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By J. C. Branner

DuriKg the past two or three years I have seen statements regarding the first discovery of fullers' earth in this country that seem to require correction or modification. One appears again in the Mineral Resources of the United States for 1909, part II., p. 738, where it is said that 'fullers' earth was firat discovered in the United States at Quincy, Fla., in 1893." In this connection the following bit of unpublished history concerning fullers' earth in the State of Arkansas is worthy of attention. In April, 1891, when I was State Geologist of Arkansas, a Swede named John Olsen, formerly a copper-miner in Michigan, but then living south of Little Rock, brought me a sample of what he thought mas fullers' earth. He reported that it was from near the town of Alexander, the locality being 1 S. 13 W., section 8, SW. quarter of the SE. quarter. My chemist, Dr. R. N. Brackett, analyzed the material, and reported: Per Cent. Silica,.....SiO2 .... 63.19 Alumina,.... A12O3 .... 18.76 Iron,.....Fe2O3 .... 7.05 Lime,.,...CaO .... 0.78 Magnesia,.... MgO .... 1.68 Potash,.... K2O ,... 0.21 Soda,.....Na2O .... 1.50 Loss on ignition,........7.57 100.74 Water at 110° to 115° C. = 7.84. Another sample from about the same locality, also brought by John Olsen, on analysis by Dr. Brackett gave :

Jan 1, 1913

By Dean S. Rogers

The conventional role of exploration, development and grade control is examined in this paper within the context of the many and varied types of gold occurrences which are found at the Dome Mine. The account endeavours to trace the development of the total ore evaluation process, from diamond drilling through the exploration and drifting stage, to the stope development and planning phase of the operation, with an emphasis on sampling techniques and assaying procedure. The concept of ore reserve calculations is developed and the practice of grade control is described. In summary, the role of the geological, the engineering and the mining department is presented in relation to the contribution each has to make in the evaluation and exploitation of ore from one of the world's classic Archean gold deposits.

Jan 1, 1985

By Fred Bond

THE process of comminution by grinding is properly classified as an art, rather than as a science. Like most other operations concerned in ore dressing, or in the treat-ment of nonmetallic minerals, the mathe-matical relationships of rock breaking are still obscure, and much disputed. If some basic formula exists, comparable for in-stance to E = RI in electricity, it has not yet been placed in common use. The absence of such a comprehensive mathe-matical background undoubtedly is the cause of many inefficient designs and installations, as well as of much poorly oriented experimental work. On the other hand, the mathematical immaturity of the process constitutes an opportunity for a real contribution on the part of those who enjoy mental pioneering. Some of the statements made in any such exploratory work may be little more than opinions, and it is to be expected that some will later be proved untrue; but such an evolutionary development is necessary if we are ever to arrive at the fundamental laws, the discovery of which can change the empirical art into a mathematically exact science. The most significant principle of com-minution that we possess is probably Rittinger's law, which states that the work done in crushing or grinding is proportional to the area of the new surface produced. There is an alternative theory, known as Kick's law, which formerly was preferred to Rittinger's but which now is rather dis-credited. According to Kick, the work done in comminution is proportional to the volume, or weight, of the pieces broken, or to the cube of their diameters, while accord-ing to Rittinger it is proportional to the square of the diameters.

Jan 1, 1940

By Leroy U. Gardner

EVERY reader of this paper is well aware of the fact that the prolonged inhalation of large amounts of free silica dust results in fibrosis of the lungs, and that other inorganic dusts, except those of asbestos and the mineral poisons, are thought to be relatively harmless. But probably few have had opportunity to visualize the effects of silica, asbestos and other minerals upon living tissues. The ideal demonstration would be based upon sections of lungs from human beings that had inhaled com- parable concentrations of different dusts for a unit period of time. Such material is generally difficult to obtain and in some instances is of questionable value because the subject has been exposed to more than one kind of dust. A demonstration could be prepared from the lungs of animals. However, so many months or even years are required to complete the exposure to each kind of dust that enough material has not been accumulated. For a general survey of the action of different types of dust, I am therefore compelled to use the tissues of animals that have been injected with suspensions of dust particles. The injection method offers certain advantages. The quantity, the particle size and the state of dispersion can be controlled with sufficient accuracy so that the tissue responses to different minerals can be accurately compared. The method insures contact between the tissues and the mineral particles; protective mechanisms, which may prevent the inhalation of certain types of foreign body, never come into play. If the pathway of injection be one that minimizes nonspecific injury, the tissue responses may simulate those produced by inhalation but they develop somewhat more rapidly. It should always be remembered that injection methods merely demonstrate the capacity of various kinds of minerals to provoke reaction in the tissues; whether the same substances are inhaled from atmospheric suspension and accumulate in the lungs in dangerous quantities can be demonstrated only by inhalation. The reactions that I shall discuss first took place not in the lungs but in the liver. For the purpose in hand this is quite immaterial for we are merely seeking to discover whether these minerals are capable of produc-

Jan 1, 1938

By C. A. Stetefeldt

Metallurgical processes cannot be conducted successfully With out the aid of analytical chemistry. The great perfection of Iead smelting in the West, for instance, has only been accomplished by the analysis of ores, fluxes, slags and all products of the furnace. Ores are mixed and fluxed to obtain a slag of desired composition. Account is even taken of the composition of the ashes obtained from the coke. The " muscular " smelter has left the field forever! This state of affairs has been induced by sharp competition, i.e., by a com plete separation of the industries of mining and reducing ores, not by the liberality and wisdom of directors and stockholders to pro vide laboratories and engage chemists, or by their love for scientific investigation. It would be considered absurd, at present, to run a lead-smelter, a blast-furnace for pig-iron, or a Bessemer plant without the assist ance of a well-equipped laboratory and a chemist; but it is con sidered quite sufficient to provide amalgamation- or lixiviation works merely with a crude assay-office, and an assayer who is paid less than a laborer in the mill. In my opinion, this will change in the near future. By the ex clusion of Mexican lead-ores, and their growiring scarcity in the West, smelters have been forced to raise their charges on so-called dry silver-ores, and cannot handle the latter now in such unlimited quantities as formerly. The inevitable result must be that the sur plus of these dry silver-ores, especially those of low grade, will be reduced by processes cheaper than smelbing; and here the introduc tion of lixiviation has an excellent field, provided the muscular lixiviator has an able chemist for an assistant. It is to be regretted that so little analytical work has been done in lixiviation. We know almost nothing of the composition of roasted ores before and after lixiviation; of the constitution of the first wash water and of lixiviation-solutions after prolonged use; of the chemistry of sodium and calcium sulphides; of the col-hposition

Jan 1, 1892

By B. Barlin

Introduction The development of metallurgical practice at lambia Broken Hill is directly related to the change in mineralization of the deposits as mining progressed from the open pits to underground. The ore consists of a mixture of lead and zinc sulphide minerals, together with abundant silicates, carbonates and other oxidized minerals of these metals. The irregularity that characterizes the shape of the orebodies applies equally to their mineral content, which makes ore reserve calculations and the maintenance of a balanced feed to the metallurgical plants, problems of some magnitude. History The Rhodesia Broken Hill Development ,Company was formed in 1904 after an Australian prospector, T. G. Davey, discovered the outcrops in 1902. In the early years zinc ores were calcined for shipment but this proved uneconomic. Cerussite outcrops were then smelted directly in blast furnaces for the production of lead until 1929 when ore above the water level was exhausted.

Jan 1, 1970

By Parviz Montazer, Robert King, William Ubbes, Gideon Chitombo

This paper describes the results of a detailed study that was undertaken to define the spatial distribution of permeability within a five meter thick envelope around the CSM/ONWI room. Detailed fracture orientations and distribution were determined through mapping of the walls of the opening, logging of oriented core, and visual examination of borehole walls with a borescope and a T.V. camera. Over 3,500 measurements were made from which the three dimensional distribution of fractures was determined. Two principally different testing equipment designs and various methods of air injection tests were used in all boreholes to identify and characterize conductive fractures. Through analizing the distribution of permeability and fracture index around the room a zone of blast damage of approximately .5 m thickness was delineated. The effect of stress modification seems to extend farther into the host rock to approximately 3.5 m depth.

Jan 1, 1982

By Ben F. Dickerson

Mineral exploration programs have often experienced mismanagement in the decision-making process, and these errors have consequently resulted in stockholder losses. Unfortunately, the events leading to these errors are little known and rarely studied, since managers aren't prone to publicizing their mistakes. However, a bit of magnified hindsight may serve to identify some of the problems. It is interesting to note that there does not seem to be a generally agreed-upon definition of the role and function of exploration management. Several articles have addressed this subject, written by both academic and industry exploration personnel. Two apparent thought trends can be observed: First, the theoreticians insist that modern scientific management principles can be directly applied, without modification, to mineral exploration. However, when one searches for the rules, the proponents rapidly retreat behind the computers and talk learnedly of management information systems and game theory.

Jan 6, 1978

By John W. Sweeney

Florida is blessed with some of the worlds greatest phosphate rock deposits, and doubly blessed in that those deposits are uraniferous. Until recently, the uranium con¬tained in phosphate rock had been ignored, but spot mar¬ket prices in the $40-per-pound range have spurred actions which will soon transform the state into a major uranium supplier. In 1978, two plants in Florida and one in Louisiana went it on- stream to recover uranium oxide from phosphoric acid, and construction began on three other extraction facilities. Together, these six plants will be cap¬able of recovering 1940 t/y (2140 stpy) of yellow cake from Florida phosphate in the early 1980s, equivalent to 15% of the projected US requirement. By the year 2000, Florida phosphates will have produced a projected 49 000 tons (54,000 st) of uranium oxide to fuel the nation's nuclear reactors.

Jan 9, 1979

THE Leadville tunnel, a Bureau of Mines project designed to unseal Colorado's rich but flooded lead, zinc, and manganese mines, is still being advanced, although the work is encountering severe difficulties. Work on the tunnel, begun in 1943, was dropped for lack of funds in 1945, and started again last September. The tunnel is one of the nation's toughest mining jobs. Fifty firms and individuals, who were asked to bid on the job of continuing be- yond the 6600-ft mark, didn't even answer. The work was finally taken over by the Utah Construction Co. of Salt Lake City. Since last September, the face has been moved 1000 ft closer to the flooded Leadville district mines, and to the hoped-for length of 17.300 ft. Some apparent success has already been noted, with an unusual decline in the water level in some major mine shafts reported this winter.

Jan 5, 1951

Jan 1, 1948

Jan 1, 1948

Discussion of the paper of Willis T. Burns, presented at the Butte meeting, August, 1913, and printed in Bulletin No. 80, August, 1913, pp. 2011 to 2049. PROF. JOSEPH W. RICHARDS, South Bethlehem, Pa.:-I think Mr. Burns spoke of two unusual conditions which he has at his plant, namely, that he uses directly converter anodes and very high current density. He did not mention another condition : the very low cost of power, which circumstance, I believe, is responsible for some of the peculiarities of his plant noticed by us from the East. I am struck by the rather low ampere efficiency which Mr. Burns obtains, and in looking over the plant thought that there was a considerable leakage from one tank to the other, and that the ampere efficiency could be increased by looking after the leakage of electricity front one tank to the other.

Jan 11, 1913

PICK AND SHOVEL CLUB, CASE SCHOOL OF APPLIED SCIENCE The last meeting of the year of the Pick and Shovel Club of Case School of Applied Science was held on May 20, 1919. The speaker, Dr. Zay Jeffries, gave a very instructive and interesting talk on the Metallography of Non-ferrous Metals. The club has had a very successful year in spite of the loss of a few months time through the S. A. T. C. Among the speakers for the year were Dr. F. R. Van Horn, Dr. C. H. Fulton, and Dr. W. R. Veazey of our school; Dr. E. S. Moore of Penn. State College; Dr. Ansel St. John, of the National Carbon Co.; and Mr. V. S. Bidle, of the W. S. Bidle Co. The graduating members wish the club the best of success for the coming year. BERTRAND R. WARMELING, Secretary.

Jan 7, 1919

R. B. T. KILIANI, Denver, Colo. (written discussion *).-Mr. Len-nox's paper is decidedly interesting in that he shows that a field exists for the Chilean mill, in which its efficiency compares favorably with that of more modern grinding devices. The figures he has given clearly indi-cate that a coarse feed is conducive to higher efficiency than the fine feeds which the Chilean mill has usually been called upon to grind. The fact is also apparently indicated that operating the Chilean mill in closed circuit with a mechanical classifier results in still higher efficiency, and that in such cases the percentage of returns should be kept below 100 per cent. to obtain best results. It would be interesting to see the results of further tests with what Mr. Lennox calls "Mixed Feed," since the data given in Table 4 seems to' point to the fact that a mixed feed,

Jan 12, 1919

(Members are urged to send in for this column any notes of interest concerning themselves or their fellow-members.) Members and guests who called at Institute headquarters during the period Mar. 10, 1916 to Apr. 10, 1916: R. C. Blanchard, London, England. George H. Packard, Boston, Mass. F. Lynwood Garrison, Philadelphia, Pa. Harvey B. Small, Mangangue, Colombia, S. A. S. A. Horton, Altoona, Pa. H. De Witt Smith, Kennecott, Alaska. J. S. Lane, New York City. Richard Tarantous, Terlingua, Tex. Harry T. Mercer, Painesdale, Mich. S. A. Taylor, Pittsburgh, Pa. A. L. Blomfield, for many years in the employ of Bewick, Moreing & Co. as metallurgist, and for the last eight years mill superintendent of the Golden Cycle mill at Colorado Springs, has become associated with The Dorr. Company as consulting metallurgical engineer, with headquarters at Denver. He retains his connection with the Golden Cycle mill as general superintendent.

Jan 5, 1916

By William H. Mount

St. Joe Minerals Corp. has a long operating history of utilizing rubber-tired, trackless mining equipment in its Southeast Missouri Lead Belt underground mines. The company's first completely trackless mine, Hayden Creek, was opened in 1952, employing rubber-tired drill jumbos, electric shuttle cars, and articulated diesel trucks. The trucks were comprised of a conventional scraper tractor unit matched with a rear-dump rock wagon. These machines featured the first true earthmover tires to be used underground by St. Joe. The articulated truck concept proved to be very successful, and constitutes an increasing portion of the underground haulage today. St. Joe's second completely trackless mine, the Indian Creek property, was opened in 1954; conventional 9.1-t (10-st) rear dumps were used for haulage. Main haul roads were designed to be wide and fairly level to accommodate speeds of 32-40 km/h (20-25 mph).

Jan 4, 1976

Briefly, can you relate how you got into the minerals industry and some of your experiences as an executive, engineer, and administrator? Also would you tell ME about your affiliation with the Society of Mining Engineers of AIME? Roseburg, Ore., was where I was born and raised. It was, and still is a lumbering town; it couldn't have been any farther from mining. Upon graduation from high school, I turned 18 and, having already signed up with the Army Corps of Engineers, I was in the service eight days after my birthday. Four months later I was in New Guinea. As an amphibious engineer, I saw many of the Pacific and Philippine Islands, and ended up in Japan just a few days after the war was over. In later years, my work took me back to several of the places I had been during the war.

Jan 3, 1978

ANDERSON, ALEXANDER, Captain, Royal Garrison Artillery. ANDERSON, GEORGE K., JR., Lieutenant, 30th Co., 3d Replacement Regiment. ARMSTEAD, H. H., Captain, Quartermaster Corps, U. S. N. A. ARMSTRONG, HAROLD KERR, Student Flight Officer, U. S. Naval Reserve Flying Corps, Dunwoody Naval Training Station, Minneapolis, Minn. BAKER, HARRY A., Captain, Co. M, 53d Pioneer Infantry. BASSETT, THOMAS E., Corporal, 340th. Field Artillery, Battery A, 89th Division, A. E. F. BATES, Wm.. T., 3d Reserve Officers' Training Camp. BAUMMGARTEN, K., 1st Lieutenant, 1st Corps School A. P. 0. 703. BAYLESS, G. E. S., Supply Dept., U. S. Submarine Base, New London, Conn. BENSEL, J. A., Major, U. S. R., Board of Control, War. Construction Activities, Norfolk, Va. BILLICK, DON C., Co. C, Ordnance. Supply School. BILLINGSLEY, PAUL, 1st Lieutenant, National Army, Statistics Branch,. General Staff. BLANDY, S. H. B., B. E. F.

Jan 8, 1918

By Heath B. Fowler

The surface mining operations of the Simplot Fertilizer Co. are on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation approximately 16 miles east of Fort Hall, Idaho (Fig 1). The Phosphoria formation outcrops in sec. 2, 3, 11, 14, 15, 22 and 27, T 4 S, R 37 E, Boise Meridian. The ownership of these phosphate-bearing lands is divided between individual Indians and the Bannock-Shoshone Tribe, and the royalties are paid to the respective owners on a tonnage basis, as the rock is mined. The geology and mineral resources of the Fort Hall Reservation were studied by the U. S. Geological Survey in 1913 and reported on in 1920. † However, it was not until the winter of 1945 that exploratory work was undertaken by private enterprise. Diamond drilling was begun by the Simplot Fertilizer Co. in April 1946, and stripping operations were started in June. A camp was established near

Jan 1, 1950