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By W. L. Fink, R. S. Archer

This paper describes results obtained on aluminum-beryllium alloys and aluminum-beryllium-copper alloys in the preparation of which aluminum of 99.95 per cent. purity was used. The constitution and structure of the high purity binary alloys are given. The aluminum-beryllium eutectic occurs at 0.87 per cent. beryllium and 645° C. The solid solubility of beryllium in aluminum at 631° C. is 0.05 per cent, beryllium, and at room temperature is less than 0.013 per cent. beryllium. The densities of the alloys are substantially the same as the values calculated on the assumption that the densities of the elements are not changed by alloying. All of the alloys age-harden at room temperature after a solution heat treatment, and the chill cast aluminum-beryllium-copper alloys age-harden at room temperature without a prior solution heat treatment. Hardness and tensile properties are given. Salt spray corrosion tests on sheet specimens are described. It is shown that beryllium docs not lower the corrosion resistance of aluminum to salt spray provided the alloy has received a solution heat treatment. Commercial Possibilities of Beryllium Alloys Beryllium has certain properties such as low density, high hardness, good corrosion resistance, low thermal expansion and fairly good electrical conductivity, which would indicate that it is worthy of consideration as an ingredient of light alloys. It was not until recently, however, that beryllium could be produced with sufficient ease to encourage research along this line. The production of beryllium by electrolysis from a fluoride bath has now developed to the stage where it could be used commercially if there were sufficient demand for the element. Claims made in certain newspapers and technical articles in regard to thc strength and corrosion resistance of thc aluminum-beryllium alloys are not justified by experimental results. Moreover, beryllium is an expensive metal ($200 a pound at the time this work was done) and, on account of the nature of its ore and the consequent difficulty of its extraction, it will in all probability continue to be a relatively expensive metal, although the cost would undoubtedly be a great deal less than $200 a

By R. E. Heithecker

Almost every oil well drilled into limestone formations in Kansas is treated with hydrochloric (muriatic) acid upon completion: to increase potential capacity of well and thereby increase its "daily allowable" production; to shorten time required to produce recoverable oil; and to increase quantity of oil recovered ultimately from reservoir. Acid treating marked a forward step in the producing fields of Kansas; in fact, many old limestone fields that almost had reached their economic producing limit were "rejuvenated" with acid and their capacities to produce increased several times. It also caused a marked increase in the ultimate oil recovery of some old and nearly depleted fields of Kansas. The effect of the acid was due to the cleaning-out action by the acid at the face of the limestone, the enlargement of the small drainage channels, and the apparent penetration of the acid to previously undrained porous and saturated strata. Studies of the effects of acid were made in the Fairport field, three groups of wells in the El Dorado field and the Shutts field. Estimation of increased recoveries resulting from acid in these fields and groups of wells ranged from 1000 to 2400 bbI. per acre. Limestone structures that had been tested by drilling and found noncommercial were later completed as commerical oil-producing formations through the use of acid. The Kansas City formation, Valley Center field of Kansas, is an example. Increased oil production and revenue from the old fields justified the reconditioning of equipment, which in most cases had become in poor mechanical condition. The first treatment with hydrochloric acid of an oil well in Kansas was in October 1932, and by the end of 1937 almost 6000 wells had been treated. Many wells were treated more than once and the total number of treatments exceeded 8000 by the end of 1937. Approximately 12 3/4 million gallons of acid was required for these treatments. The report includes 15 illustrations and 16 tables.

Jan 1, 1939

By J. Lammers, D. Adams

Most pressure oxidation operations introduce oxygen through a large multi-use nozzle in the vapour space of the autoclave. Sparge pipes extend inside the vessel to the point of discharge below the compartment agitator. However, two zinc pressure leach operations have successfully used a bottom entry oxygen sparge system for a number of years. Recently, the concept has been used in a whole ore gold pressure oxidation operation as well as a copper pressure leach plant. Both of the latter operations also introduce cooling water for temperature control through the same sparge pipe. This paper addresses the benefits of the bottom entry system with regards to autoclave performance and the positive effects on agitator performance.

Jan 1, 2004

By Achilles J. B. Dutra, Carlos M. Juarez

"The use of thiourea as a gold leaching reagent has been extensively studied by many researchers, and it has proved to be promising for some cases as refractory ores. Otherwise, the recovery of gold from these solutions did not receive so much attention. In this paper the electrowinning of gold in acidic thiourea solutions was studied by voltarnmetry and chronopotentiometry. An adsorption step was detected prior to Au(I) reduction and the diffusion coefficients at 25°C for Au-TU complex and FD were found to be 1.00 x 10.5 cm2 S-I and 1.98 x 10-5 cm2 S-I respectively. At -0.350 V (SCE) a passivation probably due to TU adsorption was observed. For higher overpotentials hydrogen evolution was the main reaction.IntroductionThe use of acidic thiourea solutions for the extraction of gold and silver has shown to be a promising alternative to the traditional process of cyanidation, specially for certain refractory ores (1-3) and electronic scrap (4). In some cases, the industrial scale was reached (1,5). The thiourea leaching of precious metals presents advantages over cyanidation, as faster kinetics, lower toxicity and lower sensibility to base metals; however the costs due to high thiourea consumption impairs its use.The majority of the publications on thiourea processing of gold is on leaching. Many are review papers (5-7). Recently, the adsorption and desorption of the gold-thiourea complex on activated carbon and ion exchange resins have been studied (8-11).Little research has been done on the electrowinning of gold from acidic thiourea solutions, most of it has been carried on the seventies and beginning of the eighties in the former USSR (12-17) and concerned the eletrolytic extraction of gold in tridimensional cathode cells.The present paper concerns the cathodic behavior of the gold-thiourea complex in the presence of formamidine disulfide in order to provide information on the electrowinning of gold from solutions obtained directly from leaching or from an elution process."

Jan 1, 1997

By Ross W. Smith

In recent years there has been a considerable amount of research work done relative to the effect of pretreatment and aging in water on the surface properties of both simple metal oxides and more complex oxides such as the silicate minerals 1-6. Of particular interest is the work of Somasundaran6 who states that after preparing minerals by size reduction and washing with dilute acids "... it is essential to treat it (the mineral) with water in order to remove any effects of leaching itself." Somasundaran also states, "... it is advisable to use a solution close to the point of zero charge for conditioning purposes." Parksl notes that, "Dehydration, dehydroxylation, and increased crystallinity can be expected to decrease the PZC. The presence of anionic impurities or of pH-independent potential determining ions will decrease the PZC. Cationic species will increase the PZC." Healy and Jellett4 believe that in the Zn0-water system "the surface charge of Zn0 in water and each pH is determined by the concentration and adsorption of each hydrolyzed (charged and uncharged) Zn(II) species." Finally, according to Parks 2, "The PZC of an unaltered com¬plex oxide in a system devoid of specific electrolytes is approximately the average of the PZC's of its component oxides... Equilibration with water results in loss of mono and divalent cations by exchange with H+, thus a loss of influence on the PZC by those cations, i.e., a shift in the PZC with time in the direction of that remaining oxide. The present paper investigates the change of point of zero charge (PZC) of a number of simple oxides and several complex oxides as a function of aging time in water. In some cases acid pretreatment of minerals was performed. However, in most cases the minerals were not acid pretreated. In several systems pH change as a function of aging time in water was monitored.

Jan 1, 1972

By William Martinez

El presente trabajo presenta alternativas indirectas para la exploración de depósitos de pórfidos de cobre (DPC), en los dos arcos magmáticos desarrollados entre Arequipa y Tacna. Estos dos arcos están representados por la Formación Guaneros y los batolitos de Punta Coles e Ilo, con edades Jurásico a Cretáceo inferior, y El Grupo Toquepala con el Batolito de Yarabamba de edad Cretáceo a Paleoceno. El análisis tectónico, aeromagnético y geoquímico de estos dos arcos, evidencia posibles áreas favorables al emplazamiento de cuerpos ígneos que puedan haber originado yacimientos económicos. De forma que se busca reevaluar los conceptos geológicos en tectonomagmatismo para la exploración de pórfidos de cobre, así como el desarrollo de ideas conceptuales a nivel regional de los patrones magmáticos y estructurales especialmente entre Perú y Chile y contribuir la exploración de Porfidos de Cobre desde el punto de vista geoquímico y tectónico.

Sep 14, 2009

By R. E. Heithecker

Almost every oil well drilled into limestone formations in Kansas is treated with hydrochloric (muriatic) acid upon completion: to increase potential capacity of well and thereby increase its "daily allowable" production; to shorten time required to produce recoverable oil; and to increase quantity of oil recovered ultimately from reservoir. Acid treating marked a forward step in the producing fields of Kansas; in fact, many old limestone fields that almost had reached their economic producing limit were "rejuvenated" with acid and their capacities to produce increased several times. It also caused a marked increase in the ultimate oil recovery of some old and nearly depleted fields of Kansas. The effect of the acid was due to the cleaning-out action by the acid at the face of the limestone, the enlargement of the small drainage channels, and the apparent penetration of the acid to previously undrained porous and saturated strata. Studies of the effects of acid were made in the Fairport field, three groups of wells in the El Dorado field and the Shutts field. Estimation of increased recoveries resulting from acid in these fields and groups of wells ranged from 1000 to 2400 bbI. per acre. Limestone structures that had been tested by drilling and found noncommercial were later completed as commerical oil-producing formations through the use of acid. The Kansas City formation, Valley Center field of Kansas, is an example. Increased oil production and revenue from the old fields justified the reconditioning of equipment, which in most cases had become in poor mechanical condition. The first treatment with hydrochloric acid of an oil well in Kansas was in October 1932, and by the end of 1937 almost 6000 wells had been treated. Many wells were treated more than once and the total number of treatments exceeded 8000 by the end of 1937. Approximately 12 3/4 million gallons of acid was required for these treatments. The report includes 15 illustrations and 16 tables.

Jan 1, 1939

By Eder Pauca, Manuel Vega

En los últimos años, el sector minero muestra un énfasis significativo en la implementación de tecnologías con el objetivo de mejorar los procesos dentro de la cadena de producción minera. Dentro de este marco, la mina Cuajone se encuentra inmersa en un proceso de transformación digital, en donde el departamento de geología ha implementado un software corporativo capaz de sistematizar y optimizar el manejo de la información geológica recolectada.

Sep 29, 2023

By Alexander Sutulov

1. INTRODUCTION According to the classical economic approach of the open market economy, copper supply should be regulated by market forces which are (a) demand and (b) prices. In fact, demand is of primordial importance because prices are a reflection of supply-demand balance: they go up in times of shortages of supply and down when over-supply situation exists. In the past few years, this basic mechanism of market economy has been under pressure from a number of non-market forces, such as social and monetary problems of sane important copper producing countries; structural changes in copper mining companies through mergers with oil companies; and other factors which greatly contributed to distortion of the basic supply-¬demand equation. As a result, we have faced in the last three years a situation of oversupply rarely seen in the past, with a catastrophic fall in copper prices, huge losses at mines and unprecedented indebtedness of copper producers. This has deep repercussions in the copper business and its future supply outlook. This is particularly so when taking into consideration that high indebtedness and high interest rates conspire against the very survival of some traditional producers. As we write this comment (July of 1985), close to one half of U.S. copper production capacity is closed down, sane of it for good, while the same precarious situation exists in Canada, Australia, Zambia, and some other primary producers who cannot face present low prices with equally low costs. The question is then what this situation means for the medium-¬term future, until the end of this decade, Particularly when taking into consideration the fact that some of the factors influencing it are of a long-term character. 2. SUPPLY-DEMAND SITUATION IN THE LAST FIVE YEARS Since the last boon year, in 1979, when world copper consumption reached a record of 9.8 million metric tons of refined copper, demand dropped to only 9.0 million tons in 1982, when the crisis bottomed out, and then steadily recovered to the level of 9.7 million tons in 1984. Meanwhile, copper production, which in 1979 was only 9.4 million tons, in spite of the fall in demand, grew to 9.7 million tons in 1981 and 1983 and only temporarily was cut to 9.4 million tons in 1982 and to 9.5 million tons in 1984. As a result of this imbalance, hugh copper stocks were accumulated with supply systematically out¬growing demand by over 2 million tons at one time. With the Western World refined copper demand running at an average of 115,000 tons per week, this oversupply was equivalent to between 15 and 18 weeks production, i.e. twice as large as normal. This was immediately reflected in very low copper prices. Another contributing factor to relatively low copper prices was the lack of speculator interest for this commodity. Between 1981 and 1984 the world experienced a very intensive period of wealth distribution, high interest rates and intensive restructuring off world economy and its industrial sector. Therefore, much of the available money was attracted to more lucrative and attractive investments rather than to the lack-luster performance of copper, and for that matter, of the metal sector in general. The much announced and discussed recovery of the U.S. economy since 1983, and particularly in 1984, with an overall growth of the GNP by 6.8% in 1984, happened to be more oriented to the service sector than the industrial sector and therefore this recovery was not adequately reflected in copper consumption nor to metals in general. This put serious doubts about the future demand for copper. Consequently copper prices failed to improve in spite of an apparent fall in stocks and a healthy increase in the demand for copper since 1982. At the time of this writing (July, 1985), although same analysts claim that the available stocks are running at about 8 weeks of supply, which are considered to be below normal, copper prices are still very low at between 65 and 67 cents per pound of copper. Part of the answer may be the normal seasonal slow-down period in the Northern Hemisphere due to summer vacations and

Jan 1, 1986

By Falbo A, Quarestima S, Cozza C, Barbaro M

A new synthetic reagent of the mercaptobenzoxazole class, 5- methyl-2-mercaptobenzoxazole, has been studied. This reagent exhibits powerful selective collecting action towards copper sulphides present in several complex ores, as demonstrated both by laboratory and pilot plant tests. Industrial production is expected to start in the near future. The way this reagent reacts with pure chalcocite has been studied utilising in situ FTIR techniques, adsorption tests, electrokinetic potential measurements and Hallimond cell flotation tests. The FTIR studies have indicated the nature of the surface phase. Adsorption isotherms obtained by the rest method have revealed the quantitative evolution of surface products, permitting the determination of surface coverage at various reagent concentrations. The electrokinetic potential has been utilised to verify the stability of individual species in diverse concentration ranges. Correlation of the results obtained has provided indications on the chemical interaction of this reagent with the surface and on the surface Arrangement.

Jan 1, 1993

Carbon-concentration Meter The latest of these, the ultrasound-based carbon concentration meter, was developed by Mintek with original sponsorship by the Chamber of Mines Research Organization, and is now being manufactured and marketed worldwide by Debex Electronics in Johannesburg. Testing of detonators* The Chief Mining Engineer has asked the South African Bureau of Standards to monitor locally manufactured, as well as imported, detonators. This could ensure greater safety in fiery mines.

Jan 1, 1990

Guide Io Ihe Preparailon Of Papers For Publication In The Journal Of The South African Institute Of Mining And Metallurgy The following notes have been compiled to assist authors in the preparation of papers for presentation to the Institute and for publication in the Journal. All papers must meet the standards set by the Council of the Institute, and for this purpose all papers are referred to at least two referees appointed by the Council.

Jan 1, 1975

A computer programming language known as GPSS is described and possible applications for the mining engineer are presented. The language is continually being upgraded with improved versions appearing about every three years. The tremendous power of the language is considered by comparing it with standard engineering programming languages, such as Fortran or Basic. Sample problems that can be solved using the language are indicated. The advantages and disadvantages of the languages are also discussed.

Jan 1, 1987

By William Yutmeyer, Meredith Hardwick

Since 1996 there have been at least two teams formed within the U.S. Government to develop a consistent set of risk-based standards to be used to govern safety. The first of these was the Risk and Lethality Commonality Team which developed risk criteria associated with protecting personnel during launches at the national test ranges. The second team titled the Risk-Based Explosives Safety Criteria Team (RBESCT) is the subject of this paper.

Jan 1, 2007

By Peter D. Cunningham

At Vale Inco in Sudbury, underground mobile equipment production and maintenance data is presently collected manually from paper slips. This paper reviews a pilot project that developed a system to electronically collect that data. The benefits and improvements in data accuracy, timeliness and reduction in collection effort, will be discussed. Technological issues that arose from the use of WiFi, RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) and the IREDES mine data equipment standard are also discussed.

Oct 1, 2009

By Gerald R. Coonan

Laboratory research is being conducted to substantiate suggested levels for voluntary standards on human response to transient vibration. The application of those findings to actual field conditions, however, will be limited because they will not include social and psychological factors existent in the real world. It is necessary, therefore, to examine available empirical information on complaints in an attempt to define the influence social and psychological factors might have on the laboratory results.

Jan 1, 1982

By Theo Lehner

Nasty, according to the Collins Dictionary, comprises the adjectives: bad, critical, dangerous, dirty, odious, serious, severe, sickening, unpleasant etc. From this we may at first conclude that each individual smelter relying on its own specific business surrounding would have a special definition of its nasties. But common product standards and common metallurgy makes us experience common nasties. To get an idea of possible problem elements we start with the demands on the products: [ ]

Jan 1, 1994

By Fred B. Ely

The first recorded production in the Dutch East Indies was in the year 1893 but seepages of dl were known to exist in North Sumatra, East Java and the east coast of Borneo at least as early as 1880. During the Of the above amount the Royal Dutch produced............................................. 36,006,079 Nederlandsche Koloniale Petroleum Maatschappij (subsidiary of Standard Oil of New Jersey)....................................... 3,867,769 Total Dutch East Indiea....................................... 39,873,848

Jan 1, 1931

Provide an environmentally compatible means of producing lead from galena concentrates that replaces the current high-temperature pyrometallurgical primary lead smelting process and supplies pure lead metal within present and proposed Environmental Protection Agency (FPA) and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) lead emission standards. Approach The U.S. Bureau of Mines developed an energy efficient and pollution-free leach-electrowinning method for use in recovering pure lead metal and byproducts from lead sulfide concentrates.

Jan 1, 1989

By F. T. Cawood

This article offers a personal and independent view on the threats to the sustainability of the South African minerals industry. It argues that if the six identified threats of insufficient spending on research and development, general standard of education, nationalization, inadequate infrastructure, Aids prevalence and labour inefficiency are not acted upon as a matter of urgency, the future of the mining industry, along with its important contribution to the economy, is at risk.

Jan 1, 2011