Search Documents

The London Metal Exchange began its first official session of aluminum trading on Monday, October 2, LME prices based on 3-month forward contracts opened Monday at 52.4 cents per pound, fell midway through the week to 52.3 cents and ended Friday at a high of 52.7 cents. For the week, LME metal averaged 52.5 cents. Although Reynolds Metals Co. and Aluminum Co. of American continued in September to value unalloyed 99.5 percent aluminum ingot at 53 cents per pound, other producers were at higher positions of 55-57 cents. Alcan Aluminum Corp. of Alcan Aluminum, Ltd., a Canadian producer, increased prices for its U.S.-marketed ingot by 2 cents to 55 cents per pound, effective September 21. New York merchants increased ingot quotes by approximately 0.5 cents to 52.8-53.5 cents per pound.

Jan 1, 1978

By B. R. Mohal, S. Chander

"A new technique to determine wettability of powders is presented in this paper. In this technique the times for immersion of individual particles from air into liquids, defined as imbibition times, are measured. Through the measurements of imbibition times for a large number of particles, it is possible to determine homogeneity/heterogeneity of a powder sample with regard to its wetting behavior. Quartz particles give a very narrow distribution of imbibition times showing a homogeneous wetting surface whereas coal particles give a broad distribution indicative of the heterogeneous nature of its surface. The imbibition time measurement technique is considered to have certain advantages over other methods to determine wettability of powders in surfactant solutions. In this study we have also compared the imbibition times with the wetting rate mea¬surements obtained by a modified Walker test.INTRODUCTIONSeveral methods are available for determining wetting characteristics of sol¬ids. Each of the methods has been used in the past to obtain very valuable information for comparing wetting behavior of various solids in a given liquid or for comparing the wetting behavior of several liquids for a given solid. Each method measures a somewhat different aspect of wetting and therefore quantitative correlations between techniques have been difficult. A general approach is to use a method in which close similarity between the technique and the application (where results of wetting measurements are to be used) can be maintained. The objective of this investigation was to develop a method which could be used to determine the wetting characteristics of single particles in surfactant solutions. Wetting of individual particles is of importance in cap¬ture of dust particles by sprays of surfactant solutions.METHODS FOR DETERMINING WETTING — A BRIEF REVIEWThe various methods available for measuring wetting characteristics of solids include: contact angle, immersion/sink time, bubble pick-up, induction time, capillary rise, and displacement method measurements. Some of the methods are briefly reviewed in the paragraphs that follow."

Mar 1, 1989

By E. D. Gardner

Ore and concentrate are transported on, the surface at western mining districts by (1) railroads, (2) surface trams, (3) aerial trams, (4) trucks, and (5) wagons, and (6) on the backs of animals. The daily and ultimate tonnage to be moved is the principal factor governing the selection of the method of transportation. Railroads are preferred when large tonnages are to be hauled over relatively long distances. The mine-haulage system may be extended or surface trams built to the mill or shipping point if a practical track grade is possible and if the distance is relatively short. Aerial trams have a special field of usefulness for transportation over steep or excessively rough terrain.

Jan 1, 1936

By K. J. Ladwig

The Bureau of Mines conducted a field investigation of the water quality in inundated underground coal mines in the Northern Anthracite Field, eastern Pennsylvania. Water samples were collected at multiple depths from nine abandoned mine shafts in the Wyoming Basin, ranging from 68 to 650 m (223 to 2,132 ft) in depth and intersecting as many as seven mined seams in a single shaft. The shafts were also monitored for fluid resistivity, fluid temperature, Eh, and pH using downhole instrumentation. The monitoring program showed that the formerly highly acidic mine water is now slightly alkaline. Sulfate concentrations decreased as much as 74 pct in the flooded workings and 54 pct at a mine water discharge from values reported in 1964 and 1968, respectively. These data are consistent with the inhibition of pyrite oxidation and gradual flushing of oxidation products in flooded mine environments. The monitoring program also revealed significant vertical stratification in water quality in five of the nine shafts, each characterized by two easily recognizable zones. The transitions between zones were sharp, marked by rapid changes in Eh, pH, and ionic composition, the upper zones being less contaminated than the lower zones. The development of stratification appears to be a function of shallow localized flow conditions, arising primarily from the relative positions of mine openings and structural features of the coalbeds.

Jan 1, 1984

The accompanying supply/demand flow diagrams and 10-year tables for mineral and fuel commodities present essential data required by government, industry, and others to formulate policies and programs that can help assure an adequate and continuing supply of mineral raw materials. The 10-year data base terminates with 1975 figures because adequate world information was not available beyond that date. The selected mineral supply/demand tables and flow diagrams comprise but one "output" from the massive body of information and data collected and compiled by the Bureau of Mines on a continuing basis covering mineral production, consumption, prices, shipments, imports, exports, and stocks, as well as industry activities in all States and abroad.

Jan 1, 2012

By David Bendersky

The principal objectives of this study are to: (1) survey electrical practices in metal and non-metal mines, (2) survey electrical practices in metal and non-metal mills, (3) clarify the federal regulations governing electrical practices in metal and non-metal mines/mills, (4) analyze electrical accidents, and (5) make recommendations aimed at improvement of the safety of electrical practices in metal and non-metal mines. Information was obtained from literature searches, accident reports, visits to 27 mines and 12 mills, and discussions with knowledgeable industry and government people. The various electrical power systems and practices at the mines and mills visited are described. Similarities and differences based on the type of mining and the minerals being mined or milled are presented. The federal regulations governing metal/non-metal mine/mill electrical practices (Code of Federal Regulations, Title 30, Sections 55.12, 56.12, and 57.12) are presented and discussed. Explanations of each regulation are provided in an appendix. The attitudes of mine/mill operators towards the federal regulations are described. An analysis of the electrical accidents in metal/non-metal mines and mills during the period 1972-1978 is presented. Recommendations, including specific research and development activities, aimed at improvement of electrical safety in metal/non-metal mines are submitted.

Jan 1, 1980

By A. D. McMahon

This survey is one of a series of Bureau of Mines publications designed to serve the needs of Government and industry for comprehensive information on mineral commodities and activities. Copper, a versatile metal, has been vital to all civilizations from prehistoric times to the present. Its essential value in antiquity and until the nineteenth century arose from its malleability and ease of working, its corrosion resistance and durability', its attractive colors in alloyed and unalloyed forms, and, of course, its availability. The principal uses were for tools, utensils, vessels, weapons, pipe, statuary and other objects of art, and for building and architectural pur£~ses where formability, permanence, and beaut)" were necessary qualities. Utilization of copper based on these physical and mechanical properties has grown tremendously for commercial, structural, mechanical, architectural, and art items; and its capacity for forming numerous alloys has led to a myriad of applications from miniature copper and brass eyelets to huge bronze battleship propellers. The early nineteenth century marks the epoch of the greatest use of copper, transmitting electrical energy. This particular property of copper is fundamental to the spectacular growth of the electrical industry and all associated industries relying on electricity for power, light, and heat. More than half of all copper produced is used for transmission of electricity. The copper industry has been able to expand along with the mounting demand because of the ever increasing discovery of resources in the world and advances in mining, metallurgical, and fabricating technologies. World production and consumption rose progressively from about 18,000 tons in 1800 to more than 4.5 million tons in 1960. The estimated world reserve of primary- copper has more than doubled since 1935, being 212 million tons in 1960. Ninety percent of this reserve is credited to eight countries-the United States, Canada, Chile, Peru, the Soviet Union, Poland, Northern Rhodesia, and the Republic of the Congo. The United States share is 32.5 million tons of copper in ore, averaging approximately 0.9 percent. Another reserve being accumulated in the industrial countries of the world is copper products now in use that will eventually be discarded as scrap and become available for recovering secondary copper. In the United States this resource of more than 30 million tons, provides about one-fourth of the annual supply.

Jan 1, 1965

By Edward E. Johnson

The U.S. economy made significant progress in 1984. The current-dollar gross national product (GNP), the market value of the Nation's output of goods and services, increased almost 11 percent over that of 1983 to slightly more than $3.66 trillion (table 1), and the real gross national product increased almost 7 percent.2/ Such rapid growth in real GNP has not occurred since the early 1950's. Real final sales increased only 5 percent during 1984, and real business inventories increased $24.8 billion ($57.9 billion in current dollars). Total employment of 106.7 million was an all-time record, and the unemployment rate declined from 9.5 percent in 1983 to 7.4 percent in 1984. During 1984 the U.S. dollar showed great strength on international markets, contributing to large current-dollar negative net exports of goods and services (-$62.5 billion) and even larger negative net exports of merchandise (-$107.6 billion). The strong dollar and the substantial increase in net imports of goods and services helped reduce U.S. inflationary pressures and provided a major source of loanable funds for financing domestic private investment.

Jan 1, 1985

By C. W., Davie

"DEFINITIONDiatomaceous earth consists almost entirely of the silicious remains of minute flowerless aquatic plants known as diatoms. The name diatomaceous earth, therefore, is to be preferred to others such as trade names, inappropriate terms, or names correctly applied to some other product. The following names should, therefore, not be used for diatomaceous earth,-- kieselguhr, infusorial earth, diatomite, celite, moler, bergnehl, English rottenstone, tripoli, tripolite, fossil earth, desmid earth, white peat, tellurine, randanite, ceyssatite, or any trade name.FORMATIONDiatoms live in practically all kinds of water, fresh or salt, hot or cold, still or running and under different conditions of depth and pressure. These minute plants assimilate inorganic salts from their environment and produce skeletons of silica much as mollusks secrete lime and form their Shalls. When the diatoms die they settle to the bottom together with anything else which may be present, such as sand, clay or volcanic ash. The organic matter gradually disappears leaving the silicious skeletons of the diatoms which, with impurities, make up the deposits of diatomaceous earth. These deposits which are still being foamed at the present time and which were produced throughout very different epochs, were more prolifically formed in the Tertiary, so that the thickest beds so far discovered are of that Age."

Nov 1, 1925

By J. N. Geyer

During the early stages of the mining industry of the United States an apparently inexhaustible supply of high-quality, easily accessible coal made the product cheap and the attendant mining methods wasteful of recoverable coal. Because coal from advance places could be mined with less effort and a large outwit obtained as the entries advanced, much of the coal left in pillars to support the roof was lost. Squeezes often developed in these mined-over areas, or, if pillars were of sufficient size to-prevent squeeze, the roof would be so weakened by long exposure that any pillar recovery was extremely hazardous. As the value of unmined coal increased, a high recovery of the available coal became necessary. Numerous plans were tried during the period that followed, some of the methods proving successful while others were complete failures or only partly successful. As a better knowledge was pained of the roof strata and its behavior, however, pillar mining became more successful and methods suited to special roof conditions were developed.

Jan 1, 1933

The accompanying supply/demand flow diagrams and 10-year tables for mineral and fuel commodities present essential data required by government, industry, and others to formulate policies and programs that can help assure an adequate and continuing supply of mineral raw materials. The 10-year data base terminates with 1974 figures because adequate world information was not available beyond that date. The selected mineral supply/demand tables and flow diagrams comprise but one "output" from the massive body of information and data collected and com-piled by the Bureau of Mines on a continuing basis covering mineral production, consumption, prices, shipments, imports, exports, and stocks, as well as industry activities in all States and abroad.

Jan 1, 2012

This report presents information developed during Bureau of Mines contract H0242016, "Mine Shaft Fire and Smoke Protection Systems" from May, 1974 through June, 1975. Purpose of the metal and nonmetal health and safety project was to evaluate mine shaft fire and smoke hazard problems, and to develop and demonstrate a low-cost, reliable mine shaft fire protection system that would protect against such hazards and would be applicable to a majority of metal and nonmetal mine shafts, including raises and winzes, especially in deep mines. Program effort proceeded through five phases, culminating in the successful in-mine fire demonstration of a prototype system. In addition to this final report, a film is available which depicts components of the system and its successful shaft fire testing at an underground mine.

Jan 1, 1975

By Walter K. Utt

The process of drilling and bolting the roof is currently one of the most dangerous jobs in underground mining, resulting in about 1,000 accidents with injuries each year in the United States. To increase the safety of underground miners, researchers froth the Spokane Research Laboratory of- the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health are applying neural network technology to rite classification of mine roof strata in terms of relative strength. In this project, the feasibility of using a monitoring system on a roof drill to assess the integrity of a mine roof and warn a roof drill operator when a weak layer is encountered is being studied. Using measurements taken while a layer is being drilled, one can convert the data to suitably scaled features and classify the strength of the layer with a neural network. The feasibility of using a drill monitoring system to estimate the strength of successive layers of rock was demonstrated in the laboratory.

By George S. Rice

The major purpose of this bulletin, as indicated in the preface by Dr. John W. Finch, Director of the Bureau of Mines, is to give a critical review of the coal-mining methods used in the principal producing countries of Europe, to describe the reasons underlying the adoption of these methods, and to contrast them with coal-mining methods employed in the United States. The report includes discussions of various subjects intimately related to coal mining, such as geology of the principal coal fields; production and resources of the several countries; mine safety and health research; Government mining regulations; mine inspection and rescue procedure; safety lamps; fixed lighting methods under-ground; testing electric motors, mining machines, and mining explosives for permissibility; and special mining hazards, such as explosions of gas and coal dust, mine fires, instantaneous gas outbursts, ground movement and surface subsidence, and bumps. Commercial, economic, and labor problems of European coal mining, including miners' output, wages, and social-insurance schemes, as well as cost of mining, prices of coal, etc., are briefly described. It will be noted that data on most subjects are not given for Russia, which has become an important coal-producing country, owing to the lack of reliable published information concerning Russian coal mining.

Jan 1, 1939

By S. L. Windes

This report presents a tabulation of the physical and petrographic properties of Over 100 rock types from operating mines or mineral-investigation projects. The physical properties include the following: Apparent specific gravity Apparent porosity Compressive strength Flexural strength, (modulus of, rupture) Impact toughness Abrasive hardness Scleroscope hardness Modulus of elasticity (Young's modulus) Modulus of rigidity Specific damping capacity Longitudinal bar velocity

Jan 1, 1949

By W. W. Adams

Every man-hour of work performed in and about the coal mines of the United States had a 2-percent heavier death load from accidents in 1938 than in 1937. This is an unorthodox way of stating that the death rate per million man-hours of exposure or employment was 2 percent higher in 1938 than in 1937, increasing from 1.74 to 1.78. Thus the average miner had a 2-percent greater chance of being killed in 1938 than he had in 1937. The average quantity of coal resulting from 1 man-hour of work increased 3.6 percent -from 0.615 ton in 1937 to 0.637 ton in 1938. The production of the average ton of coal was accompanied by a slightly smaller loss of life in 1938 than in 1937, the accident rate being 2.793 per million tons in 1938 compared with 2.833 in 1937.

Jan 1, 1941

By Shigeru Tsutsumi

The rapid development of transportation facilities in Japan focused the attention of this country on the possibility of converting the existing coal resources (of which there was an abundance) into liquid fuels, for which there was a constantly increasing demand. Previous work had indicated that this could be accomplished by utilizing one of two processes - the Bergius process, in which high temperatures and high pressures were employed to effect direct liquefaction of the coal, and the Fischer-Tropsch process, in which an indirect liquefaction of coal was accomplished by the production of liquid hydro-carbons from hydrogen-carbon monoxide mixtures. This report describes some investigations into the latter process, which was first developed by Fischer and his colleagues in the Coal Laboratory in Muhlheim, Germany, in 1923. By 1932, these investigators had achieved a 60-percent theoretical yield (152 ml. of liquid hydrocarbons per cubic meter of 2H2:ICO synthesis gas) by using a precipitated Co-Th02 catalyst.3/ At the same time (1932), Dr. Kita of Kyoto Imperial University and Messrs. Fujimura and Tsuneoka obtained 145 ml. of gasoline (C5+) per cubic meter of synthetic gas by using a Co-Cu-Th-U catalyst. 4/ This report is a description of the experimental results subsequently obtained at the Fuel Research Institute, Kawaguchi City, Saitama, up to 1935.

Jan 1, 1951

A compilation of papers presented at The Second WVU Conference on Coal Mine E1ectrotechnology in Morgantown, West Virginia on June 12 -14, 1974. Papers cover areas of electric power, electronic communications, detection and location of trapped miners, and electronic sensors and monitoring systems.

Jan 1, 1974

By WL Wagner

This report presents a quality control approach to the derivation of strategies for monitoring a work environment; specifically, the environment in underground mines where diesel-powered equipment and blasting agents are used. The approach is presented as a series of 22 steps called the Monitoring Strategy Development Scheme. The scheme is an orderly method for selecting from a number of options a strategy or tactics to cost effectively meet the requirements of a chosen objective related to the monitoring of breathing zone air quality. The scheme provides a format to quantify many of the factors that influence the selection of on strategy or tactic over another, and to ensure that important considerations are not neglected. The premise that breathing zone air in work environment can be considered to be manufactured product and that, therefore, conventional quality control approaches are applicable, is introduced. Typical approaches to the quality control of manufactured products and how these approaches can be applied to the selection of monitoring strategies are discussed.

Jan 1, 1983

By Nicholas P. Callas

This report presents research results obtained in the investigation of deviation control of boreholes in the rotary drilling process. The approach taken in this research is the passive method of placing stabilizers in the bottom-hole assembly to control deviation. Extensive use was made of the drill string mechanics theories of Lubinski and Woods. Analog, digital and hybrid solutions to variety of boundary value problems were investigated in order to determine the best models for bottom-hole assemblies. Field drilling data was analyzed and the results obtained from various models were compared to the actual drilling results. Various accomplishments of this work have been published in open energy industry literature, with more publications to follow.

Jan 1, 1981