Author : Wilbert Leland Dare
Release : 1961
Genre : Colorado
Kind : eBook
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Book Synopsis Uranium Mining Methods and Costs at Several Mines on the Colorado Plateau by : Wilbert Leland Dare

Download or read book Uranium Mining Methods and Costs at Several Mines on the Colorado Plateau written by Wilbert Leland Dare. This book was released on 1961. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This publication is one of a series prepared by the Federal Bureau of Mines on methods and costs of producing uranium ore on the Colorado Plateau. The information it contains was gathered in 1955-58 and applies to eight small operations. (See fig. 1.) Mining costs have increased since the data were I collected, but the information should be helpful in estimating future costs I at similar deposits. The Bureau of Mines had early experience in the production of carnotite-type ores on the Colorado Plateau. 3 4/ Under a cooperative agreement with the National Radium Institute in 1914-16, the Bureau mined and concentrated carnotite ore for recovery of radium, uranium, and vanadium. The ore was taken from claims in or near Long Park Montrose County, Colo., about 3 mi. south of La Salle Mining Co.'s La Salle mine, which is one of the mines described in this report. The Bureau leased the claims from Crucible Steel Mining & Milling Co., a subsidiary of Crucible Steel Co. of America, and from 1914 to 1916 produced 990 tons of high-grade ore, containing 2.6 pct. U308, and about 2,000 tons of mill-grade ore, containing 0.85 pct. U308. The high-grade ore was shipped directly to a radium-recovery plant built in Denver in 1914 under the cooperative agreement. There, commercial methods of extracting uranium, vanadium, and radium from carnotite ores were developed by Bureau personnel. The lower grade ore was concentrated at a small mill in Long Park before being shipped to Denver. The final recovery was 69,000 lb. of U308 and 8.8 g. of radium. The direct mining cost of producing the high-grade ore, including the labor to hand sort and sack it, was $35.96 per ton. Freighting the ore 58 miles to Placerville, Colo., the nearest rail point on the Rio Grande Southern Railway, cost $25.28 per ton, which included $4.55 per ton for ore bags and twine. Four-or six-horse teams pulled two wagons in tandem and made the round trip in 7 days. Four-horse teams hauled 3 1/2 to 4 tons, or about 105 72-lb. sacks of ore, and six-horse teams hauled 5 to 5 1/2 tons. The cost of shipping the ore to Denver, Colo., including the cost of loading the ore into narrow-gage cars at Placerville and transferring it to standard gage cars at Salida, Colo., was $8.59 a ton. Indirect costs at the mine were $9.92, the amortization charge was $1.19, and royalty was $10.47 per ton. The total cost was $91.41 per ton.