White Pine news weekly mining review. [volume] (East Ely, Nev.) 1910-1920, 1913-07-27
SIGNS INDICATE
POTASH DEPOSIT
ENGINEER FREE OF RAILROAD
VALLEY 90. IN REPORT REC
osIMFNDs CONTINUATION OF
DEVELOPMENT WORK.

in the News last Sunday, that de-
velopment work by the Railroad Val
ley Saline company in Nye county
had practically assured the presence
of potash, the report of e. +. Free,
consulting engineer. will be of add
ed interest. Engineer Free lays inn
portant stress on the crystal forma-
ton. through which the drill has
been penetrating, from us feet TO
s43 feet as mentioned in his report,
and says:
THE important feature of this
record is the bed OF gay-lussite en-
eountered at 71S feet and in which
the drill was still working when drill
ing was stopped at S43 feet. The
mineral gay-lussite Is the double
carbonate of sodium and easium
containing 1851 per cent tby
weight of sodium carbonate, 1918
per cent of calcium carbonate, and
30.41 per cent of water 1t Is one
of the less soluble minerals de-
posted by an evaporating saline
lake and is therefore one of the first
to be laid down.
There is very little doubt as to
the correct Interpretation of the
drill record. Beginning with the
bottom of the hole. the gay-lussite
bed unquestionably represents
one of the earlier deposits of a con-
eentrating lake. The light colored
elays Immediately everything it prob
ably correspond to playa or mud
fiat conditions following the total
disappearance of the lake. while the
superposed clay beds are undoubted-
ly the product of a later lake or
succession of lakes occupying the
same basin From the company's 5
viewpoint this record is quite en-
couraging. II is extremely improb
able that lake sufficient IN extent
and salinity to have laid down so
thick a bed of gay-lussite can have
deposited this mineral alone. Ger
tainly other more soluble salts
famong which would be any salts of
potash) must have been present in
the lake in large quantity and must
have been deposited by its eyapora-
tion. These salts being more solu-
BILE. must overlie the gay-lussite bed
and presumably covers a small area.
The failure to encounter them in the
present hole is almost certainly due
to the fact that the hole chaneed TO
be beyond the edge of this localized
area.
As a practical matter this drill
record may be considered as furnish
ing conclusive evidence of the pres
ence of a large buried salt body in
the basin. The only point still re-
naming doubtful Is the presence in
this salt body OF potash or other
valuable salines in commercial form
and quantity. This is entirely a
matter of the degree of segregation
of the various salts from each other
. and this segregation can be deter
mined only by actual exploration
However, the present drill record
does furnish two suggestions as to
probable conditions-both favorable.
First. the comparative purity of the
gay-lusste bed implies that the lake
evaporated rather quickly, uniform
iy and under conditions favorable to
segregation; second, the non-salinity
of the superposed ciays indicates
that no subsequent diffusion or loss
of salts has occurred.
II have no hesitation in advising
the company to proceed with the ex-
ploration of the gay-lussite horizon.
1t may be considered reasonably
certain that a bed of the more soluble
salts lies over a portion of the gay
lussite area and can be reached and
explored without great diffiulty.. OF
course 1t is not certain that this bed
will carry workable amounts of pot
ash but the chance that 1t may do so
Is at least better in the light of data
now at hand that ii ever has appear
ed In the past OF considerable col
lateral interest is the fact that a sim
|. liar bed of gay-lusste and closely
related minerals is known to under
lie the potash and salt body at Scar
les lake. California. 1t must not be
imagined. however, that this fact
necessarily indicates a further par
allelism of the two localities In pot
tContinued on Page rourD