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By Roy G. Mead

BECAUSE of its magnitude, and the type of occurrence, the deposit of boron minerals in the Kramer district, Kern County, California, is unlike any other in the world. Discovery of this vast deposit has brought about many changes in the borax industry, so a discussion of the geology, and the occurrence, would not be complete without a brief history of the development of the borax industry. Until the discovery of boron minerals in the desert regions of California and Nevada some seventy years ago, borax was imported from Tibet and India, principally for medicinal purposes, at almost prohibitive prices. Following the discovery of commercial deposits of boron minerals in California and Nevada, and the subsequent development of new uses for borax and boric acid, the consumption has steadily increased until today borax is used in some form or other in every household.

Jan 1, 1933

By W. M. Myers

Certain minerals possess inherent color and other properties that make them suitable for the pigmentation of paints, mortar, plaster, concrete, face brick, and other materials. Their production is one of the most ancient of mineral industries and their use by primitive man is well known. These natural pigments have some economic factors in their favor, particularly wide geographic distribution, low cost of production, ease of preparation, chemical stability, and permanence in use so that they continue to form the basis of a small but useful industry. When used in paints such pigments act as a filler and supply body and opacity in addition to color. Natural mineral pigments are prepared for the market by the comparatively simple operations of washing, grinding, blending, and calcining. Any one, or all of these processes may be applied to a single pigment. The development of synthetic pigments and the use of by- product materials have introduced competition with the products of nature and are having a growing influence on the economic position of the mined minerals.

Jan 1, 1949

By AIME AIME

THE 129th meeting of the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers convened at New York City, in the Engineering Societies Building, Feb. 18-20, 1924. On February 21 an excursion was made to the Bethlehem Steel Co., at Bethlehem, where about 200 members and guests were splendidly entertained. An illustrated description of the Bethlehem Plant will be published next month. The meeting and excursion were largely attended; the registration at New York totalled 1276 versus 1201 in 1923. William Kelly, long identified with the iron-mining industry of the Lake Superior district, was elected President of the A. I. M. E. for the coming year, at ,the annual business meeting, Feb. 19, succeeding E. P. Mathewson. The following Directors were also elected (the date signifies year of termination of office; the final figure indicates the "District" the Director represents).

Jan 1, 1924

By T. A. Rickard

An educated man is distinguished neither by his clothes nor by his knowledge; he is replarkable not for the things he says, but for the way he says them. You cannot even stand with him under an archway in the rain without finding him out. He may talk only of the weather. His words and his phrases alike may be simple. -at distinguishes him is the arrange- ment of his words; however desultory his talk, it will be method- ical; he has habituated himself to foreseeing the part to be played by each word he uses and the place to be taken by each sentence he utters. On the other hand, the uneducated man, though shrewd and well-informed, will relate facts and events as they recur to him, generally in disorder; in his effort to recollect and in his attempt to rectify forgetfulness he will pause irregularly, filling the intervals with meaningless phrases, such as "and then ", "and: so ", or 'said he to me", "said I to him"; and even the contipuous parts of his story will be told confusedly-because he has not learned the proper use of words.* My own experience as an editor of technical manuscripts has taught me that the misuse of 'that' and 'which' is a fruitful cause of obscurity and confusion. The relative pronouns have distinct functions, and no writer can express himself clearly until he has learned to discriminate between these I functions. For example:

Jan 1, 1931

By W. O. Philbrook, L. D. Kirkbride

IN the normal operation of the iron blast furnace, reduction of the iron oxides is accomplished almost entirely above the tuyeres.' Blast furnace slags usually contain less than 0.5 pct FeO, although higher values may occur with abnormal operation. There is reason to conjecture, however, that incompletely reduced ore may sometimes reach the hearth and enter the slag as a result of heavy slips or, perhaps, even from cores of excessively large lumps of a charge material of poor reducibility. The possibility of reoxidation of iron droplets falling in front of the tuyeres has been considered by several writers. It would be of interest, to know how rapidly iron oxides reaching the slag for any of these reasons could be reduced by reaction with coke or with the high carbon liquid iron in the hearth. In comparison with the hundreds of papers that have appeared on various aspects of the reduction of solid iron oxides by gases and in the presence of several forms of carbon, little work has been published on the reductioin of liquid oxides or slags. Dancey measured rates of reaction of the pure liquid oxides, both FeO and Fe,O,, with molten iron containing about 4.3 pct C. The oxide was dropped into the cup formed in the upper surface of the iron by rotating the crucible and melt. Under these conditions, reduction of either FeO or Fe,O., was completed in less than 10 sec. The present study was concerned with the reduction of FeO from blast furnace-type slags containing less than 5 pct FeO and melted over carbon-saturated iron in stationary graphite crucibles. The results were considerably different from those found by Dancey, as will be discussed later. Although this work is of interest in relation to hearth reactions in the blast furnace, interpretations must be made with caution because the experimental conditions do not duplicate those within a furnace and may not even lead to the same reaction mechanism. The authors were motivated in undertaking this work by an additional interest—the part played by FeO reduction in the mechanism of de-sulphurization of iron by slags under similar experimental conditions. Derge, Philbrook, and Goldman eveloped detailed experimental evidence to support a three-step mechanism for desulphurization like that originally proposed by Holbrook and Joseph' (These reactions are written in molecular form for convenience, but this is not intended to imply the existence of molecules of FeS in the bulk metal phase nor to deny the likelihood of ionic reactions in the slag.) Earlier work by Chang and Goldman" had shown that the overall reaction follows first-order kinetics with respect to sulphur and that the rate of reaction is proportional to the slag-metal interface area, which observations have been confirmed by subsequent work. Later studiese,' have established the influence of al.loying elements on the first and last steps of the reaction. This paper reports a study of step 3 alone, uncomplicated by the simultaneous process of sulphur transfer. Apparatus and Procedure The experiments were made in a conventional high frequency induction furnace powered by a 35 kva Hg spark gap converter. The graphite crucibles used for most of the runs were 14 cm (5.5 in.) deep and 4.8 cm (1.9 in.) ID with 0.75 cm (0.3 in.) wall. An insulating cover with a small opening for withdrawing samples was used to minimize heat loss and infiltration of air into the furnace. The crucible was charged with 300 g of carbon-saturated iron and either 65 or 100 g of prefused slag analyzing 38.0 pct SiO,, 15.4 pct A10 and 47.1 pct CaO. To obtain the cleanest possible interface at the start of the reaction, the metal and slag were brought to temperature together to prevent the rejection of kish graphite that would have been caused by the chilling effect of a large addition of cold slag to carbon-saturated iron. After temperature control had been established, the desired amount of iron oxide was added in the form of a prefused slag of composition 73.6 pct FeO, 7.7 pct AWX and 19.0 pct SiOl. This slag addition was observed to be molten in somewhat less than 1 min, and a very vigorous reaction proceeded for 1 to 2 min after its introduction. Zero time was taken as 2 min after the ferrous silicate slag addition. Slag samples weighing about 0.5 g each were taken periodically by a copper chill sampler." The weight of the initial slag was large relative to the weight of samples removed, so that the slag weight never varied by more than 5 pct during any run. Temperature was measured by a calibrated W/Mo thermocouple immersed in the metal, with a graphite tip cemented over the fused silica protection tube to prevent attack by slag and metal. After some difficulties with uncertain temperatures during the first two runs, the practice adopted to position the thermocouple for reproducible results was to lower the protection tube to touch the bottom of the crucible and then raise it 0.5 cm. The apparent temperature gradient between the bottom of the crucible and the top of the slag was found to be 15°C (27°F). but much of this spread was probably the result of inadequate immersion of the protection tube to off-set conduction losses along the graphite tip when the thermocouple was inserted only into the slag. The temperature of the bath was controlled within 25°C (9°F) during a run.

Jan 1, 1957

By Sheldon P. Wimpfen

EVER since the Phoenicians roamed the known world in quest of metals to harden their helmets and precious metals and gems to adorn their ladies, many other nations have sought metals in the far corners of the earth. During the past 75 years American engineers have been among the foremost in seeking for and developing ore deposits. They have been responsible for many of the principal discoveries and for the application of modern methods to mines in the far comers of the earth. American mining engineers with a zest for travel and an insatiable appetite for metals have also introduced throughout the world many articles made of metal which we consider essential to everyday life. Production and consumption of these metals in many foreign countries has brought to these countries an increased standard of living and added tax revenue to their governments. But unfortunately engineers from this country are no longer given ready access to all the countries of the world. This is not only unfortunate for American engineers but also for the countries that have adopted the exclusion policies and especially so since time has proved that in countries where the American engineers have gradually been excluded there has been a significant decline in the progress of the mining industry. Removal of these barriers to professional men would aid immensely in the world-wide development of the mineral industries. New areas brought into production under the guidance of American engineers with their exceptional know-how would provide more jobs for nationals of the countries involved and a better standard of living for the nations as a whole.

Jan 1, 1946

By Elmer A. Jones

Development work in mines of St. Joseph Lead Co., Southeast Missouri, using trackless loading equipment shows definite advantages: Speed of cleaning, ability to work on steep grades and sharp crosscuts, good later tracking conditions, and possibility of wasting rock in old abandoned stopes.

Jan 1, 1950

By J. B. Dilworth

OUTCROPS of coal have bees discovered is many localities is the Philippine archipelago, and practically all of the larger islands contain deposits of this mineral. Very little prospecting has been done to determine the value of the various coal-bearing areas, but so far as known, the largest and most promising fields are found : (1) is northern Cebu; (2) is the small island of Batan, a part of the province of Albay is southeasten Luzon; (3) is the somewhat larger island of Polillo, off the east coast of Luzon, and (4) is southern Mindoro, sear the small coast tows of Bulalacao. Northern Panay, south-central Cebu, and various localities is southern Luzon, Masbate, Negros, and Mindanao also afford evidences of the existence of coal-beds, the extent and value of which have not yet bees proved. The general position of these islands and districts is shows on the map of a portion of the Philippine Islands, Fig. 1. Some of these coal-fields have been known for many years (coal was discovered is Cebu 1827 and is Batas is 1842),1 and several futile attempts were made by the Spaniards to operate mines is these districts. But owing to many circumstances, chief among which were indifferent management, the political unrest of the islands, natural difficulties of transportation, and those inherent in the mining of steeply-inclined and somewhat irregular seams, no considerable output was ever obtained from any of these mines, and the fuel required is the many departments of industrial and political life has continued to be drawn largely from Australia and Japan. These conditions exist to a great degree at present, and though much interest is the coal-deposits of the Philippines

Jan 1, 1909

By Howard S. Bryant

FROM the viewpoint of the oil producer, the oil refiner, the oil marketer, and the investor, in oil securities, a brief picture of the crude oil supply and demand in the present critical season of the year will be timely and interesting. Although crude oil production has been in a comparatively poor statistical position this year, increased sales and sustained refinery and crude oil prices have allowed increased profits for many oil companies. The large amount of crude oil going into storage during the present period of peak consumption, just previous to the major yearly fall decline in consumption, has caused oil producers to make plans to leave the oil in the ground for the present in several of the areas of large flush production. The present moment is looked on as the turning point in the current year.

Jan 1, 1929

By Charles S. Barrett, Robert F. Mehl

The system cadmium-mercury has attracted much attention, chiefly because of its importance in the study of electrochemical standard cells. The constitutional diagram, as it is accepted today, is essentially that developed by Bijl l (Fig. 1), though there has been a great amount of work done on the system by other workers.2 A year ago the senior author published a paper on the crystal structure of the system, in which were described determinations of crystal structure

Jan 1, 1930

By Hans Lundberg

GEOPHYSICAL methods as described in technical articles generally fail to answer the questions of prospectors and geologists as to which method they should apply and what information they may expect from their application. This article is an attempt to discuss the use of electrical methods with special reference to the prospecting for orebodies and the map¬ping of geologic structure. Especially on virgin ground, geological reconnaissance should precede electrical prospecting, with the object of outlining carefully the orebearing rock and determining the possibilities of elec¬trical prospecting. No electrical survey will then be carried out on ground which, for geological reasons, may be considered barren or where the electrical meth¬ods are inapplicable. As the success of electrical prospecting depends on the difference in conductivity between the ore and the country rock within which the orebody is inclosed, the conductivity of the two should be considered and de¬termined, if possible. The conductivity of an orebody depends on the distribution of conductive ore minerals and, in addition, on its size (length, width and depth). Most minerals with metallic luster show good electrical conductivity; for instance, the sulfides. Zinc-blende is an exception, but as it is often associated with the ore minerals of good conductivity (for instance, pyrite or galena), there is likelihood also of finding zinc.

Jan 1, 1930

By Harold Markus, Gerhard Derge, Arthur Grobe

THE high corrosion resistance possessed by tin under most circumstances, combined with its generally satisfactory appearance and useful physical properties, has led to many and varied uses for the metal. These uses have been partly limited by the fact that tin is an expensive metal, therefore many applications have been developed in which tin has been employed in combination with lead, either by coating, as in tin-lined collapsible tubes, or by the formation of alloys containing various proportions of tin-rich and lead-rich phases, as terne plate. A detailed knowledge of the corrosion characteristics of the tin-lead couple therefore is of general interest and has become specially important at the present time, when every effort is being made to conserve tin as much as possible. The present study has been limited to carbonate solutions with a pH range from 8.4 to 11.2 so that the results may be related to earlier work on the corrosion of tin and its alloys.1-3,6 In these papers, the effects of a number of anion and cation additions to these solutions have been observed. APPARATUS AND METHOD The electrodes for the corrosion cell were cut from rolled sheet about 1/16 in. thick. The length of all specimens was held constant at 7 in., while the width was varied from ½ to 2 in. These electrodes were fastened to brass electrode supports, which were attached to rubber stoppers fitting into tall-type one-liter Pyrex beakers that contained the electrolyte. The lead electrodes were prepared from Omaha pig* and the tin was rolled from a slab of Chempur.† After cutting to size, the sheets were polished with No. I emery paper and cleaned with carbon tetrachloride. The edges, back and upper parts of the specimen were coated with a synthetic lacquer, which was supplemented with beeswax for the lead electrodes. The binding posts were coated with beeswax after the electrodes had been clamped. The pH of the electrolyte was controlled by adjusting the ratio of carbonate to bicarbonate. Approximately 600 ml. of electrolyte was used in each beaker. The entire assembly was placed in an oil bath thermostatically adjusted to operate at 30°C. ± 0.1°. Potentials were measured against a saturated calomel electrode connected to the cell by an agar-agar salt bridge. The carbonate solution used in the salt bridge was the same as that used in the corrosion cell. Currents were measured with a milliam-

Jan 1, 1942

By L. H. Cadoff, L. M. Adelsberg

The layer growth method has been used to investigate the reaction kinetics of liquid titanium and hafnium with carbon and the [liq] - [liq + TiC] and [liq] - [liq + HfC] phase boundaries at temperatures above 1800°C. The equipment and experimental procedures used in this investigation are basically identical to those described in an earlier paper' on the Zr-C reaction. Temperature control, however, was improved significantly by connecting a Latronics Colo-Ratio automatic pyrometer and a controller to the power source. The subsequent temperature variations were ±10°C; previously ±20°C was obtained using manual controls. The absolute accuracy of the pyrometer, however, must be considered to be only ±40°C.* The spectrographic analyses of the materials used in this study are listed in Table I. The isothermal reactions of titanium (1800° to 2700°C) and hafnium (2300" to 3000°C) with carbon (graphite crucibles) resulted in the formation of carbon-saturated liquid metal and layers of Tic and HfC, respectively. The thicknesses of the carbide layers, determined from metallographic measurements at 100 times, as a function of carburization time and temperature are given in Figs. 1 and 2. At each temperature, parabolic growth behavior for these reactions was observed and could be expressed as x2 =Kpt, where X is scale thickness (corrected for heating and coolingL), Kp the parabolic growth constant, and t the isothermal carburization time. Values of Kp as a function of temperature for the carbides are shown in Fig. 3 and listed in Table 11. The growth constants are expressible as: kpTiC = 0.2 exp(-61,800/RT) sq cm per sec for Tic and Kp HfC = 2.62 exp(-95,300/RT) sq cm per sec for HfC. The liquidus phase boundaries were determined from metal samples treated in graphite crucibles for different times ranging from 4 to 100 min at each of the temperatures indicated in Table 11. Metallographic examination revealed that the carbide precipitates were distributed uniformly throughout the frozen metal matrices. This is attributed to the rapid cooling rates (800°C per min) and the small difference in density between the precipitated carbide and the liquid metal.

Jan 1, 1968

By O. M. TUPPER

REQUIRING a finer ground clay than that obtainable with a dry pan or hammer mill, the Clay Corporation of California installed a five-roller, low- side Raymond impact mill at its Lincoln plant in 1925 and since then has been economically grinding fire clay with a moisture content as high as 15 per cent. This was one of the first, if not the first, of this type of mill to be used in the grinding of clay on the Pacific coast. The pulverizer consists of a die-ring, lying in a horizontal plane, enclosed in a sheet-iron housing. A vertical shaft supports a spider from which five rolls are suspended in such a way as to always have them bearing on the die-ring. The vertical mill shaft is driven by means of beveled gear and pinion from a horizontal shaft which is connected by belt with a 60-hp. motor with suitable pulleys to give a speed of 175 r.p.m. A large fan which has a speed of 1100 r.p.m. and is belt connected to a 40-hp. motor is connected to the mill housing. The discharge end of the fan is in turn connected to a cyclone dust collector.

Jan 1, 1929

By H. H. Otto

COMPARED with 1939, the year 1940 has seen no material change in the production of anthracite. Many factors seem to indicate a stabilized anthracite production of approximately 50 million tons per year. The present war has stimulated demand in the Cana¬dian and New England markets, which were formerly furnished with a portion of their needs from Great Britain and other European countries. Neither has there been any material change in the "bootleg coal" situation. This problem is more serious in the Southern anthracite field than in the Hazleton, Wilkes-Barre, and Scranton areas. One reason for this is the nearness of the Southern field to the large anthracite markets in Philadelphia, Washington, Baltimore, and Harrisburg. During the past year no new large

Jan 1, 1941

WILLIAM B. PRICE* and PHILIP DAVIDSON, ? Waterbury, Conn. (written discussion?).-A few months ago we became interested in deter-mining the properties of. pure nickel as a metal for certain uses and arranged, in cooperation with the International Nickel Co., a series of tests on cold-rolled so-called pure nickel and both longitudinal and transverse specimens annealed at 100° intervals from 250° to 1050° C. Since our tests confirmed; in a general way, the observation put forth by Messrs. Browne and Thompson, they are given at this time. A bar of hot-rolled nickel about 9 in. (23 cm.) wide and 1/2 in. (12.7 mm.) thick made by the International Nickel Co. -of grade A stock, analyzing nickel plus cobalt 98.48 per cent., iron 0.67 per cent., manganese 0.27 per cent., carbon 0.07 per cent., silicon 0.162 per cent., sulfur 0.033 per cent., and copper 0.22 per cent., was cold-rolled down to a final thickness of 0.134 in., malting a 73.2 per cent. reduction by rolling. Test specimens, 9 by 1 in., cut parallel (marked longitudinal) and normal (marked transverse) to the direction of rolling were milled to give a test section 2 5/8 in. long by 0.5 in. wide. Three specimens each, longitudinal and transverse, were annealed at one time in a nichrome-ribbon-wound tube furnace. The temperatures were taken with a Pt-PtRh thermo-couple in conjunction with an Engelhard millivoltmeter. An annealing period of .) 2 hr. plus 25 min. preheating was used in all cases. Sclero-scopic and Brinell hardness tests and static tensile tests were made on the rolled and annealed specimens. The tensile tests are shown in graphic form in Fig. 7. The Brinell and scleroscopic values are given herewith.

Jan 11, 1919

By Leendert de Witte

Conventional resistivity logs consisting of a short normal, a long normal, and one or more long lateral curves do not give data that allow a complete quantitative interpretation in beds thinner than 20 ft. Reservoir rocks usually exhibit zones of continuous homogeneity of quite limited thickness where the long lateral curves become useless because of adjacent bed effects and boundary phenomena. If the beds are 12 ft or thicker, the short and long normals may be used for qualitative interpretation, which can be streamlined by the application of simplified departure curves. For beds of a thickness less than twice the long normal spacing, this procedure breaks down. The combination of the limestone curve, the later-olog or guard electrode log, and the microlaterolog permit quantitative interpretation for beds that are at least 10 ft thick, provided the mud resistivity and the hole diameter are known with sufficient accuracy. For beds thinner than 10 ft, combinations of the microlaterolog with short spaced laterologs and pseudo laterologs appear to be promising. Interpretation of these curves again requires the application of simplified departure curves. Resolution of various possible combinations was analyzed using departure curve data calculated on the Whirlwind I computer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A field example is shown using the microlaterolog-microlog combination, and the combination of a 6-in. modified laterolog plus a 6-in. pseudo laterolog. INTRODUCTION For the purpose of quantitative interpretation of resistivity logs in porous formations, we want to obtain two essential quantities from the logs, namely, the true resistivity of the undisturbed formation, Rt, and the resistivity of the part of the formation invaded by mud filtrate, Rt. The apparent resistivities of all conventional logging devices are functions of these two parameters and are also influenced by a third unknown parameter, the diameter of the invaded zone, d. It has been shown' that from the normal curves alone it is impossible to arrive at a unique solution for the three unknowns, Rt, R1, and d1. In very thick homogeneous beds, if invasion is not too deep, we can obtain a fair approximation to Rt from the long lateral curves and then use the two normal curves to find Rt and d1 Even under the most favorable conditions, the resolution of this system is not very good. The short normal does not give a reasonable approximation to R1 unless invasion is very deep (dl>16 hole diameters). For very deep invasion, however, the long laterals no longer approximate Rt. For bed thickness between 20 and 40 ft, the long laterals are affected appreciably by the adjacent beds; and the curves are distorted by boundary anomalies to the extent that they lose their quantitative usefulness in most cases. For the same bed thicknesses, the normal curves still function reasonably well. Although it is impossible to find unique solutions Lor R1 and Rt using the normal curves alone, we can obtain a reasonable approximation for the ratio R1/Rt through the use of simplified departure curves. This fact was brought to our attention by A. J. de Witte, geologist with Continental Oil Co. As the magnitude of Rl/Rt is a major clue to the presence of oil in formations, this method can be used to good advantage for qualitative analysis and will be discussed in somewhat greater detail. With the aid of suitable bed thickness corrections, the analysis of the normal curves may be used for bed thicknesses larger than 12 ft. For thinner beds, the method rapidly loses its resolution; and we have to resort to different types of resistivity logs if we want to attempt to analyze the curves quantitatively. The inadequacy of conventional resistivity curves in thin beds is far more serious than generally realized. Fig. 1 shows a conventional E. S. with a 16-in. and 64-in. normal and a 16-ft lateral through a section of Lansing-Kansas City lime, in comparison to a guard electrode survey through the same section in a neighboring well. The porous zones, which show up as low resistivity breaks on the guard electrode log, are completely masked by adjacent bed effects and boundary anomalies on the conventional curves. Even the short normal shows most of the porous Zones only as Vague deflections and in many cases fails to register Their

Jan 1, 1955

By L. W. McKeehan

The occurrence of twins in large ferrite crystals, made by a new process, was reported in a recent note.' This paper describes a typical case of such twinning and suggests, on the basis of the observed facts, why smooth slip-planes are rarely observed in this metal. Method of Preparation The material in which the crystals here dealt with were grown was made from 1/8in. Armco iron welding rod containing C, 0.04; S, 0.037; P, 0.003; Si, 0.008, and Mn, 0.02 per cent. This rod was cold drawn into wire about 1 mm. dia. A piece of this wire was supported vertically and was locally heated in hydrogen at atmospheric pressure to about 1400" C. by an alternating current (60 cycles per sec.) of about 35 amp., passed through it between a pair of traveling contacts about 8 cm. apart. The rate of travel for the case in hand was 12 cm. per hr. After some 30 cm. of the length of the wire had been heated and cooled in this manner the whole wire was immersed for a few seconds in dilute nitric acid, not restrained by alcohol. Etching was continued until, as nearly as could be judged by eye, the original smooth cylindrical surface of the wire was no longer capable of specular reflection. Measurements The wire in the etched state was next mounted in a goniometer of special form which allowed the measurement of the spherical coordinates of the normals to any plane surfaces left by the etching. These coordinates were most conveniently a polar distance, 8, from one direction of the wire axis, and an azimuth or longitude, ?, from an arbitrary prime meridian. The region to be described more particularly is shown at a low magnification in Fig. 1, which gives two different views, differently illuminated to show the spatial relationship of a crystal occupying most of the part shown and of an inclusion, or rather a series of three inclusions suspected of being twins based on the principal crystal.

By Will Mitchell, T. G. Kirkland, C. L. Sollenberger

R. S. Handy (Santa Rosa, Calif.)—It would be interesting to learn the comparative results of treating the Korean scheelite ore described in this paper according to the following procedure: I—Follow the procedure described in the paper to the recovery of the sulphides by flotation. 2—Dilute the residue from the sulphide flotation strongly with water and disperse the contained colloids by adding a mixture of 75 pct sodium silicate and 25 pct quebracho to dispersion point. 3— Settle the dispersed pulp and decant the supernatant colloids. 4—-Dilute, settle, and decant the pulp until the settled residue is crystalline. Not over 10 pct of the tungsten minerals should follow the colloids. 5—Treat the settled residue by flotation, having established the proper pH. Oleic acid homogenized with cresylic acid or kerosene is more selective for scheelite than is oleic acid alone. (The recovery of the contained tungsten minerals should be practically complete in this operation.) 6—Deflocculate the tungsten concentrate from step 5 with the same dispersion agents as in step 2 and treat the deflocculated pulp by gravity. The minerals that tend to float with scheelite are generally of low specific gravity and the separation is efficient. The heavier contaminants, such as pyrrhotite and magnetite can be removed magnetically, leaving a practically pure scheelite. E. J. Pryor (Imperial College of Science and Technology, London)—It occurred to me that instead of using temperature as a differentiating control, more precision might be obtained with a reagent of a type we developed here for the flotation of high grade fluorspar in cold pulps. This reagent, which is manufactured on a modest scale in England, is based on oleic acid, which has been modified by our patented process to ensure complete stable dispersion at any desired concentration in water. It thus becomes possible to utilise unimolecular layers with good selectivity. In the fluorspar flotation for which we developed it, it is possible to hold a tight control on depressing quebracho for the calcite without substantial loss of flu-orite, and recovery exceeding 99 pct is not uncommon in the mill where it is in use, even under wintry conditions. No attempt has been made yet to extend the use of the reagent, as we have not completely overcome

Jan 1, 1952

By H. E. Powell, A. A. Cochran, R. E. Coleman

Infrared spectroscopy, employing the internal reflection method in conjunction with solvent extraction techniques, was used to study surface reactions between aqueous potassium ethyl xanthate and both sphalerite and precipitated zinc sulfide, each activated with aqueous copper sulfate. It was determined that reactions occurring on the sphalerite and zinc sulfide surfaces produce the reaction products ethyl dixanthogen and cuprous ethyl xanthate, some of which are adsorbed on the mineral surfaces. As the pH of the xanthate solution increased from 5.6 to 11.0, the amount of cuprous ethyl xanthate on powdered sphalerite surfaces decreased and the amount of ethyl dixanthogen first increased and then decreased. It is generally accepted that the collector potassium ethyl xanthate will not float the mineral sphalerite (ZnS). However, Gaudin1 showed that sphalerite readily floats if activated with certain metal cations before exposure to the xanthate. Copper sulfate (CuSO4) was found to be the best activator for sphalerite. The over-all flotation reagent reaction, as given by Gaudin,3 is as follows: While this is the over-all reaction, the exact mechanism of the reaction and the intermediate compounds that may be formed are not yet known with certainty. Important work has been done in Russia by Plaksin

Jan 1, 1968