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By M. C. Chapman, E. C. Westman, A. T. Iannacchione

Examination of seismic records during the time interval of the Sago Mine disaster in 2006 revealed a small amplitude signal possibly associated with an event in the mine. More needs to be understood about the seismicity from mine explosions in order to properly interpret critical seismic information. A seismic monitoring system located at NIOSH’s Lake Lynn Experimental Mine has monitored experimental gas and dust based explosions and impact tests. The seismic signatures from these different events were analyzed using standard waveform analysis procedures. The magnitude of seismic energy during a gas and dust explosion was found to be more dependent on mine entry geometry and seal behavior rather than on the amount of explosive fuel present. The results suggest a large explosion that’s not restricted can generate potentially the same magnitude as a small explosion that is restricted.

By Stephen C. Tadolini, Thomas M. Barczak

Western mines have had limited choices for standing support. Wood cribs were often too soft and unstable. The introduction of the Can support in the early 1990’s provided a very effective alternative and remains the dominant form of tailgate support. Water-filled prestressing cells are now used to cap the Can and preload it to provide an active roof load. The Cluster Prop, consisting of three timber wedge props bundled together, provides more capacity than an equivalent sized Can support and improves transport efficiency. However, the Cluster Prop is less stable and does not maintain a consistent load throughout its loading profile. Pumpable roof supports are another alternative support, but they have not been proven in high deformation environments. Alternative supports are also being used in longwall recovery operations. These include the Rocprop and Omni Prop, which are extendable support systems. They also provide active roof loading which can be beneficial in these applications. Specialty supports, such as the Sand Prop and Spider Prop, have also been introduced into western longwall operations. This paper compares the performance characteristics of these various support systems.

By F. J. Gallagher

"INTRODUCTION The purpose of this circular is to present information on the construction and use of reinforced rubber-jatketed tubing and insulatiag air-line couplings in coal mines Where Airdox is used for breaking coal in order to eliminate: insofar as possible, arcing at the face between Airdox tubing and the track or other face equipment.ACKNOWLEDGMENTThe information given by the W. M. Hales Co., Chicago, Ill and the Peabody Coal Co., Taylorville, Ill., regarding the construction and use of rubber-jacketed tubing and insulating couplings in gratefully acknowledged. GENERAL INFORMATIONSince its introduction into coal mines, the use of Airdox has grown in popularity, especially in the Indiana and Illinois coal fields. Its use permits breaking dawn coal on shift, whereas the use of explosives for blasting coal on shift is prohibited by law in those States. Many of the hazards connected with the use of explosives are eliminated. The accident experience in the use of Airdox has been excellent with respect to the number of fatalities or serious injuries per million tons mined.The Federal Mine Safety Code specifies that Airdox lines should be grounded at the compressor and at other points of low resistance along the lines but should not be connected to tracks, pipe lines, or other possible power conductors. The majority of operators in the Indiana and Illinois coal mines, in which Airdox is used, approve the precautions embodied in the code regulationsIf Airdox lines are grounded in accordance with the Code, the following hazards persist:"

Sep 1, 1949

By J. E. Meacham

The U.S. Bureau of Mines investigated recovery of manganese from basic oxygen furnace (BOF) steelmaking slags because the slags represent a large potential resource of a metal for which there is no domestic production. BOF slags were leached using fluosilicic acid, a byproduct of the fertilizer industry. Manganese and iron were extracted as soluble manganous and ferrous fluosilicates while the calcium and magnesium remained in the tailings as insoluble fluorides. Treating the pregnant liquor with sodium chloride, precipitated sodium fluosilicate (Na2Sif6) which was recovered as a byproduct. Manganese and iron were precipitated as hydroxide-carbonate salts with the addition of sodium carbonate to the treated liquor. Recoveries for manganese and iron were 73 to 83 and 67 to 70 pet, respectively.

Jan 1, 1991

By T. N. McVay

The various applications of beryllium and its compounds in atomic - energy technology and a growing recognition of possible increased utilization of the metal in the aircraft and space - missile fields have resulted in increased interest in domestic and world reserves of beryllium . Unfortunately, little dependable data on beryllium resources and reserves are available , as past consumption of the element has been small and only limited prospecting and exploration work has been done . The scarcity of resource information is attributed partly to the difficulty of recognizing beryllium minerals in the field . These minerals frequently do not have distinctive characteristics of specific gravity, color , or other physical properties , that enable ready identification by the average prospector . This is particularly true of fine - grained minerals . As a result , a simple field test for identifying beryllium- bearing rock is needed . Recognizing this , technologists of the Federal Bureau of Mines investigated several of the proposed qualitative chemical tests for beryllium . This report describes various modifications of one of these methods to make it more suitable for use in the field . In the modified method , duplicate samples are fluxed -- one with potassium bifluoride and one with potassium bisulfate -- followed by dissolution of salts in water , conversion of the solution to an alkaline condition, addition of morin , and examination of the solution for fluorescence under short -wave ultraviolet light . This method provides a fast , dependable field test for beryllium minerals containing as little as 0.2 percent beryl or its equivalent . The test involves no radiation hazards , and it can be performed by persons having no technical training ; therefore , it should be useful to prospectors in discovering beryllium mineralization .

Jul 1, 1960

By D. A. Wilson

A process was developed on a laboratory scale in which a solid waste byproduct from refining of secondary lead was converted into three valuable products. Roasted lead blast furnace matte was leached with water to recover copper. This was followed by brine leaching to recover lead. Residues were finally smelted to yield pig iron. Copper was precipitated as cement copper and the lead product obtained was a mixture of pure 3PbO.PbC12.xH20 and Pb(OH)C1. Copper recovery was 89 percent and lead recovery was 96 percent.

Jan 1, 1967

By E. O. Bennett

Various methods of making leakage tests have been tried during a study of losses in the transmission of natural gas. This work has been carried on by the Bureau of Mines in cooperation with the Natural Gas Association of America. Results of tests show that the "shut-in pressure-drop" method described by Rawlins2 is the most accurate and reliable; therefore its use is recommended. This paper describes a graphic method for computing the rate of leakage from the fall in pressure and change in temperature determined by the "shut-in pressure-drop" method of testing. METHOD OF MEASURING PRESSURE DROP The gas is "shut in" the line to be tested and is not allowed to escape except through existing leaks. The leakage causes the pressure in the line to fall. The change in pressure is obtained with a dead weight gage. Approximate results may also be obtained from readings on a good spring test gage. Numerous tests show that the dead weight gage is more sensitive to small changes in pressure than spring gages.

Jan 1, 1926

Wires leading to or from underground facilities can develop hazardous voltages because of lightning exposure. The locations of many mine portals are particularly susceptible to lightning effects. The application of protective devices to limit this potential danger is necessary.

Jan 1, 1975

This manual is for use by mine operating personnel and vehicle manufacturers in the selection and proper use of automatic fire protection systems for underground metal and non-metal mining vehicles. Most of the currently available systems are manually operated, dry chemical fire suppression systems. When properly designed, installed, and maintained these systems have proven to be effective both in fire suppression and in withstanding the rugged mine environment. Portable fire extinguishers and manually actuated systems have provided adequate protection for most of the reported fire incidents. However, there have also been incidents where injuries and property losses would not have occurred if the vehicle had been protected with an automatic fire protection system. The need for reliable automatic systems exists when the operator is not present, especially when the vehicle engine is running without the operator in the cab; and also in cases where the operator leaves the vehicle to fight a small fire with a portable and is then forced to abandon the vehicle because the small fire becomes uncontrollable. In the later cases manual systems on the vehicle are never actuated. Although these incidents have been relatively few in number in the past, the increasing use of mobile diesel powered equipment and the related importance of personnel safety, high costs of the mining vehicles, and high cost of down time warrant consideration of automatic fire protection systems. The fire history data and the design concept discussed in this manual were developed under the Bureau of Mines Contract H0252038 which is part of the government's mining research safety program. The purpose of the contract was to develop a low cost, reliable, prototype automatic fire control system for underground vehicles. The industry needs were determined through an extensive mine visitation program, and the prototype system was demonstrated on a vehicle in an underground mine fire test. The system developed under this contract was specifically designed for a load-haul-dump. However, the design concept is applicable to the full general class of mobile underground mining equipment.

Jan 1, 2011

By Oliver Bowles, J. E. Crawshow

A line of cordeau detonating fuse was placed in hole No. 2, no electric detonators being used in the hole. After 12 or 13 cases of 40 per cent nitro starch powder had been poured into the hole in loose form, it was found that a space of only 17 ft. remained for stemming. It was decided that space for an additional case of powder might be obtained by tamping the charge. The tamping was done with a heavy plunger, about 3 or 3 inches in diameter and 10 inches long, made of lead with an iron core with an iron eye in the top to which a 3/4 inch rope was attached, and weighing between 30 and 40 pounds. This weight was intended for use in sinking explosive in wet holes, and not for tamping. It is estimated that the tamping had continued at least 10 The quarry superintendent had gone a considerable distance for a box of powder, returned, and reached a point about 10 feet from the hole, minutes.

May 1, 1920

By Erle C. Donaldson

The pendant drop interfacial tensiometer is being used to study interfacial phenomena that influence the production of crude oil. A description of the instrument showing the modification of the cell and cell holder is presented. The modified cell and cell holder allow formation of a precise and reproducible drop size, and the image of the drop is easily alined and focused. Interfacial tension measurements and observations of film formation can be conducted at various temperatures with the jacketed cell.

Jan 1, 1967

By Liming Yuan

In order to reduce fire hazards caused by spontaneous combustion in longwall gob areas, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) study is being conducted by National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to simulate the spontaneous heating of coal in longwall gob areas. A CFD model was first developed to model the spontaneous heating process in a two longwall panel district using a bleeder ventilation system with a stationary longwall face. The spontaneous heating is modeled as the low-temperature oxidation of coal in the gob using kinetic data obtained from previous laboratory-scale spontaneous combustion studies. Heat generated from coal oxidation is dissipated by convection and conduction, while oxygen and oxidation products are transported by convection and diffusion. CFD simulations were then conducted to model the spontaneous heating in longwall gob area with a bleederless ventilation system. A single longwall panel with a bleederless ventilation system was simulated. The effect of gob permeability on the spontaneous heating was also investigated.

Jan 1, 2009

By Robert H. Peters

Are the safety rules in your work place effective? Do supervisors enforce them as they should? Do supervisors abide by these rules? Safety rules are an important aspect of many company safety programs, particularly if employees must work in an intrinsically hazardous environment such as a coal mine. However, for various reasons, supervisors sometimes fail to enforce safety rules (Arvey & Jones, 1985; Hartshorn, 1998). This paper presents some findings obtained from interviews with coal miners about why supervisors sometimes fail to enforce an important mine safety rule. It also contains a few suggestions addressing what could be done to help supervisors perform this job function more effectively.

By Walter W. Fisher

Cement copper was flash roasted in a vertical tube furnace to convert the copper to acid-soluble oxides as part of a postulated process for refining cement copper by oxidation roasting, acid leaching, and electrowinning. The results of the study showed that the oxidation was a linear function of oxygen concentration between 0 and 20 percent, but above 20 percent oxygen there was no further increase in oxidation. Therefore, air was the optimum oxidizing atmosphere in this flash roasting system. The oxidation followed a parabolic rate law as the roasting temperature was increased from 400° to 800° C. Extrapolation of the data, based on the parabolic law, indicated that at 400°, 500°,600°,700°, and 800° C, the roasting times required for complete conversion to soluble oxides were 75, 37, 21, 7.7, and 4.6 seconds, respectively. Cyclic-roasting test results did not substantiate the predictions obtained through data extrapolation.

Jan 1, 1973

By John J. Sammarco

Computer-related accidents have caused injuries and fatalities in mining as well as other industries. Normal accident theory (NAT) explains that some accidents are inevitable because of system complexity. NAT is a classic argument in organizational sociology although it has been criticized as having imprecise definitions and lacking criteria for quantifying complexity. These limitations are addressed by a unique approach that recasts this organizational theory into an engineering-based methodology to quantify NAT complexities of computer-based systems. In this approach complexity is categorized as external or internal. External complexity is defined by the external behavior of a system, and is quantified by these dependent variables: system predictability, observability, and usability. Dependent variable data contain the perceptions of 32 subjects running simulations of a system. The system?s internal complexity is characterized by modeling system-level requirements with the software cost reduction (SCR) formal method. Model attributes are quantified using 15 graph-theoretical metrics?the independent variables. Five of 15 metrics are correlated with the dependent variables as evidenced by structure correlations exceeding 0.25, with standard errors <0.10 and a 95% confidence interval. The results also show that the system predictability, observability, and usability decreased as NAT complexities increased. This research takes a step forward in operationalizing NAT for computerized systems. The research benefits mining and other industries as well.

Jan 1, 2005

By J. W. Paul

A superintendent is one who has the oversight and charge of some organiza- tion or enterprise, with porer of direction. The superintendent of a coal mine is the official who is in general charge of conducting the operation of the nine for the purpose of producing coal; he is accountable to his superiors for all matters that relate to the cost of production and safety in operation, ed under him are all the underground officials and other personnel making up the mine organization. The responsibility of the superintendent covers all the principal phases of mining, purchases of materials, issuance of supplies, accounting, and upkeep of the property and equipriont. In a broad sense, the superintendent must view his job as embraced under four gneral heads: (1) Construction, (2) instruction, (3) supervision; and (4) discipline. The degree of efficiency with which each of these phases of his work is conducted is a measure of the safety factor which the superintendent injects into his job. Injury to workmen and damage to property may be due to neglect of one of these general headings; as for example in the collapse of a scaffold there has been faulty construction which may be found upon investigation to have been the result of faulty instruction or lack of instruction. It may be that the condition of the scaffold was not ascertained in advance of its collapse through faulty supervision, or the discipline of the workmen had been neglected.

Sep 1, 1930

By F. J. Gallagher

The purpose of this circular is to present information on the construction and use of reinforced rubber-jacketed tubing and insulating air-line couplings in coal mines where Airdox is used for breaking coal in order to eliminate, insofar as possible, arcing at the face between Airdox tubing and the track or other face equipment.

Sep 1, 1949

By T. Christos

The explosive oils, nitroglycerin (NG) and ethylene glycol dinitrate (EGDN), were extracted from dynamites by a halocarbon solvent and were then determined by high-pressure liquid chromatography. Separation was achieved by liquid-liquid chromatography on a column packed with Durapak-Carbowax 400/Corasil II and the eluted NG and EGDN were detected with a double-beam ultraviolet detector.

Jan 1, 1973

By W. H. Eddy

Laboratory batch and small-scale continuous flotation tests were con-ducted by the Bureau of Mines on a mica waste tailing from Kings Mountain, N.C., to determine the feasibility of producing high-quality mica, feldspar, and glass sand. Mica was recovered by two methods; one was by flotation in an alkaline circuit, which produced a mica concentrate assaying 92.0 percent mica with a recovery of 87.l percent, and the other by flotation in an acid circuit, which produced a mica concentrate assaying 91.0 percent mica with a recovery of 79.4 percent. Continuous flotation processing yielded a feldspar concentrate assaying 1.10 percent Na20 and 13.50 percent K20, with recoveries of 66.4 and 80.6 percent, respectively. The feldspar tailing was high-quality quartz glass sand analyzing 98.6 percent Si02 and 0.02 percent Fe203.

Jan 1, 1969

By Gregory J. Chekan

As part of the initial investigation and validation of a new boundary-element formulation for stress modeling in coal mines, the underground stresses and displacements at two multiple-seam coal mines with unique stress problems were modeled and predicted. The new program, LAMODEL, calculates stresses and displacements at the seam level and at requested locations in the overburden or at the surface. Both linear elastic and nonlinear seam materials can be used, and surface effects, multiple seams, and multiple mining steps can be simulated. In order to most efficiently use LAMODEL for accurate stress prediction, the program is first calibrated to the site-specific geomechanics based on previously observed stress conditions at the mine. For this calibration process, a previously mined area is "stress mapped" by quantifying the observed pillar and strata behavior using a numerical rating system. Then, the site-specific mechanical properties in the model are adjusted to provide the best correlation between the predicted stresses and the observed underground stress rating. Once calibrated, the model is then used to predict future stress problems ahead of mining. At the two case study mines, the calibrated models showed good correlation with the observed stresses and also accurately predicted upcoming high stress areas for preventive action by the mines.

Jan 5, 1999