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Tuba City Mill Site |
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1 W.L.
Chenoweth, personal communication, February 2003.
2 For
a description of the Monument Valley uranium district, see the
Monument Valley Upgrader Site. Online: U.S. Uranium Production
Facilities: Operating History and Remediation Costs Under Uranium
Mill Tailings Remedial Action Project as of 2000.
3 Online:
http://www.eh.doe.gov/advocacy/faclist/showfacility.cfm The U.S.
Atomic Energy Commission uranium ore buying station at Globe, Arizona,
operated from 1955 to 1957. About 23, 900 tons of ore averaging
0.20 percent U3O8 were purchased at the Globe buying station. The
uranium ore from the Dripping Spring Formation (Upper Precambrian)
siltstone to hornfels host rock contained carbon and sulfides and
required blending to prevent excess acid consumption and sliming
problems during processing at the Tuba City, Arizona, mill.
4 APN
Media, LLC , Grand
Canyon History. Online : http://www.nps.gov/grca/publications/orphan.pdf (December
16, 2004). In 1908, President Roosevelt, using authorization under
the Preservation of American Antiquities Act, changed the Grand
Canyon's status from a national forest and game reserve to a national
monument. At that time, the Orphan mining claim became a single,
isolated, patented mining claim surrounded by national monument
lands on which prospecting and mining were no longer permitted.
In 1919, the Congress authorized the expansion and upgrading of
the Grand Canyon National Monument to become a national park, the
Grand Canyon National Park.
5 W.L.
Chenoweth, The Orphan
Lode, Grand Canyon, Arizona, A Case History of a Mineralized, Collapse-Breccia
Pipe , U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 86-510, 1986,
p. 1.
6Vivien
Gornitz and Paul F. Kerr, Uranium
Mineralization and Alteration, Orphan mine, Grand Canyon, Arizona ,
Economic Geology and the Bulletin of the Society of Economic Geologists,
Vol. 65, No. 7, November 1970, pp. 753-754.
7 Chenoweth,
1992, p. 2.
8Gornitz
and Kerr, 1970, p. 751 .
9 Chenoweth,
1992, pp. 48-49.
10Gornitz
and Kerr, 1970, p. 751. The “annular ring” that borders the pipe
structure consists of a set of concentric, circular fractures that
formed in the rocks as the result of tension stresses during subsidence
of material within the pipe.
11 Chenoweth,
1992, pp. 50-51.
12 Ibid,
p. 2 and National
Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, Community Fact Sheet,
Orphan Mine Site , Online: http://www.nps.gov/grca/publications/orphan.pdf Production
of ore at the Orphan mine ceased in 1969. The NPS has determined that
the Orphan site may be eligible for listing in the National Register
of Historic Places.
13 Chenoweth,
1986, pp. 25, 33-33.
14 Ibid:
see Chronology on
pages A-1 through A-4. In early 1966, Westec Corp acquired the Orphan
claim. When the firm declared bankruptcy in August 1966, the Orphan
Lode mine was closed. The mine was at that time the only supplier
of uranium ore to the Tuba City mill. In September 1966, the mill
was permanently closed down by El Paso Natural Gas due to the lack
of uranium ore. The El Paso Natural Gas Company had acquired Rare
Metals Corp. by merger in July 1962.
15 Ibid,
p. A-4.
16 Ibid,
p. 44. The production totals includes ore mined by Cotter Corp., the
final owner of the Orphan Lode mine.
17 Ibid,
p. 22.
18 Ibid,
p.2.
19 Pierce,
et al., 1970, p. 118.
20 W.
L. Chenoweth, Geology
and Production History of the Uranium Deposits in the Cameron Area,
Coconino County, Arizona , Arizona Geological Survey, Contributed
Report CR-93-B, August 1993, pp. 1, 4. The report provides a detailed
account of the discovery and mining of uranium ores in the Cameron
area.
21 Ibid,
p 6.
22 Ibid,
p. 5. See also H. W. Pierce, S. B. Keith, and J. C. Wilt, Coal,
Oil, Natural Gas, Helium, and Uranium in Arizona , Bulletin
182, Arizona Bureau of Mines, 1970, p. 111.
23 Chenoweth,
1993, p. 6.
24 Ibid,
p. 7.
25 Ibid,
p. 7.
26 Ibid.
27 Chenoweth,
1993, p. 3
28 Y
.W. Isachsen and C.G. Evensen, Geology
of Uranium Deposits of the Shinarump and Chinle Formations on the
Colorado Plateau , in L.R. Page, H.T. Stocking, and H.B. Smith,
compilers, Contributions
to the Geology of Uranium and Thorium by the United States Geological
Survey and Atomic Energy Commission for the United Nations International
Conference on Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy, Geneva, Switzerland,
1955 , Geological Survey Professional Paper 300, United State
Government Printing Office, Washington, 1956, p. 278.
29Chenoweth,
1993, p. 13.
30 U.S
Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), Guidebook to Uranium Deposits
of the Western United States ,
U.S. AEC, Grand Junction Operations Office, Grand Junction, Colorado,
October 1959, 359 p. The Cameron Area is described on pages 3-48 and
3-49 and the Orphan Lode mine on pages 3-44 and 3-45.
31 Chenoweth,
1993, pp. 4-5.
32 Ibid,
p. 8.
33 Ibid,
pp. A3-A5.
34 H.
Albrethsen, Jr., and Frank E. McGinley, Summary History of Domestic
Uranium Procurement Under U.S. Atomic Energy Commission Contracts,
Final Report , GJBX-220(82),
U.S. Department of Energy, Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy,
Grand Junction Area Office and Bendix Field Engineering Corp, Grand
Junction, Colorado, September 1982, p. A-3. (The reference also provides
information about uranium ore procurement by the AEC on pages 6 and
7 and the AEC's ore buying stations on pages B-3 and B-4.)
35Ibid,
pp. A-3 and B-3. The total of uranium ore sold by the AEC to Rare Metals
was 58, 093 tons.
36 R.C.
Merritt, The Extractive
Metallurgy of Uranium , Colorado School of Mines Research Institute,
Prepared under contract with the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, 1971,
pp. 531-533. Low-lime uranium ores generally contain less than 6
percent CaCO 3 .
37 Ibid,
p. 48.
38 Note:
Some Orphan Lode ore could contain up to 25 percent lime.
39 Chenoweth,
1993, p. A-3. The Orphan Lode’s production allocation (see
also Albrethsen and McGinley, 1982, p. 10) from the Atomic Energy
Commission (AEC) was nearly filled in 1961, when the mine closed
due to the ore-bin collapse incident. In part to assure the supply
of ore for the Tuba City mill, the Congress in 1962 under Public
Law 87-457 concurred to give Western Equities, Inc., a lease for
the uranium ore that extended from the Orphan Lode patented claim
onto National Park Service land. The bill also assured the
purchase by AEC of additional U3O8 milled from Orphan Lode
ore. Western Equities, in exchange, agreed to end mining activities
at the Orphan mine by 1987 and to give title to the patented claim
to the Federal Government.
40 Ibid,
p. A-3.
41 Merritt,
1971, p.531.
42Albrethsen
and McGinley, 1982, p. A-4. The Monticello, Utah, mill was operated
under contract by the Atomic Energy Commission from 1949-1960. Built
by the Government, the mill supplied vanadium from 1941-1944 during
World War II.
43 Ibid,
p. A-3.
44 Ibid,
p. A-4. Some Orphan Lode ore contained up to 15 percent sulfide minerals,
which complicated treatment of the ore.
45Merritt,
1971, p. 532.
46Albrethsen
and McGinley, 1982, p. A-4.
47 Ibid, p. A-5.
48 Ibid.
49 Ibid.
50 Mill tailings are the
finely ground product consisting largely of fine sand to clay-size
particles that result from the grinding of uranium ore during the
milling process. Along with trace amounts of uranium, the tailings
typically contain the radioactive daughter elements that are naturally
present in the uranium ore but are not recovered, the residue of
chemicals used in the milling process, and water.
51 U.S.
Department of Energy, Background
Report for the Uranium-Mill-Tailings Site Remediation Action Program ,
DOE/EP-0011, April 1981, pp. 20-23.
52 Ibid,
p. 22.
53 Description
of the Tuba City site is from: U.S. Department of Energy, Phase
I Ground Water Compliance Action Plan for the Tuba City, Arizona,
UMTRA Site , Project Number
UGW-511-0023-05-000, Document Number U0027401, Grand Junction Office,
Grand Junction, Colorado, June 1999, p. 2-5.
54 U.S. Department of Energy, Report
to Congress on Long-Term Stewardship , Release No. R-01-025, January
19, 2001, A Tuba City Site @ , p. 7. Online: http://lts.apps.em.doe.gov/center/ndaareport.html and http://www.gjo.doe.gov/LM/documents/tuba/ltsp/tc-ch2.html
55 Ibid.
56 Ibid
57Online: http://www.gjo.doe.gov/LM/sites/maps/az/tuba/tuba.htm
58 Ibid.
59 U.S.
Department of Energy, Release No. R-01-025, January 2001, A Tuba City Site
@ , p. 8
60 Ibid.
61 Online: http://web.em.doe.gov/bemr96/tuci.html
U.S. Department of Energy, Project
Number UGW-511-0023-05-000, Document Number U0027401, June 1999, p. 1-1.