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Show -- r RON-ClR'CUWnNS I iSssr- VOLUME 2 NUMBER 2 MARCH 9. 1970 25 CentspcrCopy Legislators to study mine pollution WASHINGTON Hearings are planned by two U.S. Senate subcommittees this spring on pollution problems of the mining industry. Scheduled to open March 3 was a hearing set by Sen. Edmund S. Muskie, chairman of the Senate Public Works subcommittee on air and water pollution, and in early April, Sen. Frank E. Moss, plans to hold hearings on the state of environmental e, D-Uta- h, controls in the extractive industries. Muskies hearings are seeking to identify the solid waste problem as far as' the mining industries are concerned and determine what steps have been A I Hf and are being taken by 7 management to solve the problem. Invited is testimony on means of financing solid waste management programs. Muskie is said to want to establish the fact that more needs to be done in this field and that both the government and industry need incentives and assistance. . Moss, chairman of the Senate Interior Committee's subcommittee on minerals, materials and fuels, said he to develop information indicating how far the mining wants industry has advanced in reducing or eliminating air and water pollution problems, land use problems and solid waste management. Sunshine basks in antimony prices The Wash. Mine Silver Sunshine partners, SPOKANE, Sunshine Mining, Hecla Mining and Silver Dollar, may get about $ million more for their antimony production this year because of the current record price of the silver byproduct I i ( metal. k According to Mining Hi Lites, the Sunshine Mine output of antimony was 890 tons last year t t i 'i fj i i i tam of aconomie activity. A opart UTAH'S AQRICULTURAL BASE is making my for othar from the Utah Lands Division and the Bureau of Land Management indicates that mineral lease fees were by far the largest source of funds for Utah land use in 1969. k c V, h i i assist from other leaseable minerals (potash, coal, etc.) account for more then 90 d the income from of State-owne- lands and Federal lands State of Utah. These come from publications Utah Division of State in the figures of the Lands combination amounted to state, the Bureau of production royalties. Land $2,406,453.76 for the past fiscal Management collected almost $9 in lease and royalty year, compared to $196,398.54 million for all other sources of income. payments while all other income The royalty income of amounted to just $727,588.00 $759,571.55 was added to a MOnies paid the BLM in the dedicated fund which now form of lease renteals and amounts to approximately $17 production royalties are not million. This represents entirely lost to the state of accumulated mineral royalties, income from land sales and Management. Income from minerals on miscellaneous incomes in past State lands is broken down into years. In administering the minderals rentals and income from The on Federal lands within the and the Bureau of Land origin. million. Antimony prices soared about from 45 130 per cent in 1969 cents a pound or $860 a ton to a recent $4.50 a pound, or $7,800 . a ton. At the latter figure, Sunshine Mining's share of 2970 production (if the same as 1969) would be over $43 million; Hecla's share over $2.5 million, and Silver Dollar's share about $760,000. Hickel eyes new plan for Western oil shales Mineral leases fop Utah land income Oil and Gas, with a slight (a 15 Increase over 1968). At the 1969 average price of $1.50 a pound, this production was worth nearly $3 million. At the present price of $4 a pound, it would be worth nearly $8 By formula, 31 Wo of the funds are returned to the state, 52W goes into the Reclamation Fund and 10 is retained to defray administrative costs. Interior Secretary Walter J. Hickel says he is considering a new plan for developing the vast oil reserves locked in the shale deposits of Colorado, Wyoming and Utah. He offered no specific details or any estimate when the plan might be unveiled. Some 80 percent of the oil shale is on federal lands and its oil content, Hickel said, is estimated in hundreds of billions of barrels, dwarfing the rest of the nation's known oil reserves. ( Methods of extracting the oil have been developed technically, but so far such processes have not proved economically competitive with conventional oil roduction. IT'S YOUR MONEY by Richard Blackburn appears on Page 6 of this issue. |