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International Minerals & Chemical Corp.'s New Wales operation near Mulberry, FL, is reportedly the world's largest concentrated phosphate chemical fertilizer and phosphate-based animal feed ingredients complex. Its latest expansion represents a $191-million investment. Two Northwest draglines were put to work at the operation early last year and, according to a company spokesman, total production from the units have more than doubled that from older rigs. This article describes how the draglines are used and provides details on the New Wales operation. The principle product at New Wales is phosphoric acid, produced by reacting ground phosphate rock with sulfuric acid in large concrete attack tanks. For each ton of phosphoric acid produced, New Wales must dispose of about 4.5 t (5 st) of waste gypsum. New Wales stores the gypsum on-site, and uses durable Northwest draglines to help handle the material. Two Units Maintain the Gypsum Stack After the gypsum is separated from the phosphoric acid through 23-m-diam (75-ft-diam) vacuum filters, it is mixed with water from a 121-hm2 (300-acre) recirculating cooling pond and, in slurry form, is pumped to the top of a 121-hm2 (300-acre) gypsum stack located adjacent to the cooling pond. The slurry contains mostly gypsum (CaSO4), with small traces of silica and other elements. The water at this point is corrosive, containing from 1-2% phosphoric acid. Its pH usually ranges from 1.5-2.0. Water drains from the gypsum stack into the cooling pond. Only about 15% of the pond's water, however, comes from the gypsum stack; the balance is from various sources throughout the complex and is held in the pond to cool before being returned for reuse in the plant. About 97% of New Wales' water needs come from this recycling program. The gypsum remains on the stack, inert, ready for future processing if it becomes economically feasible. Throughout the handling process, Northwest draglines work around the stacks' rim, continually directing the waste flow and digging out dried solids to heighten the perimeter dike to provide more storage volume. When wet, gypsum is extremely soft. When dry, it compacts well and provides footing with enough bearing capacity to support the machines. Processing at New Wales started in 1975 and the gypsum storage area has already been built up 12 m (40 ft) above grade. A total of 14.8 km3 (12,000 acre-ft) of solids are now stored. The draglines dredge material from near the perimeter dikes and place it to build parallel berms. This

Jan 8, 1982

By Christopher Hebert, Michael R. King, Mehdi Ghazi

The Inland Feeder project is a critical component of Southern California’s water delivery system, relying on a strategic plan of water transfer and storage to enable the delivery of an additional 650 million gallons of water a day. The Arrowhead West and Arrowhead East tunnels form part of this system, comprising the construction of nearly13 km (8 miles) of bored tunnel under the San Bernardino National Forest. This paper describes the design and manufacture of the 4.88 m (16 ft) diameter precast segmental primary lining that will be used in these tunnels to resist rock loads, and up to 275 m (900 ft) of external hydrostatic head.

Jan 1, 2003

By M. Soya, M. Imazu, Ö. Aydan

"SUMMARY Taru-Toge tunnel is being constructed using drilling-blasting technique as a part of expressway project connecting Shin-Tomei Expressway and Chuo Expressway at the boundary of Shizuoka and Yamanashi Prefectures in the Central Japan. The maximum overburden is about 400 m. The authors have been carrying out a monitoring program to measure dynamic and multi-parameter responses of tunnel during and soon after the blasting operations using a multi-parameter monitoring system (Acoustic Emissions (AE), Electric Potential (EP), Temperature (T), Humidity (H) and Air Pressure (P)) and stand-alone type compact accelerometers developed by the first author. The measured response involves dynamic vibrations and other measurable parameters caused by blasting as well as by stress-redistribution around the tunnel face. This is one of the first attempts in the world to measure the response of rock mass caused by blasting at a very close vicinity of the tunnel face. In this paper, the authors present the outcomes of this unique monitoring study on the dynamic responses of the Taru-Toge tunnel during excavation and discuss their implications in actual applications. INTRODUCTION The real time monitoring of the stability of tunnels are of great importance when tunnels are prone to failure during excavation such as rockbursting or squeezing (i.e. Aydan et al. 1993, 2001). Experimental studies by the authors showed that rock indicates distinct variations of multi-parameters during deformation and fracturing processes (i.e. Mizutani et al. 1976; Aydan and Daido 2002; Aydan et al. 2003, 2011). These may be used for the real-time assessment of the stability of rock structures. An application of this approach was done to the Taru-toge tunnel a part of expressway project connecting Shin-Tomei Expressway and Chuo Expressway at the boundary of Shizuoka and Yamanashi Prefectures in the Central Japan (Imazu et al. 2015). The parameters measured involve electric potential variations, acoustic emissions, rock temperature, temperature and humidity of the tunnel in addition to the measurements of convergence and loads on support members during the face advance."

Jan 1, 2016

By George S. Rice, L. C. IlsLey

"A remarkable explosion of fire-damp caused by a discharge of lightning at the new shaft at the Sitalpur coal mine, has been reported by the Chief Inspector of Mines of India, who gave the following details:""The explosion occurred during a thunderstorm, and the evidence showed that a flash of lightning had, to all appearances, passed down the shaft caus¬ing disruptive discharges at certain points between the guides and the winding rope, rending the latter at two places situated respectively .228 .feet and 278 feet from the surface, The distance between the winding rope and the side of the shaft was 5 feet 4 inches, indicating a spark gap ;of this width, and an intensity of discharge which could not fail to ignite the explosive mixture of gas and air known to be present in the shaft.""The Compressed Air Magazine, January 1920 issue, which contained the above extract also goes on to state;""In 1915, M, Ferey described in a paper read before the Societe de l'Industrie Minerale phenomena of a similar character to the above. In a pit liable to sudden outbursts of gas, for the sake of safety, shot firing was carried out from the surface. During a storm, in the year 1905, shots went off in two places after the detonators had been connected to the conductors) we read in the Colliery Guardian, London. These shots were situated respectively 1,400 and 1,410 metres from the firing station, Realizing the possible danger from this cause, the precaution was taken to cut the conductors at the bottom of the shaft and to connect there just before firing, Even under these conditions a shot went off spontaneously, -.owing, it is believed, to lightning."""

Feb 1, 1920

By G. W. Healy

G. W. Healy (union Carbide Metals 0.)-The author's paper is a useful contribution to the store of maps of chemical activities of oxides in multi-component slag systems. It is also a good example of the utility of the Gibbs-Schuhmann technique for calculating activities in a system where that of one of the components has been measured. This paper Koh and Caugherty. This plot is reproduced by alor in X-ray Metallography. Because of this nonlinearity, preparation cf suitable standards and/or correction for absorption and enhancement are essential in microanalysis. However, our objection is not the conclusion that Dr. Aaronson has arrived at nor the technique he has used; but only to the foot-note credited to V. Macres. The level of chromium that he was concerned with (less than 3 pet) is so low that the deviation of uncorrected Cr-curve will be negligible. Besides Dr. Aaronson has used chromium intensity from martensite and set it equal the bulk chromium content of the alloy. Using this chromium-intensity as a reference, he has calculated the amount of chromium in the ferrite. This amounts to the same as using an internal standard. Since the chromium content in austenite and ferrite are almost the same, enhancement due to iron in both will be the same and therefore does not need to be corrected. together with the author's recently published one1 on the CaO-FeO-Fe2O3 system will be most helpful to others learning to apply Schuhmann's method, which merits a far wider application than it has received to date and should greatly aid our understanding of equilibria between metal and oxide phases. As shown by okcen" its use may even be extended to sections of systems with any number of oxides. I have some questions as to the selection of equilibrium constants made by Dr. Turkdogan. He has chosen one for the formation of Fez03 from FeO and oxygen which gives Fea3 activities 50 pct higher

Jan 1, 1963

By A Boucher, M Baudin, P Androszczuk, I Minniakhmetov, A Rigby, P Machado, M Wright, B Van Dijken

IGO Ltd’s (IGO’s) Nova Operation (Nova), which is 160 km east-north-east of the town of Norseman in Western Australia (WA), mines and processes nickel-copper-cobalt (Ni-Cu-Co) sulfide ore from the magmatic Nova-Bollinger Deposit (Nova-Bollinger), which is hosted by the Mesoproterozoic age high-grade metamorphic rocks of the Albany Fraser Orogen. Over its 56-month life-of-mine (LOM) operations to 31 December 2020, Nova has processed 5.63 Mt of ore grading 2.04 per cent Ni, 0.86 per cent Cu and 0.07 per cent Co from its underground mine. At the end of 2020, both the Nova-Bollinger JORC Code reportable Mineral Resource estimate (MRE) and Ore Reserve estimate (ORE) were >90 per cent classified in the highest JORC Code confidence categories of Measured Mineral Resource and Proved Ore Reserve respectively. The high JORC Code classification confidences assigned to the Nova-Bollinger MRE and ORE results from the 386 km of surface and underground diamond drill testing of the deposit to a nominal 12.5 by 12.5 m pierce point spacing in mineralisation. The close spaced high-quality drilling and bulk mining method employed at Nova has effectively removed the need for any grade control modelling outside of the MRE process. Importantly, having only the one fully drilled out deposit being mined and only the one process plant, Nova’s reconciliation process is in the fortunate situation of not being confounded by issues such as external ore sources and constant updates as new grade control information becomes available. IGO’s Nova reconciliation processes are focused on reconciliation ratios that quantify operational period differences between the MRE and ORE head grade and tonnage forecasts and the process plant head actuals. These metrics have been used to identify key reconciliation issues and have initiated several studies into the causes for specific reconciliation results, which are discussed in the paper. In late 2020, a period of sustained poor reconciliation results led to the recognition that increasing the understanding of risk between the MRE and ORE should be investigated. To assist with modelling stope level risk within the mine plan and subsequent reconciliation, an attempt was made to develop a formula to quantify ‘stope risk’ from MRE metrics such as sample spacing, kriging efficiency and so on

Mar 22, 2022

By Kai Hu, Xuewei Lv, Run Zhang

An oxygen sensor of zirconia-based solid electrolytes for in situ measurements of oxygen potential in high titanium slag was developed in the present study. With the facility, series of measurements of electromotive force were successfully conducted for different titanium slags at 1998 K under an argon atmosphere. Oxygen potential in the slag was calculated by the measured EMF and simultaneous readings of temperature using the modified Nernst equation. In addition, the relationship between slag compositions and the oxygen potential in the slag was explored in detail. It has been found that the oxygen potential increases with increasing FeO content in the slag and decreases with the increasing Ti2O3 content in the slag. The oxygen potential in the slag has been calculated thermodynamically and compared with the experimental measurements. The results showed that oxygen potential in the slag may be controlled by FeO/Fe equilibrium reaction.

Mar 1, 2018

By Malcolm D. Flavel

As indicated in the introduction to this paper, it is a sequel to that which I gave to the last annual meeting in Atlanta in march. This paper goes further into aspects of crushing and screening, primarily from the standpoint of circuit control. There has been little published by equipment manufacturers on this subject and this is the first paper on crushing circuit control to be sponsored by Allis-Chalmers corporation. By proper control over the use of crushing energy, we will be able to produce finished products from feed materials uti¬lizing minimum capital for the lowest cost of production. The subject will be discussed as follows. Firstly, we will look briefly at what we are trying to accomplish; Secondly, what is presently available in the way of technology; Thirdly, we will look at a suggested new system of control which will best fit the parameters of the normal crushing and screening operation; As a conclusion, I will summarize the advantages of the new system.

Jan 1, 1977

By C. E. Bailey

In this our fifth year of actual mining, a resume of our methods of mining may prove of interest. Our conditions are radically different from those of other districts; and we are just commencing to be able to draw conclusions regarding the systems in use. The ore-bodies of the range lie in a blanket-formation varying in width from 200 or 300 feet to over half a mile, and in length from 500 feet to more than 2 miles. It is practically horizontal in bedding, but in places has a dip of as much as 7 feet in 100 for a quarter of a mile. The top of the ore is in most cases nearly level, although local rolls make the back (or top of the ore) vary to the extent of 10, or in rare cases 20 feet, and very frequently there is a general slope of the top of the ore, as well as the bottom, which makes it impossible to mine it all from one level. Taking the average of long stretches, the side-walls may be described as quite regular; but local deflections make it necessary to prospect for the wall-rock, and in drifting underground it is common to drive along the sidewalls, uncovering them almost continuously, and thus making sure that no large pockets of ore are missed. The dip of the side-walls varies greatly, but an average is probably between 45' and 60°, sloping inward at the bottom, making the general shape of the ore-body not exactly a basin, but more nearly a trough, usually with a longitudinal trend and sloping sides, and ore much the deepest at the center. As to rock-occurrences inside the ore-body, the properties most largely worked may be said to be particularly free from rock, although much trouble is occasioned by bunches or small masses. In most cases these are not properly described as " horses" of rock, since they have neither continuity nor regularity of trend, but are offshoots connected with the side-walls or bottom.

Jan 1, 1898

By P. J. van Staden, T. W. Walker

The Minfurn is a novel carbon-regeneration furnace developed at Mintek. It combines the advantages of direct resistive heating in a vertical-tube furnace with those of continuous operation, in a furnace whose capital, operating, and maintenance costs compare favourably with those of conventional rotary kilns. After successful tests under experimental conditions on carbons containing different contaminants, a 3 kg/h unit was installed on the carbon-in-pulp (CIP) plant at the Klipwal Gold Mine near Piet Retief, where it has been operating at, on average, 123 per cent of its design capacity. Since the installation of the Minfurn, monthly average losses of dissolved gold of less than 0,02 p.p.m. have been maintained for several successive months for the first time since January 1989. It is also possible that the monthly average residue values have been reduced. Further improvements to the carbon circuit are possible, and the possibility of making further savings by a reduction in the carbon-throughput rate still needs to be investigated. The mathematical modeling of the furnace has progressed to the stage where the future scale-up and design of the Minfurn can be carried out by simulation of the performance of different designs, and choosing the design that yields the desired performance.

Jan 1, 1993

By P. Forbes

Mining and metallurgical processing companies that have adopted the principles of good environmental management often find it difficult to carry out an environmental assessment that yields meaningful opportunities for improved performance. This topic was investigated by means of a case study of a South African Base Metal Refinery (BMR) producing primarily nickel. A process-based Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was carried out on the refining process, with the environmental impacts related to the production of reagents and utilities forming part of the assessment. The lifecycle inventory (LCI) was based on plant operating data spanning 31 months of production, from which a baseline environmental profile could be generated and interpreted to indicate the main sources of potential environmental impacts. Consequently, opportunities for improved environmental performance could be identified from the LCA model, which expressly related potential environ-mental liability to specific sub-processes in the assessed industrial operation. The on-site steam plant was found to be the primary source of potential environmental impacts in most of the impact categories considered. In closing, the paper discusses some of the limitations encountered in use of the LCA method. Keywords: life cycle assessment; LCA; life cycle inventory; LCI; base metal refinery; improved environmental performance; environ-mental management systems; nickel refining.

Jan 1, 2000

By P. Schwarzkopf, J. H. Brophy, J. Wulff

A constitutional diagram has been proposed for the tantalum-rhenium alloy system. Rhenium dissolved in tantalum up to 48 wt pct, and the maximum solubility of tantalum in rhenium is 5 wt pct. Intermediate x and s phases were found. X-ray diffraction, metallography and melting points were employed. SEVERAL investigators have described the phases present in the tantalum-rhenium alloy system, but no detailed account of the phase diagram prior to the present investigation appears to be available. Greenfield and Beck' reported the solubility of 48 to 54 at. pct Re in tantalum, a s phase at 41 at. pct Ta, and x phase isomorphous with a Mn from 37 at. pct Ta to less than 25 at. pct. They employed as-arc melted specimens and heat treatments at 1200 °C lasting 72 hr.2 Duwez3 reported the existence of a a phase at the composition Re3Ta2. Niemiec and Trzebiatowski4 observed a lattice parameter a = 9.69A, for the x phase at a composition Ta7Re22, but no s phase. Savitiski and Tylkina5 have shown a hardness maximum at the composition 40 at, pct Ta and a somewhat lower plateau from 35 to 10 at. pct. Knapton6 indicated results similar to those of Greenfield and Beck.' The present investigation describes the phase relationships in the tantalum-rhenium alloy system determined by melting point measurements, X-ray diffraction and fluorescence, and metallography. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE Commercial 99.7 pct Ta powder from Fansteel Metallurgical Corp. and 99.9 pct Re powder from Chase Brass and Copper Co. were used for alloy preparation. The powders were weighed to desired nominal compositions and then pressed without binder into compacts weighing 5 or 10 g. The compacts were arc-melted six times on alternate sides on a water-cooled copper hearth using a nonconsumable tungsten electrode in an atmosphere of titanium gettered helium, at a pressure of 500 mm Hg. In most cases this procedure yielded alloy buttons of satisfactory homogeneity. A series of alloy specimens were analyzed wet chemically for use as standards for X-ray fluorescence. All specimens were analyzed by fluorescence and the results showed that the compositions differed by less than 3 pct Re from the original as-weighed nominal composition.* On the basis of self-

Jan 1, 1961

By John D. Sullivan, Chester R. Austin, Edwin J. Rogers

The problem of making a building unit combining the necessary physical and mechanical properties and good thermal insulation has been foremost in the minds of architects and ceramic and construction engineers for many years. This paper presents the results of studies on thermally expanding shales or clays to produce lightweight cellular products suitable for making building units. An expanded clay block suitable for building purposes should be large enough qo that substantial savings may be effected in labor costs in laying the wall. The permeability should be low and it should have sufficiently good "dry-wall" characteristics to permit exposing the exterior surface to the elements, and to permit plastering directly the inside wall surface. The thermal conductivity should be low and the mechanical properties should be adequate. Obviously, a unit possessing satisfactory qualities for constructing an - outside wall would be satisfactory for interior walls and for back-up purposes. The results of studies on bloating various shales or clays† and the properties of the expanded products are reported. In another paper1 basic factors involved in bloating of clays are discussed. Manufacturers of ceramic products, partitularly structural clay, may encounter bloating of the ware during burning, and precautions must be followed to avoid this phenomenon. About 1927 the C. F. Burgess Laboratories, Madison, Wis., while carrying on an investigation for the American Face Brick Research Corporation, conceived the idea of intentionally bloating clay while holding it in a restrained condition, with the hope of producing a unitary cellular mass. Work was carried on until about 1931, when studies were terminated because of business conditions. These studies were continued later by The Western Brick Co., Danville, Ill., which developed a process of "inwardly expansive bloating."² The major purpose of the latter investigation was to produce back-up tile to compete with concrete blocks made from Haydite or cinder aggregate. Haydite is a light-weight aggregate formed by heating certain clays or shales rapidly in a rotary kiln. While the investigations at the C. F. Burgess Laboratories or at Western Brick Co. were not carried far enough to lead to the commercial production of material for the construction of walls, particularly outside walls, they showed that certain clays could be thermally expanded and that it was possible to produce a material of low permeability with a large percentage of the total voids or cells closed. commencing in 1939, the Ozark Chemical Co. sponsored a research program at Battelle Memorial Institute for the Purpose Of determining whether it is technically feasible to make thermally expanded building units, and specifically to get answers to the following questions:

Jan 1, 1942

By John D. Sullivan, Edwin J. Rogers, Chester R. Austin

The problem of making a building unit combining the necessary physical and mechanical properties and good thermal insulation has been foremost in the minds of architects and ceramic and construction engineers for many years. This paper presents the results of studies on thermally expanding shales or clays to produce lightweight cellular products suitable for making building units. An expanded clay block suitable for building purposes should be large enough qo that substantial savings may be effected in labor costs in laying the wall. The permeability should be low and it should have sufficiently good "dry-wall" characteristics to permit exposing the exterior surface to the elements, and to permit plastering directly the inside wall surface. The thermal conductivity should be low and the mechanical properties should be adequate. Obviously, a unit possessing satisfactory qualities for constructing an - outside wall would be satisfactory for interior walls and for back-up purposes. The results of studies on bloating various shales or clays† and the properties of the expanded products are reported. In another paper1 basic factors involved in bloating of clays are discussed. Manufacturers of ceramic products, partitularly structural clay, may encounter bloating of the ware during burning, and precautions must be followed to avoid this phenomenon. About 1927 the C. F. Burgess Laboratories, Madison, Wis., while carrying on an investigation for the American Face Brick Research Corporation, conceived the idea of intentionally bloating clay while holding it in a restrained condition, with the hope of producing a unitary cellular mass. Work was carried on until about 1931, when studies were terminated because of business conditions. These studies were continued later by The Western Brick Co., Danville, Ill., which developed a process of "inwardly expansive bloating."² The major purpose of the latter investigation was to produce back-up tile to compete with concrete blocks made from Haydite or cinder aggregate. Haydite is a light-weight aggregate formed by heating certain clays or shales rapidly in a rotary kiln. While the investigations at the C. F. Burgess Laboratories or at Western Brick Co. were not carried far enough to lead to the commercial production of material for the construction of walls, particularly outside walls, they showed that certain clays could be thermally expanded and that it was possible to produce a material of low permeability with a large percentage of the total voids or cells closed. commencing in 1939, the Ozark Chemical Co. sponsored a research program at Battelle Memorial Institute for the Purpose Of determining whether it is technically feasible to make thermally expanded building units, and specifically to get answers to the following questions:

Jan 1, 1942

By T. P. Meloy

Media mills operate by having energy transferred to the media which in turn grinds the feed material in a packed bed. Regardless of the mill type, the media energy density per unit surface area is constant. Since for optimum grinding conditions, both peak pressures and particle number of the bed depth are constant, the frequency of energy input is inversely proportional to feed size. As the particle size decreases the voles energy density increases linearly necessitating cooling in stirred mills. Grinding finer particles therefore, requires moving from rotary to vibratory mills, and the finest, the stirred mills.

Jan 1, 1987

By J. Shibata

The behavior in electric field of fine particles present in aqueous solution was measured in order to apply to the classification of fine particles. The sample particles used are spherical polystyrene particles with the average diameter of 0.03 µm, 0.1 µm, 1.0 µm, 4.3 µm and 9.6 µm. Electrophoretic mobility and zeta potential of various particles are measured by an instrument based on the principle of the laser Doppler effect. The influence of temperature, electrolyte concentration on the electro-phoretic mobility was investigated for various polystyrene particles. The electrophoretic mobility increases with increasing pH and temperature of suspensions. The measured electrophoretic mobilities are different from electrolyte concentration and particle size. The electrophoretic retardation effect and relaxation effect are considered to explain the behavior of fine particles in electric field by applying the electro kinetic theory of Wiersema et al. For all particle size, the electrophoretic mobility decreases rapidly in high concentration of KNO3 such as 0.1 mol/dm3due to the compression of electric double layer The forces acting the particles in electric field are considered to be electrical force, friction force and some other forces like relaxation effect and electrophoretic retardation effect which appear in ionic behavior. It is considered that the particle moving velocity depends on the particle size. When the particle size is less than 1µm, the velocity increases with increasing the particle size. On the oth-er hand, the velocity deceases with increasing in particle size, when the particle size is larger than 1µm. This phenomenon is considered to be interesting from the viewpoint of classification for fine particles. We found that the electrophoretic mobility of 1.0µm particles is larger than that of 0.1µm particles, and that it is possible to classify fine particles by using the difference of electrophoretic mobility by many experimental results. The phenomena can be explained by the forces acting the fine particles in the electric field. We can apply the behavior to classification of fine particles.

Jan 1, 2014

By Else D

While the underground mining work environment may have processes and equipment considered unique, most of the broad issues likely to affect the occupational health and safety of employees are not. One such occupational health and safety issue that is common to the mining sector and most other industries is noise. Noise as an occupational health and safety issue is of national significance. Presently noise induced hearing loss costs Australia around $35 million per year on compensation claims experience alone. Noisy equipment and work environments are still being tolerated in parts of the mining industry as `part of the job'. Where work has been undertaken in noise management, considerable emphasis has been placed on either industrial hygiene monitoring programs or the provision of hearing protectors to miners working on or around noisy equipment.Opportunities for more cost-effective and long term methods for controlling noise exist. Ready to apply solutions to noise problems in the mining industry are available, but for many mining operators this information is often difficult to obtain. To overcome this problem, the SHARE program collects and distributes solutions to occupational health and safety problems. The program aims to help organisations to close the gap between what is known about solving health and safety problems and what is actually being applied at the shop floor level: Recent developments have incorporated the SHARE program concept into worksite hazard management projects that involve the participation of employee representatives, front line supervisors and engineering personnel. Besides providing workforce members with an increased understanding of hazard management skills, the SHARE in-house program results in the implementation and sharing of solutions to health and safety problems by the program participants.

Jan 1, 1992

By R. S. Dean

In addition to the normal work and that pertaining to strategic minerals, the Metallurgical Division has been made responsible for carrying on major investigations in the development of processes' for the treatment of low-grade domestic manganese ores that heretofore have failed to yield products suitable for the preparation of ferromanganese, an alloy essential to every ton of steel produced. These investigations are particularly important at this time because of their part in tucking this country self-sufficient with regard to manganese when the stock-piled ore becomes e exhausted and as foreign shipments of ferro-grade ore are cut off. The results indicate that there is a good probability of accomplishing this objective, while at the same time conservation may be promoted through the use of normally useless material from the large, low-grade ore deposits.

Jan 1, 1941

By A. L. Bailey, B. A. Landry

W. W. ANDERSON and G. E. KELLER*—We want to compliment the authors on this very thorough paper. It gives information which the coal industry has needed for some time. We hope that the additional information which the authors are collecting will he available shortly. The mixing and riffling procedure that was followed for experimental purposes is obviously not practical in routine float-and-sink testing because of the particle size degradation which would result in handling the sample so many times. It is important to obtain our tloat-and-sink fractions with a minimum amount of handling of material. A statement is made in the paper (p. 80) that "the variable most likely to affect the size of sample required to meet a given preassigned accuracy would be the state or degree of mixing of the coal." We agree that this is a large factor, but do not believe it is the most important factor. Our own opinion is that the most important single factor governing the total gross weight of sample that must be collected is the percentage of the weight of material in the smallest fraction that results from the screening and float-and-\ink operations. In other words, size of sample is governed by the total number of fractionations that must he made, and the distribution of material within the fractions. We can imagine a coal with perfect mixing, but with such a small amount of material in some float-and-sink fraction in one of the coarse sizes that a much larger sample would have to be taken than would be the case with very poorly mixed material, but with a large percentage of coarse material more evenly distributed in all float-and-sink fractions. Our own observation of many float-and-sink tests that we have run in our own organization on many types of coal is that the size of sample that must be used on fine size float and sink is governed more by the requirements for weight of material to be used for analysis in the laboratory than by weight of material necessary to obtain accurate float and sink percentage of weight values. In other words, it is our opinion that very small samples can be used for float-and-sink fractionation in the fine sizes, but that accurate analysis of the fractions will depend on a larger weight of sample being pulverized for the laboratory than is necessary to establish the float-and-sink distribution with respect to weight. A. L. BAILEY and B. A. LANDRY (authors' reply)—The authors thank Messrs. Anderson and Keller for their comments based on long experience. It is agreed that the involved mixing and riming technique used may be disadvantageous from the standpoint of degradation. Fortunately, the paper does point out that the extended riming was unrewarding in causing further mixing. Two large unknowns remain, however: (1) how much of the mixing from the presumed highly unmixed state in the bed was achieved toward the random state during blasting, loading, transportation, screening, and further transportation to the point where the gross sample was taken, and (2) how much of the mixing took place during the preparation described preceding riming. As has been pointed out by one of the authors.6 the degree of mixing has a very large effect on the size of sample required and there are still too few experimental data to show at what stage of coal handling most of the mixing occurs. The discussion states that the weight of material in a screened fraction, or in a float-and-sink fraction, is more important than the mixing factor. We do not believe that these factors are comparable in this instance inasmuch as our purpose was to give minimum sampling requirements to achieve a preassigned accuracy in the percentages of float, middlings, or sink, and nothing more. The gross sample had already been screened and no further division by screening was made or contemplated; also, it was not intended that the middlings and sink fractions would necessarily be adequate for percentage ash or other determination. In other words, the sample obtained by the method outlined is not intended for washability studies but only for preparation plant control. Further experimental work has been done, since the paper was prepared, to investigate the effect of increasingly larger top and bottom sizes on the variability of float, etc., of a double-screened coal from Western Pennsylvania. Results will be published and eventually attention is to be given to the preparation of sampling specifications. E. H. M. BADGER*—I should like the authors to explain more fully the fundamental assumptions on which their Eq 4 is based. The equation is of the form s2 = p(l - p) which is the usual expression for the (standard deviation)2 when the chance of finding a particular kind of particle in the sample is proportional to the number fraetion, p. But instead of the number fraction, the authors have used the weight fraction, WF/W. The chance of finding a particular kind of particle in the sample can only be proportional to the weight fraction, if the average ?eig?ts of all kinds of particles, that is, float, midlings, or sink, are the same. Surely a much more justifiable assumption would be that the average volumes of the particles are the same, and, if this is so, Eq 4 would not be true. This may be demonstrated as follows: Let be the weight fraction of float, middlings, or sink, dl the density of this fraction, and d2 the density of the rest of the coal. Then assuming that the average volumes of the pieces in the three classes are the same, the number fraction, p, is given by ? P = d1/l-?/d2 + ?/d1 = ?d2/d1 + ?(d2-d1) The weight fraction, w, in terms of p is given by ? = pd1/(l-p)d2 + pd1 = pd1/d2 + p(d1-d2) _____ [61

Jan 1, 1950

By Thomas L. Ochs

The stripping of iron-laden solvent with hydrochloric acid in the iron-removal step of the clay-hydrochloric acid process for the extraction of alumina from calcined kaolinitic clay results in a loaded ferric chloride stripping liquor. Treatment of this stripping liquor at boiling with calcined kaolin to form insoluble Fe203(s) and a dilute A1C13 solution was undertaken by the Bureau of Mines to characterize process problems and to aid in sizing of solids-liquid separation equipment. Variables identified as important in the chemical reaction were calcined kaolin particle size, ratio of calcined kaolin to FeC13, and reaction time. These parameters were tested for significance and their interactions investigated. Fine calcined kaolin (-65 mesh) at a greater than 1:1 mole ratio of contained acid-soluble A1203 to Fe203 equivalent of the FeC13 in the stripping liquor required less reaction time than coarser (-16 mesh) material. Solids-liquid separation of the reacted slurries by both settling and filtration requires flocculation.

Jan 1, 2011