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By W. W. Adams, T. D. Lawrence

"The National Safety Competition conducted by the Bureau of Mines, United States Department of the Interior for the promotion of safety in mines and quarries, has just been closed for seventeenth consecutive year. Enrollment covered more plants than in any previous contest. Moreover, a larger volume of employment was represented than in the contests of previous years, and several new plants were enrolled for the first time. Six safety trophies are awarded annually in these competitions one to the leading plant in each of six groups. An anthracite, mine in Pennsylvania, a bituminous-coal mine in West Virginia, a metal mine in Tennessee, a nonmetal mine in Virginia an open-cut mine in Minnesota, and a quarry in Alabama won the 1941 trophies.To be eligible to win a trophy, a mine or quarry must have had at least least 25 men working under ground or in the pit for not loss than 100 days. The number of man-hours worked must total 30,000 or more. Mines or quarries having no accidents during the year are rated according to the number of man-hours worked. If there are no plants with accident-free records, the mines and quarries in each of the six groups are rated according to their accident-severity rates; the plant having, the lowest rate is declared the winner.The Sentinls of safety trophies presented to the winning mines and quarries in the six groups were donated by the Explosives Engineer magazine to promote safety in the mineral industry. They are held by the winning companies for 1 year or until won by other mines and quarries."

Jul 1, 1942

Objective: Improve the dust control effectiveness of enclosed operator cabs on surface mining equipment.

Oct 1, 2007

Coal mining in Indiana is limited to the south-western portion of the state, with coal currently being recovered in 19 counties. The coal-producing area of the state covers approximately 6,500 square miles. Although most of the coal in Indiana is recovered by surface mining methods, a small percentage is recovered through underground mining. To date, 40 percent of the known coal reserves have been removed. Indiana has about 33 billion tons of identified coal reserves, of which approximately 17 billion tons are recoverable using current technology. Of this recoverable coal, about 15 billion tons are recoverable by underground mining and 2 billion tons are recoverable by surface mining methods. The State of Indiana has regulated the environmental impacts of coal mining since 1941. Indiana was the second state in the nation to pass legislation requiring mined land reclamation. Its SMCRA regulatory program was approved July 29,1982, and its Abandoned Mine Land Program was approved July 29, 1982.

Jan 1, 1992

By M. M. Fine

A process for simultaneously reducing and indurating iron are pellets was developed by Bureau of Mines laboratory research and confirmed on a continuous pilot plant basis. Moist iron are concentrate was balled, mixed with solid reductant, and heated at about 1,100° to 1,150° C. On a small scale, a variety of concentrates and fuels were utilized successfully. The pilot rotary kiln tests were limited to natural magnetite, synthetic magnetite, lignite, and anthracite. In both cases, partially reduced pellets with excellent physical properties were regularly produced with average analyses of at least 80 percent total iron and 60 percent or more metallic iron. These and other prereduced pellets were smelted in the Bureau's experimental blast furnace facility, Bruceton, Pa. With prereduced spheres comprising 85 percent of the burden, the coke rate was approximately half that with standard oxide pellets and production of hot metal was increased by 75 percent. Economic appraisal of the cost of making hot metal indicates that reduced pellets could be more profitable than any other iron raw material in both investment capital and daily cost of operation.

Jan 1, 1970

Continuously monitor and record respirable dust levels underground by a reliable, sensitive, and fast-response device. Approach A light-scattering photometer, having a LED (Light Emitting Diode) light source and other significant improvements, has been designed and incorporated into a portable continuous monitor. How It Works The monitor continuously draws air into the sampling inlet through a cyclone that removes dust particles larger than respirable size. The dusty air enters the photometer vertically downward through a cylinder which is intersected by the optical system. (This cylinder appears as a circle in the drawing of the photometer.) The center of he column of dusty air intersects a beam of pulsing light from the LED, causing some of the light to be reflected, scattered, and refracted. Only the light that is scattered at an angle of about 700 from the light beam passes through a lens to the photodetector which generates an output voltage Signal proportional to the dust content in the air. This signal is detected, amplified, and converted to a digital readout directly in milligrams of dust per

Jan 1, 1979

By G. E. Johnson

Batch tests of coals and coal-derived materials were made by the Bureau of Mines to determine their effectiveness in removing organic contaminants (COD or chemical oxygen demand, comprising those organic compounds that can be chemically oxidized, and ABS or alkylbenzene sulfonate, common household detergents) from the final effluent of secondary-treated waste waters. The adsorptive capacities of flyashes, coals, including at least one sample of each rank found in this country, pretreated coals, and miscellaneous materials including commercial chars and coke, were determined and compared with that of granular activated carbon. The coals, though not as effective as activated carbon, possess an economic advantage--they are relatively inexpensive, and they can still be burned as fuel without any loss of fuel value after use in waste¬water treatment. A hvcb coal was found to be one of the best, having about one-fourth the capacity of activated carbon for COD, adsorbing about 4 percent of its weight before it became saturated. Several coals contained constituents that added to the COD content of the treated water. Thus knowledge of the performance of the coal is necessary to insure selection of a proper coal as adsorbent.

Jan 1, 1966

By C. H. Riggs

"INTRODUCTION The injection of gas into the McClosky limestone in the adjoining, Griffin and New Harmony field in Indiana and Illinois and resulting increases in oil and gas production from this zone ore described in this report.Since 1911, the use of compressed air or as to increase oil production by supplementing natural reservoir energy has been widely adopted, and has resulted in the recovery of much additional oil, which otherwise would have been left underground. In many of the newer oil fields, including Griffin and New Harmony, a part of the compressed residue gas from natural gasoline plants is returned to the reservoir as a secondary method to increase oil and gasoline production. Part of the injected gas is stored underground for future use.By presenting data on many secondary recovery operations in a series of reports 5-9/ the Bureau of Mines has sought to stimulate interest in secondary recovery as a means of increasing oil recovery and current oil production for wartime needs. Most of the elder fields in the United States produce oil from sandstone reservoirs, and probably more than 90 percent of secondary recovery operations have been developed in oil bearing sandstones. During recent years, the volume of oil obtained by primary methods from limestone reservoirs has increased steadily, but as yet little has been done to recover, by secondary means,,the large volumes of oil left in limestone reservoirs when primary methods production are no longer profitable. Because of inherent differences in the origin and nature of the pore spaces between sandstones and limestones and because of differences in permeability and fluid content, secondary recovery methods, which are successful in sandstone-reservoirs, are not always applicable to limestones. Not much he been written concerning secondary recovery operations in limestone reservoirs, and few data are available to assist operators in developing such secondary recovery projects."

Jul 1, 1945

By G. S. Scott, W. J. Huff, G. W. Jones, R. E. Kennedy

"INTRODUCTION This report gives preliminary results of field and laboratory investigations made at the request of the War Production Board relative to causes that have occurred during the last 8 months in acetylene-generat72,r plants in shipyards on the Pacific coast.Six acetylene-generator explosions have occurred in four shipyards. These explosions killed five operators, injured six others, and extensive damage to the plants involved and curtailmnent of vital defense Although the occurrence of acetyiene-generator explosions in other section of the United States is not known, it appears, at least, that if such have occurred, they have caused only minor damage and no loss of lives.The use of acetylene in shipyards on the west coast has expanded tremendously during the past 2 years. These shipbuilding, companies erected aletylene-generatcr equipment, which was soon found to be entirely inadequate to meet the needs of their expanding acetylene requirements for welding, cutting, shrinking, and other purposes, and instances found it necessary to operate their equipment at rates greater than deemed consistent with safe operating practice."

May 1, 1944

By Michael G. Zabetakis, Aldo L. Furno, Henry E. Perlee

The Bureau of Mines conducted an experimental study with liquid and gaseous hydrogen to determine the hazards associated with the use of liquid hydrogen as an ionizing particle detector in bubble chambers . The glass window , the vacuum chamber , and the vent system were investigated . In addition , a study was made of the detection and ignition of escaping hydrogen and of the available electrical equipment for use in hydrogen atmospheres . Materials such as tempered glass , aluminum , and stainless steel are not penetrated readily by the small fragments formed when fully tempered glass is shattered and propelled by hydrogen at initial pressures up to 100 psig ; long , slender fragments from untempered glass may penetrate thin walls of relatively soft materials such as rubber gaskets and lead . Hydrogen can be vented satisfactorily from a vacuum chamber with a well - designed vent system . However , the rapid leakage of hydrogen into the surrounding air is a serious problem because the available detectors are satisfactory only when the accumulation of hydrogen is slow . Much of the electrical equipment currently available was designed for use in hydrogen- air atmospheres .

Jan 1, 1963

By J. Cseff

A variety of shaft and hoist equipment exists in the United States. Nearly all hoist systems are electrically driven. Machine elements which comprise the hoists and ancilliary equipment include bearings, shafting, drums, gear reducers, couplings, brakes, clutches, sheaves and electrical motors. Volume I, Systems Description, describes the various components encountered in most mine hoist and shaft installations, and brief descriptions of functions and constructions. Hoist ropes and balance ropes are specifically excluded from this report. Associated with the hoisting system is the headgear, shaft and equipment, loading/dumping facilities and the actual conveyances and their rope attachments. Volume II, Inspection and Maintenance Procedures, discusses scheduled Inspection and preventative maintenance in general terms. Preventive scheduled inspection and maintenance procedures assist in the smooth operation of mine hoisting plant, by the prevention of unscheduled or catastrophic equipment failure and its attendant downtime. Schedules and overall maintenance planning is required at the management level. Records and equipment logs must record inspection and maintenance, and unusual operations or incidents. A cross reference between MSHA regulations and various equipment components is included as part of the report. A discussion of the various non-destructive testing methods which may be applied to hoisting equipment is also included.

Jan 1, 1981

By A. J. Farstad

Characteristics of metal/non metal mines were evaluated to determine the suitability of applying the U.S. Bureau of Mines electromagnetic location system to the problem of locating trapped mines in metal/non metal mines. Statistical distributions of mine depths and overburden conductivities show that the existing USBM EM system is inadequate for most metal/non metal mines. Alternate approaches to trapped miner location in deep mines were identified and subsequent field tests were conducted at six (6) mines to evaluate their feasibility. The approach considered to be the most promising is one which utilizes the existing manpack transmitting system, modified slightly for a dual frequency output, in conjunction with a sophisticated signal processing receiver on the surface. The main advantage of staying with a "through the earth" approach is that the underground equipment can be kept simple, easily maintained, light-weight and inexpensive.

Jan 1, 1979

By FRANCIS FEEHAN

Safety first is no longer merely a motto ; in some industries and in some parts of the mining industry it is an accomplished fact . In connection with the National Safety Competition of 1928 in which 284 mines and quarries participated , 42 plants were operated without a single lost - time accident . The winning company in the bituminous group had an accident severity rate of 0.053 per thousand man hours of exposure . Excellent safety records of various kinds are becoming more and more frequent , and the indication is that in reality safety is first in many mines and qquuaarrrriieess .. The safety achievements in the Stewart mine of W. J. Rainey , Inc. , are unusual even among mines winning awards in the competition .

Apr 1, 1930

By P. G. Guest

MANY of the gases and vapors used in anesthesia form explosive mixtures with oxygen or air. Sources of ignition for these mixtures always have existed in operating and anesthetizing areas. When ether was first introduced, candles,5 gaslights, and coal stoves caused fires and mild explosions of the vapor-air mixtures. Today the chief causes of ignition are electrical. Fires and explosions are still much too frequent; and, because many of the mixtures are rich in oxygen, the explosions sometimes are very violent. Obvious sources of ignition, such as electric-power sparks and arcs in open motors, switches, and receptacles, as well as exposed incandescent wires and hot plates, usually are recognized by hospital personnel and corrected. A source of ignition that is not so obvious to many is static electricity. Until quite recently the presence of this hazard in a large majority of anesthetizing areas was not even suspected. However, numerous explosions-many of them fatal to patients-have been attributed, with good reason, to sparks from static electricity.

Jan 1, 1953

By Michael J. Beus, Stephen Iverson

BACKGROUND A mine shaft is the lifeline to underground mines. Mine operators depend on safe, uninterrupted, and efficient movement of workers and materials. The shaft and hoisting system provides access to the network of openings used to recover the underground resource, provides vertical transport of miners and materials, and serves as an escapeway in case of an emergency. Accidents involving hoisting can be catastrophic. Such was the case in 1973 at the Markham Colliery in Derbyshire, UK when the conveyance overwound and fell to the shaft bottom, resulting in 17 deaths. Hoist and elevator machinery must meet the requirements specified in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Parts 57 and 75. According to the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) data, many shaft-related accidents in the United States are associated with the hoisting cycle. MSHA statistics show that there were about 1500 shaft- related accidents in the 5-year period between 1992-1996. Most of these accidents resulted from the action, motion, or failure of the hoisting equipment or mechanism and involved movement of the conveyance which includes cages, skips, ore buckets, and elevators. A hoisting hazard may be characterized as an "unsafe hoist operating condition caused by insufficient or inaccurate information available to the hoist operator" (authors' quote). Earlier investigators have defined safety features and operating and maintenance standards for hoists, and reported on monitoring and control systems and sensors for hoists and conveyances [Farley, 1983; Ward, 19931. However, despite the considerable technological progress and hoisting control improvements in recent years, safety- related issues that require further investigation still remain. The hoist operator must constantly be aware of two important hoist-operating conditions: the position of the conveyance and the tension in the hoist rope. If this information is not available or is inaccurate, the hoist becomes unsafe. Current technology provides this information indirectly from sensors and indicators in the hoist room. However, unlike a building elevator hoistway, mine shaft hoistway problems often include: 1. poor ground conditions and excessive shaft wall and guide displacement; 2. rock bursts in deep mines (resulting in large rock movements and fragments blocking the hoist way); 3. water, ice, and salt buildup (impeding the smooth flow of the conveyance); 4. severe vibration from hoisting (resulting in loose guide support brackets, broken welds, or other alignment and conveyance mechanism malfunctions). The second issue relates to dynamic rope loads applied during normal winding, particularly during loading, acceleration, and stopping. Safety factors on wire rope are based on static load. They are artificially high to account for all cases of dynamic loads, even though the total load history on the rope (static and dynamic) during service is unknown. Therefore the tension, and thus the compliance with wire rope load safety factors, is unknown to the hoistman.

By J. H. East, D. Harrington

"INTRODUCTION Mining at its best is not a clean occupation for either surface or underground employees; and this applies alike to coal, metal, and non-metallic mines. The employees are handling minerals that have been blasted, or broken by some means and are subjected to mineral dust, whether it is coal, quartz, or talc. The employees usually wear clothes specifically adapted to the work in which they are engaged, and frequently these clothes are not suitable for use away from the mine. Many mines are wet, and employees must wear rubber boots to remain at least partly dry, and even on relatively dry mines, some parts of the mines usually have water falling from overhead, there are accumulations of water, or the floor or other surfaces are wet or muddy, Some mines are dusty, and the air-borne dust quickly settles on the clothes and body of the miner, especially, when he is working in confined areas, or in places that are hot, humid, or poorly ventilated. Most occupations around a coal tipple, anthracite breaker, or a mill at a metal or nonmetallic mine have their own problems of cleanliness as to skin or clothes or both. Mining in any of its phases is inherently dirty work, and the employees dress accordingly while at work.In the early stages of mining it was the custom or workers to wear their dirty clothes home and change there. This necessitated their going home after work in dirty clothes which were usually damp from perspiration or from contact with wet or muddy matelials or surfaces, and, in addition to being inconvenient this was a frequent cause of colds, pneumonia, other pulmonary diseases or, possible skin ailments. Men working in very wet mines found that it was more satisfactory to change into dry clothes in the boiler room at the mine after work and allow their wet clothes to dry overnight. The mining companies later provided the first of the so-called ""dry-houses"" which were heated but had, few, if any, conveniences, such as showers, lockers, or latrines. The miners changed into dry clothes after work, but would not bathe or ""clean up"" until they reached their homes. Later, progressive mining companies provided bathing facilities for the employees, and eventually the present modern wash and change houses were evolved. Unfortunately, many mines, still have no bathing accommodations, and many have only makeshift accommodations."

Dec 1, 1947

By Robert H. Bedford

The New Almaden mine was discovered in 1824, and since that date production of quicksilver has exceeded 1,000,000 flasks. Because of this high production record, the New Almaden area was, upon passage. by Congress of the Strategic Minerals Act of 1939, immediately considered by the Bureau of Mines as a promising location for exploration. In 1941, the Federal Geological Survey undertook a survey of the entire district. R. R. Trengove, an engineer of the Bureau of Mines, made a preliminary study for a project in 1942, and in August 1943 the Bureau, in close cooperation with the U. S. Geological Survey, began the development project described herein. The Bureau of Mines drilled 36 holes, totaling 6,807 feet of diamond drilling, along the contact between the serpentine and Franciscan, sandstones and other sedimentary formations. The ore bodies are found along this contact and occur in the carbonate-silica rock. This report briefly describes the location, history, and ore deposits of the property. The recent operations are outlined, and the work performed by the Bureau is explained in detail.

Jan 1, 1950

By E. O. Wagner, A. W. Koth, V. F. Parry, J. B. Goodman, D. C. Gernies

"INTRODUCTION A commercial-scale pilot plant for gasification of lignite was completed by the Bureau of Mines at Grand Forks, N. Dak., early in 1945 as an extension of work on, gasification of low-rank coals initiated in a smaller pilot plant at Golden, Colo., during 1943. The development work on this plant was part of a program to make reducing gases from lignite for beneficiation of low-grade iron ores. The background of this project has been described in a previous report. 6/ The present report describes the major features of the large pilot plant, a record of experimental operating data during five runs totaling about 1,800 hours, .and results of experimental work on the small pilot plant at Golden during 1945.This project has created considerable interest because heretofore there has been little success in several attempts to gasify American lignites.Furthermore, the methed employed is a departure from conventional processes. Natural lignite is fed continuously into an externally heated annular retort and is converted into water gas by heat conducted through alloy metal walls. Because of the high thermal conductivity of metal, the rate of gasification is several times greater than can be obtained when employing refractory walls. The process has been developed to a part that leaves one major question unanswered. - ""How long will the alloy last under practical operating conditions?"" - and this question has aroussed the interest of the Coal Division of the Bureau of Mines in this new development.Owing to the high reactivity of the lower-rank fuels, the water-gas reactions proceed rapidly at medium temperatures of 1,650°F. to 1,800°F. These temperatures can be attained in a reaction zone heated by external means when the temperature of the retort does not exceed 1,900°F. while transferring from 6,000 to 7,000 B.t.u. per hour per square foot. Such rates are several times greater than can be attained through refractory walls as employed in the Didier-Bubaig 7/ and the Ahrens processes. 7/ Therefore, the investment cost of the gas generator per unit of capacity will be considerably lower for the higher-capacity process. However, the maintenance cost of metal vessels will be higher than that of refractory retorts, and this emphasizes the importance of large-scale operation to determine the life of an alloy retort under practical operating. conditions."

Sep 1, 1947

By Peter G. Kovalchik, Rudy J. Matetic, Susan B. Bealko, Adam K. Smith

Overexposure to noise remains a widespread and serious health hazard in the U.S. service providing and goods producing industries. Excessive noise can lead to poor verbal communication and reduce the ability to recognize warning signals. These dangerous work conditions can also cause stress and fatigue. Occupational hearing loss is a permanent illness, with no recovery currently possible. Method: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has recognized Noise Induced Hearing Loss (NIHL) as one of the ten leading work related diseases and injuries in the United States, and has emphasized its importance as one of the critical areas expressed in the National Occupational Research Agenda. Results: One of the most serious noise problems in the goods producing industries is the operation of continuous mining machines during underground coal mining. In order to minimize occupational hearing loss, noise hazards are “designed out” early in the design process. NIOSH is leading a national initiative called Prevention through Design (PTD) to promote this concept. This paper describes the quiet by design approach of a noise control that reduced noise exposures of continuous mining machine operators by 3dB(A) using the four functional areas of PTD, namely Practice, Policy, Research, and Education.

By D. Eugene Rannels, Sarah E. Dunsmore, Cara Martinez-Williams, Yu-Chen Lee

"Dunsmore, Sarah E., Yu-Chen Lee, Cara Martinez Williams, and D. Eugene Rannels. Synthesis of fibronectin and laminin by type II pulmonary epithelial cells. Am. J. Physiol. 270 (Lung Cell. Mol. Physiol. 14): L215-L223, 1996.Previous investigations demonstrated that type II pulmonary epithelial cells regulate extracellular matrix deposition as a function of time in primary culture. In those studies, the matrix fraction was analyzed as a whole. The present work focused on two components of the type II cell matrix, fibronectin and laminin. These glycoproteins have differing effects on differentiation of type II cells in primary culture. Fibronectin synthesis was quantitated between day 1 and day 6 in the cells, matrix, and medium; laminin synthesis was quantitated only in the cells. Although total fibronectin synthesis was regulated as a function of time in culture, reaching its greatest value on day 2, the average proportion of newly synthesized fibronectin in the cells (35%), medium (50%), and matrix (15%) remained constant over a 6-day interval. Between day 2 and day 6, the relative abundance of fibronectin messenger RNA increased 6.5-fold. Rates of cellular laminin synthesis did not vary with time in culture. These results support a role for differential regulation of fibronectin and laminin synthesis to determine the composition of the type II cell extracellular matrix. INTERACTIONS BETWEEN THE pulmonary epithelium and alveolar basement membrane may play a role in the physiology and pathophysiology of the lung. Pulmonary epithelial cells and the alveolar basement membrane form one component of the blood-gas diffusion barrier. Integrity of this barrier is crucial to normal lung function. Specific domains of alveolar basement membrane components have been proposed to determine localization of type I and type II pulmonary epithelial cells during lung growth and development, as well as during repair of the alveolar surface after injury (13). In the injured lung, the extent of damage to the epithelium and the underlying basement membrane is thought to be a key factor to determine subsequent repair or fibrotic scarring (3)."

Jan 1, 1998

In 2006, a total of 280 metal mining operations reported employment to the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA).1 Metal mines were the smallest mining commodity sector, comprising 1.9% of all mining operations. ? Gold mines comprised 46.8% (n=131) of all metal mining operations. Other common types of metal mines were copper ore (n=34; 12.1%), and iron ore (n=33; 11.8%). ? Nevada had the largest number of metal mines (n=53; 18.9%), followed by Alaska (n=31; 11.1%).

Jan 1, 2008