Show western sodium sod lum sulphate deposits depos its john finn jr a chemical engineer of san francisco who is representing a powerful chemical and manufacturing concern of new york has been making a six months investigation of western sodium sulphate deposits mr finn was in salt lake city for a few days about the middle of the month after having spent some time in sizing up deposits on the margins of great salt lake before leaving for his san francisco offices he told the mining review that everything looked favorable to utilization of many western deposits and and that a ready market could be found for any deposit that could be handled commercially previous to his departure will owl kr top holliday lake a small deposit fo sodium sulphate feet in extent six miles west of laramie wyoming bottom view of eagles nest on top of rock on line between wyoming and colorado where mr finn was looking up sodium sulphate deposits he stands between his lawyer and chauffeur in discussing various features of this new 11 mining industry mr finn said since the versailles treaty allotted and apportioned the german sodium sulphate beds or deposits internal conditions have been such that outside countries have not been getting the material though the demand is very great and increasing continually sodium sulphate is used in the manufacture of glass in the paper industry and in a medicinal sense in large amounts it is extensively employed in the preparation of cattle foods one company in this country alone uses tons yearly in the manufacture of cattle attle foodstuffs it also is used as a flux in metallurgical work and in numerous other ways and so as the demand is great and the sources few the market of course has become very active sodium sulphate is manufactured by the solvay and electrolytic processes but it occurs in nature as glauber salt cake which is sodium sulphate so they are going ahead to ta develop this newest feature of our western natural resources in order to supply the world markets with this substance the glass and paper industries want the salt cake free from iron and acid and containing 90 per cent oi or better of sodium sulphate but for cattle food they advertise its iron value as a good thing because it neutralizes tra lizes the acid which occurs in the manufactured article the search for sodium sulphate deposits is a good field for any prospector because if he can find a good natural deposit he can readily market and sell it for big money it is a question however whether the market will continue as active as it is because conditions might change if the european product again should become readily obtainable and here is a pointer wherever I 1 have investigated soda lakes or deposits I 1 have found oil fields the soda lakes see seeming mingo to bear a definite relation to the location of the oil fields with the exception of the deposits on the margins of the great salt lake the first lake bed deposit I 1 was called upon to investigate was a great big lake in san bernardino county california containing anywhere from tons up of sodium sulphate the next lakes investigated were up in oregon these were small on one e man mining propositions then the natural sodium deposits around groat great salt lake in utah were investigated they were found to be mixed with silica sand but the sodium sulphate was of lemark ablo purity containing neither acid nor iron the beds around great salt lake are partially taken up there are still some beds that are open to location but their development and operation would ri require quire capital the beds examined examine in Il nevada levada and wyoming are very similar to each other they occur in natural depressions and have been formed by evaporation either of surface drainage or of local springs or perhaps both as indicated in a report made by a member of the U S geological survey T investigated and found the salts sodium and magnesium mixed with sediments in the decomposed soils which settled in these lakes or depressions leaving this deposit of sodium sulphide mud and magnesium sulphate a small amount of calcium also was present the glauber salts crystallize cryst alize comparatively pure from other contaminations and the lakes in lower areas are sometimes mud and sometimes water some of the areas are contaminated with magnesium sulp sulphate bate but by carrying on operations at the proper points quite pure sulphates can be obtained salts that are already contaminated by mag cesium sulphate could be readily purified by dissolving and 0 in in the pure sodium crys crystal tal form leaving the magnes magnesium iura s sulphate in the mother liquor if it is desirable to sell the glauber salts in the small crystals the concentrated salt solution is run into shallow coolers at 31 34 degrees centigrade stirring the solution while cooling if on the other hand large crystals are desired the concentrated tion is heated to 50 degrees b centigrade the specific gravity being brought to 1257 and the solution run into deep coolers two to three feet deep where the liquor is is kept undisturbed in order older to induce and faaili 4 t V L or it J IL 44 sodium VS of trona top A deposit small lake piled up crust taken from man mining it is a one u feet in oregon proposition 11 Phate bottom big natural cepi deposit sit of sodium in i san bernar y tons up located dino county cail california forni a Ivo odell tate the formation of the crystals oa 00 with lead e staves or strings i weighted V beigh ted takes hung in the vats and the coolin 21 the arho crystals J horn from five to twenty days and dried then moved from the mother liquor salt the anhydrous an ay iy to avoid effervescence coo solution tion containing contafi crystallizes out of a sid erable quantities of sodium carbonate and chloride in mining these small lakes a man simply puts out boards and digs up the top crusts and puts them in the sun if he has sun if not he sells them for glauber and the market for glauber is very active in wyoming they pay about 12 a ton for glauber and for glauber with mud in it about 8 a ton and if a man has a small lake he can work it as a small mining proposition ion but in california there has been perhaps a million and a half dollars spent on accomplishing production on a large scale however the work there has been retarded due to long hauls and poor mountain roads A good many theories have be been en advanced as to the possibility of these sodium lakes being fed by underground springs quoting as proof the fact that when a large hole is dug in the lake as sometimes is done it fills up with water again I 1 have investigated every known lake in the west and it is my opinion that the water invariably comes through the top or surface of the deposits den |