Search Documents

By Rogers F. Davis

This publication has been prepared to supply manufacturers and industrial users a listing of mobile diesel-powered transportation equipment approved or certified by the Bureau of Mines f r use in gassy noncoal mines and tunnels. Testing of diesel-powered equipment is one phase of the Bureau's health and safety program of approval of electrical and diesel equipment designed to prevent explosions, fires, shocks, and toxic hazards in underground mines. In mines such equipment must be used and maintained properly. Manufacturers submit machinery and component parts to the Bureau for study f their design and safety features. Equipment must pass exacting tests and meet strict requirements established through research, development, and experience before the Bureau approves it as permissible for safe use in mines.

Jan 1, 1967

By R. S. Douglas

Introduction During the past few years, a number of changes in the mine operations at Copper Mountain have taken place. The modernization and mechanization were necessitated and given impetus by wartime and other conditions, which were: (1) The urgent need for copper for wartime purposes. (2) The scarcity of skilled labour for underground work. (3) The increase in labour and supplies cost. (4) The necessity of finding ways and means of increasing the output per man-shift, because of the scarcity of skilled labour and the rising cost of labour. (5) The desire to increase safety measures, reduce the silicosis hazard, and aid mine ventilation. (6) The desire to improve the general working conditions in the mine for all workmen. (7) The desire to reduce the amount of dilution in the ore stream by a more selective yet highly productive method of mining. To this end, mining with diamond drills, and transferring broken ore with slusher hoists, appeared to be the answer to the problem. After considerable discussion and estimation of costs for comparison with those of the operation as carried on at that time, the proposed methods were tried out and, in practice, gave very gratifying results. Reference at this point is made to the paper written by C. H. Brehaut, W. N. Taylor, H. A. Shannon, and R. S. Douglas, which was published in the September, 1945, issue of Mining Technology, by the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers, Inc., and subsequently in commercial mining journals. Since that time some improvements have been made in undercutting an orebody - the first through experiment and practice, the second through making use of the earth's barodynamic or gravitational forces. It is the purpose of this paper to describe and discuss these later developments.

Jan 1, 1947

By J. L. Henry

The development and status of technology for producing titanium from U.S. resource materials are summarized in this Bureau of Mines report. Commercially feasible processes and investigations of alternative procedures are reviewed in order to identify techniques that could make existing operations more effective or areas in which future research may lead to the development of new production methods. Procedures are described for producing concentrated titanium dioxide from starting materials such as sands, massive deposits, and mineral processing residues containing rutile, ilmenite, and perovskite; producing and purifying titanium tetrachloride from concentrated rutile, ilmenite, and titaniferous slags; reduction of titanium tetrachloride to titanium sponge metal using metallic magnesium or sodium; purifying and consolidating titanium sponge and scrap by arc melting or induction melting techniques; purifying sponge, scrap, and alloys by molten salt electrorefining; and electrowinning titanium from chloride salts.

Jan 1, 1987

By Gerhard Braüner

The present knowledge on ground movements and mining damage is mainly based on observations made when mining seamlike deposits. The studies, rules, and regulations in different countries agree in that the differential ground movements, especially the strain, account for the damage to structures. Accordingly, large buildings are particularly susceptible. The opinions on what amount of ground deformation induces what degree of structural damage are not quite uniform. Mining damage can be reduced or prevented by structural and/or underground precautions. The latter comprise measures for generally reducing the ground movements (leaving pillars, filling, partial extraction) and for reducing temporary movements (rapid extraction, specially arranged workings). Because the differential movements decrease with increasing depth of mining, safety pillars are largely dispensable at greater depths. Shafts are mainly affected by the vertical derivatives of rock displacements, but extraction in the vicinity of shafts is feasible even under difficult conditions. The theoretical concept of the ground movement process established in part 1 of this work is in qualitative agreement with the facts herein observed. As a quantitative approach, it should be applied to calculating ground surface movements rather than rock movements about underground openings. It can be extended by introducing more detailed strata characteristics.

Jan 1, 1973

By R. K. Sinha, B. S. Choudhary, Desh Deepak, A. K. Mishra, Hemant Agrawal, Shankar Kumar

There are several methods (empirical, statistical, and machine learning tools) to calculate blast-induced ground vibration. Still, due to complications in the blasting procedure, under varying blasting loads and strata conditions, it is not easy to predict and simulate blast vibration precisely. Therefore, a study was conducted to simulate the field blast data in Ansys software using explicit dynamics. For this study, monitoring of ground vibration for 20 single hole blasts was carried out. The density of emulsion explosives was in the range of 0.9 to 1.15 g/cc. In the laboratory, rock properties were determined from the rock sample collected from the mine site before blasting. The in-hole velocity of detonation (VoD) and the density of the emulsion explosive were also determined. These parameters were used for numerical analysis to know the ground vibrations at specified points. The results of ground vibration predicted by the model are validated using field data.

By D. S. Yang, Y. D. Wang, G. Watanabe, A. P. Notaro

"Deep soil mixing (DSM) walls reinforced with steel soldier piles were installed for excavation support and groundwater control for the construction of a grade separation structure at the intersection of Warren Avenue and the Union Pacific Railroad in Fremont, California to mitigate traffic conditions during the busy commute hours and for the extension of San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system. Instead of treating the DSM wall as a temporary structure, the reinforced DSM walls were integrated in the design of the permanent structures including retaining walls, and the abutments and pier of the railroad and BART bridges. The integration of steel members inside the DSM wall as part of the permanent structures is an innovation which facilitates the use of top down construction techniques to speed construction and utilizes the steel soldier piles that would have been disregarded after the use as a temporary shoring wall. This paper will review the background of the project and DSM method and present the design and construction of the DSM wall composite structure for this grade separation project.INTRODUCTIONUsing the concept of mixed-in-place piles initiated in the 1950’s in the United States, Japanese contractors in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s installed single mixed-in-place soil-cement piles along a row to create a wall for excavation support and groundwater control. Due to the high groundwater conditions in most of the coastal cities in Japan, wall continuity and uniformity became the requirements of soil-cement walls for reliable groundwater control to minimize ground movement and impacts to adjacent buildings and facilities. In late 1970s, Seiko Kogyo, Co. Ltd. developed the Soil Mix Wall (SMW) method, which uses a triple auger mixing tool to improve the uniformity and continuity of soilcement wall. The SMW method is considered a wall installation method in contrast to the Cement Deep Mixing (CDM) method, also developed in Japan, for ground stabilization in soft soils, especially in the marine environment. In the U.S., generic terms like DMM (Deep Mixing Method), DSM (Deep Soil Mixing) or CDSM (Cement Deep Soil Mixing) are used by various government agencies and private organizations to describe the soil mixing technologies without differentiating the origin, procedure and application. The method used in this project is called DSM method by the project owner, Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA), to produce a single continuous soil-cement wall for use as shoring wall and composite structure. The mixing tool for DSM wall installation can vary from 3 to 6 mixing augers. Due to the need to install steel soldier piles into the DSM wall for resisting lateral forces, high water cement ratio slurry with bentonite is used to produce low strength soil-cement, generally in the range of 70 to 100 psi (500 to 690 kPa), with high fluidity to facilitate the installation of steel soldier piles. To maintain the wall continuity for groundwater control, overlapping of one full DSM column is made between neighboring elements using two types of installation procedures as illustrated in Figures 1a and 1b. Steel soldier piles, as shown in Figure 2, are used to reinforce the soil-cement wall to resist the lateral shear force and bending moment induced during the excavation."

Jan 1, 2015

By J. Whitford

The established crown pillar extraction method at Gold Fields Australia Ltd.’s Crusader Mine, leads to the significant dilution and poor recovery of ore due to caving of the overlying loose rockfill. The application of selectively injecting specifically developed ‘FB200’ ettringite (calcium sulphoaluminate hydrate) type cement grout into loose rockfill to form a stabilised rockfill material, enables an artificial crown pillar to stabilise the surrounding rock mass and prevent caving of the overlying loose rockfill during crown pillar extraction. Investigation of the geomechanical criteria for crown pillar extraction beneath stabilised rockfill has enabled the safe and efficient extraction of two crown pillars at the Crusader Mine. La méthode actuelle d'extraction des piliers horizontaux à la mine Crusader dont la propriétaire est le Goldfields Australia Ltd amène à une dilution sensible du minerai, à cause de l'effondrement du remblai peu compacté qui se trouve au-dessus. Par moyen d'injection sélective du coulis de ciment FB200 ettringite (sulfoaluminate de calcium hydraté) qui a été développé spécifiquement pour cette application, un pilier artificiel est crée et celui-ci empêche l'effondrement du remblai pendant l'extraction du pilier de minerai au-dessous. A la suite des études géotechniques de la méthode, deux piliers horizontaux à la mine Crusader ont été extraites, de manière efficace et sûr. Die feststehende Krone Pfeiler Extraktionsmethode beim Crusader Mine von Gold Fields Australien GmbH, führt wegen caving des overlying lockerer rockfill zur bedeutungsvollen Verdünnung und schlechtem Wiederfinden des Erzes. Der Antrag, ausdrücklich entwickelten 'FB200' ettringite selektiv zu spritzen, (Kalzium-sulphoaluminate-Hydrat) Art kittet Mörtelschlamm in lockeren rockfill, um ein stabilisiertes rockfill-Material zu bilden, ermöglicht einem künstlichen Kronenpfeiler, die umliegende Steinmasse zu stabilisieren und caving des overlying während des Kronenpfeilerherausziehens lockeren rockfill zu verhindern. Untersuchung der geomechanical-Kriterien für Kronenpfeilerherausziehen unter stabilisiertem rockfill hat dem sicheren und tüchtigen Herausziehen von zwei Kronenpfeilern beim Crusader Mine ermöglicht.

Jan 1, 2003

By R. C. Gifkins, K. U. Snowden

The value of the index n in power ktivs for the stress sensitivity of minimum creep rale at lead is derived front results drawn from lite literature and from previously unpublished nork on commercial (99.99 pel) and high-purity (99.999 pel) lead polycryslalline and hi crystal specimens. In tests al 0.5Tm (22 to 50'C) for slvesses below 250 psi, n fulls to mily for poly-cr,yslullirle specimens, single crystals, and bicrystals, and toy grain boundary sliding in bicrystals. Between 250 and 500 psi there is a tyansilion range and, for the polycrystalline specimens al least, u high-stress regime for 500 to 1500 psi where n is 5 or 6. These results are such that none of the suggested stress taws can he used to extrapolate to very loir stresses. Meclianisms for deformation in Ike grains and toy grain boundary sliding in the low-strcss regime are outlined. In particular, the mechanism for grain boundary sliding involves sliding controlled by diffusion from tensile to compressire Ledges. predictions based on this model give promising numerical agree-nicul with experiment. II is suggested that the mechanism for grain boundary sliding may he important in other circumstances, e.g., in creep of ceramic materials or superplaslicity, because it can operate with lille or no dislocation aclirity. WhEN the stress dependence of secondary creep rate is represented by a power law the values taken by the stress exponent n are found to vary between 1 and 7, see, c.g., Garofalo.' In Eq. 1 11 u is the applied stress and A a constant. The case for accepting values of v = 1 rests principally upon tests at high temperatures (>0.9Tm) and there have only been isolated tests at lower temperatures (rather than plots of creep rate against stress) for which the creep rates are such that some form of Nabarro-Herring creep with n = 1 is applicable. Hanson5 and Greenwood and cole6 plotted creep rate against stress for tests made in the vicinity of 0.5Tw, and found a "creep yield", so that below a certain low stress the creep rate was linearly related to stress: these observations appear to have been subsequently ignored. Various models have been proposed which agree with a large body of experimental results in which n equals -5 at high stresses (e.g., weertman7 and McLean8). Various alternatives to Eq. [1] have been proposed principally as a means of unifying creep data, but sometimes, it seems, in order to obviate the necessity for assuming a series of regimes of deformation associated with the various values of n; further refer- ence to these will be made in the section on stress laws. This paper calls attention to extensive results which show n = 1 for the creep of lead at room temperature (0.5 T,). RESULTS Fig. 1 is a composite diagram based on figures in the literature6,9,10 with additional results obtained by the present authors and their colleagues11,12 in the course of a number of investigations not directly concerned with stress sensitivity. In Fig. 1 In creep rate is plotted against In stress. The curves show results for two kinds of material. Lead I is of commercial purity (99.99 pct Pb) and lead IT a specially refined material, hydrogen-purified to remove oxygen; it contains 99.999 pct Pb. Curve A is for lead I in polycrystalline form (grain diameter 0.02 to 0.05 cm) at room temperature (22' to 26°C). Curve B1 is for lead I, polycrystalline, tested at 50C. Curve B2 is for lead 11, polycrystalline (grain diameter 0.02 cm), tested at room temperature (22 O- Curves C to F relate to tests made of bicrystals of lead 11: all of the same nominal orientation ("Y" in Ref. 12). Curves C and V are for creep within the component crystals of the bi crystals at 22°C (AB and CD in Fig. 2). Curve E is for creep measured in a gage straddling the boundary, approximately 0.15 mm either side (BC in Fig. 2). Curve F shows rates of grain boundary sliding (as distinct from strain rates in the other curves), obtained by averaging the offsets of six marker lines on the bi-crystal boundaries. The principal feature of the results is that the stress sensitivity falls into two distinct regimes, according to whether the stress is below approximately 250 or above 500 psi (there is a transitional range between 250 and 500 psi). The new result is that below -250 psi two of the curves (A and BI) give a value of n 1, and the other curves also drop below n - 2 to -1.5 but do not extend to low enough stresses to show clear evidence of n 1. At very high stresses the curves tend to give values of n - 6, as previously determined in other investigations. Curve R2 for the high-purity lead in polycrystalline form at room tenlperature almost merges with B, and thus gives new significance to the values for stresses of 150 and 200 psi; previously'3 these points had seemed to fall away from the curve of slope -3, but they now can be seen as almost completing a transition to n = 1. It should be noted that there was originally considerable apparent scatter in the results for the high-purity lead. However, this was found to be associated with annealing conditions or variations in residual content of oxygen and curve B2 was constructed using the highest rate (i .e., the rate for the purest lead) determined for each stress during the course of various investigations over the years: altogether, some forty tests were used in constructing curve R2.

Jan 1, 1968

By H. C. Fowler

Hydrogen sulphide associated with the gasps and vapors from certain crude oils now produced in the United States has forced a serious health and safety problem upon the petroleum industry. Although the presence of hydrogen sulphide in or occurring with Mexican crudes has been known for some time, it was not until recently that crude oils which give off poisonous amounts of hydrogen sulphide have been produced to any extent in the United State. The injurious effects of this poisonous gas were first recognized by the refiners along; the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts upon receiving shipments of crude petroleum from Mexico. The problem of combating the hazards of the gases and vapors given off by this petroleum become more important as the use of Mexican crude increased. In 1925, the Bureau of Mines and Public Health Service under cooperative agreement with the American Petroleum Institute, studied the causes rend effects of hydrogen sulphide poisoning. Bureau of Mines Bulletin 2312 is report of this investigation, and although written with special reference to refineries, it nevertheless contains much information that is of value to the producer of petroleum.

Jan 1, 1927

By F. J. Wiebelt

Production of small tonnages of asbestos has been reported from 18 California counties; 16 additional counties have occurrences of asbestos. The counties in the northern part of California that have had a recorded production are: Alameda, Amador, Calaveras, Contra Costa, E1 Dorado, Napa, Nevada, Placer, Shasta, Siskiyou, Trinity, and Tuolumne. No deposit in the State has maintained consistent production. Serpentinized peridotites (potential chrysotile-bearing rocks) are widely distributed in the coast ranges, Klamath Mountains, and western foothills of the Sierra Nevada.

Jan 1, 1958

By E. M. Frost

"A new apparatus has been devised for quickly and precisely analyzing natural gas for its helium content. The following outstanding advantages make it far superior to any equipment now available for the purpose.3/4/5/6/1. It enables more rapid determinations to be made.2. It has far greater sensitivity than previous apparatus. 3. It is portable.Fifty or more samples may be analyzed in an 8-hour day with the new apparatus and procedure. A maximum of about 10 samples per day could be analyzed with previous apparatus. In the apparatus described, the volume of pure helium obtained from a sample is determined by measuring the pressures created by that pure helium when it is expanded into a constant calibrated volume. In older methods the pure helium separated from a sample is pumped into a burette and measured at atmospheric pressure. The new apparatus and Procedure used with it reduce the average time for an analysis from about 40 minutes to less than 10 minutes,Samples containing a few thousandths of a percent helium may be analyzed as readily as samples containing 1 percent or more, This was not possible with former apparatus. Duplicate samples containing a few thousandths of a percent helium have been analyzed, results checking to one ten-thousandth of a percent. Attempts to measure a corresponding volume of helium in a burette at atmospheric pressure become futile. The ability to determine very small quantities of helium has become of great importance recently in gas- and oil-field engineering studies such Os the utilization of helium as a tracer gas in following the movement of gases through underground structures.A complete apparatus was recently carried more than a thousand miles in a passenger automobile. It arrived without breakage, was .set up and ready to make an analysis in a few hours. .Former apparatus was not portable. The portability of the present apparatus permits taking the apparatus to the field for more efficient prosecution of field engineering problems. The only services required in the field are electricity, tap water, and a source of liquid air or liquid nitrogen.The principle involved is based upon the fact that large volumes of all the constituents usually found in natural gas, except helium, are adsorbed quantitatively on cocoanut charcoal that has been cooled to the temperatures of liquid air. A volume of sample is measured and transferred to a tube of cocoanut charcoal maintained at the temperature of liquid air. After adsorption of all the constituents other than helium, the charcoal tube is connected to a sensitive pressure-measuring device, and the Percentage helium originally in the sample is calculated from two pressure readings and the volume of the original sample."

Jun 1, 1946

By Roger G. Long

This final report reviews installation, maintenance and inspection of mine pager telephone installations. A Technical Handbook was developed and distributed. Certain commercial telephone test equipment was modified and a tone source and switching circuit were developed for use in the testing of mine pager phone systems. Descriptions are included of the modifications to a commercial test set and of a tone source/ switching unit.

Jan 1, 1975

By Robert W. Metcalf

Since the spread of the European war virtually cut off imports from Denmark, Belgium, and France, the Bureau of Mines has had numerous inquiries as to domestic sources of grinding pebbles and silex or other types of ball mill liners. USES Flint pebbles and tube-rill liners are used by grinders of certain ceramic materials to prevent contamination of the finished product by iron abraded from steal baler and liners. The feldspar industry is one of the largest users of flint grinding mediums; they are employed also by curtain grinders of talc and soapstone, ground sand and sandstone, quartz, and chalk. Some paint materials, such as lithopone, have been ground in pebble Flint pebbles have been used more or less in the past, especially by cement manufacturers, and, for fine grinding of gold, copper, or other ores in which iron contamination is not especially deleterious.

Jan 1, 1940

By C. H. Johnson

The Big Jim mine of the United Eastern Mining Co. is at Oatman, Mohave County, Ariz. Oatman is in the foothills on the western side of the Black Mountains, at an elevation of about 3,000 feet. It is on a paved highway about 30 miles west of Kingman, the principal distributing; center for mining supplies in the district, and 25 miles from Topock, en the Colorado River. Both latter towns are stations on the Santa Fe Railroad; Oatman has no roil connection. Mining conditions are typical of western Arizona; water is scarce, no mine timber is available locally, and the winters arc mild and the summers hot. The supply of a killed labor is usually adequate, but in 1933-34 it w not more than sufficient for the restricted operations. Wages have been $4.00 to $4.50 for miners. Electric power was supplied from Kingman and cost about 2.6 cents per kilowatt-hour.

Jan 1, 1935

As part of a continuing program of evaluating the Nation's crude-oil resource, this report presents information pertaining to resource, primary reserve, and potential waterflood reserve for 3,209 selected reservoirs contained in 24 oil-producing States, as of January 1, 1968. To that date the selected reservoirs had not been subjected to pressure-maintenance or secondary-recovery operations. These reservoirs also met the following parameters: (1) a minimum of five oil-producing wells on January 1, 1968, (2) a minimum of 50 acres areal extent, (3) a minimum of 50,000 bbl of oil ultimate primary recovery, and (4) the principal reservoir energy was other than active water encroachment. The selected 3,209 reservoirs produced 527 million bbl of oil in 1967, about 17 pct of U.S, total production. Primary oil reserve was 4,983 million stb; in addition, there was 6,043 million stb of potential water- flood oil reserve. Oil resource in the selected reservoirs was 59,547 million stb. A brief history and outlook of waterflooding are presented for each State. Depth and producing rate statistics and geologic distributions of production, resource, reserve, and potential waterflood reserve for the selected reservoirs are presented by States in the appendix. Also included in the appendix are description, history, and technique modifications of waterflooding, and a preliminary cost estimate of a closed-system water-injection project.

Jan 1, 1970

By Albert L. Toenges

The Grundy coal field is in process of development, and this circular was written to describe the mining methods and practices in use in the mines now being worked in this field. In lieu of man-hour labor data for individual mines a consolidated sheet of mine costs, which includes expenses for labor, material, and power, is given for all mines. The costs are for a working day only, based on average daily production. Because the demand for coal is seasonal, the costs for idle days, which vary at each mine, have not been estimated. Approximate reserves of coal seams have been estimated from data and maps taken from Bulletin XVIII of the Virginia Geological Survey4/.

Jan 1, 1936

By Thomas M. Barczak

Wood cribs are used extensively by the mining industry to stabilize mine openings. While the cost per crib is relatively low, their extensive use can result in annual mine costs of over $1 million. In an effort to improve the utilization of these supports and to reduce ground control hazards, the U.S. Bureau of Mines has developed engineering methods to assist mine operators in wood-crib design and employment. Design and employment criteria are established based on the strength, stiffness, and stability of the crib structure in relation to the load conditions imposed by the mine environment. Models have been developed based on full-scale tests in the USBM's Mine Roof Simulator that compute the capacity of wood cribs of various configurations and material constructions as a function of displacement of the crib structure due to roof-and-floor convergence. These models permit the comparison of the loading characteristics and costs of employment of different crib designs, and in conjunction with roof behavior models, provide a means to determine the optimum design and employment strategy.

Jan 1, 1993

By R. B. Rao, B. Das, J. K. Mohanty, D. S. Rao

Physical, mineralogical and geochemical characterization, along with some beneficiation approach to pre-concentrate the Ni content of the chromite overburden material of the Sukinda Valley, India, have been carried out in detail. Mineralogically, the overburden consists of geothite, quartz, hematite, magnetite and secondary silicates in varying proportions. A specific Ni mineral phase is absent in this material with the Ni and Fe being mostly enriched in finer fractions. Distribution of Ni and Fe in various size fractions and increase of Ni with increase in Fe (goethite content) indicate that goethite is the major Ni-bearing mineral phase. Quantitative estimation of goethite from chemical analysis and weight loss data indicates that the goethite quantity varies from 40% to 90%. Electron microprobe analysis (EPMA) indicates that Nirich and Ni-poor goethite are present in the overburden material. A sequential dissolution study indicates that more than 50% of the Ni are present within the goethite lattice as a lattice substitution. The results of pre-concentration studies (size classification, gravity, flotation and magnetic separation) indicate that Ni is richer in finer fractions. Further, the enrichment of Ni content is limited to 1.1% with 50% recovery by classification followed by hydrocyclone separation of the below 53 m m fraction.

Jan 1, 2000

By Y. S. Song

Flotation separation of galena, sphalerite with pyrrhotite in ethanoic acid + sodium acetate sys-tem was studied in this paper. The flotation tests show that galena and sphalerite can float but pyr-rhotite can hardly float in the pH range of 3.6 to 5.6 in ethanoic acid + sodium acetate system. The flotation tests also show that galena can be separated efficiently from pyrrhotite and sphalerite can be separated on the whole from pyrrhotite, but the separation efficiency of the former is much better than the latter. The flotation results have been investigated by ultraviolet spectrum and XPS analysis, and explained by theory of hard and soft acid and base (HSAB), hydrogen bond and galvanic coupling.

Jan 1, 2014

By Margaret R. Egan

A study of the combustion emission products of rigid ventilation ducting was completed by the U.S. Bureau of Mines. The ducting was composed of fiberglass-reinforced polyester resin. Four properties of the ducting were evaluated: (1) propensity to ignite, (2) smoke characteristics, (3) gas emissions, and (4) heat release. Particle sizes, obscuration, optical densities, and production constants for gas and smoke were also calculated. These results provide comprehensive data about the emission products, detectability, and relative hazards of fiberglass-reinforced plastic ducting and other mine combustibles under realistic fire conditions.

Jan 1, 1990