| Show hydrocarbon hydro carbon car bon wealth of odthe the state of utah A comprehensive review of the situation by J B jenson E M when the weary and footsore foot sore pioneers gazed for the first time on the salt lake valley they little dreamed that surrounding this locality was the greatest wealth of natural resources to be found in any state or that the spot on which salt lake now stands should some day become the center of one of the greatest industrial sections in the world the varied wealth of our metals metal agriculture natural scenery etc is too well known to require comment at this time but there are only a few of the citizens of this city and state who are familiar with the unbounded wealth of hydro car bons principally those of coal gilsonite asphalt rock and oil shale there lies at our very doors some 1 of the greatest known deposits of these minerals in the world and if but 25 of the acreage containing these products were held by utah citizens this commonwealth would become within the next twenty years one of the wealthiest states in the union enough to last for centuries the pioneers had not been in the valley two years before they discovered coal in utah of which it is at present estimated that we have more than square miles of workable grade sufficient if all of it were mined to supply the entire united states for more than years the principal coal deposits are located in carbon and emery counties the carbon county field which lies southeast from salt lake is on the eastern slope of joi the wasatch plateau and the outcroppings outcrop pings describe an arc within a few miles south of sunnyside Sunny side and extending to hiawatha in fil length between 68 and 70 miles these outcroppings outcrop pings have been traced for approximately miles and show an exposure of from one to five workable seams scams varying in thick ness to as much as 30 feet with an average thickness of approximately 12 feet it is estimated that an average content of marketable coal in in this acreage is tons per acre inasmuch as coal can be profitably recovered for a distance of about four miles back of the outcrop I 1 may safely say between and acres of coal workable under preset present methods and giving us a tonnage in excess of three billion tons which can be recovered by present mining methods or at the present rate of extraction enough to last us for something like years it is estimated that of some seventy four different a interests in carbon county and one in emery county that they have in their ined acreage nearly million tons of 01 coal which will last for about years under the present rate te of extraction under utah methods of operation there seems to be a more kindly feeling existing between the mine managements and labor and thanks to this mi mine ne strikes strike s and other troubles are less s f frequent frequent here than in other portions of the country and or of 0 r I 1 born a paper er prepared at the re request quest of the mining com committee cittee t the he salt lake commercial ci club ab and chamber of commerce production goes on with less interruption than in the east good working conditions are maintained for the men and everything is provided that can be reasonably expected for the comfort and help of the workmen cleanliness and sanitation are impressed upon all and is quite generally practiced by the employees taking all in all our utah coal mining camps rank among the best in the united states and it is doubtful if there exists anywhere a more contented economical and hard working set of coal miners than in utah the coal mined is of an excellent grade and in some rd respects far surpasses that of eastern camps it is nearly all weather resisting and good for storage purposes containing a high degree of heat units bour our annual production ranges in iii the close neighborhood of five million tons per year the production of which employs between and men underground and approximately 1000 top men mining approximately tons per man gilsonite deposits largest in the country in addition to coal utah possesses among her hydrocarbons the greatest deposits of gilsonite also known as in the united states in fact it is the only portion of the united states in which this very important hydrocarbon hydro carbon is found there are smaller veins of and numerous intermediate hydrocarbons hydro carbons also but by far the greatest 6 deposits are those of the which is being mined and marketed by a number of corporations the product finding a ready market at per ton toil for firsts and 24 to 25 for seconds these prices being 6 f 0 b cars at mack colorado A narrow gauge railroad has been built and has been in operation for some years between watson utah and mack colorado which was built by the uinta railroad co mainly for the transportation of gilsonite b from the uinta basin to them the D R G W railway these hydrocarbons hydro carbons occur in fissure veins running parallel to each other and are vertical with fairly smooth walls on each side and reaching a depth usually of about feet with the exception except in of these hydrocarbons hydro carbons are asphalt ites or in other words have an asphalt base while the is of a paraffin base and may be considered a natural paraffin from the fact that these hydrocarbons hydro carbons are considered to be a petroleum residue from which the lighter fractions fraction have cola utilized tili zed some geologists believe them to be a certain indication of free petrol petroleum eurn which they believe exists underground throughout the uinta basin and that this will eventually become becom e one of our greatest oil fields after an intimate int finate study of oil I 1 am personally of the opinion however that the flie asphalt ites of the alie uinta basin are not an indication of an oil field but that they are the result of local occurrences occur rances of earth heat at some time in the earths history which have retorted a portion of the oil of that region thereby producing pe which has subsequently given off its lighter fractions leaving the residue or heavy portions in in the fissures which through partial decomposition and oxidation have finally finall y been converted into our present deposits of solid h hydrocarbons hydro y dro carbons it should be noted that the or the paraffin hydrocarbon is found only in veins that cut rocks of the wasatch formation fori nation and which is older than the oil shale and immediately underlying the green river format formation iol i in which chall all the oil shale occurs but the asphalt ites are found chiefly in veins that cut beds younger than the oil shale and which are those in the overlying portion of the green river formation such as the uinta formation one thick vein of gilsonite west of watson utah is known to cut rocks both above and below the oil shale beds although 12 the oil shale itself shows no actual veins and no traces of gilsonite in line with the vein above and below this vein has been mined very extensively at the rainbow and temple mines where the fissure was formed in heavy sandstone beds above the oil shale and also at the old black dragon mine has never been fully tested as workings had not gone much below the level of the canyon when a fire in the mine pr prevented e further development T the h e lowest point reached in the workings is still in the green biyer formation practically all of f the gilsonite is mined in the basin t at the junction of green river and ile white river south of fort duchesne utah from f four our to five miles within the colorado boundary lines and ex tending west about 60 miles into utah As previously stated there are many veins located in this area these extending in a northwesterly and southeasterly direction these veins veins vary in width from a fraction of an inch to as much as 18 feet some of the longest such as the cowboy and bonanza veins have been traced eight miles although 6 they are usually continuous they may in certain cases become slightly altered in direction and at times unexposed very frequently branch veins join the main one at a sharp angle when the outcrop containing gilsonite has been exposed to the weather it loses its brilliant lustre and changes 6 to a dull black looking Z very much like air slacked coal along 11 1 the walls it f forms arins a columnar structure extending at right angles to the wall which is a characteristic of the the rock walls are usually impregnated with gilsonite from six inches to two feet so there is is no vi visible sible line of dernar kation between the impregnated and portions where the vein cuts the shale formation it is smaller than where it is found in the porous sandstone the fol following loing are some of the prin principal cipal veins occurring in this region location of gilsonite veins the duchesne vein occurs occurs about four 1 niles miles east of fort duchesne in a vertical fissure cutting sandstone and shale the vein has been traced three miles and is three to four fp feet wide for about one and one half miles tapering at the end until it completely disappears A comparatively large amount of gilsonite has been mined from this vein the culmer vein also known as the Pari etee mine mine curs in the castle peak mining 11 district it is seve seven n miles low long oc and varies in width from a fraction of an inch to one and one 6 half feet averaging 6 in about one foot it has several bra branch n ch v veins eins it is found in sandstone and shale bonanza and cowboy veins these embrace three veins viz the cowboy vein the east branch and the west branch bonanza veins the last two are joined together near the northern end these veins also cut sandstone and shale the vein disappears to the north in shale and as the gilsonite passes from sandstone into shale it splits up into a number of smaller vein lets which gradually disappear the cowboy is the largest and reaches in width in places to eighteen feet maintaining maintain maintaining in 9 a width of from eight to ten feet for four miles its total length being froni from seven to eight miles the bonanza vein has been followed for seven miles but is not as wide as the cowboy there ther are a number of smaller veins which occur in this region including the rainbow harrison colorado and others which are narrow I 1 7 aj 4 gilsonite vein Eigl iteen feet thick near white river utah er and shorter than the fore foregoing going the black D dragon r a g 0 n vein this vein occurs south of evacuation cre creek eek a small stream which flows into W white hite river near the colorado line this vein has been traced four miles and averages between two and three feet wide with an extreme width of eight feet nea near r the southern souther end it cuts through ugh sandstone limestone e and shale T the he methods of mining gilsonite are comparatively simple the work being beine ol 01 done mostly by pick and shovel and the ordinary hoisting apparatus pa ratus owing b to the fact that the walls consist of hardrow hardro hard rock 6 little timbering is is necessary and mining is comparatively in inexpensive the gilsonite is of shining black color and breaks with a conco idal fracture it is a little lighter in weight than coal it is shipped in sacks holding about lbs ibs 0 one ne man rna n can mine and sack on the average two tons per day of ten teh hours hou basin it si estimated that there is still available in the uinta j is not less than fifty million tons of gilsonite most of which owned by the general asphalt co the shipments among the shippers are the fol following lowina t 1920 j gilson asphalt co leasing from general asphalt co asphalt shipped tons 1923 1922 tons american america ri aspi co 1923 tons leasing country boy and rector MI utah gilsonite co estimated between 3 and awl s 1922 total shipments f from born mack colo 1920 5 6 w tons of 1921 tons 1922 tons first 8 months oi tons I 1 uses of gilsonite and kindred substances for I 1 gilsonite is one of the most valuable asphalts asp halts we have ex the manufacture of paints and varnishes it forms a most used d is cellena paint for preservation of metallic surfaces an largely it in the making of paint for battleships and other vessels with steel hulls it may also be used to advantage in the painting in 6 of wood surfaces and is used in large quantities in the manufacture of roof paint as well as roofing materials it is capable of holding in combinations large quantities of mineral fillers as well as vegetable getable and mineral fibres fabres including 6 the asbestos fibre fabre and permit permitting tinly therefore the manufacture of a large assortment of building and roofing materials it makes a fine grade of bituminous varnish as well as bituminous japan enamels and even cements which are capable of tr and well adapted for repairing b metal or composition roofing b for dam damp p proofing t the inside of walls and to a certain extent for waterproofing the outside of foundation walls below ground the uses for bituminous pigments 6 and paint material are 1 growing 1 1 b daily and the market for this valuable hydrocarbon hydro carbon is almost unlimited while utah has her share of and the only important deposits in the united states these are by no means as extensive as the gilsonite deposits and the uses for are now being very largely supplied from gilsonite owing to the inability of manufacturers to obtain this hydrocarbon hydro carbon is often referred to as artificial rubber or rubber substitute some of the products manufactured from it serving very well the purposes of rubber this natural paraffin is somewhat limited in its extent it varies f from born a very so soft f t substance to a hard black shiny material when rubbed it becomes negatively electrified when heated it becomes elastic and melts at about 62 C the refined of commerce is known as ce like gilsonite is a valuable waterproofing waterproof in paint material and when it is obtainable is used largely for the painting of battleships from the fact that it has the qualities of preventing the formation of barnacles barnacled barn acles on the hulls making it unnecessary to dock and scrape the hulls once or twice annually as is necessary when other paints are used like gilsonite however 6 is becoming hard to obtain in sufficient quantities to supply the demand in consequence substitutes are being adopted first mechanical plant in the country in the year 1905 the writer designed and built the f first plant in the united states for the american co which operated for some years at soldier summit utah developing g what was the first known mechanical process in existence for or the extraction of or mineral wax from american ores the ores mined averaged between 6 and 12 of wax and the plant produced intermittently y for nearly three years between five hundred and a thousand pounds of refined wax per day all of which was shipped to germany by the owners is used in the manufacture of high grade candles colored lead pencils finishing of the heels and soles of shoes for manufacturing shoe polishes ies electrical insulating apparatus and for the waxing of floors very often these products are adulterated by paraffin wax rosin tallow with mineral filler much ich as talc kaolin gyps gypsum fim etc the most important deposits in n the united states are those near colton in utah county where the veins occur in a bed of oil shale the veins extend from om about two miles west of colton to within a few hundred yards west of the railroad station at soldier summit a total distance of about twelve miles the oil overlie a bed of shale hale in which the occurs A peculiar feature of the deposit is the occurrence of fossil shells with other animal remains regains it has been discovered that a paraffin product quite similar to can be manufactured from our oil shale and it is is quite probable that the soldier summit or colton deposit is is a resultant sul tant product of local shale distillation |
