Search Documents

By W. W. Adams

Coal mining in the United States established a good safety record in 1939. The death and injury rates per man-hour of exposure to risk were favorable compared with most previous years, and the number of persons killed or injured in proportion to the quantity of coal mined was also lower than in any other year for which figures are available. Moreover, productivity per man-hour was higher than ever before. The number of man-hours of work performed increased 9 percent over 1938, but there was a slight decrease in the number of men employed. Reports from operating companies showed 539,375 men employed during the year, and the period of operation averaged 179 workdays per man. Man-hours of work numbered more than 678 million. Accidents to the workers resulted in 1,078 fatalities and 54,015 nonfatal disabling injuries, causing disability of the employee for more than the remainder of the clay on which the accident occurred. For each million man-hours of exposure of the employees to mining hazards the fatality rate was 1.59 compared with 1.78 for 1938, and the injury rate was 79.65 compared with 82.61 for 1938. Production of coal averaged 0.661 ton per man-hour compared with 0.637 ton in 1938. The weighted average length of the workday was 7.03 hours or virtually the same as the previous year's average of 7.04 hours. Measured in man-hours, the average period of employment per man was 1,257 hours in 1939 and 1,147 hours in 1938.

Jan 1, 1942

By D. A. Barr

High-grade gold-silver mineralization associated with electrum and argentite was discovered in a quartz vein at the Chappelle property, 273 km north of Smithers, B.C., in 1969 following a regional geochemical reconnaissance program in the Cassiar-Omineca Mountains. Subsequent exploration resulted in the discovery of numerous quartz veins with associated precious-metal values in a belt 17 by 3 km in area centrally located within Toodoggone Group volcanic and sedimentary rocks of Lower to Middle Jurassic age and a window of Takla Group volcanic rocks of Upper Triassic age. More detailed investigations, consisting principally of 5677 m of surface drilling in 57 holes and crosscutting, drifting and raising on Chapelle Vein A, has outlined a high-grade gold-silver-bearing shoot with a strike length of 200 m, an average width of about 3 m and extending to an average depth of about 40 m below surface.

Jan 1, 1978

By Louis, Jordan

THIS paper presents in an abbreviated form the chief points of interest in an investigation of the tarnish-resistant qualities of silver alloys, an investigation which has been carried out as a joint research by the Bureau of Mines and the Bureau of Standards and will later be reported in detail in an official publication from these bureaus. In 1923 a Commission of Gold and Silver Inquiry was created by a Resolution of the U. S. Senate to study the causes of the depressed condition of the gold and silver industry. In cooperation with this commission the Bureau of Mines made a preliminary survey to determine in what ways, if any, it might be possible to increase the uses of silver. One of the possibilities indicated by this survey was the development of silver alloys which should be non-tarnishing, or at least less-tarnishing, than the usual sterling silver (copper-silver). The preparation of a rather wide variety of silver alloys and the determination of their behavior under accelerated tarnish tests in the laboratory was therefore undertaken by the Bureau of Mines and Bureau of Standards as a joint investigation.

Jan 1, 1927

By A. D. McMahon

This survey is one of a series of Bureau of Mines publications designed to serve the needs of Government and industry for comprehensive information on mineral commodities and activities. Copper, a versatile metal, has been vital to all civilizations from prehistoric times to the present. Its essential value in antiquity and until the nineteenth century arose from its malleability and ease of working, its corrosion resistance and durability', its attractive colors in alloyed and unalloyed forms, and, of course, its availability. The principal uses were for tools, utensils, vessels, weapons, pipe, statuary and other objects of art, and for building and architectural pur£~ses where formability, permanence, and beaut)" were necessary qualities. Utilization of copper based on these physical and mechanical properties has grown tremendously for commercial, structural, mechanical, architectural, and art items; and its capacity for forming numerous alloys has led to a myriad of applications from miniature copper and brass eyelets to huge bronze battleship propellers. The early nineteenth century marks the epoch of the greatest use of copper, transmitting electrical energy. This particular property of copper is fundamental to the spectacular growth of the electrical industry and all associated industries relying on electricity for power, light, and heat. More than half of all copper produced is used for transmission of electricity. The copper industry has been able to expand along with the mounting demand because of the ever increasing discovery of resources in the world and advances in mining, metallurgical, and fabricating technologies. World production and consumption rose progressively from about 18,000 tons in 1800 to more than 4.5 million tons in 1960. The estimated world reserve of primary- copper has more than doubled since 1935, being 212 million tons in 1960. Ninety percent of this reserve is credited to eight countries-the United States, Canada, Chile, Peru, the Soviet Union, Poland, Northern Rhodesia, and the Republic of the Congo. The United States share is 32.5 million tons of copper in ore, averaging approximately 0.9 percent. Another reserve being accumulated in the industrial countries of the world is copper products now in use that will eventually be discarded as scrap and become available for recovering secondary copper. In the United States this resource of more than 30 million tons, provides about one-fourth of the annual supply.

Jan 1, 1965

By Jeffrey M. Listak

This U.S. Bureau of Mines report describes the implications of in-mine ground control on the automated or remotely controlled operation of longwall mining equipment, Perhaps the greatest challenge to longwall automation researchers is the development of systems that will continuously function in the complex and unpredictable underground environment. The high degree of environmental variability, together with conditions brought about by the extraction process, makes complete automation of longwall mining a difficult task. The intellectual thought processes and split-second decision making required to avert disasters are lost when workers are removed from the face. As many mine operators can attest, minor problems, left unresolved, can eventually accumulate and lead to catastrophic consequences. The automation process will have to assess and manage various routine problems that are otherwise resolved through worker observation and experience.

Jan 1, 1990

By Otto L. Schumacher

The Overthrust Belt in portions of Montana, Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming, an area that has contributed generously to the Nation's mineral supply, is one of the few remaining oil and gas frontiers on the North American continent. Determination of the oil and gas potential and development of mineral resources of the area have been affected by a variety of land withdrawals and other restrictions, The purpose of this study is to determine the extent of these withdrawals and restrictions and to discuss the mineral resource potential within the study area. Statistics in this report refer to land status on January 1, 1979. At that time, of the 27.3 million acres of Federal mineral lands within the study area, applications tor Federal oil and gas leases for more than 4,4 million acres (about 16 percent) were pending; the average length of time was 2 years. Federal oil and gas leases covering 8.8 million acres were also on record. Although drilling has occurred on some of these leases, others are subject to restrictions that discourage or prevent development. Some in fact contain stipulations disallowing any development.

Jan 1, 1981

By Donald H. McLaughlin

PRICES paid for goods and services in paper currencies are undoubtedly determined by many interrelated factors, but among them none is more specific in pushing prices toward higher and higher levels than the vast increase in debts and monetary obligations of our own and practically all major governments. There is nothing unorthodox in the situation in which the gold miners find themselves today. With wages and the prices of all materials required in the production of gold at the high levels characteristic of a period of prosperity, phony or otherwise, and with shortages of both men and machinery to contend with as well, the spread between the returns in paper dollars that must be accepted for gold in the United States and the cost of producing it is rather painfully small for most producers. Technical

Jan 1, 1948

By H. A. Wheeler

IT may surprise some of our members to learn, among the industries based on the mineral resources of the United States that of clay now ranks third, being exceeded in value of product only by pig-iron and coal. The present annual value of clay-products exceeds the value of the outputs of gold and silver, and also exceeds the combined values of copper, lead, zinc, aluminum, mercury, antimony and nickel. These facts are shown in Table I. which gives the statistics for the year 1902

Jan 1, 1905

By R. W. Hodder

"Archean lode gold deposits of both vein and chemical sedimentary types typically have major enrichments of certain rare elements, including Au, Ag, As, Sb, B, W, Se, Te and Bi, coupled with low or negative enrichments of the more abundant and mobile base metals, Cu, Pb and Zn. On the other hand, in massive base metal sulphide deposits Au, Ag, Cu, Zn and in some instances Pb are all enriched by a factor of 200 to 2000 t:'Jf'1pared to background and there is no large separation of gold relative to the base metals.The fluids from which gold was precipitated in veins were at temperatures of 320 to 480°C, at lithostatic pressure, had significant C02, and Na """" K; whereas the fluids which generated base metal deposits were at 250-300°C, at hydrostatic pressure, had C02 < < H20 and Na > > K.Many lode gold deposits are characterized by K, C02 and Si additions to their enveloping rocks, whereas base metal deposits typically have a fixation of Fe, Mg, Si and S in footwall rocks. Lode gold deposits may also have a relatively large halo of low-temperature oxidative, sadie spilitization in enclosing volcanic rocks, where seawater has later streamed into cooling stocks or flows that have initially acted to focus gold mineralizing fluids along thermal contraction fractures. The submarine environment is one hydrologically appropriate for the mixing of two initially independent hydrothermal systems, and the blending of their separate characteristics. Hence, lode gold and base metal massive sulphide deposits appear to be products of two distinctly different crustal and hydrological regimes. The former involves a high-temperature, high-pressure discharge of fluids which probably were generated during dehydration accompanying burial and progressive accumulation of volcanic-sedimentary sequences, with an additional influence of marine water in the near-sea-floor environment. The latter represents thermally driven convection of ocean water at lower temperatures and under hydrostatic conditions.Auriferous fluid systems with only minor base metal content could plausibly be generated during dehydration accompanying burial and metamorphism, when the water-to-rock ratio is low and halogen availability is limited by crustal abundance (- 60 ppm Cl). These two factors may constrain the uptake of the abundant base metals into fluids, but the solubility of rare elements is not constrained by limited fluid; and preferential uptake of Au along with other rare elements may be promoted if such elements compete more successfully for the limited halogens than the base metals, and/or have an alternative complexing agent such as CO or C()j-."

Jan 1, 1982

By AIME AIME

WTHIN the next month all members of the Institute will be given an opportunity to vote for a new President, two Vice-Presidents, and five Directors. All of the candidates nominated by the official committee are well known to certain groups of the Institute membership but a brief record of their professional lives will be given here for the information of those that will vote. Not since 1927, when Everette DeGolyer guided the destinies of the Institute, has a member of the Petroleum Division been a candidate for President. John Meston Lovejoy has been a Director since 1930, and a Vice-President as well for the last year: In the three years 1932-4 lie was also chairman of the Admissions Committee. Dir. Lovejoy graduated from the Columbia School of Mines in 1911, just before lie was 22 years old, and began his professional career as a copper miner at Chuquicamata. Chile. Silver and gold mining later claimed his % attention, and it was not until 1914 that lie gut into the oil business, as geologist for the Standard Oil Co. of N. Y. This took hint to China and he later worked for the company in Wyoming. In 1917 lie joined the Army where lie rose to be captain of Field Artillery. Upon his return to the United States he went to work for the Amerada Petroleum Co., of which he later became vice-president and general manager, with headquarters in Tulsa. Since coining to New York he has been president of the Petroleum Bond & Share Cu.. and is currently president of the Seaboard Oil Co.

Jan 1, 1935

By A. D. McMahon

This survey is one of a series of Bureau of Mines publications designed to serve the needs of Government and industry for comprehensive information on mineral commodities and activities. Copper, a versatile metal, has been vital to all civilizations from pre-historic times to the present. Its essential value in antiquity and until the nineteenth century arose from its malleability and ease of working, its corrosion resistance and durability, its attractive colors in alloyed and unalloyed forms, and, of course, its availability. The principal uses were for tools, utensils, vessels, weapons, pipe, statuary and other objects of art, and for building and architectural purposes where formability, permanence, and beauty were necessary qualities. Utilization of copper based on these physical and mechanical properties has grown tremendously for commercial, structural, mechanical, architectural, and art items; and its capacity for forming numerous alloys has led to a myriad of applications from miniature copper and brass eyelets to huge bronze battleship propellers. The early nineteenth century marks the epoch of the greatest use of copper, transmitting electrical energy. This particular property of copper is fundamental to the spectacular growth of the electrical industry and all associated industries relying on electricity for power, light, and heat. More than half of all copper produced is used for transmission of electricity.

Jan 1, 1964

By V. F. Parry, John P. Goodman

"INTRODUCTION Review of Previous Work Many investigators and certain commercial interests have recognized that the briquetting process is a practical method to convert much of what is now considered undesirable fuel into a usable form of domestic fuel.The art of improving the form of solid fuels is ancient, as early records indicate that the Chinese employed crude hand briquetting of combustible materials long before coal was known in Europe and America.According to Franke, 4/ the earliest description of a briquetting proce¬dure employed in the Occident is contained in an English patent dated in 1773. Following this in rapid sequence, many methods and procedures wore developed in this country and in Europe. Stillman/ states that the first attempt to briquet coal in the United States was made by Loiseau 6/ at Fort Richmond Piers, Philadelphia, in 1872. The American briquetting processes outlined by Stillman comprise an imposing compilation of successes and partial and outright failures."

Jun 1, 1943

By J. C. Griffiths

There are two kinds of problems concerning the elements of a population : the first is to estimate the proportion of some specific kind of element in the population, e.g. the amount of gold in a block of ground (equals population) or the proportion of mercury in a sample; the second is to estimate the length, breadth, volume, etc., of a specific kind of element, e.g. the grain size of quartz grains in a beach sand or the size, shape and arrangement of lenses of ore in an ore deposit. Given a specific objective, a bounded population, identified elements and the element characteristics of interest, it is then necessary to select a sample of the elements from the population and the problem of sampling requires a decision on how to select the sample. It is also necessary to establish, either by heuristic analysis or empirically, based on long experience, the model frequency distribution of the desired element characteristics: in general, constant-probability models are used as models, the binomial or Poisson for count data and the normal distribution for measurements (or their transformed equivalents). The objective of sampling then becomes to obtain an appropriate statistical estimate of the desired population parameter: for example, the estimators may be the mean (X) and variance (a2): these should be unbiased sufficient estimators of their corresponding parameters (u, a2, respectively). Statistical tests are performed in order to determine that the estimators are of the appropriate kind: all statistical tests are designed to test against bias of a specific kind, although they are stated as tests against randomness. Given a random sample of some population, the estimators are usually stable and adequate to solve the sampling problem. Random samples are simple to define but exceedingly difficult to achieve in practice: in selecting a sample, if every element in the population has an equal chance of occurring, then the sample is a random sample. Interaction between the arrangement of elements in a population, i.e. its structure, and the sample selection process frequently introduces bias—that is, some elements have more chance than others of appearing in the sample and, hence, the sample is not random. An algorithm for dealing pragmatically with this aspect of the sampling problem offers one way of achieving random samples and, therefore, adequate estimators. Examples of the use of this algorithm on various kinds of geological populations, in both field and laboratory, illustrate the requirements for solving sampling problems and the achievement of appropriate estimators.

Dec 1, 1971

By W. F. RITTMAN, E. W. Dean

This report presents the results of an investigation conducted by the Bureau of Mines for the purpose of assisting in the establishment of a satisfactory standard method for the analytical distillation of petroleum, a problem of great importance to the petroleum industry. Experiments were performed for the purpose of studying the charac- teristics of methods typical of those in use; comparative studies were made of the efficiencies of the principal types of fractionation ap- paratus available to the petroleum chemist; and the characteristics of a type of apparatus that the results of the experiments seemed to indicate was best adapted to the purpose were investigated in detail. Also, some experiments were made to determine the effect of cracking as a factor in the analytical distillation of petroleum in still heads.

Jan 1, 1916

By Arthur Notman

For the period January 1st, 1942, to January 1st, 1946, the American Bureau of Metal Statistics records the gold production of the world as 118,788,000 fine ounces. If we include 1946 at the same rate as 1945 (26,- 590,000), we arrive at a total of 145,378,000 fine ounces in the past five years . Included in these figures are estimates of Russian output at 4,000,000 ounces per annum for the five years, and 1,300,000 ounces per annum for Korea and Japan. The remaining 120,000,000 ounces represent the aggregate production from official reports of the other gold producing areas of the world, with the exception of the 1946 figures, as noted above. At $35.00 per fine ounce, this represents $5,188,230,000. According to the reports of the Federal Reserve System of the United States, on December 31st, 1941, the monetary gold reserves of the United States were $22,736,- 600,000 (at $35.00 per fine ounce) , while on October 31st, 1946 (latest available) , they had fallen to $20,402,000,000, a decline of $2,334,600,000. Adding this decline to the value of the new production for the five years, we have a total of $7,522,830,000, which has been absorbed by the rest of the world since Pearl Harbour, a rate of absorption of over $1,500,000,000 per annum. This has taken place at a rime when the advocates of purely managed currencies had convinced many people that gold performed no really essential function in the world&apos;s economy, and that we could get along perfectly well without it. It was pointed out that gold could not be eaten, it could not clothe our nakedness, it could not shelter us from storms, and, therefore, it was a non-essential, even though it could be used to settle international balances of trade. Apparently, the world as a whole still regards it as preferable to the paper promises of governments, however sound, relatively, they may appear. Actually, we have no way of measuring the true strength of this feeling, because the principal governments of the world have made it legally impossible for their citizens to own gold, except in the form of ornaments.

Jan 1, 1947

"Guideline Augered Cast-In-Place (ACIP) Pile Specification and Commentary11.0 GENERAL1.1 SCOPEThe Pile Contractor shall furnish all labor, materials, tools and equipment necessary for furnishing, installing and testing Augered Cast-in-Place (ACIP) piles as shown on the Contract Drawings and as specified herein.ACIP piles are commonly referred to by several other names. Some of them are trademarks or service marks owned by Foundation Contractors and some are names that try to describe the installation process. The term “cast-inplace” is sometimes replaced with “cast-in-situ,” especially in Europe. Some common names are Auger Cast Piles, Intruded Mortar Piles, Augerpress Piles, Augered Pressure Grouted Piles, AugerPile Foundations, Continuous Flight Auger (CFA) Piles, Grouted Bored Piles, Augered Grout-Injected Piles, Drilled or Augered Uncased Piles, and Uncased Cast-in-Place Concrete Piles. To avoid confusion, ACIP pile will be used exclusively herein.1.2 PILE CONTRACTOR QUALIFICATIONSThe ACIP piles shall be installed by an experienced Pile Contractor who upon request of the Engineer shall submit evidence of successful ACIP pile installation under similar job and subsurface conditions, including a job supervisor who shall have a minimum of five years of method specific experience.The proper installation of the ACIP piles is dependent upon the procedures used by the Pile Contractor’s field representatives and equipment provided. The Pile Contractor’s personnel responsible for the installation should have relevant experience with the auguring and pumping equipment, experience placing piles under similar site conditions (including restricted headroom if appropriate), in similar subsurface conditions, as well as experience handling the special grout mixes, admixtures, etc."

Jan 1, 2016

By E. G. Kearnery

Introduction It is believed that the present paper will be of some interest, not because of any outstanding features of Renabie milling practice but because Renabie is the first gold mining property in a newly explored area - in Leeson and Rennie townships, Sudbury district, Ontario - to reach the production stage. The Renabie mill was originally designed by the General Engineering Company (Canada), Limited, as a 300-ton plant and went into operation in June, 1947, treating an average of only 128 tons a day for the balance of that year. Toward the end of 1948 the capacity of the plant was expanded to 450 tons a day, and the tonnage treated was gradually increased from the 1947 figure to the point where 420 tons a day was averaged for the first nine months of 1949. Description of Ore In general, the outstanding gangue component of Renabie ore is white quartz, which comprises at least 80 per cent of its total bulk and in some sections considerably more. Virtually all the gold occurs in very finely divided state; only very rarely has free gold coarser than 325 mesh been observed. The ore has a very low sulphide content, ranging from about 0.50 to 1.00 per cent by weight. The gold occurs both free in the gangue and ? locked in sulphides, the proportion of one to the other varying considerably from one orebody to the other. Pyrite is by far the most abundant sulphide, followed by galena, which, however, appears to be entirely absent in some of the orebodies. Minor amounts of pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite, chalcocite, and sphalerite have been noted. The ore appears to be entirely free, or almost so, of minerals containing arsenic, antimony, or molybdenum, and in general it could be described as free milling. The various hindrances to extraction of the gold which have been met with are believed to be due largely to the very finely divided state of the metal and to its intimate association with the sulphides and gangue. The ore contains silver, with the gold-silver ratio about 3:1.

Jan 1, 1950

R. W. Raymond, New York, N. Y,:—Since the presentation of my note on this subject at the New York Meeting, Professor Louis has pointed out an error in my statement of his conception of " pitch "—namely, he understands the pitch, in the restricted sense which he proposes, to be the angle of inclination of the axis of an ore-body, measured on the vertical plane drawn through the body; whereas, I represented him as proposing to define " pitch " as the angle of inclination of an oblique body, measured on the plane of the dip, in the direction of the strike. The difference will appear upon consideration of the accompanying isometric projection, Fig. 1, in which ABCD represents the plane of the inclosing ore-deposit (vein or bed), and AC the axis of the oblique ore-shoot. ABE is the angle of the dip, as universally understood; and ACE

Jan 1, 1909

By R. Farrar

The survey work on protective canopy design was conducted in a 2-month period commencing November 15, 1973. The reported re¬sults under this contract are intended to provide guidance to coal mine operators in complying with federal regulations pertaining to incorporation of protective canopies on underground coal mine electric face equipment. All coal mine electric face equipment manufacturers and 11 coal mines were visited in the course of conducting this survey. Canopy designs currently being manufactured and those now being used underground were examined and discussed with manufacturers, mine operators, machine operators, and safety committeemen. The general objective was to find out what kind of canopies are now being made and used underground, what the operational problems are, and what can be done to secure improvements. Specifically, the survey scope was as follows: a. Survey all electric face equipment manufacturers. b. Survey 10 coal mines (seam height 60 inches and greater). c. Identify current production canopy configurations and minimum mine entry dimensions for each model and type of electric face equipment. d. Assess in-mine operation of canopies developed by manufacturers and/or coal companies. e. Specify optimal canopy configuration and minimum mine entry dimensions for each type and model of electric face equipment.

Jan 1, 1974

By M. D. Cooper

IN spite of the uncertainty in the bituminous coal industry during 1933, progress worth recording has been made. Along with other industries, coal has felt the effects of business stagnation, but even in the worst weeks of the past four years, .the total production of bituminous coal in the United States was seldom less than half the production in some of the best weeks of the more prosperous years, a record better than that of many industries. However, the competition of other fuels and sources of power, together with the increased efficiency in the use of coal, has brought anxiety to producers. This has resulted in pressure for reduction of costs, not always by the wisest means. On the other hand, the effort to survive has directed increasing interest toward research, a wholesome development in a difficult situation. Wages, limitation of hours of labor, and the NRA have occupied much time and thought. Following a period .of wage cutting paralleling price cutting, the industry found itself rather suddenly faced by the President&apos;s Agreement, followed in due course by the Code, and then in many places by the agreement with the United Mine Workers. Although there is still some uncertainty in regard to the detailed working out of the new arrangements, there seems to be an honest endeavor by the signatories to the Code and Agreement to work them out in a straightforward manner.

Jan 1, 1934