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Reduce the potential of haulage related injuries in underground mines by providing a method for quickly assessing the state of repair of mine haulage track. The Problem Currently, there are no established standards or procedures for inspection or cleaning of underground mine haulage track. Many track defects are hidden from an inspector because of layers of dirt and debris on the ballast, spikes, fishplates, etc. When a visual inspection can be performed, it may be highly subjective, except for a few items that can be categorized or counted, such as missing bolts or spikes. Track inspectors may even become tolerant of defects that can gradually worsen. For these reasons, mechanical inspection methods are needed to supplement visual inspections. Approach The Bureau investigated this problem and designed a towed vehicle to both mechanically clean and inspect underground coal mine haulage track. The vehicle was developed using a systems approach, paying particular attention to human factors issues such as operator field of view, operator ingress-egress, control positioning, and seating design. The prototype was built using simple fabrication techniques and off-the-shelf components.

Jan 1, 1990

By Kenneth E. Hay

The Bureau of Mines collected coal and coal waste aggregate material from two different mine sites to determine their strength characteristics for use in concrete. The concrete would be placed underground as support walls for ground control in adverse conditions or unique mining applications. A standard mix design was established for a "wet" mix using a water-to-cement (w/c) ratio of 1.0 to facilitate pumping into place. Later, material was collected from four more mine sites and used to make 2-by 2-by 2-ft test blocks with the same w/c ratio. A pull-out cone device and borehole shear tester were used to determine the in situ material strength of the test blocks. These techniques will provide a simple and quick way of determining support wall strength in an underground environment. Test results from the pullout cone de-vice showed a good correlation of 0.98 to test cylinder compressive strengths of the same mix. Results of the borehole shear tester were inconclusive.

Jan 1, 1986

Develop a means for estimating vertical stress conditions in or around an underground mine so that appropriate measures for ground control can be taken before hazardous conditions arise. Background High vertical stress in an underground mine could cause or enhance hazardous ground control conditions which might lead to accidents, fatalities, and loss of reserves. An understanding of the vertical stress conditions at the mining level would allow a mine operator to take precautions that will minimize the occurrence of ground control problems. A knowledge of the underground stress conditions prior to mining could be used as an aid in future mine plan development to avoid or minimize ground control problems. Approach The Bureau of Mines developed a computer program for calculating the vertical stress resulting from the pressure of overlying rock masses on a mine or geologic surface at various depths.

Jan 1, 1990

By A. G. Starliper

The report covers studies by the Bureau of Mines on the removal of metallic values in two waste products from the Longhorn tin smelter at Texas City, Tex. One product was a slag that contained tin, tungsten, iron, tantalum, and columbium. The other product was a spent acid solution that contained tin, tungsten, iron, lead, copper, zinc, and silver and that came from presmelting treatment of impure tin concentrates. Molten slag was treated with sulfur or sulfur compounds and with coke, calcium carbide, or gaseous reductants to form tin sulfide that volatilized from the charge and to reduce tungsten along with iron and silicon to form a carbon-bearing metallic layer. The metallic layer was treated by an oxidizing alkali roast and then was water-leached to extract the tungsten. The waste acid was used in other experiments to dissolve an iron-tin- tungsten alloy (hardhead) obtained by direct reduction of the slag. An insoluble fraction containing tungsten, silver, silicon, columbium, and tantalum was removed, and copper was cemented on metallic iron, Tin was recovered by cementation on zinc plates, and lead was precipitated by adding sulfate ion. Iron was precipitated by increasing the pH which left a solution containing principally zinc. Slabs of hardhead were electrolyzed in an electrolyte consisting of waste acid to plate out groups of metals at different pH?s. The time did not permit thorough exploration of this method of treatment.

Jan 1, 1962

Improve the reliability and accuracy of subsurface images using constrained tomography with enhanced ray-tracing capabilities. Background Geophysical tomography is a technique for imaging the structure of a rock mass using seismic or radio waves, in the same way that medical CAT scans image human tissue using X-rays. Tomography has found numerous practical applications related to mining, including lithologic and structural characterization, fracture detection and fluid monitoring, void detection, and evaluation of stress state and integrity of mine structures. Problems Two fundamental problems have largely prevented geophysical tomography from enjoying the tremendous success achieved by medical tomography. The first is a consequence of practical limitations on the placement of sources and receivers of wave energy: ideal resolution can be attained only when the region being imaged is entirely surrounded by sources and receivers, so that it is crossed by rays traveling in all possible directions. When such coverage is impossible or impractical, the inversion becomes underdetermined: there id not enough information in the measured data to provide a mathematically unique solution. The second major problem in geophysical tomography is the necessity for detailed ray tracing. Commercial software, as well as previous U.S. Bureau of Mines (USBM) software, employs a ray-shooting algorithm that may be unable to model some ray paths when velocity contrasts are larger than about 100%. These ?shadow zones" result in loss of data and degradation of reconstructed images.

Jan 1, 1994

By P. F. Sands

This U.S. Bureau of Mines report reviews the state of the art in blind pneumatic stowing of backfill in voids in abandoned coal mines. It contains a short history of the development of pneumatic equipment in mining and four recent case histories of blind pneumatic stowing. Limitations of pneumatic stowing in terms of equipment wear, costs, backfill material, and methodology are discussed, and some new procedures and designs are reviewed. A bibliography covering pneumatics in mining is included also. This report provides background for the preparation of a Bureau test program in which the variables affecting the efficiency of pneumatic backfilling will be studied using a full-scale surface test facility.

Jan 1, 1990

In September 1985, the Chairman of the Transportation, Aviation and Materials Subcommittee of the House of Representatives requested that the Director of the Bureau of Mines address the issue of South Africa and critical materials dependency in testimony before the Subcommittee. Subsequent to the testimony, the Bureau has prepared a technical report focusing on the importance of South Africa and, in some cases, its neighboring countries as suppliers of six key materials. The report includes a qualitative analysis which examines the supply shortfall resulting from a potential disruption, options that are available for mitigating the impact, and their likely effectiveness, and quantitative analyses which estimate the economic impacts in the chromium and manganese markets resulting from peacetime disruption scenarios specified by the Subcommittee Chairman. The concluding section treats the role and capabilities of the Bureau of Mines in dealing with mineral supply disruptions.

Jan 1, 1986

By Oliver Q. Leone

Three electrorefining cells were designed to investigate various factors associated with the electrorefining of reject - grade titanium sponge . Operation of the cells provided information on cell design as well as on how design and operating variables affected the quality of the titanium product . A sodium chloride - titanium chloride electrolyte was used , and the electrolyte chambers had capacities ranging from 400 to 3,500 pounds of molten salt . Major factors investigated were electrolyte composition , temperature and useful life , effect of various cathode shapes and materials of construction , methods for removing cathode deposits , effect of current density and cell potential , and the mechanics of deposit growth and crystal morphology . One of the cells was in intermittent operation over a 4 - year period and produced 2 tons of refined titanium . A product with a hardness of 80 or less Bhn (Brinell hardness number ) was consistently and easily obtained . Some metal with a hardness of less than 60 Bhn was produced . In one of the cells in which the electrolyte was held at operating temperature with an internal heater an ac input of 25 kw maintained 3,500 pounds of electrolyte at 850 ° C , but with an external heater 35 kw was required to maintain 400 pounds at 850° C.

Jan 1, 1964

By D. E. Hirsch

The Bureau of Mines has developed a systematic procedure for separation, characterization, and semiquantitative analysis of high-boiling (350° to 550° C) distillates of crude oils. Isothermal and molecular distillation were used to prepare the 370° to 530° C distillate of Recluse, Wyo., crude oil. The distillate was separated into fractions by chemical treatment, silica-alumina gel adsorption, and gel permeation chromatography (GPC). The fractions were analyzed by use of GPC correlations and mass and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometry. The increased knowledge of petroleum composition obtained from the data will contribute to improved petroleum processing and utilization and energy conservation.

Jan 1, 1974

By C. A. Komar

Renewed interest in the underground gasification of coal evolves from comprehensive studies of earth fracture systems that indicate that the movement of fluids can be controlled in the coalbed. In particular, directional property studies of natural microfissure occurrence, permeability, ultrasonic velocity, tensile strength, and orientation of intervals of inherent rock weakness, together with geologic structure setting and fracture trace analysis, can predict the gaseous flow paths in the coalbed. Having this information, the dominant direction in which gases generated and/or liberated by heat would move can be determined so that appropriate well patterns can be developed. Together with advances made in drilling technology that permit long horizontal holes to be drilled through the coal seams, tests can be conducted to determine whether directional control will permit devolatilization of the coalbed and gasification of the remaining hot coke in a systematic manner to produce a low-Btu gas suited for the generation of electricity.

Jan 1, 1973

By H. E. Powell

Magnetic susceptibilities were determined by the Bureau of Mines fur 19 cobalt- and nickel-bearing minerals and for a suite for synthetic cobalt-nickel diarsenides analogous to the rammelsbergite and safflorite series. Relations between susceptibility and composition were found to be nonlinear for both impure natural minerals and pure synthetics.

Jan 1, 1967

By T. L. Joseph

"In the January 3 issue of Iron Trade Review, Sweetser2, in referring to the problem of coke combustibility, points out that, ""Someone should formulate a rule for the rate of flow of coke through the zone of coke combustion that now appears to be confined to a comparatively restricted volume in front of the tuyeres,"" In formulating such a rule it is necessary to distinguish clearly between combustibility, a property of the fuel, and rate of combustion, which is determined by the rate at which air is supplied to the fuel bed. The rate of carbon gasified at the tuyeres of a blast furnace is independent of coke combusti-bility. A fast-burning coke will burn in a more restricted volume than a slow-burning coke, but both types of fuel will be consumed at rates determined by the supply of oxygen,A number of the definitions of combustibility that have appeared in technical literature relate more closely to rate of combustion than to combustibility. Perrott and Kinney) have correctly defined it as follows: ""Combustibility of coke from the standpoint of its use in, the blast furnace is inversely proportional to the mean rate of gasification per unit volume of the combustion zone, assuming other factors remain constant,"" Combustibility of coke refers therefore to those properties that determine the size or extent of the combustion zone. Relative differences in these properties can be measured by the depth of the fuel bed required to convert oxygen from the air into carbon monoxide."

May 1, 1924

By Douglas F. Scott

Researchers from the U.S. Bureau of Mines conducted geologic investigations in an area of the Lucky Friday Mine, Mullan, ID, that included the 5300-107 demonstration stope using underhand longwall cut-and-fill mining. Structural analysis of the area suggested that argillite beds form planes of weakness between blocks of brittle quartzite, and energy may be released along these planes and at the junctures of fractures. Mapping argillite beds and fractures in the stope wall rock showed that the planes of these features diverged and that their attitudes corresponded from one wall to the other. Seismic analysis showed that the number and location of events varied as each cut was mined, with about 39 pct of the total number of events occurring above the cut being mined, about 54 pct below, and 7 pct at the same elevation.

Jan 1, 2010

By Harry W. Campbell

In 1984 and 1985, at the request of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Bureau of Mines studied part of the Meadow Valley Range Wilderness Study Area (NV-050-156) in order to evaluate its identified mineral resources. The study area is located in Clark and Lincoln Counties, NV, about 50 miles northeast of Las Vegas, NV. The Johnston and Fitchett prospect, in the northern part of the study area, has more than 3 million tons of marginal perlite reserves suitable for many commercial uses. A preliminary mining feasibility estimate suggests perlite could be profitably mined from the study area; however, it is unlikely these perlite deposits will be developed in the foreseeable future because of unfavorable market conditions. Zeolite minerals occur in alteration zones adjacent to perlite deposits at the Johnston and Fitchett prospect, but high quality material is closer to potential markets. A metalliferous black shale unit containing 800,000 tons of subeconomic resources may extend into the study area at the Bradshaw vanadium prospect on the northwest boundary. Limestone, stone, sand, and gravel occurrences are wide-spread, but other suitable deposits in the region are more accessible to potential markets. Seven prospects in and near the study area were examined. The entire study area is leased for oil and gas exploration. A group of perlite placer claims covering more than 480 acres was located in the 1940's in the northern part of the study area. A small group of lode claims was located in the mid 1950's in the southwest part of the study area. No mining claims are currently (1985) held inside the study area. No mineral production is known from within the study area.

Jan 1, 1987

By Raymond M. Stateham

Climatic conditions are compared with roof fall occurrence from April 1, 1972, to December 31, 1975, by the Bureau of Mines. These comparisons indicate that humidity has a strong influence on roof fall occurrence rates. Cubic regression techniques are used to develop best fit curves. Statistical analysis of these curves indicate that both are sinusoidal and exhibit positive correlation with each other. The sine waves have a period of 1 year with maximum and minimum inflection points in August and February.

Jan 1, 1978

By John L. Miller

The synthetic fluormicas may be divided on the basis of silicon content into tetrasilicic, trisilicic, and disilicic. Properties of lead and barium disilicic fluormicas were determined to characterize these two representative members of the disilicic group. Properties described include unit-cell parameters from X-ray diffraction, optical data, chemical composition, density, melting point, and mechanical and dielectric properties. Both the lead and the barium micas were typically monoclinic; neither was sufficiently cleavable to yield usable mica splittings. Both yielded polycrystalline, machinable ceramics with excellent mechanical and dielectric properties.

Jan 1, 1963

By A. L. Engel

This report describes laboratory-scale experimental treatment of six base-metal ore samples taken by engineers of the Bureau of Mines, Region II, while investigating ore deposits in California and Nevada. The information is of interest in developing the mining districts represented or when similar ores from other sources are being studied. Simple treatment methods were employed as far as possible. More complex treatments also were tried when necessary. The possibilities and limitations of the methods applied to the several ores are shown by the data herein reported.

Jan 1, 1960

By Richard H. Singleton

Native asphalt was produced in 1978-79 by six companies in four States. Leading States were Texas and Utah. Output in-creased 37% in 1978 to 1.7 million tons and decreased 5% in 1979 to 1.6 million tons while value increased 39% in 1978 to $19.3 million and 33% in 1979 to $25.6 million. Bituminous limestone was produced by Whites Uvalde Mines and by Uvalde Rock Asphalt Co. in Uvalde County, Tex.; by Southern Stone Co. in Colbert. Ala.; and by Barton County Rock Asphalt Co. in Barton County, Mo. The product was used mainly in street and road repair. Gilsonite was produced by American Gilsonite Co. in Uinta County, Utah, and by Ziegler Chemical and Mineral Corp. in Weber County, Utah. This material was used for purposes other than road repair.

Jan 1, 1980

Many USBM research and information products are available through the systems or formats listed below: Mines FaxBack: Return fax service. 1. Use the touch-tone handset attached to your fax machine's telephone jack. (ISDN [digital] telephones cannot be used with fax machines.) 2. Dial 202/219-3644 3. Listen to the menu options and punch in the number of your selection, using the touch-tone telephone 4. After completing your selection, press the start button on your fax machine. Mines Data: Computer bulletin board. Log on via modem through 202/501-0373, or call 202/501-0406 for technical assistance. CD-ROM: This USBM disk is updated quarterly and sold by GPO's Superintendent of Documents. For information on the latest product, please contact Rodger Wedgeworth, 202/501-9557. Internet/World Wide Web: Text and graphics. Access via PC-based browsing software such as Netscape or Mosaic. Universal Resource Locator (URL) is: http:/www.usbm.gav Internet/Gopher Server: Text and tables only. Using Gopher client software, access via port 70 as follows: gopher.usbm.gav Internet System Administrator: webmaster®usbm.gov (or contact your local System Administrator).

Jan 1, 1995

By T. W. Beck

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) conducratory and field tests to evaluate the effectiveness of dust collector bags for reducing dust liberation and operator exposure from a roof bolter’s dust collection system. The laboratory tests evaluated the bag’s effectiveness to contain dust and the effect on canister filter loading in both a bag and bagless condition. The dust emissions from the collector’s exhaust were also measured in each condition during laboratory testing and show that nearly 100% of the test dust fed into the collector was captured by the dust bags. Loading and pressure drop on the dust collector’s canister filter is greatly decreased when using the bags, enabling longer periods of drilling without filter removal/cleaning. The field results showed that, even though dust standards were met, respirable dust in exhausted emissions was reduced around the bolter. Laboratory and field results show that benefits from use of the bags are realized in all areas of operator exposure.