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A considerable amount of psychological research has been conducted on human behaviour and its relationship to accidents. However, the research covers very wide fields and the findings drawn are so varied that at first sight they are confusing and there does not appear to be any major useful lead. I propose a discussion of a number of research findings to illustrate the variety and complexity of the human behaviour factors involved in considering safety. Such discuss- ion might point to some conclusions which could lead to an action programme to improve safety records.

Jan 1, 1975

By Richard P. Hight

Abrasives include the substances, natural or artificial, that are used to grind, polish, abrade, scour, clean, or otherwise remove solid material, usually by rubbing action but also by impact (pressure blasting for example). They do not include abrasive tools, for instance, lathe tools and files--or polishing agents such as waxes, which act by filling pores. Detergents and cleaners whose action is chemical rather than physical are omitted al- though some chemical-action polishes and cleaners may also contain solid abrasives, for example, many automobile and metal polishes. General Considerations The most important physical properties of materials that qualify them for use as abrasives are hardness, toughness (or brittleness), grain shape and size, character of fracture or cleavage, purity or uniformity. For making bonded abrasive products such as grinding wheels, additional important factors are stability under high heat and bonding characteristics of grain surfaces. The economic factors of cost and availability are always important. No one single property is paramount for any use. For some uses extreme hardness and toughness are needed, as in diamonds for drill bits; for others, the factors of greatest importance are hardness and ability to break down slowly under use, to develop fresh cut- ting edges when grains become worn-for example: in garnet for sandpaper neither highly cleavable or friable grains nor extremely tough grains are wanted. For still other uses, great hardness is objectionable; for example, abrasives for dentifrices and for glass-cleaning soaps. For the most efficient use in the more critical applications, the different types of abrasives are rarely completely interchangeable; thus, while crushed quartz and garnet are both used in sandpaper, the papers are not at all interchangeable in their use applications. In the last analysis, the choice of a high grade abrasive depends upon the quality and quantity of work done by the abrasive per unit of cost. Initial cost of an artificial abrasive may be much greater than that of a natural abrasive but the artificial abrasive may do so much better work than the natural one, and do it so much faster that the ultimate cost will be less. It is for this reason that artificial abrasives have largely replaced natural abrasives. Abrasive Value Mineralogical hardness or "scratch" hardness as expressed in Mohs' scale is an important property in evaluating abrasive materials, but, as noted before, it is only one of several essential properties. The mineral hardness of pure crystal almandite garnet is about 7.5, but if the crystal is crossed by incipient fracture planes, or if it contains inclusions of other minerals, the apparent or useful hardness may be much lower. While the quartz grains in a sandstone have a hardness of 7, the bond holding the grains together may be so weak that the stone is valueless as a commercial abrasive. In artificially bonded wheels and stones, the hardness, strength, and character of the bond are fully as important as the hardness of the abrasive grains. Thus, in an overall consideration of abrasive hardness of loose abrasive grains, both "scratch" hardness and toughness must be considered. In naturally or artificially bonded abrasive stones, bond characteristics are a third factor, which is most important. The problem of abrasive hardness is further complicated by the inadequacies of methods of testing hardness and of expressing relative values. The Mohs' scale is inadequate both because the methods of testing are very crude and

Jan 1, 1975

[The development of economically effective and safe methods of mining thick coal seams enables to involve considerable coal reserves into the energy resources in different countries all over the world.]

Jan 1, 1975

By Theodore H. Eyde

The Superior Oil Co. drilled two holes, 4720 and 5940 ft, respectively, using conventional oilfield rotary drilling equipment. The results indicated that large rotary drills can be adapted to mineral exploration purposes with few modifications. The principal advantages are: a large hole diameter, excellent samples of cuttings, a geolograph which is a constant drilling record, rapid penetration even in hard rocks, and the ability to use electric logs for measuring the properties of the rock being penetrated. The disadvantages are the high cost of mobilization, drilling, and oilfield service at remote locations. Though the oilfield sampling techniques are adequate for identifying lithology, improvements are necessary to obtain representative samples for analytical purposes. As deeper targets are explored, mineral exploration organizations will have to resort to rotary drilling.

Jan 1, 1975

By Robert Hoy

If the reader finds that the basic information in a commodity chapter is insufficient, he can consult the appropriate sources in this chapter to find more detailed or more up-to-date information. In these days, technology develops so rapidly that this 4th edition will be somewhat out of date even by the time it is distributed. A comparison of this edition with the 3rd edition (1960) of Industrial Minerals and Rocks will clearly demonstrate how rapidly the scene changes. One of the best sources of new information, of course, is attendance at technical meetings. For example, the papers presented at the national and sectional meetings of AIME usually discuss new developments in the respective divisions of the society. Frequently this information is available in Preprints. In addition some are printed in Mining Engineering and/or the Transactions of the Society of Mining Engineers of AIME. Furthermore, other professional and trade journals contain articles pertinent to the field. A journal introduced in 1967, Industrial Minerals, published by the Metal Bulletin, Ltd., London, is an excellent source of information. The Mining Journal, Ltd., also in London, publishes a weekly journal, a Mining Magazine (monthly), and a Mining Annual Re- view. The latter covers the field from three aspects: (1) by commodities, (2) through technical developments, and (3) geographically. Other useful magazines and periodicals include Engineering and Mining Journal, Pit and Quarry, Rock Products, and World Mining, all published in the United States. In addition many new books related to industrial minerals have been published since the 3rd edition of Industrial Minerals and Rocks. Most of these, of course, are included in the bibliography of each chapter in this volume. Another excellent information source is the proceedings of the Forum on Geology of Industrial Minerals. This group, which held its 11th annual meeting in 1975, is sponsored by a state geological survey or another mineral agency on a rotational basis. The proceedings have been published by the various sponsors and are available as indicated in Table 1. Two major sources of basic industrial mineral and rock data in the United States, and also a good source for many foreign countries, are the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Bureau of Mines. The two agencies publish many reports and maps on a variety of geo- logical and mining subjects. In addition, each agency has an indexed list of all their publications with a free service announcing new publications. (New Publications of the Geological Survey, U.S. Geological Survey, Washington, D.C. 20242) and New Publications-Bureau of Mines, Publications Distribution Branch, U.S. Bureau of Mines, 4800 Forbes Ave., Pittsburgh, Pa. 15213). The U.S. Bureau of Mines (USBM) publishes annually Minerals Yearbooks which provide statistical data on mineral products including production, consumption, imports and exports, as well as information on new developments. Another very useful USBM series is called Mineral Facts and Problems. Editions were published in 1960, 1965, and 1970. Three other major series of publications by the Bureau are Information Circulars, Reports of Investigations, and Mineral Trade Notes. The latter is particularly good for news of foreign developments. A new Professional Paper No. 820 of the U.S. Geological Survey, 1973, summarizes data on the mineral resources of the entire country. The USGS, in cooperation with USBM, other Federal and various state agencies, has also prepared summary reports on mineral and water resources of given areas which include

Jan 1, 1975

In recent decades the awareness of environmental issues by the general public has developed at an accelerat- ing rate. This is the result of a number of factors including more scientific knowledge of environments and of the impacts of modern society upon them, higher levels of education, the opportunity for people to travel more, and the success of the various communication media in bringing in- formation to the communities of the world about such environmental crises or threats as the smogs of Los Angeles and London, the Torrey Canyon and Santa Barbara oilspills, Minamata disease in Japan, the spread of the Crown of Thorns starfish, the disposal of toxic industrial wastes into the Upper Rhine, the discovery of high mercury and zinc contents in marine foods in southern Australian waters, and the proposal to mine limestone at Precipitous Bluff in Tasmania.

Jan 1, 1975

NIM Reports Report No. 1647 The industrial application of KEGOLD electrodes. Report No. 1665 The determination of minor amounts of antimony in ores and concentrates by atomic absorption spectrophotometry.

Jan 1, 1975

By Glenn A. Hazen

This report presents a stress investigation of four coal pillars located under two depths of cover. Each coal pillar was instrumented with ten load cells designed to measure coal pressure during initial and secondary mining. The problem considered was one of uniform triaxial stress as a large coal pillar was loaded under a thick limestone bed. Special attention was given to pillar design procedure. Unconfined uniaxial compression tests were conducted for coal specimens 7/8 in., 2-1/8 in., 3 in., and 4 in. square with length to square side ratios of 1/2, 1, 1-1/2, and 2. Stress-strain curves were recorded. Six specimens were tested at each size. Results show that a coal pillar is composed of an inner zone which is highly loaded plus a region around its perimeter which has lost its elastic strength. The bearing capacity of a coal pillar consists of elastic and crushed coal response: The failure strengths have been determined and will be useful in coal recovery, mine design, and mine safety.

Jan 1, 1975

The patterns of occupational health pro- grammes in mining and metallurgy are discussed in relation to the impact of chemical and phy- sical hazards on the health of workers in these fields. Mining and metallurgy are quite unique in that their history and practice embrace virtually the total spectrum of occupational health problems and hazards as understood today. A panoramic concept of the possibilities would comprise the following fields: 1. The Pneumoconioses or Dust Diseases. 2. Physical stress due to exertion, and exposure to heat and humidity in deep mines. 3. The toxic effects of various metals in the mining of ore. The most obvious are lead, mercury, arsenic and manganese. 4. Diseases associated with mining. These include leptospirosis, ankylostomiasis and mycotic infections of the skin. 5. The Beat Diseases of coal miners working in narrow seams. 6. Illumination problems and miners nystagmus. 7. Geographical and climatic problems

Jan 1, 1975

By Mercer JK

This paper gives a description of the research undertaken by an explosives manufacturer to give better technical advice to the Mineral Industry. Blasting Physics is defined as giving a systematic and coherent account of the initiation and subsequent effects of high explosives upon the surrounding medium. As a result of this work a mathematical model based on the gener- ally accepted mechanism of blasting has been developed. The mechanism and the resulting model are briefly outlined. IFrom'this model the effects of burden, spacing, blasthole diameter, rock and explosive properties upon fragmentation and heave can be calculated. Using these calculations it is then possible to see how variations in frag Imentation and heave can affect the overall production costs of a mine whether it is surface or underground. The overall costs are made up of a number of individual costs - drilling, blasting, loading, hauling and crushing. ach of these operations influences or is influenced by fragmentation and heave s these costs are inter-related, the

Jan 1, 1975

By Savage E. N

The porphyry copper minerals of Melanesia occur within a host of narrow veinlets in predominantly quartz diorite stocks or as contact metasomatic masses in skarns adjacent to the intrusion. Some 90 per cent of the constituent minerals comprise pyrite or marcasite, chalcopyrite, and magnetite with the remainder mainly bornite and hematite with accessory rutile and chalcocite together with several trace minerals. Gold is found mainly as inclusions in chalcopyrite, and minor molybdenite occurs likewise.Of particular significance is the persistent occurrence of accessory rutile of hydrothermal origin intimately intergrown with chalcopyrite. The rutile occurs relatively late in the hydrothermal sequence and upon weathering of the deposit may be released on a cumulative basis possibly in sufficient amounts to constitute a particulate pathfinder mineral which may aid in prospecting.Rutile is present in all the Melanesian occurrences studied and is also prominent in several American deposits.The porphyry copper mineralogy is characterized by the presence of accessory hydrothermal rutile intergrown with chalcopyrite.

Jan 1, 1975

By Edward Martinez

The literature on the beneficiation of serpentine asbestos ore states that the specific gravity of the rock containing fiber and the fiber itself is the same so that specific gravity cannot be used as a basis for separation. An investigation of particles of asbestos ore ranging in size from 4 mesh to 5 in. revealed that the fiber-bearing particles generally had a lower specific gravity compared to essentially barren particles. The difference in specific gravity was sufficient to make an effective gravity separation of ore particles and reject a low grade tailings product. The results of laboratory tests are described that lead to the running of pilot plant tests with 20-ton ore samples using a heavy media separator. These tests indicated that a large amount of low grade material could be rejected from the raw ore at a coarse size. Although the process used is a wet separation, it can be added to a conventional dry asbestos mill. A gravity preconcentration would allow the mining of lower grade ore, increase the life of the mine, increase the value of the feed to the fiber recovery section, and decrease maintenance costs by removal of low grade tailings early in the flowsheet.

Jan 1, 1975

Marketing of mineral products has not yet succumbed to the degree of pre- dictability and exactitude that is fam- iliar to the engineer or metallurgist in pursuing their profession. Whilst the Great Market of the world economy dic- tates circumstances for the sale of min- eral products, there are more than just buyers and sellers in the determination of the revenue received by the producer. For the engineer or metallurgist he will be required to gain an understanding of these participants and of the peculiar languages of the market place. This will be only one of his tasks in learn- ing to communicate with society, as his responsibilities increase as he climbs the ladder of success. There is un- doubtedly a need for better statistical information so that producers and sell- ers can make an appropriate and earlier response to market conditions. There is in addition, a need for more aggressive concern by raw material producers for the development and promotion of better end use of their products. Undoubtedly the marketing of mineral products will be more influenced by the direct involv- ment of government agencies than has been the case in the past. Whilst that 1. Director - Marketing & Finance, North Broken Hill Limited.

Jan 1, 1975

By Propster M, Choudhry M

THIS note gives comments on the paper by Kitaev et al on p. 68 of this book and compares results with those obtained by ourselves. We wish to say that the authors are to be congratulated on their sophisticated approach to an important problem and that it complements our efforts on flow maldistribution.1-5 It is our view that Eqs. (1)-(5) on p. 69 are impressive, but unfortunately with present day computers and computational facilities, it would be quite impractical to contemplate the numerical solution of these. Eq. (8) in the authors' paper, on p. 70, does provide the logical starting point for tackling flow maldistribution problems and strictly speaking this equation is more accurate than Eq. (1) in our paper in this book. We note in passing that there is direct experimental evidence to support the contention that our Eq. (1) is at least a reasonable approximation and one may question in a practical sense whether the refinement afforded by Eq. (8) in the paper by Kitaev et a/ is justified. While one must readily accept the appropriateness of Eq. (8) of Kitaev et al as a starting point, the subsequent mathematical manipulation by the authors is open to serious criticism. In order to solve this complex, non-linear equation Kitaev et al postulated irrotational flow, which afforded considerable simplification. One can argue simply on physical grounds that the assumption of irrotational flow is inappropriate, a fact which should be readily apparent on inspection of the flow fields shown in Figs. 2 and 3 of Kitaev's paper. It follows that while the starting point through the use of Eq. (8) is correct the results derived from this starting point may be suspect because of the erroneous nature of the irrotational flow assumption.

Jan 1, 1975

1. Domestic Production and Use: In 1974 twelve companies operated 31 primary aluminum reduction plants, three firms accounting for 64% of production. Washington, Oregon, and Montana accounted for 32% of the total production; Gulf Coast States, 24%; Northern States, 33%, and other Southern States 11%. Output of primary metal in 1974 was valued at $3.4 billion. About 80% of the secondary recovery was from new aluminum base scrap and 20% was from old scrap. Aluminum consumption by 25,000 firms was centered in the East Central United States. Of aluminum consuming industries in 1974, building accounted for about 27%; transportation 19%; electrical, 13%; packaging, 15%; and consumer durab1es, 9%.

Jan 1, 1975

By E. G. Valdez

Iron foundries that melt automobile scrap produce flue dusts averaging about 32 percent zinc and 6 percent lead. Some is sold to smelters, but because of the meager return and difficulty in handling, most of the dust is discarded. As part of the Bureau of Mines program to find uses for mineral wastes, research was initiated to develop an economical process to recover zinc and lead from the flue dust. Research encompassed the extraction of zinc and lead by fuming, leaching, and agglomeration. Controlled vacuum fuming of zinc to produce Prime Western zinc and a lead-rich residue was the most effective method for treating the dust. This process involved two distillations, or fumings, with carbon and methane as reductants, and resulted in recovery of 91.4 percent of the zinc in a Prime Western grade product, and 98 percent of the lead. Hydrometallurgical techniques involved several leaching methods, but the simultaneous extraction of iron, manganese, and copper resulted in contamination of the solution and made the zinc recovery processes too complicated. Agglomeration was done by pelletizing or briquetting the dust for possible use as feed to a zinc smelter.

Jan 1, 1975

By K. V. Konigsmann

"Mattagami Lake Mines Ltd operate a zinc-copper mine with an annual output of about 200,000 tons of zinc and 30,000 tons of copper concentrates. Zinc concentrates arc shipped to a company owned smelter in Valleyfield (a distance of 690 miles), for Export to Quebec City and also to Josephtown, Pennsylvania (1,060 miles, Figure 1.)The protection of concentrates in open gondola rail shipments has been a matter of concern since operations commenced. Considerable financial losses did occur at times because of wind erosion. Operating difficulties were also encountered by customers because of excessive moisture accummulation in the concentrates. Test shipments made in 1969 established the magnitude of losses in open cars. The results and subsequent investigations at our mines and elsewhere confirmed that load protection is an economic necessity.Many types of covers were experimented with, more or less successfully. In 1972 we agreed on a joint program with Dupont of Canada Limited. A new type of cover was developed by early 1973. It has been in use since, undergoing several improvements as experience accumulates."

Jan 1, 1975

By Jerrold J. Marcus

United states reserves of oil and gas have been steadily declining while consumption of petroleum products has continued to increase. The nut result has been an ever increasing shortfall between supply and demand. This imbalance has been made up by imports of both oil and gas causing a strain on the United States Balance of Payments. To complicate the situation further, exporting nations have recently formed a cartel and dramatically increased the selling price of petroleum products. To meet U.S. energy demand, increased attention has been drawn to the production of synthetic oil and gas from coal. To date, considerable research has been conducted and is continuing on various processes for liquefaction and gasification of coal. Some of these processes are now in the pilot plant stage and at least one demonstration plant has been proposed. The coal conversion complexes envisioned will be very large, requiring substantial capital investments and abundant reserves of coal. Coal production to feed these proposed complexes has been estimated on the order of 75,000 tons per day. With the viability of these projects becoming economically attractive, the Office of Coal Research initiated a contract with Fluor Utah to determine and define the problems of surface mining coal at very high mining rates, under varied physical, geographic, and climatic conditions. The flow of recent events in the Middle East has created a greater sense of urgency for this study.

Jan 1, 1975

Zircon is extensively used as moulding sand in the production of steel and high-duty iron castings. To achieve a satisfactory grade of zircon concentrate, the zircon particles may need ,to have surface coatings removed, as such coatings can hinder electrostatic and magnetic separation of zircon from associated minerals. Xn addition the presence of surface coatings on the zircon. particles can cause sinterins and fusion of the zircon to the east metal resulting in "burnt-on" sand or fritting of the casting. "Burnon" necessitates cleaning of the casting by grinding or chipping, which is expensive and results in loss of definition on the casting face.Hudson (1966) has pointed out ,that some coatings on mineral sands are lightly-adhering clays which can be removed quite readily by agitating the sands in water for a few minutes-thus their removal constitutesno problem. However, the heavy gingery coloured coating which adheres strongly to the surface of the particles in some deposits, and which has generally been considered to be a form of iron oxide (Baker, 1962; Hudson, 1966), cannot be removed effectively by attrition cleaning in water (Hudson, 1966). Such coatings limit the usefulness of these concentrates in the foundry industry.An investigation of strongly-adhering coatings on "ginger zircon" concentrates from the Yoganup deposit of Westralian Sands Ltd has shown that the stain consists of a cemented mixtvre of hydrated iron and aluminium oxides and kaolin minerals, and that it can be removed by a relatively low cost treatment.IDENTIFICATION OF THE STAIN BY XRDX-ray powder diffraction (XRD) patterns were obtained from small samples of stain scraped, individually, from the surface of hand-picked zircon and ilmenite crystals. These scrapings were mounted on quartz fibres and exposed to CoKa radiation in a 57 mm Debye camera. To avoid heavy fogging of the x-ray films, a substantial amount of the iron oxides was preferentially leached from the scrapings (before mounting) with an ammonium oxalate-oxalic acid solution (Rooksby, 1961). The residual material gave a fairly well resolved powder pattern (Table 1). A...

Jan 1, 1975

By Danforth R. Hale

Minerals for electronic and optical uses divide easily into two sections: (1) quartz and (2) minerals other than quartz. Quartz Quartz, having a great usefulness discovered by the radio communication enthusiasts about 1918, has become a subject of amazingly expanded interest in the U.S. over the past decade as a man-made mineral and a $3 million crystal-growing business. An economic summary of the commercial growing of quartz crystals has a place in a handbook directed to the mineral engineering industry when it is remembered that quartz crystals have long been an important commercial mineral, and that the raw material for “cultured quartz”- that is to say, quartz crystals grown through the ingenuity of man-is still natural quartz. Nearly all the natural crystals come from Brazil. The larger pieces which meet rigorous standards of quality are used for electronic and, to a lesser extent, optical components. Smaller pieces and fragments are used for vitreous silica. The need for high quality material in quantity led to U.S. government-sponsored research programs in the 1940s that have resulted in the factory growing of beautiful crystals of prescribed shape, size, and quality. The development of the cultured quartz crystal is typical of man's success in adapting the product of the mine to increasingly sophisticated uses. A remarkable achievement perhaps, but foreshadowed by experiments in 1908 by Giorgio Spezia (1908), an Italian geologist studying the relative effects of temperature and alkaline environment on the solubility of quartz. Modern radio equipment is most often controlled as to frequency by the presence in the circuit of a separately added "crystal"-the 1918 discovery responsible for the existence and growth of the quartz industry. The "crystal" is quartz, but this component is a carefully oriented and prepared slice from a crystal, but not a crystal as recognized by a rock hound or seen in a museum. How quartz operates to control frequencies is not a proper subject for a handbook on industrial minerals, and references should be consulted (Cady, 1964; Mason, 1964). Quartz belongs to that class of materials called dielectrics: those that do not conduct an electric current but permit electric fields to exist and act across them. Quartz shows the "piezo-electric effect," which means that when a quartz plate is mechanically deformed against its natural stiffness, one of its surfaces becomes negatively charged, the other, positively charged. When the plate is released from the stress quickly, the charges disappear as the plate regains its original shape, but because of mechanical momentum the plate deforms in the opposite direction (to a lesser amount) and the surfaces correspondingly become charged in the opposite direction. By coating the two surfaces thinly with metal and attaching flexible wires, these charges may be brought into an electronic circuit. If the surfaces are suddenly electrically charged by movement of current through the wires, the "converse piezoelectric effect" occurs -the plate deforms. Carry the thought further and it is realized that an alternating current flowing through the wires responds to the mechanical oscillation of the plate and is keyed to this oscillation. By controlling the thickness of the plate its mechanical vibration frequency can bevaried through a wide range. One type of quartz plate, called the AT-cut, having a precisely defined orientation with respect to the crystallographic axes of the crystal, vibrates on a microscopic scale much as a book would deform when placed flat on a table and the top cover moved parallel back and forth with the hand. There are at least 17 other orientations which have been studied, some of

Jan 1, 1975