Search Documents

The STATE MINERAL SUMMARIES publication provides estimated data and summaries of mineral activities at the State level for 1989. Most of the estimates are based on nine months data. These summaries have been prepared in cooperation with State geological surveys or related agencies. Individual State summaries are published separately as State Mineral Industry Surveys and copies can be obtained from the appropriate State Activities field office.

Jan 1, 1990

By G. W. Jones

During the course of an investigation by the Bureau of Mines into the causes, behavior, and control of anthracite-mine fires, it was observed that the carbon monoxide disappeared from a sealed fire area much more rapidly than could be explained on the basis of leakage of gases. Two suggestions were offered for this high rate of disappearance: (1) That the carbon monoxide, was oxidized at temperatures below 150° C. by either the anthracite or its ash (tests on many anthracites have shown that at temperatures above 150° C. carbon monoxide is liberated in the oxidation products when air is passed through it); (2) that the carbon monoxide was oxidized by micro-organisms present in the sealed area.

Jan 1, 1939

[Module 10. Internally Cued Operating Contingencies Prerequisite: Modules 1-7 - Estimated Instructional Time: 2.42 hrs. Module Abstract Trainees, using programmed instruction, describe the cues, consequences, operational sequences, and possible causes resulting from loss of air pressure from power fluctuations, and from a failure of the automatic lubrication system. Although some of the contingencies may be initially signaled by an alarm or from the oiler, each trainee will demonstrate proficiency in the appropriate operating techniques and procedures. This module also includes a review component for those trainees identified in the assessment exam as requiring less detailed instruction.]

Jan 1, 1976

By Sara Jane Boles

In recent years the demand for products of greater refractoriness has placed an ever-increasing emphasis on ceramic materials, including the metallic oxides. Magnesia (MgO) is one of the most important of these oxides, exhibiting, as it does, high electrical resistivity, high slag resistance, and a melting point of 2,800° C. However, magnesia has a tendency to hydrate in the presence of water and to volatilize above 1,500° C. in certain kiln atmospheres and has a comparatively low resistance to thermal shock. Because of these disadvantages, the previously listed advantages inherent in this material have been largely overlooked, and research on magnesia has lagged behind that on oxides such as alumina and zirconia. This bibliography has been prepared in an effort to present to Government and industry a comprehensive picture of the prospects for greater utilization of magnesia as a refractory material in future research. To provide as selective and accurate a collection as possible, the references included cover magnesia in a pure state, not as an additive or in combination with other materials. However, several references discuss the effect of minor impurities (less than 5 percent of the total) on the properties of magnesia, as these papers are considered to be of special importance. A few references to articles on forming techniques are also included, as they are valuable additions to the overall treatment of the subject. The processes used in obtaining and refining the raw materials are adequately covered in earlier publications and are excluded. A number of references are omitted as being of questionable value in enhancing the cumulative study of pure magnesia as an ultra-high-temperature refractory material.

Jan 1, 1962

By F. E. Armstrong

This report describes development and application by the Bureau of Mines of techniques and instruments for using radioactive inert-gas tracers to determine flow paths through petroleum reservoirs that have natural fracture systems and for which water injection has been selected as the stimulative production method. A field test was made to prove the techniques and evaluate instrumentation. The feasibility of applying the techniques and instruments to the solution of reservoir problems in other stimulative methods of production also is discussed. Oil commonly is displaced from sandstone host rocks by the action of a driving force that causes the oil to move through interstices of the rock and into production wells. In addition to the requirements of oil being trapped within the sand pores and the presence of an effective displacement mechanism, the rock itself must have adequate permeability to permit flow of oil and other fluids.

Jan 1, 1961

By H. M. Urban

This paper, one of a series being prepared for and published by the United States Bureau of Mines on methods and costs of mining at various mica mines in the United States, describes the methods now in use in the principal mica mines of the Southern Appalachian States. Those papers are designed to disseminate technical information regarding the methods used. The cost tabulations represent operating expenditures only and not total costs. It is recognized that publication of total costs might in some instances cause embarrassment to individual producers as well as to the industry as a whole. On the other hand, operating costs are essential to the technical discussion and study of methods employed. The attention of the reader is specifically called to this differentiation in order that no misunderstanding of the scope of the cost tabulations shall ensue.

Jan 1, 1932

Introduction Research has shown that when an emergency occurs, work-ers often do not get the information they need to take appropriate action. Important information about incidents is either not com-municated effectively or not at all to those affected by the event. The "Emergency Communication Triangle" safety talk focuses on the content of emergency warning messages. It presents a procedure using mental cues that can be used by senders and receivers of emergency warnings. The talk includes graphics for use during the presentation, as well as references for more information. Background Interviews with 48 miners who had escaped one of three different underground mine fires revealed that warning information provided to them was inadequate. Either insufficient information was provided to miners inby the fire areas or they failed to ask the questions needed to let them plan and execute an effective escape. Most of the miners who evacuated from these three mines did not have information that would allow them to make decisions about efficient escapes. The communication breakdown came from two directions: (1) the individuals providing the warning did not offer details about the situations even though some were known and (2) the individuals who received the warnings did not ask for clarification of the situation. The lack of information allowed miners to continue attempting to place cues into normal frameworks after they should have evaluated the situation as abnormal and threatening. The uncertainty created by the lack of information influenced their decision-making and therefore their actions. Approach Researchers at the NIOSH Pittsburgh Research Laboratory have developed a training intervention that can be used by senders and receivers of warnings during a mine emergency. This material was developed for use in short safety training sessions such as start-of-shift safety talks. The information can be presented in about 15 minutes. Although the illustrations were taken from the underground coal mining industry, the training can be tailored to any work setting by substituting appropriate examples. How It Works During the safety talk, miners learn about the six categories of critical information that should be provided during emergency communications: Who, Where, What, Miners, Event, and Response. • Who: When reporting an emergency or receiving a warning, the first thing a miner must do is identify himself or herself. This is important because people react differently based on who gives them information. • Where: Giving or finding out the location of the problem is important. Of the 48 miners interviewed about their escape, only 2 knew where the fire was located. However, this information was known by either the dispatcher or the person who discovered the fire. • What: Miners must tell or ask exactly what is happening. At one mine fire, miners near the phone heard the message to evacuate and went to gather the others on their crew. One worker shouted to a machine operator: "Come on down to the mantrip. We're going out." Because it was close to quitting time, the machine operator thought they were just leaving the section a little early and went through his normal end-of-shift routine, wasting valuable time. After giving or obtaining the three initial pieces of critical information, miners can then give or obtain details about the response in progress. • Miners: Is anyone hurt? Has everyone been accounted for? When and where was a missing person last seen?

Sep 1, 2004

By J. W. Paul, J. N. Geyer

"GENERAL STATEMENTThe purpose of this report, which is the first of a series of three covering mines in the Fairmont district of West Virginia, is to give the result of a' study conducted in seal mines to ascertain the nature of the safeguards employed to prevent injury to the workmen from falls of roof and coal. In presenting the subject matter, consideration must necessarily be given to factors, features, and conditions such as method of mining, timber regulations and practices, supervision and natural conditions; and, for comparative purposes, a certain amount of statistical matter bearing upon the relation of fatalities and injuries to their causes, tonnage produced, men employed, days worked, and time lost.Those features and practices found to promote safe protection are summarized and suggestions made for such additional safeguards and practices as appear to give greater protection against injury from falls of roof or coal.ACKNOWLEDGMENTSThis study of falls of roof and coal in mines in Harrison County has been conducted by the U. S. Bureau of Mines in cooperation with R. M. Lambie, chief of the Mining Department of the State of West Virginia who assigned L. W. Brown, a district mine inspector, to assist in the field work and in the preparation of individual reports on each mine visited in this study. The writers acknowledge the helpful suggestions and cooperation given by these officials, the latter of whom assisted in the field work and prop red most of these sketches for the individual reports which wore submitted to the operator by the chief of the department. Thin report is a summary of the contents of the individual reports heretofore furnished the individual operator."

Aug 1, 1931

By J. Bootle

Marrow vein deposits will continue to be an important source of valuable minerals. Productivity per manshift is not keeping pace with operating costs. Increased mechanization of stoping operations must be obtained to create greater productivity at a reduced cost per ton. This application of mechanization may be to either present methods or to newly developed concepts. The total mine unit operations will be effected by increased productivity. Two approaches to increasing the mechanization of narrow vein stoping were studied with the intention of increasing stope productivity and decreasing stoping costs. A method of bringing efficient rubber-tired equipment into narrow cut and fill stopes was designed. It proposes to provide stope access by way of a ramp constructed on the stope fill. Impact breaking equipment was studied and specific applications proposed.

Jan 1, 1977

By Dwight L. Sawyer

To provide technology that can help decrease the dependence of the U.S. aluminum industry on imported bauxite, the main ore of aluminum, the Bureau of Mines is investigating the extraction of aluminum from abundant domestic reserves of kaolinitic clay. Miniplant studies of the continuous leaching of calcined kaolin with boiling 25-pct HC1 acid resulted in a 93- to 99-pct extraction of the acid-soluble alumina in the calcined kaolin feed. Data are presented for an acid leaching study carried out in three or four continuously stirred tank reactors (CSTR) in series, feed rates of 100 to 250 lb/hr of calcined kaolin, and total nominal residence times of 0.7 to 2.3 hr. A material balance for a 176-lb/hr calcined kaolin feed rate in a circuit consisting of three reactors, four classifiers, and five thickeners is given. Data provide detailed compositional and physical information for calcined kaolin, process liquors, and acid-leached residue solids.

Jan 1, 1983

By Alla D. Mah

THERMODYNAMIC data for manganese and its inorganic compounds have not been critically surveyed since the work of Maier (31) 3 in 1934. At that time data were lacking or inadequate for many of the important metallurgical compounds. Experimental work, conducted during the intervening years, has supplied so many new thermodynamic values that it is again desirable to examine the available data and compile them into a single publication for handy reference. This paper consists of three main sections. The first summarizes the basic metallurgical thermodynamic data for manganese and its compounds, including heat capacities, entropies, heat contents, temperatures and heats of phase changes, vapor pressures, and heats and free energies of formation. All data available to May 1959 have been considered. The second section contains heats, free energies, equilibrium pressures, and equilibrium constants of reactions of manganese compounds, with special emphasis on metallurgical reactions. The third section supplies basic thermodynamic data for other elements and compounds encountered in metallurgical reactions of manganese, thus making it possible for the reader to conduct thermodynamic calculations without recourse to other literature.

Jan 1, 1960

By E. O. RHODES

This report is one of a series written by members of the Solid Fuels Mission to Germany describing wartime developments in the mining, prepara- tion, and utilization of coal. This mission was organized early in 1945 under the auspices of the Technical Industrial Intelligence Committee, which cooperated with a counterpart British Committee. In some instances; engi- neers from other allied countries cooperated. The Solid Fuels Mission operated under the direction of a steering committee headed by Dr. C. J. Potter, Deputy Solid Fuels Administrator. The personnel of the mission consisted of H. F. Yancey, in charge, J. W. Buch, Thomas Fraser, L. L. Newman, and L. D. Schmidt of the Bureau of Minos; H. H. Lowry, Director of the Coal Research Laboratory, Carnegie Institute of Technology; H. J. Rose, Vice-President and Director of Research, Bituminous Coal Research, Inc.; and F. H. Reed, Chief Chemist, Illinois Geological Survey. E. 0. Rhodes, Manager, Development Section, Tar Products Division, Koppers Co., Inc., served on the mission for the Chemical Subcommittee of 1.I.I.C. in Europe. His assignment was the investigation of the coal-tar industry. In this connection he prepared this report on the German Low- Temperature Tar Industry as a companion to his provious report on the German High-Temperature Tar Industry (Bureau of Mines Information Circular 7409). Because of Mr. Rhodes' extensive experience in these fields and the impor- tance of the subject material to the coal producers and those utilizing coal-tar products, both reports are issued by the Bureau of Mines. Over fifty reports were written by the members of the Solid Fuels Mis- elon. These, together with microfilms of supporting data obtained in the course of the investigations, are on file at the Foreign Documents Group, Technical Reports Section, Bureau of Mines, Pittsburgh, Pa., where they are available for examination. Copies of reports available in printed form may be ordered from the Department of Commerce, Office of Technical Services, Washington 25, D. C. Check or money order accompanying order for printed reports should be made payable to the Treasurer of the United States. A Bibliography of Scientific and Industrial Reports, covering all ma- terials and subjects and giving instructions for obtaining the desired items, has been published weekly by the Office of Technical Services. Effective July 1, 1948, the Bibliography of Scientific and Industrial Reports will be prepared monthly instead of weekly and on a more selective basis. issue, which will be the first monthly issue, will be available about July The July month thereafter through June 1949. Annual subscriptions and orders for individual copies starting with the July 1948 issue should be addressed to the Department of Commerce, Office of Technical Servicos, Washington 25, ur, and be accompanied by chock or money order made payable to the Troas- Bibliof the United States. Annual subscriptions for monthly issues of the Bibliography of Scientific and Industrial Roports will be $10. Individual issues will cost $1 per copy. Foreign subscriptions will be $14 per year and $1.50 por copy. tions listed in the Bibliography of Scientific and Industrial Reports should All orders for reports in microfilm or photostatic type of reproduc- ורי

Feb 1, 1949

By Orlando Martino

This regional report covers the mineral industries of Canada and 40 countries and areas in Latin America and the Caribbean Basin. Also included is a brief description of the mineral potential of Antarctica. The Latin American region encompasses an area twice that of the United States. Latin America and Canada have a rich and diversified endowment of mineral fuels, metals, and industrial minerals. Tables 2 and 3 provide a summary view of the importance of Latin America and Canada's output of its major mineral commodities in world mineral supply in 1989 and 1990.

Jan 1, 1993

By A. E. Raddatz

The Bureau of Mines is investigating methods for recovering tungsten from domestic resources. A calcine-quench-leach (CQL) technique was developed for the extraction of tungsten from the Golconda, Nev., hot springs ores. The deposit contains disseminated tungsten that cannot be beneficiated by conventional techniques and must be treated by hydro-metallurgical methods. The CQL procedure consists of calcining the ore at 900° C for 3 hours, quenching in a solution containing 1.5 parts of Na2C03 and 1.5 parts of NaOH per part of WO3 in the ore and at a solution-to-ore ratio of 3 to 1, leaching at 200° C and at 250 psig for 3 hours, and filtering and washing the residue. A series of closed-circuit batch tests showed that 92 pct of the tungsten was extracted from a sample containing 2.32 wt-pct W03. The pregnant solution contained 11 g/l W03.

Jan 1, 1982

By D. K. Ingram, P. Jurovcik

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) identified hearing loss as the most common job-related disease in the United States in its 1996 National Occupational Research Agenda. Previous studies by NIOSH have shown that operators of surface drill rigs without cabs are commonly exposed to A-weighted sound levels exceeding 90 dB. During hammer-drilling, A-weighted sound levels exceeding 100 dB were recorded at the operator station. NIOSH collaborated with a local drilling company to design and install a partial cab between the operator and the drill steel in an effort to reduce the sound level at the operator station. Sound level measurements in the field show the partial cab reduces the A-weighted sound level by 5 to 9 dB at the operator’s left ear and 2 to 5 dB at the operator’s right ear while hammer-drilling. This paper briefly discusses the preliminary design of a cab and the testing of materials for construction of the prototype. An explanation of the ideas behind the prototype design and fabrication are covered. Finally, the field test method and results are discussed in detail.1

By Paul. E. Pesonen

Since early in 1940 the Bureau of Mines has been concerned with possible means of utilizing manganese-bearing materials from the Missouri Valley manganese deposit. During the period between July 1945 and August 1947, the Bureau of Mines undertook to complete certain phases of the problem by re-evaluating the results of earlier work and supplementing the findings by additional operations and field studies considered necessary to permit drawing of final conclusions. Distinctive discoloration marks the outcrop of the manganese deposit which is exposed on both flanks of the Missouri River Valley and its major tributaries for a peripheral distance of approximately 523 miles in south-central South Dakota. The apparent magnitude of the deposit, judged largely from observation of the outcrop, had led to much speculation as to its actual value in terms of tonnage and grade. Similarly, investigative work aimed at developing a means of winning a usable manganese-rich product from the deposit had reached no conclusion, except that certain methods showed more promise than others for accomplishing the final objective.

Jan 1, 1948

By PALMER LARSEN

INDEX TO GEOPHYSICAL ABSTRACTS

May 1, 1931

By Oliver Bowles

"Underground operation.In its broader sense the term ""mining"" is applied to all processes whereby raw materials are taken from the earth to be used as sources of mineral products. In a more restricted sense ""mining"" is applied to underground operations as contrasted with open pit work designated as quarrying. The tern is used in the restricted tense in this paper; for it relates to the exploitation of limestone deposits by modern methods of underground operation rather than by open pit methods.Present tendency toward miningIt may seem to some readers that a paper on mining limestone will find little general interest among lime plant operators, for only a limited number of them have yet resorted to this means of procuring raw materials. It is noteworthy, however, that a growing tendency exists toward underground operation, for one by one quarry owners are faced with increasing difficulties in open pit operation. It seems desirable, therefore, for operators to keep closely in touch with this gradual change in process, to inquire into the underlying causes, to compare costs, and to study the effects of the change in method on subsequent steps in calcining the stone to produce lime."

Mar 1, 1924

By E. K. Stanek

This report contains results of two major efforts related to electrical transients on mine electrical power systems. The first area concerns the use of digital computers to model mine electrical power systems and predict transients or duplicate field recordings of transients. Two existing general purpose circuit analysis programs were used. The first was the TRW Engineering System Simulator or TESS. The second was Electronic Circuit Analysis Program or ECAP. TESS proved to be superior to ECAP in several important characteristics, including system size limitations and modeling nonlinear elements. The second major topic covered in this report is the evaluation of commercially available surge suppression devices. These devices were found to be quite acceptable and guidelines for the selection and placement of surge suppressors were included. The final important item is a listing of the worst-case transients, from a design point of view, for ac and de utilization systems and ac distribution systems.

Jan 1, 1979

By C. W. Whitten

Iron ore deposits in south-central Missouri have emerged as a possible resource for the rare-earth elements. The Pea Ridge Iron Mine is one such deposit. Rare-earth minerals at the Pea Ridge Iron Mine are contained in breccia pipes consisting primarily of silicon oxides and feldspars. These pipes extend up through the magnetite ore body and appear to be alterations and replacement of earlier hematite. The mineralogy of these pipes is very complex and varied, which could complicate the concentration and extraction of the rare-earth minerals. This U.S. Bureau of Mines !eport represents a study by characterization of the mineral phases to assess the amenability and development of concentration and extraction techniques. Previous characterization of rare-earth minerals has been mainly by transmitted light microscopy. This method along with reflected light microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and X-ray diffraction was used to identify and characterize the rare-earth and associated minerals. The minerals identified were the major ore minerals, magnetite and hematite; the rare-earth phosphates, monazite and xenotime; the rare-earth silicate, allanite; the minor associated minerals, cassiterite, pyrite, and apatite; and the gangue minerals, feldspar, quartz, and actinolite.

Jan 1, 1990