Book Description

When geologist Chuck Fipke discovered diamonds on the Barren Grounds near Yellowknife in Canada's Arctic, international mining companies almost immediately began to stake claims to the minerals: pure "ice" diamonds untainted by bloodshed and war.

These diamond lands are home to the Dene, Native peoples who have hunted, fished, and lived on these grounds since time immemorial. To mine these lands required the agreement of the First Nations, the Inuit, the mining company, and two levels of government. Ellen Bielawski was part of the negotiation team that painstakingly put together a deal to satisfy all involved, and Rogue Diamonds is her provocative and insightful telling of this intense time. From closed-door meetings in town to sacred ceremonies on the land, Bielawski weaves a thought-provoking story. ... Read more

Book Description

Brings together the full range of seismic and hydrographic site survey techniques, to provide a unified approach to marine high resolution surveying for the first time since the 1970s.

Detailed descriptions are given of high resolution digital seismic survey methods with special reference to "Bright SPot" analysis and the detection of shallow drillig hazards, particularly shallow gas. Hydrographic "analog" search and survey tools are evaluated. These include echosounders, sidescan sonars, swathe bathymetry, autonomous underwater vehicle, pingers, boomers, and multi-electrode sparkers.

Well illustrated, with numerous practical examples showing the application of theory in everyday situations, the book is an indispensable guide for practitioners and students alike. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Little Substance - Lot's of Self Promotion
It's hard to imagine this book being of much value even for a true and complete novice to prospecting. Written with blatant self promotion in mind for other Garrett products there is little if any substantive information on panning that could not be reduced to 4 or 5 pages with a couple of diagrams added. Would appear author may have been paid by the word given the tedious repetitions found throughout. Truly basic and nothing new here - spend your money elsewhere.

Gold Panning Is Easy
The book was well written in easy to understand language. The pictures were good. However it sounded like an advertisement for Garrett Metal Detectors and products.

Mr. Labal seemed to lack detailed knowledge about dry washing in the desert and dry washers in general. Dry washers do more than "vibrate" to extract the gold. Some use air and some use a combination of both. He talked about the lack of water in the desert and how drywashing was the only way to get the gold out. There is some truth to this but there are portable sluices or wet washing machines which use recirculated water to separate the gold from the "pay dirt". Most people who dry wash take wash tubs and containers of water with them. This allows them to use a gold pan and water to separate the gold from the concentrated material dry washers produce.

The book was revised in 1992 and needs to be revised again. There have been many advances in recreational prospecting equipment in the last decade and the book needs to reflect that.

As president of my local prospecting club I would recommend this book to any beginning prospector. I learned that my gold pan can do more than I thought it could!

Expensive advertisement!
This book does describe how to wet pan, dry pan and a few other things...BUT it is a very expensive advertisment for Garrett Metal Detectors and the "new" plastic pan. Very disappointed in content. Pictures are ok but not worth the money.

Hits the nail on the head
This is a comprehensive book on panning. Two things stand out for me. One, there is a by-the-numbers recipe for wet panning that is more detailed than any other book that I have read. Two, this is the only work that describes, in detail, dry panning. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Prospector's View on "The Ancient River of Gold"
This is a wonderful book about a fascinating subject that is often overlooked by the ordinary person looking for gold, but not by any serious prospector. Too often mining books are about the basics on how to retrieve gold and the actual geology left out; this book is a complete reversal. However, it does not read like a college textbook on geology, but rather like a geologic storybook that will blow your mind. My impression is that Raymond Wallace, like Mulder from the X-Files, is trying to describe this far-out geologic theory asking you to bear with him for awhile while you try to visualize it in your mind, holding back disbelief, yet realizing all things are possible.
He covers mountain ranges and river canyons by name in great detail and if you are not familiar with the area you are truly interested in, you will be completely lost. My only complaint are the river-maps are not clear enough for the place-names discussed in detail in the paragraphs, and correlating this incredible information to a topo map would be a monumental task
for even the most dedicated soul. However, after you are done reading what type of gold the old-timers found in the ancient river gravels that were left untouched since the dawn of time, you will be so envious it will take your breath away.

I promise, you will be in awe at the power of the mighty earth and never look at a stretch of gravel the same way ever again. ... Read more

Book Description

Applied Mineral Inventory Estimation presents a comprehensive applied approach to the estimation of mineral resources/reserves with particular emphasis on the geological basis of such estimations, the need for and maintenance of a high quality assay data base, the practical use of comprehensive exploratory data evaluation, and the importance of a comprehensive geostatistical approach to the estimation methodology. Practical problems and real data are used throughout as illustrations. Each chapter ends with a summary of practical concerns, a number of exercises and a short list of references for supplementary study. This textbook is suitable for any university or mining school that offers senior undergraduate and graduate student courses on mineral resource/reserve estimation. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Applied Mineral Inventory Estimation
This is an excellent book covering all aspects of the subject including data collection, verification, and analysis along with geostatistics. Good sections on making sure that the statistically derived answers make geologic sense, a most important aspect. Anyone in the mineral inventory estimation field should get a copy. ... Read more

Book Description

Like canaries in a mine, native peoples throughout the globe are facing extinction due to the greed of mining and oil companies. Their plight sounds the alarm to all those concerned about the prospect of global warming, genocide, and eco-disasters of all stripe. Building a multi-racial, transnational movement to drastically limit resource extraction and creating an new environmental ethic is the best hope. These stories show how it's being done. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Interesting Case Studies but more was expected
Following his earlier book "The New Resource Wars", Al Gedicks eloquently presents numerous negative case studies regarding exploitative mining. In this book, I was hoping there would be more direct social science analysis as well. However, there is simply more descriptive and investigative material about pernicious cases of exploitation. Instead, it would have been useful to also consider some cases of corporate resposibility, or cases where Native communities have in fact chosen to go forward with mining and have had positive experiences -- indeed cases of mines such as the Raglan project in Quebec, The Red Dog Mine in Alaska, Argyle in Australia, mining in Botswana and Ghana or oil in Brunei might also have provided an interesting comparison. Nevertheless, the book certainly has some good expository material on some of the "bad boy" companies. It is important to consider that there might also be some better players in the mix -- which the activist perspective in this book does not want to even acknowledge. ... Read more

Book Description

The book will be a single source that provides an introduction to coal, discusses the history of using coal (both good and bad experiences), compares coal to other energy sources, discusses the impact of coal usage on the environment, summarizes the legislative history specific to coal, presents current and future technologies for coal utilization, discusses emissions control strategies for power plants, and a presents 'fair' overview of coal's importance to the U.S.'s economy and security.

- Presents coal's increasing role in providing energy independence to nations
- Covers current energy usage, environmental issues , and coal energy technologies
- Provides a comprehensive discussion of technical and policy issues regarding the use of coal ... Read more

Book Description

Look up at the Empire State Building in New York City and you will see an almost endless ribbon of soaring stone—Indiana limestone, to be precise. The Empire State Building, Pentagon, Chicago Tribune Building, and many university structures, state capitols, post offices, and churches in every state (and buildings in other countries) are constructed of this exceptional material, renowned for its durability, consistency, and capacity to accept and retain fine detail. When part of the Pentagon was destroyed after 9/11, an Indiana quarry went to work, mining 46 truckloads of limestone to be sent to the Washington site and enabling reconstruction to be completed ahead of schedule.

Limestone Lives pays tribute to the skill and dedication of the men and women who work with stone. It combines 79 striking fine art photographic images with engaging oral histories, representing a range of voices of the workers themselves. We hear from sculptors, drill runners, stone polishers, planermen, forklift operators, a union leader, and the president of a stone company. The book also features brief descriptions of the region’s stone companies, a map locating Indiana quarries and stone mills, and a look at how the industry has changed over the years.

Limestone Lives is a testament to men and women who take enormous pride in the quality of their work, as well as to the role this unique industry plays in creating buildings that last. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A must for every mining engineer!
A great read for anyone involved in the mining industry. Very clear and concise, Dr. Kliche put out another book! ... Read more

Book Description

The field of bulk material handling and, in particular, belt conveyance has wide applications in mining and is a significant part of the industry. Many mining decisions involve methods and costs of moving the mined material.

The 19 papers in this proceedings address the significant advances in the technology of belt conveyance. Improvements in belting and drive technologies have allowed longer flights and higher lifts. Developments in horizontal curve engineering have reduced routing costs and improved efficiency. The successful implementation of intermediate drives has helped change the design and increase production of underground longwall coal mines. High angle conveying has solved problems and allowed the design and construction of systems that would not have been considered only a few years ago. Enhancements in instrumentation and data collection have shifted the focus from maintenance to preventive maintenance and shortened the problem-solving process. Perhaps most importantly, modern control advances have given conveyor designers tremendous command over system performance. These technological advances have contributed to capital and operating cost reductions and increased reliability and availability.

The book is fully indexed. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

BELTING FOR VERTICAL ELEVELTING
VERY GOO ... Read more

Book Description

The history and geology of the Mother Lode Gold Country of California were well documented in numerous government mineral resource surveys throughout the century.This book compiles data from those reports, long unavailable, in a concise, convenient edition that concentrates on gold placer, hydraulic, and drift mines-giving location information as well as history and past production figures.Covering the mines of the Mother Lode, it also includes the other gold-producing counties of the southern and northern Sierra Nevada range, and the dredging areas of the American, Feather, and Yuban Rivers.More than twenty county maps, this is the complete guide to prospecting the Gold Country of California. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Great Tale of Coming of Age
I have only one complaint about this book. It says that the hardrock mining industry is all but forgotten. Someone apparently forgot to tell my neighbors who on most days put on their hard hats with headlamps and go down a half mile or so to carve gold ore out of the mountain.

No, the world out here (Nevada) isn't quite like that pictured in the book. Then again, it's closer to the book than is life in most cities. He visits Carol who provides him with a "commercial embrace," for $15 for a half hour. I understand (I've of course no personal experience) that the rate is now $200 for a half hour.

Other details have changed, but the people are much as he describes, good people, the salt of the earth. An excellent tale of times past when we were all a lot younger.

A friendly tale
There have been attempts over the past 3 decades to humanize the mining business. Fritz's tale, seen through the eyes of a college kid 60 years later, is one of the finest. I know or knew several of the people he describes in his narrative; they'll vouch for his authenticity. Thank-you, Fritz. You have ennobled my friends.

More than a personal memoir.
This is a story that doesn't fit into any typical genre.Its a story about life with a personal memoir and some rich history as the back drop. The author writes in a style that is fresh and engaging. He uses vocabulary and dialogue that, unfortunately, no one encounters any more.This a rich story and a must read.

Nostalgia and Humor
Fritz Wolff has written a humorous memoir of his time spent in Idaho during the glory days of hardrock mining.His prose and story telling are similar to Norman McLean's "A River Runs Through It".A very enjoyable read.

Humor and Enthusiasm Brings Hard Rock Mining to Life
I loved this book. I can't say that mining was a particular interest of mine until the people and process were brought to life by Mr Wolff.
Fritz Wolff certainly knows his stuff when it comes to hardrock mining.He lived it as a young man.But what made this book for me, was his self-deprecating sense of humor and his sensitivity in describing the characters he encountered.I strongly reccommend it. ... Read more

Book Description

The book explores the theoretical background of one of the most widespread activities in hydrocarbon wells, that of hydraulic fracturing. A comprehensive treatment of the basic phenomena includes: linear elasticity, stresses, fracture geometry and rheology. The diverse concepts of mechanics are integrated into a coherent description of hydraulic fracture propagation. The chapters in the book are cross-referenced throughout and the connections between the various phenomena are emphasized. The book offers readers a unique approach to the subject with the use of many numerical examples. ... Read more

Book Description

This revised edition presents an engineering design approach to ventilation and air conditioning as part of the comprehensive environmental control of the mine atmosphere. It provides an in-depth look, for practitioners who design and operate mines, into the health and safety aspects of environmental conditions in the underground workplace. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Clear and concise, what I would expect from Hartman
I bought my first Hartman vent book as a student in 1977. This new edition continues to serve my needs some 20+ years later in the ever changing world of mine ventilation. ... Read more