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By D. A. Wilson

A laboratory method for processing lead battery scrap has been developed that eliminates virtually all of the S02 emission that normally is produced when a reverberatory or blast furnace is used. The method employs a hydrometallurgical step to convert the PbS04 to PbO and CaS04 by mixing the battery scrap with a slurry of Ca(OH)2. The reaction is exothermic and goes to completion in 2 to 5 minutes at room temperature. The dried product is mixed with a KC1-NaC1 flux and carbon and reduced at 6500 C. A minimum charge ratio of 3 parts of carbon to 100 parts of battery scrap is required for reduction. The process produces lead reductions and recoveries as high as 97.0 and 94.9 percent, respectively. The KCI-NaCl flux is recovered using a standard counter-current water leach followed by evaporation.

Jan 1, 1976

By Joseph Berman

The wolframite mineral series was studied to determine the effect of the FeO - MnO ratio on unit cell symmetry and thermal stability. This work was undertaken to evaluate the analytical procedures now in use for wolframite in scheelite and to aid in the development of improved methods of analysis. Wolframite grains were hand-picked, crushed, and screened; impurities were removed by selective magnetic separations using a Frantz isodynamic separator. The samples were further checked by optical spectroscopic and microscopic examination.

Jan 1, 1957

By G. M. Kintz

It is estimated that 10,000 lives were lost and $285,000,000 worth of property was destroyed by fire in 1937. Of the 103 fatalities in tie petroleum industry in 1938, 36 resulted from fires and explosions.3/ Everyone can help to prevent the tremendous losses, both in life and property, caused annually by fires and explosions, Forest fires occur every year, in which the tremendously intense heat wave ahead of the flame turns beautiful green trees into blazing torches like so much gasoline, vapor, and jumps over the tops of trees to start fires behind the firs fighters; prairie-grass fires occur, and a farmer in the path of the fire must plow a furrow around his home and outbuildings before the flame reaches them; and frequently automobiles are burned up in filling stations. Persons who have witnessed such sights know better than to throw a lighted match, cigarette, cigar, or hot coal from a pipe out of an automobile or to discard a fire or flame of any type in the forest, in the country, or in the city.

Jan 1, 1941

Mainland China To Pay Japanese Company On Contract Claim. - Mitsubishi will receive $39 million from Red China, half of what was asked, for China's having, curtailed work on a 5369 million steel rolling mill at Baoshan near Shanghai. Copper Found in Chile. - Utah International Inc., in conjunction with Getty Oil Co., has discovered a cooper deposit in northern Chile. Early drilling reveals an enriched zone grading 1.2% to 2 3% copper. Chile already has tie world's largest Cu reserve base. Soviets To Aid Laotian Tin Industry. - The U.S.S.R. has agreed to help strengthen the tin industry in Laos, a client state. In the past, Laos has only produced small amounts of tin concentrate, 500 tons to 1,000 tons per year presumably shipped to smelters in Singapore or Penang, Malaysia. Under the agreement made in June, the Soviets are to supply equipment to increase the out put of tin from the Phontieu, Neng, and Nongsen mines and help Laos with the construction of a tin smelter. The U.S.S.R. itself is a net importer of tin, although a substantial producer of the metal.

Jan 1, 1981

By George L. Gates

It is generally recognized that if the lose and contamination of the fluid content of a core specimen from an oil- and gas-bearing formation in a well were eliminated, the value of core analysis would be increased greatly. In an effort to obtain uncontaminated cores, extensive field tests were carried out in the Mercy field, San Jacinto County, Tex., with the Carter pressure core barrel and an oil-base drilling fluid having very low rates of filtration as measured by the standard A.P.I. drilling-fluid filter teat. A tracer was added to the drilling fluid filter test. A tracer was added to the drilling fluid to provide a means for quantitatively measuring the volume of oil filtrate in the cores. Unfortunately, as stated in the report on the Mercy tests, very little oil nand was penetrated in coring the well; and because the performance of the pressure core barrel was not entirely satisfactory, the tests did not provide a complete answer to the question: Does a filtrate from an oil-base drilling fluid enter cores., and how does it affect the results of the core analyses?

Jan 1, 1950

By Oliver Bowles

Limestone is the most widely used of all racks and is essential to a great many industries, including tae building trades, highway construction, metallurgy, agriculture, end many chemical and manufacturing enterprises. It occurs in some form in every State and is produced in thousands of quarries. Production in 1930 exceeded 134,000,000 tons. It has more numerous and more diversified uses than any other rock. This paper is designed to furnish general information on the various branches of limestone quarrying and their economic importance. Brief reference is made to dimension stone, and a more complete discussion follows of the uses, requisite qualities, quarry methods, grid processes of preparation of crushed and broken limestone. Footnote references serve to guide the reader to more detailed information.

Jan 1, 1933

By E. C. Tarpley, H. M. Cooper, R. F. Abernethy

"INTRODUCTION The determination of moisture in coal is an empirical test, because the time, temperature, and equipment are specified. The essential features of the equipment, and details of the procedure are given in A.S.T.M. Designation: D271-44 5/. According to the specifications, the following features should be incorporated in the equipment used:1. Oven must have uniform temperature in all parts.2. Oven must be constructed with minimum of air space.3. Oven must have means of changing the air two to four times per minute.4. Air must be dried over sulfuric acid (sp. gr. 1.84).The analytical procedures governing most of the nation's coal purchases are those given in A.S.T.M. Standards referred to above. These standards are general and of such scope as to cover all ranks and types of coal. In cases where only the moisture is required, a faster method than the standard procedure is desired.The semi-automatic moisture tester manufactured by the Brabender Corp. has proved itself in many industrial processes where the rapid estimation of moisture is of vital importance. With the approval of A. C. Fieldner, chairman, A.S.T.M. Committee D-5, and through the courtesy of Lowell Malan, chief chemist, United Electric Coal Companies, who loaned the tester, tests were made to determine the feasibility of using this instrument to determine the moisture in coal."

Jun 1, 1948

By George L. Gates

This report presents is an evaluation by the Federal Bureau of Mines of the effect of clay-water, brine, and oil-base drilling fluids on the productivity of test wells drilled on the Umiat anticline in U.S. Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 4 in northern Alaska. Eleven, wells were drilled on the Umiat structure as part of the U.S. Navy's extensive exploration of the Reserve during 1944-53 to determine the possibilities for oil production. The Federal Geological Survey cooperated in the exploration program and has published a comprehensive report3/ on the geology of the area and case histories of the wells. The re¬port also includes the results of special studies by the Bureau in connection with the drilling and coring of well 9 with oil-base mud in hole and was the source of much of the information used in preparing this publication. Of the eleven wells, four were drilled with rotary tools and water-base mud (one of the water-base muds was an oil-in-water emulsion mud), five were drilled with cable tools with brine in the hole, one was drilled with cable tools with brine in the hole and later reamed with rotary tools and crude oil, and one was drilled with rotary tools and oil-base mud. Although all of the wells penetrated sandstones that contained oil and gas, some were productive and others were not. The latter two wells, one completed with crude oil in the hole (with some added brine) and the other with oil-base mud, had the greatest productive capacities. The wells drilled with cable tools and brine in the hole had lower productive capacities. In contrast, two of three wells completed with rotary methods and fresh-water drilling mud and the well com¬pleted with rotary and emulsion mud were unproductive.

Jan 1, 1960

By L. D. Schmidt, H. G. Graham

Several processes for the production of ultra-clean coal for electrode carbon were developed in Germany prior to and during World War II . These processes have been investigated since the end of the war by the British and U. S. Government missions . As the reports of the investigations are not readily available to the public , it is the purpose of this paper to present the information which has been obtained regarding the methods by which ultraclean coal was produced . Almost all the ultra-clean coal was used in the manufacture of electrodes for the production of aluminum and magnesium . Standard raw materials for making these electrodes are pitch coke and petroleum coke , which are nearly ashless . The inclusion of ash in the electrode carbon results in lowered efficiency and impure metal from the reduction process . Petroleum coke and pitch coke were in very short supply in Germany during the war , so that it was necessary to augment the supply with carbon produced from coal . In the emergency , methods were developed to clean coal which had never before been economically feasible . However , a demand for nearly ash-free coal might develop in the United States if a shortage of petroleum coke were to occur at the same time as a strong demand for light metals . Other uses of ultraclean coal are in direct hydrogenation of coal , in production of activated carbon, and for special fuels . Specifications for electrode carbon are rather severe owing to the necessity for producing pure metal . Maximum amounts of impurities allowable in American practice are as follows : Total ash , 1.0 percent ( in finished coke , 0.7 percent ) Silica , 0.08 percent Ca or Na, or their sum , 0.12 percent Sulfur , 2.0 percent Ba , Ni , Cr , Mn , Co , and V are objectionable in very small amounts . The most important process for ultra cleaning of coal in Germany was froth flotation . Froth flotation had been used widely there to process washery -water sludges and to recover coking coal from high - ash fines . Its use was indicated , therefore , when the demand for ultra low-ash coal arose . In two plants the coal cleaned by froth flotation was treated with acid or caustic to lower further the ash content . Another process used on an industrial scale was that of dissolving the coal substance in the middle oil from direct hydrogenation of coal under controlled pressure and temperature . The resulting paste was heated, filtered , and the oil distilled off . The residue was a low-ash organic material that could be carbonized for electrode carbon or could be hydrogenated directly . Several other processes had been developed to the laboratory or pilot - plant stage but had never been used on a commercial scale . These processes included cleaning by centrifugal action , cleaning by electrostatic action , and cleaning by forming a paste with oil in water . The coal-preparation plants at the Carl Alexander mine , Augusta Viktoria mine , and Kőenigin Elisabeth mine are described in Bureau of Mines Information Circular 7389 : " Coal Preparation Practice in Western Germany" , by Thomas . Fraser and M. G. Driessen . Most of the special equipment used at these plants is described in the above publication .

Oct 1, 1948

By John W. Buch

Upon review of German World War II mining practices and equipment for planning coal, the Federal Bureau of Mines initiated research leading to the development of a pneumatic planer for anthracite. The results of tests are reported in this manuscript. It was demonstrated (1) that hard anthracite can be planed and (2) that the design and operating requirements are within the limits of present-day engineering and technology. For hard anthracite, the depth of cut indicated is 4 to 6 inches; with a chain pull of 20 to 40 tons and the speed of planer travel of 18 to 20 feet per minute, a 40-hp. motor will be required for the planer hoist. Compressed-air requirements for the planer will be 250 to 300 c, f, m, at 60 to 70 p. s, i. It was learned that the length of the 4 individual sections of the planer should not exceed that of the individual troughs of the armored chain conveyor (5 feet in this instance); otherwise, bottom coal will be left in synclines, and the planer will override the conveyor at anticlines. Pneumatic pushers should be operated from a separate compressed-air line fitted with a pressure regulator. Results indicate that additional development work is warranted.

Jan 1, 1957

By Raymond B. Ladoo

"Domestic Situation:The greatly increased use of lithopone as a base for paints, particularly for interior use, has timulated the demand for barytes to such a degree that the supply cannot keep pace with the demand. Lithopone is an artificially prepared compound composed of about 70 per cent barium sulphate and 30 per cent zinc sulphide, precipitated together. Its most important use is in paint, but it is also used in oilcloth, linoleum, rubber goods, shade cloth, etc.Prior to the war large quantities of barytes were imported from Germany, but during the war imports were negligible, domestic production increased very greatly and is still increasing. Ground barytes as used in paints/ formerly regarded as an adulterant, but now it is generally recognized as a valuable paint constituent. Mile domestic sources have expanded rapidly they have not overtaken the demand and there is need for still greater expansion. Stocks are low, little is being sold on the open market, and prices are high. Since barytes is a gangue mineral associated with metallic ores now being mined in the west, it is suggested that more attention be given to its recovery as a by-product.The following tables compiled from reports of the U.S. Geological Survey and the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, indicate the growth of domestic consumption."

Jan 1, 1920

By Laurance L. Oden

Titanium-enriched smelter slag produced commercially by Quebec Iron and Titanium Corp., Sorel, Quebec, was evaluated as feed material for a process developed by the Bureau of Mines to prepare rutile. Glass-forming agents including P205, B203, and two binary mixtures were added individually to the as-received and preoxidized smelter slag, and the nonferrous tramp oxides were effectively partitioned into the resulting noncrystalline phase. Iron in the ferrous oxidation state was moderately soluble in the glass of reduced specimens but less soluble under oxidizing conditions. The solubility of iron oxide in phosphate glass exceeded the solubility of iron oxide in borate glass. Effective conversion of titanium oxide to rutile was not achieved in the high-iron commercial smelter slag, and 20 to 30 pct of the titanium remained as pseudobrookite, a mixed iron-titanium oxide.

Jan 1, 1973

By T. F. Mitchell, J. A. McAllister, S. J. Hussey

"INTRODUCTION During the Bureau's extensive program of investigating possible domestic sources of manganese, an are-dressing study was conducted in its laboratories at Salt Lake City, Utah, on a sample of oxide manganese ore representative of vein material from the Ophir Hill mine at Ophir, Tooele County, Utah. The sample (obtained by blasting down and mixing a portion of the vein) was submitted by the Ophir Development Co. of Ophir, Utah. As the ore was too law in grade to be acceptable for direct production of ferromanganese, it was tested to determine its amenability to concentration by ore-dressing methods.At the beginning of the investigation of manganese-ore beneficiation in December 1940, the only product marketable to Metals Reserve Company was ferrograde manganese, grade B, the requirements for which follow: Mn, min., 48 percent; Fe, max., 7 percent; Si02, max., 10 percent; P, max., 0.18 percent; A1203, max., 6 percent; Zn, max., 1 percent.Later, the specifications were modified gradually. As of May 15, 1943, manganese products were acceptable if they contained over 35 percent manganese and less than 3 percent zinc and 1 percent phosphorus. Prices were based upon material containing 48 percent manganese, 6.0 percent iron, and 11 percent silica plus alumina. Premium were paid for manganese content in excess of, 48 percent and iron content below 6 percent, penalties being imposed upon products containing less than 48 percent manganese or more than 6 percent iron or more than 11 percent silica plus alumina. The specifications for commercial manganese further required that maximum particle size be 12 inches and that 75 percent of the product be coarser than 20-mesh. Therefore, fine material, such as table and flotation concentrates, had to be nodulized or sintered. In addition, carbonate manganese ores were not acceptable unless calcined."

Oct 1, 1947

By Irving Hartmann

At the 9th International Conference of Directors of Safety in Mines Research a paper6/ was presented describing the initial phases of research by the Safety in Mines Research Establishment at Buxton, England, on the remote control of timber fires with high-expansion foam plugs in a rock tunnel. The work received extensive publicity, and great interest was aroused by the implied possibility that the method might be used successfully to control coal-mine fires, which for various reasons cannot be approached and attacked by standard fire fighting measures and frequently require sealing extensive, valuable coal properties and lead to loss of production and coal reserves and occasionally loss of lives. To investigate the practicability of the foam-plug technique under American min¬ing conditions, with room-and-pillar-type extraction and multiple entries, the Bureau of Mines in 1957 began an investigation at its Experimental Coal Mine, Bruceton, Pa, In preparation for this work it was necessary to rehabilitate and reinforce an elliptical tunnel in the mine where studies had been made, many years ago, leading to development of a ventilation system used in the Holland Tunnels between New York and New Jersey, and in many other vehicular tunnels.

Jan 1, 1958

By M. S. Cetiner

This report describes the prototype development If a medium to high voltage coupler, suitable for underground coal mining operations. The coupler has such unique features as automatic dust covers and continuous phase pin shielding. The coupler is rated at 7500V and 250A continuous operation.

Jan 1, 1982

By F. S. Crawford

Safety devices and guards are often looked upon as the last word in safety by the men around the shop or large industrial plant . However , thorough knowledge of the details of their jobs and of the dangers attending them are even more important . It should be unnecessary for all men to go through the experience of the first man to meet an unknown danger , but that appears to be about the only way by which many learn . Practically every danger connected with the job around a mine , blast furnace , steel mill , foundry , coke oven , cement mill , or other operation , was encountered for the first time by someone , and if he was fairly fortunate he either got hurt or just missed being injured and lived to tell his " budaies " how it happened; he spread the knowledge of that particular danger . Sometimes , but not often , a man can foresee a danger . If he could always be on guard and remember everything he had ever learned and also know everything that had happened to the other fellow , and then let that knowledge keep him aware of the dangers in his own immediate " job , " so that he would work the safe way for both himself and the other fellow , he would have what safety engineers call " safety consciousness . " Being safety conscious is a fine attribute , as it really means knowing all about one's job . A man who is really safety conscious is one of the best and most efficient workmen in the whole plant . The boss wants men of that kindmen who want to learn and who try to learn every little detail about their jobwhere there is danger of spoiling the heat or getting burned by hot metal in a steel plant or of loading rock instead of coal or ore in a mine . Such men know how to do whatever job they are on easily and with the least amount of hard work and at the same time get it done as quickly as possible with safety . A man who is safety conscious has to nearly all intents and purposes developed eyes in the back of his head , if he is in a big mill where there if something going on all around him . These eyes are not real eyes , but they are what might be termed a sixth sense which he has developed by his experience in the mill as well as in other dangerous work which he may have done before in other plants . There may be occasions when a man's safety consciousness will leave him for just a short time ; this is likely to happen when he is thinking about a quarrel he had with his wife which has not been cleared up happily , or perhaps when he has bought too many things on installment and with sickness at home

Apr 1, 1931

By G. L. Oldright, Virgil Miller

"This paper is the ninth 4 of a series on smelting in the lead blast furnace, and the fourth on modifications brought about by the introduction of richer charges.ACKNOWLEDGMENTSThe authors wish to express their appreciation to Stanley A. Easton, Frank M. Smith, and A. F. Beasley, and to their staff for the whole—hearted cooperation that made it possible to obtain the data in this publication at the Bunker Hill smelter, Kellogg, Idaho.INTRODUCTIONIn tie account written of the conditions obtaining at the tuyere zone in the blast furnaces at Tooele (R. I. 2965) the authors gave references to articles covering (1) the effect of temperature on the equilibrium 2C0 - CO2 + C, (2) experimental work that has been done on learning the gases existing at various elevations in columns of burning coke, (3) extension of this work to the tuyere zone of an iron blast furnace, and (4) the paper itself gave similar analyses of the gaseous oxides of carbon at the tuyere zone of a lead blast furnace and showed the temperatures obtaining there. There were also references in the above paper to the literature on (5) how the lead compounds likely to be present might be ex¬pected to react. A careful study of the original articles selected as references will give a good background for the present work.The following very brief recapitulation may be convenient before considering the tuyere zone in the blast furnaces at Kellogg. The ""producer gas reaction"" (1) of course goes to the left at increasingly higher rates of speed with increase of temperature. When air is blown upward through a grate and a column of hot fine coke alone, oxygen as such penetrates from some 2 to 3 inches only, under the conditions obtaining as to the amount of surface exposed per unit volume of air. When air is blown at about 20 pounds pressure through the tuyeres in the side of an iron blast furnace into a column of coarse coke (plus furnace charge) it may penetrate for 30 inches before the oxygen is entirely used, burning first largely to CO2. Within wide limits, the rate of feeding air into the furnace has practically little effect on the composition of the gases obtaining in the fuel bed of fine coke, this being true particularly of the gases leaving the bed. Some 10.5 inches above the grate the gases contained 22 per cent of CO by volume, and a little further up the CO2 had practically disappeared. This gave the familiar three zones in both the iron blast furnace and the gas producer; in order of entry of the air, in the first the oxygen burned largely to CO2, in the second the CO2 was reduced to CO, and the third the CO2 was practically absent. In the furnaces at Tooele, conditions were somewhat erratic but the first two zones were present, there being, however, no zone in which CO2 and 02 were both entirely absent."

Apr 1, 1931

By John W. Walkiewicz

The U.S. Bureau of Mines has conducted studies to utilize rapid microwave heating to stress fracture ore samples. Iron ores containing hematite, magnetite, and goethite were subjected to microwave energy in batch operations at 3 kW and heated to average maximum temperatures between 840 and 940 °C. Standard Bond grindability tests showed that microwave heating reduced the work index of iron ores by 10 to 24 pct. In a microwave chamber designed to simulate a continuous throughput operation at 3 kW, the grindability of a taconite ore was improved by 13 pct at a bulk temperature of 197 °C. Because stress cracking occurred at a lower temperature, less energy was consumed. To further improve the economics of microwave fracturing, higher powers up to 16 kW were used to rapidly heat samples to relatively low temperatures in a continuous, belt-fed applicator. A significant improvement of grindability was obtained with a larger rod mill feed size in comparison to a minus 6-mesh Bond feed.

Jan 1, 2010

By Robert W. Smith

The Bureau of Mines is engaged in a systematic evaluation of the thermodynamic properties of combustion gases. These studies are designed to provide basic thermodynamic information of high accuracy, facilitating the theoretical study of flame and combustion phenomena. This report is the fourth of a series4/ presenting results of the study for particular fuel-oxidant systems. These calculations have as their objective the evaluation of the constant pressure flame temperatures of methane-air, propane-air, and ethylene-air mixtures for a range of pressures.

Jan 1, 1953

By E. R. Bauer

Noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) continues to be a concern of the mining industry. A new noise standard (30 CFR, Part 62) is aimed at reducing NIHL in mining through engineering and administrative noise controls. However, the difficulty and expense of implementing engineering controls can make administrative controls an attractive alternative for reducing worker noise exposure. Over the last three years, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has conducted worker noise exposure surveys in underground and surface coal mines and in coal preparation plants. The surveys revealed numerous possible administrative controls and an approach to implementation and analysis. The surveys have shown that worker dosimetry, time-motion studies and equipment noise profiling are important aspects of effectively utilizing administrative controls. A description of the approach for selecting, implementing and evaluating administrative controls and a list of possible administrative controls are reported.

Jan 1, 2007