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Show potash development approval coming soon, BLM says 1 1) Tb Buttes Resources proposed ush exploration program nears ap- ponl with the completion of the draft t r,i-onmental assessment by the Bur-(cafUnd Bur-(cafUnd Management. According to J'j !eeDT. District Manager, the team of ) itronmental specialists who analyzed Dr.w' proposal to conduct exploration ; rig found that only minimal adverse rronmental impacts would result is: the proposed drilling program. " The proposal generally met with 'j ruble response at earlier public !!. swigs held in Moab and Salt Lake ij. Ruhs of the BLM environmental Jj sessment will now be made available Okpcblk review and comment. Persons : uihg to review and comment on the si issessment will have until October 1977. Copies of the assessment are coble in both offices of the Bureau of I ltd Management in Moab as well as i Siii Crn University Ciu'u s-ihg, 136 East South Temple, Salt ! iiiCity, Utah 84111. Buttes has made application for 22 J Kai prospecting permits totaling HI53 icres approximately 15 miles f r.hest of Moab in the Ten Mile area. 'I in drill sites would be utilized. Each ta test site would require the drilling of two holes of a depth of approximately 7,000 feet. The first hole would be converted into a water injection injec-tion well. At a maximum distance of 400 feet from the injection well, a second hole would be drilled which would act as a brine recovery well. Water would be injected into the potash bed, allowed to become saturated with potassium salts, and then the brine pumped to the surface via the recovery wells. Pipelines would carry the brine from the test site to the solution pond f One of the original lour drill sites would be chosen as the first test solution well. Injection and production tubing equipment would be installed within the respective casings. Surface equipment such as compressors, pumps, pipes, valves and heating equipment would also be installed for solution mining tests. In conjunction with the selection and f.. oJu.iI..r, o7 t?.e first solution Ltrsi. tU, Buttes Resources would utilize all or part of a 160 acre site for the construction construc-tion of solar evaporation ponds to receive the brine. For the complete solution test program, approximately 12.5 miles of corridor pipeline would be necessary to transport the brine from Continued on Page A2 ol I Potash approval is coming ... "jch " Continued from Page Al the test wells to the evaporation pond site. I If "valuable deposits" of potash are I discovered, Buttes would then desire to ' enter into a full development operation. I Numerous projects would commence on the leases. The solution pond area would I be enlarged to 2,500 acres. A processing i mill would be built for separation of sodium chloride from the potassium i chloride. A railroad spur would be built 1 to link the mill site with the existing Denver, and Rio Grande Western Rail- ' road. Pipelines would carry water from the Green River some 18 miles away to the solution mine site for Use I i so mining operation. Approximately n t acre-feet of water would be L M i ! annually for full development U 1 ments Various other bufldW I' related faculties would be construct U P' the vicinity of the mill and ponf;U1 1 'J The exact locations of JTS corridors, railroad spur, buildine, ' i& have not yet been determined ' K o Assuming full development ft l ie ' estimated that the maximum nunZ ', U employees needed by Buttes would ? I three hundred. It is not kno number of employees would be IP people or how many Buttes IW . I would bring in for their operation H |