to be understood as the self compression or settling property of the cement sand mixture the better the mixture 39 s capability of settling the easier the removal from the mold and the smoother the surface areas of the shaped parts suitable metal soaps are the soaps of all bi or trivalent metals e g calcium barium magnesium aluminum zinc and manganese of course also the soaps of other bi or trivalent metals e g cobalt copper nickel may be used however for economic reasons the first mentioned metals are preferred the anionic hydrophobic part in the metal soaps used according to the invention can be the remainder of any acid commonly used for metal soaps e g saturated and unsaturated aliphatic monocarboxylic acids having from 10 to 20 carbon atoms including stearic acid palmitic acid lauric acid and oleic acid rosinic acids e g abietinic acid and naphthenic acids especially preferred is calcium stearate since this metal soap is most easily available 750 grams of sand and 250 grams of portland cement are dry mixed in a laboratory kneader for initially 2 minutes whereupon 100 grams of a 60 percent by weight aqueous af resin solution with an a f mole ratio of 1 2 and metal salts in the amounts as set forth in table 1 below were added and mixed for another 2 minutes.