FLOOD10384 (2) - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

I , I I r mineral product, averaging close to 50 million barrels a year. Natural gas production is increasing and the various natural gas liquids- chiefly natural gasoline-and liquefied petroleum gases such as propane and butane are produced in greater profusion each year. The Rangely oilfield in Rio Blanco County and the Adena field in Morgan County together produced more than half the petroleum reported for the entire State in 1960. At least 16 other counties shared in the remaining output. Bituminous Coal Metallurgical coal from Colorado's southern coalfield is shipped to a steel mill at Geneva, Utah, or consumed within the State at a steel plant in Pueblo. The rest of the State's coal output, recently averaging well over 3 million tons, is marketed chiefly within the State for generation of electric power or heating. Pro- duction is holding steady at 3.5 million tons annuall y and is expected to grow as power consumption increases. Oil Shale Northwestern Colorado contains the greatest accumulation of oil shale in North America. Some technicians claim that methods already devised and tested could mine and process this rock to obtain products substantially equivalent to those that could be recovered from about a trillion barrels of petroleum. Costs are such however, that large-scale commercial production is not expected ir: the near future. Other Mineral Products Carbon dioxide is produced as a gas along wi th natural gas or oil in certain wells and often is wasted to the air. Two plants, in Bent and Montezuma Counties, now process carbon di- oxide from wells in Las Animas and Montezuma Counties, and market it as dry ice and as liquid carbon dioxide. Peat production in Boulder, Gilpin, and Teller Counties is increasing but it is being used only as an admixture in fertil- izers or as a soil conditioner. Workers on the assembly line of the Western Division, Clifton Precision Products Company put together a rotary component called a synchro. The highly industrial re- gion around Pikes Peak lists skilled workers as its most important "natural resource." 41