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Since the discovery of coal of the Southern coalfield (Illawarra 1797, Burragorang 1806) coal mining has grown progressively to the thriving industry of today. Early shallow escarpment mining required no serious access development, but with extension of mining to further and deeper areas, sinking became necess- ary. Now, with 17 major shafts and 7 decline drifts in current use, new mining activities involve several current sinking and drifting projects, with more in prospect. Conventional sinking and drifting, using blasting and mucking techniques proven in recent years are normally in use, with attempts, recent and current to accelerate advances by boring techniques. With export and to less extent local market unpredictability, it is vital to produce mine establishment times to allow advantage to be taken of market upswings and there is great need for research and improvement of mine access construction as the major aspect of establish- ment.

Jan 1, 1976

By Walter W. Fisher

A kinetic investigation of copper cementation in a revolving drum was undertaken by the Bureau of Mines to explore the effects of a porous copper deposit attached to the iron surface and a fluidized slurry of copper particles surrounding the iron precipitant. The rate of cementation was found to be significantly enhanced by the increased cathodic areas provided by a porous copper deposit or the presence of a fluidized bed of copper particles contacting the iron precipitant. The cementation rate was found to be retarded by increased ionic strength, low pH, and the presence of oxygen. The cementation reaction was first order with respect to precipitant surface area. Copper cementation on iron is visualized to occur by two basic mechanisms. Precipitation may occur through a series of shorted electrochemical cells, whereby cupric ion precipitates on a growing cathodic copper deposit, or, deposition may occur via a fluidized cathode of copper particles contacting the ion precipitant.

Jan 1, 1976

By J. C. Irvine

A recent development in underground drilling has been the introduction of the down-the-hole drill, an old and very familiar tool to the surface operator. The idea of moving such a rig underground is not new. Tests were conducted at INCO in Canada and Mt. Isa, Australia in the early 1960's, and St. Joe used one for underground exploration in their Missouri lead mines in the mid-1960's. However, the trend to full scale production programs did not start until the mid-1970's. The first successful North American test was at INGO in early 1973. This led to a large-scale pillar recovery and open stoping program which en¬compassed 25 drilling units by mid-1976. Meramec Mining Company tested a unit using air boosted up to 200 psi (140, 000 kg(m2) in the summer of 1973 which by 1976 led to an open stope and pillar drilling program using 12 units. By mid-1976, production units using boosted air were also in use at Pilot Knob in Missouri and at St. Joe in Balmat, New York. Experimental and utility units were in use in several other mines and down-the-hole drills were being seriously considered for at least one major new underground mine.

Jan 1, 1976

By Nobuhiro Takahashi

PROLOGUE The Yaguki mine, which is located near the southern end of the Tohoku region, Japan, near the coast of the Pacific Ocean, had had a long history as a copper mine, but had not been operated since 1925. About 30 years later it was reopened by Nittetsu Mining Company, and in 1958 a small flotation and magnetic separation plant, a so-called test plant, started production. The ball mill the author first met, a 8x4x4x7 ft tricone mill, called No.1 mill, had started running at that time. With his experience in initial, running of this mill he realized that the ball mill was not simply a preparatory process to flotation, but a determinant factor for flotation performance, an energy-consuming and costly process, and that its operation control was an important task in the plant (1). The working part of an operating ball mill is the ball load inside, whose properties govern the grinding performance. Its size distribution affects the efficiency greatly and the capacity is nearly proportional to its weight. When a ball mill operates for a long period of time with a constant and consistent addition of renewal balls, wear and renewal of balls are balanced, and an equilibrium ball load is formed. A stable equilibrium load is the primary requirement for a stable ball mill operation. However, renewal ball size would be the most influential factor affecting efficiency and capacity of operating ball mills. To improve efficiency, to increase capacity, or to get finer product, attempts to find out the optimum size assortment of renewal balls should be made. When re-

Jan 1, 1976

By Edward A. McClatchie

A methane monitor that complies with 30CFR75.313 has been designed and fabricated using a novel pressure modulated infrared absorption technique. The methane monitor met or exceeded in performance all of its target specifications. The monitor was operated continuously during production mining for the entire duration (45 days) of the in-mine test; no failures occurred during the test. The monitor was regularly checked with calibration gas and no shifts in calibration were found during the in-mine test. Operating principles, performance data and electrical schematics are included in the report.

Jan 1, 1976

By Toshiki Hayashi, Shoichi Asahina, Kenitsu Hosokura

Sumitomo Metal Mining Co., Ltd.'s Kunitomi Smelter has been treating in the blast furnace copper concentrate containing bismuth. The bismuth is concentrated in the electrostatic precipitator dust and the converter dust. Bismuth contained in the converter dust is leached by a mixture of salt and sulfuric acid, and is then recovered by a cementation process using scrap iron. The bismuth cake thus recovered and the electro- static precipitator dust are reduced to crude bismuth metal which is further refined to a high purity bismuth metal by the pyrometallurgical refining process. Details of this process are elaborated in this report.

Jan 1, 1976

By H. Rush Spedden

Antoine M. Gaudin was a vigorously creative man and throughout his career an internationally respected leader of his chosen profession of mineral engineering. To his professional colleagues and clients and to his former students he was both "Professor Gaudin," their wise, inspiring, and enthusiastic teacher, and "Tony," their, warm and beloved personal friend. Thus, his teachings and his unique inquisitive-creative approach to problems live on and grow in the accomplishments of his students. Antoine Gaudin was born at the turn of the century in Smyrna, Turkey, where his father was general manager of a French-owned railroad. It was there that he spent his earliest years, literally in the shadow of classic marbles from diggings at the site of Aphrodesias, which his father had rediscovered. From this, Tony developed an appreciation of the arts. He eventually surrounded himself with art treasures; he reveled in the beauties of nature, and he cherished his choice collection of rhododendron and azaleas. His artistic traits led him to take up painting when his daughter, Elinor, sought his help in blending her tints for a water color. In typical fashion he was not satisfied until he had become adept with pastels in capturing the muted tones of distant landscapes and the technical properties of light and color. Unfortunately not many paintings were produced. His paternal grandfather was Marc-Antoine Gaudin, for many years secretary of the Academie des Sciences in Paris, and a well known chemist and mineralogist whose primary interests included the synthesis of precious stones. In an autobiographical sketch written in 1939, Dr. Gaudin recalled: "As a child I saw many of the original synthetic sapphires and rubies which my father had inherited. This, coupled with my father's avocation of mining ventures and archaeology, early decided that I would become connected with the mineral industry." One can speculate that the archeological activities of his father, the mineral systhesis experiments of his grandfather, and his own early studies of mineralogy and geology formed a base from which his special talents as an experimentalist were to develop. Laboratory research under Professor Gaudin's personal guidance was often an intensive, fast-moving, and exciting experience--especially to a new graduate student. First of all, Professor Gaudin was a highly skilled observer with seem-

Jan 1, 1976

By J. D. Wright

INTRODUCTION The Endako deposit was first explored in 1926, but development waited until the early nineteen sixties. It first came under the control of Placer Development in 1963, and early in 1964 a decision to bring it into production was reached. The deposit is located near the geographic center of British Columbia, and is served by an east-west communication system including a paved highway, mainline railway and good telephone, teletype, and computer facilities. The plant area is shown in Figure 1. The operation is known as the Endako Mines Division of Canex Placer Limited of Vancouver. First production was achieved in June, 1965, at a nominal rate of 10,000 tons per day, but it soon was closer to 15,000 tons per day. In 1967, two new grinding and flotation, sections brought capacity to the present rate of approximately 27,000 tons per day. With mill heads of around 0.15 percent MoS2, production is about 14,000,000 pounds of molybdenum per year. A flowsheet of the operation is given in Figure 2. A legend for this flowsheet is given in Table 1. Published ore reserves are estimated at 214,500,000 tons at an average grade of 0.143 percent MoS2. PRIMARY CRUSHING The 85 or 100-ton haulage trucks dump over a grizzly into a 42 inch x 65 inch C.A.C. (Canadian Allis Chalmers) gyratory crusher. The

Jan 1, 1976

By Fredrick C. Kruger

Anthropological diggings have revealed that the American Indians carried on intertribal trade in flint, obsidian, ochre, and other mineral commodities, indicating that mining was practiced before the arrival of the white man from Europe Carbon datings from the native copper pits on Isle Royal and Keweenaw Peninsula, Michigan, have yielded dates as early as 5555 BC for this mining. As early as Pliocene time, Eolithic-man fashioned artifacts of stones probably found on the surface, but by late Quaternary, Neolithic man was sinking shafts and mining underground for flint. Because placer gold was easily recognized and easily worked, it was used for ornamental purposes by nearly all cultures before other metals were discovered The Chaldeans hammered copper objects approximately 4500 BC and copper was used in India and China about 3000 BC. An ancient trail from the Nile to the Sinai led to the mines of copper and turquoise Paintings and bas-reliefs of Egyptian tombs dating around 3000 BC depict maps, mining, and smelting in this area. It is interesting that despite this widespread and long history of mining, Agricola records that the first mining laws were developed by the Greeks at Laurium about 700 BC. All of the base metals are known to have been produced in small quantities during the Colonial period in America, but perhaps the first commercial production was the iron ore shipped from Virginia to England in 1608, followed by lead in 1621. Among the earliest companies formed in America that still survive (according to the standard reference yearbooks), were: the Jackson Mining Co., predecessor of Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Co. on the Marquette Range, Michigan, in 1844; the Sussex Zinc and Copper Mining & Manufacturing Co., fore-runner of New Jersey Zinc Co. in 1848 (although the Franklin-Sterling body was discovered in 1640); the five companies, Pittsburg and Boston, Quincy Mining, Pewabic, Huron Mining, and Minesota all formed in the decade (1844-1855) that followed the rediscovery of Keweenaw copper, were combined into Calumet and Hecla; and Vermont Copper Mining Co. in 1853 Although southeast Wisconsin lead-zinc was discovered in 1690, Mine La Motte in southeast Missouri in 1720, placer gold in California in 1848, Comstock Lode in 1859, Leadville in 1860, Cripple Creek in 1891, no surviving companies of those early mining periods exist. The first strong producer in the Mississippi Valley was St. Joseph Lead in 1864; Homestake and Pickands-Mather, were formed in 1877, Phelps-Dodge in 1881; Pittsburgh Reduction, the predecessor of Al-

Jan 1, 1976

By James L. Ash

This report contains the results of a technical and economic evaluation of conceptual systems for the underground mining, rubblization; and in situ retorting of deep oil shale deposits. Study efforts were first directed towards evaluation of the applicable geology, associated minerals, rock mechanics, in situ retorting, access mining, ventilation, rubblization, safety, and environmental impact factors. Conceptual systems were synthesized and then evaluated against these factors from both a technical and limited economic viewpoint. The results of these evaluations were then analyzed 'and, based upon this analysis, the following two systems were selected for further study: System II: Room and Pillar-Vertical Drill and Blast System IV: Tunnel Boring-Horizontal Ring Drill and Blast Due to the large number of variables to be considered, a computer program was developed and utilized to provide data for the cost trade-off studies and economic analysis. Results of the early computer runs indicated the value of the tool available in the computer program and led to an extension in the contract to determine the sensitivity of the systems to several of the more apparent significant variables. These results in turn led to a refinement in the design assumptions and a better understanding of the technical and economic options available to an owner-operator of a Vertical Modified In Situ Shale Oil Extraction System. This report is submitted in fulfillment of the requirements of Contract Number S0241073 by Fenix & Scisson, Inc. to the Denver Research Center, United States Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines. Work was completed as of November, 1976.

Jan 1, 1976

By P. A. Lawless

The objective of the research performed A for the Bureau of Mines on this contract was to develop a portable instrument for the detection of carbon monoxide (CO) in a mine environment. The desired characteristics were sensitivity and specificity for CO with a stable calibration. The sensor of the instrument was to be of metal oxide composition, requiring low power for compatibility with the types of batteries presently used in personal equipment in mines. The solid state design was also desired for ruggedness and small size. A key design feature of the instrument was to be provided by adherence to the intrinsic safety design requirements for electrical equipments operated in potentially exposive mine atmosphere. The Research Triangle Institute has prior experience in developing a solid state oxygen sensor using a thin film of zinc-oxide (Ref. 1) and experience in fabricating thin film devices. Solid state sensors utilized by other workers (Refs. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) have included metal and semiconductor films and crystals of materials like carbon and aluminum oxide for the measurement of water vapor in the air and have relied upon measuring resistance and capacitance changes in the sensor in response to adsorbed vapors or gases. Since the effect of carbon monoxide in changing the resistance of various materials such as molybdenum, platinum, and zinc oxide had been reported (Refs. 7, 8, 9, 10), the requirements appeared to be realisable, although it was recognized even at the inception of the work that specificity to carbon monoxide might require the incorporation of more than one sensor.

Jan 1, 1976

By D. D. Hamilton

The ISMS program provided for the development and demonstration of equipment modifications in both conventional and continuous coal mining systems. This report describes activities during the demonstration of the continuous equipment and includes machine performance, results of data gathering, system evaluation, and recommendations for implementing improvements.

Jan 1, 1976

By Anthony E. Szczuka

The purpose of this design note is to document the data that has been received from manufacturers, coal companies, training centers, government agencies, etc., that pertains to the completion of the Concept Feasibility Study For Training Equipment Designed to Improve Coal Productivity. Revision A documents additional data that has been received. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We wish to express our appreciation to the companies, mines, government agencies, unions, and contractor agencies listed herein that furnished the documented data. In most cases, it was furnished willingly and free of charge. In the few cases where the data was purchased, MDEC IRAD funds were used.

Jan 1, 1976

VOLUME II Volume II, in conjunction with Volume I, is a general guide to the selection of cost-effective methods of site data acquisition in all geologic environmental, and socio-political circumstances. The judgement of a generalist or trained specialist must be relied upon in the final analysis to design the optimum program for a specific site.

Jan 1, 1976

Under contract from U. S. Bureau of Mines, Harza Engineering Company in cooperation with Eastern Associated Coal Corporation, conducted a ground control study of two mechanized longwall panels at the Federal Number 2 Mine. The mine is located in Northern West Virginia, and the coal is mined from the Pittsburgh Coal Seam. The prime objective of the study was to collect data which will aid in the proper selection of the longwall supports system and to control the entry caving problem. Instruments installed in the mine were borehole pressure cells, convergence recorders, roof sag recorders, horizontal roof strain indicators, differential floor movement systems, and lateral roof and floor movement systems. Instruments installed on the surface, above the instrumented longwall panels, consisted of slope indicator system, vertical bed settlement probe system and shear displacement detecting system. A comprehensive surface subsidence study was conducted in conjunction with the instrumentation. In addition to the instrumentation and monitoring, special tests were conducted to determine the bearing capacity of the roof and floor rocks, in situ modulus of coal, roof and floor rocks, and response of borehole pressure cells to ground stress. Cores of coal measure rocks were collected for the physical property tests. Face observations were made to detect various roof behavior parameters under the different jack setting pressures. This report essentially describes the instrumentation work, special tests and presents the data collected.

Jan 1, 1976

By D. O. Hamiltion

The ISMS program provided for the development and demonstration of equipment modifications in both conventional and continuous coal mining systems. This report describes activities during the demonstration of the conventional equipment and includes machine performance, results of data gathering, system evaluation, and recommendations for implementing improvements.

Jan 1, 1976

By Carl R. Peterson

[In lTI n,v und I'gr'oun nllnin~ Opt'I'ali n' the high . t cost is the loading and I 3ulage of t tln-of -D"'line ot'. 01' hauling costs can be r duced signifi-cant\v with the us ~ (r \) >It corn'e)'OI' " a COnlTllOn pl'acti c i.n coal and other s 0 t'L rn I n r' a l III i, n e , '. Jf 0 vel s i z ' () f' e can bee 1 i 11.11 tl ate I rH'i 0 I' lO C n v e . in g, ]

Jan 1, 1976

This report, authorized by a subcontract with the Crouse-Hinds Company per Section 1.1.3b of Contract Number H0220065 Amendment Number Six, and the consent of the Contracting Officer, documents the results of an investigation to develop solid state ballasts for Lucalox high pressure sodium lamps. The ballasts were to be used in the modified and new portable and machine-mounted lighting systems designed by the Crouse-Hinds Company, per Tasks I through IV of Contract No. H0220065.

Jan 1, 1976

By John C. Cook

Channel sand bodies ("wants" or "cutouts") are deposits of barren, hard sediments which interrupt production and pose safety hazards when encountered in underground coal mining. To locate these costly impediments to mining in advance, from the surface of the ground, the seismic reflection method is recommended. High-resolution (high frequency) techniques for shallow seismic exploration of coal beds have been worked out and are reported here, including a field example. Newly-developed high-frequency, digital recording equipment was used, together with light-weight shot-drilling equipment and a variety of down-hole seismic impulse sources. Techniques for rapid but complete coverage of a coal prospect area with a crew of 2 to 6 men n 2 or 3 vehicles are described in detail.

Jan 1, 1976

By Wesley G. Holtz

A project to demonstrate the feasibility of retorting oil shale by the Paraho vertical retort process was carried out at Anvil Points, Colorado during 1974 to 1976. As a part of the demonstration project, laboratory and field tests were performed to determine the physical and chemical properties of the retorted shale for use in the development of eventual full-scale disposal plans. The material which exits from the Paraho retort is classified as a non-plastic silty gravel by the Unified Soil Classification System. The particles have an apparent specific gravity averaging near 2.60 and a mass specific gravity averaging near 2.00. The material can be compacted by normal laboratory and field construction methods to about 90 to 100 pounds per cubic foot dry density depending upon the degree of compactive effort applied. The addition of moisture does not improve compactibility appreciably. When high compactive effort is applied the retorted shale is classed as impervious to water flow. The compacted retorted shale exhibits shear strengths in the same order as those observed for silty gravel soils. If the compacted material is cured (long tune simulation testing) prior to strength testing considerable strength gain can be obtained from cementing action. The amount of cementing developed is dependent upon heat treatment and other operating modes of the retort.

Jan 1, 1976