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By A. L. Murray, C. A. Allen

"The Industrial Commission of Utah from a study of the accidents (especially the fatalities) occurring in connection with mining in the State was struck by the large number arising from lack of due care on the part of the employee injured or carelessness on the part of some fellow employee. Figures show that approximately 40% of the deaths are due to carelessness as against only ) 10% or 12% that can be laid to faulty conditions in the mines. With a view to reducing the number of these accidents an intensive campaign of education was inaugurated, conducted jointly by the Industrial Commission of Utah and the United States Bureau of Mines.Through the cooperation of the U. S. Bureau of Mines, Mine Rescue Car No. 11 operating in Utah has been utilized as the means of carrying on the campaign. In making the regular training visits to the mining camps of Utah the crew of car 11 was authorized to include with the courses of instruction in Mine Rescue and First Aid, safety and health rallies, foremen's safety meetings, and appeals carried on through the public schools to stimulate an awaking of personal responsibility of miners and their familiar' in safety and health endeavor. The work was placed under the direct charge of Dr. Murray who has had previous experience in similar work and brought to the campaign helpful enthusiasm. He was assisted by Bruce Johnson, fore¬man miner of Car 11, who had been safety engineer for the U. S. Smelting Company, and R. W. Clark, first aid miner of Car 11. The expense of providing posters, literature, pledge cars, buttons, rental of special educational films and incidental expenses of foremens' meetings has been born by the Industrial Commission.Plan of the Campaign.In planning the campaign the main object was to revive as much as possible, among the workers, a spirit of responsibility for safety. Any considerable reduction of preventable accidents can be accomplished only through the workers themselves who are responsible for such accidents, therefore, the more personal the application could be made to all the workers the greater the accruing results would be."

May 1, 1921

By D. J. Bauer

A pure scandium solution was concentrated from 10-4 mole per liter to 0.5 mole per liter by continuous foam fractionation in a spaced, packed column. Recovery in the foam was 77 percent using a spaced, packed draining column with sodium n-methyl-n-"coconut oil acid" taurate as the surfactant. The technique was first studied batchwise in a small unpacked column to determine the more important variables. Optimum surfactant concentration was found to depend on scandium concentration. Extraction and, in general, enrichment ratios were highest in the 2.5 to 3.5 pH range at temperatures ranging from 50° to 70° C. An airflow rate of 136 ml./min. was satisfactory in the equipment used.

Jan 1, 1962

By Donald O. Capstick

In 1481, U.S. Bureau of Mines personnel conducted a survey of mines, prospects, and mineral resources in the Table Mountain RARE II area. There are no mines or active prospects in the study area. One prospect in the study area, the Waterfall Prospect, is estimated to contain 480 tons (440 t) of indicated subeconomic tungsten resources averaging about 0.18 percent tungsten trioxide (W03). Other tungsten occurrences are at the Stevens Prospect, just northwest of the area. Stone and sand and gravel deposits in the area are not considered to be resources because equal or better quality material is available closer to major markets. INTRODUCTION The 4,400-acre Table Mountain study area is 13 mi (21 km) southwest of Bishop, California, on the eastern flank of the Sierra Nevada range. The John Muir wilderness adjoins the study area on the southwest (fig. 1).

Jan 1, 1982

By A. J. Miscoe

A unique machine for inducing bending fatigue in wire ropes was built at the U.S. Bureau of Mines' Pittsburgh Research Center. This machine can produce nine levels of degradation through repetitive cycling of long samples of wire ropes of the types used in the mining industry. This report provides an analysis of the results of the first wire rope to be fatigued on this machine. These results have indicated that as a wire rope accumulates bending cycles, its strength first decreases because of wear and then in-creases due to cold working of the wires. As the amount of cold working increases, more and more of the embrittled wires break and the strength of the rope decreases rapidly. In this test, application of several of the regulatory retirement criteria to various sections of the rope suggests that there may be some inconsistency among them.

Jan 1, 2010

By W. T. Benson

In May l942, the Bureau of Mines started exploring for manganese on the Black Poch manganese property, Esmeralda County, Nev., to determine possible reserves of manganese in the deposits. The work was done by the Bureau in cooperation with the Federal Geological Survey and comprised a study of the geology, mapping the area, and exploring by trenching, test pitting, and sampling. All ore bodies were examined and sampled, and the three most important areas were explored by trenching and test pitting. This report notes the location, ownership, and history of the deposits; explains the physical features of the district; mentions briefly mine workings and metallurgy; and describes the geology and ore bodies. The Bureau erected a temporary camp, repaired 5 miles of temporary road, constructed 1,000 feet of new road, dug 3,173 foot of trenches with a vertical crone section of 4 x 10 feet and 91 test pits with a cross section 3 x 6 feet, averaging about 6 feet deep, and cut 134 samples.

Jan 1, 1950

By W. M. Myers

Water has been commonly used as a collecting medium in many instruments employed in the sampling of dusty atmospheres in mines** add industrial plants, and for this purpose has much to recommend it, particularly the following factors:1.,Water is a very efficient dust collector.2.,Distilled water of great purity may be readily obtained at slight expense. The analytical error introduced by the extremely small amount of foreign matter in carefully distilled water is very small,3.,Water is a very convenient medium with which to work as all the analytical operations of diluting, aliquoting, and filtering are readily and speedily carried out. Water has therefore been used extensively in such instruments as the Palmer apparatus, the Greenburg-Smith impinger, and the dust collector recently described by Drinker, Thompson, and Fitchet. The Bureau of Mines has conducted investigations in many metal-mining districts of the country, determining of dust the nature and amount of dust present in working places, its effect the health of workers, and what precautions may be taken to decrease the hazard of exposure to dangerous dusts. The Bureau is therefore interested in any factor that affects the accuracy of dust sampling.

Nov 1, 1923

By R. V. Ramani, V. T. Burgos, J. A. McClay

Cost System The cost system reported here is a suite of computer programs which incorporates the logic and information flow structure as outlined in earlier chapters. Specifically, computer programs have been devel¬oped to: 1. compute labor, operating, and capital costs, 2. summarize cost and production data, and 3. compute the minimum acceptable selling price for coal. While the cost system can be executed independently, it is de¬signed primarily for use with the Master Design Simulator and there¬fore must conform to the overall system hardware. The computer model is written in Fortran IV for use with the IBM System 360/370 computers as well as with compatible units such as the Univac 1110 and CDC-6600. For ease in error detection and program modification, the model was constructed with a main routine and eight subroutines. The main routine reads and stores the data necessary for the cost computations and calls the subroutines in logical sequence. The subroutines perform the cost computations and data adjustments for reporting purposes. Each subroutine performs the cost computations for its particular com¬ponent of the cost cycle. The program operations are described in the following narrative outline. Control Subsystem As previously described, the main routine is a passive element, reading and storing input data and directing execution to the active subroutines for cost calculations. Figure 10 is a macro-flow diagram

Jan 1, 1975

By Robert L. Chufo, H. Kenneth Sacks

Medium-frequency (MF) waves can propagate in a coal seam, bounded above and below by conducting rock, in an approximate transverse electro-magnetic (TEM) transmission-line mode with the electric field vertical and the magnetic field horizontal. The theory of this coal seam mode is applied to recent MF data for a number of mines in order to classify the propagation characteristic of the mines in a simple way. When conductors such as rails, trolleylines, or power cables are present in the vicinity of the measurement path, it is found that the magnetic field versus range plots have two distinct regions with very different slopes. This effect is attributed to coupling of the cylindrically spreading coal seam mode to a low-attenuation conductor guided mode. As a result, voice communications range between mobile transmitters can extend several thousand meters. The use of MF for mine communications is discussed.

By Thomas E. Green

A combined solvent extract ion-spectrophotometric method for the determination of as little as 1 ppm of copper in tungsten metal or tungstic oxide has been developed and evaluated. Metallic samples are converted to tungstic oxide by treatment with hydrofluoric and nitric acids. The oxide is then dissolved in sodium hydroxide, and the copper is extracted as the colored neocuproine complex. Total elapsed time for the analysis is approximately 1-1/2 days; however, actual working time for a group of six or eight determinations is less than 4 hours. Precision at the 2-ppm level is better than 0.1 ppm.

Jan 1, 1963

By J. B. Gayle

Because economic and geographic factors have focused particular attention on the use of anthrafines in blends containing Lower Kittanning coal as the low-volatile component, samples from this particular bed were selected for experimentation whenever practical. Carbonizing tests were carried out in accordance with standard procedures, using the Tuscaloosa and sole-heated ovens. Most of the results are in general agreement with those reported by previous investigators. Specific findings are as follows: (1) The effectiveness of anthrafines in reducing coal expansion is such that even highly expanding, low-volatile coals can be carbonized safely with suitable additions of anthrafines and careful control of charge density. (2) Increases in coke size, resistance to shatter, and apparent specific gravity appear to be characteristic for additions up to approximately 15 percent to a fixed base blend. When anthracite of minus-48-mesh size was used and the proportion of low-volatile coal simultaneously increased, these indexes increased only slightly or remained substantially constant. (3) No increase in breeze formation was noted for additions in amounts up to 15 percent. (4) Abradability of coke was increased by additions of anthracite of No. 5 Buckwheat size, but it either decreased or remained sub¬stantially constant when the inert was ground to pass a 48-mesh screen.

Jan 1, 1956

The U.S. Bureau of Mines evaluated water-jet-assisted longwall shearers in full-scale laboratory tests and underground. Both test programs showed that use of high-pressure water did little to reduce the shearer motor energy required to maintain a given cutting rate. However, three other major benefits were achieved with the use of water-jet-assisted cutting. At a pressure of 1,800 psi, respirable dust levels were reduced about 80 pct compared with the dust levels of the conventional water spray system operating at 340 psi. Operating at higher pressures required for water-jet assist also resulted in an increase in the average size of coal cut, which translates into a decrease in product fines. Finally, although no controlled measurements of bit wear as a function of water pressure were made, mine personnel reported that the shearer bits lasted longer when water-jet-assisted cutting was used.

Jan 1, 1989

To recover metals as sulfide concentrates from contaminated waste streams using hydrogen sulfide (H2S) generated by the bacterial digestion of waste organic materials. Approach The goal of this research is to develop a treatment method for metal mine effluents that will rival the cost and convenience of conventional lime treatment, and that will provide better effluent water quality, result in less expensive sludge disposal, and allow for the selective recovery of metals.

Jan 1, 1993

By W. M. Weigel

"Sand is one of the commonest materials for industrial use, not only as a building material, but in many industrial processes. The general name applies to all grades, from the comparatively impure, unsorted product used in concrete, to especially sized products of extreme chemical purity. Various definitions have been proposed, all more or less open to objection, as they fail to cover special applications. One is: ""Sand - The fine granular material naturally or artificially produced by the disintegration or crushing of rock or slag"". This does not fit the definition of sand as understood by geologists, who consider sand only as a naturally formed product. Another is: ""Sand - The fine granular material naturally produced by the disintegration of rock"". This does not take the chemical com-position into account, and for practically all uses, except in concrete and plaster products, a material composed predominantly of silica or rather quarts is implied.Sand for special purposes usually requires different methods of preparation from those where the ordinary mixture of sizes as naturally occurring are suitable. One of the classes requiring the most uniformly sized grains is sand blast sand.Sand Blast SandThe use of the sand blast has increased rapidly during the past few years. It was formerly used almost entirely in the foundry to clean and remove inequalities from rough castings. This is still the most important application, but in addition, it is now employed for the removal of paint from old surfaces, carving and engraving on stone and marble, glass cutting, cleaning or renovating the rails of stone and brick buildings that have become discolored, preparing the surface of metals for the electrolytic bath, putting the final finish to metal surfaces, and has even been proposed as a means of channeling or cutting out blocks of stone in the quarry."

Jun 1, 1924

Impermeable geologic faults in the coal seam can cause intermittent production problems or can cause unexpected amounts of water or gas to issue from degasification boreholes. These faults also can impact methane emissions into the mine workings, especially if they hinder proper and effective degasification of the coal bed. They may also act as barriers for methane flow in the coal seam. Although this might seem beneficial for advancing mine workings, faulting may also cause gas pressure buildups and result in compartmentalization of the gassy regions from which large quantities of water and methane may rush into mine workings. This study uses reservoir simulations to illustrate the effects of impermeable faults, with and without throws, on the production performance of vertical and horizontal degasification boreholes. These boreholes were drilled from the surface to intercept the coal layer and fault and were assumed to produce methane two years prior to mining of the coal seam. Longwall advances and face position related emissions and reservoir properties were characterized using sector definitions along the path of the panel grids. This work numerically evaluates water and gas productions of each borehole and presents the effects and the impacts of impermeable faults on methane emissions due to an advancing coal face. The results can be used to understand the effects of impermeable faults on borehole productions and face emissions due to these coal seam anomalies.

Jan 1, 2008

By W. Dan Walker

In an effort to keep mine hoist accidents to a minimum and to impart to managers and workers the essential elements that enter into safe installation and maintenance of hoisting equipment, the Bureau of Mines presents this Information Circular as a guide. Hoisting of men and materials is an essential operation in many mines and has become so commonplace that some persons are likely to ignore day-to-day inspections or become lax in the operating phases. With proper maintenance and operation, hoists can be exceptionally safe. However, lack of strict attention can invite tragedy or costly shutdowns.

Jan 1, 1961

By E. C. Baker

The Bureau of Mines estimated the economic feasibility of investing in a directional hole methane drainage project in the Pittsburgh coalbed for 5 yr in advance of mining. This report estimates the capital investment and operating cost of recovering 325 MMft3 of methane gas per year and the selling price of approximately 317 MMft3 of gas per year. The labor, equipment, and supply requirements were determined from those of a previous directional hole drilled at the Emerald Mine, near Waynesburg, PA. The cost of equipment, materials, services, and labor are in third quarter 1982 dollars. They were obtained from vendors, contractors, and the U.S. Department of Labor. Findings indicate a total capital investment of $1,381,160. Annual operating cost amounted to $167,690. At a wellhead price of $2.05 per thousand cubic feet, the sale of approximately 317 MMft3 of gas per year results in a rate of return on investment of approximately 25 pet.

Jan 1, 1984

By M. O. Renwick, Paul Zinner

"INTRODUCTION In September 1943, the Bureau of Mines conducted a limited program of churn drilling on the Winskell property in the Shullsburg area of Lafayette County, Wis. The work was undertaken as part of a general investigation by the Bureau of the zinc-producing area of southwestern Wisconsin at a time when special effort war being made to increase the production of metals necessary for the war program.Drilling described supplemented a previous drilling program conducted by the Vinegar Hill Zinc Co. The results of both programs encouraged subsequent investigation by the Cuba Mining Co. and eventual development of the Andrews mine.ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSIn its program of investigation of mineral deposits, the Bureau of Mines has as its primary objective the more effective utilization of our mineral resources to the end that they make the greatest possible contribution to national security and economy. It is the policy of the Bureau to publish the facts developed by such project as soon as praticable after its conclusion. The Mining Branch, Lowell B. Moon, chief, conducts preliminary examinations, performs the investigative work, and prepares the final report."

Aug 1, 1947

By R. L. Grayson, W. E. Wallace, M. D. Attfield, A. Q. Wearden, P. Bolsaitis, R. D. Kennedy, M. J. Keane, J. C. Harrison

"Respirable high-silica particles from four coal mines. a clay mine and a tunnelling site were analysed for silicon vs aluminum composition by performing scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray analysis (SEM-EDS) at electron accelerating voltages of 20 kiloelectron volts (keV). The same particles were analysed at 5 keV to determine possible differences in surface vs bulk composition. In some cases high-silica particles exhibited a decrease in the ratio of silicon to aluminium K-alpha line intensities with decreasing electron beam accelerating voltage. This behaviour is consistent with aluminosilicate surface contamination or occlusion of a silica particle. Some 20 high-silica particles were analysed from each of 10 samples. Powdered aluminosilicate glass was used as a control for the behaviour of silica with a homogeneous distribution of aluminium in the particle. Significant differences were found between the control and sample means for an Illinois bituminous coal mine dust, two western and one central Pennsylvania bituminous coal mine dust low-temperature ashes. and a clay mine and mill dust sample, but not for an anthracite coal mine dust and two central Pennsylvania bituminous coal mine dust low-temperature ashes. INTRODUCTIONRESPIRABLE dust quartz content commonly is measured on bulk samples by using i.r. spectroscopy or X-ray diffraction. For research purposes, individual particle-by particle SEM-EDS analysis at 20-30 keV electron beam accelerating potential may be used also. Such measurements have not provided an unambiguous association of quartz content with occupational pulmonary disease prevalence in exposed workers (WALTON et al., 1977). Rather, there is evidence that coal rank modifies the relationship between dust exposure and pneumoconiosis development (WAL TON et al., 1977; ROBOCK and BAUER, 1990; ATTFIELD and MORRING, in press). SEM-EDS analysis was performed to measure the silicon fraction, Si/(Si +Ai), at 20 and at 5 keV on high-silica particles to determine if some respirable quartz particles generated by mining exhibit heterogenous composition with depth (WALLACE et al., 1990), which might affect the bioavailability of the quartz surface."

Dec 1, 1995

Provide the mining industry with a wireless surveying system for increasing efficiency in the drilling of methane drainage or exploration boreholes. Approach The Bureau of Mines has pioneered the technique of methane control by drilling long, horizontal drainage holes from within the mine complex. It was recognized during the early drainage projects that a major portion of the drilling operation was dedicated to hole surveying. In some cases more time was actually being spent on the surveying operation than on drilling. The large amount of time required for hole surveying was the result of having to pump an instrument to the bottom of the hole, then retrieve it with an attached wire line. Naturally as hole depth increased, so did the amount of time needed to perform the survey operation. If the survey operation could be improved it was obvious that overall efficiency in drilling of long, horizontal methane drainage holes would be greatly increased. The Bureau of Mines, therefore, developed, fabricated and tested in an operating coal mine a permissible wireless survey system specifically designed for small diameter methane drainage drilling. The prototype survey system was completed in 1982 and was given the IR-100 Award by Industrial Research and Development Magazine. A second generation survey system is currently being constructed using updated state-of-the-art electronic technology. The second generation system will be more portable, more reliable, easier to maintain, and less costly.

Jan 1, 1984

By A. B. Hooker, R. A. Kearns

Material used for flame safety lamp gauzes should possess the following qualities: (1) mechanical strength, (2) resistance to corrosion under service con- ditions, (3) a relatively high thermal conductivity, (4) a melting point above the ignition temperature of mine gas. Heretofore, three metals have been used for flame lamp gauzes, namely: steel, brass and copper. While each of these has the requisite qualities to some extent, none of them is an ideal gauze material. Copper gauzes lack mechanical strength, especiall, after they have been heated; brass and copper both have comparatively low melting points so that before the gas ignition is reached the gauze metal is attacked and oxidized under the action of the heat. Steel corrodes readily in damp atmos- pheres and if the lamp stands unused under these conditions for some time, the gauzes become unfit for service. Tests of these three materials have shown that steel offers the highest degree of safety. Manel metal, the natural alloy of nickel and copper, is practically noncor- rodible. Its relting point is approximately the same as that of steel. From time to time it has been suggested that this alloy might be a better gauze material than steel, since gauzes made of Monel metal should have all of the good qualities that steel gauzes possess and, in addition, would not corrode appreciably in ordinary mine atmospheres. One advocate of this use for Monel metal, the International Nickel Co., through their development engineer, Mr. Robert J. McKay, cooperated with the Interior Department, Bureau of ines, to the extent of supplying twelve sets of 30 mesh, Monel-metal gauzes for tests. Those gauzes were made up by the same lamp manufactur- er ho rade the steel gauzes used in the previous investigation. Being made by the same processes as the steel gauzes, these Manel-metal gauzes were needlessly given the same anti-rust coating that is always applied to steel gauzes to prevent any corrosion before the gauzes are used. In previous tests the Bureau of Mines had collected data as to the behavior of steel gauzes. In determining the value of Monel metal as a gauze material, it was planned to obtain similar data with Monel-metal gauzes, and thus make a direct comparison with the steel gauzes. In addition, steel and Monel-metal gauzes

Apr 1, 1923