IMIev Mining Day
Oregon's Mineral Production Led
by Nickel, Zirconium, Uranium, Gems
Back in Oregon's territorial days,
when people spoke of mining they
were thinking of gold. California
gold had captured the imagination
of Oregon's normally conservative
people-first upsetting Oregon's e
conomy by attracting away thous
ands who were building up the
territory, and later strengthening it
by providing markets for a swelling
flood of Oregon products. Mean
while, after 1852, placer mining
was building up along Oregon
streams; then came the successive
rushes to Idaho and British Colum
bia gold mines.
Gold production in Oregon itself
maintained a fairly high level
until it fell into a precipitous de
cline in 1942. In 19-10 the state's
production had been close to $4,
000,000; now the annual output has
fallen below $100,000. Oregon's out
put of nickel is now many times
as valuable as that of the one-time
king of the "precious metals."
Freezing of the price of gold at
the 1934 level, together with in
creased cost of production, is held
responsible for the decline.
I'ranium Most Valuable
One of the potentially most val
uable mineral resources of Oregon
is uranium, which has been discov
ered in several areas of the state,
notably in Lake, Crook, and Har
ney counties. Most advanced at pre
sent are the deposits near Lakeview
the first of which were discovered
in 1954 after several years of pros
pecting. Discoverer was John
Roush. He staked many claims, all
of which were regarded as of too
low grade for profitable develop
ment. The next year, however, another
discovery was made, which is said
to promise big returns. The discov
erer was Walter Leehmann Jr., who
had been prospecting in the Augur
Creek region. He showed some bits
of rock to Dan and Irma Tracy,
who were out searching for semi
precious gems. They in turn showed
the speciments to Roush, who iden
tified them as uranium ore. The
find had been made inside the Fre
mont National Forest, adjacent to
property owned by Walter Leeh
mann Sr., father of the man who
made the discovery. The Leeh
manns, the Tracys, and Roush
formed a partnership to develop
ihe claims, which they called the
White King.
The story of the find was told in
the Lake County Examiner in its
issue of July 14, 1955. )
The next week others made a
discovery, which they called the
Lucky Lass, near the White King.
Uranium-hunting became a vo
cation for some, an avocation for
many. Texas men, including the
Murchison group of Dallas, b e -came
interested. The exploration
area now includes Camp Creek,
Thomas Creek, and Dairy Creek in
addition to the original Augur
Creek. Altogether, several thou
sand uranium claims have been
filed in Lake County.
The Lakeview Mining Co. has
been formed by the Thornburg
Bros, of Grand Junction, Colo., the
Richardson-Bass partnership of Ft.
Worth, Texas, and the Murchisons.
The Thornburgs had already leased
the White King, Lucky Lass, and
other claims nearby. The new con
cern pushed exploration through '56
and 1957. Up to last December the
company had spent $3,000,000 in ex
ploration and mine development.
The Lakeview Mining Co. now has
close to 200 men and women in its
employ, has contracted with the
Atomic Energy Commission to take
the output of its reducation plant
at Lakeview. This reduction plant
bleaches the uranium oxide by use
of keroene and amine (ammonia)
as a solvent. The processing final
ly leaves the yellow cake of uran
ium oxide. Marketing this product
is no problem; the output is con
tracted to the AEC.
Only U.S. Nickel Mines
The only nickel mine and smelter
in the United States are situated in
Oregon; this valuable metal is turn
ed out a few miles from Riddle,
in Douglas County. Establishment
of this industry followed discovery
of extensive deposits of low-grade
garnierite nickel silicate high in the
Douglas County hills. Ore is car
ried from the deposits at the mountain-top
along the largest tramway
ever built--8800 feet long-to a
smelter 2400 feet below the silicate
bed The plant was built late in
1954 at a cost of $35,000,000. This
is one of Oregon's largest indus
trial enterprises.
When the old Albany College, a
struggling little Presbyterian
school, moved away to Portland,
about twenty years ago, to be
come the thriving Lewis and Clark
College, enterprising Albany men
succeeded in bringing in the
Northwest electrodevelopment lab
oratory of the U. S. Bureau of
Mines, which occupies the grounds
and building vacated by the c o 1 -lege.
Dr. E. J. Kroll of Corvallis,
cue of the laboratory's mineralo
gists, succeeded in perfecting an
economically dependable process
ol smelting and refining zirconium
ore.
Zirconium Ingots Produced
The Bureau then erected a build
ing and plant on the old college
grounds to produce zirconium in
gots, and soon the government was
turning out many tons of the non
conducting metal, which was used
in the interior of the Nautilus, a-tomic-powered
U. S. submarine,
ana is now being used in similar
craft under construction.
All this resulted in the develop
ment of a valuable new enterprise
for Albany and Oregon. The new
Oregon Metallurgical Co., managed
by the former director of the elec
trodevelopment laboratory, Steph
en M. Shelton, who resigned to
undertake the new work, has a
large plant of its own on the out
skirts of Albany, engaged profit
ably in turning out titanium and
zirconium for government and in
dustrial uses. The Wa Chang Co.,
a large eastern concern, has taken
over from the Bureau of Mines the
building and plant in which the
electrodevelopment laboratory pro
duced zirconium. The laboratory,
under Director Mark Wright, contin
ues active in its experimental work
with minerals and metals.
Mercury Mining
Oregon is one of only five states
in the country that produce mer
cury (quicksilver). One of the mines
producing this liquid metal is in the
Black Butte area about twenty
miles southeast of Cottage Grove.
Other deposits have been found in
Malheui and Harney Counties.
Production has been irregular at
Black Butte in the last few years.
Limonite iron deposits are among
the resources of Columbia and
Clackamas counties. Limonite for
paint production is produced near
Scappoose, in Columbia County.
Oswego, in Clackamas, has an iron
production history that ran for a
quarter of a century up to about
1900.
Oregon is rich in some other
minerals, which have undergone
more or less development. Among
these are limestone, bauxite, sub
bituminous coal, diatomine, pumice,
silica, common clays used for
brick.
Limestone of high quality, found
in large deposits of pre-Tertiary
geological age, in the northwestern
and southwestern parts of the state,
is used primarily in making port
land cement. Impure limestone is
found in the northern Willamette
valley. A lime-burning plant was
constructed near Baker in 1957 us- -ing
high-grade limestone trucked to
the plant from a quarry ten miles
distant.
Probably few realize the magni
tude of Oregon's output of semi
precious gems. This is one of the
leading states in that field of min
erals. Oregon is famous for its
agates collecting which is such
a delightful pastime on Oregon's
beautiful beaches and its interior
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MOVING DIRT WAS TEDIOUS In early day. A man with a team moved 20 cubic yards of earth in
a day. Now a tractor-scraper handles 800. Horsedrawn rig (inset) is digging an eastern Oregon
Irrigation canal (1900). The Caterpillar is building a Coast road.
hills and for its petrified wood,
its opal, jasper, and the "thunder
eggs" of Eastern Oregon. The ag
gregate value of these varieties of
gems found in this state is esti
mated at about a million dollars
a year.
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...tlie fortune
that Hides
in your sugar bowl
Every dip of your spoon into your White
Satin sugar bowl is a dip into a sparkling sphere of
Oregon economy!
Those rolling plateaus of Eastern Oregon almost
ignored by pioneers now produce a $10 Million crop
of White Satin sugar beets with the World's record
for highest yield per acre. White Satin's Nyssa Re
finery payroll exceeds $1,200,000. Add to this the
millions more spent with other Oregon firms for
equipment and supplies, and, of course, taxes. It's
a proud industry producing the highest quality sugar
in the entire World ! White Satin sugar comes in fine
and superfine granulated, powdered, brown, cube
and picnic-patio packs.
The next time at coffee when you dip into your
sugar bowl, remember you are not only dipping out
a spoonful of quick sugar
energy, but you are sweet
ening your coffee with
Oregon jobs and industry.
As every Orcgonian
knows, White Satin is the
sugar that really dots
something for Oregon.
So, next time say, "Pass
me Oregon's White Satin
Sugar, please!"
Writ for FREE booklet Whit
Satin Sugar from Sugar Best to
Sugar Bowl. Quantity copies for
Classroom Use.
NFW RECIPEI "Oregon's Birth
day Cake Frosting." Developed
especially for 1939 Centennial.
Ask your grocer for your copy or
write us.
Wf lite Satin
Snow Whit . . . Satin Smooth
Trie Only Sugar Grown and Refined in Oregon
The Amalgamated Sugar Co., 2600 N. I. Columbia Blvd., Cortland, Oregon
Refinery at Nyssa, Oregon