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Asarco's Sacaton unit, located near Casa Grande 45 miles southeast of Phoenix, Arizona, was brought into production in February 1974. Ore reserves are estimated at about 48 million tons at 0. 95% copper. Mineralization of the orebody comprises both sulfides and oxides, with minor amounts of gold and silver. Preproduction stripping of 40 million tons of overburden was accomplished in less than two years. Mining is done at the rate of 9,000 stpd ore with a waste-to-ore ratio of 4.6 to 1. 0. The mine is developed on 40 ft benches, and by 1979 underground block caving methods will be phased into the operation at a depth of 1900 ft. Ore is mined in the pit two shifts per day, seven days per week, and is hauled with 85 ton trucks to the primary crushing plant. Trucks dump their loads into a 165 st capacity pocket equipped with a chain curtain which controls the ore flow to the 6 ft 6 in. wide by 24 ft long (2. 0 m by 7.3 m) vibrating feeder grizzly. Grizzly bars are inclined at a 5º slope on the first half of the 0 feeder and 10 on the last half. Grizzly bars have 6 in. (13 mm) spacings which pass 60 to 70% of the mine-run ore. Grizzly oversize drops into a 48 in. by 60 in. (1. 22 m by 1.52 m) primary jaw crusher. Both the grizzly undersize and crusher discharge are collected on a 42 in. (1.07 m) conveyor belt operating 398 fpm (121 mpm) for transport to the 4,750 live st intermediate storage area ahead of the fine crushing plant. Capacity of the Sacaton primary crushing plant is a nominal 1150 stph (1043 mtph). It operates fourteen shifts per week with an effective crushing time of four hours per shift. An economical open-air design was used, but an enclosed operator control room is located on the upper level where the dump truck, feeder, and crusher can be observed. Oversize rocks are removed from the feeder or crusher by the 10-ton bridge crane. Direct operating costs for this well-designed primary crushing plant, including labor, power, supplies, and maintenance, are only 3.5 cents per short ton. An interesting feature of the Sacaton orebody is that the non-sulfide copper minerals, which are less prevalent than the sulfides, occur intimately with the sulfide minerals; for this reason, all ores as mined are treated in a flotation circuit using sulfidizing methods for oxide recovery.

Jan 1, 1978

By G. M. Lee

SEVERAL improvements have been made in Granby smelting practice since the company abandoned the direct smelting of raw ore in the blast furnaces in June, 1927, in favor of sintered concentrate. These improvements have been made in several fields, but the most novel and outstanding change was the development of a process of concentrating most of the gold, and a somewhat smaller fraction of the silver present, in a small portion of the blister copper produced. The practice of making "copper bottoms" is usually associated with the reverberatory smelting of copper ores containing high percentages of impurities, or of copper matte high in precious metals. It has for its object, in the one case, the production of a major part of the copper relatively free from impurities and, in the other case, the production of a small per¬centage of the copper carrying the major part of the precious metals. Although the blister copper produced at the Anyox plant of the Granby company is remarkably free from deleterious impurities and normally contains no great amount of precious metals, certain economic considerations made it advisable to concentrate the existing precious metals into a relatively small percentage of the blister copper produced. The process devised took advantage of principles and reactions of the usual bottoms processes, but was carried out in the converters instead of in a reverberatory furnace.

Jan 1, 1935

By Paul M. Tyler

FOR the same reason that water is not missed until the well runs dry, the roles of many industrial minerals in wartime are often overlooked. In contrast to the growing shortages of many metals, our supplies of most nonmetallic minerals are limited only by our machinery for taking them from the ground and by our processing facilities. With few exceptions, the demand for increased supplies has been met without fanfare or delay. Only Brazilian quartz crystals, certain kinds of mica, and, latterly, industrial diamonds are on the so-called strategic list, although asbestos, beryl, corundum, cryolite, fluorspar, crucible-grade graphite, ilmenite, iodine, kyanite, monazite, nitrates, rutile, and zircon have caused more concern among those responsible for procurement and are included in our preclusive buying programs. Such specialties are needed urgently, but they are far less important in the over-all picture than the more abundant minerals.

Jan 1, 1942

By G. T. Jackson

The Alaska Gastineau Mining Co.'s mine is located at Perseverance, about 4 mi. east of Juheau, Alaska. Its property consists of a group of claims, the lode system traversing these claims for a distance of 11,000 ft. (3352 m.). It is shown in Fig. 1. The ore deposits occur in what is known as the Juneau gold belt. This gold belt can be traced for about 50 mi. northwest of Juneau and 40 mi. southeast. It consists of a single band, several hundred feet wide, in which stringers and veins of quartz, carrying gold, occur in a slate formation near its contact with some altered volcanic rock known as greenstone. The Perseverance orebody consists of stringer lodes, having a strike northwest and southeast, dipping about 60° to the northeast. These

Jan 1, 1920

By S. H. Chauvenet

Jan 1, 1882

By D. E. Trout, W. R. Hibbard

Previous investigations have shown that the cold rolling textures1n2 and the drawn wire textures3 of copper change their secondary components after the addition of about 1 pct aluminum and 5 pct zinc, but do not change after the addition of as much as 30 pct nickel. However, few data are available on compression textures. Barrett4 reports from unpublished work with E. L. Layland that compression rolled copper develops a texture which is predominately (110) in the compression plane with a secondary spread to (113) and weaker spread to (100) as shown in Fig 1. However, 70-30 alpha brass similarly treated develops a texture again predominately (110) in the compression plane and with a weak secondary spread to {113} but with moderate (111) secondary intensities illustrated in Fig 2. Experimental Procedure Specimens of the compositions shown in Table 1 remaining from a previous investigation3 were annealed to a grain size of 0.090 mm average diam and machined to cylinders 0.20 in. diam and 0.20 in. high. Cylinders were compressed 90 pct reduction in height between lubricated steel blocks in a tensile machine. Glancing X ray photo-grams using copper K-alpha radiation were taken at an angle of 0 degrees to the compression surface. (111), (002) and (220) rings were analyzed to define the textures shown in Table 1. The results are in agreement with Barrett4 as to types of textures and are essentially in agreement with previous work1,2,3 as to the effects of composition. In the wire study3 it was reported that the 4.99 pct zinc alloy had a brass-type texture, while the data in Table 1 indicate a copper-type texture for compression. The wire specimen of the 4.99 pct zinc alloy was re-examined by X rays and it was established that the [loo] component still exists in the wire axis. Therefore, Table 2 of Ref. 3 is in error and should indicate a double [ill], [loo] copper-type texture for this alloy. This correction results in complete consistency with regard to compositional effects, namely that copper and its alloys containing up to approximately 1 pet aluminum, 5 pct zinc and at least 30 pct nickels develop a copper-type texture and more concentrated copper-aluminum and copper-zinc solid solution alloys will form a brass-type texture. Summary Compression textures developed in copper and its alpha solid solution alloys of aluminum, nickel and zinc are essentially the same types as those re- ported by Barrett4 with compositional effects occurring at approximately the same percent additions as previously reported for rolled sheet182 and drawn wire.3 The Scovill Manufacturing Co., Waterbury, Conn., furnished the copper and brass alloys, performed certain chemical analyses and supplied laboratory facilities where needed. References 1. Brick, Martin and Angier: Tram. A.S.M. (1943) 31, 675. 2. Dahl and Pawlek: Zlsch. Melall. (1936) 28, 266. 3. Hibbard and Yen: Trans. AIME 175, 126. Melals Tech.. Feb. 1948, TP 2334. 4. Barrett: Structure of Metals, mc- Graw-Hill (19421, 386.

Jan 1, 1950

By Richard E. Chism

If internal commotion can be called life, the Mexicans have certainly lived more in the last seventy-five years than any other people. To the oppression of the Spanish viceroys succeeded the sanguinary tumults of the Revolution of Independence, after which the Supreme Congress bequeathed its heritage of uncertain power to the empire of Iturbide, the only one ever established by Americans upon American soil, with an American at its head. That shortlived reign mas followed by years of ceaseless, bloody, and, to the superficial observer, meaningless revolutions—the deeper political and ecclesiastical significance of which it is beyond the scope of this paper to discuss. Then came foreign intervention, the ill-fated Austrian's brief supremacy, and the final triumph of the patriot cause under rugged old Benito Juarez, who crowned the victory of arms by a series of reforms breaking forever the temporal power of the Church and ushering in the calmer era which has lasted from the first accession of Diaz to the present day. During all those troublous times, the revolutionary ocean, that rolled so deeply over all other relics of Spanish dominion, had left almost unaltered the ancient laws of Spain, still lifting themselves above the tide, like landmarks of a flooded world. Many of these laws were obsolete ; some were absurdly inadequate to the demands

Jan 1, 1886

By D. L. Albright, G. A. Colligan

An investigation has been conducted to determine the nature of the crystallographic substructure of nickel and a 1.0 wt pct Ag-Ni alloy which had been undercooled 105°C prior to solidification. A rotating back-reflection X-ray technique and modified Weissmann diffractometer were used to orient single-crystal sections from these poly-crystalline ingots and to determine the substruc-tural features of these single crystals, The sub-grain size in the pure nickel ingot is 0.5 mm diam while the silver-doped nickel subgrain size is only 0.1 mm diam. The misorientation between adjacent subgrains is approximately 1 deg of arc in both ingots, and the spread of orientation of sub-grains about the mean orientation of the crystal is 5 deg of arc in both ingots. The addition of silver results in a stable impurity substructure which is preserved during isothermal solidification and subsequent cooling to room temperature. In the absence of silver the initial impurity substructure is destroyed by dislocation interactions which produce a secondary substructure which grows to a size five times larger than the initial substructure. THE process of undercooling a metal entails cooling of the molten sample below the equilibrium freezing point without the occurrence of solidification, i.e., by exercising proper constraint over the experimental variables contributing to nucleation in the melt. The current work of walker1 and Colligan Metal reports undercooling large continuous samples of nickel by imposing appropriate restrictions upon the parameters of solidification. The silver-nickel equilibrium diagram3 reveals the presence of a monotectic reaction at 1435°C. At this temperature the maximum solid solubility of silver in nickel is approximately 3 wt pct, but this solubility decreases with decreasing temperature and the solute is rejected as a silver-rich liquid phase at temperatures below 1435°C. Thus, the 1.0 wt pct solute should be held in solution during undercooling and solidification and subsequently precipitate as a silver-rich liquid phase at grain and subgrain boundaries following solidification during cooling below 1435. This assumes no solute segregation sufficient to cause the monotectic reaction. One would expect this second phase to inhibit grain and subgrain growth by retarding dislocation motion after solidification is complete. The effectiveness of silver addition in growth retardation of high-angle grain boundaries has been demonstrated by Colligan and suprenantS4 The principal [l00] dendrite growth directions in a 2 wt pct Ag-Ni alloy undercooled 53 all radiated from the nucleation site. A similar pure nickel ingot undercooled 59°C exhibited a random orientation of [l00] dendrite directions with respect to the nucleation site. Since undoped nickel ingots do not retain any evidence of the casting or solidification texture and silver-doped ingots do retain this texture, it is reasonable to assume that considerable grain growth has taken place in the pure nickel. These particular experiments were performed in order to reveal the differences, if any, in the features of the crystallographic substructure of undoped undercooled nickel and silver-doped undercooled nickel. 1) EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE Data are reported on selected specimens from two massive (approximately 260 g) undercooled ingots of nickel. One ingot consisted of electrolytic nickel and the other of this same material with 1.0 wt pct addition of high-purity silver. Powder patterns were taken of both the as-received and as-solidified materials; in all cases the reflections recorded were attributable to the individual elements nickel and/or silver. Fig. 1 is a. schematic diagram of the apparatus employed for the undercooling experiments. The equipment consists in part of a fused silica crucible for containing the charge. A fused silica tube encloses the system, which is covered by a brass cap to permit partial sealing of the inert atmosphere. This cap contains a hole through which a Pt-Pt 13 pct Rh thermocouple is inserted for temperature measurement. The charge is inductively heated under a purified argon atmosphere.

Jan 1, 1963

By AIME AIME

AT a joint meeting of the Tulsa Geological Society and the Mid-Continent Section of the A; I. M. E., held at Tulsa on March 21, the history of unit development in the Kettle- man Hills field was discussed. Robert C. Patterson? Super- visor for the U. S. Geological Survey at Taft, Calif., was the speaker. An abstract of some of his remarks follows: On July 1, 1923, curtailment agreement for two years was made between the operators of North Dome Kettleman and the U. S. Department of the Interior. In this it was agreed to consider a plan of unit development, or other cooperate method of developing the structure. As a result, Kettleman North Dome Association was incorporated in December, 1930, as a non-profit cooperative corporation under the laws of California. Approved in January, 1931, by California Oil and Gas Supervisor and by Secretary of Interior. On Feb. 10, 1931, it became an active organization through election of executive officers and eleven- directors. General manager chosen. Association started to function April 1, 1931. Assumed control of 10,800 acres of proved and semi-proved land, as shown in Table 1.

Jan 1, 1932

By J. R. Campbell

IN order to discuss the subject intelligently, it will be necessary to touch briefly on the forms in which sulphur is supposed to exist in coking coal to be carbonized in beehive or byproduct ovens. Sulphur is known to exist in coal as sulphides and sulphates, as can be determined experimentally. Then there is the so-called organic sulphur, i.e., sulphur in combination with the carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen of the coal, about which much has been written, but nothing definitely proven in an experimental way. In fact, so far as we know, there never has been developed a satisfactory and conclusive method in the laboratory for the direct determination of organic sulphur. For most coking coals, it can be safely assumed that the preponderance of sulphur is in the form of pyrite (FeS2). When exposed to comparatively low temperatures during the coking process, it loses its sulphur according to the following chemical reaction: 7FeS2 = Fe7S8 + 6S. It will be seen, therefore, that six out of the 14 atoms of sulphur (or 42.8 per cent.) are expelled, or volatilized. Fe7S8 remains in the coke as pyrrhotite, or magnetic sulphide of iron; this accounts for the highly magnetic properties of the powdered coke. A more commonly accepted reaction is FeS2 = FeS + S, in which the straight sulphide of iron is produced with 50 per cent. volatilization of sulphur. In the beehive methods of coke making, air is introduced in sufficient amounts to carry on the distilling and the coking processes, and the sulphur is oxidized along with the other volatile products: First, into sulphur dioxide (SO2), known by the pungent and suffocating odoremitted from the trunnel head; second, into sulphuric anhydride (SO3); and, finally, into sulphuric acid, as it comes into contact with the air and moisture. In a properly regulated draft on a beehive oven, there is never complete combustion of the gases. In other words, the coking process should be carried on in a reducing atmosphere, and a low-grade producer gas kept issuing from the trunnel head. For coals of about 30 per cent. volatile matter, the ratio of air to gas is 3 ½ to 1. In complete combustion, the ratio is 6 to 1, producing an extremely high temperature

Jan 1, 1916

[†AARONSON, ALFRED E., Vice-Pres., Mid-Co. Petroleum Co., Mid-Co. Bldg. Tulsa, Okla. '18 ABADIE, EMILE R., Min. Engr Address wanted. '76 ¦ABADILLA, QUIRICO A. Geol. Dept. Cia. Mexicans de Petroleo "El Aguila," S. A., Edifico "El Aguila," Esq., Calles Aurora y Comercio,] [ ]

Jan 1, 1925

By Benjamin Gi ldersleeve

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 1, 1950

By Sherwin F. Kelly

GEOPHYSICS may be considered a vice (albeit, I submit, a comparatively harmless one) whose career is aptly described by Pope's lines: Vice is a monster of so frightful mien, As to be hated needs but to be seen; Yet too oft, familiar with her face, We first endure, then pity, then embrace. Although there may be some that have not yet succeeded in emancipating themselves from the first stage of horrified contemplation, geophysicists may be duly thankful that there are mining men and geologists that have arrived at a state of apparently irretrievable damnation.

Jan 1, 1936

CONTENTS PAGE ANDERSON, ROBERT J., and ENOS, GEORGE M.-Corrosion of Brass as Affected by Grain Size. Discussed by Henry S. Rawdon, Robert J. Anderson, Francis B. Coyle, William B. Price, and W. R. Webster 1 RAWDON, HENRYS., and MUTCHLER, WILLARD H.-Effect of Severe Cold Working on Scratch and Brinell Hardness. Discussed by W. H. Bassett, John Livermore Christie, John R. Freeman, Jr., W. R. Webster, William B. Price, Norman B. Pilling, D. J. McAdam, Jr., F. G. Smith, Zay Jeffries, F. E. Carter 3 WILLIAMS, ROBERT S., and HOMERBERG, VICTOR 0.-Relation of Heat Treatment to the Microstructure of 60-40 Brass. Discussed by 0. W. Ellis 14 Corrosion of Brass as Affected by Grain Size Discussion of the paper of ROBERT J. ANDERSON and GEORGE M. ENOS, presented at the New York Meeting, February, 1924, and issued as Paper No. 1282, with MINING AND METALLURGY, December, 1923. HENRY S. RAWDON,* Washington, D. C. (written discussion).-So numerous and so varied are the factors that affect the corrosion of metals that particular care is necessary in corrosion tests to eliminate so far as possible all extraneous factors. It appears to the writer that the question may well be asked as to whether all the necessary precautions have been observed in this investigation. It may be that the points to be mentioned were considered by the authors and found to be insignificant; however, there is nothing in the report to show this.

Jan 5, 1924

Jan 1, 1884

By J. Kucera, J. Vreštál

DIFFERENT authors1 ' have been engaged in meas-uring the vapor pressure of pure cobalt. The results of their measurements satisfy the expected temperature dependence of vapor pressure and are in mutual agreement, with the exception of the results by De Dyk Man and ~esmejanov.~ The latter authors, by using the effusion method, have achieved considerably higher values than other workers. By using the isotope exchange method they obtained much lower values than other authors. The determination of thermodynamic functions of the binary Ni-Co system was carried out, as far as we know, only by De Dyk Man and Nesmejanov.4 This determination was based on extremely low values of vapor pressure over pure cobalt obtained by the isotope exchange method. Therefore we considered it useful to repeat these measurements. Furthermore, the reliable values of thermodynamic functions should complement the migration characteristics, the inner magnetic field data obtained by Miissbauer effect measurements, specific heat data, and the K effect and positron annihilation characteristics that have been achieved for the Ni-Co system in the Institute of Metallurgy of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences in Brno.5-9 The measurements in this paper were performed by the isotope exchange method. In this method, as has been shown by analysis,10-'3 the vaporization rate, w, can be calculated from the relation w = k/1oSw [1] i0Sw) [1] where L, is the activity per unit mass of the source, S is the area of evaporation, k is the tangent at the point t = 0 to the curve giving the radioactivity de-pendence of the target vs annealing time, t, and wis the probability for the tracer atom condensation on the target surface. The value for cc. can be obtained from the equation w = a + 2P(l-a) [2] where P is Clausing's coefficient and a is the condensation coefficient. In the present work the cylinder shaped containers for annealing the samples were used, characterized by the ratio 1:d = 1.06. Here 1 is the length and d the diameter of the container. For this ratio P = 0.514 and w =0.5, and w is independent of the condensation coefficient. The vaporization rate is related to the vapor pressure p by the relation where R is the gas constant, T is the absolute temperature, and M is the molecular weight of the component investigated. Measurements of the vapor pressure of the i component over the pure metal, p!, and the alloy, pi, at the given temperature and composition enable one to calculate the thermodynamic activity of this component from the equation ai=pi/pi [4] is and the activity coefficient ri=ai/xi [5] xi where xi is the molar fraction of the investigated alloy component. EXPERIMENTAL Evaporization rate measurements were carried out with pure cobalt and eight different Ni-Co alloys, which were kindly delivered by the Centre National de Recherches Me'tallurgiques Liege, Belgium. The composition of the alloys is given in Table I. The cobalt used in these alloys contained the following impurities: 0.016 wt pct Fe, 0.014 wt pct Cu, 0.01 wt pct Mn. Other elements were present in much lower concentrations. From the melts, samples in the form of small cylinders of 12 mm in diam were ma-chined. The thickness of the targets and sources was 2.5 and 1.2 mm, respectively. The lower thickness of the sources was chosen to make their over-all ac-tivity as low as possible. Sources were activated in

Jan 1, 1970

By AIME AIME

THE following Officers, Directors, and guests were present: Herbert Hoover, A. R. Ledoux, Henry S. Drinker, Edwin Ludlow, Samuel A. Taylor, Charles F: Rand, William M. Corse, Arthur S.. Dwight, Glen H. Clevenger, L. W. Francis, F. G. Cottrell, Bradley Stoughton, Percy E. Barbour, E. P. Mathewson, Dorsey A. Lyon, Archibald Douglas, A. D. Flinn, RobertLinton, James F. Kemp, William Y. Westervelt, J. W. Richards, W. L. Saunders, George Otis Smith, Thomas T. Read, J..C. Murray, Ralph Arnold. A Committee on Mine Equipment was appointed composed as follows: Graham Bright, chairman, William Kelly, Howard N. Eavenson, R. E. Hobart, and S. P. Rumsey. B. D. Saklatwalla was added to the Committee on Miscellaneous Metals and W. Spencer Hutchinson was added to the Committee on Mining Geology. A revised budget for 1921 was approved. A petition duly signed to amend Section 1., of Article III of the Constitution, increasing the initiation fees from ten dollars to twenty dollars, was approved by the Board.

Jan 1, 1920

By AIME AIME

Change of Meeting from Birmingham to Chattanooga. In consequence of the disturbed conditions attending a long¬continued labor strike in Alabama, the meeting of the Institute was changed from Birmingham, Ala., to Chattanooga, Tenn., where it will. begin on Thursday evening, Oct. 1, 1908. Information. of this change bad been sent to the newspapers through the Associated Press, and by circular to all members, when news was received of the sudden and unexpected termination of the strike referred to. It was, unfortunately, too late to change once more the arrangements for the meeting. But it is hoped that the cordial invitation of the citizens of ,Birmingham may be renewed and accepted at a future time, not too remote. Office Facilities for Visiting Members. A separate room in the suite occupied by the American Institute of Mining Engineers on the ninth floor of the United Engineering Society Building, has been equipped with furniture and telephone extension for the temporary use of members of the Institute or of sister societies, or visitors suitably accredited. Members of the Institute visiting New York for a short time, who need office facilities during their stay, or members residing in the city. who need temporary office accommodation, can arrange to have set apart for their exclusive use a room, equipped with office furniture, telephone, etc.,. in the suite of the Institute. It is not the intention to give possession of the room to any individual for an indefinite time, but to offer to members of the Institute an opportunity to acquire a well-located, well-equipped business headquarters to carry on transactions which

Jan 9, 1908

By S. D. Strauss

The marketing of nonferrous metals and of the ores and concentrates from which these metals are recovered is a fascinating trade, international in character, sensitive to every change in the economic tide, and complex in its organization. Each individual metal has its own marketing mechanism; no two are exactly alike. The differences sometimes are a matter of tradition rather than of necessity, but usually they have developed because of the very nature of the problems of producing or consuming the individual metal. This description, because of limitations of space, can do no more than indicate the major aspects of the trade and touch lightly on the marketing structure of each metal. The dictionary states that a market is a "meeting of people for selling and buying." In the case of nonferrous metals this meeting may occur on a half-dozen different occasions between the time the ore has been first mined and the time the refined metal is available for use by industry; or it may not occur at all until after the metal itself has been rolled, drawn, stamped, cast, or forged into a useful semifabricated shape. To illustrate: A Chilean miner may sell his small ore production to a custom mill, which produces concentrates that are sold to an ore dealer, who finances the shipments of the concentrates to a United States custom smelter, which buys these' concentrates for conversion into blister, which is subsequently refined into electrolytic copper and sold. Conversely, much of the production of aluminum is in the hands of integrated concerns that mine bauxite, convert bauxite to alumina, smelt the alumina to produce aluminum, and then fabricate the aluminum into semifinished or even finished products before title to the material changes hands for the first time. Some nonferrous ores are not converted into metal at all but are sold by the miners or dealers directly b the ultimate consumers. A good example would be chrome ores used by the chemical industry. And of course a substantial part of the commerce in nonferrous metals is in scrap, which is the reconversion into useful form of metals that have long since been mined and smelted. Thus, one-third of all the lead used in the United

Jan 1, 1959

By William N. Poundstone

What attracts young engineering graduates into the coal industry? What do these young men expect of a career in coal mining? These questions are often asked and debated by mining men throughout the country. In order to present a comprehensive answer to them, an opinion survey was conducted at West Virginia University's School of Mines among the junior and senior classes and part of the sophomore class. The tabulation of the answers showed that the present-day mining engineering student is an older, more mature individual as compared with former years and as compared with other present-day college students. The average age of the country's record-breaking 150,000 college graduates is 24 years. Among this year's mining graduates at West Virginia University, 78% are of this age or older. Over half (54%) of those polled in the survey are married. This is com- pared to 30% as a national figure. Of those married, 38% have one child and over 6% have two children. The entire senior group covered by this survey has averaged almost three years in the armed forces. An article entitled "The Class of '49" in the June issue of Fortune magazine states that this year's class is the oldest, most mature class in history. Our survey indicates that the mining engineering students at West Virginia University are well above the average in this respect.

Jan 1, 1949