Show pilot plant at grand junction tests ores for best treatment methods opened for use late last year almost at new year ii was the atomic energy commission s new pilot plant inside the compound at grand junction an imposing alvo sang structure about which the man mail accompanying visitors around the th c compound ampo 11 nd on guided tours a ays ys this much Is open for or discussion h however ow it Is operated by ler the national nation lead co company mcany for or the A at one grand junction writer r j t er saw s w the r story to ry last december eaber any spy worthy of his geeki weekly rubles could probably sit on a MIT hillside overlooking the corn compound rund and C count the barrels of 0 ye yellow low cake moving gin in and out he ile would pe perhaps come up with the production answer more probably he would c come me up with a hole m the head or at the very least earn a aspea speaking k acquaintance with the constabulary and a long look at the interior of the nearest federal lockup it quite as easy as that to determine output of the plant because each barrel contains a different amount of uranium concentrate but he would have a fair id idea of f how bow many barrels were tu turned arned out ut as though that would do him any good from inside the pokey there is certain information about the pilot plant that officials of the AE and the national lead co will talk about the job of the plant is to develop technological data tor for prospective uranium millers on the best processes for working particular ores this one function alone says the will probably save the industry many millions of dollars annually it w works something like this uranium bearing ores vary greatly in types and it is necessary to determine the particular treatment necessary for any one type of ore before it can be extracted and packed into concentrate that is the job of the pilot plant to test ores and to find out the best method of extracting the yellow mineral therefore when a mill is planned to serve a particular mining section testing already done by he the pilot plant at grand junction enables the operator to set up he the ty type e of plant needed to treat ores res from from that mining district it saves sometimes months of experiments millions of dollars la in time and materials and permits mits almost immediate operation of f the mm mill the pilot plant also enables compilation pi lation of cost data useful in designing new mills in other words cost of processing certain ores through the pilot plant is X 7 Z al N 4 op C 4 V 14 01 AS THE NEW pilot plant la in the compound at grand junction appears from one on end the ramp seen ee leading into the building bull dini hauls ore into the plant where it is subjected to various test tests to determine the bett best treatment method methods and to establish the th leas least expensive system of separating the yellow mineral from ore uranium ore ores are shipped to t the th pilot plant plants operated by na dional lead co from all over the colorado plateau found to be a certain figure therefore a regular mill set up to process this same ore can or should do it at a similar cost original cost of the plant at the compound in grand junction is about and it actually is a email small sized uranium mill in use as aut a laboratory it is thought th t to be the largest uranium testing plant i ant in the free world although rt it was not built for production it serves as a laboratory for development work in special ore recovery problems actually there is nothing secret about the equipments iside the mill just in the way it is set up and its specified duties dudes for ex ample the usual standard equipment of the ordinary uranium mill Is found a ball hall grinder settling tanks ud and filtering presses it comprises the alkaline processing system a commonly used method but the actual inner sanctum methods used here are classified however the overall general process is not secret raw ores come into the alkaline system at one end and wind up at the other ax as uranium yellow cake in a crushing leaching washing filtering and settling process sodium carbon ate an alkaline material is to used in the leaching which is limply simply a dissolving process to free the uranium frota rein the ore compare it to the sy system used by railroaders to remove 0 lime deposits in boilers they use the leaching process too officials say there are approximately 27 different types of uranium bearing ore such a laboratory as has been erected by the th at grand junction wol result in savings of many millions of ad dollars in determining just how each of the ores each with if its many peculiarities can best be treated and the most economical method of doing the job |