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By J. P. Powell

Since the beginning of waterflooding in the Midcontinent area, the Bureau of Mines has published many reports3-6/ describing in detail the results obtained on individual waterflooding projects in the area. These are intended as guides for operators in the selection of well-spacing, water-treating, and other techniques, as well as an indication of the results being obtained in waterflooding in various areas, fields, and horizons. In addition, Bureau personnel has arranged a tour of selected waterflooding projects each year for the past several years so that actual operating conditions may be observed and an additional opportunity provided for exchanging information. Each of these tours has been supplemented by a published

Jan 1, 1959

By Sidney Katell

This report, covering the period January 1965 through December 1965, is a continuation of a series that began with the publication of Information Circular 7516 in October 1949. It is the seventh in a series of reports prepared in cooperation with the American Association of Cost Engineers. The abstracted articles are concerned with all phases of cost engineering in the field of chemical and petroleum plants and related subjects. They are From the following sources:

Jan 1, 1966

By Sidney Katell

This; report, covering the period January 1965 through December 1965, is a continuation of a series that began with the publication of Information Circular 7516 in October 1949. It is the seventh in a series of reports prepared in cooperation with the American Association of Cost Engineers. The abstracted articles are concerned with all phases of cost engineering in the field of chemical and petroleum plants and related subjects. They are from the following sources: 1. American Association of Cost Engineers Bulletin. 2. Bureau of Mines Information Circulars. 3. Bureau of Mines Reports of Investigations. 4. Chemical Engineering. 5. Chemical Engineering Progress. 6. Chemical Week. 7. Coal Age. 8. Coal.3 9. Cost Engineering. 10. Hydrocarbon Processing and Petroleum Refiner. 11. Industrial and Engineering Chemistry. 12. Nucleonics. 13. Oil and Gas Journal. 14. Petroleum Management. 15. World Oil.

Jan 1, 1966

By M. A. Schellhardt

The Bureau of Mines has made periodic back-pressure tests on numerous gas wells in the Texas Panhandle field during the past several years to study the delivery capacities of the wells under different pressure and operating conditions and to determine the relationships between pressures and rates of delivery from gas wells.4/ However, information regarding the intake capacities of gas-well systems is meager, end in projects involving the flow of gas into porous-rock reservoirs it has been necessary to determine intake capacities of gas wells by trial. Accordingly the fundamental intake characteristics of natural-gas yells have been studied to develop a method for determining intake capacities under different wellhead pressures from data descriptive of the "output" or producing characteristic of the wells.

Jan 1, 1936

By R. M. Santmyers

"Quartz and silica not only occur in diversified forms in nature but find a multiplicity of uses in industry. The purpose of the present paper is to assemble brief summaries of the many widely differing industries engaged in the production and preparation of these minerals in their principal commercial forms. Due to the scope of the subject it was though advisable to divide the paper into three parts. Part I deals with the subject of quartz and silica in general. It also contains a flow sheet of silica from deposit to consumer (fig. 1). Part II covers the uses and other economic factors of quartz, quartzite, and sandstone, the varieties of silica found in consolidated form. Part III deals with sand and miscellaneous silicas such as tripoli and diatomite. A chart showing the major ramifications of these industries is presented herewith as an introduction to the more detailed discussion that follows.For a more intensive study of many branches of the quartz and silica industries the reader is referred especially to Bulletin 263 of the United States Bureau of Mines, Technology and Uses of Silica and Sand by W. M. Weigel. For annual statistics relative to silica and its products in the United States he is referred to the annual chapters of Mineral Resources of the United States, entitled ""Silica,"" ""Sand and Gravel,"" and ""Abrasives."" With respect to diatomite reference is made to Diatomite, by Paul Hatmaker, recently issued by the U. S. Bureau of Mines as Information Circular 6391. In preparing this paper the author has drawn freely from these sources as well as Marketing of Metals and Minerals, by J. E. Spurr and F. E. Wormser; Non-Metallic Minerals, Occurrence, Preparation and Utilization, by Raymond B. Ladoo; and Abrasives - Part I, Siliceous Abrasives, by V. L. Eardley-Wilmot, Report 573, Mines Brand, Department of Mines, Ottawa, 1927.Acknowledgment is also made to the Foote Mineral Co., which has published in Foote-Prints (vol. 2 of 1929 and vol. 1 of 1930), comprehensive reviews of the uses of crystal quartz in the optical industry and as piezo¬electric crystals.The various forms of silica have attracted attention from the earliest times, and the water-clear crystallized variety was known to the Greeks as""krystallos"" (clear ice), being supposed by them to have been formed from water by the intense cold of the Alps; hence the name ""crystal"" or more commonly ""rock crystal,"" applied to this variety. The name quartz is an old German word of uncertain origin used by G. Agricola in 1529.Silica or silica dioxide (Si02) either free or in combination with other elements constitutes 59.08 per cent of the lithosphere, and quartz alone represents fully 12 per cent` of all rocks. Next to the feldspar group quartz is the most abundant mineral in the earth's crust; and it appears in a greater number of varieties and modes of occurrence than any other mineral. Silica or quartz occurs in crystalline, cryptocrystalline, microcrystalline, and amorphous forms. The most common, however, is the crystalline form, which occurs as three minerals, quartz, tridymite, and crystobalite, and of these three tridymite and crystobalite are quite rare in nature."

Aug 1, 1931

By Terry S. Cory

This report describes the results of a measurement and analysis program to characterize wireless radio transmission in metal/non-metal mines over a wide frequency range from 0.2 - 1000 MHz and over a variety of mine environments. Six mines were chosen based on the relative economic significance of their product to the U.S. economy. Mine types include oil shale, uranium, potash, lead/zinc, copper, and silver. Particular mines were chosen so that the group would embody the most important mining techniques. The results show that transmission at medium frequencies are optimum for wireless mine communications, in agreement with extensive testing previously performed by the authors In coal mines, and that mine-wide wireless systems are feasible with a minimum requirement for new dedicated wiring. At least one need for such a wireless system was identified in each mine visited.

Aug 1, 1981

By P. Wearden, K. Bryner, K. Vrana, V. Castranova, R. Dey, R. Reist, J. Blackford

"Summary: Fibroblast proliferation and enhancement of collagen synthesis are key steps in the development and progression of pulmonary fibrosis. The current investigation presents a fibroblast proliferation assay to detect the release of competence factors from pneumocytes. The specific objective of this study was to define cell culture conditions for fibroblasts that would allow selective detection of competence factors in test media. The results indicate the following: (a) fibroblasts should be cultured for 2 days in plasma-free medium rather than 2% plasma to assure complete quiescence; (b) 1% plasma was optimum for producing progression activity for the bioassay of a competence factor, while 0.5% plasma did not produce sufficient progression activity (yielding false negatives) and 2% plasma often contained significant competence activity (yielding false positives); and (c) fresh plasma should be used since the progression activity of plasma was adversely affected by freezing and thawing. Under these conditions, this bioassay can be employed with either rat or human lung fibroblasts to detect competence factors such as platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF), at levels as low as 25 ng/ml.Fibrotic lung disease, as a consequence of occupational exposure to silica dust. is characterized by the development of concentric hyalinized nodular lesions in the lung and the progressive loss of pulmonary diffusion capacity. Proliferation of pulmonary fibroblasts and enhanced synthesis of collagen by these pneumocytes have been shown to be key steps in the development of chronic silicosis ( 1 ). The regulation of lung fibroblast proliferation by cytokines released from alveolar macrophages may be an important pathogenetic mechanism in the development of the fibrotic process (2). Some cytokines stimulate fibroblast proliferation by activating specific phases of the cell cycle (3,4). In particular, platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) promotes fibroblast proliferation by inducing the movement of quiescent (G0 ) cells into the G1 phase of the cell cycle (5). Insulin-like growth factor (IGF) and transforming growth factor-P (TGF-P). on the other hand, regulate the rate of transition of fibroblasts from G 1 into the S phase (5,6). These two classes of cytokines have been termed competence and progression factors, respectively. One approach used to examine the release of cytokines from macrophages is the fibroblast proliferation assay in which quiescent fibroblasts are exposed to culture supematants from macrophages exposed to various stimuli. In most of these assays, the supernatant contains fetal calf serum (FCS), which provides the competence factor(s) necessary to facilitate the proliferation of fibroblasts (7-9). Recently, a fibroblast proliferation assay using platelet-poor .plasma [lacking competence factor(s)] as a substitute for FCS bas been described (I 0, 11 ). In this assay, the release of a competence-inducing PDGF-like growth factor from rat and human macrophages can be distinguished from other cytokines that act as progression factors."

Mar 1, 1992

By Merwin H. Howes

Gnome shaft, situated about 24 miles southeast of Carlsbad, N. Mex., was designed and sunk by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission for conducting a peace- time experimental nuclear explosion in the thick salt beds of the Permian Salado formation. Excavation was started July 1, 1960, and completed July 26, 1961. The 10-foot diameter shaft, lined with concrete through the rock section, was sunk 1,216 feet. A drift was driven approximately 1,140 feet on the 1,200- foot level terminating in a shot chamber. On completion of 100 feet of shaft, by means of a truck-mounted crane, facilities were installed for conventional sinking. About 709 feet of rock and 506 feet of salt were encountered in the shaft. Salt beds at this place are reported to be over 1,200 feet thick. The overlying rock section varies greatly in composition and thickness of beds and contains a 28-foot bed of water-bearing dolomite. The aquifer was sealed to facilitate shaft sinking and to prevent water-seepage damage in the salt section of the shaft. Sealing was accomplished by grout injection through holes drilled into the aquifer and by grouting behind the concrete liner.

Jan 1, 1963

By Merwin H. Howes

Gnome shaft, situated about 24 miles southeast of Carlsbad, N. Mex., was designed and sunk by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission for conducting a peace-time experimental nuclear explosion in the thick salt beds of the Permian Salado formation. Excavation was started July 1, 1960, and completed July 26, 1961. The 10-foot diameter shaft, lined with concrete through the rock section, was sunk 1,216 feet. A drift was driven approximately 1,140 feet on the 1,200-foot level terminating in a shot chamber. On completion of 100 feet of shaft, by means of a truck-mounted crane, facilities were installed for conventional sinking. About 709 feet of rock and 506 feet of salt were encountered in the shaft. Salt beds at this place are reported to be over 1,200 feet thick. The overlying rock section varies greatly in composition and thickness of beds and contains a 28-foot bed of water-bearing dolomite. The aquifer was sealed to facilitate shaft sinking and to prevent water-seepage damage in the salt section of the shaft. Sealing was accomplished by grout injection through holes drilled into the aquifer and by grouting behind the concrete liner.

Jan 1, 1963

By H. H. Schrenk, W. P. Yant, P. H. Mautz

"In a study of the chemistry and pathology of chronic benzene poisoning, which was conducted cooperatively by the United. States Bureau of Mines, the Barrett Co., and the producers of benzene, it was necessary to make quantitative determinatious of the abzorption, distribution, and: fate of benzene in the organism. Although methods for determining benzene in relatively large amounts were available no satisfactory method was found for removing and determining the small amounts that are present in the tissues or excretions after exposure to conditions which ultimately cause chronic poisoning. This no doubt accounts for the lack of information in the literature on this particular phase of benzene poisoning.The writers have found in work that will be described in a subsequent publication that the amounts of benzene present in the tissues and excretions under conditions of exposure which produce chronic benzene poisoning arc of the order of a fraction to a few milligrams per 100 grams of tissue. This report describes a method developed and found satisfactory for these determina¬tions.RÉSUMÉ OF PERVIOUS METHODSA method for the determination of benzene in tissue was developed by Joachimoglu. 5 In the Joachimoglu procedure the ground organs are mixed with water and acidified with diluted sulphuzic acid, and the benzene is distilled into a receiver containing carbon tetrachloride. The benzene is nitrated in the carbon tetrachloride, the carbon tetrachloride evaporated, the acid mix¬ture neutralized, and the dinitrobenzene extracted with ether. After removal of the ether the dinitrobeuzene is determined gravimetrically. Joachimoglu reports that this method is about 55 to 60 percent quantitative."

Aug 1, 1935

By H. R. Pierce

Bureau of Mines engineers end others have endeavored to deter-nine a fundamental method for gauging the capacity of gas wells to deliver gas under different pressure conditions. Their studies show that for accurate gauging two factors must be determined: (1) The actual pressures at the face of the sand in the well (usually referred to as "at the sand"), acid (2) the relation between such pressures and the rates. of flow of c as through the sand. This paper, the first of a series, describes a method of attacking the problem of determining the actual pressures at the sand by means of observations of pressures and volumes at the well head.

Jan 1, 1929

By M. H. Kersten, G. A. Brady, Jerry W. Ramsey

Anthracite samples were oxidized with nitric acid to prepare products representing intermediate stages of oxidation . Similar oxidizing conditions affected different anthracites to varying degrees as characterized by peptization behavior with 0.1 N NaOH . Techniques used in attempts to separate and characterize the products included esterification , absorption spectrophotometry , sublimation , chromatography , electrophoresis , metal salt formation , and solvent extraction . Mellitic acid , either free or in the form of metallic salts , was identified in the acid- soluble products from 10 tests in which the anthracite was treated with nitric acid for periods varying from 24 to 1,000 hours . pentacarboxylic acid was also found in some products . Other benzene carboxylic acids were not present in amounts detectable by the methods used in this study . The acid- insoluble residue from nitric acid treatment varied significantly in solubility behavior toward different classes of solvents . The most effective ones tried included polar oxygenated solvents and pyridine . Infrared spectra of the extracted material indicated that similar compounds were extracted by the different solvents . Aliphatic amines and aniline peptized the residue and o- toluidine reacted with it . Organic material separated from the residue by peptization with dimethylformamide contained 1 percent ash , consisting of more than 50 percent zirconium .

Jan 1, 1964

By F. H. Willcox

This publication is the third of a series of reports on hazards and the prevention of accidents at blast-furnace plants that is being published by the Bureau of Mines, Technical Paper 106a being the first and Technical Paper 136b the second of the series. This bulletin, which is arranged in three parts, treats of the causes and prevention of blast-furnace breakouts, explosions, and slips. The first part discusses blast-furnace breakouts, the hazards therefrom, causes, and features of furnace design and methods of operation that tend to prevent breakouts or lessen their number, and points out safety measures to be adopted. The second part takes up the theory and causes of gas explosions at blast-furnace plants and reviews the better methods in use for handling gas. The third part analyzes the causes of hanging and scaffolding in blast furnaces, with the resulting slips that frequently cause injury to the plant and danger to the workmen, describes features of construction and furnace design and methods of operation employed to prevent hanging and slipping, and suggests precautions and safeguards.

Jan 1, 1917

By David A. Monaghan

On January 14, 1974 a fire occurred in the 3 East mains of the Joanne Mine of Eastern Associated Coal Corp. in Rachel, West Virginia. The mine was evacuated without injury and sealed completely at the surface within 24 hours. It was decided by the coal company along with the U, S, Bureau of Mines, the West Virginia Bureau of Mints and MESA that remote sealing of the fire zone would be attempted. This report summarizes the remote sealing effort and those activities directly related to the remote sealing effort. This chapter provides a brief history of previous remote sealing attempts, a description of the recently developed remote sealing system and a description of the Joanne Mine operation as it related to and affected the remote sealing effort.

Jan 1, 1975

By Mackenzie Burnett

An inducer-type pump, capable of injecting dry coal into a hydraulic transport pipeline has been developed and installed in a specially designed and fabricated slurry injector vehicle. The full scale prototype injector system can deliver up to 11 ton/min of coal into an 8-in pipeline t pressures up to 95 lb/in2. The Helical Inducer Injector operates on centrifugal principles with flow passing axially through helical pitched conical rotor. Water is delivered to the pump through an annular slot at the atmospheric pressure coal inlet. The spinning rotor maintains an air-core vortex of water which pressurizes the discharge housing. A screw feeds coal through the open inlet into this vortex. The inner radius of the vortex contracts as pressure is increased, giving a limiting maximum pressure which is proportional to the square of the rotor speed. Below this limit, flow rate, discharge pressure, und rotor speed re independent variables. The self-powered, 4 -in high slurry injector vehicle follows and receives ROM coal from a continuous miner, reduces the top size to 3-in, and delivers the sized coal to the injector feed screw for slurry formation and pumps it through a mobile hose attached to the vehicle's outby end.

Jan 1, 1983

By F. E. Brantley

Blister copper was successfully deoxidized with any of a variety of reducing gases; lancing techniques or a vertical-column furnace were used to contact the copper and gases. Of the gases tested, butane, when used to lance molten copper at about 1,200° C, reaction temperature, was slightly more effective than propane, natural gas, carbon monoxide, or reformed gas for deoxidizing copper from about 1.0 to less than 0.1 percent oxygen content, Laboratory-scale tests revealed that the vertical furnace, composed of a heated column packed with silicon carbide chips or hollow carbon cylinders, was significantly faster and more efficient than the lancing technique for deoxidizing molten copper with any of the gases tested. Comparison of the gaseous-reduction method with the conventional poling method suggests that the gaseous method has important technical and economic advantages for deoxidizing blister copper to any readily controlled amount of residual oxygen content.

Jan 1, 1962

By Edward A. McClatchie

A novel nondispersive electro-optical gas analyzer has been designed, fabricated and tested. The instrument is based on a pressure modulated absorption technique. Key features of this new gas analyzer technique include long-term zero and calibration stability. The technique was investigated for the gases carbon dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide (CO), methane (CH4) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2). The delivered analyzer was capable of measuring the three species CO, CO2 and NO2. It is a compact (300 cu in) package, is battery powered and weighs 15 lbs. Some thirty readings of each gas may be made on a single battery charge.

Jan 1, 1980

This section presents highlights of world economic and mineral industry performance in 1982, a year characterized by continued recession, and selected 1983 forecasts of economic indicators of importance to the mineral industry, some of which indicate a modest improvement in the economies of the United States and Western Europe. The U.S. Economy in 1982 In 1982 U.S. gross national product (GNP) in current dollars increased at a rate of 4 percent, but GNP adjusted for inflation (real GNP) declined at a rate of 1.8 percent. Yearend 1982 real GNP was at roughly the same level as in 1980 (table 1). Thus no growth in real terms had taken place in the United States during the 1980-82 period.

Jan 1, 1983

By G. Stecklein

This report summarizes the results of research into the areas of the fragmentation and entrainment of Airborne Respirable Dust (ARD). The objectives of this program were four-fold: first, to review the present state of knowledge regarding ARD; second, to expand this state of knowledge through the identification of hypothetical microscopic mechanisms by which the coal is fragmented and the dust becomes entrained; third, to specify the informational requirements to verify or nullify these hypotheses; and fourth, to relate experimental techniques that will produce that required information. Additionally, insights are provided regarding potential methods of extraction and/or treatment which may reduce the concentration of ARD.

Jan 1, 1982

By John H. Johnson

White Pine Mine section designated for exhaust emissions studies. The MTU Mine Air Monitoring Laboratory was used to gather temperature and C02 concentration data at 10 locations. The data substantiate the presence of strong buoyant forces of the hot exhaust gases which result in stratification in dead end headings. Diesel mine-vehicle tailpipe emissions were monitored in the laboratory by a portable tailpipe emissions measurement apparatus (EMA) assembled for in-mine use. The results were compared with simultaneous measurements by standard laboratory exhaust monitoring instruments. These results indicate that accurate field source quality control measurements can be obtained for CO2, CO and NO but NO2 results were low for all engine conditions. Diesel pollutant concentration data from the Orchard Valley Mine were analyzed and compared with data collected earlier in the White Pine and Brushy Creek mines. Lognormal frequency distributions and CO2-based concentration ratios and correlations were calculated. In the three mines compared, pollutant concentrations were distributed similarly, and concentrations appear to be controlled to present standards.

Jan 1, 1979