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By Robert H. Bedford

The New Almaden mine was discovered in 1824, and since that date production of quicksilver has exceeded 1,000,000 flasks. Because of this high production record, the New Almaden area was, upon passage. by Congress of the Strategic Minerals Act of 1939, immediately considered by the Bureau of Mines as a promising location for exploration. In 1941, the Federal Geological Survey undertook a survey of the entire district. R. R. Trengove, an engineer of the Bureau of Mines, made a preliminary study for a project in 1942, and in August 1943 the Bureau, in close cooperation with the U. S. Geological Survey, began the development project described herein. The Bureau of Mines drilled 36 holes, totaling 6,807 feet of diamond drilling, along the contact between the serpentine and Franciscan, sandstones and other sedimentary formations. The ore bodies are found along this contact and occur in the carbonate-silica rock. This report briefly describes the location, history, and ore deposits of the property. The recent operations are outlined, and the work performed by the Bureau is explained in detail.

Jan 1, 1950

By L. Bichler

Lightweight magnesium alloys are gaining in popularity for applications in the automotive and aerospace industries, Their use, however, remains limited due to their relatively low strength and creep properties. Lost Foam Casting (LFC) is a new casting process and the strength of foam cast magnesium alloys has not been investigated in great detail thus far, In this research, magnesium alloy AZ91 E and three new alloys were cast by the LFC process to study the effect of varying aluminum and manganese content on the alloy's tensile properties, The study reveals, that the tensile strength of the magnesium alloy is closely related to the relative amount of aluminum in the system. Formation of ß-Mg17Al12 phase was seen to significantly affect the yield strength and ductility of the alloy, Furthermore, formation of manganese intermetallic compounds was seen to effectively increase yield strength of the base alloy, Individual alloy morphologies were analyzed via optical and SEM techniques.

Jan 1, 2004

By Bernard Porter

The solubility of UO2 was determined at 1,250° C. in ternary melts of UF4 and BaF2 with CaF2, LiF, and SrF2. The solubility of Ce02 was measured at 800° and 850° C. in a solution of CeF3, BaF2, and LiF. The amount of La203 which dissolves at 950° C. in a binary mixture of LiF and LaF3 and a ternary of LiF, LaF3, and BaF2 was also measured. In each case, the amount of soluble oxide was mound to be less than 5 weight-percent. A procedure was developed for filtering fused, oxide-saturated fluoride melts in order to obtain a representative sample for chemical analysis. The oxide content of the samples was determined by an inert-gas fusion procedure.

Jan 1, 1961

By Gary B. Glass

Seventeen percent of US coal production now comes from the 19 surface coal mines in the Powder River Basin of northeastern Wyoming. The Powder River Coalfield, which coincides with this topographic and structural basin, is unique to the conterminous US, in that it contains an estimated 934.4 Gt (1.03 trillion st) of in-place coal resources. At least 13.2 Gt (14.6 billion st) is a compliant, strippable reserve base. In 1993, an estimated 162 Mt (179 million st), or 98% of the coal mined in this Wyoming coalfield, came from the thick - average 30.5 m (100 ft) - subbituminous, Wyodak coalbed, or from the Anderson and Canyon coals in the one mine where the Wyodak is split into two separate coalbeds. The other 2.7 Mt (3 million st) of coal mined in the Powder River Basin in 1993 came from the School, Badger, Monarch and Deitz No. 3 coalbeds. In this "world class" coalfield, there are at least 13 other persistent, 3 to 15 m (10 to 50 ft) thick, coalbeds as well as the Big George and Lake De Smet coalbeds, which are each 61 m (200 ft) or more thick in places. None of these latter 13 coals are mined at this time.

Jan 1, 1994

By Kenji Koga

In order to derive the population distribution of gold nanoparticle morphologies as a function of size, highresolution electron microscopic (HREM) observations and structural analyses were done for over 4000 particles (3-18 nm) grown by an inert gas aggregation (IGA) source using helium. To obtain structural features threedimensionally and not to skip high-contrast images, twenty photos were taken for each particle by changing tilting angle of a specimen holder in combination with the through-focus procedure. For the reliable structural determinations, HREM images and their tilting sequences were directly compared with multislice-simulation results for icosahedral, decahedral and face-centered cubic morphologies, and finally the population distribution of each morphology was obtained as a function of size. In the present sample, icosahedral particles were dominantly populated over the whole observed size range and decahedral particles with non-spherical truncated bi-pyramid shape were secondly dominant. Even though a large number of sampling has been done, few crystalline particles were observed.

Oct 1, 2003

By M. J. Pool, P. J. Spencer, J. R. Guadagno

THE present work was carried out as part of a general program to study the magnitude and concentration dependence of exothermic heats of solution of various metals in liquid tin. Thermodynamic data for the Te-Sn system are very limited, particularly for dilute alloys. Indeed, apart from the prior heat of solution determinations of Pool,1 the only other published values are those of McAteer and seltz2 who carried out electromotive force measurements on solid alloys of compositions from 75 to 95 at. pct Te at temperatures between 543° and 668° K, of Colin and Dro-wart3 who made mass-spectrometric studies of the vapor in equilibrium with solid SnTe, and of Robinson and Bever4 who determined the heat of formation of SnTe by solution calorimetry. The present work thus provides further thermodynamic information for this system, specifically in a temperature range where the solubility of tellurium is very limited. The liquid metal solution calorimeter used in this investigation has been described previously.' No further discussion of its design or operation will therefore be given here. For each series of measurements a tin bath consisting of approximately 70 g of 99.99 pct pure Sn was carefully weighed out and inserted in the calorimeter which was maintained at the desired temperature to within ± 1/4°c. Tellurium, of 99.999 pct purity, was supplied by Atomergic Chemetals Co., a division of Gallard-Schlesinger Chemical Manufacturing Corp. Approximately 0.0006 to 0.001 g-atom specimens of tellurium were used for each experimental run and these were added to the calorimeter from a temperature of 273" K. Heat of solution values were calculated by analysis of a strip-chart recorder plot of the heat effect accompanying the solution of each sample in the tin bath. The heat capacity of the latter was determined at regular intervals during a series of tellurium drops by using pure tin or tungsten calibration samples, the heat contents of which were obtained from the standard compilation of Hultgren et al5 The composition of the bath was calculated after each drop from a knowledge of the weights of tin and tellurium added. Values of the heat of solution of tellurium at 725" and 775° K are listed in Table I together with the corresponding tellurium contents of the alloys. The data are also plotted as a function of tellurium concentration in Fig. 1, which includes the equivalent data obtained by pool' at 750° K. It can be seen that the heat of solution remains

Jan 1, 1969

By Gustavo Nucci Franco

A indústria do aço passa por seu pior período no Brasil e as empresas vêm buscando soluções para minimizar custos e garantir as operações com menos recursos. Ponto importante nessa busca de ganhos potenciais, a Logística vem, assim, merecendo uma atenção especial. Este trabalho apresenta esforços da AM Juiz de Fora, em parceria com a Franco Arbeit Engenharia, para reduzir o tempo de permanência de veículos em sua unidade e, com isso, evitar custos com o pagamento dos novos valores de permanência. Para isso, foram utilizadas modernas ferramentas de Simulação em Computador para que as soluções mais adequadas pudessem ser implementadas com sucesso.

Aug 17, 2017

By M. Gershon

The article is an excellent one, providing a basis for the conduct of the major tasks in underground mine planning and scheduling. I object to only one word. Since that word is featured in the title, it is a strong objection. The word used erroneously is optimization. There is no optimization performed in the article. By definition, an optimization is an approach that yields the best of all possible solutions. We can limit this definition to its narrowest sense, the optimization techniques of operations research such as linear programming, or broaden it to include less sophisticated search procedures that find the best mine plan or schedule. No such claim is made in the article. No optimization of any kind is performed. The major tool used is a simulation, which, in truth, is probably more appropriate for this problem than any optimization. But simulation does not optimize. It only allows for quick evaluation of many options, leading to the selection of the best plan "of those tried," not "of all possible plans." This article, of course, is not the first mining paper to make this error. It seems that the word optimization is used more to impress people than to refer to any act of optimizing. It is used in a way that implies "try to optimize" or "come close to optimize," but not to really do it. It is usually appropriate to quietly ignore this error. But when Dr. Chatterjee, who has done so much good work in true optimization projects and whose work I have come to admire, makes such an error, it is time to publicly dispute it. Having discussed this very point with him in the past, I am sure that he will agree. If he can support this position in his response, perhaps people will start to listen and we can reduce the number of false claims of optimization. This should be easy for him in this case since the approach he used, simulation, is the more appropriate one anyway.

Jan 1, 1987

By T. M. Chance

THE first bituminous coal cleaning-plant to use the sand-flotation process1 was placed in operation on Oct. 1, 1925, at the tipple of the East Broad Top Railroad & Coal Co., at Mt. Union, Pa. The general principles governing the design of plants of this type and typical operating results of anthracite sand-flotation units have been previously outlined.2 I will, therefore, confine myself to a description of this particular plant and to some of the elements of design it incorporates. THE ORIGINAL MT. UNION TIPPLE The plant was installed to transfer coal from steel narrow-gage cars of 60,000 and 70,000 lbs. capacity to standard-gage equipment. The coal was hauled some 30 miles from the East Broad Top field. This coal, mined by the Rockhill Coal & Iron Co. and other operators, is a low-volatile slow-coking coal with- ash of high-fusion point. It is normally a high-grade coal that does not contain an excessive amount of free impurities, but it requires careful handling to secure a fair domestic yield, and, naturally, the need for narrow-gage transshipment increases the difficulty of the problem. The narrow-gage cars were discharged into an 8-car track hopper equipped with two feeders passing the coal to two 42-in. apron intake conveyors. Twin units were installed throughout in this original plant, two lump-and-egg shaking screens, two lump picking-tables, two egg picking-tables and two stoker conveyors. The stoker coal was loaded without cleaning. The loading tracks and booms were in duplicate and with the layout as originally installed either unit could be run independently, each unit shipping a different class of coal or both units making the same product.

Jan 2, 1926

By Joseph F. Davies

Along with the humanitarian need for preventing accidents the cost of injuries must be considered. As a means of bringing the facts concerning the prevalence of accidents in mining and their direct cost before the operating officials and others interested in accident prevention in the mining industry, the United. States Bureau of Mines ha as recently made studies and published reports dealing with these subjects in several States 4. This report gives available data on the causes and direct costs of accidents in Virginia coal mines for the 4-year period 1929 to 1932, inclusive. Mounting compensation costs and insurance rates resulting from mine injuries indicate the necessity of measures to decrease the number and severity of accidents. These direct costs, as well as additional losses of an indirect nature, can be eliminated from the cost of production to the extent that accidents are prevented or reduced in severity.

Jan 1, 1934

By B. J. Bayles, J. A. Ford, M. J. Salkind

Unidirecltonally sulidijied AL-A13Ni was found to exliibit excellent microstructural stability to 508°C. Above this temperature the transverse micvostructure coarsened in a manner analogous to "Ostwald Ripening", but the A13Ni whiskers did not spheroidize or foreshorlen. The coarsened whiskers reinforced the matrix as effectirely as the finer whiskevs and no reduction in room-temperature tensile strength mas noled after exposure for 90 hr at 96 pel 0-1 the absollite melling temperature of the eulectic. The slability was auribucted to the presence of low-index (and presurrlably lor-energy) cvystallographic interjaces between phases. The driving force for microstructural coursening was presumed to be the reduction of interfacial energy between the phases. Finer micvoslructures were found to coarsen more rapidly than those which weve imitally coarser. FIBER-reinforced metals have been shown to exhibit good short-time tensile properties at elevated temperatures.1-4 However, many elevated-temperature applications require long-time property retention which dictates the necessity for microstructural stability. Two types of instability are common to fiber composities. The first, chemical instability, is due to chemical reaction between the matrix and the relnforcing phase. Petrasek and weeton5 have shown that chemical reaction between tungsten wire and several copper alloy matrices resulted in degradation of the reinforcing phase and reduction in strength of the composite materials. Kreider and Leverant4 have noted similar behavior for boron-reinforced aluminum above 400°C. The second type of instability arises in systems in which the phases are essentially chemically stable with respect to each other and is characterized by spheroidization and/or agglomeration of the reinforcing phase. parratt6 has reported this type of degradation to occur relatively rapidly at moderate temperatures for nickel and cobalt alloys containing whiskers of silicon nitride, aluminum oxide, and silicon carbide and has identified it as "physicochemical" instability. Although both types of instability are the result of the differences in the chemical potential between the fibrous phase and the matrix, they may be differentiated by the fact that the second type, "physicochemi-call' instability, results in little or no net change in the composition or amount of each phase present. It does, however, result in a morphological change which profoundly affects the strengthening mechanism. Chemical interaction. on the other hand, results in a change in the composition and amount of one or more of the phases present, or the appearance of a new phase. In the latter case, the appearance of the mi-crostructure, that of a fibrous phase aligned in a matrix, may remain essentially unchanged, but the chemical degradation of the fiber results in markedly reduced composite strength. This investigation was initiated in an attempt to evaluate the microstructural and related mechanical property changes of a whisker-reinforced eutectic composite after elevated-temperature exposure. The composite system chosen for this study was the uni-directionally solidified A1-A13Ni eutectic which Lemkey. Hertzberg, and Ford7,8 demonstrated to behave as a whisker-reinforced composite. The microstructure of the unidirectionally solidified material consists of aligned needles of A13Ni in a matrix of aluminum. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE Eutectic ingots having a nominal composition of 6.2 wt pct Ni were produced by melting 99.99+ pct A1 and 99.99 pct Ni in recrystallized alumina crucibles in an argon atmosphere. The analyses of the starting materials are listed in Table I. These master heats were cut up? melted by induction heating, and unidirectionally solidified vertically in 1/2 -in.-ID. 6-in.-long graphite crucibles, in a dynamic argon atmosphere. Therma1 gradients in the liquid were determined by measuring the temperature in the melt as a function of apparatus travel distance, as discussed by Kraft and Albright.9 The rate of solidification was assumed to be equal to the uniform rate at which the crucible assembly was withdrawn from the furnace. Ingots representative of nominal growth rates of 2, 5, and 11 cm per hr were produced and the solidification parameters are summarized in Table 11. Ingots used for met allographic analysis were pre-

Jan 1, 1968

THE following statement is contained in an article entitled "Mortgaging the Future." by Walter C. Teagle, president of the Standard Oil Co. of New Jer-sey, appearing in the current issue of the Lamp, the official organ of the Standard Oil Co.: "During the last eight months the domestic daily production. of crude oil has risen 300,000 bbl.. which means that no less a volume than 2,500,000 bbl. now are coming to market each day. . . . Every twenty-four hours 250,000 bbl. more than the consumer required are being added to our surplus oil storage. The temporary advantage of cheap petroleum products and the availability of fuel .oil, for a widespread use as a substitute for coal are not being weighed against the time when scarcity may follow on the heels of plenty and the public of tomor-row may have to pay for today's excesses. The over-production of crude and its consequences constitute a problem of national import which far outweighs the temporary advantages either to a part of the industry or to sections of the public.

Jan 8, 1927

By Joe Dannenberg

A word of preface: The material contained in this talk is not completely original. Many thoughts and actual words come from a fine little book called "1,000 Years of Explosives" by William S. Dutton. The book is now out of print, but if there is enough interest shown by this Society, perhaps we can have it reprinted.

Jan 1, 1980

By C. Edwin Nighman

THE following is a description of the methods used in rescuing men and extinguishing the underground fire at the Pennsylvania mine, Butte, Mont. This fire, which cost the lives of 21 men, began about 9 p.m., Feb. 14, 1916, at or near a ventilating fan on the 1,200 air-shaft station. This shaft at that time was downcast, while the main hoisting shaft was upcast. Owing to the proximity of the fire to the air shaft, the air in the latter soon became heated, and as the fan on the level was not running¬the power having been cut off shortly after the outbreak' of the fire-the aim' shaft became upcast to the 300 level. At this point a blanket of cold air from the surface caused the smoke and gases to he drawn in on that level and carried down again through the workings to the 1,200. A short time after the discovery of the fire, water was turned down the air shaft through a series of pipes around the collar of the shaft, which caused the smoke to recede, below the 300, so that within 2 hr. it was possible to search that level for the missing men. From the above it will be apparent why the air shaft was upcast instead of downcast as under normal conditions, and why men were suffocated at considerable distances from the seat of the fire. The smoke and gases that came up the main hoisting shaft did not diffuse through the workings to any extent. There are doors on all levels in the connections to the main hoisting and air shafts, but-in the confusion and running around many of these doors were left open, and this undoubtedly caused the smoke and gases to spread more rapidly than they would otherwise have done. It was necessary for most of the men on the various levels to pass close to the air shaft in going to the hoisting shaft, and when they encountered the smoke and gases in that vicinity a number turned hack and climbed down with the direction of the air currents and were then suffocated, while all those who passed through the relatively short pall of smoke to the main shaft were saved.

Jan 2, 1917

By Robert E. Goodwin

There are four main requirements which must be considered when selecting a wire rope for the best serviceability. A proper choice is made by correctly estimating the relative importance of each of these requirements and selecting s rope which has those qualities best suited to withstand the combination of destructive forces expected under continued service. A wire rope should possess: 1. Strength sufficient to support the maximum load expected and with s proper safety factor. 2. Ability to withstand bending and to resist bending fatigue without failure of the wires. 3. Ability to withstand surface abuse such so abrasive wear, pounding, and wire scrubbing. 4. Ability to withstand abuse such as crushing and distortion.

Jan 1, 1968

By Glen L. Black

Choosing a mining method for an underground orebody is a complicated and often iterative process. Advances in technology have given design teams an array of possibilities for methods and equip¬ment. Hecla Mining's discovery of the deep Gold Hunter ore body challenged the staff at the Lucky Friday Mine to determine the optimum mining method. Taking an ore body from prospect to production requires traditional resource characterization. This includes drilling, delineating and modeling. Developing the mining plan is an evolving process, changing with each new piece of in¬formation as the project progresses through exploration and development. The Gold Hunter deposit is a steeply dipping vein system in the Wallace Formation of Idaho's Coeur d'Alene mining district. Gold Hunter is a misleading name for the ore body. The vein is a silver-rich, lead-zinc deposit with only traces of gold. The Gold Hunter ore body is located about 1.6 km (1 mile) north to northeast of Mullan, ID. The ore body is mined from the Lucky Friday Mine, located 0.4 km (0.25 miles) east of Mullan. Mining began on the vein from an access drift driven from the Lucky Friday Mine's 4900 level. Production from the ore zone is projected to be 771 t/d (850 stpd). The Gold Hunter ore is combined with Lucky Friday ore and milled in the Lucky Friday mill. The combined ore boosted Lucky Friday's 1998 silver production from 62.2 t/a (2 million oz/year) to more than 124.4 t/a (4 million oz/year).

Jan 1, 1999

By Arthur O. Gates

RittingeR's law of the energy expended in crushing is, as roughly stated by Profcssor Richards,' that the work of crushing is proportional to the reduction in diameter; or, as I have more fully expressed it: "The work done in crushing is proportional to the surface exposed by the operation; or, better expressed for this purpose, the work done on a given mass of rock is proportional to the reciprocal of the diameter of the final product—assuming that all the mass has been reduced to one exact sine, which is only theoretically possible."² Kick's law is stated by H. Stadler as follows :3 "The energy required for producing analogous changes of configuration of geometrically similar bodies of equal technological state varies as the volumes or weights of these bodies." In other words, the energy expended is proportional to the volume reduction, instead of the diameter reduction. That these two laws would give widely different results may be shown by a simple imaginary case. A ton of 16-in. cubes is broken to 1-in. cubes at the first operation, and these are broken to 1/16. cubes at a second operation. Since the first operation produces only one-sixteenth as much new surface as the second, the ratio of energy expended in the two operations would be by Rittinger's law as 1 to 16. By Kick's law, since the volume-reduction ratio is the same in both cases, the ratio of energy would be 1 to 1. This discrepancy is great enough to challenge a test by actual experiment, of which there has been, hitherto, but little compared with the amount of argument. The present paper is the record

Jan 1, 1916

By Jack S. Watson, Rasika Nimkar, Robert M. Counce, BRADLEY BENNETT, Patrick Zhang

The purpose of this work is to develop a conceptual recovery process for thorium dioxide (ThO2) from its primary source, monazite. The study-level design presented in this paper represents an economically viable method for conducting ThO2 extraction from monazite ore while also recovering byproducts that include P2O5 and other rare earth element oxides rather than producing unnecessary waste streams. Three key points to note in the development of this process design are: (1) the process economics relied heavily on recovery of rare earth byproducts, (2) the thorium handling portions of the process could effectively be segregated from the rare earth and phosphate handling portions of the process, and (3) the thorium and uranium content in waste streams should be carefully managed and eliminated where possible.

Oceana Gold CorporationÆs (OGC) Frasers underground (FRUG) transitioned into production in early 2008. The mine uses a relatively unique yielding pillars mining method that takes its lessons from empirical coal mining practices more so than hard rock techniques. Being a low-grade, flat-dipping resource hosted in the highly structured relatively weak Otago schist in central South Island in New Zealand, meant a number of iterations were undertaken to find the right mix of mining cost and resource extraction. Mining is on the down dip extension of the active Frasers open pit at the Macraes site (that extracts the full shear zone package at a head grade of 1.5 g/t). The challenges for the FRUG feasibility study team was to deliver an net present value (NPV) positive operation that would exist as a coproduct with OGCÆs other New Zealand operations, allowing it to make use of the high throughput low cost refractory ore treatment facility.Key factors in the successful project design were: Net capital costs kept to less than NZ$30 M by realising significant gold revenues from mine development from month four onwards. Virtually eliminating waste development by putting all key capital infrastructure in the low-grade ore adjacent to panels and maintaining the option of extracting this resource on retreat from the mine. Targeting a specific higher grade halo ore package within the entire mineralised shear zone. Applying a mining method that accepted a higher degree of dilution, ore loss and resource loss (in yielding and non-yielding pillars) to the flat-dipping resource. Thus providing an acceptable margin per tonne and resource tonnes mix, as the resource could not support a conventional low-cost caving operation, nor a higher cost room and pillar or open stope and backfill operation. 2008 has seen increasing tonnes and grade performance with a corresponding decrease in cost per tonne and cost per ounce as the mine has reached nominal capacity and is producing an operating surplus. The challenge will be to maintain and improve.

Jan 1, 2009

By J. A. Madonna

Independent prospectors and small to large-scale exploration company personnel have requested, and are in need of, guidance in geochemical field sample collection methods which will provide the most reliable results during chemical analysis. In cooperation with analytical laboratories, experienced geochemical exploration scientists and mining companies a systematic collection procedure has been developed. The procedure consists of collecting uncontaminated, water, sediment and rock chip samples of the appropriate quantity and/or dimensions to meet the needs of analysis.

Jan 1, 1999