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By Arnold C. Love

This report discusses current research by the U.S. Bureau of Mines on the effects of whole-body vibration (WBV) and shock on underground mobile equipment operators. The highlights of a comprehensive literature review of WBV, shock, and seating are presented. Factors discussed include health and physiological effects, comfort, performance, and fatigue. Vibration data were collected from shuttle cars and ramcars at several underground coal mines in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Illinois. The data were formatted so that they could be used to drive the Bureau's motion platform, and to compare them with ANSI S3-1979, Guide for the Evaluation of Human Exposure to Whole-Body Vibration. Human subject testing in the Bureau's vibration research laboratory evaluated the effects of two different seat angles and of the presence or absence of vibration and of foam padding on heart rate, blood pressure, and subjective discomfort. Only vibration significantly increased heart rate and systolic and mean blood pressures. Vibration and a steel seat had a significant effect on subjective discomfort. The apparatus used for these tests and the experimental procedures are described in detail. Recommendations are made for additional research on the exposure of underground mining machine operators to WBV and shock.

Jan 1, 2010

By M. R. Geer

The widespread adoption during the past decade of the dense-medium process for cleaning coal increases the need for technologic studies of the process. Such studies provide information that will insure maximum usefulness of this process in its present form and may well lead to substantial improvements in design and opera¬tion. The Bureau of Mines has published the results of cleaning trials on a wide variety of coals in two dense-medium pilot plants5/ and reported the recovery of coal from waste by dense-medium treatment.6./ The present report deals with the viscosity of magnetite dense medium, an important subject about which virtually nothing has been published. Specifically, the report concerns methods for measuring viscosity, the influence of various medium contaminants on viscosity, the effect of viscosity on cleaning results, and the influence of viscosity on consumption of medium. Cleaning trials on four coals of varied density composition in a pilot plant, using mediums of different viscosities, showed a steady reduction in cleaning efficiency with increasing viscosity in every instance. However, the behavior of each coal in a viscous medium was distinctly individual. With one, an increase of only 1 centipoise in viscosity caused a reduction in recovery efficiency of 7.7 percent, whereas the same increase in viscosity with another reduced recovery efficiency only 2.7 percent.

Jan 1, 1957

By David C. Byrne

PURPOSE: Evaluate practical technological advances in hearing protective devices for use in different mining environments. RESEARCH SUMMARY: Previous NIOSH research shows that miners develop hearing loss much more quickly than nonoccupationally noise-exposed individuals and that miners experience a greater severity of hearing loss than would be expected for nonoccupational noise-exposed persons of the same age and sex. As described in the National Occupation-al Research Agenda, problems created by occupational hearing loss include(1) reduced quality of life due to social isolation and unrelenting tinnitus,(2) impaired communication with family members, the public, and coworkers, (3) diminished ability to monitor the work environment (i.e., warning signals, equipment sounds, etc.), (4) lost productivity and increased accidents resulting from impaired communication and isolation, and (5) expenses for workers’ compensation and hearing aids. Although eliminating hazardous noise is the long-term solution to the noise problem, miners will likely need to rely on personal hearing protection in certain situations for quite some time. However, it is well known that noise attenuation provided by hearing protectors as they are worn during everyday use is usually quite different (i.e., worse) than when tested under lab conditions. In addition, workers may refuse to wear their hearing protection for any number of reasons. This project was initiated to evaluate practical technological advances in hearing protectors, with an emphasis on optimizing the balance between effectiveness, comfort, over protection, and communication ability. The recently completed auditory research facility is now under-going the accreditation process conducted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology under the National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program. Experiments are planned to investigate the factors that affect a miner’s ability to hear hazard and warning sounds (e.g., roof working, alarm signals, spoken communications, etc.). A service contract has been initiated to record and digitally store samples of typical warning sounds heard in an underground coal mine. This information will be analyzed in the lab to develop recommendations that can be offered to the mining community regarding correct earplug/earmuff usage to maximize there cognition of hazard and warning sounds while adequately protecting the miners’ hearing.

Jan 12, 2001

By M. C. Irani

This Bureau of Mines report tabulates methane emissions from U.S. bituminous coal mines with daily emission rates of at least 100,000 cfd according to States, counties, and coalbeds. Most of the methane emitted is from mines in the Appalachian States. Total daily emission in 1975 was 216.3 MMcfd, compared with 227.0 MMcfd in 1971 and 214.5 MMcfd in 1973. Thirty counties in nine States hid daily methane emissions of 1 MMcfd or more. These emitted 93 percent of the total methane. The highest emissions were from Monongalia County, W. Va., which accounted for 18.9 percent of the total. This was followed by Marion County, W. Va., 9.6 percent; Buchanan County, Va., 8.3 percent; Jefferson County, Ala., 6.1 percent; and Washington County, Pa., 5.9 percent. The Pittsburgh coalbed emitted 45.7 percent of the total methane, followed by the Pocahontas No. 3 coalbed with 12.9 percent. The report lists 196 mines, of which 60 had daily methane emissions of 1 MMcfd or more. Included in this compilation are the identification and thickness of the coalbed, methane emission, coal production and ventilation rates, number of drifts, shafts, and slopes used for ventilation purposes, shaft depth, age of mine, and gas-to-coal ratio.

Jan 1, 1977

The first metal-mine accident-prevention course was prepared and published in 1942-45 as a series of seven miners' circulars (Nos. 51-57). The scope of the course has been broadened, revised, and brought up to date and is being published as a similar series of seven miners' circulars (Nos. 51-57, revised) on accident prevention in metal and nonmetallic mines. These circulars are: Accident Statistics (Miners' Circular 51), dealing with general statistics on accidents and injuries at metal and nonmetallic mines, including causes, costs, and the use of investigations and reports of all accidents.

Jan 1, 1957

By E. J. Babcock, W. W. Odell

The Bureau of Mines since its establishment has always taken an active interest in the utilization of lignite and in the development of the lignite dep'osits of the United States. Extensive lignite fields occur in the west central States, notably in North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and Texas; there are smaller areas in several other States, some of which are widely separated. The total area of the deposits and the total amount of lignite in these several districts are so enormous that the economic value is seldom recognized. To the people of ·the west and west central regions, however, the larger utilization of lignite, in whatever form it may be, is of fundamental importance, and any new methods or uses that promise to open these great lignite fields for more general and more efficient use deserve careful study. Although these lignite deposits underlie areas of thousands of square miles, their development and general utilization has been rather slow. This is no doubt partly because many of the districts are not thickly settled or highly developed in manufacturing industries, but is largely because lignites, from their peculiar physical and chemical characteristics, are low-grade fuels. Most of the lignites in these areas are imperfectly developed coals; many have a more or less woody structure; some belong to the brown-coal type; and others are darker, denser, and more homogeneous, approaching subbituminous coal. The people living in the regions in which these vast deposits occur, especially in the west central part of the United States, are vitally interested in every effort toward bettering lignite as fuel and aiding its wider utilization.

Jan 1, 1923

By L. C. IlsLey

[In 1922 a conference of representative coal-mine operators, cable manufacturers, mining-machine manufacturers, and representatives of the United States Bur eau of Mines vas held at the Pittsburgh Experiment Station, regarding suitable cables for use with permissible raining machines. This conference recommended that the Bureau investigate rubber-sheathed trailing cables in order to obtain specifications for tests leading to approval for rise with mining machines. Effective until such time as an investigation could be made, the bureau asked the several manufacturers of approved mining machines to recommend cables for wise with their machines. In general the Cables recommended tentatively approved. Arrangements for the tests were completed in 1927. Concentric-type cables were investigated first, and Reports of Investigations, Serial No. 2909, covering the tests, was issued in January, 1929.]

Jan 1, 1929

By Melvin E. Poad

This Bureau of Mines report presents two phases of a research program to evaluate a single-entry system for longwall development. Organizations participating in the program; which began in July 1971, include the Bureau of Mines, the Mining Enforcement and Safety Administration, and the University of Utah, working under a cooperative agreement with Kaiser Steel Corp. at its Sunnyside mine in Utah. Part 1 of this report describes the present longwall mining practice, including a brief history, and discusses the advantages and disadvantages of a single-entry development system and its introduction in the United States. Part 2 of the report presents the research program; test design, instrumentation for ground and support evaluation, and the test results from the No. 2 mine. Subsequent reports will describe the research conducted in the No. 1 mine.

Jan 1, 1977

By Sandeep K. Sharma

The U.S. Bureau of Mines has been investigating new techniques to improve the of mineral to recover water lost in the waste slurry, and to produce dewatered solid dewatering s suitable for disposal. As part of this investigation, a study was undertaken to investigate the feasibility of dewatering Alaska placer effluent. Based on the laboratory tests, preliminary field tests were conducted on three placer mines in Alaska. At these mines, the water recovered from the placer effluent (250 to 23,000 NTU) exhibited turbidities of 20 to 240 NTU. In the second year of the project, a large-scale dewatering unit was set up at a mine located in the Livengood district. The feed, at flow rates up to 935 gpm, was mixed with dilute PEO solution in a flexible plastic hose with and without static mixers. Feed to the dewatering unit generally ranged between 300 and 26,500 NTU and required PEO dosages of 0.02 to 0.14 lb per 1,000 gal to produce water from the screen underflow with turbidities of 20 to 50 NTU. During this period, a small unit was also operated at Dow rams of 10 to 25 gpm at sewn sites throughout Alaska, with the effluent from four of the sites being dewatered successfully.

Jan 1, 2010

By M. W. Barger, J. K. H. Ma, J. Y. C. Ma, V. Castronova

The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of various bisbenzylisoquinoline (BBIQ) alkaloids on respiratory burst activity of alveolar macrophages and to characterize the interaction of these drugs with alveolar phagocytes. BBIQ alkaloids were chosen for study because they exhibit a wide range of antifibrotic potencies in a rat model, with tetrandrine being very effective and tubocurarine being ineffective. These drugs inhibited zymosan-stimulated oxygen consumption with a potency sequence of tetrandrine (IT) = fangchinoline (FA) > berbamine (BE) ., cepharanthine (CE) "" cycleanine (CY} ~ tubocurarine (TU). This inhibition of respiratory burst activity could not be attributed to a drug-induced decline in the ATP content of these pneumocytes. Drug binding to alveolar macrophages was directly dependent on temperature and drug concentration. The sequence for binding capacity was FA > TT = BE = CY > CE ~ TU. Therefore, there was no simple relationship between binding capacity and inhibitory potency. Binding capacity was not related to lipophilicity of these alkaloids. In addition, tetrandrine failed to bind to metabolically dead cells or sonicated macrophage preparations. These data suggest that the interaction of BBIQ alkaloids with phagocytes is not simply nonspecific binding to membrane lipids. Alteration of the cytoskeletal system with vinblastine, taxol, or cytochalasin B decreased tetrandrine binding by approximately 33% when adtkd separately and by 93% when added jointly. Pre-exposure of alveolar macrophages to stimulants increased the ability of BBIQ alkaloids to inhibit both oxygen consumption and superoxide release. These data suggest that the mechanism by which BBIQ alkaloids inhibit activation of phagocytes involves microtubules and bules and microfilaments. Pre-exposure of macrophages to stimulants would change the conformation of cytoskeletal components and may make these structures more susceptible to drug interaction.

Mar 1, 1992

Research 82 highlights significant studies conducted during the past fiscal year at Bureau facilities and offices. Readers who want more information about the projects and studies summarized here can contact the researchers whose names and locations appear with each summary. General information on Bureau of Mines programs is available from the Office of Technical Information, 2401 E Street, NW., Washington, D.C. 20241. A listing of principal officials, a location map of field facilities, and a selected bibliography of publications and patents issued on Bureau developments during the past 3 years are provided.

Jan 1, 1982

By N. A. C. Smith

This report on the physical and chemical properties of typical crude oils of southern Louisiana and southern Texas is the seventh in a series of preliminary chapters of a bulletin covering the producing districts of the United States. Preceding reports* may be obtained from the Bureau of Mines on request. The details of the methods used in this survey in collecting samples and making laboratory tests have been discussed in the first three papers. A method of summarizing and interpreting the laboratory data has also been given, but most of the crudes included in the present report differ so radically from those previously reported, that it has been found advantageous to adopt a somewhat different method in making summaries. This method is described in detail later. If any errors or omissions are noted by readers, it is hoped that these will be brought to the attention of the Bureau of Mines, for correction before the appearance of the final bulletin.

Jan 1, 1922

By Robert N. Roby

Deposits of iron ore in Judith Basin County, Mont., generally referred to as the Running Wolf deposits, were examined by an engineer of the Bureau of Mines in August 1942. During the Summer of 1943 the Federal Geological Survey made a reconnaissance survey of, the Running Wolf Iron district and also made a detailed study and a topographic and geological map of the eastern end of the district. Two deposits of iron ore at the eastern end of the district were trenched and drilled by the Bureau of Mines during the fall and winter of 1943-44, This report presents the factual data obtained from the trenching and drilling' operations. The iron deposits of thy Running Wolf district are accessible from Stanford, Mont., by 14 to 16 miles of county highway and 2 to 3 miles of rough mountain road or trails (see fig. 1). No shipments of ore have been made from of these deposits. The ore is a replacement of Madison limestone at the contact with syenite porphyry. The contact can be traced for about 6 miles in a general northwest direction. 'At least five. deposits occur along this contact.

Jan 1, 1949

By F. G. Miller

[Petroleum tscknologists nnd progressive operatorr. constantly are striving to increase the percentage of oil thnt may be recorered from reservoir rocks through wells. The exhaustive studies that hve boen made of the function of natural gas in the production of oil, for example, havo aided operators greatly in increasing tho quantity of oil recovered from reservoirs. Natural gas dissolv.3d in and otheraiso asnociatod under pressuro with oil in rsservoir rocks, howovor, is not tho only source of energy available for rnovi~~ oil through sands to wells. In becomine Veservoi~enorgy conscious^^ encineera havo lonrned that in nnny petroleum resorroirs the edgewater flanking the oil accurrulation constitutos a potantinl source of enorgy cnpnblo, through pro1,sr control, of increasing oil-recovory officioncies materially. ?To longer is tho oncronchmont of mter into the oil- and gas-fillod uart of tho reservoir conridsred as evil to be combatted by dovious mothods but rnthar a nrtturrtl consequence, incident to the withdraval of oil nna gas from tho rolls, thnt mP.y be used nd~~mtngeoualy in lengthening the flowing life of wells ,md incre~sing the oconornic recovery nf oil and gns. Little is knom a3out tho nac'n-~nisrn by mhich wnter qor-rtos in driving nil through reservoir rocks, nnd thjro is n scnrcity of published informa- tion on rates of rnovzrnant of ~ntcr +,hat will result in naxilnm oil recoveries. Bureau of Xine s er.gir.ess nr r'reciate the ~aucity of scientific knowledge on the best methods of lying the natural rater drive to in- crease oil-recovery efficiencies arid ar9 initiating stildies that rill, they hope, contributo to tho procont small fund of information now available on the subject. This rh~.ort is s syr,o_nsis or brief c03pilation of published dAta and thought nccumulntod 30 far, groliminary to la-uorgtory ox~eriment+ tion NI& further resaarch on the principlgs und~rlying the nnturnl wnter drive RS it nffocts oil rocovory. The vrritors hopo th2t the omosition of available information prosentod in tho rey~ort rill stindate constructive thought and efforts loading torard moro comrlote extraction of oil and gas from resorvoirs.]

Jan 1, 1938

By Ernest W. Johnson

In most underground iron mines in the Lake Superior district the active workings are at considerable depth. When additional openings into such. nines are needed, operating officials are eager to discover more efficient methods of constructing them. In recent years, openings into two mines in the district were made by the borehole method,-which employs chilled-iron shot as the cutting medium. Others were made by the churn-drill method, in which pilot hole is churn-drilled and subsequently reamed to a desired but relatively small diameter. Both methods are comparatively new and unique, at least in some phases and in their application.

Jan 1, 1946

By R. R. McLellan

The Brown Derby pegmatites are in Gunnison County, Colo., about 18 miles east of Gunnison. Approximately 860 tons of lepidolite concentrates, with smaller amounts of microlite and beryl, was produced from 3 dikes of the Brown Derby group from 1943 through 1947. No mining was done from 1948 until December 1950, when production of lepidolite and beryl was resumed by the Poston Mining & Milling Co. Mining was intermittent during 1951 and 1952. The dikes were mapped and studied by the Federal Geological Survey during the field seasons of 1942 to 1944, and in May 1950 the Bureau of Mines initiated a diamond-drilling project to test the three dikes for lepidolite and beryl. After being recessed twice, the project was terminated indefinitely July 1951. Seven drill holes were completed for a total of 1,841.6 feet of drilling.

Jan 1, 1956

By B. C. Parks

This paper is a report on the relationships between petrographic composition, chemical composition, physical properties, and thermal behavior of banded bituminous coal. It describes the relationships between petrographic composition, behavior in various laboratory tests, and carbonizing properties of different petrographic types of coal that occur in relatively thick benches in a single bed of high-volatile A bituminous coal - the Hernshaw bed of Boone County, W. Va. Thin-section microscopic analysis and free-swelling index determinations of the thin-section samples were made of a standard column sample. A standard face sample, a representative channel sample, and representative samples of two prominent petrographic benches of bright and dull coal were subjected to chemical analyses and free-swelling-index, plasticity, dilation, agglutinating, low-temperature carbonization, and BM-AGA retort tests. A float-and-sink separation was also made of part of the standard face sample. The fractions from this gravity separation were subjected to petrographic and chemical analysis and free-swelling-index, plasticity, and dilatation tests.

Jan 1, 1959

By B. C. Parks

This is the first of a series of reports on the relation between microscopic composition and chemical and physical properties of banded bituminous coals. It describes the relation between microscopic composition and behavior during thermal decomposition of a heterogeneous, high-volatile A bituminous coal from the Chilton bed in West Virginia. The standard free-swelling test was used as a simple means of studying the effect of heat on the coal. Although swelling indexes are not precise indicators of coal behavior in the coke oven and have limited value in caking investigations, they are reliable for predicting expansion of coal in a fuel bed and have practical value in the study of fuels. The swelling test also supplements other useful laboratory tests for determining the plastic and expansion properties of coal.

Jan 1, 1957

By Jacob Schoder

This is one of a series of papers published by the Bureau of Mines on mining and milling methods and costs. The Tennessee-Schuylkill Corporation, Chloride, Ariz., mines and mills a lead-zinc ore containing gold, silver, and a small amount of copper. The mill products are lead and zinc concentrates that are shipped to smelters. The company was the second largest producer of lead and zinc in Arizona in 1937 and was seventh in gold production. Operations discussed are those being conducted at the mine in October 1938 and are representative of the complete operating period from 1936 to date.

Jan 1, 1939

By G. E. McElroy

This report discusses the construction and use of an all-pressure psychrometric chart in which the requirements of simplicity of appearance and absolute accuracy have been waived, to a certain extent, to provide for the rapid determination of psychrometric data and for the rapid solution of air-conditioning problems of major interest to the mining industry. Many mines in which air-conditioning problems are important are situated at elevations far above sea level and embrace great differences in elevation - in excess of 8,000 feet in certain mines - throughout their airflow circuits. Under these conditions, the effects of variations in the pressure of the atmosphere upon the physical properties of the mixture of air and water vapor of which it is composed are considerable and should be taken into account in the solution of problems. The simple types of psychrometric charts in common use, such as the Carrier, Bulkeley, Hill, and Goff (American Society of Heating and Ventilating Engineers Guide), are not generally suitable, in that they are drawn for a single barometric pressure - 29.92 inches mercury.

Dec 1, 1947