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By Thomas E. Ban

The continuous sintering process was invented more than 60 years ago by two metallurgists, Arthur S. Dwight and Richard L. Lloyd, who saw a need for automation in mineral processing. Their specific objective was to beneficiate copper ore by desulfurizing and agglomerating it for copper blast furnace smelting at the Cananea plant in Mexico1. Since their early development the process expanded widely in scope, size, and application. The current worldwide sintering applications exceed 250 million tons per year for agglomerating ores of lead, manganese, zinc, and iron. Sintering is also widely used for production of sintered lightweight aggregate from clays, shales, and fly ash. The continuous sintering process took on wide expansion during the 1960's in foreign countries. Plants for production of approximately 135 million tons per year were built in these countries for sintering iron ore fines as shipped from new iron ore projects of Canada, Liberia, India, Brazil, and Australia. This expansion represented construction of approximately 80 new sintering plants, some as large as 15 thousand tons per day production on a single large sintering machine. Sized self-fluxing or highly fluxed sinter has become recognized as a premium blast furnace charge and has enabled blast furnaces of Japan and Europe to produce upwards of 10,000 tons of metal per day with coke rates less than 1,000 pounds per ton of metal. This coke requirement is practically 50 percent of the ordinary rates achieved during the early 1950's when the peak blast furnace production was less than 113 of the current records.

Jan 1, 1975

By Seth C. Schaefer

The Bureau of Mines studied thermodynamic properties of Al-Ni alloys con¬taining 0.54 to 30.04 atomic percent nickel with the aid of the high-temperature galvanic cell Al(1) // Al+3 (AlCl3 in NaCI.KC1) // Al-Ni alloy (1 or s). Activities of aluminum and nickel (compared with pure liquid metals as the standard state) show pronounced negative deviation from Raoult's law at 1,273 K. The properties [?G, ?Gxs, ?G ideal, ?GA1, AGxs1, ?Gni , and ?GNixs] have been derived from the experimental data and are summarized in tables and illustrations. At 1,127 K, the thermodynamic stability for the invariant three-phase equilibrium consisting of a saturated liquid, A13Ni, and A13Ni2 has been uniquely defined by an activity for aluminum of 0.751. A free energy of formation at 1,127 K of -7,940 cal/g-atom was derived for the compound A13Ni.

Jan 1, 1975

By Richard J. Leary

The inputs of capital and labor to support future iron ore production were developed by the Bureau of Mines from projections of iron demand and estimates of capital and labor requirements. Trends in technologic change and the organization of production were analyzed. Labor requirement schedules for iron ore mining and beneficiating were constructed from aggregate inter-temporal trends and 1970 cross-sectional analysis of mines and mills. A sup-ply schedule of the capital requirement for mine-mill-pellet plants was developed from U.S. and Canadian experience. The structure of demand for iron to the year 2000 was examined as well as the availability of resources. Projections of capital and labor requirements to 2000 were constructed under two international patterns of iron ore supply to the United States. The most likely model is for a continuation of the 70 percent United States-30 percent foreign shares, expanding at an average 2.0 percent growth rate to 2000, and supported by a cumulative gross capital investment of $3.8 billion constant 1967 dollars and a labor force in the United States of 29,800 by 2000. The information content of projections is discussed, and the possible effects of international forces on supply are considered. A generalized methodology for estimating capital and labor requirements in other mineral industries also is included.

Jan 1, 1975

By Robert W. Freedman

As part of a continuing effort to reduce the weight and bulk of equipment that mining personnel must carry underground, the Bureau of Mines and the Mining Enforcement and Safety Administration (MESA) investigated accurate and convenient gas samplers for use by mine inspectors in sampling mine atmospheres. The samplers are septum-stoppered glass vials commonly used for routine blood sampling. These lightweight, compact samplers yield results comparable with those obtained with conventional bottle samplers of 250-ml nominal capacity.

Jan 1, 1975

By Alexander May

The Bureau of Mines, in cooperation with the Florida phosphate mining industry, investigated the dewatering of waste phosphatic slimes. Part of this investigation was to determine the electrophoretic mobilities and cation exchange capacities of the slimes. The mobilities and exchange capacities are reported for samples of slimes taken from 15 plants operating in the Florida land-pebble phosphate district that includes Polk,Hillsborough, Manatee, Hardee, and DeSoto Counties. The electrophoretic mobilities determined were all negative, ranging from -0.24 to -1.93 (micrometers per second) per (volt per centimeter). Also reported are frequency distributions of electrophoretic mobilities, electrophoretic mobilities of slime diluted with distilled water and electrophoretic mobilities of sand-slime mixtures. The cation exchange capacities ranged from 17 to 45 milliequivalents per 100 grams of slime solids.

Jan 1, 1975

By Hatcher MI

Exploration undertaken at Copley diapir has located several occurrences of oxidized supergene and primary sulphide copper mineralization at the margin of the diapir or in adjacent country rocks. The mineraliza- tion is related to carbonate-rich epigenetic solutions which moved along major structural features closely associated with the intru sive diapir.

Jan 1, 1975

By Gilbert DJ, Lemon NM

A case history of a two year study of low grade ores in the Middleback Range area with the objective of defining possible areas of interest from a combination of geological- petrological-metallurgical criteria. Covering the general geology of the area and ore types; the results of metallurgical testwork and the pattern of evolution of these tests; the petrological explanation of the results of the testwork; the culmination of the work in the selection of areas of best potential for more intensive work. Jaspilites consisting of magnetite, hematite and limonite with quartz and silicate-carbonate-sulphide minerals are hosts to high grade iron mineralisation but also constitute a large low grade iron Reserve.

Jan 1, 1975

By Stewart R. Wallace

"For his achievements in unravelling the complex geology of the Climax ore body; for his leadership in the discovery of the Henderson deposit; for his continued encouragement of young geologists; and for his lecture . .."

Jan 1, 1975

By Bradley V. Johnson

The Bureau of Mines constructed a microminer--a scaled-down (5-by 5- by 11-foot) continuous-mining machine of the drum type with a unique triaxially controlled head--for use in a research program to study the effects of continuous-mining-machine parameters on the generation of respirable dust. This report describes field research with the microminer at the Bureau's Experimental Mine at Bruceton, Pa. Experiments were conducted to determine the effects of depth of cut, rotational speed, and sump and shear rates on the generation of respirable dust. The cutting forces were also monitored and compared with depth of cut. There appears to be a reduction in the amount of respirable dust generated when the depth of cut is increased or rotational is speed lowered, Variation of other machine parameters seems to have little effect on dust generation.

Jan 1, 1975

By Gary Beerkircher

The mine hoisting equipment that is selected and installed at a mine is the lifeline of the mine, and therefore the proper selection of equipment will save a lot of time and money during the life of the mine. Various types of mine hoist designs &e available today, and each has their advantages and disadvantages. Double Drum Hoists, Single Drum Hoists, Friction Hoists and various special designs of these are available but should only be used on applications where they are suitable. There have been several new drive systems for mine hoists which have come into the picture in the last ten years, and they in turn must be evaluated along with the existing drive systems for each hoist application. It does not make sense to properly select the hoist mechanicals, and then have a drive system that turns out to be a bottleneck. This paper will attempt to cover the above noted systems - both the hoist selection and hoist drive system that will provide the mine with a reliable and economical hoisting system. I. Mine Hoist Types There are two basic types of mine hoists available in the world today: the drum hoist on which the hoist rope is actually stored during the hoisting cycle, and the friction (Koepe), which merely passes the rope over the wheel during the hoisting process. Following is a general outline of each type of hoist and the hoisting applications that they are suitable for. First let us consider the simple Single Drum Hoist. As a Service or Production Hoist with cage or skip in balance with a counterweight, a Single Drum Hoist can efficiently service one or more levels since the location of the counterweight at anytime is not important. As a Production Hoist with skips in balance the Single Drum Hoist is best used for single level hoisting. All rope adjustments for proper spotting must be done manually for the Single Drum Hoist. This has to be done periodically to compensate for rope stretch. A variation of the Single Drum Hoist is the divided drum hoist. If multi-layer winding is necessary the Single Drum Hoist must have a divider to allow a separate compartment for each rope. If a counterweight is used with a divided drum application the counterweight rope can be wound on a smaller diameter (Figure 2). Consequently, it moves a lesser distance than the main conveyance and rope adjustment problems are reduced.

Jan 1, 1975

By Luis Briceño Arata

El presente texto describe los proyectos mineros desarrollados hasta el año 2000, el cual contempla los siguientes minerales: plata, hierro, fosfato, oro, carbón antracítico y bituminoso, así como las necesidades energéticas, hídricas y posibles fuentes del suministro.

Jan 1, 1975

By Richard H. Johnson

White Pine Copper Company began operating a plant designed to recover copper matte particles from its discarded reverberatory furnace slags in April, 1972. Seasonal operation, generally the months of April through November, continued through October, 1974, shutting down due to feed exhaustion. White Pine reverberatory furnace slags contained economically recoverable amounts of copper for a variety of reasons. Among them: 1. White Pine concentrates yield extremely high matte grades (65+% Cu) and viscous slags. The viscous slags hinder matte settling causing matte "prill" entrapment in the slag 2. White Pine's total refined copper output is accomplished through fire refining requiring special techniques for impurity removal, especially small amounts of nickel introduced from purchased pyrite and chalcopyrite fluxes. These special techniques result in high-copper slags, refractory to smelting, being reintroduced into the reverberatory furnace. 3. Furnace bottom build-ups resulting in mechanical matte entrapment through the formation of "dams" hindering matte flow. 4. Occasional concentrate fluxing and furnace atmosphere control problems.

Jan 1, 1975

By Deane Boddorff

A 440 Volt AC power line is a typical power source for energizing electric blasting cap circuits in driving hard rock tunnels. A common misconception exists that the caps actually see 440 Volts. This paper describes an analysis of the entire blasting circuit determining the current flowing and the voltage drops through each component. If, from such an analysis, one determines that the current to the caps is too low or too high, the components that require changing are easily recognized.

Jan 1, 1975

By Robert J. Evans

Capital and operating costs were estimated using a wet suppression, fabric filter, and a combination system of the two for hypothetical hard rock stone crushing plants located in central Pennsylvania, operating at 300, 600, and 1,000 tons per hour. Fixed capital expenditure for the dust abatement systems ranged from $49,129 to $249,162. Annual operating costs for the dust abatement systems ranged from $8,394 to $46,606 (0.9 to 3.2 cents per ton). If these dust abatement systems are properly sized, installed, and maintained, efficiencies approaching 95 percent can be expected for reduction in weight of dust particles emitted before control.

Jan 1, 1975

By John P. Bryant

Plant nutrients are obtained by plants from both the air and the soil. Carbon dioxide, a gaseous form of carbon and oxygen, supplies the carbon which usually makes up 50% or more of plant structure. Plants are capable of absorbing carbon dioxide directly from the air. Most of this nutrient comes from the air, although some carbon dioxide is absorbed by soil water and taken into the plant as liquid. Growing plants use more water than any other substance. Plant nutrients in the soil dissolve in soil water; soil water entering the plant carries nutrients into the plant structure. Water is then given off into the air as the plant breathes or transpires. The inorganic or mineral portion of the nutrients which plants require comes from the soil. Inorganic or mineral composition of plants is usually less than 5% of their weight, and this mineral requirement, usually lacking in the soil, must be provided by fertilizers. Proper fertilization of a soil to improve its mineral level and productivity is the basis for the fertilizer industry (Thomas, 1960). There are 13 essential plant nutrients which often must be added to soils or plants and are generally considered as fertilizer minerals. These nutrients are divided into the categories: primary minerals (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium); secondary minerals (calcium, magnesium, sulfur); and micro or trace minerals (boron, iron, manganese, copper, zinc, molybdenum, chlorine). Further, cobalt is often added to fertilizers. Although it is not considered to be an essential plant nutrient, it is essential to animal health and is often applied to forages as a fertilizer constituent. One point of major significance to the fertilizer industry is that not all nutrient carriers supply that nutrient in a chemical form which will be available to the plant. Thus, a product which may be considered a fertilizer mineral may require substantial processing or treatment before it becomes useful as a nutrient carrier. Fertilizer Industry Scope Until about 1900 demands for higher crop yields were met simply by bringing new agricultural lands into cultivation. Since that time great progress has been made in increasing yields through fertilization and improved varieties and cultural practices. The importance of the fertilizer industry to the economy and welfare of the U.S. is widely recognized. [Fig. 1] illustrates the relationship of lime and fertilizers to crop yields. In terms of tons of fertilizer products, the growth of the industry has been phenomenal, particularly between 1950 and 1970. Table 1 shows the increase in fertilizer usage. Primary Plant Nutrients in Fertilizers Primary minerals (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium) are designated as such because of their significance to plant growth. Practically all soils are deficient in both nitrogen and phosphorus, and most of them are also deficient in potassium. Consequently, these nutrients

Jan 1, 1975

By Teh-Yu Kao, Don J. Wood

With the increasing industrial use of the method of transporting solids by fluids through pipes, a better understanding of the basic mechanics of a solid-liquid pipe flow system is essential. In this study the phenomenon of incipient motion of solid particles resting in a sediment bed on the bottom of a pipe is investigated. Since a system would fail to operate at the designed solid-liquid flow condition if it was not capable of operating through the transient initial flow phase, information concerning the starting transient is of great interest. An objective definition of incipient particle motion, derived from energy considerations, is first proposed. Using this the critical state is defined to describe the flow condition during which a solid particle can at least temporarily escape the sediment bed and move in the liquid. Postulated also in this study is that the condition of incipient motion can be reasonably well predicted by a consideration of particle equilibrium in a direction normal to the pipe axis. The incipient condition is considered to occur at the instant the force between the bed and the particle, normal to the pipe axis, is zero. Experimental measurements of incipient conditions are obtained for water flowing through a horizontal pipe with sand sediment beds of different thickness. These are compared to predicted values with good agreement.

Jan 1, 1975

By James H. Cobbs

The purpose of this study is to investigate the application of boring equipment to the production of anthracite coal from steeply pitching beds. Both raise boring and augering equipment were considered. Previous studies (11) have indicated that boring equipment may have definite applications to the development of steeply pitching anthracite beds. This investigation was to carry forward previous work to determine the possible application of the two different types of equipment being considered. Previous conclusions have been substantiated by the results of this study.

Jan 1, 1975

By Walter G. Dupree

When the original version of this study was published in 1972 it was evident that a problem was developing on the energy scene. The ability of the United States to find the energy supplies it needed within its own boundaries--at least in the forms desired--was declining. Production of crude oil in the United States had peaked in 1970 and was declining slowly; environmental restrictions had begun to hamper the production and consumption of high sulfur coal; natural gas reserves were beginning to dwindle; and the development of nuclear power was proceeding more slowly than originally planned. Shortfalls in energy supply were being met through the importation of increasingly larger quantities of petroleum, but supplies were adequate and the price of the imports was below that of domestic production. The energy problem was more prospective than current. In October of 1973 the prospective problem became the "Energy Crisis' when the Arab petroleum exporting countries reduced crude oil production, imposed an embargo on the shipment of crude oil to the United States, and then raised the price of crude oil in a series of large steps. This crisis was a clear demonstration of the dangers of the dependence of the United States on imported petroleum, and of the Nation's vulnerability to the actions of the oil exporting countries. After the embargo was lifted, attention shifted to the immediate hardships resulting from the higher prices for gasoline, fuel, and electricity,

Jan 1, 1975

By Ben F. Dickerson

For a number of years in office bull sessions, I have not so jokingly discussed the engineering or management fiasco of the year or decade. Usually, governmental projects are in the vanguard, such as tanks that won't tank, or heavy water plants that don't produce heavy water, etc., etc., all to the flutter of the taxpayers' hundreds of millions, or billions of dollars. The mining industry has also brought forth a share of this type of fiasco. Ordinarily, due to lack of funds, not opportunity, the stockholders only stand losses of a few tens of millions. Little knowledge of these major errors gets to the outside world, for the ordinary stockholder is usually not very alert, and managements are extraordinarily adept at discreet midnight internments in the fine print of the footnotes of annual reports.

Jan 1, 1975

By C. M. McCulloch

A series of geological surveys were completed in six coal mines in connection with a Bureau of Mines research program on methane control. The aim of these surveys was twofold: First, to study the overall geology of the coalbed, and second to use the resulting data to evaluate the influence of the geological characteristics of the coalbed on safe and efficient coal extraction. This report explains the advantages of geologic maps and fence diagrams in coal mining, and how the knowledge gained from such geologic investigations of mines can help control many underground problems.

Jan 1, 1975