Search Documents

By James R. Garvey

The impact of conversion on the coal industry can be summarized very briefly: We are going to have to mine an awful lot of coal. Fortunately, the United States has the coal reserves available, and given the right conditions, we can mine it. The coal reserves of the United States are enormous. If we consider them on the basis of proved reserves, using the standards of the petroleum industry--that is, resources mapped and explored and recoverable with present techniques at close to present costs--and compare that with the reserves of other fuels, coal constitutes 88 per cent of the proved recoverable energy resources of the nation. That includes oil, natural gas, oil shale and uranium, so long as the uranium is used in burner reactors. If we consider resources on the basis of "ultimate recoverable" reserves, that is, those resources which can be extracted with improved technology and at somewhat higher costs--and if we include those resources of all fuels not yet found but believed to be waiting discovery--coal still accounts for 74 per cent of the national total. We have built a hydrocarbon economy in which about 76 per cent of our total energy needs are supplied by petroleum and natural gas, and about 20 per cent by coal. Domestic resources of oil and gas are running dangerously low and, assuming a continued hydrocarbon economy, the 20 per cent supplied by coal may increase dramatically. We already import nearly a quarter of the petroleum we consume, and the chief source of additional imports seems to lie in the politically unstable Middle East. Natural gas is in even shorter supply, and the problems of importing it seem at least as difficult as those of oil. The fact is, the United States is already relying to an increasing extent on foreign fuel sources. There is an obvious national risk in making an important part of energy supply hostage to foreign governments of uncertain tenure and friendliness. There is also an economic risk--one of the chief reasons for last year's economic freeze was to try to correct the deficit in our balance of payments; it is obvious

Jan 1, 1972

By James Boyd

In critical times such as the present, when the whole world is agitated by the aftermath of war and the road to peace is blocked by seemingly insurmountable obstacles, it is fitting that we should pause to take inventory of the material resources essential to our national security. Our status as a world power, in peace as well as in war, is intrinsically bound to the availability of minerals, for the foundation of our industrial and economic structurewhich in turn largely determines our military potential and our limits of national prosperity-rests on our ready access to economic sources of iron, copper, lead, zinc, manganese, bauxite, and at least threescore of other metals, minerals, and mineral fuels. By applying the well-known facts of mineral resources to recognized fundamental concepts of preparedness, we can obtain a- clearer picture of the essential needs of our country. Historically, the lure of minerals and other raw material resources has all too frequently led nations to policies of imperialism and war. For more than a century the staking of colonial territory for new sources of raw materials has been a primary objective of many nations. These national policies. of aggrandizement were accelerated by increasing industrialization. The nations, in their aggressive search for

Jan 1, 1948

By W. F. Boericke

WORLD production of silver in 1929 totaled 256 million ounces. In 1928 production was 258 million ounces, and in 1927, 254 million ounces. With an actual decrease in the amount of silver produced last year, as compared with 1928, and an increase over 1927 of less than one per cent, obviously there has been no overproduction of the metal in the popular sense. But the price of silver tells a different story. For 1927, the average quotation was 56.37 cents; it was 58.17 in 1928, and 53.0 in 1929. During the last year it reached a high point of 57 cents in January, and fell steadily, without interruption to the downward trend, to a low of 47 cents in December. Since then it has dropped to an all time low of 43 cents on February 6.

Jan 1, 1930

By K. L. Fetters, F. M. Walters

ALL previous records were broken by the Iron and Steel Division, in the number of sessions, the number of papers, and the attendance. In addition to ten papers (all preprinted) on properties, structure, aid hardenability of, carbon and alloy steels, eight formal papers were presented on one or more phases of steelmaklng, and a symposium on the determination of hydrogen and nitrogen in steel. This last started at 2 p.m. and was going strong with more than a third of the audience still present at 6 p.m.

Jan 1, 1944

By H. W. Gillett

BATTELLE Memorial Institute is an endowed in stitution for scientific research in metallurgy, fuels, and allied fields, established by the will of Gordon Battelle, 2nd, as a memorial to his father, Colonel John Gordon Battelle. Before I tell you more of what Battelle Memorial Institute is, I want to go back a bit and tell you why it is. Colonel Battelle began his services in the iron and steel industry in Wheeling in 1866 and in 1883 came to Ohio, where he successively engaged in the iron and steel industry in Cincinnati, Piqua and Columbus. The family had been prominent in Ohio affairs since 1788, when Gordon Battelle's great-great-grandfather came from New England to settle in Marietta. He was one of the pioneers and a member of the famous "Ohio Company."

Jan 1, 1929

By Nathan C. Rockwood

BASIC mineral commodities may be divided into two general classifications in their market or price characteristics. In one class are commodities sold on a world-wide basis, as gold, silver, nickel, asbestos and petroleum, and in the second are those produced and sold locally. Of course, no precise line of demarcation exists between the two; coal, for instance, belongs more or less in both. If there are enough producers of any commodity to prevent control of production by any one person or group, a free market then exists and the price in a buyer's market is determined by the most favored producer-meaning the producer, with the lowest production cost or the lowest cost of transportation, or both, to the particular market, or place of use. With minerals in the first classification, their high intrinsic value far outweighs the transportation cost and a uniform market price is accepted as an essential element in the economy of distribution. But with common minerals of small. intrinsic value and relatively high transportation costs, economists are reluctant to admit that a uniform price may also be an essential element in distribution.

Jan 1, 1940

By A. B. Parsons

AN often repeated criticism of the profession of engineering is that it is as a whole it lacks solidarity. organization, co-ordination, and leadership. Significantly, the critic, are all engineers. Other members of the body politic either do not know about the absence of organization or they do not care. If engineers have no organization they have a plethora of organizations. There exist in the United State, today some 350 societies. institutes. clubs, associations, and councils of engineers and engineering technologists and this number excludes several hundred local chapters of national societies. trade associations, and local engineers' clubs of purely social character- Successful engineers must be proficient in analyzing, planning, and co-ordinating. but it is generally admitted that for their profession as a whole their success in this respect has been indifferent.

Jan 1, 1943

By Frank G. Breyer

THE .following developments in the zinc field during 1935 are listed in the order of their importance. Each will he amplified in later paragraphs. In the field o f Metallic Zinc: (1) Construction of further continuous vertical retort smelting capacity in the United States and Germany. (2) Expansion of fractional distillation capacity in the United States. (3) Great expansion in the zinc-base die-casting industry in the United States and abroad. (4) Wide acceptance of heavy galvanizing by the steel industry. (5) Construction of the first commercial wire electroplating plant for putting on heavy coats of pure zinc. (6) Firm establishment and appreciable expansion of the practice of using zinc dust as a reducing agent in the organic chemical industry.

Jan 1, 1936

By J. W. Furness

THE utilization and collection of waste materials have gone on for centuries, and have become a habit of the human race. The degree to which the salvaging of waste plays a part in a nation's industry depends largely on the availability of raw materials within the political confines of the country itself, or its ability to purchase such material from outside. When purchase is necessary careful economical use of the raw materials results. These economies, as a rule, are represented by lengthening the life of the given article as well as much re-use. For many years the steel industry of Italy and Japan has depended largely on importations of scrap, yet both are important. As long as the expenses incident to the conditioning and marketing of materials manufactured from salvaged waste are less than the cost of virgin material, the salvaged material will be re-fabricated and in many cases will compete with primary materials. One of the most obvious methods for furthering the efficient utilization of our limited mineral resources is the salvaging of mineral wastes. This method, moreover, in¬creases the available supply of a given material. If the price depends on a balance of supply and demand and the recovery from wastes enlarges. the supply, there can be no question but that it influences the sales price of primary.

Jan 1, 1931

By Donald McLaughlin

INCREASING variety of interests among mining geologists is becoming more and more marked, as the frontier of their science and of its applications continues to expand. Each of the traditional lines of inquiry provides its crop of new and better defined problems, and answers to them are being found in far more precise terms than in the past as older uncertainties .are swept away with the sharper techniques and the even sharper ideas of modern geology. A glance over the assemblage of projects and publications in 1939 reveals conspicuous activity in many different parts of the front, such as the attack on the controversial question of the acid or alkaline character of ore-forming solutions, the place of mineral districts in the larger structural framework of continents, and the place of ore shoots in the local patterns of districts. Instructive comparisons are being made which cut across lines of older correlations or which reinforce them by pointing out heretofore ne-

Jan 1, 1940

By George S. Rice

INTERESTING developments going on in European coal mines look to: (1) increasing mechanization; 12) concentration of mining; (3) improvement in safety appliances; and (4) studies in bettering roof supports and. incident to this, studies of the way a roof behaves under different conditions of support and methods of mining and back-filling. Mechanization and concentration off mining is being adapted to a considerable extent in Great Britain coincident with the development of conveyors. Belt conveyors, shaker-pan conveyors, and a combination of the two are used. For pitching seams not steep enough for the coal to run in station-chutes, the. shaker-pan conveyor is more popular. For large outputs from a contiguous face, the double-unit system of face layout-that is, the conveyors meeting at a common point-is favored.

Jan 1, 1934

By Evan Just

DIRECT subsidies for mine production in this country began as an outgrowth of wartime 'price regulation. The price-fixing authorities realized that the volume of production to be required from domestic copper, lead, and zinc mines would invoke costs of production considerably higher than the established ceiling prices. Accordingly, beginning Feb. 1, 1942 the Premium Price Plan was set up, which undertook to pay premiums to mines for production in excess of quota, of 5¢ per lb of copper and 2Y4¢ per lb of zinc or lead. Quotas, except for small mines, were initially established at the average rate of production in 1941, but were later reduced arbitrarily on an individual basis. Subsequently, additional "B" premiums were set for lead and zinc of 2Y40 per lb and a further "C" zinc premium of 2%¢. Additional copper premiums were negotiated on an individual basis, mainly with small mines. Quotas under each of these successive categories were the production obtained at the next lower premium level. In other words, under ceiling prices of 12¢ for copper, 6,14¢ for lead, and 83¢ for zinc, it was possible for high-cost operations to receive prices plus premiums of 17¢ or more for copper, 12¢ for lead, and 16% 0 for zinc on a portion of their production. On the other hand, some of the larger operators received only slight premiums and in at least one instance none at all. The average price plus premium for copper was 12.25¢ in 1942 and rose to 13.65¢ in 1945. That for lead was 6.99¢ in 1942 and 8.73¢ in 1945, and for zinc it was 9.06¢ in 1942 and 11.200 in 1945.

Jan 1, 1948

By Fabiano Soares

Strand guide rolls in continuous casters are crucial components for guaranteeing an optimum process for the production of high-quality steel grades. The properties of these rolls greatly influence the quality of the slab produced. The most commonly used designs so far have been the axle roll and the solid roll. A quite new roll concept is the STEC-Roll®. It combines the advantages of the axle roll with those of the solid roll. This paper explains the development of this roll type and shows the current design. The characteristics of the STEC-Roll® are presented in greater detail and are underlined by a number of simulation results. Beside the design itself, the benefits for casting and maintenance are explained, including for example the easy assembly and dismantling or the use of the roll for dry casting. A brief examination is made of the TCO for the STEC-Roll® and an estimation is provided of the exchangeability of this roll. To conclude, an overview on the current applications is presented.

Aug 17, 2017

By A. W. Ambrose

A few years ago, (March 3, 1915) Congress passed a law providing for the establishments of ten mining experiment stations under the supervision of the Bureau of Mines. In 1917 the Secretary of the Interior decided that one of these stations should be devoted to Petroleum, and in the early part of 1918, approved the establishment of the Petroleum Experiment Station at Bartlesville, Oklahoma, upon the condition that the city furnish the site for the buildings and guarantee $50,000. for the erection of the buildings. A building site of 5 acres and the necessary building fund was furnished by the Bartlesville Chamber of Commerce.The buildings consist of an administration and laboratory building, both of brick construction. The former is a two-story structure of eight rooms. A large room occupying over half of the main floor is devoted to the library, reception room, and clerical force. The remaining rooms comprise a drafting room and six offices occupied by the staff assigned to this station. The laboratory is a one-story brick building and contains a well-equipped chemical and physical laboratory, also a machine shop and mechanical laboratory. In addition to the main buildings there now are on the property an experimental refinery, a blue-print house, and a store house. These latter buildings are all of sheet-iron construction.

Oct 1, 1920

By Jay F. Smith

The Alan Wood BOF Shop consists of two 140 ton furnaces with a rated yearly capacity of 1-1/4 million ingot tons, he hot metal for the BOF Shop is supplied by two 18 foot blast furnaces which produce an average of 2000 tons per day, To achieve the rated ingot ton capacity with this limited supply of hot metal, the preheating of scrap is necessary. This is accomplished in the furnace by using an oxygen-natural gas burner. Piping Arrangement The natural gas and oxygen are piped into the Shop through 8-inch lines to their respective valving stations. As can be seen from Figure 1, the flow of natural gas passes through a flow control valve which is common to both furnaces, after which it divides into two 6-inch lines forming two identical and independent gas control lines, one for each furnace.

Jan 1, 1972

By S D. Cummings

"CRACKS CONCERN CORPORATION" Was the headline on the front page of the Terre Haute Tribune Star, March 1994. Having spent several years following up on blast-induced damage allegations made this article especially interesting. Knowing that there were no operating mines within 30 miles of this newly built, yet to be occupied building, also made the reading more enjoyable. The article went on to read, "Vigo County school officials have asked architects to find out whether some cracks in walls at the new school are due to NORMAL settling or if they indicate serious structural problems." It is obvious that if there were a mine within "Feeling" distance, blasting and the operator would have immediately become suspect as at least one of the potential causes. More alarming is that the investigation may have stopped there.

Jan 1, 1995

By Randall M. Wheeler

Pre-blast surveys are used to document the condition of a structure prior to the commencement of blasting activities. They provide the best means of determining the pre-existence of visible cracking and deterioration in a structure before blasting is initiated. A small investment in a good pre-blast survey, coupled with good public relations, could mean a large cost savings for a company in the future.

Jan 1, 1992

By H. McLeod

Introduction In the period from 1939 to the present, Canada has experienced a remarkable industrial expansion, rising to probably seventh in rank amongst world countries. In the early part of this period, the desperate need for military supplies unloosed tremendous amounts of capital for building new factories and for expanding and converting existing facilities. Mines, factories, and other divisions of the industrial economy bent every energy toward greater and greater output. The result was an 80 per cent increase in the volume of the nation's production within a period of four years, a truly remarkable accomplishment and one in which the mining industry had a very vital part. After the critical year, 1944, the tempo of industry eased off a bit, dropping approximately 20 per cent by 1946. At this time the prospects or post-war industry were clouded by monetary and political chaos in overseas countries, by trade restrictions, and by market uncertainties. There was, of course, a pent-up demand, both at home and abroad, for civilian goods that had been curtailed during the war and for capital equipment that had been destroyed. In the midst of this world-wide uncertainty, if anyone had ventured to predict that by the end of 1950 Canada's industrial output would be back to the 1944 level and humming along at nearly twice the best pre-war pace, he would have been considered rash indeed. Yet this has been the case.

Jan 1, 1951

By Raúl Carretero de la Hoz, Leonardo Soares Chaves, João Paulo Soares Toneli, Francisco Felipe da Silva Dantas, Marcos Peres Lopes, Marcus Vinicius da Silva Gonçalves

The mining activity results in environmental impact and thus requires the adoption of techniques to minimize its effects. The rock blasting process is required to break up and move the rock enabling the haulage of the material, however, it might also cause undesirable effects such as flyrock, overbreak, excessive ground vibration or air-blast at the neighboring communities and damage to civil or geological structures located nearby. The Serra Sul mine, commonly referred to as S11D project, has obligations to preserve two natural tropical montane lakes and several maximum relevance natural cavities whose legal preservation radius represents constraints to the mine development and operation. Controlling measures are undertaken to ensure preservation of the cavities, especially during rock blasting stage, with limitations of the maximum instantaneous charge (MIC) and ground vibration control. The demand for high productivity and the large areas with hundreds of blastholes to charge are challenging factors to the charge control. This work presents the development and field application of a map for limiting explosive charges in the rock blasting process at the Serra Sul mine, used for the definition of maximum charges according to the blast location, ensuring the preservation and compliance with the defined ground vibration limits for each cavity. The map is applied at the mine for every blast and when there is a charge constraint, the map helps to define the areas with different charging profiles in the field contributing to higher charging productivity.

Jan 21, 2025

By BUREAU OF MINES

PLATINUM

Feb 1, 1922