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By J. E. Russell, Y. J. Wang

In this paper, we report the results of a study of the characteristics of Texas lignite based on a proximate analysis data base previously published by the Bureau of Economic Geology, University of Texas at Austin and the U.S. Bureau of Mines. The original impetus for this study was the desire to perform a parameter study in connection with the siting of potential underground gasification tests in Texas. A numerical model of the gasification process was available and required proximate analysis data, among other parameters, as input. If proximate data were available for a particular site, a prediction of the product gas quality could be made. However, in preliminary siting studies, it would be advantageous to know what the desirable characteristics of the lignite are, in order to target general areas for drilling. Consequently, a parameter study was in order. This paper presents the methodology required to systematically vary proximate analysis parameters and estimate the corresponding energy content for various group(or formation)-facies classifications of Texas lignite.

Jan 1, 1983

By H. I. Smith

WHEN Spain established colonies on the North American continent, some of her land grants, in what is now the United States, reserved to the Crown deposits of gold, silver, and mercury. Later mineral rights were reserved under some of the English Crown charters involving land in the eastern part of North America, with provisions for the payment of royalties thereon to the Crown. Reservation of mineral deposits to the United States Government was instituted by an ordinance of Congress on May 20, 1785, which applied to such deposits in the Northwest Territory, then north of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi River, and provided that there should be reserved "one third of all gold, silver, lead, and copper mines, to be sold or otherwise disposed of as Congress shall hereafter direct." Little was known then of the mineral resources of the country; the Great Lakes copper region had just come into the possession of the United States by treaty and much of the western mineral land still belonged to France and Spain.

Jan 4, 1954

By C. W. Bildt

During many years of service in the iron and steel industry I have frequently found, as have also many other engineers, that the common devices used for feeding coal into gas-producers are not what they ought to be in order to secure the best economy. The hopper-and-cone so generally used is familiar to all, and a brief study of its action will surely satisfy everybody that this device has several serious faults. In the first place, the charging is intermittent, and depends entirely upon an attendant. When the hopper is frequently emptied, it may work fairly well, but even then it suddeinly discharges into the hot producers a large body of coal, which is often violently converted into gas that rushes into the furnace, and, as the damper for the combustion-air cannot be regulated every time the producer is charged, there will be an excess of gas, which goes up the chimney unburned. Between the chargings the quantity of gas generated decreases, and there will often be an excess of air in the furnace,

Jan 1, 1899

By William D. Carter

When the first Earth Resources Technology satellite (ERTS-A) is orbited by NASA next year, mineral exploration is expected to take a giant leap forward. There are many inherent advantages in going to space to study large regions of the earth, as existing space data have shown. A preview of what can be expected has already been provided by Gemini and Apollo color photographs taken over many parts of the world in the equatorial belt to 30ºN and S latitude. These comprehensive views cover some 100 sq mi, depicting prominent geologic features in a regional context. Placed side by side with mosaics of aerial photographs covering identical areas, the space pictures point up many inadequacies in the present airborne methods of data acquisition. To obtain a regional picture from aircraft, one must piece together many bits of data, and the final result suffers from variations in lighting and photographic reproduction that may obscure features important to the mineral explorer. By contrast, space photographs provide unsegmented synoptic views of large areas as they appear in a single instant under uniform lighting conditions.

Jan 1, 1971

In March 1962, over three months ahead of schedule, production began from the Ventersdorp Contact Reef of the Western Deep Levels Ltd. mine on the West Witwatersrand. Few mines have captured the interest of mining men and the public as has Western Deep Levels. It has presented the gold mining industry with a challenge which involved the opening of an ultradeep mine with the attendant problems of exceptionally heavy capital commitments ($77 million to start of production), high rock temperatures and pressures at great depths, cementation and pumping in an area notorious for the volume of subsurface water, and the necessity for entirely new thinking and the application of new ideas. HISTORY Not all the problems facing Western Deep Levels were, however, new. Situated 43 miles from Johannesburg, just off the main road to Potchefstroom, Western Deep Levels was the sixth company to undertake mining operations on what is known as the West Wits line and it could draw on the wealth of experience gained by other pioneer mines in the area.

Jan 12, 1962

By George M. Fowler, R. E. Illidge

Part I. Developing BY GEORGE M. FOWL INTRODUCTION The Tri-State district comprises an area of about 2000 square miles in southwestern Missouri, southeastern Kansas, and north [ ] eastern Oklahoma. The part that is in and contiguous to Missouri is still sometimes designated as the Joplin district (Fig. I). EARLY OPERATIONS Mining operations in what is now the Tri-State district date from about 1848 and have been continuous to the present. Apparently the first discoveries of ore were made about the same time near the present sites of Joplin, Oronogo, and Granby. Lead minerals were found at grass roots, probably in shattered rock in shallow excavations, then these minerals were followed in shear zones to deeper horizons. The mining of zinc followed. Before 1874, zinc ore was worthless and discarded as waste. According to published records, the total production of lead to that date was 49,000 tons of metal from 70,000 tons of concentrates. PRODUCTION The aggregate ore production from the Tri-State district was recorded at interval

Jan 1, 1943

By William J. Robinson

What is the cummulative rate of recovery of copper from a sulfide leach dump? The technical answers to this frequently asked question may vary from "I don't know" to "quite good" from people of the same company. Management also poses this question because it plays a vital role in planning future production. The answer is difficult because of the many variables between different operations such as physical construction of the dump, topography of the original site, characteristics of dump material, mineralization and water application. Each of these factors and others have a bearing on the rate of recovery. Anaconda's method of water distribution at Butte is unique in that each dump is drilled to allow physical injection of water into the dump. The injection holes are drilled vertically on 25 ft centers from the surface of the dump. Normally, the holes are drilled 40 ft deep and cased with 4-in. PVC perforated pipe. The pipe is perforated at one-foot intervals with four 1/2 in. diam holes at 90" spacing on the pipe circumference.

Jan 9, 1972

Polluted air and water, despoiled land and excessive noise are the unwelcome results of the population growth and a rising standard of living. The consumption of goods and services, including metal products and minerals, by all people is increasing so rapidly that civilization is in danger of destroying the environment in which it lives. This is true because every human activity affects the environment, whether it is air, water or land. While E. F. Osborn, director, U.S. Bureau of Mines, says . . . "some members of the mineral industry are reluctant to recognize environmental demands" . . . William T. Pecora Under Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior.. . says that, "to maintain levels of resource development and environmental quality needed to satisfy our affluence, we must trade off values rather than turn off troublesome operations." What it seems to boil down to is how much control of its operations is the mineral industry willing to accept-internal policing or strict government control? The answer lies in how well the mineral industry maintains a balance between mineral development and environmental quality.

Jan 1, 1971

By Eugene Guccione

FOREWORD-At the SME-AIME meeting in Las Vegas this year, the SME Publications Board and the MINING ENGINEERING Committee decided that a fitting way of celebrating the United States' bicentennial would be to publish an article in ME covering the great men in American mining. After some discussion as to the inclusion of financiers -men such as William Randolph Hearst, J. Pierpont Morgan, etc.-the group agreed that the feature should be restricted to the "nuts-and-bolt people," e.g., mining engineers, geologists, mineral processing engineers. Thus, from the AIME All Institute Honors roll and from the SME Awards list, the group chose these 11 historical figures: Herbert Hoover, Daniel C. Jackling, Henry Krumb, James Douglas, Rossiter W. Raymond, Hal W. Hardinge, Seeley W. Mudd, Erskine Ramsay, Howard N. Eavenson, Robert A. Richards, Arthur F. Taggart. What follows is an account of each of these great miners' achievements and the problems they faced, and an assessment by some of today's mining leaders of the challenges that lie ahead.

Jan 7, 1976

THE SOUTHWEST MINING SECTION of the National Safety. Council held a well attended two-day conference at Globe, Ariz., March 19 and 20; followed by two days of mine-rescue maneuvers at the Old Dominion mine in cooperation with the Globe-Miami District Mine Rescue and First Aid Association and the U. S. Bureau of Mines. C. L. Colburn of the Bureau had general charge of the arrangements and was chairman of the conference. All sessions were held in the Old Dominion Library. The program of papers was as follows: MINE FIRE PREVENTION AND FIGHTING What to do in Case of a Mine Fire. / Chas. A. Mitke, Consulting Mining Engineer, Bisbee, Ariz. Gunnite as a Fire Preventative. W. C. Browning, General Manager, Magma Copper Co., Superior, Ariz. Chemical Engineer's Part in Fire Fighting. Dr. L. H. Duschak, Consulting Chemical Engineer, San Francisco, Cal. Mine Fire Drills. A. C. Stoddard, Chief Mining Engineer, Inspiration Consolidated Copper Co., Inspiration, Ariz. Notes on the Installation of Fire Fighting Equipment in Mines. Benjamin F. Tillson, Assistant Superintendent, New Jersey Zinc Co., Franklin, N. J.

Jan 5, 1923

By Robert Glass Cleland

FROM the time of its organization down to 1917, a period of more than eighty years, Phelps, Dodge & Co. was seldom involved in what could be called a major labor difficulty. Behind this remarkable record lay both a philosophy and its practical application. The philosophy was an attitude toward society called the Golden Rule. That philosophy had been a living principle in the lives of the founders of the company, Anson Phelps, Daniel James, and William E. Dodge. Their successors, William E. Dodge, Jr., and Daniel Willis James, accepted the same philosophy. Dr. James Douglas governed his life by it. All of these men and their families had given tangible expression to that conviction in benefactions of great magnitude and variety-churches, hospitals, educational institutions, libraries, missionary undertakings, and other organizations for human betterment, such as the Young Men's and Young Women's Christian Associations, and the development of model communities about their mills and factories. According to the best standards of their generation, they had sought to improve the condition of labor,

Jan 1, 1952

By Gary E. Melickian

Last year's review was characterized as a year of politics and began an era of legislation. The 1972 review can be similarly characterized, with even more rigid health and safety regulations and environmental legislation. The mining industry should be aware of what's happening in the nuclear power and other fields as a result of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969, where the environmental impact of most major construction activities are already under close scrutiny. Section 102 of NEPA requires that all federal agencies include a detailed statement on specified environmental conditions as part of every report on proposed actions significantly affecting the quality of the human environment. All such environmental reports must consider the same general conditions: • The environmental impact of the proposed action. • Any adverse environmental effects which cannot be avoided should the proposal be implemented. • Alternatives to the proposed action. • The relationship between local short-term uses of man's environment and the maintenance and enhancement of long-term productivity. • Any irreversible and irretrievable commitments of resources which would be involved in the proposed action should it be implemented.

Jan 2, 1973

By S. F. Emmons

The first paper which appears in the published Transactions of our Institute is that read by our respected Secretary at its first meeting in Wilkes-Barre in May, 1871. It is entitled " The Geographical Distribution of Mining Districts in the United States," and presents a brief but masterly review of what was known of the distribution of our deposits of useful minerals, particularly the metals, not only from a geographical but from a geological stand-point. At the request of Dr. Raymond I agreed, somewhat hastily, perhaps, to write for this occasion a brief sketch of the geological distribution of the deposits of the useful metals in this country, in the light of the increased knowledge of the present day. In the time given no personal investigation was possible, and as it was therefore out of the question to attempt to make anything that could be considered an original contribution to the history of our ore-deposits, I have been obliged to limit myself to an examination of such pub-

Jan 1, 1894

By T. W. Lippert

CUBA fancies herself the "pearl of the Antilles" and, by many, Jamaica is called "blessed." But far to the southward lies what is seemingly the Caribbean's most glittering jewel, the sparsely-settled, Spanish-speaking United States of Venezuela, indeed blessed by nature to a lavish degree. Not a large country, Venezuela is leaping from the donkey to the airplane under the impact of its natural wonders. Angel Falls, dwarfing Niagara and seldom seen by man, is hidden in the cold, primitive and unexplored Guiana highlands along the southeast border. A few hundred miles northwest are the low and torrid coastal plains from which gush unlimited black-gold streams of oil. About midway are the Llanos-low-lying, savanna-type grasslands, beneath which large deposits of bauxite are as yet barely touched by the explorer's diamond drill. And jutting starkly upward 2000 ft from a surrounding expanse of savanna is a small mountain (see front cover), 11 miles long and 1 mile wide. It is, or was, La Parida.

Jan 2, 1950

By J. H. Craig

As a result of information that the Navy Department was questioning the advisability of raising the maximum allowable exposure temperature for zinc-coated steel parts from 500 to 750 F., it was decided to make a series of high temperature tension tests on several types of uncoated and zinc-coated steels. The objective was to determine at what temperature intergranular penetration of galvanized steel by zinc might take place under conditions of rapidly applied stress and temperature. Tests were conducted in the range from room temperature to 1400 F. In this range, low-carbon and high-carbon steels did not suffer any adverse effects due to zinc coatings. In fact, at 1400 F. the zinc coatings appeared to have a beneficial effect. In stainless steel, the coating had no effect up to 1000 F. Above this temperature, the zinc coating appeared to cause a marked loss in ductility and a less pronounced loss in strength. There was no visible evidence of zinc penetration of the stainless steel structure, but it was assumed that this was the cause of the adverse effect.

Jan 1, 1945

By Norman Carmichael

This paper describes the evolution of transportation at an important mining property, beginning at a time when the railhead was 400 mi. distant, and tracing the steps leading to the development of what is probably the heaviest ore train ever operated in underground mine service over narrow-gage tracks, a 300-ton ore train on a 20-in. track, at working costs closely approximating those obtained on systems involving much greater capital expenditure. Useful where geological and financial considerations render inadvisable the excavation and maintenance of large tunnels and heavier rolling stock. THE problem of transportation in the Clifton-Morenci district of Arizona has been one of peculiar difficulty and consequently has been an important factor in the cost of mining and treating the ores produced. From the crude beginning made over 50 years ago, many changes have been necessary to keep pace with the increased output of copper. A heavy-duty haulage system has developed on the original 20-in. track gage to meet the existent metal-mine conditions.

Jan 3, 1924

By W. H. Bassett

BERYLLIUM was discovered in 1798 by Vauquelin and the metal was first produced by Wohler in 1828 about a year later than his production of metallic aluminum. Beryllium remained dormant until about 1920 when the production of the metal by the electrolysis of a molten bath was carried out by Stock in Germany, closely followed by Dickinson in the United States and by Vivian in England. This may not have been the first time the electrolytic method was thus used but was the beginning of present-day methods. I believe the first commercial attempts in this country started with the Kemet Laboratories about 1924. Siemens & Halske in Germany were working on the same problem at about the same time. The work of the Kemet Laboratories was transferred to the Beryllium Company of America and later to the Beryllium Development Corporation. In 1926 1 made a considerable study of the beryllium¬copper alloys, using beryllium purchased from the Beryllium Company of America, and read a paper on this subject at the February, 1927, meeting of the A.I.M.E. However, I failed at that time to discover the properties of precipitation hardening which such alloys have in a very marked degree. After this publication the work on beryllium-copper alloys rested awhile. One cause for this was the difficulty of securing a supply of beryllium-at least at what might be considered a reasonable price. In 1926 the price was $200 per lb., a figure which held about the same both in this country and in Germany until the beginning of 1932, when it was offered here at $50 per lb. if taken in the form of a copper alloy which carried about 121/2 per cent beryllium. Somewhat later the 121/2 per cent alloy dropped to $25 per lb. of beryllium contained, which is the present price. Promise is made that with a greater consumption, production on a larger scale warrants a reduction in price to $10 per pound or less.

Jan 1, 1933

It is not often that a mining district is discovered, opened up, exploited and developed into a rich producer within the space of three or four years. Not until the year 1903 was the existence of the rich cobalt-nickel arsenides and silver of Northern Ontario even suspected by the mining public. But it is worthy of record that Dr. W. G. Miller, the man who has done so much to develop sanely and honestly the mineral resources of Ontario, pointed out [ ] the possibilities of this region at least two years before the first discovery was made. . Dr. Miller, then Professor of Geology at the School of Mining, Kingston, Ont., referred in these words to the district: "It will be seen from what has been stated on preceding pages that the district examined contains as great a variety of rocks as probably any part of the Province of equal area . . . Although few discoveries of economic minerals have been made in this territory, it may reasonably be expected that deposits of value will be found when

Jan 1, 1907

By J. M. Hassler

NOWHERE can there be found a more misleading statement than the old one that "Iron can be manufactured cheaper in the South." During the past decade ironmakers and users of iron have heard varied and sundry stories of the wonderful resources of the Birmingham district, including abundant ore and coal fields, cheap labor, a wonderful climate and similar industrial Utopian statements. Birmingham represents the major portion of the iron business in the South, acid as Birmingham fares so goes the iron business of the South. The intent of this paper is to shed some light on the actual conditions surrounding ironmaking in the South, especially in the Birmingham, or North Alabama, district. By a presentation of facts it is desired to point out that the "cheap iron" of the industrial South is a thing of the past, primarily because of increased labor cost and because labor is radically different in performance to what it was years ago. Also, because most of the raw materials needed in ironmaking that would be classed better than inferior are gone.

Jan 1, 1937

By Cresap P. Watson

ABOUT the time this magazine reaches its readers, Cresap P. Watson will celebrate his 53d birthday. If he spends that birthday at his West Los Angeles home, he won't be far, as distance is measured today, from Santa Barbara, where he was born on July 8, 1895. He is truly a member of a petroleum family; one brother, N. O. Watson, managed Royal Dutch Shell interests in Venezuela for years and is now general manager of the Caribbean Petroleum Co. at. Maracaibo; another brother, Rex, is vice-president of the Drilling and Exploration Co., while brother-in-law Ben Belt is an executive of Gulf Oil. His own life has centered in the petroleum industry since his first job in 1913 as camp cashier for a Mexican oil field at Tampico. Down on the isthmus of Tehuantepec he advanced to tool dresser and' production foreman for the company. The first World War interrupted his Mexican experience by transforming him into an artillery officer in France. Once the Army ceased to demand his services¬by then it was 1919-he returned to the task of furthering his professional career as agent for the Amerada Petroleum Corp. By 1927 he had reached the position in which he could be called an executive in the petroleum industry, having organized and become president of the Federal Royalties Co. His activities in local and national legislation affecting the petroleum industry increased as has his advocacy of the development of oil and gas fields under sound engineering and conservation principles through unitization or other co-operative forms of operation. Considerable amounts of his time go to the promotion of industry public relations.

Jan 1, 1948