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Show YVhiife Oiuer Shale Project makes strides towards production -Tatensen VAA?'- cire in the hole," someone shouts, 'Almost instantaneously the ground iTshake as thunder rolls out of g ;ft wide and 14 foot high hole tt,e ground. nvnamite has just been set off 2,000 . nto the decline shaft being dnll-f dnll-f , 'L White River Shale Project in Utah. Only recently have the Is encountered rock hard enough ( blasting has been necessary. Most ?ie mining process on the decline 1 has been accomplished by a con-fuous con-fuous mining machine, which eats ; -1 at the earth, dropping it in a pile 1'the floor below. Even in the softer ; , erial the teeth must be changed prv 8 hours to keep the machine : irking at top capacity. As the miners ! L Frontier Kemper, who have the : tract to drill the shaft, hit harder 'rA drilling and blasting become : -ecessary. i: ' production decline shaft, which s: trends at 15 degrees, has now reach-5 reach-5 aj the point where it will turn 90 1 agrees before continuing. The shaft is now over 2,000 feet long and over 500 feet beneath the earth's surface. A vertical vent shaft is now over 300 feet beneath the earth's surface. This shaft is 30 feet in diameter and is totally total-ly cemented as workers proceed toward the eventual depth of 1,100 feet. A huge hoist is now in place which raises and lowers everything. This shaft proceeds by drilling and blasting the earth and rock loose, then a small hydraulic loader scoops the material and loads a bucket which the hoist raises, dumps, and lowers again. Each time it is necessary to blast, the drilling drill-ing machine is lowered into the hole. The process is completed much like any blasting situation, then the machine is raised, the dynamite is placed, everything is removed from the shaft, and charge is set off. The men and loader are lowered into the shaft and the loosened material is extracted. ex-tracted. After proceeding a short distance everything is again removed from the shaft and a floor is lowered to enable the men to do the cement work. That is completed and they again begin to drill. The process may seem slow, but in fact moves substantially substan-tially faster than the declining shaft. I f -.- r- - 7"-- I i i ( - -. . i y - ' it v , ; . r " ' ; y m ' - ' .- , it:i , r , t rz? x I I X X , , i t I Ell ' 1 , E H ',1 ' r- , .-. . - Hi .-'.: . I s ' ' ' Ek . X. '.- v-r- ''-..- ' nr , ' 1 "'": ' L-' W THIS HYDRAULICALLY run loader is operated by a man B1; standing to the side of the machine. In the 30 foot diameter ltllt ventilation shaft there is little room to maneuver. This loader !d can turn on a dime and unload by dumping directly over W ta:kwards- - The vertical shaft was started long after the decline and is expected to be finished in the spring of 1984. The decline shaft is scheduled to be completed com-pleted in the fall of 1984. When completed the decline shaft will be about one mile in length. This shaft will be used entirely for production. produc-tion. An intricate conveyor-belt will bring the mined shale out of the ground. The actual mining process will proceed much the same way the shaft is now proceeding. The continuous mining machine will work with dynamite experts and front-end loaders to feed the conveyor belt. The mined shale will be taken to the surface and stockpiled. They expect to stockpile at least 300,000 tons of shale. This may seem like alot, but by phase three of the project they plan to mine 170,000 tons of shale every day, provi- a - A- - .. - ' - ' , , . f N -: - r j i . - IS1J - -Vy . lFre , , . . , , J , ' , X e! f A w ' ' " " "f" " J" ' f, t 5 - D1 X V . . . . . x X is,"5 i I tbe"5 ' ipril i I " . ' , X- ! i ' . , . a i y';r-''';V:;,'x',V-'',x-,'lu; ' 5 ' . -s. ot thef. e Dlig3t'' , i H'-? I ,ste THIS HUGE take-up drum is part of the 0lst system being used to drill a 30 foot he a'ameter ventilation shaft at White River ,hale proiect. It has a top speed of 850 Tee' Per minute. It is used to raise and aing aDout 100,000 barrels of crude shale oil every day. The vertical shaft now being drilled will be used exclusively for ventilation. Another vertical shaft will be drilled to provide access to the mine. When that shaft is complete the hoisting system from the ventilation shaft will be removed. When mining begins air will be forced into the mine through the ventilation shaft. The other vertical ver-tical shaft will provide access to the mine for workers and machinery, plus allow an additional way out of the mine should there ever be a need for it. Even though both shafts will be completed in 1984, it will be 1989 before crude shale oil will be produced. Surface Sur-face construction relating to producing produc-ing crude shale oil will not begin until 1986. Everything necessary to product crude shale oil will be built right at the mining site. When the product leaves the White River Shale Project it will go in the same way crude oil from an oilfield would. A 27,000 square foot mine service building has recently been completed. This facility provides miners with a place to shower and change their clothes, plus provides office space for ' all the personnel on the job presently and more who will later be added. The building also has a large warehouse, which is now also being used as an equipment maintenance shop. Eventually Even-tually a shop will be constructed and the area in the mine service building will be used exclusively as a warehouse. Also recently completed has been a sewage disposal plant and a water purification plant. These facilities have been built to comply with environmental en-vironmental standards. A dam. which will hold water to be lower a bucket filled with material being removed from the shaft. Another hoist has a top speed of only 9 feet per minute. That noise is used to raise and lower the men while they cement and complete the shaft. used at the project will be completed this fall. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the entire oil shale industry is that there is no oil shale industry. At every turn even the most knowledgeable people peo-ple know very little about what lies ahead. This means the industry must constantly be ready to change to meet the problems that are encountered. Because of this, oil shale will be an exciting ex-citing industry to watch develop. There is only one oil shale project now in operation. That one is in Colorado. Col-orado. Even though there is bound to be a vale of secrecy surrounding the processing of shale, the entire industry will no doubt learn from what other companies are doing. Even though White River Shale Oil Corporation has a very specific plan for the development of tracts Ua and Ub. amounting to 10.240 acres of land, there will no doubt be many changes before production will actually begin. One of the main reasons why the Synthetic Syn-thetic Fuels Corporation (SFC) will give financial assistance to some oil shale projects somewhere is to help develop the technology to produce shale oil. White River Shale Oil Corporation, of course, wants to be the leader in oil shale technology. No doubt they are already learning much that will help them in later phases of the Ua and Ub project. They may also be finding things that will help other oil shale projects. pro-jects. At the same time other projects may be learning things that could help White River. At this point no one is talking. At the Union Oil Shale project no one is talking about inner workings of their plant. Of course, that is part of the free enterprise system, making the best product for the least money and not letting your competition know how you are doing it. Perhaps this will only add to the interesting in-teresting possibilities that already exist. ex-ist. There are currently several theories about how it will be the best way to turn unmined oil shale into flowing crude oil. Along the way perhaps there will be several technolgoies developed. Perhaps one will be better than all others, perhaps no one will revolutionize the industry. Whatever happens, there is no doubt we will need the energy oil shale is capable of providing, not just from White River but from all the oil shale projects, including those that do not get financial assistance from the SFC. 1 " V E - . I , V : V , : X . ,(T ' I I : . . x 1 - - . v, ' ' x - V r ' X j- S ' . A ' ' . - x.. A' r 7 1 J I X X; - . S I v -J',! j ' : ' ' J WHITE RIVER Shale workers prepared a rock wall to be blasted loose with dynamite. Only recently have miners encountered en-countered rock hard enough to require blasting. Most of the 28 foot wide and 14 fis'--'f-,iii-'sr-1 1" x--r ' 1 x r foot high production decline shaft has been dug by a continuous mining machine, which eats the earth and rock away and then loads it into a front-end loader at the rear of the machine. |