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Show Utah's 1 976MineralProduction lopped $ I illlloft, Report Says For the first time in Utah's mining history, mineral production pro-duction reached and exceeded the billion-dollar mark. Value of Utah's 1976 mineral production pro-duction was $1,018,161,000 reports Carlton Stowe, minerals min-erals specialist, Utah Geological Geologi-cal & Mineral Survey, Department Depart-ment of Natural Resources. Mr. Stowe reports mineral statistical tabulations will be used by the U.S. Bureau of Mines in it's preliminary totals to-tals for 1976. When final tabulations are in for the year, it might well exceed the $1,018,161,000. For the fourth consecutive year value of Utah's mineral production exceeded $900 million. mil-lion. The preliminary total for 1975 was $920,056,000. Final 1975 tabulations have just been completed which now show the total to be $966,407,000. During 1974, mineral value reached $952,045,000. The $1 billion reached in 1976 was despite a decline in oil production which dropped downward to 35,384,000 barrels. bar-rels. Oil production in Utah was at a high in 1975 when it reached 40 million barrels. Gold production in 1976 also dropped from 1975's 189,620 ounces to 184,565 ounces valued val-ued at a little more than $22.7 million. Copper production rose! 185,760 short tons were produced pro-duced in 1976. Copper prices averaged just slightly more than 65 cents per pound... about two cents per pound more than in 1975. Copper production during 1975 was at 177,155 short tons. Utah's coal production climbed from 6,961,000 tons in 1975 to a new all-time high of 7,700,000 tons in 1976. Production Pro-duction in 1976 was valued at $162,000,000. Top three Utah mineral values and production for 1976: Petroleum, $306,072,000 -35,384,000 barrels (42 gal. bbl.). Copper, $260,064,000 -185,760 short tons. Coal, $162,000,000 -7,700,000 short tons. Other 1976 value increases, according to Mr. Stowe, were noted in: Clays $633,000 (up from $548,000 in 1975); Gypsum, Gyp-sum, $1,528,000 (up from $1,457,000 in 1975); Lead, $7,376,000 (up from $5,452,000); Lime, $5,940,000 (up from $4,540,000); Natural gas, $33,598,000 (up from $26,570,000); Salt, $10,280,000 (up from $7,717,000); Sand and eravel. $21,523,000 (up from $14,342,000); Silver, $13,144,000 (up from $12,472,000) and Zinc, $16,395,000 (up from $15,319,000). A marked increase in minerals min-erals placed in the withheld categories by U.S.B.M. is noted by Mr. Stowe. These include beryllium, magnesium, magnes-ium, molybdenum, phosphate rock, potassium salts, tungsten, tung-sten, uranium and vanadium. Total production value for these minerals in 1976 was $139,037,000 compared with the 1975 total of $116,550,000. |
