THE MINERAL INDUSTRY OF CALIFORNIA 143 
 
quirements, instead of the 10-foot discovery shaft. 
 2. Starting November 8, 1968, it requires that the affidavit of annual assessment
work be specific in the description of what work was done and by whom; further,
the affidavit must state that the claim monuments and all notices required
by law were in place at a date within the assessment year for which the affidavit
is made. Failure to file an affidavit in the form specified creates a "prima
facie presuxnption of the act and intent of the owner to abandon such claim
at the end of the assessment year . . 
The State Legislature also passed a Resolution (SCR 49) requesting the Governor
to inform the United States Mission to the United Nations of California's
interest in being host and cosponsor for a United Nations Conference of Geothermal
Resources. 
 Public land orders by the Bureau of Land Management withdrew nearly 56,000
acres of land from mineral location under U.S. mining laws, of which about
53,000 acres remained open to mining and mineral leasing under the Multiple
Land Use Act. Land orders restored over 9,000 acres to mineral location and
leasing in Mendocino and Lake Counties. California received U.S. Treasury
checks. in the amount of $3,170,575.53 in bonuses, royalties, and rentals
from mineral leases and permits on Federal lands within the State borders
in 1967, about $15,000 more than in 1966. 
 Of the three applications received from California producers since enactment
of the Lead-Zinc Stabilization Program in October 1962, one had been recertified
(after June 1, 1966) and two had been withdrawn, suspended, or disqualfied.
Payments totaling $1,532 were made on 239.9 tons of lead produced in 1966,
and 
$1,467 on 195.6 tons of lead produced in 
1967. 
 The Bureau of Mines' San Francisco Petroleum Research Office initiated a
study to determine the chemical properties of water drained from irrigated
lands and the treatment necessary to make the water suitable for waterflooding
oilfields in the San Joaquin Valley. Preliminary results indicated that this
waste water can be used after inexpensive treatment for injection into reservoirs
to recover additional petroleum. 
 The Petroleum Research Office continued to study rapid, yet accurate, methods
to predict the performance of waterfioods,2 and also was studying complex
decline equations to predict future oil recovery utilizing an electronic
computer. The complex equations, which are too difficult for practical solution
without a computer, give a better prediction of future performance of oilfields,
than formerly used equations. 
 During 1967, the Bureau of Mines Marine Minerals Technology Center, Tiburon,
Calif., completed conversion of a surplus 205-foot Navy Ocean Fleet Tug for
use as a marine mining research vessel. This vessel, commissioned in May
as the Virginia City, provided the working platform for a joint Bureau of
MinesGeological Survey heavy-metals research project off the coast of the
southern Seward Peninsula, Alaska, during July, August, and September. The
ship covered an area of approximately 200 square miles and completed 537
linear miles. of subbottom profiling and 50 statute miles of magnetometer
surveys. Also, 627 drillhole samples were recovered from 56 holes drilled
from the ship. At Tiburon, a large vertical test tank was built and experiments
were initiated to evaluate the performance of marine mineral sampling equipment
in controlled environments. 
 The Bureau of Mines Thermodynamics Research Laboratory at Berkeley, Calif.,
was transferred to, and became a part of, the Albany Metallurgy Research
Center, Albany, Oreg. effective July 1, 1967. 
 The Bureau's San Francisco Office of Mineral Resources, in making an overall
study of the Tertiary gravels of California as a part of the Heavy Metals
Program, determined they .constituted a major gold resource. The deposits
were conservatively estimated to contain 3 to 4 billion cubic yards of gravel
with an average gold content of $0.25 per cubic yard. The study provided
a basis for mining and metallurgical research. Previous exploitation of the
gravels was halted by legal restrictions involving environmental problems
rather than by economic considerations. Wilderness mining investigations,
including an 
2 Higgins, R. V., D. W. Boley, and A. ~1. 
Leighton. Unique Properties of Permeability Curves of Concern to Reservoir
Engineers. BuMines Rept. of mv. 7006, 1967, 19 pp. 
Higgins, R. V., and A. J. Leighton. Computer 
Techniquee for Predicting Three-Phase Flow in 
Five-Spot Waterfloods. BuMines Rept. of Inv. 
7011, 1967, 45 pp.