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By Michael Rieber

Commodity transportation by barge is possible on about 25,000 miles of navigable inland waterways in the contiguous 48 states. Barge operations are used chiefly for the movement of bulk raw materials ranging from farm products to iron ore, coal, and other bulky semi-finished as well as finished products such as steel, chemicals and petroleum [3,p.7-9]. The barge industry, unlike other transportation industries, is largely unregulated. This is because all liquid bulk commodities most dry bulk commodities transported by for-hire carriers and companies engaged in private transportation of their own commodities are exempted from Interstate Commerce Commission regulations. As a result, about 15 percent of the total ton-miles of barge traffic each year is under Interstate Commerce Commission regulation [13,p.14-25].

Jan 1, 1977

Longwall minim; is a highly mechanized, high productivity mining method that is finding increasing applications in coal. Although the method would be highly advantageous in certain hard rock mining applications it cannot be applied in hard rock because no suitable cutterhead exists for such materials. The wedge longwall cutterhead is a, roller cutter device that is wedge-shaped, with cutters arranged to eliminate the very large normal force ordinarily required to cause such cutters to penetrate hard rock. However, the wedge geometry cannot be extended to a point: special nose cutters are needed to open a narrow slot for the wedge. This report describes the design, fabrication, and successful field testing of these critical nose cutters.

Jan 1, 1974

By J. P. Morris

"INTRODUCTION In the investigation being conducted by the Bureau of Mines concerning the production and utilization of sponge iron, it soon became evident that more information was needed regarding methods for determining the degree of reduction attained in the manufacturing process. Sponge irons made by different processes vary in physical characteristics and chemical composition, and a method of analysis that is suitable for one type is not necessarily applicable to all others. For example, the hydrogen-evolution method, which measures the volume of hydrogen evolved upon treating the sample with acid, accurately determines the oxygen content of some types of sponge iron. However, when the sponge iron contains combined carbon, hydrocarbon gases are also-evolved and large errors may result. Probably no single method will give accurate results in all instances, and for this reason it is desirable to have several reliable procedures available and to know the limitations of each.For measuring the degree of reduction, determination of either metallic iron or oxygen should suffice, although for practical application of sponge iron to the production of steel the oxygen content is more significant. After consideration of proposed methods of analysis in regard to their suitability for routine use and the probable influence of other substances, four procedures were chosen for investigation:(1) Mercuric chloride method.(2) Copper sulfate method.(3) Hydrogen-reduction method.(4) Hydrogen-evolution methods."

Sep 1, 1945

By Jon G. Bredeson

The electromagnetic noise that exists in a mining environment is quite severe and was shown to have been reasonably well documented by a number of researchers in the Phase I Report. The noise levels are such that prudent communication design requires the careful use of all the electromagnetic noise data available. A comprehensive survey was undertaken to determine techniques used in various industrial environments to achieve secure communications in the presence of electromagnetic interference. The techniques were given in the Phase I Report and are rudimentary, but have produced reasonably good results. A number of these techniques could be applied to the mining environment.

Jan 1, 1980

By D. H. Desy

The Bureau of Mines has conducted research on the ignition of methane-air mixtures by sparks caused by frictional impact of aluminum alloys on rusted steel at typical coal mine fan speeds. The objectives were to establish the incendivity of aluminum alloys under these conditions, to investigate differences between aluminum alloys, and to evaluate substitute materials for the aluminum-steel combination. With a specially designed apparatus, three commercial aluminum casting alloys and a number of experimental aluminum alloys were tested for incendivity of the frictional impact against rusted steel in flammable methane-air mixtures. All aluminum alloys tested produced some ignitions. Of the experimental alloys, the harder alloys and those containing silicon tended to be more incendive than the others. With the normal experimental conditions, constructional steel, stainless steel, brass, and plastic did not cause ignition of methane-air mixtures in frictional impact against rusted steel. Some ignitions occurred with constructional steel at high speed in more flammable gas mixtures enriched with oxygen. From these findings, it is suggested that constructional material combinations other than the aluminum-steel combustion would minimize this inc endive hazard. A detailed description is given of previous research, and comparison is made with present results where appropriate.

Jan 1, 1975

By T. J. Driscoll

Methane-air mixtures can ignite as a result of sparking or rubbing of materials, particularly by impact involving light alloys and rusted steel where an exothermic thermite reaction can occur. This report reviews the published literature and describes a new method utilized by the Bureau of Mines for studying the processes occurring during collisions of light metals with rusted steels. The method involves measuring the spectra of sparks and explosions in methane-air mixtures using a photodiode array. Initial results obtained using magnesium and aluminum alloy 6061-T651 projectiles striking rusted steel are reported. These results indicate that the continuous parts of the spectra show a larger intensity for incendive sparks compared with nonincendive sparks, with the largest relative change in the higher energy, ultraviolet region. An unexpected shift of the intensity maximum for the continuous parts of the spectra towards the infrared region was observed for the more incendive sparks. Evaluation of rusted steel samples with electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectrography, and Auger electron spectroscopy after they had been impacted by aluminum alloys indicated that aluminum was transferred to the steel in the form of islands that became larger as a function of increasing projectile velocity.

Jan 1, 1982

By W. H. Somerton

Many oil-producing formations contain significant amounts of clay. Because of the large surface area and reactivity of such surfaces, the response of the formations to various recovery processes may be dominated by the reactions of fine-grained minerals, including clay minerals, in the formations. Thus, the success or failure of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) methods may be controlled to a large extent by the amount and nature of these minerals in the formations to which the methods are being applied. One of the deterrents to the successful application of chemical EOR methods is the loss of chemicals injected into the formation, to non-oil recovery processes. These chemical loss processes include adsorption onto mineral surfaces, chemical reactions with rock and fluids in the formations, possibly leading to precipitation and plugging of the formation, and trapping of chemicals in parts of the rock structure so that they become unavailable for displacing oil. Chemicals that may be injected include surfactants, polymers and caustic solutions which react with organic acids in the crude oil to produce surfactants in-situ. These losses are most pronounced in fine-grained reservoir rocks containing substantial amounts of clays.

Jan 1, 1984

By K. K. Kelley

The collection and correlation of thermodynamic data concerning substances of metallurgical interest have constituted one of the major activities of the Pacific Experiment Station of the Bureau of Mines, at Berkeley, Calif., for the past several years. Earlier bulletins (32, 33, 34, 36, 36, 37, 38) s in this series are entitled: (1) Contributions to the Data on Theoretical Metallurgy. I. The Entropies of Inorganic Substances; (2) Contributions to the Data on Theoretical Metallurgy. II. High-Temperature Specific-Heat Equations for Inorganic Substances; (3) Contributions to the Data on Theoretical Metallurgy. III. The Free Energies of Vaporization and Vapor Pressures of In¬ organic Substances; (4) Contributions to the Data on Theoretical Metallurgy. IV. Metal Carbonates--Correlations and Applications of Thermodynamic Properties; (5) Contributions to the Data on Theoretical Metallurgy. V. Heats of Fusion of Inorganic Substances; (6) Contributions to the Data on Theoretical Metallurgy. VI. A Revision of the Entropies of Inorganic Substances-1935; and (7) Contributions to the Data on Theoretical Metallurgy. VII. The Thermodynamic Properties of Sulphur and its Inorganic Compounds. The present paper collects and discusses thermodynamic data relating to metal carbides and nitrides, with the view of obtaining usable heat and free energy of formation relationships. Pertinent data on both classes of substances are difficult to obtain experimentally and consequently are extremely rare; it is therefore necessary in many cases, if equations are to be derived, to introduce certain approximations and assumptions. Lack of adequate means of checking results by utilizing data of different types, such as was done frequently in the bulletins dealing with carbonates and sulphates, are readily apparent to anyone who has made even a cursory examination of the available information. Consequently, some of the relationships derived undoubtedly will be found to be inaccurate when more or better data become available. Nevertheless, in view of the importance of some of these substances, it appears worth while to consider the information available at present and to attempt the formulation of as complete a

Jan 1, 1937

On April 1, 1982, the Bureau of Mines and the Department of Energy entered into an Interagency Agreement to develop an enhanced computer cost model for uranium in situ leach mining. The original computer cost model contained data base information related to two regions; the Wyoming basin region and the South Texas trend area. The enhanced cost model contains additional information on San Juan Basin type deposits. This addition is significant because it expands the model's capabilites to include one of the largest uranium producing areas in the United States and developes costs related to uranium production from in situ leach mining. The data base was expanded and modified to include changes necessary for San Juan basin type deposits. These changes included, but were not limited to, state and local taxes, royalty payments, depth of deposits, drilling costs, and electrical costs. Also site visits were taken to verify many of the base case parameters. Consequently, the data base has been incorporated into the computer program and existing software was modified to provide for the additional data. Information was obtained on drilling coats and therefore the current program more accurately reflects these costs to depths of 2500 feet. This depth parameter has been expanded to include Wyoming Basin and South Texas scenarios also. Verbal communications were held with one operator in the Crownpoint, New Mexico area as well as the state regulatory agencies to help validate the expanded model. As a result of these changes, several tables have been included, summarizing changes in the new default parameters and the overall range of input parameters.

Jan 1, 1982

By Erik Sherer

Indonesia is poised to become a major player in the Pacific Rim thermal coal markets. Although the colonial Dutch developed numerous coal mines in the late 1800's for steamship bunkers and domestic fuel, Indonesia's coal industry has only recently begun to actively participate in the growing global marketplace. This export coal is primarily the result of the commercial development of coal mines in eastern Kalimantan by foreign contractors. From virtually no coal exports in the late 1980?s, Indonesia's coal industry has increased its exports to approximately 15 million metric tons (Mmt) in 1992. In 1992, Indonesia was the world?s sixth largest exporter of steam coal, By the year 2000, Indonesia projects that it will supply approximately 25 percent of the seaborne thermal coal requirements of the Pacific Rim countries. Although limited quantities of this coal may enter the European and U.S. markets, high qualities, low production casts, and favorable transportation rates will make Indonesian coals very competitive in the rapidly growing Pacific Rim markets. This study examines the Indonesian coal mining industry and compares it to the U.S. coal mining industry. This report is the sixth in a series of coal exporting country studies requested by the House Appropriations Committee. Previous studies examined the Colombian, Canadian, Australian, South African, Polish, and Venezuelan coal industries.

Jan 1, 1994

By G. T. Krempasky

In an attempt to develop a suitable precast concrete support for underground use, two different models (1955 and 1958) of a five-piece concrete set were designed, fabricated, and tested under adverse loading conditions. Model 1955 was designed to withstand an ultimate, uniformly distributed, vertical load equivalent to what a three-piece, 12- by 12-inch wood set of intermediate-grade Douglas fir would withstand. A design figure of 138,000 pounds for the vertical load was used on both the 1955 and 1958 models. In addition, the 1958 model was designed to withstand a uniform horizontal load of 7,000 pounds per foot and additional concentrated-point loading. The step- by-step design of each model is presented in the appendixes. A series of five destruction tests was conducted underground on the 1955 model, and results of the tests showed that the type and method of blocking were of major significance.

Jan 1, 1963

By A. C. Johnson

This circular is one of a series published by the Bureau of Mines describing mining and beneficiation methods and costs at various mining operations throughout the United States. Inclusion of the Abbott mine in this series is of particular interest, as the complex geology and the character of the deposits make their exploitation a unique operation. The mine operates on a high-cost, comparatively small-scale basis, and only the persistence of an aggressive management has enabled it to maintain its rank among the major mercury producers of California. Rising costs and decreasing metal prices, which continuously threaten the low profit margin, are reflected in increased efficiency of operation. This report summarizes past operations and describes, in detail, the geology and ore deposits; exploration and mining methods; and furnacing and condensing operations. It covers the entire operation from initial exploration to the actual production of mercury. Comparative production costs for 1944 and 1958 are of special interest.

Jan 1, 1962

THIS bulletin presents all analytical and lest methods regularly used by Bureau of Mines laboratories for characterizing coal and coke. To provide better service to coal producers and consumers, the scope of this bulletin has been expanded to include important test methods used to evaluate coal properties for commercial processing. The methods described will prove valuable to all persons interested in analyzing and testing coal and coke.

Jan 1, 1967

By B. C. Peterson

Calumet Division, Calumet & Hecla, Inc., whose operations are in Houghton and Keweenaw Counties, Mich., is a highly integrated and complex organization. This division operates mines, a railroad, a concentrating mill, a reverberatory smelter, and the auxiliary generating plants and shops to service these operations. In addition, it operates a sands reclamation plant, leaching plants, a foundry, and a machine shop that serves varied industries with castings and parts for many applications. Calumet & Hecla, Inc. has produced over 60 percent of all the copper that has been produced in Michigan since discovery of the ore in 1864, and in 1959 the company ranked eight among the country's producers with a production of 17,407 tons. To keep abreast of modern accounting systems developed elsewhere in industry and to combat increasing costs due to higher labor and supply costs, as well as increased costs due to deeper mines and lower grade ore, the company has developed a modern machine cost accounting system. This not only provides the usual bookkeeping and cost accounting facilities but offers accurate cost data for engineering evaluation of the mining operation. This system is credited with being instrumental in permitting continued operation of these high-cost mines in a period of increasing costs with no corresponding increase in the price of metal.

Jan 1, 1962

By Frederick W. Horton

With large deposits of low-grade molybdenum ore and a latent market for molybdenum, which with development might perhaps equal that for tungsten, the United States has for years made no pro- duction of molybdenum ore worthy of mention. In fact, during the decade previous to 1914, there was no output of molybdenum ore in this country except in 1905, 1906, and 1907, when a few small lots of molybdenite and wulfenite were marketed." To ascertain why this possible source of economic wealth should remain undeveloped, the United States Bureau of Mines undertook an investigation in 1914, with a view of assisting the establishment of a molybdenum industry in this country. A preliminary review of the situation showed the following conditions: Briefly there was a lack of any considerable demand for molyb- denum for the one known use that might consume any large tonnage of it, that is, for the manufacture to certain alloy steels to which molybdenum imparts properties roughly similar to those produced by tungsten. It was at once evident that the market for molybdenum in alloy steels must be developed, or that extensive new uses for the metal must be created, before the demand would be sufficient to war- rant any extensive mining of molybdenum ore. Investigation showed that one of the chief factors in retarding the development of any demand for molybdenum by the alloy-steel trade was that manufacturers who might use, or might investigate the possibilities of using, the metal were kept out of the market by the fear of not being able to obtain steady supplies. On the other hand, those who might be interested in the development of some of the extensive low-grade molybdenite or wulfenite deposits in this country were prevented from doing so by the small visible demand and the fear that any large production would glut the market. Owing to these conditions the mining of molybdenum has in the past been confined almost entirely to small-scale operations on high-grade streaks of molybdenite ore, and the methods of recovery have been limited largely to cobbing and hand picking.

Jan 1, 1916

By Ben Aleck

The objective of this program was to adapt Space Shuttle technology on high-performance spherical pressure vessels to cylindrical pressure vessels. Specifically, a cylindrical aluminum liner overwrapped with fiberglass filaments and prestressed by yielding the liner under a sizing pressure was to be replaced by a higher strength-to-weight ratio steel liner overwrapped with a higher strength-to-weight ratio filament. The steel was cryoworked stainless steel and the new fiber was Kevlar 49. In addition, the heavyweight ends of the aluminum liner were to be replaced by thin-walled domes which required multiple helix angle wraps for their support, in place of the single kite-string wrap from pole to pole of the aluminum overwrapped design. The use of cold swaging of tube-ends to form bosses, demonstrated on subscale development efforts, had not been achieved full-scale when the contract was initiated. Difficulties arose with the full-scale demonstration which were not solvable at the time with the designs and equipment available. hence, an unanticipated development was the finally selected method of making the 4-in.-diameter stainless steel liner with a single boss and no welds in an 0.020-in.-thick wall, from an 0.050-in.-thick, 13-in.-diameter disk. The demonstration vessel failed by leakage during the prestressing step because embedded oxides had formed flaws in the boss region. Such flaws have been avoided by proper temperature control during hot spinning. Hence, a new design was developed which weighs half as much as its recently developed predecessor. Funds ran out before adequate testable hardware was produced.

Jan 1, 1983

By K. L. Paciorek

The aim of the present study is to determine on a gram per gram basis the toxic products of the thermal oxidative degradations of selected compositions. Four families of materials were investigated under the subject contract namely polyvinyl chloride and neoprene compositions, rigid urethane foams I and woods. Three methods were employed to conduct the thermal oxidative degradations: a sealed system (quiescent environment) I a stagnation burner arrangement (dynamic environment) I and a flow-through apparatus (dynamic I but less severe than stagnation burner conditions). The majority of tests were conducted using the first two systems; only limited experiments were carried out employing the third decomposition procedure. All decomposition was done at temperatures of 370 -4000C I the higher temperature being used in the stagnation burner. It has to be stressed that the nature of the products and the relative product concentration are temperature dependent. Thermogravimetric and differential thermal analyses were performed to supplement and extend the above delineated studies and to explore the feasibility of using these analyses as a method for material differentiation.

Jan 1, 1973

By H. J. Sloman

Mining laws of the several coal-producing Stat e with respect to safety catches on mine cages and their testing are extremely variable and generally indefinite in scope. The most specific requirements are contained in the Coal Mining Laws of Washington,3/ as follows:

Jan 1, 1944

By Irvin G. Burough

Andros Analyzers Incorporated has designed and built two prototype continuous methane monitors capable of being mounted on a mining machine'. These instruments were designed for in-mine safety use. The monitors incorporated an NDIR optical/electronic analyzer design in which the response to the sample gas (methane in air) was achieved by synchronous detection and measurement of the amplitude oscillations of the trasmitted energy from an infrared source caused by the pressure modulation of the sample gas within the optical cell. Zero and span stability were to be achieved by the amplitude modulating of the infra-red source and using detected signal to correct for optical/electronic system variation. This design effort was to simplify and reduce the cost of the major components while eliminating the need for daily calibration. This report is the final report on this effort.

Jan 1, 1981

By D. K. Deardorff

The purpose of this work was to investigate the hafnium-carbon phase diagram. Alloys used to study this system were prepared from high-purity components by both consumable-and nonconsumable-electrode arc melting. Data for the diagram were obtained on the alloys by metallography, optical pyrometry, thermal analysis, heat treatment, and X-ray diffraction. The data indicate that a carbide compound occurs over considerable range of composition, and that one of each of the following types of reactions occurs in the hafnium-carbon system: Peritectoid, peritectic, and eutectic. The maximum melting temperature of hafnium carbide is 3,840° C at 49 to 50 atomic percent carbon, and the composition range of hafnium carbide at temperatures of 2,150° to 2,380° C is from 37.0 to 48.5 atomic percent carbon. The hafnium a-S transformation temperature is raised on alloying with carbon from 1,750° to 1,890° C, where a peritectoid reaction isotherm occurs. Alloying hafnium with carbon increases the hafnium melting temperature from 2,190° to 2,250° C, at which temperature a peritectic reaction occurs. Hafnium carbide and carbon react at 3,055° C to form a eutectic of 68.3 atomic percent carbon.

Jan 1, 1967