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By J. W. Eckerd, W. S. Sanner, P. L. Woolf, R. E. McKeever

The Bureau of Mines experimental blast furnace was operated successfully with anthracite metallurgical briquets . Tuyère pressures were higher and more erratic than for operations using coke , and furnace " hangs " occurred more frequently . Higher hot - blast temperatures were required to maintain the quality of the metal . By using higher hot blast temperatures , the fuel and production rates and slag volumes were comparable to those obtained for all - coke operation . The anthracite metallurgical briquets exhibited excellent mechanical strength and descended through the shaft of the furnace with little breakage or reduction in size .

Jan 1, 1964

By D. Harrington

The coal-mining industry of the United States finds difficulty not only in making ends meet financially but also in operating with anything like reasonable safety. The record to date has not been particularly good as to either finance or safety, but at least in some phases or safety there are indications of better times to come. During the fiscal year ending June 30, 1929, only 139 lives were lost in explosions in our mines as against 342 lost during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1928; this decrease in such fatalities is definitely a matter for satisfaction. During the fiscal year July 1, 1928, to June 30, 1929, the attention of the safety division of the U. S. Bureau of Mines was directed to 38 mine explosions in the United States. Two explosions were in non-coal mines, one in a semianthracite mine, two in anthracite mines, and 33 in bituminous mines. These were not all major explosions - that is, explosions in which five or more lives were lost; in some of the explosions no lives were lost, while in others fewer than five fatalities resulted. Table 1 gives data on the explosions, showing the number of mines using open or closed lights and the number of explosions with resulting deaths, by causes, for each State.

Jan 1, 1929

By Ralph L. Rinehart, Wils L. Cooley

This paper summarizes recent experiments with grounding systems. Problems and potential hazards related to in-mine grounding systems are discussed. The monitoring of trailing cable ground conductors and testing of commercially available ground monitors are discussed.

Jan 1, 1975

By L. L. Oden

The U.S. Bureau of Mines and the Department of Energy (DOE), through its contractor EG&G Idaho Inc., are collaborating on a multiyear research project to evaluate the applicability of three-phase, electric arc furnace melting technology to vitrify materials simulating low-level radioactive and mixed wastes buried or stored at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory and other DOE sites. The melter is a sealed, 1-t (1.1-st), three-phase, 800-kV?A electric arc melting furnace with 10.2-cm-(4-in?) diameter graphite electrodes, water-cooled roof and sidewalls, and four water-cooled feed tubes. A water-cooled copper fixture provides for continuous tapping of slag. An instrumented air pollution control system (APCS) with access ports for analysis and a feeder based on screw conveyors and a bucket elevator are dedicated to the facility. Test data are provided by an arc furnace analyzer and by sensors indicating feed rate; slag temperature; and temperature, pressure, and velocity in the APCS. These data are received by a data logger, digitized, and transmitted to a personal computer for storage and display. This unique waste treatment facility is available for public and private use on a cost-sharing basis.

Jan 1, 2010

By W. A. Dunkley

During the past year and a half the Western United Corporation of Aurora , Illinois , has been distributing carburetted water ges from its Lockport , Ill . , plant , to an extensive territory , under an initial pressure ranging up to 90 lb.. per sq. in . The most distant distributing point on the system is at Harvard , Ill . , about 35 miles from the plant.. The territory supplied is approximately 85 miles long and 35 miles wide , the total mileage of rains being 1223 , or approximately 24 per cent of all the gas trains in Illinois outside the city of Chicago .

Feb 1, 1923

By H. B. Humphrey, F. E. Cash

The Birmingham coal-mining district of Alabama has many local physical conditions that contribute largely to the proble of preventing coalmine fatalities . Coal : nes of Alabama have been under the supervision of the State mine inspector since 1892 , and reports have been made with increasing completeness since that time . The U. S. Bureau of Mines has maintained a station of the safety division in the district since 1912 to cooperate with operators and the State in the advancement of safety in mining . A description of conditions in regard to fatal accidents as they have been and as they now are in Alabama , compared with the entire United States , will indicate the progress that has been made and that should still be made in reducing fatal mine accidents .

Sep 1, 1930

By Frank D. Lamb

Four samples of manganese-bearing material from the Aroostook County, Maine, deposits were tested at the Eastern Experiment Station of the Bureau of Mines at College Park, Md., to determine their amenability to beneficiation by ore-dressing methods. The samples represented material from the Maple Mountain-Hovey Mountain deposit, the Dudley farm, and the Burnham farm and contained 11 to 14 percent manganese. None of the tests produced appreciably enriched concentrates suitable for further treatment for the production of ferromanganese. The intimate association of the manganese minerals with iron and siliceous minerals requires extremely fine grinding to liberate the manganese minerals in these ores and prevents efficient concentration by physical means.

Jan 1, 1953

By R. V. Ramani

This volume is the third of a four-volume final report on research carried out under a contract from the U.S. Bureau of Mines on the development of a computer simulation model for surface mine reclamation planning. The other volumes are titled as follows: Volume I: Ore Reserve Estimation, Volume II: Dragline Model, and Volume IV: User's Manual for OPMHS/2. The Mine Coordinate Generator System serves as an interface between the Geology and Reserves System (Volume I, final report) and OPMHS/2 (Volume IV, final report) to provide local mine grid information which is used as input to the decision making process and dynamic simulation routines of OPMHS/2. After the Geology and Reserves System has been successfully run for a property, a data base containing values for each grid cell covering the property is created at the end of execution, if chosen as an option by the user. The Mine Coordinate Generator reads this information and creates a special direct access data set from the sequential data input. When information defining the mine grid is read, the values present in the property grid are for the interpolation of values for each mine block.

Jan 1, 1985

By H. Kenworthy

A zinc-pyrite ore from the Gray deposit in Jo Daviess County, Ill., was successfully concentrated on a laboratory scale. Initially, drill cuttings were submitted for separation of zinc and iron concentrates. Subsequent to mine development, a large sample of coarse ore was submitted to ascertain its amenability to sink-float treatment to produce a low-grade zinc-iron concentrate and discard a clean tailing. The samples of ore were submitted to the Rolla Metallurgical Branch by the Mining Division of the Federal-Bureau-of Mines. They were obtained during the recent war as a part of the extensive government program to increase metal production through exploration for new mineral deposits and investigation of old mineralized areas. The first sample consisted of about 3,000 pounds of drill cuttings collected, during the Bureau?s churn and diamond- drilling program. The second sample was taken at a later date, after Tri-State Zinc, Inc., had opened the deposit and commenced milling the ore. This sample consisted of a ?ton-of mill feed crushed through 2 inches and collected over a period of 3 days.

Jan 1, 1949

By Robert E. Barieau

This report describes a method for treating pressure-volume-temperature (PVT) data obtained with a Burnett compressibility apparatus. The method makes use of a general nonlinear least-squares technique developed at the Bureau of Mines Helium Research Center. It is assumed that an adequate functional form is available for the expression of the compressibility factor as a function of either the molal density or the pressure. The functional form of the compressibility factor can be either linear or nonlinear in the parameters to be evaluated. Formulas are given for calculating variances and covariances of all parameters evaluated and for calculating the variance of calculated quantities of interest.

Jan 1, 1967

By J. P. Bennett

The Bureau of Mines is investigating the acid resistance of ceramic materials to identify construction materials for emerging technology in chemical and metallurgical processes. Eight commercial ceramic materials, including two red shale, two fireclay, a silica, a silicon carbide, a carbon, and a high-alumina brick, were evaluated. Samples were exposed to 40 wt pct HN03 at 70° and 90° C and 60 wt pct HN03 at 50°, 70°, and 90° C for time periods of 110 days. Statistically significant changes in cold crushing strength were generally small or not detected, except for a strength drop in the high-alumina brick, which decreased in strength when exposed to the chosen acid concentrations at 90° C. Vol-ume and weight changes were also measured. The leach rates of Al, Ca, Fe, K, Mg, Na, Si, and Ti were monitored. Increasing temperature or a decrease in the acid concentration resulted in an increased ion leach rate. Of the conditions tested, the most severe corrosion occurred at 90° C for a 40-wt-pct-HN03 solution. The silica brick had the best overall acid-resistant properties, followed by a red shale and a fire-clay brick. The carbon and silicon carbide bricks are not recommended for service.

Jan 1, 1984

By T. W. Johnson

The Bureau of Mines, in cooperation with the Natural Gas Department of the American Gas Association, has in progress a study or the flow of natural gas through high-pressure transmission lines. A major problem of this study is to compare the deliveries calculated from the gas pipe-line flow formulas commonly used, with the metered deliveries from pipe lines in operation. In order to obtain such comparisons a series of tests has bean made on 25 operating pipe lines in Kansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas, and California ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Study of the flow of natural gas through high-pressure transmission lines was made under the general supervision of H. H. Hill, former chief petroleum engineer of the Bureau of. Mines, H. C. Fowler, acting chief petroleum engineer of the Bureau of Mines, N. A. C. Smith, superintendent of the Bureau of Mines Petroleum Experiment Station at Bartlesville, Okla., and T. Brandenthaler, chief of the oil and gas action of the Bartlesville station.

Jan 1, 1929

By Thomas J. Blalock

The volumetric determination of uranium according to the method of Sill and Peterson (6),3/ which uses cerate oxidimetry after the separation of interferences such as sulfides and cupferrates, has been used for some time by the Bureau of Mines and gives satisfactory results for many of the samples tested. However, in those instances where the uranium content did not exceed a few tenths of 1 percent and iron was present in the range of 10 to 40 percent (as Fe203),4/ the method was cumbersome and unreliable. The need for a more accurate procedure for the determination of small amounts of uranium in the presence of large amounts of iron, such as in shale or black sands, prompted this investigation. The Bureau desired that materials containing as little as 60 p.p.m. of uranium be assayed within reasonable limits of accuracy. One of the primary aims of this work has been to eliminate, as far as possible, the necessity for repeated cup ferron extractions.

Jan 1, 1960

By d&apos, Kathleen J. Amico

THIS summary appears in Minerals Yearbook volumes I and III, which cover mineral production in the United States, its island possessions, the Canal Zone, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, as well as the principal minerals imported into and exported from the United States. The several commodity and area chapters contain further details on production. A summary table comparing world and U.S mineral production also is included.

Jan 1, 1964

By Peter Grandone

Steel and iron pipe lined with cement to protect it against corrosion has been used in the municipal water systems of the New England States since about 1870. In most recent years, the petroleum industry adopted cement-lined pipe to forestall corrosion, particularly in those areas where large quantities of corrosive brines and hydrogen sulfide are associated with the oil produced. Many of the oil companies had on hand large quantities of corroded pipe, normally disposed of as scrap, which could be cleaned, lined with cement, and returned to service. It was soon learned that after the so-called scrap pipe was lined with cement much of it could serve fully as well as new cement-lined pipe. The demand for lining used pipe with cement resulted in the establishment of several processing, plants in the Mid-Continent oil-producing area. Today six cement-lining plants serve the areas three in Oklahoma and one each in Kansas, Texas, and Illinois. All of these plants have lined large quantities of used pipe for the brine-disposal systems of western Kansas, Illinois, and east Texas and also for the operators of water-flooding projects in northeastern Oklahoma and southeastern Kansas, where large quantities of brine and fresh water are being injected into the oil-bearing formations as a secondary oil-recovery method. Since war demands during the past 2 years have created an acute shortage of steel, the need of reclaiming used pipe for the expansion of oil-producing operations has become more evident than ever before. Thus the new industry (about 6 years old) - lining used pipe with cement - is saving large quantities of steel at a critical time by reclaiming used pipe and preventing further- corrosion.

Jan 1, 1945

By H. D. Baylor

This is the first of a series of papers describing mining methods and costs at cement plant quarries throughout the United States and deals directly with those methods employed and costs obtained at the quarry of the Louisville Cement Co. located at Speed, Ind. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author wishes to acknowledge the assistance of Mr. J. M. Buohheit, superintendent of quarries, and Mr. H. E. Schoonover, quarry engineer, in furnishing data and in compiling this report.

Jan 1, 1930

By Thomas C. Atchison

The experimental work described in this report is part of a continuing study by the Federal Bureau of Mines of the fundamental physical processes involved in breaking rock with explosives. Six explosives were tested for their strain-producing abilities in a dolomitic marble. The explosives selected for testing had a tenfold variation in detonation pressure and a fivefold variation in characteristic impedance (product of loading density and rate of detonation). Strain pulses produced by the detonation of small charges of the explosives were recorded at distances of 5 to 130 feet. Peak strain, ?, was found to decrease with distance, R, in accordance with an exponential propagation law previously determined for other rock types, namely ? = (K/R)e ?aR The absorption constant, a, did not vary significantly with the explosive and was of the same order of magnitude as that for other rock types. The different explosives produced a fivefold variation in the value of the intercept constant, K.

Jan 1, 1961

By Eliot J. White

The Bureau of Mines tested cores from 35 wells from 14 oil-producing zones in southern Illinois, southern Indiana, and western Kentucky to determine why rates of water injection were apparently low in some zones. Since these zones contain only minor amounts of clay minerals, it is concluded that permeability reduction results from movement of dislodged silica particles and other material, including the clays, that lines the pores. Both single-phase and two-phase permeability measurements, however, indicated that most samples had only low to moderate water sensitivity, so that permeability reduction due to such particle movement should usually not be of practical significance. The effective permeability to water was considerably lower than the effective permeability to oil during two-phase flow measurements, as is typical of most reservoir rocks. It can be concluded, therefore, that relatively high injection pressures will be required in waterflooding thin zones or zones having low permeabilities.

Jan 1, 1966

By J. R. White, S. W. Lambert, C. M. McCulloch

Examination of several coalbeds in Walker County, Ala., Cambria, Greene, and Fayette Counties, Pa., and Raleigh and Wyoming Counties, W. Va., indicates that cleat orientations are similar throughout a vertical sequence of strata. Studies of cleat orientation were carried out in underground mines that are operating in separate coalbeds vertically above one another. The data show that over a vertical separation of 100 to 400 feet, the average difference in coal cleat orientation between mines is 04° for the face and 08" for the butt cleat. Variations of coal cleat direction between coalbeds examined in strip-mined areas show similar values. Cleat orientations measured at outcrops agree well with the directions measured underground, suggesting that the amount of vertical separation between coalbeds has little effect on the resulting differences in cleat directions. The largest variation of cleat directions between adjacent coalbeds occurs where a large horizontal distance separates two sample locations. Cleat orientations for deeper coalbeds are most reliable where the data are taken from directly above.

Jan 1, 1976

By G. E. Johnson

A bench-scale study was made of removing hydrogen sulfide from synthesis gas at elevated pressure by iron oxide impregnated on wood chips. The gas contained 0.02 to 0.06 percent oxygen. The removal of hydrogen sulfide by iron oxide impregnated on wood chips is more efficient at elevated pressure. At constant space velocity, longer periods of operation at 400 p.s.i.g. are possible before the exit gas reaches a given maximum concentration of hydrogen sulfide, compared with 200 p.s.i.g. or atmospheric pressure. In tests at room temperature, 60° C., and 100° C., the most effective removal of hydrogen sulfide was obtained at room temperature and the least effective at 100° C. Dry impregnated wood chips removed only about half as much hydrogen sulfide as chips wetted to a water content of 50 percent.

Jan 1, 1962