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By H. Herbert Hughes

In the years following World War II, L. de Roll S.A., Zurich, Switzerland, perfected its vertical kiln. De Roll first became interested in cement-manufacturing equipment in 1947, not only kilns but also the crushing, grinding, and handling equipment required for a complete cement plant. The parent company, Louis de Roll Iron Works, S.A., Gerlafingen, Switzerland, was founded in 1804. In its six plants, and with its associated companies, de Roll manufactures and installs equipment for a wide variety of industries-chemical and metallurgical operations, fats and oils plants, and municipal refuse incinerators and sewage disposal installations. Vertical shaft kilns, of course, are as old as Portland cement itself. Their fuel economy has long been recognized, particularly in Europe where fuel costs are high. But the disadvantages of old-type shaft kilns have been the lack of consistent quality of the clinker, the small capacity, and the relatively high labor costs.

Dec 1, 1956

By Robert F. Love

Deep under the hills of southwestern Wyoming lies a nonmetallic mineral deposit of incredible dimensions and value. This nearly pure, horizontal bed of the mineral trona, a sodium sesquicarbonate (Na2HC0,.NaHC08.H20), is found in the Green River formation some 1500 ft below surface. It is believed that evaporation of an ancient saline lake left this sodium carbonate as the evaporite and mysteriously left practically no sodium chloride, which is the common constituent of an evaporated saline lake. The trona bed averages 10 ft in thickness and extends over an area of several hundred square miles. In 1938 a geologist with the U. S. Geological Survey identified the trona in the core from a former oil exploration drillhole. By so doing, he initiated the developments of a chemical industry of impressive growth in the area, an industry on the threshold of further and much more spectacular growth. A drilling program by the Union Pacific Rd. and Intermountain Chemical Co. in the early 1940's succeeded in blocking out mineable reserves of several hundred million tons. Development of the deposit started in 1946 with the sinking of a 12-ft diam, concrete-lined shaft 1500 ft deep-followed by construction of a small pilot calcining plant. Actual mining of the trona started in 1947 and continued on a limited scale until 1953, when the $15 million surface facilities were completed, along with the second shaft and other expanded underground facilities. Since April 1953 the mine has been producing more than half a million tons per year, from which the refining plant has produced more than 300,000 tons per year of high quality soda ash.

Dec 1, 1956

By T. M. Berry

In the past few years changes have taken place in shaft sinking. Progress has been made with types of machinery designed, developed, and made available to shaft sinking contractors. This is particularly true of drilling and mucking equipment. Compared with conventional clamshell loading, mucking or loading with a crawler-mounted overshot loader is a new technique for shaft work. There are several methods of clamshell loading. Dravo Construction Co. mounts an air tugger on the clamshell to operate the closing line. The load, or holding line, is attached to the hoist of a crane or whirler at the shaft collar. The clamshell is raised or lowered by the hoist when a signal is given by a bell or light system operated by men at the bottom of the shaft. Two men control the drift of the clamshell with tag lines, pulling it to any position in the shaft for loading, or over the shaft muck bucket for emptying. One man operates the air tugger to open and close the clamshell by means of two lines attached to the operating air valve, just as reins are used to drive a horse. One man operates the signal telling the hoist operator when to raise or lower the clamshell. This method requires two hoisting lines in the shaft-the line from the mine hoist that lifts

Dec 1, 1956

By Dale I. Hayes

Combined loader and transport, the Gismo is now built for sale in one size, 5 to 6 tons. It will operate in a minimum opening of 7x7 ft and can be built to operate at lower heights. Where space limitations are not a factor it could be designed with much greater carrying capacity-12, 18, or 25 tons-to be powered with a standard heavier tractor. The Gismo is mounted on crawler tracks of the same design as the tracks of the small Allis- Chalmers HD-6B tractor used to power it. With the HD-6B tractor it will negotiate upgrades of 12 pct and downgrades of 20 pct. The next tractor size would make the device feasible for steeper grades or for a machine of larger capacity at moderate grades.

Dec 1, 1956

By A. R. Sims

Are from the Greater Butte Project is hoisted through the new Kelley shaft. In 1946 when plans were formulated for the Kelley mine, two test cave blocks were mined by using the facilities of the old St. Lawrence mine. These blocks, known as the Adams No. 1 and Adams No. 2, produced more than half a million tons of ore. The experiment proved beyond all doubt that cave mining was possible- and economical-in Butte. Adams No. 1 was patterned after Inspiration cave blocks. Adams No. 2 was a slusher type, with the slusher lane on the first floor above the haulage crosscut and at right angles to it. Thirty-horsepower electric hoists slushed ore from 48-in. scraper buckets directly into cars for haulage to the shaft. These cars were the 57-cu ft Granby type hauled by 6-ton battery locomotives over 40-lb, 18-in. gage track. Prior to this time the largest slushing machines used at Butte were 15-hp electric hoists pulling 36-in. scrapers.

Dec 1, 1956

By Allen R. Rowen

One of the greatest deterrents to more widespread use of manufactured lightweight aggregate is the fact that no industry-wide standards for its application exist. It is true that ASTM has specifications covering lightweight aggregate, but they are so broad as to be of little assistance in mix design work. Today even an engineer who has worked with one lightweight aggregate may be faced with re-education on his next light- weight concrete job if he is in an area served by another producer. Manufacture of lightweight aggregates has grown with the country, appearing in the patent literature at least as early as 1875, when a patent was issued covering use of burnt clay aggregate as an admixture in manufacture of artificial stone. The widely known Haydite came into the picture prior to 1920 as a result of work by Stephen J. Hayde, and there have been many others since who have contributed significantly to the growth of the industry and its technology.

Nov 1, 1956

By D. J. Reed

Concord coal mine near Bessemer, Ala., built, owned, and operated by Tennessee Coal & Iron Div., U. S. Steel Corp., produces only a metallurgical grade for use as coke in blast furnaces of the division at the Fairfield and Ensley works. Capacity of the operation is approximately 800 tph, half of which is delivered to the coke and coal chemical plant at Fairfield after beneficiation to metallurgical grade coal. The remaining portion of the mine run is rock and refuse removed during preparation. Concord mine coal is hoisted to the surface coal preparation plant by an underground slope conveyor. The slope conveyor is 2449 ft long and has a lift of 729 ft. At time of installation the Concord mine slope conveyor was the largest single conveyor unit ever made with respect to belt horsepower and total lift. After several years it became necessary to determine the cause of slope conveyor cover wear.

Nov 1, 1956

By F. Weston Starratt

The opening of a new large-scale beneficiation plant is always news, but the start-up of Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Co.'s Eagle Mills near Ishpeming in Michigan's Upper Peninsula early in October is of particular interest because of the completely different type of operation being carried on at this plant. The ore boat which left Marquette, Mich. on the 3rd of October bound for the plant of Wisconsin Steel Division of International Harvester, not only carried the first output of this new mill, but also carried the first agglomerate made from the Upper Peninsula's jasper ore, the first commercial output from an updraft traveling-grate furnace, and the first large-scale commercial application of the balling disk, also called the flying saucer, to the agglomeration of an iron flotation concentrate.

Nov 1, 1956

By E. J. Roberts, E. B. Fitch

Most classifiers in use today are, in function, settling pools. A fluid suspension of particles is passed through a pool at such a rate that only a fraction of the particles-the coarser fraction-has time to settle out of suspension. The rest are carried on out of the pool as overflow. The most fundamental way in which such classifiers differ is in the mechanism used to remove the settled particles from the pool. The particles may gravitate from the pool, as in the various sand cones, or they may be conveyed mechanically from the pool by drags, spirals, or reciprocating rakes. The mechanism of settling pool classification and its limitations are discussed. A method for calculating countercurrent classifications is presented. The practical validity of the calculation method has been confirmed through 20 years of use within The Dorr Co. During this time it has been used on diverse feeds and has been checked against many types of settling pool classifiers, with close agreement in nearly every case. Excellent elimination of third critical mesh particles and finer ones may be obtained in a countercurrent classifications series where all stages separate at the same mesh, but elimination of first and second criticals is inherently limited. Spectacular elimination of all criticals may be obtained by arranging successive stages to classify at successively coarser mesh. Improvement in elimination is obtained at the cost of an increased internal recirculation, but this may be tolerable in many cases.

Nov 1, 1956

By Paul L. Allsman

Butte mining district contains extensive manganese vein deposits forming a peripheral zone. Oxidation in the veins studied usually extends to a depth of about 75 ft. Secondary minerals formed by oxidation were found to be ramsdellite-always accompanied by intermixed pyrolusite-and cryptomelane. Enrichment of the gossan is accomplished by reduction of weight upon oxidation; theoretical enrichment is 32.2 pct. Additional enrichment is caused by leaching of soluble minerals, particularly calcium and magnesium carbonates. Butte mining district contains extensive manganese vein deposits in the outer zone, surrounding the copper and zinc deposits and corresponding to the well known silver zone. This article describes the mineralogy of the manganese veins, the oxidation and enrichment processes, and the use of this information in prospecting.

Nov 1, 1956

By W. L. Kendrick

At Henderson, Nev., Manganese Inc. is mining by open pit methods a low grade manganese ore averaging 21 pct Mn, concentrating it to 42 pct by flotation, and agglomerating it to produce nodules of metallurgical grade-about 48 pct Mn. The striking aspect of the whole operation, and one that has considerable effect on nodulizing, is the use of approximately 250 lb of reagent per ton of mill feed. For many years rotary kilns have been used for drying, calcining, clinkering cement and other products, and burning lime. Their use for nodulizing or agglomerating a metallic ore is new-first reported in this country in 1904, when a small rotary kiln at South Chicago was employed to nodulize flue dust from a blast furnace. After a short time this process was replaced by sintering.

Nov 1, 1956

By Harold Bloom, H. E. Hawkes

Streams and rivers are the principal channels into which the weathering products of rocks and their contained ores are funneled. The inorganic load of a stream system is a crude sample of all the earth materials in the drainage basin of the stream, and the heavy mineral assemblage of sediments is one of the oldest and most successful guides to certain kinds of bedrock ore in unexplored terrain. Early application of this method was made possible by the ease of separation and identification of heavy minerals in the field with the simplest equipment. Water analysis for traces of base metals became a practical possibility about eight years ago with the development of rapid chemical tests that could be carried out at the field site. Since that time the water method has been widely used in mineral reconnaissance, and a substantial number of discoveries have been reported. Here again, the techniques developed for this work were relatively simple and could be performed easily at the field site.

Nov 1, 1956

By J. P. Zannaras

Referring to the article by R. J. Charles and P. L. de Bruyn, let us assume that W = weight of glass bar; P = weight of hammer; e = total deformation; E = unit of deformation; K = potential stress energy; E = modulus of elasticity; L = length of the bar; 7, = coefficient of inertia; h = height, ft; V = velocity, fps; and a = cross section area. The portion of kinetic energy which is effective in producing stress energy in a fixed bar struck horizontally is given by the formula [ ]

Nov 1, 1956

By J. S. Mitchell

Cobalt recovery from arsenical concentrates by pressure leaching and reduction involves special methods and operating problems. Principal steps in the process are auto-oxidation acid leaching under pressure, filtration of the tailings, purification of the solution, hydrogen reduction of the ammoniacal solution, and electrical furnacing for sulfur removal and granulating the metal. Extracting cobalt metal from arsenical ores has presented a major metallurgical problem for many years. In acquiring the Blackbird mine near Salmon City, Idaho in 1943 Calera Mining Co. accepted the challenge to solve this problem.

Nov 1, 1956

By John R. Reynolds

Mercury has long been neglected in American mining industry. The plights of domestic producers have been many and their compensations few. The mercury market has been dominated in the past, as it will be in the future, by the Spanish and Italian producers. Other major producing countries are Yugoslavia and Mexico. Probably no other mineral commodity has fluctuated so much in price. A 76-lb flask of mercury sold for $195 in 1943, $76 in 1948, and $325 in 1954. This wide fluctuation has resulted in spasmodic domestic production. U. S. mines produced 51,929 flasks in 1943, and only 4535 flasks in 1950. In 1955 the estimated production was 18,400 flasks. Domestic consumption in 1955 was 57,200 flasks.

Nov 1, 1956

By Burt C. Mariacher

Extraction of uranium from ores is being accomplished by processes which, for the most part, subject the entire ore to acid or carbonate leaching. Ore deposits with a U3O8 content below 0.10 pct U3O8 are seldom considered suitable for treatment by leaching. A preliminary concentration that would enrich the uranium content of an ore by a simple, low cost process based on physical properties of the ore might result in some low grade deposits becoming commercial ores. In addition, the process might be employed in existing operations to reduce transportation and leaching costs and to increase capacity of existing leaching plants.

Oct 1, 1956

By Robert J. McNally

There are three primary plant nutrients-nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium--expressed in any fertilizer compound as percent N, percent P2O5, and percent K20, in that order. This article will be concerned with the first two. The chief source of P205 is phosphate rock. As found in the western states phosphate rock is essentially tricalcium phosphate-calcium fluoride (fluorpatite). As such, it is quite water insoluble. The principal phosphate fertilizer used is single superphosphate, produced by reacting sulfuric acid with phosphate rock in the proper proportions.

Oct 1, 1956

By W. Arthur White

Underclay squeeze is the plastic flowing of underclay below coal pillars into mined-out entries and rooms. Squeezes may be caused either by wet mine conditions where the moisture is taken up by the clay-making it more plastic-or by the presence of certain clay minerals, such as mont-morillonite, which are plastic when there is enough natural moisture. Under either condition, sufficient stress will cause the underclay to flow. Squeezes may fill an entry or room within several hours, or it may be several months before movement stops. Squeeze areas commonly cover hundreds or thousands of square yards.

Oct 1, 1956

By R. J. Charles

Previous study of simple impact systems indicated that energy required for fracture and size reduction of brittle materials is greatly dependent on the type of loading that is employed. In this regard it was postulated that fracture and size reduction of a brittle specimen might be accomplished by a high velocity impact at an energy level at which a low velocity impact would leave the specimen relatively undamaged. The finite time required to propagate energy away from the point of loading of an impacted object to other parts of the object and to its supports may permit a concentration of energy at the point of impact if the rate of loading is high. Localizing of energy at the point of impact could quickly initiate fractures that would propagate through the impacted material along with the traveling stress waves. As the cracks form, the initially absorbed strain energy would be released and portions of it travel ahead of the crack tips as stress waves. These secondary stress waves, combined with the initial stress waves derived from the impact, would produce high localized strain conditions in front of the fracture zone. The fracture zone would propagate and the specimen shatter. High rates of loading are brought about by short impact times, in turn obtained by employing high velocity projectiles that are of small mass compared to the impacted object.

Oct 1, 1956

By B. S. Butler

It is suggested that at high temperatures both sulfur and iron combine with oxygen. Iron may precipitate at the high temperatures as the oxides of iron, and sulfur also in combination with oxygen as the low solubility sulfates of barium, strontium, calcium, and potassium (alunite). At lower temperature the precipitation results from change of sulfate sulfur to sulfide sulfur, and the iron precipitates as the sulfide.

Oct 1, 1956