| Show MEN WHO DIG URANIUM ORE WANT MORE MONEY MANY ARE abandoning MINES A recent editon edition of the authoritative wall street journal carried the following article written by lewis B a staff correspondent who i d made a careful tudy study of the uranium situation in the so called colorado plateau increased US supplies of uran uranium um the taw raw material of atomic energy j and vanadium the metallic c element which toughens steel are arc stakes in a three handed hande d poker game gae now being played high in the on one side of the table sit the independent miners who dig the ore in this rich section oy of m iberal land the chips they hope to win are higher prices for their rock they now 9 get et an overage of 2350 a ton they want 30 to 33 because they n maintain iain tain it costs 26 to 27 a ton to mine ore today A across ross the table is the atomic energy commission it is seeking increased domestic production of uranium but it wants to play the cost of ore close to its belt this area the count rys only discovered major source of atomic material should be developed says the commission but with reasonable economy that means it want ore prices c es to get out of hand two big refiners refinery Re finers the third participant is the ore middleman the refiner who buys ore from the miner and sells the metal to the and steel companies there are two refiners refinery re finers vanadium corp of america and U S vanadium corp the latter a subsidiary of union carbide carbon corp if the re finers have to pay higher prices for ore that will mean higher operating costs they want that like junior wants castor oil because they are primarily in the vanadium business in that field they have to compete with molybdenum which does the same job as vanadium in making high quality steel alloys this game is being played on the colorado plateau whose ancient rocks are studded with vanadium and uranium even the ore like tho the poker chips Is is I 1 varicolored red streaks in the he rock indicate a vanadium depos it bright yellow marks si sinal signal nal uranium ore this mile long mile wide tableland in the heart of the spills from western colorado into eastern utah and laps over into northwestern new mexico and northeastern arizona found 46 years ago in the 46 years since vanadium was first found in the plateau production of that metal meta has as totaled about 62 million pounds valued at around million during the war years when vanadium was one of the th m most OS t precious of industrial minerals the plateau supplied the U S and its allies with 60 of their needs but until the government began developing the areas uranium deposits in 1943 no ene paid much attention to the atomic material some uranium was recovered and was used chiefly as a coloring agent 3 in ceramics such at bathroom tile but most of the uranium was washed down the creeks in tailings the waste fr from om vanadium aum ium refining mills engineers edginee estimate this loss at around six six million pounds of the refined product however in 1943 when work on the atomic bomb was well under way army engineers began digging into the piles s of tailings left from earlier processing of vanadium for two years this waste ore was run through extracting mills at durango uravan cravan and grand junction in western colorado how much uranium was recovered from these tailings is a secret in 1944 when the government cancelled its vanadium procurement program mining activity in the plateau began to slump and in 1945 when the supply of tailings ran out the army halted its uranium recovery operation but the area got a new boost in 1947 when the U S geological survey started an exploration program for the this this hunt for uranium deposits is is still being carried on in an effort to definitely prove up the uranium resources of t the he region many are quitting meanwhile actual uranium ore production gaining continued on page four continued froni from page one much headway for want of better prices for their rock miners claim many of the estimated small operators in the area I 1 are getting discouraged and are I 1 quitting they say lass than ohalf I 1 half the plateaus refining j opacity lacity is in operation j what we ought to get is I 1 I 1 about 30 to 33 a ton dei f clarea ciares one raw craw boned miner i war demand for the metal in I 1 addition during the war the I 1 miners got help from the metals I 1 reserve corp which developed roads in the area and made loans of money and equipment besides the current 31 cents a pound for vanadium content miners get 1 to a pound for the uranium oxide in their ore depending on its richness these these payments are made under a schedule of basic prices set up by the AE C plus allowances and premiums the pay scale gets some of the diggers as befuddled as a schoolboy in an algebra quiz costs have climbed that would pay our costs and give us a decent profit to help ip n vr let a fr f shake the indent lt miners have formed an association for collic tive bargaining with the and the milling companies r is i s 3 3 d for raw ore now j are based on both its vanadium and uranium content and the I 1 i average per ton comes to about 2350 miners get 31 cents a pound for the vanadium oxide or unrefined metal in their 1 rock that compares with 21 cents a pound bea before ore the war and 45 cents during the peak although the curre current nt 2350 a ton price is higher than the wartime level level of 18 when miners were paid only for vanadium content and nothing for uranium at the bottom of the 1947 mining slump ore prices dropped to 1440 a ton it still in line with increased mining costs says blair burwell a wal walking kineg encyclopedia on the vanadium and uranium industries iles hes president of minerals engineering co in grand junction which does exploratory drilling and consulting engineering mr burwell burwel a arees agrees rees with othi 1 er miners that costs have nearly doubled since 1942 the cost of producing a ton of rock now averages around 27 compared with 13 to 14 ex sue or seven years ago labor for example now runs to err an hour U t used to cost 70 to 75 cents othear cost boosts have beera imade made on drills explosives trucks machinery and similar mining equipment 1 I been able to maker make a living mining ore complains louis dunning so he has leased 44 34 claims each claim is abo 2012 acres in southwester south westel colorado to vanadium corp two plants operating 4 at present only two processing in plants are operating in the area one is the U S umi plant at rifle colo processing about tons a day or about haila of its capacity the a other ather ther is vanadium corp s plant at naturita Na turita in southwestern colorado also working tons oar of ore daily slated tor for operation by next july I 1 is the ton a day plane at monticello utah ore is being stockpiled stock piled for it now an important feature of this plant is that it will use so al now treating process by which uranium can be recovered froam lime ore says philip C leahy engineer for the AE C in Gr grandt andr N Juric tion these ores ones havie have a relatively elat ively higher uranium c con 0 nr continued on page five continued from page 4 tent than other types of ores he says but heretofore no one has had a process for treating them the monticello plant will be 0 operate pe rate d for the by gallagher macine macina co of salt lake city two other processing plants are expected to get into operation this summer er one owned by U S vanadium corp at ura van colo the other owned by the government at durango colo the durango plant was sold to U S vanadium corp alter after the war but later was sold back to the now its been leased to vanadium corp for operation this program will give the area five operating plants the same number it had grinding away at ore during the years of 0 peak war demand its aimed to process about tons of ore a day the normal capacity of plants now in existence outside the colorado plateau which is the oldest of the known uranium fields only two important sources have been disclosed one is the belgian controlled mine in south africa discovered in 1913 the other the el dorado mine was found in canada near the arctic circle in 1930 secondary deposits have been found in bohemia and portugal russia is 19 rumored to have discovered uranium deposits within its borders it it has all information has ia been en kept a tight secret |
