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By Allen S. Smith

Analysis of the helium content of a natural gas presents more than the usual difficulties encountered in applying the thermal--conductivity method because of the relatively small amounts of this inert gas present and the wide variation in the other constituents. However, the numerous advantages of this method and its adaptability to continuously recording and control instruments make it worthy of consideration. A specific application of the method described yields quantitative results only when used with gas mixtures of known qualitative compositions which vary within predetermined limits. Periodic analyses for the helium content of a producing gas well may be conveniently made by an absorption method3/ and a continuous analytical method is not necessary for this purpose. Natural gas containing 1.75 to 1.90 percent of helium produced from Government-owned wells is processed in the Amarillo (Texas) Helium Plant of the Bureau of Mines. The helium extracted in the plant is supplied to the Army and Navy, and the processed natural gas is sold to a commercial gas company4/. As complete recovery of the helium in the raw material is not economically practicable, the processed gas contains 0.1 to 0.3 percent of helium, depending upon conditions of operation;- Production is checked against the helium removed from the gas, which before the installation of the thermal--conductivity apparatus was calculated from the analysis of a cumulative sample of the processed gas. As conditions of operation affect the residual helium content to a large extent, a composite sample was an uncertain index of the efficiency of the process.

Jan 1, 1934

By Frederick L. Hoffman

These extracts are sufficient for the purpose of emphasizing the practical difficulties of averaging iron-mining conditions so as to make general vital statistics concerning iron miners useful Tor scientific. purposes. It is self-evident that conclusions based upon iron miners, so called, working largely above ground and employed chiefly in open-cut blasting ~perations or the management of steam shovels, etc., can not be made to apply to miners working continuously underground with an exposure of dust and other conditions quite similar to underground mining methods in the extraction of gold, silver, copper, lead, and other ores. The so-called "milling" process as practiced on the Mesabi Range may here be referred to, the same being explained in the report of the Immigration Commission to consist "in the sinking of a shaft on the edge of the ore body from which a tunnel is run in under the ore and connected with a vertical, funnel-shaped hole from under the surface, through which the ore is 'milled' down into the tramcars placed under the opening under the tunnel. After being loaded at the bottom of the funnelshaped hole, the cars are run out to the bottom 0.£ the shaft. where the ore is dumped into skids or elevators and raised to the ~urface and unloaded into the tipple, where it is loaded into thecal'S ready for shipment." It is properly pointed out that the so-called " milling" process employs some of the features of both the open-pit and underground methods of mining. For these and many other reasons it is self-evident that general statistics concerning iron mining are quite likely to be inconclusive and possibly seriously misleading. Aside from the foregoing the problem is seriously complicated by the extensive employment of foreign labor in the iron-mining ind ustries of the Lake Superior districts and of Negro labor in iron mining in Alabama. Within recent years, according to the report of the Immigration Commission, a considerable displacement has occurred in t~e quality of labor employed in iron mining, the displacement bemg referred to as "progressive," in that one race or group of races has entered the region and taken up the work offered in the lower occupations, the race or races already holdinz such positions having. moved up in the scale of occupation leaving the field to the newcomers. This statement is quite suggestive in that it indicates a comparatively short average trade life or trade exposure, quite at variance with the relatively long average ascer- MINES, QUARRIES, ORE REDUCTION, AND SMELTING. 377 tained for the iron mines of New <Tersey. It is said in the report of the Immigration Commission that- The Scandinavians and the other northern European races have given way to the Finns and Slovenians, and in the open-pit mines the Finns and Slovenians have given way to the south Italian, Montenegrins, Croatins, and other southern European races. In the underground mines the common labor and mining is chiefly done bv Finns and Slovenians because the races from the southern countries can not stand the heavy physical work required in this kind of mining. Here, too, is found the same upward movement, for formerly the English (Cornishmen) and Scandinavians' were in the lower occupations in the underground properties, At present the south Italians, Serbians, Montenegrins, and Croatians are performing the most menial work and are the races who are now at the foot of the scale of occupations. It is a matter of conjecture on the ranges as to who will push these races up or whether they will remain the commou laborers of the region. Inquiry was made into the prevalence of diseases OIl the ranges, but more with reference to outside sanitary conditions than to occupational exposure. The most common diseases on the ranges, however, were ascertained to be pulmonary tuberculosis and typhoid fever, and to a lesser extent smallpox and venereal diseases. With -cgard to pulmonary tuberculosis it is said that the disease is most Eevalent among the Finns and the Swedes, and is chiefly imported, I'here is no reference to a possible connection between disease occur- ~ence and occupational conditions, above or below ground, but there .s no evidence that this aspect of the iron-mining industry was made .he subject of a special investigation.

Jan 1, 1918

By Alexander E. Morrow

Oxygen breathing apparatus for use in mines was introduced to the United States in 1907. Despite their intended purpose of safeguarding lives, the apparatus led to the deaths of many men because of inherent or developed defects in the equipment, lack of training,, physical shortcomings of wearers, and improper procedures. The Bureau of Mines pioneered in research and training to curb logs of life among users of such apparatus and promoted development of safer equipment and procedures. As a consequence, deaths have been far less frequent. In 1944 the Bureau issued Information Circular 7279, Loss of Life Among Wearers of Oxygen Breathing Apparatus. That publication listed the case histories of 26 deaths that had occurred since the introduction of such equipment to American mining. The author, the late G. W. Grove,3/ asserted that further loss of life could be avoided if good equipment were used, teams were properly trained, and the basic principles of safe procedure were followed. This publication is a sequel to I.C. 7279 and contains information on eight deaths among wearers of oxygen breathing apparatus that were overlooked in the original compilation. It also describes the single death that occurred since I.C. 7279 was published.

Jan 1, 1959

By George A. Morgan

The 53 countries that constituted Africa in 1990 accounted for a significant portion of total world output of a number of mineral commodities. Among the most significant to be produced in Africa were andalusite, antimony, asbestos, bauxite, chromite, coal, cobalt, copper, diamond, fluorspar, gold, lithium minerals, manganese, phosphate, platinum-group metals, the titanium minerals-ilmenite and rutile, vanadium, vermiculite, uranium, and zircon. Several of these, chromite, cobalt, diamond, and manganese, were not produced in the United States. Despite the underdevelopment of much of Africa, mineral raw materials playa very important part in the national economies of many of its countries. In many cases, the production of minerals is the dominant economic activity in the country, often having the largest and most sophisticated work force. In several countries, one or two mineral commodities are dominant in a weakly diversified economy. Among these are petroleum and diamonds in Angola, petroleum in the Congo, gold in Ghana, bauxite in Guinea, uranium in Niger, phosphate in Senegal and Togo, and copper and cobalt in Zaire and Zambia.

Jan 1, 1992

Since roof falls in the vicinity of the working face in underground coal mines are a major source of fatalities and injuries in this country&apos;s coal mines, it is evident that the present systems of temporary support for use in this working area are ineffective. This seems to be chiefly due to the inconvenience of setting up heavy and awkward devices such as jacks, posts and the like, which also interfere with the movement of men and machines in this critical working area. This program was concerned with defining and testing commercially available materials that could be used as support elements in a more convenient flexible personnel shield. The objectives of this program were to: 1. survey the materials that might provide the support elements of a flexible-material personnel shield for use in underground coal mines and prepare a list of those materials which appear most suitable for use in coal mines. 2. prepare a proposed testing plan for the materials to be selected from the aforementioned list by the Bureau of Mines for further evaluation. The test plan was designed to provide the following information: a. Tensile strength. b. Proportional limit. c. Creep characteristics at room temperature. d. Elastic properties depicted by stress-strain curves. Properties were tested in two directions for woven fabrics. e. Density. f. Resistance to abrasion. g. Resistance to attack by mine atomsphere. h. Resistance to humidity. i. Impact characteristics.

Jan 1, 1972

By Leonard Obert

The investigation reported herein is concerned with the generation and propagation of the strain wave produced in rock by the detonation of a high-velocity explosive. This report is the second of a series that will deal with this and related problems. The rock type in which these experiments were carried out was greenstone. Subsequent reports will discuss similar investigations in other rock types. Specifically, the problem under study is concerned with how certain characteristics of the strain wave, such as the maximum compressive and tensile strain, the maximum time rate of change of strain, the frequency components present in the pulse, the duration of the pulse, and other measurable characteristics, vary with the size of the charge and the distance from the detonation point to the point of measurement. . Other investigators have studied certain aspects of the generation and propagation problem in rock. However, in these studies the travel distances from the detonation to measurement point were comparatively long and the frequency components in the explosive wave were usually under 100 c.p.s. In this study the detonation to measurement distance covered. the range from 2 to 54 feet, and the strain gages and recording equipment employed in the instrumentation of the problem had a frequency response range from 200 to 10,000 c.p.s.

Jan 1, 1950

By William S. Roberts

The Bureau of Mines has initiated a program to determine the availability of land for mineral exploration and development in Alaska. Researchers involved in this pro-gram are comparing land availability, based on ownership and government policies and regulations, to the distribution of known mineral deposits and terranes. This report on southeastern Alaska presents the findings of the first of six regional studies that will cover the State. The study consisted largely of data compilation and analysis using various mapping techniques. Summary land availability data are presented on copies of U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) quadrangles at a scale of 1:500,000. Five categories of land availability were identified: open to mineral exploration and development (approximately 9.4 million acres, or 38% of the 24.8-million-acre study area), open but with possible use restrictions (4.2 million acres, or 17%), selected (0.5 million acres, or 2%), patented (0.74 million acres, or 3%), and formally closed to mineral exploration and development (10 million acres, or 40%). Of the 1,187 known mineral deposits in the study area, approximately 38% are on land in the open category. Mineral terranes comprise approximately 6.7 million acres, or 27% of southeastern Alaska. Approximately 34% of these terranes are on open land.

Jan 1, 1985

By William H. Pomroy

Spontaneous combustion fires involving high-sulfide-content ores are a relatively infrequent yet serious safety hazard in mining. They are also the cause of lengthy mine shutdowns because they typically occur in areas of a mine where abundant fuel material is present but which are inaccessible for fire fighting. This Bureau of Mines report describes research to design, fabricate, and test in the laboratory and field a system that warns of spontaneous combustion fires in metal mines. Overall performance of the detection system was found to be satisfactory, in that the system was capable of reliably detecting low levels of combustion products believed to indicate the preflaming stage of spontaneous combustion in metal mines. Installation of similar systems in mines with a high risk of spontaneous combustion is recommended. Principal operating problems and recommended corrective actions are also discussed.

Jan 1, 1987

By C. W. Davis

There are four parts to this circular and, respectively, they list firms in the Eastern (pp. 5-8), Southern (pp. 9-10), Central (pp. 11-15) and Western (pp. 16-22) United States and Provinces of Canada. Before listing the laboratories and the work performed there, it is proper to make clear what is done and what is not done by Federal bureaus, States, and Territories, as well as by Canada and Mexico. FEDERAL Bureau of Mines. - The Bureau of Mines does not make assays, analyses, or tests for individuals or firms unless they be incidental to investiga¬tions that are of possible benefit to the entire mineral industry. All significant results obtained in this way are made public through published reports. Any mineral sample sent to this Bureau for simple identification will be subjected to a cursory examination.

Jan 1, 1938

By J. J. Taber

This is the final report on Grant No. G0144067. The report presents the results of a number of laboratory studies carried cut in several different ways to determine the effectiveness of foam for blocking the flow of gas in coal. The effectiveness; (of foam for retarding or blocking the flow gas in various porous media has been observed by many investigators1-4 but we are not aware of similar detailed studies in coal. Because of the diversity of our experiments, the key findings and general conclusions are presented very briefly in Section II. As a convenience to the reader a complete table of cements is included to enable the reader to find those experiments and studies of greatest interest.

Jan 1, 1976

By Peter P. Kopas

Study, analysis, fabrication and testing for canopies on Roof Bolters and Shuttle Cars in coal seams under 48?.

Jan 1, 1980

By T. F. Anstett

The Bureau of Mines estimated the potential availability of rare-earth oxides (EtEO), including yttrium, and thorium, which is also contained in the rare-earth bearing minerals monazite and bastnasite, from 38 &apos;properties in market economy countries (MEC&apos;s). Only nine of the properties evaluated produce or would produce REO as the primary product; the others contain REO as a byproduct, chiefly from mineral sands operations recovering rutile, ilmenite, and zircon. Nearly 77% (2,578,000 mt) of the total 3,355,000 mt of recoverable RE0 evaluated is from producing properties. It is estimated that 21% (705,000 mt) of this total is from properties that could not realize a positive rate of return at the January 1984 market prices for the recovered commodities. At production capacities assumed for this evaluation, the amount of RE0 potentially available from producers ranges from an estimated 46,500 mt in 1986, to a peak of 50,900 mt in 1992, to 49,900 mt by the year 2000. Total MEG production in 1984 was estimated at 40,700 mt. Assuming demand does not increase sharply, producing properties can continue to fulfill overall REO demand through at least the end of this century.

Jan 1, 1986

By E. G. Meiter, S. H. Katz

"Railroad locomotives produce heat, gas, and smoke, which cause considerable discomfort to engine men and firemen while passing through tunnels. In order to try and improve these conditions, the Bureau of Mines has investigated the composition of atmospheres in cabs of freight locomotives while in tunnels; and some of the higher temperatures in the cabs were noted; physiological effects upon men were determined and gas masks and respirators were devised to eliminate the effects of irritating and poisonous gases and smoke. Those investigations were conducted in tunnels of the Baltimore & Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Union Pacific railroads; while that described in this paper was carried out in tunnels of the Chesapeake & Ohio, Railroad, situated in the Blue Ridge and Allegheny Mountains in Virginia and West Virginia, Freight locomotives used by this railroad are of the Mallet type, which have two separate cylinders: and two separate sets of driving wheels on each side. In locomotive language they are of the 2-6-6-2 type. All of the cylinders act as simple engines when starting or in slow, heavy hauling; but at faster speeds the pair of cylinders on each side operate compound, Mallet locomotives are the largest and most powerful now operated.The tendency in train operation has always been to increase the burden upon locomotives, Present traffic needs frequently load even the Mallet engine to capacity, and yet the weight of trains tends to increase. It has been suggested as a means of securing greater power units that Mallets be constructed to operate only as simple engines. This would increase the amount of steam given off as the amount of coal burned and the resulting volume of flue gas emitted."

Jul 1, 1924

By Donald O. Capstick

A mineral resource evaluation of the Coyote-Southeast RARE II area (No. 5033) was performed jointly by the U.S. Bureau of Mines and the U.S. Geological Survey in 1981 for the U.S. Forest Service RARE II program. Bureau of Mines personnel conducted a mineral resource inventory of the study area&apos;s mines, prospects, claims, and mineralized outcrops. The study area&apos;s boundaries encompass 51,700 acres on the east flank of the Sierra Nevada and are within Inyo National Forest southeast of the city of Bishop in east-central California. Cretaceous granite underlies most of the area; the remainder of the rocks are metasedimentary. At the contact of the two, tactites formed at many places where carbonate rocks were present; replacement processes produced local scheelite (calcium tungstate) occurrences.

Jan 1, 1983

By J. M. Mutmansky, C. Lee

"IntroductionRecognition of Coal Workers' Pneumoconiosis (CWP) as a major occupational disease has affected various aspects of the coal mining industry in the United States as well as in almost all major coal producing countries, Regulations related to the control of coal mine dust forced mine operators to modify their mining and ventilation practices. As the coal production record of the last 15 years shows, this had both direct and indirect impacts on the productivity and production costs.To identify the causes of CWP, many research efforts have been made throughout the world. Most of these studies were epidemiological in nature, attempting to pinpoint exposure and seam variables that affected the incidence of the disease. Other studies have been oriented toward the elemental and mineralogical composition of the coal dust in the mine atmosphere and in the miners' lungs. These studies indicate that there may exist some relationships between the characteristics of the coal mine dust and the prevalence of the disease. Some of the variables that are thought to affect the occurrence of CWP are the mass of the dust in the working place, the rank of the coal, the existence of certain trace elements, the free silica content of the coal, and the existence of other minerals in the respirable dust. A more complete description of these previous research studies has appeared elsewhere (Mutmansky and Lee, 1984).The behavior of particles in the human lung is known to be governed by their aerodynamic diameter, which is defined as the diameter of a hypothetical spherical particle with unit density that exhibits the same settling velocity as the given particle. Because of this fact, the aerodynamic size distribution of coal mine dust is one of the parameters to be determined along with the other physical, elemental, and mineralogical characteristics. The objective of this paper is to establish a strategy for providing coal mine respirable dust samples for characterization purposes using instruments that classify according to the aerodynamic diameter. In addition, several findings concerning characterization methods will be presented"

Mar 1, 1989

Mine fires pose a serious hazard to the health and safety of mine workers. They occur regularly and their effects can be devastating. Objective Provide mine safety personnel, MSHA, and equipment manufacturers with a comprehensive, up-to-date, and well-documented database of metal and nonmetal mine fire incidents in the United States from 1950 to 1984 and perform a statistical analysis of these incidents. The data-base is designed for use by mine engineering and safety personnel to aid in determining especially hazardous practices or conditions.

Jan 1, 1988

By Edward L. McHugh

The Thousand Lakes Wilderness has no known economically significant mineral resources. However, the geologic setting of the Wilderness indicates a potential for the discovery of geothermal resources. INTRODUCTION The Thousand Lakes Wilderness occupies 16,335 acres (6,611 ha) in eastern Shasta County, California. A mineral resource study of the area was authorized by the Wilderness Act of 1964 (Public Law 88-577). Mining records and published information were examined, and field investigations conducted in 1979. The Wilderness is about 50 miles (80 km) east of Redding and 12 miles (19 km) south of Burney, California. It lies in the Cascade Range of California. Relief is more than 3,000 feet (910 m); elevation is greatest at the summit of Crater Peak, 8,677 feet (2,645 m).

Jan 1, 1982

By R. C. Hickman

Preliminary evidence indicated that the Chattanooga Shale might constitute a potential vast low-grade source of uranium. Investigation by core drilling indicated that while the Chattanooga Shale may constitute a resource for the future, the very low (0.006 percent) average uranium content is not economic when compared with the relatively higher grade western ores. A total of approximately 12,000 feet of test drilling was done in 72 drillholes, and large samples were mined for extractive and metallurgical testing. An experimental mine site was selected on the basis of the drilling project.

Jan 1, 1967

By Michael J. Jorgensen, Anoop Polsani, Khurram S. Khan

Riveting operations in aircraft manufacturing involves the use of power tools for manually drilling holes for the rivets, power drills for the setting of the holes for the rivets, as well as rivet guns to drive and set the rivets. To close the rivet, the rivet is driven against a metallic bar commonly called a “bucking bar”. The bucking bars are typically held firmly to increase the quality of the riveting, as well as keep the bucking bar from “dancing” against the metal piece being riveted. Thus, employees in aircraft manufacturing involved in riveting are exposed to hand-arm vibration from several sources, and epidemiological evidence suggests that vibration-related musculoskeletal disorders are associated with long term exposure to riveting tasks in the aircraft manufacturing of aircraft.1,2 Recently, tungsten technology has been introduced into aircraft manufacturing for bucking bars, which are heavier than traditional steel bucking bars of the same size. Rivet guns with tungsten pistons instead of steel pistons have also recently been introduced with the objective of reducing vibration exposure to the riveter. The objective of this study was to assess vibration characteristics of steel and tungsten bucking bars and rivet guns to identify the combination that simultaneously reduced the combined exposure to both the “riveter” and “bucker”. Methods Vibration (10g tri-axial accelerometer, Biometrics S2-10G-MF Series 2) was measured from eight experienced employees using seven different rivet guns on size 6 rivets, with the same person bucking for all subjects. Vibration was also measured on two different bucking bars for these same eight subjects, with the same person driving the rivets using the various rivet guns. The rivet guns consisted of three E4 steel piston guns with different RPMs (Guns A-E4, B-E4, C-E4), an E4 vibration dampened rivet gun (Gun D-E4D), an E3 steel piston rivet gun (Gun E-E3) and an E3 and E4 tungsten piston rivet guns (Guns F-E3T and G-E4T). The bucking bars were made of 90% tungsten (1694g) and cold-rolled steel (843g), and were the same shape and size. A two-way repeated measures analysis of variance was performed on the vibration (mean frequency weighted resultant acceleration) on both the rivet gun side and the bucking bar side, and mean rankings were used to assess the vibration simultaneously for the rivet gun and bucking bars to investigate which combinations provided the lowest vibration exposure. Results Frequency weighted resultant acceleration was significantly lower on the E3 tungsten (F-E3T) rivet gun than the E4 steel piston (B-E4) and the E4 tungsten piston (G-E4T) rivet guns (Figure 1). When measuring vibration on the bucking bar, the E4 (A-E4) steel piston rivet gun resulted in lower vibration on the bucking bars than the E4 tungsten piston (G-E4T) and E4 vibration dampened (D-E4D) rivet guns (Figure 2). Additionally, use of tungsten bucking bars resulted in a 35% decrease in resultant frequency weighted acceleration than when using steel bucking bars.

Jan 6, 2006

By W. M. Traver

During World War II, the Bureau of Mines investigated a large number of ore deposits in the United States and Alaska in a search for domestic sources of strategic minerals. Deposits chosen for exploration included those expected to contain metals of importance in the successful prosecution of the war. This report describes exploration of a district of known antimony occurrence on Coyote or Antimony Creek near Antimony, Garfield County, Utah. A preliminary report by Paul T. Allsman, Chief of the Bureau&apos;s Salt Lake City branch made in August 1941, recommended further investigation, and proposed methods for performing the work. The project, begun in November 1941 and completed in January 1942, included trenching and sampling in four of the most promising parts of the area The Federal Geological Survey cooperated in the work by detailed mapping and assisted in the interpretation of geologic data.

Jan 1, 1949