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By R. Havens

During the course of the investigation of possible domestic sources of manganese, engineers of the Bureau of Mines examined and sampled two manganese mineral deposits in northeastern Utah. The Daggett Chief claims are situated in the northern part of Daggett County,5 miles southwest of Manila, Utah, and approximately 57 miles from Green-River, Wyo. Owners of the property are J.E. Harris Of Salt Lake City, Utah, Nels Palleson of Manila, Utah, and J. P. Larson. The manganese occurs in a vein 6 to 8 feet wide in a shale and sandstone formation. Two distinct occurrences Of manganese are present Within the vein, and samples of each were subjected to testing. Lot A, representing .probably the major portion of the Manganese; was composed of nodules and veinlets of manganese oxides in a semicompact; gray, shaly formation. Lot B represented a 15-inch vein of dense iron-manganese ore. .Most of the laboratory work at Salt Lake City, Utah, was done on these two samples; but preliminary testing also was carried out on a small sample, physically similar to lot A, submitted by the owners.

Jan 1, 1949

By Harold E. Heide

Although the United States has been the largest consumer of tin, only a small quantity of tin was produced or. the North American Continent during peace times, and thy deficiency was made UP by foreign imports. Because the most important sources of tin wore cut off by the war with Japan, it became necessary to increase imports from South America and Africa and, if possible, develop domestic tin reserves. Most of the tin produced in North America has come from the Seward Peninsula, Alaska, and a substantial portion of this was produced from the Potato Mountain area. Tin was first identified as occurring in the Seward Peninsula by A. H. Brooks in 1900, when a part of heavy concentrates from Anikovik River and Buhna Creek, one of its tributaries, proved to be stream tin. 4/ His report was given considerable publicity by the daily press, and the first steamers north in 1901 carried a number of prospectors bound for the Seward Peninsula to search for tin. The deposits of stream tin on Buck Creek in the Potato Mountain area were discovered in the fall of 1901. 2/

Jan 1, 1949

By S. Benedict Levin

The Big mine has been a source of mica and high-grade felspar from separate zones in the same pegmatite dike since 1914. In 1943 it became the outstanding producer of strategic mica in New England. The urgent need for sheet mica led to core-drilling by the Bureau of Mines from February to May 1914. Nine diamond-drill hob's aggregating 1,474 feet in length were drilled by the Bureau of Mines with the objective of developing extensions of the known mica shoots. The use of large-diameter bits made it feasible to obtain reasonably reliable results in diamond-drilling this type of deposit.

Jan 1, 1949

By Edward P. Barrett

The production of sponge iron is one of the earliest arts in the metal¬lurgy of iron and steel. The idea of producing iron direct from ore at temperatures lower than the melting point of, the iron has persisted throughout the centuries. The purpose of this paper is to present a general picture of the methods, proposed or tried within the past 100 years, for producing sponge iron by treating hot ore with heated reducing gases. The abundant literature has been abstracted, and quoted freely. Publications concerning more detailed information on the various methods are referred to in the footnotes and in the bibliography.

Jan 1, 1949

By R. Vernon Helm

Four tables listing values for the various physical properties of those sulfur compounds most likely to occur in petroleum and petroleum products are given herein. The data necessary to bring the first compilation2/ in this subject up to date are given in table I -Revised and Additional Data, which includes boiling points, refractive indices, densities, and freezing points. Tables 11-, III, and IV are published for the first time and include refractive indices for the F, C, and G' lines of hydrogen and the helium D:3 line; surface tensions and viscosities, and refractivity intercepts, specific dispersions, specific refractions, and parachors. The need for information concerning the sulfur compounds in petroleum is becoming-more urgent because of the necessity of refining larger quantities of high-sulfur crude oil to meet the rising demand for petroleum products. For a number of years the Bureau of Mines has been engaged in research to make available more information concerning the properties of the sulfur compounds in petroleum. The petroleum industry has recognized the value of such studies, and as a result the American Petroleum Institute has established Research Project 48A to study sulfur compounds. The investigations under this Project are to be done in Bureau of Mines laboratories as a cooperative project in connection with the work already started.

Jan 1, 1949

By M. E. Volin

The Ladd manganese deposits are in San Joaquin County, Calif., about 13 miles southwest of Tracy. The deposits are confined in two main areas of development, roughly about 1,700 feet apart horizontally, and known as the Ladd mine and Fabian mine, respectively. The deposits occur as interbedded lenses in the white cherts of the Franciscan formation. The ore minerals are bementite, rhodochrosite and psilomelane. As a part of the Bureau of Mines program of investigation and development of domestic mineral deposits, a development program was started. August 24, 1940, and completed on June 24, 1941. The Federal Geological Survey cooperated by mapping the geology and logging the drill cores. The program included road building, trenching, rehabilitating the mine workings, trenching underground excavation, sampling, and core drilling. The following pages mention the location, give a brief history, and note the physical features of +1-.1, district. Mine workings are sketched, the deposit is described and the plan of the project is noted. The work performed by the Bureau of Mines is explained in the concluding pages with a summary of the drill hole logs.

Jan 1, 1949

By W. W. Stephens

As part of the Bureau of Mines program directed toward more effective utilization of the mineral resources of the United States, a number of processes for production of sponge iron have been investigated. The use of sponge iron as a raw material for production of steels and other ferrous alloys offers several possible advantages over the conventional pig-iron and scrap process, especially for utilization of the smeller, widely distributed iron-ore deposits of the western United States. Although considerable information has been made available on various processes for production of sponge iron, little information 118.6 been published heretofore on the problems and costs involved in melting the sponge iron for production of steel. The present Paper reports the results of tests conducted at the Bureau of Nines pilot plant at Redding, Calif. in which several different types of sponge iron Were used as charge material for production of steel in a 4-ton-capacity basic arc furnace.

Jan 1, 1949

By W. D. Mcmillan

Soapstone is the term applied to an impure, massive, soft rock with a greasy feel. It is of variable composition, consisting chiefly, however, of talc, tremolite, and chlorite. Although limited quantities of soapstone are used as building material, in fireplaces, and in the manufacture of laundry tubs, sinks, laboratory-table tops, and-oven and furnace blocks, the principal part of the production is ground for use in roofing paper, insecticides, and as a filler in asphaltic paints.

Jan 1, 1949

By Soule&apos, John H.

Although known since 1902, the Capitan iron deposits have not been tined, mainly because of the low grade of the ore. Only a small amount of exploratory work has been done since the discovery. C. H. Johnson, district engineer of the Bureau of Mines in New Mexico in 1942-4, visited the property; as a result, preliminary sampling of the property was done in 1943.2/ Owing to the results of this preliminary work, an extensive development program by wagon drilling was planned and executed early in 1944. Equipment available at that time was limited in the depths that could be reached; and as geologic studies indicated the possibility that other limestone beds below the surface might have been replaced by iron minerals, a supplementary development program by churn drilling to reach greater depths was prosecuted in late 1947 and early 1948, with the author as project engineer.

Jan 1, 1949

By F. W. Horton

Investigation of an extensive deposit of chromite-bearing actinolite-talc schist situated on the summit of Casper Mountain, 10 miles south of Casper, Wyo., was one of the first projects Undertaken by the Bureau of Mines under the Strategic Materials Act (Public 117, 76th Cong., Ch. 190, 1st sess.), for which an appropriation became available August 9, 1939. During the previous summer; the Geological Survey? made? a magnetometrical survey of the area in which the schist occurred. It was exposed in several small lenses and two larger ones aggregating about 19?acres in area. Although the occurrence of chromite here had been known for many years, the only work done on the deposit was the digging of? a few shallow pits on some of the more promising outcrops. From August 23 to December 3, 1939, the Bureau of Mines investigated the larger of the two main schist bodies. Twenty-four trenches having a total length of 8,073 feet were dug across the deposit, and its subsurface extension was explored by 3,623 feet of diamond drilling. Over 32 tons of samples were shipped to the Metallurgical Division of the Bureau of Mines at Reno, Nev., for reduction, analysis, and ore testing. In all, there were 853 individual samples. Geological maps, based upon examination of outcrops, trenches, and drill cores, as well as a contour map of the area were made by the Geological Survey.

Jan 1, 1949

By Donald F. Reed

During the first 6 months of 1948 the Bureau of Mines investigated the titania, deposit on the Wynn 0. Christy property in northern Hot Spring County, Ark. The property is situated in Magnet Cove, about half a mile north of the Magnet Store and U. S. Highway 270 (fig. 1). The purpose of the investigation was to determine the extent and grade of the ore body and to obtain a representative sample of the ore in as nearly natural condition as possible for use in metallurgical testing. All of the titania that has been marketed from Arkansas mines has been in the form of rutile from a deposit about 2 miles west of the Christy property. The titania in the Christy property occurs principally as brookite, which, with fragments of novaculite, quartz, and limonite, is imbedded in red clay. It is difficult to recover a core of the material. Three types of drills - a diamond drill, a bucket drill, and a Baker cable-coring tool operated on a churn rig - were employed in an effort to procure proper samples in their natural state. The Baker tool was found to be the most efficient and to be capable of drilling to a depth of 150 feet, making 80 to 100 percent core recovery (fig. 8). Total footage drilled was 1,536.9 in 21 holes, of which 7 were diamond-drill holes, 13 were bucket drill holes, and one was drilled with the Baker tool. The ore body was found to be 900 feet long, 500 feet wide, and more than 141 feet deep and contained 5.8 percent TiO2 and 0.52 percent 1720. Most of the deeper drill holes bottomed in ore, and there is a possibility that the ore may persist to a depth of several hundred feet. The Metallurgical Division of the Bureau of Mines is conducting experimental work at the Mississippi Valley Experiment Station at Rolla, Mo., for the purpose of developing methods of concntrating and utilizing the ore.

Jan 1, 1949

By K. E. Stanfield

One of the initial projects under the oil-shale research and development phase of the Synthetic Liquid Fuels Act, Public- Law 290, 78th Congress, approved April 5, 1944, was a survey of oil shales of the United States for the selection of a site for an oil-shale demonstration plant. The oil shales were assayed by the conventional Bureau of Mines retort method proposed by Karrick and described by Guthrie in a more recent publication. From previous experience and that had in making these assays, it became evident that the assay method should be modified or replaced by a more satisfactory one. There are several outstanding objections to the Bureau of Mines oil-shale assay method: (1) the oil yields are frequently smaller than those obtained by other types of assay equipment and by commercial retorts; (2) the assayed oil yield represents only a portion of the organic matter in the shale, which under more favorable conditions, may, Jae converted, more completely into oil; (3) the retorting procedure is controlled mainly by trial-and-error methods; and (4) the assay requires approximately 6 hours for completion.

Jan 1, 1949

By Hillary W. St. Clair

The purpose of this investigation was to determine the practicability of refining crude aluminum-silicon alloy or aluminum scrap containing silicon and iron by selective dissolution in zinc of the aluminum from the alloy followed by distillation of the zinc from the aluminum.

Jan 1, 1949

By John Paul Gries

During World War II, when the curtailment of imports led to an unprecedented demand for domestically produced mica, beryl, and other pegmatitic minerals, the Bureau of Mines and the Geological Survey entered upon a program designed to expedite the production of these minerals from the Black Hills area of South Dakota. The program involved mapping, sampling and drilling many pegmatite dikes found in the southern portion of the area and beneficiation tests in the field and in the Bureau of Mines laboratories at Rapid. City, S. Dak., Rolla, Mo., Salt Lake City, Utah, and College Park, Md. This paper describes the mode of occurrence and the sampling and beneficiation tests on one dike, the Helen Beryl pegmatite, which was investigated as part of the general pegmatite study in South Dakota. Investigation of the Helen Beryl Pegmatite by the Bureau began in August 1943 and was terminated in April 1944. During this period the Bureau took a series of bulk samples from pits for beneficiation tests, drove an adit through the center of the dike to obtain feed for a bulk-sampling plant operation, and finally drilled a series of long holes to sample the deposit further. Geologists of the Federal Geological Survey mapped the deposit and the faces of all excavations and logged drill holes from sludge samples recovered from long-hole drilling.

Jan 1, 1949

By G. A. Apell

Completion of 18 churn-drill holes totaling 2,218 feet and 3 diamond-drill holes aggregating 421.5 feet of drilling in the M.C. mine area, near Truman, Wis., provided information indicating the existence and trend of a zone of zinc mineralization extending for 1,000 feet west of the old M. C. shaft.

Jan 1, 1949

By A. L. Engel

As a part of the program of the Rare and. Precious Metals Experiment Station, Reno, Nev., in connection with investigations of treatment methods for precious and precious-base metal ores, to further conservation and recovery of precious and base metals, tests Were made on samples from the Buzzard Mine, located in the vicinity of Placerville, Calif. These samples represented ore exposed during previous development work, in tunnels and a shaft on the property, including highly oxidized material from the surface zone and sulfide ores from depths of 150 to 300 feet. The surface samples contained little base metal and only enough gold 80 that economic exploitation of them would depend on development of a large tonnage of ore, low-cost mining methods, and satisfactory treatment methods. The sulfide samples were valuable enough to warrant further exploration and development and, if present in suitable tonnage, the installation of a treatment plant for recovery of both precious and base metals. The oxidized surface-zone samples carried 0.11 to 0.14 ounce gold per ton. Standard amalgamation and flotation tests of these samples gave low recoveries. Standard cyanidation tests indicated high consumption of lime and cyanide and gold extraction of 79.4 and 82.7 percent. Water-leaching the ore after crushing to minus 10-mesh improved cyanidation considerably. Ex-tractions of 82.7 to 85.8 percent were obtainec1 with lime consumption of 6 to 7 pounds per ton of ore and cyanide consumptions of 1 to 4 pounds. Grinding the samples to minus 200-mesh followed by water-leaching and cyanidation gave improved extractions of 91-92 percent of the gold, but with slightly increased consumptions of lime and cyanide.

Jan 1, 1949

By John R. Shattuck

As a part of the general chromite investigation in California designed to aid In the production of chromite during the recent war emergency, the Bureau of Mines explored the Coggins property in Siskiyou County, Work by the Bureau in cooperation with the Federal Geological Survey began in October 1942 and was concluded in March 1943. This report presents a brief history of the mine, outlines the physical features of the district, describes the deposits) and explains the work completed by the Bureau of Mines, Table 1 shows the analysis of diamond drill-hole samples. The logs of drill holes are in the appendix.

Jan 1, 1949

By Louis C. Brichta

The Kline tract ?3.nd the Frey tract are two separate properties situated in the Wentworth district on the easterly edge of the Tri-State zinc-lead region (fig. 1). The Kline tract is in the southwestern corner of Lawrence County, Mo., and the Frey tract, 1 1/2 miles west of the Kline, is in the northeastern part of Newton County, Mo. A bureau Of Mines drilling project embraced work on both properties, but the amount of work done on the Frey tract was comparatively small. At the time of the project the Kline tract was under lease to the Wentworth Mining & Milling Co. The Surprise Mining Co. held the lease on the Frey tract. Underground workings on the generally flat-bedded are deposits of the Kline property-covered an area of-about 15 acres. No total metal-production records are available. In 1942-1943 the mine, operated by the Wentworth Mining & Milling Co., produced at an average monthly rate of 83 tons of 60-percent zinc concentrate derived from mining and milling 1,700 to 2,100 tons of ore. At the end of that period no significant amount of reserve ore was in sight. The gravity-flotation mill on the property was operating at about one-sixth capacity.

Jan 1, 1949

By Russell R. Trengove

The Strawberry tungsten mine is in the Jackass Mining District, in an isolated portion of eastern Madera County, near the southeast corner of the Yosemite National Park. The deposit was discovered in 1941, and production started in 1943 when the mill was completed. With the exception of 1946 and 1947, production has been continuous. The area in the vicinity of the mine is granite containing islands of sedimentary beds highly altered by metamorphism that resulted from the intrusion of acid igneous rock. Schoelite occurs in almost vertical lenses of tactite between the limestone and the granite.

Jan 1, 1949

By N. L. Wimmler

The Metaline mining district was examined in 1942 by Bureau of Mines engineers with the cooperation of geologists of the Federal Geological Survey. Because the demands of war production were rapidly depleting reserves in some of the older zinc-lead producing districts of the United States, it was decided that an attempt should be made to increase the proved or indicated ore reserves of the Metaline district. With this objective, certain areas to be explored by diamond drilling were selected. The Bureau of Mines began work on this program. January 15, 1943; work terminated September 8, 1945. Forty-five holes were drilled in seven areas, The holes ranged from 154 feet to 2,050 feet in length. Their combined length was 38,150 feet. Thirty-three of the holes were drilled in. the North Pend Oreille and the West Bella May areas.

Jan 1, 1949