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By J. R. Billingsley

The Sunro mine, operated by Cowichan Copper Co. Ltd., under lease from Sunro Mines Ltd., a Cominco subsidiary, is located on the south end of Vancouver Island. Exploration and limited development before 1960 established the existence of twelve mineralized zones. The "B" and "C" orebodies of the River zone contained an estimated 937,000 tons of 1.80r/, copper plus approximately 35 cents per ton of precious metals. On reviewing the indicated tonnage and the exploration possibilities in the River zone and the other eleven zones it was decided to construct a 1500-tpd mill. In August 1961, excavating of chambers for a crushing plant and concentrator located underground near the River zone began.

Jan 12, 1963

By Alex G. Sciulli

This paper discusses the primary computer programs used by the Mine Safety and Health Administration's Bruceton Safety Technology Center to evaluate coal refuse disposal plans. These programs are currently being used by private consultants, government, and the coal industry for today's coal refuse disposal problems. This paper outlines five programs, their special features, and their importance in the design and construction of coal refuse disposal facilities. The purpose of the paper is to present the general steps necessary in the computer-modeling of each program. The programs that are discussed include BISHOP, STABL, RWE, DAMS2, and HEC-2, which cover the subject areas of slope stability, hydrographs, flood routing, and water surface profiles.

Jan 1, 1983

By Thomas W. Healy

Particles present in mineral processing systems that are termed ultrafine are those that are small enough to be unaffected by gravity or the flow conditions imposed on the pulp. As such, their interaction with one another and with other larger particles are controlled by specific attractive and repulsive colloidal or surface interactions. Electrostatic repulsion between ultrafines is dominated by surface potential, double layer thickness and specific adsorption potential effects - controlled by pH, salt and complexing ion concentrations. Attraction due to van der Waals interactions must be assessed in terms of bulk and surface coating effects and of particle size and shape. The net effect of attraction and repulsion must finally be related to the average kinetic energy of particles in the real system.

Jan 1, 1979

By B. F. Tillson

Mining may be defined as a general term for the working of valuable deposits of minerals, either organic or inorganic in origin, for their removal from the crust of the earth. Besides subsurface excavations, mining generically includes opencuts, clay pits and stone quarries, oil wells, sulphur wells, salt wells, placers, coal stripping, and the leaching of ore bodies. The origin of the word "mine" or "mining" is a matter of conjecture. A Celtic origin has been suggested since the Irish word mein, or the mwyn, meant ore, but it seems to have come from an olf French verb mineor, which meant to excavate, to make an underground passage as in the military appraoch to a fortification, sometimes called ?sapping.?

Jan 1, 1949

By Henry Leidheiser, Melvin C. Jr. Hobson

The rate of formation of the intermetallic compound, indium antimonide, at the interface between iudium and antimony at 100°C is greatly increased when a composite electrode of indium electrode -posited on antimony is made the cathode in an electrolytic cell. The amount of indium antimonide formed during electrolytic treatment at constant potential appeared to he proportional to the square root of time, but the scatter of the data, particularly at long times, makes it impossible to state this conclzlsi1:ely. The rate constant for the electrochemical synthesis was estimated to he 1.5 x 10-12 sq cm per sec. A similar- set of experiments was conducted in the absence of an applied potential but under otherwise similar conditions. The rate constant lor the thermal synthesis was less than 2 x 10-14 sq cm per, sec, at least two orders of magnitude less than obtained during electrolytic treatment. In a series of electrochemical studies it was observed that intermetallic compounds formed on the surface of polarized electrodes.1'2 The possibility of using this technique for the electrochemical preparation of intermetallic compounds was investigated and subsequently applied to the synthesis of the semiconducting III-V compounds. Gallium antimonide, indium arsenide. indium antimonide, and indium bismuthide were successfully formed by electrodepositing the Group III element from a boiling acid solution onto an electrode made of the Group V element. The following kinetic studies were undertaken on indium antimonide to obtain quantitative information on the rate of formation of this representative III-V compound under a potential gradient. EXPERIMENTAL The electrolytic cell for these experiments was a modified, three-neck, round-bottom, 500-ml distillation flask. Sealed into the side of the flask was a Luggin probe which monitored the surface of the working electrode and extended out of the flask to a small reservoir containing a saturated calomel electrode. The counter electrode was platinum. The three electrodes were connected to a Wenking po-tentiostat which maintained a preselected constant potential near the surface of the working electrode with reference to a saturated calomel electrode. All potentials noted in this paper are with reference to a saturated calomel electrode at 45° ± 5°C. The potential and the current were both monitored using Sargent Model MR recorders. The antimony electrodes were cast in graphite molds to form spheres about 15 mm in diameter with a shank 6 mm in diameter and 10 mm long. A heavy copper wire (12B & S gage) was soldered to this shank. Collodion was applied for protection to the shank and the connecting part of the copper lead. A snug-fitting O-ring was slipped over the shank and the electrode was then fitted into a teflon holder such that only the spherical portion was exposed. The electrode surfaces were cleaned and chemically polished prior to assembly and introduction into the electrolyte by etching in a modified CP-4 solution (50 parts glacial acetic acid, 10 parts concentrated nitric acid, 2 parts 48 pct hydrofluoric acid). The electrolyte was 10-2 M In+3 in 1 MH2So4 and its temperature was held constant by refluxing. The reflux condenser was open to the atmosphere and no temperature correction was made for changes in barometric pressure. The indium concentration in the electrolyte was checked from time to time by the analytical method outlined below for the determination of the amount of indium antimonide formed electrochemically. A schematic of the recorded potential is shown in Fig. 1. At point A the antimony electrode was introduced into the cell and the open-circuit potential recorded. At point B the potentiostat, preset at the desired potential, was switched on. It was switched off at point C and the potential fell to the open-circuit value of the electrodeposited indium. The

Jan 1, 1965

By George T. Wickes

Several years ago, Mr. Robert A. Cook described and illustrated in our Transactions a mechanical coke-drawer, patented in 1891 by Mr. Thomas Smith of the Thorncliff Iron Works, Sheffield, England, and first introduced in the United States in 1896, at the coking-plant of the Latrobe Coal Co., Latrobe,Pa. This machine has not received any very extended application in this country, although it was successfully used in two places for a number of years. The present paper describes a new and simpler machine, containing few wearing-parts, and capable of withstanding continued rough usage. Anything which tends to prolong the general use of bee-hive ovens will be welcome to those who are interested in cheapening the cost of producing coke in such ovens, especially if it provides satisfactory mechanical means, replacing the hard labor involved in drawing coke by hand with the old-fashioned " duck bill." The difficulty of finding efficient coke-drawers, especially during the summer season, and in the South, is notorious. Yet, notwithstanding the great improvements that have

Jan 1, 1906

By Henry Siegmann

HISTORY OF PRODUCTION AND USE In 1899 the consumption of fluorspar in the United States was reported as 16,000 tons. The invention of the open-hearth method of steel manufacture, plus the beginnings of a fluorine chemical industry, pushed consumption of fluorspar to 250,000 tons by 1918. In contrast to these consumption statistics of the past, the most recent statistics available (1972) indicate a total fluorspar usage in the United States of 1.352 million st (Table 15.4D.1). Fluorspar remains the world's cheapest source of fluorine, and its unique properties make the mineral the most desirable fluxing agent for steel refining. The linking of fluorine with carbon in the late 1930s resulted in the production of fluorocarbon, and constant growth in production over the years has formed the backbone of a strong fluorine chemical industry. For example, in 1972 it is estimated that total fluorocarbon production amounted to 2.113 million tons, and that, in this process, over 1.351 million tons of acid-grade fluorspar was consumed. The producers of primary aluminum long have been concerned about the fast dwindling reserves of natural cryolite. They found the solution to their problem by utilizing fluorspar for the manufacture of synthetic cryolite and aluminum fluoride. Nuclear weapons, as well as the growing number of peaceful uses for atomic reactors, constitute a market for uranium hexafluoride. This chemical and chlorine pentafluoride, used as an oxidizer with rocket fuels, are products that are as much a novelty as fluorocarbons were 25 years ago. Judging from past success in the field of fluorine chemistry research, it is safe to assume that the market for these chemicals will grow in the future. Three major industries account for the bulk of the fluorspar consumption: steel refining, fluorine chemical, and primary aluminum production. These industries have had a pattern of fabulous growth in the past, and their future plans point to a continuation of this pattern. It seems logical that the fluorspar usage also should continue its upward trend. Considering the growth of the fluorspar industry since 1899, and the obvious dependence on imports of fluorspar as a raw material, one of the most puzzling aspects of the past has been the apparent lack of coordination between fluorspar production and fluorspar consumption. A few authoritative voices have spoken out concerning the need to expand fluorspar production in order to meet consumption of the future. During World War II, the U.S. Government took positive steps in this direction by authorizing purchases at attractive prices for its "stockpile program." As a consequence, new fluorspar producing facilities were built, not only in

Jan 1, 1976

By W. N. Miner, R. O. Elliott

Electrical-resistivity )measurments were made be-trueetz room temperatrive and 1.5 oK on five different stocks of cerium metal, and the results were correlated with the types, amounts, and distribution of the impurities present. Magnesium, which appeared to be distributed as a solute throughout the cerium matrix, was found to have a large effect on the residual resistivity, 1 at. pct Mg being sufficient to increase the residual resistivity by about 10 microhm-cm. The formation of ß by repeated thermal cycling between room temperature and liquid-helium temperature is attributed to the deformation and faulting that occurs during the ? D a transformation. In preparation for starting a proposed study of cerium-rich alloys, we examined samples from severa1 stocks of cerium metal in order to choose the purest stock for future use in making the alloys. Low-temperature electrical-resistivity data were used to gain initial information about the purities of the stocks. Additional information was subsequently obtained from chemical analyses, density measurements, optical metallography, and electron-micro-probe analyses. Cerium that has been annealed at high temperature and cooled to room temperature has the fee crystal structure (? phase) with a = 5.16Å. When cooled further, in the region between about 250" and 150°K, some of the fee phase transforms to the double hcp form (ß phase) with a = 3.68 and c = 11.92Å. The remainder of the room-temperature fee form (and perhaps some of the hexagonal phase) transforms electronically in the vicinity of 100° K to the more dense or "collapsed" fee form (a phase), a - 4.85A, by transferring about 0.5 electron per atom from the 4f level to the valence band. Very little work related specifically to the effects of impurities on the physical properties of cerium has been reported in the literature. Gaume-Mahn1, 2 has studied the effects of calcium, magnesium. iron, silicon, and tantalum on the electrical resistivity and magnetic susceptibility of cerium between 60o and 300°K. Gschneidner, Elliott, and McDonald3 have discussed the effects of total impurity content on the hysteresis of the a —? (reversible) transformation and on the formation of the 4 and "a-? intermediate" phases. Smith and Morrice* have reported the effect of total impurity content on the resistivity of cerium at 4 and 293°K. In none of these reports, however, is it apparent that the distributions of the impurities were determined, L.r., whether the impurities were present in inclusions or in solid solution in the matrix is not mentioned; nor does it appear that the phase purity of the cerium was always considered. In the present study, five different stocks of cerium were involved. One was represented by a single sample of electrowon cerium, which was all that had remained from a stock of high-purity material obtained from the U.S. Bureau of Mines, Reno, Nev., in 1959. The other four stocks were recently purchased from commercial sources and were specified to be 99.9 wt pct pure. EXPERIMENTAL Cerium stocks designated as #1, #2, #4, and #5 were obtained from commercial suppliers for the specific purpose of finding a reliable source of high-purity cerium. Although the purity level of the cerium was specified to be 99.9 pet, the specifications did not include limits as to the amounts of various impurities that would be acceptable. Consequently the chemical analyses of the different stocks varied widely. Stock #3, which had been obtained from the U.S. Bureau of Mines and which was the purest on the basis of chemical analyses, consisted of a single specimen of electrowon cerium. It was included in the examination for purposes of comparison. Table I contains the chemical and spectrographic-

Jan 1, 1968

By H. J. Rahilly

MINE FIRES, in the Butte District, have been a source of trouble and expense for the past thirty years, for while the actual fire area in most of the mines has been comparatively small, the handling of the gas has generally been a much larger problem than the actual putting out of the fire. The chief causes of these fires have been: Defective electrical equipment, incendiarism or carelessness, and spontaneous combustion. While fires from the first two causes have been numerous, they have generally been discovered and extinguished before they became very serious. Spontaneous combustion has been the cause of most of the large fires. Sufficient heat has been generated by ground movement, high rock temperatures, and decomposition to set fire to inflammable materials (tarred ropes, canvas, dry timber, manure, and hay) left in the gobs some years ago. Also, the heat resulting from the oxidation of the fine broken sulfide ore is sometimes sufficient to set fire to the timbers. In 1906, a fire was discovered on the 1100-ft. level of the Minnie Healy mine about 400 ft. (122 m.) west of the Minnie Healy shaft, which presumably originated, in one of the upper levels, from spontaneous combustion. The fire was walled off by concrete bulkheads and a pillar of ground 100 ft. (30 m.) thick was left below and mining resumed underneath. During subsequent operations, this pillar became cracked and broken and the fire passed into the new workings. It travelled downward and spread rapidly until, in 1917, it had become necessary to wall off portions of the Tramway, Leonard, and West Colusa mines on the 1300, 1400, 1500, 1600, 1800, 1900, and 2000-ft. levels, and the top of the 2200-ft. raises were sealed. The fire area now consists roughly of a block 1000 by 1200 ft. and from the 600-ft. to the 2200-ft. level. This block is composed largely of a series of parallel northwest-southeast nearly vertical veins and stringers that form a large orebody, with no well-defined walls but badly fractured and faulted, and known locally as "Horsetail Ore." These veins, or orebodies, are mined by the square-set or the rill method.

Jan 2, 1922

By H. J. Rahilly

Mine fires, in the Butte district, have been a source of trouble and expense for the past thirty years, for while the actual fire area in most of the mines has been comparatively small, the handling of the gas has generally been a much larger problem than the actual putting out of the fire. The chief causes of these fires have been: Defective electrical equipment, incendiarism or carelessness, and spontaneous combustion. While fires from the first two causes have been numerous, they have generally been discovered and extinguished before they became very serious. Spontaneous combustion has been the cause of most of the large fires. Sufficient heat has been generated by ground movement, high rock temperatures, and decomposition to set fire to inflammable materials (tarred ropes, canvas, dry timber, manure, and hay) left in the gobs some years ago. Also, the heat resulting from the oxidation of the fine broken sulfide ore is sometimes sufficient to set fire to the timbers. In 1906, a fire was discovered on the 1100-ft. level of the Minnie Healy mine about 400 ft. (122 m.) west of the Minnie Healy shaft, which presumably originated, in one of the upper levels, from spontaneous combustion. The fire was walled off by concrete bulkheads and a pillar of ground 100 ft. (30 m.) thick was left below and mining resumed underneath. During subsequent operations, this pillar became cracked and broken and the fire passed into the new workings. It travelled downward and spread rapidly until, in 1917, it had become necessary to wall off portions of the Tramway, Leonard, and West Colusa mines on the 1300, 1400, 1500, 1600, 1800, 1900, and 2000-ft. levels, and the tops of the 2200-ft. raises were sealed. The fire area now consists roughly of a block 1000 by 1200 ft. and from the 600-ft. to the 2200-ft. level. This block is composed largely of a series of parallel northwest-southeast nearly vertical veins and stringers that form a large orebody, with no well-defined walls but badly fractured and faulted, and known locally as "horsetail ore." These veins, or orebodies, are mined by the square-set or the rill method.

Jan 1, 1923

By H. J. Rahilly

Mine fires, in the Butte district, have been a source of trouble and expense for the past thirty years, for while the actual fire area in most of the mines has been comparatively small, the handling of the gas has generally been a much larger problem than the actual putting out of the fire. The chief causes of these fires have been: Defective electrical equipment, incendiarism or carelessness, and spontaneous combustion. While fires from the first two causes have been numerous, they have generally been discovered and extinguished before they became very serious. Spontaneous combustion has been the cause of most of the large fires. Sufficient heat has been generated by ground movement, high rock temperatures, and decomposition to set fire to inflammable materials (tarred ropes, canvas, dry timber, manure, and hay) left in the gobs some years ago. Also, the heat resulting from the oxidation of the fine broken sulfide ore is sometimes sufficient to set fire to the timbers. In 1906, a fire was discovered on the 1100-ft. level of the Minnie Healy mine about 400 ft. (122 m.) west of the Minnie Healy shaft, which presumably originated, in one of the upper levels, from spontaneous combustion. The fire was walled off by concrete bulkheads and a pillar of ground 100 ft. (30 m.) thick was left below and mining resumed underneath. During subsequent operations, this pillar became cracked and broken and the fire passed into the new workings. It travelled downward and spread rapidly until, in 1917, it had become necessary to wall off portions of the Tramway, Leonard, and West Colusa mines on the 1300, 1400, 1500, 1600, 1800, 1900, and 2000-ft. levels, and the tops of the 2200-ft. raises were sealed. The fire area now consists roughly of a block 1000 by 1200 ft. and from the 600-ft. to the 2200-ft. level. This block is composed largely of a series of parallel northwest-southeast nearly vertical veins and stringers that form a large orebody, with no well-defined walls but badly fractured and faulted, and known locally as "horsetail ore." These veins, or orebodies, are mined by the square-set or the rill method.

Jan 1, 1923

By Allan J. Clark

THE September issue of MINING AND METALLURGY might almost have served as a review of the advances in the metallurgy of gold during the current year. In addition to a scholarly article by F. W. Bradley, there were able descriptions by W. W. Bradley and W. F. Boericke of the methods followed in California and in Ontario. Considered together, the two last-named articles indicate the many possible combinations of flotation with one or more of the older processes. This, the prominence of flotation as an aid in the beneficiation of gold ores, is probably the most striking of the year's developments. It would perhaps be nearer the fact to say that the year has not been marked by the gold metallurgists' discovery of the flotation process, but rather by the flotation merchandizers' discovery of gold metallurgy. I say this because native gold was floated successfully more than fifteen years ago, and a reference to these results was published six years ago.

Jan 1, 1933

By D. L. Ward

This paper is the result of a study, in 1919, to determine how much surplus power could be produced through the proper utilization of the entire gas flow from the two furnace stacks at the Federal Furnace Plant, South Chicago, Ill. Obviously, the problem was to measure the flow of gas through the main beyond the point where the amount necessary for stove operation was removed. In all probability, blast-furnace gas is the most difficult gas to measure, because of the high moisture and dust content, and the widely fluctuating flow from the furnaces. This wide fluctuation of flow forbids the acceptance of any one group of flow readings as indicative of normal operating conditions. A study of the conditions showed that a recording device on gas flow was necessary. As the gas at the point of measurement had passed through wet washers, and accordingly was saturated with water and contained considerable dust carried past the scrubbers in the form of sludge, no form of Pitot tube could be used, for this sludge would quickly plug the dynamic and static holes, spoiling the gage readings. An even more serious objection to the use of Pitot tubes was the impossibility of accurately measuring the cross-sectional area of the gas main on the plane of Pitot-tube installation. Given an absolutely clean gas and a perfectly circular pipe, it would be safe to assume, through measurements of the pipe diameter, that the gas main was of a certain cross-sectional area. But the continual depositing of sludge and the fact that the main was fabricated from riveted sheets led us to discard the idea of using Pitot tubes for this service. The Venturi tube was then considered, and had there been a sufficiently long straight run of gas main to accommodate a tube of the required size (72 by 28 in.) such an installation would very likely have been made.

Jan 2, 1921

By Raymond B. Ladoo

ABRASIVES include the substances, natural or artificial, that are used to grind, polish, abrade, scour, clean or otherwise remove solid material, usually by rubbing action but also by impact (sandblasting, for example). They do not include abrasive tools-for instance, lathe tools and files-or polishing agents such as waxes, which act by filling pores. Detergents and cleaners whose action is chemical rather than physical are omitted although some chemical action polishes and cleaners may also contain solid abrasives; for example, many metal polishes. GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS The most important physical properties of materials that qualify them for use as abrasives are hardness, toughness (or brittleness), grain shape and size, character of fracture or cleavage, purity or uniformity. For making bonded grain abrasives such as grinding wheels, additional important factors are stability under high heat and bonding characteristics of grain surfaces. The economic factors of cost and availability are always important. No one single property is paramount for any use. For some uses extreme hardness and toughness are needed, as in diamonds for drill bits; for others, the factors of greatest importance are hardness and ability to break down slowly under use, to develop fresh cutting edges when grains become worn-for example, in garnet for sandpaper, neither highly cleavable or friable grains nor extremely tough grains

Jan 1, 1949

By H. Soto, I. Iwasaki

Primary amines are strong collectors of apatite and they can selectively float sedimentary phosphates from calcareous ores. However, secondary and tertiary amines and trimethyl ammonium salts are ineffective. Kerosene reduces the collector requirements became hydrocarbon is co-adsorbed along with the amine on the mineral surface. The heats of reaction of aminium ions with such anions as phosphate, carbonate, and sulfate were measured in a microcalorimeter. They are discmsed in terms of the solubility of the precipitates formed and their relationship with the adsorption mechanism of primary amines on phosphate minerab. Experimental evidence supports a view that primary amines are adsorbed through chemical interaction between the aminium and phosphate ions at the mineral surface.

Jan 1, 1986

By F. M. Perkins, R. H. Jamison

Publications concerning scaling laws for laboratory flow models of oil reservoirs indicate that the relative permeability and capillary pressure relations must be the same functions of saturation in the model and its prototype. In this paper, the relative permeabilities and saturations are redefined in a way which permits one to have diflerent relative permeability and capillary pressure relations in the model and prototype. The development of the new scaling criteria is demonstrated by deriving scaling laws for one simple flow problem. INTRODUCTION The successful application of information gathered through bench-scale model studies to the prediction of multi-phase fluid flow behavior in petroleum reservoirs requires careful consideration of the scaling criteria. The requirements which must be met for a small-scale model to duplicate the behavior of a much larger reservoir prototype have been discussed by Leverett, et al,' Rapoport,2 and Geertsma, et al.3 According to these authors, the relative permeabilities to water, oil and gas and the dimensionless capillary pressures must be the must have the same values in the model and prototype. Furthermore, they point out that the viscosity ratios must have the same values in the model and prototype. In addition to these requirements, other scaling criteria are given which, when considered, usually dictate a much higher permeability in the model than exists in the reservoir. Since the more permeable model sands may have connate-water and residual oil saturations quite different from those in the prototype, the scaling requirements pertaining to the dependence of relative permeabilities and dimension l ess capillary pressures on saturation usually are not met. Also, if the model fluids are selected to give equal viscosity ratios in the model and prototype, one may find greatly different mobility ratios* in the two cases and, therefore, may expect grossly different flow patterns. For this reason, Craig, et al,' correlated the results of their model studies with mo- bility ratio rather than with viscosity ratio. As yet, however, no satisfactory method has been advanced which permits use of anything other than the scaling requirements outlined in the previously mentioned papers. The purpose of this paper is to present a method of developing a set of scaling criteria which permits different relationships between saturation and relative permeability or capillary pressure in the model and prototype. Rather than attempt to report scaling criteria for a variety of practical situations, this paper demonstrates by use of one simple example how the modified scaling criteria are derived.

By N. A. Ziegler

A certain amount of interest has been indicated recently in the resistance to oxidation at high temperatures of iron-aluminum alloys (rich in iron). Hautmanl published a paper in which some interesting results are given. According to his paper, only alloys containing at least 8 per cent aluminum indicate a marked improvement in their resistance to oxidation. At about this aluminum content, however, alloys become brittle, which considerably reduces their commercial value. About two years ago the author performed a series of experiments, the results of which are presented here. A series of iron-aluminum-carbon alloys was prepared by melting electrolytic iron, aluminum and high-carbon iron alloy in an induction vacuum furnace.2 The list of these alloys is given in Table I. Each alloy was forged in the ordinary way to All carbon determinations were performed by " Yensen " method. [N. A. Ziegler: Recent Developments in Analysis of Carbon in Iron and Iron Alloys. Trans. Amer. Electrochem. Soc. (1929) 56, 231.1

Jan 1, 1932

State Mine Experiment Station, College of Engineering, University of Alabama, University, Ala Copies of two bulletins issued by the Mine Experiment Station may be had by writing to the Director of the School of Mmes at the above address: Bulletin 1, Coal losses in Alabama, 2, A specific gravity study of Alabama coals The Cooperative work of the Mine Experiment Station with the Southern Experiment Station of the U S Bureau of Mmes is covered by Bulletins of the U S Bureau of Mines

Jan 1, 1933

By AIME AIME

OUR new Director from the 15th District is Robert W. Thomas; of Ray, Ariz., general manager of the Ray Mines division, Kennecott Copper Corp. In electing him to this office his fellow engineers pay tribute to his ability as an engineer and express appreciation for his service to the A.I.M.E. and its Arizona Section. ?Bob? Thomas was born April 1, 1886 at St. James Minn. received his early education in the public schools of Topeka Kans. and was graduted from Topeka High School in 1905. Already he had decided upon mining engineering as a profession. so he entered the mining school of the University of Kanas from which he was graduated with the degree of B.S. in hlining enginrering. While in college he became a Student Associate of the A.I.M.E. After graduation, lution and isolated mining camps wel-e not the most desirable places in w

Jan 1, 1944

By G. O. Prickett, P. Somasundaran

An experimental progmm based on statistical principles is used for optimizing a flotation operation for the separation of minerals. In this case, flotation of sylvite from sylvinite ore with amine and starch as the flotation reagents was studied to find the optimum reagent levels at various slime levels. The experiments were first done on a two-level three-factor design. Analysis of the results showed that the interactions between various factors were significant. Hence, a first-order linear model of the flotation response would not be accurate. The two-level three-factor design was expanded into a composite design in order to test the fit of a higher-order model. Data were treated to obtain an expression for flotation response as a function of the different variables, to predict the optimum reaaent levels at various slime levels, and also to determine the path of steepest ascent. Tests around the predicted optimum and along the path of the steepest ascent were done until a near-optimum region was obtained. Exploration of the nature of the response surface in that region established the actual location of the maximum response. The optimum amine level was found to be 0.20 lb of amine per ten of ore at all slime levels, while the optimum starch level varied as a function of the slime present. Computer access at the laboratory by means of a teletype terminal on a commercial time-sharing system enabled efficient and accurate treatment of experimental data. The efficiency of experimental investigations can be improved significantly by the use of experimental design and data analysis based on statistical principles. The common approach used in experimental research is to study a property of a system as a function of "one-variable-at-a-time". Several authors'-4 have pointed out the inadequacy and deceptiveness of this method. Results obtained for the effects of a variable on the measured response of the system using

Jan 1, 1970