Show want to prospect for uranium heres few tips uranium men who today are established on the colorado plateau learned several things during their earl early days of exploring the vast reaches of the area and they learned them the hard way the explorer of tomorrow could profit from the pioneers plo neeri experiences for example discovery of 0 rich ore 0 re bodies which ha e made millionaires lion aires alres of 0 their finders tin ders requires luck A well planned long term exploration program puts the man looking for uranium in a position to be lucky on the basis of 0 experience peri ence and in the opinion of most uranium urani lim men such a program should at least uncover a number of modest commercial deposits for the large company opinion Is that these should be mined by the company with proceeds supporting continuing exploration in fact a good many veterans in the uranium business feel that a large investor would do well to buy an operating property swap dollars for ore plus experience as it were and start from there for the individual a good return can be made mining a small ore body wy if 0 capital outlay is not prohibitive hibi bibi tive alternatively the ore body bod can be sold for funds with wha which to continue prospecting for a bonanza then there Is the time lenient element regardless of quantity or quality of experience elsewhere the record shows that it takes about two years for engineers prospectors and geologists to become effective in uranium exploration with this in mind the individual prospector should see that his grubstake is adequate for an extended stay the large investor should not dot expect immediate results from personnel transferred from other field or should obtain services of a man who has had two years or more plateau experience behind him A suggestion for newcomers is to secure a textbook on sediment and a nodding acquaintance with uranium chemistry A large amount of difficulty occurs when prospectors are unfamiliar with state and federal mining laws so it is important that they acquaint themselves with such laws and equally important that they find and out what is the prevailing local joe I 1 custom regarding the mining a laws I 1 aws too uranium mines can be ever over mechanized although large ton nages of rock are handled cheaply resulting dilution has taken the profit so the prospector should make sure that he is thinking of mining in terms of pounds of uranium rather than in tons of ore A number of small operations tied together by lease or buying agreement can be very successful as witness and several companies have also operated successfully success cess fully by considering consider mg a number of scattered ore bodies as different slopes in one mine then theres the bonus to consider if five small ore bodies each contain pounds of and otherwise fill the definition of new properties as contained in requirements they each qualify for or a new production bonus a total of if one property was large enough to con tain ain the total pounds of 8 total production bonus would I 1 be the is interested in buying pounds of not tons of rock another thing to be remembered there is generally more profit in n mining than in milling this Is s the consensus of opinion of men on the plateau who are in a position to know one condition enters into the picture however and that Is a reasonable price for the the best situation profit wise li Is to both mine and m mill the ore in this way the 23 percent depletion allowance can be computed on the price per pound of uranium in the concentrate rather than on the pound of uranium in the ore which means more dollars for the miner not everyone can build a mill and nd the who has the 1 say feels that a ewton ton per day unit is the practical minimum it could be worth computing the slightly higher milling cost per unit in a smaller mill and comparing it with savings to be made through the depletion allowance if you undertake milling your own ore most pioneers in the uranium mining ining field will give you one last word of caution if you seriously intend to explore explore im for and mine uranium yo you can get a lot of helpful information and save yourself tim time and money b by talking with on tte the spot t officials officials first |