Search Documents

By Kung-Lee Wang

This report describes the linkage of all mining sectors with all other manufacturing, services, and final demand sectors of the U.S. economy. Besides being a basic data source, it provides a framework for aggregate economic impact analysis with respect to the mining industries. The framework is an open-static input-output model specifying 48 mining industries as classified in the Standard Industrial Classification Manual for all mining activities and 76 nonmining industries which collectively exhaust, all economic activities. The 124-sector model used in this report is an expansion of the preliminary 82-industry aggregation estimates made by the Department of Commerce. In the expanded model, 48 ruining industries are substituted for the original 6. The methodology used to ascertain the industry-by-industry procurement cost estimates and product ion flows necessary to the construction and expansion of the basic 82-sector model included personal interviews, case studies of specific mining activity analysis, and published and unpublished data from the Bureau of Mines and the Census of Mineral Industries, The end products of this study are two tables arranged to show the direct purchases necessary for each industry to support the level of economic activity and the total purchases generated in each industry throughout the economy by each $1 of aggregate economic demand in 1958. The tables may he used for economic impact studies and market analysis by firms engaged in or closely associated with the mining industries. Some illustrations of their usages are presented.

Jan 1, 1967

By John H. Johnson

This report covers research which is directed toward the measurement and control of underground mine diesel emissions. The report consists of three separate reports presented as Sections 1, 2, and 3. Section 1 "Emissions Measurement Apparatus" (EMA 1) discusses the selection and evaluation of instruments and procedures to be used as part of a diesel tailpipe emissions dilution and measurement apparatus. The instruments selected for gaseous pollutants are the Energetics Science Inc.* E.S.I.) 2000 for CO, the E.S.I. 7000 for NO and N02, and the Fuji ZFP5 for C02. Particulate matter is presently measured with the Celesco 1013 Smoke Opacity Meter. The raw exhaust concentration of one of these constituents is used Lo calculate the dilution ratio. Either a modified high range E.S.I. 2000 CO instrument or a Daco Products Cobra C02 instrument can be used, but neither is totally satisfactory. The study also indicated that it may he possible to increase the sample collection time from 15 seconds to the total 30 seconds over which the engine can be loaded without increasing the probability of damaging the vehicle hydraulic systems. Section 2 "The Effect of Fuels, Catalysts and a Filter Trap on Drift Pollutant Concentrations" discusses research in the Mine Air Quality Laboratory. A Wagner ST5D LHD with a Deutz F8L714 engine was used to compare three exhaust aftertreatment devices and a muffler-only system. The effect of these four systems on CO, C02, NO and N02 and on total, soluble, sulfate, and solid particulate matter was measured in the drift and on the LHD. The filter trap successfully reduced particulate matter for both fuels without significantly increasing the concentrations of any of the other constituents. The PTX catalyst was effective in reducing CO, and soluble particulate, but significantly increased N02 and solid and sulfate particulate matter. The Oxy Cat catalyst tested didn't seem to he working on the gases, and it significantly increased sulfate, soluble arid solid particulate concentrations. Section 3 "Diesel/Coal Particulate Matter Characterization by Laser Raman Spectroscopy" covers basic research on a method for determining the percentage by weight of diesel particulate on a filter containing a diesel-coal mixture. Signal-averaged Raman spectra provide the necessary precision. The method developed is non-destructive and uses as-received filters requiring no sample manipulation. Particulate with diesel contents in the range of 10 to 50% by weight have been analyzed with accuracies better than 6%t of the mean value. A number of samples containing diesel-coal mixtures were characterized by the procedures developed and the results are analyzed in light of various spectral and other system variables including coal rank and form and diesel engine operating conditions.

Jan 1, 1982

By Gennaro G. Marino

During the preliminary design stages of the Illinois Division of Natural Resources(DNR) building, it was discovered that an old coal mine was present some 70 m (220 ft) beneath the building site. The new DNR building to be constructed is 36 m (120 ft)wide and 134 m (440 ft) long. It has three stories above grade and abasement level. The building is oriented north-south and has east and west ponds next to it (Fig. 1). The building is located on the State Fairgrounds in Springfield, IL. Given the history of surface subsidence of these underground coal mines in the Springfield area, there was concern about the potential for future subsidence at the building site. Mine subsidence events in the area have resulted in more than 0.9 m (3 ft) of settlement and have caused significant structural damage.

Jan 1, 2000

By F. Habashi

Siberia, a vast country rich in mineral resources and a large number of different ethnic groups. To the east of Lake Baikal is Buryatia with capital Ulan Ude. The Buryat are closely related to the Mongolians. Ulan Ude is connected to Ulaan Baatar (Ulan Bator) the capital of Mongolia by train – a 26 hours trip. Getting a visa to Russia is not a simple case. Visits to metallurgical research laboratories, Lake Baikal, and historical museums are enriching experience.

Jan 1, 2006

By Piyush K. Dutta

This report describes the design, development and manufacture of a prototype quiet hard rock stoper drill and results of its field tests. It is shown that the stoper drill noise level can be reduced from 118 dBA to below 100 dBA by using this design. The design concept of this drill is based on a valveless independent rotation system, use of an integral muffler and pivot mount. The drill was manufactured in a standard commercial drill manufacturing setup and organization. The design and production technology proved that commercially viable quiet drills can be made available for mine use.

Jan 1, 1985

By Peter Bryant

"The case for innovation in the mining industry has never been more compelling—whether you believe the industry is in a sharp dip in a significant ‘sawtooth’ cycle or in the midst of a bust — the imperative is the same. Despite record production levels and still above-average prices compared to the lows of 2000, the industry is struggling to make profits and provide the returns on capital that investors are seeking. This represents a large-scale destruction of value over the last 15 years.The last 10 years have seen a sustained rise of operation expenses and capital development costs while there has been a rapid decline in productivity. This trend is unsustainable especially against other key structural challenges and forces shaping the future of the industry:1. Despite short-term fluctuations, there is longterm sustained demand for commodities.• Demand is driven by relentless urbanization, population growth and a rapidly growing middle class.2. Environmental concerns continue to mount.• Existing mining methods and their environmental footprint are becoming increasingly unacceptable to society.3. Geopolitical pressures and community activism are growing.• An estimated $25 billion worth of projects are on hold due to community activism.• Increasing nationalism tendencies and government expropriations of close to $30 billion.• Social license to operate is being challenged.4. Finding, building, operating and closing a mine just keeps getting harder and more expensive.• Costs have been increasing at an annual rate of 10 to 15 percent for the last 10 years.• More assets are stranded as they become uneconomical to mine under current mining methods, e.g. Olympic Dam.• Ore grades continue to decline.• Declining productivity at an annual rate of more than 10 percent for the last 10 years.5. The industry has consistently underinvested in technology and innovation."

Jan 1, 2015

By F. R. Lee

When the Bureau of Mines was established in July 1910, one of the problems immediately attacked by the new organization was the development of standard, for the design and testing of electrical equipment that could be used without fear of initiating fires and explosions in underground coal mines. Research and investigation by Bureau personnel, supplemented by the published results of similar work by European mining authorities, led to the establishment of standards or "schedules." which guide manufacturers ill the design of many types of electrically operated machines and devices used in underground coal Mining. By issuing these standards, Bureau personnel establish the requirements to be met by such equipment before it tan be approved by the Bureau of Mines as permissible for use in gassy coal mines. Every 2 years the Bureau of Mines publishes a list of equipment that leas been accepted as approved or permissible during the preceding 2 calendar years. This is done to inform the mining industry of the availability y of the latest equip¬ment for safe use underground.

Jan 1, 1964

By F. R. Lee

[WHEN the Bureau of Mines was established in July 1910, one of the problems immediately attacked by the new organization was the development of standard, for the design and testing of electrical equipment that could be used without fear of initiating fires and explosions in underground coal mules. Research and investigation by Bureau personnel, supplemented by the published results of similar work by European mining authorities, led to the establishment of standards or "schedules." which guide manufacturers in the design of many types of electrically operated machines and devices used in. underground coal Mining. By issuing these standards, Bureau personnel establish the requirements to be met by such equipment before it tan be approved by the Bureau of Mines as permissible for use in gassy coal mines. Every 2 years the Bureau of Mines publishes a list of equipment that leas been accepted as approved or permissible during the preceding 2 calendar years. This is done to inform the mining industry of the availability of the latest equipment for safe use underground.]

Jan 1, 1964

By Michael Kukay, Paul Conrad, Cosmas Opoku-Ware

This project is exploring the potential for developing trees tolerable to degraded un-reclaimed mine site soils and tailings as a solution to re-establishing long-term tree growth on those sites. The project incorporates growing tree seedlings in an underground greenhouse grown from seeds planted in the degraded mine soils in which they will eventually be planted. The outcome of the project is expected to lead to a successful solution for re-establishing tree growth in soils and tailings containing high metal concentrations with minimal post-planting human intervention. The research is being conducted in an underground greenhouse located 100 ft below the surface in the old Orphan Boy Mine Underground Mine Education Center (UMEC) located on Montana Tech’s campus in Butte, Montana.

By O. C. Blade

"INTRODUCTION This report on the properties of motor fuels sold through service stations in the United States is a continuation of a series of reports made in accordance with a cooperative agreement between the Coordinating Fuel Research (CFR) Committee of the Coordinating Research Council (CRC) 3/ and the Bureau of Mines of the United States Department of the Interior. The first of these reports presented data on motor gasolines sold during the winter of 1935-36. 4/ Further reports were issued describing motor gasolines sold during the succeeding summers and winters to and including the summer of 1941. 5/ No reports were made on motor gasolines Bold during the winter of 1941-42 and during the summer of 1942. However, starting with the winter of 1942-43, the semiannual reports were resumed. 6/The present report presents analytical data for 1,499 samples, representing the products of approximately 105 companies. As in previous surveys, the companies covered by the survey include both large and small suppliers. Conforming to former reports, the data cover three groups of samples - regular-price, premium price, and third-grade gasolines.As the number of analyses submitted for samples of third-grade gaso¬line are not considered adequate to represent this type of motor fuel, data for these analyses have not been averaged, but the individual items are tabulated. The number of samples, items and brands comprising each group is as follows; Regular-price, 872 samples, 266 items, and 83 brands; -premium-price, 584 samples, 217 items, and 72 brands; third-grade, 43 samples, 32 items, and 21 brands. The meanings of those terms as used in the surveys are as follows:"

Jun 1, 1945

By Dana C. Reinke

A job analysis is a written list of the tasks associated with doing a particular job. In drilling, describing the steps associated with adding rod to the drill steel would be an example of a task associated with the job. How to hammer casing or fish a lost drill bit out of a hole would also be job tasks. Develop a written list of job tasks. Ask drillers in your company if the tasks listed are correct and accurately reflect how to perform the job. While each driller may do the job a little differently, some tried?and?true methods are required to perform certain tasks safely and correctly. You may find a separate analysis is needed for different drilling jobs (e.g., a residential well or a monitoring well). Also remember to include the tasks of both the helper and the driller.

Jan 1, 2005

By Edward Roberts

This is a progress report of an investigation by personnel of the Bureau of Mines from June to September 1951 to introduce preservative chemicals into growing timber. It also describes in detail the impregnation process, known as the collar method, developed by the United States Department of Agriculture2/ Twenty-eight trees were treated by this method, and a complete record was kept of each individual tree and of each timber cut from it. These timbers have been placed in a coal mine, and their tendency to decay is compared to that of adjacent untreated sets. Although several years will be required before final conclusions can be drawn, this report explains the appearance and encouraging results of the treated timber to date. Also included are some comparative costs of untreated timber, treated timber by the commercial pressure method, and treated timber by the collar method. INTRODUCTION In the hope of increasing the useful life of cut timber, experiments to impregnate growing trees with wood-preservative chemicals by utilizing the natural flow of sap have been carried on for centuries. None of the various methods used in these experiments has ever gained any widespread use because they have been commercially impractical.

Jan 1, 1953

W. Johnson (Consultant, Adelaide) : Is there any mineralogical evidence of temperature of formation of the amphiboles and other minerals present in the crocidolite veins and country rocks7.N. A. Trueman: I am not aware of any definite evidence of the temperature of formation of these minerals, but am of the opinion that high temperatures would not be present during crystallization.No evidence from the qUl'trtz, magnetite and hematite of formation temperatures is indicated and, as the carbonate is later than the other minerals it does not supply any data either.According to Miyashiro and other workers who have studied the composition and stability of the glaucophaneriebeckite series, minerals of riebeckite composition are stable over a wide range of P, T conditions. Recent work by W. G. Ernst, of the University of California, indicate that, in the presence of an Fe203/Fe304 buffer, riebeckite and crocidolite are more likely to form at low temperatures. The occurrence of riebeckite-crocidolite as authigenic minerals has been reported from several localities.Dr. MacLeod (Geol. Surv. of W. A.): Recent regional mapping by the Geological Survey of Western Australia has revealed a total thickness of at least 30,000 ft for the Proterozoic sediments in the Hamersley Basin. In this succession the asbestos-bearing beds of the Brockman Iron Formation at Wittenoom are overlain by some 20,000 ft of younger sediments and volcanics. With such a thickness of superincumbent material, it seems perfectly valid to involve

Jan 1, 1963

By Bernard Jones

LTUG ? A meeting of many mining companies that are using large tires ? Introduction of the mines and size ? Companies go over their usage of tires and performance ? As a group we discuss how the manufactures are doing with supplies and performance (who's running what sizes and manufactures they are using) ? The mine's best practices they use (which ones work for them and which ones don't) ? Where the mines see themselves going in the future ? What type of tire management the mines have in place

May 1, 2009

By William F. Jahn

Because of the' situation in Europe during the summer of 1939, with the possibility of war and consequent curtailment or loss of supplies of tin to the United States, the Bureau of Mines undertook an investigation of domestic tin resources. This was permitted by the Strategic Minerals Act of 1939, which authorized investigation of possible domestic resources of strategic minerals necessary in a national emergency. The minerals selected were in short supply, and the United States depended almost entirely on imports to meet normal requirements. The Black Hills of South Dakota were selected for investigation as one possible source of tin because of the occurrence of the mineral there has been known since 1876, although production had never been important. The Tinton area, in the northern part of the Hills, had received the most attention and contained some minor indicated and inferred tin deposits.

Jan 1, 1949

By P. J. Rider

Diamond Value Management?s objective is to achieve $/ton revenue improvement across De Beers group mines. The respective %improvement contributions are measured against targets set by each of the operations. Degree of target achievement is measured via a maturity model at each operation. DVM comprises seven elements. It spans several value chain facets and various collaborative projects are conducted under its umbrella. New technologies in De Beers are also evaluated from a DVM perspective.

Jan 1, 2003

By David A. Summers

The use of high pressure fluid cavitation is investigated as a means of breaking an ore into its constituent grains. This Cavitational Rock Dissagregation (CRD) is found to be possible and effective in breaking down galena ore, both in sandstone and dolomite host material. The technique did not work as well in comminuting and cleaning oil shale, because the cavitation drove the oil into emulsion with the water. The presence of dominant bedding in the rock also caused preferential breakage to these lines, rather than to the individual grain boundaries. This problem was also encountered in tests on igneous ore where weakness plants of the overall ore proved weaker than the boundaries of the individual grains. It was found that the prevailing expression of cavitation erosion dependence on pressure was not absolutely valid. In contrast it was found that CRD is much more sensitive to jet flow diameter, and when this was recognized it was found possible to erode rock with compressive strength of up to 350 MPa with operating jet pressures of 10 MPa.

Jan 1, 1982

By O. T. Rämö, E. Suikkanen

Episyenites are sub-solidus, quartz-depleted alkali-feldspar-rich rocks. They form veins and lenticular bodies in granitoid rocks and migmatites in a late- to post-orogenic or anorogenic setting. Leaching of quartz is usually a response to a flux of weakly saline hydrothermal solution in circulation cells above cooling intrusions, where sufficient fluid-rock ratios and thermal gradients are achieved. Fluid Si-undersaturation is achieved by rapid cooling within the field of retrograde Si solubility or by temperature and pressure increase outside retrograde conditions. Some quartz may also be consumed in metasomatic reactions and in response to pressure fluctuation in sealed episyenite bodies. The small size and overall rarity of episyenites imply that conditions for episyenite formation are not commonly encountered in the crust. In addition to quartz depletion, episyenites record complex histories of metasomatic alteration and hydrothermal mineral growth. Nearly all episyenites have undergone Na-metasomatism, which may have led to the formation of nearly monomineralic albitite, and which is occasionally followed by late K-metasomatism, phyllic alteration, and argillization. Depending on the effectiveness of later compaction, recrystallization and vug-filling episyenites may preserve the macroscopic porosity formed by quartz dissolution and brittle deformation. Vuggy episyenites can act as significant sinks for metals carried by crustal fluids and host many significant U, Sn, and Au deposits worldwide. Rare earth-critical syenitic fenites around alkaline intrusions share mineralogical and genetic traits with episyenites.

By O. T. Rämö, E. Suikkanen

Episyenites are sub-solidus, quartz-depleted alkali-feldspar-rich rocks. They form veins and lenticular bodies in granitoid rocks and migmatites in a late- to post-orogenic or anorogenic setting. Leaching of quartz is usually a response to a flux of weakly saline hydrothermal solution in circulation cells above cooling intrusions, where sufficient fluid-rock ratios and thermal gradients are achieved. Fluid Si-undersaturation is achieved by rapid cooling within the field of retrograde Si solubility or by temperature and pressure increase outside retrograde conditions. Some quartz may also be consumed in metasomatic reactions and in response to pressure fluctuation in sealed episyenite bodies. The small size and overall rarity of episyenites imply that conditions for episyenite formation are not commonly encountered in the crust. In addition to quartz depletion, episyenites record complex histories of metasomatic alteration and hydrothermal mineral growth. Nearly all episyenites have undergone Na-metasomatism, which may have led to the formation of nearly monomineralic albitite, and which is occasionally followed by late K-metasomatism, phyllic alteration, and argillization. Depending on the effectiveness of later compaction, recrystallization and vug-filling episyenites may preserve the macroscopic porosity formed by quartz dissolution and brittle deformation. Vuggy episyenites can act as significant sinks for metals carried by crustal fluids and host many significant U, Sn, and Au deposits worldwide. Rare earth-critical syenitic fenites around alkaline intrusions share mineralogical and genetic traits with episyenites.

By Jai Ghosh, Aprad E. Torma, Roger Guay

The catalytic effect of ferrous ion in the industrial biohydrometallurgical heap and dump leaching processes is explained. During the bacterial leaching of metal sulfides, ferric ion will partly be hydrolyzed and a variety of sols, gels, amorphous and/ or crystalline mono- and polynuc- lear hydroxo- and sulfato complex species formed, especially by olation and aggregation reactions. There are many problems associated with these iron precipitates especially in the purification of leach solutions. The present study will discuss the iron precipitation reactions; gives kinetic and thermodynamic evaluations of the effect of temperature on pyrite and ferrous iron oxidation; and reports on the tolerance of heavy metal ion concentrations by Thiobacillus ferrooxidans.

Jan 1, 1989