THE MINING JOURNAL
VOL. XII. No. 21
MARCH 30. 1929
History and Future of Mining in Wyoming
By JOHN G. MIRZEL, State Geologist, Cheyenne, Wyoming.
While Wyoming’s production of copper, gold, silver, lead and zinc has been small, the state offers exceptional possibilities in the non-metallics.
The mining industry of the state dates to 1842, when gold was first discovered in the territory and it is still in its embryonic stage. Wyoming business men, as a rule, do not appreciate the value and extent of the mineral resources of their state and the effect that the development of these resources would have on their business, and for this reason have not furnished it with the backing which it merits.
Considering the tremendous mineral resources of the state, the development has been painfully slow. Wyoming stands at the foot of the list among its neighbors in the production of gold copper, silver, lead and zinc. In these five metals Montana produced in 1928, 56 million dollars, Colorado 16 millions, Utah 79 millions and Idaho 27 millions, while Wyoming’s production amounted to only $700. These figures are startling and present a picture of Wyoming lagging far behind in the advancement of the western part of the United States along mining lines; also its opportunity. The future mineral wealth of the state, however does not lie in these metallic ores, but will be found in a large degree in the non-metallics, with which we are so wonderfully blessed.
There is probably no Rocky Mountajn state that offers greater opportunities or “probabilities of success in mineral development than does Wyoming. Completely surrounded by mineral producing states, it is really difficult to understand why there has been no greater development here in Wyoming. Just why the man-made state line, dividing Wyoming from its neighboring states, should also be the line of delineation between mineral and non-mineral bearing formations in the continuation of the same uplifts or mountain ranges is difficult to understand and is, without a doubt, not a fact and in my opinion very improbable.
Rich deposits of these minerals are undoubtedly awaiting discovery, but until the population of our state becomes much greater and includes a class of prospectors, miners and capitalists that can be compared with those who discovered and developed the riches of Cripple Creek and many other mining camps of the west, these deposits will no doubt remain hidden.
Minerals are found in every section of the state, but with the exception of the coal mines and a single iron mine, there is not a large producing mine in the state today. For this reason the mining properties of Wyoming are the greatest field in the United States today for the prospector, investor and capitalist.
Statistics show, however, that Wyoming leads her neighboring states in the production of oil in about the same proportion that it lags in the production of other minerals. Since 1912 when the first important discoveries oil were made in the state, that industry has almost doubled our population and business. The increase in taxable value of the state since then has amounted to 800 million dollars, most of which can be credited to the development of the oil industry.
During the past few years the production of oil has been decreasing, and it is well to inquire as to the future. It is believed that the production of oil pools will probably never again reach its former maximum of 48 million barrels per year. It will probably decline slowly, but will be a dependable industry for many years to come. To continue to presume that all mineral values of Wyoming are derived from one product or even several is obviously a great mistake. In fact, each succeeding year discloses a more complete and varied range of products mined and recovered within the boundaries of our state. In all probability, many years will pass before another Section 86 will occupy the heart of an oil field as large and lasting as the Salt Creek pool and from which a princely royalty as high as 65 per cent can be exacted for the direct support of many of our state activities. To offset that declining revenue, other pools must be discovered elsewhere in the state. At the present time, the new Oregon Basin field offers more promise than any structure brought in since the discovery of Salt Creek.
The latest figures of the government disclose that the production of minerals is still the largest industry in Wyoming. This leading position is constantly being strengthened by new development. The completion of the new cement mill at Laramie last year will augment the future mineral production of the state by 2 million dollars annually. Other new developments in the way of brick works, gypsum and plaster mills will also swell the annual total to an appreciable extent. While the exploiting of these hitherto latent ceramic resources will allow no royalty tributes to the treasury of the state, nevertheless, localities in which such development is started are assured of greatly increased sources of revenue.
A new source for prospective revenue are the large leucite deposits situated near Rock Springs. Locked up in those deposits are virtually exhaustless tonnages of potash, an indispensable fertilizer for which America is still almost entirely dependent on foreign supplies for its requirements. Abroad, considerable progress has already been made towards the recovery of potash contained in precisely similar leucite deposits.
In the past, the public domain of Wyoming has paid 75 per cent of all mineral royalties received by the federal treasury. As a royalty holder of vast mineral resources, the latest statistics indicate that Wyoming will continue to lead all other states, separately and collectively, for many years to come. We are able to assert that the per capita mineral production of Wyoming is still the largest in America. Apparently the second position that our highly favored citizens enjoy in per capita wealth is likewise still secure.
Potassium is essential to plant life. Obviously, potassium salts taken from the soil by plants must be returned, if the original productiveness of the land is to be retained. Therefore, any Wyoming enterprise that will endeavor to break the stranglehold that a foreign monopoly has long exercised over a mineral product so vitally important to the welfare of the American people is entitled to all possible support that can be rendered by the extremely favored citizens of this state. Edward Atkinson a well known statistician from Boston, filed the following pertinent remark: “The man who finds a potash mine corresponding to the Stassfurt deposits of Germany will add more to the resources of this country than by the discovery of gold, silver, copper or iron.” In reply to this prophecy, Wyoming offers its leucite hills as the most promising potash supply for the future requirements of America, for in no other state do known potash reserves approach the magnitude and richness recorded for the leucite hills deposits.
In addition to the potash content, an extraction process perfected by the Italians also extracts the free alumina and silica values of the leucite. So far, America has never produced sufficient aluminum ore for its requirements. The mineral silica-gel has also passed out of the development stage and its commercial value has just recently been demonstrated as being an ideal substitute for ice in the refrigeration of railway cars. In the course of time the Italian process that recovers all of the values from the leucite should be tried out in the Rock Springs area, none of our mineral reserves offer more promise for early and wide development than these potash deposits.
Few states or nations contain extensive deposits of phosphate, potash and nitrogen compounds. So sparsely do the compounds of these chemical elements occur in nature, that heretofore the world production of potash and nitrogen salts have been internationally monopolized and controlled respectively by the German and Chilean governments. In only one locality so far known do all three of these mineral fertilizers occur side by side in inexhaustible quantities. This locality lies in southwestern Wyoming, between the railway stations of Wamnsutter and Cokeville.
At the present time the American farmer continues to purchase the bulk of hi~ mineral fertilizers from distant foreign nations. The big problem of Wyoming now is to devise ways and means to supply America and other nations with every variety of mineral fertilizers consumed by the agricultural industry of the world. In Lincoln, Teton, Sublette, Fremont and Hot Springs counties are located our largest deposits of phosphate rock. Other western states likewise contain large deposits of phosphate rock. But none of the latter deposits are situated as close to the great agricultural empire of America as the Wyoming reserves.
In the Green River Valley, where all chemical elements that enter into the new and complete fertilizer production exist in exhaustless quantities, there also awaits the development of electrical energy of sufficient potentiality to manufacture all mineral fertilizer requirements of the nation for many years to come. Some day, more than one of the giant chemical companies of America will sadly regret the failure of their technical staffs to conduct investigations of the unusual resources so favorably consolidated within this complete, self-contained mineral and industrial empire, and some billion dollar aggregation of capitalists will find it far more expedient to chemically combine phosphate, potash and nitrogen compounds direct in one Wyoming locality, rather than to import the several raw materials from distant and widely separated regions.
In the electro-thermal processes used at present at Niagara Falls, the element phosphorus is set free by mixing distantly transported phosphorus rock with sand and carbon in the electric furnace. Phosphorus is consumed by the metallurgical, warfare and other industries in such forms as poison gases, safety matches, phosphorus bronzes and smoke screens. In modern aerial and naval warfare maneuvers, electro-thermally manufactured calcium phosphide forms on ignition the dense white smoke screens used to conceal the movement of troops on land as well as battleship fleets at sea. If the war or navy departments should ever deem it expedient to manufacture their own requirements at a central point more removed from sea coasts and consequently more invulnerable to foreign attack, it is certain that the safely situated phosphate beds of Wyoming will be able to supply all of the many phosphorus compounds and camouflaging agencies of a gaseous consistency at the lowest possible costs from the enormously thick coal seams geologically overlying the phosphorus areas.
In the future the Wyoming raw ingredients used in the manufacture of explosives that range in strength from weak blasting powders to the most powerful of trinito toluol compounds, may carry more esteem than the extremely distant and precariously situated natural nitrate deposits of Chile that served to make all of the powder that America consumed in all wars fought during the past one hundred years.
The manufacture of ferro phosphorus, which at the present time is being supplied from the Alabama, Tennessee region, and is selling from $90 to $125 per ton, as well as other non-fertilizing phosphatic products, will likewise be feasible in Wyoming. In addition to phosphorus and potash, nitrogenous compounds form the third and remaining group of mineral fertilizers of primary commercial importance. At the opening of the present century, civilization was greatly alarmed over the pending exhaustion of the world’s entire supply of nitrogen salts. At that time, the deposits of northern Chile were the only known supply. An eminent physicist and chemist gloomily calculated the early day when the reserves of natural nitrates would be completely exhausted. Since 80 years ago, when that often cited calculation was made, science has made such brilliant progress that the world is no longer dependent on the Chilean monopoly for its vital nitrate requirements. Today, all of the nitrogenous compounds that at least America will require for many centuries to come, can be far more cheaply obtained from the chemical and fuel resources that occur in southwestern Wyoming.
The vital necessity of a domestic nitrate supply was recognized as early as 1916, when Congress first appropriated 20 million dollars to have an investigation made of the best, cheapest and most available minerals for the production of nitrates and other products for munitions of war and in the manufacture of fertilizers. Later, when war was declared, a total sum of $115,000,000 was expended on huge hydroelectric development along the Tennessee and Ohio rivers for the sole object of making artificial nitrate, by the now archaic arc process.
Before those costly engineering structures were completed the war ended and for various reasons no nitrates were ever yielded from those colossal investments of the Government. One reason for suspending operations was that the designed arc process consumes too much costly power.
By the latest ammonia manufacturing process, unlimited quantities of nitrates could be produced from the cheap coals of the Green River Valley for one-fifth the cost of production at those expensive water power completions. Already many economists have reason to believe that the wartime nitrate plants of the government were badly located. Hydroelectric development of similar magnitude has been proposed on the channel of the Green River, and even if the direct arc process had not been superseded by later patents that consume far less power, the Green River valley would still be the only single site in the world in which is consolidated huge deposits of every natural chemical element consumed in the manufacture of explosive agents. The availability of a deposit of soluble ammonia mineral also located in this region will obviate the costly high temperature, high pressure, synthetic process now used for generating ammonia in modern nitrate plants.
Not locating their original nitrate works in regions that contained valuable chemical compounds used in the explosive industry, it is no wonder that the costly investments of the government were never utilized. Manifestly, if one of those huge plants had been strategically located directly within the giant chemical laboratory that naturally forms the Green River valley as a whole, its operations would never have suffered suspension as long ns the manufacture of explosives was vital for the defense of the nation.
At a point four miles southwest of Wamsutter, and within one mile of the Union Pacific Railroad, is a huge deposit of the exceedingly rare mineral tachermigite. The tachermigite impregnates a uniform seam of lignite coal between 5 and 9 feet in thickness, for a distance of 9 miles. So far, no government or state agency has reported on this discovery. Careful calculations indicate that the tachermigite content of this coal deposit is equal to more than two and one-hail million tons.
Outside of Chile, our office knows of no natural deposit of workable nitrogen compounds that approaches the magnitude of this deposit. Occurring as an easily soluble salt, the cheapest method of extracting the tachermigite from the lignite coal would appear to be a lixiviation process. Unfortunately, the deposit occurs in a region in which water is so scarce that it is probable that a distillation or even a combustion process must be evolved to extract both the ammonia and aluminum salts at the lowest practical cost. Should a fuel briquette, or semi-coke works be set up, there could also be recovered from each ton of coal, 5 to 10 thousand cubic feet of gas, one-third of which would consist of free hydrogen and the remainder largely of methane, hydrocarbon unsaturants, and also a small amount of hydrogen sulphide.
All told, the valuable by-products recoverable from this unique deposit are of a most remarkable order. As soon as full valuations are proven by actual tests, large corporations should no longer hesitate to develop the matchless chemical coal deposit located near Wamsutter.
Lately, an extremely prosperous domestic corporation known as the American Cyanamid Company, has been making its own line of nitrogenous products, but strange to relate, instead of locating their plant in the United States, the Canadian side of Niagara River had to be selected as the logical site for the exercise of their invaluable patent monopoly. To make cyanamid, all that is necessary to have is water, air, limestone and lots of power. All these are available in great abundance in the Green River basin and also in many other far less favored localities. However, in only our favored valley do two of the chemical elements of the molecule occur already combined, and due to that union, the future production cost of cyanamid to the American agriculturist will be cut in two by operations that Nature long ago fortuitously performed free of cost only in Wyoming.
When the 71,000 continuous horsepower hydro-electrical development in the Green River Valley is completed, manufacture of carbide from local materials can be easily accomplished, and as soon as the water-soluble ammonia of the Wamsutter coals is pumped into the manufactured carbides, calcium cyanamid will result. Manifestly, such a procedure would produce an industrial expansion that would vastly strengthen the economic independence of our nation.
Against our natural chemical laboratory, it would be hopeless for the pioneer Niagara Falls foreign contender to remain long in the battle, Obviously, to put a sudden quietus to the incongruity of America making all of her cyanamid on the Canadian shore line of the Niagara River, nothing would prove more disastrous than a sizable hydro-electrical completion in southwestern Wyoming.
The newly patented cyanamid product seems to be possessed with a most uncanny degree of selectivity. Its great value is not confined alone to its properties as an effective fertilizer, but also at the fact that it destroys weeds, as well as all kinds of vermin that injure growing crops and at the same time fertilizes the delicate grains, cotton and vegetables commercially raised by agricultural endeavors.
When the day arrives that the element nitrogen will serve as an index of civilization in the United States, then the great State of Wyoming will finally command its rightful leadership as the premier chemical mineral-producing state of the United Forty-eight.
Nearly all of our thousands of alkali lakes contain magnesium sulphate, which is easily separable from the other solubles by a simple re-crystallization process. Some lakes of Wyoming, however, contain epsomite almost exclusively in a remarkable state of chemical purity.
The metal magnesium has already been electrolyzed from chemical salts and made to do the work which aluminum formerly performed. In this age of aviation, magnesium has been found to possess qualities superior to aluminum. Both magnesium and aluminum are known for their lightness, but the former is fully 40 per cent lighter than the latter, and it is evident that future air travel will demand that all metallic parts of both planes and ships be constructed of lightweight magnesium alloys. During the past year, the American Magnesium Company made many aircraft and engine parts, as well as parts for innumerable articles of trade. For electrolytic reduction to the metallic form, crude magnesium salts had to be hauled long distances to the powerful hydroelectric plants that operate their Niagara Falls works. Some day an up-to-date expert is liable to expose the economic follies that are involved by such needless transportation costs.
In the meantime, constructive wisdom of a high order would be exercised if all the taxpayers of Wyoming would get behind our statesmen and insist upon early and immediate completion of the dual power and irrigation projects that are located particularly on the North Platte River at Alcova, Seminole Mountain, and other ideal box canyon sites still remaining undeveloped on that stream. Such development would immediately call for the reduction of the chemically pure magnesium salts located near Medicine Bow, Douglas and other points within the North Platte River basin. In other words, now is the time for Wyoming to get a secure foothold on the industrial end of the aircraft age yet to come.
At the present time, magnesium metal is selling close to $8,000 per ton. That price will allow ample margin to pay the freight from reduction works located in central Wyoming to the large plane factories already established on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.
All must realize that early development of the powerful hydro-electrical resources still remaining dormant in our major river channels is a matter that cannot be stressed too strongly at this time. If local development is postponed much longer, more populous states that pay no mineral royalties to the federal treasury at all, may see fit to develop a hydro-electrical industry of their own with no more worthy object in view than to reduce the chemically pure magnesium ores of Wyoming. If such a catastrophic economic dislocation is permitted to happen, Wyoming would at the best merely play the proverbial part of “a drawer of water and a hewer of wood.”
As a matter of fact, our boggy saline lakes could be drained and their soluble solid content loaded aboard cars at an exceedingly low cost of operation. Between three dollars a ton for the crude salt, and three thousand dollars per ton for the reduced metal, a decided visible price differential does exist. To bridge that gap, it is now imperative that the powerful hydro-electrical resources of our streams be developed without further delay. Now or never is the time for Wyoming to obtain a secure foothold on the basically important magnesium metallurgical industry now rapidly advancing to the forefront in this strictly air-minded age.
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PHOSPHATE MINING IN FLORIDA
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MINING & MILLING ASBESTOS TMJ 6 39 1929
PRACTICES IN THE MINING AND MILLING OF ASBESTOS
Mining methods in the asbestos industry vary according to the geological occurrence of the asbestos, says the United States Bureau of Mines in a report recently issued. The asbestos in limestone, such as the deposits in Arizona, is usually mined by tunnels and lateral drifts, or by some simple system of underground mining following the ore. In the Arizona field the ore is first blocked out and then stoped, the roof, after stoping, being upheld by the waste rock. In this field it is common practice to keep the roof close to the asbestos zone and to pick down the ore onto a large canvas after the supporting rock has been removed.
Asbestos in peridotite or large masses of serpentine is generally mined by open pit, as in Canada. After the rock is blasted it is sorted and cobbed, all fiber % inch long and over being bagged as crude No. 1, corresponding fiber % to 94 inch in length being bagged. The mill fiber, or fiber shorter than ¾inch, is separated from the crushed rock by pneumatic and screening processes.
Crude fiber is usually graded by hand-cobbing and sorting, though sometimes the poorer material is screened. The very short fiber that forms the great bulk of the world’s production is separated by milling. Mill fiber is graded largely on the basis of screen tests. Screens of 2, 4, and 10 meshes to the inch are used. Sixteen ounces of fiber are taken, and the amounts retained on each screen and that which passes through the last one is recorded after the screens have been shaken in a specified manner for two minutes. Thus 1-8-5-2 would indicate that 1 ounce remained on the 2-mesh screen, 8 ounces on the 4-mesh, and 5 ounces on the 10-mesh, and that 2 ounces passed through the 10-mesh screen.
The volume of waste in the asbestos industry is enormous, for much of the rock broken must be discarded. In the Canadian field, the largest in the world, the average yield per ton of rock mined is 1 per cent of “crude” asbestos and a fraction over 6 per cent of mill fiber.
The waste product of milling is known as asbestic, or asbestos sand. It consists of serpentine, unaltered peridotite, and a small quantity of very short fiber and is used principally as an ingredient in plaster and stucco. Practically all the rock that goes through the mill is eventually asbestic. In other words, the production of asbestic is approximately the amount of rock milled minus the extraction of mill fiber. A market is found for only a very small percentage of this material.
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GILSONITE MINING IN UTAH TMJ 6 30 1929
THE MINING JOURNAL
VOL. 1. No. 5
JUNE 30, 1929
Gilsonite Deposits of the Uintah Basin
By JOHN BRISTOL, Vernal, Utah.
This member of the asphalt family, once known as Uintaite, became of commercial importance following the efforts of Samuel H. Gilson, from whom it received its name.
Production is estimated at 600,000 tons.
When definite boundaries were formed to mark the states of Utah and Wyoming on the maps, the former found itself with two northeastern corners, the upper bordering on Idaho and Wyoming and the lower on Wyoming and Colorado. South of this lower corner is situated the Uintah Basin, comprised of Uintah, Duchesne and part of Wasatch counties, Utah, and overlapping to the eastward into Colorado. In Utah, the Basin embraces approximately 9,000 square miles and in Colorado 2,000 square miles. No standard-gauge railway enters the Utah part of this vast area, but in the southern part of Uintah County, a narrow-gauge line operates fifteen miles of trackage.
The first white settlers came into the Uintah Basin in 1878, and quickly penetrated to the eastern extremity of the area, snuggling against the Uintah mountain range. They engaged in farming and laying the foundation for livestock raising, and they entered upon this program with the same zest their elders had displayed when they came to the Great Salt Lake valley in 1847.
Soon after their arrival, the settlers were told by Indians of a peculiar black substance, the aborigines stating that the material appeared in outcrops. The white strangers found some of this substance and thought at first that it was a variety of coal, but when they dug out some samples they found that the substance, when it had not been exposed to the elements, was possessed of a brilliant soft luster. Further investigation led to experiments as to its suitability as fuel, but on this score the investigators were quickly disillusioned. They found that instead of being reduced to ashes the substance melted and left a residue of tar-like fibers. They also found that when large chunks of the substance were placed in stoves, a gas was generated which blew stoves into scrap iron. The settlers forgot about the new “fuel” and continued to use wood in stoves and fireplaces.
In 1885 reports of the strange and, apparently, useless substance so insistently gained circulation that Professor W. F. Parker sent for samples and made a study of the mineral, and the result revealed that a new member of the asphalt family had been discovered. As it had been discovered on lands then part of the Uintah Indian reservation he named it “Uintaite.” A small mine was opened and some of the output sent east, but not in commercial quantities, as no use for the mineral had been discovered.
In 1886 Samuel H. Gilson and Bert Seabolt, residents of a county in Utah farther south, became interested in the reports of the new mineral and came to the Uintah Basin. Mr. Gilson especially devoted so much time to the study of the substance and to efforts in locating a market for it that, at first jocularly, the denizens of the Basin began to call it “.” When, however, Mr. Gilson sent samples to eastern chemists and St. Louis capital was interested, when the chemists discovered that the mineral was just the thing for use in fine paints and varnishes for woodwork, it was then that the name ceased to be a joke, and under that name the substance is now known permanently in the far corners of the world.
is found in commercial quantities in Uintah county, Utah, only and as will be seen has developed into the foundation of an industry for this county, adding in no light degree to its wealth and fame. is found in fissures of the sandstone rock underlying the terrain of Uintah county, the veins in depth extending as much as 990 feet; that is, veins have been explored to this depth, and it is generally conceded that deposits extend to greater depth.
is a residue of petroleum, deposited in fissures of rocks so long ago that for the sake of convenience, we of the present day are content to say that it was deposited millenniums ago.
In width the veins range from a mere streak to 18 feet, and frequently are many miles in length. Outcrops often occur in open desert stretches, in badlands, among the sagebrush and greasewood areas, in canyons and on slopes of hills, in close proximity to rivers and other streams and in regions remote from water courses, and in one instance tracing of the vein led beneath the bed of the Uintah river. In some instances these outcrops form a miniature Chinese wall and for many miles they meander across the terrain.
The mineral is mined in shafts with drifts, the shaft being sunk at the most productive and convenient spot of the vein. Mining is attended by danger, because when is reduced to dust it is highly explosive. Miners are not permitted to smoke while at work, nor are they permitted to have matches in their possession while in the mines. Two disastrous fires caused by explosions have occurred, in each case attended by loss of human lives, because instructions were disobeyed.
One of these fires was caused by an explosion in the Dragon Mine, on February 12, 1908. Two men were killed, the damage done represented thousands of dollars, the mine was set afire, and all the lower workings were filled with melted Gilsonite . This solidified, and when later the workings were reopened, the cost was far greater than it was when the original work was done to make of the vein a productive mine. Not until fourteen months later were the bodies of the two men killed recovered and mining operations resumed. But the fire had not been completely extinguished and it continued to smolder, with occasional periods of intensity, then the miners would and hurriedly leave the workings. In November, 1910, flames again broke out, but this time all miners were brought safely to the surface. Previous experience was the guide in completely extinguishing the flames this time, but as mining operations in the Dragon mine were considered too dangerous under such conditions, this mine was abandoned.
Gilsonite is closely related to wurtzilite, or elaterite, and ozocerite, which are also found in the Uintah Basin, but farther to the west. A kindred hydrocarbon, grahamite, is found in Oklahoma. Gilsonite, when exposed to the elements for a long period, loses its brilliant luster; but when broken into fragments the lusterless lumps display the brilliancy on even the smallest particles. Its specific gravity is 1.035, and it is exceedingly brittle. In mining operations it emanates clouds of chocolate brown dust, which softens under the warmth of the miners’ bodies and is very penetrating to the skin. It is insoluble in water and is removed with difficulty from the skin. Miners find that the use of kerosene or grease of some kind greatly facilitates its removal. It is not affected by acids, but is soluble in alcohol, turpentine, carbon bisulphite, heavy oils and fats. Its composition is:
Carbon 88.8%
Hydrogen 9.96%
Sulphur 1.32%
Ash 10%
The “select” grades (highest quality) of Gilsonite, need not undergo a refining process to serve the purposes they are intended for. An exceedingly small amount of foreign matter in a shipment of select ore will render it unsuitable for the manufacture of varnish, and for that reason the utmost care is exercised to prevent chips of rock and grains of sand from finding lodgment in the ore. A wire screen of small mesh is fastened to cross timbers, over the heads of the miners, to all foreign matter dropping from above. As Gilsonite in its native deposits readily expands, as trenches or other openings are made during the process of mining, it is essential that the standing walls of ore be heavily and securely supported by timbers.
It is surprising to what depths daylight will penetrate into Gilsonite workings, and how miners acquire the knack of working in the semi-darkness. The use of electric safety lamps and flash lights approved by the federal bureau of mines has been introduced in all Gilsonite mines, and this modern method has greatly increased the efficiency of the men. Gilsonite is not hard, but it is very brittle. A sharp pick is driven into it an inch or more, and then the ore is trenched along the walls; the release of pressure quickly expands the ore so that it will break out itself or can easily be picked out.
All Gilsonite is shipped in sacks with a limit of 225 pounds of ore in each. Various colored twine is used on the sacks to distinguish the different grades of ore. Ore destined for shipment to foreign countries is encased in double sacks, and this ore is frequently screened because the trade demands large lumps.
Gilsonite itself is entirely devoid of any elastic properties, but from it is made a varnish with most surprising elasticity. A piece of tin coated with this varnish may be bent repeatedly without cracking the coating.
The largest producers of Gilsonite, with average annual output of tonnage, are:
Gilson Asphaltum Company, 26,000 tons; Utah Gilsonite Company, 5,200 tons; Haven Mining Company of Utah, 2,400 tons; Diamond Gilsonite Company, 2,400 tons; the American Asphalt Association, 5,000 tons.
The price paid at Mack, Colorado, for selects hovers around $38 per ton f. 0. b. cars, and this quotation regulates the price at all railway points. Proportionately lower rates are paid for intermediate and low grades of Gilsonite.
During 1928 the Bonanza Gilsonite Mine, in which operations ceased in 1914, was reopened and now 15 miners are steadily taking out ore from the property. The closing of this mine was due to its distance from the narrow-gauge railway, but now that modem roads and modern transportation facilities are available the distance of 19 miles to the railway tracks is easily negotiated.
The Uintah Railway, the narrow-gauge line referred to before—is a child of the Gilsonite industry. In 1902 the demand for Gilsonite had become so heavy that it was realized transportation by teams and wagons to the railway, about 100 miles distant from the farthest east mines, was seriously hampering development of the industry.
Two years later construction work on the Uintah Railway from Mack, Colorado on the main line of the D. & H. O. W. railway, to Dragon, Utah, was begun. The survey led over the Book Cliffs, a mountain range, via Baxter pass, elevation 8,431 feet, and when the engineers had completed the survey the distance indicated a line fifty-five miles in length. Other engineers who took a casual glance at the charts of the survey said that line could never be placed in operation over that survey. But it was placed in operation, and it is perhaps the most crooked railway in the United States.
Trains actually travel twenty-six miles in covering distances between points not more than six miles apart in air line. The same trains on this road negotiate grades as steep as 7½ per cent and curves as sharp as 66 degrees. The largest Mallet engine ever built for a narrow-gauge railway, is owned by this road. In each of the past four years this railway has hauled an average of 87,000 tons annually of Gilsonite, to the main line, besides hauling thousands of tons of wool, sheep, cattle, hay and other material. The trains operate on a schedule of three each week, consisting of mixed passenger and freight service.
Much of the Gilsonite mined in Uintah county is transported to Craig, Colorado, and to Price, Utah, by truck for transfer to the standard-gauge railways. The total annual output of Gilsonite is approximately 45,000 tons, with the demand steadily increasing. The importance of the industry in Uintah county will readily be grasped by stating that the total assessed valuation of Uintah county for 1928 is $6,887,126; the total assessed valuation of Gilsonite holdings and mining equipment for the same year is $1,629,611; the total assessed valuation of trackage and rolling stock of the Uintah Railway in the county is $100,000. (The railway has 15 miles of trackage in Uintah County, including the spurs to some of the mines.) It will be seen that the assessed valuation of the Gilsonite industry, exclusive of the assessed valuation of the Uintah Railway within the county, represents 20 per cent of the county’s total valuation.
A unique mine from which Gilsonite is produced is that of the Diamond Gilsonite Company. This deposit of ore was located through an outcrop two miles north of Fort Duchesne, and as the vein was developed it led the workers beneath the Uintah river. It was a valuable deposit of select ore and to date the mine has penetrated to a length of 800 feet, the workings running parallel to the course of the stream overhead. The delvers in the deep, are protected by a “roof” 85 feet thick, and supported by heavy timbers.
England, France, Italy, Holland, Belgium, Germany, Australia and Japan are consistent importers of Gilsonite, these countries consuming one-fifth of the annual output.
Gilsonite is used in the manufacture of various commercial commodities, the select grade being utilized in fine paints and varnishes, japanning material, electric insulation, phonograph records, in the ink with which are printed the beautiful reproducions of photographs in rotogravure sections of newspapers and magazines; intermediate grades are used in manufacturing battery boxes for automobiles, storage lighting plants, and for the submarines of the United States navy; the low grades are utilized in the manufacture of waterproof material, felts, roofing papers, floor coverings and similar articles. Great quantities Gilsonite are used as fillers for automotive tires, in instances the quantity of the mineral in the rubber amounting to 40 per cent; in fact, Gilsonite is frequently called “mineral rubber.”
It is estimated that not less than 600,000 tons of Gilsonite have been mined and shipped from Uintah County since its discovery less than a half century ago. Attempts to estimate the number of tons of Gilsonite remaining in its ages-old resting places in the Uintah Basin have led to staggering results. A cubic foot of Gilsonite weighs 66 pounds, and a ton occupies 30 cubic feet. A vein one foot wide, for each 100 feet of depth and the length of a mining claim (1500 feet), will contain 5,000 tons, and for a mile in length will contain 17,600 tons. The deepest workings at present are 700 feet down into the earth, and one of the earliest mines opened hoisted ore from a depth of 990 feet. It is estimated that the total amount of Gilsonite remaining in the Uintah Basin is approximately 50,000,000 tons.
rehab
SALINE DEPOSITS OF DEATH VALLEY TMJ 10 30 1929
THE MINING JOURNAL OCTOBER 30 1929
The Saline Deposits of Death Valley
By MAJOR JULIAN BOYD, Consulting Engineer, Los Angeles, California.
Death Valley may be considered as a natural storehouse for chemicals, many of which have commercial importance.
Death Valley is situated in Inyo County, California, close to the California-Nevada State Line, and lies approximately north and south, turning slightly to the northwest above Furnace Creek Ranch (which should be called The Death Valley Ranch, as it is the only ranch, and is situated in the only fertile spot in the valley, which is 178 feet below sea level.
Death Valley is the deepest depression below sea level in America, but not the deepest in the world, as the depression of the Jordan Valley in Palestine, where the river Jordan flows into the Dead Sea, is 1,300 feet below sea level, and the greatest depression in Death Valley is about 300 feet below sea level.
The Panamint Range of mountains is situated on the western side of Death Valley. The highest point in the range is Telescope Peak, called by the natives (who are Indians of the Shoshone tribe), KIKOOTER, which reaches to an elevation of 11,045 feet above sea level, and is snow clad for eight months in the year. To the north of Kikooter, are two other peaks over 10,000 feet in the Panamint Range. They are Too-rar-roop and Hoohoo; the last named appears on some of our maps as Mt. Baldy, and Bald Peak; but it will be readily admitted that the Indian names are much more distinctive.
Standing on the floor of Death Valley, 300 feet below sea level, and looking up to 11,000 feet above sea level, one has the loftiest view to be had in the United States; now it is well known that Mount Whitney is the highest point in the United States, and is 14,501 feet above sea level, but this paradox is explained when it is realized that to look up at Whitney, one has to do it from at least 3,570 feet above sea level, as this is the elevation of Owens Lake, at the foot of the Sierras.
The Black and Funeral Mountains form the eastern side of Death Valley. Dante’s View is in the Funeral Mountains, and there, from an elevation of approximately 6,000 feet one can see the highest point in the United States, Mount Whitney, together with the lowest point, Death Valley, with one sweep of the eye.
The Avawatz Mountains border Death Valley to the south, and to the north lie the Grapevine, Last Chance, and Cottonwood Mountains.
The highest air temperature ever recorded, which furnishes a “record” for the world, was that recorded at Furnace Creek Ranch (Utahnookins in Death Valley), on July 13, 1913, and this was 134 degrees F., on a properly shaded, maximum recording United States government thermometer. Frequently during the summer this thermometer goes to 128 degrees; and in July and August the maximum is rarely below 110 degrees, and sometimes the minimum in these months does not go below 90 degrees for days at a time.
Much “bunk” has been written of how high the thermometer goes in the sun (as apart from the shade) in Death Valley, and it seems necessary to mention that “temperatures” in the sun cannnot be measured, as the thermometer merely rises under the heat of the sun’s rays until it bursts, and thermometers can be broken by placing them in the sun’s rays in most hot climates. However, when “old-timers” are told, “It is 128 in the shade down in Death Valley today,” they invariably retort, “Yes, but there isn’t any shade!” and one cannot, indeed, find a tree to give shade, outside of the ranch.
But once has snow been observed to fall in Death Valley. This was in February, 1922, and that it was quite unusual is corroborated by the oldest Indian inhabitant, Bill Boland, who said to the writer at the time, “This is the first snow I see fall at ranch—was born here—seventy years. Neither has it fallen in the valley since.
Furnace Creek Ranch is called by the Shoshones, “Utah-nookins” (pronounced “Ute-er-noo-kins”). This signifies the place of the mesquite bean, upon which Indians and cattle can exist. There is quite a forest of mesquite trees around the ranch, and the cattle get fat on the beans in the fall.
At the south end of the valley, is the sink of the Amargosa River, which rises in Beatty, Nevada, flows for the most part underground, rises to the surface again at Tecopa, California, and for some parts of the year it flows above ground past Saratoga Springs and is finally lost in the sink at the south end of Death Valley. Water, which is bitter, can generally be obtained in the dry bed of the Amargosa River by digging a few feet. The word “amargosa” in Spanish signifies a bitter taste.
The automobile road along the bottom of the valley, at the south end, crosses the Amargosa Riverbed in three or four places; then passes the ruins of Confidence Mill of a neighboring gold mine worked over 40 years ago.
The north end of the valley, about 100 miles north of old Confidence Mill, and 25 miles north of the ranch, runs up against a barrier of low hills, and over these hills is Mesquite Valley, noted for its high sand dunes. Between two of these sand dunes is situated Stove-Pipe Wells, a little hole containing a little brackish water, and the only water up or down the valley for 20 miles.
Stove-Pipe Wells is marked by an old stove-pipe, stuck in the ground by some dead and gone prospector, but the pipe and the name still survive. High winds in the north end of the valley cause, at times, severe sand storms and the gradual shifting of the sand dunes. There is no record of any traveler having been lost in a sand storm in the valley, so probably the sand storms are not so severe as the alleged fatal ones of the Sahara, Libyan and Gobi Deserts.
These facts show that Death Valley is not so bad as it has been painted, and that nowadays, it is quite safe to travel along its length of 100 miles, or to cross it over the two or three miles of salt beds in the center, and by the roads across it in both the north and south ends. It is also possible to live in Death Valley all the year around. Oscar Denton, a former foreman of the ranch, lived there for seven years; Victor Caballos and his family, Denton’s successor, for eight years; and the present incumbent, William J. Murphree and his family, have been there for two years. Some of each family have remained all the year around on Furnace Creek, 178 feet below sea level, on the floor of this most remarkable, and grandly scenic, Death Valley! But not so the Shoshones. No, indeed. They say, “Too hot at ranch in summer; we go up the mountains, over Kikooter to Wild Rose Canyon, where we have ranch.” There, too, they gather pinyons or wild pine nuts, roast them and bring them back to Utahnookins for the winter.
This has a parallel in the Jordan Valley, where the nomad Arabs will not stay during the summer months, but move up to the Judean Hills. Still during the war, in the summer of 1917, the Australian troops stayed in the bottom of the Jordan Valley, where the temperature was often 120 degrees, but worse than Death Valley, where the heat is dry and there is no moisture. Down in the valley of the Jordan, the heat is moist, because the River Jordan discharges six millions tons of water a day into the Dead Sea, all of which is lost by evaporation in the summer months. Well, a goodly proportion of the Australians survived this hell on earth, as also have the inhabitants of Death Valley, all of which goes to show that the white race is far tougher than the red and the black.
Borates of lime and soda were discovered in Death Valley in the year 1880. The credit of the discovery is given to a man named Aaron Winters, who, at that time, was living in Ash Meadows, Nevada, only 45 miles from Death Valley, California. The story of this discovery is very graphically told in Mr. W. A. Chalfant’s absorbingly interesting book, “The Story of Inyo,” from which I cannot forbear to [say any better].
quote:
“Some time in those lonely years one Aaron Winters and his frail Spanish-American wife, Rosie, located at Ash Meadows, a place eastward across the Funerals from Death Valley and 200 miles from the then nearest railroad station or settlement. One night a strolling prospector tarried at the Winters’ home. He told them about the Nevada borax deposits and what a great fortune was ready for whoever could find more borax beds. Winters, careful not to indicate any special reason for seeking knowledge, asked many questions in a casual way. Among other things he learned that supposed borax could be tested by pouring certain chemicals over it and firing the mixture. If it burned green, borax was present.
When the guest left, Winters made haste to get chemicals from some remote supply point. He had seen stuff in Death Valley answering the general description of the Nevada borax. Equipped with testing supplies, Winters and his wife journeyed across the Funeral summit to Furnace Creek and made camp, then went to the marsh and got samples of the deposit. At night they mixed their powdered samples as they had been told, poured alcohol over it and struck the match that was to tell the story.
“How would it burn? For years they had lived as the Piutes of the desert. Mesquite beans and chuckawalla had served them for food when flour and bacon were missing. The wife had felt the utter loneliness of their situation and the absence of everything dear to the feminine heart. The color of the flame would tell them whether better things were ahead, or if the same dreary existence must continue.
“Winters held a match to the mixture with a trembling hand. After an instant’s pause he shouted at the top of his voice: ‘She burns green, Rosie! We’re rich!’
“When the news reached San Francisco,
W. R. Coleman and F. M. Smith sent agents to the rude habitation in Ash Meadows. When the purpose of the visit was made known, Rosie fished out a bag of pine nuts and as the party munched them around the camp fire, the bargain was made. Winters and Rosie received $20,000 for their find.”
This is the romance of the discovery of borax in Death Valley.
The borate discovered by Winters was located in a marsh in the bottom of the valley, at a place which is 250 feet below sea level, about four miles north of Furnace Creek Ranch. The borate occurs in this locality in white balls of Ulexite, named after the German chemist, Dr. Ulex. Ulexite is a borate of lime and soda, and this occurrence was afterwards called “cotton-ball borax.” The marsh was acquired by the Harmony Borax Company, and a crystallizing plant was erected and put into operation. Chinese labor was employed and housed during the winters in buildings of adobe; the works were closed down in the summers.
The remains of these adobe houses, built in the eighties, still stand in excellent state of preservation, thus giving the inspiration for the building of the Furnace Creek Inn, erected in 1927 of the same material. The ruins of the Harmony Borax Works now attract the attention of the winter tourists to Death Valley, as they add to the natural scene of utter desolation.
The borax obtained from the floor of Death Valley was hauled in wagons drawn by twenty mules, giving rise to the brand of the “Twenty Mule Team Borax.”
The approximate dimensions of these wagons were as follows: The beds were 16 feet long, five feet in depth, and four feet wide. The axles were of 3 1/2 -inch square steel. The rear wheels were seven feet in diameter and the front wheels five feet. The iron tires of the four wheels were eight inches wide and three-quarters of an inch thick. There were five teams kept on the road, each taking 20 days for the round-trip to and from the railroad.
To feed the mules, alfalfa hay was grown at Furnace Creek Ranch and baled there for the -journey. The first day’s haul was from Harmony Borax Works to Furnace Creek Ranch, where all fodder, equipment and water were loaded. As the water springs on the road were sometimes 60 miles apart, it was necessary to haul along with the teams sufficient water for the stock and men to be used at the dry camps. So the train consisted of two borax wagons and a water wagon, the last being made of a 1,200-gallon tank mounted on the bed of a third wagon. Bales of alfalfa hay were also carried on the water wagon. The wagons were built at Mojave, California.
Each wagon was built to haul 12 tons, or a carload of borax, out of Death Valley— each wagon weighed 7,800 pounds and cost a thousand dollars. They were in use for a decade over the rocky canyons and steep grades of the Funeral Mountains and Panamint Mountains, and over the burning sands of Death Valley, with a record of never having had a single break-down. The combined weight carried by the two wagons, including water and feed for men and team, was about 60,000 pounds.
The jerk line was one of the most important pieces of the 20-Mule Team equipment. It reached from the driver to the leading mules and was 120 feet long, communicating the driver’s wishes to the leaders of the team, and managing the entire team of 20 mules. From the driver it was carried to the nigh leader, through a ring on the rump of each -nigh mule, and through the hame rings or other rings fastened on the housing. There was a “jockey stick” connecting the two leaders, consisting of a light iron rod with a snap-hook on either end; one end was fastened on the chin-strap of the off mule, the other on the hame ring on the off side of the nigh mule. When the driver wished the mules to go to the right, he gave a strong steady pull; when he wished the team to go to the left, he jerked the line. For this reason the line was called the jerk-line.
The 20-mule teams proceeded from the ranch along the bottom of Death Valley, crossing the salt beds, eight miles south of the ranch, over the road, which has since been called by the Auto Club of Southern California, the “Devil’s Golf Course,” presumably because it would be a devil of a place on which to try and play a game of golf, because the brine of the old salt lake has evaporated and has left the salt to crystallize out in the form of weird pinnacles of salt, still growing by crystallization and evaporation with the heat of the sun, forming a wonderful, natural, and, I believe, a unique phenomenon.
Along the bottom of the valley, then, the teams journeyed about 70 miles, passing Tule Spring, Bennett’s Well, and Mesquite Well. Between Tule Spring, and Bennett’s Well, there was another borax plant, known as the Eagle Borax Works, and the remains of an old crystallizing vat still stand to mark the spot. The teams climbed out of the valley through Wingate Pass in the Panamints, thence across the Mojave–Desert to the little railroad town of Mojave. The total distance traveled was 167 miles.
The mining of borates from the floor of the valley ceased in the nineties, and borates of lime in several combinations forming the minerals, colemanite, ulexite, and boydite, were mined in lode-like deposits, in the Calico Mountains, near Daggett, and in the Funeral Mountains bordering Death Valley. The mining town in the Calicos was called “Borate.” The town in the Funeral Mountains is called Ryan, and is named after the late Mr. John Ryan, who was manager of the mines for the Pacific Coast Borax Company for many years.
Ryan was equipped as a very modern and up-to-date mining town, electrically lighted and steam heated, with a good sanitary system. It is 3,030 feet above sea level and has a most wonderful view of Death Valley, of which it is the modern gateway. As it is the terminus of the Death Valley Railroad, a narrow-gauge railroad (36 in.) which connects with the standard gauge Tonopah & Tidewater R. R. at Death Valley Junction, 20 miles east of Ryan, it has become a tourist town, with a modern hotel called Death Valley View.
Some of the larger borate mines are as far as two or three miles from Ryan, and the borate ore was transported from the mines to Ryan, on a baby-gauge (24 in.) railroad by means of gasoline locomotives, around and through the Funeral Mountains, across canyons on trestle bridges, and through two tunnels, to the ore bins at Ryan. This miniature scenic railroad is now very much patronized by tourists in the winter.
The borate ore bodies in the Funeral Mountains are lacustrine deposits, which have been metamorphosed and tilted by pressure, heat and subterranean movements. Generally they are lenticular in shape.
The mining was carried on from adits. A haulage tunnel was driven 2,800 feet in eight months, working only two shifts. It was driven through shales, a dyke of basalt, and boulders of basalt-lava, locally called malapais. The explosives used were 40 per cent gelatine and No. 6 blasting caps. A small air drill, without bar-rig-ring was used, and the rounds consisted of about 16 holes. The average advance for each round was five feet.
The mucking operations were facilitated by means of a short portable belt-conveyor operated with a small electric motor. The muckers shovelled on the lower end of the belt which ran up an incline over the top of two three-ton cars in tandem. The cars were speedily removed from the tunnel by a three-ton electric storage battery locomotive, thus the 20-mule team replaced by an electric mule!
Where the over-burden of shale was not more than 50 feet in thickness, the borate ores have been mined from glory-holes in quarries. No hoisting of the ore was required, as it fell by gravity through ore passes and chutes; some of the latter being operated by pneumatic ore-bin gates underground.
Several systems of mining (stoping) were in operation; changes in the system being necessary to conform to the peculiarities of each ore deposit, in size, shape and quality.
In one mine, the square-set and fill method, was in operation; pillars 50 feet in width being left between the stopes at first and being taken out after the stopes on each side of the pillar had been mined and filled.
In another mine there were stopes across the width of the lode, worked on a nil and fill method, without timbering to support the excavations and with pillars between each stope; and in yet another mine there were shrink stopes from 20 to 25 feet in width, which were also taken across the lode at intervals.
The explosives used in mining consisted of 6 per cent gelatin, used in the quarries and 85 per cent gelatin used in the stopes and in development faces. No. 6 blasting caps were used throughout. The shots were fired by means of fuse and not electrically. Air-drill (pointing down) holes were used in the nil stopes and stoping machines, with automatic air-feed and rotation, were used in the square-sets and shrinkage stopes and in the raises.
Borates are not now being mined in the vicinity of Death Valley, but are coming from deeper ground in Kern county, California.
The salt beds in the bottom of Death Valley are 17 miles in length, two or three miles in width and persist to depth of at least 1,000 feet, which is the bottom of the deepest test drill-hole yet drilled. They represent the bottom of a large inland lake or sea, like the Great Salt Lake of Utah, or the Dead Sea of Palestine, but in a drier condition than either.
Still the bottom of Death Valley is not quite dry yet, and may be compared to an evaporating basin in a laboratory, containing a dense saline solution not evaporated quite to dryness, but leaving very small pools of the mother liquor. Nature can be imitated here on a very small scale by making a miniature of Death Valley in a basin, of enameled iron or porcelain.
If such a basin, containing a dense saline solution, be placed in an electric cooking range, in the oven, with the top burner glowing above it, then the basin will represent the Valley and the top burner will represent the sun. Allowing the evaporation to take place very, very slowly by the heat from above, representing solar heat, a dense crust of salt will form right over the solution, and as the drying up continues, little crater like eruptions will take place till finally all the solution except a few small pools will be evaporated.
Then stop the process and one has a miniature Death Valley. There are only a few of these pools left in Death Valley. They are quite small, a few feet in circumference, but to depth of over 60 feet. One of them has been called “Pluto’s Salt Pool,” it is six feet across and is 26 feet deep. These pools are lined with beautiful, colorless to white, cubical crystals of halite, crystallized common salt, chloride of sodium. The brine, or mother liquor, is so dense that if a rod be left in the pool, crystals of halite will form on it in a few hours. The Shoshone Indians call these salt pools: “Oom-ar-vie-pah,” (Oomarvie is salt and pah is water.)
There are only two streams of any consequence that flow in Death Valley. One is Furnace Creek, called by the Shoshones “Utahpah” and the other is Cow Creek, which has a far prettier Indian name. It is “Timber-dinner-pah,” but what timber-dinner means, the writer has not been able to ascertain. Travertine is being formed in both these streams by a species of algae, which for the purpose, extracts lime from the waters. This formation has been proceeding for geological ages, as there are large deposits of travertine along the banks of both creeks, and in many places where other creeks have formerly flowed towards Death Valley. This travertine is not commercial. It would not make building or decorative stone, as it is too vesicular and friable. There are one or two thin seams of travertine which will take a polish and which, therefore, may be called Mexican onyx.
Timber-dinner-pah rises on the west slope of the Funeral Mountains from a number of very small thermal springs, the temperature of the water being about 80 degrees F. A few hundred feet from its source, it tumbles over a travertine hill to form a pretty waterfall and cataract from a height oi about 50 feet. It waters a little ranch just below the waterfall, which was cultivated 20 years ago and is still owned by a Mexican gentleman, whose name is ‘Dolph Nevares.
Utahpah is fed from Warm Springs, three miles up the canyon called Furnace Creek Wash. The water oozes from the ground at a temperature of 90 degrees and has for generations furnished warm baths for the inhabitants. Now it has been ditched and piped and after driving the water-wheel (Pelton wheel) for generating electric power to light the Furnace Creek Inn, the still warm waters feed the beautiful swimming pool at the foot of the knoll below the Inn.
Gypsum and Salt Deposits in the Avawatz Mountains to the south of Death Valley, occur large deposits of rock salt, gypsum, talc or soapstone and celestite, which are the property of the Avawatz Salt & Gypsum Company.
The rock salt consists of massive (brownish) halite, outcropping above ground in hill or small mountains. It is not crystalline, as is the halite of the salt beds in the bottom of the valley, but has been submitted to much pressure after its solidification, so that the deposit has become hard, compact and massive.
The deposit of gypsum, calcium sul phate, can be traced in the Avawatz Mountains over a distance of seven miles. In places it is 400 feet wide and several hundred feet in depth, as far as is known at present. The exact dimensions of either the rock salt or the gypsum have not yet been ascertained. Neither of them are being worked at the present time, but are lying there on the margin of Death Valley in a natural storehouse, waiting for the time when they will be required by mankind. Gypsum is used principally for the making of building plaster, and up to the present time the deposits nearer existing railroads have been sufficient to supply the demand.
A deposit of soapstone, a rock composed largely of talc, has been worked in these mountains.
Celestite, sulphate of strontium, occurs also here in the Avawatz Mountains, near where they run down into Death Valley.
The following information of this interesting deposit is taken from the U. S. Geological Survey Bulletin No. 540-T by W. C. Phalen:
The salts of strontium are used in the recovery of sugar from beet molasses and also in the manufacture of fireworks, as strontium imparts a red color to the flames. Strontium in the form of iodide, bromide, acetate, lactate, arsenate and phosphate, is used in medicine and in the chemical laboratory.
Mr. Phalen goes on to write:
“Celestite, together with salt, gypsum and other important economic minerals, occurs along the northeast margin of the Avawatz Mountains in San Bernardino County, California.
“The minerals are located on land of the Avawatz Salt & Gypsum Company, which has 52 claims containing 5,200 acres. These claims are located on a belt nine miles long by 1 1/2 miles wide, in spur ridges, near the south end of Death Valley. The nearest railroad is the Tonopah & Tidewater, about 10 miles east of the southeast end of the claims.
“The spur ridges, on which the properties are located, are trenched by the drainage channels of the mountains and indented by alluvial fans composed of material similar to that found in the valley north of the deposits. This material in the wash brought down from the mountains. The country slopes off gradually from the edge of the hills, where the gradient is steep, to the center of the valley, where it is very gentle and renders railway or highway construction comparatively easy, so far as the topography is concerned. In general it may be said that the topography is rough.
“Geology: There are three general divisions of the rocks which are of economic importance. These are (1) a basement complex of stratified rocks, which have been metamorphosed and intruded by igneous rocks; (2) lake beds containing salt, gypsum and celestite; and (8) gravels concealing the older beds.
“The lake beds are separable into five main divisions—the basal series of lake beds, the celestite beds, the gypsum series, the salt series, and the upper series of lake beds.
“The basal or lower lake beds are made up of conglomerates, sandstones, shales and soft clays, the whole having (in general) bright colors. They may thin or be entirely absent in places.
Detailed work may develop the fact that there are two distinct series in these lower lake beds, possibly separated by an unconformity. This suggestion is based on differences in degrees of consolidation, in coloring, etc. These lower lake beds contain in some places gypsum and beds of celestite at various horizons. The thickness varies from place to place, being abnormal where there is much repetition by faulting.
“Above the lower lake beds and below the gypsum, occur the celestite beds, which were observed, in general, from the middle of the claims to their west end. The principal outcrops observed were near and west of the Jumbo salt outcrop. The celestite is exposed in the form of resistant ‘hogbacks,’ in some places flanking the ridges and in others cutting them and continuing across the valleys between them.
“The thickness of the celestite zone may be locally as much as 75 or 80 feet, but the exact thickness is difficult to ascertain in all places owing to the presence of wash and talus. East of Cave Spring Wash, the outcropping reef or band of celestite was paced and found to be about 75 feet thick. It must not be understood that the entire thickness of the outcropping reef is pure celestite. It is more than probable that the pure mineral will be found in some places in thin bands and streaks and in others more or less intimately mixed with other substances, for example, gypsum, quartz in the form of sand or chalcedony, clay, and the oxides of manganese, iron, etc.
“Careful prospecting and sampling will be necessary, before the deposits are worked, to determine accurately where the purest material occurs in the largest amount, and in the best position for exploitation. It is to be expected that some of the material in the celestite zone will prove to be of low-grade.
“There is no sharp dividing line between the lower series of lake beds and the overlying celestite and gypsum beds, the different series merging into one another gradually. There is also no sharp division between the gypsum and overlying salt beds, or, in the absence of the salt series, between the gypsum and the overlying shales and clays. In a series of chemically deposited sediments, this is to be expected. The division made above, however, is convenient for descriptive purposes.
“In the stratigraphic sequence the salt overlies the gypsum beds. As a rule it is massive and does not show crystalline structure. Its color is usually reddish or brown, the discoloration being due to small amounts of iron oxide or colored clay.
“In general, the line of separation between the salt and the underlying gypsum can be readily made out where exposures are good. The exposures of the gypsum are as a rule light colored; those of the salt are dull or reddish-brown from the residual clay left from the solution of the salt. Toward the base of the salt series occur saline clays and sands with some dolomite or gypsum, followed in upward sequence by the main salt beds, which are in turn overlain by saline clays and sands that merge with the overlying lake beds. The arid climate accounts for the appearances in places of massive salt out-crops practically at the surface. In places, the salt is not present where the stratigraphic sequence indicates it would be natural to expect it. Its absence may be accounted for on several hypotheses, such as non-deposition, solution, or faulting.
“The upper lake beds overlie the salt and consist chiefly of gravels, clays, and sands, with local thin saline beds and small quantities of gypsum. It is possible that in places these beds may be or include the stratigraphic equivalent of the salt beds.
“In a general way, the strike of the beds follows the north edge of the Avawatz Mountains, curving to the northwest. Earth movements have been intense in the region, and the rocks show faulting and folding on both a large and a small scale. The general trend of the folds is to the northwest. There is a finely developed fold in the lake beds near the mouth of Denning Spring Wash not far from the west end of the deposits. The faulting and folding have resulted in steep dips and many of the beds stand nearly on edge.
“Physical Character: The typically exposed reefs of celestite are dark brown in color, and are conspicuous besides the light colored gypsum. This dark brown color may be due to the presence of manganese or iron oxides or both, but in general it is more suggestive of the former than of the latter. Not all the celestite is dark brown; a great deal of it is of light color, and the deep color is more characteristic of the exposed than the freshly fractured mineral. In texture it varies from compact to coarsely crystalline. The crystalline nature of most of the mineral collected is apparent in hand specimens. Its high specific gravity is a help in identifying it in the absence of other heavy non-metallic minerals, of which barite is an example.
“Chemical character: In its pure form celestite or strontium sulphate, contains 56.4 per cent of strontia or strontium oxide (SrO) and 43.6 per cent of sulphur trioxide, or sulphuric anhydride (50). Two samples collected near the west end of the property by W. C. Phalen, by analyses made in the laboratory of the United States Geological Survey by W. C. Wheeler, showed the presence of 38.41 percent to 47.02 percent of strontia, equivalent in terms of strontium sulphate, or celestite to 68.11 per cent to 84.08 percent. The specimens were selected with no special attempt to procure the richest material, but simply with the idea of taking representative material of good grade. The content in strontium sulphate in the material thus selected is noteworthy.”
The writer’s own observations confirm Mr. Phalen’s description and deductions; but Mr. Phalen has put it so clearly, that no apology is necessary for the somewhat lengthy quotation.
It does not require a prophet to say that the time is not far distant when the natural storehouses of chemicals in Death Valley will be drawn on largely, and that we will see operations on a large scale of excavation and transportation of these materials directed by California enterprise.
In conclusion, might I add that people who are interested in Death Valley and who would like to see its marvels, would do well to save one week from their summer vacation to be spent during the winter on a visit to the wonderful valley.
rehab
USE OF LIMESTONE IN METALLURGY TMJ 11 30 1929
THE MINING JOURNAL
USE OF LIMESTONE IN THE METALLURGICAL INDUSTRY
Enormous quantities of limestone are employed in modern metallurgy, particularly for fluxing. Approximately 24,000,000 tons are so used in the United States annually, chiefly in the smelting of iron ores in the blast furnace. Smaller amounts are used in basic open-hearth steel manufacture and in smelting lead, copper, and other nonferrous ores. As limestone enters largely into metallurgical operations, an intimate knowledge not only of its utilization, but also of its occurrence and qualities, and of the methods of mining and preparing it, is essential to the highest development of metallurgical practice.
Most limestone producers have little knowledge of the way in which their stone is used in metallurgy. The maximum content of silica, alumina, sulphur, and possibly magnesium and the minimum content of calcium carbonate, may be arbitrarily fixed for the guidance of the producer; but aside from these requirements little information is available to producers on how their stone is used, the office it performs in smelting, or the effects of impurities. More complete knowledge of utilization would enable limestone operators to solve their production problems more intelligently.
On the other hand, the metallurgist’s knowledge of conditions governing limestone production is usually limited. The literature of metallurgy is notably lacking in comprehensive discussions of fluxing or furnace stone. Approximately 900 pounds of limestone is used for every long ton of pig iron produced in the balst furnace; but this important constituent of the charge receives little attention compared with the intensive study of ores and fuels, the other important constituents of the charge.
Wider information on the origin and occurrence of limestone, on quarrying processes, and on methods of separation from impurities, would undoubtedly be an advantage to the furnace operator. A lack of appreciation of modern production methods has in some instances led to decisions that worked a hardship on the fluxing-stone producer without any advantage to the metallurgist. For instance, there is a deep-seated prejudice against limestone fines because in open-pit quarrying the sand and clay impurities are concentrated in the fines. Some stone producers who obtain their stone by underground methods have found great difficulty in convincing furnace operators that their fines are as pure as lump stone.
The purpose of Bulletin 299, “Metallurgical Limestone,” just issued by the Bureau of Mines, is to cover as completely as possible the present knowledge of the utilization of metallurgical stone and the problems connected with its quarrying or mining and preparation. With this object in view, it is believed that a clear coordination of all the factors involved may be worked out, and that mutual advantages will ensue to both producers and consumers.
In Bulletin 299, the author, Oliver Bowles, mineral technologist, Bureau of Mines, discusses the utilization problems of metallurgical limestone in both ferrous and nonferrous metallurgy. With regard to its use in the iron blast-furnace, attention is given to the purpose of flux, the action of flux in the furnace, the effects of impurities on fluxing stone, the slagging effect of magnesia, the effect of magnesia on slag viscosity and slag utilization, and other matters. The use of limestone in the smelting of copper, lead and antimony is described. Production problems of fluxing limestone are given attention, and the magnesium problem is considered.
Usually the quarryman prefers a single market, all the details of which he thoroughly understands, for his product, says the author. A diversity of markets requires an additional sales force, and a knowledge of the requirements of other consuming industries. However, conditions may be such that a diversity of products is unavoidable. Stone unsuited for metallurgical use may be so interbeded that its removal becomes a necessity, in which case it is highly desirable that a market be found for it.
The crushed-stone and railroad-ballast industries may constitute favorable outlets. At practically all fluxing-stone quarries there is a surplus of fines. With suitable grinding equipment the fines may be prepared for the agricultural limestone market or for the filler trades. Coarser materials may be sold as chicken grit, or as limestone sand, in localities where silica sand is not abundant.
Copies of Bureau of Mines Bulletin 299, “Metallurgical Limestone,” may be obtained from the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C., at a price of 10 cents.
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CAMP VERDE AZ MINING NEWS 6 15 1930
ARIZONA CHEMICAL COMPANY IS INCREASING PRODUCTION
The week ended May 17 saw 1,000 tons of sodium sulphate concentrates shipped from properties of the Arizona Chemical Company, Camp Verde, Arizona. This is an all-time record for shipments from this property. The company, however, states that this figure is to be maintained and increased as rapidly as additional forces and equipment can be put into operation.
The product, which is used in the manufacture of paper, glass and other materials, is not mined in any other place in the United States, and is finding a ready market.
The sodium sulphate ore, which is white in color, is found in a large clay bank, in veins which range from 10 to 100 feet in height. It is mined by open quarry and tunnel methods. The ore is carried by long endless conveyor belts, through a series of crushers, which grind it up to various sizes in preparation for the milling plant. At the mill, the ore is run through a dryer which is a large revolving metal drum, 50 feet in length and eight feet in diameter. The dryer is in reality, a revolving furnace, into which a blast of oil fire is blown by compressed air. The terrific heat drys the ore, and separates the flakes of gypsum from it, which are blown out into the air. From the dryer the ore is conveyed by endless conveyor belt to the storage bins.
That primitive Indians once mined the property, has been shown by many finds of mummified bodies, stone picks, cedar bark torches, and other prehistoric implements. It is the contention of the archaeologists who have examined the finds, that the Indians lived in the tunnels, and probably entire families were killed in the cave-ins. The deposit was mined for salt, for their food, and the sodium sulphate for medicinal purposes.
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1929 ASBESTOS PRODUCTION TMJ 6 15 1930
THE MINING JOURNAL JUNE 15 1930
ASBESTOS PRODUCTION FIGURES FOR THE YEAR 1929
The total quantity of asbestos sold or used by producers in the United States, in 1929, was 8,155 short tons, valued at $351,004, acording to figures compiled by the United States Bureau of Mines, from individual reports furnished by producers. These figures represent 1,988 short tons of chrysotile, valued at $317,584 mined in Arizona and Vermont, and 1,172 tons of amphibole, valued at $38,420, mined in Georgia, Maryland, Montana, and North Carolina. As compared with 1928, figures for chrysotile showed an increase in quantity, but a decrease in value, while amphibole showed an increase in both quantity and value.
Figures for chrysotile include both crude and mill fiber, and therefore represent a combination of high-grade, and low-grade fiber. Amphibole is also produced as long, and short fiber. To avoid disclosing confidential returns, the figures showing the high-grade long fiber from Maryland, used since 1918 for making chemical filters, have been combined with those showing mass, and short fiber anthophyllite (amphibole) produced in Georgia, Montana, and North Carolina.
In Arizona, the average values for total crude asbestos (Nos. 1, 2, and 3) was about $300; ranging from $450 to $600 a ton for No. 1; from $225 to $500 a ton for No. 2; and from $75 to $275 a ton for No. 3. The average value for all mill-fiber asbestos sold in Arizona (Nos. 1, 2, and 8), was $171.
Production was reported from Vermont for the first time since 1922, when experimental operations were carried on by the Asbestos Corporation of America. In 1923 activities were suspended at the property, which is in Lamoille County, near Hyde Park. Since that time the company has been reorganized under the name of the Vermont Asbestos Corporation, operations resumed, and a total of 1,049 tons of mill fiber asbestos, valued at $47,799, reported for 1929.
The figures on asbestos sold or used by producers in Georgia, Maryland, and North Carolina, were collected in cooperation with the State Geological Surveys.
Imports of unmanufactured asbestos for consumption amounted in 1929 to 262,427 short tons, valued at $11,153,017; divided as follows: crude 16,976 tons; mill fiber 95,384 tons; refuse 150,067 tons. Corresponding total figures for 1928 were 280,595 short tons, valued at $9,017,891. Exports in 1929 were 709 short tons of crude, valued at $105,467.
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AZ CHEM PIT CAMP VERDE, AZ TMJ 7 15 1930
ARIZONA CHEMICAL COMPANY IS INCREASING PRODUCTION
The week ended May 17 saw 1,000 tons of sodium sulphate concentrates shipped from properties of the Arizona Chemical Company, Camp Verde, Arizona. This is an all-time record for shipments from this property. The company, however, states that this figure is to be maintained and increased as rapidly as additional forces and equipment can be put into operation.
The product, which is used in the manufacture of paper, glass and other materials, is not mined in any other place in the United States, and is finding a ready market.
The sodium sulphate ore, which is white in color, is found in a large clay bank, in veins which range from 10 to 100 feet in height. It is mined by open quarry and tunnel methods. The ore is carried by long endless conveyor belts, through a series of crushers, which grind it up to various sizes in preparation for the milling plant. At the mill, the ore is run through a dryer which is a large revolving metal drum, 50 feet in length and eight feet in diameter. The dryer is in reality, a revolving furnace, into which a blast of oil fire is blown by compressed air. The terrific heat drys the ore, and separates the flakes of gypsum from it, which are blown out into the air. From the dryer the ore is conveyed by endless conveyor belt to the storage bins.
That primitive Indians once mined the property, has been shown by many finds of mummified bodies, stone picks, cedar bark torches, and other prehistoric implements. It is the contention of the archaeologists who have examined the finds, that the Indians lived in the tunnels, and probably entire families were killed in the cave-ins. The deposit was mined for salt, for their food, and the sodium sulphate for medicinal purposes.
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ASBESTOS PRODUCTION FOR 1929 TMJ 6 15 1930
THE MINING JOURNAL JUNE 15 1930
ASBESTOS PRODUCTION FIGURES FOR THE YEAR 1929
The total quantity of asbestos sold or used by producers in the United States, in 1929, was 8,155 short tons, valued at $351,004, according to figures compiled by the United States Bureau of Mines, from individual reports furnished by producers. These figures represent 1,988 short tons of chrysotile, valued at $317,584 mined in Arizona and Vermont, and 1,172 tons of amphibole, valued at $38,420, mined in Georgia, Maryland, Montana, and North Carolina. As compared with 1928, figures for chrysotile showed an increase in quantity, but a decrease in value, while amphibole showed an increase in both quantity and value.
Figures for chrysotile include both crude and mill fiber, and therefore represent a combination of high-grade, and low-grade fiber. Amphibole is also produced as long, and short fiber. To avoid disclosing confidential returns, the figures showing the high-grade long fiber from Maryland, used since 1918 for making chemical filters, have been combined with those showing mass, and short fiber anthophyllite (amphibole) produced in Georgia, Montana, and North Carolina.
In Arizona, the average values for total crude asbestos (Nos. 1, 2, and 3) was about $300; ranging from $450 to $600 a ton for No. 1; from $225 to $500 a ton for No. 2; and from $75 to $275 a ton for No. 3. The average value for all mill-fiber asbestos sold in Arizona (Nos. 1, 2, and 8), was $171.
Production was reported from Vermont for the first time since 1922, when experimental operations were carried on by the Asbestos Corporation of America. In 1923 activities were suspended at the property, which is in Lamoille County, near Hyde Park. Since that time the company has been reorganized under the name of the Vermont Asbestos Corporation, operations resumed, and a total of 1,049 tons of mill fiber asbestos, valued at $47,799, reported for 1929.
The figures on asbestos sold or used by producers in Georgia, Maryland, and North Carolina, were collected in cooperation with the State Geological Surveys.
Imports of unmanufactured asbestos for consumption amounted in 1929 to 262,427 short tons, valued at $11,153,017; divided as follows: crude 16,976 tons; mill fiber 95,384 tons; refuse 150,067 tons. Corresponding total figures for 1928 were 280,595 short tons, valued at $9,017,891. Exports in 1929 were 709 short tons of crude, valued at $105,467.
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POTASH TEST DRILL HOLES, NM TMJ 6 15 1930
GOVERNMENT REPORTS ON POTASH TEST DRILL HOLES
Several beds of polyhalite, including several thick enough, and rich enough in potash, to have potential commercial values, were cut in the diamond drill holes thirteen and fourteen, being drilled by the U. S. Government in its tests of the potash fields of New Mexico and Texas. These holes were drilled in Lea and Eddy Counties, New Mexico. Analyses of the cores from both holes have now been completed and the results published by the Geological Survey.
The test hole in Eddy County, in addition to the polyhalite beds, penetrated beds containing langbenite and sylvite, occupying an interval of about 92 feet below a depth of 1,631 feet. Most of these beds are not rich enough to have commercial possibilities, but a two-foot two inch bed encountered at a depth of 1,675 feet, 11 inches, included these minerals containing 9.6 percent of potassium oxide, and one bed at 1,718 feet, composed chiefly of langbenite, contained 14 percent of potassium oxide.
The thirteenth test hole is about eight miles southeast of the third, and the fourteenth is about 15 miles still farther southeast. The third, and fourteenth holes, have yielded no other potash mineral than polyhalite, and the thirteenth, which lies between them, may mark the position of a separate depositional basin, or an arm of the already known basin, that contains the more desirable potassium chloride salts.
The thirteenth test hole is in Eddy County, New Mexico, about 16 miles east, and a little north of Malaga, a station on the Santa Fe Rilroad. It was churn drilled 850 feet to the top of the salts and then core drilled 1,289 feet to a total depth of 2,189 feet, with 99.4 percent of the core recovered. Nine beds of polyhalite, each more than two feet thick and containing more than 10 percent potassium oxide, were encountered. An eight-foot bed at a depth of 1,405 feet contained 12.21 percent, and is probably the most attractive, commercially, states the government report.
The fourteenth government test hole is in Lea County, New Mexico. It was taken over from a private company which had churn drilled it to a depth of 1,232 feet. The government’s contractor began coring at a depth of 1,181 feet,and continued 848 feet, with 96.9 percent of the core recovered. A six-foot 5-inch bed of polyhalite,at a depth of 1,658 feet,contains 12.04 percent of potassium oxide, and a three-foot 10-inch bed,at a depth of 1,790 feet,contains 13.43 percent. These were the most attractive commercially of those encountered.
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NW MAGNESITE PLANT IN CHEWALAH, WASHINGTON TMJ 6 15 1930
NORTHWEST MAGNESITE PLANT TO OPERATE EARLY IN JULY
A noticeable increase in activity at Chewelah, Washington, has been caused by preparation for production of Thermax, the magnesite board, manufactured by the Northwest Magnesite Company, of which R. B. Rogers is general manager. Teams of 15 or more contractors, are hauling timber, the initial requirement being about 4,000,000 feet, one-half of which has been delivered.
Wood and rock are crushed and, after passing through different machines, including ovens 120 feet long, emerge as a board which can be used for building, as well as other purposes. The fact that it is a non-conductor of heat and cold, and that it is inexpensive, are expected to make Thermax popular in construction work.
Before engaging in the manufacture of Thermax at Chewelah, managers of the company studied the making of a similar board in Austria, and the machinery, much of which was made in that country, is being installed under the direction of H. H. Rieggen, an Austrian engineer. The plant will give employment to 75 people, and is expected to be producing early in July.
Interests in the Northwest Magnesite Company are largely those identified with the Bunker Hill and Sullivan Mining and Concentrating Company, Treadwell, Yukon, and other large mining organizations, of which F. W. Bradley of San Francisco, is the leader.
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GILSONITE PRODUCTION IN UTAH TMJ 6 30 1930
ONLY ONE STATE IN UNITED STATES PRODUCES GILSONITE
Gilsonite, one of the oldest known minerals in the world, is mined in the United States, only in the State of Utah. Gilsonite resembles tar, but possesses a greater gloss, and hardness when cold.
In the Unitah Basin, Utah, it is found in veins, ranging from a few inches, to 18 feet in thickness or height.
Near Watson, Utah, one company has mined one vein, the Rainbow, for three miles in length, and in places, to a depth of 400 feet. Select gilsonite is found at a distance of about 70 feet below the surface.
Total gilsonite production from the Uintah Basin during 1928, amounted to 45,000 tons, with an average value of $80 a ton, at Mack, Utah, the loading point.
The transportation of gilsonite to the consuming market is started over one of the world’s steepest and most crooked railroads, which crosses Baxter Basin, at an elevation of 8,437 feet. The trains actually travel 24 miles between points only six miles apart by direct air route.
This black, asphaltic substance—gilsonite—is used in the manufacture of varnish, paint, japans, electrical insulation, inks, telephone mouthpieces, electric switch handles, knobs, buttons, etc.
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OCEANSIDE, CA SILICA SAND PROD TMJ 6 30 1930
J. A. BENELL DIRECTS CRYSTAL SILICA SAND OPERATIONS
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Combination of circumstances, coupled with ability, experience, and a great deposit of native material, are given by J. A. Benell, president, as important factors in the outstanding success of the Crystal Silica Sand Company of Oceanside, California. In the face of difficult problems, such as a limited supply of water, the company chose 100 acres, estimated to contain 15,000,000 tons of sand, built a complete modern plant, and developed a water supply that with conservative use, is expected to be ample, even for the proposed plant expansion for glass sand.
The finished sand product runs about 96 per cent silica, the remainder being principally feldspar, and will make all ordinary kinds of glass, including “Dutch Flint.” It is also used for mineral wool, waterproofing concrete, and for blast, filter, stucco, and molding sand. Belgian sand sells for $5.80 a ton, in Los Angeles, with all charges paid, and eastern sands of the best grade sell for $11 per ton.
Mr. Benell was born in Gosport, Indiana, and in that state, he received his education from different schools and colleges. During the first 15 years of his business life, he was in railroad work, including the phases of construction, operation and traffic, while the next 10 years were spent in automobile manufacturing, and distribution, as well as in foundry, and metal trades, at various Indiana plants. Thus he received a thorough business background for the eight years, just passed, which have been spent in California, at industrial and survey development, management and financing, including three years directing activities of the Crystal Silica Sand Company. At present, Mr. Benell is associated with the industrial department of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, and is doing laboratory and survey work in the non-metallic field, in development of industrial production balances in the Pacific Southwest. This last named activity is in fulfillment of one of his ambitions,
Technical papers on silica, articles on industrial subjects covering plant facility, mechanical setup, and financing structures, have been written at different times by Mr. Benell. Among his hobbies, he includes specialties in the technical field, as well as a sincere liking for the outdoors and athletics. He is a member of the Southern California Athletic Club, the Los Angeles Athletic Club, the City Club, the Casa del Mar Club, the Manufacturers and Industries Committee, and the Masonic Organization.
He is married to Georgia Hanch, and is the father of a 14-year-old son, John T. Benell.
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CAMP VERDE AZ MINE 7 15 1930
THE MINING JOURNAL
Mining Sodium Sulphate at Camp Verde
By EDWIN L. STURGES, Chemist, Arizona Chemical Company, Camp Verde, Arizona.
Power shovels have replaced the stone implements of the prehistoric Indians in the mining of this unique deposit.
The Arizona Chemical Company, operator of the sodium sulphate mine near Camp Verde, is engaged in the production of an ore that is being mined at no other place in the United States. This fact alone makes the project, one of interest, to both the mining industry, and to the general public, as well.
The deposit at Camp Verde was located in 1912, and has been worked by several companies since that time. The Arizona Chemical Company, R. A. Asbury, manager, and W. L. Powers, superintendent, started operations in February of this year. The present company is a subsidiary of the Kalbfleisch Corporation of Delaware, chemical manufacturers, who have plants throughout the United States, and South America.
Although sodium sulphate is found elsewhere, at Camp Verde, is mined the ore known as thenardite, or anhydrous sodium sulphate. The deposit consists of layers of various sodium salts, mixed with clays that also show traces of sodium minerals. Various estimates have been made of the ore reserves, by competent mining engineers, and ore of sufficient quantity has been proven to warrant present operations.
Intermixed with the thenardite, are also small masses of gypsum, and sodium chloride. The chlorides form the greater part of the impurities, and consequently are receiving the most consideration as far as their elimination is concerned. The solubility of the chlorides makes their elimination not overly difficult, although there is a consequent waste of sodium sulphate, it being nearly equally soluble.
The deposit is doubtless of the late Tertiary, or early Pleistocene Age. Surface lava flows are presumed to have dammed the Verde River, at a point about 12 miles below Camp Verde, and the above deposit formed at that time. The soda minerals were perhaps precipitated from the saturated brine of the lake, which gradually decreased in size, due to excessive evaporation.
Prehistoric stone implements, such as hammers and mallets, are occasionally found here, proving that the early Indians once mined the deposit, doubtless for the salt. A mummified Indian body, found in an old working, gives mute testimony of a mining accident of perhaps a thousand years ago. The body may be seen at the University of Arizona, along with many other Indian relics unearthed at the mine.
Electrical power is supplied by the Arizona Power Company whose lines run near the plant. Two large compressors furnish compressed air for 10 jackhammers that are used in the mine. A 100-horsepower motor is used to operate the compressors.
Seven tunnels penetrate the mountainside, and at the present time, extend in about 200 feet, each. All tunnels driven, have been in good ore, and each follows approximately the same dip. The tunnels are connected by a series of crosscuts, which provide excellent ventilation. Over 1,000 feet of drifting, has been completed to date, and all work has been in ground carrying excellent values in ore. Stoping has been started in several tunnels, and little timbering has been needed, due to the firmness of the walls and top.
Two shifts daily, are run in the mine, each shift comprising about 25 miners. Bert Wells, foreman of the mine, is a former United Verde man, from Jerome.
The ore is comparatively easy to break by blasting, and deep holes are drilled, chisel drills being used. The broken ore is trammed to each entrance, where it is dumped into large bins. The ore is drawn from these, from beneath, into a fleet of Moreland trucks, and hauled a short distance to the crushing plant. The open-pit workings consist of mining ledges of ore that are exposed to the surface in the northwest corner of the quarry. Jackhammers are used here, and the ore loaded in trucks. Waste is shot down, and removed by a 60 Caterpillar and large scraper. A Marion dragline removes the over-burden from the ledges of ore, in this part of the quarry.
The ore is dumped on a large platform, where a crew of Indians feed it into a crusher, where it is ground to about 1 ½ inches in diameter. An 18-inch conveyor belt, carries the crushed product to a large vibrating Hummer screen, after being washed by means of water sprays under high pressure. On the screens and washers, a large part of the chlorides and clays is removed, and passes through the screens as waste, which is carried away to two storage lakes, where settling occurs.
Immediately after leaving the screens, the ore enters a 10-foot by 60-foot rotary dryer, where a temperature of 800 degrees Fahrenheit, is maintained. In the dryer, any moisture in the ore is evaporated, together with any excess water carried in from the washers. The gypsum present, decrepitates when meeting the flame and heat, and is later removed. Next, the ore enters a series of rolls, where it is ground to the desired size. A series of screens removes the dust, and powdered calcium sulphate, and the finished ore is then carried by elevators to a 500-ton storage bin, and is ready for shipment. A fleet of 10-ton Mack trucks haul the finished sodium sulphate, to the railroad at Clemenceau, from which place, it is shipped to various destinations. At the present time, the Arizona Chemical Company is shipping all its output to the International Paper Company, one of the largest paper manufacturers in the south.
The sodium sulphate produced by the Arizona Chemical Company is in great demand throughout the country, by various concerns. It is used in the paper and textile industry, in the manufacture of stock remedies, and also to some extent, in the dye industry. It is especially suited to paper manufacturers, as it is acid-free, and needs no neutralizing before being used. Another valuable feature of the ore produced here, is its lack of moisture, which makes it possible to be shipped without fear of caking in transit.
Production at the mine now averages about 250 tons per day, and increased production is expected as the plant and facilities are improved. R. A. Asbury, manager, expects to increase production as fast as the general progress of the mine warrants. Experiments have been conducted in the treatment of the ore, and changes and improvements have been made accordingly. An exploration shaft, 5 feet by 7 feet, is now being sunk on the property, and the ore reserves are being estimated.
The reopening of the mine, at Camp Verde, has given the little western town new life, and conditions are economically, the best in years. On all sides are the usual signs of a “boom” town. New houses are being built, several new business houses are being opened, and a sense of activity now pervades the town, which a few months ago, was counted among the many ghost towns of the west.
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PHOSPHATE MINE NEAR VERNAL UTAH TMJ 7 15 1930
UINTAH COUNTY PHOSPHATE CLAIMS NOW COVER 6.560 ACRES
With the recent recording of 28 additional patented phosphate placer mining claims, in the Office of the Recorder, of Uintah County, Utah, the total acreage of patented phosphate claims within this county, has been increased to 6,560 acres. All these claims are patented to J. H. Ratliff, resident representative of the Colonel A. B. Humphrey’s Estate, of Denver, Colorado. The claims are situated in a continuous chain extending from 16 to 24 miles north, and east, of Vernal, well up to the Diamond Mountain slopes. Practically all the claims are situated within the confines of the Ashley National Forest.
Mr. Ratliff has constructed good roads to the area covered by the phosphate claims, these new roads branching from the Vernal-Manila highway, which was constructed to connect the cities of Vernal, and Manila, County seats of Uintah and Daggett Counties, respectively.
He has done considerable development work on the phosphate claims, and when put on a production basis, the properties will add materially to the output of Uintah County mines.
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WYOMING GEM CRYSTALS THE MINING JOURNAL 8-15-1930
WYOMING
A. H. Maxwell of Lander, Wyoming, attorney, and his associates are said to have opened a pegmatite dike, near Bonneville, on the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad. Crystals of beryl, lepidolite, garnet, tourmaline ores, and manganese and feldspar are found in this dike. It is said to be a vertical formation and covering a width of 50 feet.
all foreign matter dropping from above. As Gilsonite in its native deposits readily expands, as trenches or other openings are made during the process of mining, it is essential that the standing walls of ore be heavily and securely supported by timbers.
