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Show State Geologist Report: Grand Staircase-Escalante Coal Value May Be $3 Billion Or More "The value of the known and potential energy and mineral resources of the Grand Staircase-Escalante Staircase-Escalante National Monument at today's prices is between $223 billion and $330 billion," says the preliminary assessment of those resources just released by the Utah Geological Survey under the direction direc-tion of M. Lee Allison, state geologist. geol-ogist. "This figure does not include values for tar sands, carbon dioxide reserves, or any of the other mineral deposits such as titanium, zirconium, zirco-nium, uranium, or copper," the report re-port states. The report estimates the value of reserves as follows; coal, $221 -$312 billion; coal-bed gas; $2 -$17.5 billion; petroleum, $20 million - $1.1 billion; and minerals, miner-als, $4.5 million - unknown. The 35-page report was released last week in response to demands for information that could be incorporated into planning for the 1.7 million-acre monument created in September by President Bill Clinton. But, Allison's report says, "it is imperative that a detailed combined geologic-engineering geologic-engineering evaluation be conducted of the coal and other resources in the monument to ensure fair compensation com-pensation for Utah's children. Without this, we risk leaving tens of millions of dollars of the children's chil-dren's money on the negotiating table." There are some 176,000 acres of surface lands managed by the School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration (SITLA) for the benefit of Utah's school children in the monument. "The value of the recoverable coal on School Trust lands is at least $17 billion but could be $25 billion or more. Royalties to the School Trust fund thus could be from $1.4 billion to over $2 billion," according to the report. When he announced the creation of the monument on Sept. 18 last year, Clinton said lands in the monument could be exchanged for other federal in-holdings, but Allison says there is probably not enough data at this point for such an exchange to take place if they can even be found. Allison's preliminary calculation of recoverable coal on School Trust lands estimates 876 million tons ultimately worth $14 million in royalties to the School Trust fund. Actual recovery could run up to 50 percent higher, he said. Allison said that even a one percent increase in coal recovery estimates amounts to more than 100 million tons of coal, worth nearly $2 billion at current prices. An accurate detailed evaluation therefore becomes very critical with such an undertaking estimated to take a score of geologists and engineers engi-neers up to three years to complete. Conducting that evaluation could be costly, said Allison, but less costly than the loss of potential additional royalties. |
