Search Documents

By Wendell R. Peters

Shallow underground voids resulting from early coal mining and other resource recovery activities over the past several decades are now being recognized as a significant cause of ground subsidence problems in developing urban areas. Uncertain knowledge of abandoned coal mines also imposes potential hazards in coal excavation operations since water inundation or the release of methane gas is a pricnipal hazard when mine excavation operations break into an abandoned mine. U.S. Army requirements for an effective method for detecting and mapping subversive man-made tunnels have resulted in a surface-operated automatic earth resistivity survey system with a digital computer data processing system. Field tests aimed at demonstrating the system performance resulted in successful detection of tunnels having depth-to-diameter ratios up to 15 to 1. Under the sponsorship of the Bureau of Mines, a similar system was designed and constructed for use in the detection of coal mine workings. This report discusses the hardware and software aspects of the system and the application of the high-resolution earth resistivity method to the survey and mapping of abandoned coal mine workings. In the field tests reported, the targets of interest were both air-filled and water-filled workings.

Jan 1, 1980

By Open-Hearth Steel

We have a very high-powered organization up here this morning, headed by Kenneth C. McCutcheon, general superintendent of the Ashland Division of the American Rolling Mill Company, and L. A. Lambing, superintendent of the open-hearth and Bessemer departments of Jones & Laughlin Steel .corporation of Aliquippa, Pa., representing the open-hearth men. Also, we have P. F. Dolan, assistant general manager of the Maryland plant of Bethlehem Steel Company, of Sparrows Point, and Harry E. McDonnell, superintendent of blast furnaces of Weirton Steel Company of Weirton, W. Va., representing the blast-furnace section.

Jan 1, 1940

By David S. Brown

What troubles me so often about debates over the environment, which I have heard since I entered government in the late 1960's, is that the issues are so often presented as a false dilemma--the either-or fallacy in logic. The either-or fallacy allows only two possible choices: Either protect the environment or exploit it. In reality, however, there may be a few more options. The diverse, often competing, values that the Earth offers require us to weigh and balance those options through a range of policy options. A quality environment and economic growth and opportunity are not mutually exclusive. First, let me acknowledge that I support a set of resource values recognized in U.S. laws and deemed important down through history for the success of free, progressive, and secure societies: the importance of access to raw materials. Increasingly, however, mineral raw materials have been viewed at best as not particularly relevant to a sophisticated, technologic society, and at worst monstrously destructive of our natural environment. Both perceptions, in my judgment, are wrong.

Jan 1, 1989

I. Domestic Production and Use: In 1981, 13 companies operated 32 primary aluminum reduction plants, with 3 firms accounting for 58% of production, Washington, Oregon, and Montana accounted for 32% of the total production; Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas 16%; Tennessee, Alabama, South Carolina, and North Carolina 17%; other central and eastern States 35%. Based on published producer prices output of primary metal in 1981 was valued at over $7.5 billion. Aluminum consumption by 25,300 firms was centered in the East Central United States. Packaging accounted for an estimated 30% of domestic consumption in 1981, building 21%, transportation 18%, electrical la%, consumer durables 8%, and other uses 13%

Jan 1, 1982

By E. A. Mevissen

With the ever increasing consumption of mineral commodities, the vital question is not whether sufficient mineral quantities will be available, but rather can the known existing low grade resources be mined economically. Conventional conveyor systems are being used in some open pit mines to decrease haulage costs. n an effort, to take this concept one stop further, this contract study examines the use of a high angle conveying system in an open pit mine. It identifies available high angle conveying equipment and examines the haulage and crushing costs associated with both a conventional truck and shovel mining operation and a high angle conveyor operation. These costs analyses were performed on a hypothetical copper, taconite and phosphate mine. Information was gathered from a series of high angle conveying equipment and open pit mining operations in the U.S. Volume I includes a detailed review of the state-of-the-art in high angle conveying concepts, the, hypothetical mine development, and the cost analyses. Volume II includes the appendices.

Jan 1, 1981

By Edward L. McHugh

The appraisal of mineral resources of the Challis National Forest, Idaho, by the U.S. Bureau of Mines, was made so that the mineral resources of the forest could be appropriately considered in land use planning. Information from this study is intended to help the U.S. Forest Service to incorporate mineral resource data into forest plans. The study was done in conjunction with the U.S. Geological Survey, which released a companion report on the geology and mineral potential of the Challis National Forest in 1989. Mineral development activity in and under the Challis National Forest has been of great economic significance to Idaho and the United States. Since the 1960's, mines within the forest have produced mineral commodities worth more than $590 million A current (1989) commodity prices. Identified mineral resources have a gross value of about $2 billion at current prices, including 8 strategic or critical minerals. The U.S. Bureau of Mines study identified and described 723 active and inactive mineral properties within the forest. Mineral properties with identified resources were evaluated to determine their economic significance, and an assessment was made of the feasibility of mineral development. Of the 2,516,191 acres in the Challis National Forest, about 390,000 acres were classified as having mining development interest commercially important mineral production, mainly of molybdenum, gold, and silver from the Challis National Forest is likely for the foreseeable future.

Jan 1, 1991

This report summarizes the cost of U.S, mining and milling industry compliance with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) interim water quality guidelines for waste discharges. Applicable excerpts from Public Law 92-500 are stated and interpreted in conjunction with the guidelines being used for implementation of the law. Over 200 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers applications for discharge permits were used to develop the quality and quantity data base needed to estimate the cost to comply with EPA guidelines, Cost of three basic treatment methods were considered: Aeration, addition of lime, and sedimentation. From the process design, cost-capacity graphs were developed to consider maximum flow rate, maxi lime addition, and average flow rates. The graphical method used in this evaluation should provide a reasonable guide to the effect of waste treatment and, therefore, Public Law 92-500 and corresponding EPA guidelines on the mineral processing industry. The cost of complying with the EPA guidelines will have the effect of prompting the mining industry to minimize the production of waste water and of undertaking some additional treatment, Two case studies are presented to illustrate efforts that might be fruitful for minimizing waste water production and for treatment of combinations of acid mine drainage, mill wastes, and metallurgical process wastes when treatment is deemed necessary.

Jan 1, 1975

By Charles G. Howard

Accidents involving underground rail transport were analyzed to quantify the magnitude and the operational requirements for individual mine car braking systems. The results showed that the brake preventable accidents represent only 2% of the total underground fatal accidents and less than 1% of the total underground nonfatal accidents. In addition, the brake preventable accidents are expected to decline over the next decade. The costs of accidents involving deaths and Injuries were determined using various well accepted methods. The costs of a brake retrofit program for all operating underground coal cars were developed separately for small and large coal mines. Costs of retrofit brakes, new car brakes, maintenance, inspection and repair facilities were included in the esimates. The analysis showed that a retrofit program would not significantly increase safety, and that the program cost would greatly exceed the corresponding expected benefits.

Jan 1, 1979

By John J. Henn

An economic evaluation was made of the Bureau of Mines incinerator residue separation process to update the one published in 1971 to a mid-1.974 cost basis. This evaluation includes a modification of the glass-recovery operation used In the original plant design as well as a unit to bale the ferrous scrap product before shipment. Products from the plant are ferrous metal, aluminum and copper-zinc scrap, and a mixed-color glass cullet. The estimated capital and operating costs for four plant sizes are as follows : [ ] The operating costs do not include credits for recovered metals and glass.

Jan 1, 1975

By Russell R. McLellan

The Tertiary channel gravel deposits in northern California were selected Or detailed investigation by the U. S. Bureau of Mines as part of a national program to locate potential sources of gold that might be developed rapidly by large-scale mining operations. Five bureau research centers representing mining and metallurgy subsystems coordinated their efforts in a team operation to identify and investigate possible solutions to the problem area, that long have discouraged the resumption of large-scale mining in the deposits. This report summarizes the individual investigations, conclusions and recommendations conducted and prepared by all mining subsystems research groups after the completion of two years of field work at the deposits on San Juan Ridge in Nevada County, California. The studies indicate that modern mining technology can cope with the environmental problems that closed the immense hydraulic mines in 1,884. however, they also indicate that mining can be conducted with only marginal profits its unless the price of gold remains substantially above $70 per ounce or unless sufficient by-products can be recovered and sold to place the average value per cubic yard of gravel into a positive commercial range. The by-product potential of the Tertiary gravels remains to be investigated in more detail.

Jan 1, 2012

U.S. Gold Commission Established. - The President, with the authorization of Congress, has named a gold commission made up of 17 individuals, most of them Government officials, to study U.S. policies related to the role of gold in domestic and international monetary systems and report its findings and recommendations to Congress. U.S. Lead Exposure Ruling. - On June 29, the Supreme Court upheld the Government's right to set lead exposure levels for employees at the workplace. The Court ruled in favor of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in a challenge by a group that alleged that OSHA had failed to conduct a cost-benefit analysis prior to issuance of the lead standards. It was the Court's contention that Congress did not require such an analysis when it empowered OSHA to establish workplace standards. The petition to the Court was made by the Lead Industries Association Inc., Battery Council International Inc" American Iron and Steel Institute, St. Joe Minerals Corp., and other lead mining and consuming firms.

Jan 1, 1981

By J. R. Kastler

It becomes my pleasant duty to call the meeting to order. This is our fiftieth regular meeting. And the session we are opening today, I am sure: will be as interesting and informative as those in the past. These gatherings present a fruitful opportunity for an exchange of experiences and ideas that will aid all of us in our work in the various segments within the coal industry. Walter Johnson and his Program Committee have arranged a wonderful program for us; Walter, due to his standing in the industry and his large acquaintanceship with the leaders of the industry, has really gone to town in bringing outstanding speakers and personalities to deliberate with us in our proceedings. A lot of things have happened since we last met; in the operating end, and in safety we have made marvellous headway, but we have slipped badly in the marketing end. However, I am sure the messages and discussion you will hear will point out ways and means of overcoming at least some of our difficulties. Before we get on with the program, I want to thank our hard working Secretary, Fred Whiteside, who, by the way, is a charter member of the Institute and has attended every one of the fifty meetings we have held; and the various committees who have been meeting for the past several months and who have arranged this fine program you are to hear. I hope all of you enjoy the convention; the business as well as the social sessions.

Jan 1, 1954

By J. O. Lewis, Carl H. Beal

The material for this paper was collected for the most part by C. H. Beal during the years 1916, 1917, and 1918. Many of the conclusions reached in regard to the life of oil wells have already been published by the Bureau of Mines 1 but those presented in this paper deal particularly with the theoretical aspects of oil production. The report discusses some of the fundamental factors governing oil production, taking up first the conditions affecting the. amount of oil in the oil sand, then those factors that control the rate of production of oil wells, and then discusses several related problems, most of which deal particularly with the effect of the production of one well on that of another.

Jan 1, 1921

By Michel C. Frippel

This section of the Minerals Yearbook reviews the minerals industries of 29 countries: the 12 nations of the European Community (Belgium, France, the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), Italy, Greece, the Netherlands, Denmark/Greenland, Spain, Portugal, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom, and Ireland); 6 of the 7 nations of the European Free Trade Association (Sweden, Nor-way, Finland, Iceland, Austria, and Switzerland); Malta; the 8 Centrally Planned Economies of Eastern Europe (the German Democratic Republic (GDR), Poland, Yugoslavia, Albania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Bulgaria); and the U.S.S.R. Western Europe Western Europe [loosely defined to include the 12 nations of the European Com-munity (EC) and the 7 nations of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA)] is the single largest trading area and consumer of raw materials in the world. If Western Europe was at one time an important mining sector, it has now increasingly relegated the role of supplying minerals for its minerals processing industry to its ex-colonies in North and South America, Africa, and Australia. In this regard, Western Europe is the most important determinant of raw materials consumption (and thus raw materials production). There is an important reason for this since Western Europe lies somewhere between Japan at one extreme and the United States and the U.S.S.R. at the other extreme as regards the availability of natural resources.

Jan 1, 1992

By B. J. Moore

This publication contains analyses and related source data for 234 natural gas samples from wells and pipelines in 21 States and 1 foreign country. All of the samples were obtained and analyzed during calendar year 1975 as a part of Bureau of Mines investigations of the occurrences of helium in natural gases of countries with free market economies. This survey has been conducted in the United States by the Bureau of Mines since 1917. In late 1965, the survey was expanded to include foreign gasfields. The analyses published herein were made by mass spectrometer and n special helium analysis apparatus, which are described in Bureau of Mines Bulletins 4862 and 576.3 The results of the investigation of the occurrences of helium are published annually to make the information available as soon as possible to the gas industry and the public in general. Seventeen previous publications have presented the results of 10,831 gas analyses prior to 1975. The first 3, Bulletins 486,4 576,5 and 617,6 contain analyses and related source data on 5,218 gas samples collected from 1917 through 1960. The other 14

Jan 1, 1976

By J. R. Thoenen

"The curtailment of imports of foreign potash during the World War directed attention to the necessity of establishing a domestic source of potash for fertilizer, and considerable study has been given to the subject by Government bureaus, research organizations, and private individuals. These studies have covered all known sources of potash, and among them the extensive greensand deposits of New Jersey in which the potash content is found in the mineral glauconite have been investigated.Several hundred patents have been obtained covering processes for the extraction of potash from siliceous minerals, but up to the present time none have proved successful on a large commercial scale.When the investigation of the potash deposits of Texas was started by the Federal Government, the laboratory study of the drill cores was assigned to the Nonmetallic Minerals Experiment Station at New Brunswick, New Jersey, with the object of ascertaining a possible commercial method of utilization.The purpose of this preliminary study was to investigate existing literature and previous investigations to ascertain the extent and availability of the deposits, the extent of commercial success so far attained in potash extraction, the most promising known methods and by-products obtained from them, probable markets, and possibility of competition with foreign potash, and by a study of these data to determine whether further chemical engineering analysis and laboratory investigation were warranted.As the study advanced it became evident that adequate reserves of green-sand were available for many years supply. and that whereas many processes had been patented few had been tried commercially. In collaboration with former private and Government investigators these patents were first divided into two"

Feb 1, 1929

By Daniel Harrington

On the night of June 8, 1917, the flame of a carbide lamp accidentally set fire to the uncovered and frayed insulation of an armored power cable near the 2,400-foot level of the North Butte Mining Co.'s Granite Mountain shaft. How this insulation accidentally became exposed is explained on page 15. The highly flammable oiled fabric set fire to the shaft timbers, and as this is a downcast shaft the fire spread with great rapidity, soon filling the mine workings with smoke and gas. At the time 410 men were working underground, 247 of whom escaped by various means, but most of the 163 remaining were probably overcome soon after the lire started, and perished. Only two men were actually burned. The cause of the disaster was purely accidental. The immediate effect was the unexpected reversal of normal conditions; the ultimate effect was great loss of life and the destruction of the main hoisting shaft, putting it temporarily out of service. The work of rescue and fire fighting continued eight days. The following pages present an attempt to draw some practical conclusions and suggestions from this disaster. The property of the North Butte Mining Co. consists of about 220 acres in the northeastern part of the Butte district, Montana. Next to the Anaconda Copper Mining Co. it is the largest pro¬ducer of the district. In 1916, the year before the disaster, there were 1,160 men employed. The output was 560,947 tons of ore, which yielded 24,498,181 pounds of copper, 1,047,063 ounces of silver, 1,712 ounces of gold, and 412,953 pounds of zinc. The profit was $2,479,595. The total development work for that year was 21,694 feet. During the first half of 1917, the year of the accident, the daily tonnage of ore averaged 2,000, an increase of 400 tons over that of the year 1916.

Jan 1, 1922

By Robert C. Johnson

Domestic byproduct fluorine (in fluosilicic acid) availability at various price levels of aluminum fluoride were determined and a contingency availability curve developed. The supply of byproduct fluosilicic acid is restricted in amount to certain geographic regions, where plants processing phosphate rock are located, and the byproduct can be collected. The maximum possible U.S. annual supply, based on potential plant capacities, is 373,400 tons of fluosilicic acid containing 295,400 tons of fluorine. Based on inputs of 5, la, 25, 50, and 100 thousand tons per year, five levels of producing aluminum fluoride from fluosilicic acid (100 percent) were costed. Based on a 12-percent discounted cash flow rate, including the cost of salvaging the fluosilicic acid, the calculated selling price of aluminum fluoride ranged from $233 per ton to $448 per ton. At the higher price, 98 percent of the potential supply of byproduct fluosilicic acid could be used profitably; at the lower price only 46 percent could be used profitably.

Jan 1, 1973

1. Domestic Production and Use: In 1977, 12 companies operated 31 primary aluminum reduction plants, with 3 firms accounting for 65% of production capacity. Washington, Oregon, and Montana accounted for 31% of the total capacity; Gulf Coast States 23%, Northern States 26%, and other Southern States 20%. Based on estimated producer prices output of primary metal in 1977 Has valued at $4.6 billion. Aluminum consumption by 25,000 firms was centered 'in the East Central United States. Of aluminum consuming industries in 1977, building accounted for about 25%; packaging 22%; transportation 21%; electrical 11%; consumer durables 9%; and other uses, 12%.

Jan 1, 1978

The U.S. economy continued to expand during 1986, although at the slowest pace since 1982 when the current business expansion began. Real gross national product (GNP) grew about 2.6%, slightly below 1985 growth but significantly below that of 1984. The continuing expansion was fueled predominantly by rising personal consumption expenditures as well as growing government purchases of goods and services. Fixed investment, although positive, failed to grow at the rate of the overall economy. The trade deficit, which increased more than 30% over the record 1985 level, continued to depress economic growth despite significant declines in the price of petroleum and the value of the dollar. On a more positive note, domestic employment continued to grow--increasing over 2 million from the 1985 level--and inflation and interest rates declined. The unemployment rate dropped slightly to 7.0%. Of direct importance to the minerals-producing industries, expenditures for consumer and producer durables as well as investment in residential construction each grew faster than the overall economy, but investment in nonresidential structures fell more than 10% from the 1985 level. The low level of real capital spending declined about 3% in 1986, following strong gains in 1985 and in 1984. Capital expenditures for new plant and equipment bottomed out in the second quarter and expanded in the third and fourth quarters. The decline in the first half of the year was partially attributed to uncertainty arising from the then-proposed tax bill. Also, there was little impetus for corporations to invest in new capacity since factories were operating at less than 80% of capacity during most of the year, in part because of continued competition from imports.

Jan 1, 1987