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By A. A. Dor

Of the numerous methods that have been tested or considered for the beneficiation of low-grade iron ores, this article deals only with proven flowsheets that are adopted in plants in operation or which have been reliably pilot-plant tested. Several recommended layouts are described and discussed. They illustrate recent trends and embody improvements and new features that have resulted from the experience acquired in the operation of the plants already in service. They have been developed, in the last few years, in the course of designing several iron ore beneficiation plants of various types and sizes. Some of the design features in the layouts which are submitted represent, in some respects, personal views and may not meet the full approval of others in this field. It is hoped that this presentation will provide an opportunity for constructive discussion of the problems involved and of suitable solutions.

Jan 6, 1962

By A. Wahab Khair

This paper presents an analysis of fracture mechanisms in coal subjected to bi-axial state of stresses, indentation of laterally con- fined coal specimen. Coal specimens were loaded to failure by the straight wedge indenters at various lateral confinement pressures. Strain distribution and acoustic emission characteristics of coal specimens under stress were recorded. The influence lines of vertical forces acting on the horizontal straight boundary of the coal specimen for each type of wedge indenter have been established using holographic interferometry technique. The effects of wedge indenter angle, confinement pressure, and coal anisotropy on fracture types, failure modes, and post-failure conditions were studied. The results indicated that combined application of holographic interferometry and acoustic emission monitoring techniques is not only suitable for studying deformability of heterogeneous and microscopically discontinuous material under stress but it also enhances the mode of fracture during the post failure stage.

Jan 1, 1984

By AIME AIME

CLYDE WILLIAMS, after graduating from the University of Utah as a chemical engineer, worked for a time in western mills and smelters. He then joined the U. S. Bureau of Mines and during the World War studied Ordnance Department and Navy problems on ferroalloys and alloy steels at the Cornell University laboratories. Later, as superintendent of the Northwest Experiment Station of the Bureau, he was active in electric furnace and ore reduction work. Clyde then went to South America and surveyed the iron and fuel resources of the Argentine. Returning, he became chief metallurgist of the Columbia Steel Corp., of

Jan 1, 1936

By George H. Cook

(Read at the Wilkes-Barre Meeting, May, 1877.) AT first sight this subject seems to belong to pure theoretical geology, but examination will soon show that it has important practical and economic interest to the mining engineer. The conclusion that all the northern portions of our country, as well as of the eastern continent, have, in the later periods of geological history, been covered with a thick bed of ice, is now accepted by geologists. This bed of ice, except in its greater magnitude, was like the modern glaciers of the Alps, and other mountains which extend above the line of perpetual snow. The marks it has left upon the surface show that it was comparatively thin on its southern. edge, but that its thick¬ness was much greater a little further north, and that it was several thousand feet thick at its heaviest parts. This variation of its surface would give it a descending slope towards the south, and cause the mass of ice, like a semifluid substance, to move in that direction.

Jan 1, 1878

By James Douglas

American metallurgical inventions have not always been absolute metallurgical improvements, if accurate work be the standard of comparison; but when we review the new methods and machinery which have been generally accepted, we find that some have become essential to the metallurgist the world over, while all are so admirably adapted to the peculiar requirements of our local conditions that they have entirely supplanted foreign processes and appliances. The necessity of diminishing to the utmost the employment of labor (owing to its great cost), and the inexorable requirements of our modern joint-stock corporate system, which demands that large quantities be worked up in order to secure large returns, regardless betimes of waste, have been the impelling motives to invention, and indicate the special directions in which originality has been exercised. As might be anticipated, the West has been the most fertile field of inventions by miners and metallurgists, by reason of its great and varied mineral wealth, locked up in ores sometimes lean and often of intricate composition, which must be profitably handled, at a great distance from fuel and from building-materials, by workmen who are paid wages very much higher than those received by their fellow-workmen of like craft in Europe, and in some localities twice as high as those paid for like services even in the eastern States. Moreover, paradoxical as it may seem, the technical inexperience of many of those engaged in mining and metallurgy has helped rather than hindered the progress of invention; fop while there may have been ignorance, there has been radical freedom from

Jan 1, 1894

By R. C. Ferguson, B. Bernstrom

R.C. Ferguson (District Manager, Hardinge Company Inc., Hibbing, Minn.) — In the opening paragraph of Mr. Bernstrom's paper he stated that the Cascade mill performance information is preliminary. With the completion of the 1962 operating season, more reliable performance information became available. The main bearings, which had been damaged, were reconditioned at the factory. New Gatke bearing bushings with a 120° are of contact were supplied. Provision was made to introduce high pressure lubricant at two points in each bearing. New spherical bearing balls that operate in spherical seats were aligned at the factory and held in place by several setscrews to aid in installing the bearings in the field. The screws were not loosened prior to, or during, operation; therefore, the bearings operated as rigid bearings. The lubricant cooling system was changed to the cooling tower type to provide lubricating water of a suitable temperature. Another refinement consisted of installing a device to add a set percentage of soluble oil to the make-up water.

Jan 1, 1963

INTRODUCTION Much discussion has been generated over the years among geologists and engineers as to the ideal drill-hole configuration and spacing for evaluating various types of mineral deposits. Little can be found in the literature about the outcome of the programs, probably because of their subjective nature and the then lack of suitable means of scientific testing. In years past the drilling patterns and sequence were almost entirely determined by the experience and personal bias of the senior engineer, geologist, or project manager on the job. However, planning a drilling program- spacing, pattern, sequencing, etc.-is simply a specific case of sample design, or the design of a sampling program. Having been exposed in the preceding chapter to the theory of regionalized variables, and having learned something about the tools for measuring correlation, or lack of correlation, among samples within a given mineralogical population, we are now prepared to apply these concepts and new-found parameters to a scientifically designed mineral sampling program, be it by drilling or other means. FACTORS IN SAMPLING DESIGN It was shown in Chapter 8 that three major factors should be considered in any mineral

Jan 1, 1980

JUST as I have taught you to refine silver in a small way and to make assays, so now I wish to teach you how to make cupeling hearths in place of these little cupels when you have silver in large quantities. This is done in four ways, as I have seen, but all are alike in the end and differ very little one from the other. There are some who make use of a furnace with a vault built with bricks above the cupeling hearth. There are some others who use in place of this an iron hood like a large cover. There are some others who use only heavy dry sticks of oak or some other thick wood. Others have certain long plates of terra cotta that cover the whole hearth in three or four pieces; the two of these that adjoin have [56] a hole in the middle that leads exactly into the middle of the cupeling hearth, and through this they put in the material and the lead, according to the practice I shall describe.

Jan 1, 1942

By Donald M. Hausen

Microscopic evaluation of trace quantities of metalliferous phases in flotation products requires counting large numbers of particles. Particle counts of many thousands may be required for precision, but cannot be obtained practically by conventional microscopic techniques. A less tedious microscopic method for evaluating trace sulfides in mill tailings was developed for the O'okiep Mining Co. in South Africa. Hundreds of thousands of particles were evaluated by this method called "gross-counting." Gross-counting consists of counting microscopic fields rather than point-counting individual particles. Total counts are calculated by multiplying the average number of particles per field by the total number of fields examined over the entire mount. Total gross-counts range from about 20,000 particles for +200 to 100,000 or more for -400 mesh size material in lucite mounts. Sulfides and metallic particles in each field are identified and tallied along with field counts. Totals for each type of metallic particle are divided by the total gross-count to give volume percent which is corrected to weight percent by specific gravity factors.

Jan 1, 1973

By Strathmore R. B. Cooke, Iwao Iwasaki

RECENTLY spectrophotometry has been reported to provide a convenient technique for the rapid and reproducible determination of xanthate concentration in pulp solutions,12 and for a kinetic study of xanthate decomposition in acid solutions." Since the application of this analytical technique is feasible for those compounds showing pronounced light absorption maxima in the near ultraviolet region, it was deemed advisable to investigate the absorption spectra of some of the organic compounds that are used in flotation. It is known empirically that certain groups of atoms in an organic compound cause characteristic light absorption in the ultraviolet and near ultraviolet range, and the wavelengths and intensities of the corresponding absorption maxima are relatively independent of the nature of the remainder of the compound. The characteristic values of such groups, which are known as chromophores, are given in the literature.4,5 According to this information, many of the sulphydryl compounds are expected to show absorption maxima in the near or long wavelength ultraviolet region, whereas the saturated fatty acids and the saturated alkylamines do not. This article reports the absorption spectra of the six following types of sulphydryl compounds; mono-, di-(xanthate), and trithiocarbonates, dithiocarba-mate, dithiophosphate (aerofloat), and mercaptan. A Beckman DU quartz spectrophotometer was used to investigate the spectra in the wavelength region of 215 to 350mp. Materials: All the mono-, di-, and trithiocarbonates used in this investigation were prepared in the usual manner" from appropriate compounds obtained from Eastman Distillation Product Industries. The dithiocarbonates included the normal alkyl compounds from methyl to octyl inclusive, as well as the isopropyl, isobutyl, and isoamyl xanthates. Iodo-metric titration gave 99.7 and 99.5 pct purity for

Jan 1, 1958

A. A. CENTER*—This paper reminds me of the beginning of the work of the Electrolytic Zinc Company of Australasia. Early work for this Company, as some of you may know, was done at the Bully Hill Plant in California. After working there for some time Herbert Gepp, now Sir Herbert, came to the Anaconda Co. plants in Montana where I met him. He spent some months there, in fact almost a year if I remember rightly. That was when we were breaking in the new electrolytic zinc plant at Great Falls, Montana. From there he went back to Australia and started in on the plant there. I believe they had an original plant of about 20 tons per day of cathode zinc. We heard from them for some time, until they were able to go along on their own, and they have done very well ever since as you have heard. Their practice, (the flow sheet, the leaching practice), has been quite different as reported in the paper and apparently they are still following that practice to some extent. While the earliest work on selective flotation was done down in Australia, the big companies there, strange to say, were far behind the American companies in taking it up; and it is only in comparatively recent years they have gone to the alkaline circuit and dropped out thereby more of their iron and lead. The zinc plant now is up to a capacity of 100,000 tons a year and I believe that may be notched up to about 105,000. T. H. WELDON*—I would like to ask

Jan 1, 1950

By S. W. Ross

A. A. CENTER*—This paper reminds me of the beginning of the work of the Electrolytic Zinc Company of Australasia. Early work for this Company, as some of you may know, was done at the Bully Hill Plant in California. After working there for some time Herbert Gepp, now Sir Herbert, came to the Anaconda Co. plants in Montana where I met him. He spent some months there, in fact almost a year if I remember rightly. That was when we were breaking in the new electrolytic zinc plant at Great Falls, Montana. From there he went back to Australia and started in on the plant there. I believe they had an original plant of about 20 tons per day of cathode zinc. We heard from them for some time, until they were able to go along on their own, and they have done very well ever since as you have heard. Their practice, (the flow sheet, the leaching practice), has been quite different as reported in the paper and apparently they are still following that practice to some extent. While the earliest work on selective flotation was done down in Australia, the big companies there, strange to say, were far behind the American companies in taking it up; and it is only in comparatively recent years they have gone to the alkaline circuit and dropped out thereby more of their iron and lead. The zinc plant now is up to a capacity of 100,000 tons a year and I believe that may be notched up to about 105,000. T. H. WELDON*—I would like to ask

Jan 1, 1950

The Fifth Annual National Exposition of Chemical Industries will be held in Chicago at the Coliseum and First Regiment Armory during the week of Sept. 22. It was decided to hold the exposition in Chicago, this year, for two reasons: The U. S. Army commandeered the Grand Central Palace Exposition Building in New York, immediately on the close of the last exposition and converted it into a receiving hospital, the use for which is now, happily, nearly ceased; and it was thought that the Exposition would succeed in bringing about a greater development of chemical industries in the Chicago district and the adjoining states. The Advisory Committee of the Exposition consists of: Charles H. Herty, Chairman, Editor Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry; Raymond F. Bacon, Director, Mellon Institute; L. H. Baekeland, Member Naval Consulting Board; W. D. Bancroft, President, American Electrochemical Society; Henry B. Faber, Industrial Filtration Corpn.; Ellwood Hendrick, President, The Chemists' Club; Bernard C. Hesse, Chemist, General Chemical Co.; A. D. Little, President, Arthur D. Little Inc.; Wm. H. Nichols, President, American Chemical Society; R. P. Perry, Vice-president, The Barrett Co.; H. C. Parmelee, Editor Chemical &; Metallurgical Engineering, G. W. Thompson, President, American Institute of Chemical Engineers; T. B. Wagner, Vice-president, U. S. Food Products Corpn.; M. C. Whitaker, President, U. S. Industrial Chemical Co.; and Charles F. Roth and Fred W. Payne. There is also added a special Chicago committee consisting of L. V. Redman, W. D. Richardson, A. V. H. Mory, Carl S. Minor, F. W. Willard, and Wm. Hoskins; the managers, as in the past, are Charles F. Roth and Fred W. Payne.

Jan 6, 1919

By Charles Catlett

While the occurrence of phosphorus in coking-coal has assumed less importance with the development of the opeu-hearth method of steel-making, it may not be without interest to note the form in which phosphorus exists in one particular coal-seam. In the examination of what is known as the Big seam, which outcrops a few miles west of Columbiana, Ala., my attention was called to the distribution through the coal, in the form of minute veins and particles, of a resinous-looking substance. A small amount of this was selected, and was provisionally identified as evansite (Al6 Y2 O14, 18 Aq). Subsequently, through the courtesy of Dr. J. Sharshall Grasty, of the Geological Department of the University of Virginia, I was able to secure an additional amount of material, which was purified down to about 0.3 g. This was examined by Prof. John J. Porter, of the University of Cincinnati, and gave the following partial analysis: Per Cent. Loss on ignition,......... 37.43 Phosphoric anhydride,..10.33 Alumina,..........36.33 There was also a trace of silica, and quite a considerable quantity of lime and magnesia. Professor Porter was led to think that the material was not pure, but a mixture of several of the phosphates of aluminum carrying lime and magnesia. The material available did not permit of the convenient determination of the other ingredients. One form in which phosphorus occurs in coal is evidently as a hydrated phosphate of aluminum; and any coal which shows to the eye the occurrence of a light-colored resinous-looking material should be looked on with suspicion as being high in phosphorus.

Jan 1, 1912

THE foundation established by the partners of the late Robert W. Hunt provides for both a medal and a prize. The latter has not been given before this year, and the first award is to C. H. Herty, Jr., for his several papers on the physical chemistry of the open-hearth process.. He is the son of the well known chemist of the same name. He was born at Athens, Ga., on Oct. G 1896, graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1918, and went into war service as foreman of U. S. Chemical Plant No. 4, at Saltsville, Va. In 1919 he went to Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was successively instructor, research assistant, and research associate in the School of Chemical En-gineering practice receiving his master's degree in 1921 and his Ph.D. in 1924. He continued his brilliant work on the physical chemistry of the open-hearth process, much of it being done in cooperation with the Bethlehem Steel Co. at its Lackawanna plant, and dealing with the elimination of sulfur. In 1926 he joined the staff of the U. S. Bureau of Mines, in charge of its ferrous metallur-gical work at Pittsburgh, and continues to be active in research work on the physical chemistry and metallurgy of the open-hearth process. His Institute publications are: Some Factors Affecting the Elimination of Sulfur in the Basic Open-hearth Process," "Chemical Equilibrium of Manganese, Carbon and Phosphorus in the Basic Open-hearth Process" and "Desulfurizing Action of Manganese and Iron," and he will present a paper on ?Effect of Temperature on the Solubility of Iron Oxide in Iron" at the annual meeting.

Jan 2, 1928

By Charles A. Colton

The results of a series of analyses extending over a period of three weeks at the Cedar Point Iron Company's furnace, Port Henry, New York, are given in Tables I and 11. This furnace uses a very pure magnetite and Lehigh and Lackawanna anthracite. The flue leading the gas from the "down-comer" to the boilers was tapped by a 2 inch gas pipe, which carried the gas to the Orsat apparatus. The pressure of the gas not always being sufficient, owing to the small amount made, to force it into the apparatus, I omitted taking samples several days, and with the exception of the last three days of the campaign, made the analyses whenever opportunity offered. I find the Orsat apparatus, as described by Prof. Egleston," to work very well, with one exception. The CO is not absorbed as readily in the ammonia-copper solutiou as he states in his description of the apparatus, as many as 50, and sometimes GO, passes being necessary to absorb all the CO. The power of absorbing rapidly increases as the solution is used, and this would indicate that the more oxygen it contains the quicker will it do the work. Probably the addition of a small amount of some oxidizing agent would remedy this. When the furnace was working in its normal condition, I had no occasion for using the filter, the amount of fume being so small as not to canse any inconvenience. The gas burned with the flame peculiar to CO, and contained just enough solid particles to give it a slight reddish tinge.

Jan 1, 1879

By Paul Queneau

Some years from now, perusal of the unfolding saga of the nickel family will show that the year 1968 was the herald of change-both in the geography of its endeavors and in its technology. No one should doubt any longer that oxide ores of nickel have come of lusty age-their heavyweight stature in the Caribbean area and in the Western Pacific can be shrunk only by immersion in the politics of unhappiness. The sulfide branch of the family has been augmented afar off by substantial ore deposits in western Australia-right across the globe from Sudbury-and in southern Africa, 9000 miles from the nickel hub. The Foreword of the 1961 AIME volume, dealing with the extractive metallurgy of copper and nickel, noted that "the dead hands of nitrogen" had been lifted from oxidation reactions utilizing air and that the industry was on the threshold of under- standing this fact. Here, at least, nonferrous industry had led its ferrous counterpart in the commercial use of tonnage oxygen in liquid phase pyrometallurgy-the reference is to oxygen flash smelting. Today large oxygen-producing plants are blossoming everywhere and the fruits which will follow are many and varied. Among them is Inco's forthcoming use of the top-blown oxygen converter for sulfide melts. The bell tolls for those "pyro- metallurgical dinosaurs" which still stalk smelter aisles the world around. Silicate oxide nickel ores will rejoice in the glow of modern elevated temperature chemical metallurgy in its various manifestations, vindicating the bulldog spirit of that ancient of clans, the hot metal men-including the renovator of Le Nickel's Doniambo Works.

Jan 10, 1968

By N. W. Wickersham, Ward B. Blodget, Roberts R. Boyd

The year 1926 has seen few radical changes or developments in methods of drilling and handling oil wells, but it has been a year of steady progress and development in deep drilling and production methods. Probably the outstanding development of the year was recognition by the directors of the American Petroleum Institute of the importance of natural gas in the production of oil, and the Institute directors' resolutions in December, 1926, regarding regulation of gas production with oil by state legislation. This matter is extremely important and will receive the attention of the industry in 1927. Advances in Drilling Equipment The history of the progress of deep well drilling is the solution of problems as they have confronted the operator. As the prospects for deeper production have become apparent, methods of penetrating the earth to greater depths have been devised. Rotary Equipment Improvements in the construction and in the methods of operation of rotary drilling equipment have practically caused elimination of cable tools in California for all but shallow work. The rotary drill, from 1910 when it began to be a practical factor in California, has been making steady advances, first displacing cable tools for drilling to the oil sands in proved fields and later displacing the cable-tool outfit entirely. With the perfection of machinery for taking core samples of the formation penetrated, the rotary drill has become generally used for wildcat work, continuous coring being practiced when desirable. Deep Holes The use of the rotary drill has made commercially feasible the opening of oil fields at greater depths than was considered possible with cable tools. Heavier equipment has been promptly supplied as occasion has

Jan 1, 1927

By Henry Hanson

A STUDY of the ore to be treated should be the first step in deciding on a machine for crushing or grinding. Coarse crushing is practically confined to the jaw and the gyratory crushers, the large-size jaw type being often employed in large installations as a primary crusher, followed by the gyratory type for secondary reduction. In small plants where mine-run ore is reduced in a single step, either of these machines will do the work. In intermediate and fine grinding, various machines are used. The relative merit of the different types will be governed in no small measure by the size of the installation, the character of the ore to be reduced and the final product desired for subsequent treatment. It should be possible, nevertheless, with the data available, if properly classified, to arrive at an approximation of the relative efficiency of these intermediate and fine grinders. It should be possible, also, to determine the economic grinding range of the different machines. With this in mind, it will be the object of this article to indicate, in rough outline, how the data available may be classified, rather than to attempt to discuss any particular practice and compare the results with other practices. Conclusions or generalizations can not be drawn without an exhaustive classification of data; in fact, many vital points will have to be determined by additional experiments which can be carried on most advantageously in the laboratory. The expense en-tailed in such experiments would be worth while if the data obtained should lead to definite conclusions that would aid in standardizing and simplifying grinding practice.

Jan 2, 1923

[ ] Granville S. Borden (Mining Taxation, P. 1049) has written two other published articles on the subject, Taxation and Mineral Resources, and An Income Tax Program for Mineral Producers. Both articles appeared in Mining Engineering. He is presently employed by Standard Oil Co. of California as a special tax counsel. He holds an LL. B and an LL. M from George Washington University and a Bachelor of Science in Mining from the University of California. He has been chairman of the Taxation Committee of the Minerals Economics div. of the AIME. Borden fishes, plays golf, prospects, and performs mineral analysis as hobbies. [ ] Charles C. Towle (co-author, Uranium Deposits of the Grants District, New Mexico, P. 1037) graduated from the Colorado School of Mines with a degree in Geological Engineering. He was a member of Sigma Nu; Theta Tau, an honorary professional society; Blue Key, honorary social society; the glee club and quartet, and a member of the student council. He has been a mucker, driller, flotation operator and mill shift boss for the Clear Creek-Gilpin Co., Idaho Springs, Colo.; Geologist, chief engineer, and chief geologist for Patino Mines & Enterprises Consolidated, Inc., Bolivia; appraisal engineer and part-time geology student, Denver; office geologist for Geology Dept., special Engineering div., Sea Level Canal Studies, Panama Canal; and geologist, div. of Raw Materials, USAEC, Grand Junction, Colo. He is currently chief of the Denver Exploration Branch, div. of Raw Materials, USAEC, Denver. Towle was at one time a tournament golfer, playing three and four times a week. While working in South America he played in numerous tournaments. Today, although playing only occa sionally, he shoots in the low eighties.

Jan 1, 1952