OCR Text |
Show GILSOUITE PRODUCTION IN UINTAH BASIN 81,000 TONS i A total of 81,000 tons of gii-sonite gii-sonite was .produced in Uintah Basin last year, the Bureau of Economic and Business Research of the University of Utah said Saturday in its monthly review. An estimated 205 miners were employed in producing the hydro-carbon. Payrolls of the industry in-dustry totaled $750,000. Over one-half of the total production pro-duction was by the American Gilsonite Co., a joint affiliate of the Standard Oil Company of California and the Barber Oil Corporation. Second Largest Producer Ray Davis, operating the Castle Cas-tle Peak Mining Co., south of Myton, Duchesne County, was the second largest producer. Other firms mining and processing pro-cessing gilsonite include the American Asphalt Co., at Little Bonanza, Utah Gilsonite Co., and the Raven Mining Co. The Review says that "the only commercial deposits in the world lie in a belt about 60 miles long and 30 miles wide, starting in Utah's Duchesne County, running diagonally across Uintah County in a southwesterly south-westerly direction, and extending extend-ing a few miles into Colorado. "At one time," the publication reports, "it was believed that gilsonite was a member of the asphalt family; but today it is generally accepted as a form of solidified petroleum made up chiefly of heavier hydrocarbons. Still HearUr Hydrocarbons "These are believed to have been derived from the still heavier heav-ier .hydrocarbons, of kerogen present in the Green River oil shale, through a natural fractionating frac-tionating process." (The report says that "Kerogen is believed to be the principal source of petroleum.") It theorizes that "the fraction-tatlng fraction-tatlng process is thought to have occurred under the presence of heat, pressure and a mineral catalyst, possibly nickel, which occurs in minute quantities in gilsonite." The report says that "transportation "trans-portation remains one of the major problems of the gilsonite producers. In the early history, it was necessary tor haul the ore in wagons to Price, the nearest near-est railhead. The 150 mile trip required three weeks to complete. com-plete. I Narrow Rails For many years, commencing in 1904, a narrow gauge railroad rail-road ran from the Black Dragon Dra-gon mine to Mack, Colo., where it connected with Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad Co. tracks. The line, known as the Uintah Railway Co., was operated as a subsidiary of the Barber Asphalt As-phalt Co. (now the Barber Oil Corp.) It was replaced in 1939 by road haulage. Today most of the gilsdnite is shipped via gondola-type trucks a distance of 125 miles to Craig, Colo. Ore from the Castle Peak mines, however, is shipped via truck to Provo, Utah. The report says that the high resin content, chemical inertness, inert-ness, plasticity and high degree of solubility in chemical solvents sol-vents provide most of the pro-duct pro-duct applictions of gilsonite. High Transportation Costs "High transportation costs to eastern consumers, amounting to $33 per ton, make gilsonite particularly par-ticularly vulnerable to replacement replace-ment by other synthetic materials materi-als of lower costs especially the airblown asphalts produced as a by-product of oil refining," the Review said. "Today the industry is looking look-ing for markets in the west where gilsonite will not be so heavily burdened by high transportation trans-portation costs," it reports. However, despite the freight levies, about 25 of the Uintah Basin hydrocarbon is marketed in foreign countries including England, Germany, Australia, Japan and India. Recent use through melting of fines to make crude oil carried car-ried out by the American Gilsonite Gil-sonite Co. at Bonanza, has been temporarily suspended because of the drop in price for heavy refined oils. The melting plant, which discharged its contents into the Rang'etl-to-Salt Lake City Pipe Line Co., has been placed on a stand-by basis. |