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The wealth of a nation may be measured in many ways, but one of the most important is its natural resources, particularly its minerals. Minerals create the wealth upon which economic prosperity and defense preparedness rest. Managing mineral resources for the benefit of all Americans continues to be an important national goal. In its 78-year history the U.S. Bureau of Mines has established itself as the world's premier mineral information and research agency. Its authoritative, comprehensive data and pioneering research have contributed significantly to a strong U. S. mineral position in the world.

Jan 1, 1988

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 Dennis R. Kasper

This study evaluates selective environmental impacts of two distinct in situ mining techniques. In situ leaching of uranium, porphyry copper and native copper and in situ borehole (slurry) mining of uranium, sandstone, and pebble phosphate ores are the techniques and minerals investigated. The potential impacts onsite in the desert southwest (porphyry copper), Michigan (native copper), Texas and Wyoming (uranium), and Florida and North Carolina (phosphate) are addressed and discussed. The study emphasizes those impacts which are unique to in situ solution leaching and borehole slurry mining. Impacts which are characteristic of all construction projects in the general geographical areas investigated, such as socioeconomic effects on surrounding communities and site-specific impacts, such as rare and endangered species, are beyond the scope of this study. For each of the in situ processes and associated ores investigated, the physical and chemical characteristics of the systems are described, the toxicity of the leaching solutions are presented, and the potential impacts on the environment are developed.

Jan 1, 1979

By Horace T. Reno

This information circular surveys the iron are industry of the world. It presents a comprehensive statistical record through 1970 of the U.S. iron ore industry and world trade patterns. The supply position of the United States and the other principal industrial countries of the world are summarized; detailed information is given on iron are production, consumption, imports, exports, mine capacities, substitutes, properties, and uses. There is a generalized discussion of the technology of mining and smelting iron ore, with a selected bibliography on the current state of these arts. The circular contains a summary economic account of world iron are resources, and discussions of the structure of the domestic and principal foreign mining industries, iron are mine employment and labor productivity, research and development, legislation, government programs, and strategic factors.

Jan 1, 1973

1. Domestic Production and Use: In 1982, 13 companies operated 30 primary aluminum reduction plants, with 3 firms accounting for 55% of production. Washington, Oregon, and Montana accounted for 34% of the production; Texas, Louisiana, Missouri, and Arkansas 18%; Tennessee, Alabama, South Carolina, and North Carolina 14%; other central and eastern States 34%. Based on published producer prices, output of primary metal in 1982 was valued at over $5.5 billion. Aluminum consumption by 25,000 firms was centered in the East Central United States. Packaging accounted for an estimated 39% of domestic consumption in 1982, transportation 20%, building 14%, electrical 8%, consumer durables 8%, and other uses 11%.

Jan 1, 1983

By D. E. Andrews

The objective of this study was to investigate the environmental effects of slaking of surface mine spoils. To accomplish this, both field and laboratory programs were undertaken, supplemented by a thorough literature search. The field program consisted of drilling the highwall as well as test pitting in recent, two-, five, and ten- year-old spoil piles at four active mining sites in the eastern bituminous coal fields. Pertinent observations were made and samples collected for laboratory analyses which consisted of several standard geotechnical, agronomic, and geochemical tests. Durability tests utilized included jar slake, cyclic wet-dry, rate of slake, and slake durability tests. Correlation between field and laboratory portions was made- and results presented. The report is concluded with a discussion of the slaking process and associated environmental impacts, proposal of a preliminary classification system for use in premine planning, and presentation of management techniques to optimize the slaking process.

Jan 1, 1980

By S. A. Allen

The Eufaula bauxite district of Barbour and Henry Counties in southeast Alabama covers an area approximately 14 miles long, 6 miles wide at the eastern extremity near the Chattahoochee River, and 10 miles wide at the western end near the east fork of the Choctawhatchee River (see figs. 1 and 2). The long axis of this polygon bears a little south of east.

Jan 1, 1949

Hydraulic fluid power systems are advantageous whenever power output must be accurately and safely controlled. The load movers, cylinders, jacks, rotary actuators and hydraulic actuators in these systems can be made to smoothly and accurately start, stop, reverse, hold position or move steadily under heavy and variable loads or torques. Because hydraulic systems are simple, compact, reliable, and low cost compared to other power methods and because they can deliver controlled power anywhere on the machine to which a hose can be routed, they are a pan of almost every type of machine found on a coal mining section. Some of the functions they perform are positioning drill booms, driving drill pots on roof bolters, positioning curter booms, raising, lowering, and swinging conveyors, driving conveyors on continuous miners, raising, lowering, and applying sustained loads to longwall roof supports, and advancing the face conveyor and roof supports in longwall mining operations.

Jan 1, 1982

By G. S. Beaumont

This report presents a programme of work to demonstrate the use of a surface-based centralised computer control system for the remote monitoring and control of underground conveyors in a US coal mine. The system selected for demonstration was the 'Dynalink' Micro MINOS system which is manufactured by Hawker Siddeley Dynamics Engineering Limited. The site selected was Barnes S Tucker Lancashire No. 20 Mine located near Carrolltown, Cambria County, Pennsylvania. The system concept, operating and application software was designed and developed by the. British National Coal Board. The report describes the selection of the site, specification of the system requirements, commissioning, operation and evaluation of the system under typical US mine operating conditions. Experience with the system, based primarily on the system reliability and performance of conveyor control, was favourable. Mine management personnel felt that the system had successfully achieved its objectives and were keen to expand monitoring and control to other activities.

Jan 1, 1986

By Gordon T. Austin

The combined production value of natural abrasives, which consist of tripoli, special silica stone, garnet, and emery, decreased in 1986. Shipments of processed tripoli increased slightly in quantity and 20% in value. Production of garnet, a common iron- aluminum-silicate mineral, decreased 12% in quantity and value. There was a 4% increase in the quantity and an 11% increase in the value of refined garnet shipped when compared with 1985 shipments, a new record high. Production of crude special silica stone decreased 7% in quantity and slightly in value, and shipments of finished special silica stone products decreased slightly in quantity and increased 229% in value. Production of emery, an impure aluminum oxide, increased 77% in quantity and increased 269% in value of product mined and shipped. [ ]

Jan 1, 1988

By Wallace W. Key

Mineral raw materials produced in California, other States, and foreign countries were purchased for consumption in quantities valued at over $60 million at 800 of the 1,200 chemical plants operating in California in 1960, according to questionnaires completed by company officials. These and other data received from mineral consumers, producers, dealers, and Government agencies formed the basis for this the first of a series of reports designed to present the intricate features and relationships controlling mineral raw material supply and demand in California industries. The results of this study indicated certain changes in use patterns of minerals in chemica 1 manufacturing; a shift in requirements from metals to nonmeta ls, from inorganics to organics, from natura 1 to synthet ic materia ls , and from distant to local sources of supply.

Jan 1, 1965

By S. B. Christy

This report on the electrodeposition of gold and silver from cyanide solutions represents work that has occupied my time at intervals during the past 20 years. The investigation has been carried on simultaneously with my duties as professor of mining and metallurgy of the University of California. During shis long investigation I have been assisted in the details of the work by, a number of my former students, acting in turn as assistants. Particular mention in this connection is due W. H. Hilton, who graduated in 1900; C. T. Dozier, 1902; N. C. Stines, 1905; H. N. Herrick, 1907, and L. C. Uren, 1911. It is impossible to publish full details of the many thousands of experiments performed. Effort has been made to present only the essential data. Wherever possible, the results of the experiments have been expressed in diagrammatic form by curves showing the relation between the simultaneous variables of the experiments. It is necessary to show, as nearly as may be, the state of the art. This is difficult because of the meager literature on electrodeposition in the cyanide process; hence resort must be had to the specifications and claims of patents, most of which seem never to have been applied on a working scale. Such information consequently can not be taken at its face value. Expressing the essential ideas evolved in such specifications is no easy task. Clearly, in quoting from patent records it is not ·feasible to enumerate all of the specifications or the claims allowed the inventors. A statement of the chief contributions to the art in the patent cited must suffice. Legal details, of course, must be obtained from the original patent. In the study of patent literature, when one compares the ardent hopes of the inventors with the results realized from their efforts, it becomes clear that in the development of an art no one man contributes everything. Each subsequent inventor stands on the shoulders of the one who has gone before. It is only through the summation of the contributions of many inventors that the art as a whole prospers. On October 19, 1887, a British patent was granted to McArthur and Forrest for the use of dilute cyanide solutions for treating gold and silver ores. The rapid extension of this process, in various forms, all over the world, has almost revolutionized the treatment of ores containing precious metals. It is a remarkable fact, however, that long before this patent was granted there was issued, on February 5, 1867, to J. H. Rae, U. S. patent 61866, for an electrocyanide process. Thus a method of electrodeposition from cyanide solutions used for treating ores was invented 20 years before the McArthur and Forrest patent .was granted, although the process did not come into general use. On May 24, 1889, U. S. patent 403202 was granted to McArthur and Forrest for the use of zinc shavings for removing gold and silver from cyanide solutions. The use of finely divided zinc is still the standard method for recovering 'gold and silver from cyanide solutions. Since this patent was granted, many attempts have been made to replace the precipitation upon the zinc by methods of electrodeposition. It is the purpose of this report to give an outline of some of these methods, as well as to show the relative advantages and disadvantages of the zinc and the electrical methods of recovering gold and silver from cyanide solutions.

Jan 1, 1919

By J. W. Thompson

The term "minerals" when employed in a conveyance in the State of West Virginia is understood to include every inorganic substance which can be extracted from the earth for profit, whether it be solid, as rock, fire clay, the various metals and coal, or liquid, such as salt, and other mineral waters and petroleum oil and gas. Horse Creek Land & Mining Co. v. Midkiff (West Virginia), 95 Southeastern 26, p. 27. TERM INCLUDES OIL AND OAS. The term "minerals" used to describe the interest in land granted or reserved bona fide includes petroleum oil and natural gas. Horse Creek Land & Mining Co. v. Midkiff (West Virginia), 95 Southeastern 26, p. 27. INJUNCTION TO PREVENT RElllOVAL. The removal of ore from the premises of another without his consent will be enjoined. Barnes v. Esch (Oregon), 169 Pacific, 512, p. 518. TITLE TO MEXICAN BULLION-JURISDICTION OF FEDERAL COURTS TO DETERMINE. Where bullion within the jurisdiction of the Mexican Government was seized, condemned, and sold for war supplies by the Constitutionalist forces in the revolution acting under authority from Gen. Carranza, claiming to be the provisional President of the Republic of Mexico, a United States district court of Texas, into which State the bullion has been imported from Mexico, has jurisdiction to try and adjudge as to the validity of the title acquired by and through the seizure, appropriation, and sale by the Carranza forces as against an American citizen claiming ownership of such bullion prior to its seizure.

Jan 1, 1919

By W. C. Phalen

During the search for deposits of soluble potash salts in the United States, carried on by the United States Geological Survey, much infor- mation was collected on the salt resources and industry of the United States. The more important features of the information thus gath- ered, compiled, and digested may be classified under five headings, as follows: 1. Geology of the salt deposits of the United States. 2. Theories relating to the origin and formation of salt deposits. 3. Chemical composition of saline materials in the United States, principally rock salt and natural and artificial brines. 4. Statistics of salt production in the United States. 5. Technology of salt production. The first four items are not discussed in this report, but their treatment will comprise a separate report published by the Geologi- cal Survey, which will supplement this report, relating to salt- making processes, and will describe comprehensively the salt resources of the United States. Persons desiring a copy of that report should apply to the Director of the United States Geological Survey, Wash- ington, D. C. In addition to the discussion of processes, this report gives a brief description of the more important sources of salt in the United States. This description has been abstracted from the much length- ier description contained in the report to be published by the Geo- logical Survey.

Jan 1, 1917

By FREDERICK H. WILLCOX

In the past the blast-furnace industry was under the stigma of being one of the most prolific sources of killed or seriously inj ured and permanently disabled workmen of any of the industries of the country. In the popular mind, labor at blast furnaces was little less hazardous than mining, powder making, or railroad work. This impression wasbased not so much on definite knowledge of the number actnally injured and the causes of injury as on the spectacular nature of the accidents that from time to time were described in the press. As with a mine disaster or a railroad wreck so with many furnace accidents, the number fatally injured in such accidents constitutes only a minor proportion of the workmen who suffer more or less serious injuries. However, the reader of the daily paper receives a distinct impression-of frightful and sudden disaster which is apt to be associated henceforth in his mind with work at blast furnaces. It is true that in the past this impression has not been without warrant, for from the time of the advent of Mesabi ores, taller furnaces, and faster smelting, which begain in the early nineties, the newspapers have chronicled a large number of blastfurnace disasters. Blast-furnace men have never assumed to tolerate failures in construction or defective control of furnaces. But the admitted hazards of the work are many, and the slow development of improvements in the construction and control of the furnace and its auxiliaries have occasionally given rise to a tendency to accept as a part of the day's work not only the unforeseen and difficultly controlled accidents but accidents whose recurrence might be stopped by the adoption of suitable preventive measures. In the smelting of iron, even more than in many other industries, safety is inseparably related to efficiency in production, and. the accidents strictly incident to work about the furnace are proportional in some degree to the success with which obstacles to smooth working are overcome. This relation does not hold, however, in regard .to such accidents as are incident to hand labor, falls, falling and flying objects, machinery, and the use of hand tools.

Jan 1, 1917

By G. W. Jones

"INTRODUCTION In a previous reports results were given of a manhole investigation carried out over a period from June,- 1929, to July, 1930, in cooperation with the Edison Electric Illuminating Co. of Boston, Mass., to determine the general hazards of combustible gases and vapors in manholes and other underground openings owned by this company. Considerable time was spent in this initial investigation in developing a suitable detector for determining the range of explosibility of the gases found in manholes. About 17,000 tests have been made with the detector since the investigation was started and its utility has been verified and its accuracy checked, by having complete analyses made of such samples that showed combustibles present equal to or above 25 per cent of the lower explosive limit, and those found deficient in oxygen.The initial investigation made in 1929 and 1930 demonstrated that the detection, control, and elimination of combustible hazards in manholes can best be obtained by a close cooperation of the interested parties through a systematic and continuous inspection of manholes, under proper supervision.COOPERATIVE INVESTIGATI0N DURING 1931The investigation carried out during the year 1931 has been along lines similar to that conducted during 1929 and 1930. In the present investigation the Edison Electric Illuminating Cc. of Boston and the Boston Consolidated Gas Co., have cooperated with the Bureau of lanes. The Boston Consolidated Gas Co. serves a major part of the territory under discussion with gas, but the tests covered the Edison territory irrespective of the gam company furnishing manufactured gas. A test crew consisting of two men, one an employee of the Consolidated Gas Co. and one an employee of the Edison Electric Illuminating Co., has been continuously employed during the year in the testing of games in manholes served by the Edison system. The test crew was under the direct supervision of John Campbell, superintendent of the special service department of the Edison Electric Illuminating Co., and F. M. Goodwin vice president of the Consolidated Gas Co.As in the previous investigation, all manhole tests were given test numbers. The test data sheets on which the information regarding the tests were recorded were prepared in triplicate, one copy going to the Edison Company, one going to the Gas company, and the third to the Bureau of Mines at Pittsburgh. These test data sheets were then filed (1) according to the town, (2) the street location, and (3) the manhole number; in this way a complete record pf each manhole tested was immediately available. A specimen test sheet is given below."

Sep 1, 1932

By Charles E. Whieldon

Because of the importance of recovering more oil from known petroleum reserves, increased emphasis has been placed on the application of secondary-recovery methods. It is hoped that these reports will stimulate interest in improved waterflooding techniques, thereby discouraging premature abandonment of oil leases. Previously published reports3 4 5/ have described the results of water-flooding in Roane, Pleasants, and Wetzel Counties, W. Va. (fig. 1). This report describes the South Penn Oil Co. Yawkey waterflood property, Berea sand, Griffithsville oilfield, Duval District, Lincoln County, W. Va. (fig. 2).

Jan 1, 1961

By N. A. Eilertsen

This paper presents the results of intermittent study begun in 1956 by the Federal Bureau of Mines of yieldable steel arches and yieldable steel ring sets installed for support of development openings in metal mines. Observations were made of this type of support in several iron mines in the northeast and north-central states. The sets, both arches and rings fabricated in the United States, are made from a hot-rolled, cold bent, structural U-shaped steel section in two weights, 15 pounds and 21 pounds per foot. The lighter section is generally used, It is 4.41 square inches in cross section area, and the calculation is that a 6-foot length of this structural shape installed as a supporting column, will safely carry the same load as a Douglas fir post of the same length but of 22 times the cross-sectional area of the steel.

Jan 1, 1962

By Todd M. Ruff

This report summarizes ongoing research at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Spokane Research Laboratory, in which collision warning systems for surface mining dump trucks are being evaluated. Common accidents involve these large trucks running over smaller vehicles or pedestrian workers. Collision warning systems currently use one of several methods, including radar, radio-frequency-signal detection, or ultrasonic signals, to detect and warn of the presence of an object or person in the blind spots of the mining equipment. Most available systems have not been tested on large off-highway dump trucks. This report evaluates several systems on two sizes of trucks, a 50-ton-capacity truck commonly used in quarries and construction and a 240-ton-capacity truck commonly used in open-pit mines. Tests were conducted to determine false alarm rates, alarm effectiveness, and reliable detection zones for a person and a pickup truck. The results indicate that radar and radio-frequency identification systems show promise for this application and that several of the improved systems are ready for extensive field tests. However, challenges still exist in applying these technologies to large trucks.

Jan 11, 2000

"An active list of permissible explosives was published in July, 1930 as part of the United States Bureau of Mines Report of Investigations 3025, under the title of “Active List of Permissible Explosives and Blasting Devices Approved Proir to June 30, 1930”. Changes on that list were authorized in August, September, October and November, 1930, and January, March, April and June, 1931, as published in Reports of Investigations 3029, 3037, 3046, 3053, 3069, 3089, 3099, and 3123, respectively, By these changes the following explosives were added to the active permissible list:Big Red No. 9 Hercogel CBlack Diamond No. 5-A Liberty No 1Black Diamond No. 9 Liberty No. 2Burton 5, L. F. Liberty No. 3Burton 7, L. F. Liberty-Gel L.P.Duobel No. 4, L. F. Wesco Coal Powder No. 1Genigel No. 1and the permissible explosive EP-28 was transferred from the active to the in active list of permissible explosives.During June the following permissible explosives were added' to the active permissible list:Austin Red Diamond No. 9-B, L. F. BurtonAustin Red Diamond No. 9-C, L. F. Gelobel No. 4, L.F.Austin Red Diamond No. 10-A, L. F. Liberty No. 6Austin Red. Diamond No.12-A, L. F. Monobel 8 L.F.,- WR Austin Red-D-Gel"

Jul 1, 1931