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By Walter Miller

During the second year of America's active ia in the war the inain objectives of the petroleum-refining industry were again to provide the four most important product needs for war: 100-octane aviation gasoline, toluene for T.N.T. production, high-quality lubricating oils for the needs of aviation and the armed forces, and petroleum chemicals for synthetic rubber manufacture. All other materials supplied by the petroleum industry took an inferior priority ranking, depending on the degree of essentiality. To accomplish the above objectives the industry initiated and carried on a building program during 1942 and 1943 which will put those two years down in petroleum-refining history as the greatest construction years of all time, a record which will hold for decades to come. Led by an estimated total of $ 900,000,000 going into 100-octane and contributory plant investment, it is easy to picture a total of two billion dollars and more going into additional refining-industry plant investment during 1942 and 1943, most of it privately paid for, but a substantial part covered by R.F.C. Government money financing. Some of the new plants will not be completed until 1944, but a large proportion of the program was finished and put into operation, adding substantially to the output of the four principal products during 1943- lne most important and spectacuiar activity of the refining industry is of course the 100-octane gasoline program necessitated by the fact that nearly 90 per cent of the requirements of the United Nations is being furnished by the United States. Recent P.A.W. figures mention $goo,-ooo,ooo as the cost of the construction looking to increasing the output of this all-important munition. Thirty-four major plants have been completed, 11 of them during the last quarter of the year. Thirty-eight more will be completed and put into operation during the first four or five months of 1944. Twenty-two additional plants authorized during 1943 are already well under way and scheduled for production late in 1944. Early in 1942 the aim was to treble the capacity for making 100-octane gasoline then existing; later, plans were to make it five times as great, to match the increased warplane building program; and toward the end of the year the sights had been set at a still higher but unannounced target, representing six to seven times the early 1942 figure. Comparative figures issued at the end of 1943 enable one to guess a program by the middle of 1944 of eight to nine times the former production, with an ultimate production in 1944 of eleven or more times the early 1942 output. It became obvious in 1943 that building of new units would be materially slowed because of delay in getting construction materials and that they would reach operation at considerably later dates than

Jan 1, 1944

By Walter Miller

During the second year of America's active ia in the war the inain objectives of the petroleum-refining industry were again to provide the four most important product needs for war: 100-octane aviation gasoline, toluene for T.N.T. production, high-quality lubricating oils for the needs of aviation and the armed forces, and petroleum chemicals for synthetic rubber manufacture. All other materials supplied by the petroleum industry took an inferior priority ranking, depending on the degree of essentiality. To accomplish the above objectives the industry initiated and carried on a building program during 1942 and 1943 which will put those two years down in petroleum-refining history as the greatest construction years of all time, a record which will hold for decades to come. Led by an estimated total of $ 900,000,000 going into 100-octane and contributory plant investment, it is easy to picture a total of two billion dollars and more going into additional refining-industry plant investment during 1942 and 1943, most of it privately paid for, but a substantial part covered by R.F.C. Government money financing. Some of the new plants will not be completed until 1944, but a large proportion of the program was finished and put into operation, adding substantially to the output of the four principal products during 1943- lne most important and spectacuiar activity of the refining industry is of course the 100-octane gasoline program necessitated by the fact that nearly 90 per cent of the requirements of the United Nations is being furnished by the United States. Recent P.A.W. figures mention $goo,-ooo,ooo as the cost of the construction looking to increasing the output of this all-important munition. Thirty-four major plants have been completed, 11 of them during the last quarter of the year. Thirty-eight more will be completed and put into operation during the first four or five months of 1944. Twenty-two additional plants authorized during 1943 are already well under way and scheduled for production late in 1944. Early in 1942 the aim was to treble the capacity for making 100-octane gasoline then existing; later, plans were to make it five times as great, to match the increased warplane building program; and toward the end of the year the sights had been set at a still higher but unannounced target, representing six to seven times the early 1942 figure. Comparative figures issued at the end of 1943 enable one to guess a program by the middle of 1944 of eight to nine times the former production, with an ultimate production in 1944 of eleven or more times the early 1942 output. It became obvious in 1943 that building of new units would be materially slowed because of delay in getting construction materials and that they would reach operation at considerably later dates than

Jan 1, 1944

By P. I. Lipman

Largely forgotten by today's environmentalists and mineralogists is a pioneer scientist of the nineteenth century named Ellen Swallow. Fortunately, the memory of her accomplishments has been resurrected by Robert Clarke in his biography, Ellen Swallow: The Woman Who Founded Ecology. Her direct contributions to the field of mining included authoring First Lessons in Minerals and an analysis of the rare mineral samarskite which indicated the presence of an insoluble residue; her findings led to the eventual discovery of samarium and gadolinium. While enjoying the distinction of being the first woman student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she successfully isolated vanadium in an ore which other experts had examined without detecting the metal.

Jan 1, 1974

By M. Royker

Gold has been demonstrated as a possible catalyst for oxidation reactions. Some evidence for a possible promotion effect of platinum has also been recorded. The influence of platinum as promoter for Au/?-Al2O3 prepared via anionic ion-exchange for the oxidation of glycerol was investigated in a batch reactor at 60°C. It is inferred that the addition of platinum reduces the catalytic activity and therate of deactivation, resulting in an overall higher final conversion of glycerol with increasing platinum loading. The addition of platinum to the catalyst favours the formation of the desired product, glyceric acid.

Jan 1, 2012

By P Shenon

THE Elk City district is in north-central Idaho about 60 miles east of Grangeville and near the headwaters of the South Fork of the Clearwater River (Fig. 1). At the height of its boom in the early sixties, Elk City had a population of more than 2000 people.1 Published estimates of the placer production from the district range from $10,000,000 to $18,500,000. Although the first quartz-vein location was made as early as 1870, very little gold was extracted from quartz ores until after the completion of the American Eagle mill in 1902. Between 1902 and 1932 a total of from $750,000 to $1,000,000 was taken from about six properties.

Jan 1, 1934

By Christopher Mark

The past decade has provided a wealth of practical experience with longwall pillar design. Design formulas developed specifically for longwalls have proven their value in numerous applications. Analytic methods, including numerical models, have a1 so made important contributions. These advances have been based on basic research into abutment loads, coal pillar mechanics, and the interaction between pillar performance and entry stability. The goal of this paper is to review the state of the art in longwall pillar design from the standpoint of the practitioner. Actual case histories are presented to illustrate the current capabilities and limitations of pillar design methods. The paper also discusses the advances that can be expected in the future.

Jan 1, 1990

By Roy E. Gilbert

IN what ways can conventional geophysical methods be used in the search for quartz-sulphide veins covered by several feet of overburden? The New Park Mining Co., in search of an answer to this question, empirically tested simple geochemical, electrical, and magnetic methods over known ore bodies and geologic structures. Geochemical methods were the only ones found to be applicable to direct ore search. Indirect uses were found for electrical and magnetic tests. Experiments were conducted in the southeastern part of the Park City mining district. Ore in this part of the district is found principally in steeply dipping veins which are localized along faults and fractures that cut Paleozoic sediments and quartz diorite intrusives. Extensive soil cover effiectively hides both veins and country rock. The type of vein most likely to

Jan 1, 1953

By Joyce A. Ober

Strontium occurs commonly in nature, averaging 0.034% of all igneous rock; however, only two minerals, celestite and strontianite, contain strontium in sufficient quantities to make its recovery practical, and these minerals are found in sedimentary rocks. Of the two, only celestite has been found to occur in deposits of sufficient size to make development of mining facilities currently attractive. Celestite, the most common strontium mineral, consists primarily of strontium sulfate (SrSO,). Strontianite, the second most common mineral, consists primarily of strontium carbonate (Sr CO3). Strontianite would be the more useful of the two common minerals because strontium is used most commonly in the carbonate form, but few deposits have been discovered that are suitable for development. The physical properties of strontium ores are listed in [Table 1].

Jan 1, 1994

By John S. Egbert

Many of you are familiar with the Washington Metro Project. However, inasmuch as some may not be, and others may want to refresh their memories regarding certain facets of the project, I will cite a few summary details about the rail transit system we are constructing. That summary will also give each of us a common point for departure as I develop the principal thoughts that I want to leave with you. The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) is an interstate agency established by Compact between the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia and approved by the United States Congress. Currently, the Authority has approval to build and operate a 101-mile (162.5 km) regional rapid rail transit system as shown on Appendix A. Of that total, 38 miles (61.2 km) will be in D. C., 32 miles (51.5 km) in Maryland and 30 miles (48.3 km) in Virginia. (Mileage figures, because of rounding error, do not add to 101 miles.) Referring again to the 101-mile total, 48 miles (77.2 km) will be underground, 42 miles (67.6 km) on the surface and 10 miles (16.1 km) on aerial structures. Of the 48 miles (77.2 km) that are underground, 15 miles (24.1 km) are rock tunnel, 14 miles (22.5 km) are earth tunnel, 0.5 miles (0.8 km) 9.s sunken tube and 19 miles (30.6 inn) are cut-and-cover construction. The system will include 86 stations, with 51 of them underground. Referring again to the full 86 stations, 43 will be in D. C., 23 in Maryland and 20 in Virginia. We currently have 37 miles (59.5 km) of line and 41 stations in operations as shown on Appendix B. Also shown on Appendix B is another 16 mile (25.7 km) increment and 13 stations which have been substantially completed, but are not yet in service. Additionally,

Jan 1, 1981

By W. W. Coffeen, K. E. Doud

A singular mineral extraction and processing operation is conducted by Metal & Thermit Corp. in Hanover County, Va. The mine presently produces aplite rock, rutile and ilmenite. The deposit lies in the piedmont plain about 25 miles northwest of Richmond. It first drew attention as a result of discovery of float rutile on the surface about 1910. About seven years prior to this, Metal & Thermit through a subsidiary. American Rutile Co., had begun producing rutile'and ilmenite from a deposit in Nebon County, near Piney River, where aplite rock and ilmenite are mined today. Because of the interest in titanium minerals and the similarity of the new deposit to the Nelson County deposit, Metal & Thermit became interested and eventually acquired the Hanover County deposit.

Jan 10, 1962

By D J. Clark, S Hewson, T Li

Cadia Hill Pit is a gold copper porphyry deposit hosted in monzonite. The pit slope design is primarily based on structural controls related to faults and shears with largely massive rock masses between the structures. The slope design attempts to achieve an optimum configuration at a bench to overall scale, considering economics and safety implications against the geotechnical and structural conditions. To date the slopes have been mined at interramp angles of up to 60¦ over heights of 120 m. Limited slope and batter failures that have occurred are structurally controlled and occur rapidly. The pit-mining schedule requires concurrent mining of part of the final pit walls and the progressive interim cutbacks. Engineering and operational solutions to hazard reduction and risk management issues have been implemented wherever viable to æengineerÆ out the hazard and mitigate the risks. However, comprehensive management plans and operating procedures have also played a vital role. This paper details the management plan and the operating procedures that have been developed and implemented to mitigate the risks associated with rock falls.

Jan 1, 2003

By E. P. Fahrenthold, K. E. Gray

Introduction Brine reservoirs along the Texas and Louisiana Gulf coasts are currently under study to investigate the technical and economic viability of production wells designed to extract methane gas in solution. The effect of well pressure drawdown on reservoir rock and associated overburden material is important to well performance predictions and the analysis of potential subsidence problems. Consequently a series of compaction tests have been conducted on sandstone and shale cored from a test well drilled near Hitchcock, Texas, in order to determine the variation of mechanical properties to be expected over the producing life of the formation. Previous Work The referenced tests are part of an extended study of geopressured-geothermal reservoir behavior, including compaction (Jogi, Gray, Ashman, and Thompson, 1981 and Jogi, Kalra, Gray, and Thompson, 1981) and creep (Thompson, Jogi, Gray, and Richardson, 1981) tests of reservoir rock and related reservoir performance studies (Rago, Okhuma, Seperhnoori, and Thompson, 1985). Recent work has considered the nonlinear constitutive behavior of sandstone (Fahrenthold and Gray, 1985 and 19861, while additional experimental work is reported here. Geological structure and composition of the Hitchcock field from which the core samples were obtained is discussed by Light (1985). Experimental Procedure Compaction tests were conducted on cylindrical cores, nominally 2.75 inches in length and 2 inches in diameter, with independent control of the axial, confining, and pore pressures. Axial and radial deformation of the samples were measured in tests over a range of effective stress states expected to develop over the reservoir lifetime. The term effective stress as used here refers to the algebraic difference of the total stress and pore pressure, with compression taken as positive. Three types of compaction tests were conducted on the sandstone. In the uniaxial tests, axial total stress and radial strain were held constant as the pore pressure was reduced, similating one dimensional compaction which may occur during reservoir depletion. In the triaxial tests, radial total stress and pore pressure were held constant as the axial total stress was increased, duplicating conventional rock compaction test procedures. In the pore pressure drawdown tests, axial and radial total stresses were held constant while the pore pressure was reduced, in order to investigate differences in sample response to mechanical and pore pressure loading. Compaction tests were also conducted on shale material obtained from the reservoir overburden. The field coring process provided few consolidated shale sections sufficiently large to allow preparation of samples with the dimensions described above. With additional attrition during sample preparation of this brittle material, ultimate yield of the coring effort was limited. The few available samples were tested in uniaxial and triaxial tests similar to those described above. The use of displacement transducers to measure sample deformation avoided the difficulty of strain gauge installation on this material. Test Results The sandstone and shale both demonstrated nonlinear stress-strain behavior, with hysteresis and residual strain present upon unloading. Polynomial interpolation of the stress-strain curves was used in the calculation of incremental values for the loading and unloading moduli. Figures 1 and 2 show example axial effective stress-axial strain curves for triaxial tests conducted on sandstone and shale samples. The figures plot incremental stress and strain variables, defined as deviations from the state of prestress to which the sample was subjected. The state of prestress was varied between tests in order to investigate material behavior over the entire stress and strain space of interest. Tables 1 and 2 give the incremental moduli (Young's modulus and Poisson's ratio) as a

Jan 1, 1986

By John W. Bader

Probing a mineralized area with a core drill to find out what's there is fundamentally a simple task, but a costly one. Quite commonly it costs $10, and sometimes more, to extract and assay each foot of drill core obtained. Yet, it is not unusual today to drill hundreds of holes on one mineral property. The initial objective of such probing is almost always simply to determine the potential worth of the ore- body, if any exists, and the question naturally arises: How little sampling is enough for this determination? The mathematics of statistics infer accuracy of estimates largely from the sheer number of samples taken. Mineral exploration usually involves accumulation of large numbers of samples, and thus it is usually not difficult to place narrow confidence limits on either side of the estimated average grade of a sampled orebody. The determination may, or may not, be as accurate as the derivations imply. If it is not, the fault is probably one of misapplication and not with the statistical processes themselves. Un- fortunately, indications are strong that the ordinary statistics of sampling usually cannot be applied to orebody exploration samples with actual attainment of the accuracy of estimate that they express mathematically. For this reason, a more deductive, less mathematical analysis of the sampling may well be worthwhile.

Jan 1, 1970

By Robert G. Peets

After 216 years, the end of operations at the Corn- wall mine can be foreseen within the next two decades. The story starts in 1732 when three sons of Wiliam Penn-John, Thomas, and Richard-deeded 9669 acres in the Province of Pennsylvania to a Joseph Turner, who assigned it to William Allen. In 1734 Peter Grubb, who had prospected for iron in the area, paid Allen £ 135 for 300 acres of this tract in what is now Lebanon County. In 1737 he was granted a warrant for 142.5 additional acres, which included three hills of outcropping magnetite described as "rich and abundant, forty feet deep, commencing two feet under the earth's surface." This seemingly inexhaustible reserve was to become one of the most valuable deposits in the U. S. before the ore-rich Lake Superior region was developed.

Jan 7, 1957

By C. E. Capes

INTRODUCTION In the coal industry, ever greater amounts of fine coal must be processed due to the need to crush to finer sizes for impurity liberation in low cost physical cleaning processes. Fine coal processing is a major problem for the industry, both through the cost of disposal of reject fines and through the mining cost of lost coal values. Of the available disposal methods, impoundment has always been the most popular. In many cases, when the coal fines were of sufficient quality, froth flotation and expensive filtration methods were used to recover the coal in these waste streams. The coal fines are not always of a marketable quality, however, and flotation, due to poor yields and difficult dewatering, has always been an expensive and not necessarily profitable process. The oil agglomeration method is increasingly important as a technology for the treatment of fine coal-in-water suspensions. These fines can be preferentially wetted and agglomerated by many different oils mixed with the suspensions. Ash-forming impurities remain in suspension and are rejected when the agglomerates are recovered, for example, by screening. Agglomeration-based methods provide perhaps the only practical means for upgrading extremely fine coal to useful products on a large scale. As with froth flotation, oil agglomeration relies on differences in the surface properties of coal and impurities to effect separation. Whereas flotation be- comes less effective with particles finer than 200 mesh (0.075 mm) or coarser than 50 mesh (0.3 mm), there appears to be no lower limit on particle size for oil agglomeration while particles % in. (3.175 mm) diameter or larger can also be treated, if desirable. In addition to this ability to clean a broader size range of coal particles, oil agglomeration can produce a dense, coarse granular product of acceptable strength and low water content without the need for vacuum or thermal drying. The preferential wetting of solid surfaces by immiscible liquids has been utilized, if not fully understood, for a long time. Indeed Gaudin,229 in tracing the ancestry of froth flotation, refers to a 15th century oil-pulp kneading procedure in which water-wetted particles were freed under water from an oiled mass. An understanding of the physical chemistry involved in such

Jan 1, 1991

By Jon Y. Kaneshiro, Blake D. Rothfuss, Gregory E. Korbin

A critical aspect of the planning, investigation, design, and construction of an underground excavation project is the portal. The portal is the primary access through which most if not all tunnel construction is carried out and it is the lifeline of the tunnel. Planning considerations include depth of cover, slope stability, economics of open cut versus shaft access, environmental impact, and contractor staging area. Critical aspects of planning, investigation, design, and construction of portals are considered by discussing portal design and portal failure case histories.

Jan 1, 1995

By M. R. Tek

General equations relating the pressure drop necessary to sustain the flow of a fluid through a porous matrix at a given rate have been developed. The results indicate that at high values of flow rate the pressure-flow behavior may not necessarily satisfy the usual Darcy equation. The mathematical analysis, carried through the micro-pore geometry and extended through the macro-reservoir scale, indicate that Darcy's law, of limited applicability to certain ranges of Reynolds numbers, can be generalized through the inclusion of some additional parameters. The "generalized Darcy equation" has also been formulated in dimen-sionless form permitting the evaluation of its predictive accuracy with regard to literature data. A comparison between predicted and experimental values indicates that the generalized Darcy equation predicts the pressure drops with good agreement over all possible ranges of Reynolds numbers. INTRODUCTION The limits and the nature of validity of Darcy's law' has been a subject of every-day interest to the industry for many years. It is well known that as the Reynolds number, characteristic of the fluid flow through porous media, becomes large, Darcy's law gradually loses its predictive accuracy and ultimately becomes completely void. For the last 20 years much has been said and written on this subject. Unfortunately little has been accomplished to bring about a satisfactory agreement, at least on the nature of the threshold of validity of Darcy.'s law. Fluid dynamists, geo-physicists, and engineers all had their individual views, explanations, interpretations and concepts on the subject. To some, a mechanistic analogy with pipe-flow proved a satisfactory explanation.' To others,' turbulence, in its random character, was incompatible with the geometric structure of consolidated porous systems. To some,4 turbulence merely represented a factor influencing the permeability measurements and again to others5,6,7 em-pirical or semi-empirical correlations proved satisfactory from an engineering viewpoint. Deviations from Darcy's law at high flow rates have been studied by systematic experiments by Fancher, Lewis, and Barnes.' In an article on the flow of gases through porous metals, Green and Duwezs conclude that the onset of turbulence within the pores appears unsatisfactory to explain deviations from Darcy's law. This view is held by many others. While the subject remained controversial for many years, the development of vast natural gas reserves throughout recent years further justified considerable interest on this problem from the standpoint of gas reservoir behavior. As large amounts of field data became available from the operation of many gas fields, it became evident that the steady-state behavior of gas wells was not, in general, in agreement or compatible with Darcy's law. This suggested a careful reconsideration of all mechanisms which may account for pressure drops in addition to viscous shear. In a series of articles9,10 . Hou-peurt indicated that deviations from Darcy's law may be explained on the basis of kinetic energy variations and jetting effects without resorting to assumptions on turbulent flow conditions. Another article by Schneebeli11 indicates that special experiments by Lindquist clearly demonstrated that the onset of turbulence does not necessarily coincide with conditions of deviation from Darcy's law. This view is also held by M. King Hubbert.12 Starting with the basic pressure-flow relations suggested by Houpeurt, the derivation, development and extension of analytical expressions to -supplement and generalize Darcy's law has been the objective of this work. MATHEMATICAL ANALYSIS Derivation of Dimensionless Pressure-drop, Flow-rate Relations In considering the flow of a fluid through a porous matrix geometrically represented by a succession of capillary passages in the shape of truncated cones,810 an approximate expression may be derived relating viscous and inertial, i.e., total pressure drop to the physical properties of the fluid, geometric properties of the rock matrix and the rate of flow: ?P/?r = µ/k V [ 1 + c(m4 - 1) p V/16n" mµ w] ..........(1) Let us formally set: c (m4 - 1) / 16n" m = a d ......(2) Such a representation is equivalent to assert that the term [c(m4 — 1)/ 16n"m], variable with various porous media and probably highly variable within a given porous medium, may be macroscopically defined as equal to a lithology factor times the aver-age grain diameter d. In view of the usual grain and pore size distribu-

Jan 1, 1958

By W. G. Pariseau, S. C. Schmelter

The destabilizing effect of water pressure on rock-mass stability is examined quantitatively by the finite element method. A coupled code that accounts for the simultaneous effects of rock-mass deformation and transient fluid flow is used for this purpose. The traditional soil-mechanics assumption of an incompressible fluid is shown to be untenable for the analysis of porous, fractured rock slopes. A Mandel-Cryer effect, whish is a transitory but elevated and potentially destabilizing water pressure following a cut, was not observed.

Jan 1, 1999

By D. J. Hallbom

A new graphical method termed the ?Design Curve Diagram? (DCD) has been developed to analyse non-Newtonian pipe flow data by relating the plastic Karman number to the plastic Reynolds number. Since the plastic Karman number is directly proportional to the pressure loss gradient and the plastic Reynolds number is directly proportional to the velocity, the DCD is essentially a non-dimensional pipe flow curve. This makes the DCD conceptually easier than the commonly used Hedström-Moody diagram. While, the DCD was developed for the analysis of yield plastic fluids (e.g., Bingham plastics), it is equally applicable to Newtonian fluids.

Jan 1, 2007

By A. W. Deurbrouck

This Bureau of Mines report describes the washability characteristics of 14 coalbed samples collected in Wyoming. Such data is needed to evaluate the quality of the coals of the West where most of our low-sulfur-content coal reserves are found. Of the 14 samples included in this report 13 had a total sulfur content of 1.1 percent or less. All of the samples contained low per¬centages of ash or could be readily washed to a desirable ash level with minimal loss of yield. The coals ranged in rank from high-volatile B bituminous to subbituminous C, although 10 of the samples were high-volatile C bituminous. The coalbeds varied in thickness from 4.5 to an unknown thickness greater than 67.5 feet.

Jan 1, 1971