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By Walter D. Holland

This study was undertaken to determine miners' breathing zone concentrations of diesel exhaust components, to investigate any relationships between these concentrations and vehicle type, the presence of emission controls, vehicle usage, and ventilation conditions, and to make recommendations for monitoring and ventilation requirements. Twenty-four mines including two con l mines were surveyed. Sampling was done for CON, NON, SOx, PNA, aldehydes, and particulates. hi most mines, concentrations of at least one contaminant exceeded one half the standard or TLV. The concentrations of gases arc probably sufficiently reduced by a minimum air velocity of 50 fpm. A sufficient reduction of particulate concentrations may require as high as 400 fpm air velocity. Vehicle age, type, or usage appear to have little or no effect on contaminant concentrations. PNA levels were below detection limits in all but a very few samples. Minimum requirements for routine monitoring should include formaldehyde, COx, NO2. It is further recommended that better definition of the minimum ventilation requirement be obtained.

Jan 1, 1978

By R. L. Rickel

The Bureau of Mines, as part of its minerals environmental technology research, conducted a study of mine waste tailings disposal. Part of the investigation evaluated the sand bed dewatering technique for disposal of alumina mini plant tailings as a means to increase consolidation rates and contain effluents. The technique employs a bed of sand resting on an impervious bottom. The tailings slurry is impounded over the sand layer and is dewatered through bottom drain piping. The study employed a single 10-ft-high, 6-in-diam, clear polyvinyl-chloride (PVC) column, and thickener wastes from the acid leaching of calcined kaolin clay. Results showed a consolidation rate of 41 in in 186 days for a total volume reduction of 37 pct. Sand bed dewatering was an efficient technique for solid consolidation and effluent containment when compared with data obtained from other dewatering studies.

Jan 1, 1982

By E. Morrice

The metallurgical laboratory data developed in this study indicate an improved electrowinning process for producing higher purity cerium ingot. A typical sample of the Reno electrocerium contains 99.9 weight-percent cerium and the following impurities: Total other rare-earth elements, less than 0.04 percent; iron not detected; silicon and aluminum, less than 0.02 percent each; calcium plus magnesium, less than 0.01 percent; carbon, 0.01 percent; oxygen, 0.002 percent; hydrogen, 0.0003 percent; and nitrogen, 0.0015 percent.

Jan 1, 1960

By John T. Metcalf

The assembly procedures for nine different wire rope terminations used in the mining industry are presented in a format and manner to facilitate training and to provide points where inspection of the termination should be performed. The nine terminations addressed are: Flemish Loop with Steel Sleeve & Thimble, Flemish Loop with Steel Sleeve, Wedge Socket, Swaged Socket, Turn Back Loop with Sleeve & Thimble, Thimble Splice with Four Tucks, U-Bolt Clip & Thimble, Zinc Poured Socket, and Epoxy Resin Poured Socket. The manual was prepared to be used primarily for field type mining operations or training where high capacity machinery is quite limited. It is nut the intent of this manual to suggest that the procedures presented are those to be used by manufacturers or other commercial enterprizes. A different set of procedures may be more appropriate where ideal space and equipment resources are available. The assembly procedures were derived from standard industrial practice, manufacturer's recommendations, and the open literature on the subject. These same procedures were used to prapare test specimens for an extensive series of pull and axial fatigue tests. The results of these tests indicate that these procedures are satisfactory in all respects. This manual is to be used as part of a complete training program. Although a brief glossary is included, there has been no attempt to make this a primer on wire rope. The selection of wire rope termination hardware, like the selection of the wire rope, is a subject not covered by this manual. The reader is cautioned that there are various sources for such hardware and this selection must be done carefully.

Jan 1, 1978

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 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 J. F. McIlwain

The Bureau of Mines has investigated fumes generated by selected welding electrodes used in mines in order to help determine their relative health hazard potential. Fumes were generated and collected in an enclosed chamber for subsequent generation rate and chemical constituent determination. Shielded metal arc electrodes from the following groups were tested: AWS types E308-16 and E310-16 stainless steel, ECoCr-A Co-Cr hardfacing alloy, ENiCr Ni, an Mn-Cr buildup alloy, E7018 carbon steel, and EII018-M low-alloy steel. Flux-cored wire electrodes of this last group also were tested. Fume generation rates and the chemical composition of the fumes were measured. From these data, exposure in-dices were determined, which give a relative measure of the health hazard potential of using the electrodes. The effect of welding onto build-up alloy layers on the fume composition also was examined for five of the higher alloy groups.

Jan 1, 1987

By Fredrick L. Johnson

The Jerry Peak, Jerry Peak West, and Boulder Creep: Wilderness Study Areas contain no identified mineral resources. Two workings, a 20-ft-long adit and a pit, were found in Paleozoic, brecciated, limonitic jasperoid in the east part of the Jerry Peak Wilderness Study Area (WSA), but no significant metallic mineral values were noted. Lenses and pods of quartz containing copper minerals occur in Paleozoic sedimentary rocks 1/2 mi north of the Jerry Peak West WSA. Similar rocks crop out along Pine Creep: in that study area but no copper-bearing quartz lenses were found.

Jan 1, 1984

By Larry Patts, Jon Hummer, Jim Noll, Aleksandar Bugarski1, George Schnakenberg, Steve Mischler, Mike Crum, Shawn Vanderslice, Rick Anderson

This study is organized under the auspices of the Metal/Nonmetal Diesel Partnership formed by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), the National Mining Association (NMA), the National Stone Sand and Gravel Association (NSSGA), the United Steel Workers of America (USWA) and the MARG Diesel Coalition. The ultimate objective of the study is to reduce the exposure of underground miners to diesel particulate matter (DPM) and gases, and to help in fulfilling the partnership’s goal of identifying technically and economically feasible controls to curtail particulate matter emissions from existing and new diesel powered vehicles in underground metal and nonmetal mines. The majority of current knowledge on the performance of the diesel particulate filter (DPF) systems and other control technologies is based on studies done under laboratory conditions, the results then being applied the results to on-highway vehicles. According to the best knowledge of the authors, only two comprehensive studies that were conducted recently at Noranda’s Bathurst Mining and Smelting Mine and International Nickel Company’s Stobie Mine under the sponsorship of the Diesel Emissions Evaluation Program [McGinn 2001, Bugarski and Schnakenberg 2001, Bugarski and Schnakenberg 2002] offered some insight into the problems associated with the deployment of modern DPFs to underground mining vehicles. The U.S. mining industry has expressed concern that this rather limited knowledge base is not sufficient to help them comply with the rule limiting DPM exposure of underground metal and nonmetal miners [30 CFR 57.5060 2001]. The partnership agreed that a series of comprehensive field evaluations of DPFs in several underground mines was needed to determine their viability of DPF systems and establish confidence in their performance. The first in this series of studies was the one conducted in Stillwater Mining Company’s Nye Mine, Nye, Montana. This study was conducted in two phases. The objective of the first phase was to establish the effectiveness of the selected technologies in reducing diesel emissions by using an isolated zone methodology. The objective of the second phase was to assess the effectiveness of diesel particulate filters in controlling the exposure of underground miners in actual production scenarios. As part of the first phase of the study a series of tests were conducted at Nye Mine from May 19, 2003 until May 30, 2003. The results of Phase I of the study are presented in this report.

Jan 1, 2005

By Eric E. Cather

A mineral survey of the Fisher Gulch RARE II area (A5299), Trinity County, California was conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Mines and U.S. Geological Survey. The Bureau of Mines was responsible for detailed examination of mines, prospects, and mineralized zones; the Geological Survey conducted geological, geochemical, and geophysical studies of the area. The area is underlain by the Salmon Hornblende Schist. Tonalite stocks 1.5 mi (2.8 km) to the east and northeast of the area intrude the schist and are closely associated with the nearby nines (Cox, 1967). The mines have quartz veins containing sulfides and gold in shears trending east to north past in the schist and tonalite (Hotz, 1972). Strewn and terrace gravel s occupy most of the drainages, many have yielded substantial quantities of gold.

Jan 1, 1981

By Martyn F. Roetter

The objectives of the work described in this report are to determine the communications requirements and need for communications, both for voice and control, on longwalls, and to make recommendations for longwall communications equipment and systems. These recommendations are designed to guide the future development of longwall communications. Information necessary for the accomplishment of this work has been gathered by a series of visits to longwall mines and discussions with longwall mine operators, as well as with suppliers of longwall communications and mining equipment and with Bureau of Mines personnel. In addition, it has proven possible, through personal interviews and literature evaluation, to gain an understanding of the experience and attitudes towards longwall communications in countries where longwall mining is far more widespread than in the U.S., namely the Federal Republic of Germany, the United Kingdom, France and Belgium.

Jan 1, 1976

By Erich K. Bender

This report summarizes work performed under Phase I of USBM Contract No. H0366024, Noise Reduction of Jumbo Mounted Percussive Drills. Four drills -Gardner-Denver D93LAR and DH123 and Ingersoll-Rand 0475 and VL120 models were measured at the two manufacturers? test sites; data are given in terms of characteristic noise and vibration levels. A survey of percussive rock drill users is reported. The rationale for the choice of a demonstration drill, the Gardner-Denver DH123, is given and a desired noise reduction goal is established.

Jan 1, 1976

By D. A. Douglass

This report describes the tri-n-butyl phosphate extraction of cerium (IV) from a sulfate leach liquor prepared from a bastnaesite concentrate as well as from pure eerie nitrate solutions. The work was done on a laboratory scale using separatory funnels. Extraction from pure cerium solutions entailed no great difficulties; however, extraction from the bastnaesite solution proved more difficult, mainly because of the inhibiting effect of the sulfate ion. Despite this, procedures were developed for obtaining good single-state cerium extraction (95+ percent) and a high-purity product (99+ percent), although the maximization of both cannot be achieved simultaneously. This necessitates a compromise in any extraction scheme.

Jan 1, 1959

By R. Karl Zipf, Kousick Biswas

The main objective of occupational health and safety research is to minimize or eliminate the events that may cause fatal or non-fatal injuries to human workers. A commonly used technique is to devise an “incident prevention plan”, which is more often the product of thorough investigations of past reported incident events. Incident documentation and methodical reporting and systematic and thorough data collection, often help identify the root cause of the incident – in other words, the etiology of the incident. These retrospective analyses of the incidents can efficiently identify the future steps to take to achieve the objective of minimizing occurrence of “events of interest”. This paper introduces a novel technique – “Taxonomic Analysis”, which identifies the root causes of an event (an incident in this case) and can provide future direction for corrective measures to reduce the probability of occurrence of the event. A taxonomic analysis involves systematic and organization of data based on observation, description, and classification. This paper utilizes the rock fall related incident narratives, available with the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) database (1984-1999), for a taxonomic analysis. The study found that 67.6% of groundfall incidents occurred in supported areas with the remainder (32.4%) in unsupported areas. Some form of rock mass failure appears to cause about 50% of groundfall incidents, although in 39.7% of the overall groundfall incidents or two-thirds of those involving rock mass failure, the exact nature of the rock mass failure could not be determined from the narratives. Human activities factors such as scaling or barring down, drilling or bolting, and setting timbers or cribbing accounted for another 34.5% of the groundfall incidents. Finally, support system failures made up the remaining 15.5%. Results from this taxonomic analysis may suggest focus areas toward which preventive measures and future research activities could concentrate.

By Russell J. Foster

Many important materials are derived entirely or partially as byproducts of primary copper, lead, and zinc production. This U.S. Bureau of Mines report examines the collective role of byproducts with regard to the economics of domestic mineral production, and their individual significance in terms of dollar value, end uses, and strategic considerations. The study also analyzes circumstances that have affected the competitiveness and structure of the U.S. copper, lead, and zinc industries, and factors that impact byproduct availability. These factors include production capacity at smelters and refineries, process technology, changing sources and composition of ores, regulations, foreign ownership, and byproduct demand and price. Policy considerations regarding stockpiling, regulations, and research are assessed.

Jan 1, 1991

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 Joseph D. Davis, G. S. Scott, Palmer B. Place

In the course of investigations made by the Bureau of Mines in cooperation with the Trent Process Corporation, into the properties of mixtures of oil and coal, a comparative study was ma.de of the 'behavior of these mixtures and their cons ti tuents on destructive distillation. Mixtures of a petroleum oil and bitminous coal were first distilled under carefully controlled conditions, and then charges of the eame oil and coal were distilled separately under similar conditions. The quantity and quality of the distillation products were determined, and. resul. ts were compared. This comparison furnished a basis tor judging whether grea, ... er values in products can be obtained by distillation of oil and coal in mixtures than· b:, their separate distillation. In making the mixtures, the method used in t~e Trent process for cleaning coal was followed. The paste or plastic emulsion of oil and coal obtained is called "amalgam".••• When finely pulverized wet coal is mixed with approximately one-third its weight of. oil and agitated with a large excass of waj;er, the coal and oil agglomer-. ate to form a paste or amalgam. A large portion of the extraneous ash original.17 in the coal remains suspended in the water, with which it can be decanted from the amalgam. Ir the latter is now thoroughly drained and kneaded after the manner ot working butter, most of the excess water enclosed can be removed. This, .in brief, constitutes the Trent process for cleaning coal, The effectiveness of the process for cleaning coal has been studied••••. by the Bureau, and the results of the study show, in general, a high ash reduction an:l good recovery of combus ti bl e f'rom coals of medi ,mi and hi~ rg,nk. With coals of tht lowest rank, such as li@!Rlites, the process is only moderately auccessf'ul, owing to the difficulty attending the preparation of coherent amalgams, Oil losses to wate~ and refuse are small, and apparently it would be practical to rotate the same oil in the cleaning process if some efficient method were devised for recovering it from the amalgam, so a distillation process naturally suggested itself.

Dec 1, 1921

By Carl Belser

Approximately 30 million pounds of tungsten trioxide in the form of ferberite concentrates have been shipped from Boulder County. Since 1940, the production has varied considerably, being affected by the emergency needs of World War II and the Korean conflict. During World War II, attempts to stimulate production were made by the Metals Reserve Company by stabilizing the price for a specified period, the Reconstruction Finance Corporation by small mining development loans, and the Bureau of Mines and the Geological Survey, who cooperatively explored some of the district by surface and underground core drilling. During the Korean conflict and continuing through the first half of 1954) tungsten production was being stimulated by a Government-gauranteed price and by financial assistance loans under the Defense Production Act of 1950 to qualified operators of properties that have merited exploration. This combined program has increased production in Boulder County from about 1,900 pounds in 1949 to an estimated 383,000 pounds of tungsten trioxide in 1953. The 1953 production came from 67 properties. One of the problems confronting producers is the need for improved beneficiaton methods. Ores from the area have not been amenable to flotation concentration and gravity methods have resulted in poor recovery, often less than 70 percent.

Jan 1, 1955

By Russell Levens

A strategy for prioritizing mining health and safety research by evaluating the potential for risk reduction through interventions is proposed. Mining has one of the highest incidence rates of injury and disease found in major industries. The main premise of this paper is that often the best opportunities to reduce these rates are not revealed by retrospective analysis of injury and illness data. Instead, a proactive approach is needed that accounts for risks to specific hazards that can be abated by engineering or behavioral interventions. The process proposed here begins with development of prospective interventions. The degree of reduction in risk to be expected from an intervention then is determined from statistics on the mining worker population, the expected degree of success of the intervention, and the expected change in the severity of injuries resulting from the intervention. Three disparate mining health and safety concerns are presented to demonstrate common problems in assessing risks of injury and illness and describe additional data needs. Information on events preceding injuries and illnesses and more detailed demographic data on the mining work force are needed to analyze injury and illness data more precisely. Detailed information on exposure to specific hazards is necessary to evaluate the potential for an intervention to reduce risk of injury or illness.

By K. J. Liles

The Federal Bureau of Mines conducts a comprehensive test program on clay and shale at the Tuscaloosa Metallurgy Research Center. All samples are subjected to standard preliminary ceramic tests, which include firing formed briquets at temperatures ranging from 1,000° to 1,250° C to identify firing range and colors, and quick-firing to determine bloating characteristics. Materials that shop potential as structural products are further tested after either extrusion or dry-pressing. If the quick-fire test is positive, bulk samples can be fired in a rotary kiln to evaluate their potential as light- weight aggregate A number of miscellaneous tests also can be conducted if requested. These tests determine properties such as refractoriness (pyrometric cone equivalency), oil-bleaching characteristics, oil absorbency, viscosity for drilling-mud applications, sand-bonding properties for foundry usage, and pelletizing characteristics.

Jan 1, 1977