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By Eugene T. Sheridan

The process of converting coal into coke is known as carbonization. Essentially, carbonization is destructive distillation in which the volatile matter of coal is released when coal is he ted above its decomposition temperature and passes through a plastic stage before solidifying and forming coke. The mechanics of coke formation are complex, and the specific properties of certain coals that tallow them to "cake" or form coke are still unknown. Coke is a hard, cellular, carbonaceous mass, formed by heating coal in the absence of air. It is porous, irregular in size and shape, and is similar in appearance to wood charcoal. Coke, however, is denser, more porous, and more abrasive than charcoal.

Jan 1, 1965

By Eugene T. Sheridan

The process of converting coal into coke is known as carbonization. Essentially, carbonization is destructive distillation in which the volatile matter of coal is released when coal is heated above its decomposition temperature and passes through a plastic stage before solidifying and forming coke. The mechanics of coke formation are complex, and the specific properties of certain coals that allow them to "cake" or form coke are still unknown. Coke is a hard, cellular, carbonaceous mass, formed by heating coal in the absence of air. It is porous, irregular in size and shape, and is similar in appearance to wood charcoal. Coke, however, is denser, more porous, and more abrasive than charcoal.

Jan 1, 1965

By A. B. Campbell

The mines in the eastern part of the now active region of the Tri-State zinc district of Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma have unusually acid water, which during periods of moderate or no rainfall is used in the mills to replace losses from evaporation, seepage-, and tailings disposal. Its use has caused difficulties by corrosion of equipment and by interference with flotation. The growing importance of flotation, which requires good water, and the increasing troubles caused by the corrosion of the milling equipment have prompted the Mississippi Valley Experiment Station of the United States Bureau of Mines, in cooperation With the Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy, Rolla, Mo., to investigate the action of the waters on flotation and to undertake to develop means of obviating their harmful effects. The work was under the immediate direction of W. T. Schrenk, consulting chemist, United States Bureau of Mines, and professor of chemistry Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy, and. Will H. Coghill., supervising engineer of the ore dressing section of the United States Bureau of Mines.

Jan 1, 1932

By Alla D. Mah

Energies of combustion of vanadium nitride (VN) and vanadium carbide (VC) were measured. Correcting to vanadium tetroxide (V204) as the final state, the heats of combustion were ?H298.15=-118,700±100 cal/mole of vanadium nitride and ?H298.15=-240,270±360 cal/mole of vanadium carbide. With vanadium pentoxide (V205) as the final state, the heats of combustion were ?H298.15= -133.440±100 cal/mole of vanadium nitride and ?H298.15=-255,020±360 cal/mole of vanadium carbide. Combining these results with vanadium oxide data, the heats of formation obtained were ?298.15=-51,880±200 cal/mole of vanadium nitride and ?H298.15=-24,350±400 cal/mole of vanadium carbide. Heats and free energies of formation of vanadium nitride and carbide were calculated to 2,000° K.

Jan 1, 1963

By L. A. Eros

The U.S. Bureau of Mines and Western Fuels Utah, Inc. entered into an agreement to plan, install, and evaluate a micro-computer based monitoring and control system at Deserado Mine, an underground coal mine. The U.S. Bureau of Hines contracted the Colorado School of Mines (CSN) to independently evaluate the project. CSM evaluated and documented costs, benefits, problems, and management and labor perceptions in this report. Recommendations are provided for mine operators and monitoring system vendors considering future installations.

Jan 1, 1986

By Donald E. Redmon

This Bureau of Mines report reviews injury experience in the nonmetallic mineral industries (except stone and coal) for 1966-67. For each of the years, 23 tables summarize disabling work injuries by department, source of injury, extent of disability, part of body injured, and nature of injury. Correlative information on employment, worktime, and operating activity is also presented.

Jan 1, 1973

By N. L. Wimmler

"INTRODUCTION The Southern Cross district in Deer Lodge County, Mont., has been chiefly a gold producer. Most of the production has come from gold-bearing hematite-limonite ores. Some of these ores were mined and shipped to smelters for use as flux in smelting copper ores. A magnetite deposit in the Pomeroy property, containing no gold or other economic nonferrous minerals, was mined from 1921 to 1923, the ore being shipped to smelters for flux.The iron-bearing deposits in the Southern Cross area were examined by Bureau of Nines engineers/ on June 28, 1943, and October 14, 1943. As a result, a Bureau exploration project was recommended; it was conducted during 1944. A magnetometer survey was first made of the magnetite-bearing area at and in the vicinity of the Pomeroy property. Exploration by diamond core drilling was then conducted within this area, and in the Southern Cross and Hold Fast properties. The cyanide tailings dump at the Hold Fast mill was sampled by auger drilling.This report presents the data obtained by the Bureau of Mines exploration."

Dec 1, 1946

By W. W. Adams

With production of coal per man-hour of work highest in history, the coal mines of the United States established a lower accident-frequency4 rate in 1942 than in any year since 1930, the first for which the Bureau of Mines, United States Department of the Interior, collected complete reports of nonfatal as well as fatal injuries. Reports from mine operators and State mining departments showed that 530,861 men were employed in and about coal mines during the calendar year 1942. This number does not include office employees or coke-oven workers. The figure represents a decrease of 15,831 men from the previous year, owing to losses of men to the military services and to more lucrative employment in the munitions and other industries. The loss of men was offset to some degree by an increase in the number of days of mine activity and the average number of hours of work per man during the year. The volume of work done during 1942 was 910 million man-hours, 11 percent more than in 1941. The average employee worked 243 days, 30 days more than in 1941. Production reached the unprecedented total of 640 million short tons, an increase of 12 percent over 1941; 582 million tons came from the bituminous fields of the United States and 58 million tons from the anthracite fields of Pennsylvania. To produce this quantity of coal 1,471 men sacrified their lives, and 69,564 men suffered nonfatal injuries that disabled them for more than the remainder of the day on which the accident occurred. The nonfatal injuries were divided into three groups: 65 caused permanent total disability, 2,045 caused permanent partial disability, and 67,454 caused temporary disability of 1 day or more but did not result in the loss of, or permanent loss of use of, any part of the body.

Jan 1, 1944

By Sumner M. Anderson

THE importance of the mineral industries of the Latin American area in 1964 may be evaluated in respect to a number of points of reference, a few of which are measurable and appropriate for examination. With regard to the region's contribution to total world production, it accounted for total 1964 world output of natural nitrates (from Chile), and about 97 percent of the optical and electrical grades of quartz crystal (from Brazil). The region supplied over 20 percent of world output of 7 other mineral commodities and accounted for 4 percent or more of world output of 19 other mineral products. Among major commodities, the area, occupying 15 percent of the earth's land surface, supplied within 3 percent of that proportion of the world's output of copper, lead, tin, zinc, barite, and crude petroleum. Incomplete compilation of production data, particularly that of nonmetallic minerals, precludes production estimates on some items for the area ass whole, and therefore the importance of Latin America as a world producer of some additional commodities may not be clearly assessed. For example, most of the countries of the area collect only incomplete data or no data at all on the production of clays and other ceramic materials, sand and gravel, dimension and crushed stone, lime, ornamental and precious stones, perlite, vermiculite, carbon black, coal tar products, and petrochemicals. In the case of many countries of the area, the value of production of one or more of these commodities greatly exceeded that of other mineral industry products that are carefully reported.

Jan 1, 1966

By T. W. Quayle

This paper describing mining practices at the United Verde copper mine, Jerome, Ariz., is one of a series being prepared by the Bureau of Mines on mining practices, methods, and costs in the various mining districts f the United States. At present mining operations are being conducted both underground and by electric shovels in an open pit. The open-pit work has been described by E. M. J. Alenius in a previous publication of the Bureau of Minos;3 the present paper will be confined to a description of the underground mine. The underground methods comprise horizontal cut-and-fill, shrinkage with delayed filling, horizontal square-set, inclined square-set, and top slice. The normal daily production of the underground mine is 3,000 tons of copper ore per day, requiring the employment of 900 men underground.

Jan 1, 1931

By Thomas C. Mowatt

Preliminary Bureau of Mines studies of mafic igneous rocks collected from the Rabbit Creek area, northwestern Alaska, indicated concentrations of platinum (412 to 1,406 ppb) and palladium (343 to 892 ppb) in five of eight samples analyzed. The samples represent boulders and cobbles of mafic/ultramafic rocks from this locality. They are not from outcrop. Petrologically, (on the hand specimen scale) the samples are crudely to well-layered and are troctolitic ± gabbroie in character, with primary igneous mafic minerals strongly altered. Small patches of interstitial sulfide minerals, including chalcopyrite, bornite, pyrrhotite, pyrite, and covellite are associated with these altered zones and elsewhere through the specimens. Copper values ranged from 0.1 to 0.3 pct in samples analyzed semiquantitatively; nickel, cobalt, and chromium contents are low. Chemical, mine alogic, and petrographic relationships suggest that the rocks of similar character outcropping in northwestern Alaska could also be considered as prospective for- concentrations or platinum, palladium, and copper.

Jan 1, 2011

By Oliver C. Ralston

[The NOJ'l..metals Division deals wi tt mi:leral n t inte .ded to be used a ra\o,f materials for extraction of metals. ~ _ ereas, a. materinl containing a chromite, if used' for production of c~1r()rrti1..1r.'l ::tetE' .. l or fcrrochromiu"1, 1,oJould be a chromi te ore, if used as 8. rcfrn.cto~J or for prod .1.ction of chromium chemicals, it is a chromi te-beari [. ~?oCl... Li;{eHise, a r:1a&neti te used for production of iron is a metallifero"'..ls ~in8re..i; if used 8.S a water-filtration granule in .:l magne.tically cleaned filter bed, it 'ould be a nonmetallic in-dustrial mineral.]

Jan 1, 1940

By Tignor E. M.

The Brenneman oil field in Grant District, Hancock County, W. VA., was selected for study by Bureau of Mines engineers because it was typical of many of the smaller petroleum reservoirs in the Appalachian region. In 1906, E. W. Marland & Co. discovered the Brenneman field by drilling a well that readied the oil-bearing .Berea sandstone at a depth of 750 feet and initially produced 200 barrels of oil a day. Most of the oil-productive area (348 acres) of the field was developed in a comparatively short time, and the initial daily production rates of some of the wells were as high as 1,000 barrels of oil a day. Although the field was a prolific producer of oil for several years, it was abandoned in 1923 when the production rate was less than 1,000 barrels of oil a year and 705,000 barrels of oil had been produced. Secondary-recovery operations were started in the Brenneman field in 1927 after useable old wells had been repaired and unsatisfactory wells had been plugged; drilling of new wells was started in 1929. The peak of the redevelopment program was reached in 1942 when 92 oil-producing wells and 26 injection wells were in use; both air And mixtures of air and natural gas were used for injection purposes. It is estimated that approximately 357,000 barrels of oil, equivalent to 1,030 barrels per acre, 105 barrels per acre-foot, 8.5 percent of the total pore volume, or 11.9 percent of the original oil in place will be produced as a result of gas-injection secondary-recovery operations. Engineers of the Bureau of Mines Petroleum Field Office, Franklin, Pa., are studying secondary-recovery projects in the Appalachian region as a part, of the Bureau's secondary recovery research and are reporting these studies so that others: can profit by the experience gained from the operations. In common with most of the other Appalachian oil fields, there was no natural water drive in the Brenneman field. The estimated oil saturation in the Brenneman reservoir at the end of economic gas-injection operation indicates that additional oil might be recovered economically by water flooding and that a pilot flood would be warranted.

Jan 1, 1950

By J. W. Hunter, J. H. Jacobs

"Approximately 355 tons of nodules from Chamberlain; S. D., ore were processed in the 1-ton-per-day electrolytic-manganese pilot plant of the Bureau of lanes at Boulder City, Nev., in a continuous 3-month operation. The ore, ground to minus 48-mesh, was found to be amenable to leaching with acid directly or after roasting under reducing conditions in a Skinner muffled multiple-hearth furnace.Unroasted ore gave an acid-leach extraction of 84 to 88 percent of the manganese, which after neutralization showed an over-all extraction of between 81 and 85 percent of the manganese. The amount of iron extracted varied, but it was always,enough to permit the use of ammonia for neutralization.Roasted ore showed an acid-leach extraction of 89 to 91 percent of the manganese. A large amount of iron went-into solution, so that it was not economical to neutralize it entirely with ammonia. By neutralizing with calcine to a pH of 5.0 and completing -neutralization with ammonia to a pH of a.5 an over-all manganese extraction of 84 to 86 percent was obtained. The slight increase in. extraction on roasted ore probably would not justify the cost of roasting.Acid consumption averaged 1.75 pounds per pound of manganese extracted. Settling rates of the residue in leach solution were to slow to permit clarification in thickeners, but a Moore vacuum leaf filter proved to be satisfactory. Purification of raw leach solution was .accomplished readily by hydrogen sulfide with a low gas consumption. Electrolysis was normal, without difficulty, and with -current efficiency ranging between 62 and 66 percent.The use of Chamberlain modules for the production of electrolytic manganese would result in an operating cost of 0.8316 cent per pound higher than the cost of producing electrolytic manganese from Three Wids ore."

Mar 1, 1946

By Lars G. Olavson

A prototype roof bolt which can be remotely placed by pumping has been developed by the Bureau of Mines. It is known as the "Pumpable Bolt". With the objective of field testing the effectiveness of the pumpable Bolt roof support system a mining machine was developed capable of installing Pumpable Bolts in the normal production cycle of a typical underground coal mine. The machine was built and the pumpable Bolt concept tested and evaluated as a total system in shop and mine tests. The machine was operated in the mining cycle of two mines and pumpable Bolts were installed at both mine sites.

Jan 1, 1976

By Eric R. Bauer

The ground control aspects of extended depth-of-cut mining are presented in this U.S. Bureau of Mines report. A trend analysis of extended cut approvals was performed. A comparative review of roof fall fatalities for extended and nonextended cut mining is included. Current ground control guidelines for extended cut approval are summarized. The problems and concerns of this extraction system are addressed, and typical extended cutting face operations are described.

Jan 1, 1993

By O. C. Blade

This survey report, the first for this type of fuel, is issued to provide information on the characteristics of the burner-fuel oils now manufactured for sale. Reports of surveys of diesel fuel, conducted under a cooperative agreement between the American Petroleum Institute and the Bureau of Mines, United States Deportment of the Interior, have been published annually since 1950.2/ This survey of burner-fuel oils is similar to the diesel-fuel surveys In pattern and has been conducted under an extension of the same agreement at the request of the Oil-Heat Institute of America and the petroleum industry. It is not intended to conflict with the diesel-fuel survey but rather to supplement it. Burner-fuel oils, also specifically referred to as heating oil, range oil, furnace oil, "Bunker C," and fuel oil, are sold in increasing volumes for use in this country and for export. Sales of all grades of fuel oil in the United States have increased from 340 million barrels in 1926Y to over a billion barrels per year. 4/ Distillate fuel oil sales, in proportion to total fuel-oil volume sold, increased from 42 percent in 1950 to 50 percent in 1954. Sales of distillate and the heavier residual oils during recent years are shown: [ ] It must be realized that the data given are not accurate indications of the use of these materials as burner fuels. Some burner fuel, used as range oil, is kerosine, which is not included above. A large volume of fuel oil--approximately 30 percent of the distillate type and some residual fuel oil--is sold as diesel fuel. Smaller

Jan 1, 1955

By Andrew St. Amant

This report reviews the first three "investigative and concept generation" phases of the referenced contract, and details task performance of Phase IV. This last phase integrated the most promising concepts from Phases I, II, and III into a prototype detailed design which was manufactured, and then tested on a mine locomotive. The concepts developed during the first three phases provided "Improved Pole Tracking," automatic "Rapid Pole Retraction" in the event of dewirement, and servo-operated "Remote Pole Repositioning" on the trolley wire. The Appendix of this report supplies detailed information for the design and construction of the prototype system which is comprised of an RCB (Remotely Controlled Base subassembly), an RCL (Remote Control Lever subassembly) and an SAU (Servo Amplifier Unit) subassembly.

Jan 1, 1980

By Kenneth Maas

The Bureau of Mines devoted portions of the 1987-1988 field seasons to investigate the mineral aggregate industry in Juneau, Skagway, Haines, and Gustavus, Alaska, as part of the Juneau Mining District study. Statistics compiled for current suppliers include location, activity, reserve estimates, expected mine life, and types of commodities available. Each population center, except for Gustavus, is well endowed with suitable mineral aggregate to last at least 20 years. The Bureau of Mines quantified the mineral aggregate resource in many large potential sites within each area. Sampling, engineering and soil-index testing, site descriptions, deposit dimensions, and gold recovery information is described. Refraction seismic studies performed at three localities revealed gravel thicknesses in excess of 40 to 80 feet. In the Juneau area the Herbert/Eagle Rivers outwash area, East Fork Lace River. Antler/Gilkey Rivers, and Grizzly Bar (Taku Inlet) individually contain in excess of 60 million yd3 of excellent-quality aggregate with minor accessory gold credits. Haines is also well endowed with aggregate resources; large, quality deposits occur along and at the confluences of the Chilkat, Katzehin, Klehini, Tsirku, and Kicking Horse Rivers. Large deposits of granitic aggregate exist in the Skagway River and East Fork Skagway River.

Jan 1, 2012

By R. V. Ramani, P. M. T. White, D. Sutton

Appendix I. Part 1: Description Of Geology & Reserves System Introduction The Ore Evaluation and Reserve programs have been developed to aid in the evaluation of coal deposits, both qualitatively and quantitatively. The "Weighted Moving Average" technique used provides considerable flexibility in dealing with diverse parameters with differing distribution characteristics. Determination of Model Constants "a" and "k" - Unit 1 The flexibility of the method in dealing with diverse value parameter distributions lies in its ability to cater to the individual characteristics of each. These characteristics are embodied in the values determined for constants "a" and "k", namely, local and regional variations in value distributions, respectively. The empirical method used attempts to optimize the "a" - "k" combination. Realistic values for "a" and "k" are entered into the program together with sample values for the required parameters and their respective coordinate location values. All the values within a specified radius from the point being evaluated are used to interpolate a value at that point. (Note, the interpolated point is the location of one of the boreholes, values of which are not used in the calcula¬tion.) 3n a similar manner, interpolated values are calculated for each borehole location and for each parameter. This is done for each possible combination of "a" and "k".

Jan 1, 1974