THE MINERAL INDUSTRY OF UTAH 785 
 
company spokesman estimated that initial production would be about 45,000
tons yearly of magnesium, 81,000 tons of liquid chlorine, 48,000 tons of
gypsum, and an unspecified amount of lithium and other forms of salt. Reportedly
$4 million had already been spent on the project. 
 Exploration work for eight commodities was reported. A total of 7,500 feet
was drilled by churn drilling, 267,212 feet by diamond drilling, 344,041
by rotary drilling, and 733,222 by percussion drilling. Exploration work
in the uranium industry accounted for 37 percent of the drilling. 
 
 Employment and Injuries.—Final employment and injury data for 1966
and preliminary data for 1967, excluding all mineral fuels except the coal
and asphalt (gilsonite) industries, compiled by the Bureau of Mines are shown
in table 4. 
 
 Legislation and Government Programs. 
—The Office of Minerals Exploration awarded no contracts in 1967. Under
a contract awarded in 1966 Thomas P. Miller continued an exploration program
for silver. 
 The Public Service Commission of Utah has under consideration a proposal
by Raft River Rural Electrical Cooperative, Inc., to bring power from the
facilities of the Bonneville Power Admini 
stration to the proposed magnesium reduction plant of Magnesium Project.
The supporters of this action emphasize that the plant might be constructed
outside of Utah if low-cost power were unavailable. The officials of Utah
Power & Light Co., however, question the need for power in Utah from
the Bonneville Power Administration. 
 Engineers at the Bureau of Mines Salt Lake City Metallurgy Research Center
are investigating potential uses for materials in waste dumps from mining
and milling operations. Research in dump stabilization was also in progress.
Extensive work has been done with tailings from the Kennecott Copper Corp.
operation and other mine dumps in Utah. 
 Contractors completed 37.5 miles of road that met interstate highway standards.
Utah has completed 290.6 miles of the 933.8 miles designated as interstate
highway in the State.3 The policy of the State has been to complete first
the most heavily traveled and expensive part of the interstate system; as
a result, most of the highway has been completed along the heavily populated
Wasatch front. 
 Contracts totaling $52.9 million were awarded by Utah for highway construction
in 1967 ($41.9 for interstate contracts). Contract plans in 1968 total $74.7
million, a 41-percent increase.4 
 
REVIEW BY MINERAL COMMODITIES 
METALS 
 
 Beryllium.—The Brush Beryllium Co. and Topaz-Beryllium Co. both made
small shipments of ore to their respective plants for metallurgical testing.
The Brush Beryllium Co. announced commercial mining and milling operations
would begin on beryllium ores near Delta during the latter part of 1969.
Mined first by open-pit methods, initial production was to be approximately
500 tons of ore per day, with the grade ranging from 0.8 to 1.0 percent beryllia
(BeO). The mill was to be located 10 miles northeast of Delta. The mine is
on Spor Mountain, 45 miles northwest of the mill. The cost of the mine and
mill plant was estimated at approximately $8 million. For further processing,
the BeO product was to be shipped to the Ohio plant of the company. 
 Copper.—A strike called on July 15 stopped production for the remainder
of the year at the Kennecott Copper Corp. properties. Among the operations
closed were the mine at Bingham Canyon, the mills-smelter-refinery complex,
and the new Burgin mine near Eureka. Although production of copper for the
year was 36 percent less than the 1966 figure, Utah still was ranked second
to Arizona in output in the Nation. 
 The largest production came from the open-pit mine of the Utah Copper Division
of Kennecott Copper Corp. Other 
 
 3 Federal Highway Administration. Quarterly Report on The Federal-Aid Highway
Program, Dec. 31, 1967. Press Release FHWA—118, Feb. 14, 1968. 
 4Engineering News-Record. State Highway Departments' Construction Contractirg
Plans for 1968 . . . and Budgets for Maintenance: Highway Spending Goes for
a New Record Despite Federal Aid Cuts. V. 180, No. 14, Apr. 4, 1968, pp.
86-87.