Show SEMI anthracite COAL record cedar cit city Y utah robert addison kirker M E who with a crowd of eastern capitalists has been engaged in the development of a semi aethra cite coal prop property erty situated on the border line between iron and washington counties and only a few miles from the iron region in talking with a record representative this week displayed more enthusiasm than he has heretofore shown mr kirker is on the whole a very conservative serva tive person and when he stated this week that they had the biggest thing in the state it meant considerable J C laser a prominent business man of the state of ohio who is one of the financiers of mr dirkers Kir kers company paid a visit to the property this week our reporter tried to secure an interview with the gentleman on his return from the mine but missed him however in talking of the matter with local business men he showed enthusiasm and seemed confident that they had a big thing mr kirker brought in samples of the coal taken from thirty feet from the surface of the shaft that is now being sunk it contains 70 per cent fixed carbon and is suitable for use in anthracite stoves and for smelting smelling sm elting purposes the company has a quantity of this coal on the dump and in order to introduce it on the market has volunteered to furnish the utah eastern copper company which operates a smelter out of st george a carload free of charge the only condition being that the utah eastern company pay for the hauling and give the product a fair test nor is the matter of quality any more gratifying than that of quantity there are five distinct veins traversing the property which can be traced on the surface for more than two miles these veins vary in size from eighteen inches to more than four feet during the past two years or more the company has been engaged intermittently in the development of the property the work being largely in the form of tunnels at present a small force of men is being employed and this force will likely be materially increased in the near future among the possibilities for the future if suitable transportation facilities are not vouchsafed by one of the established railroads is the building of a branch line of their own mr kirker believes that when they are in position to place their product on the market in paying quantities their properties will bond for sufficient to construct the branch this of course will only be in case the existing roads refuse to supply facilities for transportation the interstate commerce law would compel the other roads to receive the product when tendered and to make reasonable rates on hauling there is perhaps no better authority on coal properties in the state of utah than mr kirker he has had a wide and varied experience peri ence in the development of coal lands in this and several other states he was the original locator of the sunny side coal measures and took an active part in their early development he also made important discoveries co veries of coal in colorado and elsewhere he is a mining engineer of experience so that his deductions are worthy of consideration he states that he would not give the harmony coal belt for all sunnyside Sunny side from now on it is expected that development work will be pushed with more vigor than in the past and it is not unlikely that this may prove the opening wedge in the utilizing of the matchless natural resources of iron county |