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By Hans Lundberg

AFTER the war years, great activity has been shown in geophysical exploration for ore. The appreciation by mining and government geologists of geophysical techniques and results is largely responsible for the popularity of these methods. In Canada, plans are being made to study, by geophysical methods, the structure of a portion of the Pre-Cambrian shield in the hope that such studies will not only give a clearer picture of the geology, but will be of direct aid to the mining companies when selecting areas for detailed prospecting. Although geophysics thus has become more popular, some engineers are still reluctant to employ the methods to their full extent. Allotted funds are often rather low, so that the least expensive

Jan 1, 1947

By AIME

SUPPLEMENTING surveys of the engineering profession regarding salaries and advancement, based upon data from individual engineers, a survey through a questionnaire to employers of engineers has recently been made by a subcommittee of the Engineers Joint Council's Committee on the Economic Status of the Engineer. Its object was to learn directly from employers their attitudes and policies pertaining to the selection, training, placement, advancement, guidance, and professional activities of engineering graduate employes. The questionnaire was sent in May 1946 to 174 employers of engineers, including colleges. Replies were received from 104 employers in nineteen fields of industry, who employ about 2,000,000 persons, about 40,000 of whom are engineers. The following general observations are based on the questionnaires returned. Who Are Hired? Of the co-operators 96 per cent employ cadet engineers directly upon graduation from engineering schools, but only 4 per cent recruit their engineering staffs exclusively from the new graduates. About 43 per cent hire more than half of their new engineer employes after one or more years' experience with other employers. This is evidently a matter of necessity or expediency rather than preference, because more than sixty per cent of those reporting indicate that they prefer to hire the new graduate.

Jan 1, 1947

By E. H. Rose

IN a year of sober reflection and stocktaking after the mineral-squandering spree of World War II, the role that beneficiation of low-grade must henceforth play in American mineral industry has become unmistakable. From the volume of research and development progress in mineral engineering during 1946, mineral dressers evidently have ample resoluteness to meet the challenge. Perhaps ,the most conspicuous trend of the year was the renascence of interest in gravity concentrating methods and more serious effort than ever before to make them effective in finer size ranges down to 200 mesh. This has been forced by the problem in iron ores where the low value of the product will not support a high flotation reagent cost, however good flotation pilot plant results may have been and however well the acute problem of variable feed may be met. The race is on between rabbit flotation and tortoise gravity methods and a surprising amount of betting money is being laid on the tortoise which already is showing previously unsuspected talent for speed. Mostly, however, a wait-and-see attitude prevails during the present preliminary heats. As evidence of the latter, two magnetic plants are now on the boards for magnetic taconites on the eastern Mesabi to establish a reprieve against the time when nonmagnetic taconites must be addressed. Incidentally, these operations will force the blast-furnace issue on preparation of fine material since a minus-100-mesh grind is contemplated.

Jan 1, 1947

By Carl M. Fellman

LABOR disputes caused considerable turbulence in the coal mining industry during 1946. As an outcome of these disputes, a definitely fundamental change in safety procedure was instituted: establishment of safety regultions for coal mines through the agency of agreements between the miners' union and the agency or agencies operating the coal mines. Although a temporary plan at present, the future will determine the. extent to which it may become permanent. Notwithstanding the turmoil in the industry extending through much of the year, the safety record for the first eleven months of 1946 was the best in the history of the industry for that period. The fatality rate for 1946 is lower than in any other year in the history of coal mining in the United States. This follows a pattern inasmuch as new low coal-mine fatality records were also made in 1945, 1944, and 1943. The five-year period 1942 to 1946 inclusive has a coal-mining fatality rate far lower than any other five-year period in the history of the industry. It is significant that this period exactly coincides with the operation of Federal coal mine inspection which got under way early in 1942.

Jan 1, 1947

By AIME

THE history of the Mine La Motte area covers a greater period of time than any other mining operation west of the Mississippi, for it was almost exactly four centuries ago that the white man first visited the region. In May 1541 a few men from the party of Fernando de Soto traversed the place looking for silver which they understood the Indians had found in the vicinity. Some historians say that De Soto himself visited the place sometime later. No other white man came through again until the early 1700's. In 1712 King Louis XIV of France granted to Antoine Crozat a charter for transacting all business and government in the vast domain of the New Continent stretching from the Gulf of Mexico northward indefinitely. This

Jan 1, 1947

By Irwin H. Cornell

BRIEFLY stated, the history of the St. Joseph Lead Co. is the story of how a group of men, working for ten years as officers without salaries and stockholders without dividends, developed a small mine in Missouri into what became a large and prosperous corporation. Their courage and faith in the scattered surface deposits of lead coupled with the management's engineering vision and sound financial judgment should prove an inspiration to present-day mining operators and investors. In 1717, John Law's company, known as "The Company of the West," was formed in France and letters patent were granted, for a period of 25 years by Louis XV, for exploration in the Mississippi River Valley. One of the underlying purposes of the expedition, headed by Mr. Renault and Mr. La Motte, a French metallurgist, was development of the lead mines in the area now known as Southeast Missouri.

Jan 1, 1947

By John G. Baragwanath

THE September issue of the Engineering and Mining Journal carried an item regarding the Cercapuquio Mining Co. which was mentioned as a large producer of lead, zinc, and cadmium, situated near Huancayo, Peru. The paragraph caught my eye because I had not heard of the property in thirty years and I recollect all too well the circumstances of its accouchement. In 1916 1 was making my headquarters in the town of Huancayo, then the terminus of the Central Railway of Peru, and was examining mines and prospects in that general area for Cerro de Pasco. In the course of my work I became acquainted with an engaging and energetic "practical" miner named Balarin, a Dalmatian living in Huan¬cayo, and made numerous trips in his excellent company. One day Balarin came to the down-at-heels hostelry where I stopped and told me that a Cholo prospector, a character by the name of Jose, had just reached town and claimed to have made a discovery in a little known locality called Cercapuquio. Lead-silver, Balarin said, and showed me a sample of galena about the size of his fist. "Fine," I remarked. "When do we leave?"

Jan 1, 1947

By John S. Crout

TWENTY-FIVE years ago the training of an engineer was of interest solely to the educator and to the student entering the field. At that time the engineer's position in society was relatively simple. His training emphasized design and operation and he expected to enter industry to handle the engineering problems of raw materials production, mechanical and product design, and the operation of power plants, factories, transportation and communication systems, and similar phases of industrial activity. He was not concerned with or particularly interested in the problems of management, administration, sales, publicity, industrial relations, or of legislation. To a large degree he was content to leave these matters to self-made businessmen, or men trained in law, finance, or commerce. That period in the evolution of the engineer is now history. It is generally conceded that the modern world is dependent upon engineering technology for its day-to-day survival. The continued operation of facilities on which mankind relies is dependent upon the functioning of mines, utilities, chemical plants, and other factories, all of which require the knowledge and the skills of trained engineers. Thus from a purely mechanical point of view, the engineer has become indispensable to

Jan 1, 1947

By AIME

BORN in 1899, in Bridgeport, Conn., E. A. Anderson grew up in a center of the nonferrous metal industry. Perhaps that had something to do with his selection of mining as a career while an undergraduate in Yale. After securing his Ph.B. in mining he worked for a year at Handy & Harman. By this time physical metallurgy had supplanted his interest in mining and he entered the Yale graduate school where he secured his M.S. degree in metallography under C. H. Mathewson. After completing his graduate work he entered the employ of The New Jersey Zinc Co. in their research division where he has remained ever since. The transition from graduate study to industry involved no disruption of technical interests. Academic research relating to the zinc-aluminum alloys, then coming into use for die-casting, was followed by extensive and productive industrial research in the perfection and commercialization of these alloys. Research on rolled zinc and rolled zinc alloys, corrosion and stress corrosion, dry cells, electroplating on zinc, and electrodeposition of zinc followed in overlapping succession as time passed.

Jan 1, 1947

By Ernest R. Dickie

BRIEFLY, the ore body of the Bagdad Copper Corp., Bagdad, Ariz., is a monzonite porphyry carrying copper values fairly evenly distributed from the surface down through the primary zone. Tabular in shape, the ore body extends over several hundred acres. The oxidized zone averages about 60 ft thick and assays about 0.50 per cent copper. Under this is the chalcocite zone, or the zone of secondary enrichment, which averages about 100 ft in thickness and assays about 1.4 per cent copper. Under this zone lies the primary zone which extends in places to a known depth of about 150 ft and averages in grade about 0.60 per cent copper. Several years ago the block-caving method of extracting the ore from the chalcocite zone was installed. Then it was necessary to draw only about 250 to 300 tons per day, the capacity of the old milling plant. Early in 1943 the new 2500-ton concentrator was put into production. Drawing ore from the developed stopes in sufficient tonnage to furnish the mill at capacity proved unsuccessful in more ways than one. First, drawing the ore at an accelerated rate caused a large amount of dilution, there-by lowering the grade, and also caused funneling through to the surface. The surface material was detrimental to milling metallurgy and development of these stopes was costly per ton of ore extracted. The grade of ore decreased. making it impossible to maintain a mill head of over 0.9 per cent copper. The

Jan 1, 1947

By Harold B. Fell

MANY oil producers are in disagreement with the idea held by some that an increase in the price of crude oil would be unlikely to stimulate much production and that we will be obliged to draw upon foreign sources of petroleum to supplement our domestic production as the years go by. Supporting our con trary opinion are numerous facts and figures. The most recent official estimate of the maximum efficient rate of production from the oil wells of the United States is 5,271,000 bbl per day. The Economics Advisory Committee of the Interstate Oil Compact Commission estimates, assuming certain supplies from imports and from natural gasoline and benzol, that crude oil require-

Jan 1, 1947

By E. W. Davis

THIS nation has been depending upon the Lake Superior iron ranges for most of its iron ore requirements for over half a century. Furthermore, it can continue to draw the major portion of its ore requirements from the same source for another century or more, but to accomplish this, great changes must take place in the present ore mining industry. Preliminary preparations for these changes are now underway and in the next few years decisions of far-reaching importance must be made. But to understand the situation, it is first necessary to know something of the nature and occurrence of the Lake Superior iron formation. So far as is known, the merchantable grades of iron ore remaining in the various Lake Superior ranges are as shown in Table 1, which shows that

Jan 1, 1947

By John D. Sullivan

ALUMINUM and magnesium plants in the United States underwent enormous wartime expansion which made many wonder if ghost plants would result when industry swung back to a peacetime basis. Production capacity of primary aluminum ingots was stepped up from 150,000 tons annually to about 1,150,000 tons; magnesium production increased from 2500 tons in 1936 to nearly 200,000 in 1943, with a production capacity of some 300,000 tons. Not only was primary metal production enlarged but also the capacity of prime fabrications such as castings, forgings, extrusions, and sheets was correspondingly increased. In mid-December it was estimated that production of primary aluminum ingots in the United States in 1946 will be about 410,000 tons while consumption will be about 500,000, close to half of the wartime consumption. The 1946 estimated consumption of secondary aluminum is 200,000 tons. The critical shortage of soda ash is hindering production of primary metal, and the outlook for an early relief of this shortage is dark.

Jan 1, 1947

By A. J. Mcintosh

PRICE changes in competing fuels in the last three decades have reflected the changes in the consuming habits of the people of the United States. Prior to World War 11 the importance of fuel oil and fuel gas increased almost constantly while the relative importance of both bituminous and anthracite coal decreased. During this same prewar period coal prices increased to a much greater extent than oil prices. In fact, in many years, oil prices declined and in most cases are now no higher than they were back in 1925-26. During the war natural economic trends were entirely upset because of the tremendous petroleum requirements of the Army and Navy. Under these conditions many industrial plants were converted to the use of coal and the new installations in home heating and industrial plants of all kinds which might have used oil were practically eliminated. Although petroleum prices were rigidly controlled by OPA coal prices increased several times during the war. An over-all statement as to the rela-

Jan 1, 1947

By Kalervo Rankama

UNTIL a few years ago, geological mapping, the study of ore boulders, and different geophysical methods were the principal means used in the systematic search for mineral deposits covered by a layer of disintegration products or soil. These methods have been developed to a high stage of perfection as far as the geometrical definition of the conductor is considered. Use of geophysical methods in prospecting is based on the fact that an ore body differs from the country rock not only geologically but also in its physical properties. The general drawbacks and complications included in the use of geophysical methods are well known to everyone who has been using them, so need not be entered into here in detail. One of the more important ones is the fact that geophysical methods are unable to furnish information concerning the chemical composition of the ore bodies responsible for the indications. Further, the ores of many metals, such as silver, gold, beryllium, zinc, mercury, tin, lead, vanadium, antimony, chromium. molybdenum, tungsten, manganese, cobalt, nickel, and the platinum metals cannot be directly located by known geophysical methods, owing to lack of physical characteristics suitable for distinguishing them from the country rock. Thus it is quite natural that efforts have been made to develop direct methods for prospecting and locating ore bodies of the elements named. Known as chemical, biogeo-chemical, and geobotanical methods of prospecting, these have been much improved during recent years. A brief review of these methods and of some results obtained with them will be presented in the following, on the basis of available information and my own experience.

Jan 1, 1947

By H. K. Najarian

AT Josephtown, Pa., on the south hank of the Ohio River about thirty miles northwest of Pittsburgh, is the Josephtown electrothermic zinc smelter, which operates as a custom smelter receiving both domestic and foreign concentrates. Constructed in 1930, the plant was designed to produce zinc oxide and to process 124 tons per day of zinc concentrate obtained mainly from the Company's New York State mines. Zinc condensing equipment was developed in conjunction with the St. Joe electrothermic. furnace and commercial production of zinc metal started in 1936. Expansion of the plant and equipment during 1939 and 1940 brought the processing. capacity to upwards of 300 tons of concentrate per day; and the plant operated at peak capacity during the war years, earning the Army-Navy "E" award and three subsequent stars. A postwar plant expansion is now under way, designed to increase the capacity to 500 tons per day of concentrate, with an estimated daily production of 160 tons of zinc metal of various grades, about 100 tons of zinc oxide, and 425 tons of sulphuric acid as major products.

Jan 1, 1947

By Sheldon P. Wimpfen

RESEARCH is undertaken to find out what must be done when what we are doing now is no longer adequate. To accomplish this end, researchers apply the truths of nature to industrial evolution. A survey conducted with the co-operation of 58 universities and colleges offering degrees in mineral engineering was the basis for the table accompanying this article. This survey was undertaken with the object of presenting to faculties and student bodies, as well as to industry, all available information on what action the educational institutions of the country have taken to provide the properly trained researchers so vitally needed. A hoped for result is that the great variety of opportunities available will encourage some undergraduate students to continue in their field beyond attainment of a B.S. degree.

Jan 1, 1947

By John Mills

THREE case histories from professions other than engineering will serve to introduce ideas basic to this discussion. Case (1) Date, about 1900. A young man, B. D. from a three-year graduate course in a prominent divinity school, was for two years a successful pastor of a small church; then friction over theological matters arose with a fundamentalist deacon of the "Bible belt" type. He resigned, returned to his university for a four-year medical course, interned for two more, and thereafter was successful and apparently happy as a physician. We may assume that he was converted in early adolescence and vowed himself to service as a minister. Acceptance of his announced career by parents, friends, and teachers plus his own determination confirmed his choice until illiberal criticism threatened his usefulness and he awoke to the fact that his inner needs were not along the direction in which inertia and his conscience had constrained him.

Jan 1, 1947

By James T. Kemp

AN historical society of particular interest to mining engineers all over the world was born in Cornwall in 1935. A hundred-year-old winding engine then finished its long labors at the Levant mine on the cliffs near Lands End, England. The engine was to be dismantled and scrapped. A few men living near-by, appreciating that this event was one of the final acts in closing a long century of extraordinary mining and engineering evolution. armed a committee to prevent the destruction of the old mine hoist and succeeded in purchasing the engine. They restored the engine house and in time arranged with the Manor of Trewellard, owners of the land, for a 99-year ground lease on a peppercorn rental.

Jan 1, 1947

By Paul M. Tyler

MUCH has been said in print, and much more that was unprintable, about burdensome controls, taxation, and multiplying restrictive, regulatory, or taxing activities of the Federal Government, but not so much has been said about ways and means whereby the Government can and does render economic assistance. Economics has been defined as the study of men earning a living, and economic assistance to industry as well as to individuals properly should take the form of helping enterprisers to help themselves rather than charity. Proposals to have the Government play Santa Claus must be examined carefully if -only to avoid undue favoritism to politically important persons and downright venality by potentially crooked public officials. Thomas Jefferson is credited with the remark that the best government is the one which governs least. Paternalism is abhorrent to most Americans.

Jan 1, 1947