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<br />. <br /> <br />N <br />~ <br />"'" <br />o <br /> <br />Book Cliffs Field. Sulfur content ranges from an average of .59 percent <br />in the Wasatch Plateau Field to 4.0 percent in the Henry Fork Field. <br />Other quality indicators, stated as average percentages, for Utah's <br />portion of the basin are as follows: volatile matter, 38.08; fixed <br />carbon, 46.97; ash, 10.37; sulfur, 1.42; and moisture, 8.59. <br /> <br />Production costs are quite high in Utah, due primarily to the <br />predominance of underground mining, in comparison with areas where <br />strip mining methods predominate. Based on 1970 prices, it costs $4 <br />. to $6.50 per ton to produce Utah coal in the Upper Colorado River Region. <br /> <br />Wyoming <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />The coal deposits of Wyoming which are pertinent to this study are <br />located in the Rocky ~wuntain province. The Green River coal basin, <br />covering 15,400 square miles, includes 6 fields. The primary period <br />of geologic deposition for the Green River Basin was the Upper <br />Cretaceous. Most of the coal is subbituminous, with some high- <br />volatile C bituminous coal near the center of the basin, possibly <br />associated with the Rock Springs uplift (Keystone, 1977). Younger <br />coals of the Paleocene and the Eocene Wasatch Formation are increasingly <br />relied on as part of the resource picture. <br /> <br />The characteristics of Wyoming coals are similar to those of other <br />western coals under discussion. Moisture content of these coals ranges <br />between 10 and 13 percent, except for the Jim Bridge" strip mine, ~hich <br />has been averaging 20.5 percent. Ash content averages 5.4 percent and <br />sulfur content is likewise low, with an average of 0.5 percent. Nuch <br />of the state's reserve base contains similarly low sulfur levels. <br />Western Wyoming coals do have a generally lower heat value than many <br />other western coals, averaging only 9,800 Btu/lb (Keystone, 1977). <br /> <br />Wyoming is currently (1978) the largest coal producer in the Rocky <br />Mountains, eighth in the United States. Strip mining is the primary <br />method of extraction and represents 97 percent of the state's annual <br />production of 23,800,000 tons in 1975. Overburden does not apparently <br />present a problem (Keystone, 1977). The coal seams are relatively <br />thick, varying from 4 feet to 5 feet up to almost 40 feet in places. <br />One drill hole analysis of a seam in the Wasatch Formation indicates a <br />possible thickness of 220 feet (Keystone, 1977). <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />B-IO <br />