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By E. D. Gardner

From the standpoint of tonnage and dollar value copper is the most important nonferrous metal mined in North America. The opening of copper mines has had an important bearing on the development and settlement of many sections of the continent. The prosperity of many of the mining States or provinces depends directly upon the copper-mining industry. Normally, about 35,000 men are employed in the copper mines, mills, and smelters of the United States. The United States is the most important producer of copper among the nations; more copper is mined in North America than in any other continent, and for many years the United States alone produced about half of the copper of the world. During the last 10 years increasing production in South America and Africa has reduced the relative importance of North America and the United States.

Jan 1, 1938

Commodities statistics and other information are available through the following three systems: Internet Access: To acccess the USBM Gopher server on Internet, connect to: gopher.usbm.gov port 70, using gopher client software. Or contact the Systems Administrator for technical questions: Matt Klevemann, 412-892-6499 (klevemmc@miner.usbm.gov) These USBM materials are available on Internet, with more to come in the future: Publications and other research findings, including this bimonthly publications list, newsletters, tech transfer updates, enviromental technology research, health and safety information. USBM software products Media materials and speeches. Mines Data: Computer bulletin board. Log on via modem through 202/501-0373, or call 202/501-0406 for technical assistance. Mines FaxBack. Return fax service. 1. Use the touch-tone handset attached to your fax machine's telephone jack. (ISDN [digital] telephones cannot be used with fax machines.) 2. Dial 202/219-3644. 3. Listen to the menu options and punch in the number of your selection, using the touch-tone telephone. 4. After completing your selection, press the start button on your fax machine.

Jan 1, 1995

This Bureau of Mines report and its companion report (Information Circular 9142) have been prepared to assist in the preparation of prefeasibility type estimates for capital and operating costs of beneficiation of various types of mineral occurrences using current technology. The handbook provides a convenient costing procedure based on the summation of the costs for the unit processes required in any particular mining or mineral processing operation. The costing handbook consists of a series of costing sections, each corresponding to a specific mineral processing unit process. Contained within each section is the methodology to estimate either the capital or operating cost for that unit process. The unit process sections may be used to generate, in January 1984 dollars, costs through the use of either costing curves or formulae representing the prevailing technology. The mineral processing handbook includes individual cost estimation sections for unit operations associated with comminution, beneficiation, solid-liquid separation, hydrometallurgy, and special applications as well as infrastructure and plant general and administrative costs. When using this system for estimating cost data for a mineral processing facility or for checking or verifying processing costs from an existing facility, a minimum amount of background information is necessary.

Jan 1, 1987

By H. W. Gillett

This bulletin is issued by the Bureau of Mines as a contribution to the increase of safety and efficiency in the preparation and utilization of the mineral resources in the United States. Notable among the drains on these resources are the demands made by the nonferrousmetal industries, and in these the losses occasioned in melting brass and bronze are worthy of particular attention. This statement will be better appreciated by a consideration of the size of the brass industry. MAGNITUDE OF THE BRASS INDUSTRY. According to the Thirteenth Census, in 1909 there were in the United States 1,021 fu-ms that dealt mainly in brass and bronze. This total included jobbing foundries, manufacturing plants that both cast and machine a brass or bronze product, and rolling mills, but did not include iron foundries having nonferrous departments nor the numerous large brass-foundry departments of manufacturing plants that produce the castings used in the manufacture of electrical apparatus, cash registers, pumps, and the thousands of machines that require brass castings for their construction. Penton's Foundry List for 1910 gives about 1,150 exclusively nonferrous foundries and about 2,300 iron or steel foundries that also melt brass. If the rolling mills and. jobbing foundries in manufacturing plants be included, and if due credit be given to the rapid growth of the industry in the last few years, largely through the stimulation of the automobile busi¬ness, it is probable that not less than 3,600 plants are to-day melting brass or bronze.

Jan 1, 1916

By M. J. Ankeny

This is a study of 58 fatal haulage accidents investigated by Federal coal-mine inspectors during the period January - June 1951. The information presented in this circular was obtained by analyzing fatal haulage accidents in 33 bituminous-coal producing counties representing 11 States. The physical conditions represent a cross section off producing coal beds. Mining and transportation methods vary, from those of small hand-loading mines to those of large modern mechanized operations. These data are thought to be representative of haulage conditions within the bituminous-coal mining industry and are submitted to follow up the Information Circular 7604 ?Analysis of Haulage Fatalities in Bituminous-Coal Mines - 1950.? Coal-mine haulage ranks second as a cause of coal-mine fatalities, and the problem of haulage safety is complex. It is subject to constant change and is comprised of numerous influencing variables, which are not always obvious. The solution to this problem will not come through the application of any standard formula or mechanical approach since the inherent factors are strongly influenced by the human equation, and the chain of circumstances is further affected by expediency.

Jan 1, 1951

By F. K. Shelton, J. C. Stah, Ruth E. Churchward

A study of the hydrometallurgy and electrowinning of cobalt from various domestic ores has been in progress at the Boulder City, Nevada, Experiment Station since February 1940. Previous reports covering certain phases of this investigation have been published. This report covers the research and pilot-plant work on the production of cobalt metal from cobalt-copper ores from the initial experimental work on crude ore through continuous operation. The ore types were from the Blackbird District, Lemhi County, Idaho. The initial tests were made with concentrated ore which was received by air mail and these experiments were expanded both in size and scope. After the laboratory was continued, improved, and extended tests were reported. Sufficiently advanced, a continuously operated plant producing 250 pounds of electrolytic cobalt per day was operated from June 15 through July 15, 1944.

Jan 1, 1948

By John L. Nieber

This information circular describes a computer program called VARSAT2D, a comprehensive unsaturated fluid flow simulator developed by the U.S. Bureau of Mines. VARSAT2D solves for either a vertical or horizontal, transient or steady-state solution in variably saturated, heterogeneous, anisotropic porous media using the Galerkin finite-element approach. Simplex triangular elements are used. Moisture retention characteristics are described by specifying either the Brooks and Corey, Brutsaert, or Van Genuchten power functions, with hysteresis described using the Maulem independent domain model. Boundary conditions may include any combination of time-varying seepage, pressure along solution domain, boundaries and/or at internal node points, unit hydraulic gradient at the lower boundary, and a uniform source and/or sink. This program should be a welcome addition for mining and environmental hydrologists, researchers, and engineers interested in modeling unsaturated fluid flow.

Jan 1, 1994

By F. E. Diebold

The wastewater-treatment system of the Anaconda Mining Co., at its Butte, MT., operation has been physically and chemically characterize modeled on a computer and investigated with respect to alternate systems for economic heavy metal recovery. The system involves lime addition to a mixture of acid underground copper sulfide mine water, acid effluent water from the iron induced precipitation of copper from acid leach solution and basic suspensions of solid effluent from a concentrator plant. Experimental chemical analysis and predictive computer calculations shows that the monosulfllte and disulfllte complexes of transition metals (Iron II being dominant) and alkaline earths are 40% of the total dissolved metal load of both acid streams. The suspended solids (30% by weight) in the basic concentrator slurries are dominated by quartz and pyrite and also contain kaolinite muscovite, biotite and undissolved lime. The mixture of these three streams result's in major reductions in concentrations of Al, Cu, Fe, Mg, Mn, Sir and Zn, and a pH >7 with calcium, sodium, potassium, and sulfate being the major dissolved ions. The treatment system has been simulated in the laboratory and accurately modeled on a computer. The computer program, an altered REDEQL-EPAK, is capable of accurately predicting the amount of lime required to reach a desired effluent water. Preliminary research has indicated the usefulness of electroprecipitation as a means of recovering the valuable metal load and providing an EPA acceptable effluent.

Jan 1, 1982

By J. L. Wiley

THIS REVIEW contains abstracts of the technical literature and patents dealing with the history, development, and commercial application of the Bergius and related processes for the hydrogenation, under greater than atmospheric pressures, of liquid and solid carbonaceous materials such as coal, lignite, their distillation and extraction products, pitches and tars, and petroleum and its distillation residues. An attempt has been made to include abstracts of all the published information on this process and of as much of the captured foreign documents and reports compiled therefrom as could consistently be reviewed during the time allotted for the work. Contact with the current literature and patents and review of the foreign documents will be continued and the information will appear in Synthetic Liquid Fuels Abstracts, which is being issued bimonthly as a Bureau of Mines publication. The material in this review is divided in two sections-literature (part I) and patents (part II)-and each of these is arranged alphabetically by author or patentee with further chronological arrangement under each author or group of authors. Secondary authors and patentees as well as assignees are cross-indexed to the main entry. In serial articles or reports the complete series appears in the alphabetical arrangement according to the author of the first member of the series. Succeeding members as well as secondary authors are entered as cross references; Titles of the journals are used as the authors in anonymous references. By following such a procedure, an author index is not required. However, a detailed subject index and a numerical patent list by countries are given as part III.

Jan 1, 1950

By Henry E. Hilliard

The production, use, and emission of vanadium in the United States has been traced for the year 1991. Consumption was 3,300 tons2, exports 1,285 tons, and imports 2,013 tons. About 98% of production was used in metallurgy; the remainder was consumed in chemicals, including catalysts. Total emissions to the environment in 1991 were estimated at about 3,100 tons, including emissions due to the combustion of coal and petroleum products. Emissions resulting from the production of ferrovanadium were 130 tons, and emissions from the production of steel about 6 tons. Dissipative losses, defined as losses that occurred during use or as a result of wear, were estimated to be no more than 3 tons. Disposal losses were estimated to be about 4,600 tons. Most of these losses were steel products that contained 0.1% or less vanadium and mayor may not have been recycled. When these products are recycled by the steel industry, vanadium ends up in the steelmaking slag and does not return to vanadium use cycle. Worldwide emissions due to anthropogenic and natural sources were briefly reviewed. It was concluded that industrial emissions were about three times greater than emissions from natural sources.

Jan 1, 1994

By Jan Zwarcendyk

This study is primarily directed toward providing an understanding of the economic complexities associated with subsidence damage on the surface resulting from underground mining. Some of the pertinent theories on the physical stresses involved are reviewed, and both remedial measures and relevant laws in various countries are discussed. Part I (Chapters 1-3) is an historical overview of various aspects of subsidence problems (theoretical, remedial, and legal) during pre-World War I, between World Wars, and post-World War II, respectively. Part II (Chapters 4-9) presents a comprehensive analysis of the economic aspects of subsidence in relation to the following mining alternatives: (a) carrying out the lowest cost mining method without regard for any surface subsidence, (b) special mining techniques, (c) partial mining, (d) full recovery with stowing, and (e) sterilization or leaving the mineral unmined beneath selected areas. These alternatives are evaluated in terms of their measurable expenses.

Jan 1, 1971

By Will H. Coghill

The scope of this paper is such that it was deemed advisable to group the contents into several main sections. They are: Section 1. Geography and Geology. Section II. Historical Review. (a) Mining and Smelting in Alabama. (b) Milling. (c) Summary of Milling Research. These two sections are primarily a bibliography and summary of the research on the Birmingham Red Mountain ores up to the middle 1040's. Section III. Status of the Birmingham Iron Industry. This sect ion points out the extent to which the findings of the iron-ore research have been applied on a commercial scale. Also, a very brief description of the dependent and allied industries is included. The value of the Birmingham iron ore is greatly enhanced by the proximity of coal and dolomite. Thus the coal and coke industry and the dolomite industry are closely allied with and to a large extent dependent upon the possibilities of economic utilization of the Red Mountain iron ores. Section IV. Beneficiation Investigations of the Red Mountain Iron Ores. This is a record of the most recent, hitherto unpublished work of the Southern Experiment Station of the Federal Bureau of Mines, Tuscaloosa, Ala., on the chemical and physical composition not only of the Big seam but of most of the iron-bearing rock strata of Red Mountain.

Jan 1, 1946

By Eleanor Abshire

This bibliography is the second in a series that covers the current technical literature relating to the metallurgy of zirconium. The rapid advance in zirconium technology makes it mandatory that abstracts be prepared and compiled as soon as possible to have maximum value; therefore, the information in this volume is not arranged chronologically. As a service to research and production groups, succeeding bibliographies will be issued as new acquisitions accumulate in the Zirconium Information Center sponsored by the Department of the Navy, Bureau of Ships and the Bureau of Mines at the Bureau's Northwest Electrodevelopment Laboratory, Albany, Oreg. The initial volume, Information Circular 7771, Bibliography of Zirconium, covering 969 abstracted reports and 645 United States and foreign patents, was published in April 1957.

Jan 1, 1958

By D. E. FOCG, A. E. Wells

When the United States entered the World War governmental agencies found little definite knowledge available as to the exact capacity of each sulphuric acid plant in the United States to manufacture acid under the stress of a great emergency. It is true that on account of the demand for acid for the manufacture of munitions for the Allies, prior to the entrance of this country into the war, most of the acid plants near industrial centers in the Eastern and Northern States were running at or nearly their maximum capacity, but, . for various reasons, many plants in these States and plants in other districts were not. For a number of years statistics as to the production of acid by the plants of the country were compiled by the United States Geological Survey, but obviously such figures did not give information as to the maximum capacities that might be available for meeting the he.a vy war ·requirements, or as to the steps that would have to be taken to bt-ing these capacities into use. During the summer and early fall of 1917 various attempts were made to obtain the desired information, but no satisfactory or complete data were obtained. Late in 1917, under the authority granted to the Bureau of Mines by the explosives act, the Director of the Bureau of Mines directed A. E. Wells, metallurgist of the bureau, to uiake a complete survey of the situation. Mr. Wells personally conferred with officials of the acid companies and visited most of the acid plants in the North that are east of the Mississippi River. The information obtained through this personal survey, together with that obtained through the ready cooperation of the subcommittee on ncids, and the subcommittee on fertilizers of the Committee on Chemicals of the Council of National Defense, enabled the preparation of a report containing the desired data concerning the sulphuric acid industry. This report was made immediately available to the War Industries Board and to those offices in the War and Navy Depart- ments that were most directly concerned in planning the explosives program and in obtaining the necessary supplies to produce the explosives. Beginning with this survey and report, the sulphuric acid section of the war minerals investigations of the Bureau of Mines took an active part in all matters pertaining to the sulphuric acid industry during the remainder of the war. Mr. Wells, the chief of the section, was appointed an associate chief of the sulphur, pyrite, and sulphuric acid sections of the War Industries Board. .Also, by this direct contact with the War Industries Board, the data obtained by Messrs. R. R. Hornor, H. A. Buehler, a.nd 0. Lindstrom, who were in charge, for the bureau, of the investigations concerning the supplies of pyrite and sulphur, were constantly made available to all interested Government agencies. D. E. Fogg, of New York City, was appointed chemical engineer to the sulphuric acid section to make special investigations relating to the acid industry, especially the possible utilization, in an emergency, of those sources of raw material.not then being used. Mr. E. E. Corbett, of Brooklyn, N. Y., was appointed chemical engineer to make investigations concerned primarily ,vith the conservation of acid. Direct and intimate contact with the industry was had through the close cooperation with the committee on acids of the Chemical Alliance, this committee during the greater part of 1918 occupying rooms with the acid section of the bureau. With the ending of the war and the close o:f the active work of the acid section of the bureau, the suggestion was made by many interested parties that a bulletin be prepared giving some qf the fun. damental and most important facts regarding the sulphuric acid industry, including a discussion of the technical :features of the manufacture of acid. During the war the bureau received -a vast number of inquiries in regard to various phases of the industry, a.nd this fact also made such a bulletin seem desirable. Therefore, the present bulletin was prepared to cover the main facts in regard to the industry in this country, including a discussion of the supplies of sulphur-bearing raw materials, the situation of the acid plants, the principal points in regard to manufacturing processes, and the uses of the acid. No attempt has been ma.de to discuss at length the manufacturing processes, as details differ more or less at the different plants and in general are carefully guarded by the acid ·companies. A great deal of the data given in this bulletin may be found in various pub]ications, but this is the first publication in which such data have been assembled and made readily available. Most of the data were obtained directly from observation and from cooperating acid companies or from individuals who had been or are now engaged in acid manufacturing and were liberal and generous in making their information available for publication. Care has been exercised to publish no data that were obtained as confidential by the bureau's representatives. The average acid manufacturer may be already more or less acquainted with most of the information presented in this bulletin, yet it is believed that the bulletin will be of value to those who wish to obtain a. general review of the present condition, both the economic and technical, of the sulphuric acid industry in the United States.

Jan 1, 1920

By Wendell R. Peters

Shallow underground voids resulting from early coal mining and other resource recovery activities over the past several decades are now being recognized as a significant cause of ground subsidence problems in developing urban areas. Uncertain knowledge of abandoned coal mines also imposes potential hazards in coal excavation operations since water inundation or the release of methane gas is a pricnipal hazard when mine excavation operations break into an abandoned mine. U.S. Army requirements for an effective method for detecting and mapping subversive man-made tunnels have resulted in a surface-operated automatic earth resistivity survey system with a digital computer data processing system. Field tests aimed at demonstrating the system performance resulted in successful detection of tunnels having depth-to-diameter ratios up to 15 to 1. Under the sponsorship of the Bureau of Mines, a similar system was designed and constructed for use in the detection of coal mine workings. This report discusses the hardware and software aspects of the system and the application of the high-resolution earth resistivity method to the survey and mapping of abandoned coal mine workings. In the field tests reported, the targets of interest were both air-filled and water-filled workings.

Jan 1, 1980

These proceedings consist of an overview of the in situ mining research currently being carried out by the Bureau of Mines. The following papers emphasize two general aspects of the in situ mining method: the environment and productivity. Both areas are extremely important, particularly because in situ leach mining is a relatively new mining method from a commercial point of view. Topics covered include the restoration of ground water, the selection of lixiviants, in situ mining of commodities other than uranium, in situ mining costs, the application of resistance measurements to in situ mining, an acid leach mining case history, and the use of branched boreholes for in situ mining. A bibliography of Bureau of Mines publications on in situ mining is appended.

Jan 1, 1981

By Robert F. Randolph

Research on improving haulage truck safety, started by the U.S. Bureau of Mines, is being continued by its successors. This two-part article reports the orientation of the renewed research efforts, beginning with an update on accident data analysis, the role of multiple causes in these accidents, and the search for practical methods for addressing the most important causes. Fatal haulage accidents most often involve loss of control or collisions caused by a variety of factors. Lost-time injuries most often involve sprains or strains to the back or multiple body areas, which can often be attributed to rough roads and the shocks of loading and unloading. Part II will describe research to reduce these accidents, including improved warning systems, shock isolation for drivers, encouraging seatbelt usage, and general improvements to system and task design.

Jun 1, 1997

By Robert F. Randolph

Research on improving haulage truck safety, started by the U.S. Bureau of Mines, is being continued by its successors. This two-part article reports the orientation of the renewed research efforts, beginning with an update on accident data analysis, the role of multiple causes in these accidents, and the search for practical methods for addressing the most important causes. Fatal haulage accidents most often involve loss of control or collisions caused by a variety of factors. Lost-time injuries most often involve sprains or strains to the back or multiple body areas, which can often be attributed to rough roads and the shocks of loading and unloading. Part II will describe research to reduce these accidents, including improved warning systems, shock isolation for drivers, encouraging seatbelt usage, and general improvements to system and task design.

Jan 1, 1997

By George S. Rice

This bulletin traces the growth in the belief in the explosibility of coal dust, summarizes the experiments and mine investigations that have established this belief, and gives the present status of pre- ventive measures. It has been prepared in accordance with the pro- visions of the acts of Congress authorizing investigations relating to the causes of mine explosions, and contains references to and descrip- tions of experiments made at the Federal testing station at Pittsburg, Pa. This station was inaugurated under the United States Geo- logical Survey, and was transferred to the Bureau of Mines on the establishment of the latter on July 1, 1910. Only within comparatively few years has the dry dust of bitumi- nous and lignitic coals been generally recognized as an explosive agent more insidious, threatening, and deadly to the miner than fire damp. Fire damp carries its own flag of warning-the "cap" in the safety lamp-but coal dust, though visible, does not attract attention until present in large quantities. Fire damp is of local occurrence, and except in notable and very exceptional cases is controllable by careful manipulation of ventilating currents. If by mischance a body of fire damp is ignited in a mine, the force of the explosion may be terrific, but the effect is local unless dry coal dust is present, or unless (as it very rarely happens) an explosible mixture of methane gas and air extends through large areas of the mine. In a dry mine dust accu- mulates everywhere, and the blast from the ignition and combustion of bituminous dust may traverse miles of rooms and entries and wreck structures at the entrance to the mine. The comparative potential destructiveness of gas and of bituminous dust is strikingly shown by the history of the Pennsylvania anthracite mines. These mines not infrequently have large inflows of gas, and the resulting mixtures of gas and air have sometimes been ignited, yet no such wide-sweeping explosions have taken place, despite the presence of dry anthracite dust, as have happened in excellently ventilated bituminous mines.

Jan 1, 1911

By D. L. Paulson

Electric furnace smelting of blister copper directly from copper precipitates (cement copper) was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Mines. Copper concentrations in five different lots of cement copper in the investigation ranged from 62.5 to 82.5 wt-pct. Laboratory-scale smelting tests were made in a 50-kva electric-arc furnace to establish the reductant and flux requirements. Best recoveries were realized by adding 60 pct of the carbon required to combine with the contained oxygen in the cement copper. Operating parameters established during the laboratory-scale smelting tests were used successfully in smelting 20 tons of cement copper during 12 pilot-scale tests in an 800-kva electric-arc furnace. Over 98 pct of the contained copper was recovered as blister-grade metal. The projected energy consumption for a commercial-size furnace was 380 kwhr per ton of cold charge.

Jan 1, 1978