How to Convert Nickel Oxide to Nickel Metal
Sponge nickel can be produced by gaseous or solid-fuel reduction or a combination of both. Although pelletized nickel oxide was reduced in a laboratory rotary furnace, about 40 percent of the pellets abraded; magnetic separation was required to remove the fine sponge nickel from the charred coal and dolomite; hence, rotary-kiln operations were not considered […]
High Speed Camera in Rock Blasting
The breaking of rock by explosives occurs so rapidly that the details of the phenomenon cannot be observed by the unaided eye. High- (frame-) speed motion pictures offer a means of slowing down the blasting action so that the various phases of the process can be observed and studied. During the last 10 years, both […]
Boron Crystallography
In connection with its continuing studies of the characteristics of alloys and alloying elements, we investigated the crystal structure of fused boron. This Boron Crystallography report describes how the structure of fused boron was found to be rhombohedral by the powder method for crystal-structure determinations by X-ray diffraction. The determinations of the crystal structure of […]
Euxenite Metallurgy
Results of this study demonstrate that multiple-oxide minerals can be processed to usable compounds by the techniques described in this paper. The chlorination procedure offers an efficient method for extracting tantalum, columbium, uranium, titanium, thorium, and the rare-earth elements from their ores. Separation of the chloride products into four groups is of additional benefit for […]
Electrowinning Molybdenum & Tungsten
Laboratory results of fused salt-bath electrolysis indicate that recovery of crystalline tungsten metal from scheelite may be commercially feasible; that purity of the product, although not extremely high, can be controlled to a considerable degree in accordance with varying requirements of cost, product specifications, and purity of raw materials. The selective deposition of molybdenum and […]
Tungsten Mining Method & Cost
The principal ore deposits occur in the bands and isolated pods of tactite adjacent to the granite on the west side of the south stock. The tactite bodies exposed around the north stock are narrow and discontinuous, although one series of lenses on the northeast side has a total length of 400 feet and averages […]
How to Improve & Aid Slurry Filtration by Flocculation
The experimental results appear to support two principal conclusions: First, the three natural and three synthetic slurries tested all exhibited individual filtration characteristics and individual flocculation properties; moreover, their behavior was not related directly to either size composition or ash content. Thus each slurry must be evaluated individually in predicting the possible benefits of fIocculation. […]
Gypsum Mining Method & Cost
Gypsum and its products are economical materials in their respective fields. Lime and hydraulic cement plasters compete to a limited extent with gypsum in the plaster field. Lime is used today in construction, chiefly as an ingredient in the finish coat over gypsum-plaster base coats. Gypsum plaster is mixed with water and aggregates, such as […]
Fluorescent Spectrographs Analysis
Until several years ago the fluorescent X-ray spectrographer was limited to the K series for elements of atomic numbers 22-60 and to the L series for higher atomic number elements. Upon commercial development of the flow-proportional counter used in conjunction with a pulse-height analyzer and a helium path, the author investigated the longer wavelength radiation […]
How to Make Rare Earth Chloride
A major overall objective of the Bureau’s research program on rare-earth elements is to make ultrapure individual rare-earth metals and compounds and to determine some of their properties—properties that are not yet known or not well defined. Recognition and definition of characteristics of a rare-earth element will create new interest in it and eventually lead […]