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Show Pace Friday, February 7, 1958 THE WESTERN MINERAL SURVEY 2 MINING AT SALT LAKE MILL Vitro Changes to Improved Method Vitro Uranium Co., a division of Vitro Corporation of America, has successfully switched its Salt Lake Uranium mill from phosphate precipitation process to solvent extraction in a $1,200,000 investment aimed at greater econ- Larger material returns to the crushers for further reduction. Ore is conveyed in fine par-iclto the sampling plant Vitro installed at a cost of $400,000. las Contract samples will be discontinued by the firm in the next three weeks. Representative fractions or spits of the ore are made and ater assayed in a new analytical laboratory. This lab and the process laboratory assists the mill in determining plant performance and tech- nomically than was possible with phosphate precipitation, Mr. Hill es omy. The changes to solvent extraction. according to W. B. Hall, president, will enable Vitro to: 1. Treat a wider range of ores more profitably. 2. Attain new efficiencies required by rising materials, transport and labor rates and recently contracts for sale at lower prices of concentrates currently delivered to the Atomic Energy Commission at Grand Junction, Colo. Vitro spent nearly & year in research at Salt Lake City on new wrinkles in solvent extraction process. Another year was spent in construction.' The additions and changes made in the plant at 600 W. 33rd South St. were affected by the Vitro engineering staff and Refinery Engineering Co., Tulsa, Okla., another Vitro Corporation of America affiliate. These and other changes over the years have lifted ore input at the mill from about 20 tons a day in 1951, when the firm took over the wartime alumina plant from potato king Jack Simplot of Bosie, Idaho, to present modernization which permits ore feed of 600 tons daily. What with the additions, the company has virtually rebuilt the wartime facility. However, it still contains sufficient machinery and space for eventual process-in- g other ores and strategic materials. It is on this later program that Vitro affiliates have been concentrating in recent years with hoped for additions benefiting the Salt Lake area's minerals processing industries. The modernized plant occupies 81 acres and contains 17 buildings. An additional 200 acres is available for further expansion. The 200 employees at the facil-lit- y represent a somewhat fewer number than under the phosphate precipitation program. A corollary to introduction of solvent extraction was reduction in labor costs, ore handling costs, etc. Vitro buys uranium ores from independent producing mines in the West, as far as Colorados Front Range District and west to Nevada and even the Spokane district. But principally supplies now come from Utah's Big Indian Green River and Marysville districts. The company itself and with others owns extensive mining properties in Wyoming and in Utah which also provide feed for the Salt Lake Mill. Ores are delivered solely by rail after weighing of the cars, the material either is sent to processing or unloaded to stockpile for later use or blend- -. ing. Ore grade has been running a around .3 per cent U308 and the mill prefers not to accept ores o: less than .25 per cent U308. In movement to processing, a car shaker assists in dropping the material from rail cars to hopper cars from whence it is conveyed to crushing. An impact breaker utilizes large hammer-castinto crush ore to less in twin-roto- rs nology. From sampling, the ore moves to storage in three large silos and then is drawn to the grinding circuit. Two ball mills operating in conjunction with a classifier send the finely ground ore to process as thick (liquid) slurry, oversize is returned to the mills for The finely ground slurry is pumped to strongly agitated leach tanks. Here Sulphuric acid is added along with, an oxdizing agent. Acid leach disolves the uranium out of the ore. The entire slurry is then moved to a thickener circuit where washing separates the uranium values in a pregnant liquor from the tailings, or leached solids. Solid residues go to the tailings pond and the clear uranium solutions overflow from the top of the thickener to the solvent extraction plant. This plant removes the uranium from the liquor more efficiently and eco- re-grind- ing. ultra-mode- m . gs ch tly In solvent extraction, the acid liquors are mixed intimately with an organic solvent, kerosene conchemitaining phosphate-base- d cal. The uranium is mixed with the solvent with the mixture being allowed to settle. The kerosene floats to the top, while the phosphatic material which has an affinity for uranium permits separation of solvent and pregnant liquor layers. The uranium values are stripped from the residual solvent by hydrochloric acid in the mixture settler tanks. The solvent is returned for reuse and the hydrochloric acid is recaptured by a novel system of recovery. tanks are in The mixer-settl- er one for mixing the acid pairs, - bearing mauraniumwith the terial. The Hydrochloric is driven off as a gas (to be recovered), leav- ing an enriched uranium solution which is further neutralized by the addition of ammonia from U. S. Steels new anhydrous plant at provo. After Alteration, the high purity uranium oxide is dried and packed in drums for shipment to Grand Junction. Later, the AEC calls upon these stores for uranium refineries and production of the metal used In military and peacetime pese. am-amo- nia THE NEW STRIKE of high grade silver ore made by POLARIS in RAINBOW ground in the Silver Belt of the Coeur dAlene was the chief topic of conversation in Wallace and Spokane mining circles. It tended to balance gloom caused by this regions two producers cutbiggest lead-zin- c ting their mining operations to a four-da- y week. POLARIS was bid up a total of 25 cents the past week to lead a general advance at the Spokane Stock Exchange. Coeur dAlene Mines, which has stock control of Rainbow, also was stronger as a new diamond drill ore inter-sectio- n indicated that a sizeable deposit may have been found. The new core was taken 250 feet east of the discovery hole and values were reported officially to have been comparable with those of the first hole. As reported here last week, the discovery hole showed 46 ounces over a five-foo- t widtn and 53 ounces over a four-fo- T said the Commission is proceeding as rapidly as possible. AN UPSWING in steel, copper, lead and zinc orders is looked for in the spring, the APs Sam Dawson reported from New York. FORTUNE magazine said the business reseccion has hit bottom" and industrial production should turn up in late February or in March. SILVER PRODUCERS seemed to be sitting pretty. Handy '& Harmans annual 'review of the silver market showed world consumption of the metal continues to outstrip world production. It also reported new and growing uses for silver in the missile field and other advanced weapons. It predicted a continued stable price. GOLD STOCKS continued to show strength. The president of the American Constitutional Hard Money Association pointed out that the senate finance committees investigation of the nations financial condition is bringing the 61 feet facts of the nations monetary sitwide, separated by follow-uuation into the open and said the of rock. The successful hole was drilled from near the outlook is promising. DAY MINES GOLD Dollar end of tne main east-weexplorat tion lateral, from the property in the Republic district level of the Silver Summit mine. is continuing to yield some fabuThe strike was made 600 feet lous gold values, according to south of the lateral and some 1400 reliable sources. SILVER MOUNTAIN was refeet west of the Rainbow-Vulca- n Silver-Leaboundary. A crosscut ported looking better and a favor-- " was started toward the new vein. able development involving SILe silver VER BUCKLE was being anticiA vein of ore found by American Smelting pated in some quarters. POLARIS officials are expected & Refining in Vulcan ground at the same depth proved to be more to go back and take another look than 700 feet long and so far has at prospects in AMERICAN SILbeen opened for more than twice VER ground. Less than four short that distance vertically. years ago, when Polaris was pushing work toward this area, AmeriBUNKER i HILL and PEND can Silver sold at 35c vs. todays ODEILLE were the firms which 7c price. work announced the four-daweek. They are the biggest lead-zinproducers in Idaho and WESTERN MINERAL Washington! The Star mine, opSURVEY erated under contract by HECLA for Bunker Hill, and the Crescent NEWS - CIRCULATION mine are affected along with the 421 Church Street Phone EM Bunker Hill mine iii the Coeur dAlenes. Management blamed ADVERTISING growing metal stocks, reduced Box 2608 EM sales and continued low prices Salt Lake City, Utah of the metals, resulting from exEntered as aecond class matter at Salt ot p st 3000-foo- d ... high-grad- y Three Stales Gas Reports Two San Juan Strikes Three States Natural Gas Co. Thursday reported success in the Bluff Pool and Boundary Butts Field, both in San Juan County, in which the firm has interests. E. A. Jenkens executive vice president said Shell Oil Co. had tested the Bluff Unit 24-- 5 wildcat for around 1,000 barrels daily of oil (maximum of 1,665 barrels a day). At the Boundary Buttsoil and gas field, Western Natural Gas Co. tested sweet gas at around (British Thermal 1,000 BTU at around 8 million cubic feet Units) in the Hermosa. formation a day. The Bluff development, to the west of the present production on the unit, would prove between eight and 12 sections of land, according to examination of the maps. This well located in the southeast quarter of southwest quarter of Section 5, Township 40 South and Range 23 East, is about one mile from the presently determined nearest production. Three States has a 37 per cent interest in the Bluff Unit which is being developed by Shell and which represented one of the first discoveries of oil of any commercial signifiance in the Paradox Basin during the 1950s. At Boundary Butts, the development of the new sweet gas is important because other gas in ithe Mississippian sector is sour" or low BTU, running between 600 and 800 BTU. The gas discovered in earlier development at the field was from two separate The field also produces oil zones. size. than one-infrom the shallower Coconino and After crushing, the ore is conHermosa. veyed to vibration screens where from the Mr. Jenkins confirmed that El the smaller particles fall through Natural Gas Co. had signed Paso into processing. and continue di-dec- said. HI-LI- contracts with producers at the field for a sliding scale payment starting at 20 cents per 1,000 cubic feet for 1,000 BTU or better gas. The firm proposes to take an initial 15 million cubic feet of gas daily from the 17,000-ac- re field which has not been fully delinated or developed. Elpaso has pending before Federal Power Commission a proposal to spefid 25 million dollars on a natural gas pipeline and natural gasoline plant system for extraction of gas from oil produced at oil fields in the county. On .basis of the lower BTU gases at Boundary Butts, the producers would still be grossing cents per 1,000 cubic about 12-- c 40 cessive Imports. THE DEVELOPMENT brought increased pressure for upward imrevision of tariffs on lead-zin- c ports. Idahos governor asked the President and the states congressional delegation to press for action. The chairman of the U.S. Tariff Commission' denied a report that the Commission will postpone a decision until the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act comes up for renewal in June. He Lake City, Utah, under Act of March 3, 1879. Subscription rate: $5.00 for two rears; for one year. Please mention Western Mineral Survey when writing to advertisers. Advertising rates on application. $3.00 L. M. HILL All news appearing in the Western Mineral Survey Is obtained from sources believed to be reliable but no responsibility Is assumed for accuracy of statements. Reproduction of any material from this publication must have written permission from the published. OBEY TRAFFIC LAWS 14 feet. Three States has a 25 per cent interest; San Jacinco Petroleum, 25 per cent and Western Natural gas a 50 per cent interest at the Boundary Butts Field. Mill Completes Eight Years of U. Output Garth and Vance Thornburg, Grand Junction, Colo., have uranrevved up their ium mill at Gunnison, Colo., culminating eight years in the re business in the West. Western Knapp Engineering Co. was construction contractor. All the ore sent to the mill will come from the Thornburg mine of the Los Ochos group of claims 200-a-d- ay A-o- in Saguache County, Colo. Two brothers also recently secured a contract with AEC for construction of a concentrator at Lakevlew, Ore. Galigher Co., Salt Lake City, obtained construction contract. 250-ton-a-- day Editor SAVE TIME TROUBLE MOREY AMMCANTRyCtONi AljfOCttTIOMI. iNfc |