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By J. W. Thompson

RAILROAD GRANT-MDIERALS. Diatomaceous or infusorial earth when found in such quantity and quality as to render lands containing deposits valuable therefor are mineral lands within the meaning of the mining laws and must be excepted from grants to the Central Pacific Railway Company. Central Pacific Ry. Co., In re, 45 Land Decisions, 223, p. 226. RAILROAD GRANT-CLASSIFICATION, If any evidence of minerals is found upon lands within a railroad grant and the showing is sufficient in the opinion of prudent and qualified persons to warrant further exploration and expenditure, with reasonable prospects of success, then the land can not be classified as nonmineral and is not subject to the grant to a railroad company. But where there is no present indication of minerals nor any geological evidence upon which to base a mineral finding, land should not be classified as mineral, or held for further classification and reserved from the railroad's grant, upon the surmise that future prospects might disclose evidences of minerals. Southern PacUl.c Ry. Co., In re, 45 Land Decisions, 326, p. 329. INDEMNITY SELECTION BY RAILWAY COMPANY, Under section 3 of the act of July 2, 1864 (13 Stat., 365), and the joint resolution of May 31, 1870 (16 Stat., 378), the Northern Pacific Railway Company could take coal and iron land within its primary or grant limits. It could not base an indemnity selection upon the claim that certain land was coal or iron in ;;haracter, as such land was not lost to it as part of the grant. But the company was authorized to select other lands in lieu of those lost because of their mineral character, but the word "mineral" did not include iron or coal, and, accordingly, the railroad company was entitled to take coal lands under its indemnity selection.

Jan 1, 1917

By C. A. Kumke

The Korean crisis and the cessation of Russian manganese-ore shipments to the United States in 1950 reemphasized the almost total dependence of the domestic steel industry on foreign supplies for metallurgical-grade manganese ore. In this emergency, Congress authorized the Bureau of Mines to undertake experimental mine and process development work on the known large reserves of low-grade manganese ore in the Artillery Mountains region in Mohave County, Ariz. The objective of the work was to obtain the basic mining and metallurgical data needed to make specific plans for initiating exploitation of the deposits within 3 years if high-grade foreign ore could not be obtained during the emergency. The manganese deposits of the Artillery Mountains region are in an area of about 25 square miles on the north side of the Bill Williams River in southern Mohave County. Lasky, of the Federal Geological Survey, has estimated reserves at 175 million tons of manganiferous material assaying 3.5 to 4 percent Mn. Although the man¬ganese occurs in various Tertiary and Quaternary formations as both bedded and fissure vein deposits, the more important syngenetic deposits are found in upper and lower manganiferous zones in the sedimentary beds of playa and alluvial fan origin that constitute the Chapin Wash formation.

Jan 1, 1957

By G. R. Strimbeck

This is a report on experimental work on development of a gasification process operating at near atmospheric pressures and using finely pulverized coal entrained in oxygen and steam. The gasifier was designed by The Babcock and Wilcox Co. in cooperation with engineers of the Bureau of Mines Morgantown station. The test work discussed in this report covers the first 34 tests made in the pilot plant in which a strongly coking Sewickley-bed coal, ground to either 70 or 90 percent through a 200-mesh screen, was used.

Jan 1, 1954

By H. R. Pierce

A gas well has a certain definite capacity to deliver gas from the gas sand through the producing string of pipe. This capacity depends upon the pressures in the sand; that is, a well will deliver gas at a rate of flow which is determined by the formation or "shut-inn pressure in the sand and the back pressure at the face of the sand in the well. The three factors, rate of flow, formation or "shut-in" pressure, and the back pressure, for a given well, can be written into a fundamental relation which is strictly applicable only to that well. This relation can be used to determine the capacity of the well to deliver gas from any formation pressure against any back pressure held at the f ace of the sand in the well. Studies have been made of the deliveries of 400 gas wells operating under different conditions of pressure, Most of the wells which have been studied are in Osage County, Okla.; however, several representative studies have been made on wells in southern Louisiana, southern Texas, the Texas Panhandle, and West Virginia.

Jan 1, 1929

By M. C. Malamphy

A general description of the activities and results of bauxite investigation by the Bureau of Mines at its bauxite project in Saline and Pulaski Counties, Ark., has been given in Report of Investigations 4251. The factual data obtained during the project are reported in a series of Reports of Investigations beginning with No. 4251, of which this is the fifteenth. The data are accompanied by maps showing the location of holes drilled and the deposits developed. Each area upon which work was done is reported by halt townships. Each bauxite deposit investigated was assigned a name and a number for ready reference and identification and its location and name are shown on the appropriate half-township map. The description of each half township is followed by a description of each deposit developed in that half township. The 14 halt-township maps and 77 detail maps of the bauxite deposits in this series of reports give the locations and numbers of all the holes drilled on the project except the deep holes drilled to test the geophysical anomalies. The locations of those holes show on figure 13 in volume 1. The Descriptions of the deposits developed are followed by complete detailed logs of the drill holes. Many of the widely spaced exploratory holes did not discover bauxite of minable thickness and grade. The pertinent information obtained from the widely spaced exploratory drill holes has been summarized and tabulated, and a table for each halt township is given with the discussion covering that area.

Jan 1, 1948

By H. B. Salisbury

The Bureau of Mines conducted research to determine if low-grade California chromite ores could be beneficiated to produce products suitable for commercial use. This research is part of a Bureau goal to provide technology capable of using low-grade domestic ores to meet emergency demands of the Nation for metals and minerals and in particular those minerals, such as chromite, which are considered critical. Two ores from California were ground and treated using gravity concentration and magnetic separation techniques. An are from Auburn in central California, assaying 2.5 pct Cr203, was treated by tabling and magnetic separation to yield a nonmagnetic product containing 44.7 pct Cr203 at a recovery of 36.4 pct. Core drilling samples from the Seiad Creek area of northern California, assaying about 6 pct Cr203, were upgraded by tabling to yield a concentrate containing nearly 50 pct Cr203 with a recovery of 50 pct. Both products are suitable for metallurgical and/or chemical use.

Jan 1, 1981

By F. W. Smith

This paper is based largely on a study of experimental data obtained by the Bureau of Mines in its comprehensive 25-year survey of the carbonizing properties of American coals. Although the Bureau was interested in and conducted carbonization research-from time to time ever since it was organized in 1910 (1),4/ no systematic studies of the coke-, gas-, and byproduct-making properties of American coals were undertaken until 1927, when the American Gas Association appointed an advisory committee (2) to cooperate with the Bureau in developing equipment and techniques to obtain-data for the accurate assessment of the behavior of coals on carbonization. It was found, in general, that small-scale laboratory tests were unsuitable for the complete evaluation of the coking properties of coal; hence, larger pilot-plant-scale equipment was designed and used (3). It was decided that the scale of the test should be large enough to determine both the yield and quality of the products and yet small enough to maintain adequate control of the process variables (4). These considerations led to development of a carbonizing retort and furnace-of 80 to 200 pounds of coal capacity, suitable for operation at various temperatures up to 1,100° C. (2,0120 F.) and equipment for recovery and measurement of gas and byproducts. This apparatus and the standardized procedure for its operation became known as the Bureau of Mines-American Gas Association (EM-AGA) method or retort (5).

Jan 1, 1955

During the interval 1929-41, geophysical exploration in Russia made considerable progress, as reflected in publications. The greater part of these publications was available during the preparation of Geophysical Abstracts and Ms been abstracted in them. The rest was not received and remained unaccounted for. A considerable portion of these lading publications are now listed in bibliographic form, in view of their interest to geophysicists. All publications entered in the bibliography are in Russian. 1. GRAVITATIONAL METHODS 1. Abakelia, M. S. The Organization of Gravitational Observatories in Transcaucasia. Problemy Sovetskoi Geologi, Moscow, vol. 6, No. 5, 1936, pp. 452-454.

Jan 1, 1945

By A. L. Engel

In recent investigations of chloride Volatilization of gold at the Reno Station, it was found that the addition of small amounts of copper and NaCl to the charge brought about improved volatilization of the gold. The investigations described in this report were concerned with the recovery, in an aqueous medium, of fumes from chloride volatilization of gold. It was attempted to discover a suitable aqueous medium that would permit absorption, solution, or precipitation of all the volatilized gold immediately upon contact with the medium. A simple laboratory apparatus was employed to produce fumes by volatilization. To this furnace was attached an absorption train consisting of a series of chambers containing the aqueous medium, through which the fumes were drawn by suction. A satisfactory synthetic ore that contained metallic, gold in a quartz-matrix was made and utilized, enough. gold being present in a' small amount of material to permit an accurate, metallurgical balance of the volatized values' to be obtained in all the experiments.

Jan 1, 1949

By Forrest T. Moyer

Injury experience at metal mines and mills (excluding officeworkers) in 1964 was 60 fatal and 3,672 nonfatal disabling work injuries during an exposure time of 149 million man-hours worked. These injuries occurred at a frequency rate of 24.57 per million man-hours and had a severity rate of 3,687 days lost or charged per million man-hours. Employment at 2,363 metal mines and 291 mills, excluding officeworkers, was 68,140 men in 1964. The average number of days worked was 274 The principal cause of fatal injuries at all mines and mills was haulage accidents and in underground mines, only, was falls of ground. The principal cause of nonfatal injuries was handling material accidents. The frequency rate at metal mines and mills in 1964 was slightly below that of 1963, whereas the severity rate was higher. Injury experience at 94 primary nonferrous smelters, refineries, and reduction plants (excluding officeworkers) was 8 fatal and 999 nonfatal disabling work injuries during a worktime of 98 million man-hours worked. The combined injury-frequency rate in 1964 was 10.29 and the injury-severity rate was 1,005. The 36,956 employees worked an average of 329 days during 1964. The principal cause of injuries at these plants was handling material accidents.

Jan 1, 1968

By Michael J. Brnich

Since 1991, Pittsburgh Research Center (PRC- formerly part of the Bureau of Mines) researchers have recorded extensive interviews with 30 individuals who are experts in the area of mine emergency response. These individuals, who have an average of 35 years of mining experience and 29 years of mine emergency response experience, related stories and observations from events that they experienced during their combined 850 plus years in mine emergency response. The purpose of this effort was to gather information that could be passed onto both today?s and tomorrow?s mine emergency responders to train and guide them in handling future events.

Jan 1, 1997

By Lyman Moore

This Bureau of Mines report describes 2nd evaluates iron ore resources in California and Nevada and analyzes the California and Japanese iron ore markets in which these resources will be used. The competitive position of California-Nevada ores, in these markets, was estimated by comparing regional iron ore prices, production costs, and transportation costs with those of foreign suppliers. Resources were determined to be sufficient to produce the equivalent of 585 million tons of 64-percent iron pellets at a price of less than $15 per ton delivered at California ports. Much higher tonnage could be produced at higher prices. Iron ore requirement of the California iron and steel industry will increase to an estimated 15.9 million tons by the year 2000. A study of the iron ore production potential of California-Nevada deposits and of out-of- State sources indicated that this ore requirement can be supplied most economically by California-Nevada ores. Iron ore import requirements of the Japanese iron and steel industry will increase to an estimated 150.0 million tons by the year 2000. A study of price trends in this market indicated that very little California-Nevada iron ore will be sold in Japan after 1973 when existing sales contracts expire. Iron ore-exports might be economically possible if ore could be transported from California to Japan at ballast rates as backhaul on existing petroleum shipping.

Jan 1, 1971

By Jr. Allan

"Although the advantages of large-capacity air receivers for underground mines are plainly evident from published information about various installations in the United States and abroad, details of their construction are not generally known in this country., Ordinary present-day air-compressor installations servicing mining machines are designed to supply air at a specified pressure in sufficient quantity to meet the peak demand of the mine,2/ although this demand may exist for only a few minutes out of 24 hours and, as usually happens, eventually exceeds the capacity of the compressor. Most of the receivers provided with these compressors (to a certain degree of standardi¬zation) are capable of storing a volume of air approximately equal to that compressed in 1 minute by the machine.3, 4/ As a result, during peak-load periods the compressor operates at full load capacity without maintaining kick-off pressure. At other periods of the work cycle, production of compressed air is intermittent.At least one large mine5/ has adopted large-capacity receivers to reduce wear on its air-compressing system caused by the sudden demand of peak loads. Under the old system, the compressors jumped suddenly from half speed to full speed; boilers furnishing steam to the compressors were taxed heavily to provide the increased requirements of power; and machines using the air, among which were four large hoists, were required to operate at 65 pounds per square inch rather than at the 90 pounds per square inch for which the compressors were regulated. Operation of air machines, especially drills, at pressures lower than those for which they were designed decreases their efficiency and increases maintenance costs. In addition, air that comes directly from the compressors has had little opportunity to cool and dry enroute.6./ As a result, quantities of compressor lubricant and water are carried into the machines that use the air. When expansion occurs in the cylinder or turbine of such engines, the temperature of the air drops, and this oil and water is precipitated. The water washes away lubricating oils in the machine, causing poor performance and high cost of maintenance; the compressor oil, in addition to being a poor lubricant for compresed-air engines, exerts a corrosive action on gaskets and rubber hoses.7/Reduction of peak demands on air compressors by large receivers lowers power costs by establishing more nearly constant load factors,8/ and in some cases by permitting the use of smaller compressor capacity.8,9/Load factor is the ratio of average demand to maximum demand; a low load factor costs money.10/Elimination of high-peak demands raises the load factor by making the average and the maximum demand more nearly equal. Further savings may be made possible by large receivers where their use permits charging to be done at night in regions having lower power rates during that period.11/Where ordinary receivers are used, compressor breakdowns cause immediate work stoppages in the mine owing to lack of air. Similarly, the capacity of a large receiver has been known to permit uninterrupted work in the mine until the compressors have been returned to service.9/Large-capacity receivers, either steel-tank or underground rock-chamber, offer a practical solution of many existing problems by providing a sufficient reserve of compressed air within the pressure range required for efficient operation of machines to level off peak demands on the compressor. The com¬pressors operate when the demand has reduced the pressure in the receiver below the regulating pressure and until all air used from the receiver has been replaced. It has been found possible in at least two mines,8.9/ one of which the author has visited, to entirely eliminate one compressor and to obtain more efficient performance from the remaining one by the construction of an underground coal-chamber receiver.8/"

Jan 1, 1950

By H. E. Perlee

Mathematical expressions are derived for the histories of the pressure, flame radius, mass fraction burned, and burned and unburned gas temperatures associated with a spherical flame propagating concentrically in a spherical vessel. The equations are solved numerically for a 9.5 pct CH4/air mixture using the best available information for the burning velocity, expansion ratio, and specific heat ratio. Calculated histories are in complete accord with experimental measurements. The accuracy of calculated histories is determined relative to errors in the system parameters, and it is found that 10 pct errors in either the burning velocity or the expansion ratio results in a 40-pct error in the pressure history. A 10-pct error in either burned or unburned specific heat ratio results in a 22-pct error &apos;in the pressure history. It was further established that the usual assumption of constant specific heat ratio is unacceptable, but equating the burned and unburned specific heat ratios result in no apparent error in the histories. The cubic law (P = Kt3 + Po) is derived and discussed, and it is found that the law is valid only during the early period (P<2 atm) of flame growth.

Jan 1, 1974

By M. H. Stanczyk, I. L. Feld

Dewatering of typical Florida phosphate rock slime by electro - osmotic techniques was investigated to determine if a compacted , plastic solid product could be obtained with simultaneous recovery of the water for re - use . Tests with porous cathodes and rod - type anodes imbedded in dilute slime charges of up to 4 tons in weight showed that the slime could be dewatered to about 35 percent solids . The dewatered products had the consistency of modeling clay . In the large - scale tests using 2.5 - foot electrode spacings , about 21 kilowatthours of power were consumed per ton of water removed in thickening the slime from 17 to 25 percent solids , but the rate of water removal was so slow that the process was not considered commercially feasible . Other tests made with electrode spacings of from 2.5 to 8 feet showed that more rapid dewatering could be obtained but that the power required was excessive . However , for special uses such as stabilizing slime pond dikes where the cost of dewatering might not be a prime requisite , high voltages could be used to rapidly remove the water . Tests of 400 - pound slime charges using a combination of electroosmosis and vacuum filtration showed that the rate of dewatering could be expedited . The average power required to thicken a ton of slime from 15 to 35 percent solids was 5 and 50 kilowatt - hours when operating the electroosmotic filtration cell at potentials of 20 and 100 volts , respectively . calculated filtration area of about 10 square feet per ton of slime treated per day was required to thicken the slime from 15 to 35 percent solids .

Jan 1, 1964

1. Domestic Production and Use: Twelve companies operated 31 primary aluminum reduction plants, three firms accounting for 66% of production. Washington, Oregon, and Montana accounted for 32% of the total production; Gulf Coast States, 25%; Northern States, 29%; and other Southern States, 14%. Output of primary metal in 1973 was valued at $2.2 billion. About 80% of the secondary recovery was from new aluminum base scrap and 20% was from old scrap. Aluminum consumption by 25,000 firms was centered in the East Central United States. Of aluminum consuming industries in 1972, building accounted for 28%; transportation 19%; electrical, 13%; packaging, 16%; and consumer durab1es, 10%.

Jan 1, 1974

Operator efficiency and control capability along with cost effectiveness have been the quest of mining, industrial, and mobile hydraulic engineers for years. The majority of the functions in present day fluid power systems are controlled by on/off control valves. They are inexpensive and provide easy installation and operation, but they lack the quality of fine control of load flow or what is sometimes known as "feathering the load". An alternate approach to obtaining this capability is the use of electro-hydraulic servo-valves, but their implementation into a system is complex, and they are expensive. As a result, electrohydraulic systems are still used primarily in the aerospace industry. Of late, a compromise seems to have evolved between the on/ off control systems and the servo-technology is the so-called proportional flow control valves. A proportional flow control valve meters fluid to the load in proportion to the input command from the operator. In principle, it is similar to a conventional flow control valve and is tailored to meet the control requirements from the load point of view. The hydraulic system using this valve usually works in an open-loop mode with the operator closing the loop. Incorporating load-sensing mechanisms and adoption of electrical/electronic signalling into the valve make it the "ideal valve" which designers have been looking for from a techno-economic point of view.

Jan 1, 1983

By W. J. Johnson

This report presents the Phase I progress in the development of a Radar Coal Thickness Sensor (RCTS) being conducted by Boeing Aerospace and Electronics for the Bureau of Mines. A method is developed for measuring both the dielectric constant and depth of the coal shale interface using a modified UHF network analyzer and antennas in proximity to the surface of the coal. Both bistatic and monostatic systems, are compared. The algorithm technique uses synthetic range gating for clutter rejection and full polarimetric scattering matrix techniques to extract the dielectric constant and depth to sub-wavelength accuracies. Tests were run both in the lab and in a coal mine to build an error budget and demonstrate a validation of the model. The development of a prototype radar suitable for coal mine robotics is specified.

Jan 1, 1990

By J. Grumer

Nine dust and gaseous inhibitors of propagating coal dust-air flames (lean, stoichiometric, and rich) were evaluated in a newly developed 15-cm-id, 3.6-meter-long instrumented flame duct, under conditions such that wall quenching was virtually absent and the dust concentration was temporally and spacially uniform to within about t5 percent. Listed roughly in order of increasing efficiency, the inhibitors evaluated were rock dust (calcium carbonate), powdered oyster shells (calcium carbonate), Halon 1301 (trifluorobromomethane), Halon 1211 (difluorochlorobromomethane), sodium chloride, Super-K (potassium chloride), regular-grade fire extinguishant powder (sodium bicarbonate), Purple-K (potassium bicarbonate), and Monnex (potassium bicarbonate combined with urea). Experiments were extended to clouds containing 1 and 2 volume-percent of methane. The inhibition of lean, stoichiometric, and rich methane-air flames without coal dust was also examined in a few instances; results agreed with those obtained for coal dust-air flames.

Jan 1, 1971

By Peter Grandone, Ludwig Schmict

The injection of oil-field brimJs into subsurface formations containing mineralized water ·now is .recognizud as the most satisfactory and effective means of disposal in Kansas.· Other disposal ·methods, such as impounding brines in evapOTation nonds and controlled diversion into surface streams, have not prov-ed entirely successful, principally. because the volumes of brine to be disposed of were large, the soil f;?xtr~~mely porous, the net evaporation is low, and the rairiiall insufficient fc)r adequati.:~ dilution of the brine. The disposal of brine by subsurfaCE) inj'ection is often: more. expensive than by either of the above surface methods; nevertheless, surface dis:pos?,l ow.ing to the damaging effe-c.ts of· salt water to plant, animal and aquatic life and to potable water supplies has been:a long-continuing problem with many technical, economic, and 'legal·complexiti,2s

Aug 1, 1943