Show commercial OIL SHALE PLANT R READY E ADY TO FUNCTION NEAR DE BEQUE recognition of the possibilities of colorados vast oil shale deposits in the rocky mountains on the western slope has been brought about with the completion of the first oil shale plant in the state nine miles north of de beque which will begin operation within a few days according to H L brown of new york inventor of a retort which will be used at the plant according to denver advices advises ad vices experiments conducted with the colorado have shown that four valuable products can easily be made according to mr brown they are a high grade gasoline an oil that will be in large demand for mineral oil separation a crude oil product for a black paint mixture and a residue which when combined with the limestone found in the immediate vicinity of de begue will make a superior cement steam shovel mining methods the shale is easily accessible and willbe will be taken out by the open cut steam shovel method such as is being used extensively ten in copper mining in utah and iron mining in minnesota this can be done at an approximate cost of from 25 to 50 cents a ton mr brown has been working b in conjunction with the index oil shale company and has been interested in the development of the oil shale industry for the last seven years he has given a large part of that time to the de vel loument of a suitable retort which has been install installed edon on the index property we have installed in connection with the reduction iori r plant a cubic foot gasoline absorbing plant which should recover from each 1000 feet of fixed gas a minimum of one gallon of gasoline mr brown said new uses for shale oil products the use of shale oil products for black paint is absolutely new heretofore the ingredients of this type of paint have had to be milled together 6 but nature has produced a com compound pound which with little work can be made the equal of or superior to that made through an artificial process another striking peature is that the residue after retorting can be used for cement making in connection with the deposits of limestone found in the vicinity A plant working in conjunction with the oil production equipment will 11 be installed in the immediate future this will result in in a c heaper cheaper manufactured cement of very high grade according to mr brown the daily output of the plant will be tons which will yield approximately a barrel of crude shale oil a ton if mined on a selective method potential possibilities of production enormous the possibilities in the manufacture of oil from shale in colorado are enormous victor ic C alderson former president of the school of mines at golden who is accompanying mr brown on his inspection tour said two thousand square miles are known to be by oil shale in commercial quantity the known production of oil from this deposit is easily calculated to be at least five times the past and the probable future oil well production from all the oil pools of the entire united states the escarpments of oil shale on the western slope reach a length of miles from almost any part of which oil shale can be mined such an exposure is unequaled anywhere else in the world so vast is this oil shale field in in colorado that if there were oil shale plants in operation each treating 2000 tons a day the easily accessible supply would last for years in other words the oil of colorado form the states greatest undeveloped wealth the starting of this plant means the commercial future of the oil shale industry in colorado mint superintendent talks optimistically with all that has been accomplished in the state of 0 colorado from the results of mining operations agricultural agriculture a development and the sugar beet industry there loonis looms new frontier great in opportunity in the vast oil on shale s d deposits of western colorado declared frank E superintendent of the denver branch of the united states sia g mint and chairman of the oil shale committee of the den v ver chamber of commerce recently the steadily increasing demand for oils and other by of a dro carbon products makes necessary the development the great auxiliary supply for the petroleum industry and deposits source of such a supply is found in the vast oil shale dep in the de Beque Grand valley district |