Show MANGANESE MINING IN UTAH i written for the mining review by don maguire Mat fuire B E M utah is a large state and very rich in all that goes to make up a prosperous mining center so great and varied are the resources of utah that much of what exists in one part of the state is comparatively vm un known in other sections of our wide domain this assertion is well proven and illustrated by the fact that the mining of manganese is an industry of considerable importance in utah and yet one seldom sees even the shortest notice in utah papers about manganese or manganese mining in connection with this industry in our grand commonwealth before touching on manganese mining in utah I 1 will first allude to is classifications and the places of its occurrence there is not a county in utah wherein we do not find manganese in greater or lesser quantities occurring most commonly as or black manganese oxide we find it associated with our silver lead ores at park city at the eldorado mines in the madre mountains with copper lead and silver ores at tintic gintic with ores of the same class at ophir canyon dry canyon mercur and bingham ana it is also quite abundant in the red sandstones south of nephi in grand county usually black oxide of manganese is found in the lean or pov eaty stricken ores of gold silver and copner near the surface in most mineral veins productive of these metals there are however exceptions to this the chief one in utah being that of the annie laurie in piute diute county where the very richest returns of that great quartz vein come from fr m those points where black manganese oxide is most abundant and it follows as a rule in the workings of that mine that when black manganese oxide appears high gold values follow it is at ophir that we find the greatest variety of manganese ores here we find chalco chalaco and massive strange that at that point so little attention should be given this mineral buto but up date as in all other portions of utah no value has been attached to mang ansee save where it is considered as an adjunct of the mineral cabinet the most accessible deposits of manganese ores in utah are found in the red sandstones of the carboniferous period here we find them as an abundant ore of manganese oxide being a true As such we find them on the south fork of ogden river east of the town of huntsville where they lie in considerable quantity as measures in the red sandstones of that locality on deaver beaver creek and around monte cristo in the same region yet from these deposits of high grade manganese no commercial values have yet been taken the wagon haul of thirty five miles being considered too great besides but little exploration has been done there and the indicated extensive deposits of manganese found in that part of the state are simply reserves for the future it is in the red sandstone measures that the purest manganese ores of our state are found here they exist in a secondary station having been during the worlds earliest ages carried by water currents from the igneous rocks and precipitated in the purest state along the bedding planes of the red sandstones at the present time there is only one manganese group in the state of utah and this is what is known as the manganese mines of the little grande grand county crossing the green river on the rio grande western western railway at a point about eighteen miles beyond where the train stops a moment at a small insignificant station at which there is a section house and switch ine sees a culvert and extensive ore bins a cabin used as an office and usually a road steamer or engine which hauls manganese to this point the scene here is one common to the deserts of the southwest as a broad plain extends far to the south and the southwest the formation is red sandstone and in the hazy distance one can behold terrace after terrace fading away on the distant skyline fully ninety miles from where one stands at the railway station across the desert towards the southwest you see a wagon road that runs down fourteen miles to the manganese mines that are now being worked by the colorado iron fuel company of pueblo colorado A jaunt of four hours on the road steamer takes one from little grande station to the mines the road steamer takes in its train from two to four wagons loaded with manganese each capable of holding from four to eight tons of this ore on the return trip to the railroad and seldom can more than one trip be made to and from the mines daily the road across the plain being somewhat sandy and a number of swales existing along the route the work of the road steamer is somewhat slow and difficult and yet those in charge of this work claim that this method is much cheaper and far more satisfactory than that of using either mules or horses arriving at the mines we find that manganese as occurring here is almost a placer mining proposition inasmuch as the ore is scattered over the surface for some square miles and is separated from the soil with which it is associated by means of hand rakes th the manga manganese nose thus gathered to gether being of the size of ofa a filbert up to nodules weighing from one to two pounds there are along with this fragmentary class of ore measures of from six inches to six feet in thickness that lie between tho the sandstone beds and in some of these thus exposed on the surface the mining is easy and inexpensive the area owned by this company is large embracing more more than thirty square miles about fifty men are employed in these mines most of whom are brought from rabbit val leyy utah the living houses for the men being situated down on the east bank of green river a short distance from the mines it may be stated here that the region in which manganese ores occur is extremely arid in winter with but little snow while but little rain falls in the summer associated with the manganese deposits of this portion of utah there are extensive deposits and beds of hematite hemi tite iron ore and down by the banks of green river some miles to the westward there are extensive deposits of gypsum but at present the mining of manganese ore is the only industry considered here and the supply may be said to be practically unlimited as the area is very great and as far as depth has been carried by a series of prospecting shafts the bottom of the manganese measures has not been reached and experts who have made an examination of these mines look upon them as being amongst the most extensive manganese deposits in the world the manganese mined here is wholly of the character known as it is deep black in color with at times a rich metallic streak when broken in mining in its percentage of manganese this ore runs from 50 to 62 per cent and being utterly free from sulphur it serves as an ideal agent in the manufacture of steel for which use it is here mined and shipped to pueblo colorado As remarked in the early part of this article few people of our state know that manganese is mined here for manufacturing and industrial purposes the success that has attended the mining for manganese in grand county promises to encourage similar work in other portions of utah tooele thoele juab weber grand garfield piute diute kane and san juan counties are rich in manganese deposits and of that kind most in the arts it may be safely stated that the sandstone meau of utah contain the most e extensive ltd asive manganese deposits in the world a feature very essential in the manufacture of steel as made under modern methods one can readily see the importance of these extensive manganese deposits and beds when we consider the magnitude and extent of the iron mines of utah jointly the values of these sources of mineral wealth may be placed along the lines where an estimate of value would carry them into hundreds of millions but it is not for our day and generation to see such mines abill es reach their greatest utility A d dred years from hence our eastern mines minds coal will have become and of iron manganese quite well exhausted and by that time will dwell in the twenty million of people intermountain and pacific coast states in those days all that lies at the present time unclaimed of our mineral wealth in the desert places will have become of immense value and the descendants of those who today see fit to locate patent and fully secure mines of iron coal manganese antimony gypsum rock salt sulphur serpentine bauxite and china clay deposits will wi 11 become the mining minin g and industrial magnates of america DON MAGUIRE ogden utah |