Clay mining

Ferrario J, Byrne C (2002) Dibenzo-p-dioxins in the Environment from Ceramics and Pottery Produced from Ball Clay Mined in the United States. Chemosphere 46 1297... 

Steam boilers are commonly used in power plants and industries of all kinds. They generally are taken for granted now, but in the second half of the nineteenth century boilers blew up with alarming regularity. Records indicate that from 1870 to 1910 there were at least 10,000 boiler explosions in the United States and adjacent areas of Canada and Mexico that is, more than one recorded explosion every 36 hours By 1910, the rate had jumped to between 1,300 and 1,400 per year. On October 8, 1894, in the Henry Clay Mine in Shamokin, Pennsylvania, 27 boilers disintegrated almost simultaneously Mainly because of the incorporation of the ASME Boiler Code into laws, boiler explosions have decreased dramatically.41... 

Fireclays of widely varying composition occur, and are concentrated in the Leeds and Halifax districts. Many of them provide high-quality refractory bricks others, which are less refractory, are used for making salt-glazed ware and drain-pipes. Somewhat less refractory fireclays of a more siliceous nature are obtained from the Huddersfield and Sheffield districts. The pot clay seam in the Stannington area of South Yorkshire, a Carboniferous clay mined by opencast methods, is used for casting pit ware and grog production. 

The harmful effects of clay mining and the uses of elays to resist pollution are described elaborately in the next chapters of Part 111. This chapter explains the geochemical processes involved in pollution and contamination, and the roles of clays in those processes. 

Most clay mines are surface mines, in which the miner and/or his machinery work in an excavated void which is open to the sky. The surface mines are of following types ... 

All types of surface mines, including the clay mines, have some negative impacts on the environment in each of the three stages of operation, as briefly explained below. 

ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATIONS DURING CLAY MINING AND BENEFICIATION... 

Environmental Degradations During Clay Mining and Beneficiation 265... 

Thus, clay mining also has an environmental impact because of the disturbance to the land through open pit or cut-and-fill mining methods. 

ENVIRONMENTAL AND HUMAN EXPOSURE DURING CLAY MINING... 

Case study II When considering the environmental impact of mining on the Fal Estuary, the most important quarrying activity was the production of china clay (kaolinite), principally from the St. Austell area. Historically, china clay mining resulted in the release of both coarse sand as bedload sediment within rivers and also some fine china clay being released in suspension. The early... 

This chapter thus highlights all the possible ways by which clay mining can degrade environment henceforth the chapter also suggests suitable ways to deal with these degradations. 

Explain briefly citing examples how does clay mining cause pollution and state the types of pollutants it gives rise to. 

Why particulate matters are considered as primary pollutants of concern in clay processing operations Give a brief note on various types of particulate matters produced during clay mining. 

Give a note on various steps taken in enviromnent management in mines. What are the steps needed to be approached in futme in enhancing enviromnental safety in clay mines ... 

Part III comprises a thorough description of the roles of clays in environmental protection and degradation. The environmental impacts of clay mining, beneficiation and clay-related industries and the natural processes by which clays protect the environment are explained in the initial chapters of Part III. The next chapters introduce the application of clays and their derivatives to resist pollution, recycling of industrial waste products and waste managements (for both toxic and non-toxic wastes). 

Brokes. Term used in the English ball-clay mines for clay that will not cut into balls such clay is generally of low plasticity and poor fired colour. Brongniart s Formula. A formula relating the weight (W, oz) of solid material in 1 pint of slip (or slop glaze), the weight (P, oz) of 1 pint of the slip. 

Killas. Term used in the Cornish china-clay mines for the altered schistose or hornfelsic rocks in contact with the granite and often considerably modified by emanations from the latter. 

Plat. Cornish term for the overburden of a china-clay mine. 

Aerial photograph of Gunheath china clay mines in Cornwall, UK. 

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