Industrial 

~inerals ~~~~~~~~ in C a)if 0 r : Economic Importance, ~--.......;.._ ________ Present Availability, and 

Future Development 

Prepared in cooperation with the 

California Department of Conservation, 

Division of Mines and Geology 
John T. Alfors 

Supervising Geologist 

Division of Mines & Geology 

Sacramento. Calif. 

James A. Anderson 

Chairman 

State Mining & Geology Board 

Sacramento, Calif. 

Robert M. Anderson 

Deputy State Director 

Division of Mineral Resources 

U.S. Bureau of Land Management 

Sacramento, Calif. 

Shirley C. Anderson 

Chairman, School of Business 

Administration and Economics 

California State University 

Northridge, Calif. 

Thomas P. Anderson 

Senior Geologist 

Division of Mines & Geology 

Los Angeles, Calif. 

Aldo F. Barsotti 

Chief 

Branch of Industrial Minerals 

U.S. Bureau of Mines 

Washington, D.C. 

David J. Beeby 

Senior Geologist 

Division of Mines & Geology 

Sacramento, Calif. 

Gene R. Block 

Vice-President, Permitting and 

Regulatory Matters 

CALMAT Co. 

Los Angeles, Calif. 

Donald L. Blubaugh 

President 

Blubaugh Associates 

Garden Grove, Calif. 

Richard W. Brown 

Director of Marketing, Chemicals, and 

Petroleum 

Santa Fe Railroad 

Chicago, Ill. 

David Cahn 

CALMAT Co. 

Los Angeles, Calif. 

Donald Carlisle 

Professor of Geology and Minerals 

University of California 

Los Angeles, Calif. 

Denton W. Carlson 

Director of Minerals Area Management 

U.S. Forest Service 

San Francisco, Calif. 

George Cope 

Director 

Aggregate Producers Association 

Sacramento, Calif. 

Gregory G. Cork 

Quarry Superintendent 

U.S. Gypsum Co. 

Plaster City, Calif. 

COVER 

WORKSHOP PARTICIPANTS 

Don C. Deem 

President 

D.C. Deem Co. 

Murphys, Calif. 

John H. DeYoung, Jr. 

Associate Chief 

Office of Mineral Resources 

U.S. Geological Survey 

Reston, Va. 

Peter H. Dohms 

Professional Geologist 

Condor Minerals Management, Inc. 

Pensacola, Fla. 

James L Fairchild 

Technical Development Manager 

Kerr-McGee Chemicals, Inc. 

Trona, Calif. 

Linda FalaJCO 

President 

Central Valley Rock, Sand and Gravel 

Association, Inc. 

Los Banos, Calif. 

Larry D. Fellows 

State Geologist and Director 

Arizona Geological Survey 

Tucson, Ariz. 

Michael P. Foose 

Associate Chief 

Office of Mineral Resources 

U.S. Geological Survey 

Reston, Va. 

James E. Good 

Gresham, Varner, Savage, Nolan & 

Tilden 

San Bernardino, Calif. 

Alex E. Gonzalez 

Senior Mineral Resource Engineer 

California Department of State Lands 

Long Beach, Calif. 

James Gosnell 

Director of Transportation 

Southern California Association of 

Governments 

Los Angeles, Calif. 

George W. Griggs 

Manager, Business Development 

U.S. Borax & Chemical Corp. 

Los Angeles, Calif. 

DeWayne Holmdahl 

Member 

State Mining & Geology Board 

Lompoc, Calif. 

Michael Hood 

Associate Professor of Mineral 

Engineering 

Department of Mineral Sciences and 

Mining Engineering 

University of California 

Berkeley, Calif. 

Frank D. Huntley 

Industrial Mineral Geologist 

Libbey-Owens-Ford Co. 

Toledo, Ohio 

Paul J.lverson 

Deputy Director 

Nevada Department of Minerals 

Carson City, Nev. 

John N. Jaqueaa 

Director 

San Bernardino County Department of 

Land Management 

San Bernardino, Calif. 

Dwane K. Johnson 

Banking Consultant 

Sherman Oaks, Calif. 

John W. Kirk 

Director, Research, Mining Exploration, 

and Quality Control 

Pacific Clay Products Co. 

Corona, Calif. 

Robert B. Kistler 

Exploration Geologist 

U.S. Borax & Chemical Corp. 

Los Angeles, Calif. 

William J. Kockelman 

Earth Sciences Application Planner 

U.S. Geological Survey 

Menlo Park, Calif. 

Ray E. Krauss 

Environmental Project Manager 

Homestake Mining Co. 

Lower Lake, Calif. 

J.H. Jack Lucas 

Member 

State Mining & Geology Board 

Saratoga, Calif. 

Robert D. Manning 

Vice President, General Production 

Manager 

Manville Sales Corp. 

Lompoc, Calif. 

Robert A. Matthews 

Professor of Geology 

University of California 

Davis, Calif. 

Edwin H. McKee 

Chief 

Branch of Western Mineral Resources 

U.S. Geological Survey 

Menlo Park, Calif. 

Michael A. McKibben 

Associate Professor of Geology 

University of California, Riverside 

Riverside, Calif. 

Hal McVey 

President 

Mineral Marketing, Inc. 

Rough and Ready, Calif. 

Paul K. Morton 

President 

P.K. Morton and Associates 

Costa Mesa, Calif. 

Siegfried Mueaaig 

Consultant 

Pasadena, Calif. 

David C. Nunenkamp 

Deputy Director 

Office of Permit Assistance 

California Governor's Office of Planning 

& Research 

Sacramento, Calif. 

Harry Pachon 

Executive Director 

National Association of Latino Elected 

Officials 

Los Angeles, Calif. 

Gordon Palmer 

Southern California Association of 

Governments 

Los Angeles, Calif. 

JohnS. Rapp 

Senior Geologist 

Division of Mines & Geology 

Sacramento, Calif. 

Don Reining 

President 

Southern California Rock Products 

Association 

South Pasadena, Calif. 

Robert A. Reveles 

Vice President, Governmental Affairs 

Homestake Mining Co. 

San Francisco, Calif. 

Ken Santini 

Geologist 

Dunn Geoscience Corp. 

Albany, N.Y. 

Robert A. Sega 

Manager 

Molycorp 

Mountain Pass, Calif. 

Douglas Shumway 

Mine Manager 

Mitsubishi Cement Corp. 

Lucerne Valley, Calif. 

Craig Smith 

Chief 

Grefco, Inc. 

Lompoc, Calif. 

Paul B. St. Onge 

General Manager 

Port of Los Angeles 

San Pedro, Calif. 

Edwin W. Tooker 

Geologist 

Branch of Western Mineral Resources 

U.S. Geological Survey 

Menlo Park, Calif. 

Brian Tucker 

Principal Geologist 

Division of Mines & Geology 

Sacramento, Calif. 

Allan D. Willard 

Supervisor, Mineral Resource 

Engineering 

California Department of Conservation 

Long Beach, Calif. 

Joseph I. Zlony 

Assistant Director for Mining & Geology 

California Department of Conservation 

Sacramento, Calif. 

TOP-The Mitsubishi Cement Corp. limestone deposit and plant at Cushenbury, Calif., is a low-level intrusion in a remote desert area. Resources 

from southern California desertlands are economically essential but can be constrained by government land withdrawals and stringent permitting, 

operational, and reclamation regulations to protect environmental values. Photograph courtesy of Mitsubishi Cement Corp. 

MIDDLE-In the highly urbanized San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles, aggregate resources must be extracted in close proximity to residential 

areas because of the low unit value for such materials. This land use requires extra care in mining but presents opportunities for creative 

reclamation to a productive second use. Photograph courtesy of Southern California Rock Products Association. 

BOTIOM-Public education about the critical societal values of mineral resources is advanced by the Nevada Resource Education Program that 

focuses on teacher training. Workshops, classroom materials, and field trips to mining operations are provided by the State and industry. 

Photograph courtesy of Nevada Department of Minerals. 
Industrial Minerals in California: 

Economic Importance, Present Availability, 

and Future Development 

EDWIN W. TOOKER and DAVID j.. BEEBY, Compiler-Editors 

Prepared in cooperation with the California Department of 

Conservation, Division of Mines and Geology 

Presentations and discussions at a workshop held February 15--16, 

1989, in Marina del Rey, Calif., on the problems encountered in and 

recommendations for improving the current and future industrial rock 

and mineral-resource availability in California 

U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 1958 
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

MANUEL LUJAN, JR., Secretary 

U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 

Dallas L. Peck, Director 

The opinions expressed by workshop participants as reported in this 

publication do not necessarily reflect the official views or policies of the 

U.S. Geological Survey or the California Department of Conservation, 

Division of Mines and Geology. 

Any use of trade, product, or firm names 

in this publication is for descriptive purposes only 

and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government 

UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, WASHINGTON : 1990 

For sale by the 

Books and Open-File Reports Section 

U.S. Geological Survey 

Federal Center, Box 25425 

Denver, CO 80225 
CONTENTS 

Introduction, by E.W. Tooker and D.J. Beeby 1 

California's industrial-mineral resources, by J.A. Anderson 5 

The variety, uses, and demand for industrial-mineral resources in California, 

Hal McVey, convenor 7 

The importance of industrial minerals in our everyday lives, by Hal Me Vey 7 

Production and demand for industrial minerals in California, by G.W. Griggs 9 

Favorable locations and geologic environments for the occurrence of California's 

industrial minerals, by Ken Santini 12 

Discussion and comments 15 

Transportation 15 

Substitution of materials 16 

Level of exploration activity 17 

Availability of reserve data 17 

Land-access and permitting problems for resource availability, P.H. Dohms, 

convenor 29 

Public-lands-access issues, by R.A. Sega 29 

Mining-problem resolution in high·-growth areas of California, 

by P.H. Dohms 32 

California minerals-permitting issues, by J.E. Good 33 

The role of the applicant and the counties, by D.C. Deem 35 

Land access and permitting from an industry /bureaucrat perspective, 

by D.L. Blubaugh 36 

Discussion and comments 37 

Access to withdrawn lands 37 

Risk assessment 38 

Regulation by initiatives 38 

Permitting 39 

The critical need for better public information 39 

Improving the image of mining in the eyes of the public 40 

The environmental impacts of mining and their mitigation, R.A. Matthews, convenor 41 

The McLaughlin mine experience, by R.E. Krauss 41 

Land-use planning and reclamation, by W.J. Kockelman 43 

Air quality and toxics, by P.H. Dohms 45 

Discussion and comments 46 

The cost of permitting and mitigation for mining operations 46 

Success in the art of permitting and mitigation 46 

Achieving fair pollution regulations 47 

Resource availability and SMARA 48 

Restoration of mined lands 49 

Good advice for rebuilding the image of the mining industry 49 

A public-action educational program is needed by the industrial-mineral 

industry 50 

Economic issues associated with industriall-mineral development, Dwane Johnson, 

convenor 51 

Effect of the railroad on the industrial-mineral industry, and the economics of 

the railroad industry, by R.W. Brown 52 

Materials flow in California 52 

Economic problems facing the railroads 54 

Response of the railroads to change 55 

Effect on industrial-mineral producers 56 

Contents Ill 
IV Contents 

Economic issues associated with industrial-mineral development-Continued 

Effect of the Port of Los Angeles on the industrial-mineral industry, 

by P.B. St. Onge 56 

Types of materials passing through the port 56 

Solutions to some port economic problems 57 

Future expectations and opportunities for growth of the industrialmineral industry, by James Gosnell 58 

Regional population changes 59 

Regional job market 59 

Demographic changes in the region 59 

SCAG's long-range plans 60 

Transportation factors in SCAG projections 60 

SCAG air-quality plans 61 

Funding dilemma for the SCAG highway plan 61 

Access to the port 61 

Quality of life and regional controls 61 

Creating problem-solving partnerships or coalitions 62 

Discussion and comments 62 

Interaction with government leaders 65 

Challenges for the State legislative and executive bodies, by Senator 

John Garamendi 65 

Assistance from universities, government agencies, and other organizations, 

J.H. DeYoung, Jr., convenor 67 

University resources 67 

Image problems and the roles of the university community, 

by Michael Hood 67 

Examples of applied research, by M.A. McKibben 68 

State and local government agencies 69 

San Bernardino County Department of Land Management, 

by J.N. Jaquess 69 

State Lands Commission, by A.D. Willard 71 

Office of Permit Assistance, Governor's Office of Planning and 

Research, by D.C. Nunenkamp 71 

Division of Mines and Geology, by J.T. Alfors 72 

Federal agency assistance 7 4 

U.S. Bureau of Land Management, by R.M. Anderson 74 

U.S. Geological Survey, by M.P. Foose 75 

U.S. Bureau of Mines, by A.F. Barsotti 77 

Scientific-society assistance, by Siegfried Muessig 78 

Discussion and comments 80 

Educating the public about industrial-mineral issues, R.A. Reveles, convenor 85 

Effects and challenges of Hispanic immigration on resources in southern 

California, by Harry Pachon 85 

Effect of immigration on Los Angeles 86 

Hispanic political potential 86 

Public-policy concerns for Latin immigrants 87 

Immigrants' image of the resource industry 87 

Need for better communication, a mutual concern 88 

Discussion and comments 88 

A case study of a public resource education program in Nevada, 

by P.J. Iverson 89 

Basic strategy for the Nevada resource education program 89 

First step, a survey of public knowledge about mining 90 

Next step, convene a planning committee 90 
Educating the public about industrial-mineral issues--Continued 

A case study of a public resource education program in Nevada-Continued 

Start with an elementary-school program 90 

Create teaching materials 91 

Create teaching activities and activity guides 91 

Provide study kits 92 

Mining-industry facts brochure 92 

Continuing education for teachers 93 

Museum project 93 

Concluding remark 95 

Discussion and comments 95 

Where do we go from here? by E.W. Tooker and D.J. Beeby 99 

Summary, conclusions, and recommendations, J.I. Ziony, convenor 101 

Industrial-mineral supply and demand, by Hal McVey 101 

Discussion and comments 102 

Access to lands, availability of industrial mineral, and permitting, 

by P.H. Dohms 103 

Discussion and comments 105 

Environmental impacts of mining and their mitigation, by R.A. Matthews 105 

Economic issues associated with industrial minerals, by Dwane Johnson 107 

Assistance from government agencies, universities, and scientific societies, 

by J.H. DeYoung, Jr. 107 

Discussion and comments 108 

Educating the public about industrial-mineral issues, by R.A. Reveles 109 

Discussion and comments 109 

Responsibility for action on the recommendations, E.W. Tooker and D.J. Beeby, 

compiler-editors 110 

Closing remarks from the sponsors 111 

For the DMG, by J.I. Ziony 111 

For the USGS, by J.H. DeYoung, Jr. 111 

References cited 112 

APPENDIXES 

1. Program for the 1989 Industrial Minerals Workshop 114 

2. Summary of the Los Angeles 2000 Committee Study (Jefferson, 1988) 115 

3. Summary of the California Desert Protection Act (CDPA), U.S. Senate 

bills. 11 116 

4. Description of California SMARA, 1975 (Beeby, 1988) 118 

5. Summary of California's initiative proposition 65,, the Safe Drinking Water and 

Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986 122 

6. Homeowners protection initiative of El Dorado County 123 

7. U.S. Geological Survey industrial rock and mineral resource specialists 125 

8. U.S. Bureau of Mines industrial rock and mineral commodity specialists 127 

FIGURES 

1. Chart showing some industrial rock and mineral products and their uses 2 

2. Map of California, showing distribution of some industrial-mineral resources 13 

3. Map of southern California, showing distribllltion of nonmetallic mineral 14 

resources 

Contents V 
VI Contents 

4-7. Photographs of: 

4. Molycorp's rare-earth mine, Mountain Pass, Calif. 15 

5. U.S. Borax and Chemical Corp.'s boron mine, Boron, Calif. 16 

6. Kerr-McGee Chemical Corp.'s salt deposits, Searles Lake, Calif. 18 

7. Cominco's trona deposit, Owens Lake, Calif. 19 

8. Map of California, showing locations of zeolite deposits 20 

9. Photographs of zeolite deposits at Steelhead Specialty Minerals' Ash Meadows 

zeolite mine 21 

10. Photograph of Pfizer's Marble Canyon marble deposit 22 

11. Map of California, showing locations of magnesium deposits 22 

12. Photograph of the CALMAT Co.'s Bissel magnesite mine, Kern County, 

Calif. 24 

13-15. Maps of California, showing locations of: 

13. Phosphate deposits 25 

14. Active silica operations 26 

15. Titanium deposits 27 

16. Photograph of the U.S. Gypsum Co.'s gypsum deposit, Plaster City, Calif. 28 

17. Maps of southern California, showing areas considered in current desert 

plan and those being considered for inclusion in proposed legislation 30 

18. Photograph showing example of sequential land use in the Los Angeles area 45 

19. Plot showing generalized trend of use of most metals in comparison with industrial minerals in developing industrial societies 52 

20. Plot comparing rail versus truck employee wages, 1980-87 55 

21. Photograph ofWORLDPORT LA, the Port of Los Angeles on San Pedro Bay 57 

22. Photograph of PLA ship-storage facility owned by the Riverside Cement Co. 58 

23. Graph showing anticipated growth in California's population 59 

24. Pie charts showing changes in types of employment in California between 1860 

and 1980 60 

25. Pie charts showing anticipated shifts in the demography of California 60 

26-28. Organization charts showing structure of: 

26. California Department of Conservation, Division of Mines and Geology 73 

27. U.S. Geological Survey 76 

28. U.S. Bureau of Mines 77 

29. Matrix diagram showing content of MAS data base--a deposit description 79 

30. Photograph of old mining prospector demonstrating gold panning to teachers 

and students as part of the Nevada mining awareness educational program 92 

31. Photographs of activities for teachers as part of the Nevada resource education 

program 94 

TABLES 

1. Types of industrial minerals, classified by end use 10 

2. California industrial mineral production in 1987, listed in order of dollar 

value 11 

3. Ages of rocks in which the industrial minerals produced in California are 

commonly found 12 

4. Selected intra-State industrial-mineral traffic in California 52 

5. Selected outbound industrial-mineral traffic in California 53 

6. Selected inbound industrial-mineral traffic in California 53 

7. Intra-State liquified-petroleum-gas traffic in California 54 

8. Index list of workshop recommendations directed to specific members of the 

California industrial-mineral-resource constituencies 110 
ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS 

AAPG 

ABAG 

AG 

AIME 

AMC 

AMRAP 

BIA 

BLM 

Cal trans 

CDOC 

CDPA 

CEQA 

CHWA 

CMA 

CSLC 

CUSMAP 

DHS 

DMG 

DOE 

DOD 

DOl 

DOT 

DSL 

EIR 

EPA 

FLPMA 

LAPA 

MAS 

MILS 

MIO 

MMPA 

MRDS 

NALEO 

NBMG 

NDM 

NPS 

OPA 

OSHA 

OMR 

PBS 

PC 

PLA 

PRC 

RCRA 

R&D 

SCAG 

SEG 

SMARA 

SMGB 

SWB 

UCLA 

USBM 

usc 

USDA 

USFS 

USGS 

WQCB 

American Association of Petroleum Geologists 

Association of Bay Area Governments 

agricultural industry 

American Institute of Mining, Metallmgical and Petroleum Engineers 

American Mining Congress 

Alaska Mineral Resource Assessment Program (USGS) 

U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs (DOl) 

U.S. Bureau of Land Management (DOl) 

California Department of Transportation 

California Department of Conservation 

California Desert Protection Act (Cranston bill S.ll) 

California Environmental Quality Act 

California Health and Welfare Agency 

California Mining Association 

California State Lands Commission 

Conterminous U.S. Mineral Assessment Program (USGS) 

Department of Health Services, Califomia 

Department of Conservation, Division of Mines and Geology (California) 

U.S. Department of Energy 

U.S. Department of Defense 

U.S. Department of the Interior 

U.S. Department of Transportation 

Department of State Lands (California) 

Environmental Impact Report (Federal) 

U.S. Environmental Protection Administration 

Federal Land Policy and Management Act 

Los Angeles Port Authority 

Mineral Availability System (USBM) 

Mineral Industry Location System (USBM) 

Mineral Information Office (USGS and USBM) 

U.S. Mining and Minerals Policy Act, 1970 

Mineral Resources Data System (USGS) 

National Association of Latino Elected Officials 

Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology 

Nevada Department of Minerals 

U.S. National Park Service (DOl) 

Office of Permit Assistance (California) 

U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration 

Office of Mineral Resources (USGS) 

Public Broadcasting Service 

personal computer 

Port of Los Angeles 

Public Resource Code (California) 

Resource Control Reclamation Act 

research and development 

Southern California Association of Governments 

Society of Economic Geologists 

Surface Mining Area Reclamation Act (California) 

State Mining Geology Board (California) 

State Water Board (California) 

University of California, Los Angeles 

U.S. Bureau of Mines (DOl) 

University of Southern California 

U.S. Department of Agriculture 

U.S. Forest Service (USDA) 

U.S. Geological Survey (DOl) 

Water Quality Control Board (California) 

Contents VII 

Introduction 

By E.W. Tooker and D.J. Beeby 

Two recent reports by the California Economic Development Corp.-Vision: California 2010 (Lipson and 

Barnett, 1988) and the analysis by the Los Angeles 2000 

Committee (Jefferson, 1988; see app. 2), as well as Governor Deukmejian's 1989 State of the State addJess--express 

concern for sustaining economic growth to accommodate 

the expanding population in California. A basic requirement for meeting the challenges ahead is to find and produce essential rock and mineral-resource materials (industrial 

minerals) that will, in part, provide and maintain the housing, food, transportation, societal infrastructures, and related jobs for an increasingly urbanized California. To 

confront the problem of resource adequacy, the USGS and 

the DMG jointly sponsored a resources workshop in Marina Del Rey, Calif., on February 15 and 16, 1989, to explore 

the :industrial-mineral-resource-supply problems facing 

California, to recommend specific actions for dealing with 

them, and, in particular, to develop plans for avoiding unnecessary resource shortages in the years ahead. The sessions were recorded, and the proceedings were transcribed 

and edited. 

What are the industrial-mineral resources that are so 

critical for meeting the State's future responsibilities? As 

defined by the World Bank (Noestaller, 1987), these resources broadly include all nonmetallic, nonfuel minerals 

extracted and processed for industry end use, some metallic 

materials consumed in nonmetallurgic appllications, and 

consolidated- and unconsolidated-rock materials and manufactured products from these materials. These resources range 

from such low-priced, large-volume commodities as sand, 

gravel, and other construction materials, through mediumto high-priced, large-volume commodies used as chemical 

and fertilizer materials, to high-priced, small--volume commodities used in special-property ceramic and superconducting materials. Figure 1 provides a convenient summary 

of some of these materials and their specific industrial applications. 

Though relatively unheralded, industrial-mineral 

commodities form the backbone of our industrialized society; and although they lack the glamor of the precious metals, they are used daily in huge quantities worth millions of 

dollars. Of the $2.9 billion worth of nonfuel minerals produced in California in 1988, more than 88 percent ($2.5 

billion) resulted from the production of industrial minerals 

(U.S. Bureau of Mines, 1989). The importance of these 

commodities, not only to us but to future generations of 

Californians, is impossible to ignore and difficult to overstate. 

Informal workshop sessions included presentations of 

industrial-mineral-resource issues by a convenor and panelists for each session, followed by discussions by the workshop participants. The participants represent a broad 

spectrum of interests in California's industrial-mineral resources and include producers and consultants, State and 

Federal land managers and resource specialists, the California Legislature, the Governor's Office of Planning and Research, regional land-use planners, transportation specialists, 

university scientific experts, mineral economists and marketing experts, environmental specialists, and the user community. The workshop participants and their affiliations are 

listed on the inside front cover, and the workshop agenda, 

which indicates the convenors and panelists, is listed in 

appendix 1. 

Formally prepared technical papers were not required 

from the convenors or panelists, to encourage greater participation and to stimulate more lively discussion. Instead, 

the sessions were tape-recorded and subsequently transcribed 

and edited by the compiler-editors into their present form. 

To preserve the atmosphere and excitement of the sessions, 

this editing has been minimized intentionally. An anonymous quotation from the July 1989 Bulletin of the Geological Society of America is worth repeating: "Readers must 

bear in mind that written and spoken English are different 

languages." 

Following a keynote address by J.A. Anderson, chairman of the SMGB, the workshop considered the variety of, 

uses of, and demand for industrial minerals in the State. 

The six informational workshop sessions highlighted (1) 

the variety of uses and demand for industrial-mineral resources in California; (2) problems of access to lands and 

permitting for industrial-mineral exploration and development thereon; (3) environmental impacts of mining and mine 

Introduction 
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Figure 1. Some industrial rock and mineral products and their uses (from Coope, 1987). 

2 Industrial Minerals in California: Economic Importance, Present Availability, and Future Development 
reclamation; ( 4) economic issues, such as transportation; 

(5) information that is available from government agencies, 

universities, and other organizations to assist both the public and private sectors, and (6) education of the public about 

the need for critical industrial minerals and for improving 

the public's image of mining. Finally, recommendations were 

made for improving the sponsors' program focus and for 

further collaboration and sharing of expertise in solving 

industrial-mineral-resource problems. Some of these recommendations are already being considered. 

The initial workshop subject was the impact of industrial minerals on the average citizen and how much of these 

minerals is required presently. The next questions were 

where the large, but unknown, quantities of these required 

materials will come from-whether from domestic or foreign sources-and how they will be produced. Underlying 

these queries were how the sponsors might better focus 

their programs of outreach to the resource-user constituency; how to better share the responsibility for providing 

various types of information required by public and private 

decisionmakers; and how data users in government agencies, universities, and the public at large can increase public 

awaJreness about the need for industrial-mineral resources 

and, ultimately, help improve the public's image of theresource industry. A long-term objective of the workshop was 

to develop a clearer idea of the nature of industrial-mineralresource problems in California, to identify the USGS and 

DMG programmatic directions that will help ameliorate these 

problems, and to form a broad coalition of concerned organizations and individuals that will reduce California's anticipated resource stresses. The personal opinions of the 

convenors and panelists are identified; those anonymous 

views expressed in the discussions and comments are identified by a bullet (•). Replies generally are by the session 

panelists. 

Acknowledgments.-The workshop organizing committee greatly appreciates the encouragment, participation, 

and support of the USGS and the DMG in developing this 

workshop program and in selecting workshop participants 

who represent a broad resource-oriented constituency in the 

State. The committee, in tum, thanks the participants for 

their insights and contributions to the discussions that follow 

the convenor-panelist presentations. Members of the organizing committee who contributed to the tenor and success 

in planning and conducting the workshop include J .I. Ziony 

of the CDOC; J.T. Alfors, T.P. Anderson, and D.J. Beeby 

of the DMG; M.P. Foose, E.H. McKee, J.H. DeYoung, Jr., 

and E.W. Tooker of the USGS; Hal McVey of Mineral 

Marketing, Inc.; P.H. Dohms of Condor Minerals Management, Inc.; R.A. Matthews of the University of California, 

Davis; Dwane Johnson, banking consultant; and R.A. 

Reveles of the Homestake Mining Co. The technical assistance of Susan Garcia in making arrangements, recording 

the workshop sessions, and preparing this report is gratefully recognized. 

Introduction 3 

California's Industrial-Mineral Resources 

By J.A. Anderson 

This workshop focuses on serious issues that involve 

California's industrial-mineral resources. These issues affect a wide spectrum of public and private activities in California. For this reason, we have brought together a broad 

range of expertise in industrial-mineral affairs to consider 

what needs to be done to solve or ameliorate anticipated 

problems. The SMGB looks forward to your conclusions 

and recommendations to assure that the State moves 

smoothly into its future. 

Industrial minerals are the unsung workhorses of 

California's mineral industry. We all know that recent increases in gold production, nationally and internationally, 

have caught the public eye. The past decade has seen a 

remarkable growth in California's gold production, from 

just $60 million in 1985 to an estimated $320 million in 

1988. However, there is little appreciation among the general public that industrial minerals represent approximately 

90 percent of California's $2.9 billion annual production of 

nonfuel minerals. Few citizens realize that California also 

leads the Nation in the production of construction sand and 

gravel, Portland cement, diatomite, and calcinated gypsum. 

These commodities truly represent the essential sinews of 

our developing society. 

Moreover, it's important to recognize that the extraction of industrial minerals within the State has a marked 

multiplier effect on jobs created. Industrial minerals commonly require a long chain of processing and fabrication 

for varied useful products. Thus, when a single job is created to mine an industrial mineral, numerous jobs involved 

in processing, fabricating, transporting, and selling new 

products eventually are created. Most importantly, these new 

jobs usually are created in California's urban centers. Issues concerning industrial minerals are therefore critical to 

the future of California and the economic well-being of its 

citizens. Accordingly, the USGS and the DMG, sponsors of 

this conference, are attempting to become more effective in 

the chain of discovery, production, and processing of these 

resources. 

As chairman of the SMGB, I've had the opportunity 

over the past years to become exposed to the diversity of 

industrial-mineral-resource-related issues: 

• Depletion of sand and gravel deposits that are badly 

needed for low-cost construction materials, 

• Conflicting demands for resource-rich lands, 

• Urbanization over valuable mineral deposits, 

• Environmental-protection conflicts, 

• Land-use priority issues, and 

• Public-safety and land-reclamation problems. 

With these issues in mind, it has become clear to me 

that resolution of these issues requires the best thinking 

from specialists in numerous resource-related disciplines. 

About 2 years ago, SCAG released a report identifying several problems that will touch heavily on the lives of 

people living in southern California by the year 2010. It 

forecasts large population increases requiring major construction to provide housing and transportation facilities, 

port expansion, and other supporting infrastructures, as well 

as food to serve this growth. Moreover, major environmental issues will have to be addressed. 

In November 1988, the "Los Angeles 2000 Committee," a group of 150 civic and business leaders appointed 

by Mayor Tom Bradley, released a report that came to essentially the same conclusions developed in the SCAG report. This report forecast (1) a population increase for five 

counties in southern California of 35 percent, or 18.1 million people; (2) a smogbound area with crawling traffic and 

major housing problems; (3) a demographic change wherein 

our current minority population composed of Hispanics, 

Afro-Americans, and Asians will constitute the majority, of 

which the largest increase will be among Hispanics; and (4) 

the addition of 3 million new jobs. The report also presented 

a wish list that included (1) new transportation and freeway 

expenditures of $16.3 billion; (2) an expenditure of $4.8 

billion over the next 30 years to increase the city's ports by 

250 percent, which currently handle the highest volume of 

shipping in the United States; (3) an environmental master 

plan that would accommodate the growth; and ( 4) a nonprofit housing trust fund of $4 to 12 billion. 

In his State of the State Address this year, Governor 

George Deukmejian quoted from the Vision California 2010 

report released by the California Economic Corporation 

(Lipson and Barnett, 1988), a team of the State's leading 

California's Industrial-Mineral Resources 5 
business, academic, and public-policy experts, that for California to maintain a decent standard of living, we will have 

to provide more schools, more highways, improved waste 

management, expansion of foreign trade to strengthen the 

economy, and rural assistance through rural economic development. To quote the Governor: 

Will growth and competition choke off our prosperity and 

strangle our dreams, or can the diversity of our people and 

the drive of the competition be harnessed to propel us up 

to new peaks of excellence? These questions cannot wait 

to be answered in the year 2010. They must be answered, starting today. These needs will not be made by 

future generations. They rest in the hands of you and me. 

Thus, three independent studies send a common message pointing to an enormously complex situation that will 

require those of us who are involved with supplying industrial minerals to the marketplace to take a hard look at 

where we are and where we are going. These studies raise 

such questions as where we're going to get the sand and 

gravel, cement, gypsum, clay, glass sand, and a host of 

other industrial minerals to support this growth. Will the 

privately owned and public lands where these resources 

occur be open and available for mineral extraction? If not, 

then where will these resources come from? What amounts 

of these materials will be moved over our congested highways, by rail from out of State, or brought by ocean carriers 

into our already-crowded harbors? How will we deal with the 

pollution problem generated by this increased activity? How 

will we be able to supply low-cost construction materials to 

provide the housing and infrastructure, and supply the fertilizer minerals to sustain and improve food production? 

To give a simple example of how the issues raised by 

these questions affect mineral-resource availability, I will 

mention a few details about cement. The annual national 

consumption of cement is 710 lb per capita, somewhat higher 

in California. If 7 million new inhabitants are added to the 

State, as forecast for the next 2 decades, about 3 million 

tons of new productive cement capacity will be required. 

Currently, the State produces about 9.5 million tons per 

year, but we must also import material to meet current demands. Either new cement-production plants must be developed, existing capacity expanded, or imports increased. No 

matter which path is taken, new problems are created, 

through contributing to either pollution-related issues, 

clogged highways and storage facilities, or inadequate port 

facilities. Clearly, Californians have some major problems 

that need to be better identified to find acceptable solutions. 

The diversity of talent represented at this workshop 

should be able to contribute to an understanding of these 

problems. Among these talents are scientists and engineers 

from the universities; State and Federal Government land 

managers and scientists; private-sector resource specialists, 

land-use planners, transportation specialists, economists, 

mineral-marketing experts, and environmental specialists; 

individuals knowledgeable about problems facing the minority community; and representatives from the Governor's 

Office. I am optimistic that you will be able to identify the 

problem areas which need to be addressed and to put forth 

recommendations which will lead to solutions ensuring that 

industrial-mineral resources will be available as needed to 

facilitate the population growth facing this State, to help 

strengthen a competitive economy, and to provide employment needed for the well-being of us all. Your recommendations must be considered carefully and implemented to 

make the most efficient use of our industrial-mineral resources in solving the growth problems facing this State. 

6 Industrial Minerals in California: Economic Importance, Present Availability, and Future Development 
The Vc:1riety, Uses, and Demand for Industrial-Mineral 

Resources in California 

Hal McVey, Convenor 

The Importance of Industrial Minerals in 

our Everyday Lives 

By Hal McYe)t 

Few people realize the importance of industrial minerals in our everyday lives. Perhaps a trip through a hypothetical working day will underscore our reliance on these 

nonmetallic minerals. (The products that contain industrial 

minerals or use industrial minerals in their manufacturing 

process are highlighted in boldface). 

As we step out of bed in the morning, we place our 

feet on the carpet (calcium carbonate/limestone is used in 

the carpet backing). We find our way to the kitchen and 

switch on the electric light and the coffee pot, which are 

made of either glass or ceramic (both glass and ceramic are 

made entirely from industrial minerals-silica sand, limestone, talc, lithium, borates, soda ash, and feldspar). As we 

enter the kitchen, we find we're standing on linoleum (calcium carbonate, clay, and wollastonite) or ceramic tile. 

While the coffee is being prepared, we sit down to 

read the newspaper, and at the same time we realize we 

have to take a trip today, so we consult the Official Airline 

Guide and then refer to the Yellow Pages of the telephone 

book for the number of the airline. All of these papers are 

filled with kaolin clay and use limestone, sodium sulfate, 

lime, and soda ash in their processing. 

The coffee is prepared, we've fixed a piece of toast, 

and we sneak a piece of cake from last night's party (bakery items, such as bread, contain gypsum as an ingredient, 

and cakes have a high content of gypsum in the icing). The 

plate we're eating from is composed of glass, ceramic, or 

china, the last being a special form of ceramic. We might 

also feel inclined to have a full breakfast and even contemplate what we'll have for lunch and what has to be prepared 

for the evening meal. Regardless, all of the food that we eat 

relies completely on industrial minerals for its growth and 

production. All fertilizers are composed of some combination of potash, phosphates, nitrogen, sulfur, and other minor 

minerals. The acidity of soils must be regulated with gypsum, limestone, or sulfur. In fact, without industrial minerals 

there could not be any modern-day agriculture as we know it. 

Let's now start getting ready to go to work. We brush 

our teeth with toothpaste (calcium carbonate/limestone/sodium carbonate). Ladies put on lipstick (calcium carbonate 

and talc) and powder (talcum), and men might prepare their 

hair with hair cream (calcium carbonate); other forms of 

makeup would have various minerals as a constituent. The 

lavatory counter top in the bathroom where we're standing 

is a nice synthetic marble or synthetic onyx (titanium dioxide, calcium carbonate, and alumina hydrate). The sinks, 

lavatories, toilets, and similar fixtures throughout the house 

are kept shiny with cleansers (silica, pumice, diatomite, 

feldspars, and limestone). Kitchen and bathroom tiles are 

installed, kept in place, and maintain their waterproof condition with putty and caulking compounds (limestone and 

gypsum). 

Just before we leave, we want to brighten up our 

wardrobe with some form of jewelry; all precious and 

semiprecious stones-Dpal, amethyst, aquamarine, topaz, 

garnets, diamonds, and so on-are industrial minerals. There 

is a less attractive task to do at the last minute, changing the 

kitty litter (attapulgite, montmorillonite, zeolites, diatomite, 

pumice, or volcanic ash). 

As we walk outside, we make a mental note that we 

have to have the composite roof fixed. Fiberglass is composed of almost the same ingredients as regular glass--

silica, borates, limestone, soda ash, and feldspar. Fiberglass 

and asphalt, along with lesser amounts of either talc, silica 

sand, or limestone, make up composition roofing. And, we're 

pleased to see that the fiberglass siding that we've just installed on our home looks so nice. As we get into the car, 

we think that we'll have to do planting and gardening this 

evening. In addition to fertilizers, we'll have to buy some 

soil amendments and planting mixes today; vermiculite, 

perlite, gypsum, zeolite, or peat make for better growth. 

Once we leave for work, we're really employing industrial minerals. Our automobile is literally composed of 

The Variety, Uses, and Demand for Industrial-Mineral Resources in California 7 
industrial minerals. Tires contain clays and calcium carbonate, and the mag wheels are made from dolomite and magnesium. All of the glass in the car is made entirely from 

minerals, as is the fiberglass body now becoming popular 

on many models. Many of the components in a car are now 

being made of composites, generally combinations of fiberglass and plastics. Plastics require calcium carbonate, wollastonite, mica, talc, clays, and silica for their manufacture. 

So, as we drive to work, we're enjoying the value of numerous industrial minerals, from the bumpers to the dashboard to the radiator cap and the floor mats. The paint that 

makes our car so attractive is largely composed from industrial minerals-titanium dioxide, kaolin clays, calcium carbonate, micas, talc, silica, wollastonite, and others. In fact, 

every speck of all paints that we'll encounter today, from 

that on our house to the stripe down the middle of the road, 

to the interior of our offices and elsewhere, is mainly composed of industrial minerals. 

Modem transportation relies almost entirely on industrial minerals, and this doesn't end with just the car. 

Gasoline and lubricants depend on industrial minerals because the drill bit that originally reached the crude oil was 

faced with industrial diamonds. Drilling fluids, used for ease 

of well drilling, are almost entirely made from barite, bentonite, attapulgite, mica, perlite, and others. It is necessary 

to employ clays and zeolites in the catalytic cracking process 

for crude petroleum to arrive at gasoline and lubricants. 

On our way to work, we don't think about it, but 

we're literally riding on industrial minerals. Concrete 

pavement is composed of cement and aggregates. Aggregates are themselves industrial minerals-sand and gravel or 

crushed stone, such as limestone, dolomite, granite, lava, and 

so on. Cement is manufactured from limestone, gypsum, 

iron oxide, clays, and, possibly, pozzolan. Even asphaltic 

pavement or blacktop has industrial minerals as aggregates. 

The building we're about to enter is made from or of 

industrial minerals. If it's a concrete or stone or brick 

building, it's made entirely from industrial minerals. If there 

are steel structural members, the steel-production process 

required fluorspar for fluxing, bentonite for pelletizing, and, 

possibly, chromite for hardening. The making of steel requires the use of high-grade refractory bricks and shapes 

made from bauxite, chromite, zircon, silica, graphite, kyanite, andalusite, sillimanite, and clays. Fiberglass batts may 

be used for insulation in our office building, as they are in 

our homes. 

Upon entering, we're often enclosed by wallboard or 

sheetrock (gypsum with fire-retardant additives, such as 

clays, perlite, vermiculite, alumina hydrate, and borates) 

joined together with joint cement (gypsum, mica, clays, and 

calcium carbonates). Certainly, the plate-glass windows are 

made entirely from industrial minerals. The floors or decks 

between floors will probably be made from concrete, using 

lightweight aggregate (perlite, vermiculite, zeolites, or expanded shales). 

To begin our work, we may pick up a pencil (graphite 

and clays) and make a list of things to do. One of the first 

items is to send out a few invoices that are backed with 

self-contained carbon paper (bentonite, other clays, or 

zeolites). There are some articles to be ordered, so we pick 

up a catalog or magazine and unconsciously like the glossy 

feel of the fine paper, caused by high content of kaolin clay 

or calcium carbonate, along with titanium dioxide for extreme whiteness. Almost every sheet of paper that we see 

today will have used industrial minerals, such as talc, in its 

manufacturing process or will contain minerals as fillers 

and coaters. Even some inks will contain calcium carbonate or other fillers. 

The morning has worn on, and it's time for a break. 

In addition to the coffee in the coffee cup (remember, it's 

made of industrial minerals), we decide to heat up a roll, 

and we place it in or on a microwavable container (plastic 

filled and reinforced with talc, calcium carbonate, titanium 

dioxide, or clays). 

While on break, we began to ponder what we'll do 

for the weekend and know that there are a lot of recreational 

devices we'd love to employ, including golf clubs, tennis 

rackets, fishing rods, and skis, all of which are now commonly made from graphite or a slightly "older" material, 

fiberglass. Even if we're planning a backpacking trip, our 

pack frame and pots and pans will be made of aluminum 

(all aluminum, for whatever usage, originates with bauxite, 

one of most widely used industrial minerals). If we use a 

camp light on our trip, the mantle will be made from an 

industrial mineral, thorium oxide. 

Communication equipment employs numerous industrial minerals. The standard product of the industry for many 

years has been the silicon chip, made from quartz or silica, 

as the name implies. Optical fibers, made from glass, are 

replacing some copper wiring. The television screen or 

computer monitor is made of glass, but critical tubes also 

contain phosphors made from the rare earths or lanthanides, 

a family of industrial minerals. Even the superconducting 

materials that are presently getting so much attention use 

industrial minerals (yttrium, lanthanides, titanium, zirconium, 

and barite) in their manufacture. 

After a hard day at the office, we drop in for refreshments with our friends. A fruit juice would be refreshing or, 

for the less temperate, a glass of wine or beer, but all of these 

liquids use either perlite or diatomite as filter aids in their 

purifying and clarifying processes. If we should add sugar 

to any of our drinks, we're enjoying the benefits of minerals because limestone and lime are basic to the production 

of sweeteners. Of course, our refreshments will be served 

in ceramic mugs or glasses composed entirely of our friends, 

the industrial minerals. 

Filtering and purification are major duties of the industrial minerals. Preparation of our drinking water uses 

minerals for purification and clarification (limestone, lime, 

and salt), as do the wastewater-treatment plants (zeolites, 

8 Industrial Minerals in California: Economic Importance, Present Availability, and Future Development 
soda ash, lime, and salt). The vegetable oils we use are filtered using clays, perlite, or diatomite. Equally important to 

recreation is the use of all of the minerals mentioned here 

for filtering and purifying water in swimming pools. 

When we arrive back home, we're not yet through 

with our exposure to our mineral friends. If we have to take 

medicine or pharmaceuticals, or if we chew antiacid pills, 

they essentially are made from calcium carbonate. For upset 

stomachs and diarrhea there are milk of magnesia (magnesia/dolomite) or Kaopectate (kaolin) and others made from 

clays, such as attapulgite. Who can forget the lovely barium 

"cocktail" (barite), which is necessary to drink before getting X-rayed for gastrointestinal diagnoses, and tincture of 

iodine (iodine) for all those cuts and bruises. The lithium 

that is used to treat mental disorders started out as an industrial mineral. 

Rounding out the picture are such diverse products as 

abrasives for sandblasting ships and making sandpaper 

for home or workshop use, emery boards for our fingernails, or poli-shing compounds for our silverware and other 

items. Abrasives are made from pumice, diatomite, silica, 

garnet, corundum, and emery. There are also porcelain 

figurines (silica, limestone, borates, and soda ash) for our 

what-not shelf and plaster-of-paris statuettes (gypsum) for 

our lawn. 

Almost finally, it must be mentioned that one of our 

most basic table-food ingredients is an industrial mineral, 

namely, salt. In fact, it so basic that it was historically used 

as a medium of trade or payment, as implied in our word 

"salary." Finally, an ode to our lives will be inscribed on 

monumental stone (marble or granite) in the form of an 

elegy. 

The foregoing is meant to provide a broad insight 

into the importance of industrial minerals in our everyday 

life and to emphasize how much our lives would be altered 

without ready and economical access to such fundamental 

constituents. We now tum to look at which of, how much 

of, and where these materials come from in California. 

Production and Demand for Industrial Minerals 

in California 

ByG.W. Griggs 

Califomia is both a major producer and consumer of 

industrial minerals. More than 50 industrial minerals, and 

more than 200 million tons of these materials with a value 

at the mine of more than $2 billion, are produced annually 

in California. When refined and delivered to the customer, 

this value is two or three times higher, possibly $5 billion. 

These raw-material building blocks of the economy represent almost 10 percent of all the goods and services produced in California. Not every one of these minerals can be 

discussed here. Examples of the three different types of 

industrial minerals, classified by their end use, are listed in 

table 1. Some of these minerals appear on more than one 

list because they commonly have more than one use. Although these lists are not all inclusive, they present those 

minerals that are most important in each use category. 

The industrial minerals of type 1 are used in bulk 

amounts for their physical properties and are not chemically modified, as are those of type 2; those of type 3 generally are used in small amounts to obtain special product 

characteristics. The most important industrial minerals of 

type 1 for California are the construction minerals represented by cement, sand and gravel, crushed rock, lime, and 

gypsum. California is the leading producer in the United 

States for most of these products. Next in importance are 

the agricultural minerals that include potash, sulfur, and 

phosphate fertilizers plus limestone and gypsum soil conditioners. Clays are used as suspending agents in pesticide 

solutions, and borates are an essential micronutrient for some 

crops. 

The industrial minerals of type 2 either are chemically modified to form other products or are used because 

of their chemical properties and the reactions they will facilitate. Salt, soda ash, sodium sulfate, magnesia, and sulfur 

are all important chemical minerals produced and used in 

California as well as exported to other states and countries. 

The industrial minerals of type 3 are used by themselves or are added as fillers, colorizers, or binders; they are 

also used in producing filter aids and absorbents. Diatomite 

is an especially important filter aid, and California is its 

leading producer in the United States and the world. Montmorillonite clays (sometimes better known as kitty litter), 

perlite, and silica sand are also of this type. Abrasive and 

frictional minerals and refractory and foundry materials are 

less significant to California, although some of these minerals are familiar for other uses and are produced in California. The principal glass- and ceramic-forming minerals 

include silica sand, soda ash, feldspar, and limestone. The 

filler, extender minerals and pigments follow in importance. 

Paint and plastics are white generally because of their titanium dioxide or calcium carbonate content. Slick, glossy 

magazines, books, and printing paper have kaolin in them, 

and also maybe Ti02 or CaC03 • The other fillers are commonly reinforcing agents used to strengthen plastics or rubber. This type represents the fastest growing segment of 

industrial minerals. 

The importance of industrial minerals for the economy 

of California is shown in table 2. California is the world's 

leading producer of diatomite, borates, and rare earths. The 

State exports much of the production of nine industrial minerals: cement, borates, diatomite, soda ash, sulfur, rare earths, 

potash, sodium sulfate, and salt. Three of the four most 

important (highest value) minerals are building and construction minerals--cement, sand and gravel, and crushed 

stone. Cement consists primarily of limestone, with some 

shale or clay, sand, fluorspar, and iron added for chemical 

The Variety, Uses, and Demand for Industrial-Mineral Resources in California 9 
Table 1. Types of industrial minerals, classified by end use 

TYPE 1--Large-volume bulk materials 

BUILDING AND CONSTRUCTION PRODUCTS MAIOR AGRICULTURAL MINERALS 

Asbestos 

Cement 

Clay 

Crushed stone 

Gypsum 

Lime 

Perlite 

Pumice 

Sand and gravel 

Vermiculite 

Borates 

Clays 

Gypsum 

Limestone 

TYPE 2--Special-property materials 

Barite 

Bauxite 

Bromine 

Chromite 

Fluorspar 

Lithium 

CHEMICAL MINERALS 

Magnesite 

Phosphate 

Potash 

Salt 

Soda ash 

Sodium sulfate 

TYPE 3--Additive materials for special properties 

Phosphate 

Potash 

Sulfur 

CERAMIC AND GLASS MINERALS ABRASIVES AND FRICTION MINERALS 

Alumina 

Barite 

Ball clay 

Borates 

Feldspar 

Fluorspar 

Kaolinite 

Limestone 

Lithium 

Nepheline syenite 

Silica sand 

Soda ash 

Sodium sulfate 

Talc 

Zircon 

FILLER AND EXTENDER MINERALS 

Alumina 

Barite 

Ball clay 

Borates 

Feldspar 

Fluorspar 

Kaolin 

Limestone 

Lithium 

Nepheline syenite 

Silica sand 

Soda ash 

Sodium sulfate 

Talc 

Zircon 

Alumina 

Asbestos 

Bauxite 

Garnet 

Graphite 

Pumice 

Silica sand 

Zircon 

REFRACTORY AND FOUNDARY MINERALS 

Alumina 

Asbestos 

Bauxite 

Garnet 

Graphite 

Pumice 

Silica sand 

Zircon 

FILTER AIDS AND ABSORBENTS 

Attapulgite 

Diatomite 

Garnet 

Montmorillonite 

Perlite 

Silica sand 

10 Industrial Minerals in California: Economic Importance, Present Availability, and Future Development 
balance. The third most valuable of the industrial minerals 

are berates, which are used primarily in glass, fire retardants, and detergents. California berates are exported 

throughout the world, and many countries depend on the 

State as their sole source of supply. Diatomite, or diatomaceous earth as it is also called, is the fifth most valuable 

industrial mineral produced in California, and it's also exported throughout the world. Its major use is for filtration 

of beverages and food products. California is the world's 

largest producer of this material. California and China are 

the only producers of rare earths, which are used in electronics (television), metallurgy, glass, ceramics, magnets, and 

nuclear controls. These minerals are exported from the State 

to most of the industrialized countries of the world. Sodium 

sulfate and salt are also important exports in California. 

Califomia also imports several essential industrial 

minerals, of which phosphate minerals used to fertilize our 

crops are probably the most important. Only limited lowgrade deposits occur in California, and production from 

them has never been economically feasible; it's less expensive to import them than to produce them. Gypsum is produced in significant quantities in California, but the State 

also imports a large amount from Mexico. About half of the 

local consumption is supplied by imports, in spite of the 

fact that California has the second largest gypsum plant in 

the United States, at Plaster City in Imperial County, which 

is supplied wholly from locally mined material. Although 

California has undeveloped gypsum resources, they are too 

distant from use areas, and transportation costs increase the 

delivered cost beyond that which can be realized by cheaper 

water transportation and bulk handling of boatloads from 

Mexico. Another major industrial mineral that is imported 

is kaolinite; some kaolinite is produced at lone, Calif., but 

its low quality limits its applications. The high-quality material needed for the paper industry is shipped in from 

Georgia. Other industrial-mineral imports include fluorspar from Mexico, sodium bentonite from Wyoming, rutile 

from Australia, talc from Montana, zircon from Australia, 

vermiculite from Idaho, and lithium from Nevada. Rutile 

provides an interesting situation because California has the 

only titanium dioxide plant in the Western United States 

but doesn't have the raw material to supply this plant, which 

is supplied by imports from Australia. However, the value to 

the California economy from this plant is about $80 million. 

As Hal McVey has shown, industrial minerals are 

critical to our present and future way of life and our high 

standard of living! It's hard to imagine our world without 

asphalt for roads, concrete for construction, glass for our 

homes and cars, fertilizer for our food crops, or soda ash, 

sodium sulfate, phosphates, and berates for our detergents. 

Everything in this room, except the air we breathe, came 

out of the ground. Even trees and wood have their roots in 

the ground. People must be educated to realize the fundamental importance of industrial minerals and the mining 

industry that extracts these minerals for the good of all 

Table 2. California industrial mineral production in 1987, listed 

in order of dollar value 

[Source, U.S. Bureau of Mines (1989); asterisks, estimated by U.S. Borax & 

Chemical Corp.] 

Mineral 

Cement ------------------------------

Sand and gravel --------------------

Borates ------------------------------

Crushed stone ----------------------

Diatomite ---------------------------

Soda ash ----------------------------

Sulfur---------------------------------

Silica sand --------------------------

Clays ---------------------------------

Lime----------------------------------

Rare earths -------------------------

Potash -------------------------------

Sodium sulfate----------------------

Sak -----------------------

Gypsum------------------------------

All others ---------------------------

Value 

(thousands) 

$615,700 

536,800 

435,000 

171,800 

90,000 

60,000* 

51,000* 

37,500 

33,300 

27,700 

24,000* 

18,000* 

17,000* 

15,000* 

10,900 

147,300 

Quantity 

(1 o3 tons) 

10,100 

135,700 

1,250 

38,700 

440* 

1,000* 

690* 

2,100 

2,450 

425 

11* 

225* 

200* 

850* 

1,400 

------------------------ Total----------------------------- >$2,291 ,000 >195,541 

people. Those of us in California should support the mining 

industry because this is a mineral-rich part of the world, and 

we need minerals to survive. 

California has the sixth largest economy in the world, 

surpassed only by the whole United States, Russia, Japan, 

West Germany, and France. The State's economy is expanding faster than those of most of these countries, with 

an expected growth rate of 3.5 percent a year through the 

year 2000. To continue this growth, or even to maintain the 

status quo and our quality of life, we must continue mining 

industrial minerals. However, the presently known minesites 

cannot supply all of the State's industrial mineral needs. 

Ore reserves are always limited and eventually are depleted. 

Mining companies must constantly explore for new deposits just to maintain the continuity of supply that everyone 

depends on and takes for granted. 

As environmental controls become more stringent, 

there will be an ever-increasing demand for those industrial 

minerals used in pollution control. The Clean Water Act 

will require more filtration of municipal water supplies, in 

tum requiring more silica sand or garnet. The scrubbing of 

stack gases to reduce sulfur output and acid rain will require more limestone, soda ash, or lime. Adjustment of the 

acidity or alkalinity of effluent water from industrial plants 

or sewage-treatment plants will require sulfuric acid, lime, 

or other minerals. In other words, more industrial minerals 

will be required to reduce pollution and improve our environment. Yet exploration and mine development are commonly opposed in the name of environmental protection. 

It's a "Catch-22" situation that needs to be brought to 

everyone's attention. 

The Variety, Uses, and Demand for Industrial-Mineral Resources in California 11 
Favorable locations and Geologic Environments 

for the Occurrence of California•s 

Industrial Minerals 

By Ken Santini 

The geographic distribution of major production of 

industrial minerals in California is shown on figures 2 and 3. 

Most of the common varieties-the large-volume, low-unitvalue types-are produced primarily near large urban centers. 

However, the occurrences of many industrial minerals are 

constrained by geologic environmental factors. Table 3 lists 

the favorable geologic ages for host rocks containing these 

minerals. A few of the more important industrial-mineral 

commodities are reviewed in the following sections. 

Rare-earth minerals are mined in only one area, at 

Mountain Pass in San Bernardino County (figs. 2, 4). These 

minerals are used in special metal alloys, glass, and magnets. 

They occur in Precambrian rocks. Paleozoic rocks that contain limestone, dolomite, and marble used in Portland cement, aggregates, fillers, and extenders (see cover; fig. 2) are 

more widely distributed. Feldspar, used in ceramic materials occurs in a few localities, mainly in rocks of Mesozoic 

age, such as the White Butte deposit. Cenozoic rocks include deposits of borates, used in glass, glass fibers, agricultural products, and soaps and detergents. Hydrosodium borate 

minerals, borax and kernite, are mined by U.S. Borax at 

Boron, Calif., from Tertiary lakebeds (fig. 5). The old Boraxo 

pit, owned by the American Borate Co., contains a different 

suite of minerals-colemanite (a hydrous calcium borate) 

and probertite and ulexite (both sodium calcium borates). 

These deposits are now being mined underground. 

At Searles Lake, the Kerr-McGee Chemical Corp. deposits are located in a brine-saturated playa-type environment (fig. 6). The mineral trona is a source of soda ash, 

used in the glass and chemical industry. Searles Lake also 

yields various borate minerals, potassium chloride, potassium sulfate, and sodium sulfate and, at one time, produced 

lithium carbonate. The mineral burkeite is a source of sodium carbonate, and thenardite is a sodium sulfate mineral. 

The ore is a brine. There are three main stratigraphic horizons: a mixed layer at the bottom, the lower salt in the 

middle, and the upper salt on top. Each of these horizons 

has a distinctive mineralogy and brine chemistry. For example, the mixed-layer horizon contains a high-sodium carbonate-bearing brine, which feeds the soda-ash plant. The 

upper salt contains borax, hanksite, soda ash, several borate 

products, and potassium sulfate. 

At Owens Lake, the Cominco trona deposit is 

present at the surface but is not a brine-saturated deposit (fig. 

7). The trona is only a few feet thick. The principal market 

is U.S. Borax as a source of sodium oxide. A soda-ash operation is planned. Reclamation at this deposit is mainly by 

wind and rain, which in very short order return the area to 

its original aspect. 

Table 3.Ages of rocks inwhichthe industrial minerals produced 

in California are commonly found. 

[Note: Industrial minerals are not listed in order of importance] 

Age Time (m.y. B.P.) Major industrial minerals 

Cenozoic 0.01 Bedded borate, brines-

(borate, sodium carbonate, 

sodium sulfate, potash, 

sodium chloride), diatomite, 

gypsum, clays, silica sand, 

perlite, pumice, volcanic 

cinders, expanded shale, 

aggregates, phosphates, 

magnesite, zeolites. 

Mesozoic 135-225 Andalusite, aggregates, 

limestone, expanded shale, 

dimension stone. 

225 Shale, dimension stone. 

Paleozoic 270-600 Limestone, dolomite, marble, 

wollastonite, barite, talc, 

aggregates 

Precambrian 1,800-2,700 Rare earths, talc, mica, 

kyanite, anorthosite, 

ilmenite. 

Other playas in California are sources of sodium chloride. Salt Lake, between the Inyo and Panamint Mountains, 

is one of these. The solar-evaporation pond at Cadiz Lake in 

San Bernardino County is operated by the Lee Chemical 

Co. and produces calcium chloride from a brinerich horizon. 

Johns Manville operates a world-class diatomite deposit at Lompoc, Calif.; the diatomite is used as a filtering 

agent. Bentonite clay deposits elsewhere are used for fillers 

or extenders. The deposits formed from the alteration of 

volcanic ash. Their brightness and rheologic properties are 

useful in paints. Hydrothermally altered rhyolite or volcanic plugs are being mined for kaolinite and montmorillonite, used in ceramics. The lithium montmorillonite, 

hectorite, is mined at Hector, Calif., and used in the beverage industry; it sells for more than $1.00 per pound. Highalumina clay is used as a source of aluminum in Portland 

cement and in ceramic and construction products. Silica 

sand is also used for filtration, as well as for glass. 

Zeolites from the deposits north of Barstow, Calif. (fig. 

8), possess a special property that was used to remove radioactive cesium and strontium from effluents in cleaning up the 

Three Mile Island nuclear reactor (fig. 9). The material sells 

for $1,500 per ton. The ash-fall tuff was altered to zeolite in 

an alkaline lake. Near Death Valley Junction, a massive ashflow tuff is mined for use in sewage-treatment plants to meet 

EPA specifications for the ammonia content of effluent. 

12 Industrial Minerals in California: Economic Importance, Present Availability, and Future Development 
MINERAL RESOURCES 

® ASBESTOS 

~ BARITE 

$ BORATES 

iii CHROMITE 

• CLAY 

.; COPPER 

f) DIATOMITE 

G DOLOMITE 

~~~~~~~~:=~~=· GOLD REGIONS 

X GOLD 

B GYPSUM 

0 IODINE 

0 IRON ORE 

1 LEAD 

(9 LIMESTONE 

8 MAGNESITE 

~ MAGNESIA PLANTS 

II MANGANESE 

I MERCURY 

• NATURAL STEAM REGIONS 

t. NATURAL STEAM PLANTS 

~ SODA ASH 

® SULFUR 

0 TALC 

~ TUNGSTEN 

~ 

'V 

® • 

~ 

$ 

* +-

-

~H/ 

POTASH 

PERLITE 

PUMICE 

PYRITE 

RARE EARTH 

SALT 

SILVER 

ZINC 

NATURAL GAS 

PETROLEUM 

SCALE 

X RIVERSIDE 

Figure 2. California, showing distribution of industrial-mineral resources exclusive of sand and gravel (from California Division 

of Mines and Geology, 1975). 

The Variety, Uses, and Demand for I ndustriai-Mineral Resources in California 13 
~ 

;-

Q. 

c 

a-

[ 

~ 

:r 

~ 

~ 

:r 

("') 

e!.. 

::I 

~ 

£!!' 

m 

1"1 

0 

::I 

0 

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;:;· 

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~ 

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!0 

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;; 

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LOCALITIES 

l. Eureka Valley talc 

2. Last Chance Range sulphur 

3. Fish Springs perlite 

4. owens Lake, source of sodium 

carbonate and borax 

5. lnyo Range talc 

6. Goldbelt Spring talc 

7. Olancha adsorbent clay 

8. Ryan-Furnace Creek borate 

9. Coso Range-Little Lake pumice 

and volcanic cinders 

10. Slate Range limestone 

ll. Southern Death Valley-Kingston Range 

talc 

12. Shoshone-Zabriskie borate 

13. Lost Hills gypsite 

14. Searles Lake, source of soda ash, 

sodium sulphate, potassium salts, 

borax, boric acid, lithium salt, sodium 

chloride, and bromine 

15. Avawatz Mountains salt, gypsum, strontium 

minerals 

16. McKittrick gypsite 

17. Monolith limestone 

18. Last Chance Canyon pumice 

19. White Butte feldspar 

20. Coolgardie Camp pumice 

21. Silver Lake-Yucca Grove talc 

22. Castle Mountains perlite 

23. Castle Mountains clay 

24. Oceano Beach foundry sand 

25. Casmalia expansible shale 

26. Lompoc diatomite 

27. Qua tal Canyon gypsum 

28. Kramer borate 

29. Calico Mountains borate 

30. Shadow Mountains limestone 

31. Victorville-Oro Grande limestone 

32. Stoddard Mountain pyrophyllite 

33. Hector clay 

34. Ludlow strontium 

35. Bristol Mountains perlite 

36. Bristol Lake, source of salt, calcium 

chloride, gypsum and strontium minerals 

37. Ventura expansible shale 

38. Tujunga Wash sand, gravel, and crushed 

rock 

39. Wrightwood limestone 

40. Dale Lake sodium sulphate 

41. Danby Lake salt and gypsum 

42. El Segundo sand 

43. Torrance foundry sand 

44. Palos Verdes diatomite 

45. Los Angeles common clay 

46. San Gabriel Wash sand and gravel 

47. Alberhill-Santa Ana Mountains clay 

48. Corona crushed rock 

49. Corona glass sand 

50. Riverside limestone 

51. Santa Ana River sand, gravel, and crushed 

rock. Includes crushed rock quarries at 

Declezville 

52. Colton limestone 

,--------"' 

t 0 ' C Clay -) 8 I SHOP I 2'"-.._ 

0 Diatomite I • Y , • Dimension stone '-..,'-, 3 ' E Expansible shale 1 ~ "-.., 

COMMODITIES 

SCALE 

1 

: ~=;~~~~:s ~ '"-.._ 

K Kyanite SALINES \ ·. ', 

~ Limestone 1 LONE ::·. · "-

M Mica schist b Borate \PINE ::: .· ·-6 ' 

~ Perlite, pumice, pumicite CC Calcium chloride \ 0~·-5 . •.. ""- and volcanic cinders g Gypsum and gypsite , C ... _ ', 

p Pyrophyllite L Lithium ~ b 7 . 1 N y 0 ""- S Specialty sand P Potassium salts } C .. · · 8 ', • Sand and gravel, crushed rock S Salt , t> "- and riprap SC Sodium carbonate ) , 

y Sulphur SS Sodium sulphate 1 _. ·"'s>" . "-.._ • Talc Sr strontium \ ·!':: 1.1 6:12 ', 

~ -----r--g-;:;---------------L -, 'if~~o.-.-·-- -; -;,-5--~--"'··,_ SAN -, b U ' 

t. l L 14 21 "' lUI S ~~ BAKERSFIELD 18 1 • 

SAN LUIS L, .· 16 0 ~ I 08 Is PO 0 0 8 I s p 0 L 1 g K E R N I 

~24 ·-, ~~7 I ...... /"'""'-...._ ll 28 I 

-, r "--.. ~ 

E2~ ,'-~,27 i SANTA jg-..._ __ ""\ __________ r 

30 I \ 1 ~ 32 

I ·, L 0 s I .. p I E T R A ' 31 36 IV N u ' A N G E L E s I ~ ' 37 \ ~39 ~c"'J 

J . ·38 ..,. g 4 

0 25 50 100 MILES 

19 

- ~20 SAN 

8 E R NARDINO :I)~~ 

33C sr ~35 

VENTURA I . ~- LOS I SAN Sr 40 ~·I 

__ .,- :AN~EL.ES.4_6 / 51~8ERNAROINO SS ~~----- . f:M_5 ,1 1'~--_r-------------I 

v ;-'......'1,8. 50 

53. Little Maria Mountains and Palen Mountains 

gypsum 

54. 

55. 

%. 

~. 

~. 

~. 

~. 

61. 

~. 

63. 

64. 

65. 

~. 

~. 

Santa Catalina Island stone 

Oceanside sand 

Pala-Rincon-Mesa Grande gems 

San Diego black granite 

San Dieguito pyrophyllite 

Fish Creek Mountains gypsum 

Calipatria pumice 

San Diego foundry sand 

Chula Vista salt 

San Diego sand, gravel, and crushed rock 

Campo feldspar 

Dos Cabezas limest'one 

Ogilby mica schist 

Ogilby kyani te 

~ 

LONG :c:-:~ 49 ,BEACH T~\ _: .. 

RANd£''> RIVERSIDE 

-:I 

·)-...... '\...._-.-.-:-- ------.,------------ ·-.:~?6 ! 

I ~60 

SAN J 59 

19 IMPER 

0 I E G 0 i EL CENTRO 

~,65 0 

I ----- --~~-.l------

Figure 3. Southern California, showing distribution of nonmetallic-mineral resources (from Wright and others, 1954). Stippled and enclosed areas denote broad areas of 

occurrence. 
Perlite in the Mojave Desert is used in light-weight 

aggregates, such as roofing shingles. A pumice prospect 

provides magnesite for the CALMA T Co.'s refractory-brick 

plant and is a source of magnesium oxide for their Mojave 

cement plant. 

The feldspar operation at White Butte, north of Kramer 

Junction, is a perthitic potash microcline, used as a filler in 

paints. 

Limestone and marble from Lucerne Valley (fig. 10) 

yield cement constituents that are used as fillers in paint 

and plastics.Marble and limestone are also used for decorative purposes, such as roofing granules, and in construction 

aggregates. 

Talc deposits are being mined in the Death Valley 

area from metamorphic-rock horizons. Sericite mica, used 

as an extender, is being mined in Imperial County. 

Several other industrial-mineral-commodity localities 

should be mentioned. Figure 11 shows the distribution 

in California of sources of magnesium, which is used 

for refractory ceramics and, more recently, as a source 

of magnesium oxide for chemicals. A view of one magnesium deposit (Bissel deposit 26, fig. 11) in Kern 

County is shown in figure 12. Magnesium oxide is also 

recovered from seawater. Source localities for phosphate 

rock (for fertilizers), silica (for glass), and titanium (for 

metallurgy) are plotted in figures 13 through 15. Although 

gypsum is mined in California, as at Plaster City, Calif. 

(fig. 16), much is imported from Mexico and fabricated at 

Plaster City. 

As figures 2 and 3 show, these are only a few of the 

important industrial-mineral resources in the State. Additional information on these deposits and others can be obtained from the DMG. 

Discussion and Comments 

Participant interest and comments following session 

I centered on four problem areas for industrial-mineral-resource availability in California: transportation, substitution 

of materials owing to new technology or lower-cost materials, the level of industrial-mineral exploration in California, 

and the availability of information on the depletion of domestic resources. 

Transportal ion 

• Although a simple value for the cost differential 

between gypsum imported from San Marcos Island, Mexico, 

to Los Angeles and domestic gypsum from the Southwestem United States is unavailable, the cost of importation 

generally is less, owing to water-freight economies. 

Figure 4. Molycorp's rare-earth mine, Mountain Pass, Calif. The rare-earth elements, also known as 

lanthanides, have a wide variety of high-technology uses in catalytic cracking, in metallurgy, as phosphors, 

in magnets, in glass and ceramics, and in electronics. This deposit is the largest of its type in the world. 

Photograph by John Clinkenbeard, courtesy of the DMG. 

The Variety, Uses, and Demand for Industrial-Mineral Resources in California 15 
• One of the advantages of substituting precipitated 

calcium carbonate for specialized ground limestone in the 

paper industry (see next section) is that the precipitated 

calcium carbonate plants are built adjacent to the paper 

mills. Special high-quality ground limestone, though cheaper 

to produce initially, has to be transported from the quarry, 

which may be located some distance away from the paper 

mill. This transportation may add to the cost of the limestone. At Grays Harbor, Wash., however, the delivered 

prices for natural and precipitated calcium carbonate are 

about the same, $140 to $150 per ton. 

• There's much interest in this State for imports of 

industrial materials from overseas, such as sand and gravel 

from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and silica sand 

from Australia. Imported high-quality Portland cement accounts for as much as 20 percent of the demand in the Los 

Angeles and San Francisco areas. As in the San Marcos 

situation, it's a matter of water-freight economics. 

Substitution of Materials 

• Limestone is used as a filler in the alkaline-sizing 

method of making paper, which has a longer shelf life than 

that produced by the conventional acid-kaolinite method. 

There's an increasing trend for substitution of precipitated 

calcium carbonate for the limestone. The calcium carbonate 

for high-grade limestone is derived from low-grade, dark 

limestone through which C02 gas is percolated to form regularly sized particles of clean, high-grade, white calcium carbonate precipitate. Although it's not yet causing closing of 

the special ground-limestone plants, it's taking a lot of the 

filler trade for the paper industry away from the natural 

product. At the moment, there's need for both products 

because not all of the paper companies have converted, but 

the trend is evident. The substitution of an alkaline for acid 

processing will affect the kaolinite producers (mainly in 

Georgia) in the longer term. 

Figure 5. U.S. Borax and Chemical Corp.'s boron mine, Boron, Calif., which contain hydrous sodium 

borate minerals (borax and kernite) in Tertiary lakebeds. A, View northward. Photograph courtesy of U.S. 

Borax and Chemical Corp. B, Mine pit, showing bedding of lake sedimentary deposits. 

16 Industrial Minerals in California: Economic Importance, Present Availability, and Future Development 
• Several industrial materials, such as calcined kaolin, delaminated kaolinite, and high-grade calcium carbonate, can replace titanium dioxide (Ti02

) to a certain extent. 

However, the refractive index of titanium dioxide provides 

tremendous opacity as well as whiteness, both of which are 

needed for printing color magazine advertising. The other 

materials may come close but cannot replace titanium dioxide completely, which is very expensive at almost $2,000 

per ton. Any substitution that takes away a major proportion of a market from a mining enterprise places additional 

stress on the remaining marketable product. 

Level of Exploration Activity 

• Much exploration activity is going on in California 

for conventional as well as new products, and the incentive 

for success is high. Companies based in other parts of the 

country also are very active in the State. The DMG has had 

a continuing high level of requests, and only recently has it 

Figure 5.-Continued 

been asked for information about gypsum, feldspar, feldspar sands, and magnesite sources in California. Many of 

those industrial-mineral-resource materials for which information has been requested are not now being produced in 

the State; some of them could be produced here. 

Availability of Reserve Data 

• The summary of 1987 production data provided by 

George Griggs should be balanced by information on the 

reserves, which indicate the lifetime of deposits. Such data 

are not generally available, although for some deposits, such 

as Searles Lake, the reserves are virtually inexhaustible. 

We know that some of the limestone deposits supporting 

domestic cement plants are approaching exhaustion-the 

reserves are being depleted. Data detailing this situation for 

industrial minerals have not been collected systematically, 

as have production data. All of these data are essential for 

resource planning. 

The Variety, Uses, and Demand for Industrial-Mineral Resources in California 17 
B 

Figure 6. Kerr-McGee Chemical Corp.'s salt deposits, Searles Lake, Calif., A, Dry lakebeds. B, 

Drilling on the playa lake. C, Section of a drill core in a brine-saturated sequence. 

18 Industrial Minerals in California: Economic Importance, Present Availability, and Future Development 
Figure 7. Cominco's trona deposit, Owens Lake, Calif., which 

is mined as a source of sodium oxide. Soda-ash recovery is 

planned. View westward. 

The Variety, Uses, and Demand for Industrial-Mineral Resources in California 19 
ZEOLITE RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA 

1. Rieardo Formation, El Paeo Htna. 

2. Klnn!ek Formet!on, Sand Canyon area 

3. Gem Hille Formation, Rosamond HUla 

4. Tropfeo Croup, Caetle Butte area 

5. Tertiary volcanic rocke, Summit Range 

6. Barstow Formetion, Hud Hille area 

7. P!ckhandle Formation, Calico Htna. -Lone Htn. - Hud Hille erea 

8. P!ckhandle Formation, Opal Htn. - Black Canyon - Gravel Hille area 

9. Miocene or younger rocke, Hector area 

10. Spanish Canyon Formation, Alvord Htn. area 

I! 9 ° 11. Tuffe of Pleistocene Lake Tecopa 

3 9" 

12. Aeh Meadows area (Death Valley Junction) 

13. Obispo Formation, western San Luis Obispo County 

' ,, 

~ ; l ~ ,, 

'3 ac 

36" 

PI ~5 

~2 o4\ c:::::>~.::J 0 10 

~3 &=' 

0 100 

Figure 8. California, showing locations of zeolite deposits (from Stinson, 1984). 

20 Industrial Minerals in California: Economic Importance, Present Availability, and Future Development 
Figure 9. Zeolite deposit. A, Steelhead Specialty Mineral's Ash Meadows zeolite (clinoptilolite) 

mine. View eastward. B, Parent rock is a thick ash-fall tuff that was altered to zeolite in an 

alkaline lake. 

The Variety, Uses, and Demand for Industrial-Mineral Resources in California 21 
Figure 10. Pfizer's Marble Canyon marble deposit. White marble is used in various fillers 

and extenders. View westward. 

LIST OF PLANTS 

(Present day) 

1. Kaiser Refractories Division, Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corporation, 

Moss Landing, Monterey County. 

2. Merck Chemical Division, Merck and Company Incorporated, South San 

Francisco, San Mateo County. 

(Past) 

3. Westvaco Chemical Division, Food Machinery and Chemical Corporation (FMC), 

Chula Vista, San Diego County . 

4. Westvaco Chemical Division, Food Machinery and Chemical Corporation (FMC), 

Newark, Alameda County. 

LIST OF DEPOSITS 

5. Red Mountain District, Border of Santa Clara and Stanislaus Counties. 

6. Western mine, Santa Clara County. 

7. Bald Eagle mine, Stanislaus County. 

8. Harker mine, Tulare County. 

9. Succes11 area, Tulare County. 

10. Sampson mine, San Bent to County. 

11. Snowflake and Blanco mines, Chiles Valley, Napa County. 

12. White Rock mine, Pope Valley, Napa County. 

13. Red Slide deposit , Sonoma County. 

14. Cedar Mountain, Alameda County: 

15. Fresno County. 

16. Kings County. 

17. Hixon Ranch, Mendocino County. 

18. Sullivan, Placer County. 

19. Hemet, Riverside County. 

20. Gray Eagle mine, Tuolumne County. 

21. Bastro deposits, San Bernardino County. 

22. Mountain Pass deposits, San Bernardino County. 

23. Afton deposits, San Bernardino County. 

24. Needles deposits, San Bernardino County. 

25. Kramer deposits, San Bernardino County. 

26. Bissell deposits, Kern County. 

27. Searles Lake ( 20 miles east of Searles Lake and west of Owls head 

Mountains), San Bernardino County. 

Figure 11. California, showing locations of magnesium deposits (from Majmundar, 1985). 

22 Industrial Minerals in California: Economic Importance, Present Availability, and Future Development 
/ r' 

-/· .-r~- -­ ("\ 

-

~ N···· 

~ 

Figure 11.-Continued 

2 0 

I ------

I y---· -- , I I ·· 41" 

I I 1 I 

C 

~ 

:;,o i OO 

SCA l E i N MI L E S 

+ 

• • 6 

0 

1-2 

3-4 

5-20 

21-22 

23-26 

27 

e " 

-LEGENDPlants producing magnesium compounds from sea 

water, present day. 

Plants produced magnesium compounds from sea 

water in the past . 

Magnesite deposits associated with serpentine. 

Magnesite deposits associated with dolomite. 

Sedimentary magnesite. 

Soluble magnesium minerals. 

' ' 

I 

! 25 

~ 

• 21 

I l 7 ° 

' 

'~ ·" 

'~·· 36" 

~. 

The Variety, Uses, and Demand for Industrial-Mineral Resources in California 23 
Figure 12. CALMAT Co.'s Bissel magnesite mine, Kern County, Calif. Magnesite was used in the past for 

refractory bricks, but now it is a source of magnesium oxide. 

24 Industrial Minerals in California: Economic Importance, Present Availability, and Future Development 
t 

-N-

~ 0 50 

SCALE IN MILES 

100 

rl 

-LEGENDL NEW CUYAMA DEPOSIT 

2. PINE MOUNTAIN DEPOSIT 

3. INDIAN CREEK PROSPECT 

4. SAN GABRIEL ANORTHOSITE 

5. CARMEL VALLEY OCCURRENCE 

6. HYAMPOM SHALE 

7. ALISO a OSO CANYON BEDS 

I I I 0 

Figure 13. California, showing locations of phosphate deposits (from Burnett, 1985). 

The Variety, Uses, and Demand for Industrial-Mineral Resources in California 2.5 
..... .... . 1 '

11 •••• eao• -- I L I I r---- ',.-----l-••• t.YubeSIIIcaCompany. 

\ 2. Joe Cheveraux Company 

~1., ' i 3. Owena-llllnoia 

ACTIVE SILICA OPERATIONS 

~-~1----_jr-----~ 4. Unlmen Corp. 

~~ • ,_ .. ,. 5. Santa Cruz Aggregate Company 

• / ! I e. Lone Star 

'

! ,C::..-----~-l : 7. Monterey Sand Company ' ' ... ~... I a. VInnell Mining --L.-\ l1 \ _ .. 0• 8. Southwestern Portland Cement Company 

r.' ----1.::../ ' 1 : 10. P.W. Gllllbrand Company 

L, ')1,"' .... ,--.LJI 11 • Rlveralde Cement Company 

1----~JC~-:.l-,::::-_-~ 1 2. Oglebay-Norton 

, '7 ' '• {_" 1 1".13. Cryatal Silica Company 

- \. \...._--{ ~ ,"'......r--'ic-, + ... ~ ~ -< )' MOdified from Gay. 1157 and Clark and Carlton, 1157 

'r' \ . .,. " - ' ,if" ?" 

'\ r!a -1 j r-f:-;::~,~ ',1 ' \ I g .. ~J' , \ '\,. 

I "'-... "' •:•· 

6 I 'V' -" ', :n• 

..... ff ,r )f·"'"-j ?J- "-..,1 

, -!( t. " 

("' ' 

\~' j ) 

-~-~ L ', 111• 

' -N-

-~.. ,-<:' / .,\ "+17· ~ .. ''("' ''-,--' _j ', 7~ , _r_r--\ "-

'.. ': J_...{ \. D ',~~~·· ~~ ' \ I ~> r , '1. " I _j '-llo 

--~<--~----- _T ______ :~ ... -t ' ,,, . . \ .. , I "! 

I ~L I ' SILICA IN CALIFORNA 

6 Early Tertiary eand dapoalta 

., Late Tertiary. Plalltooane eandat~ ···+-,. 

'""1., ')-u• ~"''-. ... 1 I " 

~ T'--,-----1 8 \ aand and gravel oepoana 

c. ftacent allwlat depoaltl Including talllnp 

0 Recent beach and dune eande 

[J Quartzite dapoalte 

() Vain quartz and 

pegmatite depoalta 

0 50 

SCALE Ill MILES 

I \ I • 9 l,.. 

~~ \ ) .. ~' -------~--{-u• .. I 

.... <> J ' 

I <> ----------r-------I 

·•13 I l 100 

Filled In, numbeNCI eymbOI Indicate• active mine or proapect .... ! ;.>-... <>1------r ----- I ,,,. I , ... , .. ,. 

Figure 14. California, showing locations of active silica operations (from Silva, 1985). 

26 Industrial Minerals in California: Economic Importance, Present Availability, and Future Development 
EXPLANATION 

:-!', Ar.a ol melomorphic roclcs with .. ' ',.) associated ti toni um minerals 

~ Area of onortllosite 

0 Titoniurrt-minerol occurrence 

i:J. Ti tonium -rich placer deposit 

0 

'!" 

1 ',~~6· 

~--~~-;~~----~~-----+-------~-- ---- 1 "-, 

! ~~15" 

0 0 

0 

INOEX MAP OF CALIFORNIA 

0 50 100 150 MILES ~ · , I I I 

J 1 1 1 ~ 1Jo 1~ KILOMETERS 

Figure 15. California, showing locations of titanium deposits (from California Division of Mines 

and Geology, 1 984). 

The Variety, Uses, and Demand for Industrial-Mineral Resources in California 27 
Figure 16. U.S. Gypsum Co.'s gypsum deposit, Plaster City, Calif. Photograph courtesy of 

the U.S. Gypsum Co. 

28 Industrial Minerals in California: Economic Importance, Present Availability, and Future Development 
Land-Access and Permitting Problems for 

Resource Availability 

P.H. Dahms, Convenor 

Land is the basic commodity with which the minerals 

explorationist works. The availability of land for the discovery and development of industrial-mineral deposits is 

essential to encourage exploration and, indeed, to meet the 

future resource needs of an industrial society. Mineral deposits are not portable; they cannot be moved to a more 

convenient location for their development. They must be 

either mined where they are found or left there untouched. 

Some industrial minerals, such as sand and gravel, are more 

abundant than others, and so a greater resource base exists 

from which to choose an operational site. Nevertheless, 

market forces come into play in determining the site most 

attractive for development. Other industrial-mineral deposits, such as the rare earths of Molycorp at Mountain Pass, 

are unique and found in only one place, and so they are 

more susceptible to being lost if the developer is denied 

access. There are many constraints on land access for mineral development in California. Robert Sega begins with a 

discussion of the issues surrounding land access in the vast 

California Desert in the southeastern part of the State. I 

follow with a consideration of the constraints operative in 

high-growth areas of central California, where mineral development bumps up against competing land uses. 

Permitting and wning are processes whereby public 

decisionmakers become involved in the development process. Permitting is based on the legal necessity of balancing 

or arbitrating the sometimes-conflicting needs of society to 

obtain appropriate solutions to the conflicts that surround 

opposing needs. Society has decided, for better or worse, that 

the owners or occupiers of the land do not have unlimited 

rights to do what they will with it. Once society makes that 

basic decision, it is inevitable that the involvement of society 

in the development process will grow. Permitting for a new 

industrial-mineral development is a multifaceted and complex process. The basic requirements for the process are 

time, money, and unlimited patience. Talented and skillful 

attorneys and consultants also can be of immeasurable help. 

James Good considers some State-wide minerals-permitting 

issues, and Donald Deem discusses the role of counties and 

permit applicants in the process. Finally, Donald Blubaugh 

provides his perspective, having spent his career working 

from the triple positions of a mine operator, State government 

resource-department executive, and industry consultant. 

Public-Lands-Access Issues 

By R.A. Sega 

The mining industry in southern California is facing a 

major problem of land access, the result of the introduction 

of the CDPA by Senator Cranston [Calif.] as bill S. 11. 

This legislation proposes to create more than 4 million 

acres of new wilderness areas in the California Desert (fig. 

17), closing that ground to mineral exploration and development (see app. 3). The Mountain Pass rare-earth operation is located in the eastern Mojave Desert region, adjacent 

to Nevada, in a desert conservation area administered by 

the BLM. The following remarks are primarily about access in this area, but these observations should also be representative for other areas in the State. 

Mining companies and related businesses are highly 

regulated. In the Mountain Pass area, a company is regulated on a three-level system by county, State, and Federal 

agencies. The county does not provide many land-regulation problems, which are mostly concerned with building 

permits and air quality. At the State level, we deal with 

surface water, wastes, and some land problems. No mining 

company initially starts out owning all the land that it wants 

to develop; it must obtain these lands sequentially through 

the claims system. Major land access and acquisition are 

obtained from the Federal Government through the claims 

system of the BLM; access to State-owned lands is similarly regulated. 

Access to the land is essential to evaluate claims. No 

longer can one just walk over the surface and find minable 

ore deposits. Highly sophisticated geologic, geochemical, 

and geophysical techniques, some of which can be done by 

Land-Access and Permitting Problems for Resource Availability 29 
CURRENT CALIFORNIA DESERT PLAN 

• • D 

Monuments/Parks/Wilderness 

-National Monuments 

-State Parks 

-State and Federal Wilderness 

(designated and proposed) 

BLM, Limited Use (Class L) 

BLM, Moderate Use (Class M) 

BLM, Intensive Use (Class I) 

Military 

Other 

-Private 

-State 

-Other government 

Figure 17. Southern California, showing areas considered in current desert plan (A), and those being considered for inclusion in 

proposed CDPA legislation (B). From U.S. Bureau of Land Management (1989). 

30 Industrial Minerals in California: Economic Importance, Present Availability, and Future Development 
PROPOSED DESERT LEGISLATION 

Figure 17. -Continued 

.. : . . ·· .. · 

• • D 

Parks/Wilderness 

-National Parks 

-State Parks 

-State and Federal Wilderness 

(designated) 

BLM, Limited Use (Class L) 

BLM, Moderate Use (Class M) 

BLM, Intensive Use (Class I) 

Military 

Other 

-Private 

-State 

-Other government 

Land-Access and Permitting Problems for Resource Availability 31 
airplanes and satellites, are required. Finally, proving out 

the deposit requires that the area be drilled. This process 

may require building roads to the drillsite. In the past, permits for such activities have not been difficult to obtain. 

The BLM has administered much of its lands on a multipleuse basis (mining and grazing are possible uses of the land 

when applicable BLM procedures of filing plans of operation to protect the land are followed). Once the ore deposit 

is proved, mining activity may begin. Any disrupted land 

must be restored, and the land must be reclaimed after mining ends, on the basis of an agreed-upon plan. A great deal 

of time and equipment are required to do this. 

A change in the permitting process is introduced by 

the CDP A. How does this bill affect mining? It promises to 

protect the rights of miners, providing they have valid existing claims. However, it creates 4.5 million acres of wilderness areas plus 1.5 million acres in the East Mojave 

National Scenic Area. It has been stated, inaccurately, in 

the proposed legislation that many of these areas are not 

mineralized. The fact is that within the boundaries of the 

proposed wilderness lands are 20 historical mining districts. 

In the eastern Mojave Desert area, there are nine historical 

mining areas. Within the boundaries of the East Mojave 

National Scenic Area, as proposed, there are two operating 

gold mines and one developing gold mine. Molycorp has 

approximately 7,500 acres of claims within the proposed 

scenic-area boundary. An additional 100,000 acres of Precambrian rocks with high rare-earth potential is within that 

area. If this bill passes, the withdrawn areas will be close to 

the Mountain Pass deposit. Essentially, once this area becomes wilderness or park, the land will be closed to mineral entry forever, and access to the wilderness areas, by 

definition, will be only by foot. 

There are other mines in and adjacent to the Mountain Pass rare-earth deposit that will also be affected by this 

bill. One of the CDPA' s provisions is to protect scenic 

vistas and create buffer zones. Location of a mine facility 

adjacent to a national park raises all sorts of environmental 

problems for industry compliance, and mining companies 

have been known to pull out of such areas because of the 

severe to unresolvable restrictions placed on their operation. 

Maps (see fig. 17) show that the areas covered by the 

proposed park in this legislation encompass most of southern California. This is a very highly mineralized area, as 

figures 2 and 3 show. Congressional preparation of the proposed park boundaries was poorly conceived and executed. 

In early 1988, DOl committee members and staff visited 

the area. While flying over the Colosseum mine, which is 6 

mi from the Mountain Pass operation and within the proposed park boundaries, staff persons looked down and asked 

what the mine was. No one had told the staff that this mine 

was inside the proposed park. The Colosseum mine is allowed to operate on the basis of Federal, State, and county 

permits, which the NPS proponents didn't know about. 

Whether wilderness or park areas are created, this bill 

poses a major problem of access for mining companies that 

support the economy of southern California and the Nation. 

Many industrial-mineral materials that occur in that region 

can be found only there; otherwise, the Nation must depend 

on outside sources of supply. For example, the Molycorp 

rare-earth deposit is the only one of its kind known in the 

United States. This deposit contains a highly critical group 

of minerals: They are used in eyeglass polishing, as a catalyst for gasoline refining, and in car mufflers to protect air 

quality. Samarium-cobalt magnets are used in computer 

technology and in television tubes. There are three known 

world sources for these materials--Molycorp, a French 

company, and China. Molycorp produces about 50 percent 

of U.S. supplies. The deposit has about a 30-year ore reserve. The company has many claims to the south with a 

potential for the occurrence of rare earths, but without the 

right to explore these claim in proposed withdrawn lands, 

the future domestic source dries up. 

Mining-Problem Resolution in 

High-Growth Areas of California 

By P.H. Dohms 

In high-growth areas, mining competes with other 

conflicting land uses. Land in California is a finite resource, 

and except for some minor dredge-and-fill activities, it's 

not being created any more. With the population growth 

that's occurring in the State, the conflicting demands for 

land access increasingly are causes for problems. Population growth is creating a direct demand for space on which 

to locate people. In suburban and exurban areas, the population growth rate is running somewhere in the vicinity of 6 

percent a year; in some more rural counties, the rate is 

running about 10 percent a year. In urban areas, we see a 2-

to 4-percent growth rate. All of these new people moving 

into the State create a parallel demand for minerals to support people's food, housing, and urban-infrastructure needs. 

Thus, there are indirect demands for space to find and develop minerals and also for recreational lands, as typified in 

the objectives of the CDPA. 

There are two types of industrial-mineral development that serve society and require access to land. The first 

serves population growth, as typified by construction materials like sand and gravel, crushed stone, and cement. The 

second is the development of new resources to serve new 

and expanding markets. These resources might include such 

things as talc in the Sierra Nevada, titanium dioxide being 

developed in northern Los Angeles County, a new highpurity silica sand deposit that has just come on line in western Riverside County, and rare earths in the California desert. 

However, the needs of society that these materials serve 

seem less readily apparent to that society. 

32 Industrial Minerals in California: Economic Importance, Present Availability, and Future Development 
The conflicts that arise between the demand for minerals and other conflicting needs of society can be typified 

in different statements that represent what may be called 

syndromes. The first is the refugee syndrome: "I moved here 

to escape the noise, or dust, or traffic, or industrial presence, or whatever." Or, "I moved out of the city into the 

peace and quiet of the countryside. Don't tell me there's a 

mine coming in here!" The second is the airport syndrome: 

"So what if the mine or quarry was here first-my house is 

here now, the mine can move." The third is the know-nothing syndrome: "The only motivations for mining are greed, 

and a desire to deface the environment; I don't use anything 

that's mined, anyway." The fourth is the Neanderthal 

miner syndrome: "Megabuck mining has always done it this 

way. Bang!" That's the sound of the uneducated but sincere 

miner as he shoots himself in the foot or shoots his friends in 

the back. The last is the politician syndrome: "How do I get 

these angry people out of my office or off my back so that I 

can get on with the important business of my reelection?" 

How do we go about resolving some of these conflicts? In my experience, there are several of different complex resolution mechanisms that have been tried and used 

with varying degrees of success or failure. The first, of 

course, is sweet compromise. However, this works only if 

intelligent people on both sides of the issue can simultaneously reach the decisionmakers before the conflict becomes politicized. The second is education. This works best 

if the education process is well underway or almost complete before the conflict crystallizes. The third might be 

characterized as negotiation. This generally requires the 

presence of a skillful intermediary, as well as mutually intelligent decisionmakers and an unusually patient applicant. 

The fourth is the Surface Mining Area Reclamation Act of 

1975 (SMARA), through application of its classification 

and designation process (see app. 4). 

Within the budgetary and personnel constraints of this 

California program, SMARA seems to be working well as a 

tool in the conflict-resolution process for mineral development and mineral-lands access. One of its secrets for success is that it takes the local government organizations off 

the hook; they can point to "Big Brother" in Sacramento, 

telling the developers how they have to preserve these mineral deposits for an open-pit development. The SMARA 

concept, by which key resources that have to be protected 

from incompatible development or incompatible permanent 

uses are identified, is unique to California, and it's unique 

as a planning tool within California. It's a process that should 

be extended to other areas of government planning and other 

areas of land-use conflict. 

Finally, there's litigation. Typically, the mining applicant approaches litigation as a last resort. Litigation is 

not necessarily an undesirable tool for conflict resolution. 

In selected cases, where the law and the facts are on your 

side, a mining applicant shouldn't hesitate to use this tool. 

As a class, mine operators and mine developers generally 

are too reluctant to sue to assert their rights. 

In conclusion, California is now and will continue to 

be the most populous State in the Nation; it continues to 

grow at a very rapid rate. The current and future conflicts 

regarding land-access issues are inevitable. Resolving them 

will require intelligence and patience on the part of applicants, public-trust agencies, and decisionmakers. Each of 

the parties has legitimate needs and represents a legitimate 

goal of society. However, the parties to the conflict must be 

willing to educate themselves as to the legitimate needs of 

the opposition parties before successful resolution can be 

achieved. In the SMARA classification/designation process, 

California has developed a unique tool for the resolution of 

natural-resources land-access conflicts. This process should 

be encouraged and expanded as society's needs for critical 

materials continue to grow. 

California Minerals-Permitting Issues 

By j.E. Good 

A new-to-the-State mining company with a property 

in northern California recently said to me, "I think we have 

a handle on everything; we've been down talking with the 

county people." I replied that they they had no idea of what 

was going on in California until they knew what's going on 

in Sacramento. There's action going on there all the time 

by the regulatory agencies and by the legislators. Membership in the CMA could help this company to plug more 

realistically into the system (it has since joined). Some principles regarding the Sacramento scene are worth emphasizing here. 

The first principle is that California regulates regardless of what the Federal Government does. It's almost immaterial what the EPA or the BLM does; California does its 

own thing! In that vein, the State has set some precedents, 

which are now being carried out in other States and at the 

Federal level. For example, the land-ban regulations on certain types of waste no longer permit unrestricted discharge 

on the land. There are also regulations regarding underground tanks and "toxic pits." The toxic-pits law has given 

some mining projects much grief because the law was developed by using an oil-refinery model. However, there are 

some exemptions in the law for mining operations that have 

to be searched out. 

Another principle is that big mining companies are 

no longer like elephants who can sit where they please. 

They have to deal with regulatory people and legislative 

bills at all levels of government. One cannot just start a 

mine any more. Actually, it's surprising how many people 

who come into the State to engage in mining operations 

still think that's the case. 

At the State level, California's hazardous-waste program is an very aggressively regulated program adminisLand-Access and Permitting Problems for Resource Availability 33 
tered by the CDHS. It's surprising what can be considered 

a hazardous waste in a mining context, where you might be 

talking about extremely low levels of natural metals-for 

example, arsenic, lead, and so on. The CDHS uses an aggressive test, which identifies a lot more wastes as hazardous than do the Federal tests of the EPA. If a company 

finds itself involved in the hazardous-waste category, it's 

subject to the CDHS permit requirements in addition to 

other permit requirements, and significant fees and taxes 

must be paid on various types of waste. About 7 years ago, 

the tax on mining waste was $1.00 per ton, and if it was 

deemed hazardous, it could reach as much as to $2,500 per 

month. That helped support a CDHS budget of about $6 

million. Today, its budget is about $60 million, and the tax 

on mining waste is about $16 per ton, for as much as 5,000 

tons per month. There are additional taxes, or fees as they 

call them, on facilities used for the disposal of hazardous 

waste. Actually, most mining operations I've been involved 

with have been successful in obtaining a variance from the 

CDHS regulations, but not from the taxes and fees, based 

on the fact that the real area of concern is the impact of 

mining on water quality as regulated by the water boards. 

Most companies manage to obtain a variance, but it takes 

time and money to do so. The maddening process of dealing with the CDHS, in comparison with a commission form 

of regulatory body like the SWB, is that an application to 

the CDHS may disappear for a long period without your 

being involved in the process. With the State and regional 

water boards, you can be present and see what they're doing because they conduct their affairs in public. 

A recent example of the progressive thinking of the 

SWB was their request that the University of California, 

Berkeley, conduct a study of the impact of mining wastes 

on water quality and the environment. This study was supported by the CDHS, the SWB, and the COOC and was 

prompted by the CMA's complaints to these agencies that 

mining keeps getting tarred with the same hazardous-waste 

brush as is applied to other industries every time the legislature acts. There was a need for a study by reputable 

noninterested academics who could determine, once and for 

all, what the threats of mine waste actually are. Are they 

really a problem? By and large, the study's conclusions 

provide points favorable to the position of the mining industry. Although the study dwells on the past sins of mining, and they do exist-mine hazardous runoff, and so on-it 

also concludes that, under today's regulatory setup, these 

problems would be avoided. 

Two favorable recommendations were made. The first 

was that legislation be introduced and adopted to take the 

CDHS out of the regulation of mine waste, leaving such 

regulation totally to the water boards. The CDHS endorsed 

the report, saying that there are plenty of things for them to 

do in regulating really toxic materials. A bill has been formulated by the CMA; it has a sponsor for introduction and 

will go forward. 1 

The second was that the attenuation factor be studied 

at least to determine what relative role it can play in minewaste permitting. The mining people have been saying for 

some time that everything doesn't have to be totally controlled by leach-pad field liners, absolute-zero discharge 

limits, and engineered containment features, but that there's 

a role for attenuation. The SWB staff is wary about this and 

doesn't want to allow for it. The Berkeley report recommends strongly that this issue be studied, beginning with a 

complete literature review of all presently available information. The SWB currently is trying to find money to go 

forward with this study? 

The regional water boards have wider jurisdiction than 

the CDHS because they can look at all kinds of mining 

wastes and their impact on water quality, not just at socalled hazardous waste. They presently regulate mining 

waste under a special regulation, article 7 of subchapter 15 

of the subregulations in the California Code of Regulations. 

The boards break wastes down into categories A (hazardous), B (possibly hazardous or having an adverse impact on 

water quality), and C (relatively benign and not requiring 

engineering controls). However, the approach of the regulations is to look at a waste as if it were going to be discharged anywhere in the State-here, in the San Pedro Bay, 

or in the desert. We've been carrying out a never-ending 

discussion with the SWB staff about revising this article. It 

began 4 years ago with mutual agreement that the categories A, B, and C were technically unclear and that there is a 

need to technically clarify the classification process. Recently, we received another draft, and now we seem to be 

back to square one. One concept that we're trying to get 

through is a one-step approach that would factor how to 

handle waste into the classification-not only the waste 

characteristics, but also the site characteristics, the climate, 

attenuation, and so on. 

Finally, there are the legislative and initiative solutions that have been used lately, which superimpose themselves on the regulatory process. First, there's the Toxic 

Pits Act, which I consider a cynical view of the legislature 

regarding the effectiveness of the regulatory process. This 

act mandates to the water boards how to regulate so-called 

toxic pits. It's a too-detailed statute that has all the faults of 

such statutes, without enough leeway left for regulatory 

decisionmaking. As a result, it's had to be amended several 

times. For example, I was involved in formulating an ex1 Bill AB 1413 sponsored by Assemblywoman Sally Tanner, which 

removes the CDHS from regulating waste generated in the extraction, 

beneficiation, and processing of ores and minerals, with attendant fees for 

support of the CDHS, recently passed both houses of the legislature unanimously, was signed by the Governor, and became effective on January 1, 

1990. 2A contract recently was awarded to the University of California, 

Davis, for the literature review. 

34 Industrial Minerals in California: Economic Importance, Present Availability, and Future Development 
emption to the act which says that the return brine flow 

from a plant into Searles Lake-a naturally created lakeis not a flow into a toxic pit. The return brine flow contains 

arsenic, which is the same arsenic that was taken out of the 

lake and returned to the lake after the plant stripped out the 

chemicals that were sought. Before that exemption was obtained, the regional water board said that that such a return 

was a toxic-pit discharge, and so the company must line the 

pit! 

Proposition 65 on the recent ballot (see app. 5) was, 

in tum, a cynical reaction of the people regarding the effectiveness of the legislative process. It said that the legislature 

wasn't doing it's job to protect the waters of the State and 

to protect people from dangerous chemicals. The initiative 

ballot summary said that a vote for 65 was a vote for clean 

water. The initiative passed and is now being fleshed out 

into various regulations by the CHW A. Some of its proposed regulations are good, but others should give grave 

concern to the mining industry, particularly those concerning lead and those affecting stormwater runoff, mine pits, 

and ponds. The lead standard, for example, is considered 

necessary to protect people from a reproductive toxicant. 

Under the law, the scientifically known safe limit for lead 

in water is divided by 1,000; that, then, becomes the limit, 

which is an impossible one. 

It's difficult to operate a mine in California because 

of the overlapping jurisdictions that have been mentioned. 

Too many mining companies (primarily those from out of 

State) that don't know the territory tend to get deeply involved in their project and then run into regulatory problems. At that point, the regulatory agency has them under 

its thumb. In some cases, the water boards have enforced 

outrageous requirements on mining operations, when it 

seems as if you can't fight them any more. There are probably some areas where you can pick a fight and go to court, 

but you have to do it in a timely fashion. The OPA can help 

industry on a lot of issues when they get into conflicts over 

regulatory jurisdictions and requirements. Sometimes a little 

"jawboning" by the OP A with the regulatory agencies helps. 

The Role of the Applicant and the Counties 

By D.C. Deem 

I want to bring up two points. The first touches on 

such strategies as the role of the applicant with the lead 

agency and the lead agency's responsive role to the applicant. The second deals with some of the special problems 

that the CEQA presents for industrial minerals in the area 

of land acquisition and permitting. 

My first point is that after doing about the same number of precious-metals-permitting projects as industrialminerals-permitting projects, I've become convinced that 

there are some major differences between permitting an 

industrial-mineral project and a precious-metals project. The 

first is that precious-metal deposits almost always involve 

some kind of chemical process-which is in itself a big 

complication. The second is that a precious-metals applicant seldom seeks to permit a second project in the same 

lead agency's jurisdiction in the same county. In contrast, 

an industrial-mineral company, particularly a sand and gravel 

rock-processing company, often needs to permit several different operations in the same area over a long period of 

time. The company is usually in residence within a single 

jurisdiction for a long time. An established operator in a 

county can respond to an agency from a stronger power 

base, voter base, or tax base than can a newcomer, who has 

to adopt a more diplomatic role in dealing with the lead 

regulatory agency. For example, an established sand and 

gravel operator in the Sacramento Valley can usually permit another project in that county easily with inhouse staff, 

probably at a superintendent or foreman level, doing the 

permitting work because the firm is "acceptable" there, pays 

taxes, and has numerous employees. That same company, 

however, going outside of the county where its base of 

operation is located, often becomes frustrated because it's 

been used to dealing from a position of power. 

I want to underscore that in all cases where projects 

are well thought out, the applicant is generally in a much 

more powerful position than he may realize. Most good 

projects tend to get permitted, particularly industrial-mineral projects. It's when the operators and the lead agency 

fail to recognize what their relative roles are that things 

begin to break down. A county planning director can quickly 

get into trouble by coming down too hard on an established 

operator, whereas he might pick on a new one successfully. 

My second point has to do with a special problem 

with industrial minerals and land access and permitting that 

I haven't seen in the precious-metals program. Industrial 

minerals are generally tied to limited markets, and most 

industrial-mineral markets are hotly contested. The CEQA 

process and the disclosure procedure necessary under the 

application format (to gather EIR data) causes a special 

problem for certain industrial-mineral producers. Certain 

types of industrial minerals require a great deal of secrecy 

during the early phases of exploration, formulation of the 

project, and land acquisition because not only does the mining company have to worry about public attitudes and reactions, lead-regulatory-agency reactions, and State reactions, 

but it also commonly has an added variable in the equation-agressive competitors. It's not unusual for a clay operator in a clay basin to testify against another clay operator 

at the hearing process, trying to deny them their permits. 

This practice usually leads to retaliatory actions. Many 

companies are, therefore, highly secretive in their exploration. Thus, public release of reserve information and reports 

about how much exploration is going on in the State is 

unlikely. Some companies never report their exploration 

activities, and others don't report their production data. For 

Land-Access and Permitting Problems for Resource Availability 35 
example, a well-known company started a talc-exploration 

program in 1979 to seek a west-coast source. It chose a 

name, "Western Source," to conceal its parent company. It 

knew that if its competitors knew what it was up to, they 

could pick up key parcels and key deposits to deprive it of 

the ability to create a viable project. A simple alerting and a 

minimal effort by the competition would forever preclude 

beginning an economical western operation. Thus, for industrial minerals it can become a fairly serious proposition 

to obtain properties even before beginning the permitting 

process. 

land Access and Permitting from 

an Industry/Bureaucrat Perspective 

By D.L. Blubaugh 

Condensing 34 years into 5 minutes is a difficult task, 

but I'll try to tell you what I've learned about both sides of 

the permitting coin. I dealt with four major projects as a 

miner before I went with the State. One project was in 

Indiana, and it took 30 days to get a permit. A second, in 

New Mexico, took 60 days to obtain a use permit. In the 

Philippines it took 1 hour; their philosophy at that time was 

that if you put the money in and you didn't operate to the 

level of their laws, they would shut you down. In California, surprisingly, it took us only 90 days up in Shasta County. 

However, our corporate engineering staff didn't think it 

could be done that fast, and so they very carefully checked 

all of the documents, by which time the project had run out 

of money. A few years later, the project was reactivated, 

but one of the things that we didn't plan for was dealing 

with a local land user who took us to county court. We also 

had some experience working with the county regulators as 

the lead agency. The project was really sold to the local 

regulators when the exploration and drilling crews went 

into the deposit area in their work clothes. Don't go in 

wearing three-piece suits; the workers and beer drinkers 

sell the project locally. 

You have to understand the local concerns. That's 

one of the things we emphasized in Shasta County. We had 

the good timing to come in just after they'd shut down a 

lumber mill and 350 people were looking for jobs. We 

understood the local concern about jobs-that helped. Consult with the county supervisor. He was the first person we 

talked to. We went up and had dinner with him and said 

that our crews were coming in; we weren't sure if we had a 

viable project or not. We advised him not to get excited; 

we'd come to him when we needed assistance. 

You want to clarify any misquotes or misunderstandings in the local newspaper. I was talking to the press in 

Redding on the telephone, and the reporter asked how many 

people we planned to employ, ultimately. I said about 500 

people, and I said we'd like to put Mansville out of business in Santa Barbara County. It hit the press that night, 

and there were only about 35 employees up there at that 

point. So don't joke around, but whenever a misquote is 

made, correct it immediately if you anticipate problems. 

You have to estimate your permitting costs as well as 

your time. Put a good contingency factor into your estimate. When you get excited and have to backtrack because 

you haven't done your homework, the regulatory agencies 

have you over a barrel. 

Select a local legal counsel. Get somebody who knows 

the ins and outs of the local government and people, and 

can handle local emergencies at that point. Corporate- or 

State-level counsels are useful, but success came when we 

had a local counsel involved in the projects. 

The last tip is to select a reasonable reclamation plan. 

At that time, a lot of companies were fighting reclamation 

because it does take a lot of money. Our firm had a history 

of operating on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, in Los Angeles 

County, for many years and had reclaimed that land successfully. We had a showcase and proof of what we could 

do. However, the real-estate values dictated a lot of what 

we did; that's important to understand. 

After this private-enterprise experience, I went into 

State government as director of the CDOC. My experience 

in industry, I thought, should help get any kind of permit 

through. My first case on the job (I'd been there 24 hours) 

was a project called Cal Nickel up in Del Norte County. I 

asked for the permits and the reclamation plan before I 

went to the meeting. It was a thick stack of paperwork, so I 

talked with the OPA to see how we could fast-track the 

hearing. The attorney general got into the act, and the process got entirely out of local-government control because of 

the concern over scenic rivers and similar interests. 

One of the problems I had within a sister agency, 

which was not under my supervision, was that certain of 

their employees commented on the viability of the project. I 

told them that we didn't care whether the project lost money, 

that it wasn't our position to make a financial judgment on 

a mining property. I think that whenever you run into that 

situation, you can challenge it anywhere. We do not divulge economic information. 

The next case was Homestake's McLaughlin project 

in Napa, Lake, and Yolo Counties. That report file consisted of a huge stack of documents. I was in panic because 

this was a metals-mining company, which was able to spend 

the considerable amount of money for that documentation. 

No industrial-mineral-mining company can do that because 

of the exorbitant cost. 

Another recommendation is to know the key people 

in the agencies. A lot of people would show up at hearings, 

especially those representing the Fish and Game agency, 

who weren't there on official business. The secretary of 

resources directed that the CDOC had the lead on most 

projects. We worked through other agencies to make sure 

that the persons present were official representatives. Don't 

36 Industrial Minerals in California: Economic Importance, Present Availability, and Future Development 
be afraid to challenge credentials. Are witnesses there in an 

official capacity or because of private interest? One of the 

things I learned in Sacramento is that there are a lot of 

people in this country who take the attitude that they don't 

want people on the freeway because they might speed. As I 

alluded to in the Philippine project, if you break the law, 

they shut you down. The big concern for Jim Good was 

proposition 65; the industry owes him gratitude for watching over the deliberations. 

Discussion and Comments 

Several special problems that concern or are related 

to access to and permitting of industrial-mineral projects 

were elaborated or commented on, and suggestions made 

for ameliorating or solving some of them. These are highlighted in the following commentaries. 

Access to Withdrawn Lands 

• One of the major problems for industrial-mineral 

mining in southern California is obtaining access for exploration, particularly on those lands withdrawn by governmental legislation. These actions are supported by evaluation 

studies by the USBM, the USGS, and other Federal and 

State agencies. As you know, withdrawal takes the land out 

of use by the mining industry, and regardless of what's said 

in the legislative record about availability of the land if it's 

needed in the national interest, it's generally lost forever. 

Once withdrawn, these lands may never be opened up again. 

The resource evaluations are being done by using conventional mineral-resource-deposit models-the evaluators can't 

look into the ground; they can only use the conventional 

mineral models based on surface evidence. They can't take 

into account or take advantage of the increasing willingness 

of exploration companies to drill for blind ore bodies. Three 

major ore bodies were discovered by the Getty Oil Co.: (1) 

At CasaGrande, Ariz., a blind ore body was found at 1,200 

ft below a cotton field, had absolutely no show at the surface, and no way that anyone could make a case that the 

ground was mineralized; (2) at Escondito, Chile, a major 

ore body, projected to be the second largest copper mine in 

the world when developed, was a blind ore body found by 

willingness to drill; and (3) the Jabiluka, Australia, deposit, 

which is the largest high-grade uranium deposit in the world, 

was blind with no show on the surface. There are many 

other examples. In southeastern California, for instance, a 

potentially good example is the exploration for borates. Increasingly, borate explorationists will be searching for blind 

ore bodies in vast areas of basins where there's nothing on 

the surface. You can't make a case, using the present ground 

rules when you go up against bill S. 11, that the areas 

proposed for withdrawal may be mineralized. What's being 

done by the evaluators? Are there any considerations on the 

part of the USBM or USGS and other public resource bodies to take into account the willingness of exploration groups 

to test new and unconventional ideas and do blind drilling? 

• California's SMARA regulations give the DMG authority to classify lands for their mineral potential. The DMG 

uses a four fold classification system. A Mineral Resource 

Zone, MRZ-1 classification indicates that work has been 

done and the agency is satisfied that there is no mineral 

potential there, on the basis of appropriate ore-forming 

models and data in a series of maps. In the MRZ-2 classification, enough is known to say that there's a significant 

mineral deposit present or likely to be found there. The 

MRZ--3 classification indicates that mineralization is known 

in the area, but its significance is not known. Most importantly, the ~ classification says that there's insufficient information to know whether or not there's anything 

there. In effect, these land classifications tell the public that 

although those in Government are supposed to be unbiased, 

they don't have X-ray vision. By means of this classification system, the DMG is telling people just what it knows 

or doesn't know. However, there's quite a lot that's not 

known, mainly because the agency doesn't have access to 

the money it would take to make more complete assessments. 

• That's exactly the problem-how can we evaluate 

what we don't know because we can't see into the ground? 

No one can be effective in fighting withdrawals who's limited to saying we really don't know what's there, but something could be there. That's going to be an increasingly 

important point as the question of bill S. 11 evolves and 

fighting these vast withdrawals continues. 

• There's even a more fundamental problem: When 

you tell the wilderness supporters that there are identified 

mineral resources in the wilderness area and that they are 

an economic or potentially economic resource, the 

supporter's reaction is, "So what?" The area still has wilderness values that are, they believe, more precious than 

mineral deposits and should, therefore, be locked away. 

Until that basic attitude is either changed or neutralized, we 

can talk all we want about conceptual models and hypothetical deposits in unknown areas. It will be worse than 

preaching to the deaf. It's a given that the people who have 

put wilderness values above everything else are going to 

remain that way. We can talk till we're blue in the face; 

that's not going to change? 

3Editors' note: Resource-assessment methodology and activities of 

the USGS, USBM, BLM, USFS, and BIA were described in detail by Tooker 

(1989) and are applicable to studies of withdrawn Federal lands in California. 

The DMG assessment process under SMARA is applicable on State lands 

(see app. 4 ). 

land-Access and Permitting Problems for Resource Availability 37 
Risk Assessment 

• There may be another syndrome, called the neoLuddite syndrome. (The Luddites, you may recall, were a 

group of people in the 19th century in England and the 

Eastern United States who fought all advances of technology by destroying them. One of the ways of expressing 

their concern was to gather in front of a plant or facility and 

tear their clothes off. Reading this in the history book as a 

very young public school lad, the thought of people gathering in front of plants and tearing their clothes off really 

stuck with me. That's how I remember who the Luddites 

were.) Such people today are unwilling to accept any additional risks for their lives, feeling that things are risky enough 

as they are. For small mining projects, particularly simple 

ones, that element of CEQA, or project review, hasn't crept 

in much. For any substantial operation that includes some 

auxiliary operations, particularly any project that may use 

or discharge chemicals, the risk-assessment process has crept 

in and is a boon to consultants. These assessments will 

generally be conservative paper exercises that come up with 

a number at the end which represents an individual's chances 

of contracting cancer, based on a chance of one in a million 

or risk of one in 10 million. In some circumstances, because many people feel that technological risk is something 

they've had enough of, even a project with a risk of one in 

10 million is unacceptable; they just don't want to take any 

more risks! All the other arguments, such as unreasonable 

profits, greedy companies ruining the environment, we don't 

need it, and stay out of my life, are also used. No matter 

how hard you try to put the risk element of a project in 

terms of something people will understand, it doesn't cut 

the ice for some of them; they just don't want it! This type 

of activity can add a great deal of complication (and cost) 

to a project for permitting. 

Regulation by Initiatives 

• Another manifestation of the know-nothing or 

Luddite syndrome seems to be evident in the use of the 

initiative process to slow down or preclude mining. As witnessed in El Dorado County, an initiative action prohibits 

open-pit mining within 10,000 ft of any residence or existing or planned residential parcel, school, hospital, or church. 

That same kind of effort was attempted in Mariposa County, 

although it was drawn so broadly that it failed. However, 

there's a tendency to reconsider such matters. It's a pattern 

that threatens to repeat itself. How did we get into this 

predicament, and how can we get ourselves out of it? 

Reply: The situation of how we got into the predicament of facing the passage of such initiatives (because they 

generally do pass) is in part at least due to demographic 

changes over time. Certainly before World War II and for a 

while after, a lot of people in this country were directly 

involved with, employed by, or dependent on the mining 

industry. It became so productive as an industry that the 

number of people required to be involved became a much 

smaller part of the workforce population, particularly the 

voting population. By becoming technologically advanced, 

the mining industry disenfranchised itself. We no longer 

represent enough of the population to lobby against antimining movements locally or at the State level. When an 

antimining initiative is being considered on the ballot, count 

on it passing, but don't give up hope and don't panic. For 

example, when measure A in El Dorado County was passed 

(see app. 5), some people didn't believe that any mining 

operation would ever be permitted under that ordinance. 

Looking over the history of measure A and examining the 

cases considered, the applications were generally incomplete; they didn't define reserves or something like that. 

Measure A became the whipping boy for the industry. 

What seems to be happening with these ordinances, 

initially, is that the courts, in the case of measure A in El 

Dorado County, upheld the ordinance in spite of the fact 

that it contained indefensible regulations which would not 

stand up to a legal challenge, because the people have the 

right to vote on anything they want. Whether it will stick is 

another case. When the first serious challenge to measure A 

came up, even before it came before the El Dorado County 

Board of Supervisors, the board was anxious enough about 

the challenge of a mining-industry applicant that they 

amended Measure A to take all the teeth out of it. Measure 

A now really says nothing more than what CEQA saysyou have to reduce the significance of your environmental 

impact. That's what is going to happen in other counties 

that have just passed a similar ordinance. If you're in business for the long term, don't let these things worry you. 

Amador County recently passed an ordinance requiring an exploration permit, but the regulation doesn't tie 

well into SMARA or CEQA. The first time this ordinance 

is challenged, it will also fall apart. After all, the majority, 

under our Constitution, cannot beat up on the minority! The 

industry has certain rights, and it can be seen that the municipalities and governments may well be more afraid of 

mining people, in the final analysis, than the industry is of 

them. One problem is that often a big corporation with its 

staff of attorneys is reluctant to go out and fight these actions; they don't want to go out and challenge, and they talk 

the companies into not challenging the regulation. 

• One company was conducting two projects: one in 

El Dorado County, and another in Imperial County, at 

Mesquite. They had two different legal counsels: One 

worked with the local people; the other went in to court in a 

three-piece suit and said that they were going to do their 

thing. The company planned a strategy for the El Dorado 

County project that they could handle themselves to defeat 

that ordinance, but they were unsuccessful. Don't blow yourself up into thinking that you, as a company, can defeat any 

initiative; you can't do it without the votes. In the latest case, 

in Mariposa County, the CMA was able to give some advice. 

38 Industrial Minerals in California: Economic Importance, Present Availability, and Future Development 
Votes were mobilized from the people who wanted mining. 

No one thought that the balance would swing enough to 

provide a majority for defeat of the measure, but it happened. 

Permitting 

• The DMG has been on an unprecedented data-gathering task with local governments. They've visited every 

county planning department and examined their filing systems and permitting systems. From this examination, it has 

become obvious that the permitting process is becoming 

more difficult. There are 58 counties in the State, and they 

often don't know who is operating a mine. The counties 

don't have the staff, nor does the DMG or the Federal 

agencies, to check the properties that are operating. Many 

counties issue permits for long periods of time, so you may 

have 50 active permits in a county with only 10 active 

mines. At any given point in time, a company project can 

legally resume operation. 

• At a meeting hosted by the Sierra Nevada section of 

the Society of Mining Engineers, at which there were members of the WQCB and the CDHS toxic-waste group, a 

panel discussion on pit liners and cyanidation was convened. One of the facts learned was that the WQCB will 

confront the mining industry. The reason is that the mining 

industry is a group that the WQCB can handle; they can't 

handle the farmers. Their attention will be on the mines 

because there are fewer of them, even though farming pollution is a more critical problem. The board does have personnel to go into the field dedicated to finding mining 

activity. When asked how many mines are listed in the 

board's files right now, they weren't sure, but they believed 

that there were somewhere near 250 mines. OSHA inspects 

about 450 mines in California. The DMG has a list of 800 

in its most recent active mines list. There probably are about 

1,150 active mines in the State, including ranch quarries 

and intermittent sand and gravel pits. The DMG plans to 

release the most detailed comprehensive list of mines in the 

State; everyone's going to know who's mining and where. 

Within 2 to 3 years, there'll be a new focus on what the 

dimensions of the permitting and access problems are. 

• Remember that the person who gives the final permit is elected. He may let the regulatory initiative go through 

because he's more afraid of the voter than of the operator. 

If he begins to realize that the permit will cost the regulatory agency, he will also fear the voter even more because 

his actions may result in draining the agency's budget in 

lawsuit costs. Most of these potential lawsuits have the attention of supervisors and city-council members because 

they know that the mining-industry operator can go after 

his civil rights and collect attorneys' fees. Don't let the 

regulators get away with it. In other words, if the regulation 

is wrong, you must go through the appeal process and prove 

to the counties and cities that their actions against mining 

are taking your civil rights away. Santa Barbara County 

right now is in trouble because of a new Supreme Court 

ruling. Just 5 years ago, the county had no lawsuits on land 

use; it now has 36 suits on lands that potentially may cost it 

$45 million and bankrupt the county. 

• Canadians may tell you how easy it is to permit up 

there versus in California. In truth, it's not easier, it's just 

different. In Canada one never really gets a final permit and 

must deal with professional engineers and scientists representing the public throughout the exploration and development processes. These professional regulators tell the 

applicant at the beginning what has to be done. They not 

only tell what to do, they'll check up on the program in a 

month or so and state what to do next. One is never in 

doubt as to whether the project is going to be able to operate within reason. However, the regulators keep looking at 

how conditions may change and may revise their instructions. In contrast, in California, a lead agency or 

decisionmaker is probably placed in an unfair position before he can issue the permit. Once the permit is issued, he 

may never see the applicant again. The regulator is put in 

the position of having to anticipate every potential possibility, every operational condition, and weight the risks, 

knowing that he will probably never be out to the minesite 

to enforce regulations. 

• One of the biggest problems, in my opinion, is the 

WQCB. Getting through the permitting process for a mine 

or sewage plant is agony. The board agonizes over the 

permit and discharge requirements. The operator may not 

see the board representative again. Even if a sewage-discharge plant dumps raw sewage into a creek, it's difficult to 

persuade the WQCB out of Sacramento to look at the spill. 

What works best, enforcement or permitting? Enforcement may be the key. If less emphasis were placed on 

the issuing of permits and the permits were kept more fluid 

with a lot of followup compliance, as in Canada, the system 

might work better. Most operators aren't worried about 

compliance; they're worried about getting the operation going within reason. It certainly is more expensive to engineer 

for every possible contingency or problem than to go in and 

correct things later on as they come up. 

The Critical Need for Better Public Information 

• Decreasing numbers of people depend on the mining 

industry for a livelihood. The industry isn't making sufficient 

information available to the public. The McLaughlin mine 

is a good example of where the mining industry went out 

and worked with whatever conservation or other concerned 

groups there were. There needs to be more of that kind of 

interaction. In talking with students, it commonly is their 

view that mining in itself is bad, and the one thing they 

have in mind is strip mining. It takes a lot of educational 

effort to get industry's points across. More often than not, 

the McLaughlin story changes the minds of people about 

the feared evil intent of mining. What are the pros and cons 

land-Access and Permitting Problems for Resource Availability 39 
of bill S. 11? You can get the Sierra Club's and the Desert 

Conservation Group's stories. The industry needs to point 

out that the mining industry has its own story and is willing 

to cooperate with these conservation groups, and that, in 

addition, the mining industry is absolutely essential. It's 

surprising how many people are unaware of that. 

There are people around this table who were a part of 

the McLaughlin investigations. Essentially, it was a matter 

of actually taking the initiative to go out to the public and 

identifying who were the various parts of the public who 

had any kind of interest in what might be going on in the 

Lake, Yolo, and Napa County areas, which were involved 

in creating the mine. Having identified those organizations, 

then, the company tried to identify the major concerns and 

determine if it could mitigate those concerns. That was done. 

For example, the company worked with the California Native Plant Society, which had some concerns about some 

plant life; the company was able to identify other colonies 

of plant life that the society had not discovered. This pattern was followed with any number of local groups, and the 

upshot was that after a while, some elected officials would 

ask why the company was telling them so much? They had 

never been accustomed to having information offered rather 

than having to extract information from an applicant. So, at 

the final hearing, the local head of the Sierra Club got up 

and endorsed the project. 

• When an industry is located in a community for a 

long time period, it may forget to keep the community involved in what the operation is all about and keep the public updated with what may be happening in the future to 

maintain friends-the general public, as well as those who 

work for mining. A company should make sure that its 

employees know how important they are to the community. 

Never forget the local elected officials; take care of them; 

use whatever opportunity to keep them aware of what's 

going on or planned. Remember that there's always somebody new moving into the community who may not have 

been your friend before, is not necessarily your friend now, 

and who may be more interested in open space and the 

view shed and all these other good things, without considering what's going to happen to people and the local 

economy. For example, in Lompoc, Calif., where both 

Manville and Grefco were operating, some people wanted 

to see these companies shut down because they were afraid 

of air pollution from the processing plants. These companies employed 600 people and were the largest nonmilitary, 

non-Government employers that were a critical part of the 

tax base in that community. Mining companies all too often 

forget to remind elected officials of such considerations. 

Nonetheless, the company must be willing to mitigate existing or potential hazards. 

Improving the Image of Mining in the Eyes of the Public 

• The mining industry has to be concerned about 

what's going on elsewhere in the industry. Too often the 

poorly managed mines, the eyesores, are ignored by the rest 

of the industry. It's someone else's problem, not ours. But 

that could be the precise operation which gives the rest of 

the industry its poor image. If industry at large lets a poor 

producer or poor industrialist get away with hazardous runoff, air pollution, and so on, industry is the one who gets 

hurt. There have been mines operated by nonmining people 

or poorly operated by the mining industry. These are not 

examples of the mainstream technical, well-educated mining industry; they represent a chaotic approach to the business that goes against the reputation of the whole industry. 

40 Industrial Minerals in California: Economic Importance, Present Availability, and Future Development 
The Environmental Impacts of Mining and 

Their Mitigation 

R.A. Matthews, Convenor 

As we approach the discussion of the environmental 

impacts of mining and their mitigation, it's helpful to keep 

in mind three basic issues: (1) There is an expanding demand for industrial-mineral resources, new needs, and projected needs; (2) there is increasing competition for land, 

air, and water resources by the mineral industry and other 

developments; and (3) there are increasing numbers of, and 

increasing degrees of stringency in, regulations controlling 

the use of land, air, and water resources. Some of these 

factors have already been noted by previous speakers. Industrial minerals play a critical role in industrialization and 

in the commercial and general development of nations, 

States, provinces, and even many forms of local government, as well as the private sector. Such mineral commodities commonly are very high volume materials; they are 

located at or near their point of use. This combination of 

very high volume commodities and very large extraction 

from areas of the Earth's surface creates some severe problems that cause serious land disturbances. These disturbances 

have produced rather significant to monumental impacts on 

the environment. Most of these impacts have been well 

researched. Some effective mitigation measures have been 

developed to avoid, reduce, and, in some cases, eliminate 

the impacts. 

In this session, three panelists present their perspectives in addressing the environmental impacts of mining 

and their mitigation, leading into discussions of some new 

and innovative ideas to address these increasing and expanding problems. The group discussions address information on the current and unique implementation of R&D 

practices that have arisen in just the past few years. 

Our first panelist is Ray Krauss, environmental project 

manager for the Homestake Mining Co. He has a distinguished background as an environmental planner in local 

government, serving on the SMGB for several years, during 

which he was directly involved in a lot of the problems that 

many industry persons are concerned with today. For the 

past 8 years, he has been with the McLaughlin gold mine 

project at Homestake in northern California, where he has 

been responsible for much of the success in helping get this 

large-scale mining and mineral-processing operation through 

the myriad of regulations and controls that face all such 

modem mineral-development projects. 

Our second panelist is William J. Kockelman, an environmental planner with the USGS, who also has a diverse 

experience in environmental planning in the earth sciences. 

He is, I believe, one of the first planners hired by the USGS, 

and Bill and I worked on a program set up in the late 

1970's within the USGS to address Land Information 

Analysis concerns. A major component deals with mineral 

resources. 

Finally, Peter Dahms provides some insight about air 

quality and toxic impacts on the environment from his corporate experience with Condor Minerals Management. 

The Mclaughlin Mine Experience 

By R.E. Krauss 

On my way down here, I was reflecting on the meaning of the words "impact" and "impacts of mining." They 

generally conjure up the image of death and mayhem, far 

too reminiscent of the environmentalist's view of mining as 

causing rape and pillage. That image probably arises because this word was chosen by an opponent of mining in 

the drafting of our current State and Federal environmental 

laws. The idea of environmental-impact reports and analyses prejudices our case, particularly from the standpoint of 

those who oppose these kinds of projects. When we hear 

impact, we tend to assume a submissive stance, hunker down, 

and wait to be battered about the head or prepare to be 

flogged-in short, we become ineffective. 

I'd like to look at mining impact in a different light. 

As an example, I will draw on my experience gained at 

Homestake's McLaughlin mine. I wish to point out that this 

experience is in no way unique. As I travel around the 

State, Nation, and world, I see a broad range of mining 

The Environmental Impacts of Mining and Their Mitigation 41 
projects that generate a broad range of community 

and environmental benefits. By way of background, the 

McLaughlin mine is a major gold deposit in Napa, Lake, 

and Yolo Counties, Calif., north of San Francisco. It was 

discovered in 1978 and announced publicly as a major find 

in 1980. It was permitted in an 11-month period, constructed 

in 18 months, and poured its first gold bar in March 1985. 

Last year, the mine produced 205,000 troy oz of gold. The 

impact of the mine is in three counties and on some BLM 

lands, but the mine is basically a part of the Lake County 

community. The county has some 40,000 to 45,000 people 

and largely an agriculturally based economy. A relatively 

large proportion of the population are retirees and low-income elderly persons. In the late 1970's and early 1980's, 

the county was characterized as poor, with high unemployment, high welfare roles, and a largely seasonal, low-paying job base. In short, it was a typical rural county in 

California, or elsewhere in the country, lacking a strong 

and reliable economic base. With the construction of the 

McLaughlin mine, all that changed. In 18 months, the project 

injected more than $70 million into the local economy in 

wages paid to workers and in acquisition of local materials 

and supplies. 

At peak construction, employment reached approximately 1,200 people, 65 percent of whom were drawn from 

the local labor pool. As defined, the local labor pool consisted of those people who were in residence 6 months 

before the beginning of construction. Local unemployment 

dropped from a rate of about 15 percent to about 5 percent; 

the welfare roles shrank dramatically. One of the programs, 

instituted with the cooperation of contractors and in conjunction with the local junior college, was the development of 

a job-training center for industrial-construction skills. Welfare clients were given preference to enroll in that program. 

Today, some 100 families are contributing taxpayers rather 

than welfare-dependent families as a result of that program. 

The benefits to the county tax structure and the local 

economy continue to this day. An independent evaluation 

conducted in 1986 noted that at the conclusion of the construction period, the economic indicators did not return to 

the preconstruction level but remained strong, with reduced 

unemployment, reduced welfare roles, and an increased level 

of local sales taxes, reflecting the higher level of local business activity. The ongoing operational impact of the mine 

project remains strong. The workforce of 350 people includes 

55 percent local people. Local purchases contribute about 

$8 million per year in addition to the payroll of approximately $8 million per year. Property taxes of about $1 million per year are distributed among the three counties. Other 

direct economic benefits include school mitigation fees, 

which totaled about $750,000; fire-district mitigation fees 

of about $100,000; construction of 18 mi of local roads, 

now dedicated to the counties; and provision of power to 

the residents surrounding the mine by bringing in a 12-kV 

powerline in addition to the power needed by the mine. 

One of the arguments, that in many cases mining will 

depress property values, has been dispelled in the 

McLaughlin experience. The property values in Lake County 

have increased as much as tenfold over the past 10-year 

period as a consequence of road access and power accessibility to the surrounding lands. Perhaps a better measure of 

these impacts are some specific examples: The engineering 

firm that in 1978 employed 2 people, now employs 10 and 

will continue to employ them; the repair garage in Lower 

Lake that had 2 bays now has 7; and there is a new local 

convenience store and motel. It's clear that this kind of 

economic impact, particularly in a county with limited economic resources, as was the case for Lake County when we 

began the project, continues to benefit as moneys cascade 

through the local economy. 

There are also some less tangible benefits. The local 

superintendent of schools said that she welcomed the 

McLaughlin project into the local scene because it brought 

to that community educated professional families who would 

support and even demand quality education, thus making 

her job easier. Mine employees are active members of local 

service organizations and volunteers in the local charities. 

All of these changes have contributed to a tenor of change 

in the sense of increased self-esteem of the total community. This change was epitomized in a television interview 

in which one of our employees said, "It's nice to be a part 

of something that works and is here in Lake County." Certainly, she felt better about herself and her position because 

of the McLaughlin mine. 

In acquiring the land necessary for the McLaughlin 

mine, Homestake purchased some 10,000 acres to establish 

its land position. Shapes and sizes of parcels that were 

needed included quite a bit of land in addition to that needed 

to operate a mine. Of the 10,000 acres, the mine itself occupies about 12 percent. The other 7,800 acres of this land is 

historically overused and abused land; it is now being restored to a productive state as wildlife habitat and agricultural lands. Since the 1860's, the area was overgrazed, the 

oak woodlands were clear-cut for fuel for the mercury retorts in the region, and the land was burned, poached, and 

despoiled by offroad vehicles, without the benefit of any 

management. Homestake has developed what is called a 

Contiguous Lands Management Plan to provide management 

standards for this 7,800 acres. The company has developed 

a freshwater reservoir as the water supply for the mine 

operation, which also provides additional habitat for wildlife. While developing the mine area, the old mine workings that were encountered were found to be occupied by a 

species of bats that turned out to be a potentially rare and 

endangered species. The mine has developed and reopened 

other old workings in the area and established protected 

habitats for the bats. This activity not only has provided for 

the continuation of the bat population in the region, but also 

has developed a lot of good support from those interested in 

the biologic community. This was done at minimum cost. 

42 Industrial Minerals in California: Economic Importance, Present Availability, and Future Development 
Collaborative work with the California Native Plant Society to survey the sensitive indigenous serpentine plants of 

the region has resulted in the development of a data base 

which gives the society comfort that mining activities are 

not adversely affecting the future of these plant populations. 

All of this activity has environmental benefits. I recall 

that when I first joined Homes take, one of the old timers in 

the group said that the miners were the original ecologists; 

they were people out there on the landscape observing and 

understanding how nature works. I think that's still true. 

Mining, in fact, does provide the opportunity to bring enlightened management practices to bear on large tracts of 

landscape, landscape that frequently is suffering from historical neglect. Even the most objective observer would 

conclude, in surveying the 10,000 acres we occupy, that 

there has been a net environmental improvement rather than 

a net environmental loss. 

Typical factors are cited as impacts caused by mining, such as surface-water pollution or air-quality degradation. These are potential impacts that can occur in the 

absence of appropriate management but not in its presence. 

There is clear evidence that most, if not all, of these impacts can now be anticipated. Environmental resources are, 

in fact, routinely protected in modem engineering and mining 

practice. Surface waters are protected by erosion- and sedimentation-control techniques, and wastes are routinely 

treated or contained to prevent the degradation of water 

quality. The University of California, Berkeley, Mine Waste 

Study concluded clearly that the worst environmental problems were derived from historical mines, where the industry was not as mindful of the consequences of their activities 

as they are today. 

In terms of modem environmental practices, miners 

have led the charge toward enlightened environmental management. Tailings-disposal-containment procedures began in 

the 1950's, 10 years before the Clean Water Act. Water 

cleanup began in the 1960's. In contrast, agricultural activities 

are just beginning to face this need to protect the environment. 

Dust-control techniques have been highly successful 

at the McLaughlin mine. The regional air-quality-management agency brought Caltrans to the site to show that 50,000 

to 60,000 tons per day of rock and earth can be moved 

without adversely affecting air quality. In the processing 

plants, scrubbers are used to protect air quality. The technology is available to manage mining activities routinely in 

such a way that the impacts of the past no longer occur. In 

terms of reclamation, it has become routine to salvage topsoil and later to revegetate disturbed areas, and to apply 

other reclamation techniques to restore the landscape to an 

acceptable state. 

On a somewhat more pessimistic note, somehow the 

public perception of mining impacts still conjures up a 

negative image. This image is particularly reflected in an 

increasingly restrictive regulatory climate. In 1989, I reviewed new proposals for mine-waste regulations that ignore the effectiveness of modem engineering practice or 

even actual risk. If adopted, these regulatory proposals will 

impose costs on mining operations that will cause active 

mines to close and preclude many future operations. California proposition 65 establishes discharge standards that 

cannot even be measured but can put all operations in financial jeopardy. New regulations in Nevada, where we 

thought the last vestiges of mining realism remained, are in 

many ways as restrictive as those in California. In South 

Dakota, Homestake fought two major initiatives that would 

have severely hampered its ability to operate mines because 

of additional taxes on mines and unrealistic reclamation 

standards. We look at RCRA as it comes forward with its 

substituted D program, the "straw-man regulation," as being 

similarly unrealistic. Concerns in the Nevada, Arizona, and 

California deserts about wildlife encourage further restrictions on land access rather than wildlife-protective measures. 

CDP A is hovering in the wings, and various proposals of 

the environmental community seek to further limit access 

to public lands through revisions to the 1872 Mining Law. 

What can we do? We need to tell our story better. We 

need to be involved in public education. We need to educate our public officials and lawmakers. We need to get 

involved in local service organizations and participate in 

any forum where we can get our message across. If we fail 

to do so, we're failing our society; we're not going to be 

able to provide the resources on which we all depend. We 

need to respond to the challenge. We need to say, "Yes, let 

me tell you about the impact of mining on your life, and the 

positive impact on your community and your country." 

land-Use Planning and Reclamation 

ByW.j. Kockelman 

The topic of mineral extraction from the point of view 

of local land-use planning may not be a popular one, but I 

will tell it as I see it. Most surface-mined mineral deposits 

have characteristics that result in the creation of special 

land-use problems. I'll give you a few examples. These are 

problems from the industry's standpoint but not necessarily 

from the local people's standpoint: a loss of scarce or unique 

minerals by intensive or incompatible development over or 

near the resource, and a locational inflexibility that requires 

mineral resources, for example sand and gravel, to be extracted and processed where they occur because of transport requirements. From the point of view of the land-use 

planner in the community, the extraction and processing of 

most minerals is a heavy-industrial land use, and the depleted 

sites must be reclaimed so that they become marketable for 

some other use, particularly in urban and urbanizing areas. 

Mining creates hazards to neighboring land uses and 

generally is more disruptive to the land surface and drainage 

patterns than most other land uses. These problems are not 

The Environmental Impacts of Mining and Their Mitigation 43 
unique to the United States; mineral-development problems 

have been identified in Scotland, England, and many other 

countries. The California Legislature recognized the problem when it enacted SMARA in 1975. Local ordinances 

usually include as their purposes to promote health, safety, 

prosperity, and the general welfare, but I suggest that the local 

communities should be more specific, namely, to protect 

and conserve their mineral resources, to promote economic 

growth and local employment, and to avoid the creation of a 

sacrifice area after an extraction has been completed. 

Therefore, the three aspects to the problem are (1) the 

protection and conservation of known mineral resources, 

(2) the regulation of the extraction and processing operations, and (3) the reclamation and use of the site after the 

operation is complete. The first benefits the industry, the 

second benefits the community, and the third helps both. 

With regard to the first aspect-the protection of deposits-they need to be inventoried, evaluated, classified, 

and ranked. Then, local land-use plans can provide for the 

protection of the deposits until needed. California's SMARA 

is a significant step for the State. Local plans should also 

include forecasts and analyses of future needs. Some State 

and local governments have addressed the mineral resources 

lost from urbanization and made recommendations and enacted legislation. The DMG adopted an urban geology master plan for California more than a decade ago. In addition, 

the legislature has a requirement that every city and county 

adopt a plan to conserve, develop, and use natural resources. 

A State program of inventorying and mapping sand and 

gravel is underway. 

Once a community addresses such problems, it can 

proceed in several ways. Some of the obvious ones are 

zoning ordinances, special land-use regulations, incentives 

to the industry, or public acquisition (purchase and leaseback 

to industry). One important thing to consider in protecting 

these resources over many years before they are extracted 

is interim use. In some areas where I've been involved, a 

mineral-conservation district was developed in which all 

kinds of uses compatible with the surrounding land uses 

over a period of 10 years or more were developed. These 

interim uses do not restrict or preclude the eventual development and extraction of mineral resources. 

The second aspect is the regulation of the extractive 

operation. There is little need to remind you of some of the 

numerous problems that accompany the extraction and 

separation of mineral resources. Technology exists to cope 

with these problems, and, in many cases, operators are using 

it. The problems include destruction of plants and animals, 

erosion, siltation, turbidity of streams and lakes, landslides, 

disruption of drainage patterns, flooding, ground-water 

depletion and contamination, air and water pollution, odors, 

waste or leaching of desirable minerals, damage to roads 

and other properties, noise, clogging of aquifers, bittern 

disposal, isolation of land and water areas, disruption of 

animal-migration routes, unsightly operations, toxic-waste 

storage, fires, traffic congestion, and adverse effects on 

neighboring developments and land values. 

Most of these can be prevented or mitigated by careful design or enforcement of local ordinances and performance standards. Those performance standards would 

include such things as controls on emissions, fire and explosive hazards, glare, heat, liquid and solid wastes, drainage, 

and sound levels. The USDA has many soil-erosion-mitigation practices and structures to cope with soil and water 

problems. 

Local governments should consider attaching to the 

use permit or lease agreement a condition as to reclamation 

of the site and the financial sureties needed to ensure that 

the reclamation occurs. It has to be up front with the local 

officials, the neighbors, and the industry. Great savings in 

reclamation costs can be obtained if the earth-moving work 

is accomplished concurrently with the extractive work, while 

heavy equipment is on the site. The National Sand and 

Gravel Association has sponsored many studies that show 

how equipment can be moved over several hundred acres 

and the land reclaimed as the minerals were extract. These 

studies include stockpiling the topsoil, relocating and shaping the mass, and the land reclaimed during the extraction 

process so that when the extraction is completed in 5 or 10 

years, the site is already reclaimed and ready for marketing. 

The third aspect is the reclamation of the site (see 

cover and fig. 18). Numerous environmental problems occur 

when the mineral-extraction operation has been completed 

and the mineral deposit is depleted. There are potential safety 

hazards or other problems at abandoned sites, such as oil 

storage, separating plants, ground-water contamination from 

percolation, gas migration, and leachate infiltration, barriers 

to urban utilities and services, air pollution from volatilization, and aesthetically displeasing wastelands. Many of these 

problems can be prevented or mitigated by careful design 

and strict enforcement of the reclamation program. There 

are many potential uses for a site after completion of the 

sand and gravel operation if the reclamation plan is done 

correctly: recreational lakes, waste-disposal sites, bombproof 

storage, ground-water-recharge areas, and residential, recreational, commercial, industrial, and even agricultural uses. 

Jensen (1967) illustrated and discussed some of the uses for 

depleted sand and gravel sites. Rickert and Spieker (1971) 

published a book that shows how lakes are created from 

abandoned pits. 

In conclusion, the feasibility of reclaiming mine sites 

to produce marketable land was demonstrated many years 

ago by the American Aggregates Corporation (1967) in a 

booklet entitled "Project/Parklands" that includes succinct 

discussions and attractive illustrations. Reclamation is not a 

new practice in the United States, nor is it unique to any one 

State. Case histories of the reclamation of depleted sand 

and gravel sites in Illinois, Nebraska, Ohio, Michigan, South 

Dakota, New York, and Texas were discussed and illustrated 

by the National Sand and Gravel Association (1961). 

44 Industrial Minerals in California: Economic Importance, Present Availability, and Future Development 
Air Quality and Toxics 

By P.H. Dohms 

The subject of the adverse environmental impacts 

caused by mining projects and their mitigation reminds me 

of the cartoon that shows two gold miners standing just 

inside a fence, and a stream of liquid leaving the property is 

going through the fence and off the site. One fellow says to 

the other, "Quick, get the public-relations department to do 

a paper on the beneficial impacts of cyanide toward wildlife." The point is that for too long the mining industry has 

tried to ignore or paper over some of the adverse environmental impacts caused by its activities and has been burned 

in later times. 

First, I want to consider a new specter raising itself 

up on the horizon: the control of toxic air pollutants. There 

have been some rumblings in Sacramento in recent years, 

but nothing has come out of it until recently. These events 

are now achieving notice by the public. When the public 

gets aroused about something, it tends to complain to its 

legislators, who, in tum, take it out on or overreact toward 

the mining industry. 

The problem is that, though often well intentioned, 

the environmental community makes widely publicized accusations and decisions based on flawed information. For 

example, one hazardous pollutant is asbestos in the air. Recently, an article appeared in a journal of construction and 

environmental remediation that discussed sandbox limestone 

and the unacceptable threats to children that this material 

represents because of the asbestos in it. The unacceptable 

constituent in the limestone was tremolite, which the au1hor 

of the article asserted occurs naturally in all limestone. I 

wrote a letter to the editor saying that, as a geologist, I'm 

aware, as the author should be, that not all limestone contains tremolite. Tremolite occurs only in certain metamorphic limestones as a result of the metamorphism process. 

To paint all limestone with a black brush was scientifically 

indefensible, as well as unfair. I received a quick response 

from the author, who was quite chastened. There may be a 

correction or retraction published in the next issue. I'm a 

lonely voice in the wilderness, and I may get one retraction 

that's read by a few thousand people. This inaccuracy is 

being bandied about nationwide. In fact, it was picked up 

by members of the national press, who said that sandbox 

sand used by our children is bad because the limestone 

contains asbestos and this is hazardous for children. 

A second example of environmental excess occurred 

about a week or more ago in Tuolumne County, where the 

Sonora Mining Co. is mining gold. Last summer, the airFigure 18. Example of sequential land use in the Los Angeles area, first as an open-pit source of aggregate 

and later, after landfill and surface reclamation, for commercial building purposes. Note that only northwestern part of large block is being mined, while rest has been reclaimed. Photograph courtesy of Don 

Reining. 

The Environmental Impacts of Mining and Their Mitigation 45 
resources board conducted a sampling program of the ambient air at the mine; they tested for airborne asbestos. A 

week and a half ago they published the results, and the 

numbers for the content of asbestos were high enough to be 

somewhat in excess of workplace exposure for asbestos 

miners and mill operators. There was a public hue-and-cry. 

Upon questioning, however, the air-resources board people 

allowed that they had made a couple of errors in the sampling procedure: They left the samplers out too long, and 

the filters got overloaded. The reason it took so long to get 

the analyses done was that they couldn't find anyone who 

knew how to deal with the overloaded filters. They analyzed them anyhow and published the resulting unevaluated 

numbers, which probably are in error. The board regretted the 

inconvenience. Meanwhile, the county regulators prepared 

to shut down the operation immediately. Senator Garamendi, 

who will be speaking to us, represents the Sonora area in 

the State legislature. He no doubt has received a communication or two from concerned people in Tuolumne County 

because there are residents living not too far from the 

minesite. They're all asking, what's he going to do about it? 

Another aspect to the problem is the subject of metallic materials in emissions. Under California's proposition 

65, any exposure to lead is unacceptable if it can be measured. Lead is present in many types of emissions from both 

nonmetal- and metal-mining operations; lead is also present 

in nature as a result of the erosion of lead-bearing terranes. 

Not only lead but also arsenic and its mineral compounds 

are commonly present. People are testing for cinnabar (mercury), arsenopyrite (arsenic), and galena (lead), and they 

will be found in mineral-bearing regions. 

How can the mining community deal with the all-toocommon public image of its contributing to hazardous 

envronments? We must remember that, as miners, we tend 

to deal with a world of facts; we tend to approach problems 

with factual data and evidence and derive fact-based solutions. This approach doesn't always work, and it surprises us 

when it doesn't. The reason it doesn't work is that politicians and decisionmakers deal in a world of perception and 

political reality, to which factual information very often 

takes a distant backseat. When a decisionmaker or politician has a crowd of angry people in his office who are after 

his scalp because he's not doing anything about this problem 

(or alleged problem), tiDderstandably, he's going to pay more 

attention to the perception than to a carefully reasoned, 20-

page cited and footnoted report that the mining company 

gives him, which proves that the perception may be dead 

wrong and that his constituents are out on a limb with little or 

no factual basis. So, the mining industry must approach these 

problems not only on a technical basis, because that needs to 

be done, but also on a popular type of informative basis 

that makes sense politically. Public education should be an 

essential goal of the mining industry and other mineral dependent groups to defuse the unfavorable image of mineralresource development, particularly as it relates to air quality. 

Discussion and Comments 

The discussion of the effects on mining operations of 

the permitting and mitigation efforts required to maintain 

environmental integrity of the lands and health of people 

fell into seven general topic areas that follow, ranging from 

considering the problems encountered by the industry in 

overcoming its adverse environmental image to obtaining a 

fair hearing before regulatory boards and gaining the understanding and support of the public. 

The Cost of Permitting and Mitigation for Mining Operations 

• What was the cost of Homestake's permitting and 

mitigation effort at the McLaughlin project? 

Reply: There tends to be a perception that permitting 

difficulties can be remedied simply by throwing money at 

them. That was not Homestake's philosophy, nor was it 

done. The total cost may have been large in comparison 

with some other projects, but so were the capital investment 

and permitting complexity. The company was doing things 

three times, not once, because the potential mine area lay in 

parts of three adjoining counties. As a percentage of capital 

investment, the total costs for mitigation were quite small: 

Somewhere between 1 and 2 percent ($2.8-5.6 million) of 

a total investment of $280 million was included in the permitting budget, including a 712-ft shelf of reports. Many of 

these were engineering reports that were needed for construction purposes anyway. Although it was self-serving to 

present them as a part of the permitting documentation, it 

smoothed the way toward obtaining the permits. However, 

it also included all the public relations, news letters, Rotary 

Club speeches, slide shows, permit fees, engineering studies, and so on. Mostly during the initial year or two, the 

environmental costs probably are proportionally higher than 

other parts of the operations. Since that initial year, the 

program has been whittled down to about 20 percent of its 

initial-year cost. Whereas water-quality monitoring was done 

biweekly for the first 6 months and monthly for the rest of 

the year, it's now being done quarterly. 

• Will the shut-down reclamation aspects be very expensive, or have these already been funded? 

Reply: They are already funded; the money is accrued annually from operating costs. 

Success in the Art of Permitting and Mitigation 

Continuing, Krauss indicated that the strategy at the 

McLaughlin mine was to take a proactive philosophy by 

identifying those people who may have had a real or perceived interest at stake and trying to understand what their 

interests may be in responding to them. That doesn't mean 

just paying them money; it means educating them and explaining the project to them. In the final analysis, you will 

run into an irreducible number of people who are totally 

46 Industrial Minerals in California: Economic Importance, Present Availability, and Future Development 
opposed to a project, who are irrevocably opposed to any 

project. At that point, your only alternative is to demonstrate prevailing political support for the project, a constituency of support that is greater in numbers and strength 

than a constituency of opposition. That's hard to do. It's 

most likely that people in opposition to a project will be 

vocal. This same philosophy has been applied by many 

other, much smaller companies and to smaller projects. We 

deal with exploration projects almost daily where this kind 

of proactive, involved approach within a community has 

attained permits within a matter of hours that otherwise 

might have been unobtainable. So, it's not just money; it's 

a matter of philosophy, also. 

Achieving Fair Pollution Regulations 

• Particulate standards are an example of the effect 

on mining, whereby companies may be presumed guilty 

until proved innocent. A couple of years ago, the EPA finally 

settled on its fine-particulate standard-the so-called P-intense standard. These are particles with a median aerodynamic diameter of 10 mm or less. One example concerns 

what happened in Arizona, where the State operated a Pintense monitor for about 2 years near a mining operation 

that was the only industrial operation in an otherwiseagricultural area. As a result, the area was classified as 

nonattainment for the acceptable level of fine-particulate 

matter. As you might imagine, the mining operation was 

believed to be the sole or, at least, the major cause of this 

nonattainment situation. As such, the Federal regulators instructed the State to begin preparing a series of control 

measures that would reduce the emissions from the operation and, presumably, bring the area into attainment. 

The mining company felt that because everyone 

deemed it to be the cause, it was going to be declared the 

only source of potential emissions in the area, and it would 

have to provide cleanup. Nothing would be lost if the company engaged in a little additional monitoring of the air 

quality to be sure that the original data were correct. So, the 

company worked out a joint arrangement with the State and 

a regional government agency and installed numerous monitors (which are still somewhat experimental) upwind and 

downwind from the operation baseline, colocated monitors, 

and used some different types of monitors. After a year's 

operation, lo and behold, they found out, on the basis of that 

year's data, that the area was not nonattainable. The operator is also collecting data for the so-called chemical massbalance model, in which you analyze the composition of 

various materials collected and of various soils and industrial emissions and attempt to match them up to the causes 

of the airborne emissions in percentage contribution. The 

results of their study are not yet available. At present, the 

regulatory procedure is on temporary hold because the operating company may have shown that its operation is not a 

major contributor. However, to say that it's not a contributor at all would be specious. The company does contribute 

something, but it's quite likely that the extensive nearby 

agricultural operations, the adjacent unpaved roads, and 

(during the year in which the violation was reportedly shown) 

the Salt River Project canal construction going on about 150 

ft from the monitor probably didn't help things, either. The 

company also found that the one monitor which the State 

had been using in a comparison study was biased by as 

much as 50 percent. The previous data, therefore, are somewhat in disarray. 

An interesting observation from this experience is that 

it took only 1 year of possibly fallacious data to get the 

operator into the nonattainment classification, and, in typical bureaucratic fashion, it will take 3 years of data showing no violations to get the company out of trouble. Here, 

then, is an example where everyone just assumed that the 

mining must be the cause of the pollution. 

• An example from another county, where all of the 

P-intense samplers were sited adjacent to or on minesites and 

paid for by the mining companies, shows that it could be 

concluded that 100 percent of the particulate emissions in 

that county were from mines. The mining company made a 

modest proposal to the county health staff that perhaps they 

ought to start looking at some other stationary sources and 

tax them or charge them fees to pay for background testing of 

the areas away from the mines. Because the mine areas are 

not necessarily where most people live, the existing meters 

were not necessarily measuring air that people are breathing. A surprising amount of resistance to that idea 

developed. The concept of charging a tax on chimneys and 

on agricultural burning met with great resistance. There are 

lots of retirees with emphysema and respiratory health 

problems in this county. At certain times of the year, there 

are occasional air-pollution particulate problems due to wood 

smoke. Some people cannot venture outside without flareups. 

We're not talking about lOxl0---6, but about I0-2 to 10-3 

times distance. There's a lot of resistance to the background 

count developed by the company because these data imply 

problems that the public doesn't want to consider. 

• As a means of comparison, a calculation on the dust 

generated at the McLaughlin mine by moving 50,000 tons of 

rock per day indicates that the annual dust emission at the 

mine is approximately equivalent to that developed by tilling one 500-acre farm once a year. This level is achieved 

by a carefully monitored dust-mitigation program, which 

was incorporated into the mining plan. 

• Much of the technology of air-pollution monitoring 

used today comes from Europe. European practice in pollution controls, discounting the chemical industry, is miles 

ahead of our domestic technology. This new technology is 

employed in urbanizing areas of development because the 

European mineral deposits are right there. 

• The story of the tremolite in the sandboxes can be 

embellished by the following account. Industrial Minerals 

had an interesting article in January 1989 which goes into 

The Environmental Impacts of Mining and Their Mitigation 47 
the idea that because crocidolite has been proved to be a 

carcinogenic asbestos mineral, therefore, crysotile, which is 

also an asbestiform mineral, is also a carcinogen. Asbestos is 

fibrous; fibers are elongate particles; therefore, amphiboles are carcinogenic; therefore, elongate particles are 

carcinogenic. It ends up saying that silt is next. It's a complex 

mineral with four different crystal shapes, and no one understands its health effects. Its content at low levels is extremely 

difficult to measure, permitting all sorts of extrapolations, 

and, most important, it's everywhere, so let's go! 

• Comments were made this morning that the lawyers 

aren't interested in mining waste; yet about a month ago, 

the Washington Post published a long article on the Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland. A spokesman from the 

U.S. District Attorney's office in Maryland said that the 

future for a lawyer to make a mark will be to become 

involved in environmental compliance. He has found that 

one Federal agency cannot force another Federal agency 

into compliance. So, he has leveled personal lawsuits against 

civilian employees of the Department of the Army and also 

prevented the Army from paying the legal expenses of these 

individuals. As a result, the chief of the Office of Mineral 

Resources of the USGS is learning what constitutes a toxic 

waste. If someone conducts an experiment and has some 

material left over that you might use again, it's generally 

put on the shelf. According to the law, that leftover material 

may be a toxic waste. You can't legally put it back on the 

shelf, and getting rid of it also causes problems. 

Resource Availability and SMARA 

• In 1976, the DMG published a report on construction resource materials in Orange County. In their conclusions, they explained what was going to happen in the future 

if the county didn't recognize the importance of sand and 

gravel. Just 3 months ago, in discussions between an industry consultant, two mining-property managers, and the county 

planning director, the latter said that it had occurred to him 

that the county might be having a little trouble obtaining 

sand and gravel for its communities. (At that time, 88 percent 

of the gravel being used came from Riverside and Los Angeles Counties.) The planning director said that he'd undertake a study if the industry would contribute the funding for 

it. There was no reason for the study because the DMG and 

the SMGB had already identified and designated resource 

lands for the resource properties there. The mining companies indicated a willingness to cooperate and work with the 

county. (Nothing came of this proposal, and the planning 

director is now in the parks and recreation department.) 

It really pushes construction costs up when you have 

to truck materials in. The planning director talked about 

their hopes of someday building a toll road in Orange 

County. The sand and gravel producers said that the county 

would probably have to consider the increased transportation cost of moving the materials from Lytle Creek, which 

it is three times as far away as present sources of sand and 

gravel, and so the cost per ton would be at least three times 

the cost from the present source. 

• It's almost an irony in the situation just discussed 

that the goal was toward advancing the environment, not 

degrading it. Under the scenario where you need to go three 

times the distance to bring material to where it will be used, 

you're increasing local air pollution and traffic problems. 

This concern recently emerged out of the 2010 study; this is 

an issue that ought to be given greater public recognition. 

• Have the recommendations from the 1976 report 

been followed; are the counties ignoring their sand and gravel 

deposits, or are they protecting them? 

Reply: A brief history of three major deposits may 

throw some light on the question. Houses were built right 

up to the property line of one deposit, and the real-estate 

operator predicted that the aggregate operation would be 

out of there within 1 year. The company didn't know about 

that; however, 3 years later it finally gave up and closed the 

pit. Operators of the second operation felt that they couldn't 

obtain a permit for their land because it was totally surrounded by housing, even though the land was available 

and the resource dedicated; they finished their reclamation 

plan and left. In the third operation, the water agency said 

that if the operator dug a pit in this particular area, the 

agency would condemn the land, in spite of the fact that the 

SMGB had designated the sand and gravel resource on this 

land. You can put a subdivision in and make more money 

than a company can by staying and mining in an area for 10 

years, and so that area is now a subdivision. There's no 

thought or plan in a fast-growing area like Orange County, 

which is using a lot of sand and gravel. Returning to the 

original query, only two permits of any consequence are 

known to have been granted by the county in the interval. If 

a company wants to get a permit for mining sand and gravel 

in an urban area, it ought to be prepared to stay there for at 

least 7 years. The result is that sand and gravel are not 

readily available in Orange County. 

• Members of the SMGB and DMG staff have indicated the need to accelerate the SMARA classification and 

designation process. The DMG is facing potential cuts in 

budget, and they're charged to make a costly designation 

process that includes EIR's. The State must reimburse the 

counties for responding twice-first, for the classification 

and, second, for the designation processes. Could the classification alone result in the protection of these deposit resources without having to go to the second step 

of designation? Could some adjustments be made to the 

classification-response requirements on the part of local 

agencies, such as a requirement to include classification 

data in county general plans? Would that step in itself be 

sufficient, or does the DMG need to continue bearing the 

additional cost of the designation process to achieve some 

better effect? 

• Don't lose the word "designation," no matter what 

48 Industrial Minerals in California: Economic Importance, Present Availability, and Future Development 
your process is. When the land classification is completed, 

make sure it's designated. 

• Playing devil' s advocate for the moment, on the 

basis of the Orange County experience, it sounds as if the 

designation of resource areas is, in reality, also meaningless. 

• Should we suggest to our legislators that some additional teeth be added to SMARA? 

Reply: No, keep the process at the local level if at all 

possible. 

• As a representative of an industry that uses a lot of 

these materials in the fiat-glass-making business, it's encouraging to hear these discussions so far, because if we 

decide who's going to supply our raw materials, we'd like 

to know a whole lot about that source of supply and whether 

it's going to be available sufficiently long enough to satisfy 

our long-term needs. Environmental-impact mitigation is 

important to us, and we're usually involved in planning 

with the mine developer. We want to know just as much as 

he does because we don't like the idea of having a glasssand-supply producer supplying us with about 200,000 tons 

a year who won't be there next year. This means finding 

another source in a hurry, which is usually more expensive 

in the end. So we invest a little money in these environmental-impact investigations. 

Restoration of Mined Lands 

• One of the recent creative reclamation projects in 

urbanizing areas was a high-income-housing development 

sited in an abandoned high-calcium limestone quarry on the 

outskirts of Columbus, Ohio. It's a beautiful development, 

but it took planning. 

• Reclamation is an important aspect when you're 

figuring out where raw materials are going to come from. 

The operators have a definite plan of how a site will be 

reclaimed after the deposit is exhausted. All of this information goes into the quality-assessment package that is made 

available to our vendors and developers. 

• The aggregate industry has developed excellent reclamation projects in Orange County in cooperation with the 

water department. In place of the diggings along the Santa 

Ana River, there are now facilities for fishing, boating, and 

water storage. It's a perfect combination. The county has 

done very well as far as reclamation is concerned. 

• The industry reclamation project in Mission Valley 

is another good example of a reclamation project. The company excavated sand and gravel from the San Diego River 

bed. This land was subsequently reclaimed, and today part 

of the property is an expanding area of hotels. 

• Greater technical direction is needed in California, 

even though the SMARA program seems to be heading in 

the right direction, and resource attorneys like Jim Good are 

doing a great job in Sacramento helping to assure good 

legislation. There should be better coordination between the 

operators, the DMG, and academic institutions. To give you 

some idea of what's been done successfully in other places, 

the following examples will serve. The academic community has made large contributions toward the development 

of resource programs in Texas. In fact, the Illinois and Texas 

Geological Surveys provide good models for the development 

of industrial-mineral and related programs. It's also interesting that there's money available from the Federal Government for the State surveys to do this job. Illinois, Tennessee, 

and Kentucky, among others, have obtained these funds. 

• If you really want to know what's going on in the 

area of extensive mining-practice planning elsewhere in the 

world, one of the finest examples of mining within heavily 

populated areas is in the Ruhr area in Germany. About 25 

percent of the electricity in West Germany is produced from 

brown coal, which has a heat content of 3,300 BTU per 

pound; you can hardly bum it, it's so wet. Whole towns are 

moved to get at the resource. There's tremendous technological development involved in bucket-wheel excavators, 

belts, refilling, and so on. However, that really pales beside 

the political achievement in heavily populated scenic areas. 

Where private industry has gone in with the assistance of 

legislation, the mining process is accomplished within a 

very short time. The mining company is able to designate 

the area that it's going to move to next. Meetings are held, 

and environmental assessments are made. The companies 

are able to continue mining; they don't have all the court 

hassles because the legislation already has been set up, and 

they're able to resettle whole villages. We may come to this 

in California, but if we want an example of how to do 

something, the German experience is available. 

• There are numerous examples of creative, economically productive uses of reclaimed mined lands in urban, 

rural, forested, and desert areas. The technology and practice are available. If there's anything missing in the California experience, it's our ability to bring these successes to 

the attention of the public. For those of us in the north bay 

area, north of San Francisco, Larkspur Landing is a perfect 

example of that. We too often fail to take advantage of 

these examples of accomplishments on the part of mining 

companies working to reclaim areas. 

Good Advice for Rebuilding the Image of 

the Mining Industry 

• There are good examples of technological success, 

but the mining industry falls way behind in political sophistication. The best kept secret in the State of California is the 

mining industry. Whose fault is it? We're hearing the same 

music today as the industry was playing 40 years ago. Where 

do we go from here? 

• If nothing else comes out of this workshop, something 

should come out specifically as a way of reaching the media, whether it's through the CMA, the SMGB, the DMG, or 

different mining groups. The individual company cannot do 

it. Someway, somehow, we have to come up with a specific 

The Environmental Impacts of Mining and Their Mitigation 49 
plan. We've missed the boat, and we'll continue to miss it 

until we let everyone know through the news media what 

mining is doing and what its use is to the State on a continuing basis. Just 3 years ago, the American Mining Congress 

had a big international meeting in Los Angeles, with people 

from all over the world. There wasn't one word in the Los 

Angeles Times about that meeting. When called, the editor 

said that he didn't think the sessions were important enough 

to report on. We need a specific plan about how to get the 

information about mining to the world, put it in action. 

• This industry is no different from many others that 

talk to themselves all the time. The real-estate and mineraldevelopment industries create much havoc for each other, 

but rarely do they ever talk to each other. Once, at a meeting in San Diego, the organizers had all the groups together-developers, environmentalists, and planning 

departments--in the same room. The main problem for the 

mineral industry became abundantly clear-it was the 

amount of subdivision development that can be accommodated next to an aggregate pit. 

The message is that, along with communication with 

the general public, the mining industry must communicate 

with its neighboring industries. As industries, we must stop 

talking only to ourselves. All industries have that problem 

to some extent, and agriculture is one of the worst afflicted. 

The only way for them to get on the front pages was to buy 

their way there. They had serious image problems because 

of their use of herbicides and pesticides and permitting 

growth hormones. Very little recognition was given to how 

much they produced or how cheap it is to get the food 

product. There's no one present here today from the news 

media. In talks with a reputable newspaper editor, it became obvious that he had no idea what the effect of the 

mining industry, whether from gold or precious metals or 

diatomite, was on the economy of his community, and 

newspapers are sold to the people who work there. You 

have to impress on the news media that mining is an important part of the economic base in their area. 

• Did the organizers of this group here today go to 

any local newspaper to tell them that this was taking place? 

Reply: Yes, several national and local newspapers were 

contacted by telephone during the week preceding the 

workshop. They were willing to consider a summary statement. Our error was in not preparing a news release from 

the USGS or DMG early enough, which would have presented some of the concepts and problems facing urban 

areas that might have a startling impact on the readership. 

It's up to us in the future to lay better groundwork so as to 

catch the editors' attention. 

• It doesn't always work the way one plans. The 

USGS got the press interested in one of its recent studies 

called the eastern Mesozoic basins. The idea was that these 

basins resemble those elsewhere in the world like Norilsk, 

U.S.S.R., which are producers of critical metals--platinum 

and nickel. The only response the USGS got from this press 

release concerned one or two well-to-do places in Connecticut from people who called up to ask if there was any 

serious possibility of ruining their area by mining. It's too 

bad that the USGS didn't get responses from people in 

areas that are less developed who might be interested in 

developing their area and lead to benefits to the economy 

and people's self-images. 

A Public-Action Educational Program is Needed by 

the Industrial-Mineral Industry 

• Some of us who had a role in organizing this meeting are tired of attending one more conference where we 

talk to ourselves and pass great resolutions and nothing 

more happens. We plan to lay out a proposal here to create 

followup workshops with specific work plans designed to 

achieve priority targets that we set for ourselves. Otherwise, 

10 years from now we'll still be talking to ourselves. We 

must begin to put together some coordinated actions, to go 

out into the public arena and do battle on behalf of ourselves. 

We have a great opportunity presented to us right now, 

if we take advantage of the moment and follow up on the 

talks and discussion that we've just heard. A lot of things 

are already happening and coming together. Let's not lose 

sight of the fact that we do have the CMA, a trade association 

that has already started turning things around on public 

policy. Last year, Senator Cranston tried to enact CDPA. We 

were told 3 years ago that this legislation was going to 

succeed. There were a few of us die-hards within the CMA 

who said, "No way! It's not going to happen; we're not going 

to roll over and play dead for anyone," and we succeeded. 

Too often, this industry has been used to losing. We 

have an inferiority complex as an industry. It's time to look 

at our successes; we have them. The California Desert legislation didn't go anywhere last year, not because Senators 

Wilson and Cranston couldn't agree but because there was the 

California Desert Institute, a creature of the CMA, that 

banded together and let the elected officials know that there 

would be a high price to pay for any adverse political decision 

which they might make on this issue. We generated mail, telephone calls, personal visits to Senators Wilson and Cranston 

and the rest of the congressional delegation from California. 

It didn't just happen, it takes committment of energy and the 

pocketbook, and it takes data. Most of all, it takes planning. 

We will miss a real opportunity if we don't accept 

that challenge right now and commit to doing something. 

Let's aim for creating an action program and thinking about 

what personal commitment we want to make in participating in a followup task force to implement some priority 

goals. We need to sit down and identify what the priority 

goals are that we see for this industry. What are the resources that it will take to achieve those priority goals? 

What kind of timetable is involved? Then let's roll up our 

sleeves and form a small working group composed of those 

of us who feel so inclined, and go at it. 

50 Industrial Minerals in California: Economic Importance, Present Availability, and Future Development 
Economic Issues Associated with 

Industrial-Mineral Development 

Dwane Johnson, Convenor 

We are now going to consider that dirty word money. 

We can't get away from it; money motivates people in this 

country. We also will be talking about some of the special 

economic problems of industrial minerals. I believe that 

there's a real future for these materials and that we can 

capitalize on this situation if we plan properly. We don't 

have time to talk about the total economic picture, and so 

we'll focus primarily on that part which presently is most 

critical to industrial-mineral production-transportation. 

Richard Brown, Paul St. Onge, and James Gosnell are wellqualified experts on the critical economic problems that focus 

on transportation. Richard Brown is the director of commodities for the Santa Fe Railroad in Chicago, which is a 

big landholder in the Western States. Oil and minerals are 

produced on some of these lands, and the railroad then 

hauls these and other industrial-mineral commodities mined 

in the region to wherever they may be needed. Paul St. 

Onge, formerly a director of the International Monetary 

Council and now a staff member of LAP A, is experienced 

in moving bulk commodities all over the world. He knows 

the rail industry, the trucking industry, and ocean shipping. 

James Gosnell has two hats, first, with his background in 

economics and, second, as the director of transportation for 

SCAG, an organization that has produced some interesting 

relevant studies of regional economic impacts. Before turning the session over to them, I want explain the focus of 

this session, make some advisory statements, and propose 

some possible solutions. 

The industrial-mineral business has just begun to 

demonstrate its importance. If you look at other ci vilizations, such as Europe, they tend to move from being big 

metal users as they mature toward being big users of industrial minerals. I think that the United States is moving in 

that direction and will tend to become more of a big industrial-mineral user. This is one reason why we should now 

focus on the industrial minerals. Most people who read the 

newspapers see that there's been an increase in the use of 

metals and that copper has jumped up in price. This usage 

has been somewhat masked, in that the new users of those 

metals tend to be the less developed countries. Use in the 

more developed countries has not increased dramatically. 

The infrastructure of the industry plays a big part in 

the economics of mineral development. I'd like to have had 

someone here from the Department of Water and Power 

and the gas company, because energy is a big problem in 

mineral development, and it's also an important factor with 

the ships down in LAP A. 

• Rather than the industrial-mineral companies taking 

on all the special-interest groups, they should yoke themselves with the end producers. If these producers don't have 

the right minerals, they can't produce the product they have 

to sell in the marketplace. 

• Instead of using the word mining, we should include 

a bigger picture and use the words material science. The 

current trend is to broaden the base of resource activity and 

to eliminate the present poor image of the term mining. 

• Considerable time has been spent already on marketing, so we won't talk about that. Mining is a well-known 

industry; its costs are well known and readily available. 

The miner just gets a bigger sledge hammer if he has to do 

more, or a bigger kettle to put out more product. 

• We should spend some time discussing the education of management people; management must also educate 

the people within companies on what to do and how to do 

it. We're lacking in that area, and the old training programs 

that most of us came up with in industry have fallen by the 

wayside. As a result, a lot of money has been wasted. 

• The reason why I believe that industrial minerals 

are the resources of the future is that if you graph time and 

uses in the production of most metals, they describe a curve 

(fig. 19). At first, there are a lot of uses for the metals; then, 

these uses decline. Each metal has the same shape of curve. 

Over time, this same type of curve is developing for plastics and composite materials. They are just beginning to 

emerge, and new uses are being found for them-both for 

some well known materials and for less well known materials. This is the way we're headed with industrial minerals. 

We're moving into the future, and this is where the big 

Economic Issues Associated with Industrial-Mineral Development 51 
Table 4. Selected intra-State industrial-mineral traffic in California 

[Data from Transearch data base (1986)] 

Rail Truck Rail Origin Destination (tons) (tons) (percent) 

San Francisco ------------- San Francisco ----------------- 21,511 106,865 16.8 

Los Angeles ------------------- 18,680 301,228 5.8 

Fresno ---------------------- Los Angeles ------------------- 293,587 9,842 96.8 

Los Angeles --------------- San Francisco ----------------- 44,450 3,396 92.9 

Stockton ----------------------- 33,396 542 98.4 

Fresno -------------------------- 43,599 709 98.4 

Los Angeles ------------------- 581,683 9,573 98.4 

Total ------------------------ 1,036,906 432,155 70.6 

opportunities for industrial-mineral growth lie. We have to 

expand the use of industrial minerals in farming, a big industry in California, and in the fillers and extenders business. An airplane was almost all metal a few years ago; 

now, 30 percent of it is composite materials, and their uses 

are increasing. 

• Economically, industrial minerals are the game of 

the future, and southern California has a lot of potential for 

developing additional deposits. Who knows what type of 

chemical compound is going to be useful later? We should 

be careful of what we have (or need) to preserve there. 

EARLY YEARS MATURE YEARS 

INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT 

Figure 19. Generalized trend of use of most metals in comparison with industrial minerals in developing 

industrial societies. 

Effect of the Railroad on 

the Industrial-Mineral Industry, 

and the Economics of the Railroad Industry 

By R.W. Brown 

First, I made the flawed assumption that no one here 

would be interested in sand and gravel, but I've discovered 

that a lot of people here are very much interested in that 

commodity. Alternatively, I've focused on minerals that are 

sources of sodium and potassium, possibly somewhat more 

valuable materials than sand and gravel, which are moved 

more often by railroad. The values cited in the following 

tables are from an econometric consulting firm, Transearch 

Associates. These data sources comprise a variety of public 

information, including a !-percent sample from the U.S. 

DOT; they, show how important the railroads are to the 

mineral industry and how important the mineral industry is 

to the railroads. 

Materials Flow in California 

The flow of materials within the State of California is 

shown in table 4. This flow actually what the Department 

of Commerce refers to as business economic activity (BEA). 

The four cities listed-San Francisco, Los Angeles, Stockton, and Fresno-represent pretty much all of California's 

rail-freight-traffic sources and destinations south of the San 

Francisco Bay area. This information is examined 

econometrically by a computer program and interpreted, 

the result being what the analysts think happened. These 

tables represent 1986 data. Most of the activity shown in 

table 4 represents commodities from of the U.S. Borax facility at Boron and the Kerr-McGee facility at Trona; I'm 

not sure what's coming out of the San Francisco Bay areait may be imported materials. Most of what's moving through 

52 Industrial Minerals in California: Economic Importance, Present Availability, and Future Development 
Table 5. Selected outbound industrial-mineral traffic in 

California 

[Data from Transearch data base (1986)] 

Origin Rail Truck Rail 

(tons) (tons) (percent) 

San Francisco---- 109,271 480,761 18.5 

Fresno ---·---------- 906,284 15,434 98.3 

Los Angeles ------ 1,016,965 15,434 98.5 

Total-------- 2,032,520 511,629 79.9 

the State is actually going through the PLA for export out 

of the country or for possible shipment on vessels traversing the Panama Canal to an east-coast destination. The rail 

share of all that movement is more than 70.6 percent. Thus, 

railroads are the predominant carriers of sodium and potassium borate compounds in the State. For comparison and to 

indicate the significance of rail transport, those movements 

alone represent about 11,000 railroad carloads per day, 

which, if moved by truck, would impose a tremendous traffic problem. About 30 rail shipments per day would be 

equivalent to about 120 to 200 more trucks on the highway. 

The movement of industrial-mineral commodities out 

of California is shown in table 5. The importance of rail is 

well illustrated by its market share. We're talking mainly 

about sodium compounds from Boron and Trona, and they're 

shipped mostly east of the Mississippi River. With that length 

of haul and the weight of the shipments, rail is the only 

economical way of moving these materials. So, to the extent that we can provide an economic service to California's 

industrial-minerals producers, we keep them competitive in 

markets that might otherwise go to imports or other sources. 

The movement of mainly sodium and potassium compounds into California is shown in table 6. They're a little 

more varied, and there's a greater spread in terms of where 

they end up. These industrial minerals are mainly fertilizer 

materials, soda ash from Wyoming and potash from New 

Mexico. The largest volumes are going into the PLA for 

export. Over the years, I think that the volumes of both of 

these exports through southern California have declined. 

Portland, Oreg., has developed a huge facility that was built 

strictly for handling soda ash, and most soda ash is routed 

through there. Most potash moves through Houston and 

Texas City, Tex. It's true that both of those ports are closer 

to the sources of material, but I think that California hasn't 

really welcomed the opportunity to seek out these export 

commodities. 

The movement of liquified petroleum gas within California is shown in table 7. A tremendous amount of gas, 

mostly propane, is moved about the State by motor carriers. 

Some is moved by pipelines, also; if an operator has a 

pipeline, he will use it preferentially. The numbers suggest 

Table 6. Selected inbound industrial-mineral traffic in 

California 

[Data from Transearch data base (1986)] 

Rail Truck Rail Destination (tons) (tons) (percent) 

San Francisco ---- 236,815 131,702 64.3 

Sacramento------- 66,189 13,169 83.4 

Stockton ---------- 221,690 20,709 91.5 

Fresno ------------- 81,961 27,165 75.1 

Los Angeles ------ 1,650,314 371,266 81.6 

San Diego -------- 13,002 1,350 90.6 

Total-------- 2,269,971 565,361 80.1 

that 1.7 million tons of propane is being moved by truck. 

The rail share is only about 5 percent. Some of this movement is by local truck delivery, some is local from a well to 

a pipeline terminal, but a lot of it just moves back and forth 

between the refinery in the San Francisco Bay area, the 

Bakersfield area, and southern California; in the Los Angeles Basin, much also comes into California from Arizona 

and elsewhere. Certainly, we'd be better off if this gas were 

moving by rail, which is much safer than by highway. 

Rail transport doesn't seem to be competitive for several reasons. It's hard for the railroad to be competitive 

with trucks because truck transport is more flexible and 

convenient; the distributor or user wants to be filled up 

immediately. A truck can arrive on scene very quickly or 

within a few hours and move the product. If the product is 

being moved by rail, the customer must wait for a switch 

engine to come that day, and this waiting can be inconvenient. Also, railroads are costly. It's difficult on a short-haul 

move, especially in the Los Angeles area, where the market 

is very competitive with the truck, because the truck industry can get such good use of its equipment. One problem 

that we're beginning to face in the Los Angeles Basin, 

because it hurts the railroad particularly, is the need for 

locating a facility to unload materials from rail to truck. 

Bringing in these materials is most economical by rail, by 

and large, but the final consumer in most cases is almost 

never served by the railroad; he may be a farmer who needs 

an agricultural commodity. So, we're constantly trying to 

find places where we can make transfers from rail car to 

truck, an operation that's getting more difficult. It's already 

been mentioned that the values of land close in to the city 

are so high that no one wants to do anything other than put 

condominiums or houses on the property. We've also had a 

lot of contact with city governments who say that we can't 

use urbanized land for railroad unloading of covered hopper cars. In southern California, there's an increasing requirement to permit moving or transloading of propane out 

of a rail car into a truck. That requirement is being forced 

by regulators because certainly there's some danger when 

Economic Issues Associated with Industrial-Mineral Development 53 
Table 7. Intra-State liquified-petroleum-gas traffic in California 

[Data from Transearch data base (1986)] 

Origin Destination 

San Francisco --------- San Francisco --------------

Fresno -----------------------

Los Angeles ----------------

Sacramento ------------ San Francisco --------------

Fresno -----------------------

Los Angeles ----------------

Stockton --------------- San Francisco --------------

Fresno -----------------------

Los Angeles ----------------

Fresno ------------------ San Francisco --------------

Fresno -----------------------

Los Angeles ----------------

Los Angeles ----------- San Francisco --------------

Fresno -----------------------

Los Angeles ----------------

San Diego -------------- San Francisco --------------

Fresno -----------------------

Los Angeles ----------------

Other-------------------- San Francisco --------------

Fresno -----------------------

Los Angeles ----------------

Total --------------- San Francisco --------------

Fresno -----------------------

Los Angeles ----------------

Entire State -----------------

unloading the propane. By and large, however, it's more 

dangerous to move propane by highway. 

Economic Problems Facing the Railroads 

To understand the current plight of the rail industry 

and its inability to serve the industrial-mineral business fully, 

we must review what has happened to railroad use in the 

past 15 years. In the early 1970's, trucks were beginning to 

make some significant inroads into the transportation market share. The interstate highway system was complete, and 

trucks could get anywhere quickly and easily. The first energy crisis in 1973 hit the trucking industry hard and should 

have been a tremendous opportunity for the rail industry. 

However, the railroad's major customers, the heavy industries (for example, steel), took a downturn during that same 

crisis. Thus, the railroads lost many of their big customers. 

At the same time, trucks made significant inroads and were 

Rail Truck Rail 

(tons) (tons) (percent) 

42,468 177,935 19.3 

2,508 62,853 3.8 

5,720 252,438 2.2 

2,356 28,424 7.7 

0 10,040 0.0 

0 40,325 0.0 

0 21,015 0.0 

0 7,423 0.0 

0 29,814 0.0 

2,422 49,856 4.6 

0 17,611 0.0 

0 70,732 0.0 

2,600 322,322 0.8 

0 113,855 0.0 

26,016 457,280 5.4 

0 0 

0 12,873 0.0 

6,920 51,704 11.8 

0 8,921 0.0 

0 1,892 0.0 

0 7,598 0.0 

49,846 608,473 7.6 

2,508 226,547 1.1 

38,656 909,891 4.1 

91,010 1,744,911 5.0 

able to mitigate their increasing fuel costs by allowing for 

greater size and weight on the highways. At this point in 

the late 1970's, with the railroads barely competitive with 

motor carriers, the motor carriers were deregulated. The 

regulation of motor carriers had caused barriers to efficiency, 

such as who could handle what and what markets the carrier could serve. Deregulation eliminated all of that immediately because no more certifications were required for 

motor carriers. When that happened, nonunion trucklines 

began to grow at a tremendous rate. Labor is the major cost 

for both the trucking (about 60 percent or more) and rail 

(50-60 percent) industries. Lower costs due to increase in 

nonunion trucklines caused unions to reduce wages in 1980, 

and increases in employee productivity in the trucking business resulted in a more favorable wage structure and high 

employment. Partial deregulation of the rail industry in the 

early 1980's permitted some economic improvement. Employment decreased, while the railroads had to continue 

increasing rates of pay (fig. 20). 

54 Industrial Minerals in California: Economic Importance, Present Availability, and Future Development 
Response of the Railroads to Change 

The effect of this competition on basic economics is 

only one part of the problem for the railroads. The second 

problem is that the economy of California has changed from 

heavy to lighter industry. Southern California used to be a 

major area for rail transportation serving industry; now, the 

heavy-industry production is located elsewhere, and the 

volume of imports is up. The local business opportunities 

and potential markets have dried up. Higher-value-added 

materials that move in a more time sensitive manner and 

are more service sensitive are more likely to go by truck. 

We've had the Japanese just-in-time approach to manufacturing that has really benefited the motor carrier, which can 

be quick and responsive. 

The drops in employment are a direct result of increased productivity through automation. It's very easy to 

automate when you're paying people high wages. About 4 

or 5 years ago, I was involved in the development and 

installation of a touchtone, automated voice-response telephone system for providing rail-car-location information. 

In planning this venture, we met vendors and other people 

who had replaced basic clerical people at the end of the 

40 

38 

(/) 36 a: 

~ ....J 

0 34 

Cl 

LL 

0 32 (/) 

Cl 

z 

< 30 (/) 

:::> 

0 

:I: 

telephone with touchtone-activated devices. A lot of these 

people are paid $5.00 per hour, whereas our lowest-paid 

clerk makes $108 per day ($13.50 per hour). It's a whole 

lot easier to justify spending $100,000 on a computer when 

you're paying somebody $13.50 per hour than when you're 

paying only $5.00 per hour. 

We've replaced clerks with computers, and we've replaced laborers with machines, but our basic problem still 

is the crew on the train. The basic agreements with our 

unions call for five people to operate a train. A day's pay 

for each person is 108 mi on that train. In addition, there 

are the union craft specializations that sometimes can require two or three people to do the simplest jobs. A recent 

example concerned supplying parts to a large General Motors assembly plant in Oklahoma City, which was concerned 

about the transit time in obtaining those parts from Michigan and other places. A whole trainload of urgently needed 

parts for this assembly plant was parked in Joliet, Ill., because a heater wasn't working in the cab of the locomotive. 

The train had to wait for a railroad electrician to change a 

fuse; the electrician had to drive out from Chicago to change 

the fuse in the cab, while the train sat there for 2 hours and 

the assembly plant waited for the critical parts. 

------ 28 ,,--- _____ _ I- --- ----------- z 

en 26 

w 

(!) 

< / 

~ 24 / / / / 

/ 

22 

20 

1980 

..... 

------ / / 

1981 1982 

/ / / 

1983 1984 1985 

---- TRUCK 

RAIL 

1986 1987 

Figure 20. Comparison of rail versus truck employee wages, 1980-B7. 

Economic Issues Associated with Industrial-Mineral Development 55 
Effect on Industrial-Mineral Producers 

What is the effect of such operations on the industrialmineral producer? Clearly, our biggest problem is associated 

with labor, and it affects your business and the economical 

movement of resources to their markets. Changes have already begun. About 15 years ago, every train in this country 

ran with an engineer, conductor, fireman, and two brakemen and had a caboose on the end of the train; 100 mi was 

a da~'s pay. Today, we've gotten rid of the caboose, and the 

train goes 108 mi for a day's pay. That's an 8-percent increase in productivity, which is quite significant. 

We'd like to be able to run the train with two men, an 

engineer and conductor, handling the whole train and have 

them move into what would be an 8-hour day, not a 108-mi 

day. For example, a typical train on the Santa Fe's Barstowto-Los Angeles run costs (out of pocket) $4,975; 15 percent 

of that is for fuel, and 27 percent is for the crew (of 6-8 

people). If we could run that train with two persons and if 

they could take the train to Los Angeles and back to Barstow, 

we could probably affect savings in the neighborhood of 

$2,000 for the trip, or 20 percent in costs. This cost savings translates directly into similar cost savings to the industrial-mineral industry. Industrial-mineral materials could be 

moved more economically by train. That is our future. 

Our management is working on negotiations with the unions. 

If they're successful, we'll see a great increase in productivity, and, to a certain extent, that will translate into cost savings 

for the resource industry. We have the capacity out there to 

handle it, and all we need now is the capability. 

Comment: It's interesting to talk about the rail era. 

You may recall that in the 1960's and 1970's the international waterways became important because of the ease and 

economy in shipping commodities on them. Prices dropped 

for the delivery of crude ore between Australia and the 

United States. As shown in figure 15, the trucking industry 

became more competitive in the early 1980's. It's now necessary for the rail industry to do likewise if it's to remain a 

relevant transportation force. If that happens, we can expect 

to see an increased development and movement of industrial minerals by rail. 

This comment leads us into Paul St. Onge' s report. If 

we don't produce the minerals here and deliver them, port 

facilities will be constructed for commodities to come from 

overseas and enter the local marketplace. This importation 

will have an effect on foreign exchange, as well as depress 

the development of domestic resource industries. 

Effect of the Port of Los Angeles on 

the Industrial-Mineral Industry 

By P.B. St. Onge 

The PLA is an independent department of the city of 

Los Angeles. It pays no taxes, nor does it use taxes for 

supporting the operation of the port. The port is a selfsustaining, nonoperating port, or landlord port. It operates 

none of its own facilities; they're operated by steamship 

lines, stevedoring companies, oil companies, and other private corporations. Our income comes from land and facilities rental, storage, dockage, and pilotage. The PLA is the 

most affluent port in the United States and has a 5-year 

development program of $100 million per year for capital 

improvements. The Mayor of Los Angeles appoints a fivemember board of harbor commissioners who, in turn, appoint the executive director of the port. The executive 

director supervises a staff of about 700 persons, half of 

whom are maintenance and repair employees. 

The geographic location of the port is its key to 

success. About 60 percent of the total population of 

California, as well as 60 percent of the State's industry, 

reside in or are located within a radius of 60 mi from the 

port. If this circle were taken away from California, it would 

constitute the 13th largest producing nation in the world. 

The PLA itself covers 7,000 acres, 50 percent land and 50 

percent water (fig. 21). There is 28 mi of shoreline in the 

port, almost all dock space. The commercial concentration 

within this small congested area leads to problems, such as 

getting rail deliveries. 

Types of Materials Passing Through the Port 

Most of my observations will be concerned with the 

major bulk products handled, but I'll point out a few other 

types of materials that also are handled. The PLA is quite 

diversified, probably the most diversified port in the United 

States. There are automobile, dry-bulk, liquid-bulk, and petroleum terminals, and steel and crude-container facilities, 

as well as recreational facilities (the west side of the port 

will contain marinas). Next to the marina is the coal-loading terminal. Terminal Island is a storage facility for petroleum coke, which is produced in our refinery. 

Most of the bulk products (coal, petroleum coke, scrap 

metal, sulfur, and copper concentrates) are major export 

items. Cement, fertilizers, various ores, silica sand, rutile 

sand, bauxite, and furnace slag are imported. There have 

been recent inquiries about bringing aggregate into this area 

by barge, probably from the Pacific Northwest 

About 50 percent of the business in the port is petroleum or petroleum products--both imports and exports. 

Approximately 4 million tons of coke is produced per year 

as a byproduct of various refinery operations in the Los 

Angeles Basin; the PLA has about 25 percent of the cokeexport operation. All the coke is transported from the re~nery to the port by truck-either for storage or for loadmg 

directly onto a vessel. Some of the coke is used domestically, probably in the cement industry, but 90 percent of it 

is exported. At present, it's about 50 percent steam coal and 

50 percent metallurgic coal; both come from Colorado. 

We're already seeing some big orders for next year. For the 

56 Industrial Minerals in California: Economic Importance, Present Availability, and Future Development 
past 3 years from the U.S. west coast, about 1.2 million 

tons of coal has been exported. 

Another product that's handled by trucks is sulfur. 

The two sulfur-production facilities are essentially the same; 

the only difference is that sulfur is stored inside at our 

facility. The operators take liquid sulfur from the refinery 

and bring it to the port, where it's put into pellet form for 

shipment-it's safer and cleaner that way. A new vesselloading system has been developed whereby trucks haul the 

sulfur 5 mi into the port and drop it onto a belt that moves it 

onto ship at a rate of about 600 tons per hour. This process 

has also reduced air pollution in the area. About 100 percent of the sulfur is exported, which, at present, is approximately 400,000 tons per year. 

Another important export product is scrap metal or 

automobiles going back to Japan-"the end of the freeway." About 1.5 million tons of scrap metal per year is 

exported from the port, which is the only one in the area 

that can handle this type of material. The scrap exporters 

have improved efficiency in handling scrap at the port and 

have released scarce ocean-front land for other uses. 

Cement is a large import commodity. Until about 3 

years ago, no cement was being imported into the PLA. 

Then, the PLA arranged with a private company to bring in 

a ship and lease it for 5 years as a storage facility (fig. 22). 

The company built conveyers to the dock. A delivery ship 

unloads into the storage ship, and subsequently, as needed, 

the cement is transferred to trucks. This past year, about 

300,000 tons went through that particular facility. Riverside 

Cement projects moving an additional600,000 tons through 

its new facility this year. Another type of facility is a cement-terminal warehouse that includes two portable 

unloaders--large vacuum cleaners--that take the cement 

out of a ship and pump it into the warehouse. A majority 

share of this facility was purchased by CALMAT; they're 

predicting being able to handle another- 600,000 tons of 

cement per year. The port now has about 1.2 million tons 

going through annually, and they expect additional companies to come in with additional facilities for unloading. 

Solutions to Some Port Economic Problems 

The port plans to build facilities that will be more 

efficient in loading larger-bulk vessels. Also, unit trains from 

the railroad should be unloaded in a matter of hours and 

depart from the port. This operational efficiency will reduce 

the total transportation costs. 

Thus, the first project of the PLA's Project 2020 will 

begin with the creation of 190 acres of new landfill from 

dredging. Some of the harbor will be dredged to below 75 

ft; then, the port will be able to load 300,000-ton supertankers. The plan calls for locating an energy island, composed 

of tank farms containing hazardous materials, to be located 

in the outer harbor. The prediction of annual tonnage going 

through the port will be an increase of 75 million tons, and 

in 2020 it will be 200 million tons more than today. The 

Figure 21. WORLDPORT LA, the port of Los Angeles on San Pedro Bay. PLA is on left, Long Beach is on 

right. Photograph courtesy of WORLDPORT LA. 

Economic Issues Associated with Industrial-Mineral Development 57 
bulk-terminal expansion is the first phase of the project. Also 

included is a container terminal, dry-bulk terminal, improved 

rail access, and storage for 1.5 million tons of coal. 

Improved rail access may be the most critical part of 

the port's plan. This important project, called the consolidated transportation corridor, includes upgrading highway 

and rail access to the port. Three existing rail corridors are 

difficult to manage because of unseparated highway crossings and tortuous multiple routes. The Santa Fe Railroad 

has 92 rail crossings, the Union Pacific Railroad has 33, 

and the Southern Pacific Railroad has two routes with 39 

and 34, respectively. The effect on population within 500ft 

of the existing railroad rights-of-way includes Santa Fe, 

25,000; Union Pacific, 50,000; and Southern Pacific, about 

29,000 people. A coalition of local and State agencies under 

an independent lead agency and with joint authority will be 

created to supervise this route into the port. The primary 

goal is to assure a double-mainline, continuously welded 

rail crossover from the East Los Angeles area to the port, 

with a rail-traffic control and scheduling system. This corridor would run primarily through industrial districts. It will 

be a direct route with little impact on people living in the 

Los Angeles area. There will also be a six-lane limitedaccess highway. Reduced pollution, fewer trucks on the 

freeways, reduced train traffic and noise in residential areas, 

and increased safety are the objectives of this new project. 

It will permit projected expansion and improved opportunities for growth of the industrial-mineral and other industries, as well as jobs in southern California, an area that is 

anticipating unparalleled growth in population. 

Comment: I think you can see that LAPA is creating 

opportunities for mineral producers. If the domestic producers don't take advantage of these opportunities, they'll 

lose them, and somebody else will fill the gap and deliver 

the needed materials from abroad. 

Future Expectations and Opportunities for 

Growth of the Industrial-Mineral Industry 

By James Gosnell 

The same types of problems and frustrations for industrial-mineral producers also exist for the transportation 

business in southern California, according to planning studies by SCAG, which is a regional planning organization 

composed of cities and six counties in and around Los Angeles, excluding San Diego County but including most of 

the rest of southern California. SCAG is governed by locally elected officials who are appointed by their respective 

bodies to sit on the "executive committee." SCAG has a 

number of Federally mandated and State-mandated responsibilities. One is to prepare a regional transportation plan; 

another is to prepare the transportation portions of the airquality-management plan. We also are a water-qualityplanning agency, and we make economic analyses, housing 

forecasts, and projections of population and the general 

economy. As a part of that, SCAG prepares a growth-management plan. All SCAG plans are supposed to be woven 

together to form the basis for expenditures of State and 

Figure 22. PLA ship-storage facility owned by the Riverside Cement Co. Vessel is unloading 

cement into a "floating silo" storage vessel, which, in turn, is reloaded onto trucks for 

shipment and delivery. Photograph courtesy of WORLDPORT LA. 

58 Industrial Minerals in California: Economic Importance, Present Availability, and Future Development 
Federal funds for housing, water quality, and transportation 

programs. SCAG does studies, but it also prepares justifications for spending some of your tax dollars. 

Regional Population Changes 

The region is changing. What are some of the issues 

that SCAG sees, and what specifically is being done in 

transportation? My message brings both good news and bad 

news. First, let me tell you a little bit about population 

growth. Figure 23 summarizes an expected population growth 

from about 13.7 million today to about 18.3 million in the 

year 2010. An interesting derivative from these numbers is 

the kinds of growth. About 3 years ago, the population of 

the region was 12.4 million, and so we've grown by more 

than a million persons in the past 4 to 5 years. Many people 

think that the 18.3-million figure is high, but we believe it's 

a conservative estimate and that a 20-million population 

forecast may be more realistic for this time period. 

Regional job Market 

SCAG expects a healthy rate of growth in jobs. There 

are about 6.5 million jobs today, and we expect that to go 

up to about 9.0 million by 2010. There has been a commensurate increase in jobs in the past few years. The kinds of 

employment that have been available in the State of California (Lipson and Barnett, 1988) indicate progressive 

change. Our economy in southern California also shows 

change continuing into the future. We're moving away from 

manufacturing and much more heavily into a service 

economy. We're certainly going to increase in all sectors of 

the economy, but the relative share of each is going to 

change. In 1960, 31 percent of our jobs were in manufacturing, and 14 percent were in services. In the mid-1980's, 

22 percent of jobs were in manufacturing, and 25 percent 

were in services (fig. 24). By the year 2010, 30 percent of 

the jobs are expected to be in the services industry. We 

have about 1.2 million jobs in manufacturing today. The 

more important sources of those jobs are the electric industry, electronic components, transportation equipment (particularly in aviation), machinery, fabricated metals, and 

apparel. Almost all of these jobs depend on industrial-mineral raw materials. 

Comment: Is that trend the same :as for other parts of 

the United States, and is that just a normal pattern for the 

United States? 

Reply: There's a parallel between the U.S. and 

California's economies. Southern California is advantageous 

in the fact that the number of industries that are expected to 

grow and prosper over the next 20 years allows activity to 

center in southern California. One of the biggest differences is in the growth of manufacturing; it's expected to 

continue to grow here. 

Demographic Changes in the Region 

The types of demographic changes that we're expecting in California will be substantial. You can see (fig. 25) 

that the 1987 demographic makeup of the population leans 

heavily toward the non-Hispanic. Over time, a significant 

increase is projected in the Hispanic population; in southern 

California, by the year 2010, it will almost match the nonHispanic population. We won't have majorities or minorities, so to speak, in the year 2010. Part of the 3-year study 

that we embarked on in the projection of growth was an 

attempt to understand the changing fertility rates. What is 

that doing to the population trend? In the past, we were 

saying that a lot of our growth was coming from immigration; we felt that we were getting substantial immigration 

from Southeast Asia, Central America, and South America. 

This was true, but we didn't clearly understand the kind of 

fertility changes that were occurring in the population that 

was here already or was going to be here. In our analysis, 

we're finding that out of this growth, about 60+ percent 

will come in natural increase from the people who are presently living here; the rest will be from immigration. An 

interesting statistic that relates to our trying to establish 

public policy and your attempt here to respond to it is that a 

third of the people here in the year 2010 are already living 

here. Thus, as SCAG lays out port plans for the year 2010 

and talks about long -range plans, and as public agencies 

make investments for the future, such as for highways, transit, and other things, these decisions are being made for 

people who are not here yet, and politicians tend to think 

about tomorrow and getting reelected. 

By 2010, There will Be 9 Million 

More Californians 

Millions 

40 

1920 1940 1960 

Source: Callforn1 a Dept ol Finance 

1980 2010 

Figure 23. Anticipated growth in California's population (from 

Lipson and Barnett, 1988). 

Economic Issues Associated with Industrial-Mineral Development 59 
SCAG's Long-Range Plans 

These factors raise some interesting issues in terms of 

long-term policy planning and investment relative to current 

problems. As you know, there are current problems in the 

highway system. I was at a conference last week at which the 

transportation and development communities were trying to 

figure out what they were going to do about tax increases 

for improving transportation to meet the needs of population and its employment. SCAG is expecting an increase of 

about 2.6 million housing units over the next 20 years. I 

don't know whether this is a big number for the minerals 

industry, but 3.078 billion tons of sand and gravel will be 

required to construct and lay the infrastructure. We don't 

expect that all of those houses will be 1 ,500 ftl in area. Of 

course, there'll be a lot of doubling up, tripling up, depending on the price of housing, which is expected to be very 

high. But to be on the safe side, I've included that calculation. 

Transportation Factors in SCAG Projections 

Transportation both now and in the future is a tough 

problem. We make so many trips today; those trips will 

increase with added population and added jobs. It's the 

work commute, the peak traveltime, when we'll have the 

most problems in transportation. We had about 450 lane-mi 

of freeway congestion in 1984. With the projected population growth, we can expect a need for a major capital investment. 

Comment: Does that assume no change in our driving habits? 

Reply: Yes, even though we know that they'll change 

as people seek alternate routes or move and relocate. Jobs 

also will move. We're projecting that 1 million of the population growth will be in the outlying parts of the regionperhaps closer to some of the sand and gravel pits, or in the 

sand and gravel areas, which creates another problem for 

those industries. 

Let me point out that transportation statistics of special concern to SCAG are the vehicle hours traveled and the 

hours of delay. Delay simply means traveling at less than 

the desired speeds for which the facility was designed. In 

transportation, we have something called levels of service 

6 

Today's Minorities Will Be 

Tomorrow's Majority 

1987 

[]Asian 

2010 

Black • Hispanic • White 

Source: California Dept. of Finance 

Figure 25. Anticipated shifts in the demography of California, 

1987 and 201 0 (from Lipson and Barnett, 1988). 

California Has Entered The Information Age 

Share By Year (Percentage) 

7% 

1860 1900 11

% 1940 1980 

Sector: D Goods production Information • Agricu lture • Services/Other 

Note: For the purposes of composing this table, all employees involved 1n the creation, processmg, sto rage, 

retrieval and analysis of information, e.g., office workers, are included in that classificatiOn Other analyses 

classify many of those employees in services. 

Figure 24. Changes in types of employment in California in the 120 years between 1860 and 

1980 (from Lipson and Barnett, 1988). 

60 Industrial Minerals in California: Economic Importance, Present Availability, and Future Development 
1hat relate to the speed and distance between vehicles. Normally, you go through levels a through f to describe the 

complex existing situation; these levels represent percentages of delay. 

The transportation plan calls for a shift of emphasis 

iin the construction program from building a traditional freeway to facilities for high-occupancy vehicles in transit. This 

shift is also going to take a substantial construction effort, 

which, if carried out, would affect the movement of industrial minerals. This effect is of concern, but it's an issue 

that most urban transportation planners really don't understand-the goods-movement phenomenon. These planners 

focus attention on getting people to and from work, knowing that it's a shortcoming to the plan, but they don't have 

good data. There's a lot of interest now in trucks (highoccupancy vehicles) and mixed-flow traffic. Although I have 

no data for transit, they all require extensive construction. 

SCAG Air-Quality Plans 

The SCAG planners emphasize managing the system, 

an important issue of which is how society can deal with 

adverse incidents more efficiently, to remove them, and have 

the adverse aftermath minimized. An important aspect of 

SCAG's plan is the air-quality plan. I want to emphasize 

this plan because when we finally adopt it and it goes through 

the legislative process and gets approved by the Federal 

Government, then we can be sued by citizens for not complying. This is basically what our demand-management 

program is talking about. A major change in travel behavior includes both how and when we go to work. We're 

focusing on the home-to-work trip and on associated kinds 

of trips. This is a set of examples for local-government 

actions that we're proposing to go into the air-quality plan. 

These examples encourage centralized ordering and delivery, adopting local air-quality elements, and shippers and 

receivers minimizing their peak-hour truck traffic. We're 

talking about making more efficient use of the system 

through regulations. 

Funding Dilemma for the SCAG Highway Plan 

A significant issue that this region, the State, and, 

indeed, the entire country are debating now is financing. 

The Gann limit on the expenditure of funds in California 

applies to the gas tax program, even though it's an end-user 

fee. Even if the State raises the gas tax, we can't spend it 

without a vote of the people. The State gasoline-tax revenues, after inflation, are 75 percent less now than they 

were 20 years ago. The gallonage sales increase at about Y2 

percent per year. Inflation in the highway program of construction and maintenance has averaged about 5 percent 

annually. California is 51st in the country amongst per capita 

spending on its highway system, lower even than the District of Columbia. We're in this funny game of programming projects and making commitments to them, but we're 

$3 billion short of being able to fund them. Local funding is 

increasing. Sales taxes have been imposed for highways in 

nine counties; there are two bills in the State legislature, 

one for a nickel increase in the gas tax and another for a 10-

cent increase in the gas tax. 

Access to the Port 

One of the more significant issues that we're concerned with is access to ports and airports. The ports move 

the greatest tonnage of our goods. Airports in southern 

California move about as much in value as the ports. This 

situation is a reflection of our changing economy. The limitation on our aviation system is going to be air quality and 

ground access. The fundamental limitation on the port is 

ground access. SCAG is concerned about that from a regional standpoint. 

Quality of Life and Regional Controls 

From the economic and transportation standpoints, the 

issue that SCAG sees emerging is in relation to the quality 

of life. We've experienced a number of growth-control ordinances in southern California. People are getting fed up 

with the problems that they see as being associated with 

growth, such as congestion and water and air quality, and 

they're taking the initiative into their own hands through 

the ballot box. Growth-control measures have passed in 

some places, but in most they have not. I think that this 

quality-of-life issue is going to affect the industrial-mineral 

industry directly. 

Second, the industry and the public in general are 

going to face a lot more regulation because of quality-oflife issues. Last year, the State legislature gave vast new 

powers over transportation and land use to the South Coast 

Air Quality Management District, our air-pollution-control 

agency in the four counties in southern California, and to 

other agencies in the rest of the State, if they choose to 

exercise them. The law requires a reduction in emissions by 

3 percent a year. Will the goals of the legislation be accomplished? I don't know. My point is to indicate what's beginning to occur in the State legislature. The legislature 

currently has several bills pending, which indicates that the 

current decisionmaking process in transportation isn't 

working. The linkage between land use and transportation, 

which gets at some of industry's problem issues, isn't 

working. We can expect a plethora of bills, some strengthening agencies like SCAG or creating new ones. It's fair to 

say that we're likely, in the face of all of these and other 

deregulation modes which the local governments in southem California and elsewhere in the State are imposing, to 

see more regulation and voluntary regulation incentives. 

Economic Issues Associated with Industrial-Mineral Development 61 
Creating Problem-Solving Partnerships or Coalitions 

The last point, one in which the transportation community is engaged and one that I hear you saying you mean 

to do, is creating partnerships and coalitions to get things 

done. One example is the consolidated rail corridor. We 

have so many local agencies and governments in southern 

California that we have to come together and create new 

ones to address specific problems. We're talking about such 

partnerships as the transportation corridor just created for 

the PLA; one is also needed for airports. We have an issue 

of overlapping governments in southern California and, 

possibly, in the entire State. Issues have become so complex that it's beyond the ability of the cities that we have in 

place to deal with them. The issues are so cumulative in 

their impact and so dynamic that we may need to look at 

some changes in government. That may be one of the fundamental questions to be answered. I don't know whether 

the current governing system adequately addresses the issues of the industrial-mineral industry. I think that's one of 

the issues you're going to be dealing with at some point as 

you engage in your issues and debate your strategies. 

Discussion and Comments 

• Getting well-balanced, authoritative information to 

back permit applications for a sand and gravel company 

operation is a problem and isn't always possible. EIR's, 

which are considered a major project, are prepared by industry and go through the State clearing house. I've never 

seen any governmental agency like SCAG or the USGS 

comment in a positive way when we try to zone close-in 

sand and gravel deposits. We can always count on groups 

like the Fish and Game and Fish and Wildlife agencies, the 

Sierra Club, and college professors worrying about such 

critters as the kangaroo rat and Mojave ground squirrel. Yet 

the very agency that is conducting the assessments has never 

sent in a comment on the EIR saying that we really do need 

the minerals, we need them close in to the area of their use, 

and we need to reduce the number of truck trips. A recent 

example was given that a population increase of 4.6 million 

at an average annual consumption of sand and gravel will 

require an increase per year of over 20 million tons. This 

translates into one-way trips for 828,000 truck and trailers. 

What it boils down to is that the mineral producer always 

stands out alone at the hearing. Shouldn't we expect more 

support from State and Federal Government agencies at 

EIR hearings? 

Reply: The USBM and USGS work together in conducting mineral land assessments and coauthor a memorandum to the BLM and USFS concerning a study area. These 

agencies tell the managers, who issue the claims where 

mineral potential has been identified. In many cases, the 

land-management agencies take that information into account, and the data affect the decision. Last year, the Director of the USGS prepared a short statement for use in the 

Bumper Committee hearing on Cranston billS. 11 submitted in 1988, which to my mind could only be considered 

support for the mineral development of desert lands. The 

USGS' position is that being a nonadvocate is the only way 

to maintain its scientific credibility. The only promotional 

position it can take is to advocate the use of the best available mineral information in making the decision. However, 

the USBM has a mandated position to ensure the Nation's 

mineral supply. Therefore, the USBM is an advocate for 

the mineral industry. Although these public statements are 

available to users, the local government that issues the permits seldom sees or considers the information that the USGS 

and USBM put out. This information apparently isn't filtering down. The documents are public memorandums going 

to the congressman or senator whose district is affected, 

and they're accompanied by a publicly available attached 

report, which is listed in both the USGS' and USBM's lists 

of publications. The support is there, but it's not being mobilized effectively. 

• The question being raised is what government can 

do not what the industry groups could do. I agree with the 

USGS' position that it can't play the role of advocate in 

local issues. However, if the DMG had more authority, it 

would be the group that should be the advocate for a Statewide problem like this. We can't expect the USGS and 

USBM to be advocates for these local issues-for the 

broader issues, yes. 

• It's hard to get information from the industrial-mineral industry. You can get industry information more easily 

for the metals. The industrial-mineral people don't band 

together to try to get their mines into operation; they prefer to 

do it by themselves. When the bank was trying to 

help finance the operation for an industrial-mineral project, 

it was hard to find out basic industry data for what was 

going on in the marketplace, data like leadtimes and market 

development. The producers feel as if they're revealing secret 

information. Thus, it was hard to get a financing package 

together. It's just like having the American Mining Congress talk about itself. Aggregate producers, for example, 

have their own group, rather than all of the mining people 

who are producing a range of industrial-mineral resources 

working together. Producers would be a much more effective lobbying group if they were working for the benefit of 

the whole industry. 

• Fish and Game is a State agency that isn't bound by 

policy restraint. There's a different kind of atmosphere in 

agencies like Fish and Game, which has different objectives and mandate from those of the USGS and USBM. 

• What's the policy of the DMG on advocacy matters? 

Reply: The DMG has an environmental-review unit 

that comments on EIR' s and looks at various aspects related to geologic hazards, as well as the questions of a 

project in relation to the mineral-resource zones that the 

62 Industrial Minerals in California: Economic Importance, Present Availability, and Future Development 
DMG's SMARA classification group has put together. The 

DMG provides commentary, where we know that there are 

certain identified resources (for example, as MRZ-2 zones), 

in our comments back to the local agencies. We draw attention to the presence of those zones and to the policy of the 

SMGB with reference to the preservation and development 

of mineral resources. Therefore, the DMG provides information to the local-government agencies. However, the 

DMG can't take an advocacy position, pro or con~ it simply 

describes, to its best knowledge, what mineral deposits are 

present and what geologists think the resource potential is, 

but it's up to the local agency in California to make its own 

decisions. This information should guide them to more 

knowledgeable decisions. 

• In the Congress, it's quite easy to get the kind of 

testimony that you seek. Frankly, congressional advocates 

often invited the environmentalists to come into the hearings but failed to invite other agencies that had information 

which would be helpful to the other viewpoint. We can't 

really abdicate our responsibility for our own best interests. 

'We in industry have to ensure that we recognize that there 

are good reports from the State and Federal agencies, and 

not just wait to see if they'll advocate any position. We 

ourselves can request that these agencies make their information available. In that way, they are advocating. We have 

to take the initiative as an industry to identify the available 

information at the local, State, and Federal levels. In fact, 

in most hearing processes you can request representatives 

from those agencies to appear and present their information. That way, they're not openly advocating, because 

they're simply providing authoritative material that is probably even more persuasive because they're not out-and-out 

advocates. 

• Many of you look at getting involved when it's a 

matter of permitting a gravel pit or other industrial-mineral 

site but not when there's talk about building 1,000 housing 

units. It also seems that in the environmental process there's 

a growing concern now about the aftermath of a project. 

How many emissions will be produced, how much waste 

will it produce, and what will we do with all of that? Is 

there an equal concern about beginning the project and what 

it takes to develop it? I don't think so. There may be numbers such as how many tons of dirt or so much of that 

activity, but not about the transport issue. That may be 

where we need to begin to educate the permitters. 

• We have a golden opportunity to establish an industrial-mineral-industry group and networking partnerships 

with sister industries to get together to reach some common 

goals. This is one of the things that the environmental groups 

clearly do: They share information, and then they collaborate 

and focus on specific aspects, whenever those aspects need 

to be attacked. The mining industry has never done this. 

We sit and commiserate and never become proactive. To 

become proactive is to address the process and enhance our 

ability to get an informed message across. For example, we 

have to reach out and find the transportation experts and 

bring them in and make them participate in the process. 

The Federal agencies can't; they're precluded by law to 

confine their comments only to their areas of expertise or 

where they have regulatory authority. It doesn't mean that 

industry can't bring partnerships into focus on the broader 

aspects of the EIR. 

• We must follow up on the aspect of education. 

People have to be educated, not only we but those in the 

outside community, when someone wants to build some 

new homes. What's involved in building them? 

Economic Issues Associated with Industrial-Mineral Development 63 

Interaction with Government Leaders 

The role of government agencies in the production of 

industrial minerals is defined and established in legislative 

acts. Less well understood are the roles of the legislative 

and executive branches in the creation of those management acts. We are fortunate to have California's Senator 

John Garamendi speak to us from his extensive experience 

in government dealing with legislative matters. He represents the 5th State Senate District and, among other duties, 

chairs the California Joint Committee on Science and Technology. He has long had an interest in mineral resources, 

and his family has been involved in mining activities in the 

Sonora, Calif., area. What we say here will be of little 

consequence without the knowledgeable support of the 

leaders in State government. We have the responsibility to 

keep Senator Garamendi and his legislative colleagues aware 

of the problems we see developing in the industrial-mineral-resource area, which could seriously affect the economy 

of the State. Therefore, we welcome this opportunity to 

listen to some of his concerns. 

Challenges for the State legislative and 

Executive Bodies 

By Senator John Garamendi 

I come from a very special part of California, rich in 

history and beauty, that includes the Gold Rush town of 

Sacramento and the mighty Sierra Nevada. These mountains record the process of geologic change that continues 

today in political and social changes facing mankind. As an 

ancient Greek philosopher said, "Nothing endures but 

change." 

Throughout the history of our State, Californians have 

participated in five major economic explosions: (1) The Gold 

Rush opened the State to the world; (2) the agricultural 

revolution made deserts bloom and created the largest agricultural economy in the Nation; (3) the oil industry transfanned the American way of life; (4) the aerospace industries 

gave America superiority in wars and outer space; and (5) 

the electronics revolution is transforming the very nature of 

life on this planet. With each of these great economic thrusts, 

the nature of life and human endeavors underwent momentaus change. This was not accomplished without considerable friction and political tension. Each of these periods 

added wealth, advancement, and a higher standard for living for the "Golden State." 

Each of the great advances in the State of California 

was initiated and propelled by the same combination of 

factors. Entrepreneurial spirit brought together risk-taking 

visionaries with large amounts of capital, an eager workforce, 

and technological innovations that made quantum leaps in 

industry. A responsive governmental system provided the 

framework for those changes. 

The Senate Long Range Policy Planning Committee 

has recognized that a storm is just over the horizon for 

California. Still, California appears to be lulled by the 

seemingly placid waters of the moment as our economy 

moves along more or less smoothly. Yet we are faced with 

technological challenges, the erosion of our industrial competitiveness, a plethora of competitors from the new Pacific 

Basin marketplace, and increased immigration from Asia 

and Central and South America. 

I understand that this last factor is leading to a new 

challenge for the State. Your discussions have shown that 

we may expect serious industrial-mineral-resource dislocation and shortage problems to provide adequate food, shelter, and jobs for these immigrants. It is an unfortunate fact 

that, at the moment, our State has no clear economic plan 

for solving these problems. 

Today, 30 of 42 U.S. industries are under heavy assault from foreign competition. They once supported 70 

percent of the domestic production. The productivity increases in certain industrial sectors of the United States, 

including California, lag far behind those of our competitors. Between 1977 and 1982, U.S. manufacturing productivity grew by only 0.6 percent, in comparison with 3.4 

percent in Japan, 3 percent in France, and 2.1 percent in 

West Germany. In 1984, U.S. productivity grew by 4.2 

percent but was still behind that of that our competitors. 

Four of the seven most important commodities that the 

United States exports to Japan are raw materials of foodstuffs, whereas all seven of the seven most important products imported from Japan are finished manufactured goods. 

We are a net importer of electronic equipment, and so even 

that bastion of economic security is gone. 

Interaction with Government Leaders 65 
Of the 17 largest Western industrial democracies, our 

country ranks last in the percentage of capital investment 

and growth in productivity; yet we rank first in weapons 

development. The average age of our industrial plants is 17 

years, whereas in Japan and West Germany it is less than 

10. The U.S. savings rate is way below those of Japan and 

West Germany, and for the first time since 1914, we have 

become a debtor nation. 

As I look to the future of California, I see it slipping 

and sliding into the minor leagues. The message is simple. 

We either develop the will, marshal our resources, and lay 

in place a plan to compete in the new worldwide economy, 

or we will begin a slow but steady decline reflected by 

complacency, low productivity, and the ever-increasing trade 

deficits. 

Such a scenario is not inevitable! We have the potential to control our destiny. The question is one of will. I 

have called upon Californians to develop a winning strategy based on sound plays: (1) private industry, fired with 

the enthusiasm of entrepreneurship; (2) State and local governments, progressive and honest; (3) universities, schools, 

and training facilities capable of passing on the maximum 

knowledge and conducting high-level research; and (4) a 

people fired with the spirit to compete and the will to sacrifice, and fully prepared to meet the challenge. 

Here is my eight-play strategy: 

1. Education.-Excellence across the board from K12 right on through to the university levels. Knowledge is 

the single most important commodity for the future; without it we cannot win. 

2. Research and technological innovation.-The 

universities and government must provide the wherewithal 

to stay on the cutting edge, and adequate financing is essential. 

3. Manufacturing base.-Creation of wealth is possible only by a high rate of industrial productivity that makes 

use of modem technology. 

4. Trade export.-Conduct international trade in industrial and consumer products for the emerging, rapidly 

growing international markets. The Pacific Basin is a primary candidate area. 

5. Entrepreneurship.-Create a climate to support 

and nurture the growth of small businesses. Most technological advances are brought to the market by new companies, and most new jobs are created by small businesses. 

Why not create a technological extension service similar to 

the agricultural extension service to work in this area? 

6. Infrastructure.-The solid foundation of an 

economy is its public works--port facilities, sewers, transit 

systems, roads, streets, water systems, and schools. Failure 

to provide this infrastructure will cause the economy to slow. 

7. Efficient government.-Inefficiently run government programs waste vital resources. Systems must be 

changed, modified, and upgraded to assure the best use of 

both human and natural resources. 

8. Honest government.-A progressive, responsive 

government is an essential and critical partner for progress. 

The long-term benefits to the State must come first; specialinterest groups and political-action committees must bow to 

the public good, and government decisionmaking must be 

set straight. 

What has all of this to do with your problem, the 

timely future availability of industrial-mineral resources? 

All of the factors in my scenario must also be a part of your 

strategy to inform the people and the government. You have 

the responsibility to insist that the government, in particular, 

begin to develop a plan for the future, taking the mineralresource information you have developed into account and 

making it part of the State's economic model. This means a 

more aggressive public-education program, one that is not 

self-serving but public serving. You have to become more 

involved in the operation of government and select individuals who share your vision of public leadership and are 

willing to lay their future on the line for it. You are making 

a great start at this workshop by joining together. Do not 

drop the ball, because the future of California-indeed, that 

of the Nation-depends on your constancy. 

66 Industrial Minerals in California: Economic Importance, Present Availability, and Future Development 
Assistance from Universities, Government Agencies, 

and Other Organizations 

J.H. DeYoung, Jr., Convenor 

There's a lot of help available for the industrial-mineral-mining industry from academia, scientific societies, and 

local, State, and Federal Government agencies. The industry can also learn to help itself by working together more 

closely. We may not be able in this session to cover all of 

the entities that can provide help to the industry and describe what they do to support and make available their 

expertise and assistance to the industrial-mineral community. However, a sample of what support is available or 

could be made available-in particular, what support resources may not have been tapped, what information these 

agencies need to do their job better, and how industry may 

access this support-is given in the following sections. 

University Resources 

Image Problems and the Role of the University Community 

By Michael Hood 

I'll comment on some of the ideas from previous discussions and offer suggestions as to how we might focus 

our attention a bit more closely. Then, I'll try to point out 

where I think the universities might play a more substantial 

role in assisting the resource industry. Most of us will probably agree that we're interested in promoting mineral-resource activities in California. However, the concept of a 

career in the mining industry for graduating high-school 

students ready for the university or for prospective graduate 

students is not as exciting as a career in "Silicon Valley," 

largely because of the poor image that mining has. So, I've 

compiled a set of problem issues that the industry must 

address to reverse its current poor image. 

If you look at economics, you have to look at the 

value of the product you're producing and then at what the 

production costs are. The major production costs in the 

mining industry are for exploration, production, processing, 

transportation, marketing, environmental preservation, public 

relations, and reclamation. The only new, publicly visible 

factors are environmental protection, public relations, and, 

maybe, reclamation. We heard from the Homestake Mining 

Co. that the environmental costs are not all that significant-! or 2 percent of the capital outlay and a small fraction of the operating costs. Public relations is something 

that I think the mining industry does extremely badly, if at 

all. This is a major part of the image problem that we are 

considering here. Reclamation is something that we have to 

live with. I think that the troubles caused by these new 

high-visibility factors are that, in the past, the mining industry has tried to maintain a low profile, so that it didn't 

attract too much attention. That isn't possible any longer. 

We'd better get out there to follow the Homestake example, 

follow their attitude, and get in front of the game. 

The industry should adopt and announce positive 

public-relations, environmental, and reclamation policies 

before starting a mining operation. This is the first step for 

building a higher public profile than the industry has had in 

the past. Our image is that of an obsolete industry: The 

operation of many mines hasn't changed from the past, and 

the drilling, explosive loading, hand mucking, and other 

technology we use are pretty primitive. Why should students want to go into such a primitive industry? The mining 

industry also has the image of being a major polluter and a 

dirty business. This is evidence of our poor public relations; 

personally, I don't think that this accusation is true, overall. 

I'm just telling you what the outside perception of this industry is. What can we do about it? We have to communicate better to dispel many of the misconceptions based on 

our past. We have heard about the local impact of the 

McLaughlin mine in northern California. That is a positive 

case history, and we should tell that story whenever and 

wherever we can. 

Next, a positive image for the industry should focus 

on what the effect of mining has been on the economy of 

this State and of the Nation. At first glance, the numbers 

may not be so impressive. The value of mineral production 

Assistance from Universities, Government Agencies, and Other Organizations 67 
in California is about $2.9 billion. That's a big number, but 

the State has a $500 billion economy. Thus, mining is a 

small fraction of the State's gross economy. But that's not 

the whole story. The real story is, as implied earlier, that 

there's a multiplier effect in this economic system. You 

can't have a manufacturing industry without raw materials. 

You can't have a construction industry without basic industrial materials. We need to quantify that information to show 

what the real economic effect of mining is on the economy 

of California and the Nation. The relation between the raw 

materials and the manufacturing industries served needs to 

be explained. Without the basic raw materials, the huge 

values added are lost when the raw materials are used to 

make an essential useful product. 

Furthermore, if we abandon our domestic mining industry, foreign mines initially will sell us the raw copper 

and iron. Pretty soon, however, they'll want to sell us cars 

and manufactured products. You can make a strong linkage 

argument that when you lose your basic industries, eventually you risk losing your secondary industries also. So far, 

this hasn't happened, even though the public perception is 

that we're moving toward becoming a more service-oriented economy. The reality is that, since World War II, 

approximately 22 percent of the gross national product of 

the United States is manufactures. It has been a constant 

number. What we don't read in the newspapers, and where 

you get the idea that already we're losing our manufacturing 

industry, is that manufacturing has become increasingly 

productive since the end of World War II. So, the number 

of jobs in manufacturing continues to go down. However, 

the fraction of the gross national product and, I suspect, the 

gross State product remains constant. It's not too late to act, 

but we have to adopt a positive strategy and develop a 

method to communicate the facts and indicated trends. 

We have a serious communication problem. We need 

to improve contacts with the public and with government; 

and, following the argument yesterday, we need to be 

proactive and not reactive. I would argue that the mining 

industry in California is an extremely effective, but reactive, organization. The CMA is one of the most effective 

lobbying organizations in the State. When a bill comes up 

in the legislature that it (and the industry) opposes or wants 

enacted, it's able to lobby for the bill effectively. But that's 

a reactive process. What we need to do is to get out there 

with an effective communication strategy and be proactive. 

I would argue that the effective way to do this is to have a 

control team, as mentioned earlier. Team participants need 

to be principal partners in a consortium for the whole industry. For industry to communicate effectively, it needs to 

be seen as totally objective. To do this, you need the help of 

State and Federal governmental agencies joining with industry organizations to build the sound and objective positions that lead the public and the legislature into mutually 

beneficial decisions. I think that you also need the help of 

the universities in this effort. 

Can the universities help you become more communicative? We can make videos, produce brochures, devise 

informative posters, and teach short courses. You can join 

us by offering jobs to young people, high-school students, 

undergraduates, and graduate students. These persons become your future leaders. Scholarships, R&D projects, and 

grants managed by the universities can be industry oriented. 

The industry could also try and think about sponsoring PBS 

to rerun some of their excellent programs in the earth sciences, like "Out of the Fire Furnace" or the "Planet Earth" 

series. If the mining industry sponsored such programs and 

followed them up with some mailings, this would be quite 

an effective public-communication effort. 

The university can help in several other ways. One is 

by constructing an economic model that shows how mining 

really affects the State and national economies. Another is 

by working more closely than at present with industry to 

transfer technology. There is probably a lot of potential 

applied technology in the university to assist the industry in 

overcoming its current obsolescence. If we spent a bit more 

time talking to each other about different subjects, like 

technology transfer and R&D possibilities, it would be most 

profitable and instructive for both parties. Universities also 

have technology applicable in the environmental areas, as 

well as in mining, processing, and transportation. We need 

to work together in that way. We can teach short courses to 

upgrade the skills of industry personnel and (or) to inform 

potential employees and the public of the essential mission 

of the industry. 

Although some college professors may be supporters 

of anti-mining positions, if the industry were to look harder, 

it could find college professors who'd be willing to explain 

the realities of resource distribution. If you want somebody 

to give the transportation argument, come talk to us. We 

don't know the specific problems you're facing, but we 

might be able to help you if we discussed it together. 

What we mainly do is supply bright, well-trained 

young people. We think that the mining industry needs to 

employ more of those bright people. Your industry would 

benefit by having an infusion of new graduates going through 

your organizations. For example, a large fraction of the 

sand and gravel industry is family oriented, and the level of 

formal or technical education generally is not high. That 

industry could benefit from having personnel with university training and exposure to methods for solving complex 

mining problems, developing proactive considerations of 

environmental issues, and making better use of the new 

technology. 

Examples of Applied Research 

By M.A. McKibben 

To follow up on some of the things that Professor 

Hood was talking about, one solution to the current mining68 Industrial Minerals in California: Economic Importance, Present Availability, and Future Development 
industry public-relations and communication problems is to 

get more students involved in industrial-mineral issues. I'll 

give some examples of mineral-processing types of graduate research that apply to mineral problems. The university 

is an important source of ideas, but more importantly we 

are an important source of very eager and curious students. 

There are different levels of research that may be applied to 

industrial-mineral problems, which can involve students and 

faculty at the university. 

The master's level of research is the most important 

for the industrial-mineral industry. It has a quick turnaround 

time, usually 1 or 2 years. Studies are focused on specific, 

limited, and relatively straightforward problems, such as 

basic mapping or applied mineralogy. A recent mine-scale 

study of lithium smectite was made at the Hector, Calif., 

deposit. Lithium smectite ore is valued for its white color 

and rheologic properties, but the influences of chemical 

variations in the hectorite on the rheologic properties of 

hectorite-water suspensions had never been fully explored. 

Small companies do not have the resources to do these 

kinds of studies. The student was given access to samples 

from the mine and was employed at the mine for two summers. He studied the chemical and mineralogic variations 

of the hectorite and determined the range of compositions 

for hectorite. More importantly, he correlated those variations in chemical composition of the hectorite with the yields, 

or the amount of hectorite needed in a water solution to get 

a certain standard viscosity. He found that there is a correlation between high Li content and low Mg-Al-Fe content 

and viscosity; that Na content, cation-exchange capacity, 

and moisture content correspond to higher yields; and that 

high Ca and Mg contents correlate with lower viscosity. He 

also identified areas of the mine where these different 

chemical variations occur in the hectorite. This information 

is going to help the mining company identify different 

batches of ore that they can stockpile and then mix later to 

obtain a product with a desired viscosity. This type of research has potential economic value to the company. 

The higher, Ph.D. level of research, which unfortunately has a 4- to 5-year turnaround time, generally involves broad, general, or complex regional problems. One 

case study that helped an industrial-mineral-exploration 

program involved range-front-scale mapping in the San 

Bernardino Mountains in California, which is the eastern 

part of the Transverse Ranges. Mapping revealed that thrust 

faults were both preplutonic (pre-Cretaceous) and postplutonic, very young. The limestone-mining companies have 

been operating under the assumption that much of the 

thrusting is preplutonic. This regional mapping demonstrated 

that you could have Paleozoic limestone and Precambrian 

gneiss thrust over Cretaceous plutons and sandstone. More 

importantly, you can have Cretaceous rocks thrust over 

limestone. One of the cement-company geologists picked 

up on the potentially very young age of these thrust faults, 

as mapped. He started to drill through some of the plutonic 

rocks to see whether there was any limestone beneath in the 

lower plate. He drilled through granite and increased the 

company's reserves by finding some blind limestone ore 

zones beneath the thrust plates. This example of a longterm project that involved regional mapping in a complex 

geologic terrane has directly benefited the industry. 

Finally, there is faculty-level research, often long term 

and invariably of broad regional, national, or even international significance. One recently completed faculty research 

project involved rotational tectonics in the Mojave Desert, 

using paleomagnetic data and vertebrate paleontologic 

chronostratigraphy. The authors have correlated all of the 

available data for this region and come up with an interpretation of the Garlock fault and future San Andreas fault 6 

million years ago. They restored the crustal fault-bounded 

blocks in the Mojave Desert to their original rotational configuration. Then, they moved them forward to the present, 

revealing open structural holes in the desert block. These 

holes are interesting in terms of their coincidence with known 

geologic features. The Cima volcanic field overlies one of 

these holes, and a lot of the interesting boron and lithium 

anomalies in the desert seem to coincide with some of these 

holes. Materials may be leaking up through the holes from 

the upper mantle. In terms of just scanning for potential 

gravel and saline deposits, large lacustrine basins also coincide with these holes. This is an example of the potential of 

academic research useful in regional exploration. 

Let me conclude with some of the roles that the mineral industry can play in supporting graduate research. (1) 

The University of California system is tax supported, and the 

legislature, Governor, and regents need to learn from you 

how university research benefits the economy of the State. 

(2) More importantly, however, you can supply access to 

samples and study sites to students and faculty. (3) You can 

bring problems to us to wrestle with. (4) You can employ our 

students, especially during the summer; if you need some 

mapping or laboratory work done during a summer, a student 

is an ideal choice. (5) Industry can always give financial 

support to the university in terms of grants, endowed chairs, 

or laboratories. (6) You can help lobby congressional representatives for Federal money to support basic research. Science right now is in a big crunch--the Federal R&D funds 

for basic research are dying off to a trickle. 

State and local Government Agencies 

San Bernardino County Department of land Management 

By j.N. Jaquess 

Local government has some limited responsibility and 

authority in the approval of mine operations, which raise 

several concerns. Land-use impacts are the most obvious, 

environmental impacts or problems are another. Within the 

land-use arena, we are concerned with the uses of adjacent 

Assistance from Universities, Government Agencies, and Other Organizations 69 
lands and with compatibilities between those uses. Access 

can be a really critical issue, even if the minesite itself is 

not a problem. Esthetics, always part of the community 

perspective, and water-quality concerns emerge as central 

environmental problems. Last is the adequacy of the reclamation plan. Local government has finally realized that reclamation is not the same as restoration. We started out with 

restoration as our first objective and realized that it wasn't 

possible. The public is also starting to understand that reclamation is an acceptable and achievable objective. Other 

concerns shared with the mining industry involve urban 

encroachment on the resources. From a professional standpoint, local government understands that the resource is not 

something that can be moved at the whim of the government or the people; it's a fixed entity. 

At the county level, we have real concern about relationships with the Federal agencies, the USFS and BLM, 

because a good number of the available resources are located on Federal land. The manner in which Federal lands 

are permitted and their effects on local-government (private) lands are of particular concern to the counties. 

Probably the last issue for local-government concern is 

the attitude of and acceptance by the public. My experience 

is that proposals from the mining industry result in hysterical opposition from the public because of misinformation 

or a lack of information. There seems to be basic mistrust 

by the public not only of the mining industry but also of 

government. The public doesn't trust government to protect 

them, and they don't trust industry to be responsive to the 

best interests of the community. The only public recourse is 

to oppose what is obviously going to affect their community. We mentioned yesterday the word NIMBY ("not in 

my backyard"), and I'm sure all of you will let me add the 

word LULU's (locally undesirable or unwanted land uses). 

NIMBY's and LULU's are usually thought of as related 

terms by the people who oppose those kinds of undesirable 

situations. 

From a local-government standpoint, there are some 

solutions. SMARA is one that ought not to be missed. It's a 

significant piece of legislation in California that is slowly 

growing more teeth. I happened to have the privilege to 

serve on the task force for SMARA, and we recommended 

some changes in the law (which, frankly, I'm not sure have 

ever been implemented) aimed at clarifying the permitting 

process to make it a little simpler and a little more equitable. 

Some of the data that now come from the SMARA mapping 

program put more teeth behind local-government efforts. 

The next step, something we haven't talked about 

here, is the role of general land-use plans, which the California planning law has put a lot of legal teeth into. Local 

jurisdictions must adopt a general plan; the law is specific 

as to what the plan must address, not only as written but 

also as interpreted by California Supreme Court decisions. 

Once you have a general plan, you're obligated to implement it without deviation unless you propose to change it as 

a matter of public policy. Many general plans in California 

do not meet the requirements of the State law. It's not easy 

to accomplish this end because it's expensive and because 

the courts have been pretty good in changing the interpretation of laws over the past few years. Right now, San Bernardino County is in the process of updating its general 

plan, which will cost about $1.5 million. That's just to start 

the process of making the plan technically legal, but it 

doesn't mean that it will represent the real attitudes of the 

public in the county when done. We will be legally adequate, and being legally adequate means that you're protected when someone walks in with a project that's unpopular 

and you're subsequently threatened with blackmail by lawsuit if you approve this project. If the general plan were 

found to be legally inadequate, the county wouldn't be able 

to approve a project or any building permit ever within its 

jurisdiction until an adequate general plan was obtained. 

Our board of supervisors had this issue put to them a few 

years ago when they wanted to approve a race track in a 

regional.:.park site in the county. They found that they were 

subject to such blackmail and came to the county staff and 

said, "Fix our general plan. How come you didn't tell us 

that we were in this position?" First, they forgot that we'd 

been telling them about this possibility for 4 years. But in 

any case, I suspect that many local governments are in the 

same boat of being vulnerable to challenges to the general 

plan. Specific resource plans are also a place where local 

governments can do something. 

I will emphasize that whether you are doing general 

planning or specific resource planning, it's important to have 

political support. You must also have a qualified staff. In 

our county, we've hired mining geologists to work on our 

planning staff because we found that planners are not necessarily knowledgeable in mining areas. We're working on 

resource plans for areas throughout the county where there 

are significant amounts of sand and gravel and other potential mineral resources. Other than sand and gravel, these 

resources are in remote areas. However, there are limestone 

deposits near existing communities, some of which are 

growing urban areas. The sand and gravel resources are 

probably the most threatened in the county. The Santa Ana 

River, which flows through the middle of the most urbanized parts of the county, is one area that needs particular 

help and protection. We're trying to gain support from the 

board for a resource plan that will allow sand and gravel 

resources in that area to be preserved while accommodating 

all the various public interests, including such uses as recreation and mining, and while protecting plants on the Federal list of endangered species that grow only where sand 

and gravel can be mined. 

Among the things industry can do is develop a sound 

environmental practice, and that's fundamental to having a 

good public image. A need for good communication with 

governmental agencies and with the public cannot be overemphasized. Seek out those people who might be the ones 

70 Industrial Minerals in California: Economic Importance, Present Availability, and Future Development 
who are going to become your opponents. Ba1lot initiatives 

are usually against something; they're started by people 

who feel alienated from other alternatives. These people are 

alienated from government, who they believe won't listen 

to them, and from the particular threatening situation, 

whether mining or whatever. They don't start initiatives if 

they feel that there are other alternatives; it's the last resort. 

I think that initiatives can be minimized by a collective 

effort of communication and working together. We're doing 

that in San Bernerdino County right now on the development issues of growth management. It can be done equally 

well on any issue including mining. 

State Lands Commission 

By A.D. Willard 

The CSLC consists of the Lieutenant Governor, the 

State Controller, and the Director of Finance. It has jurisdiction over certain State-owned lands, including the 3-mi 

belt of submerged lands a1ong the California coast, beds of 

natural streams and rivers, lakes, and bays, and the State 

school sections. School sections were granted by the Federa1 Government to the State, on joining the Union, for the 

support of the State school system. They comprise sections 

16 and 36 in each township. Most of these lands have been 

sold off into private ownership, but there remains approximately 600,000 acres of fee-owned land and 700,000 acres 

of reserved mineral interests. These lands are situated primarily in the California Desert area. The CSLC staff have 

been working with the BLM in attempting to work out 

exchanges to consolidate the State's ownership into more 

manageable tracts. 

The beneficiary of the rent and royalty from school 

lands is the State teacher's retirement system. One of the 

primary management objectives is to maximize the revenue 

from these lands. The current annual revenue from the lands 

is approximately $5.3 million, most of which is received 

from reserved mineral-interest lands in the Geysers geothermal area. 

The CSLC has responsibility and authority pursuant 

to California statute (Public Resources Code, PRC) to provide for mineral exploration and development on Stateowned lands. The statutes provide that, where there are 

known mineral resources, these lands must be leased by 

competitive public bid. Where there are no known resources, 

however, the State may enter into prospecting permits with 

a company for periods of 2 years under an approved exploration plan. If a commercial discovery is made, the company has preferential rights to obtain a long-term lease. The 

primary process involved in this authorization is compliance with CEQA, which requires the CSLC to prepare an 

appropriate environmental document. The prospecting permit, because it provides for only minor land disturbance, 

requires only minima1 environmental documentation; however, all environmental documents require circulation to interested private and public parties for review and comment. 

Those comments are considered by the CSLC, and appropriate mitigation measures are incorporated in the permit. If 

the permittee makes a discovery and applies for a preferentia1 

lease, a full EIR is required. Existing statutes mandate that 

local government act as the lead agency in this instance; the 

commission uses the document prepared by local government for issuing the lease. 

Currently, there are 10 active prospecting permits 

covering approximately 5,000 acres and 8 permits pending 

for an additiona14,300 acres. Existing leases include a trona 

deposit on part of Owens Lake (approx 17,000 acres); it 

produces approximately $120,000 per year in roya1ties. We 

also have sand and gravel and shell leases in the San Francisco Bay area, which produce about $375,000 per year in 

royalties. There are other smaller leases; for example, the 

U.S. Borax's Gerstley lease provides approximately $23,000 

annua1 roya1ty; a sand and gravel lease in San Diego County 

produces $38,000 per year; and there are leases for such 

commodities as decorative stone, iron ore, and feldspar. 

One by Kaiser Steel and U.S. Borax has interest in a onequarter section that generates about $12,000 per year in 

royalty. There are a1so some minor borrow-pit and decorative-stone permits. The minerals staff of the CSLC can't 

promise a permit in 30 days; however, we certainly can 

assure you that we would pursue any application with efficiency and diligence. 

Office of Permit Assistance, Governor's Office of 

Planning and Research 

By D.C. Nunenkamp 

My job consists of trying to help people; most of the 

people whom I could help often are unaware of OPA. The 

permit process scares people, but it shouldn't. It's a game 

with a purpose in California. To win, we need to become 

the best players. The legislature and the Governor recognized this, and in 1977 they set up OPA. My objective here 

is to let you (and the mining industry at large) know what 

services are available from us. California is a land-useplanning State with an extensive set of rules and regulations. There are 58 counties and approximately 450 cities, 

each with its own agenda, each with approximately the same 

land-use-planning responsibilities. There are a1so 21 State 

agencies that we get involved with in the permitting process. As a product of the mining industry myself, I hope to 

share my perspective of how the government can assist the 

mining industry. 

The persistent message heard at this meeting is that 

industry doesn't talk to the world at large. In addition, there's 

the fact that governmental agencies, whether State or local, 

often change the rules. Accordingly, it's important to track 

the agencies' players in the management game. We need to 

Assistance from Universities, Government Agencies, and Other Organizations 71 
know how to respond to them, how to help coordinate the 

permit process so that we can become proactive in terms of 

addressing the land-use-planning requirements and environmental considerations, of solidifying the opposition groups, 

and then of turning them to the point where they're working with us. OP A has responsibilities that are mandated by 

statute, and part of them include providing a clearing 

house and playing a coordinating role. Some of OPA's activities, however, are at the pleasure of the Governor and 

the user groups. 

Access to the part of OP A that can help mining depends on the mining industry asking for it. You have to 

come and say, "Look, we have a problem that we can't 

resolve. We can't coordinate the leasing problem with the 

DSL." OP A can come in if we have the information and 

openness from you, sit down with the various agencies, and 

try to work out compromises. If that doesn't work, we have 

the legal power to force mediation. If there's a problem 

with the lead agency, we have arbitration powers. The point 

is that if you bring a problem to us, we're there to help. 

We in OPA are process advocates. By using and understanding the permitting process, we, in tum, can help 

you focus on the end result. There are four real keys to 

trying to win the game. (1) Improved communication: How 

many know who your State Senator is? How many of you 

know who his staff people are? How many of you know 

who Dale McCorquadale is and what his role is? How many 

of you know who the chief senior consultant to the Senate 

Natural Resources Committee is? These are the people whom 

you need to access, whom you, in tum, need to service and 

spend time with. (2) Development of partnerships: I've tried 

to touch on that a bit, but we need to join hands with the 

end users. The most powerful lobby in the State of California is the agricultural industry. The agricultural industry 

(AG) can take Willy Brown and tum him on his ear. AG is 

a net user of mining-industry products. Why don't we join 

hands? (3) Use the tools that are available to you, such as 

the PBS programs by the AMC. They have an excellent 

canned program for presentation to schools called "Mining, 

Who Needs it?" The CMA has copies. Do they circulate 

them? The CMA's Women's Auxiliary has a focus on education, but how many of us participate in that process with 

our wives? (4) Most importantly, industry needs to learn to 

use the laws to its advantage. We can force issues by learning to use the laws constructively. Denial of a permit seldom 

takes that long and must be based on factual information. If 

we learn to use CEQA and capture the input from the various agencies as specified, the land-use-planning laws are an 

extremely powerful tool, and we could help protect some of 

the resource bases that we want. 

Specifically, OP A can serve as a single point of contact; we can help identify a specific permit issue, and, most 

importantly, we can conduct scope meetings, establish what 

the rules are, and provide a mechanism to assure that the 

rules don't change. Finally, we can resolve disputes. Essentially, we are specialists behind the scene. We, as an industry, need to learn how to build legal boxes around adversaries and force utilization of the process. We need to team 

build and learn to use the many resources out there. For Cal 

Nickel, one of the things we did to tum the project around 

was to reach out to the transportation people and end-user 

groups. Eventually, we turned the county officials around 

and, subsequently, the State officials. The real-estate industry, for the most part, has not been our friend, because of its 

philosophy of the highest, best use for the land. We need to 

change that perception to get them to strive to maximize the 

full potential-optimizing interim uses of the land along 

the line. The bottom line that I'm trying to get across is to 

become proactive, learn to use the process. There are lots of 

things that we can do as a State agency, but you have to 

come to us for help. 

Division of Mines and Geology 

By J.T. Alfors 

The DMG, a division of the CDOC, is one of the 

oldest State agencies, created in 1880. Its original purpose 

was to provide scientific information to assist the mining 

industry then engaged in seeking gold and other mineral 

resources of the growing State (fig. 26). This objective still 

remains. In recent years, the DMG's activities in minerals 

mining have concentrated largely on the 1975 SMARA 

mandate, which includes mineral land classification and 

mined-land reclamation. 

The PRC authorizes the DMG to engage in specific 

mineral-resource activities: The DMG's Minerals Program 

consists of (1) country SMARA, (2) urban SMARA, and 

(3) a mineral-resource-analysis project. This last activity 

involves the preparation of a section of the State Geologist's 

annual report reviewing the economic use and conservation 

of the State's mineral resources and related problems; conducting special studies of the State's mineral resources and 

mineral industries; collecting occurrence and production 

statistics; conducting investigations to identify and delineate mineral deposits, so as to prevent their loss to urban 

encroachment and to assist in their ultimate use; maintaining a physical and chemical testing, analysis, and mineralidentification laboratory in support of the DMG's staff; 

issuing mineral-industry statistical and technology reports, 

including investigations of mineral-resource-conservation 

practice; conducting investigations in mining and metallurgy 

(including the use and recycling of scrap-metal products) 

and land-use practices; conducting investigations in the study 

and development of methods for the control, disposal, reclamation, and use of mining and mineral-processing waste 

products and the reclamation of mined lands; publishing an 

annual statistical bulletin on mineral production in California; collecting data on the consumption or use of mineral 

materials and publishing commodity or marketing studies; 

72 Industrial Minerals in California: Economic Importance, Present Availability, and Future Development 
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Urban Mineral 1-- Land 

Classffi cation 

Non-Urban ~ Mineral Land 

Classification 

Mineral ~ Resource 

Analysis 

Volcanogenic ..__ Minerals 

L__ __________ -· -------

t 

Environnental 

Protection 

~ 

Envfrorvnental 1-- Review 

Hospital and ~ School Site 

Review 

Timber Harvest ~ Plan Review 

Mined-Land ..__ Reclamation 

State Geologist 

Principal I Program 

Geologist Plaming Office 

I I 

Geologic Earth"-"'ke Geologic 

Hazards Engineering Information and 

Assessment Support 

~ ~ ~ 

Fault Strong-Motion Regional ~ Evaluation and t-- lnstrl.lnentation t-- Geologic 

Zoning Mapping 

Earthquake Structural TectQnlc I 

~ Shaking t-- Response I Investigation Assessment I 

Landslide GrOU'ld Appl fed 1-- Hazard ~ Response r-- Geophysics Identification 

Earthquake Data Geologic ..__ Damage and .___ Uti l hat ion - Information and 

History Publications 

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and, finally, gathering data from all mines, quarries, mills, 

wells, reduction works, refineries, and other mineral properties or working plants in the State. 

Information on the geology and mineral deposits of 

the State are published in the Annual Report of the State 

Geologist, bulletins, special reports, special publications, 

county reports, geologic and geophysical maps, and, recently, an open-file series to make information available 

sooner or in place of formal publication. California Geology, a monthly magazine, is designed to inform the public 

of discoveries, operations, markets, statistics, and progress 

in the earth sciences and to list new DMG publications, 

which are distributed through the DMG' s offices in 

Los Angeles, Pleasant Hill, and Sacramento or can be 

ordered by mail. A free list of these publications is available on request. 

Federal Agency Assistance 

U.S. Bureau of Land Management 

By R.M. Anderson 

The BLM administers about 17 million acres in California. I will focus on what it currently is doing to foster 

and encourage exploration and development for industrial 

minerals. The operational rules and regulations of the BLM 

are generally well known or available. 

(1) The BLM is a multiple-use agency that manages 

Federal lands for various purposes. The Federal Land Policy 

and Management Act of 1976 (FLPMA) mandated that the 

BLM also include minerals in that management. Minerals 

management is a part of the BLM's responsibility. 

(2) The Mining and Mineral Policy Act of 1970 

(MMP A) meekly directed that the Federal Government be 

an advocate to foster and encourage a stable domestic mining industry. FLPMA said that the BLM is to implement 

MMPA. The original act didn't direct anyone to do anything. The BLM developed a policy in 1984 that directs the 

agency to foster and encourage mineral activities and to 

keep the land open and available. Industry's role is in exploration and development. 

(3) Administrative land-withdrawal policy and land 

availability is based on the 1984 BLM policy which said 

that the BLM should not withdraw or lock up lands unless 

justified. We're going to withdraw, but we've laid out parameters describing what justification is needed. It's fairly 

tough to withdraw lands. Since 1980, the past two administrations have said that the BLM isn't going to withdraw 

lands unless it's really important, in the national interest, to 

do so. We didn't want to make it so tough that when changes 

of administration occur, previous decisions would be reversed. We want a fair policy on land withdrawals; these 

are administrative withdrawals, not congressional withdrawals. The act also mandates the BLM to review existing 

withdrawals so as to make sure that they're are still needed. 

Our office reviews every new withdrawal that comes 

through. This review has to be completed by 1991. I can 

assure you that some of the withdrawals coming though are 

sent back. Sometimes they may come back to us a second 

time, and we'll pass them on. We're rejecting withdrawals 

that cannot be fully justified; our State Director has given 

his support in that area. 

(4) Resource-management plans are important in the 

BLM and in most other agencies. We can help you in industry if you help us. In the past, industry was not open 

with their information. The BLM is not a research organization; we don't go out and do the same thing that the 

USGS and USBM do, but we use their information, and we 

can also use industry information. If we don't have it, we 

can't make objective decisions. Absence of evidence is not 

evidence of absence; let's not give anyone the chance to 

say that it is. Most of our managers are not geologists or 

mining engineers or, for that matter, minerals people. We 

have to show them the data; it's going to help the BLM in 

planning if industry comes forth and gets involved. Tell 

us what you think is out there. We not only need data, we 

also need your interest in the planning process. I can guarantee you that the nonminerals community is interested 

and that the competition for land resources is fierce these 

days. The nonminerals people are not happy with this concept of multiple use. So, better decisions result from 

good data. 

(5) Project Pride is a current effort by the BLM to 

increase the visibility and respect for mineral-materials programs, such as for common stone (sand and gravel, aggregates, rip-rap, and so on). A task force has put together an 

action plan and developed brochures, fact sheets, posters, 

and at least one video designed to inform the public of that 

segment of the minerals program. 

(6) Concerning SMARA, we've been working with 

the State and the USFS to develop a memorandum of understanding wherein we could encourage eliminating duplication and developing a one-stop shop for permitting mining 

operations and approving reclamation plans. Specifically, 

we have responsibility to process plans of operations on 

Federal land, and SMARA says they do, too. You've heard 

about the Graniterock case in the Supreme Court that said 

States have certain rights in land decisions. They're starting 

to assert those rights. We're trying to reach an agreement 

whereby we can reduce some of the duplication of effort 

and streamline the approval process for mining operations. 

(7) Changing regulations are a problem. Our regulations that provide for the disposal of common stone, in my 

opinion, are out of date. They don't provide for efficient 

operations. We limit your extraction to 10 years. We've 

recommended changes in our regulations as a result of the 

Pride task force. It really would help us a lot if industry 

would suggest ways that we could have regulations which 

will work efficiently and effectively. 

7 4 Industrial Minerals in California: Economic Importance, Present Availability, and Future Development 
(8) The California Desert Minerals Symposium held 

in Irvine, Calif., in March 1989 (Bureau of Land Management, 1989) was jointly sponsored by the BLM and the 

South Coast Geological Society. This symposium consisted 

of technical papers and poster sessions describing the mineral potential of the desert. We feel that this is one way the 

BLM can promote interest in minerals of the desert and 

show how important the desert is to the mineral industry. 

We need a show of support from industry and other concerned people outside of industry, and we need to demonstrate that there's a lot of interest in and concern about 

desert-mineral development and exploration and also about 

the BLM's desert plan developed in 1980. 

U.S. Geological Survey 

By M.P. Foose 

First, I intend to discuss the basic structure of the 

USGS and identify which parts of it address mineral-resource problems. Second, I will describe the nature of the 

USGS' mineral-resource programs and how they can help 

those who are involved in industrial minerals at the State, 

local, industry, or other level. Basically, the USGS is a 

bureau-level organization within the DOl, employing about 

10,000 persons. The organizational structure of the USGS 

(fig. 27) shows various divisions, including National Mapping, which makes topographic and other maps; Water Resources, which makes national surveys of water quality; 

and Geologic, which consists of six major activity 

areas, including mineral resources. Minerals programs are 

located in the Geologic Division's Office of Mineral Resources (OMR), whose responsibility encompasses most of 

the work associated with industrial minerals. In fact, however, a small amount of industrial-mineral work is also done 

in the Office of Energy and Marine Geology. The reason 

for discussing the USGS organization is to indicate and 

emphasize that the USGS is a large organization of which 

only a small part is devoted to minerals issues; the USGS 

has a lot of other concerns and meets the needs of many 

other constituents. 

The importance of minerals, however, was recognized 

early in the Organic Act of 1879 that created the USGS. 

The USGS was charged, among other things, with classifying public lands and examining their mineral resources. 

OMR is attempting to do that in several ways, some of 

which are summarized as follows. 

First, OMR does a considerable amount of basic research on mineral-deposit systems. The goal is to understand the genesis of ore systems, so as to develop more 

effective ore-deposit models. The reason for doing this is 

that such models provide us with a conceptual framework 

within which to carry out more effective mineral-resource 

assessments. Most of the mineral-deposit-modeling work is 

focused on metallic-mineral resources. We've been fairly 

successful in understanding how many of these types of 

deposits formed, in establishing models for ore-forming 

processes, and then in predicting where or in what environments other similar types of deposits might be found. OMR 

recognizes that it hasn't done nearly enough work on the 

industrial minerals. In part, cosponsoring this workshop is 

an expression of our present desire to increase the amount 

of attention on these important resource materials. We are 

redirecting some research to the industrial minerals, and we 

have projects that are looking at ore-deposit modeling for 

them. We intend that this research will increase our ability 

to more effectively assess industrial-mineral resources. We 

also think that this type of work will provide us and others 

with a more effective checklist of what should be looked 

for both nationally and locally in the attempt to identify 

industrial-mineral deposits and resources. 

OMR also does a lot of regional mineral-resourceassessment work. Much of this work is done on contract for 

agencies like the BLM, USPS, and BIA; but a lot of it is 

also done as part of our own internal programs, like AMRAP 

and CUSMAP, in which we assess the mineral resources of 

selected 1 o by 2° quadrangles. 

OMR has a commodity program that fosters the development of geologic expertise for a wide variety of materials. The currently assigned USGS specialists for industrial 

minerals are listed in appendix 7. 

Finally, the USGS has the ability to act as a unifying 

source of geologic and resource information at the national 

level. To try to fill this specific need, we have put together a 

data-base system called the Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS). This system contains about 90,000 mineraldeposit records, including almost 1,500 records on 

industrial-mineral deposits in California. So, in an applied 

sense, OMR can act as a source of information at the national level. To increase our ability to communicate not 

only with industry but also with other users of industrial 

minerals or other minerals information, we have started 

opening mineral information offices (MIO's) in Washington, 

D.C., at the USGS' other regional centers in Denver, Colo., 

and Menlo Park, Calif., and at the recently established 

field offices in Reno, Nev., Tucson, Ariz., and Spokane, 

Wash. 

I want to emphasize a statement that was made yesterday concerning advocacy positions on minerals issues. 

The USGS cannot and, I think, will not take an advocacy 

position for industry or for other concerned entities. We 

believe that we are most effective acting as an objective 

provider of information. Our strength is in our long-term 

reputation for providing objective, technically and scientifically correct information. As such, I think that we also 

provide an important service for industry, State and Federal 

agencies, and other user groups, whether planners, regulators, or environmental supporters, all of whom are concerned about how best to utilize our industrial-mineral 

resources and the lands on which they occur. 

Assistance from Universities, Government Agencies, and Other Organizations 75 
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WATER RESOURCES DIVISION 

Chil!f Hydrologist 

Associale l.hor>l Hydr<'l.--qisl 

Assistant Chief Assistant Chief 

Hydrologist for Hydrologist for 

Operations Sclf!ntlllc Information 

A .... l•nl Oolol llydtoJovlol 

for Re••rch encl l•aem.l 

Cootdlnetlon 

Ofhce• 

Hydrotogte Reseatch 

E atemal Research 

Management 

Assl1tant Chief 

Hydrologl1l for Program 

M I Coordination and 

Technical Sup~rt 

1--1 OlfiC!jS 

Atmospheric Dnposition 

Analysis 

Ground Water 

Surlace Water 

W~tPr Quality 

Asslatant Chief 

tfyrlrotoglll for Water 

Asausment and Oa_t•_ 1--

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a Reglonel Olllcn 

Northeastern-nasion. VA 

SoutheastPrn-AIIanta. GA 

Centr~l Denver, CO 

Western-Menlo Par~. CA 

Dl5trtct Ofllcn 

1 ASSISTANT DIRECTORS 

E nginl!ering Geology 

Programs 

Admlnosrration 

Research 

Information Systems 

Intergovernmental Affairs 

1 NATIONAL MAPPING DIVISION 

Chief 

Associate Chiel 

AulstRnt Division Chief 

for Ruearch 

O_!!oEe• 

Gengraphic and Cartographic Research 

Sysloms Devf'lopment 

Technical Developmenl 

Aulstant Division Chl#f 

for lnformetlon and 

Data Services 

Qlhces 

Product Oistrobulion 

Aulatanl Dlvlalon Chief 

for Plana and 

I I ~e!!•llona 1 ........... _ Qfltces 

Program Management 

Plans and Coordination 

International Aclivities 

Porocy t- Publicatoons liaison and 

Review 

National Cartoqraphic 

lnlormation Center 

Public Inquiries 

Regional Offices 

Eastern Mapping-Reston. VA 

Mid-Continent M~pplng·Rolla, MO 

Rocky Mountain Mapping-Denver. CO 

Western Mapping-M~~nlo Park, CA 

EROS Data Center·Sioux Falls. SO 

Figure 27. Organizational structure of the U.S. Geological Survey. 

J -~IRECTOR L 

I Associa:e Dirl!ctor I I STAFF OFFICES 

Washington Liaison 

Equal Employment Opponunily 

Congressional Liaison 

Public Affairs 

I 1 GEOLOGIC DIVISION INFORMATION SYSTEMS 

.______ Ch"'f Geologist DIVISION 

Associate Chief Geologist 

Assistant Chil!f Geologost for 

Program 

Office of Scientific 

~H Office of lntematlonal Pull"catlona Geology 

Branches 

Eastern Technical-Reports 

Policy, Plan- ning and Coordination Stall 

Central Technical R!!ports Office of Regional Geology Western Technical Reports 

Library and Information 

Services 

Visual Services 

Office of Mineral Reaourcn 

Branches 

Alaskan Geology 

Eastern Mineral Resources 

Central Mineral Resources 

Branches 

Eastern RegionaiGeology 

Central Regional Geology 

Western Regional Geology 

Isotope Geology 

Paleontology and Straligraphy 

Astrogeology 

Office of Earthquakes, 

tOll•ce1 

Management Services 

Customer Services 

Computer and 

Communications 

Services 

Western Mineral Resources Volcanoee and Engineering 

Geochemistry Branches Geophysics Tectonophysics Resource Analysis Engineering Seismology and 

Geology 

Seismology 

Geologic Risk Assessment 

Global Seismology and ~ranches Geomagnetism Coal Geology Igneous and Geothermal Petroleum Geology Processes Sedimentary Processes 

PacKic Marina Geology 

Atlantic Marine Gl!ology 

Asslslent Chief Geologlats 

Eastern Region 

Central Region 

Western Region 

OHica of Field Service• 

Centers 

Oenver.CO 

Menlo Park. CA 

Flagstaff. 1<2. 

1 ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISION 

Chief 

Offices 

Financial Management 

Facilities and Management Servici!S 

Systems Management 

Per,onnel 

f'·r•curement and Contracts 

Manegament Offices 

Central-Denver, CO 

Western-Menlo Park, CA 
U.S. Bureau of Mines 

By Aldo Barsotti 

The USBM was founded in 1910 expressly to deal 

with mine safety in reaction to a numerous mine fatalities 

that occurred primarily in eastern coal mines. Since then, it 

has gone on to become the primary Government agency to 

deal with the mineral industry, to foster the development of 

that industry in the United States, and to secure supplies of 

important minerals and materials critical to the strategic 

and economic well-being of the United States. The USBM 

employs approximately 2,500 professional and support personnellocated in Washington, D.C., and at field-operations 

and research centers across the country. The USBM is organized in three directorates: Research, Information and 

Analysis, and Finance and Management, the latter providing administrative support (fig. 28). In addition, the USBM 

administers the Mineral Institute Program, which consists 

of 32 mineral-research-oriented colleges and universities and 

is responsible for the Federal Helium Program, which provides helium for essential Government needs. 

Senior Advisory Staff 

The Research Directorate consists of three divisions: 

Health, Safety, and Mining Technology; Minerals and Materials Science; and Environment Technology. The Health, 

Safety, and Mining Technology Division engages in basic 

research in innovative mining methods, advances in conventional mining methods, advanced materials in mining, 

automation, and robotics, occupational health, efficiency and 

safety in explosives, ground control, and mine-safety systems. The Minerals and Materials Science Division includes 

several program elements of significance to understand 

minerals. The Vulnerable Strategic and Critical Metals element addresses those metals and materials for which the 

United States is vulnerable to supply cutoff; the objective is 

to develop workable processes for recovering these metals 

from domestic minerals. The Minerals and Metals Essential 

to the Nation element, however, focuses on new concepts 

and innovative methods to accomplish a single step in the 

overall flowsheet, or entirely new processes; the emphasis 

is on expanding the technology base, which will result in 

more competitive technology with minimum negative environmental impacts. The Materials part of the Directorate 

Equal Employment 

Opportunity Director 

Congressional Office of Public 

Information Liaison Deputy Director 

Mineral Institutes 

Regulatory Projects 

I I 

Finance and Information Research 

Management and Analysis 

Administrative Divisions: Resource Evaluation Health, Safety, and 

Organization and Mining Technology 

Management Policy Analysis 

Minerals and Materials 

Budget International Minerals Science 

Personnel 

Mineral Commodities Environmental 

Finance Technology 

Procurement 

Property and General 

Services Office of Advanced 

Materials Coordination Office of Technology Automatic Data Processing Transfer 

Helium Operations 

Figure 28. Organizational structure of the U.S. Bureau of Mines. 

Assistance from Universities, Government Agencies, and Other Organizations 77 
element is directed toward developing advanced materials 

with specific properties and performance characteristics. The 

main thrust of the USBM's materials research is to accomplish this goal by using domestically available minerals in 

the most efficient way possible. 

The Environmental Technology Division's research 

program is composed of four elements: Control of Acid 

Mine Drainage and Liquid Wastes, Solid Waste Management and Subsidence, Abandoned Mined Land Reclamation Research, and the National Mine Land Reclamation 

Center. The first element is designed to minimize or prevent contamination of the Nation's waters by acid drainage 

and toxic constituents from coal, metal, and nonmetal mines 

and waste-disposal areas and from processing-plant effluents. The second element includes the safe disposal of solid 

wastes from mining and mineral-processing operations, 

minimizing and prevention of subsidence, and reclamation 

of surface mines and waste-disposal areas. The third element 

provides research that addresses the environmental problems 

associated with abandoned coal mines. The fourth element 

was established by Congress in 1988 to complement and 

accelerate research on the reclamation of lands disturbed by 

the surface effects of mining. 

The Information and Analysis Directorate is made up 

of four divisions. The Division of Mineral Commodities 

publishes several of the USBM' s most well known publications: Mineral Yearbooks, Mineral Commodity Summaries 

(issued annually), and Mineral Facts and Problems (issued 

every 5 years). This division focuses on 90 mineral commodities, 42 of which fall into the industrial-mineral category, as defined. Industry surveys and several publications 

called Information Circulars and Reports of Investigations 

are also issued. The division also houses the State liaison 

officers; the person responsible for California is Fred Carillo 

in Reno, Nev. The USBM's industrial-mineral-commodity 

specialists are listed in appendix 8. 

The Division of International Minerals provides international mineral production and trade data and industrial-development assessments on a country-by-country basis. 

It also cooperates in joint analytical and policy studies with 

the BLM's policy analysts, mineral-commodity specialists, 

and mineral-availability specialists. In addition, this division serves in a consulting role to the Research Directorate 

in support of its international-science and technology-cooperation programs. 

The Policy Analysis Division provides comprehensive economic analyses on the major factors that influence 

the competitive position of the domestic mineral industry, 

on the contributions that this industry makes to the Nation's 

economy, and on the domestic supply of minerals. This 

division also helps develop policy options to assist the Federal Government in improving the availability of strategic 

and critical minerals and supplies of other minerals essential to a healthy domestic economy. 

The Division of Resource Evaluation focuses on 

demonstrated resources, supply, production, trade, and, in 

some cases, demand trade. This division is composed of two 

programs. The first, the Mineral Land Assessment Program, 

provides information on known mineral resources on Federal 

lands that are under the jurisdiction of the BLM, USFS, and 

other agencies, such as the BIA. The USBM has published 

67 reports for BLM lands, 97 reports for USFS lands, and 

14 administrative reports for the BIA; all of these reports 

are for lands in California. The second is the Minerals 

Availability Program, begun officially in 1974, which has 

the objective to appraise the availability of known mineral 

resources worldwide. The focus has been on 34 minerals, 

of which 12 are industrial, to derive engineering estimates 

of what it costs to produce material from the sites, whether 

as resources or reserves, and the value of these reserves. 

As part of its Minerals Availability Program, the 

USBM has a large data base called the Minerals Availability System (MAS); the types of data in this data base are 

shown in figure 29. The data on mines and deposits in 

California was partly derived from information collected by 

the DMG. Of the 200,000 records in the MAS, about 25,000 

are for California, and approximately 5,600 of these records 

are for industrial-mineral deposits, 1,300 of which are in 

production. The largest part of the MAS is referred to as the 

Mineral Industry Location System (MILS), which lists the 

location of the property, mineral commodities, owner, property name, bibliographic information, and factors affecting 

the recoverability of the commodity. Of the other data in 

the MAS, many are highly detailed and are proprietary. A 

sample report for a property was published by Babitske and 

others (1982). Backup reports of data dealing with California properties are available from the USBM' s field-operations center in Spokane, Wash. 

What can the USBM do for industry? It provides 

minerals information, conducts research, and performs some 

sampling and analyses (in the Reno, Nev., Field Operations 

Center); looks at policy issues (including land-withdrawal 

issues); and releases several technical and popular publications. The USBM also produces films on minerals. The 

mineral institutes for research in universities are funded 

through the USBM, and it conducts technology-transfer 

seminars. Several good deposit-evaluation methods have 

been developed as software and are available for PC's. 

Scientific-Society Assistance 

By Siegfried Muessig 

The role that scientific societies play in assisting industry is twofold, direct and indirect. Their direct role is to 

promote the knowledge, discovery, and development of industrial minerals. Their indirect role, which is important but 

commonly not thought about, is to promote professionalism 

and to improve the performance of the people who consti78 Industrial Minerals in California: Economic Importance, Present Availability, and Future Development 
Deposit 

identification 

Tonnage 

and grade 

Engineering 

and cost -

*Indicates 

nonproprietary 

Information 

r-i 

Deposit H 

locetlon I 

MILS I 

Commodity H 

y 

Deposit 

definition 

Quantity 

Asuy 

~ 

rl Development ~ 

plan 

Development H .schedule 

Investment 

description 

Transportation H 

description H 

~ 

definition 

Product ~ 

Product - Yield rl 

Environmental rt assessment 

Environmental 

description 

PLS J * 

Namn j * 

Owners J * 

Blbllogrephy I * 

Comments I 

Reserves A ... y 

History Exploration 

Geometry Production 

Lithology 

Mineralogy 

Mine description 

Surface 

Underground 

Ocean 

Mill fHd description I 

I nfraa truct ure 

Capital/Supplies 

labor 

requirements 

Equipment 

requirements 

MINSIM 

Smelting and 

refining 

description 

Market 

description 

Waste 

d·isposal 

Environmental 

regulations 

Figure 29. Matrix diagram showing content of MAS data base-a deposit description (from 

Babitzke and others, 1 982). 

Assistance from Universities, Government Agencies, and Other Organizations 79 
tute the industry. The societies bring professionals together 

at meetings and field conferences, provide for the exchange 

of information, and, perhaps more importantly, bring people 

together to know each other better and to promote business 

deals. This is an obvious driving force in the industry: People 

tend to do business with people they know and respect. The 

direct role of the such societies as the national American 

Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers 

(AIME), American Association of Petroleum Geologists 

(AAPG), and Society of Economic Geologists (SEG), and 

of the local societies, such as the South Coast Geological 

Society, is as promoters and publishers: They promote educational meetings, symposia, and field trips and provide 

opportunities for continuing-education short courses. The 

societies publish monthly joumals--SEG's Economic Geology is probably the best known journal in economic geology in the world; AIME publishes Mining Engineering; and 

AAPG publishes the AAPG Bulletin. The societies also 

publish special volumes; one particularly applicable to the 

industrial minerals was published by AIME several years 

ago on borates and is still one of the best available. The 

SEG has published several definitive studies on gold; annually, it publishes exploration statistics. (More contributions 

from industrial-mineral companies are welcomed.) I especially want to point out the role of the local societies, such 

as the South Coast Geological Society, which sponsors field 

trips that are directed toward industrial problems and follows up these trips with some superior and useful special 

publications, not only in the scientific but also in the business and industrial sense. The societies also foster continuing education through special lectureships, short courses, 

field excursions, and their book publications. 

Discussion and Comments 

• Research on depositional environments and detailed 

appraisal of carbonate sequences has been helpful to me in 

recognizing exposed depositional structures and relating 

them to known chemical-compositional history. Several of 

the midcontinent universities and State geological surveys 

have been involved extensively in such research throughout 

the past 30 years. This is an excellent type of study that has 

practical application immediately to someone like me, who 

represent a company that uses very high purity materials. 

Such research enables us quickly to assess mineral resources 

and appraise the purity of a carbonate source rock, or even 

gypsum and anhydride and, to some extent, certain phosphates. Application of the study of the evaporite depositional environment has been fantastic for brine-deposit 

location. 

• The USGS also has considerable competence in 

carbonate petrology and limestones. One of the really strong 

points of the USGS work is in the area of stratigraphy. It's 

true that the USGS may not have focused on strictly economic problems, such as carbonate suitable for cement, but 

the basic research has been done and published. The USGS 

shares a laboratory with the University of Miami, Fla.; the 

studies done there have revolutionized how we look at carbonate rocks and oil traps. In addition to pure research, the 

USGS has a lot of people working on carbonate formations, 

such as those in Alaska and the Grand Canyon Redwall 

Limestone, which has resulted in several large monographs. 

The stratigraphy of carbonate rocks in the Great Basin is 

also well documented by USGS research. The practical industrial application, however, is not the role of the USGS 

but is properly that of the industry users or, possibly, the 

universities. The availability of these basic USGS studies 

should be more widely known. 

• Let me point to an even more serious problem, 

alluded to earlier, that's not getting better. I suppose you 

have to face the reality that when you talk about the great 

need for industrial minerals and the large volume of production, consumption, and large values added, you're including in that category, in large part, the big, low-cost, 

low-unit-value commodities that have to be mined fairly 

close to the market because of transportation costs. These 

commodities also generally have to be mined at or close to 

the surface on a large scale. When it comes to exploration, 

those kinds of deposits are not really sought in the form of 

hidden ore bodies; you have to find surface deposits. The 

need for a mine geologist there is apparently perceived, in 

large part, as not being as great as for the deeper-seated 

metallic or complex nonmetallic deposits. Where you have 

fault problems, great variation in the shape of ore bodies, or 

the need for a lot of selective grade control or inhouse 

geology control, the mine geologist is recognized as necessary. There aren't many industrial-mineral-exploration geologists, and those geologists who are doing outside 

exploration have to be very well trained also in the business 

aspects; they have to understand the unique factors, such as 

specifications, the markets, and transportation, which are 

often critical. So, this industry needs a broader-gauge geologist than many of the universities produce. 

• The ultimate problem is that because there's not the 

glamor and complexity in many industrial mineral and rock 

mining operations and exploration, there's not much tendency for faculty members to do research in that area. They 

have a need for "currency," too. It's a market situation, the 

same as in every part of business. What's the "currency" 

factor for faculty members? To be able to do research in 

problems that are interesting and intellectually rewardingresearch that is publishable, will receive positive peer review in journals, will be respected by their peers, and thereby 

will lead to promotions. It's a market economy, the same as 

anywhere else. 

• There's also a need for the recognition that mining 

geology is useful, not just for U.S. Borax and Molycorp but 

also for the big bulk producers of industrial minerals. People 

need to recognize that geology can make a real contribution 

80 Industrial Minerals in California: Economic Importance, Present Availability, and Future Development 
to mining operations. If you do any consulting at all, you 

know that you go out to a small production outfit, give 

some advice, and come back 6 to 8 months later, when they 

call you again, to find that they have a waste pile dumped 

on top of the ore. This kind of situation happens because 

they don't make use of geology. 

• All too often, a negative image of the mining industry, in contrast to that of research, USGS work, or teaching, 

is projected by professors in some academic institutions. I 

know that at one of the very fine institutions in the country, 

geologic fieldwork is looked down upon by many of the 

professors; nonacademic research-oriented activities are also 

frowned upon. In past years, at least, the professors aimed 

talented students toward the USGS or teaching; industrial 

work was sort of relegated to the hacks, and I feel that in a 

lot of universities that's still the prevailing attitude. If the 

universities are going to attract and guide students to the 

industrial-mineral field, professors have to cast the industry 

in a more favorable light; many of them don't. What about 

it, professors? 

• As a professor, I'd like to offer some additional 

comments from the perspective of the university community. I came from Canada to teach in southern California 

with a background of mining experience in British Columbia. In Canada, if one participates in the discovery of a new 

ore deposit, that's something to be proud of, and you're 

looked up to as having made a contribution to the country. I 

think that this attitude is still true in Canada. When I first 

came to California, the perception of mining and exploration 

here was based on the image of a broken-down promoter in 

the foothills belt. Frankly, it was a shock to me to find this 

attitude, but it's a reality. Whose fault it is isn't as important as doing something about changing the image. 

• The lagging image of geology has also had a great 

effect on the university. What do you think has happened to 

our enrollment since the price of uranium first dropped, 

then the price of base metals, then petroleum? The drop 

hasn't just occurred in the mineral area but in geology as a 

whole. For the past 5 years or so, there's been about a 50-

percent loss each year. This means that we're not getting 

access to a fair share of the bright students that we used to 

attract. Whereas we used to have typically 40 to as many as 

60 students in our mineralogy and field courses back in the 

1960's, we're now down to 8 people. A couple more were 

added this year, so maybe we've turned the comer. The 

point is that market laws apply also to students and the 

parents of students who put up the money in the early stages. 

They look to the possibility of employment. How can we 

increase employment in the mineral industry? When the 

charge was given to us as to what the role of the universities might be in helping to assess, explore for, and develop 

minerals, I almost asked, what can you can do for us? Professors Hood and McKibben brought forth some excellent 

suggestions of the types of help that universities can contribute to this industry. I want to emphasize that master's 

students, particularly, are more likely to go into industry; 

the Ph.D. students tend to go onto those jobs that are research oriented in the USGS and academia. The master's 

candidates need support; it doesn't cost much to support 

them. A project on hectorite costs $1,200 to cover field and 

analytical expenses. 

• Industry has been generous in support of the university community. Some companies have established student fellowships and provided lucrative consulting 

opportunities for faculty members who are knowledgeable 

in the field of industrial rocks and minerals. 

• I think that the industry can do a lot, particularly at 

the master's level. What we're finding as a consequence of 

the decrease in employment is that the departments aren't 

moving toward applied research; they're moving away from 

it. I understand that the Colorado School of Mines is in 

difficulty. How many schools of mines are there now? Is it 

possible in industrial-mineral and rock areas, and the mining industry in general, to think about financing a master's 

thesis here and there? Right now, I'd have a hard time 

finding a student, but my colleagues may have some. Such 

industry support would help enormously and get the good 

word around the departments. 

• Many universities give popular courses on natural 

resources, nonrenewable resources, and society. Through 

such courses the nonmajors are introduced to the concept 

that everything in the room is there in part because of the 

industrial-mineral industry. We find people coming to us 

highly prejudiced against the mining industry, and they go 

away with a much more balanced view. We're doing that 

sort of thing, but we need encouragement from the industry. 

• Let me return to the point of a professor's effect in 

guiding students. The point was a good one. At universities 

like Berkeley, UCLA, or USC, the criterion for promotion 

is research; these are research universities, principally. 

Having said that, 70 percent of our ongoing enrollments 

are undergraduates. We expect that about 10 to 20 percent 

of the students out of any undergraduate class will immediately go on to a higher degree and maybe another 10 percent later on. We don't say to our undergraduates that 

they're in a high-quality academic institution and are going 

to learn how to do research as an undergraduate. It's a 

myth for you to think that if we'd be a little more practical, 

maybe we'd suddenly persuade half of the college of engineering to join the mining department. That won't happen. 

The problem is one of perception, of the image of the industry, not of how we teach the courses in our particular 

departments. 

We're all trying to promote mining activities within 

the State. Let's try to talk more about how we could get our 

own act together and speak with one voice. Throwing slings 

and arrows at each other can be useful because I think that 

the USGS does need to know what industry's problems are, 

and we in the university need to know how industry perceives us and how we can be more responsive. 

81 
• Geologists need a bit different background and support disciplines in the industrial-mineral industry than those 

needed in the metals. The first job I had was in mercury in 

Nevada. They put me out on a rig; the cuttings came up; I 

panned them and classified them according to a certain 

standard. I didn't have to know what mercury was used for. 

I moved into uranium on the Colorado Plateau, and the 

same thing applied-we probed the holes, and if the radioactivity reading reached a critical value, it was rated as ore; 

if not, it wasn't. I didn't have to know what uranium was 

used for. But to be an industrial-mineral geologist, you have 

to know what the end use is; you have to know what the 

standards are of the industry that's going to use the material; you have to have some idea of the markets and what 

their value is. So, I don't know whether the universities are 

set up well enough at present to accommodate the 

students who are coming up. You can't just tum them into 

pure geologists; they have to have a good sense of processing, and they also have to have some sense of economics 

and marketing, which I think sets them apart from from a 

standard porphyry-copper geologist who goes out and sticks 

holes in the ground at some intervals. I don't know whether 

academia is set up to train these types of people. Consequently, I think that Huber or U.S. Borax should take 

graduates who have a metals orientation and train them to 

think more like an industrial-mineral geologist. There may be 

universities that focus on industrial-mineral geology; I think 

that the University of Indiana trains industrial minerals geologists. There may be more opportunities in California to 

start training a different type of geologist. I do know that 

there's a need in the industry for industrial-mineral geologists. 

Reply: There's only a finite amount of time a student 

can spend in the university. Students are taking physics, 

chemistry, and mathematics, as well as all of the basic geology courses. I encourage students who have room in their 

curriculum for an elective to take political science or take 

economics courses, but it isn't always possible in the 

timespan available. I recall my undergraduate days in British Columbia where I had a job every summer, either with 

the Department of Mines, the Geological Survey, or a private mining company; that was standard procedure. It was 

accepted, because the mining industry felt that it ought to 

hire geology or mining-engineering students. It should happen more often in the United States! 

The University of California, well known for its mineral-resource interests, has an intern program that I think is 

available to mining companies and any other company that 

hires geologists. We use this as an opportunity for students 

to get out in the field and get some experience while they're 

still undergraduates. For those companies that don't have 

funds to support these students, students will do it for free 

because they get academic credit. All they need is expense 

money to get out to the operation. You can use them in any 

way as long as there is some kind of educational benefit to 

the student. These students have designed programs. I've 

had five students in the past 10 to 12 years who ended up 

going to work for the company that they interned with; 

they're managers or exploration geologists now, but they 

started out as technicians in the laboratory learning how to 

do sampling. So, there's opportunity even at the undergraduate level. I've had a couple of graduate students at the 

master's level doing work in mineral resources; they've 

gone on to company work and are doing well. 

• Even though an educational institution may have 

little or no opportunity to develop a mineral-resource program, it can be involved. It can teach the kinds of resource 

courses that enable students from all branches of the university to learn about mineral resources. Sprinkle some energy 

in the course and get them to learn about this industry; let 

them know that there are some things out there that they 

should be aware of. Oftentimes, these students will take 

more courses. Another course of action, which we do at the 

University of California, Davis, is to initiate cooperative 

programs with other departments: If a student wants to work 

out a special course, he can go to the department of economics, for example, and get some background. 

• U.S. Gypsum has supported undergraduates. They 

make full use of mining colleges when they go out to recruit and look for mining engineers. Usually, they're looking for engineers to fill specific needs. We support students 

through the cooperative program in which we take undergraduates and give them an idea of what it's like in the 

company. They have the opportunity to sit on a rig, to 

understand the mineral materials, the processing end, and 

also learn, to some extent where the mineral is marketed. If 

eventually they join the company, they have some basis to 

be able to fit into the manufacturing end of it. We really 

don't use a pure geologist. We have a large company and 

have a geologic-staff capability in Chicago, but the geologic engineers that the company hires and, in time, promotes 

are used on a local basis and have to be jacks-of-all-trades. 

I'd like to see those kinds of internship programs developed. 

• We heard yesterday that 1 percent of the capital 

investment at Homestake went toward EIR's. It would be 

interesting if we could get industry to take 1 percent of 

what we pay lawyers and give it to such an internship. 

• Some industry people are worried about releasing 

proprietary data in theses. This is an important consideration; market competition is of prime importance in industrial minerals. Many producers don't even want to tell you 

what their market is, what their capabilities are, or what 

varieties of product they can produce. Because they differentiate the market, its important to maintain that differentiation. At the university, we've been able to handle the 

proprietary matters reasonably well. The rule is that no proprietary information can be considered part of the thesis; 

you don't put any such data in the thesis. The thesis is 

eventually going onto the library shelf and become public 

information; the thesis has to stand on its own, independent 

82 Industrial Minerals in California: Economic Importance, Present Availability, and Future Development 
of any proprietary information. As a result, we haven't found 

this to be a serious problem. 

• The CSLC staff invite industry persons to request 

to be put on our mailing list to receive the environmental 

documents about little projects that we have on State lands. 

We already have prospector Joe and the major corporations 

on such lists; however, our mailing list is dominated by the 

advocacy groups that are against mining. We already welcome your comments, pro and con, on whatever project we 

send to you. We can almost guarantee you that your comments will be read by Leo McCarthy and Gray Davis; they 

do read them. We think that this is a way you can help us. 

We're always amazed at how the environmental groups recall Mark Twain's advice to first give the facts; they can be 

distorted later. We welcome your participation and comments on the environmental documents that we circulate. 

• One of the points that I'd like to make is that it's 

industry's obligation to look out for itself. The Federal 

Government can't do that for you. To a certain degree, 

State government agencies can take an advocacy position 

or role. It's important to talk to government-agency people. 

That means, in fact, talking to the policymakers, the staffers, 

and the people who actually act to support either the Federal 

or State programs. Otherwise, if we're just talking to ourselves, we're not necessarily masters of our own destiny. 

You, as important constituents, have certain rights. If you 

exercise those appropriate! y, agency peoples, in fact, will 

be responsive to you. But there are political realities that 

need to be addressed, and it's up to you to act through those 

forums to make sure that your interests are looked after. 

Assistance from Universities, Government Agencies, and Other Organizations 83 

Educating the Public About Industrial-Mineral Issues 

Robert Reveles, Convenor 

To improve the image of the industrial-mineral industry and increase its ability to provide some answers to the 

problems and challenges dramatically illustrated in the Los 

Angeles 2000, California 2010, and SCAG studies, it will be 

necessary to educate the public and foster discussions from a 

generalist rather than a scientist or technician viewpoint. I 

may be able to focus our discussion in this direction and help 

make something happen. I've always enjoyed getting into a 

situation that seems to be in need of compromise and bringing 

disparate opinions into focus, but I'm also overwhelmed 

sometimes when I'm invited to address groups like this 

because you're technically highly competent individuals. The 

purpose of this session is to consider educating the public 

about the importance of industrial minerals. I don't think that 

we need to go back and review all the problems and challenges have already been dramatically illustrated or referred 

to here. Suffice it to say that we've been doing some things 

that are already underway by the CMA and mining groups 

in other States. The industry has begun rather late to assume 

responsibility for educating the public. At CMA, we've put 

together an educational task force and are now in the midst 

of a literature-search project that will bring together all the 

available materials which other groups have assembled to 

educate the public on the importance of minerals. 

Too often, I think, we dwell on the problems and our 

defeats, and we fail to recognize that we're also doing some 

good things in the public-policy arena. I think of the CDP A 

legislation, in which, for 3 years running, we've been doing 

battle with Senator Cranston's bill, and thus far we've succeeded in keeping Senator Wilson from being coopted by 

Senator Cranston on the issue. This happened because we 

planned and allocated resources to that project. Now, Senator Cranston has reintroduced the legislation as bill S.. 11, 

and we're going to have to start putting our project back 

together, allocating additional resources to keep our message alive. Shirley Anderson (1989), one of our participants, has completed a report on the impact of Senator 

Cranston's bill on the economies of southern Califomia, 

which is a major contribution to the California Desert Project. 

So, from the frank discussions that we've had here, I think 

we're not really as unprepared as it might appear. 

As an introduction to this session, Harry Pachon, executive director of the National Association of Latino Elected 

Officials (NALEO) and professor of political science at 

Claremont College, provides some insights about the need 

for meeting the serious resource problems facing California 

and its industrial-mineral industry through education of the 

public, which increasingly will consist of a large segment 

of immigrants from South and Central America and Asia. 

Our second panelist, Paul Iverson, a former educator and 

now deputy director of the NDM, will address some of the 

successful ways in which these challenges are being met 

through planned public education in our neighboring State 

of Nevada. 

Effects and Challenges of Hispanic Immigration 

on Resources in Southern California 

By Harry Pachon 

At an energy conference in Albuquerque, N.Mex., 

about 5 years ago, we brought Hispanic State legislators 

and congressmen together with representatives of the major 

energy companies. I think that both sides saw each other's 

perspectives, and I know that in talking with members of 

NALEO as they came out of the conference, they had a 

more sophisticated understanding of the issues which you 

face here with industrial minerals in present-day America. 

As I was sitting on the freeway for an hour and a half 

trying to get here, I asked myself why I, the director of a 

national civic-affairs organization and a professor of politics, was asked to address a mineral-resource conference. 

Somewhere along the Santa Monica Freeway I concluded 

that there were two possibilities. Either the conference 

convenors are so farsighted that they want me to address 

the issues of Hispanic America, or your luncheon speaker 

canceled out. If it were for the first alternative, I want to 

congratulate the conference convenors for thinking so far 

ahead. Emigrating Hispanics should be a serious concern 

for planning the future of the State of California, as it greets 

large numbers of these people, settles them in homes, finds 

Educating the Public About Industrial-Mineral Issues 85 
jobs, for them, feeds them, and provides the extra societal 

infrastructures to accommodate them. All of these objectives will have an significant effect on the availability and 

use of the State's industrial-mineral resources. Plans for 

meeting these mineral-resource needs are also essential. 

Effect of Immigration on Los Angeles 

We hear that the United States is changing because 

we're now receiving a portion of the Third World. 

We received European immigrants at the tum of the century, but now the scope of and place for the action has 

changed. It's no longer Ellis Island in New York Harbor; 

it's Los Angeles and southern California that are the main 

ports of entry for most of our Nation's new immigrants. 

They're coming from south of the border and from Asian 

countries. They're going to be a basic transforming force in 

the United States over the next few years-in fact, during 

our lifetime. 

One of the factors that follows this comment, for those 

of us who live here in this State, is that there's been a rapid 

population growth. Los Angeles County and its surrounding counties have grown something like the size of three 

Miamis in the past 8 years. But it isn't simply internal U.S. 

migration; it isn't those Easterners who, during the Rose 

Bowl time, see this area and the 70°F temperatures, and 

wonder why they're living in Michigan. It's also immigrants. When we talk about foreign immigrants, unfortunately for the Latino population, the image is of the radio 

and TV network news with a helicopter spotlighting the 

Tijuana border where a horde of undocumented aliens are 

crossing the border. The reality is that we have many legal 

Latin American immigrants entering the country, and they're 

entering this year as they have for the past 15 to 20 years. 

Something like 50,000 to 60,000 legal Mexican immigrants 

enter the country every year. More than 50 percent of them 

enter California and list Los Angeles or Orange County as 

their point of destination. When we asked Asian immigrants 

coming into the U.S., a staggering 40 percent of them listed 

two ZIP codes in Monterey Park, Calif., as their point of 

destination. There's a new wrinkle also to the immigrant 

stream: California is increasingly receiving Central American immigrants. All the political upheaval that we hear about 

in Nicaragua, El Salvador, or Honduras has direct consequences for us. When the regimes there become unstable, 

when there's shooting in the streets, bombings, and squads 

of the White or Black Hand killing people in Guatemala, 

we start seeing immigrants fleeing those conditions and 

coming into Los Angeles. Therefore, it isn't surprising that 

you can go throughout the city and find colonies or 

"colonias" of the various former communities and find replications of stores from all of Central America in southern 

California. 

Let me give you some examples of how big the Latin 

American immigration has been to the State. Between 1980 

and 1988, Los Angeles County grew by about 12 percent. 

That's a pretty respectable growth rate of about 1.5 percent 

per year. Yet at the same time, the Latino population in Los 

Angeles County grew from 2 million to about 3 million. 

That means that it grew 50 percent in 8 years, whereas the 

larger non-Hispanic population was growing less than 12 

percent. The same figures hold true for the city of Los 

Angeles. We now have a situation where 1 in 3 of all residents of the metropolitan city are Latino. I think that we're 

beginning to see the consequences of this large Hispanic 

population growth in the State. More than 40 percent of the 

children in the city schools of Los Angeles are Latino. The 

Rand Corp.'s report on, of all things, the future library 

services of the State of California points out that, in our 

lifetime, California will become the first State in the mainland United States to have people of color constituting the 

majority of its population. 

Hispanic Political Potential 

Other consequences, however, are not so apparent for 

the future. In the political sector, Latinos are just beginning 

to emerge. You've heard from newspapers and commentators that Latinos don't vote. There's good reason for that: 

The voting power of the the Latino population in the State 

has been diluted by two factors. (1) The population is so 

young-the average Latino age is 25 years. Those of us 

who come from a business background realize that averages are misleading statistics. What it means is that 50 

percent of the population are below the age of 25; many of 

those individuals are below the age of 18 years. Something 

like 42 percent of the Nation's Latino population in 1980 

were below the age of 18, and so we have a large population 

in the Latino community not yet eligible to vote. (2) We 

also have a lack of citizenship among these legal immigrants. 

An Asian immigrant takes something like 6 years to become a U.S. citizen; a Mexican immigrant takes about 14 

years to convert legal-residence status into U.S. citizenship. 

These two factors inhibit current political potential. 

The future potential of the Latino community is tremendous. As the population of the Latino community ages, 

as we see the 25-year average age turning into 30 years (the 

average age of the U.S. population is about 31 years), we're 

going to have many more individuals enter the voting age. 

That means that we still haven't seen the full impact of this 

wave of people entering the political sector. As more Latino 

immigrants become U.S. citizens, more Latino voters will 

also appear. On Monday (Feb. 13, 1989), there was a big 

story in the Los Angeles Times that a U.S. citizenship drive 

is being held by our organization, and others like ours, 

trying to convert Mexican immigrants who are here with all 

their papers into U.S. citizens. We have seen some success 

in the past 3 years: The rate of naturalization has jumped 

from 14,000 to about 24,000 per year. 

What's the potential of all this? Imagine that, of all 

86 Industrial Minerals in California: Economic Importance, Present Availability, and Future Development 
the Mexican immigrants who are living here in Los Angeles County or in southern California, if only 1 in 10 becomes a U.S. citizen, we'll have 100,000 new voters entering 

the political arena in a period of less than 5 years. Now, 

100,000 votes, for those who follow California politics, are 

enough to swing gubernatorial and senatorial elections, as 

well as presidential elections. So, we really have some potential out there. There are a couple of other things we have 

to look at when we realize that nearly 50 percent of the 

Hispanic population have not been able to participate in the 

political sector. That means that the numbers must be so 

big among Latinos here in the State and throughout the 

Southwest that their political gains are even more impressive. 

The political gains of the Hispanic community are even 

more impressive if you consider that more than 50 percent 

can't vote because of youth or lack of citizenship. We've 

seen in the past 10 years, for example, the number of Hispanic elected officials naturally grow from 1,500 to 3,200. 

Here in California, Latinos now outnumber any other minority group insofar as public office is concerned by a factor 

of 1.5 to 1. There are about 460 Hispanic elected officials 

in the State; there are about 250 black elected officials. In 

the past presidential election, which wasn't close, 6 percent 

of the Hispanic population would equal 1 percent of the 

State-wide vote. So, if we ever have a close election, Hke 

that between Carter and Ford in 1976 in which the election 

was decided by less than 2 percentage points, we could see 

the Latino population actually having the potential for beilng 

the swing vote. If you believe in my figures, from the data 

presented already, I think that you'll agree with me in saying 

that only the tip of the iceberg is apparent now and that the 

main body hasn't come through in California insofar as 

Latinos are concerned. 

NALEO represents Hispanic elected officials at all 

levels of government and is reaching about 3,200 Hispanic 

elected officials. Other than that energy conference which 

we had about 5 years ago, I can't remember when we've 

been approached on different issues. And yet there are 450 

Hispanic elected officials in California, 260 in Arizona, ;md 

1,500 in Texas. These elected officials are not visible to 

you right now because they're holding the positions of 

school-board members, city-council people, or State legislators that may not be visible in the national or regional 

media. However, when reapportionment comes up in 1992, 

when we see that new seats are going to be created, who's 

going to be there with a cadre of elected officials or people 

who have the experience to run for office? I think that 

you're going to see a dramatic increase in the number of 

State representatives and, possibly, even in the number of 

Hispanic congressmen who are going to emerge in 1992. 

Look at 1982, for example: The numbers in the congressional Hispanic caucus doubled from 5 to 10. And 1982 

wasn't a lucky year; it simply was only because it was after 

the census. And the census next year will have political 

impact in 1992. 

Public-Policy Concerns for Latin Immigrants 

Let me share some concerns with you for the Latino 

population in the area of public policy; it may have some 

direct relevance to you. I think that all of us hear the litany 

that minority communities don't have as much education as 

the majority community. But let me show this briefly and 

outline some issues. We all know that Latino youths aren't 

completing high school. In Los Angeles, right now, we can 

go to high schools that have something like 45 to 50 percent 

dropout rates. We know that only 5 out of every 100 Latino 

children who start elementary school in 1989 will be able 

to complete a college education. The rate is about 25 out of 

every 100 for the rest of the population. I think that, as a 

result, for people such as you who represent an industry, the 

consequences have to be looked at not so much in the present 

but in the future, for the year 2020,2030, or whenever. 

We have to look at two things present in the United 

States and here in this State. First, we have an increasing 

number of people in society who are going to be 65 and 

over. The first baby boom, which we've heard so much 

about that it's become a cliche, is going to strike retirement 

age in the years 2015 to 2030. Now, if the average age of a 

Hispanic in the United States is 25, it means that something 

like 50 percent of all Hispanic workers in the work force 

today will still be working in the year 2025. What does it 

mean to the Nation and to your industries when we have 

those same Hispanic workers not even having had a highschool education? At best, they might have had something 

like 11 years of education. 

We have a large dependency ratio, by which I mean 

that presently about 19 elderly people are supported by 100 

workers in the 1980's. This number will double to about 37 

elderly people who will be supported by 100 workers by 

the year 2030. This dependency ratio will become effective 

at a time when an increasing number in our work force are 

either black or Hispanic. These same individuals are the 

ones who are not trained or have not finished higher education. So, I would ask you to look at the fact that many 

minority leaders in this country, such as Mayor Henry 

Cisnero of San Antonio, Tex., aren't seeing the problem of 

minority education as being the problem of just the minorities. It's no longer something that we can say is a minority 

issue. It's an American issue because increasingly we have 

a penetrative market insofar as international marketing is 

concerned. We're not going to be able to be competitive in 

the world economic arena if our workers lack the requisite 

educational skills. 

Immigrants' Image of the Resource Industry 

There's another issue that may be of relevance to you 

insofar as the Hispanic community reacts in society: How 

do minority elected officials view the issues that affect your 

industries? How will the population that is predominantly 

Educating the Public About Industrial-Mineral Issues 87 
working class react to the issues of limited growth, offshore 

drilling, and land-use preferences? I submit to you that at 

present this population's voice is not being heard. It's almost like an invisible line here in Los Angeles County; if 

you divide it in half-on an east-to-west continuum-you'll 

see that the issues of the west side are those that we hear 

about in all the major media. The issues of the east side are 

relatively unknown, but that's where the working-class 

population is located. The east side isn't being looked at 

insofar as the media reports are concerned. However, if the 

numbers I've given you are correct, we're going to see an 

emergent political power coming from the east side, from 

Hispanic elected officials and Hispanic voters. I think that 

right now we're living at a key time insofar as educating 

the political leadership and the mining industry about what 

issues are important to you and to them. 

So, I'd like to share with you the thought that we still 

don't have open lines of communication between Hispanic 

organizations or individuals about the issues of concern to 

you. In fact, thinking about it, on addressing the issues of 

mineral resources, how does the Hispanic community think 

about these issues? The answer is that I don't know, and I 

doubt if anyone does know. This is a unique window of 

opportunity for you insofar as a cooperative relationship 

goes, in learning what issues are of concern to Latinos and 

which of these Latino issues should be of concern to you. 

Need for Better Communication, a Mutual Concern 

There's one last thing that I'd like to close with. In 

the media right now, the image of the Latino is the image 

of an undocumented immigrant, a sojourner. He or she is a 

young man or woman who crosses the border, works for a 

couple of years, and sends money back to a little village in 

Mexico or Guatemala, which, according to the media, is 

what's keeping those economies alive. That's a simple stereotype. I think that if we look at our Latino immigrants 

(we've just finished a national survey of Latino legal immigrants in this country) and ask how many of them plan to 

remain in this country, what percentage do you think answered that they plan to remain here? A full 95 percent! So, 

the images we see in the media don't portray the complexity of the Hispanic community. 

Thank you very much for the opportunity to begin the 

process of clarifying the image of the Hispanic immigrant 

in California. You need their help, but they'll need your 

understanding and support. 

Discussion and Comments 

• What impact do you think that the (new) Latino 

population will have on America's influence in South 

America? 

Reply: That's an issue which comes up often-that 

there's going to be a special relationship between the Latino 

community and Latin American countries, much like Israel 

has with Jewish Americans. The one different factor is that 

right now we have 21 countries sending immigrants to us; 

that means there are 21 different kinds of Latinos coming to 

us. There's a sympathy for the culture they share, by the 

fact that many of these people are refugees or immigrants 

who left their home countries. In the survey that I mentioned earlier, we asked questions of 1,600 people in anationwide sample, drawn by one of the top sampling 

statisticians, and so we have some confidence in the results. 

We asked, what sort of political activity do you follow? Do 

you follow the political news of your home country or of 

the United States? More than 50 percent said that they follow the U.S. political news over that from their home country. So, we're going to see Latino immigrants as in some 

ways parallel with the experience of the Irish and Italian 

immigrants, in that, yes, there's a special thing for their 

homeland, whether it be food or the shamrock or whatever 

stereotype you may think of, but when it comes to political 

life, this is where they live; this is where they pay taxes. 

They're beginning to realize that they work 4 months of the 

year in paying taxes in the United States, and this is where 

they want to make their choices. 

• It's been proven historically that our most effective 

diplomats are bilingual. Do you have any comment? 

Reply: I can only answer that with a personal anecdote; I haven't seen any study on the subject. Personal anecdotes are like war stories; it depends on where you were. 

I was in the Dominican Republic, and I heard the political 

officer of the embassy say about a person behind him, "See 

that guy behind me? He's just lost all of his influence." 

First of all, the officer couldn't speak Spanish very well. 

He's telling me this in his broken Spanish, and I'm looking 

over his shoulder and I see that the person he's talking 

about is talking to the President-Elect and the current President of the Republic. I wonder whether that officer would 

have been saying those things to me if he really understood 

the subtleties that go on in diplomatic discourse in a foreign 

language. 

• Some environmental issues are really elitist issues. 

Can you comment on whether it's a question of clean air 

versus jobs, or growth versus nongrowth versus jobs? I 

realize you said that you don't know precisely how the 

Latino community feels, but undoubtedly you must have 

some perception. 

Reply: First, a general comment. I think that the energy industry has suffered the same problems as the Hispanic community when it addresses the issue of clean air. 

How can you be opposed to clean air? It's like you say that 

I'm bilingual! How can you oppose U.S. English? The words 

themselves give you a feeling. Right now, some Hispanic 

organizations are beginning to address the clean-air issue, 

saying it's really a matter of tradeoffs; it isn't just black or 

white. It isn't just clean air; it's how much we want clean 

air versus how much we're willing to sacrifice insofar as 

88 Industrial Minerals in California: Economic Importance, Present Availability, and Future Development 
jobs are concerned. Congressman Torres seems to have a 

problem with this in his district; clean-air standards are 

going to drive out industries and make that district lose 

something like 5,000 workers. There's a growing realization that, yes, the language pushes us one way, but maybe 

we need to take a second look at it. The main problem here 

is a lack of know ledge. 

A Case Study of a Public Resource 

Education Program in Nevada 

By P.j. Iverson 

I've enjoyed participating in this workshop and listening to the comments that have been made here because 

for the past 4 years, in similar meetings in Nevada, I've 

heard the same dialog over and over again. There seems to 

be a universal problem, and universal issues face the mining industry. We need to communicate with the general 

public because they have little appreciation of the unsung 

heroes in industrial minerals. People don't realize the importance of industrial minerals, and they take them for 

granted. The people also need to be educated to the fact that 

mining companies are providing a vital service to them as 

individuals and to the State. 

We shouldn't be ashamed of our industry; instead, we 

need to encourage mining. Let's tell our story! We owe it to 

our industry and to society. We spend tremendous (too much) 

amounts of time talking to each other, not just in California, 

but also in Nevada, Arizona, Montana, and all the rest of 

the States that have a mining industry. We don't talk to the 

world. 

Senator Garamendi urged that we look to the future; 

we need to have a good vision and a good insight into what 

is happening. Listening to the proceedings and comments 

here, I think that this workshop really focuses on two major 

issues in which all of us need to become involved: education and public awareness. 

The NDM, has taken a lead in developing and implementing the Nevada program. The NDM is an unusual governmental agency in that it gets no State or Federally 

appropriated funds. The agency obtains $1.25 from every 

mining-claim transaction and $0.05 from every barrel of oil 

produced in Nevada; that's the basis for our budget. The 

NDM uses that money as an advocate of the mining industry. We support the industry; we feel that mineral development is good and will benefit all the people of the State .. We 

believe in a major role for education and public awareness, 

and we feel that if people know about this industry, they'll 

support it. We feel that if our industries understand why 

they have to be good citizens and work with the community, they'll do so. 

When the NDM started putting together an educational program for people in the State of Nevada on behalf 

of the minerals industry, many people in the industry didn't 

quite understand what we were after. Being a rock-in-thebox type of industry, the miners wanted to see a product 

tomorrow. That's what we're used to in our business; however, education isn't something that happens tomorrow; it 

may blossom 10 years from now. The mining industry has 

a tremendous amount of work to do in the meantime, and 

none of us can put off beginning it any longer. If we'd had 

this meeting 10 years ago, we'd have heard the very same 

text. I'm convinced that if we'd implemented the right kinds 

of programs in education and public awareness then, we 

wouldn't have to face some of the problems we're facing 

today. We owe it to the decisionmakers of tomorrow to try 

to do something about solving the current problems. 

Basic Strategy for the Nevada Resource Education Program 

In Nevada, we've faced the issue of public education, 

we've dealt with it, and we finally convinced the industry 

that it need not and should not expect the programs to produce results tomorrow. We trust that some of the things 

we're doing will pay off 10 years from now. As a matter of 

fact, they've already begun to pay off. We'll see other payoffs in 2 years, 4 years, and 10 years, but as a result of our 

efforts, the mining industry is going to continue to provide 

mineral materials for society and continue to grow. One of 

the essential factors that we always have in education is 

personal involvement of people. We need to coordinate their 

efforts. In Nevada, we've been fortunate in that we've been 

able to do both. We have the involvement of small miners, 

miners in the large companies, and personnel in governmental agencies. I think that this kind of coalition needs to 

happen in California. If you're going to have a good, solid 

educational program, you can't have various mining associations, the small miners and prospectors, and the government agencies all doing their own thing. It just doesn't 

work well, and it ruins any type of State-wide program that 

may be possible. Any company goes through a process of 

strategic planning; it decides where it's going to be 10 years 

from now. Similarly plans for education must be structured. 

There's also a tremendous turf problem between the 

concerned groups and entities that has to be recognized and 

addressed. The gold miners, the industrial-mineral miners, 

the sand and gravel operators, and government organizations all think they have the right answer. We've found out 

that by coordinating our efforts, we can achieve positive 

results and assure good support. To get that kind of support 

and make it work, there also has to be personal involvement. One of the things that's helped us in Nevada is that 

we're going through a tremendous mining boom right now, 

a boom for gold, oil, and geothermal energy. We should be 

proud of an industry that provides jobs, income, taxes, and 

services to Nevada. 

One of the things that happens in meetings such as 

this workshop is the generation of excitement, hearing great 

Educating the Public About Industrial-Mineral Issues 89 
dialogs, and making resolutions. Then, the people walk out, 

and tomorrow it's forgotten, and it's back to rock-in-thebox, whether you're into mining or creating paperwork. 

You forget that to accomplish the plan, you have to get 

involved. When someone calls and says, "I need help," you 

have to respond. When someone calls the gypsum mine and 

says, "I need $1,000 tomorrow," you don't put if off for 

a week; you sit down and write the check and send the 

money tomorrow. If you're a gold miner or a sand and 

gravel operator, you have to contribute not only human 

resources but also dollars. It only works with these two 

key elements. 

There's a tremendous energy potential in this room, a 

tremendous amount of human resources right here among 

60 participants. You need not only human resources but 

also access to financial resources to fund a program in California. I'd like to share some of the things we've done in 

our Nevada program. I'm proud of what we've accomplished 

in Nevada, and I'm even prouder that our industry has rallied and given vital personal and financial sustenance for 

the program. When we need $30,000, we go out and get it. 

When we need an exhibit in a museum, we get it. Most of 

the companies (80 percent) understand that they have to 

participate, in their own interest if for no other reason. 

First Step, a Survey of Public Knowledge About Mining 

A couple of years ago, we realized that many people 

knew very little about the mining industry, in spite of the 

fact that Nevada was in the middle of probably the Nation's 

largest gold boom. We decided to survey what certain key 

people in the State really knew about the mining industry. I 

found that even I didn't know much about it! I was the 

science coordinator for the Clark County School District in 

Las Vegas; I wrote the science curriculum. I was pretty 

involved, but I knew very little about this industry. First, 

we went to Las Vegas to interview the media news directors. We asked them what they knew about the minerals 

industry in Nevada. We found out that none of them knew 

much about it, either. Next, we went to the teachers and 

their administrators and found out the same thing. We went 

to Reno, which is a center of the mining industry, but we 

obtained the same type of response. Few of those surveyed 

knew about Nevada's mining industry or what mining activities were going on in the State. The same was true out in 

the Winemucca, Elko, and Ely areas; they knew about the 

industry around their own little community, and that was it. 

Very few of them realized that we have an oil industry in 

Nevada, that Nevada has the largest onshore free-flowing 

oil well in the conterminous United States. Very few knew 

that we have a geothermal resource and that we have geothermal generating facilities. They didn't know we're producing gold, except in their own little community. We 

decided that something needed to be done about this information gap. 

Next Step, Convene a Planning Committee 

A representative committee was composed of NDM 

staff, industry people, and participants from all the resourcerelated groups, including the Mackay School of Mines, and 

government agencies like the USFS, BLM, USBM, and 

NBMG. There were about 35 people. We asked, "What do 

we need to do to reverse this current lack of perception and 

understanding about the mining industry?" A strategy was 

outlined, and the committee was formed to implement it. 

We said, "Let's not just talk about it any more. Let's dedicate funds and people, and let's move." 

We have an enthusiastic and creative committee; when 

we meet, 35 people attend. When we need a speaker in a 

Las Vegas school, all we have to do is contact the mines; 

they're glad to ship a geologist or technician down to the 

school. It's an investment of several hundred dollars to service these school requests. It's beginning to snowball on us. 

We're getting industry people and educators involved. The 

program is now well known. They call us and say, "We 

need a program about the mining industry," and they come 

up with ideas that we can talk about. A program can be 

considered successful when the people you're trying to reach 

start reaching you. That's what's happening in Nevada. 

We're very pleased with the outcome! 

Start with an Elementary-School Program 

The first step for the committee was to develop a 

program for the school system. We thought that it was a 

basic way to reach people. It wouldn't have an immediate 

effect, but it will have some tomorrow. We started at the 

elementary-school level because elementary teachers generally are willing to try new things; they'll be willing to 

incorporate new materials. That led us to become involved 

in providing the teachers with something to teach. You have 

to give them some materials to use in their classes. You're 

taking elementary-school teachers who teach primarily 

mathematics, English, reading, and writing, and you're 

shoving a subject on them that they know nothing about; 

you have to give them something they can use to teach 

with. Elementary-school teachers will use anything you give 

them if it's good material. 

Next, we moved into the secondary schools; the secondary-school program would reinforce the elementaryschool program. No educational program ever succeeds when 

you do it only once; you have to maintain the presence and 

keep adding to it. These programs became a priority of the 

minerals industry of Nevada. Thus, we were able to spend 

more money and have more personal support, and we get 

anything we want done because it's a priority to provide 

assistance to classroom teachers. 

We decided, as an industry, that we should develop a 

new vocational-education program, geared for the 3d-4th 

grade, 7th-8th grade, and grades 9 through 12. There's a 

90 Industrial Minerals in California: Economic Importance, Present Availability, and Future Development 
curriculum guide for teachers to talk to and teach students 

about the industry. We're not waving flags, we're not saying we're the best, we're not saying that we do everything 

right, but we're saying that the industry is an important 

economic entity producing minerals, oil, and geothermal 

energy. The elementary-school guide contains the story of 

geology; we show them how to make sedimentary, metamorphic, and igneous cookies, for example. We've puzz1es 

and games that address many of the objectives teachers 

have to teach in elementary science. We have done the 

same thing in our seventh- and eighth-grade syllabus text, 

and a tremendous effort went into more details on earth 

science and its effects on the history of Nevada. At the 

high-school level, grades 9 through 12, a teacher can teach 

a 2-week vocational course on the opportunities available 

in the mineral industry. 

Create Teaching Materials 

It's essential to keep teachers and the general public 

constantly updated. To begin, we decided that we needed to 

create some teaching aids to let teachers find out about this 

industry. What is the mining industry of Nevada? A committee made up of small miners and large miners put together a little booklet, called Nevada Mining and Use, which 

is sort of the theme of our program. This booklet contains a 

story about the mining laws, how to stake a claim, and why 

we have certain mineral rights. The booklet talks about the 

historical parts of Nevada and about mining practices, procedures, and reclamation. It describes a little bit about some 

of the modern mines in the State of Nevada and what we're 

producing. This booklet was given to every elementaryschool teacher in the State; we did it through a systematic 

implementation program. We also gave a classroom set. of 

30 booklets to every Nevada history teacher. 

How can you teach about Nevada history without 

teaching about mining? There had been a dearth of such 

information there. If you happen to pick up a brand-new 

Nevada history textbook, it talks about the Kennecott mine 

in Ely, which has been shut down for years. The textbooks 

don't consider the gold mining that's been going on right 

now for at least 10 years. That's the leadtime it takes for 

textbooks, and so this was an opportunity for us to put out 

current information about mining to every elementary-school 

teacher. This has been tremendously successful. We also 

must have sold thousands of these. Companies are passing 

them out to their employees; many hundreds have been 

given away. They're an excellent resource document. 

The NDM is also responsible for the abandoned-mine 

program; we're responsible for identifying old abandoned 

mines and for trying to keep kids away from them. We 

came up with a program called Stay Out and Stay Alive. 

We've produced 250,000 brochures and distributed them to 

every student in every school system in the State, even 

preschool kids. We have a video tape that goes along with 

the pamphlet. It's one of the mining problems in Nevada 

that has to be addressed. 

Create Teaching Activities and Activity Guides 

The next thing we decided to do was to give the 

teacher some activities. We created a simple classroomactivity guide that went out to every elementary-school 

teacher; it has activities for kindergarten through sixth grade 

in the subjects of science, social studies, and economics. 

Simple activities that a class can do were pulled directly out 

of the State curriculum. Teachers respond when you give 

them something that helps them teach what they're supposed to be teaching. If they're suppo ed to be teaching 

Nevada history, give them something to teach about the 

history of the State. If they're supposed to be teaching science, give them something to teach science, which in both 

cases relates to the mining industry. 

We were fortunate to find an old prospector who 

looked like a prospector, smelled like one, and acted like 

one (fig. 30). He lives in the mountains and is one of the 

best gold panners you've ever seen. We supply him with an 

ounce of gold, a gold pan, and some gold ore. He's gone 

out and virtually touched the hearts of hundreds of thousands of kids in Nevada schools. He's working full time on 

this project. He's an old man who likes teaching kids how 

to pan for gold. When we need gold, we call up the industry 

and get some. Half an ounce of gold will supply about a 

thousand kids; all they need to do is to find one little piece 

of it. When we need vials to put the kids' gold into, we go 

to the USBM and ask them to give us 1,000 vials for the 

kids, and they do. 

There's also a career brochure been prepared that goes 

out to secondary schools in the State; it tells about opportunities in the mining industry and describes the industry. It's 

something that was needed, written by actual miners, who 

had never written anything like it. They had fun doing it, 

and the mining companies are ordering the brochures. For 

the first time, you have mining people involved in creating 

and developing a curriculum and working with kids. There 

is excitement developed on both sides of the equation. 

We have some other programs. One that I'm particularly interested in, currently being developed and tested in 

Las Vegas, is to create a video series. There'll be six programs. We'll teach science and social studies thorough this 

vehicle of the industry. The programs are structured much 

like Mr. Wizard and will use classroom activities. There'll 

be laboratory activities in the elementary schools, some 

simple demonstrations of geologic and energy processes, 

and development of the concept of how science relates to a 

modern industry. More than 100 objectives will be covered 

in these science and social-studies videos. 

As you can see, we're very much involved in Nevada 

education. We sponsor tours of the mines, we pay for some 

kids to participate in national programs. About 2 years ago, 

Educating the Public About Industrial-Mineral Issues 91 
we got involved with the Nevada Young Writers and Artists program. All we did was sponsor them to the tune of a 

measly $2,500. Each elementary school, junior high, and 

high school submits the best piece of artwork, theme story, 

and poetry, which are published in book form. All it costs 

the NDM is for the printing; it's received wide recognition. 

All of this shows that the industry is interested in the development of creativity in children. Not one word about the 

industry is included, other than to say that we're proud of 

you. We're getting responses from these books. 

Schools all over Nevada now are involved in mining. 

One of the activities is to teach reading by using the minerals industry as a vehicle. Activities are put together by 

teachers; all the industry has to do is pay for bookmarks for 

every kid. Each kid gets a sticker he can put on things, in 

addition to the book. I had an opportunity last week to talk 

to reading teachers. Since then, I've been receiving calls 

expressing interest in what's happening in the industrysponsored educational programs. I'll be talking to another 

group next week. Their reaction generally is, "I didn't know 

there was a mining industry in Nevada." Again, these are 

but a few of the opportunities conceived by industry to 

begin to raise its image. 

Provide Study Kits 

Since teachers may know very little about mining and 

minerals, we give them an opportunity to find out and have 

something in their classrooms to use as study kits. We created mineral and rock study kits. One kit has typical rocks 

in it, igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary. These sample 

boxes have a big -enough sample that students can hold them 

in their hands and pass them around. The second kit has 13 

representative Nevada minerals. A tremendous amount of 

work goes into breaking up that many rocks, and a lot of 

mining people were involved for two or three weekends 

breaking up samples and getting them into these kits. 

We wrote a guide for the rock and mineral kits, describing where the materials came from. When they talk 

about barite now, they have a hunk of barite that they can 

show and talk about, and there's information about the mineral that they can share with the kids. More importantly, the 

actual end products are illustrated. 

In addition to the rock and minerals boxes, we're now 

coming up with product boxes containing some of the final 

products of mining. This is a positive way to show how 

minerals relate to our society. Here are some of these products: a piece of barite and the final product, a piece of gypsum 

and a chunk of wallboard, a piece of gold ore and a Kodak 

battery with a gold terminal. All of a sudden there's a relation 

between minerals and how we use them in our society. 

Mining-Industry Facts Brochure 

To keep teachers and the general public aware of 

the importance of the mineral industry in Nevada, we've 

Figure 30. Old mining prospector demonstrates gold panning to teachers and students as 

parts of the Nevada mining awareness educational program. 

92 Industrial Minerals in California: Economic Importance, Present Availability, and Future Development 
produced information on the economic impact of the mining industry. This was the first year that we provided an 

update; we'll do this every 2 years. We also provided small 

executive summaries that teachers can pass out to their junior-high or high-school students, giving them an idea of 

how important this industry is for the State. About every 

other month, we send an update to the teachers in Nevada 

who are participating in the mineral education program. Vl/e 

have direct contact with approximately 1,600 teachers in 

Nevada who are teaching minerals education; we send them 

information about what's happening-a new gold mine or 

some of the issues we in the mining industry are looking in1to. 

Continuing Education for Teachers 

We also instituted an educational program for earthscience teachers, a 3-week program taught at the Mackay 

School of Mines. The mining industry pays for these teachers to attend. It costs $1,500 per teacher, and each mine 

sponsors specific teachers and pays for their lodging, meals, 

and tuition. The teachers get 3 hours of university credit. 

They've learned a lot and had the opportunity to visit various mines and geologic areas in Nevada. A hundred or so 

earth-science teachers have gone through this program; 

they're certified earth-science teachers now. 

One of the most successful programs we've had is a 

teachers' workshop. The teachers are from metropolitan areas 

and have absolutely no idea what this industry is all about. 

They're getting together yearly and finding out about it. 

Word is spreading so fast that we now have probably one 

of the most well recognized workshops in the State. Teachers enjoys these workshops. We started out with 52 people 

in our first workshop and paid them $50 apiece. The second 

year we didn't have to pay any more; they enjoyed it so 

much that word of mouth made it easy to recruit 100. The 

third year we had 200, and last year almost 300 teachers. 

This year, we're planning for 400 people. These teachers 

come in at their own expense, which may cost them several 

hundred dollars. However, we don't have to do more than 

just indicate that we're offering this workshop, and the 

teachers arrive. Last year, we had the support of 60 mining 

companies and their people willing to help put it on for 2 or 

3 days. We now have more than 1,000 teachers as candidates for our 2-day workshops. We've been able to get 

university credit; we also get credit for teachers from the 

Department of Education. 

We decided that, to implement the program fully, a 

teachers-orientation program was needed. The teachers' 

workshop provides the forum necessary to get teachers 

started. We have wall maps for teachers showing the locations of all the mines in the State. Conferences are set up so 

that general speakers talk about some of the things we ' ve 

been talking about here, the importance of the mining industry. We divide the teachers into groups, and they all 

have opportunity to experience what this industry is about. 

These teachers make concrete; every teacher builds a concrete art form. They have sand and gravel and limestone, 

and they put the stuff together, pour it into these milk cartons, and decorate them, and we have a contest. We provide 

the teachers with enough of these raw materials for 30 students. When they return to their classes, they can duplicate 

the experience. All of a sudden, they realize that cement 

didn't come from the cement company. They've made concrete, and they begin to realize that it's important that we 

have industrial minerals. 

I have a video called "The Rock." We teach people 

how important it is to have rock. Each teacher gets a rock. 

A book is given to them, called Everyone Needs a Rock. It's 

an elementary-school-level book written for kids that tells 

how important it is to own your own rock. Each teacher is 

given a rock and must learn to appreciate that rock and take 

it with them. We always give them barite because we have 

thousands of tons of it. We also show how the minerals are 

used. 

An activity that I initiated a few years ago is a great 

activity for teaching about mining. If we'd had time today, 

I'd have had every one of you doing it here. You'd really 

find out what the industry is all about. That is mining a 

chocolate-chip cookie, going through mining, pouring, firing, 

and reclaiming the chocolate chips from a chocolate-chip 

cookie-this activity also considers the associated cost involved. By this means, the teachers learn what we go through 

in the mining industry. Again, the old prospector is present, 

and the teachers get a chance to pan for gold and to keep it 

(figs. 30, 31). We take the teachers to an operating gold 

mine (see cover and fig. 31); this impresses them about 

what we do and go through. They get to see the equipment 

and wear a hardhat (take it home as a remembrance). Conferences provide something for everybody. Most of them 

for the first time experience "how big is big." They'd never 

had any concept of the magnitude of this industry, the 

equipment, the manpower, and the tremendous expense. I 

think that one of the things that really helps here is panning 

their first piece of gold and finding something of value from 

the earth. 

Museum Project 

Another thing the industry is doing is getting involved 

in museum projects. We're spending about $70,000 on a 

museum building and a brand-new earth-science gallery. 

We have another program in Clark County, where we're 

reusing an old headframe and an old mining camp; again, 

this is at the expense of the industry. We've obtained an 

entire old mine, including a 10-stamp mill, a 2-stamp 

mill, and all the artifacts that go with it. It will be 

reassembled at a Reno museum as an operating 10-stamp 

mill at industry expense. When we needed diesel trucks to 

haul it, we called a company for two people and diesel 

trucks for a week, and we hauled that material to Reno. 

Educating the Public About Industrial-Mineral Issues 93 
Figure 31. Activities for teachers as part of the Nevada resource education program. A, 

Teachers visiting a Nevada mine and collecting ore specimens. B, Teachers learning how to 

pan for gold. 

94 Industrial Minerals in California: Economic Importance, Present Availability, and Future Development 
Final plans are being established for reconstruction. Museums are especially important. 

Concluding Remarks 

I want to repeat a couple of observations. This industry has an important story to tell! It's the responsiblity of all 

those who are involved in the mineral industry to tell it. Vve 

have to get involved! When you walk out of here tonight, I 

expect that all 60 of you will volunteer to be on an education-planning committee. We're not going to educate the 

public as individuals. We need to join together and devellop 

plans to move forward toward the creation of a more positive 

industry image. You have a unique opportunity in California; 

take advantage of it. Stay involved! Let's not just sit here 

today and forget about it tomorrow. Let's do it. Let's look 

forward. I'd be more than happy to work with your group. 

Discussion and Comments 

• It's really exciting to see what some of our neighboring communities are doing. Again, let me underscore 

that we really don't need to reinvent anything. We need to 

do a little fine tuning of some of these materials. I'd ask 

Harry Pachon to respond to the applicability, for example, 

of this kind of an approach to the community we're talking 

about, Hispanics, for example. 

Reply: I would say "Amen" to what Paul has said 

insofar as what Nevada is doing. That's really an impressive program. It suggests two things to me. (1) When we 

were mentioning that it's so hard to get all the groups working together, I felt that in the political world you gelt together on issues, not on ideas or ideologies. The issue is '~·hat 

you want to work together on; that's what motivates the 

people you bring together. If you have a common issue, 

you can work together on it and forget about everything 

else insofar as turf or leadership opportunities are concerned. 

(2) I see from the slides as well as from your presentation, 

Paul, that there's an awful lot of commitment from the 

different companies out there. These projects are done by 

volunteers, working once a month and meeting every 6 

months. There's been some personal time, but there's also 

been resources that have made the companies visible. I think 

good intentions are fine, but it's the resources that carry us 

forward. 

• I'd like to give a California perspective to this discussion and describe what the DMG attempted to do in the 

area of education between 1985 and 1988, when I was in 

charge of their information office. I began with an ineffective program but an excellent crew. We became larger and 

more competent; production and sales doubled, and we became the largest-selling agency in the United States. We 

released 300 new publications and initiated an educational 

program. Early in Paul Iverson's talk, he really laid out the 

problem. His solutions were based on funding by the severance tax. In contrast, the DMG is largely supported by the 

general fund, which has undergone serious budget cutbacks. 

Let me follow up on the beautiful Nevada program 

with a brief discussion of the DMG's effort in the face of 

its declining financial position during the early 1980's. We 

used to produce rock-collection kits with 33 minerals and 

an explanatory book. We had Girl Scouts and retired 

rockhounds building kits from materials that we supplied. 

We were able to contact every high school in the State, all 

4,500 of them, and offered free maps and publications. We 

cleaned out a warehouse containing thousands of dollars 

worth of maps and books. We had over 20,000 issues of 

California Geology to give away. Through a computer data 

base, we were able to determine all of the teachers who 

responded and those who dido' t. 

We began writing primers on the mining industry, 

volcanoes, earthquakes and so on. We gave out thousands 

of teacher packs, which included maps, a list of publications, and special little handouts for teachers to help them 

in the classroom. Requested reductions in budgets, however, have seriously reduced these efforts. 

In a nutshell, if we failed, it was due to inadequate 

funding. In Nevada, you were able to do it because you had 

money. 

Reply: There's a definite need for money; our pilot 

vocational-education program was printed for 750 classes 

this year, and it cost $24,000. It's hard for me to believe 

that there's not the same type of money in California; there 

has to be available funds. You can't expect to do this sort 

of thing solo as a government agency. I'd put a burden on 

the industry. The industry must be more responsive than 

just putting rocks in the box; the industry has got to make a 

priority commitment. You can't expect the Homestake 

Mining Co. to give $10,000 every time you talk to them; 

maybe Homestake is good for $1 ,000 every couple of 

months. Somebody needs to coordinate fund raising. The 

NMA coordinates efforts in Nevada. We still have individual companies pay for teachers' workshops and various 

programs. I'm trying to get an archeologic-digs program 

going in Reno. The teachers and university are ready, they 

have the land, but they need $7,000. I'm not going to the 

association; I'll get three or four mining companies to give 

enough money to pay for that project. Our small miners and 

prospectors have little money. They barely squeak by with 

what they have, but for every teachers' workshop they raised 

enough money from their members to give every teacher a 

silver coin, a special Nevada silver coin, which costs $7.00 

apiece. They're involved! If I want a hundred small miners 

to come and demonstrate how to stake claims and take 

people from a rockhound club out to look for rocks and 

minerals, we'll have the miners there. I think it's the involvement of those different groups that distinguishes this 

program. The problem for you is that you and your miners 

Educating the Public About Industrial-Mineral Issues 95 
aren't working together. In Nevada the mining industry has 

made education a priority; they realize there's a need for it. 

We have the kind of cooperation we need from the industries. Whatever we need to do, they provide it. That makes 

the difference. 

• You said that the Nevada program has been going 

on for the past 3 years. Can you give us an idea how many 

staff you have and what your annual budget is? 

Reply: Permanent staff of the NDM is six people. I 

work on this program primarily 20 percent of my time. The 

industry provided 25 members for our education committee; they spend about 1 day per month in committee meetings. The industry itself provides human resources and 

funding and permits the amount of staff time needed and 

dollars spent; I have no idea how many people are involved. 

To print something like the vocational-education program 

may take $24,000, which seems like a lot of money, but 

really it isn't. What's important is the amount of time going 

into developing the publications. We spent 2 years developing the vocational-education program; a committee of 15 

mineral representatives met every other month for 2 years 

to write it. These weren't muckers; they were upper-level 

mine managers, making probably $75,000 or more per year, 

who dedicated that day to fly in from the rural areas of the 

State to sit in on the meeting and help develop that curriculum. They were all engineers, geologists, and managers. 

• How much money comes to your agency from claims 

and production sources? 

Reply: Our agency does much more than just this 

program. This is a very small part of the agency's mission. 

Moneywise, there are 350,000 mining claims at $1.25 per 

claim, and we produce 3 million barrels of oil at $0.05 per 

barrel; this provides $210,000 plus $180,000 from these 

sources, and it's the total agency budget. 

• I've heard the comments from Nevada and California about the funding of educational programs. I don't think 

that government at any level should be the primary coordinating vehicle for this sort of thing, for several reasons. If it 

comes under the roof of government, then government will 

have the guidance of how it goes. I think that it should be 

under the roof of the CMA itself. I can see where government can have input into such a program, but if the CMA 

were the leader, then the funding (as we've seen in the 

DMG experience above) and that sort of thing would have 

to come from the industry plus volunteer contributions from 

others who are interested in the program in general. I think 

it would be easy to get the volunteers. 

Reply: You're probably correct; it shouldn't be 

strictly government's thing. I think that what government 

lends to a program like this-which some of you in the 

private sector may disagree with-is a bit of trust. As government employees, we're supposed to be objective. If a 

particular mining company were to put this message out, 

the company might wave the flag and say that all mining is 

good. In these programs we try to keep our presentation 

balanced and objective. We have in the mining industry in 

Nevada a few very strong public-relations committees, and 

last year they turned out half a million dollars on TV ads 

and all sorts of things that wave the flag for the industry. 

We do not, will never, combine those two committees. 

Education is not public relations; education is public 

awareness. We aren't out there to wave the flag. The first 

time a mining company walked into a county school district 

and said, "We have products to sell you," their curriculum 

people would say, "that's exactly what you have--something to sell us." If a mining company could walk in there 

with someone from the DMG, who's supposed to be balanced and objective, who's supposed to be wise, and say to 

the district, "We have a program that meets the needs of 

California and is a good program that talks about an industry which needs to be talked about," I think it lends some 

credibility to the program to have it endorsed by the DMG; 

it's not just selling a bill of goods. Every school districtand I was curriculum coordinator in Clark County for 5 

years-gets hit constantly with companies trying to sell their 

goods. 

You have to lay it out because I think that one of the 

things that we've been able to do, the only thing that the 

NDM does, is to add a little of the trust factor. We're public 

employees; we work in the executive branch of government; we're part of the Governor's cabinet; and the teachers know that when we do something like this, we're not 

just selling a bill of goods. It's something that we feel is 

important to the agency and to the State. That's where an 

agency can be a real benefit to what the industry needs. 

Any agency, the USBM or USGS, lends credibility because 

of its history. 

Let's put in program documents which say that the 

mining industry is responsible for reclamation and for making that land efficient and productive. Let's not put in there 

that the industry is doing a great job, when we aren't. Let's 

be objective about it. Let's not say that mining is the best 

use of all land; it isn't. It is a use, and it must be balanced 

and objective. The worst thing you can do to an educational 

program, or whatever, is have the teacher open it up and 

see a comment like, "The mining industry in Nevada is a 

great industry; we provide great taxes, great jobs, and everything, and take into account the social/economic issues, 

and we do all of this." The teacher is going to say, "Hogwash!" There are companies out there who couldn't care 

less about the water and sewage as long as they can get ore 

in the bucket. Teachers can't be expected to wave the flag 

for you. I think this industry has little to be ashamed of at 

present; it has made mistakes in the past, but it's growing 

and learning to become progressive. When you have 400,000 

abandoned-mine lands out there and you can't drive down 

any freeway without seeing the holes in the ground, you 

can't claim that you're doing a great job of reclamation. 

We've done a lousy job in some cases! We're doing a 

better job now. We're an aggressive and dynamic industry. 

96 Industrial Minerals in California: Economic Importance, Present Availability, and Future Development 
• I like the idea of the State of Nevada lending cre·-

dence and also serving as a moderating force in such efforts 

between the industry and the schools. I think that's really 

important. Our southern California association of rock, sand, 

and gravel producers in the past has run into some resistance in trying to get our programs into the schools because 

we're a trade organization. I'd like to point out that we're 

spending $15,000 to $24,000 per year in education, and 

we're not doing it through special assessment; it's right out 

of our program budget. You, however, are spending money 

from your budget, as well as donations from the companies. 

You can only go to companies so many times before they 

say, "Why don't you go to my competitor?" Who's the 

coordinator's strong man, you or your mining association 

or what? 

Reply: I think that you can zero in on companies. I 

think that we're fortunate in Nevada when we look for that. 

There's probably a little more money there to work on, but 

I'd go to Chemstar in Las Vegas, for example. Every mining company in Nevada that's part of the mining association pays dollars to become an associate member of whatever 

they are. That budget is spread out, and education is part of 

it. This year, the mining committee for the Nevada Mining 

Association, which oversees this program, has about 

$100,000 set aside for education and the development of 

materials to implement those programs. None of the company people are paid when they provide services as volunteers; they're paying for it themselves, and they're not 

reimbursed. 

The vocational-education program isn't part of our 

basic program, and so what we do is send a letter out to alll 

the companies saying that we wish to produce a vocationaleducation program and that we need contributions to raise 

$12,000. One company might give $500, another $2,000. I 

don't make those requests personally; that's taken care of 

by somebody on the education committee. When we hold 

our summer institutes, we say we want 40 teachers, and 

then we write to the mining companies and ask, how many 

teachers at $1,400 each can you underwrite? One company 

may be able to sponsor five, another only one. Then, we 

decide which teachers will be sponsored by individual companies, depending on what each company can afford. 

• Industry is supplying educational materials for the 

curricula. Have you gotten to the school boards or the de:-

partments of education about educating the teachers? When 

you started the program, you said repeatedly that the teachers didn't know about the industry. You're teaching them 

vocationally about the industry, but are they being taught, 

or are the curricular materials getting to them and teaching 

them about geology, the elements, and engineering that make 

up the industry? 

Reply: That's all we can do in our workshops; our 

whole emphasis is on teaching the teachers. Teach one student, and you affect one student; teach a teacher, and you 

affect 30 students. Our whole emphasis is not on the student; 

it's all on the teachers. Again, that's why we do the workshops; all of this material is for the teacher. The only thing 

we've produced for the kids is the little activity book. We're 

hoping that that book will introduce them to the industry. 

• The State of Ohio has been conducting a similar 

program in its geological survey. Its guidance and control is 

by the State Board of Education, which assigns a science 

editor to provide program criteria. This year, various industry geologists took teachers on field trips to several quarries 

to view mineralized sequences and collect samples. The 

mining industry supports this program; no money comes 

out of the Department of Education. One of the things 

learned was that, by funding the program, industry can allow 

the public onto part of their property without suffering insurance liability, and this lesson opens more quarries to the 

program. Next year, I'll be heading a 1-day field trip to 

show science teachers where the flint carne from that prehistoric man used as a tool. Last year they got a chance to 

sample all the tremendous fossil assemblages that occur in 

the Richmondian Stage of the Saluda Formation down near 

Miamisburg. These trips permit demonstrating geology on 

the spot. 

• I think that the teacher-workshop idea is the greatest motivating activity that's been mentioned, but I would 

propose that it might be best to start with the media first. 

Paul Iverson said that for every teacher you teach, 30 students are taught. But what do you reach when you teach 

one reporter? 

Reply: In fact, there's a new activity that's just been 

initiated by a group coming out of the California Business 

Roundtable, which has talked about toxics awareness through 

media workshops. We might be able to build on that type of 

approach. I think that there's some value in considering more 

than one approach to solving the public-education problem. 

Educating the Public About Industrial-Mineral Issues 97 

Where Do We Go From Here? 

By E.W. Tooker and D.J. Beeby 

Let's pause at this point to ask ourselves where we're 

trying to go with this workshop and why the USGS and 

DMG brought you together here. The USGS and DMG 

wanted to get to know who their principal constituencies 

are and to get to know them better; this workshop seemed 

to be a congenial way to do that. We also wanted to learn 

how both we and you can be more responsive in the long 

run to meet your needs in a nonadversarial way. This work-· 

shop is the result of our attempt to reach out to the mining-· 

industry people, land managers, government officials, 

university people, and labor representatives who are here. 

We also realized, from our Arizona experience (Tooker, 

1989), that many of the people involved in land manage·-

ment at the Federal, State, and local levels are not necessarily 

knowledgeable about each other and their problems. The 

workshop was a way of trying to initiate and open up opportunities for future discussion of some of the most vexing 

problems and issues. This may be a way to help with the 

permitting problem and get the parties involved at various 

levels together to see whether there are ways to cooperate 

and simplify some of the problems within your agencies. 

We hope that discussions and meetings will continue from 

this opening wedge and that we here will generate a basis 

for some future action(s). This workshop is not intended to 

be a one-stop effort. 

We'll now begin to talk about how we can generate a 

better or more favorable public awareness of our resource 

mission, as we now see it, for the exploration and development of industrial-mineral materials. We need to make plans 

for future growth of the industry because we know what's 

going to happen; Harry Pachon and the SCAG and other 

studies have described it clearly. There are big problems 

ahead of us, and we have to face them; clearly, we have to 

plan. The only way to make good plans is to get together 

and work together to accomplish them. We need to establish a mechanism for this cooperation very soon-here at 

this workshop, if possible. I'm hopeful that we can end the 

workshop with such a blueprint. With that in mind, let's 

move on to our final session. 

Where Do We Go From Here? 99 

Summary, Conclusions, and Recommendations 

j.l. Ziony, Convenor 

Owing nearly 2 full days of discussions, we've learned 

from each other and heard provocative ideas. We now want 

to capture these ideas and the excitement generated here, so 

that specific followup actions will result from the workshop. Each of the convenors has summarized and highlighted the major issues and comments made during his 

session. Each proposes recommendations that may represent 

his own or the panel's and participants' views for consideration by the USGS, the DMG, the industrial-mineral industry, 

and the larger constituency. The following 42 recommendations proposed are included as a part of the proceedings of 

this workshop and remain as a continuing challenge for 

action. These recommendations are not all of equal significance or importance in assuring the continuing availability 

of industrial-mineral supplies in California; some may have 

longer term significance and (or) may be more important 

for specific commodities. In the opinion of the convenors, 

those recommendations shown in the shaded boxes require 

immediate or high-priority attention. Finally, the participating industrial-mineral constituencies' responsibilities for 

implementing the various recommendations are assessed. 

Industrial-Mineral Supply and Demand 

By Hal McVey 

Jim Anderson and Hal McVey highlighted the impor-· 

tance of industrial minerals for California. George Griggs: 

showed that nearly $3 billion worth of industrial minerals: 

and rocks is mined in the State each year. The importance: 

of the multiplier effect, which increases the magnitude of 

values added as these raw materials are fabricated for use,. 

should not be forgotten. Ken Santini pointed out that there: 

is reasonable geologic expectation that additional discover-· 

ies of new deposits will be made. Industrial minerals occm 

mainly in surficial deposits; however, there are blind depos-· 

its underlying valley fill that remain to be found. If lands: 

are withdrawn from mineral entry without knowing what's: 

under them, society will suffer. So, first, we need to know 

the potential for industrial-mineral deposits. 

The SCAG report effectively points out the anticipated critical problems of society in southern California. 

Some resources currently being imported, such as feldspar 

from Canada and Mexico and salt from Utah and Texas, 

could be produced here in California. A mineral-materials 

audit is necessary for evaluating the present situation of 

industrial minerals in the State and determining future supplies. Surprisingly, California buys at least 90 percent of 

the mica used from outside th~ State. A study showed that 

phlogopite mica is transported from Quebec for use in joint 

cement in Los Angeles. There are opportunities that have 

not been exploited to replace such imports, and the basis 

for doing so is an inflow and outflow inventory. 

Recommendation l.lb: A quantified appraisal and 

audit of the multiplier or value-added factor associated with industrial-mineral materials is needed. 

These data are necessary to make objective economic 

justifications for permitting and mining industrial minerals, 

and for determining environmental impacts. 

Recommendation l.lc: Both audits could be done 

by master's-level graduate students under the auspices 

of a university, the USGS, and the DMG. 

The advantage of having the DMG involved is that 

proprietary data will be sought from companies like U.S. 

Gypsum or U.S. Borax. If the audit is done under the auspices 

of the State by graduate students, the compiler can obtain 

specific information if there is agreement to consolidate 

Summary, Conclusions, and Recommendations 101 
data so as to avoid disclosing proprietary data on an individual deposit. 

Discussion and Comments 

• I would approach the supply and demand problem 

from market-type studies. You can call a company and determine that they use 100,000 tons of limestone per year. 

Whereas a professional marketing person might possibly 

ruin the chances for obtaining such information, someone 

who's a little more independent, like a graduate student 

under the auspices of the DMG, should be more effective. 

• I think this is a good idea. How can you suggest 

funding this graduate student? 

Reply: It doesn't cost much to fund a graduate student, generally about $2,000 to $3,000; funding could come 

as a contract or grant from the industry (CMA) or from a 

government agency. 

Although California is well blessed as far as resources 

of borax, gypsum, aggregate, carbonates, and so on, there is 

no one place where these data are shown on a map and 

described in tabular form. The USGS, USBM, DMG, 

academia, and industry should collaborate in this effort. 

Recommendation 1.3: Enhance the State's reputation 

as a source of industrial minerals and foster broader 

communication of such information by inviting the 

national "Forum on the Geology of Industrial Minerals" to meet in California as soon as it can be arranged. 

There have been more than 27 of these forums, but 

none has met in the State of California. The first forum held 

on the Pacific coast was in Portland, Oreg., in May 1989. In 

addition to technical sessions, there are field trips to local 

deposits. These forums foster communication and exchanges 

of information and concepts, and provide a place for contacting people with a major interest in industrial minerals. 

Recommendation 1.4: Mineral-resource opportunities 

within the State should be highlighted more often 

through publications in such international journals as 

Industrial Minerals. 

A recent article on California's industrial minerals 

appeared in Industrial Minerals (Dickson, 1985), which is a 

good summary. Hal McVey's presentation should also be 

published in Industrial Minerals or in the DMG's California 

Geology to have broadest coverage and influence.4 

Recommendation 1.5: The California industrialmineral producers should establish closer working relationships with end-user groups to gain increased 

support for protecting and producing these resources. 

The agricultural industry, for example, is an influential and large user of industrial minerals. Bringing such 

users of industrial minerals into interaction with regulatory 

agencies and increasing the industry's visibility with the 

public at large should be explored. 

Recommendation 1.6: Create a clearing house for 

the collection and dissemination of California industrial-mineral information. 

Most large mining companies would like to be notified about information on what is currently being developed 

in the State of California. California Geology's coverage is 

insufficient for this purpose. The industry would also like to 

know what research is going on in the universities, in governmental-agency laboratories, and in other places. CMA may 

be able to provide the opportunity and backing necessary. 

Recommendation 1. 7b: Reserve information, which 

is a measure of the lifetime of a deposit, should be 

included, in addition to geologic characteristics and 

production data. 

Deposits approaching exhaustion should be identified 

to plan or search for a new domestic or import replacement 

of the depleted resource. Although reserve data may commonly be inaccurate or out of date, they are the best information available. Updating the data base, once created, 

should be encouraged. 

4

Editors' note: The article has since been published in Industrial 

Minerals (McVey, 1989), in the October 1989 issue of California Geology, and in the November 1989 issue of Oregon Geology. 

102 Industrial Minerals in California: Economic Importance, Present Availability, and Future Development 
Solid factual data are needed to convince decisionmakers, the news media, and the general populace to 

support serious action for avoiding a resource crisis. If we 

can build such a case, someone may listen to us. The industrial-mineral constituency, meeting regularly, seems necessary to bring relevant data together. 

• I'd worry about recommendation 1.8 unless it were 

well conceived and truly objective, because that sort of idea 

has been dismissed in the past with a chuckle about those 

"old resource warriors." 

• The key here is that we do need to have better 

projections of the demand for industrial minerals in California. That's the only way we'll be able to determine whether 

there's a crisis building or not. We need better data; partnerships with responsible organizations to gather such data 

are essential. 

• In the Los Angeles Basin there's a definite problem 

of waste disposal. SCAG has published studies on this subject to the point of looking for disposal sites way out in 

the desert. These studies show that our communities must 

make a 20-percent reduction in their household garbage 

now going to the dumps. Communities will have one container for aluminum cans, another for glass, and a paper bag 

for newspapers. A program of action has been developed. 

The industrial-mineral industry also needs an action-program plan that realistically addresses the future of 

industrial operations. 

I believe it was in 1967 when the words "natural 

resources" first appeared in the planning code. Until that 

time, no one had planned for natural resources in the State, 

but nothing more has come of it since adding those words. 

If we went to SCAG and told them of the resource problems, they could make useful and definitive studies. The 

members of SCAG, which include all of the cities and 

counties in southern California, would be authoritatively 

appraised of the problem. Resources have not yet been 

recognized as a community problem because we haven't 

been effective in bringing them to the public's attention, 

whereas the garbage problem has been addressed and solutions found 

• Any study which proposes that we're running out 

of supplies is going to show that resources are becoming 

more scarce and (or) more expensive. That may be an acceptable consequence to society; it's a risk we take. 

• If a study identifies a shortage of industrial minerals, aren't we going to play into the hands of those in the 

Los Angeles Basin who say, "Fine, we should limit growth 

because there's an insufficient supply of industrial minerals 

to supply the people who are arriving"? There's an active 

no-growth constituency. SCAG has its own agenda, and if 

we were to involve them, their agenda may be to prove that 

there should be no more growth and development. 

Reply: Of course, the reason we involved diverse 

groups here is because we felt that it's the only way to 

move forward in solving industrial-mineral problems. If 

sometimes you have people who don't agree with you, sitting down and talking with them frequently discloses that 

there are some common interests and you can learn from 

them. 

Access to Lands, Availability of 

Industrial Minerals, and Permitting 

By P.H. Dohms 

The basic point is that there will be no mining industry without access to industrial-mineral deposits. The current trend in today's society is to choke off access slowly 

and inevitably, through either withdrawals of land in the 

public sector (for example, Cranston bill S. 11) or conflicting uses in the more urbanized parts of California by zoning 

actions. For example, in San Bernardino County north of 

Rancho Cucamonga, a plan to develop a major sand and 

gravel operation is being contested by that city. The city 

apparently believes that it has no further need for this particular resource, which in the near term was to be developed for use by interests outside the city; there are, it 

believes, better uses for that land. We are facing similar 

access problems because of a lack of knowledge about the 

industry on the part of both land-use decisionmakers and 

the regulators who write the rules of the game. Finally, Jim 

Good related what's going on currently in the legislature. 

For too long, the mining industry has approached resource problems solely from a scientific basis, making decisions based strictly on technical issues, because most of us 

in that industry come from a scientific and technical background. We may need to get more emotional or graphic in 

our appeals. 

Recommendation 2.1: The mining industry must develop personal rapport with both local people and the 

decisionmakers who permit and regulate access to resource lands. 

Successful land access and permitting for industrialmineral development require careful appreciation of local 

concerns on the part of the industry. Local people, particularly those in decisionmaking positions, must be correctly 

informed about how the mine will be developed, the financial and job benefits to the area, and the plan subsequently 

to reclaim the land for other uses. Success depends on the 

development of mutual trust and understanding. 

Summary, Conclusions, and Recommendations 103 
Recommendation 2.2: Land-withdrawal proposals 

should take into account the possible future need to 

explore in covered areas for critical materials or those 

in short supply. 

As industrial-mineral resources are depleted and possible sources in exposed areas are exhausted, it will become 

increasingly important to take into account the potential for 

concealed industrial-mineral deposits or blind ore bodies in 

basin areas. This recommendation implies the need for research in exploration techniques. 

This cooperation is necessary to assure fairness to 

small as well as to more financially sound, larger corporation operators, and to minimize the currently high and escalating costs of meeting land-access regulations and maximize 

the effectiveness of planning and permitting staffs. 

Recommendation 2.4: Industry should reexamine its 

reliance on secrecy in dealing with one another and 

with government agencies. 

The market realities in the industrial-mineral business 

commonly require secrecy, but when faced with a greater 

threat of industrial extinction and (or) the import of resources from overseas, it's in industry's self-interest to share 

data. Sharing reduces costly duplication of the exploration 

process. 

Other State agencies provide such support by making 

comments during the CEQA process for the consideration 

of an EIR. This role doesn't have to be advocacy of a 

project; instead, comments could address the needs for the 

material and the impact of nonproduction on society. Consideration of impact must also extend to society, jobs, economic conditions, and tax revenues for the State. It is 

highly appropriate for the DMG to comment on EIR's. A 

complaint has been made about the negative comments 

that come back on reclamation plans from another State 

agency charged with oversight of mine reclamation. 

These comments have led to the remark, "If you can't 

satisfy even your own agency, you must have a terrible 

project." Opponents of mining projects use these negative 

comments as a club to beat the applicant in the approvalprocess deliberations. 

Reply: The DMG isn't a passive observer. In the 

urban SMARA program, over the past 8 years, the DMG 

has appeared at approximately 30 public hearings at the 

request of boards of supervisors and planning commissions 

for statements on behalf of responsible management of 

mineral resources. In all but one of those cases, these appearances were brought about by a permit request. The applicant generally was able to get a letter from the board of 

supervisors inviting the DMG to participate in the publichearing process. 

If the decision makers don't have this information, they 

aren't fully informed, as CEQA requires. The CEQA process expects the preparation of an EIR to provide information to the decisionmakers, so that they can make fully 

informed decisions on the project. In considering the alternatives to a project, the industry should always insist that 

the project alternative include some treatment of the impact 

on society through failure to develop the resource. 

Recommendation 2.5c: Government resource organizations (USGS, USBM, DMG) should be invited to 

present an objective assessment of the industrial-mineral-resource base at hearings when areas are being 

considered for withdrawal. 

Reply: In fact, the DMG's EIR group does look at 

this issue. Copies of such DMG memos, which address this 

matter for a particular mining operation, are available. The 

DMG is already providing that sort of background information to decisionmakers. 

Recommendation 2.6: Partnerships between regulatory agencies and scientific groups (such as that developed between the South Coast Geological Society 

and the BLM in their joint sponsorship of the desertminerals forum) should be encouraged. 

The presentation of information and discussion at such 

forums has greater visibility and objectivity because of the 

joint sponsorship by reputable organizations. 

104 Industrial Minerals in California: Economic Importance, Present Availability, and Future Development 
Recommendation 2.7: The USGS, USBM, DMG, 

academia, and industry should join in developing a resource scenario or model that demonstrates the impact 

on California if resources are unavailable. Such a scenario must be based on unbiased, objective information. 

A good analog is the DMG's earthquake-planning 

scenario, which considers certain types of earthquakes and 

what their effects would be on California society. When 

this scenario was presented recently to a large gathering of 

newspaper reporters, television cameras, and radio personalities, the presentation was reported prominently in the 

evening news programs and in the front-page spreads. Ostensibly, the thrust of the scenario was to explain what to 

expect and to urge making plans to counter the event. The 

message was very simple: "We're sure that an earthquake 

is going to occur, we don't know when, but we're estimating 

its cost in terms of lives lost and property-damage dollars." 

The minerals industry could build a resource scenario 

based on the need for industrial minerals and what impact 

restricted access to the minerals may have on standard of 

living, jobs, housing, transportation, and so on. The changes 

that would be required to deal with such problems as the 

competition for land use or environmental laws could be 

identified. 

If knowledgeable organizations, including universities and the CMA, join in creating such a the scenario, it 

would have added strength and impact. Although differences exist between the earthquake problem and the minerals problem, there are similarities-they are both long-range 

problems that aren't going to happen tomorrow, yet inevitably they are going to happen. A planning scenario provides 

a dramatic setting for placing the resource problem in an 

understandable perspective for both the public and 

decisionmakers. 

Discussion and Comments 

• You can't expect the media to disseminate information to the public about the mining industry in the same 

way or with the same immediacy as about earthquakes. 

We're kidding ourselves if we go on that assumption. All 

you need is a 3.5 quake someplace, and that night we see 

prominent scientists on the evening news. There's no immediacy to the fact that in 5 years gravel is going to cost a 

dollar more per ton and houses proportionately more. We 

shouldn't kid ourselves into thinking that we have a newsworthy industry. We can be newsworthy in special cases, 

perhaps, but you seldom read about the mining industry on 

the front page unless it's related to a disaster of some sort. 

• It's the way you construct the scenario that gives an 

edge to the argument. If the arguments are well supported 

by reputable sources of information and skillfully woven into 

a credible story, the scenario concept would provide the 

mechanism for organizing and expressing concerns, whether 

sensational or simple. It would be a dramatic way to present 

resource information to the public and public institutions. 

Environmental Impacts of Mining and 

Their Mitigation 

By R.A. Matthews 

The environmental impacts of mining aren't always 

negative. Ray Krauss identified such factors as increased 

number of jobs, wages, local purchases, training opportunities, and land values; improved infrastructures; reductions 

in unemployment and the number of welfare recipients; and 

so on. The dollar input to the local economy was considered, but the multiplier effect will make that attribute even 

more meaningful. Furthermore, the project may bring increased community identity, self-esteem, and pride in participation. The wildlife habitat of the area can be improved 

by the mine-development practices. The potential impacts 

on surface water, air quality, and so on, can be managed by 

modem engineering techniques, which industry was able to 

develop and has demonstrated to be workable, including 

sediment- and waste-management control. Despite the 

modem techniques and local improved public perception, 

environmental impacts are considered mainly negative and 

have to be addressed, particularly by the political and regulatory organizations. It's increasingly difficult to develop a 

new mining project as long as that negative image persists. 

Bill Kockelman provided a historical review of aspects of the land-use-planning process. He gave examples 

of these and of various local organizations that are concerned about land-use planning and reclamation. He noted 

some of the important Federal legislation and the California 

SMARA of 1975; he indicated that these laws were basically designed to provide and serve mineral-resource activities. Reclamation plans are supposed to help accomplish 

the protection and conservation of resources, promote economic growth, and provide the best post mining uses of 

land. He referred to some county ordinances-Orange 

County is an example from the year 1976. 

Peter Dohms considered some of the problems associated with airborne toxics. He used the example of asbestos as a situation where flawed information was used by the 

media, resulting in a very expensive and difficult problem 

to counteract. The challenge is how to change the public 

perception from mainly a negative attitude toward the mineral industry to a more positive attitude. This change is 

particularly important with the regulatory agencies, but it's 

increasingly difficult when these agencies continue to have 

a negative perception. A balanced perception by the media 

of environmental impacts is especially important. We also 

need to get information out to the general public, to the 

politicians, and to regulatory agencies. 

Summary, Conclusions, and Recommendations 105 
The main recommendations of this panel are as follows: (1) Industry and the various State and Federal agencies should take the initiative to communicate the positive 

impacts of mining; (2) we must communicate the need for 

protecting mineral resources, so that they remain available 

for future use; and (3) we should highlight the fact that 

reclamation can be and is being accomplished, that innovative concepts are available, and that there are successful 

ways to reclaim mined lands. 

The mining industry must tell its story better through 

education of its employees, the public, and public officials. 

Members of industry should become involved in local service and community-betterment organizations, and speak 

out. At the same time, the industry should police itself and 

put pressure on violators of the environment to clean up 

and act responsibly. 

Mining sometimes results in development of an environmental data base that is not normally available. 

Mining for gold improved our understanding of the environment at the McLaughlin mine. Modem management 

practices and grazing techniques, as well as engineering 

technology, also have been developed there. The mining 

activity provided significant environmental, educational, and 

technological opportunities. 

Recommendation 3.2: Those enforcing land-use plans 

must continually be made aware that California law 

provides for the protection of mineral deposits. 

Land-use planning and reclamation of mineral lands 

near urban centers must be considered jointly by industry 

and planning agencies. These resources should be protected 

through constructive land-use regulations, such incentives 

to industry as public acquisition and lease-back, interim-use 

programs in a mineral-conservation district, more effective 

use of new land-protection technology, or conditional use 

based on an agreed-upon reclamation plan. 

Recommendation 3.3: The mineral-resource constituency should ensure that the data being used during environmental-impact hearings are unflawed and 

correct. 

Recommendation 3.4: The mineral industry needs to 

communicate its commitment to environmental protection better and to demonstate successful and innovative methods of mitigating environmental problems. 

It's a fact that the industry has, in a few cases, helped 

to take on and do a better job of letting the public know that 

it's committed to environmental betterment. Highlight those 

reclamation projects that are good to demonstrate that industry is up to date with state-of-the-art techniques. 

These costs are not borne by industry alone. The cost 

to the DMG (including reimbursements to counties required 

by the SMARA classification and designation procedure, 

which includes environmental-impact studies) has become 

an increasingly expensive burden. The recommendation is 

to look at ways to ameliorate these costs by streamlining 

the process and cutting overlaps. For example, in Searles 

Valley, Kerr-McGee is faced both with the effect of the 

proposed Cranston bill S. 11 and with increasing costs for 

obtaining operating permits and implementing potential new 

restrictions. Just 10 years ago, 1 percent of the capital costs 

for building a soda ash plant was allocated for environmental controls; more recently, environmental controls were 

about 10 percent of the total capital cost. The company is 

building a new cogeneration full-fired boiler. To get a permit, the necessary paperwork costs about 2 percent of that 

capital cost, which is about $5 million, and so permitting is 

getting to be an increasing economic burden. 

The company is also concerned about the billS. 11 

because of the need to protect an industry, as well as wilderness values. Kerr-McGee has been mining chemicals in 

Searles Valley for about 75 years. If the bill were passed, 

this industry becomes the new neighbor of a wilderness 

area. If there's a wilderness on the hill overlooking the 

operation, the mine is going to have visual impact on the 

wilderness. There is concern also that industry has to meet 

wilderness standards for air emission. A heavy industry is 

not compatible with wilderness, and so there are serious 

concerns about the changing rules. 

Recommendation 3. 7: Industry should identify and 

educate people whose interests may be threatened, 

and must try to understand their concerns. Then, it 

should take a proactive position to explain the project's 

objectives and its benefits to the region. 

106 Industrial Minerals in California: Economic Importance, Present Availability, and Future Development 
Recommendation 3.8: Industry should use university 

expertise and research capabilities in developing more 

effective, lower-cost reclamation methods. 

Economic Issues Associated with 

Industrial Minerals 

By Dwane johnson 

When you're trying to finance projects or companies, 

you can't sit around and become emotional; if you want to 

get money for projects, you have to present facts to finan-

. cial people. I've seen customers come into the bank very 

emotional, defensive, and prone to arm waving. Many geologists on exploration projects fall into this category, but 

it's generally wasted effort. When you talk about economics and financing, you have to make some projections. The 

main way you get money to move projects ahead is to 

provide facts to the government people. I don't think you 

have to "sell" the project to the news media; you can work 

through political agencies and present facts. The quicker 

you get the facts out, the quicker you get your point across. 

Having worked with the financing of industrial-mineral 

ventures, I feel that the critical economic factor is transportation. In California, other critical factors in the mid-1990's 

will be sources of energy and water. Right now, we have an 

abundance of energy, but the Diablo and Palo Verde facility 

output will be fully used by the mid-1990's. Thus, you have 

to plan now for what will happen 7 to 10 years ahead. If you 

succeed in an exploration project in some mineral material, 

it takes that long to bring it into production. The financing 

side of minerals requires a long-term outlook. 

The three panelists illustrated the depth and importance of the transportation issue. First, the presentation by 

SCAG shows that there's going to be a marked increase in 

population. There's a direct correlation between industrial 

minerals used and the numbers of people. If population is 

going to increase, there will be additional use of industrial 

minerals. Second, the Southern Pacific Railroad Co. example shows that railroads are not flexible and their costs 

are high. It's essential that they reduce costs to be competitive, because railroads probably are still the best way to 

move bulk materials. Third, you must remember that the 

PLA is the one entry point for most of the imported industrial minerals used in southern California. Thus, importation 

is not a viable solution in itself for the supply problem. The 

concept of one-point, central distribution of materials was 

used without success in Canada. 

SCAG has made population projections and considered the effects of its increase on the southern California 

region. One thing that's missing in these studies is that 

they've spent very little time on the movement of materials, 

while concentrating mostly on the movements of people. 

We must urge them to introduce movement of materials 

into their equations. 

> ~~co~~e~J~t~o~4.I: k~Habte infor~ia6h g~ fh~J!fill! econmnics of industrial· minerals is needed by S(;AG . ·········to demonstrate thaJrnaterials must be> moved in< addi~ ( < 

< tioll·m people .. < .• 

If you're going to resolve the transportation issue, 

you have to quit putting asphalt over deposits that are close 

to the marketplace. There has to be some way to work this 

out, and it has to be done rationally with the decisionmakers 

working with you. 

Comment: The USGS and DMG should provide mineral-resource data to SCAG; then, unit costs and other useful 

data can be developed by SCAG. 

Recommendation 4.2: Develop reliable models for 

projecting future costs of transporting industrial-mineral materials. 

The university community can help develop good 

projections of costs. 

Recommendation 4.3: Related industrial-commodity 

groups (for example, sand and gravel, cement, or fertilizer producers) should abandon their current proprietary stance and share information. The groups should 

work together at permitting, marketing, financing, and 

reclamation hearings. 

Assistance From Government Agencies, 

Universities, and Scientific Societies 

By J.H. DeYoung, Jr. 

Assistance is offered primarily through information 

transfer from scientific and technical agencies, as well as 

through agencies that have a regulatory or permitting function. Industrial-mineral supply includes the steps of finding 

deposits, developing them, producing minerals, and meeting the demand for a product. The following recommendations address the functions that describe the process, which 

depends or benefits, in large part, on outside assistance. 

Recommendation 5.1: The minerals industry should 

be proactive rather than reactive in creating and communicating its public image. 

Effective communication must be planned by an industry team composed of the principal partners (producers 

and users) in the whole industry. 

Summary, Conclusions, and Recommendations 107 
Recommendation 5.2: Industry, the USGS, and the 

DMG should make more use of the talents and facilities of the universities in developing resource data 

and informing the public and decisionmakers. 

Universities can help in the technical aspect of communication, making use of video and publication talents. 

There is also a need for university-based economic models 

that demonstate how mining affects the State's economy. 

The universities can assist industry by technology transfer, 

thereby assisting it to overcome obsolescence and its 

past negative image. Primarily, the universities supply 

well-trained undergraduate and graduate students for employment by the mining industry, bureaus of mines, 

and geological surveys. In turn, industry can encourage students to go into the mineral-industry field by providing 

summer training opportunities and grants for graduate 

research. 

Solutions include broader classification of multipleland-use status for Federal and State land areas; production 

of resource maps, informational reports, and other data by 

government agencies; research studies on specific mineral 

deposits that can be applied to exploration; and the production of talented university-trained individuals. Some of these 

solutions were described in detail in the Arizona workshop 

proceedings (Tooker, 1989). 

Recommendation 5.4: The resource constituency 

should support a more effective communication of 

industry facts. 

In producing minerals, industry has problems with 

environmental compliance. In addition to the technological 

need to avoid these problems, there is also a need for effective communication with the public and the responsible 

regulatory agencies. Universities also can help through continuing-education programs to improve the talents of industry scientists and engineers. 

This information exchange can be done in a way to 

maintain confidentiality with respect to individual deposits. 

We need to develop a reliable and comprehensive data base 

on all mineral resources. This is something that the agencies should work on among themselves, but they also must 

lean heavily on the mining industry to provide the basic 

information on deposits. 

Discussion and Comments 

• What's the real problem we're trying to address 

here? Is it image, permitting, or what? Then, how do you 

address that problem? Nevada is doing a good job on educating the public about what the industry is all about. Should 

we follow that lead? 

• Look at all the functions that are performed in this 

society, all of the commodities produced or services rendered. If there ever was an industry that had an enviable 

record of producing for society in a free and open market 

entirely by private enterprise, it's the mineral industry. The 

prices that society has had to pay for major mineral commodities over the past 150 years, taking inflation into account, have declined. Sure, the industry has all kinds of 

individual problems, but as a whole, it's a very healthy industry, and its contributions should be recognized. 

Recommendation 5.7: The mineral-resource community should reverse the current trend of "living off 

the principal" with respect to resource availability, 

land use, and development of scientific and practical 

resource knowledge. Investments must be made to 

develop new information. 

Both the USGS and DMG have been living in a period of declining funds during the past decade, when they 

should have been adding to mineral-resource studies. Both 

organizations, as well as the BLM and USBM, are becoming less and less able to provide the information that industry will need for future exploration and exploitation of 

deposits. That's one of the reasons why the sponsors organized this workshop. Moreover, industry has felt increasingly squeezed by regulations. We hope that through group 

meetings like this workshop, some innovative ways can be 

identified to make regulations more palatable and to find 

ways to streamline the process of permitting. 

• We're living on information and expertise that was 

developed in the past. We don't have a reserve of mineral 

lands on which new mines can be developed. 

108 Industrial Minerals in California: Economic Importance, Present Availability, and Future Development 
• Another important problem is that there are fewer 

students graduating from minerals-related programs at the 

universities. We're short about 300 qualified people per 

year for infusion into the industry at a time when the need 

for them is increasing rapidly. 

• Since about 1905, we've been producing sand and 

gravel from the San Gabriel Valley. We are now down to 

water and are putting in dredges. We don't know where to 

go after we've exhausted the valley's reserves. About 65 

percent of the materials that built Los Angeles came from 

that valley. Much must be done in the future to meet the 

demands for minerals. 

Educating the Public About 

Industrial-Mineral Issues 

By Robert Reveles 

My role here is similar to what I do professionally, 

meeting with a constituent or client who needs to project 

himself to the public in a way that will gain approval by 

that public and by politicians. In essence, my job is to polish the "image doorplate" for industry. What we've been 

talking about the past 2 days really comes down to an educational process. I think that you're absolutely correct; we've 

heard many differing goals and needs expressed. So, to 

some of you who aren't accustomed to this process, it can 

seem as if we're off in all different directions, but I think 

we've seen some demonstration which bears out that our 

problems are soluble. The Nevada experience certainly is 

an excellent example. 

I'd like to invite others from my profession to help 

design action plans to enhance the image of the mining 

industry. Let me cite an example of how this process works. 

In South Dakota, the Homestake Mining Co. has faced a 

challenging issue during the past 2 years. The issue was the 

introduction of proposed extreme mining/reclamation regulations, much stronger than any imposed by the other States. 

A small group of environmentalists brought the battle to us 

where we do business in our home county. When we first 

heard that they were going to put the issue on the local 

ballot in the county, some of our mining colleagues wanted 

to sue to keep the issue off the ballot. I said, "No, this is the 

ideal forum to do battle with them." So, we convinced our 

colleagues not to file a lawsuit but to let the issue go onto 

the ballot. We then developed a plan to educate the electorate about the issue and put it into effect. We won by 70 

percent of the vote. The issue then was placed on the State 

ballot. Our Governor decided that he'd take his own poll to 

see which way the political wind blew. His poll showed us 

losing 65 to 35 percent. It didn't surprise me; it didn't scare 

or concern me, either, because those were the same numbers we'd seen previously in the local-community preelection 

poll. He then announced to a closed caucus of the Republican legislative leadership that they ought not to identify 

themselves with the mining community on behalf of this 

issue. In the meantime, we'd implemented our public-education work plan. Election night, the vote came in: The 

returns were, in fact, 65 to 35 percent, but in our favor. I 

recite this to suggest that, despite the overwhelming odds 

and seeming adversity, education about an issue can succeed if well planned. 

Recommendation 6.2: The various mineral 

constituencies should develop a comprehensive educational image-building program and the mechanism 

for implementing it. 

We need the government bodies and the academicians, 

as well as private-sector industry people, to put their heads 

together to develop a work plan that will meet the varying 

needs of the resource constituency. Many of these ideas 

have been developed in this workshop. I suggest that we 

identify those goals and put together a work plan that would 

be not only for the near term but also for the longer term. 

Discussion and Comments 

• That's an excellent recommendation. The workshop 

convenors will be sending a letter to each participant after 

the conference listing the possible task force or working 

groups relating to different issues discussed here. We're 

going to ask for voluntary participation in one or more of 

these groups. The fact that you took the time to come here 

means that you have continuing interest in industrial minerals 

and are willing to work to better their position in California. 

• We have an important concern at Kerr-McGee about 

education for some of those at the Federal level-Senate and 

House of Representatives-about bill S. 11. We have to 

educate that group as to what the mineral needs are from the 

California desert, and what the cost will be if we lock them up. 

• When you do convene the group, be sure you invite or, 

at least, consider some of those foreign countries that are buying up all of our minerals produced in southern Californiathe Belgians, French, English, Japanese, and Australians. 

• We shouldn't just look at ourselves. For example, 

the agricultural industry uses a lot of industrial minerals, 

and they create an even dirtier atmosphere than the mining 

people do. So, you should invite somebody from the agricultural or other major mineral-user groups. 

Summary, Conclusions, and Recommendations 109 
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• Indeed, this is a very important issue, and I think 

that each of us has our own role but also that certain factors 

may limit our action. By working together we can cover 

lots of ground. I'd like to suggest that we consider applying 

the Nevada experience in educating the public in California. 

Recommendation 6.3: Procedures, such as a periodic 

report, are needed to communicate progress as a part 

of the educational process, so that our energies and 

interest are not lost. 

It's important to stay in touch with each of the participants and let them know what is resulting from this 

conference, such as publication of the proceedings, the creation of working committees, and so on. 

Recommendation 6.4: Possible funding sources for 

educational programs should be identified early in the 

planning process. 

Whatever we do from here, somebody's going to have 

to put up some money. We can contribute time, but money 

has to be laid on the table. We have no severance tax to 

finance such an effort in California. The money to do the 

job right will have to come from the industry. Funding of 

any educational program developed is the next step and 

cannot be overlooked. 

Responsibility for Action 

on the Recommendations 

E.W. Tooker and D.J. Beeby, Compiler-Editors 

The participants of the workshop represent a broad 

range of interests in industrial minerals, from direct industry 

exploration, development, production, and marketing to landuse and environmental regulations, resource research, and 

information specialization; the recommendations reflect that 

diversity. Similarly, the capabilities and responsibilities of 

the participants to react to any of the recommendations vary 

widely. Table 8 lists the recommendations by number and 

indicates the constituencies to whom each recommendation 

was specifically directed, or the groups that have the capability and a measure of obligation to act alone or in collaboration with each other to implement each recommendation . 

The delegation of responsiblity listed in table 8 will 

be a final accountability to participants or readers of this 

volume for achieving the lofty and thoughtful recommendations of this workshop. How successful the workshop will 

be in sparking actions that respond to the recommendations, 

whether in part or in total, depends on what happens in the 

months ahead to carry out the recommended actions and 

activities. The sponsors and the editors, in particular, hope 

that the workshop will not have been just another meeting. 

110 Industrial Minerals in California: Economic Importance, Present Availability, and Future Development 
Closing Remarks from the Sponsors 

For the DMG 

By j.l. Ziony 

First, on behalf the CDOC and the DMG, I thank the 

workshop organizers. I think you've done an excellent job 

not only in putting together a fine program but also in conducting it at an excellent facility. Second, I thank all of the 

participants for investing your time and money to attend. 

Special thanks are due to our out-of-State visitors: Larry 

Fellows, State Geologist of Arizona, whose perspective we're 

glad to have; and Frank Huntley, for his views and critiques. Their insights have been helpful for us here in California. We have different organizational roles and 

perspectives, but I think we've learned from each other 

over the past 2 days. I know that it's been stimulating and 

educational for me. This workshop has demonstrated that 

we need to continue to build and strengthen partnerships 

among our various resource-based groups; that's the only 

way to get things done. 

I also view this workshop as an opportunity for revitalizing the minerals program of the DMG. We're doing 

other things to revitalize our program, such as forming a 

technical advisory committee for our minerals program; I'll 

be asking some of you to participate in that. We're also 

going to go forward with recommendations to the SMGB 

on how we can more efficiently classify lands for their 

mineral resources. Finally, we hope to begin a better integration of mineral-resource data bases. I hope that the 

DMG can work with the Federal agencies in putting together an integrated minerals data base for California. John 

DeYoung and I will be tapping your energies in rebuilding 

a stronger industrial-minerals mining and processing industry 

in California. 

For the USGS 

By J.H. DeYoung, Jr. 

On behalf of the USGS' OMR, I'd like to join with 

Joe Ziony in thanking everyone who's participated in the 

workshop. Our special thanks also go to the USGS-DMG 

organizing committee in helping to put this workshop together in such fine fashion. I, too, was extremely impressed 

with the enthusiasm of the participants, and I thank them 

for their major contributions to the success of the workshop. 

This workshop is one of several activities that we call 

"USGS outreach." The people I talked with recently at the 

McKelvey Forum in Reno, Nev., indicated that getting to 

know our cooperator and user constituency better is especially important, something that's been long overdue on the 

part of the USGS. Some new activities include the MIO in 

Washington, D.C., and the MIO field offices that we've just 

opened in Tucson, Ariz., Reno, Nev., and Spokane, Wash. I 

think that the Arizona Industrial Minerals workshop, held 

last year, and this one are outreach events in the best sense; 

they've gotten people interested in considering doing something positive about important resource issues. 

Closing Remarks from the Sponsors 111 
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Ohio, 15 p. 

Anderson, S.C., 1989, Minerals of the California desert and their 

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Mineral Symposium Compendium: Sacramento, U.S. Bureau 

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Babitzke, H.R., Barsotti, A.F., Coffman, J.S., Thompson, J.G., 

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U.S. Bureau of Mines Information Circular 8887, 54 p. 

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Burnett, J.L., 1985, Mineral commodity report-phosphate rock: 

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---1984, Mineral commodity report-titanium: Special Publication 71, 15 p. 

Congressional Record, Jan. 25, 1989, California Desert Protection 

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Coope, Brian, 1987, A world review of the industrial minerals 

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Dickson, Ted, 1985, California Minerals: Industrial Minerals, no. 

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ElDorado County Code, 1984, Title 17, sec. 17.14.095, Mineral 

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Jefferson, D.J., 1988, The Los Angeles 2000 committee study 

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Jensen, D.R., 1967, Selecting land use for sand and gravel sites, 

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66p. 

Kizer, K.W., Warriner, T.E., and Book, S.A., 1988, Sound science 

in the implementation of public policy, a case report on 

California's Proposition 65: American Medical Association 

Journal, v. 260, no. 7, p. 951-955. 

Legislate Report for the 101st Congress, 1st session, February 7, 

1989, Report for S-11, California Desert Protection Act 

[complete text], as introduced by Senator Cranston, referred 

to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, 23 p. 

Lipson, A.J., and Barnett, C.L., project directors, 1988, Vision: 

California 2010, A special report to the Governor: Sacramento, California Economic Development Corp., 67 p. 

Majmundar, H.H., 1985, Mineral commodity report-magnesium 

compounds: California Division of Mines and Geology Special 

Publication 77, 15 p. 

McVay, Hal, 1989, Industrial minerals: Can we live without them?: 

Oregon Geology, v. 51, no. 6, p. 135-136. 

National Sand and Gravel Association, 1961, Case histories-rehabilitation of worked-out sand and gravel deposits: Washington, 32 p. 

Noestaller, Richard, 1987, Industrial minerals: World Bank Technical Paper 76, 117 p. 

Rickert, D.A., and Spieker, A.M., 1971, Real estate lakes: U.S. 

Geological Survey Circular 60 1-G, 19 p. 

Skillings Mining Review, 1988, U.S. nonfuel mineral production 

improves by 9 percent to $25.5 billion level in 1987: v. 77, 

no. 11,p.4-10;v. 77,no. 12,p.4-9. 

Silva, M.A., 1985, Mineral commodity report-silica: California 

Division of Mines and Geology Special Publication 89, 15 p. 

Southern California Association of Governments, 1986, Los Angeles 2000 Committee Report: Los Angeles, 95 p. 

Stinson, M .. C., 1984, Mineral commodity report-zeolite: California Division of Mines and Geology Special Publication 75, 

21 p. 

Tooker, E.W., compiler-editor, 1989, Arizona's industrial rock and 

mineral resources-workshop proceedings: U.S. Geological 

Survey Bulletin 1905, 93 p. 

Transearch data base, 1986: Private report from Reebie Associates 

to Santa Fe Railroad. 

U.S. Bureau of Mines, 1989, State mineral summaries, 1989: 

Washington, p. 17-19. 

Wright, L.A., Chesterman, C.W., and Norman, L.A., Jr., 1954, 

Occurrence and use of nonmetallic commodities in southern 

California, in Mineral deposits and mineral industry, chap. 8 

of Jahns, R.H., ed., Geology of southern California: California 

Division of Mines and Geology Bulletin 170, v. 1, p. 59-74. 

112 Industrial Minerals in California: Economic Importance, Present Availability, and Future Development 
APPENDIXES 1-8 
Appendix 1. Program for the 1989 Industrial Minerals Workshop 

INDUSTRIAL MINERALS IN CALIFORNIA: 

ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE, PRESENT AVAILABILITY, AND FUTURE PROSPECTS 

Workshop sessions, February 15, 16, 1989 

Marina Del Rey Hotel, Marina Del Rey, California 

Waterfront Room 

Sponsored by 

the California Department of Conservation's Division of Mines and Geology 

and the U.S. Geological Survey's Office of Mineral Resources 

February 15 

8:00a.m. 

8:30 

8:40 

8:45 

9:15 

9:45 

10:15 

10:30 

Registration 

Welcome and introductory remarks, by Brian Tucker, Acting State Geologist 

Announcements and procedures, by Ed Tooker, workshop coordinator 

Keynote address: "A perspective of California industrial minerals," by James Anderson, chairman, State 

Mining and Geology Board 

Session 1. Industrial minerals in California, variety, uses, and demand, Hal McVey, convenor; George 

Griggs, and Ken Santini, panelists 

Discussion by workshop participants 

Coffee break. 

Session 2. Land access, availability, and permitting, Peter Dohmes, convenor; Don Deem, James Good, 

Donald Blubaugh, and Robert Sega, panelists 

11: 15 Discussion by workshop participants 

12:00 p.m. Lunch break 

1:30 Session 3. Environmental impacts of mining and their mitigation, Robert Matthews, convenor; Ray Krauss 

2:15 

2:45 

3:00 

3:45 

4:30 

5:30 

6:30 

and William Kockelman, panelists 

Discussion by workshop participants 

Coffee break 

Session 4. Economic issues associated with industrial minerals, Dwane Johnson, convenor; Richard Brown, 

Paul St. Onge, and James Gosnell, panelists 

Discussion by workshop participants 

Workshop session adjourns 

Social hour in the Waterfront Room and adjoining patio 

Dinner speaker: Senator John Garamendi, California 5th District 

February 16 

8:JO a.m. Session 5. Assistance from government agencies, universities, and other organizations, John DeYoung, 

convenor; John Alfors, Michael Foose, Aldo Barsotti, Robert Anderson, John Jaquess, Michael Hood, 

10:00 

10:15 

11:00 

1:30p.m. 

2:15 

3:00 

4:00 

4:30 

4:45 

Donald Carlisle, Pat Williams, Siegfried Muessig, Allan Willard, and Kip Solinsky, panelists 

Coffee break 

Discussion by workshop participants 

Luncheon speaker: Harry Pachon, president, National Organization of Latino Elected Officials 

Session 6. Education of the public about industrial minerals issues, Robert Reveles, convenor; Paul Iverson 

and Harry Pachon, panelists 

Discussion by workshop participants 

Session 7. Summary, conclusions, and recommendations, Joseph Ziony, convenor; Hal Me Vey, Peter 

Dohms, Robert Matthews, Dwane Johnson, John DeYoung, and Robert Reveles, session reporters 

Discussion by workshop participants 

Closing remarks, by Joseph Ziony, Assistant Director for Mining and Geology, California Department of 

Conservation, and John De Young, Associate Chief, Office of Mineral Resources, USGS 

Workshop session adjourns 

114 Industrial Minerals in California: Economic Importance, Present Availability, and Future Development 
Appendix 2. Summary of the Los Angeles 2000 Committee study Uefferson, 1988) 

[Reprinted from the Wall Street Journal, November 16, 1988] 

The booming, broad-based economy of this city and 

its environs will rival the world's developed nations in the 

frrst decade of the 21st century, with 3 million new jobs and 

a population that will have skyrocketed 35 percent to 18.1 

million. But a new study also forecasts a smogbound urban 

nightmare of crawling traffic and horrendous housing and 

educational conditions if remedial steps aren't taken now. 

The 95-page, 3-year study by the Los Angeles 2000 

Committee, a group of more than 150 civic and business 

leaders appointed by Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, not 

only identified problem areas in a five-county area of southem California but also offered a wishlist of programs and 

their cost estimates, including: 

-New transportation and freeway projects, costing 

$16.3 billion. 

-A nonprofit housing-construction trust fund, financed by corporations and other outside groups, as part of 

a plan to build $4 billion to $17 billion of new housing. 

-A $4.8 billion project over the next 30 years to 

increase by 250 percent the capacity of the city's ports, 

which already handle the highest shipping volume in the 

nation. 

-An environmental master plan that takes a holistic 

rather than piecemeal approach to an environment that already is the most polluted in the Nation. 

The study also recommended a radical move toward 

regional government to handle problems like traffic and 

smog that cross city boundaries. "The challenge is to have a 

broader sense of civic will to reach beyond local jurisdictions not only to solve problems, but also to take advantage 

of opportunities," said James P. Miscoll, a Bank of America 

executive vice president who served as chairman of the Los 

Angeles 2000 Committee. 

Southern California's economy-with $280 billion of 

goods and services produced in 1987-already ranks 11th 

in the world in gross national product. The largest and most 

burgeoning sector is business and professional services, including banking, insurance, and real estate. Local manufacturing, which involves about one in five workers here in the 

world's largest aerospace center, is defying its tendency 

elsewhere in the Nation to shrink as a proportion of total 

jobs, the report said. 

With the economy expanding and the population mix 

radically changing, the report predicted further development 

of vast ethnic divisions of labor. Although no single group 

will represent a majority by 2010, the area will be about 40 

percent Hispanic, up from 14 percent in 1970, while whites 

will decline from 75 to 40 percent. Hispanic and black 

workers largely concentrated in slower-growing, technical, 

and craft occupations, will remain more vulnerable to plant 

closing, changing technology, and closures from environmental regulations. Asians, projected to grow as a percentage 

of the population to 9 percent in 2010 from 6 percent in 

1970, are pictured in the study as increasingly moving into 

professional positions in the expanding electronics and 

banking industries. 

Appendixes 1-8 115 
Appendix 3. Summary of the California Desert Protection Act (CDPA), U.S. Senate billS. 11 

LEGI-SLATE Report for the lOlst Congress Tue, February 7, 1989 12:52pm (EST) 

Report for S.ll California Desert Protection Act 

As introduced in the Senate 

Complete Text of this version 

lOlst CONGRESS 

1st Session 

s. 11 

II 

To provide for the protection of the public lands in the California desert. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

January 25 (legislative day, January 3), 1989 

Mr. Cranston introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred 

to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources 

A BILL 

To provide for the protection of the public lands in the California desert. 

============================== 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United 

States of America in Congress assembled, That this Act may be cited as the 

"California Desert Protection Act of 1989 11 • 

Findings and Policy 

Sec. 2. (a) The Congress finds and declares that--

(1) the federally owned desert lands of southern California constitute 

a public wildland resource of extraordinary and inestimable value for this 

and future generations; 

(2) these desert wildlands display unique scenic, historical, 

archeological, environmental, ecological, wildlife, cultural, scientific, 

educational, and recreational values used and enjoyed by millions of 

Americans for hiking and camping, scientific study, and scenic 

appreciation; 

(3) the public land resources of the California desert now face and 

are increasingly threatened by adverse pressures which would impair, 

dilute, and destroy their public and natural values; 

(4) the California desert, embracing wilderness lands, units of the 

National Park System, other Federal lands, State parks and other State 

lands, and private lands, constitutes a cohesive unit posing unique and 

difficult resource protection and management challenges; 

(5) through designation of national monuments by Presidential 

proclamation, through enactment of general public land statutes (including 

section 601 of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976, 90 

Stat. 2743; 43 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) and through interim administrative 

actions, the Federal Government has begun the process of appropriately 

providing for protection of the significant resources of the public lands 

in the California desert; and 

116 Industrial Minerals in California: Economic Importance, Present Availability, and Future Development 
(6) statutory land unit designations are needed to afford the full 

protection which the resources and public land values of the California 

desert merit. 

(b) In order to secure for the American people of this and future 

generations an enduring heritage of wilderness, national parks, and public 

land values in the California desert, it is hereby declared to be the policy 

of the Congress that--

(1) appropriate public lands in the California desert shall be 

included within the National Park system and the National Wilderness 

Preservation System, in order to--

(A) preserve unrivaled scenic, geologic, and wildlife values 

associated with these unique natural landscapes; 

(B) perpetuate in their natural state significant and diverse 

ecosystems of the California desert; 

(C) protect and preserve historical and cultural values of the 

California desert associated with ancient Indian cultures, patterns c: 

western exploration and settlement, and sites exemplifying the mining, 

ranching, and railroading history of the Old West; 

(D) provide opportunities for compatible outdoor public 

recreation, protect and interpret ecological and geological features, 

and historic, paleontological, and archeological sites, maintain 

wilderness resource values, and promote public understanding and 

appreciation of the California desert; and 

(E) retain and enhance opportunities for scientific research in 

undisturbed ecosystems. 

Appendixes 1-8 117 
Appendix 4. Description of California SMARA, 1975 (Beeby, 1988) 

[Reprinted from Mining Engineering] 

Aggregate resources California's effort 

under SMARA to ensure their 

continued availability 

D.J. Beeby 

Abstract- California's Surface Mining and Recla· 

mation Act (SMARA) was passed in 1975 to identify 

and protect mineral resources in areas of high land use 

conflict and ensure reclamation of mined lands. U'mier 

SMARA, aggregate resource availability is quantified 

and compared to forecasted demand in specific mar· 

ket regions. Fifteen regions studied thus far cover 

51,800 km£ (20,000 sq miles) and contain 45 Gt (50 

billion st) of high-quality aggregate resources that 

have been legally designated as "regionally signif· 

icant, ''providing a measure of protection previously 

unavailable. SMARA reports and state testimony at 

local hearings have supplied objective information 

and helped reduce conflict in mine permitting dcci· 

sions. 

Introduction 

California's mineral industry, a fundamental building block in the state's economy, is both large and 

diverse. In 1985, some 712 active mines produced 35 

different mineral commodities with a total value in 

excess of $2.2 billion, making California the leading 

nonfuel mineral producer in the nation. Of this total, 

$608 million worth of construction aggregate was 

mined from 457 pits and quarries statewide. 

The aggregate industry, ironically, has been caught 

in the backwash of its own success as urbanization, 

which depends on its products, creates land use pressures that often force premature closure of mines on 

the urban fringe. In an industry where costs dominated 

by transportation distances require pits and quarries 

to be sited as close to their urban markets as possible, 

the problem is especially acute. An aggregate pit, 

D.J. Beeby, member SME, Is senior geologist and Urban 

SMAAA Program Manager, California Department of Conserva· 

tion, Division of Mines and Geology, Sacramento, CA. SME 

preprlnt 87-41, SME-AIME Annual Meeting, Denver, CO, 

February 1987. Manuscript October 1986. Discussion of this 

paper must be submitted. in duplicate, prior to March 31, 1988. 

originally situated in a rural area decades earlier. 

today finds residential subdivisions along its fencelines 

and groups of hostile neighbors at its next use permit 

renewal hearing. Voter pressure on planning commissioners and boards of supervisors eventually results in 

increasingly restrictive permit conditions or mine 

closure. 

More significantly for future generations, urbanization has routinely occurred atop unmined aggregate 

deposits without adequate recognition of their presence or analysis of the impact of their loss. The social 

and economic consequences of this inadequate planning are high by any measure, increasing both consumer cost and environmental damage, and create an 

adversarlal relationship between the aggregate industry and the market community it serves. 

This. problem - the premature loss of mineral 

resources - was formally recognized and quantified 

by the California Department of Conservation's Division of Mines and Geology (DMG) through the release 

of an urban geology master plan (Alfors et al., 1973). 

It was estimated that $17 billion worth of resources, 

primarily construction aggregate, would be preempted from mining by the year 2000 if current land use 

practices continued. It was also estimated that 90% of 

this loss could be prevented if economic geologic data, 

including a systematic resource deposit inventory, 

were used in the local planning process. This recommendation was incorporated into state law in 1975, 

when the California legislature passed a bill establishing the Surface Mining and Reclamation Act of 1975, 

commonly known as SMARA. 

Legislation 

SMARA, authored by State Senator John Nejedly, 

addressed two issues of concern to the California 

electorate - continued minerals availability and adequate mined land reclamation - while preserving 

California's long tradition of local autonomy in land 

use planning and local authority. The passage of 

SMARA was the culmination of many years of effort. 

118 Industrial Minerals in California: Economic Importance, Present Availability, and Future Development 
begun in J.963, by tne state's aggregate mdustry, spearheaded by the Southern California Rock Products 

Association. An unusual coalition between state and 

local government, the aggregate producers associations, the overall minerals industry, various governmental associations, and environmental groups ultimately resolved their differences and supported the 

new legislation. 

While many states and the federal government had 

previously enacted mined land reclamation laws, 

California was the first to address the issue of longterm mineral resource availability. The first article of 

SMARA states, "The Legislature hereby finds and 

declares that the extraction of minerals is essential to 

the continued economic well being of the state and to 

the needs of the society, and that the reclamation of 

mined lands is necessary to prevent or minimize adverse effects on the environment and to protect the 

public health and safety.'' This landmark statement 

was, at the time of its passage, unique in its recognition 

of the importance of mineral resources, giving them 

an equal footing with other natural resources. 

Under SMARA, local government retains all land 

use decision making authority (a constitutionally 

guaranteed right in California) relative to the granting 

of mining permits. Local government, however, generally lacks the fiscal resources, technical expertise, 

and regional perspective to prepare an accurate geologic inventory of mineral resources under their jurisdiction. Similarly, they cannot be ensured a consistent 

inventory by neighboring jurisdictions, let alone consistency on a statewide basis. Responsibility for preparing an accurate, objective, quantified aggregate 

resource data base was, therefore, given to the State. 

Urban SMARA program 

SMARA has resulted in the creation of three closely 

related programs within DMG - Urban SMARA, 

Country SMARA, and Mined Land Reclamation. The 

three programs are guided by the California Department of Conservation and the State Mining and Geology Board, where the authority for resource designation rests. Appropriately, the SMARA program is now 

funded by a portion of the monies derived from mining 

activities on federal lands within California, dispersed 

each fiscal year by the federal government to the State 

pursuant to the Mineral Lands Leasing Act. 

Because each of the three SMARA programs within 

DMG has its own separate role and function under the 

law and Board guidelines, only those of the Urban 

SMARA program (which deals exclusively with construction aggregate in urban areas) will be discussed 

here. 

Mineral land classification 

The mechanism by which the Urban SMARA program provides protection to mineral resources is 

through a two-stage resource inventory process termed 

Classification-Designation. "Classification is the 

process of identification of lands containing significant 

mineral deposits. Designation is the formal recognition by the Board, after consultation with lead agencies 

and othe!r interested parties, of areas containing mineral deposits of regional or statewide significance that 

should'·be protected from land uses incompatible with 

mineral extraction" (California State Mining and 

Geology Board, 1983}. 

The concept of SMARA classification has been 

describE!d by Stewart (1980), Loyd (1982), and the 

California State Mining and Geology Board (1983). 

Details of the classification process are contained 

within each individual SMARA report (see Stinson 

et al., 1983a, 1983b, for example), but the following 

summary modified from Dupras (1985) provides a 

good overview. 

The DMG is responsible under SMARA for carrying 

out the classification phase of the ClassificationDesignation process. Classification normally entails 

six distinct but interrelated steps: 

• Determination of production-consumption (P·C) 

region boundaries: The boundaries of the P-C region 

(the fundamental unit of study in a SMARA classification investigation) are drawn along the limits of the 

marketing area of the active aggregate operations 

supplying the urban center under study. Included 

within the P-C region boundaries are all areas within 

the marketing area that have been identified as being 

urbanized or urbanizing by the State Office of Planning 

and Research (OPR), local lead agencies, or the 

Division of Mines and Geology. 

• Establishment of mineral resource zones (MRZ): 

All lands considered to be urbanized or urbanizing by 

the OPR, local lead agencies. or the DMG are assigned 

mineral resource zone classifications (MRZ-1, MRZ-2, 

MRZ-3, or MRZ-4) based on a geologic appraisal of the 

aggregate resource potential of the land. This appraisal includes study of pertinent geologic reports and 

maps, field investigation and sampling at outcrops and 

active and inactive pits and quarries, evaluation of 

laboratory test results on rock quality. and analysis.of 

water well logs and drill records. 

• Identification of available aggregate resource 

areas as sectors: Lands containing significant deposits of construction aggregate (areas classified as 

MRZ-2 in the previous step) are evaluated to determine whether or not current uses of these lands preclude possible future mining. Areas currently permitted for mining and areas found to have land uses 

compatible with possible future mining are considered 

available for mining. These sectors are delineated and 

described in detail. Sectors are thus distinguished 

because the state geologist judges that they meet the 

criteria for availability established by the State Mining 

and Geology Board. The resulting sectors are the 

candidates considered for designation by the Board. 

• Calculation of resource tonnages within sectors: 

Investigation and analysis of on-site conditions, measurement of the areal extent of deposits, drill-hole 

information, waste material percentages, and deposit 

densities are used to calculate total tonnages of aggregate reserves (deposits in land owned or leased by an 

aggregate producer and permitted for mining by local 

government) and resources (all deposits including the 

reserves) within each sector. 

• Forecast of 50-year needs and the life expectancy 

of current reserves: The total tonnage of aggregate 

needed to satisfy demand in the P-C region over the 

next 50 years is estimated based on projected population over the period and on the average annual per 

capita rate of aggregate consumption over the past 20 

years. Results of this forecast are used to determine 

the life expectancy of the P-C region's current reserves. 

• Identification of alteT7ULtive resources: Alternative sources of aggregate to meet the forecasted 50-

year demand are identified, and their potential for 

meeting future needs of the region is briefly considered. 

The geologist preparing the classification report 

works closely with both the lead agencies (the local 

jurisdictions with land use authority) and the aggregate producers within the study area. On completion, 

the resultant report is transmitted by the State 

Appendixes 1-8 119 
Geologist to the Board. After appropriate geologic 

workshops are held within the study area and input is 

obtained from interested parties, the Board formally 

transmits the classification report to all affected lead 

agencies. This transmittal carries several mandated 

obligations under SMARA Section 2762, including: 

"2762. (a) Within 12 months of receiving the mineral information described in Section 2761, and also 

within 12 months of the designation of an area of 

statewide or regional significance within its jurisdiction, every lead agency shall, in accordance with 

state policy, establish mineral resource management 

policies to be incorporated in its general plan that 

will: 

(1} Recognize mineral information classified by 

the State Geologist and transmitted by the Board. 

(2} Assist in the management of land uses that 

affect areas of statewide and regional significance. 

(3} Emphasize the conservation and development 

of identified mineral deposits." 

Mineral land designation 

Designation of specific resource deposits (identified 

as sectors in the classification report) as being "of 

statewide or regional significance'' is the second stage 

of the mineral resource inventory process. The designation action, which is undertaken by the Board, is 

procedurally complex and requires the preparation of 

a regional environmental impact report by the State. 

The EIR is extensively reviewed through a series of 

public hearings held by the Board, where specific land 

uses on and adjacent to resource sectors are scrutinized. After adoption of the EIR, additional public 

testimony is ~qgpt, which ultimately leads to a formal 

Board deefslon on each sector. Corrected resource 

tonnages for all areas designated by the Board are 

recalculated and totaled to ensure that at least a 

50-year supply of construction aggregate has been 

identified. Finally, the designation information is 

formally transmitted to lead agencies for use in their 

planning decisions. 

Program results 

The effectiveness of the Urban SMARA classification program in resource protection is difficult to 

measure with certainty due to the long-term nature of 

its goals. The aggregate classification reports have 

been well received by lead agencies, and the presence 

of an objective data base where none previously 

existed has certainly resulted in better informed land 

use decisions. Lead agencies and individual aggregate 

producers, initially somewhat suspicious of the state 

program, are now requesting accelerated classification of their regions. 

Currently, 28 urban regions of the state have been 

prioritized for aggregate classification by the Urban 

SMARA program, covering a total of more than 

Progress of 

Classification -Designation 

Program 

Index map of Catifornia, showing location and 

status of hJgregate Production -Consumption Regions 

being classified and/or designated in the 

MONT£1f£Y BAY 

SAN LIJIS OBISPO 

SANTA MARIA 

SANTA BARBARA 

EX PLANATION 

• 

DESIGNATION OF 

IIONII'ICANT RESOURCE 

ARIAS COMPlETED. 

COMII'\.ETEO CLASSIFICATION 

FII'OFIT FOil PFIOOUCTION- CONIUMPTION REGION. 

CLAIIII'ICATION REPORT FOR 

PRODUCT ION -CONSUMPTION 

FIEOION IN PROGRESS. 

,. .. 0,08EO PROOUCTIONCONIUMPTION REGION STUDIES 

LKban S\'IARA Program as of June 30, 1987. 

-

~ N-

~ 0 ~0 tOO 

-- --- o;;;;z::::!l 

SAN DIEGO 

Fig. 1 - Status of the Urban SMARA Classification Designation Program, June 30, 1987 

120 Industrial Minerals in California: Economic Importance, Present Availability, and Future Development 
80,300 km 2 (31,000 sq miles) that contain 94% of the 

state's population. To date, 15 of these regions (Fig. 1), 

covering most of coastal California and part of the 

central valley, have been completed. Collectively, 

they cover almost 51,800 km 2 (20,000 sq miles), include 

83% of the state's population, and are served by 229 

aggregate pits and quarries. More than 45 Gt (50 billion 

st) of high-quallty aggregate resources have been 

identified and designated. Five new studies are in 

progress, and the remaining eight will be completed in 

the next four years. 

The primary user groups of Urban SMARA classification reports are lead agencies, closely followed by 

the aggregate industry. However, a surprisingly 

diverse variety of other users have emerged as report 

availability becomes better known, including bankers, 

other government agencies, mineral appraisers, 

lawyers, realtors, geologic consultants, investors, 

landowners, and students. Out-of-state and international mining companies have frequently used the 

reports to evaluate entry into the California aggregate 

market. 

SMARA geologists have been testifying at local use 

permit hearings at the request of lead agencies about 

four times a year. In the past six years, almost every 

permit decision where State presence was requested 

was decided in favor of aggregate resource protection. 

Mine permit decisions will probably always remain 

controversial. However, with the locally quantified 

resource inventories provided under SMARA, these 

decisions can be based on objective data, balanced 

against a perspective of long-term local resource 

needs rather than on emotion. The program appears 

to be working well in California. • 

References 

Alfors. J.T .. Burnett, J.l., and Gay, T.E., 1973. "Urban Geology Master Plan lor 

California," Bulletin 198, California Division of Mines and Geology, 112 pp. 

California State l.~ining and Geology Board, 1983. "Calllornta Surface Mining and 

Reclamation Policies and Procedures," SpeCl<ll Publtcatton 51, 2nd Revision. 

Caitfornia Division of Mines and Geology, 38 pp. 

Dupras, 0 L. 1985, "Mineral Land Classification: Portland Cement Concrete-Grade 

AQgregate tn the Sacramento-Fairfield Production Consurnplton Region," Special 

Report t56. California Department of Conservatton. Divtsion ol Minos and 

Geology, t13 PPLoyd, R.C., 1982, "Mineral Land Classification in California." California Geology, 

Vol. 35, No. 3, March, pp. 49·54. 

Stewart, A.M., 1980, "Mined Land Reclamation and Minerals Availability? -- A 

Challenge," Bulletin ol the International Association of Engineering Geology, 

No. 22, PP- 9-16. 

Stinson, M.G., Manson, M.W., and Plappert, J.J .. 19B3a. "Mineral Land Classification: Aggregate Materials in the San Franctsco-Monterey Bay Area. Part I -

Project Description," Special Report 146, Part 1. Cali1orma Department of 

Conservation, Division of Mines and Geology, 50 pp 

Stinson, M.C., Manson, M.W., and Plappert, J.J., 1983b. "Mmeral Land Classification: Aggregate Materials in the San Francisco-Monterey Bay Area. Part It -

Classification of Aggregate Resource Areas in the South San Francisco Bay 

Production-Consumption Region," Special Report 146, Part 2, California Depart· 

ment of Conservation, Division of Mines and Geology, 153 PPAppendixes 1-8 121 
Appendix 5. Summary of California's initative proposition 65, the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986 

[From Kizer and others (1988, p. 951)] 

Mandates of the Proposition 

Proposition 65 is found in California Health and 

Safety Code Section 25249.5 and following. Brief as far 

as laws go, it requires the Governor to list chemicals "known 

to the State" to cause cancer or reproductive toxic effects. 

Then, 12 months after a chemical is listed, people may not 

knowingly be exposed to significant levels without frrst 

receiving a warning. The warning requirement applies 

to occupational exposures, ambient environmental exposures 

(for example, air or water exposures), and exposures 

from consumer products. Likewise, 20 months after being 

listed, a chemical may not knowingly be discharged in significant amounts into any actual or potential source of 

drinking water. 

Although the warning requirements and discharge 

prohibitions are likely to have substantial impacts in and of 

themselves, the most striking departure of proposition 65 

from the traditional approach to toxic chemical regulation 

is the provision for private enforcement. 

Under proposition 65,60 days after notifying relevant 

public authorities, any individual may sue a business that 

violates the previously mentioned provisions (if the relevant 

authorities are "not diligently prosecuting" the purported 

violation) and retain a portion of the penalties imposed in 

the law. This citizen-suit provision has become known, in 

common vernacular, as the measure's "bounty hunter" provision. Further, the burden is on the defendant to show that 

the discharge or exposure was lawful-as opposed to the 

plantiff having to show that it was unlawful. These provisions represent a marked departure from tradition and may 

set the tone for future law in this area. 

Violation of the warning or discharge provisions carries civil penalties, with fines of up to $2,500 per day for 

each violation. Individuals who are successful under the 

citizen-suit provision may collect 25 percent of the penalties. 

122 Industrial Minerals in California: Economic Importance, Present Availability, and Future Development 
Appendix 6. Homeowners protection initiative of El Dorado County 

HOM£0WNERS PROTECTIVE INITIATIVE OF EL DORADO COUNTY 

AN ORDINANCE ADOPTED BY THE INITIATIVE PROCESS TO REQUIRE PERMANENT 

BUFFER ZONES BETWEEN RESIDENTIAL AND SIMILAR USES AND MINING USES: 

TO THE £0ARD OF SUPERVISORS OF THE COUNTY OF EL DORADO, STATE OF 

CALIFORNIA: 

Pursuant to Section 4001, California Elections Code, and the attached 

published notice of intention, we, the undersigned, more than fifteen 

percent of the registered qualified voters of said County, hereby 

present this petition and request that the following proposed 

ordinance be passed without alteration by you, or be submitted 

immediately to a vote of the people at a special election. 

This ordinance will amend title 17 of the El Dorado County Code, to 

add Section 17.14.095 to read as follows: 

17.14.095 MINERAL-RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT 

A. POLICY 

It is the policy of the County of El Dorado that land-use conflicts 

between rural and rural-residential uses and mining uses must be 

minimized by the creation of adequate buffer zones between such 

potentially conflicting land uses. Furthermore, it is essential to 

the County to preserve the rural residential and residential character 

of the tounty of El Dorado and that mining and exploration for mining 

be allowed to proceed only with adequate buffering between mining and 

residential uses. It is a further policy of the County that managing 

these conflicting land uses will aid in deterring adverse environmental 

impacts including but not limited to wild life, groundwater, flora, 

fauna, traffic, dust, air quality, and adverse impacts on public he a 1 t h , safety and we 1 fa r e and ·w i 1 1 res u 1 t i n mutua 1 bene f i t to both 

future mining and residential land uses. 

B. IMPLEMENTATION 

In addition to any other requirements set forth in any applicable 

zoning district, all projects for any kind of open-pit mining or 

strip mining for purposes of exploration or extraction which require the removal of overburden in a total amount of more than one thousand 

cubic yards on any parcel shail requ;re issuance of a special use 

permit. However, prior to issuing the special use permit in addition 

to any other necessary findings, the approving authority (Board of 

Supervisors or Planning Commission) shall make the finding that all 

boundries of the proposed project for open-pit mining or strip min~ng. 

shall be greater than a linear distance of 10,000 feet from any ex1st1ng 

residential use, hospital use, church use, or school use including but not limited to nursery or day care uses or any residential, hospital, 

church, or school use as designated in the El Dorado County General 

Plan or any community or specific plan, or as permitted by the zoning code of El Dorado County. This finding shall not apply to a single- family detached dwelling located on the parcel for which the special 

use permit is sought. 

Appendixes 1-8 123 
C. EXCE?TlON 

An e~ception to this zoning ordinance shall be granted only under 

limited circumstances after a properly noticed public hearing to 

all 1 nd owners within 10,000 feet of the proposed project boundaries 

and upon findings by the Planning Commission or Board of Supervisors 

on the basis of substantial evidence in the record that: 

1. the proposed project will not have any adverse impact on the 

environment or upon public health, safety and/or welfare; and that; 

2. the project will not discourage residential use {if so designated 

in the El Dorado County general plan or any community or specific 

plans or as permitted by the zoning code of El Dorado County) withi~ 

10,000 feet of the project boundaries. 

D. INCORPORATION OF THESE POLICIES INTO THE GENERAL PLAN TEXT AND MAPS 

Upon passage of this Ordinance, the County shall amend the General 

Plan and General P~an Maps to incorporate and conform to the provisions of this Ordinance. 

E. IMPLEMENTATION AND CONSISTENCY 

Upon passage of this Ordinance, the General Plan and the County Zoning 

Code shall be interpreted so as to give effect to the provisions of 

this Ordinance. The provisions of this Ordinance shall prevail over 

any revisions to the General Plan and any Specific Plans. Any a~endments to the General Plan and the County Zoning Ordinance made subsequent to the passage of this Ordinance, shall be consistent with 

the provisions of this Ordinance. 

F. AMENDMENT AND REPEAL 

This Ordinance mav be amended or repealed only by a majority of the 

voters of El Dorado County. 

G. SEVERABILITY 

lf any portion of this Ordinance is declared invalid, the remaining 

portions are to be considered valid. 

124 Industrial Minerals in California: Economic Importance, Present Availability, and Future Development 
Appendix 7. U.S. Geological Survey industrial rock and mineral resource specialists 

{Do., ditto} 

Commodity Geologist Location Telephone MS 

Abrasives --------------------------- Peter J. Modreski ---------------- D (303) 236-5639 922 

FfS 776-5639 

Anhydrite--------------------------- Orner B. Raup-------------------- D (303) 236-5557 939 

FfS 776-5557 

Asbestos ---------------------------- Malcolm Ross-------------------- R (703) 648-6760 959 

FfS 959-6760 

Barite-------------------------------- Sandra H.B. Clark--------------- R (703) 648-6331 954 

FfS 959-6331 

Bentonite --------------------------- John W. Hosterman------------- R (703) 648-6316 954 

FfS 959-6316 

Beryllium--------------------------- Wallace R. Griffitts ------------- D (303) 236-5516 912 

FfS 776-5516 

Boron minerals -------------------- George I. Smith------------------ M (415) 329-5188 902 

FfS 459-5188 

Bromine ---------------------------- Robert J. Hite -------------------- D (303) 236-5564 939 

(retired) FfS 776-5564 

Carbon dioxide -------------------- Margaret E. Hinkle-------------- D (303) 236-1193 973 

FfS 776-1193 

Clays -------------------------------- John W. Hosterman ------------- R (703) 648-6316 954 

FfS 959-6316 

l)olomite ---------------------------- George E. Ericksen-------------- R (703) 648-6323 954 

FfS 959-6323 

Feldspar----------------------------- Frank G. Lesure ----------------- R (703) 648-6343 954 

FfS 959-6343 

Fluorine ----------------------------- Ronald G. Worl------------------ s (509) 353-2639 None 

FfS 439-2639 

Gemstones (1) -------------------- Peter J. Modreski ---------------- D (303) 236-5639 922 

FfS 776-5639 

(2) -------------------- Thomas C. Michalski----------- D (303) 236-1930 975 

FfS 776-1930 

(3) -------------------- RobertS. Zech ------------------- D (303) 236-1555 916 

FfS 776-1555 

Graphite ---------------------------- David M. Sutphin --------------- R (703) 648-6134 920 

FfS 959-6134 

Gypsum----------------------------- Orner B. Raup -------------------- D (303) 236-5557 939 

FfS 776-5557 

Iodine ------------------------------- Robert J. Hite -------------------- D (303) 236-5564 939 

(retired). FfS 776-5564 

Kyanite ----------------------------- Frank G. Lesure ----------------- R (703) 648-6343 954 

FfS 959-6343 

Lightweight aggregate. ----------- Alfred L. Bush------------------- D (303) 236-5646 941 

(retired) FfS 776-5646 

Limestone -------------------------- George E. Ericksen-------------- R (703) 648-6323 954 

FfS 959-6323 

Lithium ----------------------------- Sigrid Asher-Bolinder ---------- D (303) 236-1552 939 

FfS 776-1552 

Magnesian refractories. ---------- Bruce R. Lipin ------------------- R (703) 648-6327 954 

FfS 959-6327 

Mica--------------------------------- Frank G. Lesure ----------------- R (703) 648-6343 954 

FfS 959-6343 

Nitrates ----------------------------- George E. Ericksen-------------- R (703) 648-6323 954 

FfS 959-6323 

Peat---------------------------------- Cornelia C. Cameron ----------- R (703) 648-6330 954 

FfS 959-6330 

Perlite-pumice --------------------- Alfred L. Bush ------------------- D (303) 236-5646 941 

(retired) FfS 776-5646 

Appendixes 1-8 125 
Commodity 

Phosphate 

(1) Eastern U.S.A.-----------

(2) Western U.S.A.----------

Phosphate (offshore)--------------

Potash -------------------------------

Rare earths 

(1) Placer ---------------------

(2) Lode-----------------------

Salt ----------------------------------

Sand and gravel--------------------

Sand and gravel--------------------

(offshore resources). 

Silica --------------------------------

Sodium carbonate -----------------

Sodium sulfate ---------------------

Stone --------------------------------

Strontium ---------------------------

Sulfur -------------------------------

Talc----------------------------------

Titaniwn ----------------------------

Vermiculite -------------------------

Zeolites -----------------------------

D = U.S. Geological Survey 

Box 25046, Mail Stop *--

Denver Federal Center 

Denver, CO 80225--0046 

M = U.S. Geological Survey 

Geologist location Telephone 

James R. Herring ---------------- D (303) 236-5559 

FfS 776-5559 

David Z. Piper ------------------- M (415) 329-4884 

FfS 459-4884 

Peter Popenoe -------------------- w (617) 548-8700 

FfS 837-4122 

Robert J. Hite -------------------- D (303) 236-5564 

(retired). FfS 776-5564 

Andrew E. Grosz ---------------- R (703) 648-6314 

FfS 959-6314 

James P. Calzia ------------------ M (415) 329-5405 

FfS 459-5405 

Orner R. Raup-------------------- D (303) 236-5557 

FfS 776-5557 

William H. Langer -------------- D (303) 236-1421 

FTS 776-1421 

Stanley J. Williams-------------- R (703) 648-6511 

FfS 776-6511 

Keith B. Ketner------------------ D (303) 236-5550 

FfS 776-5550 

John R. Dyni --------------------- D (303) 236-5544 

FfS 776-5544 

do ------------------------------- D (303) 236-5544 

FfS 776-5544 

G. William Leo------------------ R (703) 648-6927 

FfS 959-6927 

Orner B. Raup-------------------- D (703) 236-5557 

FfS 776-5557 

Virgil A. Trent ------------------- R (703) 648-6432 

FfS 959-6432 

Pa:tricia J. Loferski -------------- R (703) 648-6344 

FfS 959-6344 

Eric R. Force --------------------- T (602) 629-5506 

FfS 762-5506 

Alfred L. Bush ------------------- D (303) 236-5646 

FfS 776-5646 

Richard A. Sheppard------------ D (303) 236-5563 

FTS 776-5563 

T = U.S. Geological Survey 

210 E. Seventh Street 

Tucson, AZ 85705 

W = U.S. Geological Survey 

345 Middlefield Road, MS *--

Menlo Park. CA 94025 

Branch of Atlantic Marine Geology 

Woods Hole, MA 02543 

R = U.S. Geological Survey, *--

National Center, Reston, VA 22092 

S = U.S. Geological Survey 

c/o U.S. Courthouse, Room 656 

Spokane Field Center 

Spokan~ WA 99201 

*(_) =Mail Stop Code (MS) 

126 Industrial Minerals in California: Economic Importance, Present Availability, and Future Development 

MS 

939 

902 

None 

939 

954 

904 

939 

421 

914 

939 

939 

939 

928 

939 

955 

954 

None 

941 

917 
Appendix 8. U.S. Bureau of Mines industrial rock and mineral commodity specialists 

[Address: 2401 E StreetNW., Washington, DC 20241-0001; (202) 633 +extension. Do., ditto.,] 

Commodity Specialist Extension 

Abrasives, manmade/natural-------.. -------------------- Gordon Austin ----------------------------------- 1206 

Asbestos ------------------------------·---------------------Robert V irta -------------------------------------- 1206 

Barite (Ba) ----------------------------·---------------------Sarkis G. Ampian -------------------------------- 1180 

Beryllium (Be)-----------------------.. -------------------- Debora A. Kramer------------------------------- 1083 

Boron (B)-----------------------------·--------------------- Phyllis A. Lyday--------------------------------- 1177 

Bromine (Br) -------------------------.. -------------------- do----------------------------------------------- 1177 

Calcium (Ca) and Ca compounds ----------------------Michael Miller----------------------------------- 1177 

Calcium carbonate---------------------------------------- Valentin V. Tepordei ---------------------------- 1185 

Cement-----------------------------------------------------Wilton Johnson ---------------------------------- 1184 

Clays -------------------------------------------------------Sarkis G. Ampian -------------------------------- 1180 

Corundum-emery-----------------------------------------Gordon Austin ----------------------------------- 1206 

Diamond--------------------------------------------------- do ----------------------------------------------- 1206 

Diatomite --------------------------------------------------Lawrence L. Davis*----------------------------- 1206 

Feldspar----------------------------------------------------Michael J. Potter--------------------------------- 1180 

Fluorspar---------------------------------------------------Michael Miller----------------------------------- 1190 

Fused alumina (abrasive)-------------------------------- Gordon Austin ----------------------------------- 1206 

Garnet -----------------------------~--- --------------------- do ----------------------------------------------- 1206 

Gem stones ------------------------------------------------ do ----------------------------------------------- 1206 

Graphite---------------------------------------------------- Harold A. Taylor -------------------------------- 1180 

Greensand -------------------------------------------------James P. Searls----------------------------------- 1190 

Gypsum ----------------------------------------------------Lawrence L. Davis ------------------------------ 1206 

Iodine (I)--------------------------------------------------- Phyllis A. Lyday--------------------------------- 1177 

Kyanite-mullite -------------------------------------------Michael J. Potter--------------------------------- 1180 

Lime-------------------------------------------------------- Michael Miller----------------------------------- 1177 

Lithium (Li) -----------------------------------------------Joyce A. Ober ------------------------------------ 1177 

Magnesium (Mg) and Mg compounds --------------- Debora A. Kramer------------------------------- 1083 

Mica-------------------------------------------------------- Lawrence L. Davis ------------------------------ 1206 

Nepheline syenite-----------------------------------------Michael J. Potter--------------------------------- 1180 

Peat--------------------------------------------------------- Raymond L. Cantrell---------------------------- 1687 

Perlite ------------------------------------------------------Wall ace P. Bolen*------------------------------- 1185 

Phosphate rock--------------------------------------------William F. S to wasser --------------------------- 1190 

Potash ------------------------------------------------------James P. Searls----------------------------------- 1190 

Pumice -----------------------------------------------------Wallace P. Bolen*------------------------------- 1185 

Quartz crystal ---------------------------------------------Joyce A. Ober ------------------------------------ 1177 

Rare earths-------------------------------------------------James B. Hedrick-------------------------------- 1058 

Do -------------------------------------------------------David A. Templeton ---------------------------- 1058 

Salt ------------------------------------·---------------------Dennis S. Kostick ------------------------------- 1177 

Sand and gravel, construction -----·---------------------Valentin V. Tepordei ---------------------------- 1185 

Sand and gravel, industrial--------··---------------------Wallace P. Bolen-------------------------------- 1185 

Silicon (Si) --------------------------·----------------------Joseph Gambogi --------------------------------- 1015 

Silicon carbide (abrasive) ----------·---------------------Gordon Austin ----------------------------------- 1206 

Sodium compounds ----------------·----------------------Dennis S. Kostick ------------------------------- 1177 

Staurolite ----------------------------·----------------------Gordon Austin ----------------------------------- 1206 

Stone, crushed ---------------------------------------------Valentin V. Tepordei---------------------------- 1185 

Stone, dimension -------------------·----------------------Harold A. Taylor -------------------------------- 1180 

Strontium (Sr) -----------------------·----------------------Joyce A. Ober ------------------------------------ 1177 

Sulfur (S) ----------------------------·----------------------David E. Morse---------------------------------- 1190 

Talc-----------------------------------·---------------------- Robert V irta -------------------------------------- 1206 

Titanium (Ti) ------------------------.. ---------------------Langtry E. Lynd --------------------------------- 1073 

Tripoli------------------------------------------------------ Gordon Austin ----------------------------------- 1206 

Vermiculite------------------------------------------------Michael J. Potter* ------------------------------- 1206 

Wollastonite-------------------------.. --------------------- do ----------------------------------------------- 1080 

Zeolites ----------------------------------------------------Robert Virta -------------------------------------- 1080 

*Acting 

Appendixes 1-8 127