Show Western Resources Hi WRAP WRAP-UP Mining trends By I Iclene lelene C. C Some interesting trends are showing up in mining The Colorado state legislature honchoed its first energy symposium in Denver a couple of months ago at which speakers repeatedly noted Denver had become a national energy capital and the energy hub of the Rocky Mountain-High Mountain Plains area Plans for forNo No 2 are underway The Fleischmann Foundation has granted to the Colorado School of Mines at Golden to start an institute of industrial ecology Dr Beatrice E E. E Willard who served on the federal Council on Environmental Quality and is now a professor of environmental environmental en science at is in charge of the project and Richard Prouty who covered the environment and natural resources for several years for Cor the Denver Post is Post project coordinator Prouty has been given the task of organizing an advisory board of mining and petroleum industry executives which will help us set up a program for mine managers and oil and gas operations personnel Prouty has written to Western Resources Wrap The program will draw upon existing conditions to show how a greater awareness of political social and natural factors can make mining operations more viable and economically attractive Prouty stated slated There is no reason why some mining projects cannot operate that arenow arenow are arenow now stymied by environmental obstacles obstacles ob We expect to show these people with stymied projects and others in the industry how a broadened awareness can bring to them new approaches that are not only accept acceptable ble but profitable Its It's a big job There is full backing for it from Cram and several companies according to Prouty Women in Mining an organization of women working for mining mineral resource and related industries is in inthe inthe inthe the process of developing chapters in others states after the Denver chapter was organized in 1972 and nd the Tucson Ariz chapter was established in 1974 The organization includes mining engineers field geologists draft- draft public relations types accountants in addition to the clerical workers for mining companies Like many of the old prospectors who were hooked on mining the bulk of the membership of Women in Mining lining WIM is too according to Marjorie Ater and Ruth Foster of the Denver WIM chapter WIM chapters sponsor seminars field trips publications and an annual scholarship at the Colorado School of the Mines-the latter based on the sales of bumper stickers and cookbooks The November issue of the Mining Congress Journal reported that Women in Mining recently published a brochure entitled The Small Miner Miners Let Him Look at America Its It's a pitch to retain the 1872 mining law The data in it came from from several government agencies and a recent study on small mining operations done by David W. W Delcour and Diane D Rees of the Molybdenum Division of Amax Inc Women in Mining in Colorado and the Colorado State Office of the Bureau of Land Management are cosponsoring a program designed to keep visitors out of old mine diggings on grounds of safety Early day prospectors and miners were great at digging holes but not much for Cor filling them in when things didn't work out the WIM WIM brochure states To make its point the cover of the brochure depicts a poor devil falling down a mine lame shaft and yelling HELP to a remote world MINE SAFETY GOOD BUSINESS Mine safety has come front and center venter as good business with mine managers this correspondent learned on a recent Western trip This attitude was typified by Ira E E. McKeever president and general manager manag r of oC the mine located in northwestern Colorado near the city of Craig during a tour of oC the mine on Nov 11 The mine opened about a year ago a surface operation it produced about tons of coal in 1977 is expected to produce f from rom to a million tons of coal this year and 3 million by 1980 An experimental plot for Cor reclamation has already been laid out and seeded and construction of a mile 23 spur railroad line to connect the mine with rail transportation at Craig will soon begin as rapid expansion of the mine goes forward So a number of contractors con tractors have workers on the mine property This correspondent looked on astounded as Mine Manager McKeever blistered a crew of ot contract workers near the visitor entrance some distance from the mine because the themen themen themen men had taken off their hard harts McKeever's ultimatum to the contractors contractor's contractors contractor's contractors contractor's con con- tractors tractor's men wear your hard hats or get off property Later McKeever explained he had repeatedly warned the same crew to wear their hard hats Mine safety is just plain good business he maintains A mining engineer who designed is building and managing the mine McKeever has had a number of visits from the inspectors working for Mining Enforcement and Safety Administration Administration Administration Ad Ad- ministration MESA We have gotten some help from MESA some pointers from the inspectors We have had a few accidents here but we have looked at atthe atthe atthe the positive side of an accident and used it to drive home the importance of mine safety to crystallize the work workforce workforce workforce force to think safety safely McKeever said The energy symposium put on by the Colorado General Assembly came forth forthwith forthwith forthwith with the surprising information that 30 percent of Colorados Colorado's coal is coking coal ie i.e. top quality coal This was no surprise to McKeever however who had located the mine The coal deposits at run BTU per ton with eight seams about 55 ce feet t of coal deposits per seam McKeever said Most of the coal deposits are above the water table and we are mining above the water table McKeever stated There is little water storage in the area rea and what water is needed at the mine is being hauled in by truck he said Water storage or potential storage is often a determining factor on a decision to start a mining complex industry experts said at the symposium in Denver on Oct 31 1 1 Later on Nov 9 this correspondent for Cor Western Resources Wrap-up Wrap was told in Southwestern Southwestern South South- western Colorado that 25 mining companies had looked at the coal deposits on the Southern Ute reservation reser since the lease which Peabody Coal Co had on that Indian land had expired a year ago The Southern Ute coal is not as high qu quality lity as the mine coal But if it the Animas Animas LaPlata LaPlata reclamation project is built with a storage reservoir on the Southern Ute reservation the tribe will have feet acre of oC municipal and industrial water available and it U plans to use most of the water for coal development |