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By Henry C. Meeves

The nonpegmatitic sources of beryllium in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and four adjacent states investigated by the Bureau of Mines are described. The investigations included 155 properties from which over 6,200 rock samples were collected; more than 5,500 samples were analyzed by the nuclear beryllium-detection technique. Twenty-four of the properties examined had rock containing more than 0.10 percent BeO. Many of the beryllium determinations were made in the field with portable detection instruments by direct scanning of outcrops and by testing samples of rock brought to the instrument. The large domestic resources of low-grade nonpegmatitic beryllium ore in Utah, which were discovered by private enterprise and which respond favorably to small-scale treatment processes, may come into commercial use and thus reduce the dependence of the United States on imported beryl.

Jan 1, 1966

By Choon Kooi Quan

Water availability is essential for mining and minerals processing. To provide government and industry with recent data for water use planning and management, the Bureau of Mines canvassed a number of U.S. producers of nonfuel minerals to determine their water use in 1984. Data were analyzed and compared with previously published data in order to examine historical trends in water utilization in the nonfuel minerals industry and to estimate water requirements in the year 2000. Total water use in the domestic nonfuel minerals industry during 1984 was estimated at 2,267 billion gal, of which 571 billion gal was new water and 1,696 billion gal recirculated water. The largest users of water were the phosphate rock, iron ore, copper, sand and gravel, and crushed stone industries, together accounting for almost 90% of total used. More than one-half of all water was used in Florida, Michigan, and Minnesota. In the year 2000, total water use will amount to an estimated 2,679 billion gal, of which 810 billion gal will be new water and 1,869 billion gal recirculated water. Most of this water would be used in producing the foregoing suite of minerals,

Jan 1, 1988

By W. T. Abel

The rate of the steam-carbon reaction, which is of fundamental importance to coal gasification, was determined by passing steam over graphite specimens suspended in an electrically heated tube. The measurements were made at 1,900° to 2,400° F. and at steam-feed rates of 0.1 to 2.0 moles of steam per mole of carbon per minute. At the maximum steam-feed rate, the reaction rate of carbon ranged from 0.4 percent per minute at 1,900° F. to 7 percent per minute at 2,400° F. Up to about 2,200° F., the steam-feed rate had only a slight effect; above this temperature, it limited the reaction velocity when the final mole fraction of steam in the reaction products was much less than 1.

Jan 1, 1962

By Anderson Dana

THIS PAPER describing methods and costs of mining and preparing gravel and sand for market at the Port Jefferson plant of the Seaboard Sand and Gravel Corporation, is one of a series of articles on gravel and sand mining, prepared for and published by the U. S. Bureau of Mines, which is designed to disseminate technical information regarding the methods used. The cost tabulations represent operating expenditures only and not total costs, It is recognized that publication of total costs might in many instances cause embarrassment to individual producers, as well as to the industry as a whole. On the other hand, operating costs are essential to the technical [ ]

Jan 1, 1932

By J. E. Rourke, O&apos

A wide variety of techniques and equipment are available for coring soft or poorly consolidated geological material. This report presents a comprehensive literature review and evaluation of these techniques and equipment. A potential user will find guidelines in this report to assist him in selecting sampling equipment. A bar chart shows what samplers have been used under what geological conditions, and gives the specific literature references. Two matrices rate the present techniques and equipment with respect to reported success for sampling specific materials, and with respect to several performance characteristics including complexity of use and core quality. These matrices are supplemented with tables of typical sampling equipment. and program costs. Near-term future developments are seen primarily in improved training of drillers, and in instrumenting the drilling operation to provide objective data on drilling characteristics. An extensive annotated bibliography, a catalogue of equipment suppliers including specifications and cost ranges, and a list of manufacturers and distributors are appended to the report.

Jan 1, 1978

By P. J. Remington

Field measurements utilizing a seat pad accelerometer were made on 25 underground coal mining machines in order to quantify the vibration levels experienced by the operators. Those data were combined with information on the statistics of the operating times of those machines in order to compare the operator's vibration exposure to the criteria in ISO 2631, "A Guide for the Evaluation of Human Exposure to Whole Body vibration." The comparison showed that about 30% to 40" of all underground coal mining machine operators can be expected to be exposed to vibration exceeding the fatigue decreased proficiency criterion, whereas only 10 to 15% would be expected to experience vibration exceeding the exposure limit. The primary sources of the exposure are shuttle cars and possibly scoop trams. Detailed exposure statistics are presented and the implications of the results are discussed.

Jan 1, 1983

By B. W. Gandrud

This is the third report published by the Bureau of Mines concerning the washability of Black Creek coal. Both of the former reports.5/6/ dealt with the Black Creek coal at the Bradford mine, Dixiana, Ala., near the northeastern extremity of the Warrior field, whereas the present report is based on float-and-sink tests of coal from what is presumably the Black Creek bed near the southern extremity of the field. Although the Yolande Coal & Coke Co., owners of the property at Yolande No. 6 slope, consider this opening to be on the Black Creek bed, the authors do not feel that there is as yet positive proof that this correlation is correct. There has been little or no development of the Black Creek bed in the Yolande Basin in the past, and a positive identification of the bed at Yolande No. 6 will have to await further exploration and development. The Yolande No. 6 is an exploration slope 3/4 mile north of Rockcastle, Ala. The slope is approximately 400 feet from top to bottom on a dip of 180. As far as the authors can ascertain, coal has never been produced commercially from the Black Creek bed in the southwestern part of the Warrior field. Exploration work in the past has indicated that the Black Creek coal in this area is extremely friable and high in sulfur. Extreme friability would naturally discourage its use as a domestic and railroad fuel, and high sulfur content would be a disasvantage in its use for coking coal. The present study of this coal has been made with particular reference to sulfur elimination on the assumption that it would make a good coking coal provided enough of the sulfur could be eliminated by washing.

Jan 1, 1939

These proceedings consist of papers presented at a Bureau of Mines Technology Transfer Seminar in September 1981 for the purpose of disseminating recent advances in mining technology in the area of premining research. The introduction and descriptive papers discuss techniques and instrumentation used in premining research for metal and nonmetal mining and shaft design and borehole control for premine planning.

Jan 1, 1982

By W. L. Dare

This information circular is one of a series published by the Federal Bureau of Mines in which the methods and costs of producing uranium ore on the Colorado Plateau are discussed. This report describes the three largest company-operated uranium mines of Climax Uranium Co. - the G-1, the Mineral Joe, and the Frank No. 1. Climax Uranium Co., a subsidiary of American Metal Climax, Inc., was [corporated] May 11, 1950, just 2 years after establishment of the domestic uranium program by the Atomic Energy Commission. Twenty-five years earlier Arthur H. Bunker, now chairman of the board, American Metal Climax, Inc., organized and operated the U. S. Vanadium Co. at Rifle, Colo.3/ Soon after Climax Uranium Co. was organized, it entered into a contract with the Federal Government to build a uranium-vanadium processing mill in Grand Junction, Colo. Under the contract Climax leased from the Federal Government certain uranium-bearing lands that had been withdrawn from public entry in 1948. From Minerals, Engineering Co. on June 12, 1950, Climax acquired other uranium-vanadium properties on Calamity, Outlaw, and Monogram Mesas in Colorado and on Polar Mesa and in the Yellow Cat area of Utah. To house the milling equipment, Climax leased the old Grand Junction sugarmill building of the Holly Sugar Co. Milling facilities, based on a then new process developed for treating both uranium and vanadium, were completed, and the plant went into production in 1951.

Jan 1, 1959

By A. C. Johnson

This report describes exploration, development, and exploitation methods, and summarizes costs at the Stormy Day mine, which was discovered in 1941. Several shipments of tungsten ore were made in 1944 to the Metals Reserve Company, Salt Lake City, Utah. The purchase of tungsten by the Federal Government, which began in 1951, stimulated interest in tungsten, and a successful program of exploration with participation of the Defense Minerals Exploration Administration (DMEA) indicated enough ore to warrant development of the property. Development work comprised drifting, crosscutting, and raising. Shrinkage stoping was used for mining the ore. Operations were suspended in October 1956, when the Federal Government terminated its purchase program. Total production of the mine was approximately 20,000 tons of tungsten ore. INTRODUCTION This information circular is one of a series, prepared in cooperation with various mining companies and published by the Bureau of Mines, relating to methods and costs of equipping and developing mining properties in the United States.

Jan 1, 1958

By Richard A. Busch

Inadequate engineering design criteria for coal refuse embankments has allowed hazardous impoundment structures in coal mining areas to be created. A necessary first step to develop adequate design criteria is the determina¬tion of basic, respresentative physical property data on the materials that constitute typical refuse embankments. An extensive field and laboratory program was undertaken by the Federal Bureau of Mines. Much physical property data was generated. Additonal petrographic analysis and large scale triaxial compression testing was performed by others. The data presented here should aid in establishing design parameters for coal refuse embankments

Jan 1, 1974

On April 1, 1982, the Bureau of Mines and the Department of Energy entered into an Interagency Agreement to develop an enhanced computer cost model for uranium in situ leach mining. The original computer cost model contained data base information related to two regions; the Wyoming basin region and the South Texas trend area. The enhanced cost model contains additional information on San Juan Basin type deposits. This addition is significant because it expands the model's capabilites to include one of the largest uranium producing areas in the United States and developes costs related to uranium production from in situ leach mining. The data base was expanded and modified to include changes necessary for San Juan basin type deposits. These changes included, but were not limited to, state and local taxes, royalty payments, depth of deposits, drilling costs, and electrical costs. Also site visits were taken to verify many of the base case parameters. Consequently, the data base has been incorporated into the computer program and existing software was modified to provide for the additional data. Information was obtained on drilling coats and therefore the current program more accurately reflects these costs to depths of 2500 feet. This depth parameter has been expanded to include Wyoming Basin and South Texas scenarios also. Verbal communications were held with one operator in the Crownpoint, New Mexico area as well as the state regulatory agencies to help validate the expanded model. As a result of these changes, several tables have been included, summarizing changes in the new default parameters and the overall range of input parameters.

Jan 1, 1982

Severe whipping of shuttle car trailing cables occurs when the car stops suddenly or reverses direction. This causes cable damage, and can seriously injure personnel near the cable. FMC has contracted with the U.S. Bureau of Mines to design, build and demonstrate a reel control system that will significantly reduce or eliminate whipping. II. CONCLUSIONS Results of engineering effort show that the following conditions are primarily responsible for the whipping problem. Causes may exist individually, or in combination.

Jan 1, 1972

By C. A. Hesse

The Quartz Hill Molybdenum Project, In Southeast Alaska, was the first mining project to attempt the permitting of a submarine tailings disposal system in the United States, since the passage of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 and the Clean Water Act of 1977. Over $20 million was spent by the project developer in baseline data gathering and In funding the preparation of the four Environmental Impact Statements and other environmental documents required at various stages of the project between 1977 and 1988. Because of the timing and a unique set of environmental, legal and regulatory requirements which applied to this project, innovative approaches were developed. This report describes those requirements and the developments, and gives a full historical account of the campaign for permitting submarine tailings disposal at Quartz Hill, until denial of the NPDES permit application by EPA in September 1 990. The extensive studies done for Quartz Hill suggested that under certain conditions the selection of submarine tailings disposal can be the overall environmentally preferred alternative for a mining project. The Quartz Hill story illustrates the complexity of the existing permitting structure and paints out the desirability of rationalization to achieve a more effective system.

Jan 1, 1993

By Anthony T. Xannacchione, Luis E. Vallejo

At present, there is little knowledge concerning the shear strength of clays containing floating rock particles with concentrations from 0 to 30%. In practice, the effect of rock particles is typically disregarded in shear strength analysis The two primary reasons for this are: 1) a lack of agreement concerning the influence of rock particles on material strength, and 2) the expense and difficulty of testing day-rack mixtures with existing laboratory procedures. These factors have impeded the development of successful slope remediation design techniques far colluviums derived from resistant sedimentary rocks or spoil produced from surface mining. This study reviewed 3 1 technical papers which contain analysis of shear strengths for clay and sands with varying mixtures of rock particles. These technical papers, published over the last 40 years, are comprised of field case studies, laboratory evaluations, and theoretical analysis. Evaluation of this body of knowledge ha shown that the shear strength gradually increases with increasing percentages of floating particles in unsaturated clays.

By J. D. Noll

Elemental carbon (EC) is used as a surrogate for regulating the exposure to diesel particulate matter (DPM) of underground metal/non-metal miners. EC was chosen as a surrogate because EC is selective to DPM and is a major component of DPM. Using EC as a surrogate also gives one the advantages of no sampling artifacts and being able to sample at all locations in the mine. Currently, EC represents DPM well in underground mines. Some control technologies have been shown to possibly alter the relationship between DPM and EC and characteristics of DPM. Therefore, future work will investigate the relationship between DPM and EC as new control technologies are implemented.

Jan 1, 2002

By Laird Crocker

A goal of the Federal Bureau of Mines is to minimize the undersirable environmental conflicts and impacts associated with mineral processing operations. To help reach this goal the Bureau operated a citrate-process pilot plant for the removal of sulfur dioxide from lead smelter sintering machine waste gases to test the process. The process uses a carboxylate solution such as citric acid to absorb sulfur dioxide from waste gases. The absorbed sulfur dioxide is subsequently reacted with hydrogen sulfide to precipitate sulfur and regenerate the solution for recycle. Nominal capacity of the pilot plant was 1,000 scfm of 0.5 vol-pct sulfur dioxide gas. The pilot plant was operated for over 5,400 hr and produced about 55 net tons of sulfur. The operation demonstrated that (1) 99 pct of the sulfur dioxide could be removed from lead smelter sintering machining waste gases containing from 0.1 to 0.6 vol-pct sulfur dioxide, (2) sulfur precipitation and solution regeneration with hydrogen sulfide in conventional stirred vessels was readily controlled, (3) precipitated sulfur could be continuously recovered as a 99.S-pct-pure product by flotation and melting, and (4) 78 dry-vol-pct hydrogen sulfide gas could be produced from pilot-plant product sulfur, natural gas, and steam.

Jan 1, 1979

By Thomas A. Phillips

The Bureau of Mines presents an economic evaluation of its leach- electrolysis process for recovering lead from galena concentrate. In this process, galena concentrate is leached at 200° F with a ferric chloride-brine solution to extract lead while leaving sulfur in the residue, which is discarded. The solution after leaching is concentrated and cooled to 100° F by vacuum evaporation to crystallize lead chloride from which metallic lead and chlorine are produced by fused-salt electrolysis. Chlorine is used to regenerate the spent leach solution before it is recycled. A cost estimate was prepared for a plant capable of producing 300 tons per day of lead, 330 days per year. The fixed capital cost on a third-quarter 1977 basis Fs $27,500,000, and the estimated operating cost without a charge for the concentrate is 4.9 cents per pound of lead product. Assuming a selling price for corroding-grade lead of 31 cents per pound and a charge for the concentrate of $332 per ton, the interest rate of return on investment after taxes is 16 percent. The leach-electrolysis process, therefore, appears to be economically attractive under the assumed market conditions.

Jan 1, 1978

By L. A. Readdy

Pilot Hole "X" was drilled to test the formations through which the ventilation shaft for the proposed U.S.B.M. demonstration oil shale mine will be drilled. The history of the drilling of Pilot Hole "XI' is presented. This historical summary provides the details of method used during the drilling of this hole. Problems encountered during drilling are discussed. The quantities of drilling mud and other materials used to drill the hole are documented.

Jan 1, 1977

By G. Andrews

This case study details the process that was used for project planning and permitting for the Greens Creek Mine, located near Juneau Alaska, as seen through the eyes of one of the primary environmental consultants. This case shows how a Company could involve the public and the agencies in the early 1980's and develop a project sensitive to concerns expressed with a high level of environmental protection. Comparisons are made to the current environmental permitting situation. Initial baseline studies performed during the exploration phase provided helpful information for more detailed environmental work in 1980-1981 as planning and permitting formally got underway. Since the mine was in a National Monument and abuts up to a designated wilderness, the Monument Manager administered the project for the lead agency, the USDA Forest Service. Planning and permitting progressed smoothly to a Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) in 1983. Metal prices were depressed when the FEIS was completed and the project permitting proceeded slowly. Ownership changed several times in the mid-1980's. New owners re-evaluated the project and suggested five changes that required a supplemental EA prior to development. The project was fully permitted and started construction in 1988. Operation began in 1989. Today the environmental process in southeast Alaska is now much more complex, detailed, expensive, and time consuming than in the early 1980's. Significant issues discussed that may impede development and operation include overlapping agency jurisdictions, personal agendas of agency staff, conflicts between agencies that impede project progress, changing regulations, and a well organized environmental opposition.

Jan 1, 1993