Show BUREAU OF MINES experiment STATIONS in connection with the work of tho tha bureau of mines department of the interior the bureau is now conducting eleven min ing experiment stations located in the various mining centers of the country and bending their energies toward the special mining problems that are local to their part of the country so great has been the the c character 11 ar concerning demand for knowledge of the work undertaken at these various general rel relation 3 HO 11 mining stations and its to the mining industry the bureau has issued a bulletin describing the work of the stations dr van H manning director of the bu bil reau sketches the work of the different stations as follows at columbus ohio the station at columbus ohio situated at a clay working center is employed mostly on ceramic problems in this country there are about firms manufacturing clay products including brick tiles tile pipe conduits hollow blocks architectural china terra cotta porcelain earthenware I 1 and art pottery the amount in invested v ested in these industries is approximately and the value of the products exceeds annually the bartlesville Bart lesville station the station at bartlesville Bart lesville oklahoma is investigating problems that arise in the proper utilization of oil and gas resources such as elimination of waste of oil and natural gas improvements in drilling and casing wells prevention of water troubles at wells and of waste in storing and refining petroleum and the recovery of gasoline from natural gas great work for coal industry what the bureau of mines has done for the great coal mining industry chiefly through investigations at the experiment station at pittsburgh pennsylvania has been published in numerous reports issued by the bureau some of the more important accomplishments have been the development and introduction of permissible explosives plo for use in gaseous mines the training of thousands of coal miners in mine rescue and first aid work and the conducting of combustion investigations aimed at increased efficiency in the burning of coal and the effective utilization of our vast deposits of lignite and low grade coal at minneapolis how vast are the deposits of low grade ores being made available through the experiment peri ment stations is shown by the work assigned to the station at minneapolis minne sota the primary purpose of this station is to devise methods of utilizing low grade iron ores it has been estimated that the reserves of low grade magnetic iron ores in the state of minnesota alone amounts to some forty billion tons bofis but until recently these ores have been untouched because no process of treating them profitably has been devised even now only one company is attempting to utilize them the minneapolis station has already demonstrated that one process for utilizing the great deposits of iron ore on the cupina range is possible work such as this not only stimulates mineral production and helps to make available tremendous resources that are now unused but it increases the total wealth of the nation and ultimately benefits every citizen the mining industry is so related to commerce and manufacture that the importance of publishing the results of technical investigations of mining problems is becoming more and more evident the miner and the mine operator are integral parts of the industrial system of the country and each needs to keep in close touch with what the government is doing through the mining experiment stations of the bureau of mines problems solved at golden in the west vast quantities of low grade complex ores will become available feasible processes as soon as commercially are devised many of the problems involved which are being attacked at the golden colorado station the salt lake city utah station the seattle washington station the tucson arizona station and the berkeley california station are of such a nature that the small operator can not afford to attack them and the large operator finds them outside his field yet the solution of any one of them may add greatly to the available resources of the country and may result in establishing a new industry that will build up the district in which it is situated already these stations although young have witnessed such results today through the efforts of men at the golden station there is an american radium industry formerly the low grade radium bearing ore was wasted the best of the ore was bought by foreign concerns at ruino ruinously asly low prices and the radium was shipped back to this country at excessively high prices novel methods at salt lake the salt lake city station has devised novel methods of treating certain low grade and complex ores of lead and zinc these methods show a large saving of metal over methods hitherto employed and have made available ores that other methods could not treat profitably seattle station busy the seattle station is busy with the beneficiation of the low grade ores of the northwest and the mining and utilization of the coals of the pacific states the tucson station is working on the beneficiation of low law grade copper ores and the berkeley station has shown how losses may oe reduced at quicksilver plants and how methods at those plants can be improved in the conduct of these investigations the bureau seeks and is obtaining the cooperation of the mine operators at more than a dozen mills in the west engineers from the stations are working directly with the mill men on various problems and the results they already have obtained more than warrant the existence of the stations success in solving one problem may easily be worth millions to the country mining men are using these stations more and more freely as they realize that the government maintains these stations to help them and that the difficulties of the both large and small will receive sympathetic consideration and such aid as the stations can give copies of this bulletin may be obtained free of charge by addressing the director of the bureau of mines washington D C |