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By William E. Ford

The first edition of this book appeared in 1877 and approximately twenty years later (1898) the second and revised edition was published. Now, again after more than twenty years, comes the third edition. The changes involved in the present edition are chiefly those of addition, the general character and form of the book having been retained unchanged. In the section on Crystallography the important change consists in the introduction of the methods employed in the use of the stereographic and gnomonic pro¬jections. A considerable portion of the section on the Optical Characters of Minerals has been rewritten in the endeavor to make this portion of the book simpler and more readily understood by the student. In the section on Descriptive Mineralogy all species described since the previous edition have been briefly mentioned in their proper places. Numerous other changes and corrections have, of course, been made in order to embody the results of mineral investigation during the last two decades. Only minor changes have been made in the order of classification of the mineral species. It was felt that as this book is so closely related to the System of Mineralogy it was unwise to attempt any revision of the chemical classification until a new edition of that work should appear. The description of the methods of Crystal Drawing given in Appendix A has been largely rewritten. A new table has been added to Appendix B in which the minerals have been grouped into lists according to their important basic elements. Throughout the book the endeavor has been to present in a clear and concise way all the information needed by the elementary and advanced student of the science. The editor of this edition is indebted especially to the published and un¬published writings of the late Professor Samuel L. Penfield for much ma¬terial and many figures that have been used in the sections of Crystallog¬raphy and The Optical Character of Minerals. He also acknowledges the cordial support and constant assistance given him by Professor Edward S. Dana.

Jan 1, 1922

Jan 1, 1935

By A. E. Wraith, J. Protheroe Jones, P. J. Mackey

INTRODUCTION When Victoria became queen in 1837, that technical wonder of the 19th century—electricity— had progressed from being an exciting physical curiosity and was now a field of intense scientific investigation, invention and application. Its role in electrochemistry had been brilliantly quantified by Faraday in 1833–1834, and his earlier discoveries in electro-magnetism were to lay the foundations of electricity generation and the electric motor. In this age of electrical experiment, silver electro-plating emerged as a popular decorative art, at first using batteries to provide the deposition current, superseded by dynamos in the early 1840s. The decorative chemical and electroplating of precious metals was largely pioneered in England by the firm of G.R. Elkington and Co., founded in Birmingham by George Richards Elkington (1801–1865) in 1832, and protected by a series of patents which helped the company establish a leading position in the new field of ‘electrometallurgy’. In the same decade, the technique of electrotyping emerged, the first application of electro- forming by electrolytic deposition. Simultaneously invented by Spenser in England and Jakobi in Russia, but generally claimed for Jakobi, electrotyping involved plating a thick copper layer on to an electrically conducting mould wall embossed or incised with a pattern or profile which would consequently be replicated on the copper deposit—essentially a method of casting by electro-deposition with the mould wall as cathode. Woolrich’s invention of the low voltage magneto-dynamo in 1842 eliminated the need for batteries as a continuous source of deposition power, opening up the possibility of making more massive electroplated deposits, and by the mid-point of Victoria’s reign in 1869, the work of Wilde, Wheatstone and Siemens had produced the self-excited electro-dynamo, capable of higher voltages and yet greater deposition power. In this early Victorian period copper was extracted and refined by methods which had developed step-by-step over many decades. Only relatively rich copper ores containing more than, say, 6% Cu were economically useful, and the final copper product was far from pure. Copper production in Britain was located principally in the Swansea area of South Wales, based upon the ‘Welsh process’ of reverberatory batch smelting and refining, using locally mined coal and ore imported from Cornwall and elsewhere. Silver was an important by-product. Much of the output was exported and South Wales remained a principal supplier to the world copper market until the 1890s. It was here at Pembrey, a few miles west of Llanelli, that a new primary copper smelter was stablished in 1849 under the name Mason and Elkington, arguably to supply the Elkington company’s market for electrotype products.

Jan 1, 2019

By J. F. T. Agapito, R. R. Goodrich

Yield pillars have been used for many years to help reduce stresses near mine openings and improve roof and floor stability. A yield pillar is often defined as a pillar that fails but retains residual strength. Stress transfer occurs through the roof and floor after the peak strength of the pillar is reached. High stresses are transferred from around the openings onto abutments that can be barrier pillars or unmined ground. This mechanism, often referred to as pressure arching, is possible as long as the width of yield pillar mining (panel width) is less than the critical width above which stresses cannot be carried by the overburden. Significant stress transfer also can occur due to small amounts of pillar and/or floor yielding before the peak strength is reached. This is accomplished in a quasi-elastic manner with little or no visible roof and pillar fracturing or floor heave. Long-term stability may be achieved when stresses and mechanical properties are favorable to prefailure yielding. This paper gives practical examples where improvements in stability and resource recovery were achieved with this mechanism. Yielding was assessed by comparing measured and calculated vertical pillar stresses. Results indicated that calculated stresses in the pillars were 25% to 40% higher than the measured stresses, demonstrating significant arching load transfer to the abutments. Prefailure yielding is probably often present but unintentional in both development and production areas. Better recognition and use of this mechanism should lead to design improvements, as mines become deeper.

Jan 1, 2003

There is considerable variability in the level of detail incorporated in prefeasibility studies relating to mining developments. Hence, when undertaking a review or audit, it is critical to attempt to ascertain at an early juncture precisely who has compiled the various facets of the study, for what purpose it was intended and the terms of reference given to the authors. Likewise, when commissioned to undertake an audit it is preferable to have proper terms of reference and to be aware of the purpose to which the audit will be put.These factors will influence the degree of detail an auditor would expect to find in the study and consequently, the degree of effort/time required for the audit process. In most instances audits do not imply recalculation of the entire study or modifying it in anyway, but involve an overall assessment of the methodology used, combined with spot checking of detail. One of the most difficult aspects is to determine a realistic order of accuracy for the overall study when the accuracy of the individual components may differ markedly.

Jan 1, 1990

By K B. Quast

During the prefeasibility stage of the mining cycle for a gold deposit, an evaluation of the ore leaching characteristics from various defined areas is essential prior to plant design. There are a number of simple laboratory tests which have proven successful in establishing gold and silver leaching kinetics, carbon adsorption and fouling, as well as elution characteristics. A number of case studies of carbon-in-pulp (CIP) simulation are presented which show excellent agreement between calculated and assayed gold and silver grades in feed and adsorbed on carbon which validate the methods used.

Jan 1, 1998

By M. J. Sapko, R. W. Watson, E. S. Weiss

The relative incerdivity of several blasting agents was evaluated in the Bureau's Bruceton Experimental Mine (BEM) . The minimum charge weights resulting in the ignition of predispersed oil shale dust clouds were measured for each of the explosives. A 400 g unstennned charge of ANFO (ammonium nitrate-fuel oil) was sufficient to initiate an oil shale dust explosion, whereas a 1000 g unstenuned charge of an emulsion blend did not ignite the dust even with the addition of 4% methane gas. Several stenuning materials were evaluated in the BEM for their effectiveness in preventing the ignition of near stoichiometric methane-air mixtures. Water stenuning was superior to all other inhibitors tested against methane. Explosibility testing of fine sulfide ore dust in a 20 L chamber and in the BEM show that the dust is capable of propagating an explosion given nominal concentrations of 700 to 800 g/m3. Results are encouraging and irrlicate that there is merit in pursuing explosive composition as a means of reducing ignition probability of oil shale and sulfide dust clouds generated during nonnal blasting operations. The proper selection of explosives and stenuning materials should significantly reduce the probability of secondacy dust explosions in oil shale and sulfide ore mining.

May 11, 1988

By H. l. Burghoff, J. S. Porter

THIS paper presents the results of an investigation of the effect of cold-working and annealing treatments upon the occurrence of preferred orientation in annealed brass wire. The subject has received less consideration than has the same phenomenon in annealed brass sheet or strip, and perhaps very properly so in view of the obvious and undesired results obtained in the forming or drawing of strip having preferred orientation, which results are in contrast with the lack of any spectacular visual evidence in wire. The factors of cold-working and annealing that control preferredness in strip are naturally expected to function similarly in wire. Indeed, one might expect the condition to be commoner in annealed wire, because the severity of the cold-working between anneals in commercial practice is usually much greater for wire than for strip. For example, a wire that is to be finished in the annealed condition on a diameter of 0.040 in. is commonly subjected to a final reduction of 96 per cent between the last two anneals, the large reduction being accomplished in the successive drafts of a multiple-die machine. Wire for rivets, for instance, on 0.125-in. diameter, although given a slight reduction of about 10 per cent after the final anneal, may have been given a prior reduction of 75 to 80 per cent. Barrett1 states the fiber axis of annealed 70-30 brass wire to be [111] with some indication of [100] as a secondary fiber axis. Croft and Sachs2 have reported briefly on some differences in brass wire with random and with preferred orientations. They showed statistical plots of the twin-band angles with respect to the wire axis or direction of drawing as observed on an axial plane. They also pointed out that the resistance of the wire to corrosion-cracking when externally stressed and exposed to a mercurous nitrate solution decreased as the degree of the preferred orientation increased. MATERIAL AND PROCEDURE All the wire for the investigation was processed from one. portion as cut for extrusion from a cast billet of the following analysis: 70.13 per cent copper; 0.01 lead; 0.01 iron; 0.02 nickel; 29.83 zinc (by difference). The billet section, 8 in. in diameter, was extruded hot to 3/4 -in. diameter, after which it was processed by alternate cold-drawing and annealing treatments as indicated in Fig. I. The earliest anneals in process were at about 1100°F. and the next to the last reductions by drawing were 58 per cent. The diameter of the finally annealed wire was 0.132 in. Semifinal anneals were at 800°F., 950°F. and 1100°F. and reductions of 47.5, 74, 83.5 and 89.5 per cent were employed in drawing to 0.132 in. The final anneals were at 875°F., 1050°F. and 1250°F. and were

Jan 1, 1944

By P. W. Bakarian

PREVIOUS determinations1,2,3 of the texture of magnesium and its alloys have shown only slight variations in the principal features of the structure. This investigation presents pole figures for magnesium and two of its alloys, in which differences of some magnitude will be shown. Schmid and Wassermann have considered the texture of magnesium in analogy with that of zinc-also a hexagonal lattice. Whereas the zinc texture is said to be derived primarily through basal slip and secondarily through {102}† twinning, the {102} twinning is considered impossible at the later stages of the rolling in magnesium because of its smaller axial ratio. This state of affairs appears reasonable for pure magnesium, but for alloy textures the situation is more complex. A double orientation similar to that found in zinc has been reported by J. D. Hanawalt,4 and the addition of small amounts of calcium to magnesium and its alloys to produce a double texture was noted by J. C. McDonald.5 The pole figures of this investigation, using an improved X-ray technique, show these various textures. The dependence of directional properties of rolled sheet on modifications of texture is well recognized. Correlation of physical properties with existing texture should be even more significant if quantitative valuations are attached to the various areas on the pole figures. Such a quantitative technique is developed herein. EXPERIMENTAL METHOD Two alloys were used, besides high-purity magnesium. In each case, the metal was extruded to bars 32 in. thick and hot-rolled to a thickness of about 0.075 in. It had been established previously that such a reduction was more than sufficient to eliminate the extruded structure. The rolling proceeded in the same direction as that of the extrusion, without any cross rolling. The temperatures corresponded to normal commercial practice, averaging around 600°F. A unique method of preparing the sample was developed in this work. Instead of using a flat specimen, a stem of the metal was cut out of the rolled sheet in the desired direction (rolling direction) as shown in Fig. 2. From a sheet of 0.075 to 0.065-in. gauge, the stem was cut to a square cross section with a jeweler's saw, rounded with a file and polishing paper to a diameter of 0.060 in, and evenly etched in dilute hydrochloric acid to a diameter of 0.038 ± 0.001 in. In this way, a cylinder of the original sheet with its axis in the desired direction was produced. By using this type of specimen for the pin-point pictures, any variance in the absorption of the diffracted beam at the various angular settings of the specimen, was completely eliminated.*

Jan 1, 1941

By Walter R. Hibbard

ALTHOUGH extensive pole figure studies have been reported by Brick1 and others2,3 showing preferred orientations in rolled and annealed 70-30 alpha brass, and by Hermann and Sachs4 in 70-30 alpha brass cups, comparatively little information has been published on textures in drawn 70-30 alpha brass tubes. Crampton5 reported a (110), [III] texture in drawn brass tubes based on selected individual X ray photograms following the method of Norton and Hiller,6 but the extent and ease of developing this texture and the annealing texture have not been reported and pole figures of these structures were not found in the literature. The present investigation was further stimulated by the possible influence of textures on the mercury stress-corrosion cracking of brass tubes. According to Snoek,7 iron-nickel alloy sheet with a strong cubic texture was more resistant to corrosion than a randomly oriented sheet. Crampon5 reported that single crystals of 70-30 alpha brass drawn into tubes did not crack after 24 hr s in a standard mercurous nitrate test. Edmunds 12 found that single crystals of 70-30 alpha brass did not crack in a standard mercurous nitrate test but did crack when subjected to ammoniacal vapor. Wassermann reported a similar failure of a single crystal of brass in ammonia. A tube with a strong texture might approach single crystal behavior and tend to resist mercury cracking if the differences in orientation between adjacent grains were sufficiently slight. PREPARATION OF SPECIMENS Crampton's5 tubes drawn 28 pct reduction in area developed a slight degree of preferred orientation while in tubes drawn 48 pct it was more marked. Based on this information, in order to obtain specimens with markedly different degrees of preferred orientation but with the same final draw, two sets of 70-30 alpha brass tubes were made following the mill schedules shown in Table I. The final draw involved a large reduction in outside diameter, and a ratio of reduction in area to reduction in outside diameter similar to that reported by Crampton,5,10 to cause mercury cracking of brass tubes. The brass contained 71.31 pct copper, 0.01 pct lead, 0.01 pct iron and zinc by difference. DETERMINATION OF POLE FIGURES A 6-in. length from each tube was rotated rapidly by an electric stirrer in 25 pct nitric acid until the gauge was reduced to 0.003-0.005 in. The tubes were carefully cut longitudinally and the walls gently flattened. They were further etched in 25 pct nitric acid to 0.0015 in. thickness and (III) pole figures were determined using copper K-alpha radiation in the manner described by Brick.1 The three general types of pole figures

Jan 1, 1947

By M. Gensamer

ONLY recently has it been realized that preferred orientations are common in hot-rolled steels. In a recent paper, N. P. Goss1 stated that hot-rolled mild steel exhibits a texture different from that charac-teristic of cold-rolled steel. No complete study of these hot-rolling textures has been reported using the pole-figure method of Wever. The material used in the work reported in this paper was the same material used by Gensamer and Mehl2 in a recent study of preferred orientations in cold-rolled steel, to which reference may be made for the composition and thermal history of the steel. Automobile-body sheet bar, 4 in. thick was hot-rolled at two temperatures, 780° and 910° C. (1436° and 1669° F.). (These temperatures refer to the tempera-ture of the furnace in which the steel was heated.) After each pass the steel was returned to the furnace and held there long enough to return to temperature. Although no accurate method was used to measure the temperature after each pass, it was estimated by color that only a slight drop in temperature occurred. In order to determine the effect of any preferred orientation that might have persisted through the normalizing treatment, one specimen at each temperature was rolled in the same direction as the original working direction and the other at right angles to it. The total reduction in each case was 85 per cent, the specimens having been reduced from 0.250 to 0.0375 in. in five passes. Final cooling was in air. Pinhole reflection photograms were taken of all four specimens, with the rolling direction vertical and the X-ray beam at an angle of 7° with the transverse direction (the transverse direction is defined as that direction in the rolling plane perpendicular to the rolling direction). These photograms, taken with a Me target at 35 kv., are reproduced in Figs. 1, 2, 3 and 4. They show that a more pronounced texture was developed by the low-temperature rolling (780° C.), and that of the two

Jan 1, 1936

By C. S. Barrett

IT has been observed that deformation in iron takes place by slip on {110} + {112} + {123} planes1,2 but in silicon ferrite with low deforma-tion temperatures or high silicon contents (exceeding 4 per cent) the authors have found that slip is confined wholly to {110} planes, at least with small amounts of deformation. The purpose of the present inves-tigation was to determine the effect of this alteration of slip mechanism on preferred orientations in cold-rolled and recrystallized strips. Inci-dental observations on the effect of the recrystallization temperature were also made. The numerous determinations of the texture of cold-rolled iron and steel have been in satisfactory agreement as to the principal features of the texture. (with the exception of a few conclusions that apparently have been based on insufficient data). The texture is chiefly one in which [110] directions of the grains lie along tile direction of rolling, with a deviation of a few degrees, and in which the (100) planes lie in the plane of the rolled sheet, with a deviation from this position chiefly about the rolling direc-tion as all axis 3-9. This deviation about the rolling direction as an axis has been measured by different observers and lies between about 45° and 50° or 60° for iron5,6,9 and is usually in the neighborhood of 50° for mild steel6,7,8. The range of this deviation is a function of the percentage of total reduction 8, 10. Post' reported that it decreases with increasing percentage reduction, but apparently he .studied only the surface material, which Gensamer and Mehl7 found to be somewhat differently oriented from the material in the inside of the sheet. McLachlan and Davey10 found that the deviation also decreases with increasing percentage of total reduction for the material in the interior of the sheet and is independent of the percentage of reduction per pass.

Jan 1, 1937

By M. Gensamer

ALTHOUGH a large number of X-ray photograms of cold-rolled steel have been published, two circumstances have led to the experimental work reported in this paper. The first is that no complete study, making use of the pole-figure method of Wever1, has been made of cold-rolled low-carbon steel. Wever has published pole figures of mild steel sub-jected to plane parallel deformation1,2 and undoubtedly he has applied the method to cold-rolled mild steel, but the authors have not found these data published. Kurdjumow and Sachs3 have applied the method to the study of rolling and recrystallization textures in electrolytic iron; their results will be referred to later. The reason for this dearth of papers using the pole-figure method is obvious; a greater number of photograms and more analytical work (although this work is quite simple and straight-forward) are required to construct a pole figure than most investigators have felt worth while, despite the fact that no other method of which the authors are aware will satisfactorily depict the orientations of the crystal-lites in a polycrystalline aggregate. The second circumstance that led to the work reported in this paper was the appearance of a paper by Wayne A. Sisson4 on the same subject. In his valuable study of the factors influencing the development of pre-ferred orientations in cold-rolled mild steel, Sisson made one observation that required confirmation; that is, that at some stage of the rolling proc-ess the type of preferred orientation changed from the type that gives a photogram characterized as a "six-point" X-ray pattern to that known as a "four-point" pattern. A similar observation had been made by Tam-mann and Heinzel5, who studied the orientations developed in the rolling of steel by the specular reflection of light from the etched surface of rolled samples. These workers also found that the type of preferred orientation

Jan 1, 1936

By M. Gensamer

A RECENT paper1 described, by means of stereographic pole figures, the preferred orientations produced by cold-rolling low-carbon steel of automobile-body grade. It was found that the surface of the sheet exhibited a deformation texture significantly different from the texture possessed by the inside of the sheet. Efforts to produce the surface texture by buffing a sample exhibiting the normal or inside texture, using a copper lap, have not been successful. In view of the data collected, by Kurdjumow and Sachs2, it was suggested that the surface texture might be the result of partial recrystallization of the normal or inside texture. The recrystallization texture of cold-rolled mild steel was studied by Goss3, but he did not use the pole-figure method, so that his conclusions were in need of verification. For these reasons the work reported in the present paper was undertaken. It had two objectives: (1) to study the general behavior of cold-rolled mild steel on recrystallization below the critical temperature A,, and (2) to attempt experimentally a demon-stration of the genesis suggested above for the surface texture in cold-rolled steel. The material was that used by Gensamer and Mehl, cold-rolled to 97.5 per cent reduction in thickness. Fig. 1 is an X-ray pinhole photo-gram of this material, taken with the beam transmitted perpendicular to the plane of the sheet, using a molybdenum target at 35 kv. with no filter. It is typical of the inside texture, but in it the deformation texture is better developed than in the samples that showed a well developed difference between the inside and surface samples. Specimens from this sheet, which was 0.005 in. thick, were annealed for 5 min. at various temperatures in a lead bath. After about 0.0005 in. had been etched from both surfaces, X-ray photograms were prepared, using the technique described in the earlier paper'.

Jan 1, 1936

By Brian Hart, Zhe Chen, Liuyin Xia, Mana Pourdasht, Stamen Dimov

"Gold losses related to carbonaceous matter (CM) during processing are a significant problem in the gold processing industry. Inherent CM in gold ores can behave similarly to activated carbon in its ability to adsorb gold cyanide. This phenomenon is termed preg-robbing as the surface adsorbed gold cannot, for the most part, be recovered. Research has identified that gold adsorption by inherent CM is linked to the specific surface area, pore structure, degree of C disorder and surface functional groups. One of the strategies to inhibit CM preg-robbing prior to leaching is a chemical oxidation; a process linked to modification of the surface functionality. In this study, the variability in gold cyanide adsorption due to oxidation with different reagents has been investigated. Variability in gold cyanide adsorption by CM is examined in relation to structural and surface modifications using TOF-SIMS, XPS and Raman spectroscopy.INTRODUCTION A major obstacle for effective gold recovery during carbon in leach (CIL) or carbon in pulp (CIP) processes carbonaceous gold ores is the presence of carbonaceous matter (c-matter) which has the ability to adsorb, or preg-rob gold from the cyanide leach solution. It can be responsible for poor recoveries as the carbonaceous materials (CMs) within the ore competes with activated carbon used during the leaching and adsorption phase of processing (Cay, 2014). Preg-robbing capacity can vary significantly with mild preg-robbing ores showing absorption capacities of less than 1 g Au/t ore, while severe preg-robbing ores may have CM with the capacity to preg-rob more than 500 g Au/t ore (Dunne, 2007). Research by a number of groups have shown that the degree of C disorder has some influence on the ability of the carbonaceous material to adsorb Au(CN)2- (Miller et al, 2005, Helm et al, 2009, Hart et al, 2010). It is also apparent the adsorption characteristics of carbonaceous material is affected by changes in surface chemistry (Dimov, 2016). Various treatment including; flotation to remove the carbonaceous material (Wills, 2010), addition of surface blinding agents (for example kerosene) to passivate or blanket the carbon surfaces (Dimov, 2016), addition of strong adsorbents (eg. activated carbon or resin) to compete with the carbonaceous material and passivation or surface coating by oxidation (pressure, roasting, chlorination and biological oxidation), have been employed prior to leaching in an attempt to minimize the gold losses (Dunne, 2013)."

Jan 1, 2017

By O. J. Restrepo-Baena, L. Rojas-Mendoza

Gold losses must be controlled during extracting processes, especially during cyanidation. Otherwise recovery decreases and therefore the profitability of projects too. One of the phenomena that generate such losses is known as preg-robbing which occurs when some mineral constituent adsorbs aurocyanide complex from a cyanide solution. There are some laboratory methods to identify potential preg-robbing in gold ores, highlighting the PRP method, the BGMI test, and cyanidation tests by conventional agitation without activated carbon (BRP) and with activated carbon (CIL). For this study we performed an initial characterization of a sample from Antioquia - Colombia and then we carried out the methods described above in order to identify the presence of carbonaceous matter. We obtained a percentage of preg-robbing of 78.7% by applying the BGMI test; the preg-robbing potential by the PRP method was 97.9% with an extraction of 0.77% and an inferred recovery of 36.6% if preg-robbing did not occur. Finally we obtained under the BRT test a recovery of 0%, while for CIL test an extraction of 33.6% what confirmed the presence of preg-robbers agents in the gold ore. We conducted all tests in the Institute of Minerals - CIMEX at Universidad Nacional de Colombia - Medellin.

Jan 1, 2014

By Thor Skjeggedal

The Norwegian contracting firm A/S Høyer-Ellefsen has for the last 2.5 years carried out substantial pregrouting in a 7600m long tunnel just outside the city of Oslo. This has been done to avoid groundwater lowering and consequent damage to surface structures. A WIRTH TBM is used in combination with a 2 boom Atlas Copco hydraulic jumbo for the drilling of groutholes in front of the machine. The detailed procedure for the drilling and grouting will be discussed, and the results obtained will be presented.

Jan 1, 1981

By Donald A. Bruce

Pregrouting is an extremely important part of many rock tunneling projects. However, poor and unsatisfactory performances have been frequently recorded often with very severe consequences, technically and financially. This paper, based on personal knowledge of several relevant case histories, provides recommendations with respect to specification drafting, drilling, water pressure testing, and grouting methodologies, and cementitious grout mix design principles. Even given that the logistical challenges facing tunnel pregrouting from underground will prevent all the sophistication and innovations of contemporary dam foundation grouting being practically implemented, there is still opportunity and need to change “traditional” approaches.

Jan 1, 2005

By P. C. Cochrane, I. S. Clelland, S. H. E. Phillips

Geological and hydrological conditions in the strata overlying the Salado Formation vary considerably in the Carlsbad, NM, area. The first four shafts sunk at International Minerals and Chemical Corp. (IMC) property have been located in competent and essentially dry conditions, while other shafts on adjacent properties have had such adverse conditions that ground freezing has been chosen as the water and ground control technique for shaft sinking. At the location of the IMC No. 5 shaft there has been extensive erosion and salt dissolution in the Rustler Formation, leading to collapse of some zones of the strata. Both ground freezing and pregrouting were considered as alternative methods of stabilizing the extremely poor ground conditions and controlling the potentially very heavy water inflows. It was decided that pregrouting the shaft was feasible and would offer substantial cost and time saving over a ground freezing technique. This paper describes the pregrouting techniques used and illustrates the requirement for flexibility in a grouting program so that it can be modified to reflect any new or additional information obtained during the progress of the grouting.

Jan 1, 1987

By Stephen H. E. Phillips

Geological and hydrological conditions in the strata overlying the Salado Formation vary considerably in the Carlsbad, New Mexico area. The first four shafts sunk at international Minerals and Chemical Corporation's property have been located in competent and essentially dry conditions, while other shafts on adjacent properties have had such adverse conditions that ground freezing has been chosen as the water and ground control technique for shaft sinking. At the location of the IMC No. 5 Shaft there has been extensive-erosion and salt dissolution in the Rustler Formation which has led to collapse of some zones of the strata. Both ground freezing and pregrouting were considered as alternative methods of stabilizing the extremely poor ground conditions and controlling the potentially very heavy water inflows it was decided that pregrouting the shaft was feasible and would offer substantial cost and time saving over a ground freezing technique. This paper describes the pregrouting techniques used and illustrates the requirement for flexibility in a grouting program so that it can be codified to reflect any new or additional information which is obtained during the progress of the grouting.

Jan 1, 1984