Mohave County miner., 1910-02-19
Phosphate Beds of Great Value.

lands of Idaho, Utah and Wyoming
 was justified has been proven by pre-
 liminary examinations of the felt
 made during last summer under tn,
 direction of the United States geologi
 cal survey. A report of the examina
 tion just issued by the department
 says:
 "The extent of.the field already ex amined and the chemical data relating to the quality of the deposit proves the
 field to be one of, if not the most-impor. tant in'the United States. There is ir nearly all outcrops of the phosphate series examined at least one bed oi from four and one-half to six feet in thickness of clean high-grade ore equivalent in composition to from 70 to 80 per cent tricalcium or bone phos- phate. Besides this are found almost everywhere, where exposures are sui ficiently complete to afford opportunity for examination, other thinner beds of quality similar to that described, and much thicker mass of leaner material at places known to include twenty to thirty, or more, feet of shale, that will average an equivalent of over 30 per cent of tri-calcium phosphate. Detailed sections have been measured and analyses made of representative samples cut from them wherever op- portunity was afforded by the ex- posures made. The results will be tabulated or plotted and submitted in form for ready reference in a more complete report.
 'While the deposits are undoubtedly of great areal extent, as stated above, a large part of the land originally withdrawn may be found to be not commercially available as phosphate strata are in general restricted to rela- lively narrow strips, somewhat as already defined in preceding reports. Some deposits presumably not even yet recognized in local way, situated in important and accessible parts of the phosphate fields, have been discov- cred. A large extent of less accessible and unexplorable territory still re- mains to be examined.
 Although general estimates of ac- reage or tonnage for the whole field have not as yet been worked out, the data in hand will doubtless warrant some rather definate statements as regards the areas surveyed in detail The tonnage of readily available rock of 70 per cent grade and over runs high in the millions even in the limited tracts now under development.
 "As result of the past seasons work .,oJut 1,2O0 square miles have been examined out of some 6, 100 square miles withdrawn. Actual detailed surveys were made of the phosphate outcrops within that area and of land adjacent to them to an extent of a little over 400 square miles.
 "Three townships in the vicinity of the Devils Slide. on Weber river, which were withdrawn have been examined for classification. Phos- phate has also been located near Ogden and on the upper Ogden river, where additional withdrawals were recom- mended.
 'The initial work was undertaken in the Bear River valley, near Mont pellar, Ida, and the area examined in the past season was limited to the more accessible districts adjacent to that valley, in parts of all three of the states mentioned.
 'The smaller party, outftted at Ogden, Utah, was assigned to the ter ritory along the northern and central Wasatch mountains, and the phosphate lands examined included some more or less isolated districts on the Weber river, Ogden river and near the Logan river and tributaries. ."-Salt Lake Herald Republican.