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111-6 I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I ASA 04 is an important producer of metals, nonmetals and fuels and may well be one of the areas most substantially affected by the drive toward energy self-sufficiency. This area, along with ASA 05, contains the largest known resource of low-sulfur, strippable, subbituminous coal and lignite in the Nation of which an estimated 55 billion tons are recoverable. Expanded utilization of this coal has already begun, Additional water required by new development will depend not only on the quantity of coal mined, but whether it is exported or converted locally to electricity, synthetic natural gas, and other products. The projected ten-fold increase in coal production by the year 2000 will materially increase water use over that shown. New deeper drilling in three important oilfields in ASA 03, the Bell Creek field in the Powder River Basin, the Elk Basin field in the Big Horn Basin, and the Williston Basin straddling the Montana-North Dakota border will likely extend . their productive life. Water for beneficiation of uranium ores should continue at the same scale in the near term. Uranium deposits are scattered throughout much of the area, but mining in the Gas Hills area of Fremont County, Wyoming, with perhaps the second largest known uranium resource in the U.S., has peaked. Among the metallic minerals in ASA 03, iron ore has been and should continue to be a major product but without requiring a sub- stantial increase in water. Development for copper and chromium ore in the Stillwater Complex, Montana, may prove an important new user of water. Lesser amounts may be needed for recent platinum discoveries in the same area. Petroleum from fields in Wyoming and Montana along the western end of ASA 05 and the northern North Dakota counties accounts for most of the mineral value produced in this region in recent years. The large strippable coal resource, mostly low-grade lignite of the Fort Union Formation, underlies ASA 05. El Paso Natural Gas Company has recently requested 72,000 acre-feet of water to support four coal gasification plants utilizing this lignite. Gold from Lead, South Dakota, should continue to be the most valuable metal produced with no major increase in water needs. Future gold discoveries are likely. Petroleum and natural gas dominate mineral production of ASA 07. Development is continuing in the Denver-Julesburg Basin east of Denver, Colorado, while production appears to have peaked in the Nebraska panhandle area and the Salt Creek area of Wyoming. Coal underlies much of ASA 07. A coal gasification plant has been proposed east of Denver, utilizing Denver Basin coal, but this coal probably cannot be developed as economically as that of the Northern Great Plains. The important Gas Hills-Shirley Basin uranium districts should continue to produce that metal over the next several years. The principal metal produced is iron ore in Platte County, Wyoming. Gold, silver, lead, zinc, copper and tungsten have been mined throughout the Front Range area and favorable economic conditions could be expected to stimulate additional. production. Production of nonmetallic minerals will continue to expand with population growth along the Colorado Front Range. Petroleum from fields in northcentral Kansas is the predominant mineral product of ASA 10; however, petroleum reserves are believed declining. Bituminous coal occurs in the eastern-most portion of this ASA, but major future development is questionable.