain the original mixture of sulphur, zinc, copper, etc., added to, or I should say left with, the lead, silver, and gold values; but instead of adding to the value of the ore, the presence of these elements, especially zinc, makes the copper, silver, and gold of less value, and often worthless. Such was the experience of the oldest mines in Leadville, Colo., until methods of mechanical separation of the lead from the zinc were developed sufficiently to allow of some profit by the making of a concentrate rich in zinc to be shipped to the zinc smelter, and sometimes a lead concentrate which could be shipped to the lead smelter; but even in these cases the waste of the different metals is a very serious matter. In the very best concentrating plants some zinc will be left in the lead concentrate, to be lost and to give considerable trouble in the lead-smelting furnace. On the other hand, some of the lead, with a large percentage of the copper and silver, will follow the zinc into the zinc concentrate, to be, perhaps, recovered y smelting the cinder or clinker left in the re-

Jan 7, 1914

By R. C. Mahon

THE importance of ground water control in glacial drift overlying mines is widely recognized. Adequate handling of the problem results in considerable saving in overall pumping costs, as the cost of pumping the larger quantity of water under low heads from surface wells is more than offset by the decrease in the quantity of water to be pumped from the mine under high heads. Eliminating or partly reducing seepage of water through the ledge reduces moisture content of the ore, a factor especially important in iron ore mines, where a reduction of 1 pct in moisture effects a very material saving. An important though indeterminate saving is also brought about by the elimination of water in the working places underground. The Homer and Wauseca mines of Hanna Coal & Iron Co. at Iron River, Mich., cover 480 acres. When these mines were started it was possible to operate on only one 40-acre tract, as the depth of water over the remainder of the property was too great to permit operation. Although the average depth of the ground water over the area being mined at that time was less than 50 ft it was necessary to pump 1200 gpm from the mine, the greater part from a depth of 750 ft. The slate footwall and graywacke hanging wall are almost impervious, and it was apparent that seepage into the mine was mainly through the iron formation in which the orebodies were located. Analysis of the water in the iron formation showed it to be of the same character as that in the glacial drift, while the water in both walls was heavily mineralized, also indicating that the water passed much more freely through the iron formation. The first attempt to take off the water above the ledge was by means of drainage drifts driven 15 to 20 ft below the ledge, Fig. 1. Various schemes were used to get the water into these drifts: 1—Holes 15 to 20 ft long were drilled from the back of the drifts to the ledge, but these were difficult to drill and blocked easily. 2—Sections of the drifts were blasted down. This gave a large flow for a time but eventually almost total blockup occurred. 3—Raises 4x4 ft were driven above the drifts to within 8 ft of the

Jan 1, 1955

By J. S. Wakeman

INTRODUCTION The primary purpose of comminution circuits in the mineral industry is to reduce an ore to a particle size that will permit separation of the valuable minerals from its gangue constituents. Wide variations in the mineral content and physical characteristics can and do occur throughout a given mineral deposit From the standpoint of their effects on the comminution characteristics of an orebody, these variations may not be identified by the normal sampling and analysis procedures utilized to delimit an orebody and to characterize its grade distribution. The proper design of a comminution circuit for a mineral deposit is very important to the success of that enterprise. It is also an expensive unit process both from the standpoint of capital and operating costs. It is, therefore, essential that any sampling program be designed to identify the variations that may occur that will affect this circuit. Because of the variety of comminution systems that are available, it is also essential that the sampling and subsequent evaluation program be sufficiently comprehensive to identify potentially inappropriate systems or flowsheets. It would be impossible to describe in a single chapter the techniques and approaches that should be utilized for sampling every type of orebody. Each orebody is unique and requires a sampling and testing program designed to its specific requirements for exploration, characterization and circuit design. The following is a general discussion of the guidelines to be used and considerations to be made in establishing such a program. SAMPLE SELECTION When sampling an ore deposit for the purposes of equipment and flowsheet selection for comminution, it is important that the sample composites for grind testing be chosen on the basis of how they will affect the comminution circuit rather than just how they might affect the subsequent metallurgical operations. For example, grindability, classification and liberation size characteristics are more important to the comminution circuit than ore grade. Mineral deposits may contain a multiplicity of ore types that can vary extensively in the dissemination of minerals and optimum liberation size requirements; and may also vary as much as 100% in ore hardness. The accumulation of samples for grind characterization should be done in such a way as to allow the identification of this variation. A proper mineralogical evaluation of the samples obtained to characterize an ore deposit can be a great aid in identifying the individual ore types within the deposit

Jan 1, 1982