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Show I THIS COMMON WYOMING SCENE is punctuated by the dust of trampling hooves, the shrill whistle of the herder, the bleat of temporarily lost lambs and the sharp yapping of the intelligent sheep dog. Motorists sometimes curse, sometimes sit back and relax when the shaggy wool carriers halt traffic for a few minutes, but at the back of every mind Is the recurring thought that this procession is, top, part of Upper Colorado River Basin's ever Increasing prosperity. Trona Deposits At Green River Newest Major Chemical Product Huge covered hopper trucks roll down out of southwestern Wyoming through Craig, Rifle and Grand Junction day after day, destined for ore refining plants on the Colorado River plateau. Each is carrying a load of soda ash, a major refining chemical, and the intermountaln West's newest major chemical product. Soda ash, the refined form of trona, has been a basic chemical of America's industries long before trona mining started a few years back at Westvaco, 20 miles uest of the railroad center of Green River. But it was, with the exception of comparatively minor brine evaporation operations, produced by synthesis. Today, the greater portion is still produced by synthesis, but near Green River, 400 rail carloads a month, plus the truck haul away to smelters, uranium reduction plants and oil refineries, go to the industry of the nation. Besides contributing to the production of A-powcr, soda ash contributes to the production of steam power, Railroads, power companies and municipalities employ it in softening water for boiler use. Diesel power on railroad Is affected, as refineries use soda ash in the making of petroleum products. It has long been a basic chemical in glass making and is used in plastics and detergents. In Wyoming, Intermountaln Chemical company mines and pro- duces for Westvaco Chlor-Alkall division of Food Machinery c Chemical coporation, soda ash directly from the ore. According to FMC officials, this is the only operation of the kind in the world. In the late 1930's, the Mountain Fuel Supply dicovered the deposit while drilling for gas and oil. The well was a duster, but the trona was further explored by the Union Pacific railroad, starting In 1940. With the end of the war. the Chlorine Products company, later to be absorbed by Food Machinery, started mining and marketing trona, as the first known large deposit of the mineral in ore form was developed. In the summer of 1953, Westvaco Chlorine completed a $20 million dollar mine and refining plant for the production of soda ash from the trona. Intermountaln Chemical was formed to carry on the production, and a year later, in 1934, the property hit top capacitya rale of 300,000 tons of refined product per year to give the West a new force in the chemical field. C. A. Romano, of Green River, resident manager, in December, 1954, announced completion of a new drilling program which bad been conducted to determine outer reaches of the deposit, depth of which averages about 1600 feet underground. The outer edges were not discovered, but he estimated the known supply to be sufficient to supply United States industrial needs, at present rate, for the next two and a half centuries, should all other sources fail. Although dlesel forced coal mines to shutdown in the Rock Springs area, the new product has maintained steady employment for 425 persons at the plant, besides the population needed to care for them. Another result has been the addition of an additional road switching crew on the railroad, working our of Green River. The annual payroll is presently placed at $2Vi million at the plant and mine. |