Show nevada e vada gay lussi te deposit depos it BY G L gay is a double carbonate ot soda and lime containing per cent sodium carbonate and per cent calcium carbonate carbona te there is a surface deposit of this mineral in railroad valley nye county nevada that is owned by people of ely nevada it occurs upon the surface of an ancient lake bed and is several square miles in extent it has an average thickness of eighteen inches and is underlain by thick dense clay the mountain range on the east side of the valley is composed largely of eruptive rocks the component minerals or of which contain soda and potash in appreciable amounts the gradual disintegration of these rocks the one containing lime and the other soda permits the gradual dissolution of these substances by atmospheric agencies and they are washed down into the old lake bed during rains where the water evaporates this is probably the source of the gay deposit A crust of hard clayey material an inch or two in thickness covers the gay this crust on drying cracks into small fragments and could be removed crie cheaply aply by the use of a common road scraper calculating the thickness of the gay deposit at sixteen inches and allowing seventeen cubic feet to the ton there are about tons of the mineral bearing material to each acre the average of more than sixty samples taken from various parts of the deposit from top to bottom of it showed 15 per cent of gay per ton from exhaustive tests made it was found that 90 per cent of the gay is dissolved in three hours in water at a temperature of degrees F and that in four hours at the same temperature it is entirely dissolved it was also found that per cent of the soda can be evaporated from solution at degrees F in nine days time or in two and a half days time at a temperature of degrees I 1 there are some hot water springs on the west side of the valley only a few miles distant from this deposit the water of which showed a temperature of 99 de grees in january and an analysis of this water shows no deleterious substances the gay material could be dissolved in open air earthen tanks by the water of these springs and evaporated by the suns rays in other open tanks very cheaply evaporation is intense government tests made over a period of nine months in 1912 showed an evaporation of 82 inches the material could be very cheaply excavated by mechanical excavators excava tors loaded on cars and train trammel med to a c central plant for leaching eay ita BS nevada in los angele oil anci alining min bulletin soda ash of commerce contains 48 per cent soda and is generally worth on the western coast about 25 per ton the worlds consumption is about two million tons per year of which the united states consumes tons it is produced principally in europe from salt by means which is more expensive of a chemical process than would be the product from this deposit the largest consumption is in the manufacture of soap the standard oil company is said to consume some tons of it in refining oil in its westeri wes terii plants it is believed that soda asli ash could be manufactured on the ground from this deposit of gay at a cost of not exceeding 4 per ton with a branch railroad connecting with either the tonopah tidewater or the salt lake railroad the product could be laid down on the west coast for 3 per ton freight A large amount of work has been done in the valley prospecting for potash some feet of holes having been drilled but on account of the death of the main financial backer the company doing this work has been forced to suspend operations it has been determined that there is an unlimited amount of artesian water which can be developed and there are several hundred thousand acres of good land needing only water to become of value as the altitude of feet assures a salubrious climate there are numerous min mines es one of which has ore blocked to the value of five million dollars which would be tributary to a railroad the live stock interests are large and it seems only a question of better financial conditions when a road will be built as two surveys have been made across the valley with this branch road built not only will the gay become valuable but the agricultural live stock and mining interests will all contribute to the prosperity of los angeles which is the natural outlet for all this section |