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Show TGS Directors Will Decide Soon On Solution Mining Question Final engineering studies are now being conducted on the proposed conversion of (the Texas Gulf Sulphur Company Com-pany Cane Creek potash iminc- from conventional mining to solution mining, Bill Bessingcr, general manager man-ager of the Potash Division! told members of the Moab Rotary Club Monday. Members of the TGS Board of Directors will analyze an-alyze the studies and make a decision on whether or not to enter into the conversion, at a meeting scheduled for sometime during the month of July, Mr. Bessinger stated. stat-ed. Costs of converting the imlne from its present sta tus to the new method have been estimated at around $6 million, the TGS official said. He declined to put a figure . on total capital expenditures ex-penditures at the Cane Creek mine and mill to this poMt, but other sources have pegged costs at Potash Pot-ash in excess of $50 million in the ten years since ground-was ground-was broken. -Mr. Bessingcr stated that preliminary studies conducted conduct-ed by the Division indicate that solution mining, which would utilize solar evaporation evapor-ation as an important step in the operation, indicate that it can be done feasibly. To be added to the present surface facilities would be a cooling unit, pipelines and parge solar evaporation ponds which would total several hundred acres in surface. The semi-liquid product pro-duct would then be harvesi-cd harvesi-cd from the ponds, and carried car-ried by slurry line to the presently operated mill where potash would be sep-anTcd sep-anTcd from its natural companion, com-panion, sodium chloride. Studies to date conducted at Cane Creek have measured meas-ured ithe rate of saturating fresh water with brine; with pond lining materials and other important items. Studies now being conducted conduct-ed are working out final engineering en-gineering problems and attaching at-taching cost figures to each. ; Mr. Bessinger stated ! tfiat if the decision is ! made to convert the mine j to a solution facility, only underground workers woulJ i be affected, and many of I them could be utilized in I surface work connected with j the ponding and harvesting i of brines. Present: surface employment should not be affected, he said. lie said, i however, that, at this point it would be difficult to determine de-termine just where employment employ-ment would level out. |