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Show Biggest Boom In Mining History Affects Entire United States The biggest boom In American mining history is now under way. The fever has already hit Utah, Colorado, Florida, Wall Street, and many places in between. The search for uranium ores has now reached a pitch that in some ways surpasses the frenzy of the Gold Bush 100 years ago. ' If you're up in a plane, uranium hunting with a scintillometer in the uranium happy Colorado Plateau, heed this advice from veteran prospectors: "Don't circle back for a second look if the needle goes haywire. Enough people will be watching you maneuver so that by the time you land, the country under your circles will be aU staked out." One important result of the big uranium rush is the boost it has given to the relative ranking of this country as a basic producer. Six years ago, the U. S. was hardly in the running; it had what the experts called "uncertain prospects." Dut now. Jesse C. Johnson, raw materials director for Atomic Energy Commission, has revealed that we have become one of the world's leading producers. "We shall soon be competing for first place (with the Belgian Congo) and part of the time be in first place," says Johnson. Congo ores are of higher grades, however, so the U. S. will probably keep buying from the Congo in big quantities. From the original deposits In the Colorado Plateau, mining has been expanded into South Dakota, Wyoming, California and Nevada. In the Plateau alone there are now more than 550 uranium producers. There are even companies extracting uranium from phosphate rock in Florida. Nobody knows how many back-yard prospectors are out listening for clicks in geiger counters. Even though some relatively targe ore deposits have been found in this country, they will be mined out in a very few years. Johnson ays that "If prospecting and ex- were to stop today, by Jloratlon 962 we would be back where we were in 1947." The answer Is more discovery. Over 100 uranium-bearing minerals aie now known to exist. They have been found In email, usually noncommercial deposits in many of the country. In the deso-ite Earts mesas of the Colorado Plateau, where most domestic uranium U mined, the chief source is the mineral carnotlte. It's a sedimentary type of deposit, usually found in sandstones. Some deposits are bright yellow In color, others pale green or gray; still others have ft brownish tlnee. The Navajos and Utes who roamed the area hundreds of years ago were the first to find a use for uranium ore. Their brilliant red and yellow war paints were made from the powdery carnotlte found along the canyon walls. LP-Gas, also called liquefied petroleum gas, Is comprised chiefly of propane and butane hydrocarbons or a mixture of both. Most LP-Gas Is obtained from plants processing natural gas In the oil and gas field- though adl ditional supplies come from oil refineries processing crude petroleum. |