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The selective placement of coal stripmine overburden is examined. Physical and chemical properties of spoil detrimental to revegetation and groundwater are detailed. The United States is divided into regions or similar problems. Five mining methods already used in the industry, that are capable of selectively handling waste are examined in detail. Technical and economic comparisons are made for the systems when applied to realistic mine settings. The same analysis is conducted for five novel methods capable of selectively handling waste. Comparisons are made between novel and existing methods. Suggestions for new and modified equipment are outlined. Recommendations for further research are provided. This volume contains all Appendices to the report.

Jan 1, 1981

By Leslie S. Rubin

A ventilated helical boost pump was developed that can handle varying flow rates and/or solids concentrations while operating at a single rotational speed and without computer assisted feedback controls. The boost pump developed and briefly tested during this program was designed to accomodate flows suitable for a 3-in. diameter pipeline. The boost pump's ventilated design provides the automatic pressure regulation needed to meet the system's requirements for supporting transient pipeline flow.

Jan 1, 1984

By James Westfield

Following is a brief history of Bureau of Mines Division of Coal-Mine Inspection activities that have favorably effected health and safety and reduced Injuries at coal mines: The Federal cline Safety Code for Bituminous Coal and Lignite Mines of the United States was issued originally by the Director of the Bureau of Mines on July 24, 1946, after consulting with management and labor representatives of the coal-mining industry. The code has been used by Federal coal-mine inspectors while inspecting bituminous-coal and lignite mines for the existence of unhealthful and unsafe conditions and practices in these mines. A revised code was issued by the Secretary of the Interior on October 8, 1953, after further consulting with representatives of management and mine workers, and was incorporated in the 1952 and subsequent bituminous-coal wage agreements. The agreement of May 29, 1946, betweeen the Secretary of the Interior, acting as Coal Mines Administrator under authority of Executive Order 9728, and the United Mine Workers of America, covering bituminous-coal and lignite mines in Government possession, charged Federal coal-mine inspectors with the responsibility of making periodic investigations of the mines and reporting to the Coal Mines Administrator any violations of the Federal Mine Safety Code. Federal coal-mine inspectors also had temporary authority to close mines considered imminently dangerous, but authority under Executive Order 9728 was removed on June 30, 1947, when Government control of the mines was terminated.

Jan 1, 1962

By James R. Cosby

This report describes work performed for the Bureau of Mines to evaluate available portable instruments for their effectiveness in detecting and locating damaged metallic shields in Types SHD and SHC cables. A second phase of the program is also covered wherein several instruments of a type which show promise are purchased for modification and testing to verify their performance.

Jan 1, 1980

By Lisa A. McDonald

The environmental compliance process affects all aspects of hardrock-mining operations, from exploration through post-closure. The primary components of the environmental compliance process are requirements under the National Environmental Protection Act of 1969 (NEPA) and the permitting requirements associated with various other federal, state and local laws. This study considers the Greens Creek Mine and the development of two other projects (Alaska-Juneau & Kensington). These mines were used as the foundation for a case study of the impacts of the environmental compliance process on hardrock-mining activity in Southeast Alaska. The case study presents the institutional and legal requirements, followed by a discussion of the impact of this process on the production and timing of the three mines. The results of this preliminary study reveal some interesting findings, some expected and others unexpected, regarding the impact of the permitting process on the exploration, development and (proposed) operation of the three mining projects in the Juneau area. Determining the cost of compliance with these requirements is an important step in evaluating the appropriate course of action to protecting the environment while providing the necessary raw materials needed for society. This preliminary study highlights the initial starting point for such an analysis.

Jan 1, 1992

By R. H. Grau

Researchers from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health have demonstrated that mine-wide ventilation in large-opening stone mines can be improved by using low-pressure, high-volume propeller fans and constructing stoppings in key locations to direct and control airflow. In light of these findings, a comparative study was conducted to determine if a portable diesel-powered propeller fan could per-form more efficiently for dust dilution and transport than an axial vane fan for localized ventilation. The objective of this study is to evaluate both fan types for ventilation efficiency at an underground dump/crusher facility in a limestone mine. Results showed an improvement with the propeller fan to dilute both the respirable dust and the respirable silica dust around the dump/crusher facility. Overall, an average reduction of 20% in respirable dust and silica was observed at the dump/crusher location with the propeller fan.

By R. E. Simpson

Beginning in 1972, fully grouted resin bolts were used in underground mines. An estimated 20 million resin bolts will be installed in 1980 owing to their apparent support improvement in most roof-bolt applications. Inorganic cements were tested to replace the resin at a lower cost while retaining the advantages of a grouted bolt. Although other inorganic materials were considered, all but portland and gypsum cements were rejected for reasons of availability, performance, or cost. Portland and gypsum-type cements were tested by the Bureau of Mines to select a fast-hardening, low-cost material that would anchor a roof bolt adequately to meet safety standards. An alpha-gypsum cement, accelerated with potassium sulfate, was selected as the best material because it had adequate pull strength at a desired set time of less than 5 minutes and was readily available.

Jan 1, 1980

By Rupert O. Yantz

This report, authorized under contract Number H0111403 Amendment Number One, entitled, "Exploration of Illumination Concepts for Underground Coal Mines", contains the results of an investigation of methods, procedures, and technology for providing working place lighting in underground coal mines and construction of a prototype, man portable, mine illumination system and a prototype, machine mounted, mine illumination system for use in high and low coal entries of underground coal mines.

Jan 1, 1972

By C. B. DUTTON, W. F. RITTMAN, E. W. Dean, M. S. HOWARD

NOMENCLATURE USED IN THIS REPORT. In this report the ending ene has been used throughout, except in the bibliography and in quotations from the writings of previous investigators, for all aromatic hydrocarbons, as, for instance, benzene, toluene, xylene. The ending ol, though largely used in technical description, is not correctly applicable to these hydrocarbons, and should be used to designate the impure mixtures of commerce, as distinguished from pure chemical compounds. PRESENT STATUS OF PETROLEUM-REFINING INDUSTRY. Although petroleum is widely distributed, being found in many parts of the world, and although information as to its occurrence and general characteristics seems to have existed from vcry early times, our knowledge of the chemical nature of this substance has been acquired largely within the past 40 years. Within this period a voluminous literature has accumulated, which records work as painstaking as has ever been undertaken in the whole field of chemistry, such as that of C. M. Warren, F. H. Storer, S. P. Sadtler, S. F. Peckham, and C. F. Mabery. Despite this fact, the commercial method of treating crude petroleum for the purpose of procuring marketable products is, in the main, essentially empirical. Much knowledge has been acquired as to methods of separating from crude petroleum such products as are desirable commercially, but little has been done to attain the maximum recovery of such products.

Jan 1, 1916

By Winton Gale, David Oyler, Jinsheng Chen, Christopher Mark

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health’s (NIOSH) Pittsburgh Research Laboratory (PRL), RAG Pennsylvania and Strata Control Technologies of Australia have collaborated to conduct an extensive study of roof bolt strata interaction at the Emerald mine in Southwestern Pennsylvania. The primary goal of the project was to obtain detailed data on the interaction between the mine roof and the support elements for use in modeling studies. The study site was a longwall tailgate subjected to high horizontal stress. Three arrays of instruments were installed at the site, one in the tailgate entry and two in an adjacent crosscut. Pumpable concrete cribs were present in the tailgate array, and cable bolts were installed in one of the crosscut arrays. The instruments included mechanical and sonic extensometers for measuring roof movement, instrumented roof bolts, and three-dimensional roof stress cells. The study was ultimately successful in determining the magnitude of the horizontal stress concentration, the height of roof failure and the roof failure sequence, and the loading history of the primary roof supports.

By D. D. Southworth

In 1981, 1982, and 1983, the Bureau of Mines examined the potential for lode deposits of platinum-group metals (PGM) in the Goodnews Bay ultramafic complex, Alaska. The complex consists of the Red Mountain, Suzie Mountain, and Smalls River ultramafic bodies and displays concentric zoning of rock types similar to complexes in southeast Alaska, British Columbia, and the Ural Mountains in the U.S.S.R. Results of the study indicate that platinum is preferentially associated with chromite and magnetite in the dunite core of the complex, and palladium is preferentidlly associated with sulfide minerals in the outer clinopyroxene-rich zones. the most promising targets for PGM lode deposits are the chromite-rich dunite at the heads of Fox Gulch and Squirrel Creek and iron-nickel and iron copper sulfide-bearing magnetite clinopyroxenite and hornblende-rich rocks outward of the dunite core, also in the Fox Gulch-Squirrel Creek area. Significant placer reserves are present in the unmined, deeply buried placer ground in the lower Salmon River Valley, and also in tailings from previous dredging.

Jan 1, 2011

By Gregory R. Wagner

The Program of Mine Safety and Health Research described in this document reflects the continuing commitment of the Spokane and Pittsburgh Research Laboratories to focus on the most important areas where research can make a difference in reducing risk and improving safety and health for miners. It is the first program of work conducted since Congress mandated closure of the former U. S. Bureau of Mines (USBM) in the Department of the Interior and supported integration of the health and safety research function of the former USBM into the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). Organizational changes made FY97 a challenging year of transition. Ongoing research was reviewed and revised to reflect the new, more limited, health and safety mandate of the research laboratories. The mining industry, mine worker representatives, and interested government agencies provided broad input to assure that the research performed would focus on the most critical safety and health problems confronting mining today and which are expected to be faced in the future. The two laboratories worked to evolve coordinated programs of safety and health research, each with a special focus. The work of the Spokane Research Laboratory is directed toward issues of special importance to the Western mining industry, particularly those safety hazards found in metal/nonmetal mining and surface mining. The work of the Pittsburgh Research Laboratory will continue to focus on Eastern mining, particularly underground coal mining. Traditional areas of expertise for understanding and preventing fires and explosions and for controlling the hazards of dust and noise will continue to reside in Pittsburgh. Each laboratory is developing new capabilities in the analysis of relevant safety and health information to assure that program priority-setting decisions are informed by the best available data. Recognizing the continuing importance of communicating the results of research to all who are capable of improving safety and health conditions in mining, each laboratory has developed an activity for information dissemination and coordination with stakeholders. In the midst of organizational self-examination and change, the research staff in Pittsburgh and Spokane have never wavered from their continuing commitment to conduct the highest quality scientific research-solution-oriented scientific work meant to reduce the risk of injury, disease, and death from occupational hazards in mining. The pages that follow give insight into some of the program activities and accomplishments from FY97. I hope you share my pride in the many accomplishments of the NIOSH mine safety and health research program during this year. This report comes at a time of increasing stability for the mine health and safety research program. The organizational changes in Spokane and Pittsburgh have been concluded, and NIOSH has succeeded in recruiting a new, permanent associate director for mining to lead this critically important national program. Congress has contributed to an optimistic future by providing expanded funding for NIOSH mining-related research for the next fiscal year. On a personal note, I greatly appreciate the opportunity I have had to serve as the NIOSH Acting Associate Director for Mining during this transitional year. The commitment and intelligence with which the mining research staff pursued their mission was matched by their patience and understanding in moving into a new organizational environment. All of us committed to improved safety and health for this Nation's miners owe them our respect and appreciation.

By J. A. Bartol

A survey was made of accident data and operating practices related to overloading and uneven load distribution on haulage trucks in noncoal open pit mines. Safety and economic aspects were analyzed. A bibliography of the literature was prepared. Review was made of available or projected systems for weighing or load indicating that might be applied to haulage trucks. A model specification was prepared for an overload detection system. Several promising systems for overload detection were identified. One was installed and tested briefly in a 170-ton rear dump truck in a copper surface mine.

Jan 1, 1982

By Kenneth Eilerts

[The development and operation of ?combination on wells?5/ have created new and unusual problems, many of which cast to solved only if information is available concerning the properties of the fluids produced. Data as to the characteristics of the fluids at the relatively high pressures that exist in the reservoirs are especially important, and there is growing economic concern to know what part, if any, of the liquid recovered at the surface was liquid in the reservoir, As an extension of this problem, it is important to Know whether liquid will be formed in the reservoir it as a result o a isothermal retrograde condensation when the reservoir pressure is reduced. The pressure range of such condensation, if it occurs, is significant in the design of gas-recycling plants for maintaining reservoir pressures. In connection with the operation of such plants, it is particularly important to know how gyres sure and temperature will affect the yield of the liquid phase and the composition of the gas to be returned to the reservoir. It has not been possible to predict the behavior of these fluids that have high ratios of gas to liquid by comparing them with the behavior of low gas-liquid ratio fluids at identical pressures and temperatures. Such comparison fails because the proportions in which a component will be distributed between the phases of a system at any given temperature and pressure depend increasingly on the composition of the mixture as the critical temperature and pressure of the oysters are approached. Because many combination wells are producing from reservoirs that have temperatures near the critical point, experimental date on the properties of the fluids under reservoir conditions are particularly important at this time. To rest the immediate requirements of the industry for such experimental information an equilibrium cell has been constructed at the Petroleum Experiment Station of the Bureau of Mines, Bartlesville, Okla. When adequate experimental date, have boon accumulated, it may be possible to mare dependable estimates of the phase relations ft. high gas-liquid ratio fluids at the pre runes and temperatures characteristics of ?combination-well? reservoirs.]

Jan 1, 1940

By Frank C. Townsend

Centrifugal model embankments with varying geometries and materials were constructed of- coal waste material, accelerated From 100 to 120 times earth's gravity, and subjected to various throughflow rates until failure occurred. Complementary laboratory tests were performed on the waste materials to obtain strength and permeability parameters for analytical calculations to predict observed centrifugal model behavior. Failures in the form of deep.-seated failure, or erosion and sediment transport or a combination of both, occurred in model embankments with 1V:1-1/2H and 1V:2H slopes when the phreatic surface due to seepage exited on the downstream slope: Positive seepage control, i.e., a toe drain successfully prevented sloughing and failures. Slope stability analyses agreed well, albeit conservatively, with observed model performance. Factors of safety ranged from 0.7 to 1.02 at the instant of failure for models with retrogressing slips as compared with 1.05 to 1.7 for stable embankments, These models verified existing criteria of a minimum safety factor of 1 3 and the necessity of positive seepage control.

Jan 1, 1980

By F. A. Jones

Increased mechanization .of coal mines has emphasized the need for study of actual power requirements of the various machines employed in the production of coal and losses in the distribution of power to these machines. These studies are being made in order that hazards, excessive use of power, and high maintenance cost of equipment resulting from these losses may be analyzed and eliminated where possible. Research on the use of electric power in-coal mines was suggested by the Advisory Committee of the Bureau of Mines in 1937, and it was decided to begin with a study of individual machines of various types under operating conditions in modern coal mines. The transmission of power, particularly line losses and inadequate return circuits, should be a part of the investigation. This report presents some of the data of an initial study in commercial mines. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The superintendents, engineers, and other officials of the two mines studied cooperated fully and aided in setting up and transporting the test equipment, giving such information as was requested.

Jan 1, 1942

By E. Kamon

This report summarizes completed research pertaining to the reaction of human subjects exposed to Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA) stressors during escape conditions (viz., resistance breathing, C02 breathing, hot air breathing, and static positive facepiece positive pressure breathing) and the development of an automated breathing and metabolic simulator (ABMS). Volume I contains summarizes of the studies performed under this contract. Volume II is an appendix which contains more detailed descriptions of these studies.

Jan 1, 1984

By Floyd G. Anderson

A study was made of the effectiveness of dust-control methods being employed in connection with continuous-mining operations. Airborne dust exposures of workmen and dust loadings of return air were determined for six types of continuous-mining machines. The conditions required for control of dust exposure are summarized and include ventilation of the working face by an exhaust system. Return-air dust loadings ranging up to 13 pounds per hour are reported.

Jan 1, 1963

By F. A. Jones

Increased mechanization .of coal mines has emphasized the need for study of actual power requirements of the various machines employed in the production of coal and losses in the distribution of power to these machines. These studies are being made in order that hazards, excessive use of power, and high maintenance cost of equipment resulting from these losses may be analyzed and eliminated where possible. Research on the use of electric power in-coal mines was suggested by the Advisory Committee of the Bureau of Mines in 1937, and it was decided to begin with a study of individual machines of various types under operating conditions in modern coal mines. The transmission of power, particularly line losses and inadequate return circuits, should be a part of the investigation. This report presents some of the data of an initial study in commercial mines. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The superintendents, engineers, and other officials of the two mines studied cooperated fully and aided in setting up and transporting the test equipment, giving such information as was requested.

Jan 1, 1942

By Stephen R. Iverson

Manganese deposits exist in the Wonder Mountain RARE II area (fig. 1). The manganese mineral is primarily bementite, a silicate. It occurs with Jasper and manganese oxides in tabular or irregular lenses along the contact between red limestone and basalt. There are about 11,000 tons (10,000 t) of indicated sub-economic resources in the northeast part of the study area. Of this, 10,700 tons containing 27.1 percent manganese is at the Apex Prospect and 300 tons averaging 24.8 percent is at the Brown Mule Mine (fig. 1). Another 1,000 tons (900 t) containing 27.0 percent manganese is at the Steel Creek deposit 0.5 mi (0.8 km) west of the area (Wiebelt, 1942, p. 1, 2). Each of these deposits is subeconomic due to small tonnage and high estimated recovery costs. They are in a regional belt of manganese occurrences trending northwesterly through the area. Pardee (1921) reports that manganese ore was shipped from the Triple Trip (Brown Mule) Mine in 1916.

Jan 1, 1982