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By C. H. Schack, K. C. Dean

An investigation was made to devise and evaluate a flexible flotation method for beneficiating typical tactite types of calcareous scheelite - bearing ores ; these scheelite - bearing ores are available in large tonnages in deposits containing 0.2 to 0.3 pct tungsten trioxide . The objective was to achieve a high recovery of the tungsten in concentrates , containing a minimum of 10 pct WO3 , that would be suitable for chemical processing into high- quality synthetic scheelite . The principal problems encountered and resolved by bench- scale flotation tests on ore samples from five different deposits were to define the conditions and reagent combinations essential for ( 1 ) achieving selective flotation of a small amount of scheelite from a large amount of calcite and ( 2 ) controlling the effect of small amounts of calcium , magnesium , and iron salts in the ores and water used . The flotation process was evolved from batch tests and continuous runs in a pilot - scale mill with a capacity of 100 lb per hour . The flotation process comprised ( 1 ) removal of sulfide minerals , ( 2 ) conditioning the residual ore pulp with sodium carbonate , quebracho , and trisodium phosphate , and ( 3 ) rougher flotation and single - stage cleaning of a scheelite concentrate . In a pilot plant run , over 91 pct of the tungsten was recovered from ore containing 0.27 pct WO3 , in a concentrate containing 11.2 pct WO3 .

Jan 1, 1964

By E. P. Youngman

A new mining law for the Recublic of Polend was promulgated by presiden- tial decree dated November 29, 1930, published in the Journal of Lews (Dzienni stex) No. E, text 654, December E, 1530, and wes to become effective January 1, 1932, in all Polend except Silesie. Its adoption in Silesia wes dependent pon the action of the Silesian Diet. As the new law is considered an im- provement over the old Austrian Mining Lew, which is operative in the Silesian districts of Bielsk and Cieszyn, and the Prussian Kining Law, which is opera- tive in Upper Silesia, no delay in its adoption for Silesin was looked for. This new law codifies the various juridical regulations pertaining to ines existing in different parts of the Polish Republic but does not include legislation with respect to the extraction of minerel oil, especially crude oil. Petroleum legislation was postponed to a later date in order to facili- tate codification in other fields. Koreover, as the oil industry exists in Galicia elone, deley will not be detrimental.

May 1, 1932

By Liane L. M. Kadnuck

This report summarizes the results of a hydrologic research study conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Mines (USBM) in cooperation with Energy West Mining Co. at the Deer Creek and Cottonwood Mines, near Orangeville, UT. The USBM evaluated hydrologic and overburden failure data to assess the response of local ground water to underground coal mining in single-and multiple-seam conditions. Fourteen springs located over the two mines were investigated in the study along with overburden failure response caused by longwall panel extraction. Spring discharge was compared to climatic variation and time of undermining to quantify response to undermining. Spring discharge had been reduced owing to below-normal precipitation during the period evaluated. The response of springs to mining in the vicinity was influenced in part by the thick overburden present at the study site the presence of hydrophilic clays and mudstones in the overburden stratigraphy, and elevation of the springs above mine level, which buffered the effects of undermining.

Jan 1, 1994

By Warren D. Longwill

All known resources within the four proposed RARE II additions to the Yolla Bolly-Middle Eel Wilderness in northwestern California occur in the Gig Butte-Shinbone study area (fig. 1). No mineral resources are Figure 1.--NEAR HERE. known in the East Fork, Murphy blade, or Wilderness Contiguous units. About 2,400 tons (2,177 t) of subeconomic manganese resources averaging 9.5 percent manganese have been estimated at the Blue Jay Mine in the Big Butte-Shinbone unit. In addition about 9,700 tons (8,793 t) of subeconomic chromium-nickel-cobalt resources in thin laterite soil at the Grubstake Prospect contain about 1.27 percent chromium oxide, 0.45 percent nickel, and 0.03 percent cobalt. Adjacent Ultramafic rock outcrops have pods averaging 2.5 percent chromium oxide (Cr203); one pod contains about 40 tons (36 t) of indicated subeconomic resources.

Jan 1, 1981

By J. A. Ruppert, P. M. Sullivan

A process was developed on a laboratory scale in which iron contained in galvanizers ' zinc dross and aluminum contained in scrap zinc die - cast alloy were removed simultaneously . Melting both types of scrap together in the proper proportions resulted in formation of solid intermetallic Fe₂ Alg , which was readily removed from the melt by filtration and centrifugation . Recovery was 87 to 92 percent of the available zinc . Refined filtrate contained 0.02 percent iron and 0.20 percent aluminum. Aluminum content was further reduced to less than 0.01 percent by fluxing with zinc chloride . Low temperatures employed and inexpensive equipment requirements make the process commercially attractive .

Jan 1, 1964

By George H. Schnakenberg

Automation of coal mining activities at the face offers improvements in worker safety, health, and productivity. Introduction of integrated computer-sensor systems to current mining machines will enable these machines to perform some of the most hazardous tasks through supervised teleoperation. The U.S. Bureau of Mines is pursuing the development of the enabling technology necessary to achieve this goal. The research program consists of both basic and applied research, each focused on the fundamental issues of computer and sensor technologies. Short-term research is directed to providing computer-assisted, remote supervisory operation of present underground equipment; the long-term goal is the development of progressively more intelligent mining systems. The research program includes a review of robotic machine and autonomous vehicle technologies and of current mining technology, which provides a base for developing innovative mining methods; research in navigation and guidance technology, emphasizing control of a continuous mining machine; research on coal-rock interface sensing technology for horizon control, and rib thickness control in highwall mining; the development of computer systems and hierarchical architectures for real-time control; and development of expert systems for machine system fault diagnostics and predictive maintenance. This report presents a brief background and the current status for each of these research areas.

Jan 1, 1989

By T. M. Romslo

"INTRODUCTION This report presents factual data obtained by the Bureau of Mines in the course of an investigation of the Antler mine in the Cedar Valley mining district, Mohave County, Ariz.The Antler property was first examined by Thomas L. Chapman, mining engineer, Bureau of Mines, on December 18, 1943, and January 28, 1944. In June 1945, A. H. Wadsworth, Jr., and R. L. Griggs, geologists, Federal Geo¬logical Survey, examined the Antler mine and several other mines in the district. Both Chapman and Wadsworth recommended diamond drilling of the Antler property to determine the character and extent of ore deposition.In October 1946, the surface and underground workings were surveyed by George Huseman, Mining engineer, and T. M. Romslo, project engineer. The following month Eldred. D. Wilson, geologist of the Arizona Bureau of Mines, assisted by the project engineer, mapped the geology. Subsequently trails were built to drilling sites and diamond drilling started January 16, 1947. The project was completed April 25, 1947.ACKNOWLEDGMENTSIn 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. It is the policy of the Bureau to publish the facts developed by each project as soon as practicable after its conclusion. The Mining Division, Lowell B. Moon, chief, conducts preliminary examinations, does the actual investigative work, and prepares the final report. The Metallurgical Division, O. C. Ralston, chief, analyzes samples and takes beneficiation tests."

Mar 1, 1948

By Ad. Breyre

For more than 20 years, Belgium, leading all the coal-mining countries, has made increasing use of sheathed explosives, which wore first suggested by the late E. Lemaire, predecessor of the author gas Director of the Institut National des Mines. It appears to the author that it will be valuable to show how the use of sheathed explosives has developed in Belgium, how the various difficulties encountered in their manufacture have been overcome gradually, and the tyros of sheathing that have survived and the reasons for their survival.

Jan 1, 1940

By Ad. Breyre

For more than 20 years, Belgium, leading all the coal-mining countries, has made increasing use of sheathed explosives, which wore first suggested by the late E. Lemaire, predecessor of the author as Director of the Institut National des Mines. It appears to the author that it will be valuable to show how the use of sheathed explosives has developed in Belgium, hour the various difficulties encountered in their manufacture have been overcome gradually, and the tyres of sheathing that have survived and the reasons for their survival.

Jan 1, 1940

By Hillary W. St. Clair

This report gives the results of an experimental study of the progressive changes that occur in particle size and size distribution when a homogeneous and isotropic mineral is subjected to crushing by impact. The mineral used in the study was uniformly sized quartz, which was crushed in a simple drop¬-weight machine that applied impact energy up to about 100 kg-cm per g. Screen analyses of the crushed products were analyzed by the method of moments to determine the mean size, variance, skewness, and kurtosis. Analysis of the data from these experiments shows that the mean size of the crushed product is a function of the energy input and the initial size. The size distribution is functionally related to the degree of size reduction. As the mean particle size is decreased, at first there is a corresponding increase in the variance and decrease in the skewness, But, as size reduction is carried further, each tends eventually to approach a steady value, and the form of the size distribution becomes stable.

Jan 1, 1972

By A. B. Hooker

Investigations at the Pittsburgh Experiment Station of the Bureau of Mines have shown that satisfactory operation of a flame safety lamp depends not only upon proper design and assembly of the lamp but also upon the kind

Jan 1, 1945

By R. V. Higgins

This report presents the results of a study of water injection in the HX sub-pool fault block V-B, in the Upper Terminal zone, Wilmington field, California, and is based on data obtained to May 1957. An earlier report3/ describes the results of gas injection in part of the field. The principal purpose of the pilot flood was to determine whether a sand having a permeability of 1,200 millidarcys and containing oil having a viscosity of 17 centipoises could be waterflooded effectively. The results of a preliminary study by engineers of the Long Beach Harbor Department of oil recoveries from areas where encroaching edgewater was active and the results of an independent study by a consultant retained by the Long Beach Harbor Department were favorable to a trial waterflood. After these preliminary studies, a detailed petroleum-engineering exam-ination was made of the technical details. As a result, a peripheral flood was started in June 1953. The peripheral flood was deemed desirable because the producing wells are bottomed a short distance from the edgewater. The HX subpool was selected for the pilot test because it is an isolated section of the Upper Terminal zone and is separated from the adjoining pools by faults on the east and west and by edgewater on the north, south, and west. Several petroleum-engineering methods were applied to evaluate the performance of the waterflood, and all showed that injecting water stimulated oil production.

Jan 1, 1958

By R. V. Holmes

The properties of the Colorado Copper Co. in Sinbad Valley, Mesa and Montrose Counties, Colo., were rehabilitated and sampled by the Bureau of Mines in October, November, and December 1942. The several deposits were reexamined in March and April 1945 to obtain information disclosed by company work after December 1942. The development program included surface trenching, rehabilitation of several edits, and channel sampling of the exposures. Assay determinations wore made on 204 samples from the surface and underground workings. The results are given in the appendix. Several copper deposits in the Sinbad Valley area are similar in origin. The host rocks are sedimentary and mice in age from Pennsylvanian to Cretaceous. The Colorado No. 3 deposit occurs in the Cutler formation, which consists of many small lenses of conglomerate, sandstone, and shale. Mineralization is closely associated with faulting. On the Pyramid group the enrichment occurs in a zone of fracturing and jointing end also spreads into the adjoining sandstone. The ore deposition on the Copper Rivet claim is associated with a fault zone and is confined to en area above the contact of the Dolores-Wingate formations. Mineral deposits on the Sinbad claims occur at intersections of faults with blue-gray Pennsylvania limestone. Copper enrichment occurs along faults and as replacement of the surrounding limestone. Metallurgical tests indicate that ores from the Colorado No. 3 and Pyramid claims can be treated successfully by leaching with sulfuric acid. This method cannot be applied to ores from the Copper Rivet or Sinbad deposits because of high calcite content. Flotation tests at Boulder City, Nev., showed a recovery of less than 60 percent with a 14.24 percent copper concentrate.

Jan 1, 1952

By Jan M. Mutmansky

"When, in 1973, a limit was placed on the amount of dust in the coal mine atmosphere, restricting the average exposure of a coal miner to 2 milligrams of dust per cubic meter of air (mg/m'), skeptics in the United States and abroad Said the standard could never be achieved. They cited much more lenient standards already established in other countries and refused to believe that the United States could meet the world's most stringent requirements in mines where dust had never before been regulated. Yet 10 years later the goal had largely been achieved and miners were working underground in a cleaner atmosphere than ever before. It was a major achievement and a big stride in what had become a war on coal workers' pneumoconiosis (CWP), the black lung disease prevalent among miners in underground coal mines.Although the health hazards caused by working in a dust-filled mine atmosphere have long been recognized, the problem became particularly acute in this century with the mechanization and increased productivity of underground coal mining. The United States was much slower than some other countries to address the problem of respirable diseases among miners. While dust levels in South African gold mines were first regulated in 1912, in the United States it was only when 476 workers died of silicosis while blasting a tunnel through a mountain near Gauley Bridge, West Virginia in the 1930s that widespread public attention became focused on the plight of workers in dust-filled environments. Another 30 years passed before regulation of dust finally became law in the Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969.With a stringent new standard imposed in all underground coal mines, the industry was faced With the daunting problem of reducing levels of airborne dust from perhaps 6.5 mg/m' to 2 mg/m', in an inherently dusty operation carried out in the close confines of underground passageways. Most of the coal dust is made by the cutting operation in which the continuous miner or longwall machine can produce several thousand milligrams of respirable dust for each ton of coal mined. Other dusty operations such as drilling holes for roofbolts, loading and unloading coal on shuttle cars, and the operation of conveyor belts contribute to the overall problem.Since the institution of the new dust control standards, a number of strategies have been adopted for reducing the coal dust in the mine atmosphere. These strategies involve engineering and design improvements that help lo prevent the generation of particles, keep particles of dust from becoming airborne, carry dust away from the working area, and isolate the dust from the workers in the mining operation. These procedures have been pursued vigorously by the Bureau of Mines, and many successful methods have been developed to reduce the mass concentration to which the workers are subjected. The mining companies were reluctant at first to confront the problems but after a period of trials and gradual improvement, they joined with others in the fight to reduce the dust concentrations in the working place."

Jan 1, 1990

By Harold W. Lipper

A NEW record was set for helium shipment in 1962 for the 13th successive year. For the first time since 1949, the production of helium from natural gas at Bureau of Mines plants was less than in the previous year. The Bureau shipped 599.5 million cubic feet, 9 percent more than the 1961 volume, and produced 680.9 million cubic feet-a decrease of 6 percent from the record set in 1961. The Bureau added 77.2 million cubic feet to the volume stored for future use. Of the total 524.6 million cubic feet in storage, 522.4 million cubic feet is accumulated excess production from Bureau of Mines plants. The remaining 2.2 million cubic feet was purchased during 1962 from industry under the helium conservation program. The first two of five private plants began production in December to recover helium for conservation storage and ultimate use. A 425-mile pipeline system to transport helium from the five private plants to the Cliffside field was constructed by the Bureau at a cost of about $8 million.

Jan 1, 1963

By Byron S. Gottfried

This Bureau of Mines report presents a method for combining the distribution curves at different specific gravities of separation, for a given piece of coal-cleaning equipment and a given raw coal feed, into a single, generalized distribution curve normalized with respect to specific gravity and, therefore, independent of the specific gravity of separation. Illustrative generalized distribution curves, based upon Bureau of Mines collected data on industrial operations, are presented for five different types of coal-cleaning equipment. The well-known concept of probable error is extended to the generalized distribution curve. It is shown that the conventional probable error is directly proportional to the specific gravity of separation. A number of sample calculations, illustrating the use of the generalized distribution curve and generalized probable error, are presented in the appendix.

Jan 1, 1977

By E. J. Schneider

In view of the growing commercial interest In the higher boiling fractions of low-temperature tar, a study of the literature has been undertaken to obtain as many data as possible regarding the properties of possible pure constituents. The following substances have been studied: THREE-ORTHO-XYLENOL (1, 2-DIMETHYL-3-HYDROXYBENZENE) Detection By the isolation of the silver salt of 1, 2-dimethyl-3-phenoxyacetic acid.

Jan 1, 1930

By Terry J. Close

The Anaconda Pintlar Wilderness has a significant mineral resource potential. Five deposits have resources totaling about 180,300 tons (163,600 t) containing silver, copper, lead, gold, and zinc. Another 11, not sufficiently exposed to allow resource estimates, may have additional mineral potential. No placer deposits are indicated. There is little potential for the production of sand, gravel, or stone; alternate sources are closer to markets. No oil, gas, uranium, or geothermal energy sources are known to be present.

Jan 1, 1982

By J. T. McCartney

Thin sections of coal have been prepared for many years either by cutting on a microtome (1,2)5 or by grinding and polishing (2,1). Specimens of most coals had to be demineralized in hydrofluoric acid and softened in caustic solutions before they could be successfully cut with a conventional microtome. Some lignites could be cut without pretreatment. Jeffrey (1) obtained sections from coals of all ranks, although long and tedious pretreatment was required for anthracite. His sections were less than 1 cm.2 in area (probably much less for high rank coals) and about 5 microns thick. Thiessen (2) also cut sections of softened coals, mostly of low rank. His sections were a few square millimeters in area and about 3 microns thick. However, Thiessen preferred ground and polished sections for detailed studies because they were larger and had not been chemically attacked by softening media. He prepared ground sections as large as 4 cm.2 in area and usually 5 to 10 microns thick. Thousands of such sections, covering complete column samples of many coal beds, were studied for a number of years (4). With the development of the electron microscope and increased interest in quantitative optical studies of coals, a need for much thinner sections arose. However, no suitable technique for preparing such sections was known until Fernández-Morán developed a diamond knife for cutting ultrathin sections of hard materials (5). Workers at the Centre d'Etudes et Recherches de Charbonnages de France applied this new tool to the cutting of coal sections and have recently described their technique to the Burg, of Mines. Using their methods, with some modifications, researchers of the Bureau of Mines have succeeded in cutting ultrathin sections of coals ranging in rank from lignite to

Jan 1, 1961

By J. K. Whyatt

Researchers at the U.S. Bureau of Mines have been exploring recent advances in the use of strain-softening constitutive laws that approximate shear fracturing. The purpose of these tests is to investigate shear-fracture-related rock bursts in hard-rock mines. The capabilities and remaining problems in the use of strain-softening laws in finite-element, distinct-element, and finite-difference methods are reviewed. Performance of the finite-difference implementation of strain softening is compared to classic experimental results and observations of rock mass behavior in the Coeur d'Alene Mining District of northern Idaho. The results show promise for developing methods to identify the general location and orientation of shear fractures and their sequence of occurrence, but such methods cannot be relied upon to quantify post-fracture loads or displacements accurately. Uncertainty over the amount of energy consumed by failing rock and the dependency of energy consumption on model mesh definition prevent direct application of the results to analyses of rock bursts.

Jan 1, 2010