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By Elmer W. Pehrson

The term "survival" in the title means the preservation of a society in which men are free from the political and economic restraints that characterize totalitarian systems, be they communist, socialist or facist. It means the ability to withstand the enemy's offensives in the fields of propaganda, commercial competition and, if necessary, war. The temptation to substitute "victory" for "survival" is great but a realistic appraisal of the creeping socialism and demagoguery that pervade our time indicates that we may have to be content with survival in status quo. "Mineral strength" means assurance that adequate supplies will be available to meet all the contingencies of cold and hot wars. The overall mineral position of the U. S. viewed in the light of these premises is far from secure. It is true that we are the leading producing and consuming nation of the world, but the Soviet Union is gaining and the Sino-Soviet Bloc confronts us with a sobering potential. The emergence of the Common Market in Europe as an economic and political unit places a third independent entity into the competition. Our total mineral output continues on an up- ward trend but the reverse is true in certain strategic commodities. Moreover, consumption is moving ahead faster than production so that there is increasing dependence on imports which has significant adverse geopolitical connotations. There is widespread belief that our resources can at least maintain present levels of self-sufficiency during this critical period in world history, but social dreamers, the labor monopoly, and trade and taxation policies have discouraged aggressive activity in exploration and development, and access to essential foreign sources is threatened by a variety of circumstances. Our stockpiles, belatedly built up to achieve minimum protection against shortages in time of war, are under. political attack and threatened with partial destruction on the basis of what are at best uncertain assumptions regarding the new: look of global warfare.

Jan 11, 1962

By Koehler S. Stout

At today's mineral prices, unproductive or low productive work in any underground mine must be kept at a minimum to insure a profit. Improper level and raise spacing can be one of the contributing factors to high production costs, and little can be done to reduce these costs after the spacing interval has been chosen. The objective in selecting level spacing is to find the most desirable interval which produces ore at the least cost per ton while still operating within the highest margins of safety and efficiency to the workmen. In addition, maximum possible recovery of ore under the conditions must be attained.

Jan 11, 1962

By Theodore Barry

The task of developing controls in the mining and manufacturing industries to give them a tighter grip on operating costs has afforded this author an interesting vantage point for observing certain practices common to both industries. Of course, each of these industries has problems unique to itself, but all industries have many common problems. After all, every industry is a business and every business is concerned with the task of producing its wares as profitably as possible. While many differences between businesses in different industries are known, the author is convinced through experience that the mining industry has much more in common with the manufacturing industry than is generally acknowledged. Four principal questions come to mind in the comparison of mining with manufacturing: How different are the management control methods in these two worlds? How do both industries go about the task of controlling costs? How does the mining industry compare in terms of the effectiveness of its workers? And perhaps most important, what can the mining industry learn from what the manufacturing industry is doing?

Jan 11, 1962

By Henry B. Estabrooks

As was true with many mining companies, the management of Tennessee Copper Co. followed with interest the successful application of AN-FO as an explosive in coal stripping, construction, open-pit mining, and finally in underground salt mines. Since Tennessee Copper's operations required about 1,250,000 lb of dynamite annually, the potential savings in explosives costs that could be realized by switching to AN-FO could not be ignored. From a cautious start, AN-FO is now being used for stoping, development work and secondary blasting in all mines of Tennessee Copper Co. AN-FO accounts for 80% of the explosives used in such work. Fragmentation, fumes, crew acceptance, and cost savings have been quite attractive without any decrease in safety.

Jan 11, 1962

By W. A. LaVenue, W. M. Houston

Pebble phosphate mines of Florida have been established from south of Hardee County to north of the Georgia state line, a distance of over 200 miles. Mining has been carried out on an ever-increasing scale since 1885, but phosphate deposits that can be mined on the economical standards of today, are confined in a roughly circular area about 30 miles in diameter, generally within Polk and Hillsborough Counties, in the central part of the State. The phosphate deposit, which is in the Bone Valley formation of Pliocene age, is covered by Pleistocene terrace deposits of unconsolidated quartz sand. The matrix is composed of approximately 1/3 clay slimes, 1/3 silica sand and 1/3 phosphate pebbles. The phosphate usually occurs as rounded pebbles, ranging in size from about 1 in. down to approximately 400 mesh. The phosphate may vary from well-defined hard pebbles to soft weathered rock. The color and character of the phosphate will range from smooth buff pebbles to black and white "salt-and- pepper rock." The screen size distribution varies considerably between locations; the recoverable phosphate may extend down to the 400-mesh size in some areas, while in others the phosphate may cut off sharply at about 35 mesh.

Jan 11, 1962

By Arthur W. Ruff

One of the major challenges to management in the mining industry today is the establishment and maintenance of positive and dynamic programs for cost control and cost reduction. To meet the challenge, management must have a good cost system. There are various types of cost accounting systems in use today: some companies check their, performance by comparing the costs incurred during one period with the costs incurred during previous periods, while others compare the current costs with estimated costs which the company considers desirable. A third type of system is a standard cost system which provides predetermined allowances for the various cost elements and operating activities. Such a system, based on sound standards, can be established to fix responsibility for cost performance in each segment of the operation; recognize the impact of volume or rate of activity by establishing a standard volume and evaluating departures: take into consideration fixed and variable costs and their dissimilar behaviour at varying levels of operations: and provide consistent and equitable yardsticks for measuring performance.

Jan 11, 1962

By W. W. Coffeen, K. E. Doud

A singular mineral extraction and processing operation is conducted by Metal & Thermit Corp. in Hanover County, Va. The mine presently produces aplite rock, rutile and ilmenite. The deposit lies in the piedmont plain about 25 miles northwest of Richmond. It first drew attention as a result of discovery of float rutile on the surface about 1910. About seven years prior to this, Metal & Thermit through a subsidiary. American Rutile Co., had begun producing rutile'and ilmenite from a deposit in Nebon County, near Piney River, where aplite rock and ilmenite are mined today. Because of the interest in titanium minerals and the similarity of the new deposit to the Nelson County deposit, Metal & Thermit became interested and eventually acquired the Hanover County deposit.

Jan 10, 1962

By A. F. Peterson, A. R. Eshbach

Much has been written to explain decreasing profits in American industry. Foreign competition, the attitude of government, rising tax burdens and increased labor costs have been blamed in turn. Whatever the cause, management in the mining industry, as elsewhere, is increasingly aware of diminishing profit margins. A mine operator is usually unable to do much about the causes of decreased profits, even if he knows what they are, but he can check the trend in part by cutting the cost of operation. To do this, he must know what his costs are, which of them are most significant and then go about reducing them in a systematic and logical manner.

Jan 10, 1962

By Alan D. Hoagland

The Flat Gap mine, are important zinc deposit of the Appalachian type, is located in the Copper Ridge Belt in the Valley of Tennessee approximately 30 miles northeast of the Mascot-Jefferson City zinc district (Fig. 1). The ore is found in large stratigraphically linked deposits in solution and collapse breccias of the Kingsport, Longview and, to a minor extent, Mascot formations of Lower Ordovician age. The principal ore mineral is sphalerite and the principal gangue minerals are dolonmite and accessory pyrite. There is local minor galena and very rare barite and fluorite.

Jan 10, 1962

By S. J. Leach

The possible solution of some of the problems raised in H. L. Hartman's article "Determining Ventilation Requirements for Continuous Miners," which appeared in the March 1962 issue of MINING ENGINEERING, is offered by recent investigative work done at the Safety in Mines Research Establishment, Ministry of Power, Sheffield, England. Highlights of this research are outlined here. Accumulations and layers of methane form in a mine roadway because it is difficult to mix methane with air beneath it by turbulent diffusion. Such mixing involves work contrary to buoyancy forces. In specifying requirements for good ventilation it is not, therefore, sufficient to state that the airflow must be turbulent in the absence of methane. Fundamental work at SMRE on the behavior of methane roof layers has led to the formulation of rules for controlling methane roof layers which specify the ventilation velocity needed to ensure adequate mixing in terms of the rate of flow of methane into the layer (V = cu ft per min) and the airway width (D = ft). A "layering number" for methane and air has been defined by [U37/V/D] where U is the mean ventilation velocity in ft/min in the upper half of the airway. In a horizontal airway there is no mixing by turbulent diffusion for values of the layering number less than about 2, resulting in extensive roof layers. But with a layering number of 5, the layer is "brought under control"-i.e., a further increase in the layering number will shorten the length of the layer only slightly, and a small decrease in the layering number will cause only a small increase in the length of the layer. In a sloping roadway with uphill ventilation, higher values of the layering number are needed to achieve this "controlled" condition; the values range from about 5 at small slopes to about 8 at a slope of 1: 10. In downhill ventilation it is possible for layers to "back" against the ventilation, i.e., to flow uphill. The critical condition for preventing backing can also be expressed in terms of the layering number. Backing will be prevented if layering numbers are about 3 for small slopes and about 4.5 for large slopes; these values for downhill ventilation also give good control of the layer.

Jan 10, 1962

By Ralph C. Flow

In Cleveland County, North Carolina, 1 ½ miles south of Kings Mountain, Foote Mineral Co. operates an open pit for the production of spodumene, feldspar, mica and commercial stone. Spodumene concentrate is sent to Foote Mineral's Sunbright, Va., plant and to other customers. Exton, Pa. and New Johnsonville, Tenn., plants produce lithium com- pounds sold to the oil industry for multipurpose lithium-base greases, to the metal industry as welding flux, to the air conditioning market and to the glass industry. Ceramic-grade spodumene, feldspar, and mica concentrates go to other processing companies from the Kings Mountain plant. Waste amphibolite is delivered to a neighboring quarry operation. Geology and exploration of the deposit have been described by T. L. Kesler, Chief Geologist of Foote Mineral Co., in the September 1961 MINING ENGINEERING. Measured ore reserves as published at that time were 20.7 million tons. The ore deposit consists of a series of lithium-bearing pegmatites enclosed in amphibolite and mica schist wall rocks. The general strike of the pegmatites is northerly, and in the southern part of the pit, they dip slightly towards the west. The largest body being mined has a fairly uniform thickness of about 200 ft. Other pegmatites in the pit area range from 20 to 100 ft in thickness. Minerals in the pegmatites are 20% spodumene, 32% quartz, 6% muscovite, 41 % feldspar and 1 % trace minerals.

Jan 10, 1962

By Stanley Kesler

The first of two initial 650-mw units of the Paradise Steam Station, located on the banks of the Green River in the south-central portion of the western Kentucky coal basin, is scheduled for operation in late fall of 1962. This plant will be the eighth large-capacity, modern station built by TVA in a series starting with Johnsonville, operated first in 1951. During the subsequent ten years, unit sizes have increased from a capability of 125 mw to 650 mw at Paradise. This new unit will take its place in a power system that serves an area of about 80,000 sq miles with a present installed capacity of over 12,000 mw. Upon completion of the Paradise units and other additional hydro and steam units presently under construction, the system capacity will have reached over 15,000 mw. Projected load estimates indicate that this system will provide a margin of slightly under 10% of dependable capacity above peak demand at that time. One Paradise 650-mw unit at that time will represent approximately 4yc of the total system installed capacity.

Jan 10, 1962

By James B. Duke, Ernest W. Greene

An idea of what is meant by "Ultrafine Minerals Or Slimes" as used in the title can be had by an examination of Fig. I. Particle size distributions are presented for a crude kaolin clay, a coarse fraction and a fine fraction. The crude kaolin as mined was blunged with water, degritted through a 325-mesh Tyler screen, and dispersed with sodium silicate. The dispersed crude was then centrifuged in the laboratory into the coarse and fine fractions shown in the figure. The distribution curves were obtained by the well known sedimentation technique of Casagrande' using a long arm centrifuge to obtain equivalent spherical diameters down to 0.2 microns on the finer fraction. Fig. 1 shows the coarse fraction kaolin to be 50% finer than 3 microns, while the crude kaolin is 50% finer than 1.4 microns, and the fine fraction 50% finer than 0.6 microns. For comparison 53 microns on the horizontal scale would represent Stokesian diameters which would just pass a 325- mesh Tyler screen, taking into consideration the Andreasen sieve correction factor of 1.22 X the screen opening.' Another helpful comparison is the surface areas, which in square meters per gram, are 0.044 for 53 micron particles, 0.77 for 3 microns, 1.65 for 1.4 microns, and 5.0 for 0.46 micron particles. Fig. 2 is an electron micrograph of a similar fine fraction kaolin showing the hexagonal plate- like particle shapes.

Jan 10, 1962

By M. J. Langley

Zinc ores were first discovered in Tennessee in 1856 at Jefferson City where a deposit became the Mossy Creek mine. From that time until 1913, small- scale attempts at prospecting and mining were made in various parts of the district. The actual systematic development of the zinc deposit dates from 1913 when the American Zinc Co. started operations at Mascot. Mining in the Mascot-Jefferson City area today is devoted exclusively to the zinc sulfide, sphalerite. Various grades of zinc mineralization have been found intermittently through a 600-ft vertical thickness. However, the commercial ore is confined to a total thickness of about 250 ft, from which it usually is mined irregularly from four or five separate levels known locally as "ore runs." In a few places vertical thicknesses up to 150 ft have been mined where commercial material extended from one run to another.

Jan 10, 1962

By R. L. Curfman

In May 1960, six months after conversion of one- half of the Uranium Reduction Co. mill from acid to alkaline leach, severe corrosion was encountered in the 112 stainless steel wash baskets in the resin- in-pulp portion of the uranium circuit. Fortunately the corrosion was limited to the stainless steel screen cloth and bolts. The frames were not affected. Each resin-in-pulp wash basket serves as a container and a vehicle for approximately 40 cu ft of ion-exchange resin. Four baskets are installed in each tank through which uranium-rich solution flows as the baskets move up and down mechanically in the tank. The ion-exchange resin has an affinity for the uranium in the solution which causes it to be deposited on the resin in solid form. By reverse action with different chemical solutions, the uranium may be stripped from the resin for further processing and purifying. This section is the first step in the actual recovery of the uranium.

Jan 9, 1962

By Paul C. Merritt

Chrysotile asbestos producers in Quebec may soon experience a unique situation-i.e., strong competition from American ore sources for the short fiber market west of the Mississippi River. This com- petition will be forthcoming from Copperopolis and Coalinga, two deposits now being developed on opposite flanks of the San Joaquin Valley in central California. The combined output now planned from both deposits is 100,000 tons annually, equivalent to about 50% of the annual market demand in the western, central and Gulf States, and more than twice the tonnage sold in 1960 by all other American asbestos producers combined. The principal companies involved in these new undertakings are Jefferson Lake Asbestos Corp. (subsidiary of Jefferson Lake Sulphur Co.), Hidden Splendor Mining Co., Coalinga Asbestos Co. (Johns- Manville Corp. in conjunction with Kern County Land Co.), Union Carbide Corp., and Asbestos Corp. Ltd. Jefferson Lake's principal interest is at Copperopolis where the company's new 70,000-ton per yr mill recently went on stream. The company also holds some claims at Coalinga, but this latter area is better known as the site where Hidden Splendor, Coalinga Asbestos Co. and Todd Industries (a local company) have established operating mines and mills capable of turning out 30,000 tons of fiber each year. Coalinga is also the site of exploration by Union Carbide Nuclear and Asbestos Corp. Ltd.

Jan 9, 1962

By Richard L. Ash, Thomas E. Pearse

Most theories of blasting phenomena are based on the condition that explosive charges have a spherical shape. If a cylindrical charge is considered, the explosive is usually assumed to have an infinite velocity of detonation. Another limitation is also often imposed whereby only one free face is considered to exist. Unfortunately, these conditions all serve to limit the number of variables involved and tend to over-simplify analyses. The result is that explanations for actual effects from blasts are seldom realistic. In addition, no solution has yet been found to explain the actions of certain blasting agents that appear to stress materials in a different manner than do many of the high explosives. In order to determine causes for some of the unexplained phenomena, investigations were conducted by the writers on both actual field blasts and theoretical problems. Although many solutions have been proposed to explain the rock breakage processes, none relate the effects of hole depth, explosive and rock energy- propagation velocities with charge placement geometry. Evidence indicates there is a definite interdependence of those factors and that they are of vital importance in proper drill-pattern design. For simplicity most of the discussion in this paper applies to vertical blast-holes drilled in uniform massive rock for open pit blasting, although the basic principles presented apply to all forms of blasting with certain basic modifications being necessary for specific field conditions.

Jan 9, 1962

By Robert C. Munro, Kenneth M. Reim

NEW IDRIA INTRUSIVE For the most part this ultrabasic mass is a highly sheared serpentine, the exposed rock being made up of small serpentine chips and plates, the faces of which have been slickensided. Throughout this sheared material there are residual blocks of serpentine and highly to moderately serpentinized peridotite. The faces of these resistant blocks show rounding and slickensiding and their size varies from pebble size to diameters of over 5 ft. Certain areas have seemingly resisted the shearing stresses and remain as moderately fractured serpentine. Throughout the ultrabasic mass are bodies of silica-carbonate rock, silicified serpentine and minor concentrations of magnesite and chromite.

Jan 9, 1962

By Charles E. Johnston

By substituting photoelectric automatic car loading for mechanically induced hydraulic automatic loading and by protecting the process against operational failures, the engineering staff at International Minerals & Chemical Corp.'s Carlsbad potash mine has developed a reliable loading process that operates without an attendant. The photoelectric control, developed primarily because of frequent failures in the hydraulic control system, has not changed the basic loading operation and physical layout. Mine-run ore ranging in size from minus 200 mesh to 30-in. lumps is dumped onto a conveyor belt which discharges into a so-called "flop gate chute" which in turn, feeds the ore into six-ton capacity mine cars. Each car is filled progressively by moving the entire trip forward. When a car is filled 12 in. above its rim, the direction of flow into the car is reversed 180º and filling of the next car back is begun while the entire trip is moved forward again. Once the next car is properly spotted under the front chute, the flow is again directed to the forward position.

Jan 9, 1962

By Wayne A. McCurdy

Seldom in history has any industry undergone such radical and rapid change as that experienced by coal. Since 1947, when bituminous coal production reached an all-time high of 631 million tons, the industry has faced market problems not believed possible prior to the build-up of the great market demand occasioned by the wartime emergency and post-war recovery period. Subsequently, it suffered practically complete loss of the formerly huge railroad fuel market to dieselization; natural gas expansion ate into many markets; and oil took a heavy toll. Although anthracite, on the other hand, did not have a record year in 1947, it did attain a production figure of 57 million tons. Competitive forces since then have hit this fuel harder than bituminous coal. As we are aware, most prognosticators have pointed to a glowing long-range future for coal, with some forecasters estimating coal production by 1975 to be as high as 800 million tons. The largest increase in the use of coal in future years is expected to come from expansion of the industry's two largest growth markets-steel and the electric utilities. Optimists would have us believe that coal need merely bide its time to be carried to prosperity by the increased demands of these two basic customers. But the coal industry knows from bitter experience that even "assured" markets-as the railroads and domestic consumers once were-can be lost through lack of progress and lack of research. And coal's projected growth markets are not “assured.”

Jan 9, 1962