Quicksilver Deposits
Quicksilver deposits are of special interest because they are confined to shallow depths and their origin is comparatively clear. The absence or scarcity of cinnabar and the less common quicksilver minerals in deposits whose features point to deposition at high temperature implies that these minerals are not stable at such temperatures, and the fact that […]
Classification of Ore Deposits
What is the use of a classification of mineral deposits? From the days of Agricola, the founder of the science of ore deposits, successive authors on the subject have attempted classifications, none of which have attained unanimous endorsement of miners, engineers, or geologists. The miner and engineer naturally have little regard for a classification that does […]
Geological Mine Maps Sections: Coal Mining
The maps of our large mines are usually prepared with the greatest care; and it is somewhat singular that, in comparison with the great amount of time and money spent in surveying and platting, so little actual use is made of them. Almost the only purpose for which a completed survey-map is afterwards consulted, is […]
Ore Sampling
This paper is intended partly as a summary of the conclusions that have been arrived at by various authorities on this matter, and also with a view to initiate some discussion on the subject, especially as most of the quartz gold mines in Victoria are operated without having any proper assay plans or any idea […]
Volatile Hydrocarbons
Petroleum The occurrence of petroleum in the Redington quicksilver-mine, New Idria, California, is reported by Luther Wagoner. He says: ‘‘ Mineral-oil occurs in considerable quantity, a barrel of forty gallons being collected in one drift. It was used for lubrication of the machinery.” Prof. Egleston, writing of the quicksilver-mines in northern California, says: “ […]
Deposition of Ores in Limestone
A study should be made of the structure of the ore-bearing limestones, with the special object of determining the causes that have made certain strata favorable for ore, while other beds in the same geological formation, having an almost identical chemical composition, and so situated that they are traversed by the same fissures, through which […]
Relative Reducing Power of Minerals
Calculation of the Theoretic Reducing Powers of Various Organic and Inorganic Mineral Substances usually Occurring in Association with Ore-Deposits, Based upon the Weight of Oxygen Consumed. The quantitative value, or amount of work accomplished in the formation of ore-deposits by the various reducing substances, is measured by the weight of oxygen with which they unite. […]
Reducing Action of Carbon and Hydrocarbons
Carbon has long been recognized as one of the most powerful reducing agents in the deposition of ores. Investigations, made by myself, of the zinc- and lead-deposits in Southwest Missouri, in the region centering about Joplin, where the formation of the metallic sulphides has been due to the action of bitumen, carbonaceous shales and bituminous […]
Oxygenation of Petroleum
Experiments made by the author on the oxidation of petroleum show that the heavy hydrocarbon oils unite very slowly with oxygen, when first exposed to its action, even at temperatures as high as 150° C.; but after the action is once started, by the combination of even a little oxygen with the hydrocarbon, the further […]
Stability of Carbonic Acid and of Water
Carbonic acid when combined with a base is a weak acid, readily displaced by a stronger, as sulphuric, hydrochloric or phosphoric acid, and also by sulphur and by many of the organic acids. But the molecule of carbonic acid is never broken up, is never separated into its component elements under conditions ordinarily subsisting in […]