Show coal Absolu absolutely fely Essen essential fial to successful world economy by THOMAS ALLEN chief inspector colorado Col orad coal mine aline inspection department the coal reserves of the world and of colorado have been estimated by many authorities because coal Is absolutely essential to a successful economy of any country there Is some difference in the estimates made by different research authorities which may be noted as parts of publications issued on this subject but such differences are based on the method used b by the person or persons doing I 1 the work the figures given herein are from the bituminous coal annual published by the bituminous coal institute of america which is a department part ment of f the national coal association of of the united states COLORADO the me coal reserves of colorez colorado have been estimated by several authorities again we find nd great differences in these estimates because of the standards used by each authority for or instance campbell 1913 19 13 estimates a total of short tons dr der wilt colorado school of mines 1947 estimates tons at depths of less than feet from the surface spencer and erwin 1953 estimate tons which are immediately accessible ces sible for mining as shown by available information from operating mines records of pros peces and drill holes mostly near dear the edges of the coal fields spencer and erwin make this statement in their report large areas in 10 0 o state such as 11 denver G green ree n river uinta and san I 1 juan river legions are believed to be underlain by coal throughout their entire area but only the marginal areas were included in preparing the present estimate this statement may be interpreted to mean that the coal reserves of the spencer erwan report represents that coal which is immediately available to easy attack and which can be mined it is this authors opinion based on personal observation that reserves re erves of billion short tons a large part of which is in western colorado will be found exist at varying depths from the surface in the areas which are at a distance from the edges of the fields and which are not considered in the spencer erwin report as per their statement heretofore quoted however it Is the authors belief that the spencer erwin report should be used because it is the absolute maximum of a conservative serva tive statement and because it only includes the coal which to is immediately available for mining operations the percentage of total reserves in colorado which is contained in the western part of the state is given as by ronald F lawson bureau of business research university of colorado this is practically 82 in a general breakdown of kinda kinds of coal in western colorado about 80 90 is bituminous coal and 9 sub bidun bituminous anous coal the reserves of anthracite are given by spencer and erwin as million tons or about a bo u t 1 0 of f the total which is their estilo estimate te of this type of fuel in the crested butte area spencer and erwin did not segregate the anthracite and semi anthracite which is to be found in routt county but included it in the total of bituminous coal however in the writers opinion there is an area of 25 square miles of anthracite and semian semi an th in routt county which should yield about tons calculated on a standard that there are tons per square mile one per foot of thickness of the coal bed and using an average thickness of four feet throughout the area none of the routt county anthracite and have been n mined but the deposits have been fairly web well prospected and investigated by persons and groups interested jn jp coal mining coking coal reserves are am not stated in any of the report reports ach such coal is included I 1 in the bituminous tu coal statistics some information should be available at an early ey date on such ouch deposits near carbondale as they are being prospected ed and developed at this time with th one mine producing between and tons during 1954 the most definite knowledge on coking coal reserves is contained in a US GS bulletin on the coals in the paonia laonia region ft it is estimated that there are about 65 million tons of this kind of coal in ia this area deposits of coking coal are known in the durango field but they have not been explored or developed enough to give any final statistics it 14 stated that the coals within a radius of six miles of duran durango arc are coking some of this coy coal was coked caked in past years to supply a smelter which has not been operated for some time undoubtedly if fur farther detailed investigation is carried out there will be substantial areas of coking coal found in this field coking coal is specifically mentioned because bause of hi extreme importance in furnishing coke for the smelting smelling sm elting of iron and other metals duncan sandys british minister of supply told the house of common commons that whereas several pockets of or uranium have been found in cornwall none of the deposits are am large enough I 1 to war rant the expense 0 ot mining in aad MW treating the ore |