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By Roy G. Stott, John A. Johnson, Floyd G. Anderson

"This information circular discusses drilling and blasting in open-cut iron-ore mines and is one of a series of papers describing iron-ore mining practices in the Lake Superior district to aid in preventing accidents in that industry.The Lake Superior district consists of the Marquette and Menominee ranges of Michigan, the Gogebic range of Michigan and Wisconsin, and the Vermilion, Mesabi, and Cuyuna range of Minnesota. Open-cut mines produce 8o percent of the iron ore mined in the district; 98 percent of the total Lake Superior district open-cut ore is produced in Minnesota and 2 percent in Michigan. The entire Wisconsin iron-ore production is from underground nines. The Mesabi range in Minnesota produced 93 percent of the open-cut iron ore and 76 percent of the total iron ore in the district in 1947.During the 8-year period 1940-47, 619,000,000 gross tons of iron ore were shipped from mines of the district, or 85 percent of the United States output. Approximately 78,000,000 gross tons of iron ore were shipped from the mines of Minnesota, Michigan, and Wisconsin in 1947.This paper is based primarily on observations daring the period July 1947 to March 1948. Thirty-two open-cut mines were visited; 28 on the Mesabi range, 3 on the Cuyuna range, and 1 on the Marquette range. In 1947, 36,100,000 tons of iron ore was shipped from these 32 mines, or 59 percent of the open-cut ore and 46 percent of the total iron ore shipped from the district. During 1947 about 90 open-cut iron-ore mines were operating in the district, and the annual production of each ranged from 25,000 to 10,000,000 tons.Many recommendations included in this paper for improving safety and preventing injuries to employees were taken from Bureau of Mines Information Circular 7387.Data were collected under the direction of Frank E. Cash, former supervising engineer, Health and Safety Division, Bureau of Nines, Duluth, Minnesota. E. W. Felegy, mining engineer, Safety Branch, gave valuable assistance in reviewing and editing the manuscript.The authors gratefully acknowledge the information and assistance given and the numerous courtesies extended to them by officials of the following mining companies:All the Lake Superior iron ores occur in bedded formations that range from less than 100 feet to over 2,000 feet in thickness. These formations are designated by one commonly applied name, ""iron formations.""4/The Mesabi range in northern Minnesota, about 70 miles northwest of Duluth, was opened to mining in 1892; it is the largest single source of iron ore in the United States. It is 75 miles long and, because of the gentle dip of the ore formation, it ranges in width from 1-1/2 to 3 miles.5/ The ore formation, which is nearly horizontal, has a maximum thickness of about 450 feet and is covered by a glacial drift that ranges from 10 to over 100 feet in thickness. Most of the ore is near the surface and adaptable to open-cut mining."

Mar 1, 1950

By R. S. Dean

[Methods s of preparing the manganese metal that has been used in chemical and metallurgical investigations have passed through a cycle. Most of the investigations made before the turn of the century, used Moissen's pyrophoric manganese.3/ This material was made by electrolysis into a mercury cathode and distillation in vacuo. The material was essentially pure, and investigations in which it was employed (with proper precautions against oxidation) led to accurate results on tie intrinsic behavior of metallic manganese.]

Jan 1, 1941

By N. A. C. Smith, E. W. Dean, W. A. Jacobs, H. H. Hill

Fractional distillation is the most important process in the commercial refining of petroleum. The same procedure, conducted on a small scale, is the basis of a number of analytical methods of wide application in the petroleum laboratory. The Bureau of Mines has studied apparatus and procedure for the distillation analysis of petroleum, and this report is presented as a record of developments up to the present time. The work is incomplete, but the extensive information that has been obtained to date is made available as a guide in handling laboratory distillation problems. The analytical distillation of petroleum is commonly made to determine range of boiling points or to separate the oil. into fractions for detailed examination, or both. When only one of these two ends is sought the procedure involved is notably simpler than when, as is more common, information is required regarding both boiling range and properties of fractions. Moreover the degree of minuteness of measurement and the accuracy of the data required from analytical distillations differ considerably. Often the simplest sort of comparative figures are satisfactory; other tests require complicated and highly tedious procedure. No one distillation method is universally applicable, and it is impossible for anyone group of investigators to foresee all the different kinds of requirements that may occur in the industry.

Jan 1, 1922

By H. C. Fuller

This paper discusses 105 production runs at Boulder City, Nev., in which titanium metal was made in 200-pound batches. It describes the equipment and techniques used in preparing raw material, the reduction process, and the removal of the reaction mass from the reaction vessel. Also, some data on man-hour requirements are presented. The main emphasis was on producing ductile-grade titanium and developing a standard procedure for obtaining a consistently pure product. Some departures from techniques used before were found to be desirable. The most important of these was the use of a sealed room with a controlled dry atmosphere in which the reaction vessel was opened and the reaction mass removed. This minimized the moisture taken up by the magnesium chloride in the reaction mass, and it could be purified successfully by vacuum distillation. Using the dry room also made it possible to leave al-inch shell of the reaction material on the walls of the vessel, which lowered the iron contamination and eliminated the labor and time-consuming job of cleaning the vessel after each reduction. Another change was lowering of the temperature during reduction to 750° C. instead of 850° C. This was found to give good results more consistently. The first poke to break the crust during reduction was eliminated, as it was found to be unnecessary and only added more work and was another possible way of introducing air. A rotating feed arm was installed in the reaction vessel to distribute the titanium tetrachloride over a larger area and, thus, prevent local overheating. The process, conducted in a batchwise manner as described and followed by good purification and fusion, produces a metal adequate in quality for nearly all purposes.

Jan 1, 1952

By A. T. Iannacchione

Roof-rock instability in advancing sections of underground coal mines is a major contributing factor to accidents resulting in fatalities and injuries. Such roof-rock conditions can also result in loss of production due to additional cleanup time and increased amounts of reject material. The Bureau of Mines is investigating fundamental geologic factors affecting coal mine roof-rock instability in order to develop techniques to predict zones of potential unstable roof-rock. Two distinct directional trends of unstable shale roof-rock in a mine working the Upper Kittanning Coalbed are delineated: one trend is associated with the sandstone-shale transition zone, the other with a fault system. The unstable shale roof-rock associated with the transition zone, a consequence of differential compaction, is comprised of slickensided roof-rock. Whereas, the unstable shale roof-rock associated with the fault system, a consequence of structural deformation of the strata, is comprised of fault planes. These faults, small in comparison to the sandstone-shale transition zone, are difficult to delineate with a standard drilling program. Trends of the transition zone associated with the sedimentary facies change are projected into unmined portions of the coalbed with the aid of exploration core data.

Jan 1, 1981

By H. F. Yancey

The investigations described in this bulletin are confined to a study of the washing characteristics of bituminous coals. The major part of the work was conducted by the Bureau of Mines in cooperation with the Engineering Experiment Station of the University of Illinois and the State of Illinois Geological Survey Division between 1918 and 1924, in accordance with the provisions of an agreement between these agencies. The washing characteristics of coals from many of the important coal-producing fields of the Eastern and Central States were examined. The coals of the Pacific Northwest States and Alaska have been studied separately by McMillan and Bird of the Northwest Experiment Station of the Bureau of Mines at Seattle in cooperation with the College of Mines of the University of Washington.2 OBJECT OF INVESTIGATION The object of the investigation of coal preparation by the Bureau of Mines has been to promote the production of better prepared coal and to facilitate the correct selection and design of coal-preparation plants by obtaining as complete information as possible regarding the washability of the various types of American coals and the treatment best suited to each. In addition, some attention has been given to the development of new methods of washing coal. The work naturally divides itself into three rather distinct steps: (1) Development of a systematic method of examining and testing a coal; (2) classification of the American coals on a basis of the occurrence of the impurities associated with the coal in the beds; (3) examination of one or more representative coals of each type.

Jan 1, 1929

1.0 SCOPE AND REGULATIONS 1.1 This specification covers the minimum requirements for material handling and associated equipment including design and materials. 1.2 This specification requires compliance with all federal, state, local laws and regulations which may be applicable including the Occupational Safety and Health Act, Construction Safety Act as well as rules, regulations and standards of the Secretary of Labor.

Jan 1, 1979

By William W. Adams

The quarrying and related industries of the United States improved their safety record in 1938 by reducing their accident-frequency rate to a lower acid more favorable position than it has occupied at any time except 1935 since comparable accident statistics became available in 1916. The rates for 1935 and 1938 were identical. The number of men employed in 1938, although smaller than in 1936 and 1937, was larger than in any other year since 1930. Volume of employment, as measured by the number of man-hours worked in the industry as a; whole, likewise was larger than in any year since 1930 except 1936 and 1937. Reports from operating companies to the Bureau of Mines, United States Department of the Interior, showed that 77,497 men were employed in 1938, a decrease of 6,597 compared with 1937. This figure represents the average number of employees for the period during which the quarries and plants were active during the year, which in 1938 averaged 223 workdays per employee compared with 241 in 1937. A total of 17.3 million man-days or 133.8 million man-hours of work was shown for the industry as a whole, which indicated a weighted average of 7.75 hours per man-shift. Reports for 1937 showed a total of 158.3 million man-hours for the entire industry and an average workday of 7.81 hours. Accidents resulted in the death of 82 employees, 5 more than in 1937, and in 5,027 nonfatal injuries involving disability for more than the remainder of the day on which the injuries were received. The number of nonfatal injuries was 1,321 less than in 1937. As the number of deaths and injuries was reduced more, proportionately, than man-hours of employment, the accident-frequency rate per million man-hours of work declined, the rate for 1938 being 38.19 compared with 40.59 for 1937. In other words, accident occurrence to the average employee was 6 percent more favorable in 1938 than in 1937 on the basis of actual number of accidents and actual number of man-hours worked during the 2 years.

Jan 1, 1940

By John T. Neubert

Between 1988 and 1990, the U.S. Bureau of Mines studied the mineral resources of San Juan National Forest to appraise and determine types and locations of deposits that could be mined economically now and in the foreseeable future. The study included a comprehensive field examination and literature search. Substantial amounts of lead, zinc, copper, gold, and silver have been mined from within the Forest in the La Plata, Rico, Silverton, and Dunton areas. At least one buried 200 million ton stockwork molybdenum deposit occurs in the Rico area. Similar size porphyry copper deposits occur at the surface and about 1,700 feet below the surface in the Bedrock Creek area of the La Plata district. Numerous smaller base-and precious-metal and uranium deposits have been prospected and mined throughout the Forest. Coal, oil, and gas have been or are currently being produced in the western and southern parts of the Forest. Carbon dioxide occurs in the western part of the Forest. Strategic elements occurring within the Forest include platinum, palladium, cadmium, gallium, indium, bismuth, and tellurium; however none of these elements is economically recoverable at present. Several geothermal areas are scattered across the eastern two-thirds of the Forest. Industrial minerals within the Forest include sand and gravel, limestone, and decorative stone.

Jan 1, 1992

By R. S. Dean

"INTRODUCTION The metallurgical research program of the Bureau of Mines has been somewhat disorganized, but generally advanced by the increased activities of the war period. The present report is for the purpose of summarizing the work of the Bureau in this field for the past 15 years and indicating its future plan.Fifteen years ago the Bureau turned from its pioneer work on the physical chemistry of steelmaking to an emphasis on raking a pure steel synthetically, rather than by refining, that is, :producing each of the steel 'constituents in the pure state and combining them by simple melting. Such a procedure permits the use of less high-grade ores, not only of iron, but of the ferroalloy metals, such as manganese and chromium,This program has led to extensive work on iron-ore concentration, agglomeration, reducibility of ores and agglomerates, direct reduction of iron ores and concentrates by a wide variety of processes; special refining processes for iron, the production of pure mangenese, chromium, and cobalt from low-grade ores by electrolytic processes, the production of ferrochromium, ferronickel, and ferronickel-cobalt from low-grade domestic ores, and the development of many special alloys to effectively use the new products.The status of the work in each of these fields and the future program of work, together with a bibliography of papers and patents by the Bureau staff on each of these subjects, are given."

Jul 1, 1946

A symposium was held on January 30 and 31, 1973, at Pittsburgh, Pa., to review the state-of-the-art in designing and utilizing diesel-powered equipment in underground mining. The Health and Safety Activity of the Bureau of Mines sponsored the symposium with major assistance from the following four participating organizations: The American Mining Congress J. Allen Overton, President The United Mine Workers of America Arnold R. Miller, President The National Independent Coal Operator's Association Cloyd D. McDowell, President The Bituminous Coal Operators' Association, Inc. Guy Farmer, President Seventeen papers were presented during four half-day sessions devoted to the general subjects of the diesel engine, the place of the diesel in underground mining, health protection using diesels underground, and maintaining safety of diesels underground. Eleven of the speakers were from industrial organizations here and abroad; one represented the Provincial Government of Nova Scotia; two were with the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare; and three reported on Bureau of Mines work related to diesels.

Jan 1, 1975

By C. P. Lazzara, R. A. Franks, G. F. Friel, J. C. Edwards, J. J. Opferman

A series of four coal combustion experiments was conducted at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health's (NIOSH) Pittsburgh Research Laboratory (PRL) in the Safety Research Coal Mine (SRCM) to evaluate the response of fire sensors to a small 0.61 m square smoldering coal fire which transitions to flaming combustion in the presence of diesel emissions. An optical path smoke sensor alarmed earlier than a point type diffusion mode ionization smoke sensor which alarmed prior to a CO alert value of 5 PPM above ambient. The presence of steady state diesel emissions resulted in a decrease in the optical smoke sensor analog output voltage signal by less than 1.4 pct for the three coal fire experiments in which a diesel engine was operating, whereas the ionization smoke sensor output decreased between 10.8 and 26.7 pct after the initial surge of the diesel engine. A commercial diesel discriminating fire sensor did not alarm for a fire in the one experiment for which it was used. The results of the experiments demonstrated that an optical path smoke sensor might be used to detect a coal fire under the experimental conditions considered of starting a diesel engine followed by a slowly developing coal fire.

"INTRODUCTION While investigating prevention of sabotage and maintenance of production of essential war minerals, engineers of the Bureau of Mines visited more than 1,400 metal and nonmetallic mines, quarries, and open pits in all parts of the United States.The need for, uniform safety practices is indicated by the fact that during 1938-1940, inclusive, the Western Safety Conference, under the sponsorship of the California Department of Industrial Relations, undertook the prepara¬tion of a set of standard safety regulations for the 15 participating political subdivisions. The membership of these political subdivisions is comprised of representation from Alaska, Arizona, British Columbia, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Lower California, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming, For the guidance of its own engineers; the Bureau of Nines found it necessary to prepare a set of safety practices that could be used uniformly throughout the United States. These safety practices were compiled from State mining regulations, mining company safety rules, and the experience of Bureau of Mines engineers for more than 3 decades, and represent the best safety practices of the Nation's' mineral industry.The purpose of this publication is to make safety practices available for the non-coal branches of the mineral industry, with the hope that they may assist in reducing accident occurrence. The Bureau will welcome questions and suggestions regarding these practices in order that changes may be made as necessary.Where the adoption of any practice would not materially increase the safety of employees or would work undue hardship on the operator, the Bureau does not recommend such adoption."

Sep 1, 1946

By William E. Souder

Behavioral accidents are a particular type of accident. They are caused by inappropriate individual behaviors and faulty reactions. Catastrophe theory is a means for mathematically modeling the dynamic processes that underlie behavioral accidents. Based on a comprehensive data base of mining accidents, a computerized catastrophe model has been developed by the Bureau of Mines. This model systematically links individual psychological, group behavioral, and mine environmental variables with other accident causing factors. It answers several longstanding questions about why some normally safe behaving persons may spontaneously engage in unsafe acts that have high risks of serious injury. Field tests with the model indicate that it has three important uses: It can be used as an effective training aid for increasing employee safety consciousness; it can be used as a management laboratory for testing decision alternatives and policies; and it can be used to help design the most effective work teams.

By Robert H. Peters

This report presents a literature review conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Mines. The review summarizes what has been learned from recent empirical studies of the relationship between mine safety and characteristics of miners, mine management, and mining companies. The review is based on literature published in the United States during the period from 1976 to 1988. In addition to summarizing the empirical findings, this report discusses the implications and limitations of these studies, and gives recommendations for improving mine safety. An annotated bibliography section appears in the appendix.

Jan 1, 2009

By Harold M. Smith

This report presents a complete qualitative picture of knowledge of the composition of petroleum as of April 1965. The material is presented in detai 1 on two imaginative maps--one, the Hydrocarbon Hemisphere, depicts the hydrocarbons that have been identified in petroleum; the other, the Heterogeneous Hemisphere, shows the sulfur, nitrogen, and oxygen compounds that have been found. All compounds are placed on the maps according to boiling point. The accompanying text illustrates by structural formulas the several types of hydrocarbon and nonhydrocarbon compounds identified, presents some quantitative data, and points out the possible geochemical significance of a number of the compounds. The possibilities of the Petroleum World of the future are discussed as a function of needed research.

May 1, 1965

By Bill Linville

Producing oil, gas, and coal in sufficient amounts to satisfy U.S. demands for fuels, electrical power, and chemicals promises to be one of the country's major challenges during the 1970's. Adding significantly to this challenge is the urgent task of satisfying soaring fuel and power demands without destroying the natural environment or jeopardizing long-range requirements for resources. The Bureau of Mines, U.S. Department of the Interior, is engaged in a comprehensive program of research to help industry meet this challenge. This report reviews the aims of the research program and accomplishments in 1970; the first 11 sections cover coal programs, nine sect ions are then devoted to petroleum, and the concluding five sections deal with oil shale research. Figure 1 shows the nationwide distribution of Bureau of Mines energy research installations; Full addresses are given in appendix A. Many of the publications resulting from the Bureau?s energy research efforts are discussed throughout the report; others are listed in appendix B.

Jan 1, 1971

By Jack O. Jones

The Furnish mine, Caharrus County, W. C., was operated intermittently until 1905 as a gold mine. Scheelite was discovered by A. L. Mash in the mine dumps of the Furniss and Phoenix mines, and he later informed the Bureau of Mines of his discovery. The Bureau of Mines, in two projects at the deposit in 1948 and in drilled 12 holes totaling 1,706.6 feet, examined and sampled the underground workings, excavated by bulldozer and hand, 3,155 linear feet of trenches and collected numerous samples for assay. The best scheelite shown; was found in the underground exposure of the Furniss mine.

Jan 1, 1950

By ALBERT E. HALL, Arno C. Fieldner, Alexander L. Field

As a safeguard against excessive clinker troubles, specifications for the purchase of coal can be drawn to include the "softening" or "fusing" temperature of the ash. The value of such information has been recognized by the Bureau of Mines and has induced the bureau to investigab~ laboratory methods of determining the fUSIbility of coal ash, and the bearing of the results on clinker formation in fuel beds. The bureau realized that the fusibility of a mixture of oxides and silicates snch as is comprised in coal ash ,'aries according to the conditions under which tests are made, and that in the absence of any generally accepted method, no agreement is to be expected among tests made in differ«:-nt laboratories. Indeed, Marks a has recently called attention to differences as great as 3900 C. that were obtained with the same sample of ash by two different laboratories. Therefore if a fusion-temperature clause is to have any place in specifications for coal, a standard m('thod of t('sting should be adopted in order to insure comparable results by different laboratories and to obtain the softening or fusing temperature of the ash unde:'r conditions similar to those of a fuel bed. After a consistent method has been devised for obtaining comparable:' results at different laboratories, there will remain the correlation of these results with those from the burning of coal in furnaces before the value of fusibility tests in coal specifications can hE' finally determined.

Jan 1, 1918

By Roy E. Williams

1. The major sources of heavy metal ions in wastewaters of the Coeur d'Alene Mining District are effluents from metallurgical processing plants. Effluents from mine operations provide a secondary source for heavy metal ions. Based on data analyzed by the Federal Water Quality Administration, mercury and arsenic are escaping from some mill waste ponds, but they are in the suspended phase. 2. Metallurgical process effluents are combined with mine waste effluents in tailings ponds, consequently, the quality of the tailings pond decant water is highly degraded. The major effect of combining metallurgical process effluents with mill wastes is a drastic change of pH in the tailings pond. This chance may be an increase or a decrease depending on the metallurgical process. The effluent from an electrolytic antimony plant drastically increases the pH in the tailings pond permitting the removal in solution of antimony via the pond decant system. The addition of low pH effluents to the tailings ponds results in a net decrease in pH which makes lead, zinc, cadmium, and copper more soluble, thereby permitting their removal from the pond via the decant system.

Jan 1, 2011