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A new mine has begun production of antimony ore and concentrates in Serbia, Yugoslavia. The mine is operated by the mining and metallurgical enterprise "Aajaca." Initial production is running at approximately 45 thousand tons of ore per year, yielding about 1,500 tons of concentrate. The mine is located on the mountain Kopaonik-Raiceyoj Gori. It is planned to expand production eventually to approach the level of 300,000 tons of ore per year. This level will be a significant addition to the world supply of antimony and will place Yugoslavia among the world's major producers. Currently the United States produces only about 6 percent of its primary requirement for antimony. COBALT -Anglo American Corporation, Ltd. reportedly is considering restarting the Tenke-Fungurume copper-cobalt project in Zaire. Construction on the project was suspended in January because of inadequate financing and political uncertainties. Technical feasibility and financing on a smaller scale than previously envisioned are now being considered. However, an increased copper price may be necessary before any decision to proceed is made.

Jan 1, 1976

The complex organic chemicals in coal differ from those in petroleum mainly by the ratio of carbon atoms to hydrogen atoms; this ratio is about 2 for coal and 1 for petroleum. By changing the ratio, coal can be converted into compounds similar to those found in petroleum. In. very simplified form, omitting here the special conditions required, the paths by which this can be done are: [ ] Part or all of the coal is first gasified by reaction with steam and oxygen, either in a gasifier or while the coal is still in place underground. The resulting gas is mainly hydrogen and carbon monoxide, with impurities that .must be removed before further processing by one of the following routes.

Jan 1, 1959

By John W. Nebgen

This report contains findings from a U.S. Bureau of Mines study concerning the inhibition of acid mine drainage formation from underground coal mines. A series of experiments was performed in which three different pyritic materials (wastes from coal production plants) were evaluated using several candidate inhibiting agents. Data obtained from the inhibitor-treated pyrites were compared with data from control experiments in which untreated pyritic wastes were used. The experiments were conducted by placing treated and untreated pyrite in columns, passing moist air through the columns to promote oxidation of pyrite, and washing the columns weekly to collect oxidation products for analysis. Experimental results indicate that quantities of acid mine drainage can be substantially reduced if soluble iron III (ferric) ion is controlled. The best inhibitors are neutral or alkaline siliceous materials such as fly ash, blast furnace slag, portland cement, and cement kiln dust. These materials appear to insolubilize iron III species to make them unavailable for reaction with pyrite. The data strongly suggest that the soluble ferric ion aqueous is a key oxidant for pyrite to produce acid mine drainage. The role of aqueous ferric ion as an oxidizing agent is substantiated further by data obtained using metallic iron (nails) as an inhibitor. The iron nails tended to keep the soluble iron in the iron 11 (ferrous) state. Experimental results indicate that sulfate and acidity levels are reduced when pyrite is in contact with the metallic iron.

Jan 1, 1979

By L. Stein

A simplified radiochemical method has been developed for quantitatively analyzing; radon gas in underground uranium mines. In this method, a measured volume of air is drawn by a pump through a drying tube and a cartridge containing dioxygenyl hexafluoroantimonate reagent. Radon is captured as n nonvolatile product. After radioactive equilibrium has been established between radon and its short-lived daughters (approximately 4 hours), the gamma-emission of the cartridge is measured with a scintillation counter. The amount of radon is then calculated from the gamma-emission rate. The effect of cartridge geometry, reagent load, and air flow rate upon collection efficiency and counting efficiency is reported.

Jan 1, 1977

By A. C. Fieldner

Much activity is called for in the present period of hightened national effort, and wise direction of such a program must always be conditioned by positive knowledge gained in years of slow and painstaking study and development. Research and technologic investigations on coal by the Bureau of Mines have been described in a series of annual

Jan 1, 1941

In 1960, the Secretary of the Interior, acting under the provisions of Public Law 454, 80th Congress, appointed a Lignite Advisory Committee to aid in programming research on coal (lignite) of the north-central area. The chairman of this committee is the Secretary of the Interior or his delegated representative, and in all meetings held during 1960 and 1961, the Director of the Bureau of Mines, Marling J. Ankeny, has presided. The members of this committee were R. W. Rovelstad, President, Baukol-Noonan, Inc., Noonan, N. Dak. W. E. Keller, Vice President, Northwest Division, Truax-Traer Coal Co., Minneapolis, Minn. A. M. Cooley, Professor of Chemical Engineering, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks; N. Dak.

Jan 1, 1963

By Edwin A. Clarke

[For almost 2 decades the Bureau of Mines has been Interested in converting solid fuels to liquid fuels. Small-scale laboratory investigations were carried on for a number of years.4/ This work wad expanded substantially under authority of Public Law 290, approved by the 78th Congress on May 5, 1945. As part of the. broadened program, coal-hydrogenation demonstration plant was designed and erected at Louisiana, Mo., where: hydrogen-manufacturing and compression equipment, shoes, electric power, and other utilities and facilities were available from a discontinued wartime ammonia works . The plant uses the direct -hydrogenation or Bergius process, but the process differs from prewar European practices in many respects. Many noteworthy improvements h eve bean made, particularly by substituting automatic instruments for manual control of process variable's, in line with modern American processing practices. The over-all objective of the demonstration plant is to bridge the gap between laboratory end commercial-scale operation by furnishing cost and engineering data to develop a synthetic liquid-fuels industry when it proves technically and economically justified. Fitting into the over-all program, specific objectives o early runs were to (1) train personnel who had no experience with this type of operation, (2) break in the installed equipment, (3) obtain successfully integrated operation of the entire plant, and (4) work towards obtaining data on the hydrogenation of coal-tar oil and a typical low-ash coal. In beginning fan integrated operation, it is common practice to operate and obtain reaonably smooth performance of each unit before the over-all operation is undertaken. The first part of the plant completed was the refinery, consisting of several fractionating systems, a stabilizer, and a chemical treater.]

Jan 1, 1953

By L. D. Patts, G. H. Schnakenberg

Achieving substantial reductions in the exposure of underground miners to diesel particulate matter in a number of metal and nonmetal mines in the U.S. depends on the ability of the industry to widely implement advanced diesel emissions control technologies, primarily diesel particulate filter (DPF) systems. Recent field studies showed that diesel particulate filter systems with Cordierite and silicon carbide ceramic filter elements are capable of reducing concentrations of diesel particulate matter and elemental carbon by more than 70 and 90 percent, respectively. But those studies and several other attempts to implement DPF systems in underground mines revealed a number of relatively unique technical and operational challenges that are limiting industry-wide implementation of this technology. This paper provides detailed analysis of some of those challenges and short overviews of several projects launched by NIOSH Pittsburgh Research Laboratory in an attempt to provide the underground mining industry with more adequate DPF systems. These systems employ advanced technologies to overcome the most pronounced challenge, the regeneration of DPF elements installed on mining engines that generate relatively low exhaust temperature. This paper presents essential findings obtained through a long-term evaluation of DPF system with diesel fuel burner technology installed on a heavy-duty load-haul dump vehicle in an underground metal mine. In addition, the essential results of the laboratory evaluation of a popular on-highway DPF system which was adapted and optimized for underground mining applications will be summarized in this paper.

By Daniel G. Di Canio

A computer based accident cost indicator model (ACIM) for estimating tangible costs of occupational injuries, illnesses, and fatalities in the U.S. mining industry is described. Studies performed to expand the scope of the ACIM to all mining sectors are presented. Validation of ACIM cost element estimation algorithms with actual costs of mining-related injuries and illnesses are presented. A study of the effect of a fatal accident on production in surface coal and metal/nonmetal mines is presented. The study is based on a sample of 15 fatalities in underground and surface mines. Evidence of significant long- term decline in postfatality production at 6 of 8 underground samples is presented. The average loss is shown to be 1.8% of annual mine production. A study of accident costs in U.S. mining from 1975 through 1981 using the ACIM is presented. The study shows that total annual costs increased from $180,000,000 in 1975 to $379,000,000 in 1981, a 15% annual increase after adjusting for inflation, with mining companies bearing 45% of the total and expected wage losses to mining families accounting for 42%. The study shows total costs of $12,400 per accident and $674,000 per fatal accident for 1981.

Jan 1, 1983

By Fraser M. Walsh

The objective of this program was to determine by laboratory experiments the kinetics and mechanics of the reactions that produce acid in coal mine drainage. The program was divided into three phases: In Phase I, five coil mines, representative of Appalachian coal mines, were chosen for sampling and an experimental design was identified suited to accomplish the program objectives. In Phase II, the five mines were sampled and test protocols applied. The results showed most pyrite weathering to be based on oxidation in the presence of water. Iron bacteria, especially Thiobacillus ferrooxidans, catalyzed the rate of pyrite weathering by a factor of three. An increase in initial iron concentration in a system that modeled the nine environment acted to inhibit bacterial catalysis of weathering. In Phase III, five tailings piles were sampled and the material obtained was used to evaluate this method of bacterial catalysis inhibition. The evaluation verified method effectiveness; inhibition of over 80% of the release of weathering products was observed.

Jan 1, 1982

By Max J. Spendlove

The Federal Bureau of Mines has been a leader in resource recovery research since it was founded in 1910. Until the early 19601s, most of the projects were concerned primarily with the task of extending and improving conventional technology oriented to secondary metals and minerals upgrading and processing for marketable products of highest value. By the mid-1960's with the passage of the Solid Waste Disposal Act of 1965, all resource recovery research programs were increased in scope and intensity as an effort to solve the growing number of environmental problems and the rapid depletion of domestic energy and mineral resources. Many new materials were investigated including urban refuse, manufacturing, industrial wastes, and stockyard wastes. The objective was to promote maximum recycling as the most practical answer to problems of waste disposal, pollution control, and the short supply of minerals and energy. The new research projects ranged from the conversion of animal manure and other organics to oil, to the recovery of precious and common metals from demolished aircraft and electronic scrap. This profile includes brief descriptions of many selected research projects that typify, the total spectrum of Bureau of Mines research in the important field of resource recovery.

Jan 1, 1977

By Dupuy. Leon W., R. T. C. Rasmussen, W. A. Calhoun

"INTRODUCTION For many years it has been known that low-grade manganese deposits occur in the bluffs along the Missouri River Valley. Frequent attempts have been made to develop the ore and to produce a marketalble commodity but they have had little success. Under pressure of the war emergency and the shortage of manganese, the attention of the Federal Bureau of Mines was directedtoward the deposits.Manganese-bearing shale occurs from a point near Pierre, S. Dak., down the river to the Rosebud bridge near the Nebraska line (1).5/ The Bureau of,confined its work to the more accessible central portion of the deposits near Chamberlain, S. Dak. The ore occurs principally as concretionary nodules in the form of iron and manganese carbonates (manganosiarite and perhaps some manganocalcite; rhodochrosite has not been identified). At the surface the carbonate is often broken down so that the oxide of manganese gives the nodules a black The matrix or host rock is generally known as Pierre shale, composed of ""interbedded layers of bentonite, an altered volcanic ash, and dissemi¬nated bentonite particles,"" (2) and montmorillonite-beidellite clay minerals (3). The shale weathers to the very sticky gumbo characteristic of South Dakota and well-known to hunters and travelers in the area.The area selected for the experimental mining and pilot-plant work discussed in this report lies about 8 miles westerly from Chamberlain and is a few hundred feet north of U. S. Highway,16, on land owned or controlled,by M. Q. Sharpe of Kennebec, S. Dak., and the General Manganese Corp."

Feb 1, 1946

I. Domestic Production and Use: In 1981, 13 companies operated 32 primary aluminum reduction plants, with 3 firms accounting for 58% of production, Washington, Oregon, and Montana accounted for 32% of the total production; Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas 16%; Tennessee, Alabama, South Carolina, and North Carolina 17%; other central and eastern States 35%. Based on published producer prices output of primary metal in 1981 was valued at over $7.5 billion. Aluminum consumption by 25,300 firms was centered in the East Central United States. Packaging accounted for an estimated 30% of domestic consumption in 1981, building 21%, transportation 18%, electrical la%, consumer durables 8%, and other uses 13%

Jan 1, 1982

By Phillip M. Busch

VANADIUM was discovered in 1801 by Andres Manuel del Rio, a professor of mineralogy at the School of Mines in Mexico City. Del Rio called the new element erythronium. Later, he decided that this was not a new element but a form of chromium. Not until 1831 did Nils G. Sefström, a Swedish chemist, positively determine that the metal was a new element which he named vanadium, after Vanadis, the Scandanavian goddess of beauty. From 1831 to the 1860's and 1870's, the comparative scarcity and high cost of vanadium restricted its commercial use. Shortly after 1870, more information was obtained on the physical and chemical properties of the element. Thereafter, research on vanadium has dealt largely with its use as an alloying element in steel and nonferrous metals. Vanadium is a widely distributed element in the earth's crust. It is more abundant than many metals but is disseminated in small quantities throughout a great variety of rocks. Relatively few deposits have contained ore of a grade suitable to warrant development for vanadium alone. It is produced in conjunction with uranium, iron, titanium, aluminum, and lead-zinc ores.

Jan 1, 1961

By George L. Gates

[When clays e.re mixe~ "Jith "~later to nake mud fluids f'ol' use in :irilling ','Iells "for oil and gar: h;:r vue :;'0 tary me thee. t 18 liquid mij~ tUl"es have certair.. phypicr..l characteri.",t.ics that vary ",dth t e Qlldlltit.y find]

Jan 1, 1941

By George L. Gates

[When clays are mixed with water to -.,tee mud fluids for use in trilling wells for nil and --ac b ;l-,e rotary method the liquid mixtures have certain physical characteristics that vary with the quantity and size of their inherent solid particles. All naturally occurring clays contain variable quantities of particles of different sizes ranging from relatively coarse (sands) through -,.tedium (silt) to fine materials of colloidal dimensions. Tie colloid content is extremely important 2.s a desirable _.'ale constituent of mud fl-z to fit well drilling. ';'it:-out colloids the souk?;,' in a mud fluid wouldr rapidly, end ti-c-and. wall-building qualitites of the' fl,-,id would l ..o r re 1 impaired. Mud .fluid.^ with insufficient quantities of colloids also are lacking in "lubricating" g listen, and it is, to ° min casing in, -)re holes drilled with such fluids.]

Jan 1, 1941

By F. W. Wood

ORIGINAL experimentation in specially designed arc-melting furnaces and a comprehensive review of technical literature have helped with an understanding of electric arcs as used in metallurgical applications. Results relevant to the distribution of electric potentials and currents, temperatures, pressures, the consumption of electrodes, the identities of particles participating in electrical conduction, and the modes and mechanisms of discharge are presented and discussed. Present knowledge of high-current arcs is insufficient to test pertinent theoretical suggestions. However, the chief doubts concern the identities and the liberation or formation of current-carrying particles. It seems that either (1) novel formulations of existing concepts are needed, or (2) essentially new concepts must be recognized to explain observations. An analysis of the situation has led the authors to favor the latter possibility and to suggest the existence of supplementary conducting particles. The conduction of current by the streaming of charged agglomerates is postulated. Another outgrowth of analysis is an equation for the arc potential as a function of current densities in the arc. In lieu of conclusions, the potentialities of practical applications and specific needs for fundamental clarification are summarized.

Jan 1, 1965

By Mark K. Larson

Researchers at the U.S. Bureau of Mines have developed a FORTRAN computer program that can calculate stress states from overcoring measurements obtained from hollow inclusion cells, triaxial cells, strain gauges installed on the wall of a bored raise, doorstopper gauges, borehole deformation gauges, or a combination of any of these gauges. Such stress states are calculated with reference to global and principal coordinate systems. The background of the development of the program, its capabilities, and its special features, as well as the input required, are described in this report. Sample output is also shown in appendix C. Difficulties associated with numerical calculations of principal stresses and directions are pointed out. Threshold values for detecting these problems are reported; these values may be changed by the user as desired. Several test problems were set up to verify the computer program and were successfully solved.

Jan 1, 1992

By Nick Barton

When the Q-system was launched in 1974, the name referred to rock mass classification, with focus on tunnel and cavern support selection. Besides empirical design of support, the Q-value, or its normalized value Qc, has been found to correlate with seismic P-wave velocity, with deformation modulus, and with deformation. The Q-system provides temporary or permanent support for road, rail, and mine roadway tunnels and for caverns for various uses. It also gives relative cost and time for tunnel construction for a complete range of rock qualities. There are also indications that Q has captured important elements of the cohesive and frictional strength of rock masses, with Qc resembling the product of rock mass cohesion and rock mass friction coefficient.

Jan 5, 2007

By G. S. Scott

In the course of the investigation into the causes, behavior, and control of mine fires, which the Bureau of Mines is now conducting, some attention was given to the subject of spontaneous heating. It is self-evident that the temperature of a pile of broken coal will rice if the rate of generation of heat exceeds the rate of brat dissipation and will fall if the opposite is the case. Factors that affect the rate of generation of heat are:

Jan 1, 1941