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Show j UTAH'S ENDLESS ASSET . ------ - - -i jjf . " Coal Tov.n of Castfe Sate j v 'aV.s. V - , t ax-1 F - " """"n,-- m,,,.! ! &rJS - "" f 1 U S Fuel Coal Tipple, I E: V 9t" ;vH Hiawatha, Utah 1 I t - v ' I I I J B- lX-Am.Ji.a.,s-j.,.. . . - iJJ By OTTO HERRES Vice President and Gen'l Manager United States Fuel Company UTAH is fortunate in having one of the largest bituminous coal fields In the world. Engineers En-gineers estimate 350 million tons available within forty years and forty-six billion tons of. present value for mining after forty years. Total production has been about 127,735,000 tons. About one-third comes from seams at least 16 feet thick. Only 1 of the nation's deposits de-posits worked are as thick. Utah's coals are notably free from impurities, impuri-ties, containing, as a rule, less than 1 ash and .5 to .7 sulphur. Palms and semi-tropical vegetation vegeta-tion bordering a shallow inland sea millions of years ago were buried under sediments and compressed into coal. The outcrops were first mentioned by topographic engineers en-gineers in 1853. In '54 the Utah Legislature offered $1000 for the discovery of coal not less than 18 Inches thick within 40 miles of Salt Lake City. The search was fruitless. However, two Welsh miners opened a coal bank at Wales, in Sanpete County, and shipped coke by ox team to Salt Lake in 1858. Commercial coal mining began with completion of the Union Pacific Paci-fic railroad in 1869. In 1878 the Rio Grande Western was built Into the Carbon County field. Large scale smelting operations swelled I consumption in 1900 to a million tons. From 1914 to 1920 the State's j output doubled, reaching 6,005,199 tons In the latter year. The coal horizon, extending from ! the Wasatch mountains into Colo-! Colo-! rado, is from 200 to 700 feet thick in alternating beds' of sandstone j and shale. Workable beds vary I from 4 to 28 feet in thickness. They j differ greatly in dimensions and become be-come unminable in places. In car-tain car-tain instances the coal has burned out for miles along the outcrop. Twenty Utah companies ship by rail. Smaller properties at Coalville Coal-ville and elsewhere in eastern Utah bring the total to 40. Twelve mines, averaging more than 100.000 tons a year, produce about three-fourths of the State's output. Modern machinery plays an im-I im-I portant part. In 1935, SSTo of the ' coal mined was cut by machines j and 30 loaded mechanically. ! Electric haulage is common and j hoists and long surface tramways are often required. Workers are safeguarded by the use of water sprays and sprinkling of coal dust, electric lighting, rock dusting, permissible explosives and protective protec-tive clothing. Steel tipples and preparation plants, costing sometime some-time a quarter million dollars or mora, function in cleaning, screen ing and shipping the coal. Many-companies Many-companies have built and maintain towns to house their employes. Depression, drouth; natural gag, fuel oil, hydroelectric competition and increased efficiency in coal burning had cut Utah's coal production pro-duction in half by 1934. Then an upturn was indicated. Output for 1936 was about 3,150,000 tons, worth at the mines about $6,500,-000. $6,500,-000. Of this, it Is estimated, $4,000,000 was paid out in wages and salaries; $1,000,000 for equipment, equip-ment, supplies and power; $450,000 for taxes and royalties; $225,000 for compensation and other insurance, insur-ance, and the remainder for miscellaneous mis-cellaneous expenses. The Industry as a whole has not shown a profit or paid dividends in recent years. Sixty-two cents of the coal dollar, it is computed, goes for payrolls; 15 cents to Utah business concerns con-cerns for supplies and power; 7 cents for taxes and royalties and the rest for insurance, maintenance, mainten-ance, replacements and interest. Miners, under a union agreement, work 35 hours a week underground at wages ranging from $5.78 to .$7.50 for 7 hours. The bulk of the coal sold is slack, used for industrial indus-trial purposes and domestic stokers. Markets are found in California, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and, to a lesser extent, in Nebraska, Kansas and Alaska. About half the tonnage is sold outside the state and brings money into Utah to apply on payrolls, supplies, freight and other local expenses. Coal mining and transportation is essentially a large volume, low-cost low-cost operation and it may be assumed as-sumed that when Pacific Coast consumption approaches that of the Atlantic seaboard Utah's tonnages ton-nages and freight rates will approximate ap-proximate those on the East coast. Before fuel oil prices dropped, coal was taken by most western railroads rail-roads and many ships on the West coast. Mines and smelters, public utilities, content and beet sugar industries ;ind packing plants are now large users. Known supplies of petroleum, as measured in the life of a nation, are extremely limited. New wells are needed to maintain a 12-y-ar supply ahead. Coal resources are sufficient for centuries. Low- temperature carbonization of coal probnbly will supply th country with some petroleum substitutes. sub-stitutes. Hydrogenation of coal to gasoline has beau successfully developed de-veloped on a commercial scale. Because Be-cause Utah coal is particularly suitable for such processes, its possibilities pos-sibilities in this connection are most interesting. The future, with its development for processing coal, may make that mineral by far the most important of the many rich resources of Utah. |