Soviet mines

When we began this line of research at Sandia National Laboratories, we were primarily concerned with landmines. One of our first efforts was to characterize the surface contamination on some typical mines. For this work we obtained some Soviet mines from the U.S. Marine Corps. Leggett and colleagues at the... 

Khodot V. 1980. Role of mechane in the stress state of a coal seam. Soviet Mining Science, 17(5) 460-466 (In Soviet). 

Borisenko A. 1985. Effect of gas pressure in coal strata. Soviet Mining Science. 21(5) 88-91. 

Mosinets, V. N., Gorbacheva, N. P. (1972). A seismological method of determining the parameters of the zones of deformation of roek by blasting. Soviet Mining Science, 5(6), 640-647. doi 10.1007/BF02497586doi 10.1007/ BF02497586... 

Pneumatic Pipelines. Pneumatic pipe systems are used to move blood samples, medicine, and suppHes between buildings in hospital complexes cash and receipts in drive-up banks parts and materials in factories refuse from apartment complexes and grain, cement, and many other materials. Most of these are small diameter and usually short however, a 17-km, 1220-mm dia pneumatic pipeline has been used to transport rock in the former Soviet Union since 1981, and a 3.2-km, 1000-mm dia line has moved limestone from the mine to a cement plant in Japan since 1983 (22). 

The former Soviet Union constmcted a 262-km, 508-mm dia experimental coal slurry line between the Belovo open-pit coal mine in Siberia s Kuznets basin to an electric power plant at Novosibirsk, using technology developed by Snamprogetti. Testing began in late 1989 and tentative plans call for constmction of two much larger slurry pipelines, each 3000-km long, with capacity to move a total of 33 x 10 t/yr to industrialized areas near the Ural Mountains (27,33). 

Mine Production of Silver. World production of silver by region is given in Table 3. Some 900,000 metric tons are estimated to have been mined since early times. By the year 1500 world mine production was about 50 t/yr. In 1992 world production exceeded 14,900 metric tons. EoUowing the breakup of tfie Soviet Union, previously undisclosed data showed that the USSR led wodd silver production during 1979—1980 at about 1550 metric tons. During the early 1990s the production in this region exceeded 2000 t/yr. 

Solution mining for sodium chloride is extensively used in Europe and the states of the former Soviet Union. 

Talc, unlike Che micas, consists of electrically neutral layers without the interleaving cations. It is valued for its softness, smoothrtess and dry lubricating properties, and for its whitertess, chermcal inertness and foliated structure. Its most important abdications are in ceramics, insecticides, paints and paper manufacture. The more familiar use in cosmetics and toilet preparations accounts for only 3% of world production which is about 5 Mt per annum. Half of this comes from Japan and the USA. and other major producers are Korea, the former Soviet Union, France and China. Talc and its more massive mineral form soapstone or steatite arc widely distributed throughout the world and many countries produce it for domestic consumption either by open-cast or underground mining. 

Blowing air through the hot, crude, liquid metal oxidizes traces of metals such as Fe, Cu, Zn and Pb which form an easily removable scum. Further purification is by distillation under reduced pressure. About 4000 tonnes of mercury are used annually but only half is from primary, mine production the other half being secondary production and sales from stockpiles. The main primary producer is now Spain, but several other countries, including the former Soviet Union, China and Algeria, have capacity for production. 

For the noble metals used in oxidation, the loading is about 0.1 oz per car, with calls for a million ounces per year. The current world production rates of platinum, palladium, and rhodium are 1.9, 1.6, and 0.076 million ounces respectively the current U,S. demand for platinum, palladium, rhodium, and ruthenium are 0.52, 0.72, 0.045, and 0.017 million ounces respectively (72, 73). The supply problem would double if NO reduction requires an equal amount of noble metal. Pollution conscious Japan has adopted a set of automobile emission rules that are the same as the U.S., and Western Europe may follow this creates a demand for new car catalysts approaching the U.S. total. The bulk of world production and potential new mines are in the Soviet Union and South Africa. The importation of these metals, assuming the current price of platinum at 155/oz and palladium at 78/oz, would pose a balance of payment problem. The recovery of platinum contained in spent catalysts delivered to the door of precious metal refiners should be above 95% the value of platinum in spent catalysts is greater than the value of lead in old batteries, and should provide a sufficient incentive for scavengers. 

Zinc is the fourth most widely used metal after iron, aluminum, and copper (lead is fifth). In abundant supply world-wide, zinc is mined and produced mainly in Canada, the former Soviet Union, Australia, Peru, Mexico, and the U.S. Historically, in the U.S. recoverable zinc has been mined in... 

The usual method for disposing of pesticides in the USSR was walling them into spent quarries and mine shafts. For example, more than 3000 tons of pesticides were walled into unfitted vertical boreholes in the Krasnodar Krai. The complete destruction of pesticides has become a large environmental problem, comparable in scale to the problem of destroying chemical weapons stocks. About 40,000 tons of unused pesticides (banned or too old to be used) had accumulated in the countries of the former Soviet Union, about half of which are located in Russia. 

More than 90% of the world s nickel is obtained from pentlandite ((FeNi)9S8), a nickel-sulfitic mineral, mined underground in Canada and the former Soviet Union (Sevin 1980 IARC 1976 WHO 1991). One of the largest sulfitic nickel deposits is in Sudbury, Ontario (USPHS 1993). Nickeliferous sulfide deposits are also found in Manitoba, South Africa, the former Soviet Union, Finland, western Australia, and Minnesota (Norseth and Piscator 1979 USPHS 1993). Most of the rest of the nickel obtained is from nickel minerals such as laterite, a nickel oxide ore mined by open pit techniques in Australia, Cuba, Indonesia, New Caledonia, and the former Soviet Union (Sevin 1980). Lateritic ores are less well defined than sulfitic ores, although the nickel content (1 to 3%) of both ores is similar (USPHS 1993). Important deposits of laterite are located in New Caledonia, Indonesia, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, the Philippines, Brazil, and especially Cuba, which holds 35% of the known reserves (USPHS 1993). Nickel-rich nodules are found on the ocean floor, and nickel is also present in fossil fuels (Sevin 1980). 

In 1975, the total world tin production was 236,000 tons, of which 72% was produced by China (10%), Indonesia (8%), Malaysia (35%), Thailand (7%), and 6% each by the U.K. and the former Soviet Union (WHO 1980). Annual mine production of tin in the United States is a comparatively low 3300 metric tons (USPHS 1992). The world production of recycled tin was about 20,000 tons, of which France produced about half (WHO 1980). About 25% of the tin used in the United States is recovered from scrap materials containing tin. This secondary production occurs in the United States at 7 detinning plants and 162 processing plants (USPHS 1992). The production and consumption of tin chemicals, especially organotins, has increased markedly in the past several decades (Table 8.2). 

Several large deposits of fine mineral sands containing mtile, ilmenite and zircon exist in Australia (Wimmera mine) and in the Soviet Union. The mtile, ilmenite and zircon cannot be preconcentrated. In most cases, flotation was used which involved bulk flotation followed by titanium-zircon separation. Over the years, several effective processes have been developed for bulk flotation followed by titanium-zirconium separation. The type of... 

Figure 4.1 Sampling for surface contamination on a Soviet-type TM-62P2 anti-tank mine.

Peroxide detection bit Provisional Irish Republican Army Photoluminescence Soviet Block antipersonnel mines Polydimethylsiloxene (polymer used to concentrate explosive molecules)... 

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