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By Paul M. Musgrove, Larry S. Diaz

Recent tests conducted at Inspiration Consolidated Copper Co. examined some aspects of the value of a continuous measurement of particle size to the operation and control of a mill grinding circuit. Inspiration's control objectives and kinds of control systems developed in recent years to attain these objectives are outlined. A description is given of the arrangement of the test circuit at Inspiration and also of the systems used to measure particle size of the cyclone overflow product in these tests. Use of on-line size measurement for the analysis and improvement of grinding circuit performance is illustrated by relating how two important relationships were detected. Finally, the performance of a particle-size-based control system is described, including preliminary conclusions as to increased productivity.

Jan 1, 1974

By David A. Milligan

This paper outlines the research and development of a process to treat flotation tailings from the Darwin mill in lnyo County, California. A flowsheet was developed incorporating an agglomerated heap leach process using sodium cyanide to extract the silver values. Agglomeration was the key to developing this resource as the mill tailings averaged only 13% plus 100 mesh. Percolation through the heap would have been impossible without agglomeration to improve the permeability. The various tests that went into this research program are described with particular emphasis on the agglomeration techniques developed at the Anaconda Minerals Research Center. Start up and operation are discussed.

Jan 1, 1984

By T. N. Williamson

The art of drilling tunnels is still in its infancy, although it is 70 years since the first tunnel driver was put into operation. (It was used to drive 6000 ft of tunnel under the English Channel.) But during the next 60 years neither government agencies nor private enterprise could find much of a future in tunnel drivers. It was difficult to justify the heavy investments, labor was opposed to the machines, and there had been some spectacular failures. In the last ten years, however, there have been changes. Tunnel drivers are being tried with increasing frequency-in spite of the fact that a large number of them have had to be abandoned on site.

Jan 7, 1965

Wabush Mines is the largest single supplier of iron ore to the Canadian steel industry, with 42% of its 6 million tpy of iron ore production going to the company's two Canadian owners-The Steel Co. of Canada and Dominion Foundries and Steel Ltd. Six other companies hold interests in Wabush Iron Co. Ltd. These are Lykes-Youngstown, Inland Steel Co., Intrerlake Steel Corp., Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Co., Finsider of Italy and Pickands Mather & Co. Field work on Wabush began in mid-1957 when a long-range program of economic, geologic, and metallurgical investigations started. This work was followed in 1959 by the construction of a temporary camp and a 700-tpd pilot plant. At the same time, work was also started on a 38-mi railway connection to Ross Bay, Newfoundland.

Jan 1, 1970

By Sir Nathaniel Barnaby

We must not conceal from ourselves that, against the perils arising from perforation of the shells or hulls of ships, we are greatly worse off in these days of steel and iron than we were when our ships were built of oak, teak and pine. Apart from the greater

Jan 1, 1891

By R. S. Dean

The careful work of Gross and Zimmerleyl has established the fact that the energy actually used in grinding is proportional to the new surface produced. This confirmation of Rittinger's law was made by crushing quartz in a frictionless drop-weight machine and determining the surface of the quartz by its rate of solution in hydrofluoric acid. The details of this procedure have been described adequately elsewhere and need not be repeated here. The resultant data furnish the only available basis for comparing accurately the efficiency of grinding machines. This method is so cumbersome experimentally that it has been little used. As an alternative all sorts of approximations have been proposed. The best of these is complete size analysis by sieving and elutria-tion. Such procedure is very lengthy and difficult to carry out accurately. Furthermore, any sizing method becomes very inaccurate for determining surface with very fine sizes where the ratio of surface to volume becomes very large. To avoid the lengthy and difficult technique of elutriation it has been proposed to estimate the size distribution below 200 mesh from various probability formulas. Such a procedure is at best an engineering approximation; at worst it is a mere guess. Some time ago Dr. V. H. Gottschalk2 found that the coercive forces of magnetite powders were directly proportional to the surface area, regardless of size distribution. It was at once apparent that this furnished a method for determining grinding efficiency quickly and accurately. The only requirement was a single determination of the relation between the work input of the Gross-Zimmerley drop-weight machine and the coercive force of the resultant crushed magnetite. For this purpose Ural Mountain magnetite in definite octahedra was

Jan 1, 1939

By Byron E. Eldred

Generally speaking, the practical study of combustion has been made mainly from the stand-point of the steam engineer. This narrow view-point has left open a large field for scientific research on the application of combustion in other arts, where the conditions of heat-utilization are widely different from those presented in the steam-generator. The great economic importance of the boiler and the ease of measuring its performance, together with the comparative uniformity of conditions in the steam-generator, is, probably, quite largely responsible for the practical neglect of the study of the use of fuels in other arts save only on the basis of their thermal value. yet these other arts show quite plainly that a thermal-value basis alone is not sufficient. For example, in burning lime, under ordinary conditions of firing, a cord of wood will do as much work as a ton of coal, though the latter affords more than twice the number of heat-units. Similar results are evidenced in burning brick, in the roasting of certain ores, in reheating billets, and in many other, arts where heat is to be applied over extended areas to fragmental masses of more or less refractory materials. In these arts much is to be gained by a

Jan 1, 1911

By W. A. Oates, J. S. Blakemore, E. O. Hall

AS part of an investigation into the effect of hydrogen on the serrated yielding of Ni-Cu alloys,' it was necessary to determine the solubility of hydrogen in the alloys of interest. With the exception of the work by Fukusima and Mitui2 who investigated the solubility of hydrogen in solid Ni-Cu alloys at 20 wt pct intervals at 1050°, 700°, and 350°C, the information in the literature is limited.3-10 Alloys were prepared from deoxidized Analar Copper and Mond Nickel pellets.' Wire samples were hydrogenated at 7.8 atm in an autoclave consisting of 5 ft of thick-walled Inconel 600 tube with a resistance furnace around the middle portion. The top end, at room temperature, was fitted with a safety valve, a calibrated pressure gage, and a sample inlet, while the bottom end, again at room temperature, was filled with water. After reaching equilibrium samples were quenched by dropping from the high-temperature region of the autoclave into water. They were then quickly transferred to liquid nitrogen where they were stored until analyzed for hydrogen using an Exhalograph.11 The results, which are shown in Fig. 1, represent the mean of two separate determinations on each sample. Because of the lower level of hydrogen at the high copper end of the series, the results here are of poor precision using this method. Fortunately, the results of Himmler9 using the Sieverts technique are available for these copper-rich alloys (>80 at. pct Cu)

Jan 1, 1969

By L. W. Kempf

THE thermal expansion characteristics of aluminum alloys have been examined by several investigators, among whom may be mentioned Shakespear,1 Schulz,2 Hidnert,3 Hidnert and Sweeney4 and McCullough.5 Shakespear compared the expansion of a series of aluminum alloys containing 14 per cent copper, with separate additions of about 1 per cent each of manganese, tin and zinc with that of pure copper. Schulz examined the expansion of aluminum and zinc and some aluminum-zinc alloys. Hidnert determined with a high degree of precision the expansion characteristics of pure aluminum, some aluminum-copper, aluminum-zinc, aluminum-silicon and some commercial alloys. Hidnert and Sweeney examined the expansion characteristics of aluminum-beryllium alloys. McCullough, by an interferometer method, determined the expansivity of some aluminum-copper, aluminum-magnesium, aluminum-iron, aluminum-nickel, aluminum-silicon and aluminum-manganese alloys. Incidental to an investigation carried out during the past six years and leading to the development and exploitation of an aluminum piston alloy of relatively low thermal expansivity, the expansion characteristics of a wide variety of alloys were examined. Some of the data which might be of general interest are gathered in this paper.

Jan 1, 1933

By James Cudworth

THE Birmingham district of Alabama has utilized the slag from its blast furnaces consistently since the earliest development of the slag industry. Today there are producers of slag cement who started business in 1900, and who have, under a progressive policy, expanded the number of their products to meet present demands. There are producers of slag aggregates and other crushed slag products who have been successful for periods of over thirty years. There are at the present two companies, Cheney Lime and Cement Co. and the Southern Cement Co., manu-facturing puzzolan cement; three companies, Birmingham Slag Co., Woodstock Slag Co., and Swann Chemical Co., making slag aggregates and by-products; one company, Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railway Co., a subsidiary of the U. S. Steel Corporation, producing ground open-hearth basic slag for soil conditioning. Two companies, the Sloss Sheffield Steel and Iron Co. and the Woodstock Slag Co., make slag concrete in ready-mix plants and one company, the Superock Company, manufactures fine and coarse slag aggregates under a new granulation process. No Portland cement is made with slag as an ingredient, because dolomite is used so extensively as a blast-furnace flux that the magnesium content of the slag is excessive.

Jan 1, 1937

By L. K. Smith, E. M. de Kock, J. van der Walt

A unique and systematic approach for analysing alternative methods of ventilating and cooling large hot mines is presented. The important factors that have a bearing on ventilation and cooling requirements and practices, such as air flow through the mine, geographical distribution of heat loads, micro ventilation considerations etc., are dealt with. Analysis of these leads to the definitive ventilation and cooling strategies, air and water process design, detail specifications and design of associated plant and equipment.

Jan 1, 1982

By Paul W. Jeran, Vladimir Adamek

Characteristics of surface deformations i.e., sub¬sidence, inclination, curvature and horizontal strains, are evaluated, based on information obtained by direct field measurements over three longwall panels in the Northern Appalachian Coalfield. Surface deformations have been precomputed using Bals' and Knothe's theories. The results have been compared with Bureau of Mines field data to evaluate the applicability of the two theories to the U.S. min¬ing conditions. Measured horizontal movements and the resulting horizontal strains differ as much as 300 percent from precomputed values. Topography has no detectable effect on vertical movements but appears to have substantial effect on the development of horizontal strains. The horizontal deformations computed from our field measurements generally exceed the limits used in other countries to protect surface structures.

Jan 1, 1982

By David J. Mack, Chin Bea Kim

The decomposition of the Ni-Zn eutectoid at 56 wt pct Zn was studied by isothermal transformation. Its progress was followed by metallographic, hardness, and X-ray diffraction methods. Three transformation products were found: lamellar pearlite at high temperatures; an intermediate temperature structure; and martensite at the lower temperaCures. No transition structu,ves were found. THE decomposition of the Ni-Zn eutectoid at 56 wt pct Zn was stuadied as part of a long-range program of study on the eutectoid transformation in alloy systems which do not have one or more components which exhibit allotropy. Available information on the Ni-Zn eutectoid transformation is limited to that presented in connection with the determination of the phase dilagram. No systematic studies of the eutectoid were found in the literature, alkhough the microstructures of the Ni-Zn eutectoid were reported by Tamuru.3 X-ray diffraction data exist for the ß, ß1, y , and y1 phases.' EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE The eutectoid alloy was prepared from "A" nickel shot and Bunker Hill super-purity zinc (99.998 pct).

Jan 1, 1962

By W. C. Dickerman, J. F. Thornton

TOTAL global war is making extraordinary demands on the oil industry. Huge quantities of 100-octane gasoline, extreme service lubes, toluene and other miscellaneous products are required. 100-octane gasoline is blended from isopentane, base stock, and alkylate. Isopentane is fractionated from natural or refinery gasoline; but since only limited quantities of base stock can be made in this way, catalytic cracking is rapidly becoming the major source of base stock. Alkylate, the most important component, is synthesized from isobutane and an olefin. Extraordinary demands are forcing the full utilization of all present sources and the development of new supplies of feed stocks. Fortunately, the United States finds itself with well-developed processes already available, and this is true of the manufacture of lubricating oil as well. Toluene is now being produced by new methods from special cuts fractionated from selected crudes or from catalytically processed naphthas. Designers of refinery equipment are modifying past practices to conserve every bit of material possible.

Jan 1, 1942

By Robert G. Van Nostrand, John H. Henkel

TRANSIENT potentials obtained in resistivity prospecting can be separated into two classes. The first is electromagnetic, has a comparatively short time constant, and increases in relative amplitude as the electrode separation is increased. These electromagnetic transient potentials, of which an excellent theoretical treatment is given by Yost,1 are the result of changes in the current and can be classed as differentiated signals. The second class is electrochemical, has a comparatively long time constant, and decreases in relative amplitude as the electrode separation is increased. The electrochemical signals are generated by the current flow itself and can be classed as integrated signals. The transient potentials due to electrochemical factors are the subject of this article. The phenomenon is referred to as induced polarization. Schlumberger2 was the first worker to observe induced polarization, but he was unsuccessful in attempts to apply the principles of induced polarization in electrochemical prospecting. Other workers, notably Bleil3 have studied polarization and in some cases pointed out its possibilities, but no theory has been presented that describes polarization and its time dependence adequately. It is the purpose of this discussion to present the essence of a theory to geo- physicists and to show that it leads to results consistent with experimental evidence. The theory on which this analysis is based has existed in electro- chemical circles since 1910.4

Jan 3, 1957

By A. Lee Barrett

The Maintenance Committee of the Coal Division of the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers is presenting with this report the first of a series of cost comparisons which it plans to present the Institute. The plan is to assemble maintenance cost on all equipment connected with mechanical operations at the face of coal mines, to arrange these costs by districts, to make comparisons between districts, and within districts. This particular report covers data with respect to mobile loading machines, including both "on-track" and "off-track" equipment. It is anticipated—in fact, considerable data have already been accumulated—that next year complete maintenance costs by districts can he presented for complete loading units, including the various classes and combinations of on-track and off-track equipment. Data have also been collected with respect to some phases of maintenance methods and certain recommendations of the committee are included dealing with maintenance problems. In the assembly of these data more than 120 questionnaires were sent to operating companies throughout the United States. At the time the report was written 33 questionnaires had been returned with completed information and an additional group of companies had written that the information requested was not at present available but that they hoped to have such information available in the not far distant future. The replies as

Jan 1, 1947

By J. Kostuik, M. J. de Bastiani

Located in the Elliot Lake mining district of Canada, the Denison mine lies between Sudbury to the east and Sault Ste. Marie to the west. This area is overlain by Huronian sediments filling a basin in the Keewatin basement complex. Subsequent folding of these sediments developed a synclinal structure, known locally as the Quirke Lake Trough, which forms the northern portion of the now famous big Z structure, the geological trademark of this region. Plunging to the west and extending nine miles from the granite outcropping in the north to the Keewatin lava contact to the south, the syncline has dips of 10° to 45° on the north limb and 10° to 20° on the south limb.

Jan 12, 1960

By Raymond Sanford

IT IS difficult to know just when a hoisting rope should be removed from service and a new one substituted. It is desirable to utilize the full life of a rope but, on .the other hand, the damage and possible loss of life, resulting from delay in replacing it may amount to many times the cost of a new rope. In the present methods of inspection the inspector must rely upon accumulated experience and a certain sixth sense or intuition in addition to any rules that may be laid down regarding the number and distribu-tion of broken wires. This condition does not neces-sarily arise from lack of interest among users or makers of rope, but is due rather to the lack of satisfactory or adequate methods for testing ropes to determine their exact condition. The main difficulty in devising a physical test lies in the fact that a number of causes, all operating in different ways, contribute to the deterioration of a rope in service, and affect not only the external conditions but also the inner structure of the material of which the rope is constructed. Wear and broken wires on the outer part of the rope are not difficult to detect, but a test is needed which will clearly indicate the presence of broken wires in the interior portions and the change in strength due to alterations in the structure and properties of the material itself.

Jan 7, 1923

By R. J. Robbins

"For his exceptional ability both as an engineer and entrepreneur in the conception, design, and marketing of underground boring equipment; a technological development which has greatly improved the efficiency and safety of underground mining." Recipient of the 1984 D.C. Jackling Award

Jan 1, 1985

By A. L. Titchener, M. B. Bever

FROM their investigation of the martensitic transformation in Cu-Zn alloys, Greninger and Mooradian' concluded that there was no critical temperature at which martensite formation began in this system. Recent unpublished work by Gen-evray With two compositions of brass revealed the existence of a critical temperature, which is a function of composition and stress. In the work reported here the temperature range of the martensitic reaction was studied as a function of composition in high purity Cu-Zn alloys. The specimens were about 4 in. long with a diameter of 1/16 in.; their compositions are given in Table I. They were heated under vacuum for 5 min at 5" to 10°C below the temperature of incipient melting, and quenched into brine at about — 10°C. Specimens of alloys C, D, E and F were obtained with little or no precipitated a phase. Many attempts yielded only three usable specimens of alloy B, and even these contained appreciable amounts of a. All efforts failed to preserve metastable p in alloy A (containing 38.02 pct Zn and 0.002 pct each of Pb and Fe). The transformation was studied by measuring the electrical resistance during continuous cooling and heating of each specimen at similar rates. The cooling media were alcohol with dry ice from room temperature to — 78°C and a bath of petroleum ether and methyl cyclohexane (75:25), cooled by liquid nitrogen, from —78" to about —150°C. Readings were also taken at —195 °C in liquid nitrogen. Fig. 1 illustrates a typical experiment. The relative resistance is obtained by assuming the known

Jan 1, 1955