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Solution mining got back in the news recently when Kalium Chemicals, Ltd., a joint subsidiary of Pittsburgh Plate Glass and Armour & Co. announced its plans to go full speed ahead in mining potash by the solution method in its vast holdings 30 miles west of Regina, Saskatchewan. The company is keeping the technical details of this mining technique under wraps for competitive reasons, but company officials insist that the major difficulties in solution mining of potash have been overcome and that the final product will have definite competitive advantages on the open market. Kalium's holdings in the Regina area total about 500 sq mi. The ore-primarily sylvite mixed with appreciable quantities of halite-occurs in the Prairie Evaporite formation at a depth of 5300 ft. The ore zone averages about 100 ft in thickness. Too deep to be economically mined by conventional underground methods, such as is being done at International Minerals & Chemical Corp.'s Esterhazy mine (depth about 3100 ft), Kalium gambled that it could develop a successful method of solution mining even though earlier attempts in Germany, the U.S., and Canada had failed.

Jan 6, 1964

By Calvin Bjorne, John Keeley

In the face of a highly competitive iron ore market, the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Co. developed a process now being practiced at the company's Republic mine in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. By this process, a specular hematite crude ore is being beneficiated to produce a high iron-low silica concentrate with a suitable size structure for the production of a high quality pellet. This process involves crushing, primary grinding and primary flotation, followed by regrinding, heating and refloating the primary flotation concentrate. The ores consist predominantly of specular hematite with relatively minor amounts of magnetite and martite in a recrystallized chert gangue. A wide variety of silicates have been identified, particularly in association with intrusives of various description. The more abundant of these are sericite, talc, grunerite and chlorite with some carbonates, primarily calcite.

Jan 6, 1964

Carlisle: This is April 19, 1961. My good friend Dave Irwin is sitting on the other side of the tape recorder. We are at Rose Dhu Island, Savannah, Ga. Now, let's begin with your first job, where and what was that? Irwin: I started out to Arizona, looking for a job and wound up in Morenci. The next morning I applied at the mine office and was put on as a sampler. I worked as a sampler and as an assistant to Frank Pelton, the geologist, for a year, after which I went back to New Haven to take my last year of postgraduate work. After getting my degree, I went back to the Southwest with W. Rowland Cox and Staff, supposedly as a geologist. Q: But that was not when he was with Spurr? Irwin: That was after he had left Spurr. Henry Smith was with the Spurr end of the outfit and I happened to drop into the W. Rowland Cox end. My first job with him was to do some work on a prospect above Metcalf, Ariz., and from there I would go out on short reconnaissance trips in Arizona, New Mexico and old Mexico.

Jan 6, 1964

By Paul Levin

A coal preparation plant built with conventional materials only might be able to do an efficient job of preparing coal, but its maintenance costs would be high and emergency shutdowns frequent. To remedy this situation special materials are being used, either in original plant construction or for replacement of conventional materials. The special materials vary from high-strength and abrasion-resisting steels and stainless steel alloys to ceramics. They include hard surfacing welding rods, rubber refractories and some of the newer plastics, the merits of which are cited by the author. A coal preparation plant, limited strictly to the use of conventional materials-for example, mild steel, cast iron and ordinary rubber-could, no doubt, do an efficient job of preparing coal, but the high cost of maintenance and increasingly frequent emergency outages would soon force the operator to seek relief by introducing special materials such as alloyed steels, oil-resistant rubbers and hard-surfacing welding rods.

Jan 6, 1964

By Bunting S. Crocker

In the summer of 1961, the Anaconda Research staff and Kilborn Engineering Ltd. began a study to investigate the possibilities of using some form of autogenous grinding in the new concentrator which Anaconda was planning to erect at Butte, adjacent to their Berkeley pit. The following criteria applied to the project: 1) The Butte mill was to be able to handle 36,000 to 42,000 tpd of copper ore, taken from the Berkeley pit and adjacent underground mines. 2) The plant was to be built in six units. 3) It would be started up two units at a time. 4) Equipment from the Anaconda mill was available for use in the new location. 5) Tonnage would be maintained at Butte and Anaconda, with equipment being moved down as required. 6) The ore from the Berkeley pit was known to vary widely from place to place in the pit and to be generally soft and friable.

Jan 5, 1964

By L. A. Wright

Union Carbide Corp.'s Pine Creek mine in California is the largest known tungsten deposit in the West, and the producer of well over five million tons or ore to date. Located 21 miles northwest of Bishop on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevadas, the mine is also a source of molybdenum and copper and it was the quest for the molybdenum which caused the mine management to undertake a pillar recovery program. GEOLOGY For a full discussion on the geology of the Bishop tungsten district and the Pine Creek mine, reference is made to Special Report 47, Calif. Div. of Mines. The deposit lies along a 3000 ft segment of the contact between quartz monzonite and the marble that flanks the west side of the north portion of the Pine Creek pendant. All the components of a typical contact metamorphic tungsten deposit are developed; these consist of tactite, light colored calc-silicate rock and quartzose rock.

Jan 5, 1964

By A. T. Yu

On March 18, 1964, the 52,000 dwt ore carrier M/S Houn Maru called at the port of Coquimbo, Chile, on its maiden voyage to take iron ore to Japan. This marked the first time a vessel of this size ever arrived at Coquimbo, and the event promises to drastically accelerate henceforth iron ore exports from Coquimbo province. This was made possible by the use of a versatile shiploading system recently installed by Cia. Minera Santa Fe. Coquimbo has no mechanized loading facilities other than six conventional 5-ton cargo cranes. Limited space on shore further complicates the stocking problems. To make the best of what is available, a meticulously organized semi-hand-loading system has been developed through the years.

Jan 5, 1964

By T. G. Fulmor, William Wraith

What impelled The Anaconda Company to dismantle and move a concentrator 25 miles that was already operating at a rate of 35,000 ton per day? The answer to that question takes in almost exactly 49 years and perhaps 10 complete cycles of the metallurgical wheel in the Anaconda, Mont., mill. One could say with truth that the move is a logical next-step in the development of metallurgy in The Anaconda Co. In the old concentrator at Anaconda, the background story is unfolded: - Gravity separation by jigs, later supplemented with gravity tables, 1905. - Separate sand and slime froth flotation, 1915. - Acid bulk froth flotation, 1917. - Bulk alkaline flotation, 1926. - Alkaline flotation of total ore without sand- slime separation due to change in ore type. 1939.

Jan 5, 1964

By Chester O. Ensign

Results of the application of geologic knowledge to grade control have been remarkable. Grade reduction from dilution has been diminished from greater than 9% at the time of the program's beginning to about 2% at present. This has resulted in an increase of about 1.8 lb of copper per ton of ore mined and has made a substantial contribution to earnings at White Pine during the past two years. Even more improvement is expected in the future. The White Pine orebody, situated in the southwestern portion of the Keweenaw peninsula of upper Michigan, is a gently dipping stratiform or bedded deposit. Copper distribution is stratigraphically controlled with higher values being confined to specific beds in the ore column. Room-and-pillar mining is practiced. Mining technique and geologic characteristics present a special array of problems in controlling the grade of ore.

Jan 4, 1964

The pellet plant, built by Dravo Corp, in Groveland, Mich., for the Hanna Mining Co., is now in full operation. Although using jasper, a type of iron ore with low iron content (approximately 28% Fe), the plant has a rated capacity of 1,250,000 tans of pellets per year. In its four years of existence, the nearby concentrating plant has seen its capacity increase from 700,000 tons to 1,500,000 tons a year as part of a major expansion program at Groveland. Utilizing the Dravo-Lurgi continuous grate process, the pellet plant produces %a-in. pellets of more than 60% iron content. The fully-hooded pelletizing grate, largest in the U.S., is 9 ft. 10% in. wide and 223 ft. 1% in. tong over 34 windboxes, with an effective hearth area of 2195 sq. ft. Drying, firing, and cooling functions are all carried out on this single piece of equipment.

Jan 4, 1964

Q: It is May 1961 at Bill Wrather's Washington house. Bill, think back to your first job after college. Wrather: Perhaps I ought to go back a little bit further than my first job. I entered the University of Chicago with the idea of studying law. My intention was to take a 4-yr liberal arts course and superimpose a law degree on that. But during my undergraduate work I fell under the influence of R. D. Salsbury. He decided I had some talent as a geologist and influenced me to take a geological course. Nevertheless, I did not give up the idea of law. While in school I took a spell of typhoid fever and almost died. The doctor recommended outdoor exercise, so a geological job seemed logical. W. H. Emmons was a graduate student in the University and he interceded with Dr. Hayes of the USGS. I went on the payroll as assistant packer at $60 a month. I had one of the most glorious summers I ever spent in my life. That fall and the following year I took law courses and became thoroughly convinced that I was cut out for a geologist rather than a lawyer. I finished up my law work in 1908 while waiting for a job with Bill Emmons, who was doing a careful study of Goldfield and Tonopah.

Jan 4, 1964

By Donald W. Frommer

For many years the Bureau of Mines has been con- ducting comprehensive iron ore research programs with the objective of increasing domestic supplies and divising techniques that would enable profitable exploitation of low-grade and complex domestic iron-mineral deposits. Since 1962, much of the Bureau's flotation research at Minneapolis has been concerned with studies on the treatment of low-grade hematitic-goethitic jaspers of the Marquette range, Mich. Ores from Michigan require grinding to substantially minus 400-mesh for liberation that will permit production of quality concentrates. With such fine grinding, diminished flotation effectiveness can be expected because of slime interference. The word "slime" is an ambiguous term. Taggart states "Slimes in an ore pulp are loosely defined as the fine fraction that overflows a desanding separator. . ."

Jan 4, 1964

By Arthur A. Brant

Let us start back as far as possible, to the beginnings of this universe, some 5 billion or more years ago. This is a time interval that can be crudely underestimated by the moon-earth tidal friction effects that have increased the length of the day by about 1/1000 second per century-from a 5 to 7 hour day to its present 24-and have moved the moon away at 5 inches per year to its present 240,000 miles. The oldest stony meteorites from interplanetary space give an age dating of some 4.6 billion years, approximating the time of formation of our earth. Further, certain stars pulsate, the period of pulsation being related to their absolute brightness. Measuring apparent brightness and comparing, gives the distance away. Thus Hubble and Shapley of Harvard, from 1925 on, were able to show that the universe reached as far as our telescopes could scan. The Doppler shift of the hydrogen red lines could only mean that the nebulae, or galaxies, were moving away at velocities increasing with their distances, by 180 km/ sec velocity increase for every million light year's distance. In short, the universe is expanding like an exploded bomb.

Jan 4, 1964

By R. Kirk

The problems of getting air to the working face of a mine (or perhaps the problems caused by not getting air to the working face) have led to the development of an analogue system in England that reputedly bypasses many of the drawbacks that such systems have encountered in the past. The unit was developed for the Wolstanton Combined mine, an underground operation consisting essentially of three collieries situated in the center of the North Staffordshire coalfield. This combination of workings, which employs a total of eight shafts, brings with it complex ventilation problems, and in order to study these problems and to assist in the control of the established ventilation system, a Ventilation Analogue has been designed and installed to permanently represent the mine's ventilation system.

Jan 4, 1964

Louis S. Cates was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on December 20, 1881. When Cates was in his teens, the family lived at Chestnut Hill, Mass., and he went to the public high school. Then he entered M.I.T., at first in the Department of Electrical Engineering. Next door to the Cates family lived a Mr. & Mrs. Armstrong, who were especially fond of Louis Cates. The latter always called Mr. Armstrong "Uncle." Mr. Armstrong was connected with Kidder Peabody investment firm in Boston. That firm had an office in London and Mr. Armstrong persuaded Cates, before he graduated from M.I.T., to go to work in the London office.

Jan 3, 1964

By Richard H. Ross

A broad definition of' "Mill Design" might cover everything from the first tentative choice of general process to the final structural details for construction. The first phases are mainly concerned with metallurgy and economics and the final stages with the mechanics of putting the selected equipment together into an integrated plant. It is the purpose of this article to discuss only data, derived from laboratory testing, that contributes directly to design of the milling plant itself, and only the plant design phases that are influenced by laboratory testing. Most ore beneficiation testing is devoted to determining recoveries, grades of products, elimination of impurities, reagent and supply requirements, etc. having little to do with physical plant design although these factors are of prime importance in the evaluation of a mining project.

Jan 3, 1964

By John J. Sense

The Mission unit of the American Smelting and Refining Co., located 20 miles south of Tucson, Ariz., is a high-volume, 15,000 tpd operation which utilizes a relatively light equipment fleet. As such, management is very conscious of the mechanical and operational availability of the equipment in use. One of the key items in attaining this efficiency is a complete and reliable record of mechanical and operational machine availability which is an invaluable guide for: 1) Estimating future equipment and personnel requirements of an operating property. 2) Planning an expansion program of an operating property. 3) Estimating equipment and personnel requirements of a new property. 4) Selection of replacement equipment. 5) Comparison of separate operating properties.

Jan 3, 1964

By John C. Kleiber, George M. Meisel

From time to time since the initial installation of an experimental flotation section in 1940, Permanente Cement Co. has made efforts to beneficiate the low-grade limestone fraction which occurs in its deposits at Permanente, Calif. The encouraging results outlined in this article are the result of Permanente's latest effort. THE PERMANENTE LIMESTONE AND THE REASON FOR ITS BENEFICIATION The Permanente deposit is a sheet of Calera limestone over 700 ft thick lying within the Franciscan sediments of the San Francisco peninsula. Limestone suitable for cement manufacture underlies, overlies, and is interbedded with low-grade limestone and chert. Andesite intrusions are found as a secondary gangue. The limestone is identified as follows:

Jan 3, 1964

By J. W. Leonard

One of the more obvious phenomena which relate to coke formation is that soft coals of low volatile matter content tend to yield hard or high strength cokes while hard coals of high volatile matter content tend to yield soft or low strength cokes. This observation led researchers of the Coal Research Bureau of West Virginia Univ. to study the possibility of using Hardgrove grindability as a supplemental rank indicator for coking properties. Grindability has been used for many years as a means to measure the resistance of coal to comminution but it has rarely if ever been considered for evaluating coals for carbonization. The coal proper- ties which are measured by grindability are complex, but recent work with the difficult-to-correlate high volatile coals has demonstrated that a 93% correlation exists between grindability and the total petrographic rnicrinites, exinites, and resinites. This work demonstrated that inherent ash had no apparent effect on the grindability of high volatile coals, suggesting that the coal substance is apparently harder than the associated ash. These observations, together with the patented Burstlein process," indicate that the distribution of hard and soft components in the individual high volatile coals and blends of coals may be quantitatively interrelated to coke stability through selected ranges of coal volatile matter. The objective of this progress report is 1) to demonstrate the statistical relationships which exist between coal grindability and the numerous coal petrographic entities and 2) to present the results of initial studies concerning the correlation of the coke physical strength index of stability with coal volatile matter and grindability.

Jan 3, 1964

By David D. Rabb

Under the auspices of the Atomic Energy Commission, the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory of the University of California analyzed an experiment to provide information as to whether the chimney of broken rock produced by a deeply buried nuclear explosive could be "drawn" by conventional techniques. Since many low-grade disseminated ore-bodies occur in a granite media, the experiment took place in a granodiorite-quartz monzonite intrusive porphyry in the Nevada Test Site as a follow-up to the Department of Defense's Hardhat detonation in February 1962. For emplacement of the nuclear device, a 12 ¼ - in. pilot hole was reamed to a diameter of 44 in. and a depth of 950 ft in one pass using a Hughes multiple-cluster rotary bit. It was then cased to 36 in. ID. The center of the explosive device was located 938.85 ft below the collar. The yield of the device was predicted to be 5 kilotons, or an equivalent of 5000 tons of TNT; the yield was later confirmed by chemical means to be 5.4 kilotons.

Jan 3, 1964