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Show June 23, 1969 OIL & MINING JOURNAL Page 5 Uinta Range Geologic story available from USGS for $2 WASHINGTON-T- he geologic story of one of the nations most scenic areas the Uinta Mountains in northeastern Utah is told in a fascinating way in a new publication of the Geological Survey, Department of the Interior. The Uintas with numerous peaks reaching over 13,000 feet was one of the first western ranges to be studied by geologists after the Civil War, and gained national attention when John Wesley Powell passed through the mountains on his pioneer exploration of the Green and Colorado Rivers just 100 years ago. Publication of the book commemorates his Canyonlands exploration, and his subsequent contribution to scientific concepts of geologic porcesses. The . 144-pag- e containing and19a photographs report, full-col- or variety of some in shaded maps relief was prepared by Wallace R. Hansen, a geologist at the Surveys Denver, Colorado, office, and himself a veteran The report also notes that explorer of the high country. dinosaur bones from the Uinta The origin of the various rock Mountain region have been layers, the nature of the geologic known for years. The structures that form the massive world-famou- s of remains deposit mountain range, and how glacial north of Jensen, Utah in what ice sculptured the peaks and is now Dinosaur National formed hundreds of lakes and Monument was discovered, in ponds, are described by Hansen 1909, Hansen said, Here, a in relatively simple terms. former bone quarry' yielded Hansen notes that one of meat-eateras well as vegetarian Powell's concepts concerned the dinosaurs, large and small. origin of river valleys. During Among the more noteworthy Powells studies of the Uintas, Hansen points out, he saw that were Diplodocus, about 76 feet the Green River flowed across long. Apatosaurus, about 70 feet and Stegosaurus, about 20 the grain of the Mountain long, feet Today, the National" Range, and wondered why the Park long. Service maintains the area river did not flow around this as an exhibit great obstruction. Powells fossilized remains. of dinosaur conclusion: the river was running ere the mountains were The Geologic Story of the formed. When the land was Uinta Mountains, by Wallace R. raised beneath the river in a Hansen, published as Geological gigantic wrinkle, the river was Survey Bulletin 1291, is the saw that cut the mountain in from the two. Superintendent of Documents, Later generations of Government Printing Office, geologists, Hansen said, have Washington, D.C. 20242, at $2 used and developed this basic per copy (GPO Catalog No. concept of stream erosion. 1:19.3:1291). s, in-pla- available U.S. losing oil CASPER, Wyo.-O- il conservationists from 33 states say the nation is rapidly losing its petroleum The Interstate Oil Compact y. Commission has adopted resolutions saying the critical need for increased oil and gas reserves requires retention of current federl tax provisions, stabilized import controls and sharply increased exploration programs. The tax resolution adopted last Wednesday said current attacks in Washington against the industry's 272 per cent depletion allowance and other petroleum tax provisions could cause the nation to lose billions of barrels of oil reserves. Adverse tax policy changes, the resolution said, could force self-sufficien- cy abandonment of almost 300,000 marginal wells now barely capable of producing on an have served to weaken, undermine, and circumvent the controls. They asked the Nixon committee to restore stability economically sound basis. The commission' suggested and integrity to the program. The Interstate Oil Compact Congress examine with extreme care any tax proposals that Commission also warned that would decrease maximum the nation will soon be facing a critical shortage of gas unless explorations for new reserves. is done to provide the The compact reaffirmed its something necessary incentives to position that import controls a renewed search for were sanctioned by Congress for encourage reserves. Gas production the perpetuation of petroleum exceeded additions to reserves . for the first time last year. Government and industry President Nixon was self-sufficien- commended for appointing a cabinet level committee to make an overall review of the Interior Department's mandatory oil import control program. The conservationists said many actions in the past four years are in full agreement we are facing a gas supply crisis, the Commission said in its resolution. Another meeting of the Commission is scheduled Dec. 0 in Salt Lake Gty. 8-1- Hearings on oil shale due this year WASHINGTON-Heari- on ngs the status of the Interior Departments oil shale program are scheduled here later in the year, according to a report from the office of Sen. Gordon Allott (R-Colo- .) Allott said the hearings would be on the legislation permitting oil leasing. .) Sen. Cliff Hansen now is preparing a new oil shale leasing bill. (R-Wyo- . AN OIL SHALE leasing plan, by former Interior Gordon Secretary Allott, went over like a lead balloon with the companies expected to lease proposed Department. IT IS REPORTED that so far the Bureau of Mines has spent about $50 million on oil shale research, and it is estimated that government-owne- d lands. another $2Q0 to $300 would be Last December only two needed. According to reliable reports, the oil industry already companies bid on development has spent $100 million tin leases, and their proposals were development of technology to much less than had been profitably extract the kerogen anticipated by the Interior from the oil shale. Vernal mine to open July Vernal Area Chamber of 3RNAL, Utah-Sta- ffer lical Company's Vernal Commerce. hate mining in the old Ratliff property in Brush t, will begin production THE PLANT will go on a 300,000 ton yearly production basis running three 8 hour shifts McClung, manager of per day seven days a week. The maximum production reached by the plant previous to its closure a. year ago was about ation, N. consisting of hate rock operations for fer, explained the plans of mpany at a meeting of the 1 240,000 tons yearly. colJoe Rosenbaum, research director, checks umn at University of Utah which could help to recover U308 from mine water. ion-exchan- ge Mine water offers 'bonanza with new U308 process Mine water Is often a problem. iding plates have a pattern of But in this case it may be a orifices that effectively take about three percent of the plate bonanza. area. In the Grants, N.M., area, mine water contains about 8 to 10. (The center tried orifice diameters of million uranium ranging from .5 inch to parts per 1.5 and has settled on inches And about. oxide (U308). thats about three-quart- er inch diamet60 to 70 pounds in a million as about er $400. being optimum.) gallons and worth The Salt Lake Metallurgy ReThe mine water is Introduced search Center of the Bureau of Mines has. come up with an into the bottom of the column; column it believes will the resin, which looks like coarse considerably enhance the resand, from the top. The water circulates through covery of U308 from mine water. One pilot model Is actually the column, and resin drifts "on stream" at United Nuclear downward through the compartCorp. properties in New Mexico. ments. The compartments keep A larger, even more efficient, the loads of resin in relatively six-fo- ot al million-gstable state although an intendiameter, n-a-day column Is now set at sive flow of water is beingpushed the B of M center on the Univerthrough the column. Utah of The resin picks up the urancampus. sity The chemistry and physics of ium ions, then is pulled out of the column will be explained in the bottom after an eight-ho- ur detail this weekend by metallurgy circulation cycle. The uranium researcher Richard Ross at the 1s stripped from the resin by annual meeting of the Wyoming simple sodium-chlorisolution. Is out It of and as uranMinerals Section precipitated Mining ium of oxide the American Institute Mining, by the addition of ammonia. Metallurgical and Petroleum EnIn the meantime, the stripped gineers (AIME) in Casper. Ion exchange is an old process resin can be reintroduced into which has been used In numerous the column for another circulation cycle. extraction applications. what The resulting U308 Is of comhapheres Basically, mercial grade, suitable for purpens: chase by either the AEC or comThe column is compartmentalized in several levels. The div mercial buyers. ion-excha- nge -lo- de . THE PHOSPHATE market has been highly competitive with Florida, Africa and Canada all competing for the markets and crowding into the west, McClung told the Vernal people. "Before fall we will know what the outlook for the Vernal plant will be, he said. |