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FOR twelve successive years Canada's mineral production has shown a steady increase, rising from a value of $0.5 billion in 1945 to $2.06 billion in 1956, and the outlook for the future is one of continued growth. A great deal of credit for this growth must go to Canada's tax policies, which recognize that mines are difficult and costly to find, and that once found, they are a wasting asset. These tax policies take form under the Income Tax Act, which provides a tax- free period of three years on initial production for new mines and, after that period is over, allows all proper expenses of operation to be deducted from mine revenue. These allowable expenses include write-off of plant and pre-production development expenditures. From the resulting profit figure after this procedure, a further deduction of one-third is allowed for depletion before net taxable income is arrived at. Tax rates of 20 pct on the first $20,000 and 47 pct on the excess are then applicable to the net taxable income.

Jan 12, 1957

By Richard Akerman, Frederick Prime Jr

[THE attention now being paid both in this country and Europe the greatest economy in the working of the blast furnace, and the eagerness with which all thoughtful men in the iron business look for any new information which will tend to throw light on this subject, is a quite sufficient excuse for presenting this paper to the American Institute of Mining Engineers.] I. It must be borne in mind that when two bodies unite to form a chemical compound, heat is almost always evolved. In order to

By Arthur F. Johnson

Plant sites for the light metal industry must be located where ample low cost power is available. In the first half of the century hydroelectric development was the only source of this power-now the best sites have been exploited and those remaining do not promise enough water to permit year-round capacity power plant operation. In searching for economic plant sites engineers have concentrated on locations with vast water power potential. Olin Mathieson Chemical Corp. has been studying the economics of developing water power to make aluminum. However natural gas, lignite, and even atomic energy have also been considered as possible power sources for aluminum production. Economic studies have given consideration not merely to investment and production costs, but to total costs of delivering fabricated products to the market center of the U. S. When delivered costs are considered and when full account is taken of the newest techniques of mining bituminous coal and utilizing it to make electric power, one arrives at the inescapable conclusion that coal has emerged as the economic answer to American aluminum production.

Jan 4, 1955

By Richard Moldenke

One of the gravest problems of the iron foundry today is the accumulation of sulfur in commercial scrap and its effect on the castings made therewith. The ordinary jobbing castings today show a sulfur content of 0.18 per cent;, and occasionally as high as 0.22 per cent. The product of the foundry during the war is undoubtedly to blame for this rapid increase and conditions will become worse as the millions of tons of gray-iron castings of the war period return to the foundry in the form of commercial scrap. In the ordinary cupola remelting of pig and scrap, at least 0.02 per cent. sulfur is taken up; often double that amount. The high cost and difficulty of obtaining pig iron during the war period compelled the use of considerable scrap in the mixtures; frequently charges containing 90 per cent. of bought scrap were melted. Naturally the sulfur content of the castings increased. Until the advent of the basic-hearth electric furnace, the only method of holding the sulfur within reasonable limits was to use high percentages of pig in the foundry mixtures. Pig iron seldom contains over 0.05 per cent. sulfur, if well made. With pig iron forming 60 per cent. of the charge and the gates, runners, rejections, and bought scrap the other 40 per cent., the sulfur content of the castings can easily be held down to 0.10 per cent. Pig iron, however, costs more than scrap even when melting loss differences are considered, hence as small a percentage as possible will be used. The recent advance in knowledge of rational melting and the consequent reduction in losses directly due to oxidation of the metal and cold iron, has permitted the acceptance of castings with a much higher sulfur content than formerly. The steel industry also is seeking to determine how high sulfur may go with safety. In the iron foundry, however, there is the danger of a low cupola bed or an unduly retarded air-furnace heat, with the consequent raising of the freezing point of the metal and segregation effects resulting from high sulfur with insufficient manganese. The iron foundryman must, therefore, have a means of correcting his

Jan 1, 1922

By Richard Moldenke

One of the gravest problems of the iron foundry today is the accumulation of sulfur in commercial scrap and its effect on the castings made therewith. The ordinary jobbing castings today show a sulfur content of 0.18 per cent;, and occasionally as high as 0.22 per cent. The product of the foundry during the war is undoubtedly to blame for this rapid increase and conditions will become worse as the millions of tons of gray-iron castings of the war period return to the foundry in the form of commercial scrap. In the ordinary cupola remelting of pig and scrap, at least 0.02 per cent. sulfur is taken up; often double that amount. The high cost and difficulty of obtaining pig iron during the war period compelled the use of considerable scrap in the mixtures; frequently charges containing 90 per cent. of bought scrap were melted. Naturally the sulfur content of the castings increased. Until the advent of the basic-hearth electric furnace, the only method of holding the sulfur within reasonable limits was to use high percentages of pig in the foundry mixtures. Pig iron seldom contains over 0.05 per cent. sulfur, if well made. With pig iron forming 60 per cent. of the charge and the gates, runners, rejections, and bought scrap the other 40 per cent., the sulfur content of the castings can easily be held down to 0.10 per cent. Pig iron, however, costs more than scrap even when melting loss differences are considered, hence as small a percentage as possible will be used. The recent advance in knowledge of rational melting and the consequent reduction in losses directly due to oxidation of the metal and cold iron, has permitted the acceptance of castings with a much higher sulfur content than formerly. The steel industry also is seeking to determine how high sulfur may go with safety. In the iron foundry, however, there is the danger of a low cupola bed or an unduly retarded air-furnace heat, with the consequent raising of the freezing point of the metal and segregation effects resulting from high sulfur with insufficient manganese. The iron foundryman must, therefore, have a means of correcting his

Jan 1, 1922

By W. J. Tait, A. E. Craig, E. P. McCurdy

C. M. Marquard—The problem of the automatic control of a grinding-classification circuit is not nearly as simple as has been indicated and it cannot be universally solved through the application of this device. The sound emanating from a ball mill such as the metallic clink of the balls against the liners can at times be misleading. The fact that the sound level due to the balls hitting the liners may be at a minimum does not necessarily mean that the mill is properly loaded. I have in mind an ore we treat that has a soft talcy gangue. The soft fluffy nature of this material makes the sound from the ball mill a most misleading parameter that is worthless as a means for controlling the amount of ore fed to the mill. In every milling plant there are transportation lags due to the time it takes the ore to travel from the mill bins to the ball mill. In many plants there may be several different transportation lags due to varying distances of bins from ball mill. These transportation lags can most seriously affect the operation of a controller. It has been found that under many circumstances the transportation lags can be so bad as to cause the controller to hunt seriously. Hunting can and in many cases does become so serious as to render automatic control impossible because of the surges it causes. While it is possible to compensate for this type of lag, this apparatus does not lend itself readily to accomplish the required compensation. Further, if there are groups of bins at various distances from the ball mill, compensation for one may not be sufficient or may be too great for another. Each milling plant presents a separate problem. The apparatus as presently described does not appear sufficiently flexible to accomplish this. It should be noted that the load on the classifier rakes is determined by measuring the current input to the rake drive motor. Variations in line voltage will

Jan 1, 1951

By E. P. McCurdy, W. J. Tait, A. E. Craig

C. M. Marquard—The problem of the automatic control of a grinding-classification circuit is not nearly as simple as has been indicated and it cannot be universally solved through the application of this device. The sound emanating from a ball mill such as the metallic clink of the balls against the liners can at times be misleading. The fact that the sound level due to the balls hitting the liners may be at a minimum does not necessarily mean that the mill is properly loaded. I have in mind an ore we treat that has a soft talcy gangue. The soft fluffy nature of this material makes the sound from the ball mill a most misleading parameter that is worthless as a means for controlling the amount of ore fed to the mill. In every milling plant there are transportation lags due to the time it takes the ore to travel from the mill bins to the ball mill. In many plants there may be several different transportation lags due to varying distances of bins from ball mill. These transportation lags can most seriously affect the operation of a controller. It has been found that under many circumstances the transportation lags can be so bad as to cause the controller to hunt seriously. Hunting can and in many cases does become so serious as to render automatic control impossible because of the surges it causes. While it is possible to compensate for this type of lag, this apparatus does not lend itself readily to accomplish the required compensation. Further, if there are groups of bins at various distances from the ball mill, compensation for one may not be sufficient or may be too great for another. Each milling plant presents a separate problem. The apparatus as presently described does not appear sufficiently flexible to accomplish this. It should be noted that the load on the classifier rakes is determined by measuring the current input to the rake drive motor. Variations in line voltage will

Jan 1, 1951

By W. C. Kerr

ThE distribution of gold is obviously much wider than is Commanly supposed. Resides the usual matrices, vehicles, or associates, such as quartz, pyrite, chalcopyrite, etc., I find it occurring in quite a range of common rocks. For example, at the Rhodes mine, in Gaston County, a body of 9 to 12 feet of decoroposed, light-gray gneiss was worked together with the strings of quartz, and yielded from six to ten dollars to the ton. A mine in Moore County yields its gold mainly from a feldspathic schist. In the famous King's Mountain mine, in Gaston County, the gold is obtained not only from the seams of quartz in a blue, hydromicaceous schist, but a 60-foot ledge of grayish-blue, fine-grained, schistose limestone is quarried out bodily and sent to the stamps. It is gold-bearing throughout. In Montgomery County the singular concretionary, conglomeritic, quartzite schist, which contains Emmons's palceotrochis, is gold-bearing over wide tracts of country. This fact was noticed by Dr. Emmons. But a still more striking and significant fact is, that a large part of the gold of Montgomery, Davidson, and Randolph counties,

Jan 1, 1882

Nippissing Mines Co., Ltd., a Ventures subsidiary, has bought into the, Vermont Copper Co. Inc. which operates a copper mine in Vermont producing 700 tons daily. The Vermont Mining Co. has been in operation since 1943 under the present management. When present owners wanted to convert their holdings to cash, the Ventures people saw possibilities in the area which, has been little explored but has a sizable production record. Final approval of the Anaconda-Harvey project for a 72,000 ton aluminum reduction plant at Kalispell, Mont., has been announced by Defense Production Administration. After considerable discussion in the past few weeks regarding Anaconda's entrance into the aluminum field, the approval stated "clearly the best arrangement."

Jan 1, 1952

Map

Jan 1, 1958

By Pekka S. Särkkä

The method of interactive dimensioning is based on the computation of the loading-deformation curves caused by country rocks on the pillars with numerical methods. The comparable loading-deformation curves of pillars with different shapes are determined with small-scale model tests in a servo-controlled testing machine. The equilibrium points, i.e. the stability of the different pillar-country rock systems are determined by matching these curves adequately scaled. A case from a Finnish mine is presented together with the stoping results.

Jan 1, 1984

By AIME AIME

THOUGH born in England-on Nov. 23, 1372 William Wraith was brought to this country at the age of ten. Eight years later he entered the University of Illinois, transferring to the Michigan College of Mines where he got his E.M. in 1894. For the next three years he was a mine surveyor for the fuel department of the Santa Fe Railroad. Then he got into the copper-mining industry, which has occupied his attention for the last forty years. First he was engineer, at Butte, for the Boston & Montana company, and then helped to build the Washoe smelter at Anaconda, of which he was assistant superintendent from 1906 to 1913. The Anaconda company then sent him to Salt Lake City as manager of its subsidiary.

Jan 1, 1938

By S. C. Sun, John A. L. Campbell

Objective of the ittvestigation was to determine the electrokinetic differences, if ally, of anthracite lithotypes and thus establish the feasibility of making a coqlstituent separation by froth flotation or other surface-dependent processes. The elec-trokinetic properties were determined by streaming potential methods. In addition, chemical and physical analyses of the lithotypes were made to establish nonsubjec-tive parameters for their diflerentiation. Electrokinetic results indicate a difference in the characteristics of the lithotypes. The isoelectric points of 4 anthracites and 12 lithotypes were obtained. It was suggested that the relative flotation rates of the lithotypes were pH dependent and that the maximum flotation rate of anthracite occurs in an acidic circuit. Although there has been an increased interest in the electrokinetic properties of coal,' research on the subject is still in an early stage of development."' To the authors' knowledge, no electrokinetic studies have been made on coal lithotypes, particularly anthracite litho-types. This paper presents the results of an investigation of the double layer properties displayed at the anthracite/water interface (whole coal and lithotypes) as determined by streaming potential methods. It is hoped that this investigation and related future investigations will provide correlations from which the surface properties of any coal can be predicted and then related to surface-dependent processes such as froth flotation and flocculation. Another aspect of this research, undertaken to determine the physical and chemical parameters necessary for anthracite lithotype differentiation, was previously published.? The number of parameters involved, lithologic, organic and inorganic, and the wide divergence of these parameters within an individual coal limits the practical utilization of the results; however, the result? are of value and of interest in guiding theoretical developments. Keeping the limitations in mind, the results are analyzed in terms of their application to froth flotation processes and are used to indicate the feasibility of making a lithotype separation by flotation. Experimental Procedure Prior to discussing the experimental work per se, it would be of value to establish an understanding of anthracite lithology. Anthracite Lithology: Coal seams display two different modes of variation, rank and type. A coal's position in the continuous series ranging from peats through anthracites determines its rank. The rank of the material under consideration is anthracite. The different bands of coal which constitute a coal seam are distinctly contrasted in regard to physical properties and chemical composition. These megascopic bands are the coal types and are termed lithotypes., A megascopic examination of 11 anthracites revealed three distinct, homogeneous, lithotypes. The classic description of bituminous coal lithotypes as proposed by Stope" was found to be quite adequate for recognizing the three lithotypes in anthracite, namely vitrain, durain, and fusain. The term vitrain describes the brilliant constituent of coal; durain describes dull coal; and fusain is the term applied to fossil charcoal. The anthracites studied were generally found to contain 60-80% vitrain, 10-30% durain, and 1-10% fusain. A complete description of the physical characteristics and chemical composition of the studied lithotypes can be found in a previous publication.' Sample Preparation: Nine of the anthracites used in the investigation were from Pennsylvania, one was from Russia, and one from Wales. Table 1 shows the various designations and sources of the employed anthracites. The letter V, D, or F added to the whole coal designation indicates respectively the vitrain, durain or fusain lithotype of that coal. The samples were carefully collected to avoid contamination. To insure against oxidation, the samples were obtained as fresh as possible and stored under nitrogen or water. Generally a representative sample of the seam and samples containing high concentrations of one or another of the petrographic constituents were secured for each coal. Pure lithotypes were prepared by manual separation and selection. The pure lithotypes and representative samples were ground to —35 mesh and screened to 35 x 48 mesh. The 35 x 48-mesh fraction was then passed over a magnet to remove iron contamination, washed with doubly

Jan 1, 1971

By F. G. Cottrell

AS previously announced, Van. H. Manning has resigned as director of the Bureau of Mines, effective June 1, to become director of research with the newly organized American Petroleum Institute. Doctor Manning has been connected with the Department of the Interior for 34 years, having been civil engineer with the Geological Survey, from 1885 to 1910, previous to his connection with the Bureau of Mines which was organized in the latter year. Doctor Manning was appointed to an administrative position in the new Bureau under Joseph A. Holmes, its first director, and on Jan. 1, 1911, was made assistant director. On Jan. 1, 1914, when Doctor Holmes had to relinquish active

Jan 1, 1920

By E. DeGolyer

The problem of good engineering practice and. of good conservation practice in oil production is that of keeping gas in solution. This can best be done by producing a field as a water-drive field. Some degree of water drive is believed to be present in most fields but in the past most fields have been produced too rapidly to allow water drive to be effective. Ultimate recovery should be So per cent greater for fields produced by water drive over that from gas-expansion fields. Wide spacing will permit fields of low-degree water drive to be produced effectively as water-drive fields. INTRODUCTION NEGLECTING all the complicated scientific and technical argument that leads to the conclusion, the solution of the problem of good production practice, of good engineering practice, and of good conservation practice in oil production is to keep gas in solution. This can best be done by producing fields at a rate low enough to make effective the water drive, which exists, it is generally believed, to a degree great enough to be made effective in more than 80 per cent of the fields of the United States. Oil is being so produced in the Ten Section field of California; the Hobbs field of New Mexico; the Yates, Hastings, Friendswood, Anahuac fields and the main sand of the Conroe pool, in Texas; the Magnolia pool in Arkansas, and doubtless in many other pools. The measures of success in the efforts to achieve the solution of the problem are the maintenance of bottom-hole pressure and the prevention of an increase in gas-oil ratio. Some decline from the original bottom-hole pressure and the production of some gas are essential. A pressure gradient from the reservoir to the well is necessary and at least as much gas must be produced as that in solution in a barrel of oil. Once the optimum pressure and the gas-oil ratio have been established, they should be maintained. How common is water drive in oil and gas pools? General opinion is that some degree of water drive is almost universal. Theoretically, this conclusion appears to be a sound one. According to our present understanding of the processes of sedimentation, we would expect to find all sands or sandstone charged with connate water unless it had been displaced by some other fluid, such as fresh water percolating into the beds at the outcrop, or oil and gas, or gas only, in reservoirs. The fact that the original pressure of the fluid system in most reservoirs is approximately that of the hydrostatic head of water for the corresponding depth indicates that the sands are charged with water, and common experience in drilling into the extensions of the porous zones beyond the reservoir is to find them watercharged. The very fact that oil and gas pools have substantial pressures in their original undisturbed state indicates either that a reservoir is a rigid, closed system, a con-

Jan 1, 1941

By M. C. Fuerstenau, J. D. Miller

The response of calcite to flotation with saturated fatty acids and alkyl sulfonates of various chain lengths is presented. The amount of collector re-quired for flotation is shown to decrease systemati-cally with increasing carbon content from 8 to 12-carbon atoms per molecule. This systematic flotation response is correlated with the solubilities of the calcium-collector salts, which were established with a nephelometer. The 14-carbon collectors deviate from this systematic behavior, and no flotation is possible with the 16-carbon homologs. As determined by infrared analysis, the mechanism of collector adsorption involves a specific chemical reaction be-tween the collector and the surface. A reaction of the form CaCO3(s)+ 2 RCOO"=*=Ca(RCOO)2(s) + C03= is suggested. The pH of the system is also shown to be a most important parameter as it controls the carbonate, calcium, and collector ion concentrations in solution and thus controls flotation response. The importance of hydrocarbon chain length of collectors was recognized early, and various studies have been made on this aspect of flotation. Wilkinson, ' for example, noted that as the chain length of alkyl xanthates is increased, the amount of collector required for flotation of sphalerite is decreased. The same effect has been shown in the flotation of galena.2 Similar results were obtained when malachite3 and calcite4 were floated with various fatty acids. DeBruyn5 has shown that a similar phenomenon occurs when quartz is floated with amines at constant pH. Recently, Fuerstenau, Healy, and Somasundaran6 correlated this phenomenon with the van der Waals cohesive free energy of association of the hydrocarbon chains. It seems unlikely, however, that chain association could be involved in the sulfide and carbonate systems with the collector additions employed, especially with the short-chain xanthates. Rather, it would seem that the decrease in collector concentration with increase in chain length noted for flotation is related to the solubility of the metal-collector salt. The purpose of this investigation is to verify this premise and also quantify this phenomenon if possible. Calcite was selected for study with both alkyl sulfonates and saturated fatty acids as collectors. EXPERIMENTAL MATERIALS AND METHODS The collectors used in this investigation ranged from 8 through 14 carbon atoms per molecule. The fatty acids had a reported purity of greater than 99%. The sodium alkyl sulfonates were provided by the Marathon Oil Cot, Littleton, Colorado, and had the

Jan 1, 1968

By Alden Greninger

THAT metallographic structures analogous to the martensite of steel may be found in certain copper-aluminum and copper-tin alloys has been known for many years; similar structures recently were found in certain copper-zinc alloys.1 In all three of these alloy systems the martensite structures result from transformation of the metastable ß phase when the speed of cooling from the ß range is sufficiently high to suppress decomposition into equilibrium phases. ? In the normal decomposition of solid solutions into equilibrium phases, diffusion is needed to bring about the necessary changes in concentration, and the rate of reaction falls almost to zero at temperatures slightly above room temperature. The rates of reaction for martensite processes, however, are not dependent upon temperature; the transformation does not require readjustments of concentration. For example, the marten-site transformation in 60:40 (ß) copper-zinc does not begin until the temperature has dropped to about minus 30° C., and then continues down to minus 130° C. and probably even at lower temperatures.1 Further-more, martensite processes apparently proceed only while the tempera-ture is falling, within the proper range, and cease completely while the temperature is held constant; ? and they cannot be suppressed by extremely rapid cooling although the rate of cooling for some alloys may be increased to over 10,000 times the critical cooling velocity. Isaitschew, Kaminsky and Kurdjumow2 account for these observed behaviors of martensite processes by postulating that the mechanism " . . . consists in a regular rearrangement of the lattice in such a way

Jan 1, 1939

By A. C. Bluemel, J. S. Harper, J. H. Jett

Can the mining industry in the United States accept the change and challenge of the "Now Generation" of an entirely new high-performance automated transportation system? Advanced transportation systems for the mining industry can be defined as those which lend themselves to automation and meet definite performance and cost objectives. The term automation shall mean that control of transportation system is accomplished by a closed loop electronic circuit which, when started on command, will continue to cycle as programmed until such time as an intelligent feed-back causes the system to shut down.

Jan 1, 1970

By Charles Will Wright

The present struggle for economic and industrial supremacy by the Communist world is against the United States, its main target, and the other Free World nations. The basis of industrial power is minerals, so the Communist nations are building up mineral production within their borders, often regardless of costs, and are acquiring quantities of mineral products from Free World countries for future use. They are contracting for additional supplies and advancing funds for the development of these quantities. A number of the less developed mineral producing countries of the Free World are being infiltrated by Communists and Communistic influence. This situation is well known, but as yet little has been done to oppose these activities or to awaken the public to their seriousness. The Communist countries are still far behind the Free World Nations in production of many essential minerals. But, shortages are being made up from Free World nations in exchange for petroleum, manganese ore, chromite and other products. Restrictions on shipments of strategic materials to Communist countries have not been maintained.

Jan 1, 1964

By W. B. Price

AT the New York meeting of the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers held in February, 1926, W. H. Bassett and J. C. Bradley presented a paper entitled "Exudations on Copper Castings."' The purpose of the present paper, as the title suggests, is to call attention to somewhat similar phenomena which the authors have encountered in brass and bronze. From a study of the examples given, a more-or-less speculative theory of "inverse segregation" is advanced. Protuberances on Admiralty Brass In the rolling mill of the Scovill Manufacturing Co., there have been found quite commonly bars of certain alloys which had a sort of shaggy roughness on the surface due to slight metallic protuberances. No special attention was paid to these until some bars were found on which these protuberances were heavy enough at the bottom of the bars to produce a blistered appearance. A sample of the protuberances was milled off the surface of the bar illustrated (Fig. la) and upon analysis was found to contain 66.66 per cent. copper, 4.02 per cent. tin and 0.03 per cent. lead, whereas the average composition of the bar was 70.21 per cent. copper, 1.21 per cent. tin, and 0.01 per cent. lead. A sample of the shaggy-rough protuberances at the very top of a bar was also analyzed and was found to contain 2.45 per cent. tin, indicating that it was probably of the same origin as the blistered areas. These results were not entirely unexpected for previous analyses of this alloy had revealed that the surface was richer in tin than the rest of the bar. This, of course, is contrary to what we would expect from a consideration of the equilibrium diagram and has been called "inverse segregation." Fig. 16 is a cross-section of a bar through the protuberances on the surface. It reveals that there is a decidedly different structure through the raised areas and seems to indicate that the bar originally solidified

Jan 1, 1927