OCR Text |
Show i SHOULD SEARCH FOR POTASH. Ih " mU Our local mineralogists and seekers after hidden wealth should It send to Marysvale, Utah, for a sample of "alunitc," or "pink spar," In as it is called, which has been discovered near that town and is bc- ing developed for its potash contents. Ihj There must be in Utah other extensive deposits of this mineral V. which, rich in potash, has a value of 20 to $30 a ton. With the dis- B . covery of large bodies of alunite in this region, Ogden might reap a wi rich harvest in trade. II i The government experts who have examined the Marysvalc ml' v deposit, state that the mineral alunite, or alumstone, is a hydrous Hf?'1 sulphate of aluminum and potassium, containing 3S.6 per cent of I sulphur trioxide, 37 per cent of alumina. 11.4 per cent potash and V 13 per cent water. The deposit consists of a large regular vein, ap- I ! parently a true fissure filing. The alunite is massive and is found I J both in bodies of compact earthy or granular texture and in clear Br J crystalline masses, varying from white to a decided pink color. The MM vein has been traced br prospecting for a distance of about 3,o00 Bfc feet along the outcrop, and is known to outcrop in the extension of Ail the same course half a mile or more beyond the prospected ground. H The size of the vein and apparent purity of the material are prob- Hfi ably its most unusual features. According to a number of meas- HM urements made from the present incomplete developments, there is H in one place at least 20 feet of solid alunite in the larger vein and 6 H feet more in a parallel veiu some 25 feet away, with considerable H quantities of alunitic rock and alternating purer alunite and sili- imm ceous wall rock intervening. This low-grade rock may possibly extend beyond that shown in the present pits. Other measurements made reveal less thickness, but in each case it is doubtful whether the trenches that have been dug expose all the alunite that may be H! - present ByH The rock weighs approximately 175 pounds to, the cubic foot, mfH I so that an acre of ground underlain to the d.pth.of 1 foot would KK contain about 3.S00 short tons of alunite. The area at present esti- H mated for this deposit is somewhat less than an acre, and if it aver- K ages only 10 feet in width it would contain approximately 300,000 tt. tons of the rock for each 100 feet of depth so long as the deposit W; 1 1 maintains its surface dimensions and quality. Estimating the recov- H ' j erable potash at 10 per cent of this ore, each 100 feet in depth would H, yield 30,000 tons in terms of the theoretical potassium oxide. Thus Hv' 100 feet of this vein expressed commercially represents perhaps only Hi' a sixth of the annual imports of potash salts. f ' Among other observations, W. T. Schallcr makes the following Hft report on the analyses of the Marysvale rock: Hi "The water and that portion of the .sulphuric acid combined with Hi the alumina are driven off by ignition, so that about one-third of Hf the remaining residue (55.6 per cent of the original material) is Kjr! soluble potassium sulphate and two-thirds insoluble aluminum Hit oxide." H ' It seems, therefore, that little difficulty should be encoun- H , tered in establishing a practical process for the reduction of alunite H, by which potash majr be obtained as the sulphate, one of its most H j desirable commercial forms, and alumina in a form presumably avail- HM 'able for the production of metallic aluminum. |