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By Robert J. Hundhausen, GEORGE M. GRISMER

This circular describes the methods and costs of deepening the Silver Summit three-compartment shaft in the Coeur d'Alene mining region of Idaho. A noteworthy rate of advance was achieved at this operation by the successful use of a mechanical shaft-mucking machine. The Silver Summit mine is 1 mile west from the town of Osburn, Idaho, via U. S. Highway 10. The adit-level portal of the mine is on the south slope of the Coeur d'Alene River Valley at an altitude of 2,700 feet. The Silver Summit shaft is 6,000 feet from the portal. In past years this shaft had been sunk from the adit level to a depth of 1,500 feet. During 1946 the Polaris Mining Co, deepened it to 3,095 feet. The work was done under a co- operative development agreement between the Silver Summit Mining Co. and the Polaris Mining Co.

Jan 1, 1948

By Alton B. Cook, G. B. Shea

"INTRODUCTION In February 1945, Captain (now Commodore) W. G. Greeman, U. S. N., Director, Naval Petroleum and Oil 3hale Reserves, requested the Bureau of Mines to assist the Navy in its wartime development of Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 1, Elk Hills field, Calif., to assure adequate supplies of petroleum products in the Pacific theatre. Unit Operation 4/,engineers desired pressure volume-temperature and viscosity data on the reservoir oil in the shallow oil zone to augment data previously obtained for the purpose of calculating reservoir performance and oil reserves. Accordingly, arrangements were approved by the Operating Committee far, the Bureau of Mines to proceed with a program of field sampling and laboratory determinations designed to obtain the desired information.To carry out the assignment, the Bureau transferred the necessary person¬nel, subsurface pressure, temperature, and sampling instruments, and laboratory equipment for analyzing subsurface oil samples from the Petroleum Experiment Station, Bartlesville, Okla., and the San Francisco, Calif., office and set up a temporary field headquarters in the Elk Hills. The program of work as out-lined by Unit Operation required the 6 months period March-August 1945 to complete during which time individual reports comprising data on pressure-volume-temperature relationships and reservoir oil viscosities as determined on subsurface oil samples and recombined oil and gas samples for 5 selected wells were submitted to Unit Operation.This report is a summary compilation of the data contained in the original reports supplemented by correlations of some of the physical properties of the reservoir oil with the A.P.I. gravities of the produced oil. The report also includes material-balance calculations relative to one of the oil horizons in the shallow zone. The Bureau of Mines believes that publication of the results of these analyses is a worthwhile contribution to the petroleum literature and of particular interest to the California industry."

Apr 1, 1947

By C. W. Davis

This paper is the second of a series of progress reports on a study, of the hydrometallurgy of manganese which is being conducted in an endeavor to make possible utilization of the large deposits of low-grade domestic manganese ores that occur in several States. There are at least four processes in which a knowledge of the action of SO2 gas on manganese oxides at elevated temperatures may prove of value. One ,of these involves dissolution of manganese from ores. The Bureau of Mines has investigated the hydrometallurgy of manganese by a process in which SO2 gas, a waste product at many smelters, is passed into water to form a solvent for manganese. Although Several manganese minerals acre readily dissolved, rhodochrosite (MnCO3) was attacked but superficially.§. Recent experiments have shown that a roast at 650 to 900°C converts the manganese of rhodochrosite to a form that is quickly dissolved by a weak SO2 solution. Introduction of smelter gases containing as much as 5 per cent SO2 during such a roast would not add much to the cost of the operation and might result in the formation of considerable water-soluble manganese sulphate.

Jan 1, 1930

Locating subsurface conductive solutions is important for many applications, including in situ mining and environmental protection. Drilling boreholes for sampling is expensive and can increase contamination by mixing water from different aquifers. Various noninvasive geophysical methods are available, but previous comparisons were hampered by different methods being used at different sites or at different times. The U.S. Bureau of Mines (USBM) compared methods at one site using the same conductive solution to improve the reliability of the comparisons. Locating deep (> 100 m) solutions is most difficult, SO the USBM selected methods applicable for such depths. Objective Improve the ability to locate subsurface conductive solutions by evaluating and comparing applicable geophysical methods. Approach The experiment was performed cooperatively with other agencies to increase the number of methods studied. The USBM, the University of Arizona, Sandia National Laboratories, and Zonge Engineering and Research, Inc., conducted cooperative field tests of six electromagnetic (EM) geophysical methods to compare their effectiveness in detecting salt water brine of conductivity 3.6 S/m collecting at the water table, 157 m subsurface. The brine was injected through two boreholes. The test site was the University's San Xavier experimental mine near Tucson, AZ. Geophysical surveys using surface and surface-borehole, time-domain electromagnetics (TEM); surface controlled-source audiofrequency magnetotellurics (CSAMT); surface magnetic field ellipticity, surface-borehole, frequency-domain electromagnetics (FEM); and crosshole FEM were conducted before and during brine injection. A total of 110,000 I. of brine was injected over one week, but the effective target volume of brine was much smaller because of mixing with ground water and dispersion.

Jan 1, 1994

By J. H. Jacobs

The first authorization, in November 1940, was for a plant of only several hundred pounds capacity at Boulder City, Nev. Improvements in the process and subsequent additions to some sections have enabled the plant to produce more than 2,000 pounds of manganese per day for substantial periods. By the time pilot-plant operations were suspended in June 1945, over 1,500,000 pounds of metal had been produced. The future of electrolytic manganese production obviously depends not only on satisfactory development of methods but on availability of raw material and demonstration of valuable uses. Investigations of manganese-ore deposits in this country, made since 1938 by the Bureau of Mines, have revealed large amounts of ore suitable for making electrolytic manganese. At first the pilot plant was operated on ore from the Three Kids mine near Las Vegas, Nev. After practical features of the process had been worked out, other ores from throughout the United States were tested in the pilot plant. The purpose of this paper is to compare the results obtained on the following ores: Three Kids; Ladd mine, Tracy, Calif.; Chamberlain, S. Dak., nodules; and ore from Metals Reserve stockpiles at Deming, N. Mex.; Cushman, Ark.; and Philipsburg, Mont.

Dec 1, 1947

By E. D. Eastman

"The factors that determine the efficiency of reduction of iron oxides by gaseous reducing agents may be considered in two classes; those which effect the equilibrium between the reacting substances end their products, and those which affect the rete of reaction. Both sets are of prectical importance, the former as influencing the maximum possible efficiency and the latter as determining what fraction of the maximum yield may be readily or profitably obtained. In addition, the thermal changes attending the reduction greatly affect the chance of successful industrial application of any such process, and knowledge of them is necessary for the intelligent design of apparatus and control of the reaction. Some aspects of each of these three divisions of the problem are discussed below.I. The Maximum Reducing Power of Fuel Gases on the Oxides of IronsThe gases that heve been considered specifically in this work are coal gas, water gas and producer gas, typical analyses” of which are given in Table 1 Of the various hydrocarbons represented in Table 1, (several being grouped or averaged as C2R4), methane is the only gas assumed to be capable of existence at appreciable pressures under the conditions of interest here. The equilibria in the several systems which may ensue when one of the above gases is allowed to react with the iron oxides, may therefore be represented in the most general case by equations of the type of the following arbitrarily chosen ones:"

Jun 1, 1923

By Daniel E. Sullivan

This Bureau of Mines publication examines the potential impact on minerals of the tariff and nontariff agreements that resulted from the Tokyo Round of the Multilateral Trade Negotiations, which were conducted under the auspices of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. These agreements will affect minerals by reducing tariff levels and by changing rules by which they are traded internationally.

Jan 1, 1981

By F. W. Brown, F. C. Gibson

"INTRODUCTION There is urgent need for a satisfactory permissible multiple-shot blasting unit capable of firing 10 detonators in series and safe for use in underground mining where a. gas-ignition hazard may exist.. As there is at present no entirely satisfactory permissible unit of either the battery or generator type, tile described capacitor-battery type has been developed. Consideration of the Bureau of Nines approval schedule pertaining to the generator and magne to-type units and of the electrical characteristics of the unit described in this report indicate that this unit should meet Bureau of Mines permissible requirements.This report gives a detailed description of the design and operation and results of tests to determine safety of operation in gassy atmospheres.DESIGN AND OPERATION OF UNITOperation of the vibrator-type multiple-shot blasting unit is based upon utilization of the discharge energy from a capacitor charged to a given. voltage and having capacitance adequate to store enough energy to initiate 10 detonators in series. The primary source of energy is a 4-volt cap lamp battery such as is carried for illumination on the person of underground workers in nearly all mines. As this battery is already available and is recharged daily it is considered to be a reliable and convenient source of energy for a blasting unit. Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of the circuit for an improved unit, and figures 2 and 3 are views of the experimental unit. The battery potential is applied through a radio-type synchronous vibrator (8) to an 8-volt center-tapped primary of a small transformer (9) having a high-voltage center-tapped secondary. The vibrator introduces an alternating low-voltage potential into the primary and mechanically produces full-wave, rectified, pulsating, direct current from the secondary. A buffing condenser (11) across the secondary gives the proper wave form for long vibrator life: a resistor (12) its in series with this condenser across the total secondary to protect the transformer in case of• failure .of this capacitor. A voltage divider (10) with an adjustable slider permits accurate adjustment of the potential applied to the high-capacity firing condenser (5)."

Oct 1, 1947

By R. W. Huber

Three arc-melted ingots, two of a titanium-7 percent manganese alloy and the third of unalloyed titanium, were forged and rolled into 3/4-inch plate; comparative data were obtained on these processes. The finished plate, part of which was used by the Naval Bureau of Ordnance, was tested for mechanical and other properties. These properties were correlated with sponge purity, forging technique, rolling temperature, and cooling rate from the rolling temperature. For the alloy material, transformation data were obtained, and their age-hardening characteristics were studied. The temperature-impact relationship was established for rolled sections from all three ingots. INTRODUCTION Arc-melted ingots of unalloyed titanium and a titanium-manganese alloy were fabricated into plate under closely controlled conditions by personnel of the Metals and Alloys Section, Physical Metallurgy Branch, Bureau of Mines, College Park, Md. This program was cosponsored by the Naval Bureau of Ordnance. Bureau of Mines interest lay in correlating the processing procedures with the mechanical properties of the finished plate.

Jan 1, 1955

By W. H. Ode, W. A. Selvig

Briefly, this swelling test consists in heating 1 gram of pulverized coal in a silica crucible over a gas flame under prescribed conditions to form a coke button which is compared in size and shape with a series of standard profiles numbered 1 to 9. These profiles are intended to cover the size and shape of buttons obtained from coals covering a wide range in plastic properties. The number of the standard profile with which the maximum cross-sectional area of the button most nearly corresponds is recorded as the swelling index. Although the swelling test showed poor relationships with the various tests that were used for measuring expansion or contraction of coal during carbonization, it gave indications of having value in measuring free-swelling and coking properties of coals when burned on fuel tests. An opportunity to investigate this occurred when an engineering company reported pronounced differences in burning characteristics on grates of various shipments of Pocahontas coal. Some of these coals gave trouble by swelling excessively and clogging the grate. Samples were obtained, and it was found that the troublesome coals gave radically higher free-swelling numbers than did the coals that performed satisfactorily. Also, it was found that the free-swelling index test gave better differentiation between coals than could be obtained from the coke buttons from the standard volatile-matter test or iron agglutination-value results. The results of the free-swelling test were confirmed by the Subcommittee on Plasticity and Swelling, Coal, a special group of the Subcommittee, under the chairmanship of R.A. Shuman, worked along with the test method. Estberg, Limacher, and Shuman of the Battelle Memorial Institute investigated the various factors affecting the test and found that the swelling index was a good indication of the suitability of coal for performance on residential-type stokers from the swelling characteristics of the coal. Data were presented that also showed that the index was helpful in the selection of coal for industrial underfeed stokers.

Feb 1, 1948

By D. Harrington

Advocates of health and safety in mining have found themselves confronted in recent years with what might appear to be contradictory procedures with regard to dust occurrence in mines and what appear to be suitable methods or measures to give the mines and mine workers a maximum measure of protection against dust. A concerted and relatively effective drive has been made to introduce rock dust into bituminous and lignitic coal mines to prevent or limit explosion and fire disasters, while an equally determined effort has been and is now being made to curb rock dust or to eliminate it from air in metal mines to prevent or at least limit the occurrence of miners' consumption and other diseases. Both procedures are logical even though the efforts appear to be of an opposing nature. While rock dusting has not been applied in coal mines nearly as universally or as effectively as could and should be done, nevertheless a careful analysis of the record of the past 10 years indicates that the amount of rock dusting that has been done has resulted in the saving of a minimum? of 200 lives annually certainly no small achievement. Largely but by no means wholly due to the use of rock dusting, the number of fatalities from explosions and fires in our coal mines in the last 4 years haw been reduced more than 75 percent as compared with the 4-year period 1911-15, the first years of the existence of the United States Bureau of Mines, which was brought into existence in 1910 largely to try to do something about reducing the disgracefully high fatality occurrence from explosion disasters in our coal mines. Hence, rock dusting has been given at least a. trial and has proved its effectiveness definitely.

Jan 1, 1937

By Jr. Oitto

A polyester-type resin and deformed-steel reinforcing bars (rebars) were used in to strengthen and to stabilize bolted, fractured wall rock along pas 1:'y. in a western gold mine. Reinforcing bars were placed in boreholes drilled into fractured rock and then were surrounded by resin pumped under pressure into the holes and intersecting fractures until the wall rock was thoroughly impregnated. Pumping and injection equipment and infusion procedures are described. Visual examinations for movement in bonded and adjacent unbonded rock were made for 3 years. Fractured walls containing resin-rebar installations were strengthened. The results suggest that resin-rebar support can be used advantageously and economically in repairing fractured or broken rock when compared with rock bolting or timbering.

Jan 1, 1965

By R. L. Grant

The Bureau of Mines developed two new gap-sensitivity methods for explosives, and especially permissible explosives, to overcome certain disadvantages of the present routine half-cartridge method. The revised methods are based on the statistical up-and-down method and give more useful measurements of the 50-percent' gap values than the nonstatistical routine method. The new methods use full cartridges and incorporate certain physical improvements such as the use of cardboard tubes for containing the explosives and coal dust gaps to simulate actual mining conditions. A total of 60 samples of permissible explosives were evaluated simultaneously with the 2 improved methods and with the half-cartridge method

Jan 1, 1967

BIBLIOGRAPHY Allen, C.A, Analyses of Utah Coals, United States Bureau of Mines Technical Paper 345, 1925, pp. 90. Allen, J.E. and E.M. Baldwin, Geology and Coal Resources of the Coos Bay Quadrangle, Oregon, Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries Bulletin 27, 1944, pp. 160. "Aluminum Boom Raises Productivity", Coal Age, Vol. 82, No.6, June, 1977, pp. 103.

Jan 1, 1978

By M. Paczkowski

The use of inert gas systems to extinguish mine fires has been the subject of research for some time in the United States. In some European countries, it is an established practice. Tests were conducted with the CMI Inert Gas System (CMI), which is being used by the Polish mining industry. This system utilizes a modified jet aircraft engine and afterburner as a compact source of combustion products with a very low (less than one percent) oxygen content. Water injected into the combustion products stream provides evaporative cooling and forms a mist with a high cooling capacity. The CMI system was used under controlled conditions to extinguish coal pile fires at the U. S. Bureau of Mines Experimental Mine in Bruceton, Pennsylvania. The test results show that the CMI system can be used conveniently to extinguish fires quickly and to maintain an inert atmosphere in the fire zone to prevent re-ignition.

Jan 1, 1982

By Raja V. Ramani, Robert L. Frantz

"The U.S. Bureau of Mines (USBM) established on August 15, 1983, a Generic Mineral Technology Center (GTC) for Respirable Duet within the Mining and Mineral Resources Research Institutes (MRIs) at The Pennsylvania State University (PSU) and West Virginia University (WVU) in association with participating MRIs at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of Minnesota (UMN). The primary goal of the Center is to reduce the incidence and severity of respirable dust disease through researching and advancing the fundamental understanding of all aspects of respirable duet associated with mining and milling and the interaction of dust and lungs. Other Center activities include the training of engineers and scientists, graduate students and undergraduate students through their respective institutions, and the technology transfer to the industry. The Center also serves as the reference center for publications in the respirable dust area.Exposure to respirable contaminants in mine atmospheres has long posed a serious hazard to miners. The control of these hazards, some of which can have sudden and catastrophic effects and some others, slow and long enduring consequences, has been a major concern for labor, management and government alike. This concern has manifested itself in four primary mechanisms of control -- (1) regulatory control through minimum standard setting by the passage of mine health and safety laws, (2) engineering control through design and operation of mines according to the best recommended practices, (3) interaction of dust and lung control through periodic physical examinations, wearing personal protection devices, etc., and (4) legal and social control through workmen's compensation laws for occupation related health deterioration.The stated objective of the Federal Mine Safety and Health laws is to ""... permit each miner the opportunity to work underground during the period of his entire adult working life with-out incurring any disability from pneumoconiosis or any other occupation-related disease ....""Significant progress has been made in lowering the dust levels in mines since the inception of the Bureau's respirable dust research program. It is generally agreed that mines are less dusty today than they were a decade ago. However, the most serious hazard for workers in the mining and minerals processing industries is still the exposure to respirable dust, and solutions to the problem of respirable dust disease remain to be found."

Aug 31, 1989

By John J. Henn

As part of the U.S. Department of the Interior programs on rutile, authorized by the Office of Emergency Preparedness in June 1967 under provisions of the Defense Production Act, the Bureau of Mines reviewed available literature on major proposed processes for producing rutile substitutes. The processes are grouped according to the major processing step, and important operating features are described. Sixty-one references are cited.

Jan 1, 1970

By R. V. Ramani, R. L. Frantz

"The U.S. Bureau of Mines (USBM) established on August 15, 1983, a Generic Mineral Technology Center (GTC) for Respirable Dust within the Mining and Mineral Resources Research Institutes (MRls) at The Pennsylvania State University (PSU) and West Virginia University (WVU) in association with participating MRis at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of Minnesota (UMN). The primary goal of the Center is to reduce the incidence and severity of respirable dust disease through researching and advancing the fundamental understanding of all aspects of respirable ~~9t associated with mining and milling and the interaction of dust and lungs. Other Center activities include the training of engineers and scientists, graduate students and undergraduate students through their respective institutions, and the technology transfer to the industry. The Center also serves as the reference center for publications in the respirable dust area. IntroductionExposure to respirable contaminants in mine atmospheres has long posed a serious hazard to miners. The control of these hazards, some of which can have sudden and catastrophic effects and some others, slow and long enduring consequences, has been a major concern for labor, management and government alike. This concern has manifested itself in four primary mechanisms of control -- (1) regulatory control through minimum standard setting by the passage of mine health and safety laws, (2) engineering control through design and operation of mines according to the best recommended practices, (3) interaction of dust and lung control through periodic physical examinations, wearing personal protection devices, etc., and (4) legal and social control through workmen's compensation laws for occupation related health deterioration.The stated objective of the Federal Mine Safety and Health laws is to"" permit each miner the opportunity to work underground during the period of his entire adult working life without incurring any disability from pneumoconiosis or any other occupation-related disease ."" Significant progress has been made in lowering the dust levels in mines since the inception of the Bureau's respirable dust research program. It is generally agreed that mines are less dusty today than they were a decade ago. However, the most serious hazard for workers in the mining and minerals processing industries is still the exposure to respirable dust, and solutions to the problem of respirable dust disease remain to be found."

Mar 1, 1989

By O. C. Blade

This report on the properties of motor fuels sold through service stations in the United states was made in accordance with a cooperative agreement between the American Petroleum Institute and the Bureau of Mines of the United states Department of the Interior. This paper is a continuation of a series made in cooperation with the Coordinating Fuel Research (CFR) Committee of the Coordinating Research Council (CRC), Inc. The first of this series of reports presented data on motor gaso1ines sold during the winter of 1935-36, and succeeding reports described motor gasolines sold during the summers and winters to and including the summer of 1941.3/ No reports were made on motor gasolines sold during the winter of 1941-42 and during the summer of 1942. However, starting with the winter of 1942-43, the semiannual reports were resumed

Jan 1, 1948

By F. A. Rutledge

The W. E. Dunkle mine, sometimes called the Costello Creek coal mine, is 8 miles N. 20° W. of Colorado Station on the Alaska Railroad. The presence of coal in this area has been known since the district was extensively prospected for gold between 1911 and 1915. At that time, coal from this deposit was used by miners for blacksmithing. The increased demand for coal resulting from government defense projects in Alaska led to exploitation of this deposit in 1941. The inability of Alaska coal mines to supply the quantity of coal required by public and private consumers and by the armed forces in Alaska was responsible for establishment by the Army of the Coal Procurement Section of its Alaska Department. It proposed to investigate the deposits and to expedite production from the Alaskan coal fields. The Bureau of Mines closely cooperated in this program. The quality of the Dunkle coal and the favorable location of the deposit caused it to be one of the properties chosen for investigation under a joint Army-Bureau of Mines-Geological Survey program.

Jan 1, 1948