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By J. Singh

Recently, a Maryland bank became the overnight owner of a toxic waste site through a foreclosure. The original property owners had operated a crash and garbage business on the site and obtained loans for their business venture through the bank. In 1980, their son purchased the property from his parents with mortgage monies obtained from the bank. Failing to make his loan payments, the son defaulted on the mortgage. The bank foreclosed on the property and eventually purchased the property at a foreclosure sale. Shortly after the bank's purchase of the site, toxic wastes were found on the property--the result of disposing solid wastes on the site for 10 years. The bank declined responsibility for contaminating the site and consequently for its cleanup. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) took corrective actions to clean up the site. EPA then handed the bill to the bank, citing the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) of 1980 (more commonly known as "Superfund"). CERCLA imposes liability on the current owners and operators of hazardous waste sites.

Jan 1, 1988

By Andrews S. J

Century is a shale hosted zinc, lead, silver deposit developed within gently folded, Proterozoic Lawn Hill Formation shales and siltstones, approximately 250 kilometres north-northwest of Mount Isa, comprising 118 million tonnes of stratiform mineralisation, averaging 10.2 per cent ,,inc, 1.5 per cent lead and 36 grams per tonne silver. The deposit is largely overlain by Cambrian limestone and younger Proterozoic sedimentary rocks, outcropping at only two places. Small discordant lode lead-silver deposits formed the basis of relatively small scale mining activity in the area for almost 100 years, exploration tenement covering the deposit being granted to CRAE exactly 100 years after the first mining leases were pegged in the area in 1887.Stratiform mineralisation occurs within three distinct blocks, bounded by normal faults and the unconformity between Lawn Hill Formation and overlying Cambrian limestones. The Termite Range Fault, a major northwest trending, regional scale fault system occurs adjacent to the northeast deposit boundary, while the Magazine Hill Fault, possibly a component of the east trending Little Range Fault system, forms the southern boundary of the deposit.

Jan 1, 1993

By D. G. Westlake, D. T. Peterson

The saturation solubility of thorium dihydride in thorium was studied by saturation of samples and subsequent analysis. The solubility increased from about 1 at. pct at 300°C to above 20 at. pct at 800 °C. Over this temperature range the log of the solubility was a linear function of the reciprocal absolute temperature for thorium of good purity. The heat of solution of thorium dihydride was found to be 7.9 kcal per atom of hydrogen in crystal bar thorium and 6.6 kcal per atom of hydrogen in Ames thorium, The important effect of hydrogen on the physical and mechanical properties of many metals is receiving increasing recognition. The basic physical and chemical data necessary to help explain the observed effects of hydrogen on the mechanical proper ties of metals are all too often not available. The solubility of hydrogen in thorium metal was determined to provide a portion of this basic data for the thorium-hydrogen system. The absorption of hydrogen by thorium metal and the formation of thorium hydrides was studied by several investigators, beginning in 1891, and their work is summarized in Gmelin's Handbuch.1 No effort was made to determine the extent of solid solubility in the metal in these early investigations and the impure metal available made interpretation of the results uncertain. Nottorf2 reported the results of a careful study of pressure-composition isotherms for the thorium-hydrogen system. The principal interest in this work was in the composition and dissociation pressures of the thorium hydrides. Mallett and campbel13 reported the pressure-composition isotherms for the thorium-hydrogen system up to the composition of thorium dihydride. The saturation solubility of thorium dihydride in thorium was reported to be 13 at. pct at 650°C and 23 at. pct at about 900° C. Mallett and Campbell used thorium metal which had been prepared by the calcium reduction of thorium tetra-fluoride or thorium oxide. The results obtained with thorium of these two types agreed within the experimental error. PROCEDURE AND MATERIALS Procedure—The method used to determine the solubility was to saturate a sample of thorium with hydrogen and analyze a portion of the saturated sample. This method was chosen rather than a determination of pressure-composition isotherms since it was much less time consuming and could be applied at temperatures at which the equilibrium hydrogen pressure was too low to measure. The

Jan 1, 1960

By R. Neilson M. E. Clark

(with map on plate I.) THE coal-beds of Canyon City are situated six miles below the town, upon the Arkansas River. At this point the Rocky Mountains have thrown out from their main ridge two spurs. The one to the north, containing Pike's Peak and Cheyenne Mountain, is known as part of the "Rim Range;" the one to the west and south is known as the `1 Green¬horn Range." Against these syenitic mountains, the later rocks are piled and uplifted; at right angles to the direction of this main uplift is the axis of a lesser plication. On the north, west, and south, the pitch is steep, gradually flattening as it approaches the centre of the basin and rising again to the east at a pitch of about 5°, thus forming a perfect basin, the centre of which is only three miles east of the base of the Greenhorn Range.

Jan 1, 1873

By Peter G. Chamberlain

Novel and innovative mining methods are attracting the attention of mining engineers at an unprecedented level. Historically, the US mining industry has responded rather conservatively to new technology. The financial difficulties affecting the domestic mining industry in the early 1980s changed attitudes toward new technology. The market contraction during that period, coupled with an expanding world mine capacity, created a serious oversupply of many raw mineral products. Many mining companies found that retaining a share of world markets while making a profit required drastic cost-cutting measures.

Jan 1, 2008

By W. R. Reed, S. Klima, J. Driscoll, T. W. Beck

"Tests were conducted to determine properties of 4 foam agents for their potential use in longwall mining dust control. Foam has been tried in underground mining in the past for dust control and is currently being reconsidered for use in underground coal longwall operations in order to help those operations comply with MSHA’s lower coal mine respirable dust standard (1.5 mg/m3). Foams were generated using two different methods. One method used compressed air and water pressure to generate foam, while the other method used a low pressure air generated by a blower and water pressure using a NIOSH developed foam generator. Foam property tests comprising of a bottle shake test, foam expansion ratio, and water drainage were used to classify foams. The bottle shake tests determined that the lowest concentration of foam agent to be used was approximately 1.5%. Compressed air generated foams tended to have low expansion ratios (10-19) with high water drainage. Blower air generated foams had higher foam expansion ratios (30-60) with lower water drainage. Foams produced within these ranges of expansion ratios are stable and potentially suitable for dust control. The different foam agents produce foams with different material properties. Results of testing eliminated two foam agents for future testing because they had poor expansion ratios. The remaining two foam agents, while having different foam properties, seem to have properties adequate for dust control. These material property tests can be used to classify foams for their potential use in longwall mining dust control. INTRODUCTION About one-half of U.S. underground coal is produced by longwall mining. This technique allows for mining high volumes of coal, producing significant amounts of coal mine dust. This can lead to the overexposures to longwall miners and possibly occupational respiratory diseases black lung and silicosis, which have no cure and can be disabling or fatal. The only method to avoid these occupational illnesses is through elimination of exposure to respirable coal mine dust and crystalline silica (quartz). The current occupational exposure limit for respirable coal mine dust is 1.5 mg/m3 during each shift that a miner is exposed in the active workings of the mine or in mine facilities [1]. When respirable quartz is present, the mine must maintain an average concentration at or below 0.1 mg/m3. If the mine exceeds the 0.1 mg/m3 respirable quartz dust concentration, then the applicable respirable dust standard is reduced, calculated as 10 divided by the percent quartz present [2]. Respirable dust samples collected by U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration inspectors for the five-year period from 2010 to 2014 found that 5.6% (53 of 943 respirable coal mine dust samples) of the longwall operators on the tailgate side exceeded the coal mine dust standard, and 4.3% (76 of 1768 samples) of the jacksetters exceeded the standard. If silica is present, the reduced standard is implemented, meaning that 11.4% (36 of 316 respirable coal mine samples analyzed for dust) of the jacksetters exceeded the reduced standard. Only 3.8% (18 of 478 samples) of the longwall operators on the tailgate side exceeded the reduced standard [3]. Had the 1.5 mg/m3 standard been in effect during this period, non-compliant samples would have been much higher. For example, over 15% of the samples collected at the tailgate shearer operator occupation exceeded the lower standard."

Jan 1, 2017

C. A. ROSE, New York, N. Y. (written discussion *).-Without doubt the excellent results obtained at Ajo will cause surprise among metallurgists; 75 per cent. average capacity and 80 per cent. extraction during the first year of operation of a plant using a new metallurgical process are figures that speak for themselves. It is obvious that the most troublesome feature of the process is the fouling of solutions. The effects of this are most evident in the electrolytic tank house; but apparently the solutions are so heavily loaded with salts that their dissolving power is also impaired. This is indicated by the fact that copper comes into solution during washing after the leaching of the ore is completed, as shown by the decreasing ratio of acid to copper in the various washes tabulated in Table 4, and also by the fact that 4.9 per cent. of the total copper in the ore remains in the tailings in a soluble form. Even though the extraction in leaching and the ampere efficiency in electrolysis would be benefited by keeping the salts in solution at a lower concentration, it is doubtful whether it would pay to decrease these salts by discarding more electrolyte without other changes in the, process, since this would increase the amount of cement copper produced, which is already very large. If, however, it would not disturb the process otherwise, this object could be accomplished by increasing the range of electrolysis, so that solution going to the tank house would contain, say, 4 per cent. copper and 1 per cent. acid, and the solution returned to the leaching plant 1 1/2 per cent. copper and 4.8 per cent. acid, and by increasing the volume of solution to be discarded, this to be taken from the electrolyzed solution returned to the leaching plant. By this arrangement, more salts will be removed from the system per ton of cement copper produced; and if sufficient solution is discarded to keep the iron content down to 1 1/2 per cent. it would he feasible to recover the copper from

Jan 4, 1919

By Tegner C. Johnson

Just a few years ago my company was referred to as the Marion Steam Shovel Company. We still make shovels, both two and eight crawler types. The eight crawler stripping shovel appears to have been replaced by the walking dragline for overburden removal and in some cases for the mineral as well. The walking dragline appeared in the coal fields in the early 1930's. It owes its popularity today to the fact that it can cope with overburden depths in excess of 100 feet and with blasted sedimentary rock, all at an 0 & 0 cost of ± 10¢/BCY.

Jan 1, 1974

By William G. [Peryam], Bishop Ottey M., Fred E. Johnson

THE Lepanto Consolidated Mining Company is the largest copper producer in the Philippines, and the only one that makes a concentrate valuable principally for its copper; also, it has the only productive copper mine situated at considerable distance from the sea, and is the only one in the islands operating its own smelter. The Lepanto mine is in the Municipal District of Mankayan, sub-province of Benguet, near the heart of the Mountain Province of Northern Luzon. It is 165 km. from its shipping point at San Fernando, Province of La Union, on the shore of the China Sea. Elevations at the property range from 3200 to 4500 ft. The climate is very mild; temperatures are seldom below 50° or above 80°F. Annual rainfall approaches 170 in. and is mainly confined to a rainy season lasting from May to October. The months from December to April, inclusive, are usually extremely dry. This climatic pecularity entails the problems of landslides on the roads during the rainy season and water shortage during the dry season. The Mountain Trail, an improved rock-surfaced toll road maintained by the Commonwealth Government, gives access to the property. The 105 km. over this road may be traveled in about 4 ½ hr. during the dry season. Very few sections of the road are straight for more than 100 meters, and about one third of it is a one-way road controlled by gates. All freight for the property is delivered by the Manila Railroad Company to Bauang, La Union, 45 km. west of Baguio and at sea level, where it is picked up by freight trucks and hauled via Baguio to Lepanto. Granulated matte is hauled in bulk from Lepanto in four-ton lots on freight trucks to the storage bins at San Fernando. Freight rates from Bauang to the property amount to P8.00 per ton, and from the property to San Fernando the rate is P16.00 per ton. The company pays the road toll, P1.00 per truck, each way. THE CAMP The company maintains a modern camp, well separated from the mine and reduction plant. Comfortable and sanitary living quarters, water, and light, as well as free medical service are provided all employees. A hospital staffed by a doctor and two nurses takes care of all medical treatment. Considering recreational facilities of great importance, the company has provided two tennis courts, two basketball courts, and badminton courts for employees. Bowling alleys and a motion picture theater are operated by the company, the profits being expended for other recreational purposes. A moderate sized recreation hall serves for barrio dances, meetings,

Jan 1, 1942

A novel problem-solving exercise for undergraduates is described which is directly relevant to production supervision. It is based on the fictitious Metwin Plant which produces refined metal from sulphide concentrates via a hydrometallurgical route with six unit operat- ions. Students are given details of the chemistry, process engineering and normal operating conditions. They are also given min- imum data for the Plant when it is operating with a fault. By requesting further data, for which they are 'charged', the students must diagnose the fault. The responses of students to the exercise are described. The data were produced by computer simul- ation of steady state operation under normal and various faulty conditions. The development of this program was an educational experience for the author and it stimulated new interest in metallurgical process engineering.

Jan 1, 1984

By J. B. Hadaway

The operation at Phu Kham commenced design and construction in early 2006 and was commissioned in May 2008. This paper will examine and discuss the project from the inception of flow sheet development and equipment selection, equipment design and manufacture, construction, commissioning and ramp up to full production. The paper will touch on the strategies employed to achieve a short schedule and the efficient use of capital, but with the main emphasis on the grinding circuit. Various challenges during the early years of operation will be discussed including the effect of ore characteristics, including competency, on the performance of the grinding circuit. Actions to overcome these challenges and to enhance performance will also be discussed. Finally, current and future plans to improve the performance of the grinding circuit and the overall plant will be summarised.

Jan 1, 2012

By N. A. D. Parlee, M. T. Utine

ThE kinetics of absorption of oxygen by induction-stirred liquid silver (at constant Po2 and T) has received some study here.''2 This paper describes a study of the kinetics of effusion (non-bubble-forming), and some additional work on absorption. A Sieverts type of apparatus was used. The kind of reaction tube assembly has been described.4 The same 25-kw, 450-kc induction unit was used as in earlier absorption work1'2 but the "coupling" was different. The runs were made under the following conditions: i) saturation at 1 atm, effusion at 0.81 atm;

Jan 1, 1969

By W. C. Winegard, C. Feng, C. Elbaum

SEVERAL investigations have been made concerning the effect of oxygen on the mechanical properties of titanium 1-6= In particular, the yield strength has received considerable attention. Finlay and snyder2 report a 0.2 pet strain offset yield strength if 49 kg per sq mm in titanium containing 0.1 pct 0 and 61 kg per sq mm in titanium with 0.2 Pct 0. These results are in good agreement with those of Jaffee, Odgen, and Maykuth3 who report values of yield strength

Jan 1, 1960

By J Petrolito

"To improve the economic and environmental performance of underground mining operations, it is common practice to return the metallurgical waste material underground as backfill. This is called hydraulic backfill and is used to fill the mined-out areas not exposed to further mining. To provide mechanical support for underground mining a cemented backfill is normally used. Since its introduction, cemented backfill has allowed mining companies to increase their ore extraction and improve working and environmental conditions. However, cemented backfill represents up to 50% to 85% of the mine’s operating cost compared with 5% to 10% for hydraulic backfill.These economic pressures have led mining companies to carry out research into the partial or total replacement of cement using a variety of alternative materials. The materials are generally site-specific materials, readily available, and cost-effective relative to cement. Such investigations have led to reduced cost of many backfill mixes while maintaining, and in some cases improving, the physical properties of cemented backfill. However, in most cases, cement still remains an integral part of any binder combination. This can be attributed to the alternative binders investigated being either non-binding materials or capable of generating only low-strength backfills, except when used in conjunction with cement.This paper provides a historical review of backfilling binder materials and their characteristics. In particular, it reviews the many alternative materials that have been proposed to either partially or fully replace Portland cement as the main binder."

Jan 1, 2005

By F. D. Rosi, Walter R. Hibbard, R. I. Herron, H. T. Clark, O&apos

Introduction and Previous Work In the search to find a copper-base alloy with high strength properties, it was considered that the addition of a small amount of an age-hardening element to a binary system with useful strength properties might result in a series of alloys of theeretical and practical importance. The copper-nickel system was selected for its basic properties and chromium was added as the age-hardening element in view of the small percentage involved and its decreasing solubility with decreasing temperature. A study of the Cu-Cr binary alloys was undertaken as a preliminary investigation. However, in view of the response of these alloys to heat treatment, the scope of this phase of the investigation was widened.

Jan 1, 1949

By Lincoln McCrabb

Correct measurement and interpretation of viscosity data is critical for design of any thickening and pumping process that involves a non Newtonian slurry. The nickel laterite pressure acid leach (PAL) process relies on producing a slurry of maximum achievable solids concentration. Small variations of 1-2% solids concentration can alter economics significantly. For the Ravensthorpe Nickel Project, a rheology protocol has been developed which optimizes the solids concentration across a range of ore types. The vane yield stress technique has been utilized to accurately quantify the flow of thickened slurry in the lower shear range. A yield stress of 100Pa has been used as a benchmark to determine the optimum solids concentration achievable utilizing deep cone thickening. Statistical analysis of the data shows critical rheology distinctions between ore type, particle size, lithology and geochemistry. Linear and power law models have been applied to rheology flow curves to reconcile the material transport properties with the anticipated thickener underflow solids concentration. Keywords: Vane Yield Stress, Thickening, Rheograms

Jan 1, 2004

By William K. Callaway

Cominco American has operated the Magmont Mine for 16 years as a traditional open stope room and pillar mine. Diminishing ore reserves and the discovery of high grade ore zones over 90' in thickness caused consideration to be given to hydraulic sandfilling as a method of ground support to increase pillar extraction and mine life. This paper will review the results of sandfill testing. Plans for underground experiments, and operational plans for the future will also be discussed.

Jan 1, 1984

By Kazimierz Gwizdala

In recent years, in Poland the ATLAS piles have been successfully applied for some constructions near Gdansk. The piles have been used as foundations for housing and another areas of civil engineering, in delta Vistula geotechnical region, characterized by weak, highly compressible soils represented by mud and peat, lying in sub-surface layers, several meters thick. Usually below are dense sandy soils or gravel. In all cases, the base of ATLAS piles rested on sandy soils. The analysis of pile bearing capacity has been discussed and verified by static pile load tests (SPLT). The load-settlements characteristics obtained were satisfactory. In the paper, the results of geotechnical investigations as well as calculations and load tests are shown. The ecological aspects of ATLAS piles application within highly urban areas of the cities and complex geotechnical conditions are emphasized.

Jan 1, 2006

By Michael H. Kuryla, Galen H. Clevenger

Some years after Nobel made his epoch-making contribution to the knowledge of high explosives, Sprengell described a new class of detonating explosives consisting of mixtures, made immediately before use, of an oxidizing agent and a combustible substance.2 The novel feature of the Sprengel explosives is that the constituents alone are non-explosive during manufacture, storage and transport. Despite this advantage, and although some of these have been used in important work, they are now little used, possibly on account of the greater inconvenience to the user, compared with explosives supplied by the manufacturer in final form. Liquid-oxygen explosives are a type of Sprengel explosive in that the oxidizing agent (liquid oxygen) and the combustible substance or substances (solid carbonaceous matter alone or in combination with liquid hydrocarbons or even metallic powders and, at times inert absorbents) are brought together immediately before use. The components separately are non-explosive. The possibility of using liquid oxygen as one of the components of an explosive was perhaps first suggested by Sprengel, who stated that the beau ideal of a detonating explosive was a mixture of eight parts of liquid oxygen with one part of liquid hydrogen. Although the liquefaction of air3 had been accomplished in the laboratory as early

Jan 1, 1923

By S. P. Holt

The chief use of scrapers at this mine has been on lead ore of milling grade, clean and dry, in stulled stopes, 50-100 ft. long, 5-12 ft. high, and pitching 20-30°. Scrapers have also been used to fill these stopes with waste. The first scraper used (Fig. 1) is modified from a Cleveland-Cliffs design, being only 30 in. wide. It is light, weighing but 95 lb., handles well, and-digs itself in; but it spills part of its load on a long haul. It could be improved by lengthening the side plates, but because of the double bent angle irons, it is difficult to make at mine shops and has been discarded. Fig. 2 shows where the light angle irons have failed, spoiling

Jan 1, 1923