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[L. W. KEMPF, Chairman E. E. SCHUMACHER, Past-Chairman E. A. ANDERSON, Senior Vice-Chairman A. A. SMITH, JR., Vice-Chairman 11. A. MALONEY, Treasurer ERNEST KIRKENDALL, Secretary 29 West 39th Street, New York 18, N. Y. Executive Committee 1947 C. Y. CLAYTON A. B. GRENINGER CURTIS PIGOTT 1948 WALTER BONSACK W. A. DEAN LOUIS JORDAN 1949 J. D. HANAWALT W. A. JOHNSON E. W. PALMER]

Jan 1, 1946

By H. Kenworthy, M. M. Fine

The progress made to date in the mineral dressing of complex Arkansas titanium ores is reported in this paper. Concentrates of rutile, a dioxide of titanium, were produced by treating a submarginal ore from the Magnet Cove Rutile Co., Inc., Magnet, Ark. The rutile recovery at present is 45 to 50 pct of the total TiO2 with the possibility of increased recovery with additional research. The work reported herein is part of a general study which will later include results of investigation of other titanium ore bodies in the Magnet, Ark., area. The fragile character of the rutile minerals, the softness of the gangue, the occurrence of pyrite and leucoxene, and the considerable proportion of extremely small size rutile in the presence of montmorillonite- and illite- type clays in the Magnet Cove open-pit mine are the important factors in the mineral dressing of this submarginal rutile ore.

Jan 1, 1949

By Sergio G. Jarpa

A mining project is, at one and the same time, capital intensive and highly risky. Besides, because of its usual long projected life, the operating cost is more difficult to predict and offtentimes exceed, during the life of the project, the first investment manifold. The objective of this study was to evaluate the applicability of cost-capacity relationships as used in the chemical industry to mining operations and, when necessary, to develop new ones. With the aid of a computer library program available at the Computation Center of the Pennsylvania State University, the total investment in mining equipment was determined to vary exponentially with production capacity, and the scaling exponents for each class of equipment, i.e., drills, shovels, trucks and earth moving equipment, as well as for the total operation were calculated. Since the scaling exponent for the whole mining operation happened to be equal to 0.94, it was concluded that more significant economies of scale are achievable in processing plants than in mining operations. From the operating cost point of view, unit material cost was found to decrease more rapidly than unit labor for the same increases in production capacity. The analysis of cost centers revealed that drilling and blasting, which are materials-intensive operational stages, were the most favorable in achieving significant economies of scale. Hauling unit cost, on the other hand, decreased only slightly when production capacity increased.

Jan 1, 1977

By A. English, M. J. Greaves

This paper is a discussion of pelletizing systems developed over the last 15 to 20 years for the agglomeration of fine iron ore concentrates. Five different pelletizing systems are now in commercial use in the U.S., and for the purposes of comparison, estimated operating costs and capital costs for the construction of four of them are included. Capacities of existing commercial plants are examined, together with the anticipated capabilities of plants presently being built or projected. In just 21 years, the art of pelletizing iron ore concentrates has reached maturity with mastery of the separation of finely divided concentrates from low-grade iron ores and their agglomeration into pellets containing about 65% iron. This accomplishment has firmly established an improved feed for the blast furnace, with resulting benefits in faster reduction of burdens and greater economy of operation. The present production capacity of pelletizing facilities in the U.S. is about 20 million tons annually, and it is expected to double by 1970. The rapid expansion of pelletizing in the U. S. has been closely observed in European countries, notably in Sweden and Germany, where pioneer agglomerating techniques were developed early in this century. PELLETIZING PLANTS AND PROCESSES Twelve commercial pelletizing plants are presently in operation in the U. S. and Canada. An equal number are in various stages of engineering and construction, and many others are being considered. The pelletizing systems currently employed include shaft furnaces, horizontal grates using three different airflow arrangements, and grate kilns. The capacity of pelletizing operations in North America is shown in Table I. All of these plants are integrated with the mine, the ore-crushing facilities and the concentrating plant and are equipped with storage and loading-out facilities for the product. Normally, a pelletizing plant is composed of a shuttle conveyor above the receiving bins; balling equipment; a heat-hardening system including the necessary auxiliaries such as furnaces, burners and controls, ducts, fans, meters and instrumentation; fines recovery equipment; and product handling equipment. Also included are the necessary auxiliaries and utilities such as boilers or power plant; oil unloading and storage facilities; coal unloading storage, grinding and distribution facilities; and bentonite or other additive storage and distribution equipment. Shaft Furnaces: Vertical shaft furnaces used in this country are limited to the treatment of natural magnetite concentrates containing minor quantities of residual fluxing elements. Fig. 1 shows a perspective view of the shaft furnace with balling, feeding and pellet-handling equipment. An elevation of a shaft furnace is shown in Fig. 2. A commercial shaft furnace unit is about 45 ft in height with a 6 x 14-ft rectangular cross section and has a nominal production rate of approximately 50 gross tons of pellets per hour. The upper portion of the furnace shaft is constructed of fire brick as protection from the high process temperatures involved. The lower portion of the shaft is lined with abrasion-resistant brick to withstand erosion from the fired pellets. Rectangular-shaped, refractory-lined and insulated combustion chambers are situated on each side of the shaft furnace. Oil or gas is burned to produce high temperature gases which are forced into the furnace through ports located near the top of the combustion chambers. The shaft furnaces operate at a pressure of approximately 6 psi. Pellets are fed into the top of the furnace by a pantographic feeder designed to produce the desired pellet stockline. The furnace is kept filled at all times and pellets are fed and discharged from the furnace at the same rate. In early development, 10 to 12 lb of solid fuel was incorporated in the pellets. However, the main source of process heat is now derived from the combustion chamber gases. In some instances no solid fuel is used. The pellet movement in the shaft furnace is counter-current to the flow of gases. Ambient air is introduced through louvers at the lower end of the furnace, at about 6 psi, cooling the fired pellets and supplementing the heat of the high temperature gases from the combustion chamber ports. The zone of maximum temperature, located above the ports of the combus-

Jan 1, 1963

By Adrian Brown

Over the last decade, a number of large slopes have been excavated in rock which contains families of joints or faults which dip steeply into the cut slope. Despite the absence of "adverse" structures, these slopes have exhibited alarming movement rates at very modest heights (as little as 100 meters) and slope angles (as little as 20º). Classical stability analysis suggests that such slopes should be unconditionally stable. This paper describes the toppling mechanism which has been found to be the cause of the observed movements and develops a general method for analysis of it. Simple cases are analyzed in order to provide charts which allow quick evaluation of the likelihood of this phenomenon occurring. The safety implications of such movements in slopes are also examined.

Jan 1, 1982

By R. P. Rothwell

THE first difficulty mentioned is that in some instances two or more beds of coal separated by sandstone or slate rocks of considerable thickness in one part of a basin, are found running together in another part. Of course, we may happen to strike first the part of the basin where there is but a single seam, and in this case the bed would appear to divide into two or more branches within a short distance. Such cases are not rare in the anthracite coal-fields. I would suggest as an explanation of this phenomenon the gradual sinking of the peat-marsh-the embryo coal-bed-on one side, and the moving forward of the marsh, so that on one part of the bed the formation of peat would still be progressing, while another part, being under water, would be covered with mud and sand. Thus we have different portions of the same bed of different ages. Now if the sinking of the marsh be stopped for a time, the bed will become thicker in the portions left exposed, and if the sinking now changes in direction, so that the part that had previously gone down com¬mences to rise, we should have the phenomenon of a bed, continuous throughout, with one portion overlying another, and separated from it by rock strata. These are exactly the conditions observed in splitting beds. While one side of the lake is sinking, and the peat-marsh moving on in that direction, the other side may be rising,

Jan 1, 1873

By M. A. Schimmelpfennig, A. D. S. Gillies

Loss of visibility due to the occurrence of atmospheric fogging in underground mine airways can lead to longer travel times and loss of production efficiency, an increase in the frequency of vehicular and foot traffic accidents and difficulty in checking rock surfaces for instability and loose material. Where hot and humid surface air meets colder underground air, conditions for fog formation may be present. Further, suspended particulate matter from diesel exhausts or stoping operations together with slow movement of air along passageways may contribute to formation. This study describes an investigation being undertaken with the cooperation of Kennecott's Ozark Lead Co. to identify causes of the problem.

Jan 1, 1984

By R. E. Reed, R. D. Leggett, Paxton, H. W.

TECHNIQUES have been developed for growing monocrystals and bicrystals of Fe-20 Cr, Fe-20 Cr-20 Ni, and Fe-18 Cr-8 Ni alloys by both the strain-anneal and the Bridgeman techniques. None of the techniques are new but since they are simple and many people have expressed interest, they are described here quantitatively as they could be modified for other single-phase "commercial" materials of high melting point. CRYSTAL GROWTH BY STRAIN ANNEAL Flat tensile specimens with a tapered gage length were initially studied to deduce the approximate critical strain. Normal flat tensile specimens were then used. The optimum procedure for the austenitic steels (Fe-Cr-Ni) deduced from a variety of cold reductions, recrystallization treatments, tensile strain, and growth anneals was as follows: cold reduce 70 pct, recrystallize (after machining tensile specimens) at 1000°C for 1 hr, strain in tension 2.5 pct, and then heat to 1350°C as rapidly as possible. A time of 100 hr at 1350°C is usually sufficient to pro-

Jan 1, 1960

By W. T. lsbell

HERCULANEUM, MO., about thirty miles south of St. Louis on the Mississippi River, is the site of the lead smelter of the St. Joseph Lead Co. The lead concentrates come by rail from the Flat River district and from three properties in Madison County, Missouri; from the Balmat division in St. Lawrence County, New York; a small tonnage from the Tri-State district; and occasionally from the Aguilar property in Argentina. The average grade is 67 to 68 percent lead and 1 to 3 oz of silver. The bulk of the material is flotation concentrate, with some gravity or table concentrate. No secondary metals, outside drosses, or any materials high in bismuth, arsenic, or antimony are treated. All concentrate is received in box-caps and is unloaded directly from a trestle into the concentrate bins at the roaster plant. Flux, coke, and any miscellaneous lead-bearing material is either unloaded directly into bins or unloaded with a locomotive crane. All moving and switching of cars is done with two thirty-ton steam locomotives. Shipping facilities for the plant are provided by the Missouri-Illinois Railroad. Water for the plant and for fire protection is obtained from a dam built in a near-by creek. Drinking water both for plant and town is obtained from

Jan 1, 1947

By N. A. Gokcen

EQUILIBRIA in the reactions between gases and liquid metals have been the subject of many interesting investigations. The experimental realization of true equilibrium, however, is questionable in certain cases due to the lack of conclusive studies in reaction rates. It -will be shown here that a systematic interpretation of rate studies with the analysis of prevailing experimental conditions leads to valuable practical information. The reactions of particular interest are: H2(g) +S(inFe) - H2S(g) [1] H2(g) +O (inFe) =H2O(g) [21 2H2(g) + SiO2(s) = 2H2O(g) + - (inFe) [3] The usual and perhaps the most convenient method of investigation may be illustrated with reaction 1. A stream of gas mixture consisting of H2 + H2S is passed over or bubbled through the liquid metal at constant temperature. The ratio of H2S/H2 in the entrant mixture is fixed in each experimental run, and, therefore, the composition of melt varies until the establishment of equilibrium. The purpose of this paper is to derive a formula expressing the minimum time required for the establishment of equilibrium and to compare the calculated values from such a formula with the available data. Equations Reaction 1 is used for the purpose of illustrating the derivation. Let E represent the equilibrium and X the nonequilibrium sulphur in weight percent at any time t in minutes. For the sake of simplicity, it is first assumed that E > X although the results are of general applicability without restriction. It has been shown by Morris and Williams' that within a difference of 1 pct S or less, i.e., E-X5 1.00, the value of K'1 = Ph2s/Ph2.S% is very nearly constant. The maximum ratio of available Ph2s/Ph2 = H,S/H,, from which sulphur can be absorbed by metal, is equal to H2S/H2 in equilibrium with E (which equals H2S/H2 in the entrant gas), minus H,S/H, in equilibrium with X. Thus: Available H2S/H2 = EK'1 - XK'1 [4] Eq. 4 expresses that sulphur can be absorbed by metal from the H2S/H2 in the entrant gas until the gas leaving the metal assumes a value of H2S/H2 which is in equilibrium with the dissolved sulphur X at that time. H,S constitutes up to approximately 1 pct of the gas mixture. Its disassociation into H2 and SL is about 1 pct at 1600°C, hence, the H2S/H2 impinging on the surface of metal is very close to that in the entrant gas. The rate of flow of hydrogen entering the reaction chamber is kept constant experi-

Jan 1, 1954

MINING METHODS. JAY A. CARPENTER, Chairman P. B. BUCKY, Vice-Chairman CLYDE E. WEED, Vice-Chairman ROY A. HARDY, Secretary Alluvial Mining CLINTON BERNARD O. B. PERRY NORMAN CLEAVELAND C. M. ROMANOWITZ R. B. EARL! NO J. B. STAPLER BENERE H. GRANT CHARLES THURMAN Open-Cut Mining Iron A. D. CHISHOLM P. G. HARRISON G. E. DIEHL EARL E. RUNNER G. E. LEVEQOE

Jan 1, 1942

By A. R. Krause, C. Laird

In order to establish whether or not there is a real temperature effect in fatigue (independent of environment) , poly crystalline copper and Cu- 7.9 A1 alloy have been cycled at 298° and 7° K in vacuo and the fatigue lives compared with those in air and in liquid nitrogen. The lives of both copper and the alloy were found to be highly temperature-dependent in the absence of environment. This result casts serious doubt on the validity of the cell structure hypothesis for stage I crack propagation as presently formulated, because it predicts that there should be no such tempevnture dependence. On the other hand, the plastic blunling process is consistent with the result. Effects of environment aside, the homogenization of slip which accompanies testing at low temperature, and at low strains, seems to be the main cause for increased fatigue life. At high strain amplitudes, the fatigue lives of wavy slip materials, typically copper, are independent of temperature.' It is well-known, however, that low-strain lives greatly as as the temperature of testing is decreased. By contrast, the lives of planar slip materials, such as Cu-7.9 pct A1 alloy, increase to an even greater extent with decreasing temperature throughout both the high and low strain ranges.1'2'5 The mechanism of this temperature effect is associated with the earliest stages of fatigue failure,'" crack nucleation, and stage I growth,"' which is slow propagation along slip bands to the depth of a few grain diameters. Such life behavior has been interpreted on at least two different bases. On the one hand, those interested in the temperature effect at high strain amplitudes1 believe that stage I growth occurs by the plastic blunting process of crack propagation.7'9 They explain the effect in planar slip materials by the homogenization of slip* which accompanies fatigue testing at low temper- atures and serves both to delay crack nucleation and to decrease the rate of stage I propagation. On the other hand, Holt and Backofen,2 who have studied the effect in low strain fatigue, believe that stage I growth can be interpreted by a cell structure hypothesis.10-12 They have challenged2 the conclusion that there is a real temperature effect in this regime of fatigue testing and have interpreted the increased fatigue lives almost entirely in terms of the "environmental-protective'' effect of the liquid nitrogen and helium baths used to obtain low temperatures. This interpretation by Holt and Backofen2 may offer a means of discriminating between these two mechanisms as currently formulated and used to explain stage I growth. On the basis of the plastic blunting process applied to stage I crack propagation,7* the low strain fatigue lives of both wavy and planar slip materials should be increased with decreasing temperature. This follows because both materials show increased slip homogenization in this strain regime."13 Consequently, crack nucleation in intensified bands will be delayed and the linking of such small cracks into larger stage I cracks will be difficult. In addition, the blunting process required to lengthen a stage I crack from the order of 2 to 10 (where the strain concentration of the crack begins to overcome the slip homogenization property of the material) will also be retarded. These delays will give rise to longer lives in both kinds of material. In contrast to the blunting hypothesis, no temperature dependence has been predicted on the basis of the cell structure hypothesis, because it is well-known that materials cycled at low temperature show no differences in type of dislocation structure for a given strain amplitude.18"20 If the lives of wavy and planar slip materials do show a temperature dependence when the environment is eliminated as a variable, then it is questionable whether cell structures per se have a fundamental role in fatigue fracture. Accordingly, specimens of copper and Cu-7.9 wt pct A1 have been cycled at 298° and 77°K in vacuo and the fatigue lives compared with those in air and in liquid nitrogen, in order to establish whether or not there is a real temperature effect in low strain fatigue. Since it is difficult to measure the strains in specimens when cycled in vacuo, S-N curves have been used as the basis of comparison. In studying the influence of temperature on fatigue life in ordinary environment, Holt and Backofen2 used the superior basis of E-N curves. However, they also published S-N curves and thus established the relationship between E-N and S-N curves. This relationship is used to support the S-N comparison reported in the present investigation. EXPERIMENTAL Materials. The copper employed in this investigation was of 99.99 pct purity and the cu-7.9 pct A1 was prepared from metals of the same purity. The stock, of 3 in. initial diam, was reduced in size by rolling

Jan 1, 1969

(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 the Institute headquarters during the period Oct. 10; 1916 to Nov. 10, 1916. Edwin C. Bloomfield, Montreal. Roy E. Hoffman, Hannibal Mo. A. H. Collbran, Seoul, Korea. E. C. Harder, Cienfuegos, Cuba. Eugene Coste, Calgary, Canada. B. Jaeger, London, England. Fred Crabtree, Pittsburgh, Pa. Herbert H. Lauer, Philadelphia, Pa. P. St. John Dixon, London, England. Frank C. Laurie, Los Angeles, Cal. A. E. Drucker, London, England. 0. T. Lempriere, Melbourne, Australia. F. N. Flynn, Clifton, Ariz. W. C. Phalen, Washington D. C. Justice Grugan, Edwards, N. Y. William H. Rea, Pittsburgh, Pa. Fred A. Hale, Jr., Goodsprings, Nev. Thor Warner, Kingman, Ariz. P. S. Haury, Seoul, Korea. Arthur P. Allen has resigned his position with the Calumet & Hecla and is now connected with the Highland Mining Co., Ashcroft, B. C., Canada. H. Foster Bain, editor of the Mining Magazine of London, has resigned his position.

Jan 12, 1916

By Randall L. Neal

This paper discusses the impact of taxes at the state and federal level on typical on-shore oil and gas exploration economics in the USA. Taxes considered are the windfall profits excise tax, state production (or severance) taxes, state income tax, and federal income tax. Also considered will be market prices for oil and gas in the USA. The effect of government take as a percent of revenue, on rate of return, discounted Payout, and discounted cumulative cash flow is shown on the attached tables. The conclusion drawn is that tax laws, while rarely the most important factor to be considered when drilling a well, can have significant impact on the profitability of oil and gas ventures, and should be considered when determining where to drill. Hypothetical exploration wells were analyzed for the impact of tax laws on project profitability. The results of this study show that when factors other than taxes are postulated to be the same (such as producing rate, capital, operating costs, and prices), cash flow can vary by as much as 68% due to the differences in the tax laws. Other significant findings for the cases studied include: (a) that discounted payout varied by as much as 1.8 years, (b) that rate of return differed by up to 67% and (c) the total tax rate as a percentage of revenue had a maximum variance of 33%.

Jan 1, 1982

By G. H. Enzian

W. C. Ellis—The intergranular fracture observed by these authors in brass seems to be characteristic of metals when tested under similar conditions. It has been observed by us in room temperature tests on lead alloys subjected to constant stress when the stress has been low enough to afford a small strain rate. If, however, the test be carried out at a high stress and therefore at a large strain rate, a characteristic, tapered, transcrystalline fracture is obtained. The same change of fracture has been observed by others with decrease of strain rate and increase of temperature for other metals—for example aluminum—and may be presumed, as the authors point out, to be general for metals. These findings suggest a plastic flow mechanism under conditions of small strain rate and high corresponding temperature differing from classical block slip. The required conditions point to a process fundamentally diffusive in nature—a less organized process than block slip. Nabarro18 has shown that plastic flow can occur by stress induced diffusion of vacant sites— a process of self-diffusion. Movements of a pseudo-viscous nature at grain boundaries are suggested in the work of Ke.15 Deformation near to a grain boundary by other than a slip mechanism appears necessary to Boas and Hargreaves.19 Wood and Rachinger20 report a cellular structure in slowly deformed alumi- num—the cell size is larger, the higher the temperature and the slower the strain rate. Presumably in the latter case diffusive movements occurred in the cell boundaries. In any case the nonslip mechanism seems somewhat obscure and further work is indicated. Such studies will undoubtedly clarify the nature and behavior of lattice imperfections—the very core of the strength and plastic properties of metals. F. H. Wilson and E. W. Palmer (authors' reply)—It is certain that the metallic behavior which has been termed "creep" includes many interdependent phenomena of which a nonslip type of plastic flow may well be one. The reports to which Mr. Ellis refers are illustrative of the many different observations that must be correlated for a complete understanding of creep. The list could be extended considerably. For example, we ourselves have been impressed by the sensitivity of creep phenomena to the presence of minor impurities and feel that this aspect of the problem warrants more thorough study than it has yet received. References 18 F. R. N. Nabarro: Report of Bristol Conference on Strength of Solids. P. 75, (1948) London. 19 Boas and Hargreaves: Proceedings Royal Society. (1948) 193. 89. 20 wood and Rachinger: Journal Institute of Metals. (1949) 17, 237.

Jan 1, 1951

By Ta M. Li

How do you convert a copper-zinc resource into a viable economic mining operation? This problem, unlike most, was complicated by the additional presence of a sub-arctic climate, highest labor costs in the world, low-grade copper-zinc values, depressed market prices, and a complex mineralization.

Jan 12, 1977

By Max W. Ball

Our ever-increasing use of minerals has been the outstanding fact in our American economic development. The rise in our standard of living in the past century is without equal in human history. Nowhere in time or place has the man who works lived so well, or the man who cannot work been so well cared for. We live in a new world, even the poorest of us, that our forebears of 1849 could not have dreamed. That new world has come mainly from our use of minerals. Our per capita use of nonmineral products has grown too, but by only a modest amount. Food consumption per person has grown about 15 per cent in the past fifty years; lumber use per person ,has fallen 56 per cent and that of wood for fuel 65 per cent. Of all the products of field and forest, our use, per capita, may have increased by one fifth during the present century. In contrast, our per capita use of minerals has multiplied several times. Each of us uses 2% times as much steel and 16% times as much petroleum as our fathers used in 1900. In less than half a century our per capita consumption of all minerals has probably risen by 200 to 250 'per cent. Man once built with wood; today he builds mainly with brick and stone and steel. Once he traveled by the power of hay and oats; today he travels by the power of coal and oil. Rubber made from minerals is already better for some uses than rubber tapped from trees; before long it will be better for most and perhaps all uses. Even our ladies' graceful legs are clad in mineral fiber, where once animal or vegetable fiber would have covered them. Our high standard of living is a product of the machine.. The machine is made of minerals. The machine is driven by minerals. The machine age is a mineral age.

Jan 1, 1949

By AIME AIME

THE 130th Meeting of the Institute was held in Birmingham on Oct. 13 to 15, with visits to other mines and districts before and after. The last visit of the Institute to Birmingham was made in 1888, thirty-six years ago, and vast development has been made in' the district since then. With proverbial southern hospitality compounding over this period of years the welcome given to the Institute was such that .it is difficult to express properly the gratification and appreciation of the visiting members and the officers of the Institute. The Birmingham News in an editorial said: Birmingham is duly appreciative of the presence of these gentlemen, not because they are all distinguished in their great services in the mining and metallurgical world, but for the further reason that our interests are very largely wrapped up in their deliberations. Birmingham is one of the great industrial centers of America. Their discussions are of vital concern to all of us.

Jan 1, 1924

By Paul Gordon

The distribution coefficient, k, of interest in zone refining is generally defined as the ratio of the solid to the liquid solubilities of one element in another at the normal melting point of the solvent. In practice, distribution coefficients are frequently calculated from solubilities at temperatures well below the melting point of the solvent, e.g., at a eutectic temperature. This is done because of the general lack of accurate data on the liquidus and solidus curves in most phase diagrams. The practice is equivalent to assuming that the liquidus and solidus curves are straight lines in the temperature range between the melting point of the solvent and the temperature at which data for the solubilities are known. It is recognized that the k values so derived may be in serious error; we have found evidence in recent zone-refining operations that a case in point is silicon in aluminum. The phase diagram found in the literature for silicon in aluminum indicates a eutectic on the aluminum-rich side at 12.5 at. pct Si and at 577°C,1 and a solid solubility of silicon in aluminum at this temperature of 1.59 pct.2 It also shows the liquidus and solidus as nearly straight lines from 577°C to the melting point of aluminum (660°C)1,2 The k value obtained from this data is 0.13. This is almost exactly the same as the k value (about 0.14)' obtained in a similar way for copper in aluminum. Yet we have found by mass-spectrograph analyses* of three bars of zone-refined aluminum that copper is efficiently removed from aluminum by zone refining but silicon is not. Two of the three bars of aluminum were zone-refined in our laboratories, the other in the laboratories of AIAG Metals, Inc. The former two bars, designated bars PG2 and PG3, were 30 in. long by 1 in. in diameter during refining; each was processed in a high-purity graphite boat* and kept under refining stage of the process consisted of thirty unidirectional zone traverses at rates of about 1 to 2 in. per hr, with a zone length of 1 to 2 in. At approximately the middle of the refining period a 6-in. piece of the impurity-laden finishing end of the bar* was cut off and replaced with new start- ing material. Following refining, the purest 20-in. section of the bar (obtained by discarding approximately 2 in. of the starting end and 8 in. of the finishing end of the bar) was leveled and then analyzed. The AIAG bar was 16 in. long and about 1.2 in. in diameter; it was purified by eight passes of a 2-in. zone at a rate of 1.6 in. per hr, the bar being contained in a sintered alumina boat lined with loose alumina powder of the highest purity. Data for the silicon and copper contents of the three refined bars are given in Table I. Derived data for the efficiencies of the zone-refining operations are listed in Table 11. It is clear from these two tables that the copper is removed much more efficiently—by a factor of 10 to 50 times—from aluminum during zone refining than is silicon. For example, in bar PG3 the thirty zone passes reduced the copper content from 10 to 0.02 ppm, i.e., by 500 times, whereas the same treatment lowered the silicon content by only a factor of about 16. It seem virtually certain, therefore, that the distribution co efficient, k, for silicon in aluminum is well above that for copper and is very likely not much below unity. This also implies that the solidus line on the aluminum-rich side of the A1-Si phase diagram is very probably appreciably curved near the aluminum melting point since the phase-diagram data indicate such curvature is unlikely in the liquidus.

Jan 1, 1965

By E. H. Timmerman, A. F. van Everdingen, J. J. McMahon

The prevent paper contains a method which combines the material balance equation' with the water influx equation' to obtain reliable values for the active oil originally in place and a quantitative evaluation of the cumulative water influx. The method is illustrated by an application to a reservoir without original gas cap. In the absence of an original gas cap. results may be obtained using only field production and pressure data, PVT analyses. and a minimum of subsurface information. CHARACTERISTICS OF RESERVOIR AND RESERVOIR FLUIDS Production in the field under review is obtained from the top of the Wilcox formation of Eocene age, at a depth of approximately 8,100 ft subsea. The structural map, Fig. 1, shows that the accumulation, half elliptical in shape with the long axis in east-west direction, is trapped to the north and on the upthrown side of a normal fault. A number of east-west faults with additional minor faulting in random directions are found in the general area, and seismic information and production performance indicate in this particular case the existence of a second fault a short distance downdip, with a strike more or less parallel to the fault controlling the accumulation. It is estimated that 1,830 acres were originally underlain by oil and that the maximum thickness of the original oil column, about 37 ft, was only slightly greater than the maximum thickness of the oil-bearing sand. Maximum net sand thickness was estimated at approximately 26 ft. From logging and subsurface information the gross sand volume has been placed at 37.400 acre-ft. which reduces to about 27,500 acre-ft after probable non-productive intervals have been deducted. The following table presents laboratory analyse; data for the Wilcox sand cores. Average Average Samples Considered Permeability Porosity All Samples 236 md ..19.9percent Samples with k>l md 256 md 20.5 per cent Samples with k>8 md 275 md 20.9 per cent Interstitial water was estimated at 15 per cent. The initial gas-oil ratio was approximately 900 cu ft/bbl. and the initial shrinkage factor was determined by the laboratory to

Jan 1, 1953