The blast-hole method for drilling and breaking ground is not new to the mining industry. For several years it has been used rather extensively in Canada, particularly in the gold mines, where it was first developed and where the major advances in the technique as applied to present-day mining problems have been made. At present, 40 mines in Canada and the United States are using the method in one form or another, and from all indications its use will increase in the future. In two California mines, blast-hole diamond drilling is now used for a part of or for all stoping operations, and in one of these it is used to some extent in development work. At the Mountain Copper Co.'s Hornet mine in Shasta County, about 50 percent of the pyritic sulfide ore produced is mined by the blast-hole method, and the U.S. Vandaium Corp. mines 8- percent of the ore produced at its Pine Creek Tungsten mine in Inyo County by this method. At Pine Creek, long-hole drilling and blasting is used for mining pillars also, and in pre-stopping development. The blast-hole diamond-drilling method is not applicable to all types of ore bodies. A third property in California, the El Dorado Limestone Company, El Dorado County tried the method for several months in 1943 and 1944, but, owing to certain factors that greatly increased mining cost, the company soon returned to conventional mining methods. After using blast-hole methods for several years, the management at both the Hornet and Pine Creek mines have decided that the advantages the method has over conventional mining methods more than offset the additional expense involved in the necessary experimental work. The advantages such as safer working conditions for the miner, increased tonnage per man shift, and a steadier production rate are major factors in the decision to continue use of blast-hole diamond drilling at these properties.

Wilks provides a historical background, list of publications, and description of activities for most of the major science initiatives undertaken at the federal level. He surveys a wide range of government documents and monographic and serial science collections used by both faculty and students.