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Show METAL PRICES Lead (per lb. 15c Gold (per oz.)$34.9125 24.2c Copper Zinc (per lb.) 17.5c Silver (per oz.) new mined. .j82.75c Features Mining, Oil, Financial Salt Lake City, June 13, 1952 VOL. 23, NO. 24 New Utah Cobalt Plant Slates ore-refini- One Year 32.50 New Activity At American Fork Mine Years of Healthy Growth for Williston Basin Towns from. New Oil Fields Early Start of Operations A new -- process, developed by Chemical Construc- tion Corporation, a subsidiary of American Qyanamid Co., will ' soon begin to relieve the shortages of cobalt and nicfkel, two of the scarest strategic metals. New activity has hit American Fork canyon as a result of both mining ahd recreational proj- The process, which is entire- ly unlike ' any other refining process now in use, is entirely chemical. Other metal refining processes use electric current or furnaces. Maj. Gen. William N. Porter, president of Chemical Construction, says the new method has Shell Oil Co. plans to drill 225 several important advantages. Metals are produced in the form development and exploratory of fine powders which can be wells on the Pacific coast and pressed easily into billets or in Rocky Mountain locations other forms. The low cost of this year, a record number for the process, he says, also may the company in those areas, H. lead to development of low-- ; M. S. Bums, president, said regrade ore bodies hitherto consid- - cently. The company has increased ered unworkable. 10 to 15 the number ot rom In the process, a concentrate of ore is prepared by the pres-- strings of tools in the Ventura ent method of flotation, which Field, Shells major west coast operation. Increase separates ore from as much rock production tn development wells not only as possible. The concentrate is 'trill be in Veiitura, but in Brea then treated with an acid or with ammonia, according to the Olinda, East Coalinga and South type of ore. Various chemical Mountain -fields in California. five development Twenty agents are then used to remove the metal as a fine powder. By( wells are scheduled for the varying the temperature in the Rocky Mountain region, the sucprocess, various metals in the cess of which will determine same solution can be separated new facilities, such as a crude oil pipeline for the Williston from each other, it is said. Three plants are now under Basin. Exploration offices have construction to use various been set up in Salt Lake City, modifications of the new meth- Billings and Glendive, Mont., od. Howe Sound Mining Co. will and Grand Junction, Oolo., for start operating a $2.5 million re- these developments. finery near Salt Lake City, Utah, Mr. Burns also said that thel to produce cobalt some time thi ammonia plant, with a snmmer. This plant will process daily output for fertilizer to be 35 tons of 20 per cent cobalt built at Ventura by Shell Chemconcentrates daily from the ical Co. will have a water reclaBlackbird mine near Cobalt, mation unit of a million gallons Ida. It will produce about 2000 a day from sewer plant effluent tons of pnre cobalt yearly, about for conservation purposes, half of the United States anThe existing Ventura natural nual consumption of the met- gas absorption plant is to be in al. and will add about 40 per creased from 75 million to 150 cent to the world supply. million cubic feet capacity daily Go. is building and a smaller plant of the same National Lead kind will he built at Brea. a $5 million refinery near will which Mo., bej completed in the middle of 1953. This plant will produce 700 tons of copper yearly. Termed a "unique development is the $17 million nickel refinery now under construction for Sheritt Gordon Mines, Ltd., at Edmonton, Alta. This which caused the death of five will combine Sheritts ammonia s leach process and Chemical anthriciteon miners at March 27, 1952, was nickel reduction ville, a., result of failure by the mine the beto process.' It is scheduled of 1953 operators to take advantage of gin operating in the fall of 8500 hem concerning the extensivewith an annual output nearby "bootleg worktons of nickel, 1000 tons of cop- ness of are potentially danwhich ings, per and 150 tons of cobalt plus because of the water and 700,000 tons of ammonium sul- gerous may contain, according gas they fate. to a Bureau of Mines report on the accident released today. Other conditions which the l considered respondisaster are the the sible for Howe Sound Company this A following: map of the area week declared a dividend of 35 showing former bootleg workcents on its new $1 par common ings was not available at the stock. Payment will be made mine test holes were not drilled June 10 to stockholders of rec- in advance of faces or in the ord May 29. It is equivalent ribs of places driven in an unto $1.05 a share on the old stock charted questianable area; and official was not which was recently split on a a e basis. Last pay- in charge of mining operations. ment on the old stock was 75c The accident oocured in the a share in March. Last year Homes Slope anthracite mine of the company paid a total of $4 Cano and Martin, Inc., when a a share, 75 cents in each of the round of blast holes in the No. first three quarters and $1.75 in 6 breast off the west Holmes the final quarter.. Its northwest gangway broke into an old mining operations are the Hold- workings of an abandoned d mine at bootleg hole. Of the seven en Lake Chelan, Wash., and the men underground at the time, Blackbird cobalt mine at Cobalt, five were kiled and two the Ida., which is run by a subsidi- shift leader and the conveyor operator escaped uninjured. ary, Calera Mining Company. ects. - j- to ' f J j ' a V r TJ . j A.. .r ' - -- f Tjf Major factor in the new operations in this famous old production .camp is the resumption of work at properties controlled by American Fork Consolidated ,rr .... Mines. r4 Recently a loan was approved by DMA for exploration and development of the Pacific Mines, which is now operated by the company. The loan agreement provides for a total amount of $10,038, the expenditure of which, is expected by company officials to place the property into commercial production. Important to success of the mining operation is news that an appropriation has been made for construction of a recreation area on grounds controlled by the mine company. This work will consist of construction of ski lifts, parking area, public shelter, forest camps, and a general summer resort. Mining operations will be substantially enhanced on properties of American Fork Consolidated and the district in general, as a result of the recreational program, which will assure a operation. Heretofore, mining operations in the canyon have been retarded during the winter months due to lack of facilities for keeping the road open. However, the new ski activity will assure open roads for the entire year. A new two way highway is now under construction in the canyon and is expected to be completed within the next few months. With granting of the federal loan, plans are being formulated for acceleration of mining work in the Pacific Mine. Company officials report that arrangements have already been' made for obtaining the. companys 'Portion of the loan money. ; r . j X r' : . . - j 1 j j i When oilmen move in, they expect to stay a long time. They build home such as these, and lettle down as solid, respectable members of the community. year-aroun- d 150-to- n Fred-ricktow- n, Forrest-Construction- I Howe Sound State-certifie- three-for-on- copper-zinc-gol- d Heie is the busy Main Street of a little town on the prairie where things began to boom with the discovery of oiL Property values went up( and so did the incomes of local businesses. Oil Field Development Assures Community Growth NOTE: Recent oil discoveries In Montana and North Dakota have aroused wide Interest In this entire area as a potential source of crude oil. A series of articles have been planned in collaboration with th Exploration and Production Department of Shell Oil Company, telling how an oil field grows, and finally, Just what an oil boom means to a community. This article is the last in a series of seven. The oil discoveries in the Williston Basin have thrown new light on an old idea many people have about the petroleum industry. They are learning that oil strikes no longer lead to social and economic explosion. Rather, they bring carefully controlled and orderly development a growth that begins slowly and lasts a long time. This may have come as a sur- harder and more expensive to out of the prise to many in the Dakotas find oil aijd get it well and Montana, which lie over the ground. Only responsible, can make equipped companies great geologic structure called the attempt The attempt is so the Williston Basin. For these big an investment that any sucpeople have had little direct ex- cess must be handled with care perience with the oil industry. or it will be lost Their impression of it may stem This care explains why the from stories first told years ago and made more lurid through discovery of oil is a blessing inmany tellings. Thus, it would stead of a curse to the communot be surprising if many in nities near a new field. The this area winced when they story of Shell Oil Companys heard the news of oil discov- operations leading to the first eries and visualized a grim new successful well in the Montana phase in the history of their re- part of the Williston Basin is gion: a wild stampede toward a good example. the first well, .then, derricks Oil geologists had known for sprouting around it as thick as years that the underground thick as weeds and, nearby, an- structures in the area were of other vast, malignant growth the sort that might contain oil. a nameless city of tents and Many had explored he area, and shacks whose dominat creed was some companies had drilled to get rich and get out and wells, but without finding any whose life was unprincipled and oil. About four years ago, Shell unwashed chaos. scientists began a completely But nothing like that has hap- new study. After months of pened in the Williston Basin. work on amaps and records they Apd nothing like that will hap- built up fresh and more on Page 4 pen. Every year it becomes prom-Continue- d New Tungsten Area Opened Tonopah, Nevada Histoi Smoky Valley, adjacent to t Round Mountain gold distri and some 70 mies norther from Tonopah, is the scene tungsten exploration. Warfield, Inc., is debelopi: a scheelitfe deposit on the Tur sten View claim of the Meye: Thomas property, Newmc Mining Corp. has started expl ation work on a group of claii in Ophir Canyon, acquiri: numerous prospectors and sm operators are active in the gion. Warfield, Inc., headed by M. Warfield, San Francisco, pects to mine the Tungit View deposits by open pit me od and ship ore to the Pi Creek pant of Union Carbide Carbon iCo., near Bishop, Ca Newmont Mining in endes oring to develop enough sch lite in Smoky Valley and ad cent areas for capacity ope tion of its Goldfield mill. Acc roads have been extended ii the Millett area of the vail and to Ophir Canyon. |