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Approximately half of all the fuel energy used in the United States is now pro-vided by oil and natural gas. A persistent and rapid growth in energy demand during the last 3 decades has been absorbed largely by the liquid and gaseous rather than solid fuels. In 1948 the energy provided by coal was substantially the same as in 1920. Meanwhile, the use of oil and natural gas each had increased fivefold. On a per capita basis, the change is more significant. Coal consumption has dropped from about 6 tons per person to 4-1/2 tons, while oil has increased from 4-1/3 barrels to 14-1/3, and natural gas from 7,500 cubic feet to about 35,000. These facts would have only academic interest if the United States had unlimited supplies of all fuels. However, while the Nation's reserves of coal are adequate to meet our needs for centuries, those of oil and natural gas appear limited. It is obvious, therefore, that the security of our liquid-fuel position would be greatly enhanced if the supply could be based in an increasing degree on solid fuels, such as coal/and oil shale, which make up more than 95 percent of our fuel reserves, instead of natural oil and gas. In addition, this would create new employment and help to stabilize the market for coal, which may be facing comparatively bleak prospects in the near future unless its position with respect to other fuels is improved.

Jan 1, 1950

By Holmes, George H. Jr.

The Cherry Creek tungsten district was explored by the Bureau of Mines from April 16 to August 13, 1942. This district is in north-central White Pine County, Nev., 50 miles north of Ely. Principal work was done on the property of the Cherry Creek Tungsten Mining Co. and at the adjacent Chance mine, although the entire district was examined and mapped. The exploratory work was done in cooperation with the Federal Geological Survey and comprised surveying, trenching, sampling, long-hole and core drilling, rehabilitation of mine workings, road building, drifting, and shaft sinking. The more important tungsten occurrences were explored by trenching and diamond drilling. Sixteen holes, having a total length of 2,515 feet, were drilled. The project resulted in partial development of three new tungsten deposits and small increases in the reserve tonnage of two scheelite-bearing lenses that were being mined by the company. The following pages summarize the history of the district, outline the ownership of the properties explored, and describe the physical features and mineral deposits. Mining and milling practices at the Cherry Creek tungsten mine are outlined, and the plan and results of project work are presented in detail together with surface maps, assay maps, and drill-hole logs.

Jan 1, 1950

By Jr. Holmes

The Bureau of Mines drilled and sampled the more important magnesite deposits in the Currant Creek Mining District, White Pine County, Nev. The properties of the Ala-Mar Magnesium Co., Inc., and the Nevada Magnesite Co. were examined in August 1942 by D. W. Butner, engineer of the Bureau of Mines, to determine the advisability of investigating the deposits under the strategic minerals program. Development involving diamond drilling, trenching, and sampling was started September 1, 1942, and was completed in the latter part of November 1942. The deposits are on unsurveyed public land in T. 12N., B. 59 E., M.D.B.&M., in an area of high relief ranging from 7,300 to 8,100 feet in altitude. Both properties are situated northwest of the Tonopah-Ely Highway, U.S. Highway 6, from which a dirt road extends about 4.6 miles northwesterly, about 35 miles southwest of Ely, to the Ala-Mar property, and another dirt road extends about 10 miles westerly, about 26 miles southwest of Ely, to the Nevada Magnesite property. The magnesite occurs as irregular nodules, veins, and lenses in a bedded calcareous tuff formation, which overlies a group of volcanic rocks, and which is capped by remnants of rhyolite flows.

Jan 1, 1950

By L. R. Burdick

Anthracite barley is considerably cheaper than rice. Its use, therefore, is attractive from a cost standpoint, - but its smaller size (through 3/16 inch over 3/32 inch round-mesh screen) makes it more difficult to use on some equipment when fairly high combustion rates are necessary to carry plant loads. Tests wore made in one plant to determine the performance of rice and various types of barley on a chain-grate stoker in a two-arch refractory furnace. In general, the efficiency and capacity increased with increased fuel size and volatile content. This performance is presented in tabular and curve form, together with a short review of the ignition and burning process on chain-grate stokers and a discussion of the operating procedures and limitations during the tests. In this particular installation, higher combustion rates and efficiencies could have been obtained with barley if the grate links had been designed for more uniform air flow through the grate surface. Careful maintenance and operation are particularly necessary for satisfactory results with barley on equipment not especially designed for its use.

Jan 1, 1950

By Robert H. Bedford

As a result of the Bureau's general survey of quicksilver deposits in California, the Guadalupe mine area was among those chosen for exploration. Exploration, such as that at the Guadalupe, was aimed primarily at maintaining or increasing production of quicksilver during the critical wartime period. The project as originally planned contemplated sampling the dumps and prospecting some promising surface exposures by bulldozer trenches. Salvage was the objective in the first case and new ore in the second. Later, a program. of diamond drilling was added, designed to add both to ore reserves and to geological information. This report summarizes the history, notes the location and physical features, mentions property and ownership, and presents a brief description of the mine. The geology is outlined, and the work done by the Bureau of Mines is explained and supplemented with accompanying maps. The work involved repairing 1-1/4 miles of roads; bulldozing 13 trenches by removing 2,345 cubic yards of dumps to provide for sampling; digging and sampling 9,284 linear feet of hand trenches, digging and sampling numerous test pits; and drilling 7 diamond-drill holes, totaling 1,000 feet. A total of 419 samples, including 10 percent check samples, were taken. Exploration work in California at the time of this project was under the direction of Spangler Ricker, supervising engineer of the California field office, the late Robert Bedford was in charge of the fieldwork on this project.

Jan 1, 1950

By H. Stuart Auvil

Twelve samples of run-of-oven coke were taken at coke plants in the United States and Canada. Sampling procedure was directed toward obtaining the highest possible degree of uniformity in the gross samples, so that variations in results caused by sampling variations were at a practical minimum. Under these conditions the standard deviation of the screen analysis test on 500-pound samples is found to range from 1.2 percent for the 1-inch screen to 4.5 percent for the 5-inch screen. At present, the A.S.T.H. standard method of test requires that results be reported to the nearest 0.1 percent. This implies a higher than actual degree of precision, and revision of the report required by the method is suggested. Much larger Samples than are generally tested are required to reduce normal testing errors to a point where they are not appreciable fractions of the total variations found in a smoothly operating plant. For example, it is deduced that over 100,000 pounds of coke must be screened to determine if ordinary day-to-day variations in screen analysis have appreciable effects on the performance of a blast furnace.

Jan 1, 1950

By John W. Cole

The Bureau of Mines conducted a trenching and sampling project during 1947 on the tungsten-rich granodiorite that outcrops in Henderson Gulch, Montana. During the course of this investigation, interest was attracted to the Sunrise copper-gold mine in metamorphosed limestone in the north slope of the gulch. The mine was examined by S. H. Lorain, Chief, Mining Division, Albany Branch, in May 1948. A trenching and drilling program was recommended to develop a parallel vein indicated by outcrops to lie below the principal productive Queen vein. In the meantime, the Queen Mining Syndicate initiated a trenching program that exposed high-grade lead-copper-silver-gold ore in a nearly vertical vein that strikes N. 600 E. to east. A core-drilling program to develop this vein was initiated in September 1948. This report presents the factual data obtained from the trenching and drilling operations. The Sunrise mine was discovered about 1890. Production has been estimated to be $120,000 in gold from 40,000 tons of ore mined during the period 1892-1903. The tailing from this operation was treated by cyanidation in 1912, with a reported recovery of $3.50 to $4.00 a ton from 15,000 tons of material. Subsequent production of sulfide ore was 7,396 tons treated by smelting, with recovery of 1,569.42 ounces of gold, 10,003 ounces of silver, 352,899 pounds of copper, and 354 pounds of lead.

Jan 1, 1950

By John Paul Gries

During World. War II, when the curtailment of imports led to an unprecedented demand for domestic mica, beryl, spodumene, and other pegmatite minerals, the Bureau of Mines and the Geological Survey entered upon a program designed to expedite mining of these minerals from the Black Hills area of South Dakota. The program involved napping, sampling, and drilling of many pegmatite dikes in the southern portion of the Black Hills and beneficiation conducted in the field and in the Bureau of Mines laboratories at Rapid City, S. Dak., Rolla, Mo., Salt Lake City, Utah, and College Park, Md. This report describes the occurrence and sampling of the Beecher No. 2 pegmatite, which was investigated as part of the general pegmatite study in South Dakota. Investigation of the Beecher No. 2 pegmatite was started on November 20, 1943, and terminated in the spring of 1944. During this period, the Bureau of Mines took a series of trench samples across the pegmatite at the surface for grain-count studies and chemical analyses. The Geological Survey mapped the geology of the deposit after it was exposed by trenching and stripping.

Jan 1, 1950

By William H. Lesser

A recent survey of pumping plants in the anthracite region of Pennsyl¬vania showed that more than 90 percent of the pumps in use are the horizontal centrifugal types (1).2/ This report on the design and operation of centrifugal pumps should be helpful to engineers of the region who must select pumps that are best suited to particular pumping conditions in anthracite mines. Before a centrifugal mine pumping plant is designed, the special features of the pumps that may be used should be considered, especially when low repair costs and continuous operation during flood periods are prerequisites, and when acid mine water is to be pumped. Two important advantages of a centrifugal pump are that the flow is continuous and that it can be throttled without developing excessive pressure or overloading its driving unit.

Jan 1, 1950

By A. C. Johnson, es Hol, E. O. Binyon

"INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARYThe tungsten properties of Lincoln Mines, Inc., and North Tem Flute Mining and Development Co. were first explored by the Bureau of Mines in 1942. Work on the project comprised trenching, sampling, a small amount of road and trail construction, and a small amount of core drilling. From April 13 to December 10, 1944, additional diamond drilling was done by the Bureau of Mines to test the lateral and downward extensions of the various tactite zones along the contact south of the Lincoln mine, including the property of the North Tem Piute Mining & Development Co.Claims leased by the Lincoln Mines, Inc., are in secs. 25 and 36, T. 3 S., R. 56 E.; secs. 30 and 31, T. 3 S., R. 57 E.: and sec. 1, T. 4 S., R 56 E., M. D. B. & M., in the Tem Piute Mining District, near the north end of the Timpahute Range in west central Lincoln County, Nev. D. B. Fegles is president of Lincoln Mines, Inc. and general offices are in the Wesley Temple Building, Minneapolis, Minn.In June 1945, the Atolia Mining Co. leased the property and purchased the mill and mining equipment from Lincoln Mines, Inc. P. R. Bradley is president of the Atolia Mining Co., whose offices are in the Crocker Building, San Francisco, Calif. This company surrendered the lease on the property on September 30, 1948. The property owners are continuing operations and are now engaged in building a 20-ton mill.The claims of the North Tern Flute Mining & Development Cc. are in sec. 1, T. 4 S., R. 56 E., M. D. B. & M. Merle F. Schofield is president of the company and maintains an office at Hike, Nev. These claims were leased by H. P. Laslett, of the Utah Nevada Mining Co., in 1945 and by the Atolia Mining Co. in 1946. The owners are now doing some exploratory work."

Jan 1, 1950

By A. J. Kraemer

This report is one of a series dealing with oil-shale-operations in foreign countries visited and studied by Bureau of Mines oil-shale technologists within the past 4 years. Many oil-shale deposits have been discovered in Brazil and studied with various degrees of thoroughness. In this report the major emphasis is upon the oil-shale concessions of Companhia Nacional de Oleos Mineraes, in the River Valley of the State of Sao Paulo, because this oil-shale deposit is one of the most promising in Brazil for large-scale utilization for the manufacture of liquid fuels and other products of oil-shale processing, and because the opportunity was afforded to examine the concession area and to study mining, retorting, and. refining operations on these shales. Results of detailed analyses at the Oil Shale Research and Development Laboratories of the United States Bureau of Mines, Laramie, Wyo., are reported, Analyses and other date dealing with other oil-shale deposits in Brazil have been compiled from many sources. As many data have been reported as could be correlated to indicate the range of variation of the several types of shale end similar material. The oil-shale deposits in Brazil differ widely in size, richness of the shale, and of the oil. Some deposits are situate& more favorably for exploitation than others.

Jan 1, 1950

By George W. Heim

Before and during World War II, the Bureau of Mines investigated a large number of ore deposits in the United States and Alaska in a search for domestic sources of strategic minerals. Deposits chosen for development included those expected to contain metals of importance in the successful prosecution of the war. This report describes the work performed and results obtained in developing the Daggett Chief manganese deposit near Manila, Daggett County, Utah (fig. 1), during 1941. The work comprised mapping and a study of the geology by the Federal Geological Survey, and bulldozer and hand trenching, sinking of two shafts, and sampling by the Bureau of Mines. Work was started April 17, 1941, and was completed June 28, 1941. Two bulk samples for metallurgical testing were taken.

Jan 1, 1950

By Homer J. Ballinger

A multiple drill carriage or "jumbo," which is believed to be unique in both design and performance, was constructed and has been in use for the past year at the Bureau of Mines experimental oil-shale mine near Rifle, Colo. This jumbo mounts four long feed percussion drills and is so designed that two men can operate all four drills. Before the jumbo was placed in operation, a minimum of eight man-shifts was required to drill 72 fifteen-foot holes in headings 60 feet wide and 27 feet high. The sane round is now drilled by two men in about 6 hours. Over 500 feet of drilling per man shift is easily and consistently accomplished. Use of the jumbo has resulted in a 75 percent reduction in drilling labor and a substantially lower drilling cost.

Jan 1, 1950

By F. A. Rutledge

Mercury deposits were discovered in 1941 in the sedimentary rocks of the Cinnabar Crook area, near the head of the Holitna River drainage in southwestern Alaska, by Russell Schaefer and Harvey Wincholl of Sloitmut, Alaska. High-grade float was found in both Canary Gulch and Cinnabar Gulch, and indications of other deposits wore found in Aldor and Broken Shovel Gulches. Schaefer and Winchell's exploration in 1942 and 1943 revealed placer deposits of cinnabar along Canary Gulch. During prospecting on Canary Gulch, 3,600 pounds of ore was recovered from the detrital material on the Lucky Day lode at the head of the gulch. When retorted, this ore was reported by the owners to have produced 26 flacks of quicksilver. During the summer of 1943, Wallace M. Cady and Charles A. Hickcox, of the U. S. Geological Survey, spent 4 weeks mapping and investigating the area. Bruce I. Thomas and Harold C. Pierce, mining engineers of the Bureau of Mines, examined and sampled several deposits in September 1943. Following their preliminary examination, in view of the exceptionally high-grade cinnabar present, additional investigation by the Bureau of Mines was recommended. A program of trenching, test pitting, and sampling to delimit the deposits was completed during the summer of 1947 under the direction of the author.

Jan 1, 1950

By Frank J. Wiebelt

In its efforts to maintain production of tungsten during the recent war period, the Bureau of Mines explored certain parts of the properties of the Atolia Mining Co. in San Bernardino County, Calif., by diamond drilling. Owing to past production record and other available data, the area was considered attractive for possible development of new ore bodies. Scheelite occurs in narrow veins ranging in width from a fraction of an inch to several feet. The veins are in quartz monzonite in a zone 2 miles long and 500 feet wide. Production from the district was reported to have been over 1,000,000 units of W03. Twelve diamond-drill holes, totaling 5,056 feet, were drilled by the Bureau of Mines in the vicinity of the Papoose, Papoose No. 5, Amity, and Union mines, the tailings pond, and the "Old Spud Patch." The work began in August 1943 and was completed in June 1944. This publication briefly describes the history and deposits of the district and gives full details of the work performed by the Bureau.

Jan 1, 1950

By M. H. Chetrick

Since 1945, a commercial-scale pilot plant for the gasification of lignite has been operated by the Bureau of Mines at Grand Forks, N. Dak. The description, operation, and objectives of this pilot plant have already been described in previous reports (6, 7, 8). Although the experimental data obtained from the operation of the externally heated retort have been tabulated and summarized (1, 7), few studies have been made in the correlation of these data. The purpose of the present investigation was to review the data taken in tests of the lignite-gasification pilot plant and to correlate the gas-composition data in terms of their basic factors.

Jan 1, 1950

By Raymond G. Travis

This report describes coal-mining methods, power requirements, coal production and distribution, and coal resources of the Bull Mountain coal field in Musselshell and Yellowstone Counties, south-central Montana Investigations in the field, were conducted by Bureau of Mines engineers The report contains a short summary of the geology and geography of the field and discusses the following information secured during the field study: Method of mining practiced at each mine, including a description of each phase of the mining cycle. Coal produced and its distribution at each mine. Power requirements and the consumption of electricity per ton of coal produced by mines. Number of non employed by mines, and the production per man per shift underground and the over-all production per man employed. Estimates of future production and power requirements for the field as a whole. This information should be of benefit to any company or individual planning the development of now coal mines in the area or the expansion of present operations.

Jan 1, 1950

By James E. Bell

Quartz crystals occur on a farm in the vicinity of Laurel Fork, Carroll County, Va., in abundance over a large area, This has been known for several years, but no work had been clone, up to the Bureau of Mines examination in 1943, to determine the amount of crystalline quartz of usable quality. Field exploration was undertaken throughout the month of June 1943.

Jan 1, 1950

By Irving Hartmann

1. Under the conditions of the tests described herein, the proper use of an incombustible stemming plug of the type discussed prevented ignitions of gas in all tests during the firing of 21 single shots of permissible explosive in cool. In two tests with multiple blasting (four and five shots each) no ignitions resulted. 2. The results of a few tests in this investigation and of numerous tests made previously indicate that fire-clay stemming of the same weight as an incombustible plug provides about the same degree of protection as the plug against gas ignitions during blasting of coal by permissible explosives. 3. The hazard of gas ignition on firing charges of non-permissible 40-percent gelatin dynamite in coal was reduced but not eliminated when the shot holes were stemmed with one or two incombustible plugs or with an equivalent weight of fire clay. 4. On the basis of this investigation, the Bureau of Mines considers the proper use of incombustible stemming plugs of the design tested, under the conditions of the tests described in this paper, to be of equivalent safety as the same weight of fire-clay stemming. This report does not constitute approval or disapproval of the incombustible stemming plugs by the Bureau of Mines. 5. The test data indicate that misfired charges in shot holes stemmed with the incombustible stemming plug cannot be disposed of with certainty by the procedure recommended by the manufacturer. In this investigation the misfired charges failed to detonate in 30 percent of the trials.

Jan 1, 1950

By J. E. Zeilinger, John Nagy, Irving Hartman

"INTRODUCTION Experience and research have shown that an effective way to reduce structural damage from explosions is to provide adequate pressure-relief vents in the walls of equipment and buildings within which explosions might occur. In general, free or unrestricted openings represent the most efficient type of vent. However, in many manufacturing operations it is impractical to use free vents, and it becomes necessary to cover the openings with diaphragms or blow-out disks, hinged panels, or other devices, in order to give protection against weather changes, to prevent the efflux of dusts or vapors from equipment during normal operations, or for other reasons.A few data on the pressure-relieving capacities of hinged panels and a paper diaphragm were published in Bureau of Mines Report of Investigations 3924,4/ which covered the first phase of the dust-explosion venting study made by the Bureau. The present report describes recent experiments that were made to determine the relative effectiveness of an unrestricted vent and 22 types of closures, including various paper, cloth, and metal-foil diaphragms, hinged doors or panels, and several kinds of scored and unscored glass panes.The tests showed that many of the vent closures were effective in releasing the explosions rapidly during their incipient stage, so that the development of destructive pressures was prevented. Vents of this type should prove useful in safeguarding industrial equipment from severe explosion damage. The experiments disclosed that the venting capacities of the diaphragms are approximately inversely proportional to their static bursting strengths."

Jan 1, 1950