Book Description

As mining methods have evolved, the mining and processing industries have demanded that systems that handle and transport bulk materials keep pace. Developing and implementing new technology is the key to increasing productivity and reliability. Belt conveyance has made impressive technological progress to keep up with this ever-increasing demand.

This proceedings volume from a technical symposium of the same name reports information on state-of-the-art system engineering techniques including computer-aided modeling tools and methodology. It contains information on advancements in conveyor component designs, application schemes, and advanced preventive maintenance tactics and methods. Case studies describe recent major belt-conveyance projects and problem-solving investigations. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

conveyor
conveyor syste ... Read more

Book Description

This how-to guide is loaded with innovative ideas and practical solutions to some of the most troublesome minerals processing challenges. From mess-free flooring to inventive crusher and conveyor designs to time-saving quality control techniques, this reference of tips and tricks is full of fresh approaches to age-old problems that can inhibit mill operating performance Veteran metallurgical engineer Bob Shoemaker spent his 40-year career seeking out better ways to design and manage minerals processing operations. Visiting dozens of plants worldwide, he witnessed some of the industry's best ingenuity at work. He also saw his share of mistakes. Part engineering, part common sense, this treasure trove of tips and tricks presents new and smarter ways to manage minerals processing. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Fewer Spills in the Mines - The Best Ideas
Bob Shoemaker has probably designed, and visited, more processing plants than any millman around...and he also took the time to write down much of what he learned. As he notes in SME's new book The Circulating Load, "...I found that the managers and mill superintendents of ...plants were most hospitable in showing me their operations and freely answered any questions I asked. During these visits I observed many clever ideas in plant design...and also many mistakes...." These ideas (and mistakes), from Bob and others in Bechtel, were collected over the years in an in-house publication "published in the interest of fewer spills in the mills." The Circulating Load is a compilation of the best of those ideas, along with a generous helping of editorial comment by Bob Shoemaker.
Bob writes well - and always to the point. What about slope on mill floors? Everyone who has hosed a spill on a flat mill floor has vowed to never allow that mistake in a new mill again - but what is the proper slope? Bob has a well thought out recommendation. Which way should the slots run on floor trench grating? There's a right way and a wrong way. How do you load fines on a conveyor belt with a vertical curve? Bob tells us how - and why.
The author does have strong opinions: "The vibrating feeder...is not a feeder in the true sense of the word but is actually - sometimes - a vibrating, self-destroying transport device". He is however, always fair: "There are ...applications where they can be employed successfully"; and better yet, spells out what a millman or engineer needs to consider in selecting and installing this type of feeder.
The book contains suggestions for operators on simple ideas to improve operations (The leaky cyclone valve really does work) and to include in new mill design. Don't ever design a convey system again without re-reading "Notes on Conveyors". On the other hand, you probably only have to read once "Never Hire a Plumber Who Claims to be a Pipefitter".
And "Storage Bins". There's an engineering lesson or two here, but that doesn't interfere with a good story.
She's deep enough. ... Read more

Book Description

Solution mining, the extraction of metals, minerals and materials from the earth through leaching and fluid recovery, is still a relatively new but rapidly growing field. The annual economic value of solution mined metals in the United States now exceeds that of metals extracted by underground mining.
Originally published in 1992, this second edition of an introductory text for students and professional engineers expands information on the science of fluid flow in heaps, nonsteady state in situ fluid flow and nonsteady state well hydraulics. Information on bioheap pretreatment of refractory gold ores and the environmental stabilization of contaminated earth materials has been added. ... Read more

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Dr. Bartlett really enhanced the second edition, WOW.
This is a very readable intro to how mining is done today, and can be the best book you'll ever read if you are an operator or consultant in mining, environmental remediation... Dr Bartlett knows his stuff and has the experience in industry to back up his writing. Especially valuable are the end-of-chapter problems which were really well-done and amended from 1st edition. Work a few problems to appreciate the power of the book. ... Read more

Book Description

Surface coal mining has had a dramatic impact on the Appalachian economy and ecology since World War II, exacerbating the region's chronic unemployment and destroying much of its natural environment. Here, Chad Montrie examines the twentieth-century movement to outlaw surface mining in Appalachia, tracing popular opposition to the industry from its inception through the growth of a militant movement that engaged in acts of civil disobedience and industrial sabotage. Both comprehensive and comparative, To Save the Land and People chronicles the story of surface mining opposition in the whole region, from Pennsylvania to Alabama.

Though many accounts of environmental activism focus on middle-class suburbanites and emphasize national events, the campaign to abolish strip mining was primarily a movement of farmers and working people, originating at the local and state levels. Its history underscores the significant role of common people and grassroots efforts in the American environmental movement. This book also contributes to a long-running debate about American values by revealing how veneration for small, private properties has shaped the political consciousness of strip mining opponents. ... Read more

Book Description

This special publication on coalbed gas is multidisciplinary in scope and covers a wide range of aspects from exploration through production, resource calculations, emissions, and regulatory processes. The contributions in this book result from the International Conference on Coal Seam Gas and Oil, held in Queensland, Australia, on 23--25 March, 1998.One part of this volume also deals with qualifying and quantifying oil generation from coal. Furthermore, quality and quantity of oil and gas generation from coals as a function of heating mode is reported. New models for oil and gas generation in coal seams by convective heat transfer through hydrothermal circulation in basins are presented in this volume for the first time.Audience: This book will be an important source of information for geologists and petroleum geologists, geochemists, and fossil fuel engineers, as well as regulators. It is also of interest for graduate students in geology and mining. ... Read more

Book Description

NEW SECOND EDITION

The weekend explorer will find a fascinating area of California's rich gold rush history - The Rand Mining District - two hours north of Los Angeles. This is an area of wealth painfully scratched from the earth and all quickly lost, an era of ne'er-do-wells and dreamers, the lucky and the desperate. Here is a newly-revised and reworked edition of a popular guide to this fascinating mining district.

SPLENDIDLY ILLUSTRATED

This book includes nine road maps to fascinating trips in the area, and 25 pages of photographs, including rare historic views.

AN HISTORIC GUIDE TO THE AREA AS WELL AS A ROAD GUIDE FOR THE CAR

This book encompasses a roughly rectangular territory from Red Rock Canyon on the west to the Pinnacles on the east. Within this area lie hundreds of mines, camps and diggings from by-gone days. Silent sentinels marking the hopes and dreams of the thousands of men who sought their fortune in the blazing sun of the eastern Mojave Desert. From the modern workings of the Yellow Aster Mine to the nameless prospects of the less than lucky miner. The traveler is introduced to the remains of one of California's most active mining areas.

A VALUABLE HANDBOOK TO KEEP

A day-trip guide for the off-road explorer, the desert enthusiast and the gold camp history buff, this includes detailed maps and directions for nine day trips, as well as historical background and anecdotes to enhance the traveler's appreciation of each site. Two and four-wheel drive suitable roads are clearly identified. ... Read more

Book Description

The fabulous wealth of the Lydian Kingdom (in what is now western Turkey) was renowned throughout the classical world -- in fact, Lydia's kings created the world's first coinage.The Harvard-Cornell Sardis Expedition has unearthed a gold refinery from the time of King Croesus (the sixth-century B.C.) where impure gold from the Pactolus River was treated to produce pure gold and silver. Though the ancient treasure is now gone, this volume illuminates the industry and technology that produced the riches and offers the first authoritative survey of early gold refining and assaying techniques from around the world.The authors fully describe the excavation of the only known ancient refinery and the scientific study at the British Museum to reconstruct the refining process.The unique evidence from Sardis and accounts from historical sources shed light on ancient metallurgy. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

If you are doing archaeometric studies of gold, its a 4
This book, the eleventh volume in the site report series, deals with the discovery and finds from the gold refining area in the city of Sardis. The gold refining area of the site was excavated between 1964 and 1968. At the time, as noted by Rammage (p. 72), it was thought to be part of a destruction layer. Aside from a brief description of the site remains, this book's focus is on the metallurgical remains that were found at the site. It is extremely technical and aimed at an engineering/archaeometallurgy crowd, and not the usual archaeology reader.

While one can raise trivial issues on the technical studies, this book does suffer in aspects of its production. While it is copiously illustrated with both black and white, and color figures, the value of some of them is questionable. The out-of-focus color photographs of the gold foils in Figures 9.1 through 9.5 seem a waste, and a scale and a key are sorely needed in Figure 9.25. The six color pages of sherds, without a scale no less, seem excessive. One also has to question the use of a color photograph in Figure 2.6, when the same information is essentially shown in Figures 2.4 and 2.5. The sketch in Figure 4.31 should have been re-drawn. Given the cost they add to a book, color plates should be used in a meaningful fashion and of a high quality. Unfortunately that is not the case here. In terms of the chapter arrangement and content, one is forced to flip back and forth between the chapters and appendices to follow the discussion. This book at times tries to deal with the artifacts on the basis of the analytical technique, and at other times tries to deal with them on a materials basis (gold, silver, etc.). For example, the information on the gold foils and their refining is dispersed through Chapters 5, 9 and Appendix 4. In another case, the information on the parting sherds is spread between Chapters 5 and 6. The editors should have taken a more active role in preventing these gaffes. The results presented here, while resolving how the gold was refined at Sardis, raises further questions to be answered. It is hoped that the authors continue to pursue them in the future. This is a useful reference for scholars doing analytical studies of ancient gold, but it will have limited appeal for Classicists, archaeologists and numismatists. The archaeological site report and description of the finds takes up only a small portion of this volume. For the numismatist, there are only 20 new analyses presented, and the rest have appeared elsewhere. ... Read more

Book Description

The SME all-time bestseller 2-volume set is a classic. This comprehensive reference work distills the entire body of knowledge that characterizes mining engineering as a disciplinary field. While it may serve as a textbook for advanced students, its primary function is to provide professional practitioners with an authoritative reference and design source. To a lesser extent, the book also serves mining nonprofessionals who seek technical knowledge of the industry.

The books devote attention to all branches of mining--metal, coal, and nonmetal--and to all locales of mining--surface, underground, and hybrid. Although the main emphasis is US mining, numerous references are made to international practice.

More than 250 experts contributed to this text. The books contain 25 sections followed by a complete index. ... Read more

Book Description

Disasters like a dam bursting are hardly ever caused by inexact calculations, but by a failure to evaluate underlying geological phenomenon related to ground water, ground stresses, or the characteristics and variability of rock. Here for the first time is a comprehensive guide that applies the principles of rock engineering to a wide variety of engineering activities, including mining, foundation construction, excavation, tunneling, and oil and gas production. Written for practicing engineers, drilling technicians, mining professionals, geologists, and civil engineers, Rock Engineering Applications contains twenty-six comprehensive chapters that thoroughly explore rock materials, the environment in which rock engineers have to work, the techniques at their disposal, and a full range of practical applications, both at the surface and underground. More than one thousand references are included, as well as case histories, problems, and solutions. ... Read more

Book Description

Tales of the Mine Country is a collection of memories from the author's childhood in the Pennsylvania coal region of Shamokin during the 1930's. Some tales are true, some only partly so, but they all are authentic oral history. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

The Empty Coal Bucket
Not too bad for a self-published volume. Readers who grew up in Shamokin, Pa., may appreciate the descriptions of their familiar home-town surroundings. (Residents of small blue-collar towns, for some reason, are often tickled to see their town's name in print.) This little collection of stories succeeds in conveying a sense of the culture of this region, which provides endless fascination for the coal coterie, but may leave others out in the cold. The coal industry which once fueled American industry is dead and gone. As this book reminds us, there is not much left but culm banks and memories.

Memories of a region...
Delightful stories written in a down-to-earth manner. Light and humorous without being technical. Having been raised in Shamokin from 1970 to 1980 and still visiting family and friends to this day, I only saw/see the remains of a town that was built with coal mining as its staple. Awaking in the morning to a view of the huge culm banks from my bedroom window one could only envision as a young boy how they would have gotten there. McKeever's book tells us how with stories of the hard work that went into the mining industry, complete with the dangers to the health and well-being of those involved. Supports my memories of several of my grandfather's friends over for breakfast on a Sunday morning with the terrible, raspy coughs that they developed while working in the mines beginning as young boys. Coughs that lasted for minutes sometimes while they tried to refill their lungs with air. All of these men are now passed on but this book provided me with many a memory of their stories of an area I was too young to have seen in its hey-day. A hard-working, hard-drinking region for many knew life could be short due to the dangers the mines afforded their health and well-being daily. In many ways, McKeever's stories combined with many I heard growing up make me glad that I was born several generations after mining was at its peak. For sure, it would not have been the chosen occupation for me!

My Dad loved it.
My Dad grew up as the son of a coal miner in Wyoming, Pennsylvania. Dad is getting old now and is disabled and I bought him this book for Christmas. He really loved this book. It brought back wonderful memories for him and he told the family lots of great stories that the book reminded him of. I think it was the best Christmas present I ever bought him. I plan on buying copies for myself and all my brothers and sisters to remind us of our Dad.

Helped me to better understand my mother's family stories
My grandfather was a miner in Shamokin, and lived the hard lives described in this book. This book describes the hardships of the miners occupation, but also brings the neighborhoods of that time "alive". Particularly interesting was the description of the children and their place in the town and their early introduction to the mines. By reading this book, I was better able to understand my mother's family stories about my grandfather, and explain this bit of American history to my daughter when we visited Shamokin, PA. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Wounding the West
Mr. Stiller has completed a formidable task in combining the corporate, regulatory, and environmental viewpoints of Montana's mining history. This book provides a solid technical understanding of hard-rock mining (and its environmental aftermath) in Western Montana, yet it covers the historical development, operation, and degradation of the area in human terms as well. If you like the style of John McPhee, you'll appreciate this read. Just about anyone with a general interest in Western U.S. history, economic geology, or environmental policy as it applies to federal mining law, state regulation, or environmental remediation should appreciate Stiller's prose. I imagine that many similar texts could be written about numerous localities in Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, California, etc. But, as a geologist myself, I also hope that this book will bring home some of the reality of mining's impacts in a country that so voraciously demands (and wastes) the finite resources of our earth.

Mining, will clean-up ever happen
Author Dave Stiller's book about hard-rock mining in Montana is a story full of the history of men's migration to the west to find their fortune in the elusive mountains and hills of mineral ores. At the same time it is well tempered to lead us through the often colorful federal and state political scene that played such an important part in mining development. It is also about mining's true risks, rewards, frustrations, and as well about good old-fashioned work ethic. It is one fine read.

Stiller's description is clear, easy to understand and most educational for the uninitiated in mining terminology. Those looking for a human story will not be disappointed. His character analysis of George and "Rosie" Kornec penetrates deeply into our desires and emotions to see them gain an upper hand in their struggle. Stiller's delivery stays fair and impartial as he explores the drives and motivations of the environmentalists versus the major mining corporations. His style touches on that of John McPhee with a little Colin Fletcher thrown in from time to time. In the end, after all the ups and downs at the Mike Horse Mine, after the clean-up appears to be in order, the reader realizes just how well Stiller has brought us through this complex subject and how well he stayed focused. Certainly we leave this book with our own hope that considerably more attention will be paid on a continuous basis to the other 500,000 neglected mines in the west needing similar action. ... Read more

Book Description

A guide for anyone interested in knowing where and how to find gold, and what equipment to use. Some helpful tips include lists of things needed, some do's and don't, where to sell gold and where to get more information. Historical facts of the old mines and excellent engravings, photos and sketches. ... Read more

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Diving
I thought this book was superb and well written.The expository thinking that was included in it really hit home.I recommend this book for anyone who is interested in this subject.I haven't been able to put thepractices advised in it in use, but will soon. ... Read more

Book Description

The second edition of Applied Hydrodynamics in Petroleum Exploration is a concise guide to the properties of fluids and their practical applications in petroleum and gas exploration. This book is a complete, self-contained discussion of hydrodynamics for geologists and geophysicists actively searching for accumulations of oil and gas.Review from the First Edition: "...this book is a good primer and should be read and digested by every exploration geologist." J. Sedimentary Petrology ... Read more

Book Description

The fifth volume of the late Dr. Needham's immense undertaking covers the subjects of chemistry and chemical technology. This, the thirteenth part of the volume, is the first history of Chinese mining to appear in a Western language. Spanning from the Neolithic period to the present day, it deals with the full range of Chinese mining from copper to mercury, arsenic to coal. The author explores not only the written sources but also the archaeological remains, and observes the traditional techniques still in use. The interrelationship between Chinese mining and its social, economic and political implications is examined. Through these discoveries, the author concludes that these factors were probably more important in determining how mining was carried out than the technological progress itself. ... Read more

Book Description

Mining's dramatic and dangerous nature is reflected in the hundreds of specialized tools and artifacts shown in over 450 color photographs and discussed in this fascinating new book. Thirty categories, from advertising and assay equipment to surveying equipment and tokens, chronicle old mining methods in detail. An elevated appreciation is gained here of the men and women who spent part of their lives in mining with this equipment. Today, historians and collectors pay respect to those people as they preserve and interpret the equipment that remains. This is an important and valuable reference for all concerned. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Want to know if the ore cart is over-priced?
If you are a student of mining history or a collector of western paraphernalia, you should buy this book. The authors have managed to track down most of the tools and other related historical items from the early days of mining. There is an abundance of information on small items such as candleholders, carbide lamps, and assay tools plus the larger items such as ore carts, Pelton wheels, and stamp mills. Pictures of many items plus price ranges give the novice somewhere to begin and the more experienced collector, an excellent reference book. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Compelling Tale
This was a good, readable book; and it told a compelling tale of a young hard-rock miner, from his stabs at different jobs to his eventual career as a miner. It takes one through his apprenticeship and various adventures in the silver mines of Idaho, until by the end of the book he is a competent silver miner. I would not call Mr. Dolph a great, or even a very good writer; in fact, I doubt if he would describe himself so. He writes with an honesty and a self-effacing wit that more than makes up for any stylistic shortcomings. This book delves into a lot of the minutiae in terms of tools and techniques that a miner needs to master, but I never found this to detract from the great tale he has to tell. And, in spite of, or perhaps because of, his slight shortcomings as a writer, this is a fascinating book. He writes like someone you might like to meet.

Compelling tale....
This was a good, readable book; and it told a compelling tale of a young hard-rock miner, from his stabs at different jobs to his eventual career as a miner. It takes one through his apprenticeship and various adventures in the silver mines of Idaho, until by the end of the book he is a competent silver miner. I would not call Mr. Dolph a great, or even a very good writer; in fact, I doubt if he would describe himself so. He writes with an honesty and a self-effacing wit that more than makes up for any stylistic shortcomings. This book delves into a lot of the minutiae in terms of tools and techniques that a miner needs to master, but I never found this to detract from the great tale he has to tell. And, in spite of, or perhaps because of, his slight shortcomings as a writer, this is a fascinating book. He writes like someone you might like to meet.

Fun Book...short on facts
This is a great book for the pictures and the life of a miner as depicted by a miner. Enjoyable reading though a bit short on exact details, facts, or mining explanations. Great pictures though! ... Read more