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COUNCIL AND STANDING COMMITTEES - 1973-1974 Office Bearers: P. W. J. van Rensburg (President), Professor R. P. Plewman and Dr R. E. Robinson (Vice Presidents), J. K. E. Douglas (Honorary Treasurer), and Dr J. P. Hugo (Immediate Past President). Elected Members of Council: Dr M. G. Atmore, G. H. Grange, Dr P. R. Jochens, J. G. Kirchner, Dr D. I. Legge, W. W. Malan, Dr M. D. G. Salamon, L. W. P. van den Bosch, D. A. Viljoen, P. A. von Wielligh. Branch Chairmen: B. T. Hosking (Witbank-Middelburg Branch), E. T. Wilson (Orange Free State Branch). Past Presidents Serving on Council: R. J. Adamson, M. Barcza, H. Britten, H. E. Cross, Professor J. de V. Lambrechts, R. C. J. Goode, Professor D. D. Howat, D. M. Jamieson, D. G. Maxwell, Dr J. T. McIntyre, V. C. Robinson. Ten Council meetings were held during the year, with an average attendance of 19, and the standing committees held 30 meetings. COMMITTEE CHAIRMEN Membership, Dr R. E. Robinson ; Metallurgical Colloquia, Dr R. E. Robinson ; Mining Colloquia, L. W. P. van den Bosch; Awards, P. W. J. van Rensburg; Excursions, P. A. von Wielligh; Dinner, G. H. Grange ; Constitution, Rules and Policy, Dr J. P. Hugo; Adjudicating, P. W. J. van Rensburg; Mines and Works, W. W. Malan; Education, Dr J. P. Hugo. REPRESENTATIVES ON OTHER BODIES Associated Scientific and Technical Societies: Members : V. C. Robinson and D. G. Maxwell Alternates : P. W. J. van Rensburg and Dr J. P. Hugo. Federation of Societies of Professional Engineers Members : J. K. E. Douglas and P. W. J. van Rensburg Alternates : Dr J. P. Hugo and G. H. Grange. South African Council for Professional Engineers Members : R. C. J. Goode and J. K. E. Douglas Alternates: G. H. Grange and Dr R. E. Robinson. Engineers' Liaison Committee (Pretoria): Member: Professor J. de V. Lambrechts Alternate : Dr J. P. Hugo. MEMBERSHIP Seventeen Fellows and Members, twenty-three Graduates, ten Associate Members, twenty-two Associates, thirty-four Students, and seven Company Affiliates were elected during the year. Eleven Fellows and four Members were admitted to retired membership. Five Fellows were elected to Honorary Life Membership. Four Members, two Graduates, and one Student were transferred to Fellows ; eleven Graduates and Students were transferred to Members ; eight Students to Graduates; and four Students to Associates. A statement of membership as at June 30th 1974 and the end of the previous year is given in the following tabulation 30th - 30th June, - June, 1973 - 1974 Honorary Life Fellows 4 - 9 Honorary Fellows 9 - 8 Life Fellows 177 - 170 Fellows 536 - 544 Members 487 - 512 Associate Members - - 10 Graduates 128 - 130 Associates 186 - 194 Students 183 - 173 Company Affiliates 64 - 70 1 774 - 1 820 OBITUARIES Your Council records with deep regret the death during the year of the following members : Dr P. N. Lategan and Dr O. A. Jackson, Honorary Life Fellows and Past Presidents; C. Airth, T. L. Blunt, J. B. Dennison, A. E. Frazer, C. L. Lamb, V. O. Reid, K. Richardson and D. G. Roberts, Life Fellows ; H. F. Allan, J. T. Beaumont, M. Eisenstein, J. C. Hall, C. F. Louw, H. H. McGregor, R. Murchison, and J. E. Williamson, Fellows; and R. B. Miles, Associate. FINANCE The annual accounts, which follow this report, reflect a healthy position and show that measures taken by Council over the last few years to boost income have been successful. A higher income was needed not only to meet rising costs but also so that the services provided by the Institute for its members could be expanded. This year's income of R55 025 showed a further increase compared with last year's figure of R48 307. Income from subscriptions was higher mainly owing to an increased number of Company Affiliates, and this is indicative of the support given by mining and metallurgical companies to the good work being done by the Institute. Further sales of publications of the symposia held over the last few years again made a useful contribution to income of R4560. The first Winter School held in 1973 yielded a surplus of R7495 after the expenses had been deducted from the income received from registration fees. The cost of administering the Institute increased by R2212 compared with the previous year. Included in this was a donation of R1000 to the A.S. & T.S. Trust Fund. The cost of publishing and printing the Journal increased by R2034, but advertising and extraneous sales of the Journal were higher, with the result that the net cost of the

Jan 10, 1974

The Annual General Meeting of the Institute was held in Kelvin House, Johannesburg, on Wednesday, August 14th, 1974. Mr P. W. J. van Rensburg (President) was in the Chair. There were present 56 Fellows, 21 Members, 2 Graduates, 5 Associates, 16 Students, and 58 Visitors, making a total of 158. The President declared the Meeting open at 4.08 p.m. OBITUARIES The President: Ladies and gentlemen, before we start the business of the meeting, it is my sad duty to announce the deaths of the following members of the Institute since our last meeting: Dr O. A. E. Jackson, Honorary Life Fellow and Past President; C. Airth, T. L. Blunt, A. E. Frazer, C. L. Lamb, and K. Richardson, Life Fellows; and J. T. Beaumont, Fellow. As you know, there were a number of other deaths during the year, which were reported at previous General Meetings of the Institute. As a mark of respect to the memory of the deceased, and in sympathy with the bereaved, I ask you to rise and observe a few moments' silence. MINUTES The President: Ladies and gentlemen, the next item on your agenda is confirmation of the minutes of the General Meeting and Special General Meeting held on May 22nd, 1974. These will be published in the August issue of the Journal, and, since you have not yet received this, I must ask that they be held over to the next General Meeting. WELCOME The President: It is a very pleasant duty for me to welcome many members of our Institute and our guests, among whom we are particularly pleased to see the President of the Chamber of Mines, Mr Dolf Schumann, who is also Honorary President of this Institute. Mr Schumann, we are extremely pleased to have you with us today. And, we welcome an old friend of ours, Mr Dillon, Minister of Mines in Rhodesia, who has come down for our Annual General Meeting. Mr Dillon, we are very, very pleased to see you here this evening, and we look forward to seeing Mrs Dillon a little later. And we have with us, too, the presidents or representatives of many of our sister and brother associations, institutes, and societies. In particular, we welcome Mr Mike Gericke, President of the South African Council of Professional Engineers, and Professor Midgley, President of A. S. and T. S. We are also pleased to welcome the Presidents of the Mechanical Engineers, Electrical Engineers, Certificated Mechanical and Electrical Engineers, the Civil Engineers, the Joint Council of Scientific Societies, the Mine Ventilation Society, the South African Association of Consulting Engineers, the Association of Mine Managers, the Institute of Foundrymen, the Institute of Welding, the Federation of Societies of Professional Engineers, Mine Surveyors, Production Engineers (London), and the Institute of Production Engineering. We are very glad, too, to have with us a visitor from England, Professor Raynor and Mrs Raynor. Professor Raynor is Professor of Metallurgy at Birmingham University, and a very well-known metallurgist in Britain. We also have with us the Chairman of the Ferro-Alloys Association. We are expecting the Chairman of our Witbank/Middelburg Branch, the Chairman of the Engineers' Liaison Committee, Pretoria, the Director of the Witwatersrand College of Technical Education, and, of course, our old friend, Mr Eric Boden, the Manager of A.S. and T.S. It is a very great pleasure to have with us a number of persons who will receive honorary Life Fellowship at this meeting, and there are some Gold Medal winners and winners of our Student Prizes. We have apologies from a number of people who are away on business, and unfortunately some are ill. But we are extremely pleased to see those of you who are here, and we are also very pleased to see so many ladies. We expect to see many more of them later this evening, at our Cocktail Party. MEMBERSHIP The President: I have pleasure in announcing that, their names having been published in accordance with By-Law 5.2.2., the following have been elected by Council to membership in the following grades Fellows: B. Collins, D. W. Dixon, J. P. Dreyer, A. T. Hudson, and W. W. Pearce. Members: A. T. Fisher and I. F. Nagy. Associate Members : P. D. de Bruyn and H. C. Iverson. Graduates: D. P. O'Shaugnessy and M. F. Sadler. Associates: R. J. Bushell and A. MacDonald. Students : I. J. Barker, P. J. Charter, J. P. de Witt, G. S. Esterhuizen, N. Green, P. M. Jenner, M. J. R. Meyer, A. P. Nicol, W. J. C. Pothas, B. J. Robbetze, N. T. Sutherland, B. A. Statham, C. R. Thomas, N. C. Webb, M. Salamon, R. G. Jurd, and M. McChesney. Transfers to other grades of membership include the following: Member to Fellow: B. W. Holtzhousen. Graduate to Member: T. S. Schultz. Associate to Associate Member: C. L. Jordaan, H. J. L. Tomlinson, J. E. Forbes, G. H. S. Bamford, T. F. Carswell, J. W. Breidenhann, J. R. Garbutt, and L. S. Gibbs. Student to Graduate: C. J. Faueonnier and B. Lund. Student to Associate : G. P. Gooding. We welcome these new members

Jan 10, 1974

Now producing 35,000 tpd of coal from a deposit whose estimated reserves total 1.1 billion t, the Navajo mine of Utah International Inc. near Farmington, N. M., is the largest open-pit coal operation in the US. The history of this mine began in 1953 when, foreseeing the growing need for electrical power in the southwest, Utah International obtained a prospecting permit from the Navajo tribe. The lease, now covering 31,000 acres of the 12-million acre New Mexico-Utah-Arizona Navajo Indian reservation, was entered in 1957; in the next 3 years, Utah International negotiated with the State of New Mexico for water rights on the San Juan River, and finalized an agreement with the Arizona Public Service Co. to provide coal for the proposed Four Corners power-generating plant near Farmington.

Jan 10, 1974

By Tegner C. Johnson

Just a few years ago, my company was referred to as the Marion Steam Shovel Company. Though we still make shovels, both two and eight-crawler types, the eight-crawler stripping shovel appears to have been replaced by the walking dragline for overburden removal and in some cases for the mineral as well. The walking dragline appeared in the coal fields in the early 1930's. It is popular because it can cope with overburden depths in excess of 100 ft and with blasted sedimentary rock, all at an O & O (ownership and operational) cost of ±10[c] per bank cu yd (bcy).

Jan 10, 1974

By Noel F. Boyd

Coal can be liquefied and gasified by several methods, all of which are being investigated and evaluated because each has its own advantages and disadvantages in terms of capital costs, end-products, and extent of required gas clean-up. Since coal conversion requires coal preheating to some extent, all these schemes begin with a coal-preparation step in a pressurized and heated reactor vessel where, in most cases, some additive or catalyst is usually injected. Extracting hydrogenated fuels from coal is not really a new science. Many people still recall the old "coal oil" that fired the lamps of stoves of rural America until the 1920's; the coal oil was produced by a basic Fischer- Tropsch method which has since been further developed to synthesize liquid fuels in the form of 86 to 90-octane gasoline and diesel fuel.

Jan 9, 1974

By Elburt F. Osborn

The phrase "Clean Synthetic Fluid Fuels From Coal," implies that it is possible to obtain adequate and dependable supplies of fuel without sacrificing the quality of our air, water, and land. Because of the long lead times needed to develop technical feasibility, into commercial reality, however, vigorous efforts must be made now in order to do it. The available options for clean fuels include many exotic sources, like solar and geothermal power, fuel cells, and thermionic and thermoelectric systems. To solve the energy crisis, however, we have three basic energy criteria-abundance, reliability, and commercial availability by 1985. Only processes based on converting coal and oil shale to clean, synthetic fluid fuels can meet all three.

Jan 9, 1974

By A. J. Van Rensburg, N. B. Strydom, C. H. Van Graan

The design, construction, and use of a practical ice-jacket for miners by N. B. STRYDOM, Ph.D. (Illinois) (Fellow), D. MITCHELL, Ph.D. (Rand) (Member), A. J. VAN RENSBURG, M.Sc (Poteh) (Visitor), and C. H. VAN GRAAN, M.Sc (Pretoria) (Visitor) Microclimate suits have been shown to be very effective in decreasing physiological strain in hot, wet environments, thus enabling men to work without risk in areas that would normally carry a high risk of heat stroke. In this paper, some design considerations in the development of the frozen jacket are described. Water complied with most of the desirable properties required of a coolant material for use In a microclimate suit. The Human Sciences Laboratory has developed a jacket in which ice is used as the coolant and which is designed according to the most acceptable anthropometrical characteristics. The jacket consists of an inner poncho-type waistcoat containing 28 water compartments. Over this is worn an insulating jacket, which minimizes warming of the coolant by the environment. Suitable refrigeration units have been developed to freeze the jackets underground. Laboratory tests have shown that these jackets are effective for about 2,5 hours, Irrespective of the wet-bulb environment, when men are working at a moderate rate. Jackets should, however, be used only in environments in which the wet-bulb temperature is in the range of 32,S0 to 35,S °C.

Jan 9, 1974

By R. J. Gordon, N. J. Keys, N. F. Peverett

Photometric sorting of ore on a South African gold mine by N. J. KEYS. B.E. Met. (Queensland) (Visitor). R. J. GORDON. (Visitor). And N. F. PEVERETT. B.Sc. (Eng.) (Wits) (Fellow) This paper concerns the development and application of a high-throughput, multi-stream photometric sorting machine developed for the South African gold mines. It is now believed that this sorter and its progeny may be found suitable for a large proportion of all possible sorting applications. A laser-light source and sensitive photomultiplier are employed in a scanning system to detect light reflected from the surfaces of rocks passing through the sorting zone. Electronic circuitry then analyses the photomultiplier signal, which represents the varying intensity of the reflected light, and produces control signals to actuate the appropriate valves of an array of air-blast rejection devices to remove from the feed certain particles selected by the analysing process. Typical throughput per machine ranges from 50 t/h for a minus 60mm plus 30mm feed to 200 t/h for minus 150mm plus 70mm material.

Jan 9, 1974

By E. William Heinrich

With the mounting emphasis on unconventional energy sources, total consumption of lithium minerals will increase significantly in the next decade. The recent development of the lithium battery, for example, may greatly boost the demand for lithium metal. At the same time, the growth in the ceramic, glass, and chemical industries is bound to increase the demand for lithium minerals. In fact, the entire consumption or utilization breakdown of lithium minerals will change considerably from its current pattern. Briefly, today's market for lithium minerals' can be grouped into three categories: (1) Lithium concentrates. Accounting for 57% of market use, these concentrates are beneficiated Li-A1 silicates for ceramic, glass, and glass-ceramic raw materials. The concentrates are chiefly spodumene; inverted iron-depleted beta-spodumene; and petalite or its isochemical decomposition product spodumene + quartz intergrowth ("squi"). In the past, lepidolite has also been used.

Jan 9, 1974

By Robert Poole

On June 20, 1974, delegations representing the governments of 150 nations convened in Caracas, Venezuela. The occasion: the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea. (As this article goes to press, the conference is still in session-Ed). Of all the many issues to come before the conference, none is of greater long-term consequence than the issue of jurisdiction over the seabed-the "land" at the bottom of the world's oceans. On the agenda, with widespread support from a majority of UN members, is a proposal to declare seabed resources "the common heritage of mankind," under the sole jurisdiction of the United Nations. Any would-be miner of seabed minerals would have to apply to a UN seabed authority for a permit, and would be forced to pay the bulk of his profits to a UN fund to aid the underdeveloped countries.

Jan 9, 1974

By Eugene Guccione

Before answering the question raised in the title, let's briefly consider how East-West trade is viewed within the entire US political spectrum. Essentially, there are four major schools of thought: (1) The Peaceful-Coexistence School. Advocates of this school call themselves free-traders and hold to the premise that: (a) trade benefits all parties involved, hence it is the best tool to achieve peace; (b) US trade barriers should be removed, and the quicker the better; and (c) negotiations, cultural exchanges, and political compromise should be used extensively.

Jan 9, 1974

Book review HOEK, E., and BRAY, J. Rockslope engineering. London, The Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, 1974. £5. NIM reports Report no. 1625 The determination of uranium and thorium by the use of delayed neutrons. Report no. 1626 Formation constants of zinc chlorocomplexes in perchlorate medium. Report no. 1629 The thermodynamics of the formation of complexes of silver with some substituted pyridines. Report no. 1630 An electrochemical investigation of the dissolution of copper, nickel, and copper-nickel alloys in ammonium carbonate solutions. Report no. 1640 A semi-automatic titrimeter for cyanide analyses. Report no. 1644 Prospects for the recovery of minerals from the sea. 1974 A.S. & T.S. National Award Professor D. C. Midgley, President of the Associated Scientific and Technical Societies of South Africa, today announced the winner of the 1974 A.S. & T.S. National Award. 1974 G.W. en T.V. Nasionale Toekenning Professor D. C. Midgley, President van die Geassosieerde Wetenskaplike en Tegniese Verenigings van Suid- Afrika het vandag die wenner van die 1974 G.W. & T.V. Nasionale Toekenning aangekondig.

Jan 9, 1974

NIM reports Report No. 1615 Fluorspar pellets. A survey of the world market and an assessment of future South African production. Report No. 1621 Correction for matrix effects in the analysis of solutions by X-ray-fiuorescence spectrometry. Notices Questionnaire on Technicians The Department of National Education's committee of enquiry into the education, training, utilization, and status of engineering technicians in the Republic of South Africa was established as a result of Resolution 6.3 taken at the Sixth Conference on Engineering Education: The Education and Training of Engineering Technicians. Vraelys oor Tegnici Die Departement van Nasionale Opvoeding se komitee wat ondersoek instel na die opleiding, gebruik en status van ingenieurstegnici in die Republiek van Suid-Afrika is gestig as gevolg van Besluit 6.3 wat geneem is tydens die Sesde Konferensie oor Ingenieursopleiding: Die Opleiding van Ingenieurstegnici. Competition for Student Members of the South African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy Each year the Institute offers a prize (or prizes should the entries warrant it) of up to R100 for the best paper or dissertation on a topic appropriate to the interests of the Institute. The competition is open to all Student Members of the Institute.

Jan 8, 1974

By Eugene Guccione

For at least a decade, the energy crisis was accurately predicted by a small number of industry people who were ignored until last year, when they suddenly found themselves accused for their "lack of planning" and "greed." With the worsening shortage of natural gas and oil, the current scramble is for alternate energy sources-which means: a big rush into coal and uranium mining. (Some big plans are also on the drawing boards regarding geothermal steam, oil shale, tar sands, and even solar energy. But developing such new industries from scratch would be difficult enough even in a healthy economic climate-which is not exactly what the country currently enjoys.)

Jan 8, 1974

By John A. Graves

Anaconda's Jackpile-Paguate mine, located between Albuquerque and Grants, N.M., is situated at an elevation of 6000 ft in a semi-arid desert region. The original Jackpile deposit was discovered by Anaconda air and ground exploration parties in Nov. 1951. A large percentage of the uranium mined in New Mexico comes from the Jackpile-Paguate, which is one of, if not the largest, open pit uranium mines in the world. From 1953 to the present, 120 million tons of overburden, mining waste, and low-grade material have been removed to produce approximately 10 million tons of merchantable uranium ore, having an average grade of about 0.25% uranium oxide. Identifying the Orebody Surface drill holes delineate the ore bodies on a predetermined grid which varies in dimension but usually affords 100-ft control. These holes are probed immediately after drilling by geophysical logging trucks, resulting in a gamma log and digital readout from each hole. From this information it is possible to arrive at an almost immediate conversion to percentage of U3O8 on 6-in. intervals. Initially a hole is probed at a reconnaissance speed of 10 fpm with a time constant of 8 sec. Wherever the gamma recording goes off scale on an initial run, that particular zone is rerun at 2 fpm and at a time constant of 2 sec. This time constant is the interval that emissions are counted and accumulated for recording purposes. The search radius of the Geiger probe is approximately 18 in.

Jan 8, 1974

By B. Litt, D. L. Van Coller

Job evaluation and the changing wage pattern by D. L. VAN COLLER, B.A.(Cape Town), M.A., B.Litt.{Oxon.) (Visitor) This paper sets out to show how changing forces are affecting the techniques that have been used in the evaluation of Black jobs on gold mines in the Anglo American Group since the introduction of job evaluation in 1961. Initially, job evaluation was essentially a management tool designed to differentiate jobs in a limited skill spectrum and thereby permit the establishment of a 'many stepped' job ladder for Black employees to climb. With the changing wage pattern, job evaluation is becoming an industrialrelations tool aimed at recognizing the skill and effort contributed by the worker so that the pay relationships between jobs are seen to be equitable by the employees.

Jan 8, 1974

Capable of processing 3500 tpd of uranium ore, the United Nuclear-Homestake Partners' mill in Grants, N. M., differs considerably from the nearby mills of Anaconda and Kerr-McGee in at least two major aspects: it leaches uranium ore with an alkaline solution of Na2C03 and NaHC03 instead of sulfuric acid; and it recovers yellowcake directly by precipitation from the pregnant alkaline leach solution, without any need of ion exchange or solvent extraction circuits. A first look at the flowsheet shows that this mill has two separate grinding and leaching circuits. Reason for the double circuitry: the mill treats, on a toll basis, uranium ores for Anaconda as well as for the partnership, and it must also treat ores coming from mines separately owned by Homestake Mining Corp. and from mines owned by United Nuclear Corp.

Jan 8, 1974

By R. C. Urquhart, W. P. Channon, D. D. Howat

The mode of current transfer between electrode and slag in the submerged-arc furnace . by W. P. CHANNON, B.Sc.(Eng.)(Student Member), R. C. URQUHART, M.Sc.(Eng.), ;'h.D.(Visitor), and D. D. HOWAT, B.Sc., Ph.D.(Fellow) An account is given of a laboratory experiment in which the resistivity of a primary slag like those produced in the manufacture of high-carbon ferrochromium was measured at current densities typical of operation in a submergedarc furnace. It was shown that the current flow from graphite elec trode to molten slag obeys Ohm's Law when electrode current densities are less than 12 A/cm". At higher current densities, arcing occurs from the electrode tip to the slag, causing an imbalance in the rate of heating in the furnace burden.

Jan 8, 1974

The Free World's largest uranium reserves are in the United States. Almost 97% of the U.S. uranium reserves occur in irregular shaped sandstone formations, widely disseminated in coarse clastic sediments that are mostly of Jurassic or Tertiary age. Without doubt, the most important deposits are located in the sandstone formations of the Ambrosia Lake district of New Mexico, near the sun-scorched town of Grantswhose proud alias, as given by the city fathers, is "The Uranium Capital of the World."

Jan 8, 1974

In uranium metallurgy, the main purpose is to obtain a product containing 80-85% U308 (yellowcake) from ores whose average grade is a mere 0.21% U30& Essentially, the task of extraction and concentration involves dissolving the ore's U308 values, followed by purification and concentration of the uranium-rich solution (using such operations as filtration, clarification, and ion-exchange), and then selectively precipitating and isolating U308. Leaching is First Step In yellowcake production mills, the first chemical change occurs by leaching the ore with either sulfuric acid-as done by Anaconda and Kerr-McGee-or with an alkaline solution of, say, sodium carbonate, as done by United Nuclear-Homestake Partners. The choice of either acid or alkaline leaching is not an arbitrary one: it depends on the chemical and physical characteristics of a particular ore. That is, on the presence of clays, organic compounds (usually of carbonaceous origin), and soluble impurities, as well as on the ore's wetness and grindability.

Jan 8, 1974