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By T. Egleston

The manufacture of charcoal in kilns was declared many years ago, after a series of experiments made in poorly constructed furnaces, to be unprofitable, and the subject is dismissed by most writers with the remark that in order to use the method economically the products of distillation, both liquid and gaseous, must be collected. It is asserted with truth that the number of kilns required for a large production of iron would be so great that it is doubtful whether any works would be justified in making the necessary outlay for their constructiou, but it can also be asserted with equal truth that for any such production in a given locality the use of charcoal as fuel would be eqnally unjustifiable. It appears to have been forgotten that there were other manufactures besides iron in which large amounts of charcoal were used, but these consumers seen] to have been guided entirely by the results of the experiments of the iron men, who necessarily made the largest qnantity of it. Some authors speak in a doubtful way of the quality of the charcoal produced, and a few concede that with great care good charcoal can he made in kilns, but that most of the workmen do not like kiln 'charcoal. This is the real secret of the opposition to this method of manufacture. Most of these objections were written when charcoal was the most important fuel used by the iron manufacturer, and when what was a largeproduction of iron for several furnaces was less than that produced by a single modern one, in localities where other fuels can be had. Almost all that has been written on the subject related to the use of the fuel for the manufacture of iron in the blast furnace, where very peculiar properties are required, and where the qnantity produced is limited by the height of the furnace, and this in turn by the crushing resistance of the charcoal. A large production was, therefore, only possible when the best and hardest woods were used. Of all these objections there is not a single one which is not eqnally applicable to any method of charcoal manufacture, whether it be meilers, pits, or furnaces. Until recently, therefore, the manufacturers of charcoal iron

Jan 1, 1880

By Frederick L. Knouse

THE south border of Espirito Santo begins about 400 km. north of Rio de Janeiro and extends along the Atlantic Coast northward some 325 km. and inland 100 to 150 km. The area under consideration, where quartz crystal of strategic grades has been mined, extends from 19° to 21° and 30" south latitude; and from 40° to 41° and 30" west longitude. This includes the central part of Espirito Santo, chiefly south of the Rio Doce from the Atlantic ocean, and west across the border into Minas Gerais near the town of Aimores, in the municipalities of Aimores, Minas Gerais; Baixo Guandu, Santa Teresa, Santa Leopoldina, Colatina, Joao Neiva, Fundao and Domingo Martines, Espirito Santo (Fig. 1). During 1943 and the first half of 1944, this region accounted for approximately 3 to 5 per cent of the quartz crystal produced in Brazil. Shipments of crystal have been made chiefly by rail to Rio de Janeiro. This region is serviced by the E. F. Minas-Vitoria and E. F. Leopoldina to Rio de Janeiro through Vitoria; and by the E. F. Minas-Vitoria and E. F. Central do Brasil through Bello Horizonte, Minas Gerais to Rio de Janeiro. The major deposits are accessible from the railheads by dirt roads, some being 5 to 30 km. off the road, reached by trail. In 1943 and the first half of 1944, the bulk of the production was from inter mountain marshes and adjoining hillside alluvial placer deposits in the zone surrounding the town of Santa Teresa. Most of these deposits were formed from the erosion of pegmatites, quartz veins and pockets in the gneiss, with minor quantities produced from miarolitic cavity fillings in the granitic rock. EARLY OPERATIONS Mining of quartz crystal in this region began in 1928, and has been stimulated by the market demand for military uses. Before 1936 little attention was given to it, either in Espirito Santo or eastern Minas Gerais. From 1936 to 1941 the Japanese sent agents to various points of production or potential production to acquire quartz through purchase. They bought crystal as small as 10 grams. Since 1941 only the United States and Great Britain have received quartz from Brazil. The United States purchases crystals of loo grams and larger for strategic purposes. The first known discoveries were made either in the municipalities of Aimores, Minas Gerais, or in Baixo Guandu, or Domingos Martines, Espirito Santo. Marketable quartz crystal was first found either in the massive quartz replacement veins of the Victor Hugo mine in the municipality of Domingo Martines, or in the large cores of quartz in the pegmatites near Baixo Guandu, extending into Minas Gerais. PRODUCTION The production of quartz in Espirito Santo from 1936 through 1941 as recorded

Jan 1, 1946

By L. A. Delano

During 1916, the St. Joseph Lead Co. milled 2,505,670 tons of ore. This is a daily operating average of 7855 tons. The economic concentration of such a large tonnage necessarily requires a plant equipped with modern machinery and operated efficiently. The milling process used in producing this output has been a gradual development through the long period of years that the company has been in existence. HISTORICAL SUMMARY OF MILLING PRACTICE Ore was first mined at Bonne Terre, Mo., in 1864. The early milling practice was crude. It consisted of breaking the ore into small pieces by hand, pulverizing in a Blake crusher and a pair of Cornish rolls to approximately minus 6 mm., and jigging in the old-fashioned hand jigs. Only the coarse heavy galena was saved, the gangue being shoveled off and discarded. The output for the first year under this method was only 240 tons of pig lead. The first mill of the company was a combination of extensions and additions built from time to time as the mines developed. It was a museum of early milling machinery, such as jigs, percussion tables, buddies, dolly tubs, log washers, etc., following no definite flow sheet. The chats, or tailings, were hauled to waste dumps by mule and ox teams, as much as 500 tons per day being moved in this manner, until a railroad was built in 1880. This mill was burned in 1883, at which time the annual output had reached approximately 7300 tons of pig lead. A new mill of 500 tons capacity was designed and built by C. B. Parsons. This mill has been admirably described by H. S. Munroe.' The ore was crushed in Blake crushers, Cornish rolls, through 6-mm. screens, and treated by jigs of the Parsons type, percussion tables and log washers, or trunking machines, for cleaning the galena. The middlings were recrushed in rolls and treated on Harz jigs. The mill was operated without change, except later installing Gates crushers and en-

Jan 1, 1918

By R. M. Brick

AN increased demand for information in regard to the effect of gaseous elements in steel has accompanied the recognition of the importance of grain size. Attempts to correlate grain-size characteristics with gas con-tent, particularly oxygen in solution or in the form of included metallic oxides, have not been universally successful. Certain definite effects of dissolved gases are recognized; specifically, the role of hydrogen in causing internal cracks or "flakes" and that of nitrogen in preventing excessive grain growth of ferritic chromium steels. When irregular behavior or properties are found in a well-known steel and no definite cause for the abnormality may be assigned on the basis of chemical and metallographic tests, dissolved gases are frequently blamed as the culprits. The solubilities of hydrogen1 and nitrogen2 in pure liquid iron are known but of the ternary systems, iron-alloying element-gas, only the Fe-Si-N3 and Fe-Cr-N systems have received attention and here the study was confined to liquid alloys. Krivobok4 published a curve show-ing the solubility of nitrogen in liquid Fe-Cr alloys but gave no informa-tion on the experimental procedure employed. The considerable experimental work reported on the Cr-N binary alloys has been reviewed by Hansen.5 It is generally agreed that the nitride CrN is a stable phase although the existence of nitrides within limited temperature ranges of stability, viz., Cr3N2 and Cr2N, has been disputed, Adcock6 and others7 have reported a eutectic between Cr and CrN at 1580°C., although the supporting evidence is not complete.

Jan 1, 1940

Jan 1, 1929

By J. B. Morrow

WITH numerous plans under consideration for coal classification, and with the advent of the Bituminous Coal Code, the intelligent sam-pling of coal has become increasingly important. To us it is rather significant that there have been very few fundamental studies of coal sampling in American technical literature since those of E. G. Bailey, which appeared in the Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry in March, 1909. He covered the subject up to that time so thoroughly and in such an excellent manner that perhaps many other later students have felt that they could add very little to his findings. The recent studies of the British Engineering Standards Association have indicated the possibility of a somewhat different interpretation of Bailey's results, permitting the taking of smaller samples, and perhaps it will now be helpful to reopen this question. C. W. H. Holmes, in an informative series of articles on coal sampling recently published in Colliery Engineering, makes two rather interesting statements, as follows: It is scarcely surprising to find a lack of interest and knowledge regarding the sampling of coal not only in the mining industry itself but also among consumers of industrial fuel: at its best coal sampling is a dirty business, regarded as a nuisance and an expense by the commercial man, and usually as a nuisance and nothing else by the chemist. The writer can conceive only two classes of people who have never experienced any difficulty in obtaining representative samples of coal from wagons; those who have never tried to, and those who have never had the necessity or desire to check the accuracy of their work. The primary purpose of this paper is to present some tabulated data of the more significant results of a sampling investigation undertaken during the last four years to obtain certain fundamental data on the variables connected with coal sampling and to point out that often assumptions have been made that are not in accordance with the facts. One of the standard sampling methods states:

Jan 1, 1935

By Robert Linton

Tats paper deals with work that has been carried on for over three years by the management and staff of the North Butte Mining Co. in an effort to standardize mining methods, to eliminate lost motion in the operating organization, and to improve the efficiency of the individual workman. Naturally, much of this work is an adaptation of ideas suggested by other mining operations or by practice in manufacturing and other productive industries. The studies, however, have developed some features that it is believed are new. Both new and adapted features are given in detail. The normal capacity of the North Butte mines is about 2000 tons per. day. Hoisting is done principally through the Granite Mountain shaft, which is 3740 ft. (1140 m.) deep and equipped with an electric hoist capable of hoisting 200 tons per hour from a depth of 4000 ft. (1219 m.). The lowest stoping level is the 3400-ft. The Granite Mountain shaft is connected with the Speculator shaft, about 850 ft. (259 m.) south, and with the Gem, about 1150 ft. (350 m.) east, which are 3000 (914.4 m.) and 2000 ft. (609.6 m.). deep, respectively. These two shafts are equipped with reversible fans for ventilation. The Speculator has a; steam hoist with a capacity of 150 tons per hour from the 3000-ft. level. The Granite Mountain shaft is concrete lined from the 1600-ft. to below the 3000-ft. level and gunited with cement from the 1600-ft. level to the surface. Sections of the Speculator shaft with a total combined length of 500 ft. (152.4 m.) are also concreted. There are approximately 36 miles (58 km.) of drifts and crosscuts in the mine, in which there are 15.2 miles (24.5 km.) of track. At normal capacity, about 75 stoping faces, 20 raises, and 30 sill development faces are working. Stoping is usually by the standard square-set method. Where the size of the oreshoot and character of. the walls permit, the rill (or cut-and-fill) system is employed.

Jan 8, 1920

By J. P. Pritchard, J. T. Pierce, O. G. Slay

This paper discusses the results of a technology-evaluation program to ascertain the feasibility of a piotornask-photoresist technology developed for fabrication of multiple-layer thin-film superconductive circuitry. The uehicle selected for this evaluation was a 120-bil associative data processor requiring a set of nine photomasks to define a similar number of patterned material layers of lead, tin, and polymer insulation. A total circuit area of 4 sq in. involved 2500 actitle and 12,000 passive crossings. Several short-free, electrically continuous specimens were satisfactorily completed under this program. Problems encountered in the preparation and use of the requi-ed set of Photomasks are discussed, as also are the problets of providing suitable external connections. A major retarding factor in the development of the superconducting thin-film cryotron technology for many years was the absence of batch fabrication means yielding necessary device density and count per substrate for practical applications. Early workers in the field desired only limited numbers of devices to permit careful study of discrete devices and representative circuitry integrating logic and memory capabilities. For these purposes mask stencils could be formed to selectively control the placement of materials, sequentially vapor-deposited in vacuum, to form the multilayer structure. In general a distinct pattern was required for each material layer; therefore, mechanical provisions were required to change not only the material source, but the patterning mask as well, before each deposition. All deposition steps were preferably performed in a single evacuation of the deposition chamber. Thus the means for storing, transporting, and registering masks and sources with respect to the substrate existed and were operated within the vacuum environment. In the authors' experience, the approach was and remains serviceable for preliminary device study, but was not extensible to an economical manufacturing method by virtue of the difficulties inherent in mask stencil preparation and use, and the capital investment implicit in the mechanization requirements. Since the commercial attraction of the cryotron technology stems principally from its potential for economical batch fabrication, the authors' program has placed major emphasis on fabrication methods. A highly useful method has evolved through adaptation

Jan 1, 1967

[NORTH AMERICA ALASKA Anchorage.-Strandberg, H. Chlchagoff.-Russell, J. C. College.-Barber. R. J. Dorsh, J. B. Fox, E. F. Joesting, H. R. McAnerney, J., M. Douglas.-Cahill, W. E. Fairbanks.-Beistline, E. H. Crawford, J. D. Earling, R. B. Greves, J. H. Harris, Q. P., Jr. Henton, H. M. Herbert, C. F. Hester. W. B. Hopkins, J. E. Kreitlow, E. J. MacDonald, D., III March, J. P. Mathews, T. C.]

Jan 1, 1940

By George H. Found

During recent years considerable interest has been focused on the energy-absorption characteristics of metal when it is cyclically stressed in vibration. The most familiar manifestation of this phenomenon, which is called the "damping capacity" or "internal friction" 06 a material, is involved in the dissipation of mechanical energy of vibration, which otherwise would build up to stress levels where the problems of noise and fatigue are involved. In addition to its engineering importance in structures, the damping behavior of metals, particularly at low stress amplitudes, has also been used as a unique metallurgical research tool with which to provide sensitive means for indicating certain structural changes within metals. Important contributions toward understanding the energy-dissipating -mecha-nisms that are responsible for internal friction in metals have been made in the last few years. The information is not yet sufficiently extensive, however, to provide a useful metallurgical concept describing exactly how the structure affects the internal friction, or to encourage more general use of this technique among metallurgists. Three fundamental mechanisms have been proposed, as a result of recent experi- mental investigations, to account for the internal friction in nonferrous metals in low-stress amplitude tests. These include damping due to internal thermal currents that are created and flow in metal because of differential vibratory stress effects,' damping due to localized inelastic stress relaxation at inhomogeneities within the meta1,2,3 and damping related to plastic flow of a localized type for which an explanation has been sought in terms of the dislocation theory.' How each of these mechanisms functions as a result of structural changes in the metal is, in general, not well understood because of insufficient experimental data for which the controlling variables ham been segregated and because of uncertainties in regard to the nature of the structural changes themselves. In several investigations the effects of cold-working on the internal friction of polycrystalline brass and aluminum have been described. As reported by Köster and Rosenthal,5 and by Förster and Breitfield,6 there is an initial large increase in the damping when the metal is worked. The initial high value is not stable, but declines rapidly, at first, in a hyperbolic manner. About Ioo hr. after straining, a stable value is reached of magnitude proportional to the amount of strain.' In Fig. I is shown the relationship found by Zener and his collaborators between the internal friction due to cold-working of alpha brass and the amount of cold-working.8 Several investigators have made internal-friction measurements on worked poly-

Jan 1, 1945

By Clifford Wilson

SCREENED pipe is designed with the view of restraining the fine, free-running sands of the production zone from entering oil wells. Its successful use is dependent on a number of factors. The nature and effects of some of these factors can be determined through experiment and observation, but some of the elements that have a distinct bearing on the use of screened pipe can be evaluated only by estimate. The important subsurface conditions which affect the use of screened pipe are: 1. Depth of production zone. 2. Extent of production zone. 3. Reservoir pressure. 4. Character and relative quantity of oil and gas. 5. Character of sediments a. Consolidation of beds. b. Variation in beds. c. Grain-size gradation of sands. d. Free-running characteristics of sand from different levels. Aside from the use. of mechanical equipment and tools, the measures to be taken in the installation of screened pipe involve: 1. Size of liner. 2. Length of liner. 3. Design and mesh of screen. 4. Portion of liner to be screened. 5. Manner of setting liner. 6. Preparation of or washing of the well before or during the setting of the screen. 7. Manner of bringing in the well. 8. Manner of flowing the well. Values applicable to the actual subsurface conditions that exist at any well can only be approximated. The accuracy of the estimate will be measured by the amount and quality of the evidence at hand and the personal factor of ability to interpret the evidence fairly, whether

Jan 1, 1932

By R. W. Diamond

THREE mills are now operated by the Consolidated Mining & Smelting Co. of Canada, Ltd.: (1) The Sullivan Concentrator, Chapman Camp, B. C. (near Kimberley, B. C.), (2) the, St. Eugene Concentrator, Moyie, B. C., and (3) the. Tadanac (Customs) Concentrator,Trail, B. C. Differential flotation is the only concentration method employed in all three plants. Tables are used for pilot work only. Values in all ores treated are as minerals of some or all of the metals -lead, zinc, gold or silver. Occasional customs ores contain small amounts of copper. Sulfide iron content of ores treated varies from a FIG. 1.-THE SULLIVAN CONCENTRATOR, CHAPMAN CAMP, B. C. (NEAR KIMBERLEY, B. C.). low figure in some ores to 38 per cent. iron in Sullivan ore. Gangue minerals vary considerably. A few customs ores are somewhat oxidized and as a result present difficulties. Flotation equipment and control are similar in the three mills, and the flow sheets at the St. Eugene and Tadanac mills, while much simpler, are modeled after that of the Sullivan Concentrator. In this paper I will not detail treatment nor equipment in any of our plants but will describe special features in, or in connection with, all of them. I will then deal with flotation reagents, describing our use of each of them, particularly where differing from general practice. I will conclude with comments on special subjects related to differential-flotation.

Jan 1, 1927

By O. D. A. Pease, C. D. Young, C. H. Strand

In an effort to employ cast steel of a stronger structure than that found in the annealed steel casting, the possibilities of heat treatment which will increase the strength without materially decreasing the ductulity may be resorted to.

Jan 1, 1915

By R. F. Shurtz

The author proposes a method used with some success on a magnesite deposit at Gabbs, Nev. He believes this procedure to be more sound than the blind practice of assigning uniform quality to large, soinetimes vast blocks or ore on the basis of analyses made of a small number of samples. When an ore deposit is evaluated on the basis of core sampling, questions always arise as to how much weight should be given the various sample grades and how the deposit should be divided into specific volumes assigned to corresponding grades. For a tabular deposit it is customary to use the so-called zone-of-influence. This zone is usually defined as the polygon in the plane of the deposit having corners halfway between a given core drill intersection and each of the nearest neighboring intersections. The volume of the ore in this polygon is assigned the analysis obtained from the drill core taken at the intersection. In massive or irregular deposits, volumes of various shapes may be defined with respect to the locations of drill core samples. These volumes may be regarded as three-dimensional zones-of-influence; the theory involved in assigning the values of the central analyses to the ore in the volumes is the same as that used in the case of a tabular deposit. The zone-of-influence method was used in evaluating one of the magnesite deposits at Gabbs, Nev.'-"

Jan 1, 1960

By Robert E. Palmer

The Hawkesworth detachable drill steel shank and bit were invented by A. L. Hawkesworth, while he was a mechanical foreman for the Anaconda Copper Mining Co., at Butte, Mont. Mr. Hawkesworth died on June 16, 1925, at the time that his invention was practically a proved success. The first application for patents was made by him in November, 1918, and the bit is now being manufactured under patents issued in 1922 and 1923. The credit for its development in the early stages belongs to A. L. Hawkesworth, Roy S. Alley, Harry A. Gallwey, E. J. Bowman and various officials of the Anaconda Copper Mining Co. Later improvements, manufacturing problems and the direct usage in the mines were originated and perfected by the mechanical department under C. D. Woodward, E. R. Borcherdt, head of the Rock Drill Equipment Department, Robert E. Kelly of the Mechanical Department, and various operating department heads of the Anaconda Copper Mining Co. The author wishes to acknowledge the assistance of these officials in the preparation of this paper. Comparison of Costs Using Regular Drill Steel and Detachable Drill Steel In 1922 production was satisfactory and sufficient enough to warrant a complete installation in an operating mine. The study and tests were made at the Badger State mine, the production of which averaged 1200 tons of ore per day. E. R. Borcherdt, head of the rock drill equipment department, was in direct charge of the trials, installation, operating problems and records during the entire .period, arid still continues in that position. This mine is a typical Butte mine, operated through a standard four-compartment shaft, served by a double drum hoist and an auxiliary hoist. The texture of the ground and ore has all the variations from soft to very hard granite and sulfide ore with production from levels between the

Jan 1, 1930

By R. W. Snyder, W. H. Guilinger, B. S. Gottfried

Two numerical methods are presented JOT solving the equations Jor one-dimensional, multiphase /low in porous media. The case oF variable physical properties is included in the Formulation, although gravity and capillarity are ignored. Both methods are analyzed mathematically, resulting in upper and lower bounds for the ratio of time step to mesh spacing. The methods are applied to two- and three-phase waterflooding problems in laboratory-size cores, and resulting saturation and pressure distributions and production histories are presented graphically. Results oJ the tuo-phase flow problem are in agreement with the predictions of the Buckley-Leuerett theory. Several three-phase flow problems are presented which consider variations in the water injection rate and changes in the initial oil-and ujater-saturation distributions. The results are different physically from the two- phase case; however, it is shown that the Buckley-Lez~erett theory can accurately predict fluid interlace velocities and displacing-fluid frontal snturations for three-phase flow, providing the correct assumptions are made. The above solutions are used as a basis JOT et~aluuting the numerical methods with respect to machine time requirements and allowable time step for a fixed mesh spacing. INTRODUCTION Considerable progress has been made in recent years in obtaining numerical solutions of the equations for two-phase flow in porous media. Douglas, Blair and Wagner2and McEwenll present different methods for solving the one-dimensional case for incompressible fluids with capillarity (the former using finite differences, the latter with an approach based upon characteristics). Fayers and Sheldon4 and Hovanesian and Fayers8 have extended these studies to include the effects of gravity. West, Garvin and Sheldon, l4 in a pioneer paper, treat linear and radial systems with both capillarity and gravity and they also include the effects of compressibility. Douglas, Peaceman and Rachford3 consider two-dimensional, two-phase, in compressible flow with gravity and capillarity and Blair and Peaceman1 have extended this method to allow for compressible fluids. No one, however, has examined the case of three-phase flow, even for the relatively simple case of one-dimensional flow of incompressible fluids in the absence of gravity and capillarity. In obtaining a numerical technique for simulating forward in situ combustion laboratory experiments, Gottfried5 has developed a method for solving the one-dimensional, compressible flow equations with any number of flowing phases. Gravity and capillarity are not included in the formulation. The method has been used successfully, however, for two- and three-phase problems in a variable-temperature field with sources and sinks. This paper examines the algorithm of Gottfried more critically. Two numerical methods are presented for solving the one-dimensional, multi-phase flow equations with variable physical properties. Both methods are analyzed mathematically, and are used to simulate two- and three-phase waterflooding problems. The numerical solutions are then taken as a basis for comparing the utility of the methods.

Jan 1, 1967

By Rodney Lawrence, Tim Hackett

INTRODUCTION The western USA contains significant coal reserves in seams 10 feet or more in thickness which lie too deep for surface mining. As part of a demonstration of the use of two legged shield supports in the United States, Kaiser Steel Corporation, under contract to the US government used the longwall method to mine a ten foot thick coal seam in New Mexico. Caliper type shield supports and double drum shearers were used in three longwall panels. During the test, technical, production, and safety data were collected to objectively evaluate the performance of the shields in mining the thick coal seam. This paper presents discussions of practical operating experience and summary statistics to aid the mining industry in planning longwall mines in similar conditions.

Jan 1, 1981

By Ross W. Smith, Nikhil Trivedi

The variation of point of zero charge (PZC) of both simple and complex oxide minerals was studied as a function of aging time in water. In most cases the PZC's of the simple oxides moved toward more basic pH values with aging time. Evidence to date suggests that this phenomenon relates to dissolution of disturbed layers on the mineral's surface accompanied by later readsorption of metal hydroxy species back onto these surfaces. The readsorption takes place after the solution becomes supersaturated with respect to some crystalline phase. The variation of PZC's of complex oxides as a function of aging time in water is apparently related to several different mechanisms. In a few cases PZC shifted toward more basic values with time. This shift could be attributed to much the same mechanism as for simple oxides. In most cases, however, PZC of complex oxides shifted toward more acid values with aging time, probably because of loss to solution of soluble cations whose oxides possess basic PZC's.

Jan 1, 1975

By T. S. Mohibatsela, R. V. Ramani, C. V. Manula

The Mineral Engineering Department of The Pennsylvania State University has developed a suite of computer models for anthracite open pit mining (Fig. 1)1 Individual sub-systems have been developed to (a) interpolate geologic field data to obtain coal tonnages, waste volumes, and strip ratios; (b) simulate equipment performance on selected pit profiles to generate data required to choose coal and waste removal equipment; and (c) evaluate selected cost factors to determine either a rate of return for a specified selling price or vice-versa. This paper describes the application of two of these subsystems, namely, the Reserves Model (GEOL) and the Open Pit Materials Handling Simulator (OPMHS), and how these may be applied for the selection of equipment for a prime anthracite mining site.2

Jan 1, 1981

By Richard D. Call

Predicting the performance of a waste embankment requires an estimate of the properties of the waste and foundation materials. The performance characteristics and the associated material properties are: [ ] Methods for obtaining estimates of the material properties include: laboratory and field testing, back analysis, and indirect estimates from other material properties. The most critical technical need is the development of indirect methods for use in feasibility studies and mine planning, prior to production when actual samples of waste material are not available. Material properties are not unique, single values; they are probability distributions. There are two components to these distributions: the uncertainties in testing and the inherent variability of the material. The objectives of a material properties evaluation should be to obtain an unbiased estimate of the property distributions rather than the average or the minimum value. Whether the current trend to a probability design analysis is followed or a simple sensitivity analysis is conducted, the unbiased probability distribution is preferable to single values.

Jan 1, 1985