THE MINERAL INDUSTRY OF NEVADA 
521 
 
from its cyanide plant in Eureka County. The mercury was recovered to eliminate
the health hazard of mercury fumes in the melting room. The Goldfield Corp.
shut down its Getchell gold mine, Humboldt County, in December. The company
had stopped mining ore in July. Also in Humboldt County, Jackson Mountain
Mining Co. closed its underground iron mine in January. Nevada Barth Corp.
ceased all iron mining operations in Pershing County at the end of March.

 American Potash & Chemical Corp. planned to expand its Henderson, Clark
County, electrolytic manganese dioxide 
plant from 6,000 to 10,00~i tons a year by late 1968 to provide the company,
already the largest domestic supplier, with a basis for establishing a permanent
position in the international market. Titanium Metals Corporation of America
put into operation the first commercial facility of its kind to produce titanium
sponge electrolytically. The addition of the electrolytic capacity is a part
of an announced expansion that was to increase sponge capacity to 16,000
tons a year and melt capacity to 18,000 tons a year by late 1969 or early
1970. New evaporation ponds were under construction for Foote Mineral Co.
at Silver Peak, Esmeralda County, where the company planned to double production
of lithium carbonate and to increase its operating staff by 250 percent in
the next 3 years. Nevada Refining Co. placed its refinery (topping plant)
on stream in May at the Eagle Springs oilfield, Nye County. The company produced
fuel oil and planned to install a unit to produce gasoline in 1968. Chas.
Pfizer & Co., Inc. took a lease and option on a southern Nye County bentonite
property. The Atlas Minerals Division, Atlas Corp., obtained a lease and
option on the Gibellini vanadium property, Eureka County, and began an extensive
drilling program. 
 
Legislation and Government Programs. 
—The Nevada Legislature made no revisions or additions to the Nevada
State mining laws in 1967. Public land orders by the U.S. Bureau of Land
Management withdrew 113,500 acres of land from mineral location under U.S.
mining laws of which 98,000 acres in Clark and Nye Counties and 3,100 acres
in Humboldt and Pershing Counties remained open to mining and mineral leasing
under the Multi- 
pie Land Use Act. Land Management also withdrew over 4,500 acres in Clark
County for the Valley of Fire State Park and 4,250 acres for the Bureau of
Reclamation in White Pine County. Land orders restored 200 acres formerly
withdrawn for the Federal Power Commission, to mineral location and leasing
in Elko County and 20 acres to mineral leasing only in Clark County. Nevada
received U.S. Treasury checks totaling $393,640.83 in bonuses, royalties,
and rentals covering mineral leases and permits, less $71,762.82 in payment
for flood control work done by the Federal Government for the State near
Battle Mountain, Lander County. 
 Off the 11 (corrected figure) applications received from Nevada producers
since enactment of the Lead-Zinc Stabilization Program in October 1962, two
had been recertified (after June 1, 1966), two were denied, and seven had
been withdrawn, suspended, or disqualified. Payments totaling $1,333 were
made on 71.7 tons of lead and 76.3 tons of zinc produced in 1967. 
 The Bureau of Mines continued to provide consulting service to the Atomic
Energy Commission in connection with underground nuclear tests at the Nevada
Test Site. 
 The Bureau of Mines Reno Metallurgy Research Center conducted research on
(a) the electrowinning of rare-earth metals and mixed rare-earth metals from
oxides in molten salts, (b) the electrolytic preparation of rare-earth-cobalt
alloys for study as possible permanent magnet materials, (c) the definition
of reactions and mechanisms involved in electrolytic and chemical preparation
of metals in molten salt media, (d) the development of process techniques
providing effective gold recovery from refractory and carbonaceous ores,
(e) the development of methods for extracting, separating, and purifying
rareearth oxides, and (f) the measurement of mechanical properties of refractory
metals and preparation and study of high-temperature vanadium-base alloys.
Electrolytically produced samarium-cobalt alloy was widely sought by academic
and industrial organizations, and was used successfully in the preparation
of experimental permanent magnets. Gold recovery values of 96 percent were
achieved from refractory carbonaceous gold ores in laboratory tests by a
simple treatment step prior to cyanidation.