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By C. K. Rose

A hydraulic scaling rig was placed in operation at the Bureau of Mines oil-shale mine near Rifle, Colo., in 1953. The rig consists of a self-leveling platform mounted on a hydraulic-powered boom. The boom is mounted on the bed of a diesel truck. The equipment provides a movable work platform from which two men can work in safety and comfort while barring loose rock from the backs and walls of the rooms, pillars, and haulageways. INTRODUCTION As a part of its synthetic liquid fuels program the Bureau of Mines has developed a mine in the richer oil-shale beds of the Green River formation near Rifle, Colo. An important part of the work of the Oil-Shale Mining Branch is investigation of techniques for low-cost mining of oil shale on a commercial basis. It is evident that scaling loose rock from the high backs and walls of the mine represents a portion of the direct mining cost. This paper describes the development of a scaling rig for operation in the upper heading of the mine, which is 39 feet high.

Jan 1, 1954

By Arthur S. Swanson

The DuBois fluorite property in the southwestern part of Hardin County, Ill., has been active intermittently since 1904 and has produced an estimated total of 1,000 to 2,000 tons. The persistence of the vein and the stratigraphy suggested extensions of the ore body formerly mined. The Bureau of Mines investigated the property by core drilling early in 1944. Four holes were bored which totaled 1,106 feet and extended along a strike length of 1,150 feet. The data obtained in the course of the investigation are presented in this report.

Jan 1, 1948

By T. N. McVay

The Bureau of Mines has developed a field test for detecting the presence of columbium in a variety of minerals containing the clement. The test consists of fusing the mineral or rock powder with potassium pyrosulfate in a porcelain crucible, digesting the melt with hot dilute hydrochloric acid to release the columbium oxide (Cb205), and subsequently reducing the columbium oxide to a lower oxide by adding tin, which gives a blue color to the contents of the crucible. The method will detect 1 percent of contained columbium oxide (Cb205) in a mineral sample provided no tungsten is present. If a mineral containing appreciable titanium is test,-!d in the same manner, the solution in the crucible becomes violet. In the presence of columbium, titanium at first causes a violet coloration of the solution, which after a few minutes is masked by the stronger blue of the reduced columbium oxide. Although tantalum oxide (Ta205) does not interfere with the columbium test, tungsten gives a blue color that is indistinguishable from the color obtained with columbium. A simple method is available to detect the presence of columbium in the absence of tungsten, but when the presence of tungsten is suspected, the sample must be subjected to somewhat more elaborate chemical tests to determine the presence or absence of columbium. Although these latter tests can be made in the field, several steps are involved that arc best performed in the laboratory with simple equipment.

Jan 1, 1962

By D. D. Bolstad

This report describes the construction and use of a direct-reading azimuth protractor (DRAP) by the Bureau of Mines for measuring fracture orientations in mines, tunnels, or other excavations having a magnetic environment. The DRAP allows a rapid and simultaneous measurement of dip and azimuth of dip of a fracture plane. The instrument is rugged, lightweight, and easily constructible from standard hardware items. The DRAP can measure dip to within ±0.5° and azimuth of dip to within ±5° of corresponding values obtained with a Brunton compass.

Jan 1, 1974

By A. Gene Collins

The Bureau of Mines conducted a research study of the geochemistry of the Smackover Formation to determine what geochemical relationships are useful in exploration for and production of oil and gas. Samples of oil, gas, brine, and rock were collected and analyzed. The oilfied brines were analyzed by methods recommended by the American Petroleum Institute and by tentative methods of the American Society for Testing and Materials. The crude oils were analyzed by Bureau of Mines methods; the gas, by Bureau of Mines methods; and the rocks, by wet-chemical, atomic absorption, and neutron activation methods. The results were correlated and interpreted, and several geochemical relationships useful in exploration and production were found. These include the type and class of brine, organic constituents in the brine, redox potential, in situ temperature and pressure of brine, degree of sulfate and carbonate saturation of brine, and halide concentrations in the brine.

Jan 1, 1974

By P. G. Barnard

Losses of alloying metals in furnace flue dusts, grinding swarfs, and mill scale produced during the manufacture of stainless steel are substantial. About 25 million lb Cr, 8.7 million lb Ni, and 150,000 lb Mo and other critical metals can be made available annually for recycling by a process developed by the Bureau of Mines. Stainless steel wastes pelletized with a portland cement binder were reduced in a small electric-arc furnace by a two-stage process to produce a recyclable alloy containing Cr, Ni, Mn, and Fe. The initial reduction was with carbon; the second, with ferrosilicon. Results are compared with previously reported laboratory induction melting tests. A 2,000-lb demonstration test of the process in a commercial electric-arc furnace is also described. Data are also presented on three 1,500-lb tests made using various slag conditions in the electric-arc furnace. Recoveries up to 99 pct of the Fe, Cr, and Ni contents of stainless steel wastes were obtained in using the process.

Jan 1, 1977

The object of this program was to design and build a self-contained system for remote monitoring of the atmosphere in mines. The system developed uses the mine pager phone line as the primary communication channel and also has the capability of using 208 Hz in the ELF band for wireless transmission through the earth. The depth for through-the-earth trans- mission is expected to be about 80 to 90 meters in high conductivity soil and is limited by the noise level in the ELF band-pass filters. The underground components of the TEM System are energized by mine power through a battery charger - storage battery power supply. In the event of mine power failure the battery capacity is more than sufficient for one week's operation with interrogations every four hours.

By Francis Crowley

Elementary concepts of seismic wave properties are reviewed to establish a framework for discussing seismic noise and its suppression. A liberal number of references is included for those who wish to pursue the topic in detail. A base motion noise level is established for a single surface seismometer. It is argued that simple array processing and seismometer burial should regularly permit us to approach this base noise level which is found in areas free of conspicuous man-made seismic noise sources. The sensitivity of the base seismic level to a number of common disturbances is presented. Solutions that promise to hold the "effective" seismic noise at a site near the base level are given for acoustic, meteorological and fixed local surface sources. Guidelines are suggested for controlling other local man-made sources, e.g. vehicular traffic, by keeping them at sufficiently large distances away from the seismometers to keep noise at permissible levels. These guidelines are speculative and conservative. They should be the subject of future study. The ability to process against general local activity, drilling, and intra- mine sources is limited. Certainly no dramatic gain is to be expected. When strong man-made and/or intramine noise sources are not controllable, detection may well be impossible to achieve, unless the seismometer can be moved close enough to the suspected miner position, i.e. via very deep holes, to compensate for the likely vast differences in strength of the miner signal and the uncontrollable man-made noise sources. However, many intramine sources, e.g., falling water, rock bursts, explosions, etc., may well preclude the existence of a hale miner in their vicinity, and therefore any need to attempt detection of a miner at such locations. The following recommendations are made to enhance the detection and location of a miner signaling seismically. They are: 1. Seismometer burial in slim holes. 2. Narrow band detection, using multiple narrow band filters to cover the likely signal band. 3. Broadband recording and analysis for time-of-arrival estimation.

Jan 1, 1974

By H. C. George

This report presents a comprehensive tabulation of lifting cost data collected from oil companies in many different fields. These data were collected during the writer's studies of surface equipment and methods of pumping oil wells, in practically all of the important oil fields in the United States and are based on average operating conditions at 57 groups of properties with a total of 4,497 producing wells. Although lifting cost is only a part of the total cost of producing oil, it nevertheless gives a representative cost figure for purposes of comparison.

Jan 1, 1923

By Charles Prasky

This report describes bench-scale studies and pilot-plant development of the Bureau of Mines process for roasting iron ores with a ferrous scrap reductant, such as discarded automobile hulks, to yield artificial magnetite. Quality magnetic concentrates containing about 66 percent iron and 6 percent silica with iron recoveries of over 90 percent were obtained after roasting fine-grained oxidized or nonmagnetic taconite with unburned, sheared automobile hulks in a rotary kiln. The relatively complete oxidation of the lighter gage metal in the automobile during roasting resulted in a metallic byproduct consisting of the unconsumed heavier gage metal scrap. This residual or tailored scrap is potentially useful as heavy melting stock and has more value than the original automobile hulk.

Jan 1, 1970

By Earl L. Phillips

The Bureau of Mines conducted laboratory tests on samples of pozzolanic-cement concrete to develop a low-strength backfill. Results show that support costs can be lowered by replacing a portion of the portland cement in mine backfill with pozzolan (fly ash) and lime. Unconfined compression tests on various ratios of fly ash to cement in 84 samples produced compressive-strength curves that can be used to estimate the best backfill mix for any mine.

Jan 1, 1981

By B. W. Gandrud

[The meaning of the term "bauxite' has always been somewhat vague and indefinite, and the term has been used in various applications to denote sometimes a rock, sometimes a mineral, but more frequently an ore. It seems logical to think of bauxite as an ore, however, because a very large part (probably at least 85 per cent) of the entire world's production of bauxite is at present being used as a source of aluminum and aluminum chemicals. In the United States there are two districts that, produce bauxite - the Arkansas district and the Alabama-Georgia-Tennessee-Mississippi district. The deposits in Mississippi have been discovered recently and are riot as yet productive but it seems reasonable to consider them as apart of the-district hat includes the deposits of Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee. The, two districts are often referred to as the Arkansas field and the Appalachian field. Of these two the Arkansas field has been by far the largest producer, and at present over 90 per cent of the bauxite production of they United States comes from the Arkansas field. The bauxite industry in the Appalachian field had its beginning in 1889, and since that time the total production of the states of Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee has been, nearly a million tons. The production of bauxite in this field has languished in the last five, or six, years, and In 1927 its production was only about 14,000 tons, according to Harder4. The recent decrease in production is due mainly to the fact that many .of the known deposits of commercial-grade ore have become exhausted. There are, however, considerable quantities of low-grade bauxite in the Appalachian field, but these have not been available because there has been no satisfactory way of concentrating low-grade bauxite. The quantity, of low-grade material in the Appalachian field is probably, fully as large as the tonnage of commercial ore which the field has already produced.]

Jan 1, 1928

By Harry W. Campbell

U.S. Bureau of Mines investigation; identified no mineral resources or evidence of mining activity in the Sheep Divide RARE II area. A deposit 10 mi (16 km) southwest of the area contains copper and silver minerals in the Triassic Wild Sheep Creek Formation which probably underlies basalt lava flows covering the study area. Abundant basalt in the area can be crushed and used as aggregate, but suitable deposits closer to markets are widely available No sand, gravel, coal, oil, gas, or geothermal resource, were Identified. INTRODUCTION Location and Access The Sheep Divide RARE II area [10 mi (16 km) west of the Snake River] encompasses 7,100 acres (2,800 ha) of the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area in the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest. Enterprise, Oregon, is located 23 air mi (37 (m) west of the area. Peripheral access is provided by the highway from Joseph to the community of Imnaha, Oregon, then south to the study area by the graveled Upper Imnaha Road (fig. 1).

Jan 1, 1983

By G. A. Burrell, G. W. Jones

As a part of the work which the Bureau of Mines carried out in 1916 and 1917 pertaining to the compressibility of natural gas , it became necessary to de termine the pressure -volume relations of several of the paraffin hydrocarbons of which natural gas is composed . Results of the work on natural gas were published in Technical papers 131 (Burrell , G.A. , and Robertson , I.W. , The compressibility of natural gas to high pressure , Bureau of Mines Tech . Paper 131 , 1916 , 12 pp. ) and 158 (Burrell , G.A. , and Robertson , I.W. , Compressibility of natural gas and its constituents with analyses of natural gas from 31 cities in the United States , Bureau of Mines Tech . Paper 158 , 1917 , 12 pp . ) , and curves were given of pressure volume deviations of the gases , methane , ethane , propane , and carbon dioxide at high pressures . original experimental data on these gases , however , were not published . The In view of many inquiries which the Bureau has received with reference to the original data on the se gases , and the importance of the pressure -volume relations from which it is possible to calculate the deviation of any natural gas who se composition is known , the original data as determined by Burrell and Robertson are pre sented below .

Aug 1, 1921

By W. L. Hunter

Eleven steelmaking heats are described in this Bureau of Mines report in which acid practice was used to produce carbon steel from pre reduced iron ore pellets. Furnace slags obtained with no flux addition to the charge became quite viscous as they cooled, which precluded pressure casting from a ladle. Lime was added to the furnace charge at two levels to eight of the heats to modify slag characteristics in the furnace, and to the ladle in two heats to further modify the ladle slag cover. Selected ingots from nine heats were successfully rolled on a commercial mill to produce No. 10 reinforcing bar.

Jan 1, 1974

By Guy A. Johnson

This Bureau of Mines report summarizes the results of efforts to develop reasonably priced, reliable mine shaft fire and smoke protection hardware for metal and nonmetal mines. The hardware was incorporated into a viable prototype system that would minimize fire and smoke hazards. The design of the system had to be sufficiently flexible to be utilized in a wide variety of metal and nonmetal mine shaft and shaft station configurations. As a result of long-term, rugged field tests, an improved (second generation) system was developed. The hardware is now commercially available.

Jan 1, 1978

By R. V. Ramani, V. T. Burgos, J. A. McClay

The data for Test I describes an underground bituminous coal mine operation in a 48 inch seam, with an estimated production rate of 1,056,000 tons per year. The system includes four continuous mining sections, conveyor belt haulage, and a rail network for supply and personnel transportation. This section illustrates the input data sequence and the various report formats which may be selected for the printing of results. As explained earlier, at the present time, the elements of the Cost Data Library must be read in with the regular data input. Thus, in the input data listing, immediately following the required user input, are cards which contain the inputs of the cost library. Examination of the cost reports indicate the absence of cost values for some categories for which the system would normally be expected to incur costs. This situation has arisen due to the format of the cost data provided in the U. S. Bureau of Mines reports. An example of this is the charge of $20/ton for brattice cloth while no charge is indicated for stoppings. The test report data provided a single figure for ventilation cost without a supplemental breakdown. Thus the cost indicated for brattice cloth is actually the total ventilation cost. These explanations hold true for the data input and output for Test II, Appendix III.

Jan 1, 1975

By W. P. Yant

Public interest in atmospheric pollution by automobile exhaust gas and in the ventilation of vehicular tunnels makes it desirable to ascertain whether the use of modern automobile fuels is tending to change the amount and composition of the products of combustion. The Bureau of Mines, in cooperation with the Ethyl Gasoline corporation4, has completed a series of testis to determine whether any significant difference exists in the carbon monoxide content of the exhaust gas produced by an internal-combustion engine when its fuel is changed from straight gasoline to the same gasoline containing Ethyl fluid whose active ingredient is tetraethyl lead. In the tests data was sought relative to the composition and mount of the gas produced by ordinary comparatively low-compression motors as well as by higher-compression motors in which distinct detonation occurred with straight gasoline, but which operated without detonation when using the same gasoline containing tetraethyl lead.

Jan 1, 1929

By Samuel W. McNary

In August 1984 the U.S. Bureau of Mines conducted a study of the mineral resource development potential of the Badger Canyon-Antelope Creek area, within the Boulder-Pioneer wilderness study area, about 5 miles northeast of Ketchum, 10. The purpose of this study was to investigate in greater detail an area which was designated by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the Bureau as having a moderate mineral resource potential for zinc, molybdenum, lead, and silver, and a low potential for copper. One hundred twenty-eight soil samples were taken along a 6,2S0-ft traverse on the ridge separating Badger Canyon and Antelope Creek. 5 Five rock samples were collected from old prospect pits and mineralized outcrops. All samples were analyzed for gold. Silver, copper, lead, zinc, molybdenum, arsenic, antimony, vanadium, and mercury. The metal concentrations in the soil samples along the traverse are irregularly distributed. Samples collected near old prospect pits tend to be high in lead and zinc, undoubtedly a reflection of underlying galena-and sphalerite-bearing quartz veins. All of the copper and mercury values in the soils are less than the detection limit, as are most of the lead, molybdenum, and antimony values. Except for lead and zinc values, the metal concentrations in the rock samples are low. Galena and sphalerite were observed in quartz vein samples collected at the old prospects. The results of the study indicate that the galena-sphalerite-bearing quartz veins and veinlets are too narrow, widely-spaced, and low in metal values to be economic. Low concentrations of metals in the soil and rock samples, combined with the lack of major mining activity in the past, indicate that the area has a low likelihood for economic development.

Jan 1, 1986

By Robert B. Schluter

The Bureau of Mines investigated separating copper-nickel mattes to recover a copper-rich fraction suitable for processing by conventional copper metallurgical processes and a nickel-rich fraction suitable for processing in a hydrometallurgical nickel circuit. Distribution of cobalt and precious metals between the copper and nickel fractions was also determined. A matte containing a nominal 65 pct Cu, 9 pct Ni, 4 pct Fe, and 20 pct S was separated into a copper fraction that comprised 80 pct of the matte weight and contained 70 pct Cu and <1.5 pct Ni, plus a nickel fraction that contained 40 pct Ni and 30 pct Cu. Recoveries of copper and nickel into their respective fractions were 90 pct and 87 pct. These results were obtained in a laboratory flotation cell at a matte grind of 90 pct minus 500 mesh and a pH of 12.4, using 1.7 pounds DPG (diphenylguanidine) per ton of matte as collector and frother. Magnetic separation was used to remove metallic iron-nickel alloy from the copper fractions. Distribution of cobalt was about 70 pct to the nickel fraction and 30 pct to the copper fraction. Silver reported predominately to the copper fraction, while Au, Pt, and Pd were essentially entirely recovered in the nickel fraction.

Jan 1, 1982