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By Tobias W. Goodman, George N. Aul, Joseph Cervik

The Bureau of Mines conducted research to degasify a virgin block of coal in the Beckley Coalbed using long horizontal holes drilled in an array from the bottom of a ventilation air shaft. Eight horizontal holes and an in situ pressure hole were drilled in a radial pattern to depths ranging from 418 to 910 ft (127 to 277 m) and 205 ft (62 m), respectively. The investigation showed the shaft was in a basin saturated with water, which resulted in low gas flows from holes. The in situ pressure at 200 ft (61 m) into the coalbed was 79 psig (544.6 KN/m2). The aver- age gas and water flows for the eight holes were 94,100 ft3/day (2,665 m3/day) and 13 gal/min (49.3 l/min) . After 514 days of degasification, 18.7 million ft3 (0.53 million m3) of gas had been drained. Methane face emissions, which were measured as a section advanced toward the shaft, were reduced about 77 pct, emphasizing the value of drainage by this technique. All holes were grouted before the area around the shaft was mined.

Jan 1, 1982

By D. F. Reed

As a part of a comprehensive survey of the Adirondack region, the Bureau of Mines, 1944 and 1945, conducted investigation of magnetic deposits at Dennemora, Russia Station, Redford-Clayburg, Standish, and the Ausable river region. Later in 1945, the Federal Geological Survey, started an aeromagnetic survey of the area and completed it in .1946. The Bureau of Mines extended its magnetic surveys in 1946 in the Redford-Clayburg area. In 1947 the Bureau of Mines .diamond-drilled throe holes in the Redford-Clayburg district. Clinton County has one active magnetite mine at Lyon Mountain and inactive mines at Palmer Hill and Arnold Hill, as well as along the Saranac River.

Jan 1, 1949

By I. L. Sills

Introduction So many minerals and mineral products are used in the glass industry that it would require an unduly long paper to deal adequately with all of them. Only those that go to make up the batch for the more common types of glass will be discussed here, and even with these only, the list is a lengthy one. It is true that for the body of the glass comparatively few materials are required-as silica sand, soda-ash, lime, and feldspar. The others are used mainly to colour or decolorize the glass, or to give it some other desired characteristic, such as high lustre, greater physical strength, or opalescence; but, although they may be present in very small quantities, they are just as in-dispensable to the glass industry as are the main constituents of the batch. Sand Sand is essentially quartz, the dioxide of silicon, Si02. Most glass contains from 71J to 75 per cent silica. Sand for use in the glass industry, or 'glass sand', is obtained both from deposits of unconsolidated material, commonly referred to as 'sand', and from solid rock-sandstone, quartz, or quartzite. For the manufacture of glass, the material must possess a high degree of purity, as noted below, so that, although sand is widespread in most parts of the world, and sandstone, quartz, and quartzite are not at all uncommon, it is only in certain places that suitable deposits are found. At the present time, most of the glass sand used in Canada is imported from France, Belgium, and the United States. The French material, from Fontainebleau, near Paris, is known the world over as a very high quality glass sand. That from Belgium is nearly as good and is lower is price.

Jan 1, 1934

By Richard W. Bayley

The Atlantic City district encompasses several districts and has been previously called by different names, e.g., Atlantic gold district, Atlantic City-South Pass mining district, and Sweetwater mining district. The district is located in a terrane of folded and faulted early Precambrian metamorphic rocks which lies near the south end of the Wind River Range in Fremont County, Wyoming, Historically it is a gold district of little production, but today is an iron district of considerable importance. Gold was discovered in placer deposits about 1842 and in quartz-arsenopyrite veins about 1867, after which there occurred a mining boom lasting a few years. Minor, intermittent gold production from placers and lodes has continued to date, but the total production has probably not exceeded a few millions of dollars. Past lode mining was generally shallow ( in the oxidized zone), the deepest about 3 60 feet. The deeper, less oxidized and sulfide ores on the same lodes have not been explored. They appear to hold the only hope for future gold mining. Sedimentary iron-formation, similar to the Lake Superior taconite, occurs in the northern part of the district. Locally, where the ironformation is thickened by folds and faults, sufficient tonnages are present to be minable, as at Iron Mountain, where the U.S. Steel Corporation produces about 1.3 million tons of iron-ore pellets annually. Exploration of the iron deposits began in 1954, and the first ironore pellets were shipped to Provo, Utah in August 1962. Indicated reserves of iron-formation (about 30 per cent Fe) are reported to be about 300 million tons.

Jan 1, 1968

By Berger

A detailed description is given of radio apparatus for controlling a coincidence outfit for relative gravity measurements. This is probably of little interest, since many types of apparatus could be used. The general method employed is the interesting thing about this paper. As long ago as 1883 von Sterneck made a proposal to control two coincidence boxes with the, seine, clock, and many persons have suggested the use of radio for this purpose. In accomplishing this it would appear to the reviewer that this method is probably inferior to that used by the Marland Oil Co., but Berger and Brückner must be given the credit for important advances in the coincidence method. In their apparatus a clock at a central station actuates a relay, which operates a short-wave transmitter (40 m.). At the receiving station the amplification is accomplished at low frequencies... The signal operates a relay which moves a slitted screen in a coincidence apparatus. This screen has been improved considerably, to decrease the mean error in observing a coincidence. As usual, a telescope is used to observe the flashes of light. It has a scale in its focal plane and positions of successive flashes are easily read off and recorded by a second observer. This makes possible' a: higher accuracy in determining the exact instant at which coincidence would have occurred at the zero point on this scale. This method obviously depends on the constance of the mechanical and electrical lag inn both sending and receiving apparatus, and may be adversely criticized from this standpoint. -- A. E. Ruark.

Jan 1, 1929

By P Guj, J A. Bell

The valuation of early-stage exploration projects requires a valuer to take into account a large number of uncertain value drivers, the interplay among which may be non-linear. This paper examines some of the key value drivers including geology, target metrics, project area and maturity, the market and the psychology behind the decision-making process. The commonly accepted valuation methods and their underlying logic are outlined, including a view on why they evolved, what value drivers they attempt to address and their potential shortcomings. These methods include the multiple of exploration expenditure, geoscience rating, expected values and market based methods. The potential future valuation methods of replacement values and neural networks are also introduced along with how to minimise heuristic bias and error within the market-based approach.CITATION:Bell, J A and Guj, P, 2012. Exploration value drivers and methodologies, in Proceedings Project Evaluation 2012 , pp 17-28 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

May 24, 2012

By Donald P. Schlick

The Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969 requires each mine operator to implement the respirable dust sampling program established by the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare. This program requires frequent sampling of "high-risk" face workers and periodic sampling of other underground workers. Dust samples are collected by the coal mine operator and weighed at the Bureau's Pittsburgh Field Health Group, and the results are processed by the Bureau's Automatic Data Processing Section located in Denver, Colo. This paper presents the system employed by the Bureau to weigh the dust samples and to process and store the data.

Jan 1, 1971

By A Winchester, D Grant

The massive 1100 Orebody in Mount IsaÆs X41 Copper Mine has been extracted over the last 40 years form north to south utilising sublevel open stoping methods.De velopment has continually stepped ahead of production to provide access to new primary stoping blocks. The remaining secondary pillars contain stopes with one, two or three fill mass exposures and were constrained by access requirements and stope extraction turnaround time.The remaining southern mining areas consist of large 40 m wide by 300 to 400 m long east-west transverse pillars that have been left to provide access for ventilation and service requirements. Three large transverse cross-cuts or transverse pillars û 4180 x/c, 4010 x/c and the Panel pillar now remain. The 4180 x/c was the last major transverse pillar to be successfully broken.This transverse pillar is being extracted in a retreating sequence, creating 3SLOS stopes due to the surrounding backfilled stopes.In recent years the extraction of the first, and most critical, stopes in the transverse pillars have resulted in large changes to the induced stress field. This paper describes the extraction of the 1.1 million tonne stope P418 in the 4180 x/c pillar.T echnical challenges that were faced and how they were overcome to allow for the successful extraction of the stope are described.Critical to the success of the P418 stope extraction were the rehabilitation methodology used; extraction strategy modifications to address deteriorating ground; mass firings with multiple directional changes; managing the exposure of backfill of variable strengths; and geotechnical monitoring prior to, during and after extraction.

Jan 1, 2005

By Clyde M. Pearce

This paper describes the facilities at Pointe Noire, Quebec that Wabush Mines utilizes for the receipt, distribution, stockpiling and shipping of iron ore concentrate and pellets. The main topics to be covered will be: 1. - General description 2. - Concentrate receiving facilities 3. - Conveying circuits 4. - Stockpiling 5. - Vessel loading GENERAL DESCRIPTION The map of the eastern Quebec - western Labrador area as shown in Appendix #1 shows the location of Wabush Mines properties. You will note the Scully Mine located at Wabush Lake, Labrador, 235 miles north of the town of Sept-Iles, Quebec. Our neighbors, the Iron Ore Company of Canada have their properties further north at Shefferville, near by at Carol Lake and at Sept-Iles. To the Southwest, our other neighbors, Quebec Cartier Mining, have their iron ore processing facilities and their terminus on the St-Lawrence at Port Cartier. Concentrates are prepared at the scully Mine by mining, crushing, grinding, concentrating, drying and high tension separation for shipment by rail to Pointe Noire, Quebec. Pointe Noire is situated across the bay from the town of Sept-Iles, Quebec on the North Shore of the St-Lawrence River. The concentrate consists of 66% iron, 2 ¼ percent silica and practically no moisture, permitting the use of specially constructed railroad cars and handling facilities to convert the concentrate into pellets, the final product.

Jan 1, 1967

By Donald W. Mitchell, John Nagy, Edwin M. Murphy

"Investigations in the Federal Bureau of Mines Experimental coal mine near Pittsburgh, Pa., have shown that high-expansion foam containing at least 0.2 ounce of water per cubic foot of volume is effective in controlling exper-imental underground coal, oil, or wood fires. Some of the fires were extinguished, but more of the coal and wood fires were brought under enough control to permit direct attack with water or other extinguishing agent or loading the hot material into cars. The largest controlled experimental fire, which burned about 5 hours before attack, was in a coalbed 5 feet wide, 10 inches thick, and 100 feet long. The greatest distance foam was transported to control a fire was 1,010 feet.An incipient fire should be attacked promptly with water, rock dust, or other approved and readily available extinguishing agents. Where heat, roof falls, and smoke prevent direct approach, the more involved procedure of using foam may be advantageous. The effectiveness of the foam in controlling a deep coated fire of considerable extent H,vet to be proved by actual trials in aSome hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and methane gases are generated when a fire is attacked with foam. Calculations showed that in experimental fire tests an explosive mixture could form; however, this would occur only within a narrow range of combustible gas-air mixtures not likely to be found in practice. The principal explosion hazards are due to generation of gases by the foam, localized build-up of normally liberated methane, and volatiles liberated by the coal during heating. The quantity of combustible gases generated by the action of the foam on the fire is about the same as that when an equivalent amount of water is applied."

Mar 1, 1960

By S L. Barbour

Measurement of the net percolation from the base of a cover system into the underlying waste material is a key component of a cover system monitoring program. The units of measure (ie a percentage of precipitation or rainfall) are simple to understand for all stakeholders, which increases the importance of obtaining representative net percolation values. In general, lysimeters are used to measure net percolation across the cover material-waste material interface; however, the design of lysimeters for cover system monitoring programs in the mining industry have typically not considered fundamental aspects of lysimeter design. Lysimeter design is typically thought of as being conceptually simple, when in reality the design, installation, and operation of lysimeters is often counter-intuitive, due to the complexities of flow through unsaturated soil systems. This paper puts forward a methodology for lysimeter design while also presenting the fundamental design variables that should be considered. Lysimeter design for differing climates, cover materials, and waste materials is discussed. Finally, the performance of lysimeter designs previously installed in the field at sites in Australia, Canada, and the United States are subjected to numerical modelling to determine whether net percolation is being measured properly.

Jan 1, 2003

By Mark A. White

Arch Mineral has developed several computer programs that aid the surface mine planning function. These programs are utilized to perform long term projections for various area or semi-area stripping operations. The program generated reports include yardage, tonnage, quality and ratio information for the user-specified time periods. The projections are used to anticipate the annual budget, to compare alternative mine plans and to analyze acquisition candidates. The programs are user friendly, fast and accurate. Geological Grid File Two data files must be set-up and used in conjunction with the mine planning programs. These are a geological data file and a general input file.

Jan 1, 1984

By J. L. Reuss

The Bureau of Mines derived information on the softening characteristics of both unfired and indurated iron ore pellets as measured by hot compression strength in a laboratory study. A surprisingly high hot strength (240 1b per ½ -inch spheroid) was developed by unfired magnetite pellets near 900° C; lesser maxima were developed by pellets made from hematite and specularite concentrates near 1,000° C. Those from goethite remained weak throughout the pre induration heating. Fully indurated commercial pellets retain a high resistance to softening when heated in air. On the contrary, in a hot reduing atmosphere their high cold crushing strength dissipates rapidly. At 1,000° C, for example, the average compression strength of seven different commercial pellets was 110 lb; at 1,100° C, the hot strength was only 60 lb. After a rather sharp initial drop, the loss of strength with increase of temperature was gradual. There was no sudden collapse, nor any significant difference, in behavior of commercial pellets whether made from magnetite or hematite concentrates.

Jan 1, 1968

By D. R. Nagaraj

Based on our finding that commercial copper chelating solvent extractants such as LIX65N® and LIX63® are excellent collectors for copper minerals, a detailed study was made using several water-soluble chelating agents belonging to the class of aromatic hydroxyoximes and having a gradual structural variation. A basic study of the system salicylaldoxime-tenorite was also carried out. Microflotation tests as a function of concentration of oxime, pH, addition of copper etc., using oxidic copper minerals such as chrysocolla and tenorite, and batch laboratory flotation tests using synthetic mixtures of quartz and oxidic copper minerals were carried out. The studies were aimed at an understanding of the collector function of the hydroxyoximes and of the general flotation behavior in these systems, in addition to studying the structural aspects of oximes vis-a-vis flotation. The results have demonstrated that all of the hydroxyoximes studied here have comparable collector property, and in all cases the oxime was found to be partitioned between the mineral surface and the copper in the bulk aqueous phase in the form of a bulk copper chelate. The occurrence of the latter could be accounted for by the formation in the bulk phase of a chelate between oxime and copper released from the mineral and/or by the detachment of the surface chelate. The role of surface and bulk chelates in flotation is discussed based on the results of partitioning of chelating agent into bulk and surface chelates in the system salicylaldoximetenorite. The effect of substitution of CH2 groups or benzene ring in the chelating agent molecule on its collector property is also discussed, in addition to the finding that only the anti-isomer has the ability to collect.

Jan 1, 1979

By M. F. Goudge

MAGNESIA refractories and magnesium metal are both essential war commodities. The need for magnesium, which had just made its debut as a commercial metal a few years before the outbreak of the present war, is widely known because this new and valuable light metal has already received much publicity. Less widely known but equally important in the war effort are magnesia refractories. They are indispensable to the efficient functioning of the great metallurgical plants producing steel, nickel, copper, and other metals, where, because of their resistance to extreme high temperature and chemical attack, they are used in lining the furnaces, which are operated at a white heat. The demand for refractories in the metallurgical industries rose rapidly upon the outbreak of war, and now, in consequence of the continued great expansion under way in the manufacture of steel, nickel, copper, and other metals, the need for magnesia is greater than ever. Since 1915, part of the Canadian requirements of basic refractories has been supplied from the deposits of magnesitic dolomite in Argenteuil county, Quebec. The products from these deposits are excellent for many uses, but the magnesitic dolomite has too high a content of silica and lime to be used in making a type of magnesia brick required in nickel converters, and in the roofs of reverberatory furnaces used in the copper and steel industries. There is now a large and growing demand in Canada for bricks and shapes for these uses. This demand has always been supplied from the United States. Makers of these products in the United States, in turn, formerly imported most of the necessary high-grade, dead-burned magnesia from Austria and Manchuria. Not only are these sources closed, but refractory chrome ore from the Philippines is no longer available and chrome refractories may have to be in large part replaced by magnesia.

Jan 1, 1942

By Thomas T., Read

IT is difficult to judge how much influence the success attained during its first year, 1864-65, by the School of Mines at Columbia had on developments in education for the mineral industry elsewhere in the immediately subsequent years. The facts are as follows: 1. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology began giving instruction in February 1865, with a mining course included in its curriculum. 2. Early in 1865 the faculty of the Department of Science, Literature and the Arts of the University of Michigan requested permission from the Regents to establish "a course of study to be called the School of Mines . . . Also that the degree of Mining Engineering, be conferred on students who should complete the course of study prescribed in the same." A resolution authorizing this was adopted by the Regents on March 28, 1865. 3. Samuel Hooper endowed a Sturgis-Hooper professorship of geology at Harvard in 1865 with the intention of making it a nucleus of a new School of Practical Mining and Geology. 4. Yale appointed Alfred P. Rockwell professor of mining in 1865. 5. Lafayette College appointed Henry S. Osborn professor of mining and metallurgy in 1865. 6. Washington College (as Washington and Lee was then known), rising out of the ashes of Civil War destruction, made a fresh start in 1865, with Generalized as its president, and offered a mining course in the first catalogue thereafter published. 7. Lehigh University, founded in 1866, had a mining curriculum from its beginning. 8. Rensselaer Polytechnic began offering a curriculum in mining and metallurgical engineering in 1867. It would be natural to suppose that these events were a reaction, to the success of the school at Columbia, - and possibly they

Jan 1, 1941

By W. A. Rickelton

Trialkylphosphine sulphides, in contrast to their well known oxide analogues (1,2,3,4), have received comparatively little attention as metal extractants and previous studies have been biased toward analytical rather than commercial solvent extraction applications (5,6,7). The sulphides are soft Lewis bases and only from complexes readily with the limited number of metals in the periodic table which can be classified as soft acids (8) e.g. Ag+, Hg2+ and Pd2+. Consequently, these compounds tend to be more selective than the broad-spectrum, hard-base, phosphine oxide extractants such-as TOPO (trioctylphosphine oxide). The purpose of this paper is to describe a potential application of one phosphine sulphide, CYANEX® 471X extractant, in the selective recovery of silver from base metal sulphate solutions. CYANEX 471X is triisobutylphosphine sulphide (TIBPS).

Jan 1, 1984

By Liane L. M. Kacinuck

This U.S. Bureau of Mines publication is intended to provide mining industry representatives and regulatory authorities with a reference package dealing with studies on hydrology and underground mine subsidence. An annotated bibliography and a list of additional sources are given and represent references published prior to June 1993. Ninety-two references ware identified and 72 obtained for assessment. Annotating the references included evaluating the study methodology and summarizing the basic results. The references are also compiled based on geographic location to aid the user in identifying articles of particular interest.

Jan 1, 1994

By R Morrison, R Dunn

In many mineral processing operations, the reported production figures for an accounting period may not make the best use of available data. While most of the mathematical approaches, such as check-in/check-out, mass balancing, used in effective metallurgical accounting strategies are well understood, the sources and magnitude of measurement errors generally are not. As part of the æAMIRA P754-Metal Accounting and ReconciliationÆ project, a study was undertaken at the Northparkes copper/gold concentrator near Parkes, New South Wales to examine the data used in their concentrator metallurgical accounting system. This paper summarises the results of a detailed examination of the mass measurement systems around the concentrator as well as the primary sampling system used for grade estimation. The goal of this work was to develop practical techniques to quantify the error (ie both accuracy and precision) of the measured metal accounting information. With this information, statistical confidence levels for this data can then be calculated. If the errors are small, the effect of error in each piece of measured data can then be propagated to other calculated production figures such as recovery and feed grade using a statistical technique called æthe propagation of errorÆ.

Jan 1, 2007

By J. L. Whitlock

A mutant strain of Pseudomonas paucimobilis is utilized to effectively degrade and or remove 90-98% of cyanide, thiocyanate, toxic heavy metals and ammonia from a cyanidation mill process and mine discharge maximum of 21,000 m3/d (5.5 MGD). Homestake Mining Company?s biological wastewater treatment plant has been in full scale operation for over 2 years at the Homestake Mine in Lead, South Dakota.

Jan 1, 1987