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Show Tar sands plant gets okay to start construction Western Tar Sands Inc. has been granted permission to commence limited construction of a pilot plant to extract bitumen from tar sands at the company's properties 20 miles east of Vernal. Louis I. Hart, president, said that Western Tar Sands, application for mining and construction permits for the plant, which will be able to process under 100 barrels of product a day, was approved by the Utah Oil and Gas Mining Department and by the Resource Development Coordinating Committee. There will be a 30-day public comment period. Hart said that Western Tar Sands received a waiver on certain preliminary steps in receiving the construction permit. Thus, activities will begin immediately and continue for the next 30 days, including site clearing, construction of security fejices surrounding the site, construction con-struction of a concrete slab for ore-crushing ore-crushing facilities and the placement of security facilties and construction offices, Hart said. He said that subject to the public comment period, the company plans to construct additional components for the plant's operation, including a permanent enclosure for the extraction facility and storage tanks for solvents and water used in the extraction process and tanks for storing the bitumen product. "We are delighted to be in a position now to commence the construction of the plant at Vernal," Hart said. "To our knowledge, this is one of the first such plants for the extraction of petroleum product from tar sands to actually begin construction in the field in the United States." Western Tar Sands Inc. holds U. S. patents for its process to extract bitumen from tar sands. In addition to its 640-acre Uintah County property, the company controls approximately 5,160 acres of tar sands leases in Garfield and Emery counties. Construction Con-struction and design of the company's new pilot plant near Vernal is being supervised by Tracor Inc. and Scientific Scien-tific Applications Inc. |
