OCR Text |
Show U. S. Slates Early Uranium Search In Utah, Colorado The United States Atomic Energy En-ergy Commission in the coming spring and summer months will attempt to learn the extent and possible worth of what it has termed the most potentially valuable valu-able uranium deposit area in the United States. It has announced it will issue a contract for 100,000 to 200,000 feet of drilling with diamond core bits throughout the Colorado Colo-rado Plateau spread over southwestern Colorado and southeastern Utah badlands. Exploration of ore bodies is expected to begin under the contract con-tract as soon as weather permits, late in April or early in May. Areas to be drilled include Calamity Mesa near Gateway, Colo.; Polar Mesa in Grand County, Coun-ty, Utah; and the Blanding district, dis-trict, 14 miles west of Blanding in San Juan county, Utah. Previous explorations have shown the southeastern Utah area ar-ea to be the most readily minable uranium field in the country. At present, none of the known deposits are sufficiently large to warrant use of large-scale mechanical me-chanical equipment for either mining or milling. But a $50,000 mill for treating complex copper-uranium copper-uranium ores such as are dug from southeastern Utah deposits will be placed in operation at Monticello, Utah, by next sum mer. Bids on the extensive drilling operations will be opened March 23 at Grand Junction. Colo., at the AEC's Colorado Raw Mater-ials Mater-ials Office. |