Garfield County News | 1955-02-24 | Page 15 | 4 Per Cent of World Coal is in Colorado

4 Per Cent of World Coal Is In Colorado Over three per cent of the world's coal supply and 4.14 per cent of the coal reserves of the world are located In Western Colorado, waiting for man's ingenuity to tap this huge reservoir of energy. These figures were released in a special table presented to the Energy Edition by Thomas Allen, Chief Inspector. Coal Mine Inspection' Department of the State of Colorado. Western Colorado tonnage totals 82,039,000, or 31.7 per cent of the state's known coal reserves. It Is split within five fields, with the Uinta topping the liit with 52,-541,000 too s. Others are the Yam-pa (Green River), 25,541,000 tons; San Juan, 3,431,000 tons: Tongue Mesa, 537,000 tons and South Park, 20,000 tons. Allen quoted these figures from Ronald T. Lawson ot the school of business research. University of Colorado, and the Spencer and Erwln report. Supply tonnage by counties on the Western Slope tabulated as Delta. 57,714; Garfield. 36,062; Gunnison, 304,622; La Plata. 41,- 390; Mesa, 82.086; Moffat, 90,660; Montezuma, 447; Montrose, 3,205; Pitkin 35,928; Rio Blanco, 23,266; and Routt, 616,164. Allen broke down the world coal reserves in a comparison which embraced the United States, the Rocky Mountain States, Colorado and Western Colorado. According to his figures, the U. S. totals 46 per cent of the reserve, the Rocky Mountain area 60 per cent of the 46 per cent, or 27.6 per cent and Colorado 15 per cent of the 27.6 figure, or 4.14 per cent of all coal reserves. These figures were further extended to show that Western Colorado contains 82 per cent of the state's coal, or nearly IV per cent of the world supply. This ranks Western Colorado ahead of Australia, with one per cent, and Africa, with three per cent of the world's coal. This area is outranked only by the North American continent, Europe and Asia. South America produces only a negligible amount of the supply.