MOUNTAIN COUNTRY

Vranium Arizona Gold Rush

Mr. and Mrs. Riley Baker and their six year old adopted daughter, Barbara, had struggled to eke out a living from a small service station and tourist camp on U. S. Highway 89 in the sparsely populated but beautiful country north of Cameron, Arizona. The winter of 1949 was unusually tough. There were heavy snows, tourists were few, and cattle were dying on the ranges.

In the towering cliffs that reach 3,000 feet into the sky above their camp there is a fifty million year old series of strata called by geologists the Chinle Formation (upper Triassic). Ancient trees long since petrified or changed to silica are often found in this formation, and sometimes these logs are banded in beautiful colors, take a high polish and are sought by tourists and collectors.

The Bakers searched for such a deposit one that they could "locate" or "stake out" for their own to augment their income. And high in the cliff country (probably man had never been there before) they found a little canyon where there were four enormous trees in broken segments on top of the ground, with parts of some of them still extending into the clay-like bank of the canyon. Some of the segments were over five feet in diameter, and some of the trees probably 200 feet long. In one of the logs there were spots showing a beautiful green coloration and some pieces would polish into nice specimens, but most of the "wood" was streaked with a soft yellow mineral that spoiled it for polishing purposes. However the Bakers located a mining claim and called it the "Green Wood".

The Bakers brought samples to the Arizona Department of Mineral Resources in Phoenix. This department of the State of Arizona was created to promote the mineral resources of the state; to help good mineral prospects become substantial producers; to find markets for the minerals Arizona can produce, and particularly to help the prospector and small mine operator with primary engineering and economic advice.

In the samples the Bakers brought, the yellow mineral was identified as carnotite, a mineral containing uranium (60%) and vanadium (20%), and which is in great demand by the Atomic Energy Commission for its uranium content.

Uranium is the element from which atomic bombs are made and which has such great possibilities as a source of energy that it may change our entire economy. It is said that the complete fission of one pound of uranium is equal in energy release to the burning of 150 million pounds of coal.

The Bakers were not experienced mining people and, fearing that they might have made some misstep in perfecting their location, they were very reticent about dis-closing the location of their "find" until the Department of Mineral Resources could send engineers to examine it and advise them, for there are some persons still unhung who might take advantage of any slip in technicalities. It is well that they did for their original locations were quite defective, but they did a good job of concealment. Mrs. Baker had hinted that the deposit was "out of Wil-liams, Arizona" and there soon appeared many persons trying to "run it down". When our engineers arrived at Williams in late afternoon and contacted Mr. Baker there, they asked him how far out the showing was and whether they could run out to it, look it over and get back that aft-ernoon. "You'll have to have something faster than that Jeep", Mr. Baker said; "it's about 160 miles from here." An examination of the site (next day) quickly re-vealed that there were possibly 200 tons of log segments lying on top of the ground that contained up to 3% urani-um oxide if carefully sorted. Uranium oxide is worth $2.00 to $4.00 per pound and even .5 of 1% would pay to ship to an Atomic Energy Commission reduction plant. But the Department felt that it should also suggest to the Bakers that they carefully consider the income tax phases of their good fortune. Perhaps it will be necessary for them to hold back the production of this most vital element, or spread it over several years in orders to retain an appreciable portion of the proceeds for themselves. Most geologists consider that such petrified logs did not usually grow in the places now found but that the trees were carried by ancient floods into low areas or swamps where they were quickly covered by mud and sand, thus preserving them and starting their slow alteration to silica. The find of uranium in such logs is not uncommon. How it got there geologists are not sure, and there are many theories. Uranium occurs rather widely in the earth's crust but in its primary state is sparsely disseminated. The occurrence in the wood is due to some method of nature's concentration. Possibly the uranium in millions of tons of eroded rock was leached out by chemicals in the waters, and as the lakes or swamps dried up, it was pre-cipitated in the wood by the reducing action of carbon. Southern Colorado and Utah and Northern Arizona are at present the only areas in the United States pro-ducing uranium commercially and most of our require-ments are supplied by Canada and the Belgian Congo. Russia has available supplies in Czechoslovakia. The geological formations in northern Arizona are similar to those in Colorado and Utah and probably other finds similar to that of the Bakers will be made. Since the Bakers' good fortune was publicized our department has been besieged with calls from tenderfoot prospectors who want to know just where they can find a similar de-posit. They are often disappointed when we can't give them a map with the proper place marked X, or when we explain the difficulties of prospecting in that terrain. One caller even wanted to know if he could "get up there and find a deposit and get back the same day" "that he only had Sunday free." There are approximately 500 linear miles of Chinle outcrop in Northern Arizona and it is all country exceedingly difficult to traverse much of it almost impossible, but all of wondrous beauty. However uranium deposits in Northern Arizona are not limited to the Chinle formation. Other strata of the Grand Canyon geological series, especially the Coconino Sandstone, contain known deposits. A year or so ago a very important deposit was discovered in Hacks Canyon 35 miles southwest of Fredonia. This deposit had been worked sporadically as a copper mine, and during World War II several carloads of copper ore were shipped. No one suspected uranium. Examination of the mine workings with an ultra violet lamp showed an unknown fluorescent mineral, and the owner-operators brought samples to our department for advice. We were unable to determine the mineral and advised a spectrographic analysis. This analysis showed an interesting percentage of uranium and a chemical analysis substantiated the spectrograph. Further examination and laboratory work showed that it was not a uranium mineral that was causing the fluorescense but an entirely worthless opal quartz. There was no relationship between the uranium and the fluorescense. Only a few of the hundred odd uranium minerals are fluorescent and the ultra violet lamp is of little use in prospecting for uranium.

Where they were quickly covered by mud and sand, thus preserving them and starting their slow alteration to silica. The find of uranium in such logs is not uncommon. How it got there geologists are not sure, and there are many theories. Uranium occurs rather widely in the earth's crust but in its primary state is sparsely disseminated. The occurrence in the wood is due to some method of nature's concentration. Possibly the uranium in millions of tons of eroded rock was leached out by chemicals in the waters, and as the lakes or swamps dried up, it was precipitated in the wood by the reducing action of carbon. Southern Colorado and Utah and Northern Arizona are at present the only areas in the United States producing uranium commercially and most of our requirements are supplied by Canada and the Belgian Congo. Russia has available supplies in Czechoslovakia. The geological formations in northern Arizona are similar to those in Colorado and Utah and probably other finds similar to that of the Bakers will be made. Since the Bakers' good fortune was publicized our department has been besieged with calls from tenderfoot prospectors who want to know just where they can find a similar deposit. They are often disappointed when we can't give them a map with the proper place marked X, or when we explain the difficulties of prospecting in that terrain. One caller even wanted to know if he could "get up there and find a deposit and get back the same day" "that he only had Sunday free." There are approximately 500 linear miles of Chinle

The Hacks Canyon deposit contains an entirely differ-ent type of mineralization than the petrified wood. Here the uranium is largely associated with copper in an apple green mineral known as torbernite. The ore also contains a fine black coating on some of the sand grains that is some other uranium mineral (probably pitchblende). The average value over mineable areas is quite low grade-prob-ably .50 of 1% and the location is remote and would en-tail heavy transportation expense. This ore must some-how be concentrated near the mine to save transportation expense, and separating the mineral constituents into con-centrates is a difficult metallurgical problem. The U. S. Bureau of Mines, through its metallurgist, J. Bruce Clem-mer, is working on this problem and it will no doubt be solved to the extent of making the Hacks Canyon deposit a commercially profitable enterprise, and the ultimate production from it will probably be much greater than from several deposits like the Bakers'.

In parts of Arizona other than in the Grand Canyon sediments, there are occasional occurrences of various uranium minerals, most of which occur in "pegmatites" or intrusive rocks, and are of the primary or pitchblende type. While deposits of this type have been economically important elsewhere, no discovery has yet been made in Arizona of such a type with necessary grade and size to indicate economic importance. The prospector's best bet is still in that rugged country of Northern Arizona-and he must himself be as rugged as the country.

The Atomic Energy Commission is anxious to obtain our national requirement of uranium from domestic sources and thus make us independent as a nation from foreign supplies. As an incentive program they have offered a guaranteed price for five years. In addition they will pay certain development and haulage allowances and a $10,000 prize or bonus for certain production. This prize is paid to anyone producing 20 tons of natural uranium ore (with certain exceptions) or mechanically produced concentrates assaying 20% or more of uranium oxide. Carnotite ores, like the Bakers have, are excluded.