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By D. M. Loring

Radon progeny have been a health and safety concern for miners since the mining of radioactive minerals began. Through the ?nuclear age?, it has become better understood and the regulations have become more robust. Ventilation and control practices have improved, thus reducing miners? exposures. This paper provides an overview of radon in mining, the progress of the regulations, and discusses some of the uranium miner studies that contributed to the knowledge of the pathology of radon.

Jan 1, 2009

By Mohamed Yusuff

Modern transportation systems are one of the most important achievements of our civilization and provide us with tools for broadening individual and social freedom of choice. The transportation system initiated today is handed dawn to the next generation, probably with little choice because of the enormous expenditure of monies involved, and influence their way of life as to where they should live and where they should work. The ever increasing antagonism between the citizens and the planners of the transportation systems necessitates a careful review of the entire planning process. The planning process can be broadly classified into: the goal formulation and decision making process; the plan development process; and the plan implementation process. THE GOAL FORMULATION AND DECISION MAKING PROCESS Goal formulation and decision making is one of the vital phases of the planning process and is primarily based upon social values. In measuring social values, the planner must employ an appropriate scale of measurement since in the absence of this yardstick, these values tend to became vague and abstract ideals. The need for major social programs and concerns (poverty, etc.) of the urban areas should be analyzed to determine the type of transportation system which would contribute to the solution.

Jan 1, 1974

By A. Duerksen

Surface coal mining in West Virginia has supplied energy to the eastern coast of the United States for over a century. The coal mining industry has been forced to adapt as societal demands regarding health, safety, and environmental impacts have changed with time. More recent pressure has called for another iteration of change: long-term post-mining sustainability. The research presented in this paper investigates one potential solution?or component of a solution?to improve mining sustainability in Appalachia: post-mining wind power. This paper intends to demonstrate and explain the feasibility of synergistic mine closure and wind development. Wind conditions at three reclaimed mine sites in West Virginia were monitored in order to develop representative case studies for post-mining wind power. This paper contains a summary of the literature consulted to plan the site assessments, the methodology employed to execute them, the analysis steps undertaken to derive conclusions, and a discussion of all findings. This research has found that significant cost savings can be yielded from synergistic mine closure and wind development, as compared to greenfield wind development. Though wind conditions themselves remain the primary driver for site feasibility, post-mining wind power is a practice with significant promise for improving project economics, contributing to renewable energy development, enhancing company-community relations, providing local employment opportunities, and exemplifying sustainable business practices in Appalachia.

Jan 1, 2012

By Robert E. Mazurak

Mines and plants for sale, downsizing, bankruptcies, consolidation, slab imports, minimill growth displacing traditional integrated steel-making. These are some issues for North American iron ore and integrated steel producers. But the blast furnace still remains the workhorse of the ironmaking industry. And direct reduction and other alternate ironmaking technologies have yet to make any serious inroads in North America. How come? This article addresses the current state of primary ironmaking in the changing North American steel industry, the direct reduction market and new technologies under development that may hold some promise.

Jan 1, 2003

By D. M. Avant, S. M. Pickering

A variety of grades of very white muscovite mica are now being produced from sedimentary sands and clays in Central Georgia. The mica is naturally concentrated near the base of the lens-shaped kaolin deposits and also disseminated in associated quartz sands. The same weathering and bacterial alteration processes which have transformed the kaolins from dark organic muds to white pigment-grade industrial clays have also removed discoloring iron from the micas and developed unusually white muscovite. Further, chemical alteration has removed some potassium from the muscovite atomic structure, resulting in an easily delaminated mica which can be cleaved to unusually fine, high bulking, high aspect ratio products. The peculiar alteration history of these sedimentary micas enables production of some of the whitest, finest particle size, and thinnest aspect ratio muscovite mica products on the world market today. Raw mica feed is obtained from kaolin and sand processing by-products, and also from beneath the useful base of abandoned kaolin mines. The processed ultrafine and filler grade muscovite mica products are used for paint, plastics, cosmetics, mold release, thermal and electrical insulation, epoxy, and dry wall joint cement markets.

Jan 1, 2002

By John A. Breslin

The year 2010 will mark the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the research efforts by the U.S. government to improve the health and safety of miners working in the United States. This research began in 1910 with the establishment of the U.S. Bureau of Mines (the Bureau) and it has continued during the past 10 decades, even after the closure of the Bureau in 1996. The research on safer mining technology, formerly done by the Bureau, has now been combined with National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) studies of miners? health to form a unified federal research program to improve the health and safety of miners. This article describes this research and places some of the accomplishments into perspective with other activities in the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Time Line (insert).

Jan 1, 2010

Editor’s note: As usual, the June issue features an industrial minerals review. And some thanks are in order. Thank you to the industrial minerals annual-review editor, to the technical committees chair and vice chairs and to the authors of the individual commodity profiles. Jim Norman of GeoTrans Inc. is the industrial minerals annual-review editor. Lucy McCartan, US Geological Survey, was the chair of the SME industrial minerals technical committees. She also served as the vice chair for agricultural minerals. Other technical committee vice chairs were: •Gary Tomaino, Specialty Minerals Inc., ceramics and refractory materials. •Srinivas (Vas) Veeramasuneni, US Gypsum, chemical raw materials. •William Langer, US Geological Survey, construction materials. •Vanessa Santos, Independent, fillers and pigments. •Richard Berg, Montana College of Mineral Science and Technology, specialty minerals. Their help makes possible this June industrial minerals issue. On behalf of the readers, the editors thank them.

Jan 1, 2002

By D. R. Zuchelli

In order for MSHA to require the use of a noise control, the control must be proven ?technologically feasible?. Technologically feasible controls must reduce a miner?s noise overexposure to the permissible exposure level (PEL) or achieve at least a 3 dBA reduction in the miner?s noise exposure. The miner?s total noise exposure should be examined from an occupational viewpoint and not solely on a machine or equipment basis. This examination requires a field evaluation of the occupation as opposed to an equipment test conducted in a laboratory. The operator of a Hilti TE MD20 LS electro-pneumatic drill realized a full shift noise exposure (TWA8) reduction exceeding 8 dBA as compared to when operating a Gardner Denver S83F pneumatic jackleg drill while installing an equal number of drill holes into the Idaho Springs Gneiss rock formation. However, the Hilti drill?s penetration rate was only 27% of that of the jackleg drill. Although the Hilti drill was proven to be technologically feasible as a noise control, its slower penetration rate would require its economic feasibility to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

Jan 1, 2011

By Natalia Konstantinova, Georgy Novikov, Pavel Rekant, Goergy Cherkashov, Olga Bogdanova

The economic interest of oceanic ferromanganese crusts and nodules is determined by high grades of major, rare and earth rare elements in these types of marine minerals [1]. Modern oceanic ferromanganese deposits have a global distribution with the largest fields in the Pacific Ocean. The Arctic Ocean still remains a poorly explored region. The first ferromanganese deposits from the deep part of the Arctic Ocean were recovered almost at the same time in 2012 both in US and Russian cruises to the Chukchi Borderland (1) and Mendeleev Ridge (2). Preliminary results of mineral deposits from the first area were reported at UMI-2012 by James Hein et al. [2]. We present here the data of ferromanganese deposits from the Mendeleev Ridge.

Sep 1, 2014

By D. R. Wilburn

The worldwide budget for nonferrous, nonfuel mineral exploration was expected to increase by 58 percent in 2004 from the 2003 budget, according to Metals Economics Group (MEG) of Halifax, Nova Scotia. The increase comes two years after a five-year period of declining spending for mineral exploration (1998 to2002). Figures suggest a subsequent 27 percent increase in budgeted expenditures from 2002 to 2003. For the second consecutive year, all regional exploration budget estimates were anticipated to increase. The worldwide budget for gold exploration achieved about 50 percent of the total amount budgeted in 2004.This was 68 percent, or US$715 million, higher than the reported 2003 budget. The 2004 worldwide exploration budget estimates for copper increased by 70 percent, orUS$237 million, to US$577 million from the 2003 budget. The budget for nickel exploration increased 52 percent, or US$89 million more than in 2003. The 2004 exploration budget for other mineral targets (primarily cobalt, heavy minerals, industrial minerals and silver) increased114 percent, or US$118 million.

Jan 1, 2005

By Douglas Banks

Construction for the new 2.5 MGPD raw water intake project commenced December 2002. The project, initially designed as a 12' Ø concrete lined intake shaft,145' deep, with two offset 24" lake taps, 520' and 470' long was subsequently “value engineered” running the two lake taps through a single conduit. The offset for summer and winter pools was accomplished via a second shaft located at the lakes edge. Construction involved the use of blind drilling techniques for the shaft development and drill and blast techniques for the tunneling. All works were completed through extremely hard crystallized sandstone. The project came online August 12, 2004.

Jan 1, 2005

By W. G. Pariseau

This contribution describes rock mechanics features of the Davis Cavern at the former Homestake Mine in Lead, South Dakota, U.S.A. The mine is located in the northern Black Hills of South Dakota. In 2003 and again in 2008, the mine site was recommended for development as a national Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory (DUSEL) in cooperation with the Sanford Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory under the South Dakota Science and Technology Authority (SDSTA). The original Davis Cavern was excavated about 9.1x16.8x9.7 m high (30x55x32 ft high) in 1965 (Mitchell 2009) at a depth of 1,478 m (4850 ft). The purpose of the cavern was to house apparatus for detecting solar neutrinos. The experiment ultimately proved successful and earned R. Davis a share of the 2002 Nobel Prize in physics. Recently, a new experiment (LUX=Large Underground Xenon detector for dark matter particles and WIMP's=weakly interacting massive particles) was proposed for the Davis Cavern that required an increase in height of 2.4 m (8 ft). For many years, the Homestake gold mine was the deepest operating mine in North America. Development extended to the 8000 Level (2,438 m). The mine closed in 2003. Pumps were shut off and the water level rose to the 4350 Level, about 150 m (500 ft) above the Davis Cavern. Some six years later after selection for DUSEL proposal development by the National Science Foundation (NSF), access to the 4850 Level and the Davis Cavern was regained. Pumping has lowered the water level to well below the cavern floor. Figure 1 shows the layout and location of the Davis Cavern (Cavity). Detector tank, supporting steel, and so forth were subsequently removed. The cavern was re-supported and new access was developed. By August, 2010, 13,000 ft3 had been removed during enlargement and renovation of the Davis Cavern. Figure 2 shows the detector tank under construction in 1965.

Jan 1, 2012

By J. L. Cupp, R. C. Ford, B. R. Romig

The Climax Molybdenum Mine, located near Leadville, Colorado, is the site of a lengthy mining history spanning more than 80 years. In the 1960’s, extraction of molybdenum from oxide ore located adjacent to the massive molybdenite sulfide deposit resulted in the construction of an earthen core dam to impound fine-grained oxide tailing in the Eagle River Valley. Through recognized value of water storage and reclamation opportunities, a tailing removal project was initiated in 1993 to convert the impoundment facilities to a post-mining beneficial land use of developed water resources. An evaluation of the effect residual materials and lake dynamics would have on in-stream water quality was performed. Eagle Park Reservoir stands as a model for future reclamation efforts that involve water delivery to highly sensitive receiving waters. This paper provides a case study on project development, the evolution of water quality assessment, and the regulatory framework that contributed to this project’s success.

Jan 1, 1999

In spite of a global economy that continues to seesaw and a U.S. Congress that is at odds with the president and themselves, cities around the world are still spending billions on their infrastructure. And that bodes well for the underground construction and tunneling industry and the professionals who work in it. In June, 1,405 of those professionals gathered in San Francisco, CA for the Rapid Excavation and Tunneling Conference (RETC). In addition to the first rate technical programming, attendees were able to see first-hand the latest in tunneling technology from 127 exhibitors who occupied 152 booths. Two short courses preceded the conference and two field trips were offered following the conference.

Jan 1, 2011

By Mark A. Jirsa

The Biwabik Iron Formation is a ~1.9 billion year-old sequence of iron-rich sedimentary rocks that was metamorphosed at its eastern- most extent by ~1.1 billion year-old intrusions of the Duluth Complex. The metamorphic recrystallization of iron-formation locally produced iron-rich amphiboles and other fibrous iron-silicate minerals. The presence of these minerals in iron-formation along the eastern part of what is known as the Mesabi Iron Range, and their potential liberation by iron mining has raised environmental health concerns. We describe here the geologic setting and mineralogic composition of the Biwabik Iron Formation in and adjacent to the contact metamorphic aureole of the Duluth Complex. The effects of metamorphism are most pronounced within a few kilometers of the contact, and decrease progressively away from it. The contact aureole has been divided into four metamorphic zones?each characterized by the composition and crystal structure of the metamorphic minerals it contains. The recrystallization of iron-formation to iron-rich amphibole minerals (grunerite and cummingtonite) and iron-pyroxene minerals (hedenbergite and ferrohypersthene) is best developed in zones that are most proximal to the Duluth Complex contact. ©2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Iron-formation; Mining; Fibrous; Mineralogy; Metamorphism.

Jan 1, 2007

By Rodger C. Fry

Underground coal mining has been active within the East Mountain property since the mid 1950's. As a result, coal from two seams has been extracted within large areas allowing surface subsidence to occur. Monitoring of subsidence annually, began in 1981 using on the ground conventional monumentation, surveying and photogrammetric monitoring. The data collected has shown the time benefits of photogrammetry and the relationship between observed subsidence and the geometry of the mined out area below.

Jan 1, 1986

By Michael Day, Paul Kos, Scott Brinton

A hydrogeologic characterization and impact analysis was performed for a proposed quarry at the Hitch Rack Ranch located in the Little Turkey Creek watershed southwest of Colorado Springs, Colorado. Continuous multiple channel tubing, nested piezometers, stream flow measurements, and mapping of known seeps were used to define the three-dimensional potentiometric distribution and areas of groundwater recharge and discharge. Water balance considerations, mass balance calculations, and potentiometric response to earth tides and barometric fluctuations confirmed that the granite fracture system in the ridge area of the proposed quarry has an extremely low bulk hydraulic conductivity resulting in minimal groundwater discharge to sustain the baseflow of Little Turkey Creek. The Little Turkey Creek valley forms the major conduit for groundwater flow exiting from the upper part of watershed underlain by granite. This conclusion has significant implications with respect to mine planning to minimize projected impacts to the hydrologic system and preserve this recharge component to downgradient Denver Basin sedimentary deposits.

By H. Lyn Bourne

This is the fifth annual tabulation of mineral royalty information. This tabulation, like the previous editions, includes all of the earlier data. There are also 60 new entries. In addition to royalty information, some entries show the cost of purchased reserves. Two articles relative to the evaluation of minerals reserves appeared in December, 1986. R.H. Paschall (In the Aggregate, ME, p 1139) wrote a good article, although it lacked specific royalty data. However, this author takes exception to two ideas in Paschall's column. Paschall contends that the royalty rate does not affect the mineral appraisal. This present author could not disagree more. Paschall also claims the location of an industrial mineral deposit is the only serious or practical caveat in comparing royalties. Comments received here from readers helped make the list of caveats that are cited each year. The readers will decide which factors influence the mineral value for their commodities of interest. Paschall's point about the relationship of the parties who are negotiating a royalty agreement is important and very well taken. The other article, written by William Vernon (Pit and Quarry, December 1986), gives a step-by-step process on how to conduct a mineral appraisal. The article cites three reasons for an appraisal: transfer rights; collateral for a loan; and taxation. A fourth reason is to establish adequate compensation for reserves lost through condemnation. This author has appeared in several court cases where compensation for loss of mineral reserves through condemnation required a mineral appraisal. Royalty rate becomes an important factor in the appraisal process, although the Pit and Quarry article refers to that part of the valuation equation as "profitability." Both articles were well written and are recommended reading for those interested in mineral valuations. The same caveats that have appeared in previous columns relative to factors that influence the value of reserves are restated. The data in the table serve as a general reference and are not intended to present an absolute scale of reserves costs. Several factors influence the value of any mineral commodity. The factors include: • location/transportation - especially significant for most industrial minerals; • market conditions both for the commodity and the company acquiring the right to mine; • quality or grade of the deposit as it reflects the amount of processing/beneficiation necessary to produce the finished product; and • legislative restrictions and conditions for mining a given material at a given site. These and other factors will significantly influence the cost of reserves. The table shows the range of royalties and the variations in the basis of computing the fees. In a few instances, it gives the cost of acquired reserves based on purchase price and quantitative estimates of the material in place. The table lists the commodity in column 1, and the subsequent columns give: • the location by state, US geographic area, or Canadian province ; • the cost - R for royalty and P for purchased cost; • the year in which the lease or purchase agreement occurred; and • comments or footnotes for more information. The cost column requires more explanation. The units may refer to cubic yards (/cu yd), cubic feet (/cu ft), short tons (/T), or acres (/A). 1 cu yd = 0.76 M2 1cuft = 0.28m3 1 st = 0.9072 t 1 acre - 0.4047 ha or m2

Jan 7, 1987

By Z. T. Bieniawski, José Miguel Galera, Benjamín Celada

TBM case histories from over 400 tunnel sections are analyzed presenting a comprehensive application of the Rock Mass Excavability (RME) index (Bieniawski et al.2006). The paper introduces two new adjustment factors, called the Factor of Tunnel Length and the Factor of Crew Effectiveness, which were established to represent more realistically the interaction of the rock mass characteristics, the TBM parameters and the performance of the crew operating the machine. A new correlation is provided for predicting the average rate of advance of double-shield TBMs working specifically in the double-shield mode.

Jan 1, 2007

By Tyler Acorn, Brandon Wilson, Jeff Boisvert

Scenario-level uncertainty is a representation of large-scale differences encountered when considering ultimate mining pits optimized over various subsets of stochastic realizations. Accounting for scenario-level uncertainty allows mine plans to be assessed against several probabilistic subsurface interpretations. Scenario-level uncertainty is found through clustering stochastic geostatistical realizations and optimizing final pits across the realizations in each cluster. Where these pits are geometrically different, plans for each scenario differ. Knowing these differences allows the value of each planning alternative to be assessed based on the value and relative probability of each scenario. These results also facilitate the use of formal decision-making frameworks for planning, leading to optimization that better represents the full statistical characterization of the deposit. An example utilizing this approach evaluates both infrastructure placement and drilling program requirements. In both cases, scenario-level uncertainty improves initial plans by limiting opportunity costs and identifying additional potential.