Montpelier examiner. [volume] (Montpelier, Idaho) 1895-1937, 1911-10-13

Boise last FRIDAY evening Was, ii
effect says the Statesman, a quer,
as to whether or not Idaho contains
ed deposits of phosphate. Tt
secure an authoritative answer OF
the subject, the Boise Statesman
elected statement from Robert N.
Bell, state mine inspector, upon The
extent and merit Of this mineral
resource in Idaho, from which we
re-publish some extracts. The
statements made by Mr. Bell are
simply veritications of facts with
which the people of this section have
been familiar for years, yet We
gladly publish them that people
generally may know that within the
confines of Bear Lake and other
Southern counties of Idaho there ex-
lists rich and practically inexhaus-
tible supply of this mineral. Mr..
Bells article, III part, is as follows:
Idaho possesses one of the best
developed and highest grade phosphate
deposits in the United States, said Mr..
Bell. This is the Waterloo mine at
Montpelier, in Bear Lake county. which
isowned by the San Francisco Chemical
company. This mine has been shipping
at the rate of 5000 tons of high grade
calcium phosphate every year for the
past four years aud has conservatively
estimated resource of 10000, 900 tons of
the same class of material on its prop
erty.
I'm the same neighborhood in Bear
Lake county, the Utah Fertilizer and
Chemical Manufacturing company has
proven resource Of high grade phos-
Hhate rock 20 per cent and better.
which according to the government
geologists' estimates contains more ton
mage than the total known resources of
the United States in this mineral
There has already been withdrawn
from public entry by the government
in Idaho, principally in Bear Lake,
Bannock, Bingham, Bonneville and
Fremont counties HOO, 900 acres of
phosphate land, proven to be such by
hundreds of snrfaee exposures of definite
geological evidences through the vast
area Withdrawn.
''rhese phosphate beds are of decided
sedimentary origin and occur after the
manner, regularity and persistency OF
coal veinR, whose resources can be quite
safely estimated by the nature of their
outcrops and definitely identifying en-
closing formations.
Considering only the 1.100. 600 acres
withdrawn by the government as defin-
itely proven phosphate lands and fignI-
ing only on one single five-foot bed, the
area embraced would contain 3O,0OO,-
600 600 tons of 10 per cent bone phos-
phate lime or better, enough to furnish
The phosphate fertilizing requirements
of the world for 1000 years to come.
Phosphate rock ground raw to fine
powder is used on soils rich in humus,
and by the slow action of the organic
acids in this condition produces import
ant results on plant growth. To make
phosphoric acid available for immediate
plant food, however, it is necessary IT,
saturate the ground phosphate rock
with sulphnric acid which releases the
phosphoric acid and makes it available
for immediate plant absorption and in
creases its value as fertilizer enorni-
ously. At DuckIown, Tenn, the Ten
nessee Copper company is successfully
and profitabIy reducing the sulphur
fumes from its copper smelter to sul-
phuric acid, and thereby makes large
added revenue to its operations from a
former waste and deleterious product. |
This country in this connection offers |
splendid opportunity for an extensive
and fertilizing indus
try. The smelters of Salt Lake valley
and of Montana are monthly wasting
thousands of tons of snlphuric acid in
the form Of sulphur fumes from their
furnaces. 1t would seem that u cheap
source of acid might be obtained at
some of these plants and assembled
with the phosphate rock at a convenient
point between the two sources of supply,
like Pocatello, and form the basis of an
industry that would prove of growing
and ultimate great magni-
tude.
phosphate rock is sold at the point
mined in the southeastern fields al
about five dollars per ton raw and after
being treated and transformed TO super.
phosphate, the price is about SIG per
ton. The total output of the United
States, principally from the southeast
ern sources at the present time is about
3, ,0O0, 900 tons, of which nearly one-third
is exported to Europe. The great
market for this valuable material is GO
ing to be In the grain regions of the
spper Mississippi valley, which is rapid