LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Mining
built 141 days ago
Mining ventilation is often seen to be a safety concern for many miners and their families. Poor ventilation of the mines causes exposure to harmful gases, heat and dust inside sub-surface mines. These can cause harmful physiological effects, even death. Methane gas is a common source of ignition for explosions in coal mines and can propagate into the more violent coal dust explosions. High temperatures and humidity may result in heat-related illnesses, including heat stroke which can be fatal. Dusts can cause lung problems, including silicosis, asbestosis and pneumoconiosis (... known as miners lung or black lung disease).
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Mining ventilation is often seen to be a safety concern for many miners and their families. Poor ventilation of the mines causes exposure to harmful gases, heat and dust inside sub-surface mines. These can cause harmful physiological effects, even death. The concentration of methane and other airborne contaminants underground can generally be controlled by dilution (ventilation), capture before entering the host air stream (methane drainage), or isolation (seals and stoppings).[20]
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Mining jobs are heavily concentrated in the parts of the country where large resource deposits exist. Almost 3 out of 4 jobs in the oil and gas extraction industry are located in Texas, California, Oklahoma, and Louisiana. Although there were around 1,400 coal mining operations in 26 States in 2005, over two-thirds of all coal mines, and about half of all mine employees, were located in just three States—Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, according to the Energy Information Administration. Other States employing large numbers of coal miners are Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Virginia, and Wyoming. Metal mining is more prevalent in the West and Southwest, particularly in Arizona, Nevada, and Montana, and iron ore mining in Minnesota and Michigan. Nonmetallic mineral mining is the most widespread, as quarrying of nonmetallic minerals, such as stone, clay, sand, and gravel, is done in nearly every State.
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Mining the vertical fissures of Gilsonite was difficult, as the veins were often quite narrow. Pick and shovel were the most useful mining tools. Ore would then be hoisted from the shafts. In the early days, veins were worked on a rising slope to permit the ore to roll back down the slope. When a sufficient amount had been loosened, the mineral would be loaded by hand into a burlap bag holding about 200 pounds. This method limited the depth of these operations to about 100 feet.
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Mining in the United States became prevalent in the 19th century. As with the California Gold Rush in the mid 1800s, mining for minerals and precious metals alongside ranching and exploration for oil and gas fields was very important in the Westward Expansion to the Pacific coast. With the exploration of the West, mining camps were established and "expressed a distinctive spirit, an enduring legacy to the new nation;" Gold Rushers would experience the same problems as the Land Rushers of the transient West that preceded them.[18] Aided by railroads, many traveled West for work opportunities in mining. Western cities such as Denver and Sacramento originated as mining towns.
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Mining is broadly divided into three basic methods: opencast, underground, and fluid mining. Opencast mining is done either from pits or gouged-out slopes or by surface mining, which involves extraction from a series of successive parallel trenches. Dredging is a type of surface mining, with digging done from barges. Hydraulic mining uses jets of water to excavate material.
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