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By Leonard Larson

DURING several years immediately preceding the adoption of wet-charge smelting at McGill, various necessary conditions affecting this procedure, such as plant rearrangement and the metallurgical nature of the concentrate produced at the concentrator, were fully considered. Wet-charge smelting is not altogether novel to the recently recon-structed smelter at McGill. A number of years prior to this improve-ment, when flotation methods were initiated at the concentrator, large tonnages of wet and (at that time) sticky flotation concentrate were charged directly into the reverberatory furnaces, because of the difficulty in handling the entire tonnage in the roasters. The plant had excess reverberatory units and this surplus furnace capacity was utilized to smelt raw flotation concentrate. During the years 1927 and 1928, a number of actual operating furnace test runs were made to determine in principle the feasibility of wet-smelt-ing operation. Results were encouraging, and in November 1932 the roasting plant was shut clown. For some time thereafter the wet feed was delivered directly to the reverberatory side-charging calcine hoppers already in place. Feeding the wet material through the old calcine hoppers and charge holes into the furnace involved considerable labor, but under the conditions existing at that time it was desirable to continue wet smelting even under the handicap of this laborious procedure. The smelting plant during this period was on a curtailed production basis, operating only about 15 days per month. The alternate starting up and shutting clown of the roasting plant presented a difficult problem and charging the wet material directly to the furnace entirely eliminated this difficulty. The roasting plant was never operated thereafter.

Jan 1, 1938

The following is an extract of the Engineers' licensing law recently passed by the Colorado legislature; it went into force July 10. On the board of examiners are representatives of the four national societies. R. J. Grant, of Denver, represents the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers; H. I. Reid, of Colorado Springs, the. American Society of Civil Engineers; H. S. Sands, of Denver, the American Institute of Electrical Engineers; and Frank E. Shepard, of Denver, the American Society of Mechanical Engineering. Within sixty clays after the taking effect of this act the Governor of the state shall appoint a State Board of Engineer Examiners, to be composed of five members, who shall be legal residents of the state of Colorado and who shall have been engaged in the practice of engineering for at least ten years. Upon the expiration of the term of any members other than the state engineer the governor shall appoint their successors for a term of four years, from a list of five nominees elected by the licensed engineers acting in a general assembly called together for this purpose by the president of the board. Such assembly shall be held in the month of January next preceding the expiration of the terms of any members. The Board of Examiners shall adopt all necessary rules, regulations and by-laws to govern its proceedings, not inconsistent with this act or the laws of the state or of the United States.

Jan 8, 1919

Idaho Bureau of Mines and Geology, University of Idaho, Moscow, Ida. John W. Finch, Director. A list of publications will be sent upon application. A series of Bulletins and Pamphlets have been issued by the Bureau to date since 1920 Of the Bulletins, six are out of print, and a charge is made for eight. Each of the Bulletins, in the main, treats of the geology and resources of a particular district in Idaho, as follows (only available Bulletins listed): Bulletin 1, South central Idaho (1920), 15 cents, 7, North central Idaho (1924), 50 cents, 8, Bonneville, Bingham and Caribou counties (1924), 50 cents, 9, Boise Basin (1924), 50 cents; 10, Boundary County (1926), 50 cents; 11, Region about Silver City (1926), 50 cents; 12, Clark Fork district (1930), 50 cents, 14, Eastern Cassia County (1931), 50 cents, Press Bulletin 15, Teton County (1927), Bulletin 16, Melon Valley near Buhl (1927); 17, Concerning land slips near Whitebird, Idaho (1928) The 37 Pamphlets are issued free of cost, and each treats, also, in the main of the geology and resources of a particular district in Idaho Nos 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 17, 18, 20, 22, 25, 26, 30 and 35 are out of print Of those available, attention may be called to Pamphlet 6, Reported platinum occurrences near Coeur d' Alene (1925), 11, Bruneau River Basin, 12, Power and Oneida

Jan 1, 1933

By W. H. Meyer

During the seventeen years Fairchild has been making aerial surveys and aerial photographic equipment many changes and improvements have been made in the equipment and in the technique of using it. Aerial photographic operations have been developed from the crude methods and apparatus of wartime to a science upon which exact engineering calculations can be based. In the early days there was no airplane specially designed to meet aerial photographic requirements. One type of camera was used in all types of operations. Projects were made to conform to the products we could make and deliver. Obviously this entailed definite limitations. We now have airplanes designed specially for aerial photographic operations in accordance with the conditions encountered in actual service experience. We have cameras for every photographic purpose and our laboratory technique and equipment have been developed to the point where it is possible to make contour maps from vertical aerial photographs with contour intervals as close as five feet. Therefore, the selection of equipment now can be made in accordance with the time at our disposal, the justifiable cost, the scale desired, and the general requirements of the client. This does not mean, however, that arbitrary deliveries can be set for aerial photographic products. The factors in each project vary and each job must be considered in accordance with the factors involved. This accounts for the fact that products of aerial surveys may readily vary from $1.25 to $200 a square mile. Sherman M. Fairchild became interested in the design of a radically different aerial camera during the war. At its close he was about ready to demonstrate his design to the War Department. By 1920, he was able to bring out his first completed model. It had a number of radical features, one of which was the first dependable high-speed between-the-lens shutter, which makes for accuracy in aerial photographic work. Another feature was the use of metal throughout, eliminating the wooden parts that had been employed in wartime cameras. Another feature was the interchangeability of parts.

Jan 1, 1937

By William Meyer

DURING the seventeen years Fairchild has been making aerial surveys and aerial photographic equipment many changes and improvements have been made in the equipment and in the technique of using it. Aerial photographic operations have, been developed from the crude methods and apparatus of wartime to a science upon which exact engineer-ing calculations can be based. In the early days there was no airplane specially designed to meet aerial photographic requirements. One type of camera was used in all types of operations. Projects were made to conform to the products we could make and deliver. Obviously this entailed definite limitations. We now have airplanes designed specially for aerial photographic operations in accordance with the conditions encountered in actual service experience. We have cameras for every photographic purpose and our laboratory technique and equipment have been developed to the point where it is possible to make contour maps from vertical aerial photographs with contour intervals as close as five feet. Therefore, the selection of equipment now can be made in accordance with the time at our disposal, the justifiable cost, the scale desired, and the general requirements of the client. This does not mean, however, that arbitrary deliveries can be set for aerial photographic products. The factors in each project vary and each job must be considered in accordance with the factors involved. This accounts for the fact that products of aerial surveys may readily vary from $1.25 to $200 a square mile. Sherman M. Fairchild became interested in the design of a radically different aerial camera during the war. At its close he was about ready to demonstrate his design to the War Department. By 1920, he was able to bring out his first completed model. It had a number of radical features, one of which was the first dependable high-speed between-the-lens shutter, which makes for accuracy in aerial photographic work. Another feature was the use of metal throughout, eliminating the wooden parts that had been employed in wartime cameras. Another feature was the interchangeability of parts.

Jan 1, 1936

By T. F. Witherbee

AS the forms of blown-out furnaces are of much interest to ironmasters and metallurgists, the manner of taking the accompanying sections of the Cedar Point stack is here given. The diagrams show the original and also the final shape of the furnace after a two years and twelve days' blast,, during which the following solid materials passed through it, viz.: Coal, 41,000 tons; ore, 57,000 tons; limestone, 30,000; total, 125,000 gross tons. Product, 411/4 tons per day Bessemer pig iron. The apparatus used in taking the sections was a modification of that proposed by Mr. Frank Firmstone,* and consisted of a sliding rule, to follow around the circumference of the stack, which rule was connected by a string to a segment of a circle of 24 inches radius. The segment was carried by an arm which connected it to a huh as a centre, 2 inches in diameter. A second string was wound around the hub, and communicated motion to a pencil-carrier, the pencil of which marked out on paper the exact outline, and reduced it to a scale of & inch to the foot. The whole machine was made in about three hours, with the facilities of a carpenter's shop, and gave in operation every irregularity of the lining. The sections were taken at salient points, by lowering a hanging staging on which the apparatus was placed. Tracings from the paper of the machine were made, and, as in this case several copies were required, the tracings were glued on to thin sheets of basswood, and patterns carefully sawed out with a bracket saw.

Jan 1, 1879

The Arizona Committee, consisting of GERALD F. G. SHERMAN, Chairman, ARTHUR NOTMAN, Secretary, NORMAN CARMICHAEL, B. BRITTON GOTTSBERGER, W. L. CLARK, J. C. GREENWAY, W. G. MCBRIDE, FOREST RUTHERFORD, has arranged the following program for the Arizona Meeting, which has been approved by the President of the 'Institute and by the Executive Committee. It is printed herewith for the information of members, and probably will not be changed in any material respect. Monday, September 18, 1916.-Arrive at El Paso, Texas,, 6.30 A.M. Arrive at Deming, N. Mex., 9.30 A.M. Arrive at Chino, Ariz., 11.30 A.M., where luncheon will be served, after which there will be a visit to the Chino mines. From there the train will proceed to Hurley, N. Mex., where a visit will be made to the mill of the Chino Copper Co. Tuesday, September 19, 1916.-Arrive at Douglas, Ariz., at 8.00 A.M. The morning will be spent at the reduction works of the Copper Queen Consolidated Mining Co. "and of the Calumet & Arizona Mining Co. After luncheon a technical session will be held, with "Smelting" as a special subject for discussion. There will be a banquet in the evening, followed by another technical session or-a business meeting.

Jan 6, 1916

By C. A. Queener, W. L. Mitchell

In recent years bismuth telluride has received considerable attention, primarily due to its value as a thermoelectric material. Since there seems to be little dependence of thermoelectric effect upon crystal orientation1 many of those who have previously worked with this material have been unconcerned with knowing its crystallographic angles to any degree of accuracy. However, when one studies deformation modes, lattice stresses, or the aniso-tropy of mechanical properties of a material, knowledge of the interplanar angles and their relationships as depicted in a stereographic projection becomes essential. Lange2 originally published crystallographic data which described the structure of bismuth telluride as rhombohedral with the space group A more recent work by Francombe3 presented data which corroborated and refined the original findings of Lange. In addition, Francombe established that there is no coexistence of rhombohedral and hexagonal lattices in bismuth telluride as was suggested by Vasenin and Konovalov,4 and that the structure can be treated as a pseu do hexagonal structure with an axial ratio, c/a, of 6.95 for convenience of presentation and study. The interplanar angles and standard projections for several unalloyed hexagonal metals have been previously published,5-9 but the present work appears to be unique in that it presents data for a rhombohedral compound in pseudohexagonal form. As a pseudohexagonal structure, this material has an extremely large axial ratio as compared to the usual range of approximately 1.5 to 1.9 for the hexagonal metals. Since the interplanar angles are a function only of c/a, the angular relations between various planes for Bi,Te3 will be grossly different

Jan 1, 1965

By S. E. Bronisz, J. O. Brittain

Experiments have been carried out to study the effect of an applied stress on strain aging in steel. It was found that the stress-induced strain aging reaction proceeds rapidly in the temperature range of 0° to 60°C. The variation of stress-induced strain aging with plastic strain, aging time, and temperatures is reported. The activation energy for the stress-induced strain aging was found to be 10,000 cal per mol for the steel used in this investigation. VARIOUS observations1-5 have been made of the influence of an applied stress upon the yielding of iron and steel. However, there have been only cursory studies of the effect of an applied tensile stress upon strain aging in iron and steel1,2 The following represents the results of a preliminary study of strain aging as influenced by the application of an external tensile load during the aging process. For the most part, previous experimental work on strain aging can be classified into two parts. First, the experimental technique involved a direct determination of mechanical properties of a suitable specimen that has been plastically deformed to a constant strain and aged generally at a temperature of the order of 200°C, with the aging times varying from about 1/10 to 2 hr.6-8 The second classification of strain aging experiments involves an indirect determination of strain aging by means of physical property such as electrical resistivity or internal friction as a function of the aging time at a constant temperature and strain.9-12 The latter results have

Jan 1, 1961

By C. A. WARNER

IN all the meetings of the Petroleum Division, emphasis was placed on the essential importance, in the successful furtherance of our war effort, of efficiently producing, transporting, refining, and utilizing maximum quantities of crude oil and natural gas with the minimum expenditure of critical material. With representatives present from all branches of the petroleum industry, from all parts of the United States, the sessions were opened Tuesday morning with Commander Harry P. Stolz. U.S.N.R., Chairman of the Division, and A L. Haider as associate chairmen. From that time until the symposium on petroleum economics was closed Thursday afternoon papers of exceptional interest and importance were presented and discussed in a most frank and open manner.

Jan 1, 1943

By R. S. Sandhu, S. H. Advani, J. K. Lee, B. L. Aboustit

A comprehensive finite element formulation for thermo-elastic consolidation based on a general variational principle is presented Sample one dimensional problems associated with isothermal consolidation, heat conduct ion, and thermo-elastic consolidation are presented. In addition, evaluations of thermo-elastic consolidation for an underground coal conversion field site are conducted.

Jan 1, 1982

By Cyril Stanley Smith

For many years sulphur and its congeners selenium and tellurium have been regarded as very harmful elements in copper and copper-rich alloys. Like many similar prejudices, this has been found to be partly wrong. All three of these elements actually have no great effect on the working properties of copper and its alloys, and are desirable additions in that they considerably enhance the machinability of alloys in which they are present. Because of their possible commercial importance, a study of the machinability and other properties of the pure binary alloys was made, as described in this paper, and the effect of selenium on a large number of copper alloys was determined. The current opinion regarding the deleterious effects of elements in this group undoubtedly arose because of occasional failures of tough-pitch copper containing unusually high tellurium, and because of the well-known fact that sulphur causes spewing and unsoundness in tough-pitch copper. Siebe,1 also Deretchey and Margolina,2 studied the effect of sulphur on copper and showed that in the absence of oxygen it was present in the form of copper sulphide, which was less harmful to the properties than an equivalent amount of copper oxide. No data have been published on selenium and tellurium, although the statement is often made, following Eggleston,3 that tellurium makes copper hot-short. Copper specifications call for only traces of these elements. Skowronski and Mosher4 give data on the effect of selenium and tellurium on the conductivity of tough-pitch copper. In private communication Mr. Skowronski says that the samples were hot-forged from small castings and drawn to 0.081 in. diameter, but it should not be inferred from this that these elements are harmless to the working properties of wirebars and commercial shapes. Constitution and Microstructure Constitution.—Sulphur, selenium and tellurium exist in their alloys with copper in the form of copper sulphide, selenide or telluride. These compounds are practically insoluble in the solid state and possess limited

Jan 1, 1938

By Cyril Stanley Smith

For many years sulphur and its congeners selenium and tellurium have been regarded as very harmful elements in copper and copper-rich alloys. Like many similar prejudices, this has been found to be partly wrong. All three of these elements actually have no great effect on the working properties of copper and its alloys, and are desirable additions in that they considerably enhance the machinability of alloys in which they are present. Because of their possible commercial importance, a study of the machinability and other properties of the pure binary alloys was made, as described in this paper, and the effect of selenium on a large number of copper alloys was determined. The current opinion regarding the deleterious effects of elements in this group undoubtedly arose because of occasional failures of tough-pitch copper containing unusually high tellurium, and because of the well-known fact that sulphur causes spewing and unsoundness in tough-pitch copper. Siebe,1 also Deretchey and Margolina,2 studied the effect of sulphur on copper and showed that in the absence of oxygen it was present in the form of copper sulphide, which was less harmful to the properties than an equivalent amount of copper oxide. No data have been published on selenium and tellurium, although the statement is often made, following Eggleston,3 that tellurium makes copper hot-short. Copper specifications call for only traces of these elements. Skowronski and Mosher4 give data on the effect of selenium and tellurium on the conductivity of tough-pitch copper. In private communication Mr. Skowronski says that the samples were hot-forged from small castings and drawn to 0.081 in. diameter, but it should not be inferred from this that these elements are harmless to the working properties of wirebars and commercial shapes. Constitution and Microstructure Constitution.—Sulphur, selenium and tellurium exist in their alloys with copper in the form of copper sulphide, selenide or telluride. These compounds are practically insoluble in the solid state and possess limited

Jan 1, 1938

By Oscar Marzke

STUDIES on the precipitation of a face-centered from a body-centered structure-a common occurrence in alloy systems-are essential to the development of a theory for the formation of segregate structures. The separation of the alpha phase from the beta of the copper-zinc system is an example of this type of precipitation. EARLIER STUDIES ON THE SUBJECT R. F. Mehl and 0. T. Marzke1 in 1931 presented a paper giving the results of some investigations carried out by them on the segregate structures produced when the alpha and gamma phases of the copper-zinc system and the alpha phase of the copper-aluminum system precipi-tate from the beta phases of these systems. They showed that the alpha phase precipitates as needles close to the [111] directions of the beta phase. In the discussion of that paper some doubt was expressed about the nature of the segregate. More investigations were undertaken to determine the character of the precipitate in the copper-zinc system and also the orientation relationship between the matrix and precipitate. The present paper gives the results of these investigations. Since the publication of the earlier paper, several other papers on this subject have been published in this country and abroad. Haneman and Schroder2 reported that the alpha phase precipitates as needles along the [111] directions of the beta phase and that these needles align themselves to form plates on the {111} planes of the matrix. Mathewson and Smith3 pointed out that the {111} plane does not contain the [111] direction and that it would be quite impossible, therefore, for needles in the [111] direction to form plates on the {111} plane. They suggested

Jan 1, 1933

By B. R. Palmer, G. Gutierrez B., M. C. Fuerstenau

Selective flotation in nonmetallic systems is often complicated by the presence of iron-bearing silicates occurring as gangue. Minerals such as augite, diopside, hornblende, and tourmaline respond readily to flotation under the same conditions as ore minerals. Mechanisms by which these minerals respond to flotation with anionic collectors must be established if selective separations are to be made in these systems. It was the objective of this investigation to determine the mechanisms involved in the flotation of two pyroxenes, augite and diopside, with potassium oleate. Experimental Materials and Methods Pure potassium oleate, prepared by neutralization of oleic acid with KOH, was used as collector, while reagent-grade HC1 or KOH were used for pH adjustment. Conductivity water, made by passing distilled water through a mixed-bed ion exchange column, was used in this investigation. Two pyroxenes, [ ], were involved in this work. One member of this class of minerals was augite and was found to contain 3.3% calcium, 4.6% iron, and 9.6% magnesium. The source of this mineral was Tillamook County, Ore. The other pyroxene involved was diopside which contained 8.3% calcium, 2.7% iron, and 7.6% magnesium. The source of this sample was Bancroft, Ont. Microflotation experiments were conducted with a Hallimond cell. Mineral samples were ground dry and sized to 100 x 200 mesh. One-gram charges were conditioned for 3 min in the presence of various additions of potassium oleate. Flotation was conducted for 1 min with a nitrogen flow rate of 50 cm3/min. The electrophoretic mobilities of these two minerals were measured with a Zeta Meter in the absence and presence of [ ] salts and in the presence of an indifferent electrolyte, NaC1, added to maintain ionic

Jan 1, 1978

By AIME AIME

DESPITE the meetings and discussions on over- production the situation still continues to grow worse instead of better. The demand for oil has dropped to 2,700,000 bbl. per day. On the other hand domestic production has risen to 2,700,000 bbl. with prospects of further increases, and if imports and natural gas-gasoline be added to this the current supply is about 3,100,000 bbl. per day. Though during the summer and early fall the demand may exceed this figure for a few months the prospects are that 'the average demand during 1929 will be at least 200,000 bbl. per day less than the present current supply, meaning additions to stocks over the year of about 75,000,000 bbl.

Jan 1, 1929

By S. H. Brockunier

During the examination of a gold-property in Georgia, last summer, I had occasion to study the effect of different chemicals upon the ore; the object being to find a more economical method of extraction than chlorination, as practiced there, had proved to be. Some of my notes and results may be of interest to others. The country-rock consists of mica-schist, hornblende-schist and black slate. The vein-matter is quartzite and schist, containing some stringers of quartz, the whole forming a body from 20 to 50 ft. wide. All of the rocks in the vicinity have become disintegrated to a depth of from 50 to 75 ft., forming the so-called saprolite. I found the workings to represent two distinct classes : I. Open-cut surface-ore: very soft,oxidized and disintegrated; containing much alumina, silica and iron. Average value, $4 per ton. 11. Ore from lower levels : quartzites and schist; very hard ; containing much silica and manganese, some alumina, and from 2 to 10 per cent. of pyrites. Average value, $8 per ton. Class I. was soon dismissed. The only way to make it pay would have been by the use of steam-shovels and a large crushing-plant. The tendency to slime would be the principal difficulty.

Jan 1, 1902

By Duk-Won Park

The PSU/MVS program, one of the computer programs for ventilation network analysis most recently developed at The Pennsylvania State University, was applied to the analysis of modifications to an existing ventilation system for a coal mine located in southern West Virginia. The program is well designed and has diversified capabilities which allow the users to make decisions on the optimum size and number of fans, the location and number of airshafts, and the optimum operational procedures. The mine had 10 working faces, from which the average production rate was about 5900 tons of clean coal per day. Two vane-axial mine fans were used in parallel at a shaft, and both of them operated simultaneously. One additional shaft was in the final construction stage and it would be used in four months to alleviate the load for the existing fans and distribute intake air more evenly. The overall ventilation surveys, including the altimeter pressure survey and the air quantity survey, were carried out in the mine entries, shafts, slopes, and gob areas. Computations were made using the above-mentioned computer program on the present condition and after one additional fan was placed in operation at the new shaft. Also, recommendations were made on the air route and fan blade settings for the most economical and efficient ventilation system. Further studies were carried out to decide the proper period when the third air shaft would be required according to the long-term mining plan. Additional branches were added for the next 4 years of the production plan, and the ventilation conditions were tested at the end of each year. Numerous combinations of blade settings and modifications of air routes were tested. It was recommended that the third air shaft be added at the end of the third year so as not to experience fan stall.

Jan 1, 1982

By E. J. Fasiska, H. Wagenblast

The dilalion of a ivon by interslilial carbon was measured by two independent techniques —dilatometric mesurements at 719 c and X-ray measurments of the urlil cell parameters a1 room temperature after quenching. The relative expansion per increase in cavbon content by both methods is (2.9 + 0.3) x 10-3 pev at. pcl C nrzd is temperature- independent within experimental error. This corresponds to (6.3 5 0.6) cu cm per g-atom for the partial gram-atomic volume of carbon in a iron-only slightly smaller than the atomic volume for iron in the same temperature vange. THE only previous quantitative study of the dilational effect of carbon dissolved in a iron was performed in 1934 by Burns1 which, at the time, generated some discussion of possible sources of experimental error.2 For a system of such widespread importance, we felt that a new investigation was merited. Both X-ray diffraction and dilation measurements were used to determine the expansion of the a iron lattice by dissolved carbon, avoiding as much as possible any previous experimental problems and deficiencies. The dilation method at solution temperature offers not only measurements which are free of residual strain but also, in conjunction with the room-temperature X-ray measurements, a method to detect any large temperature dependence of the partial gram-atomic volume of carbon. To insure that quenching strains did not affect the room-temperature X-ray measurements, wire specimens of constant carbon content but different diameter were examined for such an effect. SPECIMEN PREPARATION The material used for both experimental techniques was "Ferrovac E" iron received in the form of 19-mm-diam rod and stated as having the following impurity contents: C, Cr, Cu, Mn, P, and V, each in the range of 10 to 50 ppm; Co, O, Mo, S, and Si, 60 to 100 ppm; W, 200 ppm; Ni, 230 ppm; N, 4 ppm. The stock material was cold-swaged to 0.71 mm diam for the Debye-Scherrer X-ray camera specimens and portions were cold-rolled from 6.3 mm diam to 0.79- and 0.25-mm sheet for X-ray diffractometer and dilation measurements. The wires were annealed in wet hydrogen for 6 hr at 840°C and 15 hr at 720°C, and then quenched into 0°C water. A chemical analysis for carbon after this treatment gave 0.0046 + 0.0014 at. pct C. Three portions of these wires were subsequently held at 719°C in three different hydrogen + methane mixtures and then quenched, resulting in carbon concentrations of 0.0283, 0.0598, and 0.1067 at. pct C by chemical analysis. After carburizing, the wires were swaged to 0.48 mm and electroplated with silver to prevent carbon loss during subsequent heat treatment. The final heat treatment consisted of holding the wires at 72 1°C for 5 min in a He-2 pct H mixture followed by quenching into 0°C brine. The wires were held at room temperature for a few minutes to remove the silver plating using a phosphoric acid-hydrogen peroxide solution, and then stored in liquid nitrogen until the measurements were made. EXPERIMENTAL TECHNIQUE A) Dilation Measurement. The dilatometer consisted of a gas-atmosphere vertical tube furnace modified so that length changes of a ribbon-shaped specimen could be measured externally. This was done by installing a gas-tight mercury seal at the top of the furnace as shown schematically in Fig. 1. The specimen (21.0 cm long, 1.27 cm wide, and 0.25 mm thick) was suspended in the center of the furnace by 3-mm-diam quartz rods with the upper one passing through the cap of the mercury seal. Above the cap, the upper quartz rod was coupled to a lever exerting a load of about 25 g (-12 lb per sq in.) on the specimen and having a 10 times mechanical magnification. The vertical position of a marker at the other end of the beam was read with a traveling microscope with a precision of 0.01 mm. The temperature gradient of the furnace was meas-

Jan 1, 1968

By G. R. Smithson, John E. Hanway

This paper, the first of two papers covering the development of a metallurgical process for the treatment of a complex ore, describes the bench-scale experimental Program undertaken as a basis for initial process design. The results of using various potentially applicable process steps are detailed and the basis for selecting certain of these steps for Pilot-plant development is outlined. A process consisting of the steps of sulfate roasting, leaching, copper recovery, solution purification, zinc electrolysis, and brine leaching for lead recovery was recommended for further study. THIS paper describes the bench-scale development of a sulfate roasting process designed to recover copper, lead, and zinc from a complex ore. The extrapolation of the bench-scale results to pilot-plant design and the results of pilot-plant operation will be described by Lund, et al.' in a subsequent paper. Several years ago, the research divisions of the St. Joseph Lead Co. became responsible for the development of a metallurgical procedure to treat a complex sulfide ore containing copper, zinc, and lead sulfides. The primary objective was to devise a procedure which would permit economic recovery of the nonferrous values. As could logically be expected, the study of conventional flotation procedures was undertaken; in addition, however, because the physical nature of the mineral association in the complex ore indicated that physical methods of ore beneficiation might not prove to be entirely satisfactory, a program also was established to investigate alternative methods of direct metallurgical treatment for recovery of the metal values. Exploratory test work by the St. Joseph Lead staff led to the conclusion that a sulfate roasting technique represented the most attractive approach for a direct metallurgical process. Sulfate roasting would provide for the selective conversion of the nonferrous values to forms soluble in conventiona1.1 leaching agents and would permit their efficient separation from the insoluble iron and other gangue materials. It should allow efficient utilization of the thermal energy available from oxidation of the sulfide raw material, and might provide an opportunity for recovering byproducts such as iron and sulfur. The decision to evaluate a selective sulfation procedure as a basic processing step also was influenced by the excellent results obtained by the St. Joseph Lead Co. in using this procedure for the recovery of cadmium from zinc sulfide concentrates. The choice of selective sulfation as a major processing step served as a basis for an extended experimental investigation of the process with bench- and pilot-scale equipment to prove its feasibility. St Joseph Lead Co., aware that Battelle Memorial 1nstitute had participated in the development of several fluidized-bed sulfate roasting procedures, asked Battelle to undertake the bench-scale development of a suitable sulfation process. This paper describes the procedure used and the results obtained at Battelle in the treatment of the complex sulfide ore. EXPERIMENTAL WORK Nature of the Raw Material. The sulfide ore deposits of interest are essentially a massive sulfide, with the indivudual ore minerals being extremely fine grained and intimately intergrown with each other and with the associated gangue. The zinc in the ore is present mainly as sphalerite (ZnS), the lead as galena (PbS), and the iron either as pyrite (Fes2) or as pyrrhotite (FeS). Table I shows the chemical analysis of various individual samples of the ore. These analyses illustrate the variability of the ore body and impose a rather severe requirement on any type of metallurgical process—that of being able to tolerate probable wide variations in the assay of the head ore. The tentative flowsheet designed to serve as a guide for the initial experimental investigation of

Jan 1, 1962