PUERTO RICO, PANAMA, VIRGIN ISLANDS, PACIFIC ISLANDS 699 
 
 Mineral Fuels.—Crude and unfinished oil imported from Venezuela and
the Netherlands Antilles averaged 157,500 barrels per day, up 5 percent from
the 1966 total. The oils were refined at the Cataulo plant of Caribbean Gulf
Refining Corp. and the Guayanilla plant of Commonwealth Oil Refining Co.

 Phillips Puerto Rico Core, Inc. began construction of an orthoxylene plant
at Guayama. Annual capacity of the plant, scheduled for completion in late
1968, will be 120 million pounds. Feedstock for the new plant will be mixed
xylenes from the new chemical facilities of the company. 
 Union Carbide Caribe announced plans to build an olefins plant near its
core plant at Peuluelas. The new plant will produce more than 1 billion pounds
of ethylene and propylene gases, "building 
blocks" in the petrochemical process. Commonwealth Oil Refining Co. and Phillips
Puerto Rico Core would supply some of the raw materials, with the bulk coming
from Venezuela. 
 Metals.—Industrial Sideri'irgica, Inc. produced various sizes of steel
reinforcing rods for concrete construction at its steel mill near Cataulo.
Domestic and imported iron and steel scrap was melted in two 20-ton electric
furnaces. 
 Contract revisions were being considered pertaining to the proposed mining,
concentrating, smelting, and refining Puerto Rican copper ores. Ponce Mining
Co., Cobre Caribe, and PREDA continued negotiations. 
 Renewed interest was reported in nickel and cobalt-bearing rocks in western
Puerto Rico. 
 
PANAMA CANAL ZONE 8 
 The overall value of mineral production in the Panama Canal Zone remained
at about the same level as that of 1966. Sand 
and gravel and stone used as construction aggregates comprised the entire
mineral output. 
 
VIRGIN ISLANDS 9 
 Basalt was mined and crushed for concrete aggregate, roadstone, and riprap.

 A new water desalting plant, described as the world's largest, was being
constructed by Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton Corp. on St. Thomas. The complex will
convert Caribbean sea water to 2.5 million gallons of fresh water daily for
the municipal water district of Charlotte Amalie, principal city of St. Thomas.
The unit will consist of a 41-stage flash distillation facility 
with a 15,500-kilowatt powerplant and will augment production of two existing
desalting units on St. Thomas. Completion was scheduled for mid-1968. 
 The alumina plant of Harvey Aluminum, Inc., on St. Croix was in operation
during the year. Imported bauxite was processed. 
 
 8 Prepared by Harry F. Robertson. 
 9 Prepared by Harry F. Robertson. 
 
Table 6.—Mineral production in the Panama Canal Zone and Virgin Islands'

Mineral 
1966 
 
Short tons 
Value 
1967 
 
Short tons 
Value 
Canal Zone: 
 
 
 
 
Sandandgravel                             
Stone2                                    
 
Total                                   
Total 1957—59 constant dollars                
 
Virgin Islands: 
Stone (basalt)                              Total 1957—59 constant
dollars                
72,000 
113,520 
$91,000 
266,685 
56,000 
100,476 
$94,000 
245,010 
 
XX 
XX 
357,685 
348,961 
XX 
XX 
339,010 
330,741 
 
87,541 
XX 
303,358 
295,959 
182,974 
XX 
850,906 
830, 152 
XX Not applicable. 
 1 Production as measured by mine shipments, sales, or marketable production
(including consumption by producers). 
 2 Includes basalt.