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At the eastern end of the Mesabi Range, 70 miles due north of Duluth, is the vast plant of Erie Mining Co. Operated by Pickands Mather G Co. for the mine's four owners-Bethlehem Steel, Youngstown Sheet and Tube, Inter- lake Iron, and Steel Co. of Canada-Erie Mining Co, has earned just fame as a pioneer and a leader in the mining, beneficiation, and agglomeration of the lean iron ores of the Lake Superior district. Here is the story of Erie and the integrated operations that have made it such an outstanding member of America's iron ore industry.

Jan 5, 1963

By Frank M. Howell, Claude E. Schmidt

To counteract the spiralling costs of labor and materials against the fixed sale of its product, namely, gold at $35 per oz, Homestake Mining Co. has revised the milling flowsheet once and effected increases in the daily milling rate twice in the past 12 years. During this period the mining department has been able to hold production costs steady by increased productivity through technical improvements and utilization of the most modern mining by CLAUDE E. SCHMIDT and FRANK M. HOWELL, JR. 46-MINING ENGINEERING, APRIL 1963 equipment. The flowsheet alteration occurred during 1951-1953 when the two crushing plants at the shaft head frames were converted to a three-stage crushing system with the third stage closed circuited to produce a minus 5/8-in. product as rod mill feed.

Jan 4, 1963

By D. M. Jamieson, M. P. Pearse, E. R. A. Plumstead

In 1948 the shaft sinking record in the Republic of South Africa was held by the Van Dyk Consolidated Mines Ltd. for a ventilation shaft with a footage of 461 ft sunk during the month of August 1941. This record remained for some ten years; but in the ensuing nine years it was broken no less than 13 times. Table I gives shaft sinking records throughout the world for the 21 years, 1940 to 1960. History shows that the wide, deep, timbered rectangular shaft had passed its peak of popularity by 1948, although it still had a great deal to commend it, both from the sinking and operational points of view. In sinking, it is easy to clean manually, and water can be handled by bailing when wet ground has to be negotiated; its shape also lends itself to equipping concurrently with sinking. In operation it provides the most convenient "in line" hoisting arrangement, and if the ventilation requirements so demand, it offers the simplest solution in that it can be divided into upcast and downcast sections. Furthermore, in the case of a multi-level mine, the shaft compartments can be reduced conveniently if the full area of the shaft is not required to serve all levels.

Jan 4, 1963

By U. K. Custred

To the layman, the term "strip mining" usually applies to the appearance of mined-over land after an operation is completed, not to the technique. This attitude, however, is becoming pass6 in the central Florida pebble phosphate field as eight mining companies in the area pursue a mutual program of land reclamation. The Florida phosphate industry is fortunate in this respect because it occupies an area favorable to reclamation. The terrain is flat; overburden is sand and clay which will support vegetation fairly readily; a high ground water table naturally converts mine pits into lakes. Too, this is water which readily supports marine life, not the acidic water so frequently found in the coal industry.

Jan 4, 1963

By Henry H. Thomas

In Tasmania a tailrace tunnel to handle water discharged from a turbine generator has been successfully driven by a machine tunneling method similar to that described in the July 1962 issue of Civil Engineering. The Hydro-Electric Commission, Tasmania, is constructing a high- head (2750 ft) power project that will utilize the storage in the Great Lake (1,150,000 acre-ft) at an elevation of 3380 ft. The underground power station will house six vertical shaft turbo-generators, each rated at 50,000 kw. The tailrace tunnel, 16 ft diam and 14,600 ft long, was driven through a reasonably homogeneous hard mudstone. It was decided to excavate this mechanically in the hope of saving some money on excavation and a considerable sum on the ultimate lining of the tunnel. Mechanical engineers from Tasmania worked with the firm of James S. Robbins and Associates of Seattle, Wash., which designed and supplied the "mole."

Jan 4, 1963

By James A. Todd

Use of AN-FO in underground operations has greatly reduced the cost of primary explosives. AN-FO is also less sensitive than conventional dynamites, and when properly used, is safer. Maximum safety in the use of AN-FO, however, requires an understanding of potential hazards from toxic fumes as well as static electricity developed in pneumatic loading. Safe limits and guides have been established to permit most operations to pneumatically load holes that are bottom primed with electric blasting caps, but the toxic fume hazard is less widely understood. During 1959-1960 Du Pont cooperated with the U.S. Bureau of Mines to study the toxic fumes produced by prilled ammonium nitrate-NO. 2 fuel oil mixtures. The conclusions from this work were that oxygen balanced AN-FO, when thoroughly mixed, well primed and well confined in dry holes, produces no greater amounts of toxic fumes than conventional dynamites rated Class I by the Institute of Makers of Explosives. The study also showed, however, that any deviation from these guides tends to increase significantly the quantity of toxic fumes produced. This work was reported by the Bureau of International Symposium on Mining Research at Rolla, Mo., in February 1961.'

Jan 4, 1963

By J. W. Moody

The first Rodpeb mill ever built and placed in full scale successful operation went onstream in mid- 1960 at Marquette Cement Manufacturing Co.'s newly modernized portland cement production plant at Nashville, Tenn. It replaced a third stage of fine crushing and two 7x22-ft Compeb mills in the wet raw slurry grinding department. The Rodpeb mill at Nashville is similar in appearance to a Compeb mill but is larger. The mill, which operates in open circuit, is 9 ft in diameter and 38 ft long. The rod compartment is 12 ft long, with the rods being 11.5 ft in length and ranging in diameter from 4 in. down to about 1 in. The weight of the rod charge is 100,000 lb. The liners of the rod compartment are of the Lorain design.

Jan 4, 1963

By R. A. L. Black

Between March and June 1962, the privilege of holding a Carnegie Corporation Fellowship enabled R. A. L. Black to travel extensively in the northeastern and western U.S. and in Canada, seeing mining schools, mining research establishments and a cross-section of the American and Canadian mining industry. Visits were paid to 12 university mining schools, 7 research establishments and 19 mining operations. The author had previously spent two months in Britain in a similar manner and eventually returned to his home in South Africa after a short period studying mining problem in Australia. Thus, although the following remarks are mainly concerned with the educational problems of mining in North America, a comparison of impressions of American and Canadian conditions could be made with impressions gained from first-hand experience of other mining centers in the English-speaking world. The conclusion was reached that the problems and conditions of mining, research and mining education are very similar in all areas visited.

Jan 4, 1963

An overland belt conveyor system installed at Simco-Peabody's mine near Coshocton, Ohio, is presently carrying coal three miles at an estimated cost of 4.499 per ton-mile. Installed by Link-Belt Co. in late 1961, this system transports coal from open pit and underground mining operations to the Conesville Power Plant. Simco-Peabody has mining operations over a considerable area just east of the Conesville Station. In 1960 the power plant completed plans to enlarge by adding a third boiler. As a result, Simco-Peabody was required to provide means to produce and handle more coal. The haulage equipment, which consisted of one 90-ton, five 60-ton and one 50-ton off- highway trucks, was too small to handle the increasing daily coal demands. Annual tonnage was approaching a million tons and in a few years would be well over that figure.

Jan 4, 1963

By A. Bruce Matthews

Of the many opportunities in the mining industry to invest funds to improve operations, there is always some limit in every company as to how much can be spent each year for the acquisition of capital assets. Generally, there are many more opportunities for investment than funds to make the investments. As such, one of management's goals is to select the most profitable of all the opportunities available. Each opportunity must be carefully analyzed for its potential percentage rate of return. This percentage return or return on investment concept is an accepted financial yardstick of business profit- ability. For today's mining engineers, this problem resolves itself in the job of determining how to in- vest most productively the cash that is flowing from their operations so that it will multiply in value. There are four basic types of capital investments: Strategic investments, such as selecting a plant site, are those that affect virtually all long-run plans of a company. Change in a company's product line and expansion of company facilities are two other types of capital investments.

Jan 3, 1963

By Charles E. Johnston

The haulage system at the International Minerals T & Chemical Corp. (IMC) potash mine near Carlsbad, N. M., reached a turning point in December 1956 with the introduction of rope suspended belt haulage. In fact, IMC pioneered the use of this type of belt in the potash industry. Since that time belt conveyance has been employed as an extension of the rail system but not as a replacement of the main rail haulage. IMC's potash mine is located in the Permian Basin, approximately 20 miles east of Carlsbad. From three levels, the 800-ft, 850-ft and 900-ft, over 60 million tons have been extracted. Langbeinite (K,SO,. 2MgS0,) is mined on the 850 level and sylvite (KCl) on the 900 level. The 800 level, with both langbeinite and sylvite mineralization, is idle. Mining heights vary from 54 in. to more than 10 ft. A room and pillar mining system is used.

Jan 3, 1963

By H. H. West

Modern mining is vitally concerned with the prompt, efficient movement of great quantities of bulk materials. It is not surprising, therefore, that intensive efforts are being directed toward improving effectiveness and reducing costs of materials handling systems. Historically, the operation of removing bulk material from a moving conveyor and depositing it in utilization or storage areas has been a high cost segment of the materials handling system. Since this operation is often performed by belt trippers, considerable attention has been focused on improvement of these devices. Frequently, the greatest opportunity for improving performance of these devices is the incorporation of remote or automatic control systems. This article describes tripper control systems developed by Kennecott Copper Corp. and explains the control philosophies used in designing these systems.

Jan 3, 1963

By T. M. Anderson

Open pit mining at Inspiration began in 1947 after 32 years of underground mining. Two separate pits are included in the operations: the Thornton pit, which measures approximately 2500 x 2000 ft, and the Live Oak pit, which is 1500 x 3000 ft. The geographic centers of the two pits are approximately 4000 ft apart, and at the closest point, the two slopes are only 500 ft apart. Today, much of the open pit mining is being carried out in areas which were broken by earlier underground block caving operations; less than 50% of the total material moved has required drilling and blasting. In the solid or virgin areas, the, material ranges only from soft to medium hardness, thus simplifying drilling, blasting and loading operations. As a result, most mining costs and problems have been centered around truck haulage, truck maintenance and the ever-increasing length of the grade haul.

Jan 3, 1963

By Christer Danielsson, Sven Ivarsson

In 1951 the first ton of iron was shipped from West Africa; ten years later the total export exceeded 4 million tons, and an optimistic forecast for 1970 indicates a production capacity of something around 40 to 50 million tons. The quality of the ore varies from normal hematitic concentrates, through naturally enriched hematitic direct shipping ores with comparatively high content of ore fines, to dense, hard, rich lump ores of magmatic character. West Africa is largely composed of folded Pre-cambrian rocks trending generally northeast to southwest. They are exposed over about one third of West Africa and are part of the vast continental plateau which has an average elevation of about 1300 ft in this area.

Jan 3, 1963

By Edwin B. Johnson

The success of self-fluxed sinter in enhancing the operation of the blast furnace during the past few years has reasonably led to the assumption that the use of self-fluxed pellets might result in even greater furnace efficiencies. A great share of development work in agglomeration has been directed towards techniques related to the production of self-fluxed pellets, but no appreciable tonnage of self-fluxed pellets had been produced on a commercial scale until this past year when The Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Co. produced 35,000 tons of such pellets by the grate kiln system at the Republic mine during the period May 21-June 5, 1962.

Jan 3, 1963

By Lauren A. Wright

General prosperity marked the industrial mineral industries of the U.S. and Canada in 1962. For most commodities, production and sales exceeded 1961 figures, and for several commodities, all-time production peaks were reached. Many millions of dollars were spent on exploration for and development of industrial mineral deposits, construction of new plant facilities, and expansion and modernization of existing plants. This generally satisfactory state is attributable mostly to a continuing high rate of building and heavy construction. However, for large segments of the industrial mineral field, 1962 was a year of increasingly severe competition and of problems, either existing or potential, of overproduction and overcapacity. Such problems are of particular concern to the asbestos, cement, potash and sulfur industries. As in years past, the trend continued toward larger-scale operations to permit lower production costs per unit of material mined, toward more stringent quality controls and toward marketing methods that provide greater efficiency and customer convenience.

Jan 2, 1963

In 1962, minerals beneficiation showed definite signs of coming out of the doldrums into which it has drifted after the uranium boom. Demand by steelmakers for high-grade iron pellets has created the need for concentrating plants to upgrade specular hematite by spiral concentration or flotation and magnetites by magnetic means and flotation. According to a paper given at the AMC annual meeting by C. S. Arms of Pickands Mather, "the shipment of pellets, started in the mid-1950's, has increased to 17.6 million tons in 1961 from North American operations. Many plants already underway will raise this production to about 42 million tons by 1965. This will be a very sizeable percentage of the total iron ore production contemplated by that date." Iron ore concentration methods are gradually raising the assay of pellets into the 65 to 69% Fe range and lowering silica to the 4 to 7% range. Quebec Cartier's Lac Jeannine concentrator went into operation in late 1961 and all grinding units were running by 1962. The Iron Ore Co. of Canada's new Carol Lake plant was started in mid-1962.

Jan 2, 1963

By James J. Scott, John J. Reed

In a year fraught with difficulties, especially to small operators, the more stable mining organizations have shown a dynamic readiness to plunge ahead in the development of new mines, new and ingenious equipment and new tools for management to take the guesswork out of important decisions. New Mining Equipment The mining equipment display at the American Mining Congress in San Francisco demonstrated some rather radical new design concepts and a new willingness to use imagination to come up with ingenious new applications and adaptations of standard equipment.

Jan 2, 1963

By John D. Ridge

For mining geologists, the most important trends during 1962 have been the increased concentration of the exploratory activities of American mining companies in the United States and Canada and the greater use of the combined techniques of geology, geophysics and geochemistry in searches over larger areas for wider varieties of metals and minerals. The principal reasons for these changes in approach have been the deterioration of the political-economic climate in many areas of the globe of equal or greater geologic promise and the realization that modern exploration is most efficiently and economically conducted through the use of all available means of detecting ores in areas sufficiently large to raise to a maximum the chances of success. The attitude of certain major U.S. metal-producing companies can be shown by the officially ex- pressed positions of their principal officers. Early in 1962, Clyde E. Weed, Chairman of the Board of Anaconda, remarked that "because of unsettled conditions and disruptive influences in many of the copper-producing areas of the world, it is imperative that domestic copper-producing capacity be improved and made as efficient as possible in order to meet consumer demands at reasonably stable prices." In November, Robert G. Page, President of Phelps Dodge, pointed out that his company is not only concentrating most of its exploratory effort on this continent but is also increasing the number of metals for which it is searching. Frank R. Milliken, President of Kennecott, recently said that "most of our exploration money is going into the northern part of the Western Hemisphere."

Jan 2, 1963

By Alvin Kaufman

At the turn of the century the U.S. had a gross ALVIN KAUFMAN Mineral Economist U.S. Bureau of Mines area slightly in excess of three million square miles, a population of 76 million, a gross national product of $37 billion (constant 1929 dollars) and a mineral production valued at $2 billion (1929 dollars). Some 60 years later its area had increased by 600 thousand square miles, population had risen 140%, gross national product was seven times greater and mineral production had grown to a value five times that of 1900. Of perhaps greater significance, however, were the changes wrought by technology. It was during this period that the "American Way of Life" was revolutionized by the introduction of the airplane and the automobile; man also took his first probing steps in the utilization of nuclear energy and pre- pared to unlock the secrets of space. It was during these six decades, also, that he learned to create additional new materials, some of which were from old sources such as plastics from petroleum and coal. These new materials have created competition and attendant problems for the traditional materials such as iron, copper, lead and zinc. Additional problems undoubtedly will be created by technologic advances in the future.

Jan 2, 1963