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By James H. McCutchan

The small and remote mine operators must comply with the Federal Mine Safety and Health Administration regulation requiring them to train and maintain mine rescue teams. The alternative is for the operators to contract with established teams within two hours travel time of their mine. Many of these remote operations are too far away from established teams and have too few employees to make up the necessary teams. Many cannot comply with the regulation either from a manpower or economic standpoint. The Office of Arizona State Mine Inspector, under the direction of the Honorable James H. McCutchan, State Mine Inspector, entered into a contract with the Bureau of Mines to develop the concept of a volunteer mine rescue program. This program with the assistance of the mining industry and volunteer rescue organizations, has planned and instituted a statewide volunteer mine rescue organization. The trained and equipped volunteers are stationed throughout the state and can respond to a mine emergency within the time constraints.

Jan 1, 1984

By William H. Lewis

Energy Research Corp., under contract to the Bureau of Mines, has developed a new miners' caplamp battery. The new battery is based on nickel-cadmium technology and offers significant improvements in performance with reduced size and weight when compared to the conventional lead-acid battery presently in use. This report describes the design and fabrication of the nickel-cadmium battery, which utilizes a roll-bonded electrode structure. The final battery design has a 15-A-h capacity in a 2-112-lb package, which is over 2 lb lighter than the present lead-acid caplamp battery.

Jan 1, 1983

By John A. Johnson

For the purpose of comparing the amounts of dust produced by various mining operations, samples of atmospheric dust were collected during a complete cycle of drilling, blasting and mucking at or near the face of the Bureau's Mount Weather testing adit while the efficiency of several types of stemming in metal-mine blasting was being investigated. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS All gas samples were analyzed in the laboratory of the Bureau of Mines Gas Section at Pittsburgh, Pa.

Jan 1, 1939

By Frank B. Fulkerson

A study was made of scrap iron and steel in the South Central States in order to determine trends in processing, shipment, and consumption of this important commodity. These data were derived in part from statistical sources and in part by visits to scrap yards and steel mills. Trends in the industry were reviewed. Dealers in 1963 supplied 1.8 million tons of iron and steel scrap to steel mills and foundries in the south-central area, compared with 2.1 million tons in 1955. Most of the scrap was processed and shipped within 200 to 300 miles of consuming centers. Exports provide a principal outlet for dealers along the gulf coast. Most of the scrap that fills these orders is loaded onto freight cars at yards in Texas and Louisiana and -is shipped to ports for direct transfer from railroad car to ship. The tonnage exported varies greatly from year to year. The largest scrap operations are in or near large cities which are heavy scrap generating areas, steel mill sites, or port cities for export of scrap. A tentative analysis indicates that the short-run supply of prepared scrap is inelastic to price changes; therefore, buyers probably arc in a strong bargaining position at times of declining demand. One technological development in the iron and steel scrap industry is the use of large presses which can take complete automobiles with frames, wheels, springs, and other heavy parts still intact and reduce them to bundles. At Houston, Tex., and Kansas City, Mo., shredding plants are in operation that reduce car bodies and other light scrap into flat pieces 4 to 6 inches in size.

Jan 1, 1966

By J. E. Murphy

The u.s. Bureau of Mines investigated electrode designs for electrowinning lead metal from a LiCl-KCl-PbCI2 electrolyte at 4500 C. The major objective of this investigation was to decrease the energy requirement for lead electrowinning. Electrolysis was performed in a bench-scale cell using several graphite electrode assemblies. Such parameters as electrode spacing, current density, and chlorine gas removal from the anode were investigated in the bench-scale tests. An optimum electrode assembly, termed the sawtooth design, was scaled up and operated at 3,000 and 4,000 A. The sawtooth electrodes operating at 3,000 A produced lead for 0.66 kW·h/kg. The electrodes were constructed by cutting large triangular grooves in the electrode surfaces. The electrodes were placed together such that the triangular peaks of one electrode projected into the triangular valleys of the other electrode. Chlorine did not build up on the anode with the sawtooth electrodes.

Jan 1, 1991

By L. F. Willmott

The Bureau of Nines at Morgantown, W. Va., has been investigating, on a pilot plant scale, various methods of gasifying bituminous coal with oxygen and superheated steam to produce synthesis gas, as part of the broader program of finding new uses for coal. Differences in the pressure gasification methods used have depended on differences in the manner in which the pulverized coal is fed to the gasifier. One of the methods of feeding the coal that was investigated was the continuous, integrated coal-water slurry system. Goal and water were first mixed to produce a slurry; then the slurry was pumped through a heated coil. to evaporate the water fraction; the resulting steam was superheated, and some of it was separated so as to adjust the ratio of the residual steam to the coal fraction and make the resulting mixture suitable for partial combustion with oxygen in a pressure gasifier. Both before and during this reported3 developmental work it was necessary to make an extensive literature search into the technology of aqueous slurries in order to establish design criteria for the pilot plant and to correlate results of various phases of the work with that of other investigators, The pilot work coincided with the commercial development of a long-distance pipe- line for the transportation of coal as a coal-water slurry, and this fact tended to broaden the scope of the pilot plant work and the extent of the literature search. This bibliography is the compilation of the material that was collected.

Jan 1, 1963

By David L. Shuck

This report was prepared for the Bureau of Mines to describe the current methods of design, construction, and development of wells for in situ leaching of uranium. The discussion includes the alternatives for well design drilling equipment and fluids, grout formulation and emplacement, well integrity testing and repair, and well development and stimulation. Current practice in these areas was determined through interviews with eight operators of commercial scale in situ facilities and is also discussed. Based on this information plus the authors' experience, recommendations are made regarding well design, construction, and development tor in situ leaching.

Jan 1, 1982

By R. R. Sayers

Mine operators and managers for a number of years have known that the maintenance of health among the workers has an appreciable financial value, In order to maintain the health, it has been found ne cessery to imow; 1. The health hazards existing in the industry as a whole and the specific hazard in the individual mine. 2. The physical condition of applicants for employment as well as that of the old employees. This can be determined only by systematic physical examination of all applicants and of regular employees at intervals of at least once a year thereafter. 3. All cases of sickness that occur among the workers. No operator or manager, or personnel, medical, or safety organization can control or prevent sickness without knowing where, when, and under what conditions the sickness actually occurs. In order to obtain information as to the hazards of industry, investigations have been and are being made of the effects of the condi- tions both in the field under usual working practices and in the laboratory. In the field several factors are generally present which affect the health. The effect of these factors may be determined by studying each of them separately in the laboratory. However, both the field and the laboratory studies are limited in value in that such studies usually have been made over a comparatively short period. While we have some information as to their immediate effect, we do not know to what extent extreme heat, humidity, the presence of dust or other health hazards are the cause of disability. Mortality statistics are probably the most easily available indices as to the hazards of industry. As an example, a study of such statistics among coal miners of Indiana shows a marked increase in the death rate in 1918.

Mar 1, 1923

By Ronald P. Hollenbeck

Shales in the Appalachian Region of Kentucky and Tennessee were sampled and tested to determine their use as raw materials for the manufacture of lightweight aggregate by the rotary-kiln method. Nine samples were obtained from eastern Kentucky and 143 samples were obtained from eastern Tennessee. As a result of preliminary testing of these samples, two sources in eastern Kentucky and 11 sources in eastern Tennessee were resampled for rotary-kiln tests. The rotary-kiln tests showed the two sources in Kentucky and seven sources in Tennessee contained shale that would produce satisfactory aggregate. Lightweight aggregate processed from these nine sources was tested in concrete shapes and was found to be suitable for use in structural concrete.

Jan 1, 1968

By FREDERICK H. WILLCOX

In the past the blast-furnace industry was under the stigma of being one of the most prolific sources of killed or seriously inj ured and permanently disabled workmen of any of the industries of the country. In the popular mind, labor at blast furnaces was little less hazardous than mining, powder making, or railroad work. This impression wasbased not so much on definite knowledge of the number actnally injured and the causes of injury as on the spectacular nature of the accidents that from time to time were described in the press. As with a mine disaster or a railroad wreck so with many furnace accidents, the number fatally injured in such accidents constitutes only a minor proportion of the workmen who suffer more or less serious injuries. However, the reader of the daily paper receives a distinct impression-of frightful and sudden disaster which is apt to be associated henceforth in his mind with work at blast furnaces. It is true that in the past this impression has not been without warrant, for from the time of the advent of Mesabi ores, taller furnaces, and faster smelting, which begain in the early nineties, the newspapers have chronicled a large number of blastfurnace disasters. Blast-furnace men have never assumed to tolerate failures in construction or defective control of furnaces. But the admitted hazards of the work are many, and the slow development of improvements in the construction and control of the furnace and its auxiliaries have occasionally given rise to a tendency to accept as a part of the day's work not only the unforeseen and difficultly controlled accidents but accidents whose recurrence might be stopped by the adoption of suitable preventive measures. In the smelting of iron, even more than in many other industries, safety is inseparably related to efficiency in production, and. the accidents strictly incident to work about the furnace are proportional in some degree to the success with which obstacles to smooth working are overcome. This relation does not hold, however, in regard .to such accidents as are incident to hand labor, falls, falling and flying objects, machinery, and the use of hand tools.

Jan 1, 1917

By W. D. Bensema

Two different techniques were used to make measurements of the absolute value of electromagnetic noise in an operating coal mine, Itmann No. 3 Mine, located near Mullens, West Virginia. The electromagnetic environment created by 250-volt-dc and 550-and 950-volt-ac machinery in two longwall panels was measured and is reported. One technique measures noise over the entire electromagnetic spectrum of interest for brief time periods. It is recorded using broadband analog magnetic tape, and the noise data is later transformed to give spectral plots. The other technique records noise amplitudes at several discrete frequencies for a sufficient amount of time to provide amplitude probability distributions. The specific, measured results are given in a number of spectral plots and amplitude probability distribution plots.

Jan 1, 1974

By J. T. Popp

This Bureau of Mines study reviews the geological factors that affect methane in the Beckley coalbed in southern West Virginia, including overburden, coalbed structure, type of and changes in lithology above and below the Beckley coalbed, and presence of fractures in the coal and rock adjacent to the Beckley. Depending on the depth, the Beckley coalbed emits from 216 to 520 ft3 of methane per ton of coal mined, and the Bureau estimates that methane emission in a deep, extensively developed mine in this area may exceed 3,000 ft3 per day per ton of coal mined. Average face cleat and butt cleat trends in the Beckley coalbed measured underground are N 33° W and N 53° E, respectively. Close cleat spacing con¬tributes to the friable nature of the Beckley and provides easy movement for methane and water. Because rider coals, splits, and carbonaceous shales may contribute methane to mine emissions, predictions of methane emission based on gas content of the Beckley coalbed alone may be conservative. Beckley coalbed reserves in the study area are 234 million tons. The gas content of the Beckley coalbed averages 407 ft3/ton, and the coalbed gas reserves are 108 billion ft3.

Jan 1, 1976

By W. W. Adams

[The sfxteeith e-mud ?7ntior_,il SnS~ty Cn~potitior,, cohduc ted by th Bureau of Mines, United Stntes'I3epnrtzel?t oL' the Interior, hstc fist been closed, and the resvlt s reveal tbt t!:e co~yafir,~ compzniqs had fewer accir'.ents in prnyort?lon to t2.o numbcr,of nkr-l:q?lr~1 1:9:='czd thm in my other ycryx in t3o r~cordc of the conlcst, Pheco zrzu-J. con:estn me thus aclr,i-cvir.c; Shc?r purpoao of ~romo tine w.fe ty in t5c nip-i~y induc tq*.]

Jan 1, 1941

By John C. Machisak

INJURY experience and employment data at all metal mines in the United States and Alaska are presented in this Information Circular for the calendar year 1958. This publication covers the metal mining industries, and contains statistical data on injuries and employment pertinent to metal mines, ore-dressing plants, and primary nonferrous smelters, refineries, and reduction plants. These operations report injury and employment information annually to the Bureau of Mines on a voluntary basis. The Bureau is authorized to make requests for such data, and the information submitted contributes immeasurably to the promotion of safety in the metal mining industry. Every effort has been made to make the annual canvass as complete as possible. This publication contains, along with production and development workers, the office employees at the mine location. The metal mines identified in this publication are classified according to the mineral ores mined; that is, copper, iron, lead-zinc, gold-silver lode, gold placer, and miscellaneous metals.

Jan 1, 1962

By John C. Machisak

THIS CHAPTER of the Minerals Yearbook (Volume III) contains overall injury experience for coal mines, both anthracite and bituminous, coke plants, petroleum and natural gas, peat, and asphalt and related bitumens (native); metal mines, their metallurgical plants, including ore-dressing plants and primary nonferrous reduction plants and refineries; nonmetal mines; nonmetal mills; sand and gravel operations; slag (iron blast-furnace) plaints; and stone quarries and their related pants. Volume I of the yearbook contains a chapter showing injury experience and employment data treated separately by metal mines, nonmetal mines, quarries and their related plants, metallurgical plants (ore-dressing plants and primary nonferrous reduction plants and refineries are shown separately), nonmetal mills, sand and gravel plants, and iron blast-furnace slag plants. Volume II contains injury and employment experience in the fuel industries (coal, coke, petroleum and natural gas, asphalt and related bitumens (native), and peat. Injury and employment data are submitted voluntarily for the mineral operations through an industry canvass made by the Bureau of Mines, except for the coal industry, whose reports are mandatory. Information published in this chapter is the result of this canvass. Figures presented in this chapter for 1961 are preliminary except for anthracite, peat, coke, petroleum and natural gas, asphalt and related bitumens, and slag. These preliminary data, with the exception of bituminous coal, are a summation of reports received by May 31, 1962, from the operators showing their injury and employment experience. Estimations of injury and employment experience are not included in these preliminary data.

Jan 1, 1962

The Menominee Range of northern Michigan was a major producer of direct shipping iron ore for nearly a century. When the last underground mine on the Range ceased operation in 1978, it marked the end of an era. For since the start of mining in the early 1880's the district has gone through a Lull cycle from the start-up of mining through close-down. During this period over 200 million long tons of iron ore were produced and shipped from nearly 100 mining operations. This development and production spanned the time from when the United States advanced from an essentially rural-agriculatural society through the industrial revolution and into the beginnings of the computer and space age. There are many lessons that can be learned from such a rich history. This report attempts to provide ouch a lesson. Through the use of case histories, deficiencies in past mining practices and mine closure procedures that have resulted in current mine related problems are documented. These problems -an be grouped into three areas; 1) subsidence 2) hydrological or drainage problems and 3) problems related to inadequate mine shaft sealing and capping practices.

Jan 1, 1983

This Bureau of Mines report describes research on methods of assuring the continued safety of mine electrical power distribution circuits through reliability and quality assessment of the protective devices, innovative inspection techniques for these devices and the circuits themselves, novel applications of trolley line circuit breakers, and computer modeling of distribution systems to determine the proper ratings for cables, power sources, and circuit protective elements. Battery charger safety is included.

Jan 1, 1979

By W. M. Dressel

In producing feed for a lead blast furnace, concentrates analyzing 70 to 80 pct Pb are sintered to produce a physically acceptable low-sulfur product which contains only about 50 pct Pb. Mixtures of PbS with varying amounts of SiO2, CaO, Fe 20., and ZnS were heated in an oxidizing atmosphere at 1,000° C; the products were cooled and examined to determine the problems involved in producing sinter with substantially higher lead levels. Microscopic and electron microprobe studies of the above products as well as experimental and commercial sinters indicate that sinters consist essentially of lead silicates, lead-zinc silicate, calcium zinc silicate, and spinel (ferrite). Lead oxide and lead sulfate areas appear to result from insufficient mixing of the materials prior to sintering. The data give an insight into the process and show that sintering results from a complex interaction of all constituents and that sintering is not simply a matter of diluting the mixture to control the oxidation of lead sulfide.

Jan 1, 1975

By E. L. McHugh, R. T. Mayerle, J. M. Girard

Ground control problems at surface mining operations can occur for a variety of reasons. Stress, gravity loading, rock strength, geology, pore pressure, weather effects, underground workings, and many other factors contribute to slope instabilities that range from small rock falls to massive slides of material. While some of these failures can be predicted or controlled by preventive measures, each year many completely unexpected failures occur. Current methods for monitoring generally involve measuring displacements at a few, selected points in and around the suspected area of instability. While most of the displacements along these points will be in a downslope direction, freeze-thaw cycles of water-filled joints, horizontal stresses or pressure, buoyancy in saturated soils, human measurement errors, or other situations can produce deformation in almost any direction, even without any instability in the slope. Determination of which, if any of the observed movements represents a potential hazard is essential. Because of the enormous surface area of many large open-pit mines, several varieties and scales of instability can occur. Small, unexpected rock falls may indeed be more hazardous than a massive failure that involves slow displacement of material over a longer period of time. Complete vigilance to detect all small potential falling blocks is neither feasible nor economical and certainly is not attainable using today's most common point displacement monitoring techniques. As part of an on-going study at the Spokane Research Laboratory, several new methods for monitoring slope instabilities are being investigated. This paper describes the potential adaptation of systems such as interferometric synthetic aperture radar, imaging spectroscopy, and time-domain reflectometry, to slope monitoring and design.

By E. D. Eastman

The basic character of the free energy r data relating to water and the oxides of carbon makes it desirable that the most representative values that can be obtained should be constantly available. The calculations of Lewis and Randall3 retain much of their of original value, but appear to require some modification in the light of more recent work. This paper has been written to incorporate the newer information and to present some estimate of the reliability of the resulting figures. The data upon which the calculations are mainly based are, for these substances, the equilibrium constants of the various reactions involved. The original work relating to these equilibria has, been reviewed and, where possible, weighted to correspond with its probable reliability. The differences in the results of the present from the earlier calculations are partly the consequence of this appraisal and partly of the inclusion of more extensive data, as will be indicated in detail in the succeeding sections.

Jan 1, 1929