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By I. L. Bell

The ironmasters of America had asked the Iron and Steel Institute to visit the USA. The Council decided it was not possible to accept, but Mr. Bell visited; this is an account of his trip. Topics covered include transport, charcoal, coal measures, coal, anthracite, bituminous coal, flux, magnetic iron ore, specular iron ore, limonite, red hematite, clay ironstone, black band ironstone, smelting works, blast furnaces of Pennsylvania, Lake Champlain furnaces, Lake Superior furnaces, Cleveland furnaces, Pittsburg furnaces, Missouri furnaces, and those of the southern states. He goes on to describe Catalan hearths, malleable iron works, Bessemer works, the Blair steel process, and labour.

Jan 12, 1875

By M. E. Hawkins

This Bureau of Mines report provides information on all of the 329 proved salt domes in the Gulf Coastal States and offshore area of the United States. It includes specific data related to location, depth to the cap rock and to the salt, storage facilities for LPG, and production of salt, sulfur, petroleum, and rock related to or associated with the dome structure in the subject area. Also included is a brief history of the salt, sulfur, and petroleum industries as related to the salt domes. Gulf Coast salt domes were the scene of the first discovery of a large deposit of rock salt in North America, the birthplace of the Frasch sulfur industry, and the location of the first large oil gushers that ushered in the modern liquid fuel age.

Jan 1, 1966

By M. E. Hawkins

This Bureau of Mines report provides information on all of the 329 proved salt domes in the Gulf Coastal States and offshore area of the United States. It includes specific data related to location, depth to the cap rock and to the salt, storage facilities for LPG, and production of salt, sulfur, petroleum, and rock related to or associated with the dome structure in the subject area. Also included is a brief history of the salt, sulfur, and petroleum industries as related to the salt domes. Gulf Coast salt domes were the scene of the first discovery of a large deposit of rock salt in North America, the birthplace of the Frasch sulfur industry, and the location of the first large oil gushers that ushered in the modern liquid fuel age.

Jan 1, 1966

By D. Toporov, R. Abraham

"Gasification is a process of thermal conversion of solid carbonaceous materials into a gaseous fuel called syngas. Coal gasification is an efficient technology for a range of systems for producing low-emission electricity and other high-value products such as chemicals, synthetic fuels, etc.The paper presents the High-Temperature Winkler (HTW) gasification process, which is designed to utilize low-rank feedstock such as coals with high ash content, lignite, biomass etc. The process is characterized by a bubbling fluidized bed, where coal devolatilization and partial oxidation and gasification of coal char and volatiles take place, and by a freeboard where partial combustion and gasification of coal char take place.The recent development of the high-pressure HTW process is reviewed. Gasification of low-rank, high-ash coals with respect to gasification temperatures, conversion rates, and syngas quality is also discussed. The main HTW design steps required for an industrial-scale design are presented. Special attention is given to the process modelling, including global thermodynamic calculation as well as detailed CFD-based simulation of a reacting fluidized bed. Three-dimensional numerical results of the HTW process are also provided and discussed."

Jan 1, 2015

By William R. Barton

COLUMBIUM (niobium) and tantalum are similar refractory metals with closely related properties and uses and close association in ore deposits. Until recently both metals, particularly columbium, were essentially laboratory curiosities. However, since the beginning of World War II, applied technology, under the impetus of national security requirements, has realized many chemical, electronic, nucleonic, and missile and rocketry applications, where high temperature or corrosive environments require the use of columbium or tantalum. At the same time, advances in these fields have resulted in intensive research on the geological distribution, resources, metallurgy, and properties of these two metals; their alloys and compounds; and the development of a full-fledged columbium-tantalum industry. The future appears to promise continued acceleration in such studies and ever-increasing demand for these elements. The raw material supplies of columbium are abundant, and the extractive metallurgy of columbium is well enough advanced to assure adequate supplies of the element at reasonable prices to meet any projected demands. Although the extractive metallurgy of tantalum is similarly well developed, raw material supplies are so limited that, lacking new ore discoveries, an increase in demand to five times the 1959 level would severely tax ore-production facilities. Approximately 120 tons of tantalum and about one-half as much columbium was produced in 1959. Additional quantities are consumed as compounds or additive alloys such as ferrocolumbium and ferrotantalum columbium (55).3

Jan 1, 1962

By F. E. Joyce

This paper describes the development of a process for producing manganese and iron pellet concentrates from low-grade manganiferous iron ores of the Cuyuna range by a two-stage sulfatization-reduction roast. First, the manganese minerals (7.5 percent manganese) were converted to water-soluble manganese sulfate by roasting in sulfur oxide gases at 700° C, then, the hematitic iron minerals (31 percent iron) in the hot sulfatized are were reduced to magnetite with simulated reformed natural gas in the temperature range of 350° to 425° C. Batch tests were made in a 3-inch-ID by 6-inch-long, gas-heated, stainless steel retort, and continuous countercurrent experiments were performed in a 2-inch-ID by 10-foot-long, electrically heated shaft furnace. Manganese sulfate was removed from the roasted product by leaching with water, and over 90 percent of the manganese was recovered in an oxide product (65 percent manganese) obtained by precipitation, drying, and thelmal decomposition of the sulfate. An iron oxide concentrate (60 percent iron) with an iron recovery of 75 percent was obtained from the water-insoluble residue by magnetic separation.

Jan 1, 1973

By Dominic Orf, Gregory Poole

On December 12, 2018 at 4:14 AM EST, an earthquake registering a 4.4 magnitude on the Richter Scale occurred in central Tennessee. According to a survey posted on the USGS website, this earthquake was felt throughout the southeast and even as far away as Arnold Nebraska. That’s over 900 miles (1,448 kilometers) from the epicenter. We recorded the vibrations from this earthquake on 44 different seismographs that were set up with remote access to continuously monitor vibrations from blasting activities. Having this data gave us an opportunity to compare the vibrations caused by earthquakes and blasting. A simple observation of the amplitudes, frequencies, and durations is enough to notice that vibrations from earthquakes are very different than vibrations caused by blasting in mining and construction. We were also able to observe the dissipation of the vibrations from the earthquake and see if the low frequencies, that are typical of earthquakes, dissipate at a consistent rate. Regression calculations were performed in order to see if there was a good data fit and if a specific vibration prediction could be made based on the magnitude of an earthquake. “How does quarry/mining/construction blasting compare to the Richter Scale?” This is a very common question that we get from homeowners when discussing vibrations due to blasting activities. This paper is intended to provide some simple answers for such a complicated question. Both the Richter and Mercalli scales are compared to the particle velocities as they were recorded from this earthquake.

The Ediacara mineral field is classified as a Mississippi Valley type deposit with stratiform mineralization near the base of the Cambrian beds. Mineral deposition was contemporaneous with sedmentation and reerystallization, and mobilization took place after lithification of the sediments. Several mechanisms of deposition were possible.INTRODUCTIONThe Ediacara mineral field is located in the Mt. James Range approximately 300 miles north of Adelaide, about 12 miles west of Beltana railway siding and 10 miles east of Lake Torrens. It is isolated geographically from similar deposits of equivalent age and environment in the Flinders Range Province (Fig. 1). The climate may be described as semi arid with high summer temperatures and frequent dust storms. Occasional thunder storms are the main source of rain in the summer months.The exact date of discovery is unknown, but is believed to be about middle of the last century. Ulrich (1872) was the first geologist to report on the field. At that time only the southern portion of the field had been prospected (and abandoned). Although the prospects did not appear encouraging Ulrich advised prospecting of the shales and testing beneath the limestone.In 1888, Rosewarne, an Inspector of Mines, visited the Southern Workings and queried whether they were connected with some lode at deeper level or were merely bedded deposits. The first geological map with sections was drawn by H.Y.L. Brown (Brown 1892).Brown recognized three principal rock formations as dolomitic sandstone, kaolinised shales and sandstone, and quartzites and sandstone in descending order. These three basic units are still recognized. He recognized also the stratiform nature of the mineralization in the shales as a...

Jan 1, 1963

By J. Ritchey

This report describes the engineering feasibility and economic advantages of using a mobile bridge-type cross-pit belt conveyor system in conjunction with a large dragline to excavate and transport spoils in a typical Western surface coal mine. The studies show that such a system could be built to survive operational and climatic mining conditions, and that its implementation would offer a reduction in both acquisition and operating costs versus conventional mining units of comparable rapacity. Reclamation costs can also be significantly reduced, and the total reclamation process accelerated, making the cross-pit conveyor system attractive to mine Owners and environmentalists alike.

Jan 1, 1976

In most mines using presplitting the final excavated wall shows a zone of damage just below the crest and well defined presplit half barrels. The crest damage (surface dilation) zone varies and is added to by subsequent adjacent perimeter blasting operations. Keeping the preconditioning to a minimum is possible using the methods described in this paper, developed on several diverse and geographically distant mining operations to control crest dilation and preconditioning by presplitting in advance - not just laterally but vertically in advance. The first documented case (Delbridge, Marton and McSweeney, 2004) in the development of the concept was undertaken at AngloGold Australia Pty Ltd's Sunrise Dam Gold Mine (SDGM), located beside Lake Carey, some 730 km northeast of Perth, Western Australia. The mine had been developed in a series of cutbacks to a depth of over 300 m and began underground mining during the latter stages of open cut operations. This mine is fairly unique in that it utilised a single pass vertical presplit which initially extended over three bench heights and after the failure mechanisms were understood, over four benches. The presplit drilling for the three stacked benches started on the floor of the second bench so that any dilation was confined to the surface one bench above the crest and modified perimeter blasting was then developed to curtail damage from blasting adjacent to the new crest. The second case is based on a South African coal mine in the Witbank Coal Measures, 140 km northeast of Johannesburg, Republic of South Africa (RSA). It was important that blasting for optimal wall stability and minimal scaling was developed in advance. A dragline is scheduled to excavate the #2 seam midburden which is the lowest of the economically viable coal seams in the five seam Witbank Coal Measures. Mining of the overburden, coal and partings above the dragline midburden pass are by excavator and truck and each mining layer is individually blasted. The results of presplitting the midburden through the overlying coal seams and partings have provided a presplit with no surface dilation of the midburden crest and ensures any subsequent crest loss is solely due to blasting adjacent to the vertical presplit. Typical of all coal mines in South Africa only vertical presplits are used. Wall control is most commonly delivered by presplit blasting and one common sight after the dust clears is a ridge of broken blocks along the presplit row, usually with a main crack running between the presplit blastholes and often parallel cracks either side of the perimeter line. The surface rock strata or block structures have been dilated by the venting gases and shock waves. Decoupled, fully coupled, single or double deck charges are used depending on a variety of factors, anecdotal practices and perceived benefits. Preconditioning of the crest rock by blasting from above may not be visible to the naked eye (or non-existent in overburden in strip coal mines) but the high speed venting of explosives gases (and often the water in the presplits) preferentially follow existing cracks and structures because there is no developed presplit crack near the surface. This nearly always lifts, shifts and separates the surface structures and geological layers. Stopping the dilation by 'sacrificial' or 'in advance' presplitting has been shown to reduce the crest loss at both metal and coal mines. Drilling and presplit blasting through an upper level of bench or layer provides a degree of restraint to the target layer where the crest must be maintained and any damage caused by the venting gases will not cause concern as it is removed as planned, leaving a stable crest.

May 1, 2010

By Danell. R. E.

A drill monitoring system has been developed which measures performance characteristics of a rotary drill and relates this to the material strength and rotary specific energy. The drill monitor is computer based and is used to produce a profile of the relative in-situ material strength as a function of depth. This information has been used in determining the placement of explosive in selective loading of blastholes and estimating the amount of lump product in a particular section of an ore body.

Jan 1, 1989

Power Plant. The power for the metallurgical operations is supplied by the company's own power plant, which is centrally situated. Power is also supplied to Metal Manufactures Ltd. and Australian Fertilizers Ltd., both being adjacently situated to this company'sworks.The power supplied is direct current, 250 volts, and is obtained from direct-current generators coupled to turbines and to Belliss & Morcom triple expansion engines.The steam supply is obtained from Babcock & Wilcox water tubular boilers, the fuel used being drawn from the South Coast coal mines.Transport. - The works are connected by standard broad gauge railway to both the jetties and the Government railway. Two steam and three electric locomotives are employed in this service.In addition to its own requirements, transport is provided to Metal Manufactures Ltd. and Australian Fertilizers Ltd.The various operating departments are connected by a 2-ft. gauge railway operated by Jeffrey electric locomotives.Ore Storage and Sample Mill - These departments are connected by broad gauge line to the Government railway and jetties. All material which is railed or shipped to the works from the various centres is weighed, sampled and placed in the ore store, or outside gantries, before being treated.Since the whole of the material received is either purchased or treated on a toll charge, great care is necessary in the weighing and sampling of all the receipts.Assay Oflice--The assay office is divided into several laboratories, where analyses of the various purchased materials and works samples are carried out.

Jan 1, 1938

By M. M. Singh, J. W. Brown

Three rocks of highly varied physical properties are selected for the first reported experimental study concerning microseismic activity of rock under tension to determine the effects of static fatigue, loading rate, repeated loading and rock anistropy compared to compression and bending loads. The microseismic method of detecting rock under deformation may be a great potential tool in surveillance and location in situ of dangerously stressed strata, as well as predicting rock failures. Noises emitted under load or the rate of energy (energy of noise pulses generated per unit time) are computed for varying conditions. The tests are conducted at constant load on a dead weight loading machine to eliminate all possible extraneous noises — an indispensable precaution — at various load levels. Experimental results are reported including the relation of total energy emitted to tensile strength of rock and the possibility of simulating a phenomenological model for microseismic activity. Plots of some of the experiments are included. INTRODUCTION Rock failure, whether on a large scale faulting in the earth's crust and rock bursts in mines, or on small scale ruptures of laboratory test specimens, generates transient vibrations in the rock mass. Mechanisms of intermittent deformation, such as twinning and cracking through and between mineral grains, also produce similar vibrations, but of very small amplitude. Such vibrations from both deformation and failure are referred to as microseismic activity, rock noise, or occasionally seismo-acoustical activity. An individual rock noise is sometimes

Jan 1, 1967

By Rees J. Llewellyn

Improved product development, assessment methods and evaluation studies of materials for oil sands applications have traditionally focused on low and high stress abrasion and slurry erosion resistance mechanisms, because they were considered to be the predominant wear modes prevailing in oil sands mining, transportation and bitumen recovery. More recently with the very successful introduction of oil sands hydraulic transportation systems, there has been increasing use of crusher systems in which materials of construction are also required to have good toughness and gouging abrasion properties to withstand impact and the severe indentation and ploughing forces that are involved. To assess material property requirements for mitigating this additional wear mechanism, jaw crusher gouging abrasion tests using a modified ASTM G81 procedure, have been carried out on a range of wear materials of interest for oil sands mining service. The method involves a comparison of the wear losses that occur for reference and selected test plates when a controlled amount of standard feed rock is comminuted in a laboratory jaw crusher. Among the classes of material evaluated have been Q&T plate steels, austenitic manganese steel, chromium and chromium molybdenum white irons as plain castings and in laminated forms and also chromium carbide and tungsten carbide overlaid wear plates.

May 1, 2004

By E Villaescusa, C Drover

Fully resin encapsulated threaded bar and cement grouted cable bolts are common forms of reinforcement for underground mining excavations constructed at great depth. These elements are frequently installed to dissipate the dynamic loads caused by violent rock mass failure mechanisms. Failure of the ground support scheme without rupture of the reinforcement elements implies that the maximum energy dissipation capacity of the scheme was not utilised. The ground support damage mechanisms are useful to identify in this context as they reveal vulnerabilities which limit the scheme performance. This paper presents a number of field observations of reinforcement performance following a range of dynamic loading conditions. It was observed that fully resin encapsulated threaded bars exhibit variable behaviour. In particular, inconsistent resin encapsulation was frequently observed in combination with surface support failure, indicating that the retention function of these elements may allow preferential loading of the surface support system. Observations of cement grouted, twin-strand plain cable bolts reveal a common mode of damage involving differential displacement across the steel-grout interface and slip of the cable within the borehole. This is common where strands are not mutually tensioned with barrel and wedge assemblies. Surface fixtures that exceed the strength capacity of the cable strand are required in order to minimise the occurrence of this response. Improved load transfer from the rock mass and surface support to the cable can thus be achieved, particularly where small block size failure occurs.CITATION:Drover, C and Villaescusa, E, 2016. Field performance of fully encapsulated reinforcement during violent failure events, in Proceedings Seventh International Conference and Exhibition on Mass Mining (MassMin 2016), pp 659–668 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

May 9, 2016

By R. Filippone, Donald Leroux, Colin Hardie, G. Leichtle, Cesar Gomez, Jim A. Finch

"Bubble surface area flux (Sb) is the surface area of bubbles per unit time per unit cross-sectional area of flotation machine. The units are: (m2 bubble surface/s)/(m2 cell) or s -1. For bubbles of mean size db (m), s b = 6-Qg/A db where Qg is the gas rate (m3/s), and A the cell cross-section (m'). This parameter is now receiving wide attention as the possible key machine variable in flotation diagnosis and modelling. The concept is described and the potential use of sb is illustrated by work on flotation columns and mechanical cells. In column flotation of recycled paper, the dependence of ink recovery on s b was the same regardless of size of column or type of sparger. In mechanical cells, it has been established that the rate constant is related to Sb independent of impeller type.The use of s b is limited by the problem of measurement, primarily that of estimating db. A prototype probe designed to estimate db (and hence sb) based on conductivity measurements is described. Exploratory work with the probe in a mechanical cell suggests the promise of making estimation of s b routine.INTRODUCTIONFlotation is the result of interaction among variables associated with the feed particles, chemistry and the machine (flotation cell). Trying to isolate the effects of each aids in process diagnosis and is at the centre of attempts to model flotation. The machine variables that have been investigated include the air flow number, the power number and specific power (Harris, 1976). None have survived as the basis for predicting flotation response perhaps because they did not include directly the properties of the bubble swarm (or dispersion). Recently, Gorain (1 997) explored the relationship between the flotation rate constant and various ""gas dispersion"" parameters notably: superficial air rate (Jg = Qg/A, where Qg is the volumetric gas rate and A is cross-sectional area of cell), bubble size (db), gas holdup (Eg, i.e., the volumetric fraction of a cell occupied by gas) and bubble surface area flux (sb = 6.Jg/db). Of them all, Gorain et al. (1997) conclude that the latter, the surface area flux, correlated best with the flotation rate constant. This concept was adopted from column flotation where it was used to estimate, among other factors, the maximum amount of gas that could be injected (Finch and Dobby), 1990). Let's start by reviewing the concept. Following that some examples of where the concept has been applied will be described to illustrate the current interest and finally we will consider how to measure the surface area flux."

Jan 1, 1999

By Arno C. Fieldner, J. W. Paul, WALTER A. SELVIG

Many mine samples of coal are analyzed each year in the laboratories of the Bureau of Mines. The analyses are made in connection with investigations relating to fuels belonging to or for the use of the United States Government, the causes of accidents in coal mines, the geologic relations of coal beds, and the quality and the value of the coal and lignite in the public lands. The systematic collection and analysis of such samples in connection with fuel investigations was begun in 1904 at the Government fuel-testing plant at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. and was under the direction of the United States Geological Survey for six years. Descriptions of the coal samples collected between the beginning of this work, July 1, 1904, and the transfer of the fuel-testing and mine-accident investigations to the Bureau of Mines,July 1, 1910, were compiled and published in Bureau of Mines Bulletin 22.' Descriptions and analyses of samples collected during the fiscal years 1911 to 1913 were published in Bureau of Mines Bulletin 85.2 Descriptions and analyses of samples collected during the fiscal years 1913 to 1916 were published in Bureau of Mines Bulletin 123.3 The present bulletin presents analyses and descriptions of samples collected during the fiscal years 1916 to 1919. In order that the material in this bulletin may be used to supplement that presented in Bulletins 22, 85, and ,123, the same plan of geographical classi- fication has been followed, the analyses and descriptions of the samples being grouped in alphabetical order according to the State, county, and town near which the mines or prospects sampled are situated.

Jan 1, 1922

By O. Mejia

"As study was undertaken to investigate the relationship between mill liner wear and grinding energy efficiency and to assess the opportunity to control mill speed to improve energy performance as mill liner wears. The study involved analysis of plant operating data and liner wear profiles over time. The operating work index was found to be an effective tool to identify the decrease of grinding efficiency along the liner service. The plant data show that the mill grinding efficiency as determined by monitoring the operating work index, and throughput decreases as liner wears. However, efficiency and throughput can be maintained by either changing the liner more frequently or by increasing the mill speed. Two scenarios for increasing mill throughput were analyzed. The first one involves changing the liner before the efficiency drops and the second one requires increasing the mill speed from 75% to 79%. Both scenarios show financial benefits that can be used in mill operations.INTRODUCTION The analysis of the mill power draw is used in this study as a key parameter for comparing mill liner profile and its effect on mill performance. Current technology and simulation software used in the mining industry do not factor in the impact of liner wear profiles in grinding efficiency and mill throughput (Toor, 2013). To address this gap, this study provides an analysis of key factors affecting mill throughput and grinding efficiency: mill speed, ball loading, and liner profiles. Several years of plant mill operating data, published research papers, and MillTraj® simulation results are used to demonstrate that face angles impact grinding efficiency and throughput and that mill speed can be used to overcome this problem. Moreover, the liner profile wear analyses clarify a mismatch between actual and estimated power draw calculations."

Jan 1, 2019

By M. E. Kuchta

Research is currently being conducted at the Colorado School of Mines in the use of high-pressure water for scaling down loose rocks in underground mine openings. In addition to improved miner safety, the adhesion strength of shotcrete applied to rock surfaces treated with high-pressure water is also increased significantly resulting in improved overall support capabilities of the shotcrete layer. Test results show an increase in adhesion strength by a factor of four on a concrete test wall cleaned with water at 21 Mpa (3000 psi) as compared to a surface cleaned at 0.7 Mpa (100 psi).

Jan 1, 2002

By J. W. Joubert, R. C. W. Webber-Youngman, M. D. Budeba

"SynopsisCost estimation for surface coal mines is a critical practice that affects both profitability and competitiveness. New mines require these costs to be estimated using available information before a project begins. The competitive advantage of a new mine depends on it being both efficient and cost-effective. Low-cost producing mines have a higher chance of survival in a low-price environment than do high-cost producers. The competitiveness and profitability of a coal mine is based on the costs of production and the supply position on the cost curve. There is no single method of cost estimation, and the available methods consider only one or a few variables, leaving out multiple variables that could significantly affect the estimation of mine costs. Mining companies are thus searching extensively for a method that will increase accuracy in the estimation and evaluation of mining projectsThis paper highlights the shortcomings of the available approaches and proposes a data envelopment analysis method to develop a frontier for effective surface coal mines, and the use of a parametric method for modelling the costs and productivity of new mines to ensure effective competitiveness. The models will extend the capability of estimation and the accuracy of estimates using the efficient decision-making units, by considering the optimal mine-specific and external variables affecting costs.IntroductionCoal contributes 25% of the world’s primary energy needs, after fuel oil, which contributes 35%. The world energy demand, estimated over the period 1990 to 2030, is expanding at a cumulative annual growth rate (CAGR) of 1.7% (Schernikau, 2010, p. 14). This emphasizes the need for enhancing the production of existing mines, as well as opening new mines in order to increase the supply of coal."

Jan 1, 2015