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By K. E. Stanfield

The Bureau of Mines oil-shale program, initiated in April 1944, is concerned with the future utilization of oil shale in the United States as a source of liquid fuel. One phase of this program is the accumulation of information on the location, extent, and richness of oil-shale deposits that may be suitable for processing to oil and related products. A previous publication5/ presented, by means of logs, the oil yields of sections of the largest known oil-shale deposit in this country -the shales of the Green River formation occurring in adjoining portions of the states of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. This present supplementary report presents the oil yields of cores from 48 holes drilled during 1952 to 1954 in the Green River formation of Colorado, which is distributed over an area of more than 1,000 square miles. The oil yields of the 48 oil-shale sections, involving the assay of 9,651 samples, representing 22,451 feet of core, are presented by means of logs. In addition, the oil yields of samples comprising the maximum sections of 15 gallon-per-ton shale are tabulated for these cores and for the 28 cores from Colorado which were logged in the previous report.

Jan 1, 1957

By Joseph H. White

In its investigations looking to the improvement of health condi- tions and the increase of efficiency in the mining industry, the Bureau of Mines, in cooperation with the Bureau of Public Health, is studying sanitary conditions in and about mines with the intent of pointing out how those conditions that are a menace to the health of the miner may be most efficiently removed or remedied. An out- line of sanitary betterment work at mining villages in the Birming- ham district of Alabama has already been published by the bureau," and in this bulletin are presented suggestions on the planning of mining towns and the construction of miners' houses. The bulletin does not pretend to be a treatise on the so-called "housing problem," and mentions sociologic issues only incidentally. It is assumed that the influence of proper shelter on health is understood and that not a lack of appreciation so much as a lack of knowledge of the best remedies is responsible for many of the undesirable conditions that exist at mining towns. The purpose of this bulletin is to supply facts on the building of well-lighted, well- ventilated, warm, attractive, and economical houses for miners, these houses being assumed to be units of an industrial village or town the building and management of which are under the control of a corporation, so that special conditions hold which do not apply to houses built and owned by individual miners. From this it is not to be inferred that the company-controlled town is the best system or the only one in vogue. The discussion of this side of the subject in all its phases is too involved to be included in this paper. One element in favor of the company-controlled town is its possible immediate responsiveness. Hence this assumption. Also the assumption is made that a-new isolated town is being built, and hence the selection of the site, the arrangement of the streets, and the situation of the houses are discussed before the house itself is treated, for one of the most important factors in obtaining an economical sanitary house is a well-selected town site. Many of the suggestions, however, may be applied in improving conditions in existing towns, in building new houses in old towns, or in repairing old houses. Emphasis must be laid on the fact that as a rule a mining village has a shorter life than a manufacturing town. Economy is emphasized frequently because the discussion is predi- cated upon the assumption that the miner himself is to pay for all that he gets. House rent will doubtless be expected to bring in a reasonable return on all money invested in streets, sidewalks, water supply, sewer system, and houses; in other words, the town is to be run on a business and not on a paternal or charitable basis. "Fair and reasonable" precludes, of course, the idea of excessive returns. Some companies do not consider it good policy to realize as high a rate of interest as an independent realty company would be war- ranted in realizing. Under some circumstances part of the town improvements might be charged as "expense of the industry," that is, to the consumer. The isolation of a mining town introduces a unique responsibility. As the miners are practically obliged to rent the company houses, the officials of the company ought to scrutinize all expenditures in- volved so that house rent may be reduced to a minimum. In a way the town builders are placed in the position of trustees. They deter- mine, within certain limits, what proportion of a man's wages shall be spent on house rent. This consideration should restrain fanciful and unnecessarily expensive building; the other extreme should like- wise be avoided. True economy should be distinguished from cheap- ness. Ugly, insanitary, uncomfortable shacks should not be built even if, because of their cheapness, there is a demand for them from tenants. The obligation of the industry to society as a whole as well us to the tenant ought to forbid this. A cheerful, strong, healthy, virile race will not rise out of the filth and squalor of cheap hovels. An insanitary environment often does its damage slowly and silently; vitiated air does not, like mine gas, announce its deadly work by an explosion. As Talbot⚫ says: Health depends in part on freedom from infection. The probability of obtain- ing that freedom will be greatly increased by maintaining the body at a high state of vigor, or "vitality," as it is popularly called. This implies the promo- tion of all agencies which have to do with the physical well-being as well as with the control of sources of infection. Many men realize that in building houses for their workmen they are invested with a peculiar responsibility that must be wielded wisely, and in large developments they call into consultation the land- scape architect, the sanitary engineer, and the building architect, as well as the mining engineer.

Jan 1, 1914

By Scott Turner

We have gathered here in Pittsburgh, at the Nineteenth Annual Safety Congress, in order to advance the cause of safety. Although my personal inter- est in this movement alone would have been sufficient to insure my presence here, specific duties have brought me to this congress in an official capacity. My responsibilities as the head of the United States Bureau of Mines, which makes the promotion of safety in the mining and allied industries one of its major activities, necessitate my attendance. My obligations as president of the Joseph A. Holmes Safety Association, an organization closely allied to the bureau and which has for one of its objects the public recognition and reward of outstanding achievements in safety, require that I be present at this time. This morning, my job is to present the Holmes safety certificate to the Lehigh Portland Cement Co. First I will remind you of the nature of this safety association, named in honor of the first director of the Bureau of Mines. After Mr. Holmes' death, in 1915, a number of influential organizations banded together to commemorate the name of this leader in the conservation of human life. In order that you may appreciate the significance of an award by the Joseph A. Holmes Safety Association, I shall read you the list of 24 national organizations which comprise its membership:

Nov 1, 1930

By 1928-05-01

"The carnotite ores of Colorado and Utah were the chief source of radium for many years. In the fall of 1922; news of the very rich deposits of radium ore discovered in the Belgian Congo caused almost complete cessation of domestic production. The Congo ore contains pitchblend and a number of alteration products, including the new minerals bequerelite, curite, kasolite, stasite, and dewindite. Reports indicate that a considerable amount of ore containing over 50 per cent U308 has been produced. It seemed certain that radium could be extracted from the Congo ore at a much lower cost than from the relatively low-grade carnotite; and in order to preserve their elaborate marketing organizations, the larger American producers made agreements with the Belgium syndicate to market the foreign product in this country. The price of radium has been held at $70 per milligram. Extraction of radium from carnotite by the usual methods does not appear to be profitable at that price. With one exception, all American firms ceased production after their accumulated stocks of ore had been treated. The United States Radium Co., which continued to treat carnotite for several years, has recently shut down its plant.Although there is probably a large profit derivable from the treatment of Congo ore, it is not likely that the Belgium Syndicate will meet sufficient competition to cause any reduction in the present quotations. It is not known how long the high-grade ore will last, but when exhausted the price of radium may be expected to advance. According to K. L. Kithil3 it is the opinion of interested parties that, so far as can be forseen, radium will in future years never again be obtained at the present low price.Carnotite contains the valuable element, vanadium, which is not present in the Congo ore. The recovery of-vanadium is an important factor in the cost of extracting radium from carnotite, and under favorable conditions carnotite can be profitably treated for the vanadium alone. Vanadifecous sandstones are found ranging all the way from roscoelite (vanadium mica), containing little or no uranium; to a high-uranium and low-vanadium carnotite. Ores containing 2 per cent or more U308 are classed as radium ore and are sold on the basis of the uranium content, which is proportional to the radium content. Only in exceptional cases have ores been evaluated on the basis of both the radium and vanadium contents, although the presence of vanadium has undoubtedly influenced the price of radium ore."

May 1, 1928

By John J. Gordon, Neil K. Cooperrider

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standard ISO 2631 [1,2] provides three methods for evaluation of human exposure to vibrations that contain occasional shocks or impacts. Part 1 of the standard specifies the running r.m.s. or maximum transient vibration method (MTVV) and the fourth power vibration dose value (VDV). Part 5 of the standard provides a method of computing the stress in the lumbar spine for humans exposed to multiple shocks. Alem et al [3] have reported application of these methods to data for tactical ground vehicles. This paper reports and compares VDV and spinal stress evaluations of more than 90 hours of vibration and shock measurements on North American locomotives engaged in through freight operations. The measurements evaluated in this paper were obtained for full crew shifts on 19 freight locomotive runs on mainline track in locations from New York to California. The shifts ranged in duration from 187 minutes to 497 minutes. The average speeds for the shifts were from 21.0 mph to 54.6 mph. All measurements were made on locomotives hauling freight trains in regular revenue service. Data Acquisition and Processing The results reported here were computed using test data acquired from a tri-axial seat pad, accelerometer at a sample rate of 400Hz with an anti-aliasing filter corner frequency of 100Hz. The VDVs and the lateral and longitudinal spinal stress values were computed directly from the acquired test data according to the procedures specified and described in [1] and [2]. The vertical spinal stress values were computed by converting the as-acquired test data to a sample rate of 160Hz for input to the vertical spine model, as required in [2]. The conversion of the test data from the as-acquired sample rate of 400Hz to the required sample rate of 160Hz involved up sampling or interpolating the test data to an equivalent sample rate of 800Hz, band limiting the resultant data with a low-pass filter corner frequency of 60Hz and finally down sampling or decimating the 800Hz data to a sample frequency of 160Hz. Discussion The vertical VDVs computed according to [2] for the 19 shifts ranged from 2.68 to 9.33 m/s1.75. In all but one case, the vertical values were greater than the values for the lateral or longitudinal directions. Note that the health guidance in [1] puts the lower boundary of the health guidance caution zone at a VDV value of 8.5 and the upper boundary at 17 m/s1.75. The daily equivalent static compression dose computed following [2] ranged from 0.123 to 0.434 MPa. Health guidance provided in [2] states that there is a low probability of an adverse health effect if the daily dose is less than 0.5 MPa.

Jan 6, 2006

By T. O. Llewellyn

The Bureau of Mines investigated the use of a heavy liquid in combination with fluid cyclones to separate brucite from a Nevada ore on a continuous basis, using a mixture of dibromomethane and trichloroethylene having a density of 2.44 grams per cubic centimeter. Single-stage cyclone separation produced a concentrate that contained 84 percent of the total magnesia at a grade, on a calcined basis, of 95.6 percent MgO.

Jan 1, 1974

By William A. Beck

The K.T. Dome Mine in Owen and Henry Counties, Ky., has been operated intermittently under several different owners since the early nineteen hundreds. No record of total production is available, but it is said that during 1943 and 1944, while being operated by the Twin Valley Mining Co., 30 cars of zinc concentrates and 10 cars of lead concentrates were shipped. The vein can be traced for about 10 miles along the strike from Lockport, Henry County, to Big Twin Creek in Owen County. It pinches and swells both vertically and horizontally and is reported to average 20 inches in width. In order to develop additional reserves on the property, the Bureau of Mines drilled four holes on the south extension of the vein. Drilling disclosed that the vein dips to the west on the south side of the Kentucky River and is continuous along the strike and in depth. However, the extent of mineralization in the vein varies widely.

Jan 1, 1949

By W. T. Millar

Magnetite mines in the Sterling tract, Orange County, N. Y., were operated almost continuously from pre-Revolutionary days until 1923. The Red-Back mine, one of several in this tract, was discovered in 1780; operated briefly in 1880; and abandoned, presumably because the iron ore contained considerable sulfur. The mine is in rough, mountainous country, with altitudes ranging from 500 to 1,100 feet. The magnetite deposit occurs in complex metamorphosed pre-Cambrian formation and is thought to be a replacement of limestone by magnetite. A dip-needle survey, completed in 1916, traced magnetic anomalies for a mile along the outcrop. A preliminary examination of the Red-Back mine was made by W. T. Millar, Bureau of Mines engineer, in December 1942. The Bureau of Mines bored seven diamond-drill holes aggregating 2,727.6 feet during the winter of 1943-44. A zone of magnetite mineralization was intersected in each of the holes.

Jan 1, 1949

By J. W. Paul

"The economic features of coal mining must take into account the drain on the man power. Study over a recent 5-year period reveals an average yearly loss of 2,125 underground men, of whom 1,182 are killed by falls of roof and coal, and according to recent data compiled by the Bureau of Mines it is estimated that 54,000 men sustain lost—time disabling injuries from the same cause.Under normal activity of the mines approximately 50 lives are taken by falls of roof during every 10 days the mines are operated, or 5 persons are killed per day, which, at a compensation charge of $5,000 each, amounts to $25,000 per day. Add to this the similar number killed by causes other than by falls of roof and we have $50,000 as an approximate daily fatality charge for each day the mines operate. On the basis of 200 working days per year, this amounts to the alarming figure of $10,000,000 annually. An investment at 5 per cent to yield this amount would require $200,000,000, which is equivalent to a capital investment of $0.40 per ton of coal, produced annually, on the basis of 500 million tons. These figures apply only to fatalities for which a fixed or stated amount is paid for compensation and do not include the compensation and hospitalization paid for the approximately 103,000 upon whom idleness is enforced by a lost-time disability injury. In one State having an annual production equal to approximately 30 per cent of the total bituminous production of the United States, the most recent data shows that for each fatality there are eight serious injuries causing 60 days or more lost time. The frequency rate of accidents for that State is less than the average for the United States, and so a conservative comparison may be made by using the figures of that State in estimating the total serious injuries, which gives 16,000 as losing 60 days or more. The average number of underground employees in the coal mines of the United States for the past 10 years has been approximately 570,000; the annual underground fatalities amount to approximately 2,000 and non-fatalities to 108,000, or a total of 110,000, which means that one out of every 5.17 employees ,or 19.3 per cent, receives an injury which results in either a fatality or a lost-time disability; this figure in a little over five years will reach a number equivalent to 100 per cent of all underground workmen. Against this is the record of many miners who have worked 25 years or more without a lost—time disability injury, indicating that coal mining is not necessarily productive of injury or death to workers.In the matter of falls of roof, it is found that 85 to 87 per cent of all fatalities occur at the working face, face of a room or entry, or in pillar work. It is at the working face that the greatest roof hazards are encountered, and when about 75 per cent of the underground employees spend approximately 90 per cent of their working hours at the face, it is logical that there is where injury is most likely to occur.Although the roof hazards may vary in different beds of coal, experience has proved that roof hazards can be successfully controlled in all coal mines, essentially regardless of the character of the roof if constant care and attention are given by the management and employees in applying the principle of safety. In almost every mining district some companies maintain an extremely low frequency rate of injury, whereas in the same district with essentially the same roof conditions the opposite is true.A study has recently been made of a number of reports upon fatalities in one district of one of the principal coal—producing States and it showed that 50 lives had been lost at 23 mines as the result of falls of roof or sides. These reports were made by the mine officials, safety engineers, and safety committees and an attempt was made to give both the cause and the person or factor responsible for the fatality. A summary of the items of responsibility is as follows:"

Feb 1, 1932

By John A. Davis, John Gross

Six tests were made by the Alaska Station of the Bureau of Mines on a sample of black sand delivered to the station by Messrs. James, Eagan & Griffen from Fairbanks Creek, Fairbanks mining district, Territory of Alaska, to devise a method of recovering the gold content. More than 90 per cent of this black sand consisted of magnetite and garnet which can be separated magnetically. The Station has no equipment for magnetic separation other than an electromagnet similar to the one used by Day and Richards, (Day, D.T., and Richards, R.H., Investigations of Black Sands from Placer Mines, U. S. Geol. Survey, Bull. 285, 1906, pp. 150-163), which can only be used satisfactorily on small samples. To treat the entire lot of black sand with this machine would have been impracticable. Therefore only a small part of the sand was so treated, the rest being divided into five lots in order to obtain comparative results from other methods of treatment.

Aug 1, 1920

By Walter R. Storms, Jerry W. FAUST

This paper, which describes mining methods and costs at the Kearney zinc-lead mine, is one of a series being prepared by the Mining Division of the Bureau of Mines on mining practices, methods, and costs in varicus mining districts of the United States. The Kearney mine, which is owned by the New Mexico Consolidated Mining Co., a subsidiary of the Peru Mining Co. (Illinois Zinc), is situated a few miles southeast of the town of Hanover, in the northwest corner of sec. 27, T. 17 S., R. 12 W., in the Central Mining District, Grant County, N. Mex. (Figs. 1 and 2.) This report presents a brief history of the district, describes the geology, and outlines methods of prospecting and exploration, including eampling and estimation of tonnages and values. Development and mining methods are explained, and transportation, ventilation, drainage, safety measures, and organizatich are described. The wage scale and mining costs comprise the concluding sections of the report.

Jun 1, 1949

By A. S. Swanson

In view of the necessity or increasing production of metallurgical fluorspar to satisfy wartime demands, 0, M. Bishop, former district engineer of the Bureau of Mines, L. W. Carrier and. J. S. Williams, senior geologist of the Federal Geological Survey, and E. H. Dawson, mining engineer of the War Production Board made a joint survey of the Illinois-Kentucky fluorite district in July 1942 to determine what steps should be taken to increase production. As part of their recommendations, a program for exploring the idle Klondike mine in Livingston County, Ky., was outlined. All the ore produced at the Klondike mine was mined above the 325-foot level, where some tonnage remains. Factors that influenced selection of the Klondike mine for exploration were favorable geological conditions, the state of mine development and the availability of pumping equipment and some usable mine and mill equipment. In December 1942, the Metals Reserve Co. leased the Klondike mine from the Salem Fluorspar Co.

Jan 1, 1949

By G. E. Rennick

A siphon-type laboratory airlift well was designed and operated by the Bureau of Mines to study the concurrent flow of air and oil in small-diameter pipes. Glass flowstrings ranging from to 1 inch in diameter and from L4 to 64 feet in length were equipped with various-sized air-entry jets. Liquid holdup volumes were used to correlate vertical-flow data, and empirical equations for computing gas requirements were derived. The effect of flowstring length on flow efficiency, oil- and gas-production rates, and gas-oil ratios was relatively minor at all flowing pressures. Air-jet sizes and flowstring diameters, however, had a marked effect on flow efficiency and oil- and gas-production rates. The small air-jet sizes increased maximum flow efficiency and its associated flowing pressures but decreased oil- and gas-production rates. An increase in flowstring diameter increased maximum flow efficiency with its associated flowing pressure and also increased the production rates of oil and gas.

Jan 1, 1965

By Aarne Visnapuu

Dissociation and vaporization of gold chlorides and bromides were investigated by a static pressure method and by Knudsen cell mass spectrometer. Two distinct chlorine and three distinct bromine pressure-temperature relation-ships were observed for the respective salts. The chlorine pressures are attributed to the dissociation of Au2Cl6 and Au2C12, and the bromine pressures to the dissociation of Au2Br6, Au2Br4, and AU2Br2, These pressure-temperature relationships were used to calculate dissociation pressure equations, enthalpies, and entropies of dissociation for each salt. Mass analysis of the vapors over AU2Cls between 83° and 152° C confirmed the existence of gaseous AU2C16. Ionization potential of this molecule is 11.0±0.1 ev and enthalpy of vaporization is 28.l±2.0 kcal/mole. Mass analysis of the vapors over the gold bromides detected only Bra in the temperature range 15°-150° C.

Jan 1, 1971

By Joseph W. Martin

The Bureau of Mines investigated the backscattering of low-energy gamma rays as a method for rapidly determining the incombustible content of coal mine dust. In this method, 60-kev gamma rays from americium-24l penetrate the dust and are reflected by elements in the dust to a thin crystal scintillation detector. The number of backscattered gamma rays is proportional to the incombustible content. Tests of 40 dry, mine-dust samples containing 50 to 100 percent inert material show an average error of 2 percent. Calibration of the apparatus is necessary for each rock dust to account for variable composition. Results for samples containing more than 6 percent moisture are subject to error, but the values are lower than values obtained by chemical analysis, and thus fall on the safe side. Development of a small portable meter based on the backscatter principle appears feasible. Such a meter would find application within coal mines to check the effectiveness of rock dusting procedures.

Jan 1, 1968

By L. R. Burdick

The Smokescope is an instrument recently developed for determining the density of smoke by shade comparison. The instrument is designed so that the smoke is seen adjacent to two shades of gray corresponding to Nos. 2 and 3 on the Ringelmann chart. Data on smoke density are important in the smoke-abatement field. The method that is specified and accepted as standard for smoke-density determination by the majority of city smoke regulations involves comparing the smoke shade with the four shades on the Ringelmann chart as published by the Bureau of Mines.2/ This investigation was made to determine the accuracy and convenience of the Smokescope. It was conducted as a part of the Bureau I s air-pollution work, which includes the study of techniques that will promote smoke abatement. The accuracy of the Smokescope was arbitrarily defined as the difference between the Smokescope determinations and the determinations by the accepted, standard method and was expressed as Smokescope correction. Although the corrections obtained were strictly correct only for the two observers and the Smokescope of the investigation, they indicate what might be expected from any observer who uses a Smokescope with reference shades that duplicate those of the test instrument. The report is devoted largely to the data on Smokescope correction, which were taken from a single stack under controlled smoke conditions. Field work, which was done at various locations with different stacks, is mentioned briefly in connection with the comparison of the convenience of the two methods. The data for estimating Smokescope correction were taken for the three variables that were expected to affect the results, namely, the density of the smoke, the amount of light, and the color of the sky behind the smoke.

Jan 1, 1955

By R. L. Andrews

The Bureau of Mines investigated means of electrodepositing iridium to form thick coatings suitable for the protection of such metals as tungsten and molybdenum, which oxidize rapidly at high temperatures. Using a fused sodium cyanide bath, thick, adherent, and coherent deposits of iridium up to 15 mils thick were plated on tungsten and molybdenum substrates at 600° C and current densities of 10 to 100 ma/cm2. Limited oxidation testing of molybdenum encapsulated with pure iridium indicates that the coating may offer protection to approximately l,000° C in flowing air, but that at higher temperatures, the volatility of its oxide limits use of pure iridium. Alloy coatings of iridium with platinum, palladium, and rhodium up to 4 mils thick were formed from a fused sodium cyanide electrolyte; because their oxides are less volatile, these alloys may protect substrates at higher temperatures. Deposits made from aqueous electrolytes either had very low rates of deposition or were highly stressed and cracked when heavy deposits were made.

Jan 1, 1967

By R. B. Prater

Research by the Bureau of Mines includes efforts to devise means for maximum recovery of critical and strategic metals from primary and secondary domestic resources. As part of that effort, the Bureau developed a hydrometallurgical process to recover Co, Ni, and Cu from Missouri lead-smelter matte. The process includes leaching with H2S04 plus Mn02 as an oxidizing agent, liquor purification, selective precipitation of CuS, (Co,Ni)S, and MnC03, and crystallization of Na2S04&apos; This report is concerned primarily with liquor purification, in which As and Fe are removed from the leach liquor by pH adjustment and filtration. Two variations of the purification step are described. One variation provides liquor containing <1 mg/L As and Fe but requires two solid-liquid separations, The other is achieved with only one solid-liquid separation but leads to a lower degree of purification.

Jan 1, 1987

By Oliver Bowles

The United States Bureau of Mines has within its ranks a group of engi- neers who are engaged in working out quarry problems, the solution of which will be of general benefit to the industries involved. The problems undertaken are approached in a systematic and thorough manner, all the evidence for and against any proposed change or new development being collected as carefully as an attor- ney would prepare his data on an important case. Unlike the attorney, however, the Bureau engineer does not take sides; his judgment is based entirely and in- partially on the array of facts presented. In order to gain the desired infor- mation he visits many plants, consults with the leaders in the industry, works out experiments in his laboratory, and supplements this information with a stu- dy of all available literature already published on the subject in any part of the world. As an engineer who has for eight years conducted such inquiries in the stone industry, I propose to discuss the Bureau of Mines viewpoint; and it may be of interest to consider with me in a brief and general way the engineer's method of looking at quarry problems, and some of the results attained through past and present labors. While the Bureau has conducted no investigation directly for the crushed- st one industries, two years of investigative work at cement-plant quarries, and work now being conducted at lire-plant quarries, has a very direct bearing on the problems of the crushed-stone industry, since stripping, drilling, blasting, loading, and transportation are similar in many respects in all stone quarries. The results of cement-plant quarry investigations are to be found in Bureau of Mines Bulletin #160. (b) Two short papers on lime-plant quarry problems have been issued in mimeographed form as Serial #01 (c) and Serial 3 (d).

Jan 1, 1923

By Alla D. Mah

The heat of combustion of TaC0.996 was determined by oxygen bomb calorimetry to be -302.8 ±0.4 kcal/mole. The corresponding heat of formation of TaC0.996 is -35.4 ±0.5 kcal/mole, and the calculated heat of formation of TaC1.00 is -35.5 ±0.5 kcal/mole.

Jan 1, 1965