142 
MINERALS YEARBOOK, 1967 
 
plex on stream at Hercules, Standard Oil Co. of California developed new
equipment at Richmond to reclaim hydrogen sulfide and ammonia from refinery
waste water, and Shell Oil Co. developed a dry catalytic process at its Martinez
refinery to reclaim 70 to 95 percent of the sulfur in crude oil products.
Shell also drilled 33 coreholes in tar sands near San Luis Obispo, Calif.,
and planned pilot plant tests of a process for separating the tars from the
sands. Should the tests prove successful, the pioneering research by the
Bureau of Mines would once again be demonstrated. More than two decades ago
the Bureau reported results of pilot tests it conducted on tar sands from
the same area. 
 In 1967, American Cement Corp. established a cement distribution terminal
at Stockton, San Joaquin County, and announced that a 3-million-barrel cement
plant for Amador County was in the planning stage. Pacific Western Industries,
Inc., began shipping portland cement from its 3-million-barrel Los Robles
facility, Kern County. Johns-Manville Corp. acquired the gypsum division
of Fibreboard Corp., including wallboard plants in California, Nevada, and
Colorado, and gypsum quarries in Colorado and Nevada. American Potash &
Chemical Corp. became a wholly owned subsidiary of KerrMcGee Corp. Earlier
in the year American Potash had purchased the Little Placer borate deposit
near Boron, Kern County, and completed a new million-dollar plant to produce
30,000 tons per year of coarse potassium sulfate at Trona, San Bernardino
County. Stauffer Chemical Co. acquired Mountain Copper Co. and gained control
of San Francisco Chemical Co. which had been jointly owned by the two firms.
All assets and liabilities of Kern County Land Co. were purchased by Tenneco,
Inc. United States Borax & Chemical Corp. completed its new anhydrous
boric acid plant at Boron, Kern County, and shipments were begun in May.
Western Talc Co., Inc. completed a modernization program at its mines and
plant, San Bernardino County, providing facilities necessary to produce 300
tons per day of a wide range of talc and clay grades. 
 Molybdenum Corporation of America essentially completed construction of
rareearth processing facilities at Mountain Pass, San Bernardino County,
initiated in 
1965, with the installation of cerium hydrate, lanthanum hydrate, and lanthanum
carbonate circuits. National Steel Corp. contracted to purchase about 3,Q00
acres of undeveloped riverfront property at the confluence of the Sacramento
and San J oaquin Rivers, Solano County. The company indicated tentative plans
to construct a steel plant on the property. Union Carbide Corp. announced
it had undertaken expansion of its Pine Creek tungsten mine, Inyo County.
In December, Utah Construction & Mining Co. agreed in principle to acquire
all assets of The Bunker Hill Co., Kellogg, Idaho. 
 At midyear, Union Oil Co. of California joined with Magma Power Co. and
Thermal Power Co. in the production of geothermal steam. Under the agreement,
Union was to operate the production facilities and began an aggressive drilling
program on 14,000 acres in northern California. Western Geothermal, Inc.,
was installing equipment in the Imperial Valley to- increase the output of
calcium chloride from one of its geothermal brine wells. 
 Exploration for minerals and metals continued at a high level in 1967, with
99 active exploration projects reported in the State, 20 were in San Bernardino
County. Companies were searching for 20 commodities but gold was the most
actively sought with 32 projects, followed by 17 mercury, 13 talc, seven
limestone, six silver, five tungsten, three clays, and two each of gypsum,
iron ore, and lead. 
 
 Legislation and Government Programs. 
—The 1967 session of the State Legislature passed a bill (SB 169) to
authorize the leasing of State lands for geothermal exploration. It established
procedures for obtaining prospecting permits and leases, royalties and rentals,
maximum acreage, and lease lengths. The program will be administered by the
State Lands Commissioner. (A parallel bill to lease Federal lands for geothermal
exploration was passed by the U.S. Congress late in 1966 but vetoed by President
Johnson because it contained a controversial "grandfather clause.") Another
bill (SB 1230) concerning mining claims was successfully carried with minor
amendments. This legislation contains two important changes: 
 1. It provides a claimant with the alternative of drilling a hole to a specific
depth to satisfy the discovery work re