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"INTRODUCTION While investigating prevention of sabotage and maintenance of production of essential war minerals, engineers of the Bureau of Mines visited more than 1,400 metal and nonmetallic mines, quarries, and open pits in all parts of the United States.The need for, uniform safety practices is indicated by the fact that during 1938-1940, inclusive, the Western Safety Conference, under the sponsorship of the California Department of Industrial Relations, undertook the prepara¬tion of a set of standard safety regulations for the 15 participating political subdivisions. The membership of these political subdivisions is comprised of representation from Alaska, Arizona, British Columbia, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Lower California, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming, For the guidance of its own engineers; the Bureau of Nines found it necessary to prepare a set of safety practices that could be used uniformly throughout the United States. These safety practices were compiled from State mining regulations, mining company safety rules, and the experience of Bureau of Mines engineers for more than 3 decades, and represent the best safety practices of the Nation's' mineral industry.The purpose of this publication is to make safety practices available for the non-coal branches of the mineral industry, with the hope that they may assist in reducing accident occurrence. The Bureau will welcome questions and suggestions regarding these practices in order that changes may be made as necessary.Where the adoption of any practice would not materially increase the safety of employees or would work undue hardship on the operator, the Bureau does not recommend such adoption."

Sep 1, 1946

By C. Musingwini, G. Njowa, M. Burnett, C. C. Birch

From 2022 to 2040, the global demand for mineral commodities is projected to increase by fourfold to six-fold, largely due to traditional drivers such as population growth and urbanisation compounded by the adoption of decarbonisation technologies that are more mineral intensive than fossil fuel technologies. To meet this projected demand, companies operating in the minerals industry should accelerate the development of mineral projects. Since most of the companies generally operate in multiple geographical, regulatory or legislative jurisdictions, it is critical that the information on Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves they report on in the public domain should be comparable and consistent across different jurisdictions. The Committee for Mineral Reserves International Reporting Standards fosters alignment of national and regional mineral reporting codes through an internationally accepted template that creates common technical understanding of definitions, classification, estimation processes and the Public Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources, and Mineral Reserves. The Committee for Mineral Reserves International Reporting Standards Template-based codes guide reporting at respective national and regional levels. Since mine planning is critical in the conversion of mineral resources to mineral reserves, a shared technical understanding should aid comparability of mine planning results. However, differences persist in the way mine planning results are reported. Unlike most previous studies, which have primarily focused on comparing mineral reporting codes, this paper updates and extends such comparisons by exploring how similarities or differences in reporting should influence the mine planning process. It also recommends some principle and process changes to assist mine planning professionals to improve consistency and comparability in reporting mine planning results.

Mar 30, 2026

By Thomas Gales

Longwall mining has a high potential for producing bulk production from a single face. Production is interrupted for a considerable time when it is necessary to move the equipment to a new block of coal. The frequency of such moves can be reduced by increasing the dimension of the block to be moved. Merely doubling the tonnage in a block to be mined may increase production by more than 21,000 tons per year. The time taken to move the equipment can be reduced by careful preplanning, industrial engineering analysis, and specially designed equipment. Reducing its move time from 30 days to five days can increase production by more than 25,000 tons per year. Increasing the panel dimensions and reducing the move time can give an increase in pretax profits of more than $600,000. A comprehensive bibliography is included.

Jan 1, 1977

By Javad Sattarvand, Milad Ghahramanieisalou

As new technologies are introduced to the mining industry, the challenges related to their safe assimilation and the potential changes they bring to mining techniques necessitate adjustments to the current operations. Predictive simulations are critical to understanding unforeseen scenarios and shifting costly changes from the operational stage to the design. The Digital Twin methodology has gained a lot of attention in recent years. Many industries, from manufacturing to engineering and even social sciences, are adopting this approach to understand better the complex systems they are working with. By considering the enormous expenses and risks related to a pilot project, DT could replace that by acting as a prototype in which realistic tests and simulations are carried out with close to zero cost. DT includes a data hub, simulation and analysis tools, and visualization platforms to enable appropriate designs and monitoring plans focusing on unknown areas. A few examples of DT's application in mining include fleet management, Mine-to-Mill optimization (especially D&B), geotechnical digital twin (gDT), etc. When developing regulations, testing the efficiency of the mine layout, design, and magnitude of the restricted area and its access points, human-machine interactions, risk identification, and management processes, examining the efficacy of control systems, and monitoring, DT could help speed up (or completely replace) the process in the physical world.

Jun 25, 2023

By Xiaozhen Song, Ashish Ranjan Kumar, Shimin Liu

To investigate the influence of boreholes, fans, and curtains for large opening underground mines (LOUM), we conducted a field survey for LOUM with the survey data serving as the numerical modeling inputs using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models. Five different CFD modeling results were obtained with different borehole, box fan, and curtain setting conditions. The results indicate that most air quantity directly escapes through outlet 1 after coming into the inlet, causing a huge loss of airflow; volumetric air exchange index (VAEI) and minimum hours of fully exchanging the air (MHFEA) measure air exchange efficiency, with zone 2 of case 5 having the highest VAEI; The borehole minimally affects zones 2, 3, and 4, but drastically alters airflow direction in zone 1; The box fan enhances airflow to zone 2, improving ventilation efficiency and increasing VAEI; Curtains have little effect on distant working faces but influence airflow near inlets and outlets. This study provides a foundation for future research on the influence of boreholes, fans, and curtains, as well as optimizing their placement and effectiveness in face ventilation.

Feb 22, 2026

With IIT research institute as a cosponsor, this seventh mineral waste Utilization Symposium was funded by the Bureau of Mines through its Division of Mineral Resources Technology. Environmental scientists and engineers from five countries (Canada, Netherlands, Austria, England, Guatemala) besides the United States participated in the symposium, which was held Oct. 20-21, 1980, at the Chicago campus of IIT Research Institute. Of the 25 papers presented on the reclamation and recycling of mining and mineral wastes, municipal solid waste, industrial waste, and scrap metal, 21 are summarized herein.

Jan 1, 1982

By S. S. Chabot, S. E. James

A recent survey of CEOs from major steel companies worldwide revealed the importance of recycling zinc units from EAF dust, mill scale, blast furnace dust, and other zinc containing streams in their plants. Many processes were developed and installed in response to this challenge. The most successful approach involves the production of a crude zinc oxide and selling it to primary zinc producers to recover the metal value. The problem with this process is the high concentration of halides in the crude oxide. This type of material cannot be processed directly in an electrolytic zinc plant because of corrosion problems it will cause in electrolysis. In 1999, BRZ installed a zinc oxide receiving and washing plant to minimize the impact of halides to its circuit. A description of the washing plant and initial operating results are included.

Jan 1, 2000

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 W. M. Williams

"Although manganese is a metal virtually unknown to the layman, it is hardly necessary to point out to the engineer the importance of manganese in modern metallurgy, an importance intimately linked with iron (and steel), the basic materials of engineering construction for hundreds of years and certain to remain so for long into the future. World steel production will approach and perhaps reach 1 billion tons/year in the 1980s; with a manganese content between 0.5% and 1 % in ordinary steels, and more in specialty steels, manganese use worldwide will soon approach 15 million tons annually. Manganese was discovered and isolated in Sweden in 1774 by Karl Wilhelm Scheele (who also discovered molybdenum), but the element was only of scientific interest for several decades. By the early part of the nineteenth century, however, manganese oxide had become commercially available and was in use for colouring glass and for the production of chlorine. Commercial application in metallurgy appears to have been limited to the manufacture of crucible (or ""cast"") steel, a highquality product made by carburizing wrought iron, and melting it in small batches to make ingots which could be rolled and used for special applications, e.g. for the manufacture of fine tools or for ""steeling"" the cutting edges of implements such as wrought iron axes and chisels.* However, it was not until Bessemer's epoch-making invention of cheap steel in 1856, and the dramatic expansion of the steel industry thereafter, that manganese assumed the importance that it holds in modern steelmaking."

Jan 1, 1999

By A. Vahed

The Goro Nickel Project is situated in the Southern Province of New Caledonia. Inco Limited and Goro Nickel S.A. have developed a process that features the use of pyrohydrolysis to produce nickel oxide. The process treats a blend of laterites by Pressure Acid Leaching followed by solvent extraction of nickel and cobalt using Cyanex 301®. Purified nickel chloride solution is converted to high purity NiO product and 6M hydrochloric acid, which is recycled back to the SX circuit. In co-operation with Andritz AG, spray roaster and fluid-bed pyrohydrolysis technologies were examined for this purpose. Tests were conducted at the Andritz AG pilot plant in Vienna, Austria, and at Goro in larger scale installations. The latter served to establish process engineering design parameters for scale-up. Several process variables were investigated in both technologies and the off-gas characteristics were established. Fluid-bed pyrohydrolysis was selected for the Goro commercial plant, primarily because it produced a granular nickel oxide. The main focus of this paper is to outline the results obtained in pilot plant studies of liquid fueled fluid bed pyrohydrolysis for the Goro Project. Keywords: lnco Goro Nickel, Fluid Bed Pyrohydrolysis, Pilot Plant Tests

Jan 1, 2004

By R. Boom

Corus Umuiden, formerly Hoogovens, was the first steel plant in Europe after Voest to introduce oxygen steelmaking. In the decision-making process contacts with Dofasco in Canada about the production of formability steel grades were crucial. In developing oxygen (LD-) steelmaking high liquid steel output rates had to be combined with accurate process control. For ingot casting static models with input control and sampling during interrupted blowing were sufficient to deliver liquid steel within the required carbon, phosphorus, sulphur and temperature windows. Computers were introduced to perform the complicated charge calculations. Continuous casting called for strict control of composition and temperature at process end point and made predictable timing crucial. Dynamic control was introduced based upon sub lance measurements and waste gas analysis. Reliable disposable measurement sensors were developed in a concerted international action. Dissolved oxygen at blow end deteriorated the quality of low carbon aluminium killed steel grades. Blowing gases through the converter bottom improved process kinetics, resulting in lower carbon-oxygen products, yield increase and better phosphorus removal and generated new families of hybrid blowing processes. Introduction of secondary metallurgy facilities such as argon stirring stations, vacuum degassers and ladle furnaces relieved the demands for strict BOF end point control. Desulphurisation of hot metal became standard practice. In regions with scrap shortage hot metal desiliconisation followed by dephosphorisation, was introduced in the blast furnace cast house and hot metal transfer ladles. Later redundant converter vessels were used for pre-treatment, resulting in a two-stage process. The fundamentals of oxygen steelmaking are described and a vision on the future is presented.

Jan 1, 2004

By G. M. Wali Ullah, MEHMET KIZIL, ` Micah Nehring, PETER KNIGHTS

In operations that use the sublevel stoping mining method, production scheduling takes into account factors, including ore reserve envelopes, ore grade averages, equipment capacity, feed controls to the mill, and geotechnical restrictions, across the scheduling horizon. Mathematical programming is one of the most effective methods for enhancing the decision-making process in regard to the most viable production schedule in light of a given set of limitations. The majority of research on sublevel stope mining focuses primarily on a single objective of optimisation, which is to maximise the net present value (NPV). Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations are becoming more prevalent in the mining industry. This includes aspects relating to deforestation, land disturbances, gas emissions, community relations, and water usage, among many others. Institutional and other kinds of investors are becoming more interested in the work that resource companies do regarding their ESG obligations. This review article identifies the gap in the existing literature and proposes to simultaneously optimise the production schedule around three objectives. Two of these relate directly to ESG aspects.

Nov 6, 2023

The mining industry is one of the three pillars of the Namibian economic development, besides tourism and the fishing industry. Generating 20 % of the GDP and more than 50 % of the export income, half of this amount derives from the diamond mining industry. In 2008, the annual production of 2.2 mio carat achieved an income higher than 1.44 billion Namibian Dollars (more than 750 mio Euro). After the global recession in early 2009, which also caused a significant downcrease in production to only 0.93 mio Carat, the diamond mining industry easily restored itself and the production figures for 2010 are expected to be even higher than those achieved in 2008. Compared to other diamond producing countries, Namibia is mainly producing diamonds of highest quality (jewellery quality), with less than 10 % of the mined diamonds not falling into this category. This high quality stands also for the worldwide highest prize achieved per carat. With 370 $US per carat it is more than four times higher than that of the average South African stone. In 1908 the finding of the first diamonds in the Namib desert close to the coastal town of Lüderitz was reported by a Mr Stauch, railway inspector for the then German colonial railway company. This event immediately triggered a Diamond Rush and subsequently the set-up of the restricted diamond mining area ?Sperrgebiet? through the German colonial administration. In 1913, only five years after the first mining operations had started, the steadily increasing production allowed for more than 20 % of the diamond production worldwide. After the First World War, the new South African government concentrated all mining activities in one organization, CDM (Consolidated Diamond Mines of South West Africa) which in following decades conducted an extensive and detailed exploration of the whole Sperrgebiet and started numerous new diamond mining operations.

Jan 1, 2011

By J. L. Parks

Designs, installation procedures, and performance characteristics of martensitic cast steel concaves are reviewed. Longer wear life, fewer pieces to install, and eliminating the need to scarf joints are the principal benefits of using martensitic steel to replace austenitic 12% Mn (Hadfield's) steel, the traditional concave material for large gyratory crushers. Installation procedures that reduce the risk of breakage are described. Operating practices that affect concave performance are also discussed.

Jan 1, 1992

A unity of viewpoint emerged from the workshop. The concept that transmission is via characteristic modes was a common theme in many of the presentations. Also, the confusion an the meaning of monofilar and bifilar to describe these dominant modes was cleared up. But, there was still a healthy divergence of opinion on what constitutes an optimum system. It was generally agreed that further analytical and experimental work is definitely needed. In particular, it was stressed that independent measurements of the constitutive properties of the electromagnetic environment are needed. Also, there was considerable concern that laboratory measurements of rock samples could lead to misleading results for the effective conductivities. Also, there was a general recognition that over simplified propagation theory should not be used to interpret field data. From a theoratical and practical point of view, it was realized that mode coupling plays a vital role in the transmission channel. One must not only understand which and how many propagation modes are excited by the transmitting antenna, but the conversion of energy from one mode type to another must be accounted for. This conversion can either be done intentionally (by fixed mode convertors) or non intentionally (by random wall roughness). In fact, mode conversion can be quite complicated when various propagation paths exist such as when insulated cables, leaky feeders, grounded rails, coal seams, etc. all convey portions of the electromagnetic energy. However, this state of affairs should be regared as an. opportunity for extended communication coverage in mines rather than a limitation of a desig. procedure based on preconceived notions of the dominant propagation mechanism.

Jan 1, 1978

By F. Calizaya, M. G. Nelson

This paper presents a summary of basic requirements for the design, installation and operation of booster fans in coal mines, especially in deep and/or extensive mines. It includes a brief description of the major steps that should be followed to ensure that these units are used in coal mines safely and efficiently. The guidelines were prepared based on the standards and regulations adopted by two prominent coal mining countries, the best practices developed by the mining industry, and the applicable standards used in the United States for the fail-safe operation of main fans.

Jan 1, 2015

By R. E. Gray

[The purpose of the study is to investigate cases of subsidence over abandoned mined-out areas of the Pittsburgh Coal identified from published and unpublished sources and to determine through a consideration of the geology, topography, climate, mining activity, and evidence at ground surface, what mechanisms control subsidence .and under what circumstances it takes place. The study wan performed it two phases, the first to identify all documented incidents of subsidence in mined-out areas of the Pittsburgh coal Region; and the second, to study a particular portion of the region in detail, collecting pertinent data relative to the sites within, characterizing roil the nature of the subsidence and its economic consequences, and determining the applicability of the findings to other areas whore similar problems with the collapse of abandoned miner have been encountered.]

Jan 1, 1977

By Henry C. Knight

A number of improvements in the techniques of budgetary control have been developed in the 1970's. The most significant of these is zero-base budgeting. This procedure is a marked improvement, because it overcomes some of the key weaknesses inherent in most traditional approaches to budgeting. It incorporates techniques and disciplines which improve the quality of both the budgeting effort itself and the documents that most senior managers will need to evaluate. The end result is a budget that establishes and improves cost effectiveness. This budget is based on resource allocations using cost-benefit criteria and on a system of prioritization for making funding choices. Zero-base budgeting is applied only to costs and expenses that are not conducive to control using industrial engineered standards. Therefore, the benefits attributed to zero-base budgeting will only hold true for administrative, selling, exploration, safety, fire protection and overhead, and other indirect types of costs and expenses. It is in this context that the question of its attractiveness for the mining industry is dealt with.

Jan 1, 1978

By Juan M. Pestana-Nascimento, Robert G. Bea, Hamed Hamedifar, Emery M. Roe

The current State-of-the-Practice is grounded heavily on deterministic characterization and assessment of the performance of civil engineering infrastructure. In particular, flood defense systems, such as levees, have been evaluated within the context of the Factor-of-Safety where the computed capacity of the system is compared with the code specified demand forces. Uncertainties associated with the capacity and demand forces render deterministic modeling incomplete. In particular, two structures with the same Factor of Safety can have vastly different probabilities of failure. While efforts have been made to assess levee vulnerability, results from traditional engineering approaches omit important factors because they do not account for uncertainties included in analytical modeling, and natural variabilities, or human and organization factors. This paper utilizes risk assessment methods to advance methods for quantifying the contribution of uncertainties to engineering analyses, and thereby provide additional information to help assess sustainability of geotechnically engineered systems. The probability of failure of a geotechnically engineered system is directly impacted by how well the system is understood, and how uncertainties are incorporated in development of understanding of the system. This paper presents methods to evaluate two types of uncertainties for three potential failure modes of flood protection levees: underseepage, slope (or levee) instability, and overtopping/erosion. These analyses account for two types of uncertainty: 1) Type I – inherent uncertainty, 2) Type II – analytical modeling uncertainty. Human and organizational task performance and information development and utilization uncertainties are not included in these analyses. This paper focuses on the behavior of the flood protection levee system for Sherman Island, a western island in California’s Delta. Sherman Island is of critical importance to California because of the very important infrastructure systems that pass under, on, over, and adjacent to Sherman Island, including: natural gas pipelines, regional and interregional electricity transmission lines and telecommunication facilities, two deepwater shipping channels; and State Highway 160, a link between major transportation expressways. The work evaluates current (year 2010) and future conditions (year 2100) and incorporates variations in capacity and demand arising from projected human response activities and global climate change.

Jan 1, 2017

By R. R. Brandenthaler

The development of the Seminole area into one of the major oil-producing sections of the country has been accompanied by many innovations and departures from former methods of development. On July 1, 1929, two years and nine months from the date of discovery, 20,490 acres were considered proved, and additional acreage is constantly being developed. Because of its peculiar conditions, extent, and rapid rate of development, the Seminole area provided numerous problems, the solution of which necessitated research in connection with practical field operation; as a result, there was a radical departure from methods usually employed in the development of a new field in the Mid-Continent area.

Jan 1, 1930