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Show i.,.. IV B o 4 "? Salt Lake City, February Wyoming Leader Asks Pellet Fuel Seen For More By Experiments U - Capacify Wyomings highly promising uranium industry, Simpson declared. Simpson was the first of a long list of speakers who testified at hearings held by the Joint Atomic Energy Committee which is looking into the development, growth and state of the atomic energy industry. He said Wyoming has an estimated uranium ore reserve of . mining corporations have been limited to a trucking operation and in some instances mines have to stockpiles of from twenty-fiv- e fifty thousand tons. We need a solution now,1 Simpson told the committee. We urgently request a quick solution to our problem before complete paralysis sets in and one of Wyomings greatest industries is permanently crippled. Opposition to the curtailment of uranium milling capacity recently announced by the AEC was also voiced by Gordon A. Weller of Grand Junction, executive vice president of the Uranium Insti-tu- e of America. This announcement, he told the 20 million tons, second largest has an element committee, reserve in the nation. The states of confusion created in the industry milling capacity is inadequate for which is extremely injurious to such reserves, he said. our nations entire atomic advenMany of the pioneers in the ture. industry, he said, who invested Speaking on behalf of his orthese tremendous sums of money, face bankruptcy unless uranium ganization, Weller declared that the AECs contention that present production is revived by an in- authorized and operating milling creased market. It is impossible is for these companies to leave their capacity adequate to process in ore in the groud indefinitely be- ten years the 70 million ton docause they must have a return on mestic uranium reserve is invalid. their investment capital. He urged that Congress enact If companies mine under such legislation setting up an otomic restricted quotas, they will be industry evaluation council to forced to high grade their prop- bring about a closer liaison beerties in order to obtain their tween the uranium industry and capital investment. Many millions the over-al- l program of the AEC. e ore of comparatively in the .10 to .20 of 1 per cent U308 category would be forever wasted. in Simpson said the slow-dow- n AEC the of uranium purchase by concentrates has hit Wyoming (Reprinted from The Salt Lake Tribune) hard.' By Robert W. Bernick Employment would return to 1957 its Congress will hear firsthand high, the governor said, if the uranium industry could Monday and Tuesday that all in expect an adequate market for not well with the uranium indusits products. Because of the cur- try in the United States. Not since the initial days of the tailed market, he .added, many uranium boom when the government under emergency conditions established a domestic e program has such an important airing of the industrys raw materials position been held. This session is before the ConIn gressional Joint Committee on Atomic Energy. Prominent uraniA Review of the Zinc Industry um men from the West, along with in the United States During 1957, area congressional leaders will apa new booklet,' has just pear. Representing the Utah inbeen published by the American dustry will be Miles P. Romney, Zinc Institute, Inc., 60 East 42nd manager of the Utah Mining Assn. Street, New York 17, New York. The meeting will deal with an The review summarizes the industry that finds itself being production and consumption pic limited as to its expansion, cutting ture of the zinc industry as of De- back almost completely on excember 31, 1957. Comprehensive ploration and facing a somewhat tables give detailed reports on questionable market after March such data as mine production, im- 31, 1962. ports of slab and ore, tariff rates, And while some companies in slab zinc consumption, zinc uses the business hold contracts for the by grades, and production of slab next 3 years promising an exzinc according to grade. cellent cash flow in this period, Consumption of zinc by the die others complain that: casting and galvanizing industries, 1. Atomic Energy Commission as well as pigment production are as presently constituted discussed in some detail. Stocks of policy favors producers of uranislab zinc on hand at the end of um as foreign to both price and contract the year are reviewed. zinc and lead length. A new world-wid-e 2. The' policy, while having asreindustry research program is dissured, the nation of a full supply ported and some details are of fissionable material, for the cussed. next decade, also is assuring little Zinc Copies of A Review of the Dur- or no new reserve development Industry in the United States within the interim. Thus the program ing 1957 may be obtained have a tendency to run at will out charge from the American an abrupt Zinc Institute, Inc., 60 East 42nd full blast then end with was as the case much shutdown, York. Street, New York 17, New low-grad- Booklet Form 16-pa- ge A-or- n,A 9 Pr' 28, 1958 A satisfactory pelletized fuel can be developed from fine sizes of lignite now being stockpiled in the Midwest for lack of market, the Bureau of Mines has reported to Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton. The Bureau based its conclusion on tests conducted at its lignite Experiment Station, Grand Forks, N. D., showing that smaller pieces of lignite, when properly dried, can be mixed with a binder and formed ; into pellets which not only burn well, but can be stored and handled without disintegrating. A wide range of tests in removing most of the moisture from the lignite in a rotary drum dryer and in using various binders was undertaken by Bureau researchers at Grand Forks. The best drying temperature was about 600 degrees Fahrenheit and the most satisfactory binder was briquetting asphalt, they said. Mixing of the binder and the particles of dried lignite took place in a rotating drum pelletizer. Some of the experiments used starch as a binding agent, but the resulting pellets were more friable. I A Bureau report describing the Grand Forks research says ' the lignite pellets formed, with .asphalt binders appear to burn best in thin firebeds, such as those on traveling grate stokers. bureau Rep' Mir v tfth Toll Fou. ed and seventy-thre- e fatalities ;urred in the nations coal mines during 1957, the Bureau of Mines, Department of the Interior reported today. The number of deaths exceeded those in 1956 by 28, the bureau said, and the fatality rate of 1.17 men killed for every million man-hour- s of employment was up seven per cent from the previous year. All the 1957 increase was attributed to accidents in underground mines by Bureau of Mines Director Marling J. Ankeny, who noted that 66 men were killed by gas explosions in underground operations during the year. This compares with nine fatalities from the same cause in 1956. Deaths charged to surface operations at deep mines totaled 29, the same as in 1956, and strip mines reported 20, compared with 28 the previous year. There were three fatalities at auger mines. Commenting on the 1957 fatality record, Director Ankeny said it dramatizes the urgent need for intensified research to find methods and devices for coping with new hazards that have developed in recent years as a result of increasing mechanization in the coal New types of maindustry. have created new safety chinery he said, and to solve problems. them we must marshal all the resources of those interested in coalThe mine accident prevention. at 4 1 J bureau itself is emphasizing such studies, he added. The death toll from roof falls declined by i3 last year as industry, labor, and state and federal agencies cooperated in a nationwide preventive campaign. Nevertheless, Director Ankeny noted that roof falls took 225 lives and are still the leading cause of all e fatalities. He thus urged continued support of the campaign in efforts to curb such accidents. The director also noted that haulage fatalities dropped 23 per cent from last year. ' Five major disasters single accidents killing five or more men caused 64 fatalities during 1957. Four of these were gas explosions coal-min- and one was a bump an explosive burst of coal or rock caused by sudden underground pressures. Bureau figures show that bituminous coal mines had 423 of the fatalities in 1957, with occurring at underground mines. The bituminous fatality rate was 1.16 per million of exposure, compared with 1.06 in 1956. Anthracite mines had 50 fatalities, 48 of which were underground, with a fatality rate of 1.29 of expoper million sure. This rate compares with 1.30 the previous year. Further details 'of the' 1957 "fatality record by states and causes appear in a Bureau of Mines periodical report, CM.F. No. 318, Fatalities in 1957, obtained either from can which be U-Induthe Branch of Accident Analysis, sby Interior Building, Washington 25, D.C., or from the Bureaus Publications Distribution Section, domestic tungs- States. of the Four states are principal pro- 4800 Forbes Street, Pittsburgh 13, ten development in the West. The country will then have no con- ducers of U.S. uranium, New Pa. Persons requesting the report tinuity in mining and develop- Mexico, Wyoming, Utah and Colo- should identify it by number and ment of domestic sources of urani rado. There also is production in title. South Dakota, Washington, Oreum ores. Arizona' and' Nevada. gon, a ' 3. While the AEC has only In Utah some 2,500 persons are legal obligation' to buy 1,000 tons a year from any one producer directly involved in uranium minor camotite - uranium ores de- ing and milling. Last year, the inliverable at Monticello, it has as- dustry was second only to copper sumed in both announcements and in gross value produced. That The American Zinc Institute practices the moral obligation to gross is estimated at more than 65 will hold its 40th Annual Meeting basis all million dollars and it is projected purchase on open-enChase-Parconin that Hotels conat value The Plaza of uranium gross amenable uranium ores and centrates 1958 in will be St. Louis, Missouri on Monday centrates at competing prices in produced the United States. The govern- more than 80 million dollars. 14 and 15, This may be compared with the and Tuesday, April ment, it is noted, established absoL. Kimberley, executive vice lute ownership of fissionable ma- 170 million gross of Utahs copper J. terials in the United States in this industry, 40 million by coal and president of the institute anconnection. There is no free mar- 30 million by iron ore for the nounced today. Utah steel complex. ket Monday mornings session, to The development of uranium 4. Commission policy has resultbe held in conjunction with The ed in picking and choosing has resulted in new highways, among which operators and dis- roads, public schools, hospitals Galvanizers Committee of the tricts will receive full develop- along with expansion of educa steel industry, will be devoted to ment in this period and which tional, recreational and tourist fa- reports on galvanized steel and cilities. in several areas of Utah. areas and operators will not. other subjects of interest to the 5. Commission policy is freezing This might never have come about the new raw materials in- zinc industry. On Monday afterpresent operators in a role in raw without Yet much of this expan- noon, papers of particular interest materials development prevent- dustry. sion terms is in of public debt to the zinc producers will be prefield. ing others from entering the which must still be repaid from sented. new on mill 6. The moratorium sources. local effect The Tuesday morning session, into construction placed by Mills Utah Four in Uranium to be held jointly with Lead Inthe AEC will result, if continued, uranium Utah some has four to mills, dustries Association, will feature operain a substantial loss tors who have developed large, two in San Juan County, one in discussions of subjects related to new reserves lacking a present Grand County and a fourth in Salt both zinc and lead. A status reLake County. Uranium mining is port on the expanded research acmarket. 7. Present mine and mill policy important business in San Juan, tivities now being developed by of Grand, Emery and Piute Counties. the zinc and lead industries is resulting in wasteProduction also comes from through their respective associauranium deposits which is maWayne, Garfield, Uintah and a tions will be of particular interest ful of a valuable fissionable few other areas. terial. Throughout the meetings, speakWJiat is behind the AECs slow- ers will stress practical aspects of 8. If allowed to continue on its supply, demand, technical represent path, the program will down on uranium expansion? that Men the in industry report search, and market development result in serious hardships to cerwill be stressed. (Continued on pace 2) tain areas of the western United 473 373 -- manhours man-hours Coal-Min- e Woe Congress Hears Institute Releases 57 Zinc Review rid Aj Volume 28; No. 52 Gov. Milward L. Simpson of Wyoming urged the Atomic Energy Commission to resume negotiations of contracts for additional uranium milling capacity for his state. As an interim solution he suggested that additional milling capacity be immediately authorized. The alternative is parallysis for , etf fteJt Significance in 'The Oil and 1M ill-fate- d Zinc Institute Sets Meeting Schedule d k - -- . high-gradin- g |
