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Show SCHOOL OF MINES WORK BROADENED New Contract Signe-d With Government Govern-ment Officials of Great Importance Import-ance to Mining Men of the West. The announcement of Dean Joseph F. Merrill of the school o( mines iu the rniversiiy of Utah that a new contract has been signed with officials of the United States bureau of mines, is of more importance than appears on the surface. It means that the metallurgical work in the university can be carried on more extensively than ever before. And what is this "metallurgical" ' work? Just this. Utah 'contains vast quantities of low grade zinc and leail ores which have not been developed because no commercial processes have been found for extracting the minerals. The whole purpose of tha bureau of mines here at the present tini is the discovering of such processes. pro-cesses. Research work of an intensive char-I char-I acter is being carried on in the university uni-versity laboratories with this objec-' objec-' tive aim. Four big companies are maintaining men there. Besides these there are a number of graduate students stu-dents doing special work in nietal- ' lurgy. Any student, graduated from the mining or chemical courses can I enter this department for his master's . degree, and there are various fellowships fellow-ships to aid such students. ' Nothing which is discovered or de-) de-) veloped in these laboratories can be patented by individuals. II belongs to the public, having been done at public pub-lic expense. ' The University of Utah is now one i of the best places in the United States for such research work. Salt Lake City is the greatest smelting center in the country, so the nearness of mines and smelters offers line oppor- tunity for actual contact. The bureau of mines here receives an annual appropriation ap-propriation from the national government govern-ment of about $20,000 wh'ile the uni- j versity department with which it will work in the closest cooperation re- ' ceives from the state about $7,500 per year. Such mining work as this is log- , ically the special field of the Utah i engineering school. |