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By David White

This paper is the result of a comparative study of ultimate coal analyses made and published by the United States Geological Survey. This study, at first casually undertaken to devise an acceptable classification of coals based on chemical analyses, was continued in connection with a microscopic examination of a number of the coals. The initial comparisons, made from a relatively small number of analyses, not only confirmed a previous conviction that the elimination of oxygen incident to the development of a coal is economically far more important than has been generally suspected, but also showed that oxygen is very nearly as harmful as ash in coal. The immediate purposes of the present study were: (a) To determine more definitely, from a comparative examination of a large number of ultimate analyses, the relative importance of oxygen as an impurity in various coals; (b) to illustrate the transition between various grades of coal of similar origin-transition mainly due to progressive devolatilization, brought about more or less directly by dynamic influences; (c) to ascertain the relative proportions of oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon in coking coals, especially with reference to a theory tentatively framed to explain the coking quality; and (d) to forecast the probabilities of successfully treating a large number of coals so as to render them amenable, in a softened condition, to satisfactory study under the microscope.

Jan 1, 1911

By K. E. Stanfield

The Bureau of Mines oil-shale program, initiated in April 1944, is concerned with the future utilization of oil shale in the United States as a source of liquid fuel. One phase of this program is the accumulation of information on the location, extent, and richness of oil-shale deposits that may be suitable for processing to oil and related products. A previous publication5/ presented, by means of logs, the oil yields of sections of the largest known oil-shale deposit in this country -the shales of the Green River formation occurring in adjoining portions of the states of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. This present supplementary report presents the oil yields of cores from 48 holes drilled during 1952 to 1954 in the Green River formation of Colorado, which is distributed over an area of more than 1,000 square miles. The oil yields of the 48 oil-shale sections, involving the assay of 9,651 samples, representing 22,451 feet of core, are presented by means of logs. In addition, the oil yields of samples comprising the maximum sections of 15 gallon-per-ton shale are tabulated for these cores and for the 28 cores from Colorado which were logged in the previous report.

Jan 1, 1957

By Forrest T. Moyer

To keep the mineral and allied industries informed of trends in the causes of accidents, and to point out the need for corrective measures, the Bureau of Mines collects, analyzes, and periodically publishes health and safety statistics. This report includes data for 1963 on injury experience, with related employment statistics, at coal mines in the United States. These data are presented in tabular form under the following headings: General Injury Experience Tables 1 to 6: Current data on number of injuries, degree of injury, frequency and severity rates, average severity, and related employment and production data by work location.

Jan 1, 1966

By Forrest T. Moyer

To keep the mineral and allied industries informed of trends in the causes of accidents, and to point out the need for corrective measures, the Bureau of Mines collects, analyzes, and periodically publishes health and safety statistics. This report includes data for 1963 on injury experience, with related employment statistics, at coal mines in the United States. These data are presented in tabular form under the following headings: General Injury Experience Tables 1 to 6: Current data on number of injuries, degree of injury, frequency and severity rates, average severity, and related employment and production data by work location.

Jan 1, 1966

By Donald E. Redmon

This Bureau of Mines report reviews injury experience in the nonmetallic mineral industries (except stone and coal) for 1968-69. For each of the years, 23 tables summarize disabling work injuries by department, source of injury, extent of disability, part of body injured, and nature of injury. Correlative information on employment, worktime, and operating activity is also presented.

Jan 1, 1973

The U.S. Bureau of Mines Information and Analysis Directorate collects worldwide data on virtually every commercially important nonfuel mineral commodity. These data form the base for tracking and assessing the health of the minerals sector of the U.S. economy. The Bureau's data collection activity was instituted by the 47th Congress in an appropriations act of August 7, 1882 (22 Stat. 329), which placed the collection of mineral statistics on an annual basis. The most recent authority for the U.S. Bureau of Mines survey activity is the National Materials and Minerals Policy, Research and Development Act of 1980 (Public Law 96-479, 96th Congress). This act strengthens protection for proprietary data provided to the U.S. Department of the Interior by persons or firms engaged in any phase of mineral or mineral-material production or consumption.

Jan 1, 1993

The coal reserve base is defined for coalbeds having sufficient thickness for underground mining within a depth range compatible with economic recovery. The reserve data are compiled by the Federal Bureau of Mines by updating and reevaluating previous estimates of the U.S. Geological Survey, State geological surveys, and others. Through the application of computer techniques, the tonnages are compiled by State, county, coalbed, and rank. Coal reserve base is allotted to sulfur categories by a statistical apportionment of data from available Bureau of Mines reports and records. The coal reserve base in those States east of the Mississippi River, minable by underground methods, is estimated to be 169 billion tons in coalbeds greater than 28 inches in thickness to a maximum depth of 1,000 feet. Excluding those coals in reliability categories other than measured and indicated, the underground reserve base includes 162 billion tons of bituminous coal and 7 billion tons of anthracite. Of the total, 27 billion tons contains 1.0 percent or less sulfur. Most of this low-sulfur coal is in the southern Appalachian area. Approximately 16 percent of the underground reserve base is without available analyses. Included in this report is a glossary of terms applicable to a classification system for coal resources and reserves. The purpose of this system is to provide a common yardstick for determining coal resources and reserves.

Jan 1, 1974

By John D. Bardill

A cooperative project between the Bureau of Mines, Department of the Interior, and the Montana School of Mines, investigating results of hydraulic systems for transporting sand slurries for emplacement, was begun in August 1955. In such circumstances, the Bureau provides funds for a fellowship leading to a Master of Science degree as well as available instruments, tools, supplies and equipment. The School provides the ore-beneficiating laboratory with its equipment for use as a pilot plant. The success of a hydraulic backfilling method employing mill tailings depends largely upon the physical characteristics of the tailings. One of these characteristics is size distribution, especially in the finer size ranges. When being emplaced underground, almost impervious layers of slimes separate from some types of mill tailings containing a high percentage of slimes and settle on the top of the sand fill. These coatings may be so dense that the water in the slurry cannot percolate through them for proper drainage. Successive layers of fill in a stope, each with an impervious coating on top, sometimes build up a hydrostatic head, creating pressure on the bulkheads. This may cause breaks in the lining material, inducing sand runs and flooding the level and sumps below. Deleterious slimes flocculated and disseminated throughout the sands should help prevent the formation of impervious slime layers, increasing percolation and settling rates.

Jan 1, 1960

By John C. Machisak

INJURY data and experience, with related employment statistics, at coal mines in the United States for 1958 are presented in this publication under the following general sections: (A) General injury experience: Tables 1 to 6: Current data on number of injuries, degree of injury, frequency and severity rates, average severity, and related employment and production data by work location. (B) Selected injury experience: Tables 7 to 38: Current data on principal agencies of injuries, distribution of injuries by part of body injured, days of disability, extent of hand and machine loading, experience by employment and production groups, and various other operating factors and physical conditions related to the occurrence of injuries at the Nation's coal mines. (C) Injury experience by States: Tables 39 to 43: Current data on injuries, their causes, rates of occurrence and severity; employment and production data by work location, by States. (D) Major disasters: Table 44: Data on major disasters from 1949 to 1958. A major disaster is defined as a single accident in which, or as a result of which, five persons or more are killed instantly or die at any time thereafter. (E) Historical coal-mine-fatality experience: Tables 45 to 49: Data on fatalities and their causes at bituminous coal, lignite, and anthracite mines from the earliest records through 1958.

Jan 1, 1961

By E. C. Lane

"In a previous paper the Bureau of Mines. 3/ presented in condensed tabular form all analyses of Texas crude oils made by the Bureau up to March 193K. This previous report states;The first Al well in Texas was drilled near Oil Springs, Nacogdoches County, in 1863-67. However, the first oil field of major importance in the State was discovered at Corsicana,Navarro County, in 1895. Since that time the petroleum industry try in the State has spread and grown until today petroleum from Texas is an important commodity in world petroleum markets.Since March 1939 samples of Texas crude oils from many new fields, and some older fields not covered in the previous report, nave been analyzed. Those analyses arc reported in the present paper. The annual production by years from 1896 to 1940, inclusive, taken from the figures in the Bureau of Mines Minerals Yearbook, are given in table 1. Production for 1896-1940, inclusive, totals 6,579,715,000 barrels.Various authors reported upon developments and production in the Texas fields in the Transactions of the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers, Petroleum Division, for 1941. 4/"

Apr 1, 1943

By L. B. Pankratz

Thermodynamic data on the sulfides were reviewed, evaluated, and compiled at the Bureau of Mines Albany Research Center. Values for Cp°, S°, H°298 -(G° - H°298)/T, ?Hf°, ?Gf°, and log Kf are given in tabular form. Cp°, H° - H°298, ?Hf°, and ?Gf° are also expressed algebraically.

Jan 1, 1987

By Charles D. Haynes

Outside air for ventilating coal mines in Alabama varies considerably in both temperature and moisture content during the year. Alternate condensation and evaporation of the moisture on mine roofs may result in stresses detrimental to the strength of mine roof. It is well known that the clays in shales absorb moisture, and many investigations have noted the weakening of shales by absorption of moisture. Parker (1970) concluded that there is an annual cycle of rock deterioration in mine roof rock caused by the annual temperature-humidity cycle at the surface. He further noted that moisture reduces the strength of dry rock by one-half, that moisture added to dry rock can cause failure in compression, and that drying of wet rock causes tensile stress buildups by shrinkage. His recommendations for alleviating the moisture-temperature problem was to seal the rock in critical areas and to control ventilation so that air temperature will be lower than rock temperature. The latter recommendation will avoid condensation on the rock surfaces. Hartmann and Greenwald (1941) published the results of a very comprehensive experimental project to determine the effect of temperature and humidity changes on the behavior of mine roof. Their general conclusions included statements that roof rocks were very sensitive to moisture changes, but had low coefficients of thermal expansion. The coefficients were twice in the direction normal to the bedding plane as compared to the parallel

Jan 1, 1975

By R. D. Leitch

"The pollution of streams has received much attention during the last few years, and although there are many other and more serious forms of pollution, the problem of acid mine drainage is important in certain sections of the country, particularly in Pennsylvania. At the request of the United States Public Health Service the Bureau of Mines undertook to determine some of the factors contributing to formation of acid mine waters, the yearly variations in quantity and quality of drainage, effect of mining methods, and various other questions arising in connection with the problem; some attention was also given to its economic phases.In acknowledgment, the writer wishes to thank Dr. R. R. Sayers, Chief surgeon; A. C. Fieldner, chief chemist; and W. P. Yant, supervising chemist, health laboratory section of the Pittsburgh Experiment Station, all of the Bureau of Mines, under whose direction the work was conducted.Because no data of a like nature had previously been determined, and with the thought that such data would throw additional light on the general subject, a stream having a number of mines draining into it was selected for observation in both high-sulphur and low-sulphur bituminous-coal districts, as designated in commercial rating. These mines and streams were visited in both wet and dry seasons to note the quantity and variations in acidity of mine drainage and the subsequent effect on streams. Maps of these streams with the sampling points are shown in Figures 1 and 2. In a report of this nature a great deal of tabular data is best emitted, but reference to the maps will serve to indicate the factors that determined sampling points, such as tributary streams and gobs."

Sep 1, 1928

By S. H. Ash

The Pennsylvania anthracite region is composed of four fields, namely, the Northern, Eastern Middle, Western Middle, and Southern. It is in the eastern part of Pennsylvania and is shown on figure 1. The anthracite industry is confronted with a crucial problem of inundation by water impounded in underground pools in many mines and by infiltration of water from streams and pools on the surface (3). The deposits of anthracite in the United States are limited virtually to Pennsylvania, and the difficulties of this industry have been commonly considered as a State problem rather than a national one (1, 4, 6, 7). Anthracite was discovered in Pennsylvania in 1762, and the first mining company was formed in 1793. It was not until 1812 that anthracite began to receive recognition in the Philadelphia market as a domestic fuel, and by 1838 the annual production was nearly 1 million net tons. Since anthracite mining began, mine water has become progressively more difficult and costly to handle because of the extraction of anthracite both underground and along the outcrops of the beds, until at the present time mine drainage is a major anthracite-mining problem. Mine water is handled at the anthracite mines as follows: (a) by pumping, (b) by drainage tunnels, (c) by combination of pumping and drainage tunnels, and (d) by water hoists (hoisting water by means of large buckets) (4, 5,6, 7). This paper covers removal of the water from mines by means of pumping plants. Pumping is indispensable in the production of anthracite (5). The cost of pumping mine water has increased progressively since anthracite mining began. Some collieries have been forced to discontinue mining because of the high cost of pumping.

Jan 1, 1950

By John P. Powell

The increasing demands for petroleum and its products and the steadily increasing cost of discovering and developing new oil fields are factors that emphasize the importance of increasing the recovery of oil from known petroleum reserves. Water flooding is a valuable conservation measure, not only preventing premature abandonment of stripper leases but also reviving interest in many areas previously abandoned. The use of water flooding as a means for recovering additional oil from partly depleted oil-bearing formations was first tried in Oklahoma in 1931. Early water-flooding operations were confined to the area of shallow Bartlesville-sand formations in Nowata and Rogers Counties, where many of the projects were outstandingly successful. The results of these operations stimulated activities in other pools in Oklahoma, and by the end of 1949 water flooding had been tried in 25 of the 49 oil-producing counties in the State (fig. 1). Approximately 33 million barrels of oil, or 1,806 barrels per acre, had been recovered by December 31, 1949, from 18,221 productive acres included in the 162 active and abandoned projects in Oklahoma by injection of approximately 449 million barrels of water.

Jan 1, 1952

By K. K. Kelley

This work is both a revision and an elaboration of Bureau of Mines Bulletin 371, which was published in 1934 and included data available to October 1933. During the intervening years, a large number of new experimental, high-temperature, heat-content data have become available through continuous, systematic efforts of the Pacific Experiment Station of the Bureau of Mines and the Laboratory for Inorganic and Physical Chemistry of the University of Groningen (Netherlands), coupled with various individual investigations at many institutions. In addition, calculations from spectroscopic and molecular constant data have been extended and applied to a wide variety of gaseous substances. This bulletin purposes to collect and correlate all available high-temperature heat-content and specific-heat data for inorganic sub-stances and to formulate tables and algebraic expressions for their representation. It is hoped in this manner to remove some of the tedium of thermodynamic calculations for industrial metallurgical research workers and engineers who often have available only an inadequate library in this field. It is expected also that this bulletin will have value to those teaching courses in metallurgical and chemical thermodynamics.

Jan 1, 1949

By McMillan W. D.

Vermiculite is the name of a group of micaceous minerals characterized by their property of exfoliating when heated and thereby increasing many times their original volume. The resulting product has excellent heat-and sound-insulating properties, is used as a lightweight aggregate, and has numerous other industrial applications. Deposits of vermiculite occur in areas of pre-Cambrian rocks of the Llano uplift of central Texas, particularly in Burnet and Llano Counties. Because of the growing economic importance of vermiculite products, the Bureau of Mines undertook a detailed investigation of several deposits in Llano County. This investigation was completed in February 1947. The work comprised topographic surveys of five deposits, drilling with a 4-1/4 inch Parmanco power auger drill, and laboratory evaluation of samples. 342 drill holes, aggregating 4,905.5 feet, were completed, and 377 samples were taken. Laboratory evaluation of the vermiculite comprised expansion tests on both crude and beneficiated samples. The products obtained were compared with commercial-grade vermiculite from Montana.

Jan 1, 1949

By E. L. Garton

Analyses of samples of crude oil from fields in West Texas have been published from time to time in Bureau of Mines reports.3/ Analyses of 100 samples of crude oil from West Texas) collected during 1946 to 1952) are presented in this report. The production of crude oil from the fields in this portion of Texas totaled 381,129,000 barrels4/ during 1951 - an amount greater than that of any previous year. Total cumulative production of this area through 1951 was 2,792,692,000 barrels.5/ Table 1 gives monthly production figures for 1951 and yearly totals for the preceding 10 years (1942-1951) [ ]

Jan 1, 1953

By John C. Machisak

Injury data and experience, with related employment statistics, at coal mines in the United States for 1960 are presented in this publication under the following general sections: A General injury experience: Tables 1 to 6: Current data on number of injuries, decree of injury, frequency and severity rates, average severity, and related employment and production data by work location. B Selected injury experience: Tables 7 to 38: Current data on principal agencies of injuries, distribution of injuries by part of body injured, days of disability, extent of hand and machine loading, experience by employment and production groups, and various other operating factors and physical conditions related to the occurrence of injuries at the Nation?s coal mines.

Jan 1, 1962

By P. A. Cox

Guidelines are provided for the design of explosion-proof electrical enclosures that will meet MSHA certification requirements according to Part 18, Title 30, of the Code of Federal Regulations, and fulfill their intended service underground. The guide covers only those aspects of design which affect enclosure strength, ruggedness, endurance and flame path, i. e., the enclosure ability to properly contain an internal explosion. Internal static and explosion pressures, external impact and thermal heating load are treated as well as the proper selection of materials and welding procedures.

Jan 1, 1985