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By Benjamin Gildersleeve

Uniquely colored, thin-bedded quartzite is quarried between Crossville and Crab Orchard in Cumberland County, Tenn. It is produced in all sizes up to the limits of transportation from beds usually ranging in thickness from less than 1/2 in. to 6 in. The stone is very resistant to wear and weathering and is marketed throughout the country for many different purposes in exterior and interior construction. The annual production exceeds 36,000 tons, valued at nearly $1,000,000.

Jan 8, 1950

By B. T. Wykoff

This paper describes an important function of mining in Southeast Missouri. The practice is a necessary procedure to prevent disintegration of the pillars. Although the technique is peculiar to this district, it might have application in other mines using room and pillar method.

Jan 8, 1950

By Philip E. LaMoreaux

Fluoride, generally less than 0.5 ppm, is present in ground water from rocks of Paleozoic age and older, in northern and eastern Alabama. Some of the water-bearing formations in the Coastal Plain area of the State yield water with as much as 6.8 ppm fluoride.

Jan 8, 1950

By Ira B. Joralemon

INDIVIDUALS and small companies have discovered and brought into production the mining districts of the United States. Hardly an exception comes to mind, save for the disseminated copper properties and the great iron mines. In spite of this fine record that has made possible the industrial greatness of the country, mining by small companies and by individuals has become a vanishing phenomenon. In Nevada, the lair of rugged individualism, there are fewer operating mines and fewer miners than at any time since the 1860's. The situation in other states is nearly as desperate.

Jan 8, 1950

By John G. Hall

The unstable metal market during 1949, with resulting lower metal prices, has focused every mine operator's attention on the problem of reducing operating costs. Improvement in mining methods, use of modern mechanical mining equipment, and increasing the efficiency of the labor force are the tools with which we will have to work. Careful planning is necessary to coordinate all phases so that no one phase is overdone. A mine may become over-mechanized if, for instance, capital charges against new equipment exceed the savings in labor costs, or where a large enough tonnage is not produced. The cooperation of labor is essential to any mechanization program. There have been too many instances where mechanization and improvements have done nothing more than make up for a decrease in labor efficiency, thus bringing the production of labor back to its old standard. The operator has gained little and labor has gained only a "softer job." In any mechanization program there are gains to be had by both the operator and labor. By the efficient application of modern equipment and improved mining methods the operator should gain by decreased costs, and labor may profit by receiving a share of these decreased costs.

Jan 8, 1950

Jan 8, 1950

THE research and policy committee of the Committee for Economic Development, a non-profit research organization composed of leaders in industry and the professions, including such prominent figures as Dwight D. Eisenhower, Paul G. Hoffman, and Charles E. Wilson, recently published a report entitled "How to Raise Real Wages." Since its founding in 1942 the CED has initiated many objective studies on matters of national economic policy, and has gained a fair measure of prestige from its activities. The CED's latest report cites the more than three- fold rise in real wages in the United States in the past 50 years and attributes the accompanying improvement in the standard of living to the great in- crease in production per man hour. The report states that in order for production to continue rising in the future with the attendant increase in real wages four basic conditions must be manifest: (1) better methods, (2) more capital, (3) better training of workers, and (4) better management. The report cautions that although prospects for increases in output per man hour are good "it is desirable that steps be taken to encourage such a rise."

Jan 8, 1950

By H. C. Weed

THE Inspiration Consolidated Copper Co., located in the Globe-Miami district at Inspiration, Ariz., became a producer of copper in 1915. From 1915 until 1948, 116,278,000 tons of ore were produced from underground workings by the block-caving system of mining. In April 1948, open-pit ore production from portions of the ore body was started and earlier plans for block-caving in these areas were abandoned. The change was due to economic conditions.

Jan 8, 1950

New Products Equipment

Jan 7, 1950

INTO their great Pacific Northwest counting house went the members of the Industrial Minerals Division recently, to count their blessings amidst the scenic grandeur and mineral wealth of the State of Washington. From their vantage point in Seattle, those who attended the IMD's fourth Pacific Northwest meeting turned their sights to the South and Southeast, scanned Montana, Idaho, Oregon and Utah, and predicted a very healthy economic future for their region. The praises of Idaho's booming phosphate industry were sung by Earl W. Murphy, secretary of that State's Chamber of Commerce. He said the establishment of Fort Hall, on the banks of the Snake River near Pocatello, first turned the eyes of the world toward what is now the center of the greatest known deposits of phosphate rock-the section adjacent to the common corners of Idaho, Wyoming and Utah. With the founding of Fort Hall, Mr. Murphy said, historians will also rank the construction of the first electric furnaces for the production of elemental phosphorous as equally significant in the commercial history of the West. Those furnaces were installed only last year by the Westvaco Chemical Div. of the Food Machinery & Chemical Corp. at Pocatello, at a cost of $8 million.

Jan 7, 1950

By H. Merton Ruth

THE northern anthracite fields, although facing the same economic problems as the southern fields, are confronted with the additional problem of fast dwindling reserves of anthracite which can be conventionally and economically won. The mining of coal which remains in thin beds and the recovery of pillars from areas heretofore considered unrecoverable, either by reason of cost or surface restriction, pose problems of increasing importance to the economic life of the northern field operations. Successful approaches have been made to this problem and other work is being performed that holds promise. There exists in the northern anthracite field millions of tons of solid coal, the recovery of which has not been too successful due to the following inherent operating faults: inability to concentrate producing areas, the great quantities of rock to be cut and handled, lack of consideration of proper sequence and speed of second mining, and the continued use of the mine car as the basis of payment. A mining system that has successfully solved these major problems has been in operation in the Scranton area since 1944. Over 1% million tons have been produced from veins varying from 3 to 4% ft thick by this method, which is known as the multiple panel-triangular system-conveyor mining.

Jan 7, 1950

By William B. Stephenson

The paper describes efficient and effective methods of automatically controlling sand pump installations. Particular reference is made to liquid-level controls actuating variable speed pump-driving units. Included is a discussion of various combinations of equipment, with schematic drawings.

Jan 7, 1950

By Kefton H. Teague

Attempts to locate domestic supplies of sillimanite have been un- successful until recently. This paper describes recent discoveries of sillimanite-bearing schists in the Southeastern States, with emphasis on geology of the deposits, mineral composition, origin, and reserves. Statements concerning possible methods of mining, milling, and utilization of sillimanite are given. Results from refractory tests on a laboratory scale are summarized.

Jan 7, 1950

By John R. Lotz

A team of American experts is tackling a whole nations's problems, under the banner of a seven-year plan evolved by the Iranians themselves.

Jan 7, 1950

• One effect of the British devaluation of the Pound Sterling, with its resultant lowering of the pay limit, was the addition of considerable tonnages of previously marginal ore in gold mining. Crown Mines, Ltd., reported that 1,245,000 tons of such ore had been added to available reserves. But for devaluation, a steady decline in ore reserves had been a feature of operations during the previous ten years, and would have continued. •Loree Colliery of the Hudson Coal Co. is using a Humphrey spiral cleaning plant to meet requirements of the state in the matter of stream pollution. However, the process is producing a salable product. •Noranda is considering plans for constructing a commercial sized unit designed to produce elemental sulphuric acid and sintered iron oxide from pyrite. Test plant results have indicated the No. 5 ore zone can be treated by the new process economically. •A magnetic fluid clutch, and magnetic amplifiers for motor and generator control, have been developed under Navy contract by Vickers' Electric Division, in St. Louis, Mo. This constitutes the first commercial production of the clutch recently developed by the Bureau of Standards. •Fuel experts estimate coal production will run up to 500 million tons this year based on the expectation that business conditions will continue to be good. They also expect that in the future the use of coal will increase by 50 pct over today's level. These expectations are based on the fact that it provides the bulk of the heat, light, and power for making steel, for manufacturing, and for generating electricity as well as the development of the coal burning gas turbine and processes for making gas, gasoline, and oil from coal. •Entombed miners may benefit from a two-way communication system which utilizes the earth's strata as a network for electric signals. The use of FM radio waves makes this possible. The invention includes a portable transmitter-receiver unit kept near the face, and a more powerful portable equipment of the same sort above ground. In use, two probes on wires from the apparatus are driven into the earth. • The Union of South Africa has launched a uranium production project which government leaders think will help the West maintain world atomic supremacy. Experiments under way in the pilot plants are expected to lead to the establishment of a chain of processing factories along the Witwatersrand in which uranium will be reclaimed from gold tailing. •Recent developments in mechanized mining at the Bureau of Mines oil-shale mine near Rifle, Colo., have lowered mining costs to 29 cents per ton of shale. The cost of producing crude shale oil from 30-gal-per-ton-shale, using the new mining and processing techniques, would be about $1.50 per barrel. This is 500 lower than any previously stated price. • COMINCO is planning to open the old Bluebell lead-zinc mine near Nelson, B. C., on a 500-ton-per-day basis. The old workings will be pumped and a 970-ft incline sunk. A mill will be constructed at the property.

Jan 7, 1950

By S. A. Falconer

This paper deals with the practical application of the Dutch State Mines cyclone separator for fine-coal cleaning. The more important operating variables are discussed, and results of a number of continuous- scale tests on various fine coals with a 6-in. cyclone separator are given. Descriptions of the Cyanamid Pilot Plant and the 50 tph Cyclone Separator Plant at the Emma Washery in Holland are included.

Jan 7, 1950

By Randolph Specht

A two year study was made of the waste disposal of the pebble rock phosphate industry. Solid slimes are impounded in large settling areas and the process water is re-used. Clear effluent was not found to be toxic to fish or animal life in field tests or in controlled experiments.

Jan 7, 1950

By C. E. Lesher

THIS paper reports a study of the reactivity of 950°F and 1650°F cokes as measured by relative rates of reduction of iron oxides at temperatures up to 2200°F. Previous work cited shows general acceptance of the theory that reduction by carbon is a gaseous reaction, and that kind and character of carbon as well as particle size have measurable effect on the velocity of reaction. As will be shown, the data obtained in this study con firm those conclusions. The work was not designed to examine iron oxide reduction equilibrium, but if reaction velocity be defined as the speed with which "a reaction tends to approach conditions of equilibrium," the data here presented may be considered as a study of reaction rates, and the relative degree of reduction to metallic iron as the measure of reactivity.

Jan 7, 1950

By Edward Steidle

OUR citizenry must comprehend the cold, fundamental, economic truth that the ability to create wealth depends upon primary wealth; that only primary wealth can insure our economy, liquidation of our debts, national solvency, national security. And irreplaceable minerals furnish a major part of all primary wealth.

Jan 7, 1950

By V. C. Wansbrough

A LUCID, thorough and powerful review of the impact of your tax laws on mining operations has already been presented by Granville S. Borden*. He has brought into focus and relief the pressure-points at which the shoe pinches most, has suggested some remedial measures, and enunciated much sound doctrine about the inter-relationship and interplay of taxation policy and mining activity. Under the heading "What Every Lawmaker Should Know", he laid down the fundamental proposition that "the magnitude of our mineral resources varies inversely with the magnitude of the taxes levied upon them." With this, as with his other major premises, all mining men must be in hearty concurrence. There can be no doubt that a flourishing and expansive future for the mining industry in this country, in Canada, or anywhere else will depend on the thoroughness with which these fundamental propositions are grasped by legislators, by national policy-makers and by public opinion at large. Coming to the specific points to which Mr. Borden has drawn our attention, I will touch on the corresponding provisions in Canadian federal tax law, by way of comparison and contrast.

Jan 7, 1950