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By H. J. Wasson

At the close of 1927 Venezuela was producing at the rate of 205,000 bbl, per day, making it the third country in the world in point of present daily production. For the year, the total was close to 64,000,000 bbl., representing an increase of about 70 per cent. over the 37,000,000 bbl. in round numbers produced in 1926. All of the 1927 production canie from fields opened up before the beginning of the year. While no new fields were added to the list of shippers, the past 12 months' wildcatting yielded a fair quota of new discoveries which, in the light of prcsent results, may be considered likely sources of production in due time. Altogether three such promising finds were made Of first importance, at least for the immediate future, is the completion by the Lago Petroleum Corpn. of the San Matins well, 4 miles north of the present edge of the Lagunillas field. Although rated as only a 125. bbl. well, at 3217 ft., it indicates a probable extension of the field over the intervening 4 miles between the two. The two other wildcat discoveries of importance were the Los Manueles well in the District of Colon, which has in all probability opened up a new field about 7 miles north of the present Tarra oprations; and the Honibre Pintado well of the Standard Oil Co. of Venezuela,. in the State of Falcon, which is considered to be a promising clc~vc~lop~ncnt. Neither of these last mentioned two discoveries will apprcciably affect production during 1928, as the Manueles area must await the carrying out of a general plan for the exploitation of the District of Colon, a problem requiring time. The Hombre Pintado area is being tested further, but doubtless several wells will be put down before. anything definite will be done towards making the pipe line. arrangements that rnust necessarily precede the commercial exploitation of the field. The San Matias Well The San Matias well is a highly significant dcvelopment,. It is located along the trend of the La Rosa-Ilagunillas producing formations, and when drilling started, production in the Lagunillas field was 4 miles

Jan 1, 1928

By AIME AIME

CONCIDENT with what promises to be a record-breaking year of activity in the world's greatest iron-ore district is the announcement of plans to hold the regional meeting of the American Institute of Mining & Metallurgical Engineers at Duluth, Aug. 12 to 15 in¬clusive. More than 25 open-pit mines will be in operation in Minnesota's great iron-ore district this year, affording to those attending the convention an unusual op¬portunity of viewing practically side by side the interesting activities of power-shovel operations, railway haulage, truck haulage, conveyor-belt haulage, tower-excavator operations, iron-ore concentration, and underground mining. The ore can be followed from the mines to washing and concentrating plants and to the docks and lake carriers on Lake Superior, where an average of one boat of 10,000 tons' capacity will be loaded and depart every 15 minutes, day and night, during the 1941 shipping season.

Jan 1, 1941

By H. C. Otis

DURING the past year or two considerable time and money have been spent in developing equipment for tubing large-volume high-pressure oil and gas wells without loss of production. That the efforts have met with success is proved by the fact that any properly cased well, regardless of its production or regardless of its rock pressure or working pressure, can now be safely tubed with no appreciable loss of production, provided experienced crews handle the new equipment. It is conceded that a far better gas-oil ratio can be secured by flowing a well through tubing of a proper diameter-the diameter of the tubing depending, of course, upon the volume of fluid and gas and the depth of the well-than by the more usual method of installing a choke at the mouth of the well. Where possible it is becoming the practice to bring wells in through tubing, though in the majority of instances this is not feasible. In many instances it has developed, after a well has been brought in through tubing, that the tubing installed is either too large or too small for the most efficient operation or that the well had not been drilled deep enough. The equipment described in this paper, in the hands of experienced men, permits the tubing of these wells after they have been brought in, with the size of tubing then determined by actual observation to be best suited for each particular well, and with no danger of the well getting out of control, of catching fire, of drilling itself deeper, or of any loss of production. The deeper the flowing production with the consequent future higher lifting costs, the more essential it is that the size of tubing used be such as to give the best possible gas-oil ratio. The ability to bring in these deep wells through the casing and then, immediately after their completion, regardless of volume or pressure, to tube them with the size of tubing that permits the most efficient use of the gas present will doubtless save many dollars.

Jan 1, 1929

THE Bergbüchlein and Probierbüchlein occupy a unique position in the literature of mining and metallurgy, for, they are the first printed books on any aspect of the two related professions. The first printed book on any subject has an allure that may not be entirely warranted by the strict historical significance of its contents. Among the books of the first century of printing there are very few that contain information that was new at the time of publication. Much' of what they recorded had been previously circulated in manuscript form. Printed books are nevertheless of great value because they mark the time when the author's words, free from errors-or at least with the same errors-became available to large numbers, of readers, who thus could easily and cheaply acquire a common background for their future work. Moreover, though there is occasionally some doubt as to the exact year of publication'(as in the case of the present works), it is generally easier to date a printed work than a manuscript, and thus to provide a fixed coördinate in history. The Bergbüchlein, "The Little Book on Ores," is the first printed work in the field of mining. It is an introduction to mining geology, which means that it was not addressed to the practicing expert but was intended to rouse the interest of beginners in the various aspects of a future vocation. It touches on the theories of the generation of ores, introduces and defines some of the most frequently encountered technical terms of the profession, and indicates what knowledge and tools are required for successful prospecting and mining. It also describes the ores of the seven most important metals. For those parts that deal with theory the author accepted uncritically the traditional teachings of the alchemists and the astrologers; his hints on where to find promising ores are based partly on superstition; but, there is enough factual,

Jan 1, 1949

By H. O. Olsen

MARMORA mine is located a mile southeast of Marmora village in Hastings County, Ontario, 130 miles from Toronto and 150 miles from Ottawa. Highway No. 7 passes half a mile north of the mine and Highway No. 14 half a mile west. The Canadian National Ry. branch line between Trenton and Bancroft passes through the property just east of the open pit. The iron orebody at Marmora is the result of a replacement of Pre-Cambrian limestone with zones or bands of magnetite interlaid with metamorphic rocks and cut by later intrusives. The ore and associated Pre-Cambrian rocks are overlain by 100 to 150 ft of flat-lying paleozoic limestone. It is a low grade magnetite deposit that requires concentration before it can be used economically for production of iron and steel.

Jan 1, 1957

By H. E. McCoy, C. J. McHargue

Single crystals of columbium containing various levels of oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, or hydrogen were deformed by slaw compression and impact loading at -196°C. For the slow deformation rates. 1500 to 1900ppm oxygen, 500 pprn nitrogen, or 150 to 200 ppm carbon completely suppressed mechanical twinning. Hydrogen in concentrations to 1000 ppm had no apparent effect on ease of twinning. Impact loading caused twins to form at all levels of contamination studied, and cleavage mucking on (100) planes occurred in specimens having higher interstitial contents. It is well established that, under some conditions, the bcc metals vanadium, columbium, tantalum, chromium, molybdenum, tungsten, and iron deform by formation of mechanical twins. In general it has been accepted that high strain rates, low temperatures, and large grain sizes are conducive to this kind of deformation.' Since interstitial impurity atoms have a relatively large effect on slip in bcc metals, one might sus- pect a similar effect on twinning. This could occur directly by the interstitials affecting the nucleation or growth of the twins or indirectly from their effect on slip. It has often been argued that the large increase in yield stress caused by interstitial elements enables the effective stress to exceed that necessary to cause twinning. The twinning stress has always been thought to be higher than the stress necessary to cause slip in pure metals.2 simonsens and Tipper and Hall4 found profuse twinning in very pure a iron even at room temperature, whereas Low and Fueste15 and Churchman and tottrell' observed twins in a iron containing carbon but none in highly decarburized specimens. McHargue7 reported mechanical twins to form readily in vanadium which contained 390 ppm interstitigs, while Clough and Pavlovic8 found twins only in the one or two grains adjacent to the fracture surface in vanadium which contained 1500 to 1700 ppm interstitials. In columbium, McHargue9 found high-purity single crystals to twin easily whereas Churchman,10 Adams, Roberts, and mallman,11 and Johnson12 studied less pure material and found far fewer twins. Although the results of Leadbetter and Argent13 showed oxygen to inhibit twinning, a study by sheely14 indicated the opposite to be true. Chromium exhibits this mode of deformation15,16 but there are no data regarding impurity effects. Lawley, Van den Sype, and Maddin17 observed twins in very pure molybdenum single crystals deformed at 77°K but none in less pure crystals. The work by Cahn18 and

Jan 1, 1963

By S. Stutz

COAL, like most other minerals, only exceptionally occurs in a sufficiently pure state to he directly available for general manufacturing purposes. And even where this is the case, the small coal or slack is usually more impure than the lump coal, as the slate, clay, etc., from the roof and bottom of the vein become mixed with it in the handling it undergoes. These impurities often exceed ten or more percent in addition to the impurities of the coal itself. The most common impurities of the coal are slate, or shale, clay, and sulphur. The latter occurs in different forms, but most frequently as bisulphide of iron, or iron pyrites, and as sulphate of lime, or gypsum. In both cases the impurities add greatly to the amount of ash, and where they are present in considerable quantities the raw coal, and still more the coke made from it, is unfit for the, manufacture of iron. Coke will contain on an average at least ;fifty per cent, more ash and sulphur than the raw coal from which it is, made. To the manufacturer of iron every additional per cent. of ash which his coal or .coke contains is a source of additional expense, seemingly small, and yet very important in the aggregate. In the blast-furnace, for instance, the ash must be heated up to the melting-point, and, since it is composed largely of refractory substances, the consumption of carbon in melting it will be equal to at least one-half of its weight ; that is, a certain part of the coke is consumed for the melting and fluxing of the ash and is lost. Besides this, it is well enough known to the-iron-master that coke containing less ash makes the slag or cinder more liquid and less inclined to stick to- the walls of the furnace. Fuel containing much sulphur produces generally a white iron, poor in carbon, while from the same ore and flux, with a pure fuel, a good foundry iron might be obtained. The work of separating slate, sulphur, etc:, from the coal 'has as yet only been succesafully accomplished by the washing process. This process depends for its success on the differences in the specific

Jan 1, 1881

By E. F. La Vigne

ON Aug. 10, 1884, the Retsof Mining Co. began the sinking of an 18 by 12-ft. shaft at Retsof, N. Y. Rock salt was reached in 1885, in September, at 1008 ft. below the surface. The first salt was shipped in the fall of 1885. A timber breaker was built in 1886. In July, 1895, there was a consolidation of the Retsof Mining Co., the Greigsville Salt & Mining Co., the Livonia Salt Co., and the Lehigh Salt & Mining Co. These consolidated salt companies are now known as the Retsof Mining Co., a subsidiary of the International Salt Co. Eventually all of the mines were closed except the mine of the Retsof Mining Co., at Retsof, Livingston County, New York. On July 6, 1921, about ½ mile south of the original shaft and plant of the Retsof Mining Co., a new 9 by 28-ft. concrete-lined shaft was started. The shaft is 1063 ft. deep from the top of the shaft collar to the bottom of the salt bed. At the same time a reinforced-concrete breaker and other buildings were erected. This new plant began opera-tions on Dec. 15, 1923. It was designed for a capacity of 3000 tons in 8 hours.

Jan 1, 1936

By Ben L. Seegmiller

Introduction The profitability of an open pit operation depends to a large extent on the use of the steepest pit slopes possible, provided they do not fail during the life of the mine Optimum pit slopes can be designed by using rock mechanics technology. Such technology includes gathering and analyzing pertinent data prior to pit design, rigorous application of rock mechanics principles during the design process, remedial actions to improve slope stability, and monitoring slopes during the life of the mine. Ignoring rock mechanics technology in pit design may place the entire mining enter- prise in jeopardy Disruption of mining operations and safety hazards caused by slope instability can be severe. A classic case in point is the major slope failure (Seegmiller, 1972) that occurred at a southwestern US copper mining operation in 1970-1971 Minor slope stability problems initially amounted to no more than a nuisance, but in time, the unstable zones became larger, causing greater disruption of production and threatening safety Mining at or near the slide toe had continued throughout the period of slope failure, aggravating the already unstable condition The original plan for this pit called for mining the overall pit slope to 37.5" Mine operators were forced to lessen the back- slope angle in the hope that the failing rock mass would stabilize. However, stabilization did not take place, and when mining in the area of failure was completed, the overall slope had been reduced to approximately 27" Mining had been successful in removing only a small portion of the ore body at a high stripping ratio.

Jan 1, 1979

By John Birkinbine

An unusually large number of crystals of magnetite obtained in the exploitation of a deposit of magnetic iron-ore of remarkable purity, encouraged the preparation of this paper, and its presentation at this time, that the matter might go on record in the Transactions. To make this record more complete, a preliminary statement is offered concerning the district and locality in which the ore is found. To the northeastern portion of the State of New York the United States is indebted for a large percentage of the iron-ore which has assisted in developing the resources and industries of the nation. As early as 1804, iron-ore was mined between Lake Champlain and the Adirondack mountains, and this district has since been an important and continuous contributor to our iron-ore supply. The production of the Lake Champlain district for the last, eleven years is as follows: Years. Gross tons. 1879,...........420,341 1880,...........531,000 1881,...........637,000 1882,...........675,000 1883,...........500,000 1884,...........504,894 1885,...........379,077 1886,...........588,752 1887,...........768,852 1888,...........789,419 1889,...........750,230 Approximate total,.....6,644,565

Jan 1, 1890

By N. B. Aughenbaugh, W. C. Patrick

The availability of a thorough, simple-to-use roof fall classification system is desirable for several reasons. First, such a system would expedite the reporting of falls for the purposes of estimating material removal costs, analyzing damage levels, and complying with federal regulations to report falls in certain areas of the mine. Second, the classification system would allow the mining engineer to record falls routinely with little time and effort expended. This would encourage him to make observations concerning what type of roof support would work best in a given situation. Third, and probably most important, an

Jan 3, 1979

By C. V. Corless

WE are living at a period of the world's history in which social phenomena are on so vast a scale, are of so profoundly soul-searching a nature, and are occurring in such rapid succession in the great world drama in which we are both actors and spectators, that, in our efforts to obtain a rational point of view in relation to them, our minds may fail to discern the simple in the complex and our understanding is liable to be-come confused or even overwhelmed. To the social student whose scientific training has convinced him of the truth of the evolutionary law, Natura non facit saltum, it is neither the vast scale of the events; their deeply soul-stirring nature, nor their rapid succession that matters so much, as the discovery of the underlying principle or law in accordance with which the disintegration and reintegration, which are the two aspects of social evolution, or indeed of evolution everywhere, are occurring. He is most deeply concerned in seeking an answer to the question: Have we in the present great and perplexing upheavals in human society, whether regarded in Central Europe, in Russia, in Great Britain, or in America, a really new cause at work, or, have we, though on a very- large scale, merely new manifestations of the working out of an old principle? When we think of the appalling struggle in Europe, into which the world's greatest exemplar of democracy was finally drawn, no one has any hesitation in admitting that the great conflict was fundamentally a life-and-death struggle for self-preservation and self-propagation on the part of autocracy. The variations we meet with in the statement of the cause of the war arise mainly from differing distances of perspective: but in the last analysis all agree that the autocratic system of political government, which found its very soul and center in Prussian despotism, was consciously arrayed in a final "world-power-or-downfall" struggle against a love of freedom which was steadily widening and-deepening throughout the world, and particularly throughout those parts of the world where this love of freedom and justice has found expression in democratic institutions. It is not irrelevant to our discussion to recall in passing that this most imposing structure ever conceived by the human mind as an instrument of tyranny is lying today an irretrievable mass of ruins, completely over-

Jan 4, 1919

By Daniel R. Stewart, Ralph R. Sacrison

The function of the geological engineer is to assist in mine planning and operations by collecting, interpreting, and applying geologic data to the solution of engineering problems. The geologist supports this effort by collecting additional geologic information specifically useful to the engineer. This use of geologic information reinforces the value of mine geology to the mining process beyond the traditional role of orebody definition. Work discussed includes: evaluation of caving strategies at the Climax and Henderson mines, support definition and slope stability at the Climax mine, and some uses of geology in cavability estimation for the Mount Emmons project.

Jan 1, 1984

By Oscar Kuchs

IN January and February of the current year, at the Tooele plant of the International Smelting Co., Tooele, Utah, a modification of the usual method of converting, for the treatment of copper-lead matte from lead blast- furnaces, was developed and put into successful operation. In brief, the method consists in blowing molten matte direct from the blast furnaces in basic-lined converters, without the addition of siliceous fluxing ores, to the almost complete elimination of the lead contained, and to the production of copper bullion, the resulting lead fume being recovered by the filtration of the converter gases through woolen fume bags. The process is carried out in conjunction with the converting of reverberatory copper matte, the heavy iron slag, together with the copper precipitated, being transferred to converters blowing copper matte. The purpose of this transfer is to reduce the copper oxide formed, due to the necessary overblowing of the lead-matte charge, and to utilize, as far as possible, the value of iron from the lead matte, for the fluxing of siliceous dry ores. The final slag from the copper converters is then skimmed off and transferred molten to a reverberatory smelting furnace treating copper ores. This variation from general converting practice was the outgrowth of results obtained during 1913 when it was endeavored to convert copper-lead matte in the usual manner, with the direct addition of siliceous fluxing ores. To make clear the reasons lying back of the process it is necessary to recount at some length the results of operations during that year. In the design of the lead plant it was planned to treat the copper-lead matte from the furnaces by direct converting without reconcentration and thereby to recover the copper, silver, and gold as quickly as possible. A converter plant of ample capacity, treating copper matte, already being in operation, it was only necessary: to install a bag house, a fan, and the necessary flues to complete the equipment.

Jan 7, 1914

By David H. Y. Tang, Syd S. Peng

In general, the strata sequence of the immediate roof in the under- ground coal mine openings can be divided into three types. They are: (A) each stratum deflects independently, (B) some stratum (or strata) loads on the underlying stratum, and (C) each stratum loads on its underlying stratum. The flexural behavior of the immediate roof which is made up of multiple strata not only depends on the material property, geometry, and external loading of rock strata, but also on the strata sequence. A computer program based on the beam-column theory is written for determining the bending stress and deflection for the generalized immediate roof. The flexural behavior of the immediate roof in various strata sequences are investigated for the following effects: roof span, horizontal stress, thickness and Young's modulus of the lowest stratum. In addition, some of the results are compared with the results of the finite element method.

Jan 1, 1983

The first mention of the occurrence of native copper near Lake Superior is found in a book by Lagarde, published in 1636. The letters of the Jesuit missionaries in the seventeenth century refer to the use of this copper by the Indians. Francesco Bressani, an Italian friar, says, in 1653: "There is a copper ore, which is very pure, and which has no need of passing through the fire; but it is in places far distant and hard to reach. We have seen it in the hands of the barbarians".* Father Jerome Lalemant, writing in 1659, says that the coast of Lake Superior is "enriched with copper of such excellence that pieces as large as one's fist are found, all refined.† These pieces of copper were hoarded by the Indians as mascots. The mention of the metal as having been already refined by nature recalls the fact that the old Greek historians spoke of gold-dust as being apuron, or not needing the fire. Father Claude Allouez,‡ writing in 1666, says: "One often finds at the bottom of the water [of Lake Superior] pieces of pure copper, of ten and twenty livres [pounds] weight. I have several times seen such pieces in the savages' hands; and since they are superstitious [as if the padres themselves were not!], they- keep them as so many divinities, or as presents which the gods dwelling beneath the water have given them, and on which their welfare is to depend. For this reason they preserve these pieces of copper, wrapped up, among their most precious possessions".

Jan 1, 1932

By Ralph Sweetser

THE present state of iron blast-furnace practice is metallurgical rather than mechanical; the tend-ency is toward intensity rather than toward ex-tension. The engineers have built blast furnaces big enough and strong enough, and have furnished accessory equipment ample and accurate enough for the present state of the art, but the metallurgical side has been too much neglected; the metallurgist, rather than the engi-neer, is now the man on whom the present and future progress in iron blast-furnace practice depends. The mining engineer has produced great tonnages of iron ores, and has kept ahead of the demands for quantity; now the metallurgist is improving the chemical and physical qualities of this product by ore-dressing and other forms of beneficiation. For a generation or more, the principles of mechanics have had most influence in the advancement of iron blast-furnace practice; atten-tion now is given more to the principles of metallurgy, chemistry, and ore-dressing. This metallurgical progress is taking place inside and outside the blast furnace. The two great determining factors of the inside operation are the slag, and the rate of combustibility of the coke. Outside the fur-nace, the progress is, and will be, along the lines of more careful mixing of ores and iron-bearing materials, in the sizing and washing of limestone, and in the char-acter and structure of byproduct coke.

Jan 3, 1922

By J. S. Kirkaldy, W. V. Youdelis

THE occurrence of concentration distributions in rapidly cooled castings with gradients of opposite sign to those expected on the basis of the constitution diagram and diffusion controlled kinetics, has long interested metallurgists. The work on inverse segregation to 1937 has been adequately reviewed by Vaughan, and to 1949 by ell-walpole. The general conclusion for unidirectional solidification, that the enrichment of the initially solidifying regions with lower melting point compositions is due to the flow-back along interdendritic channels of normally segregated residual liquid, has a very sound experimental basis. Perhaps the best experimental work and the most complete qualitative description of the process has been given by Adams.3 The authors accordingly assume the reader's understanding of the content of this paper. It appears that one of the principal deterrents to the complete understanding of the process has been the lack of an analytical description. Although a number of workers including Masing,4-6 Sauerwald,7 and Adams3 have attempted quantitative predictions,

Jan 1, 1959

By F. Windolph

There are no hard and fast rules for building tailing dams, and each case has to be analyzed individually because of special conditions encountered at each location. Certain criteria are used for building dams at Climax, Colo., where they must be placed in rather steep mountain valleys on foundations that are practically impermeable. The tailing is relatively coarse, and a coarse fraction stays near the berm where it is deposited, while most of the fines flow with the water to the pool. Thirty years experience has led to certain design for toe dams, decanter lines and towers and tailing dams. A new tailing disposal area, started at Climax in 1958, will ultimately have a height of 495 ft and impound about 300 million tons. The following applies to the construction of this new tailing area.

Jan 11, 1961

By Charles A. Kumke

The ('slot" system of mining in use at the Golden Queen mine, Mojave, Calif., does not involve any new mining methods. It is, however, a new combination and adaptation of several stoping systems in common practice. The first plans for stoping operations at the Golden Queen mine called for ordinary shrinkage stopes. The hanging wall of the vein, where exposed, is a very hard felsite with a dip varying from 50° to 70°. The vein itself is quartz, shattered and fractured enough to make it easy to drill and blast to a clean hanging wall. There is no well defined footwall. The footwall limits had to be determined by assays as the metal content faded out into the felsite. Two shrinkage stopes, each approximately 200 ft. long, were laid out and started on the 200-ft. level. One of these stopes, varying in width from 8 to 18 ft., was carried on up to the top limits of the ore, approximately 120 ft., without a break in the operation. The shrinkage system proved entirely satisfactory and low costs resulted from this operation. In the final drawing of this stope, two timbermen followed down on the ore, scaling the hanging wall clean of small fragments and placing an occasional long stull from foot to hanging wall where it was deemed necessary. Few such stulls, however, were required. The hanging wall stood up very well until the stope was entirely emptied of ore. Waste fill was then put into the stope by the glory-hole method, through a waste raise that had previously been run to surface from the middle of the stope. The second shrinkage stope ran into difficulties about 35 ft. above the sill floor. Up to this point the maximum width of the ore had been about 15 ft. The ore suddenly widened into the footwall to a distance of 40 ft. in the north end of the stope. In extending the stoping operations over this, width, it was soon found that the vein material would not arch and support itself. Drilling in this end of the stope was then entirely too hazardous, and all operations were stopped. The ore was drawn through the chutes below as rapidly as possible and as soon as the stope was entirely

Jan 1, 1937