| OCR Text |
Show Anaconda Obtains Professor Holds Host Prospecting Permit Prospecting Mills Don't Keep Up With Groving Uranium Piles Permits A geology professor at New MexAnaconda Copper Company has ico College of Mines interested Expansion of uranium ore proin has taken out the highnulls on the Colorado entered into an agreement with est uranium number of placer prospecting cessing Major, Albuquerque, permits ever issued on state land, Flateau has been unable to keep pace with the terrific rate of diswhereby it has obtained a prospect- the state land office said. covery and, to date, rock is literreDr. Waldemere has ing permit on the Major ranch ceived the last ofBejnar 1,078 permits ally piling up at existing mills. Efforts expended by the Atomic located in southwest Sandoval which the land office said cost him $25,460 for one year. The permits Energy Commission to expand cacounty. is reflected in the experience The ranch contains approximate- give him exclusive rights for one pacity to prospect for minerals on of E. G. Crabtree, deputy manayear known and also is acres, 27,000 ly the land. He has told the office ger of the Grand Junction AEC ofas the Nuestra Senora de la Luz he is looking specifically for ura- fice, who is working overtime with de las Lagunitas Grant. nium. potential operators, and on one Anaconda has already entered A spokesman said the issue Is occasion was carrying on negotiain and Howard is moving the property, equipment and building roads. Major said the exploration work will involve considerable time and money on the part of Anaconda. It is understood that the agreement calls for an extensive core drilling program. Previous to the contract with Anaconda, two small outcrops of uranium were discovered by Major on the property. the highest both in acreage and number of permits ever handled by the land office. The acreage is not known, since the permits can range from 160 to 640 acres each. The permits do not allow any mining. The land office explained that if any minerals are found worth exploiting, Benjar must obtain leases from the state. None of the land involved is covered by leases at present. No Worry About Jobs For Budding Rockhounds Many college men preparing for graduation worry about how theyll fit into jobs. But for several groups of young men joining oil exploration organizations, this problem is eliminated in a unique way. These young graduates, all of them geology majors, leave then school to join oil companies go right back to school again to learn their jobs. The system that makes this possible is the geological training program conducted by the exploration and production departments technical services division of the firms. In the program, newly hired geologists get an indoctrination in company-wid- e policies and practices. But the main purpose of Mud For Wells, Too The mud in which small children like to play is a very important alfactor in oil well drilling though it may contain more than just dirt. An oil well drill bit, no matter how tough the steel, would quickly wear out if it were to try to bore unaided through heavy rock formations. So behind the derrick is a pit full of mud. It may be thin or it may be thick. It may contain clay, pulverized leather, soda, cornstarch or saw dust, but to the driller it is mud. A pump forces it under pressure into a connection that takes the mud to the drill bit at the bottom of the hole being drilled. It leaves the drill head through jets behind the cutters on the bit, and the mud jets, spurting out with tremendous force and at speeds up to 500 feet per second, lubricate and cool the bit. The pressure forces mud and cuttings upward between the outside of the drill pipe and the walls of the hole, and out at the top where the cuttings are screened out and the mud recirculated. URANIUM BOOM! the program is to teach them to adapt their geological knowledge to methods of operation and to learn some additional tricks of the trade. Spanning more than a year in time and several states in space, the training program is one of the most comprehensive indoctrination and training courses in the industry. About a dozen trainees make up each class of this School for Rockhounds. They go through three stages of training. Stage A, currently being conducted in and around Fort Collins, Colo., by one oil firm, lasts about four months. The trainees, after reviewing field mapping methods, undertake actual mapping projects, using a variety of surveying instruments, and learn to apply their knowledge to the science of rocks. They are also indoctrinated in such things as benefits, safety, company organization, equipment maintenance, report writing and public relations as it pertains to exploration. Since the training program got underway in 1947, trainees have mapped areas in New Mexico, Wyoming and Colorado all areas where the company is interested in acquiring information. In Stage B, which lasts from six to eight months, the trainees are assigned to exploration divisions. There, working with division geologists, they get practical experience on the job assembling, analyzing and reporting field data. This training completed, the trainees assemble at headquarn ters of the technical services for the final stage. Stage C, requiring about four months, consists of lectures and laboratory work in a number of technical subjects falling under the general headings of subsurface methods, geophysics, evaluation and reservoir mechanics. Ten instructors conduct the classes, with additional experts offering special lectures. Once out of school again, the trainees now expora-tio- n are given pergeologists manent assignments. It has been a long pull getting settled into the job, but now theyll do better. div-sio- petro-physic- Oil-Bas- informed on Uranium Strikes and Activities throughout Colorado and the entire West by reading Keep ed Flu Denver, Colo. U308 recovery and costs must be in line with experience at existing mills and in AEC pilot plants. Processes developed by the AEC la 1940, fte average laboring man would have had to work 174 hours to earn enough to pay for his annual consumption of gasoline. By July, 1954 the same laborer would need only 105 hours of work to pay for the same amount of gasoline. Labor has gone op from 65.8 cents per hour in 1940 to $1.75 per hour in July of 1954. Gasoline rose only from 18.41 cents in 1940 to 29.51 cents in July, 1954. Gasoline quality has improved so spectacularly in these 14 years that todays motor fuel is even more of a bargain than prices or its contractors can be made available. Then the prospective mill operator must submit a firm proposal giving details on cost of plant, cost of operation, and metallurgical data. All this may sound like red tape to the average reader, but these are figures that any mill man would put together anyhow. of the Approximately Costs of erecting uranium mills used in the United States in terms of unit capacities are not gasoline is used on farms. available, but uranium mills are said to come higher than comparable plants treating other min0 erals. A good guess would be to $15,000 per ton per day. BEST DEALS The final step is negotiation of a contract which calls for the 111 YEARS! AEC to purchase concentrates for a given period, usually five years, at a fixed price. The price is deFloats - Cells- - Motors Hoists - Power Plants pendent mainly on operating costs. Here the AEC treads the narrow Diesel Engines Cars - Buckets - Receivers path of seeing to it that the taxCompressors payers dollars buy as much 11308 as possible, while ensuring that the mill man gets a fair return on his investment. What is a fair return? This figCOMPANY ure is never revealed, but an un$35 Walnut Denver, Colo. official estimate places it between 10 per cent and 15 per cent. one-fourt- h $10,-00- 50 KENYON r -,- l- - ! r- - 'rifI 200-to- n L 200-to- n ground. The AEC also insists that prospective mill operators demonstrate their technical knowledge. Millers may use any process they desire in the proposed plant to produce a suitable uranium concentrate, but Sinks Made From Oil A kitchen sink that wont chip or corrode, and even bounces a dropped dish of glass, is one of the latest things to come out of an oil well. It is made of fiber glass and plastic, can be tinted any color, and molded to fit available space. In addition, it weighs about h as much as a sink, and is easier to install. The plastic sinks are intended primarily for galleys of boats, for trailers and prefabricated small houses. CENTRAL PIPE & SUPPLY CO. one-tent- steel-porcelai- n 1963 Blake St., Denver CH 4 661$ COMPLETE LINE Of MINE, MILL and INDUSTRIAL SUPPLIES Vaccine Influenza vaccine has been found to have 10 to 32 times more potency when mineral oil instead of water is ilsed as a base. Mineral oil, which is made from petroleum, also has been used succes-full- y as a base for a polio vaccine. Experiments at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine indicate that the new influenza vaccine with mineral oil may double the period of immunity and protect the human body against all known types of flu virus. THE MINING RECORD (Published Every Thursday For 60 Years) Subscription, per year $5.00 Three months, trial order $1.00 2155 Lawrence St. tions with three parties almost simultaneously. Despite the expansion of mill capacity, planned or underway, if discoveries continue to be made at the present rate, ore will continue to swamp the mills, a condition not without its comforts. Current pressure for additional mills is attracting many competent firms to the Colorado Plateau, but not everyone may build a mill. There is no point in building a mill if the concentrates cannot be sold, so as the only market for the concentrates, the AEC effectively decides who will build a mill and where. Considered first by the AEC is the ore supply, and it insists that a supply for the proposed plant be tied up securely for five years. Such a requirement safeguards companies that invested money in new plants at the invitation of the AEC when mills were even more sorely needed, by deterring cutthroat bidding for ores. The AEC encourages potential mill operators to think in terms of a per day mill as the minimum practical size, although this is by no means a limit merely advice based on experience. What it means to the operator is that half of the required five years' reserve for a mill amounts to about 180,000 tons of ore in the Bargain Gasoline SERVING The industry with the products and services of over five hundred seventy-fiv- e nationally known manufacturers. o Mine, Mill and Industrial Supplies Alpine 1 9 MASTIC NAMl HATES MARSH STENCH MACHINES numbering machines EmBOBI IBEE BUUET1N A SHlPPINO DIRECTORY BOARDS ROOM SUPPLIES STEEL SUMPS CORPORATt SEALS metai. bibbon a ceuuioio badges PARKINO1S0 EARIMER key tags jjEf EIHSW 5460 Colorado BlvdL Denver Colorado |
