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By D. H. Yardley

GEOCHEMICAL investigation of trace elements in surface materials was begun near Ely, Minn., in 1953 along the basal contact of Duluth gabbro with Giants Range granite (Fig. 1). This article presents data on the distribution of copper and nickel in till and in stream sediments in the area and proposes an explanation for the types of distribution found. The Duluth gabbro, one of the world's largest basic intrusives, intrudes rocks which range in age from Keewatin to middle Keweenawan. Within the test area the gabbro is in contact with granite except for short sections where it is in contact with remnants of iron formation. Sulfide mineralization occurs within the gabbro, near and parallel to the basal contact for a distance of several miles. Schwartz and Davidson' have described the geologic setting of the mineralization. The sulfides, believed to be syngenetic, include chalcopyrite, cubanite, pentlandite, pyrrhotite, and minor amounts of bornite. They occur disseminated in the silicates and as small interstitial masses. The ratio of copper to nickel is about 3.8:1, based on 66 chemical analyses of rock samples from various outcrops (Ref. 1, p. 702, and Ref. 2). Test Procedures: With specified exceptions, all nickel and copper tests were made by the chromo-graph method,:' which measures the intensity of a colored spot formed by a reaction between the metal being determined and special reagent paper. The intensity is then compared to the intensity of spots prepared from samples of known metal content. Details of the test procedure are outlined in another article (Ref. 4, pp. 77,78). All soil samples tested in this investigation to date have been weighed on an analytical balance. However, a volumetric scoop designed to provide about 0.1 g of soil adds to the speed and ease of testing and has been found to give satisfactory results (Ref. 5, p. 531, and Ref. 19). The size of the samples used for the tests was 0.1 g. Whenever such small samples are used there is some question as to whether they are representative of the several grams in the field sample. Many repeat tests of the samples used in this investigation demonstrated that results can be reproduced within the limits of accuracy of the method without formal mixing beyond that inherent in screening the soil fractions. Furthermore, the 0.1 g is probably as representative of the field sample as the field sample is of its area of influence. Hawkes and Lakin (Ref. 6, p. 291), who considered the general problem, compared ground and quartered bulk samples of 500 g with 5-g grab samples. They concluded that "there is no significant loss in accuracy of data by substituting grab samples for bulk samples." The term soil implies somewhat different things to the geologist, engineer, and soil scientist.' For convenience the term as used in this article refers to unconsolidated material (the mantle) overlying bed rock. Sampling Procedure: Samples were taken at 100-ft intervals along north-south traverse lines across the gabbro-granite contact. The soil (till) samples were taken at an average depth of 1 ft, which was below the high-humus surface layer and into clean till. Samples taken at 1-ft intervals down to ledge showed as high a metal content at 1 ft below the air-surface as at greater depths and in two instances were slightly higher. The till at 1-ft depth did not appear to differ from material at greater depths. Total depth to bedrock has been tested at only a few points and where measured varied from 1 to 10 ft. Aerial Distribution Contours and Profiles: Plotting of copper, nickel, and cobalt content in contour form (Fig. 2) shows that anomalous amounts of these metal ions occur in till over and closely adjacent to mineralized areas of the gabbro. Contouring nickel content alone, or the copper content, outlines the same target area. Contours of the copper content provide a more distinct anomaly than nickel because of the higher copper concentration. The traverses are rather widely spread for interpolation; however, drilling has confirmed the target area essentially as shown.

Jan 1, 1959

By Hua-qing Li

Electromagnetic stirring process effectively improves the casting quality of metals. In this paper, the physical simulation experiment, in which the molten copper is displaced by mercury, was designed. The factory test parameters were determined according the simulated data. The flow behavior of the mercury to be stirred as well as the relations between the microstructure of plate blanks and the current parameters were analyzed. With an appropriate electromagnetic stirring, the inverse segregation of tin for C51900 alloy plant blank reduces from 15 % ~ 30 % to about 5 %, and the proportion of equiaxed grain rises to larger than 30%.

Jan 1, 2009

By D. W. Reed, R. L. Reed, Tracht

Laboratory experiments on the reverse combustion of tar sands in a linear adiabatic system have shown that a highly upgraded oil can be produced from an exceedingly viscous, immobile oil. The dependence on the air-injection rate of peak temperature, combustion-zone velocity, oil recovery, air-oil ratio, residual coke and oil, fuel burned and distribution of product gases is shown graphically. Eflects of initial temperature, oxygen concentration, oil saturation and heat loss are discussed. Experiments bearing on the coking properties of heavy oils are mentioned and some results exhibited. Field application of the process hinges on the existence of adequate air permeability and the rate of reaction under reservoir conditions. INTRODUCTION It has been established that oil can be recovered from underground reservoirs by means of at least two fundamentally distinct methods involving in situ combustion of a certain fraction of the oil. Characteristic of both of these known methods is the production of oil from one or more wells by means of hot gases formed when a high-temperature reaction zone is advanced through the reservoir. In both cases, the reaction zone is created by heating certain of the wells to a sufficiently high temperature prior to the introduction of air, and the zone is maintained and advanced through the reservoir by appropriate control of the air-injection rate. In the first of these methods, which is called "forward combustion",' the combustion zone advances in a direction which is generally the same as that of the air flow; whereas in the second method, "reverse combustion",' the combustion zone moves in a direction generally opposite to that of the air flow. Forward combustion, on the one hand, is an ideal combustion process in the sense that a minimum of the most undesirable fraction of the oil is consumed as fuel in the form of coke, a clean sand is left behind and generated heat is used as efficiently as possible. However, the applicability of forward combustion is limited. Since the products of combustion, vaporized oil and connate water must flow into relatively cold regions of the reservoir, there is an upper limit on the viscosity of oil which can be moved by this process in a practical and economical fashion.' On the other hand, it is characteristic of reverse combustion that the vaporized oil and water together with the products of combustion are produced through sand which is already hot and has had its mobile liquid content eliminated. This means there is no upper limit on oil viscosity; indeed, the oil may be an entirely immobile semi-solid. However, fuel for the process is an intermediate fraction of the original oil, and the most undesirable fraction remains on the sand surface as a substantial deposit of coke. Since this coked material is not burned during reverse combustion, it represents energy which is available for the production of oil but is not used for this purpose. It follows that one can expect economics to be somewhat less attractive with reverse combustion than with forward combustion. Nevertheless, it is a process which is designed for reservoirs where forward combustion is impossible and, as such, has become a subject of experimental and theoretical investigation. In this paper, only experiments made with tar sands are discussed. DESCRIPTION OF THE PROCESS We proceed, then, to consider the process of reverse combustion in greater detail. Fig. 1 illustrates a temperature profile defining a combustion zone which moves from right to left when air flows from left to right. In Zone 1, the temperature is the initial reservoir temperature, and the tar sand is as yet unaltered. This statement must be modified to the extent that physical properties of the oil may be changed by low-temperature oxidation at reservoir temperature. As air passes into Zone 2, which has been warmed by conduction, it assists in vaporization of the very light ends (if there are any), and oxidation occurs at a significant rate. In this region, there is almost no production of carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide because predominantly addition-type reactions take place with the formation of oxygenated compounds such as aldehydes and acids together with water. The hydrocarbon-enriched and slightly oxygen-depleted gas stream enters Zone 3 where

By B. H. Caudle, L. G. Davies, I. H. Silberberg

This paper presents a method of predicting the recovery and performance of a five-spot steam injection project, in which a realistic approach to pattern sweepout efficiencies is made. Published methods for radial systems were modified for the five-spot pattern by approximating the stream lines with straight lines radiating from the injection well and then converging to the producing well. In each radial segment, the position of the steam front and the temperature profile ahead of the steam front were determined by heat balance equations, which included an estimation of heat losses to surrounding formations. The location of the saturations behind the cold water front was determined from a Buckley-Leverett solution to the material balance equation. Results from this program show steamflood recovery in a five-spot pattern to be considerably less than that predicted for true linear or radial flow systems. For a specific reservoir containing 900-cp oil, a steamflood in a purely radial flow system was predicted to recover more than 75 percent of the original oil in place when 2 PV of water had been injected as steam. A five-spot steamflood with otherwise identical properties was predicted to recover 10 percent of the original oil in place when 0.15 PV of water had been injected as steam and to recover almost no oil thereafter. A cold water five-spot flood in this system was predicted to recover approximately W percent of the oil in place with I PV of water injected. For a five-spot pattern in an example reservoir with 10-cp oil, steam injection similarly showed lower ultimate recovery than water injection but no improvement in recovery rule. Introduction The thermal recovery method considered in this study is steam injection in a five-spot pattern. Pattern steam injection has been given little attention in the past, possibly because of some rather obvious disadvantages. Unless steam temperature is maintained throughout the entire swept area, the process will revert to simple waterflood with all heat being lost prior to reaching the oil bank. Also, the oil viscosity reduction takes place near the steam front and not around the producing wellbore, so that low producing rates must still be endured. This is the reason for the success of the steam stimulation, or cyclic injection, in which the fluids are produced from the same well used for injection. On the other hand, steamflooding can offer some advantages. Oil displacement is by four methods: (1) mechanical displacement by the condensed water, (2) viscosity reduction of the crude oil, (3) swelling of the crude oil, and (4) distillation of the crude oil in the steam zone. Although dependent upon the crude, laboratory experiments have shown displacements up to 80 percent by steamflooding. In addition, steam is a good heat transport medium, since it is cheap and has a high heat content. Previous Investigations Previous publications have reported methods for predicting recovery in a steamflood for linear and radial systems. Since no pattern sweep efficiency is taken into consideration, the recovery even from a radial system must be greater than from more realistic geometries such as the very common five-spot patterns. Probably the broadest coverage is given by Willman who reported experimental results and offered a method of predicting recovery for a radial flow system. They concluded that both hot water and steam injection recover more oil than an ordinary waterflood, and that steam injection could yield recoveries "as much as 100 percent greater than by water flood." They also concluded that both the heat requirements for a reservoir and the residual oil remaining in the reservoir after steam injection were independent of the amount of oil originally in place, that short exploitation times were desirable, and that a high percentage of net sand in the reservoir with a high initial oil saturation was desirable. The method assumes that the flood occurs in three concentric cylindrical zones: (1) an inner steam zone, (2) a central hot water zone, and (3) an outer cold waterflood zone. Displacement in the steam zone is based on laboratory-determined residual oil saturations while the hot water and cold water zones use the conventional Buckley-Leverett equations. Although the results shown by Willman et al. are for a radial system flowing out from the well to an assumed external circular boundary, their equations did

Jan 1, 1969

By C. S. Simons, G. Major-Marothy, M. A. K. Grice, D. A. Dahlstrom

The vacuum filter operating variables that influence cake moisture are discussed. The influence of temperature control, particularly through application of steam to the cake, is emphasized. Results of pilot plant studies on filtration of fine hematite concentrates are presented and discussed, and are shown to support the theoretically-derived conclusions. Results on fine magnetite concentrates are also used to support the argument. The relative merits of disc and drum filters from the standpoint of cake moisture are discussed. Moisture content has always been recognized as one of the most important properties of concentrates used as pellet plant feed. Most iron ore concentrates are produced by wet methods, and are finally de-watered on filters. Obviously, a real economic advantage accrues to the ability of control the moisture content of the filter cake within the range required for optimum pellet production. Another consideration, also, has been receiving increasing attention recently. Transoceanic shippers of concentrate cargoes are critically assessing the hazards of excess moisture. The nature and magnitude of these risks have been described, ' and it appears that their elimination may require that residual moisture be somewhat lower than the limit for proper pelletization. Coarse, very free-filtering materials, such as the products of spirals, are usually best handled on top-feed types of machines. The moisture content of the cake may be held at a specified value by proper design and operation, taking into account cake thickness, air-flow rate, and drainage time. Fine-grained concentrates, with which we will be concerned here, must be filtered on Drum or Agidisc machines. With many of these materials, it is possible, by proper design, to meet cake moisture requirements with a conventional filter station. The first installations to produce high-grade pellets from magnetic taconites fell in this class. In fact, the design criteria were developed in connection with operations of Reserve Mining Co. at Silver Bay, inn.,2 and these have been verified repeatedly in other mills. The trend today, however, is toward the production of more difficultly dewatered concentrates. This is due on the one hand to the increasing attention being given to non-magnetic ores, which tend to be far slimier, and therefore much more retentive of moisture, than the magnetites. On the other hand, the pressure to improve the grade of the magnetic ores is leading to finer grinds, which also are more difficult to dewater. In the latter case, the decision to improve grade in an existing operation by finer grinding for better liberation may lead to two unattractive alternatives: 1) substantially higher bentonite consumption, plus the risk of poorer quality pellets, from high cake moisture, or 2) installation of a thermal dryer. There is, however, a third alternative. In recent papers by two of the authors3,4 it was shown that for many materials a significant decrease in cake moisture can be obtained by applying live steam to the cake face during the drying part of the filter cycle. Further, this limited drying appears to have distinct economic advantages compared to thermal drying. It is the purpose of this paper to explore the third alternative. To do this, the results of an extensive pilot study of steam filtration of a hematite flotation concentrate will be critically examined. This study was sufficiently broad so that a number of alternate suggestions (besides steaming the cake) for reducing moisture content were tested, and comparative data for both Drum and Disc filters were obtained. The work was particularly interesting since the concentrate has a high Blaine surface, and is therefore particularly difficult to dewater to the levels required. FILTER CAKE MOISTURE The significant difference between concentrate filter cake as discharged from the filter, a cargo of that same filter cake during or after shipment, and a green ball formed from that filter cake is in the relative volume of voids, or porosity. In every case, the material is a collection of small solid particles held together by the cohesive forces of a liquid. The physical properties of the aggregate are determined by the

Jan 1, 1967

By N. Mungan, F. W. Smith, J. L. Thompson

Adsorption of polymers and transport, rheology and oil recovery efficiency of their solutions were studied in the laboratory to evaluate the use of polymers in waterflood-ing. While a tenfold mobility reduction was obtained with polymer concentrations as low as 0.05 per cent by weight, the mobility reduction depended on the type of polymer, molecular weight, salinity and pH of water, crude oil and capillary properties of the porous media. Choice of a suitable polymer and a workable concentration will have to be tailored for each application. Little reduction in the residual oil saturation can be expected from polymer flooding. Improvement in the volumetric sweep efficiency is possible hut the extent of the improvement can best be evaluated by properly designed field testing. Some aspects of the field use of polymer floods are discussed. INTRODUCTION Waterflooding is a simple, inexpensive secondary recovery method and is being used widely. Innumerable laboratory studies have been made to unravel the fundamentals of the displacement of oil by water and to find the ways of most efficient oil recovery. These studies and a great many field case histories have revealed that the prime cause of poor oil recovery is the inefficient and incomplete sweep of reservoir volume by the injected water. Sweep efficiency is affected by many factors of which the mobility ratio is an important one. Mobility ratio M is defined here as the ratio of water to oil mobilities: M = (k»/y,r)/(k,JJJJ........(1) In Eq. I, the permeabilities are the effective permeabilities and depend on fluid saturations and, hence, change during the different depletion stages in a flood. A wide practice is to use the effective water permeability at residual oil saturation and the effective oil permeability at interstitial water saturation in Eq. 1. If the mobility ratio is greater than one, the mobility ratio is unfavorable and water, being more mobile than oil, would finger through the oil zone resulting in poor oil recovery efficiency. If the mobility ratio is favorable (one or less) the displacement of oil by water occurs more or less in a pistonlike fashion. In some waterfloods. the mobility ratio is unfavorable and any additives by which the mobility of water can be decreased would favor more efficient oil recovery. The thing to bear in mind, however, is whether or not the improvement in oil recovery is sufficient to more than pay out the cost of the additives needed. For example, materials like sugars, alcohols and glycerine reduce water mobility by thickening the water, but the cost of material requirement precludes any field application. For an additive to be useful in water-flooding, it must bring about a large reduction in water mobility at low concentrations; it must be adsorbed only negligibly; and it must not completely plug up the formation. Some synthetic organic polymers have shown promise of meeting these requirements and have been used in the field.'-W owever, no in-depth studies of the rheological, adsorption and oil displacement characteristics of polymer solutions have been reported. The present work is a study of these properties. EXPERIMENTAL In this work, concentrations are given on a weight per volume basis; 0.5 per cent concentration means 0.5 gm of polymer is dissolved in enough water (or NaCl solution) to make 100 ml. A bactericide, usually 0.1 to 0.2 per cent by volume of 38 per cent formaldehyde solution, was used in the polymer solutions. The NaCl solution was 30,000 ppm. Some properties of the polymers studied are given in Table I. Physical properties of all cores used are in Table 2. Flow behavior of polymer solutions was studied by three consecutive flow tests in cores. First, water (or brine) was injected at constant rate of about 1 ft/D to obtain the water mobility. Then, filtered polymer solution (prepared in water or brine) was flowed through the core. Since the rate was constant, increase in the pressure drop across the core reflects decrease in the mobility. Finally, the core was flooded with water (or brine) to study recovery of mobility. The Alundum cores which were used in

Jan 1, 1967

By G. H. Kesler, J. E. Oberele, C. E. Dryden, J. H. Oxley

Heat-transfer rates were measured in a model of a multifilament vapor-deposition bulb fo the preparation of high-purzty metals. Local transfer coefficients for heat transfer frow the filaments to the circuates process stream were determined as a functiol of gas flow rates and bulb, inlet, and filament, geowzetvies. These results a-e then convertted to n mass-t7,ansfer basis to provide a method of correlating vapor-deposition rates and to predict the performance of commercial urzits. The firm1 cor?,elating equation for mass transfer was found to be- wheve k, is the mass-transfer coefficient; D, is bze gas difficsivity : P is the system pressure; R is the gas constant; T is the gas temperature; Df, DB, and Di ave tlze diameters of the filament, bulb, and inlet, respectively; k is the gas conductivity; C, is the specific heat of the gas, M is the wzolecular zleight of the gas; Npr . N,,, NRe a7'e the Prandtl, Schmidt, and Reynolds numbem of the system, respectively; LB is the height of the bulb; and SB and Sf are the total suyiace area of the bulb and filaments, respectively. ONE of the more conventional methods of preparing very high-purity metals is the vapor deposition of the metal upon heated filaments. The reactions which can be employed in such a process generally fall into two classes: 1) Pyrolysis of a volatile metal compound. Generally because of their instabilities, metal iodides are used; however, other metal halides and hydrides have been employed. These processes are frequently carried out under vacuum conditions, and the filaments are maintained at high temperatures. 2) Hydrogen reduction of a volatile metal compound. A metal chloride is normally the preferred feed for these processes, but other halides are sometimes used under special conditions. These hydro- gen-reduction processes are usually operated at atmospheric pressure. Many of the current processes for the production of semiconductor materials are actually vapor-deposition processes. However, the vapor-deposition process itself is relatively old, and almost all metals can be prepared in a state of very high purity by the use of vapor-deposition techniques. Loonam has recently given an excellent review of the iodide process for metal deposition,' and Owen has started some detailed studies with a carbonyl system.' A more general treatment of all vapor-deposition processes has been outlined by Powell, Campbell, and Gonser.3 Despite the fact that vapor-deposition techniques have been employed since 1890, there is a surprising lack of fundamental information regarding the transport characteristics of even the simplest deposition system, the heated filament. The purpose of the investigation described in this paper was to extend some of the earlier data obtained at Battelle to predict deposition rates and the uniformity of deposition in large-diameter, multifilament deposition bulbs under forced convection conditions.4'5 A number of other investigators have already presented a simplified treatment of the deposition process under non-flow conditions, i.e., pure diffusion.6"9 To obtain information on the transport characteristics of a deposition bulb, a model of a typical plant deposition unit was constructed, and local heat-transfer coefficients from the filaments to a circulating air stream were determined under various conditions of air-flow rates and bulb, inlet, and filament geometries. These results were then converted to a mass-transfer basis, and consequently provided a method to correlate experimental vapor-deposition rates and to design commercial deposition units. EXPERIMENTAL WORK Description of Model. The apparatus which was used in this work was a scaled model of one type of deposition bulb. It was constructed of Lucite and was easily altered to give several combinations of diameter of bulb liner, inlet size and location, number of filaments, and outlet geometry. The model is shown in Figs. 1 and 2. The bulb shell was made octagonal for convenience in construction and observation, and the bulb liners were cylindrical. Air, introduced through one of several different jet inlets, was used as the test fluid in these model studies. Filaments for deposition of metal were simulated by metal rods 1/4-in. in diam. Two of the rods could be heated by passing electrical current through them ¦ while the remaining rods could not be heated. This procedure minimized the amount of heat which was

Jan 1, 1962

By M. M. Rao, P. G. Winchell, R. J. Russell

A detailed analysis has been used to correlate the avalable thermodynami c da In on iron-ric11 Fe-Ni (41loys in the body-centered a, and the face-centered y phases. The inp ut injovrt~ation required by the a am lysis consists of tile heat of the a, to y transformation at 1123°K, the heat of mixing of y at 1123°K, tile specific heats of both a, and y (decomposed into Debye, electronic, and magnelic contributions), and the positional and magnetic entropies of both a, and y. PYLrrzary oirt.bul of the analysis is the free energy of each phase as a Junction of temperature and composition. FOr Fe-Ni alloys the adjustment of twenty-one parunletevs allows the accurate reproduction of enthalpy data for both phases, the heat of mixing- for y, the a/y equilibrinm compositions in the Fe-Ni phase diagram, and the usually accepted enthalpy and entropy of a and y iron. Also obtaitzed are fuirly accurate reproductions of electronic specific heat coefficients predicted from electron- to-atom ratio interpolations and To temperatuves eslimanted from transformation studies. Also considered in the calculation are the elastic constants, Curie temperatures, saturation magnlelizalion values, and indications of short- range order. The measnred activity coefficient of iron in anstetnite could not be accurately matched. The major source of uncertainty in the model is thought to be the magnetic contribution to the entropy of austenite. Calcrclations were extended to Fe-ni-C alloys using available carbon-acliuity data. The free energy of transformation from martensile to r at fixed composition was obtained as a function of nickel and carbon contetzt, and binary thetal-carbon phase diagrams Were estimaled as a function of nickel contenl. We needed thermodynamic information for Fe-Ni and Fe-Ni-C alloys at temperatures between 400" and 800°K in order to interpret the results of several phase-transformation studies. The most recent theoretical analysis of the thermodynamics of Fe-Nialloysl was based on a lumped-parameter, regular-solution model and used the Fe-Ni phase diagram available at that time.' Because significant difficulties were encountered in attempting to extend this analysis to Fe-Ni-C alloys, and because more experimental data has become available recently, we decided to attempt a new correlation. The analysis used here allows the extrapolation of measured and calculated thermodynamic values to lower temperatures and the extension of the thermodynamic analysis to Fe-Ni-C alloys. The structure of this correlation consists of expressions containing a total of twenty-one adjustable parameters. The forms of these expressions are discussed in the next section; however, a less formal summary is presented now to provide a physical overview of the model and to indicate its connections to prior work. Primary input information for this correlation is described below. The measured values of the specific heat of iron3 and its analysis475 and theoretical estimates of the specific heat of y* iron at low tempera- loys at 1123°K has been measured by solution calori-metry.7 The enthalpies of both a, and y have been measured most recently by Scheil and Saftig,B who used a dry-ice calorimeter. These data are used to formulate expressions for the heat of mixing of y and the heat of transformation of a, to y both at 1123°K. The a and y solubility limits in the Fe-Ni phase diagram have been redetermined recently9 by methods which assure a close approach to equilibrium. The a to y transformation can occur without change in nickel content or free energy at a temperature called TO; TO temperatures for various nickel contents have been estimated from transformation studies. The computed free-energy functions are adjusted by means of the parameters to fit both the phase diagram and the TO temperatures. Primary emphasis is placed on the phase diagram fit. Iron activities have been measured in Fe-Ni austenite10 between 973" and 1173°K. These activity data, which cannot be fitted accurately with our model, indicate that iron is substantially ideal in iron-rich austenite. Secondary, but helpful, information for the present correlation is provided by neutron diffraction and saturation magnetization measurements on both body-centered and face-centered Fe-Ni alloys."-'3 These results were interpreted11 in terms of composition-insensitive, localized magnetic moments on both iron

Jan 1, 1968

By A. L. Engel

[This report describes preliminary tests of samples from six deposits of oxidized copper ores .in Nevada. The tests for the most part were confined to laboratory-scale acid leaching to extract the copper.'The exceptions consisted of flotation tests to demons' ate the possibilities of treating the ore by that method. The samples tested were representative of oxidized copper ores from six counties in all parts of Nevada. The results obtained by the preliminary tests described were indicative of the extractions of copper to be expected, In the five leaching experiments, the approximate consumption of acid was also indicated.]

Jan 1, 1953

By M. L. Clark

Advances in the recovery of gold from heap leaching are being made daily, but of all the systems vital to the maximum recovery of gold from a leach pile, none is more important than the methods used to construct the pile in preparation for the leaching operation. The technology described in this paper illustrates the latest systems developed to minimize compaction in the pile during its construction and reduce the cost of placement of ore on the pile. The Florida Canyon Mine of Pegasus is evaluated in detail to show reasons for its high degree of success to date.

Jan 1, 1988

By C. F. Cornell, R. C. Emmett, D. A. Dahlstrom

FOR many years the disk-type and cloth-covered drum filters have found widest application in liquid-solids separation, which uses continuous filters. The disk type is less expensive, occupies less floor space per square foot of filtration area, and requires negligible down time for filter media changing. However, because filter cloth is billowed out by the blowback in the cake discharge, it is very short-lived if the scraper blades are set too close. Consequently cake weight is very important in assisting cake discharge, which normally necessitates a minimum cake thickness of 3/8 to ½ in. Also, the vertical position of the disks eliminates the possibility of efficient cake washing for removal of soluble values. The disk-type filter is generally limited, therefore, to applications that require no cake washing and form relatively thick cakes within the normal range of filter cycle times. The conventional cloth-covered drum filter is a more flexible unit, permitting wider variation in the percentage of cycle time devoted to cake formation, dewatering, or washing, as required by the application. Thinner filter cakes can be discharged because a horizontal line across the filter medium at the location of the scraper blade is equidistant from the edge of the blade at all points. The scraper blade therefore may be set a short distance from the filter medium or, where wire winding is not used, a floating scraper can be utilized so that the contour of the cloth can be followed. The drum filter is generally employed when there are difficult filtering slurries with resultant thin cakes or when cake washing to recover soluble values must be practiced. Difficulties sometimes encountered in continuous filter operation can be summarized in the following four categories: 1) Low filtration and/or washing rates due to blinding of the filter medium. 2) Poor cake discharge resulting from sticky cakes, filter medium blinding, or too thin a cake for the particular type of filter. 3) High filter media costs caused by short life and frequent down times for cloth changing. This results from blinding or from abrasion by the scraper blade when cakes are thin. 4) Blowback of filtrate at cake discharge because not enough air passes through the cake to purge the drainage area and filtrate lines during dewatering. To reduce or eliminate blinding tendencies several modifications have been tried, for example, cover-cleaning showers, blowback under the feed slurry, and snap-blow cake discharge. In many cases, however, this simply retards the rate of blinding, since the filter medium is kept clean at its outer surface only by these methods. As blinding usually occurs within or on the back of the medium, the operator is finally forced either to remove the cloth and scrub the medium intensively with a cleaning solution or acid-rinse it on the filter—all resulting in down time, short cloth life, and additional costs.

Jan 1, 1959

By Sandip K. Mukherjee

This paper describes the application of pressure foam to control respirable dust in a double-drum longwall mining section. The feasibility of passing an adequate quantity of pressure foam through the shearer drum was initially established in the laboratory. Thereafter, underground testing of the foam system to determine its effectiveness on an active operating longwall was conducted in a mine in West Virginia. The foam system proved superior to the water spray system. The de- tails of the laboratory and field investigations, the results obtained, and the degree of acceptance of this system by the mining company are discussed in this paper.

Jan 1, 1984

By J. B. Zadra

During the investigations of the occurrence of manganese in the western United States, the Bureau of Mines received a 100-pound sample of manganese ore from the Doyle-Smith property, Yuma County, Ariz. Laboratory tests were made to determine the amenability of this ore to standard ore-dressing methods of concentration to produce a marketable-grade product. The Doyle-Smith claims are in northern Yuma County, within 15 miles of the Artillery Peak deposit. The lot of ore used in the test work was taken from the outcrop of a large, massive, irregular bed of oxide manganese ore found on the claims.

Jan 1, 1952

By Scott A. Shuey

Keywords: E-Waste, Pyrometallurgy Many might think addressing the issue of e-waste is a new area of study. Electronics disposal has been discussed in some circles for at least the past 25 years. The recycling of electronic waste (e-waste) tends to be a rather complex undertaking when considering the intimate bonding of materials in the average printed circuit board. The development of a recycling process is further complicated when considering the wide variety of products being generated under the heading of ?electronics.? Focusing only on the primary constituents (polymers, Cu, Al, Fe, etc.) tends to lead one to fairly simple flowsheets. Ignoring trace elements, and the various halide species generated, will lead process engineers down a development path that is sure to cause material handling issues. Researchers at Colorado School of Mines are modeling the complex chemistry that exists within the body of e-waste?comprising 39 of the known elements. An understanding of the systems thermodynamic behavior will result in the development of a more robust, long-term process for the recovery of valuable materials from the e-waste stream.

Jan 1, 2005

By S. A. G. Poppen

The lining of a mine shaft is one of the most important considerations in the planning and operation of an underground mine. Generally, the function of a shaft lining is to preserve the shaft opening in a manner compatible with the expected mine life and -the other shaft operations. Where shafts are the only means of surface access in a mine, they also serve a critical function for the safety of the entire underground operation. Routine repairs and maintenance work on the shaft linings are only possible in stable strata with only minor interruptions to the shaft operations.

Jan 1, 1988

By John A. Davis, David W. Brunton

During the past few years great progress has been made in the United States toward safer, more efficient, and more economical tunneling methods. This advance is partly due, no doubt, to the recent increase in the number of tunnels and adits driven for devel- oping and draining mines and transporting ore. The Bureau of Mines during 1911 and 1912 made a special examination of this phase of mining operations, in connection with an investigation of mining methods and means for preventing accidents. The details especially studied were the provisions for the safety of employees, the kinds of equipment, the methods of driving, and the costs of con- struction. The results and conclusions obtained from that investi- gation are discussed and summarized in this bulletin. Up-to-date information concerning tunneling methods is difficult to obtain. There are few books on the subject; and much of the material they contain, although interesting and of value historically, is now obsolete. The engineering periodicals, it is true, endeavor to keep abreast of the times, and several in nearly every issue present some article bearing upon tunnel work. But the very multiplicity of these articles prevents one from reading them all, and the foreman or superintendent in charge of a tunnel, or the mining engineer designing one, and especially the business man financing the project, has no time for a lengthy search after scattered articles in order to determine the present status of tunnel work. Then, too, knowledge of new methods travels slowly. Valuable inventions and improve- ments in tunneling as well as in all the other industries frequently remain in the notebook of the investigator, or as theses are buried in university libraries, or are published only in journals of small scien- tific societies. New tunneling methods and equipment that are prov- ing safe, efficient, and economical may be totally unknown outside the district in which they originate. This paper, based on a special examination both in the field and in engineering literature, is in- tended to supply data concerning modern and recent tunneling practice in the United States, and to make suggestions that, it is hoped, will result in a saving to the mining industry of energy, capital, and life.

Jan 1, 1916

By Concentrator Staff

"IntroductionA brief literature search will reveal that the information available concerning rod mills and ball mills is quite extensive. This type of equipment is used to treat every element from antimony to zinc. The size and capacity of individual mills, the number of units employed, and the configuration of the equipment within a concentrator add another dimension to the possible scope of this discussion. It would be impossible to treat this volume of material with any degree of thoroughness.It is the intention in this paper to describe the simplest and generally the most typical circuit wherein a single rod mill and ball mill operate in parallel. Some of the subject matter will not be entirely applicable to every installation. However the principles should be generally relevant to most applications.Typical Circuit DescriptionFigure 1 illustrates the arrangement of the equipment associated with a rod-ball mill circuit.Ore is extracted from a fine ore storage bin (1) the capacity of which is large enough to allow .continuous mill operation independently of the mine and crushing plant production schedules. A number of feeders (2) may be employed to control the flow of ore to one or more feeder conveyor belts (3). In larger tonnage operations several such conveyors are employed at least one of which will be equipped with a variable speed control to allow adjusting of the amount of feed reporting to the rod mill. A rod mill feed conveyor (4) accepts all of the ore from these feeder belts for ultimate transfer to the rod mill. This conveyor is normally equipped with a weightometer (5) to monitor the flow rate of ore to the rod mill and ultimately to allow control of this flow. Typically these conveyor belts would be equipped with feed deficiency switches which would give a remote alarm of the fact that no ore is present on the conveyor. The conveyor belts are protected by underspeed monitors which will provide a remote alarm and automatic shutdown of the conveyor in the C'.'~nt that belt slippage occurs. Finally the belts are protected by monitors which will alarm and shut down a belt if it is not running straight in the idlers."

Jan 1, 1989

By Ogden Tweto

The Leadville district, on the west flank of the Mosquito Range in central Colorado, has produced silver, zinc, lead, gold, and minor metals valued at $512,000,000. The ore deposits are in a sequence of dolomites and quartzites, Cambrian through Mississippian in age and about 500 feet thick, which is extensively intruded by porphyry sills, dikes, and plugs of Tertiary age. The sedimentary rocks and sills dip about 15°E and are broken by many faults, which are predominantly of nearnorth trend and downthrown to the west. The ore deposits are principally blanket or manto replacement deposits, but in the eastern part of the district many veins occur also. The replacement deposits are largely confined to three dolomite units in the stratigraphic sequence. Of these, the uppermost or Leadville Dolomite is the most productive. Most ore bodies are on the underside of porphyry sills and, particularly, beneath sills that occupy unconformities. Many replacement bodies have vein roots or branch from veins. The veins occupy faults and are productive mainly in the section of quartzites and dolomites and included sills. The primary ores consist principally of pyrite, marmatitic sphalerite, and galena but locally contain chalcopyrite, silver minerals, bismuth minerals, and gold. Principal gangue minerals are manganosiderite and jasperoid. The ore deposits have a crude zonal pattern centered around an intrusive center at Breece Hill, which evidently influenced ore deposition thermally. The ore deposits were oxidized to depths of several hundred feet in Miocene time. Bonanza ores mined in the early days were characterized by cerussite, cerargyrite, and embolite. Later, zinc carbonate ores were identified and mined on a large scale. The Leadville district is a complexly faulted and intruded area at the intersection of major fault systems trending N20°W and N15°E in the Mosquito Range. The intensely fractured area evidently localized igneous intrusion and subsequent mineralization. Ore solutions rose on many of the faults in the area, presumably from the same source as the porphyry magmas. Movement on these faults continued into the Pleistocene, displacing ore bodies, oxidation zones, Pliocene sediments, and glacial deposits.

Jan 1, 1968

By Eric Rehwoldt, Walt Rabe, Jesús Gómez, Tim Myers

"An expansion plan for Washington Dulles International Airport is currently underway to prepare for growth at this northern Virginia facility in the future. While Dulles currently serves more than 20 million passengers a year, when the Master Plan for the Airport is fulfilled, it will be capable of handling approximately 55 million passengers a year. The current Capital Construction Program underway at Dulles will take the Airport one step closer to its full potential.As planned, work includes a new Airport Traffic Control Tower, expansion to existing concourses, a fourth runway, additional parking, and other improvements. One of the most interesting features of this project is the construction of a two-track passenger train system (Automated People Mover, or APM) linking the main terminal and concourses, which will largely replace the Mobile Lounge transportation system, thus greatly reducing surface traffic. Construction of the APM system involves deep excavations along the tunnels and at the transfer stations. This poses special challenges because the settlement-sensitive terminal, original Airport Traffic Control Tower, and concourse buildings, as well as other facilities, exist near the proposed below-ground stations. The site is also underlain by a tight grid of underground utilities that include jet fuel, gas and central communication lines, in addition to more mundane electric, sewer and water mains.One of the most interesting features of this project was the extensive and skillful utilization of micropiles for support of existing structures adjacent to the excavations. Without the use of micropiles, the cost and difficulty of the excavations would likely have been much more. Several important lessons were learned about the use of micropiles, which advance that technology.Throughout the project site, bedrock was generally encountered at 25-ft depths or more. The rock consists of micaceous and highly calcareous siltstone rock. This rock is typical of the sedimentary component of the Culpeper Basin, a Triassic Age geologic feature extending from south central Virginia to western Maryland. The siltstone beds dip gently to the west at about 10 to 20 degrees. Joint planes typically dip 60 degrees to vertical. The rock underlies a sequence of fill materials and residual soils of varying thickness."

Jan 1, 2009

By W. A. Jones

Purpose of Paper Geophysics is a highly developed science which has found a wide use in industry. Perhaps the most spectacular application has been in the field of oil exploration. It has been estimated that, up to the end of 1939, geophysics was responsible for the discovery of five billion barrels of oil. In 1944, the sum o $40,000,000 was expended for geophysical work in the search for new oil deposits. Although the metal mining industry has so far made comparatively little use of the science, it is becoming increasingly common for the exploration engineer or geologist to be required to co-operate with the geophysicist. Many papers dealing with applied geophysics have been published but in most of them advanced training in physics and mathematics on the part of the reader has been assumed. It is difficult for the average engineer to obtain a ready understanding of the equipment, field procedure, and scope and limitations of the science from the literature. The present paper attempts to describe briefly and in simple terms the principles underlying magnetic, self-potential, and electrical resistivity methods and their application to a field problem. Introduction Geophysics is concerned with the study of gravity, magnetism, natural earth currents, earthquakes, vulcanism, and many other natural phenomena. The methods, originally devised for the measurement, for scientific purposes, of the forces associated with such phenomena have been adapted to the search for buried deposits of economic value. If the body sought has large dimensions and distinctive physical properties, geophysical measurements may reveal associated, and in some cases quite characteristic, anomalous features. However, in many instances the mass cannot be indicated directly but has a common association with geological features which can be defined by physical measurements. Although such surveys cannot specifically identify oil, metalliferous minerals, or other commercially valuable substances, it is possible to delineate anomalous sub-surface physical features which, with the help of geological information, can be assessed as possible or probable indications of the body or structure sought. The nature and extent of the material causing an anomaly, and its economic importance, can only be determined by further exploration, such as drilling.

Jan 1, 1947