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By Robert F. Kehrman

As with many new technologies, the rapid growth in solution mining for uranium has created uncertainties regarding the environmental impact of mining operations. In solution mining, the largest area of concern is the impact of the process on the quality of ground water supplies. As a result, a rapid and reliable technique of detecting lixiviant excursions is desirable. Such a method would replace the periodic sampling technique and should provide a more or less continuous monitoring method. To this end, resistivity techniques were evaluated as an alternate means of tracking lixiviant movement. A program was devised which had five specific tasks. These were: (1) evaluation of the techniques, (2) development of the most promising technique or techniques, (3) field testing of the techniques, (4) testing of the BuMines probe, and (5) reporting. The result of the analytical and field work is that various resistivity/ resistance techniques do provide a means of detecting lixiviant movement in Northern Wyoming. Surface and downhole galvanic surveys and controlled source audio magnetotellurics (AMT) were evaluated. All three techniques showed some degree of success.

Jan 1, 1979

By William J. Campbell

The possibility of chemical analysis by identification of characteristic X-ray spectral lines was first suggested by H. C. J. Moseley in 1913.3/ For a given spectral series it was found that the frequency of the characteristic radiation was proportional to the square of the atomic number of the excited atom. Siegbahn and his coworkers improved the instrumentation and accurately determined the wavelengths of the characteristic spectra for most of the elements .4/ In fluorescent X-ray spectroscopy, the characteristic X-rays of atoms are emitted or fluoresced upon absorption of primary or incident X-rays of shorter wave-lengths (higher energies). The K spectral lines are used for elements of atomic numbers 13 to about 63, and the L series for those above atomic number 50. Whether the K or L lines are used for elements 50-63 depends upon the type of instrumentation available. The laboratory at the Eastern Experiment Station of the Bureau of Mines, College Park, Md., uses the K lines up to atomic number 57 and the L lines for thong elements of higher atomic number.

Jan 1, 1955

By R. L. Cosgriff

A commercial, battery-powered mine vehicle has been equipped for remote operation in coal mines. This vehicle is controlled by an operator from the remote station. Command signals originating at the remote station as well as video and data signals originating on board the vehicle are relayed between the remote station and vehicle using a single coaxial line. This coaxial line is normally 2,000 feet in length and is reeled in and out from a drum mounted aboard the vehicle The vehicle has a maximum speed of 6 ft/sec and a minimum speed of 4 ft/sec using 36-volt excitation of the traction motor. If this traction motor is excited by two of the three batteries, 24-volt excitation, the vehicle will travel at approximately 2 ft/sec. The speed can be reduced by the operator to 1 ft/sec. This vehicular system has been tested in coal mines. Presently, the major limitation of this system is associated with fatigue failure of the splices in the coaxial line and lack of mobility caused by its 3-wheel design.

Jan 1, 1974

By Sidney Katell

Continuing the series of cost bibliographies which was initiated with the publication of Information Circular 7516 in October 1949, the present report covers the period from January 1959 through December 1959. The abstracted articles, concerned with all facets of cost engineering in the field of petroleum and chemical plants and related facilities, were obtained from the following sources: 1. Bureau of Mines Information Circulars. 2. Bureau of Mines Report of Investigations. 3. Chemical Engineering. 4. Chemical Engineering Progress. 5. Chemical Week. 6. Coal Age. 7. Coal Utilization. 8. Cost Engineering. 9. Industrial and Engineering Chemistry. 10. Nucleonics. 11. Oil and Gas Journal. 12. Petroleum Engineering. 13. Petroleum Refiner. 14. World Oil. On Oct. 16, 1959 a cooperative agreement between the Bureau of Mines and the American Association of Cost Engineers became effective. This agreement provides for the publication of the annual bibliography under the sponsorship of both groups with the work load involved in the preparation divided equally between the two. As a result, the present report partially reflects the efforts of the members of the Association.

Jan 1, 1960

By H. D. Kline

Manganese ores have been mined in the Batesville district since 1849. Although not continuous over the intervening years, production had totaled approximately 432,000 tons of manganese ore and ferruginous manganese ore to the end of 1953. The ores occur in deposits, essentially low in manganese content, distributed over an east-west belt 24 miles long and 4 to 8 miles wide, the core of which is about 6 miles north of Batesville, Independence County. Although the reserves of high-grade ores in the district are comparatively small, the large deposits of subgrade ores and low-grade manganiferous material comprise potential sources of supply of manganese that may have increasing future importance. The manganese occurs as primary oxide and carbonate minerals in relatively flat-lying limestone and shale formations in which they were originally deposited and as oxides in residual clays resulting from decomposition of the shale and lime-stone. Most of the deposits underlie from a few to over a hundred feet of sedimentary chert, but many occur in the residual clays on exposed slopes of chert-covered hills.

Jan 1, 1956

By R. August Heindl

[A proposes process for recovering manganese from open-hearth steel-plant slogs is indicated by the flow diagram shown in figure 1. Investigation of the process, the laboratory development of which was reported previously,4/ was expanded to a larger scale. Mixtures of flush slags and limestone were proportioned to have molar [SiO2] ratios of 1.5 to 2.2 and were fired at temperatures up to 2,400° F. In an oxidizing atmosphere. This produced clinker consisting principally me various combinations of the oxides of manganese, iron, aluminum, and magnesium aloe with a dicalcium silicate phase containing the phosphorus. Some tests were made with a continuous sintering machine of the traveling-grate type, but a rotary kiln was the most satisfactory apparatus for this operation. Material was fed at 150 to 200 pounds per hour after first being agglomerated either on the sintering or else binder extruding and drying finely ground mixture of the sing, limestone, binder, and water. Tests with slag; from tree different source indicated overkill manganese recoveries of 65 to 80 percent by ammoniacal-ammonium-carbonate leaching.]

Jan 1, 1955

By Daniel E. Sullivan

The recession of 1974 continued into 1975. Real gross national product (GNP), measured in 1972 dollars, declined significantly in the first quarter of 1975 but rose slightly in the second and increased sharply in the third quarter. Unemployment peaked during the second quarter and then declined slowly for the balance of the year. The inflation rate declined owing to reduced demand and smaller-than-1974 increases in energy and food prices early in the year. Recovery was clearly evident by yearend, though un-employment and inflation remained at high levels. Total output as measured by the GNP in current dollars rose 6.5% in 1975. Real GNP declined 2.0%, and inflation, as measured by the implicit price deflator, increased 8.7%. Real gross private domestic investment for residential structures declined 18.1% in 1975, which was a smaller rate of decrease than the 27% decline in 1974. Real State and local Government purchases increased 2.4%, and real personal consumption expenditures for services rose 1. 7 %. The Federal Reserve Board (FRB) index of industrial production declined 9.7%.

Jan 1, 1977

By B. J. Moore

This Bureau of Mines publication contains analyses and related source data for 276 natural gas samples from 23 States. All samples except four were collected during calendar year 1984. Those four samples were collected earlier, but releases granting permission to publish were not received until 1984. All samples were obtained and analyzed as part of Bureau of Mines investigations of the occurrences of helium in natural gases of countries with free market economies. This survey has been conducted since 1917. The analyses published herein were made by the mass spectrometer and chromatograph. The results of these investigations are published annually to make the information available to the petroleum industry and the general public. Twenty-eight publications have presented the results of 13,957 gas analyses made prior to 1984. The first three bulletins (1-3)2 contain analyses and related source data on 5,218 gas samples collected from 1917 through 1960; these bulletins have been supplemented annually by information circulars (4-17, 19-24, 26-28) containing 8,453 analyses of samples collected since 1960.

Jan 1, 1985

By P. H. Mutschler

The Bureau of Mines studied the Chattanooga Shale to determine the quantity and quality of the uranium resources present and to assess specific environmental effects of mining the shale. Geologic data and chemical analyses, mainly concerning a 12-county area of Tennessee, were compiled from previous published and unpublished reports. Uranium resources in the Gassaway Member of the Chattanooga Shale in this 12-county area were estimated to be between 4.2 and 5.1 million tons, contained in 76 to 91 billion tons of shale. These figures represent inground tonnages and do not allow for mining or processing losses. Depending upon efficiency of mining and processing systems, enough uranium could be available to satisfy a large part of the cumulative domestic and world demand through the year 2000. A model was developed which assesses the total tons or acres of shale to be mined if the Gassaway Member were to satisfy 1 percent of the United States demand for uranium in 1991. This partially demonstrates the environmental impact of mining the shale and is easily factorable to any specified demand.

Jan 1, 1976

By Oliver C. Fursman

The Bureau of Mines undertook this investigation to study methods of utilizing red mud residues from production of alumina from bauxite. Pilot-plant tests were conducted using Jamaican and Surinam red muds. Both the carbon-lime-soda sinter process and electric-arc smelting with coke and limestone were employed to recover iron and alumina. Alumina recoveries of 85 to 90 percent were obtained by the sinter process; although iron recovery was about 80 percent, the magnetic product was finely divided and difficult to separate from the gangue. Smelting red muds in the electric-arc furnace produced a pig iron with 98-percent recovery of iron; up to 84 percent of the A1203 was recovered by leaching the calcium aluminate slag with Na2C03 solution. A titania product assaying 96 percent TiO2 was recovered from the nonmagnetic portion of Surinam red mud sinter by extraction with H2SO4. Leached calcium aluminate slags and brown mud (from the combination Bayer process) are possible raw materials in the manufacture of portland cement.

Jan 1, 1970

By S. L. May

Investigations by the Federal Bureau of Mines indicate that hafnium and zirconium compounds of acceptable purity can be extracted from Nigerian zircon concentrates. Chlorination and caustic soda fusion techniques were used to extract 85 to 95 percent of the valuable metals from the concentrate. The extracted hafnium and zirconium compounds were purified by recrystallization of the oxychlorides or by formation of complex salts during chlorination. The zirconium-hafnium product of the recrystallization method contained 15 parts per million of uranium, and the product of the salt-complex method contained less than 10 parts per million of uranium. The hafnium was separated from zirconium by solvent extraction methods. A zirconium product containing 0.3 percent hafnium and a hafnium product containing 4 percent zirconium were obtained. At the request of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), work was started to develop techniques for processing Nigerian zircon concentrates in commercial installations presently engaged in producing zirconium and hafnium metals from ores. The Nigerian zircon has a high hafnium content, but the presence of uranium and thorium is a problem not normally encountered in processing zircon concentrates.

Jan 1, 1961

By H. P. Hermance

The Ore Hill zinc-lead mine in Grafton County, N. H., was investigated by the Bureau of Mines from March to July 1943 and from August to October 1944. Fourteen holes with an aggregate bore of 4,899 feet were diamond-drilled, the old workings were unwatered and sampled to an inclined depth of 250 feet, and the tailings dumps were surveyed and sampled. The deposit at the Ore Hill mine comprises a bedding-plane vein of massive sphalerite and galena with subordinate chalcopyrite and pyrite in a series of interbedded metasedimentary and metavolcanic schists about one-quarter mile east of their contact with the intrusive Baker Pond gneiss. The property was first opened about 1850 and was active at times to 1914. Production records are not available, but the output is believed to have been considerable. In 1944, leasers recovered a marketable mica product from mica schist from the dumps and certain outcrops. This report describes the work performed in the Bureau's investigation and presents the data obtained.

Jan 1, 1948

By J. T. McCartney

In an effort to correlate the size of pyrite particles in coal and coal-particle association with the removal of pyrite before burning, the Bureau of Mines conducted a study of 61 coals presently being used for electric power production. The results were obtained by visual microscopic studies of polished briquets of minus l4-mesh samples. Mean pyrite particle sizes ranged from 20 to 400 microns and proportions of pyrite contained in coal particles to an extent greater than 50 percent by volume (estimated) ranged from 20 to 95 percent. These parameters were correlated with reductions in pyrite accomplished by float-sink tests at 1.60 sp gr on 14-mesh, 3/8-inch, and 1-1/2-inch samples. The correlation coefficients between pyrite removal and mean pyrite particle size were 0.89, 0.84, and 0.79, respectively, for these samples. Correlation coefficients between pyrite removal and coal-pyrite association parameter were 0.92, 0090, and 0.85, respectively. It is apparent that extent of pyrite removal can be fairly well predicted from microscopic analysis.

Jan 1, 1969

By Glenn A. Hazen

This report presents a stress investigation of four coal pillars located under two depths of cover. Each coal pillar was instrumented with ten load cells designed to measure coal pressure during initial and secondary mining. The problem considered was one of uniform triaxial stress as a large coal pillar was loaded under a thick limestone bed. Special attention was given to pillar design procedure. Unconfined uniaxial compression tests were conducted for coal specimens 7/8 in., 2-1/8 in., 3 in., and 4 in. square with length to square side ratios of 1/2, 1, 1-1/2, and 2. Stress-strain curves were recorded. Six specimens were tested at each size. Results show that a coal pillar is composed of an inner zone which is highly loaded plus a region around its perimeter which has lost its elastic strength. The bearing capacity of a coal pillar consists of elastic and crushed coal response: The failure strengths have been determined and will be useful in coal recovery, mine design, and mine safety.

Jan 1, 1975

By George H. Holmes

This paper , which describes mining methods and milling and manufacturing operations at the gypsum property of the Blue Diamond Corp. , is one of a series on mining methods and practices being prepared by the Mining Division of the Bureau of Mines . The property comprises about 4,000 acres and is in secs . 30 , 31 , 32 , and 33 , T. 21 S. , R. 59 E. , and secs . 5 , 6, 7 , 8 , and 9 , T. 22 S. , R. 59 E. , M. D. B. and M. , Clark County , Nev . , approximately 23 miles by paved highway southwest of Las Vegas , Nev . ( fig . 1 ) . This circular summarizes the history of company operations , describes physical features , labor and living conditions , and the geology . The method of exploration is outlined , and the section on mining methods contains descriptions of open - pit and underground systems , including loading and transportation methods . The crushing plant and tramway are described , as well as plaster-mill and board -plant practices . The boiler plant and organization are described , and wage scales are contained in the concluding section of the circular .

Mar 1, 1950

By R. V. Lundquist

The work described in this report, part of the Bureau of Mines long-range program to develop methods of utilizing submarginal domestic sources of aluminum, was undertaken to investigate the effects of iron in the lime soda sinter process, The approximate Fe2O3 content in a sinter for maximum alumina and soda recovery was 8 to 9 percent. Fe2O3 appears to inhibit gelation, and 15.5 percent Fe2O3 produces effects similar to those produced by 1 percent sucrose. In the lime soda sinter process, aluminum silicates are sintered with limestone and soda ash to yield dicalcium silicate and sodium aluminate. The sodium aluminate is extracted by leaching in caustic solution. The solution is purified by heating in an autoclave with lime to remove silica, and alumina trihydrate is precipitated with carbon dioxide. The reactions involved in sintering and leaching are complex. A number of studies by the Bureau of Mines4-9 and others1 indicate that the iron content of sinters influenced the recovery of alumina and soda and the gelation characteristics.

Jan 1, 1962

By Larry G. Stolarczyk

This report deals with information regarding a new Medium Frequency (MF) Wireless Communication System for underground mines. This new telecommunication system works on low loss electromagnetic wave propagation modes which allow it to provide quality radio communications almost anywhere in a mine. Tests show the MF system can provide improved safety and managerial control, increased productivity, better organizational team-work and reduced maintenance cost; furthermore, MF's unique design allows for easy installation at a minimum cost. This paper covers the following: 1) MF design plan, 2) Overview of mine radio communications systems, 3) Preparations needed for designing an MF system, 4) MF equipment, 5) MF installation, 6) MF design considerations, 7) MF design specifica¬tions, and 8) Recommendations dealing with MF system. Experiments in four mines are illustrated to demonstrate the success and via¬bility of the MF system. The mines range from small (500 tons/day) to large (67,000 tons/day) capacity and represent several different mining methods. The MF Wireless Communication System represents an advancement in mining communication and the groundwork for other advanced mine systems.

Jan 9, 1984

By R. K. Koch

In seeking substitutes for such critical metals as chromium, cobalt, and nickel, the Bureau of Mines investigated techniques for shape-casting titanium in rammed sand molds. Castings were made in olivine, garnet, chromite, and, for comparison, zircon. It was found that commercial-grade castings up to 31 lb (maximum capacity of furnace) could be made in zircon or olivine molds if a zirconia mold wash was used. Castings up to 4 lb could be made in chromite molds, but heavier castings suffered from some mold-metal reaction. Garnet molds were found to be unsatisfactory for castings of all sizes because of gas blows and rough surfaces. In other tests shell castings of acceptable quality were produced in water-glass-bonded zircon and olivine molds up to weights of 8 lb, but chromite molds were unsatisfactory because rough casting surfaces were caused by mold-metal reaction. Unlike the currently used commercial processes, neither the rammed-sand nor the shell-molding processes developed by the Bureau of Mines generate noxious fumes at any step.

Jan 1, 1980

By Stuart Bjorklund

This paper is one of many reporting various aspects of the Bureau of Mines program initiated in August 1939 by passage of the Strategic Minerals Act J the scope of which was greatly expanded by subsequent legislation. In its program of investigation of mineral deposits, the Bureau of Mines has as its primary objective the more effective utilization of our mineral resources to the end that they make the greatest possible contribution to national security and economy. The occurrence of chromite in the Knik Valley near Palmer, Alaska, was brought to the attention of the Bureau of Mines in September 1941 by George Johnson, of Anchorage. At that time a preliminary investigation was made by Robert S. Sanford, an engineer of the Bureau of Mines. The area was investigated on June 4 and 5, 1943, by Henry R. Joesting and Leo H. Saarela, engineers of the Territorial Department of Mines. In August 1942, a second chromite occurrence, the Highway deposit, in the Knik Valley, was reported to the Territorial Department of Mines by John E. Ryan of Anchorage.

Jan 1, 1948

By R. R. Sayers

The effect of comparatively low concentrations of carbon monoxide for short periods and under normal air conditions.of temperature and humidity , with the subject at rest , was studied by Dr. Yandell Henderson and his co -workers . In making recommendations to the New York and New Jersey tunnel commissions * he advised that , if the New York New Jersey vehicular tunnel be so ventilated that persons passing through the tunnel would be exposed to not more than 4 parts of carbon monoxide in 10,000 parts of air for not longer than 45 minutes , they would experience no ill effects . supplementary experiments , carried out by us in connection with our studies at the Bureau of Mines experiment station at Pittsburgh, substantiated this advice . ** In continuing our studies on low concentrations of carbon monoxide , we made a few experiments in a gas chamber where the conditions could be accurately controlled . The factors investigatel were : ( 1 ) The effect of long exposure in low concentrations of carbon monoxide ; ( 2 ) The effect of strenuous exercise ; ( 3 ) The effect of high temperature and humidity in low concentrations of ccarbon Lonoxide .

Mar 1, 1922