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By J. E. Hamak

This publication contains analyses and related source data for 144 natural gas samples from 19 States. Of the total samples, 139 were collected during calendar year 1990. The remainder were collected earlier, but releases granting permission to publish were not received until 1990. All samples were obtained and analyzed as part of the U.S. Bureau of Mines investigations of the occurrences of helium in natural gases of countries with free-market economies. This survey has been conducted since 1917. The analyses were made by mass spectrometer and chromatograph.

Jan 1, 1991

By E. W. Dean

In the early winter of 1919 the Pittsburgh petroleum laboratory of the Bureau of Mines undertook the work of testing fuel oil samples representing purchases of the United State Shipping Board for ships sailing from the port of New York. fuel oil was, at this time, being bought on a contract which involved specifications issued by the United States Navy under dace of October 2, 1920 (See Bulletin 1, Oil Division, U. S. Fuel Administration.)The object of the Bureau of Mines in undertaking this inspection work was twofold. (1) The Bureau was in position to give, and the Shipping Board needed, reliable laboratory service for checking the quality of the fuel oil purchased, the value of which ran into millions of dollars for,year's supply. (2) It was believed, and later demonstrated, that the existing specifications did not insure the obtaining of a reliably satisfactory quality of oil.The objection to the specifications concerned the employment of a clause limiting the gravity of the oil. The inadequacy of gravity specifications for several types of petroleum products has long been recognized, and there was every reason to reason to believe that they were no more desirable for fuel oil than for gasoline, kerosene, or lubricating oil. A first and obvious objection was the fact that it is somewhat difficult to make accurate gravity tests on ""heavy"" residuum fuel oils. (The Bureau found it necessary to employ or such tests a rather tedious procedure involving the use of a picnometer and an accurate balance, as the simpler methods, employing hydrometer or displacement balance, proved unreliable in a large proportion of cases.) A second and more important objection was that gravity tests, even when accurately made, do not provide a reliable index of the actual quality of the oil.

Feb 1, 1921

The purpose of Volume II of this study is to provide a general plan for the pilot testing of two materials which could be used to tag explosives for both pre- and postdetonation identification and of tracing techniques which would thereby aid the investigator of an unauthorized bombing or explosion in being able to determine the source and/or user of the explosives. Volume I described the planning factors by which the tagging of explosives could be implemented on a National basis. 1.2 BACKGROUND Tagging explosives at the time of manufacture with a taggant material that could survive detonation, be recovered, and provide an investigative lead has been seriously studied for several years. This concept has gained widespread support among many law enforcement groups because of the scant clues that can presently be found among bombing residue.

Jan 1, 1977

By H. N. Smith

IN 1944 the Congress passed the Synthetic Liquid Fuels Act that authorized the Secretary of the Interior, acting through the Federal Bureau of Mines, to conduct basic research and construct and operate demonstration plants to produce synthetic liquid fuels from coal, oil shale, and other substances. As a basis for the oil shale investigations to be undertaken in this country, the progress of foreign countries in developing and using oil shale as a source of liquid fuels was studied by the technical missions of the Federal Bureau of Mines. Oil shale mines, retorting plants, and refineries were visited; geological information on the nature and occurrence of the foreign oil shales was obtained; and samples of the oil shales were collected where possible. Samples collected by these missions or acquired by other means came from Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Manchuria (China) , New Zealand, Scot-land, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, and Union of South Africa. These countries represent a large part of the locations where oil shale developments have taken place. The major omissions are the Estonian, German, and Russian developments.

Jan 1, 1959

By Charles Seitz

The Bureau of Mines has modified its parts-per-billion helium-4 analyzer to improve the analytical capabilities of the instrument. The modifications resulted in the following improvements: (1) The analytical precision of the instrument for 10 consecutive analyses was improved to ±1 ppb at the 5,000-ppb helium-4 level, (2) the helium-4 sensitivity was increased almost tenfold, and (3) the minimum detectable limit for helium-4 was improved to 0.5 ppb. The modifications made to improve the instrument included replacing the ion-source control circuit with a direct-current solid-state design, controlling the temperature of the ion source, stabilizing and reducing the pumping rate of the vacuum system, and optimizing peak integration.

Jan 1, 1986

By Lester G. Morrel

THE RICH and varied occurrences of metallic ores in Australia, extensive nickel deposits on New Caledonia and phosphate rock on several widely scattered small islands were important aspects of the economy of the South Pacific area. Relatively small quantities of gold and nonmetallic minerals produced in New Zealand, Fiji, and the Territory of Papua-New Guinea remained important to the domestic economies of these islands, but had little importance to overall world mineral supplies. The value of mineral commodities produced in this area in 1964 was estimated at $658 million,3 compared with $585 million in 1963. The year's greatest commodity gains were in bauxite and aluminum, beryl concentrate, manganese ore, nickel smelter products, tin, and coal. Annual increases were recorded in virtually all countries and possessions in the area except Papua-New Guinea, where the drop in output of alluvial gold accounted for a decline of about $160,000. Mineral industry activities in Australia overshadowed those in all other parts of the South Pacific in 1964. Outstanding developments were the sales contract negotiations and physical preparation for exploiting the rich iron ore discoveries in Western Australia, the initiation of domestic crude oil production, the commissioning of two new steal mills and an alumina refinery and a start on the new alumina-aluminum project based on Cape fork bauxite deposits. The principal mineral development in 1864 in New Zealand was the progress on plans of the Newzealand Steel Co. to use indigenous iron sans as the resource base for a local steel industry. In New Caledonia, additions and expansion of the nickel mining and smelting facilities continued throughout the year. Plans for extensive geophysical studies were announced by the Government Geological Departments of British Solomon Islands and Fiji.

Jan 1, 1966

This report presents test results, data evaluations, and typical system performance expectations based on wireless electromagnetic propagation measurements performed in the MAGMA Copper Company's San Manuel mine near Tuscon, Arizona during March 30 through April 2 1981. In particular, and at the Bureau's request, this work was coordinated with testing of MF prototype vehicular radios being developed by A.R.F. Products, Inc. with USBM support under Contract H0308004 as part of a system to be marketed by Mine Safety Appliance Co. This testing also employed a prototype vehicular antenna developed by Terry S. Cory, P.E. with USBM upport under previous Contract P0382223. The work was performed under USBM contract J0308012, Propagation of EM Signals in Underground Metal/Non-metal Mines. The authors wish to thank Mr. Hank Seany, Manager of Mines and Mr. Bob Zerga, Mine Superintendent who so kindly arranged for the visit. Particular thanks are given to Mr. Al Metcalf who arranged the logistical details of our underground work, and whoa forward thinking program toward improving general mine communications at MAGMA provided the test-bed context for evaluation of the prototype equipment. The authors also wish to thank Benny Jiminez, Paul Ayala, Lorenzo De La Cruz, and Kent Billhartz for their day-by-day support of the testing. Mr. Jiminez's effort was instrumental in performing the testing, and he also provided a detailed understanding of the existing multi-level, multi-frequency trolleyphone system at MAGMA. the authors are also indebted to Dr. Larry Stolarczyk of A.R.F. for numerous detailed consultations on MF technology, and who was present and participated in the majority of the testing. 1.1 GENERAL BACKGROUND ON COPPER MINING AT MAGMA the San Manuel mine is the largest copper mine in the U.S., efficiently extracting copper and molybdenum sulfide from the low-grade San Manuel ore body.This ellipsoidal ore-shell body, with major workings located 2000-3000 feet mbelow the surface, has ore shell thickness varying between 100 and 1000 feet over a longitudinal extent of some 8000 feet, and with major & minor crossectional axes of about 5000 and 2500 feet respectively. The San Manuel mine operation employs in excess of 1000 men/shift with gross ore production between 60,000 and 70,000 tons/day. The mining operation employs the block caving technique; actively being implemented on three levels (2075,2375,2675 feet for haulage, and 2015,2315,2615 product/grizzly levels). The ore haulage is largely via D.C. trolley trains to four (3A,3B,3C,3D) product shafts for skipping to the surface. An additional three shafts at two locations are used to convey men, materials, and developmental rock extractions into and out of the mine. On each haulage level, the trains carry ore an average of two miles one-way from the ore raises to the dump points. 1.2 TOPOLOGICAL BRIEF OF THE HAULAGE LEVELS The 2375 level, on which all the testing was conducted, is illustrated in

Jan 1, 1981

By Anthony T. Iannacchione

The Bureau of Mines developed data on the methane content of the Hartshorne coalbed, Haskell and Le Flore Counties, Okla. The methane content is calculated to be between 1.1 and 1.5 trillion cubic feet, based on an estimate of total coal in place of 2.4 to 3.2 billion short tons. Methane increases with depth, but the rate of increase decreases with greater depths. Degasification in advance of mining is recommended for all mines operating at depths greater than 500 feet to reduce hazards and methane explosions, decrease mine ventilation costs, and conserve the natural gas that would be otherwise wasted.

Jan 1, 1979

By F. P. Miknis

Previous studies at the Bureau of Mines have shown that broad-line nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) techniques have potential applications for rapid evaluation of oil-shale deposits. In a continuation of this study the techniques of pulsed NMR have been applied in a similar manner. The basis for the pulsed NMR oil-shale assay method lies in the assumption that the free induction decay (FID) amplitude following a 90° pulse is proportional to the potential oil yield. This assumption was tested on two groups of oil-shale samples, numbering 141 and 263 samples, from two different oil-shale cores. For both groups of samples a small number were selected as calibration samples. Free induction decay amplitude measurements were made on the 141 and 263 samples. The best least-squares regression line was obtained for the calibration samples, and the oil yields of the remaining samples were calculated using the slopes and intercepts obtained in the regression analyses. The agreement between measured and calculated oil yields was good, the indexes of determination being 0.93 and 0.89 for the groups of 141 and 263 samples, respectively.

Jan 1, 1974

By D. G. Kuehn

Studies were conducted by the Bureau of Mines to determine the positive ions and neutral species produced in glow discharges of gas streams containing 1.0 percent NO in helium, 29 percent dry air in helium, and 1.06 percent NO in N2, Mass spectrographic measurements were conducted for gas pressures from 2.3 to 10.0 torr and dc currents from 10 to 20 mAo Ion species observed included NO+, N2 +, O2 +, N+, and 0+ with lesser amounts of He+, He2+, and N02+. Variations in various ionic and neutral species with discharge duration were interpreted to be consistent with an electrically induced dissociation of NO to produce N2 and O2. No nitrogen oxides were observed to form in glow discharges of the helium-air mixture.

Jan 1, 1975

By Harry R. Johnson

Laboratory experiments were conducted to study the carbon deposition characteristics of a high-gravity, paraffin-base crude oil. The results of these experiments indicate that a fuel supply adequate to initiate a combustion wave can be deposited in high-gravity-oil reservoirs. These results are significant because there has been considerable doubt whether oils over 35° API gravity are able to deposit sufficient fuel. Considered in these studies were the effects of air flux, temperature, initial oil saturation, and time on carbon deposition. Conditions that maximized carbon deposition in the laboratory and an understanding of the nature of carbon formation are shown by graphical interpretation of the data. Statistical techniques were used to design and analyze the results of the retort tests. For the same amount of laboratory work, this approach yields more information about the systems that were studied than the classical method of research presently used in many laboratories. In addition, the accuracy of calculating the effect of each variable on carbon deposition is twice that of the classical approach. This paper develops the statistical approach to research without complex mathematics, thus enabling the reader to grasp the concept of how statistics can be applied to study many complicated problems.

Jan 1, 1966

By W. H. Young

THE BITUMINOUS coal and lignite industry increased substantially in 1962, compared with the 1961 figures. The major items of production, consumption, exports, and productivity increased. However, certain key items declined. The steady upward trend in mechanization failed to materialize for the third year; the percentage of total tonnage mechanically loaded remained the same as in the 2 previous years; and the tonnage mechanically cleaned was smaller than in the previous year. The percentage of total production mined by stripping and by augers increased slightly. Most significant was the continued decline in average value and employment. Production.-The output of bituminous coal and lignite in the United States in 1962-422 million tons-was 5 percent greater than the 403 million tons produced in 1961. Production was greater in 1962, owing largely to expanded consumption by the electric utilities and to more exports.

Jan 1, 1963

By W. D. Walker

This information circular is offered to the coal-mining industry for use as a guide in selecting, placing, and caring for fire-fighting equipment in coal mines. Its purpose is to suggest minimum requirements for fire protection underground, and it is presented with the hope that it will aid in establishing adequate standards that will provide reasonable protection against underground fires in coal mines. Potentially, a coal mine is a hazardous fire area. Coal itself is a combustible substance, easily ignited. In addition, large quantities of other combustible materials must be present in the area of operations; these include materials for roof support, track ties, doors, ventilation stoppings, lubricants, etc.

Jan 1, 1953

By Gerald T. Homce

A system capable of monitoring a mine electrical power system to detect incipient electrical component failure could significantly improve power system safety and availability. The U.S. Bureau of Mines funded a contract with The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) to establish the theoretical and technical framework for such a system. This report briefly outlines the contract, reviewing related Bureau and Penn State work prior to its award, and describes support work carried out by the Bureau. The main focus of the report is on research efforts by Penn State and subsequent results. An existing algorithm for incipient-failure detection and classification was studied, and recommendations are made to improve its performance. In addition, mathematical models of cable-connected motor systems and deteriorating motors were developed and implemented on computers. These models and laboratory tests were used to study and document relationships between component deterioration and electrical terminal effects. The project was supported by the U.S. Navy and the nature of its interest in the application of failure prediction techniques is also included.

Jan 1, 1989

By I. N. Beall

The present survey indicates 'that the average volatility of motor gasoline now being marketed throughout the country falls well within the limits of Federal Specifications. As would be expected, there is a slight decrease in volatility as compared with the gasoline marketed last wine:., but on the average the gasoline sold today is about the same as that sold last summer. During the past five years the Bureau of Mines has made semi-annual surveys of the gasoline marketed in the United States. To obtain a sample of each gasoline sold is obviously impracticable, but the cities in which samples have been collected have been so chosen as to be representative of the more important marketing territories. It is believed, therefore, that the samples obtained are indicative of the quality of gasoline marketed throughout the country.

Jan 1, 1925

By J. M. Gomes

The Bureau of Mines investigated electrolytic techniques for preparing diborides of the group IV B metals. TiB2, ZrB2, and HfB2 were electro-deposited from their respective oxides dissolved in borate-chloride-cryolite electrolytes. Titanium diboride was also electrodeposited from rutile (Ti02) dissolved in a Na2,B4O7-Na2C03-Na3A1F6-NaC1 electrolyte at 1,050° C; 14 kW-hr were required to produce 1 pound of TiB2. Major impurities in the TiB2 produced in a 10-deposition cycle experiment, in weight-percent, were Al, 0.2; Cr, 0.3; Fe, 0.1; V, 0.3; C, 1.4; and 0, 1.0. Zirconium diboride was electro-deposited from zircon (ZrSiO4) dissolved in a Na2B407-NaOH-Na3A1F6-NaCl-NaF electrolyte at 1,050° C. The ZrB2 produced in a 10-deposition cycle experiment contained the following impurities in weight-percent; Fe, 0.1; Si, 0.5; C, 0.3; and 0, 0.6. Energy required to produce 1 pound of ZrB2 was 9.3 kW-hr.

Jan 1, 1975

By D. W. Butner

This report is concerned with the conditions affecting the methods and costs of mining phosphate rock in that part of the western phosphate field that is in Bear Lake and Caribou Counties in southeastern Idaho ( see fig . 1) . The area was selected because it contains most of the known phosphate reserve and because its geology has been studied more extensively than that of other sections . Deposits of phosphate rock on public land may be leased from the Government under the terms of the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920 , subject to the regulations of the Bureau of Land Management . Public interest in phosphate production is growing , as shown by an increasing number of applications for leases . Two mines are being operated steadily for the production of phosphate rock by companies that have also the necessary processing plants for the manufacture of fertilizer . Total western phosphate - rock production in 1947 is reported by the Economics Statistics and Division of the Federal Bureau of Mines to have been 1,193,000 long tons , mined in Idaho , Montana , and Wyoming . The average grade was 30.7 percent of contained phosphorus pentoxide (P205 ) ; the average value at the mines was $5.67 per long ton . Idaho contributed 905,000 tons , or somewhat more than 75 percent of western production . Western fertilizer plants took 23 percent of total production; 76 percent was exported . Strip mining accounted for 75 percent of the Idaho tonnage; the remainder was stoped from underground workings . Rock must contain a minimum of 30 percent P205 to be commercially useful for the production of superphosphate fertilizer by current acid treatment methods . Research by corporations and Government agencies has been directed toward the use of lower - grade ore . So far , only by smelting can rock containing as little as 25 percent P205 be used economically . Any development of processing or use pattern that would render the mining of , say , 20 percent rock profitable would have important effects in reducing the unit cost of mining . In the search for metallurgical improvements , consideration should be given to the saving of valuable components of the rock, such as vanadium and fluorine , both of which are present in the beds .

Oct 1, 1949

By William O. Vanderburg

This paper describing the mining practices at the Argonaut mine, Amador County, California, is one of a series being prepared by the Bureau of Mines on mining practices, methods, and costs in the various mining districts of the United States. The mining practices described are those used in exploiting the low-grade gold ores in the heavy and swelling ground that occurs on the Mother Lode belt. The author acknowledges the assistance of E. A. Stent, vice-president, James L. Fontenrose, cost clerk, Joseph Mohorovich, mine foreman, of the Argonaut mine, and of E. D. Gardner, supervising engineer, United States Bureau of Mines, Southwest Experiment Station, Tucson, Ariz.

Jan 1, 1930

By Ann G. Kim

The Bureau of Mines investigated factors that influence the formation of methane and other hydrocarbon gases in coal, which is an integral part of the coalification process. Coalification begins with a biogenetic stage in which plant debris decomposes and peat is formed; methane and CO2 are the predominant gases produced during this stage. During the diagenetic stage of coalification hydrogen and the hydrocarbon gases methane, ethane, ethylene, propane, propylene, butene, iso- and normal butane, and pentane are formed by dissociation of the organic material. Methane may also be produced by a secondary reaction of hydrogen with unsaturates or by the reduction of CO2. The gas contained in coalbeds is a mixture of methane, C2 through C5 alkanes, CO2, 02, N2, H2, and H2; its heating value is equivalent to that of natural gas. The gas content of coal depends on many variables, but an empirical relationship between adsorptive capacity, rank, and depth has been observed.

Jan 1, 1978

By Deno M. Pappas

The objective of this Bureau of Mines investigation was to identlfy and evaluate alternative binder materials for use in stabilizing and consolidating highly fractured roof along longwall faces and gate roads. The desirable characteristics of a stabilization material were defined, and an extensive search was conducted to find materials satisfying these characteristics. Of 20 materials originally scrutinized, 9 were chosen for laboratory analyses. The laboratory tests evaluated bond strength and tensile strength under both dry and wet conditions. An optimum material was not found. The laboratory analyses indicated two possible candidate materials for longwall stabilization: high-aluminous cement and two-component epoxy; however, the tensile strength of the high-aluminous cement was mediocre, and the epoxy cement is toxic, flammable, and fairly expensive. The potential market demand for an effective and economical stabilization macerial is discussed in the appendix.

Jan 1, 1988