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<br />SHORT AGE OF MINERS <br />Colorado Coal Production to Rise in 1975 <br /> <br />Colorado III expected to Inere:.se ooal <br />production In 1975 by about 5OO,OOC' ton5 81. <br />though market demand! could take mOfe <br />.... <br /> <br />'=' <br />C <br />0) <br />'1 <br /> <br />than that. a Colorado Bureau of Mine!!' of. <br />ficial said Friday. <br />Production fOf 1974111estimaled at U <br />million tons, up about 500,000 tons from <br />1973, said Andrew Deborski. chief Colora- <br />do Coal Mine Inspector, By November <br />J974, production had already surpassed <br />19;3 output. Ikcember and final figures <br />are being tallied. <br />Although roa] demand III up. C8U!led In <br />part by declining availability of natural <br />gas fOf nonresidential use, Colorado coal <br />productlon In the immediate future could <br />be limited to less than it! potential by . <br />lack of trained coal miners. <br />Six new coal mining operations were <br />licensed recently in Pitkin, Moffat and <br />Delta Counties. Five of the mines will be <br />underground operatlonll and one is to be a <br />Btrip mine, Deborskl said, <br />Deborski said minin~ companle3 ll.re <br />reluctant to begin rapid C{JsI strip-mine <br /> <br />expansion until they know what the rules <br />regulating them will be, President Ford's <br />pocket veto of the strip-mIne bill put off <br />indefinitely the "rules" under which <br />federally owned coal can be developed, he <br />said. <br />To cope with the anticipated shortage of <br />trained miners, coal companies and the <br />Colorado Bureau of Mines are e~'al\lating <br />school programs 10 teach coal mining and <br />related trades. <br />Planned trainIng facilitit's will lncluoe <br />additions to the Delta.~1ontr(l~e Technical <br />School, Trinidad Junior College find <br />others. <br />A Colorado surface mining oJl('r<lllon <br />Rverages 70 lon~ of roal per man-hour <br />worked, compared with underground <br />operation yields averaging 13 to 14 lons <br />per man hour, <br />The Colorado GeologicAl Survey es- <br />timates that total coal resources In Colo- <br /> <br />rado are 230 billion tons in depths down 10 <br />6,000 feet. <br />Colorado ha.!l 10 IX'r ctnt of the total <br />pN.)\'('n coal rt'sen'('s In the United States. <br />Approximately 573,372,000 tons of C(lal <br />have ~n produced in Colorado since the <br />industry began to compile records In 11\ll4. <br />A peak production per year was reach('d <br />during the yeMs 1!l17.20 when the minp~ <br />produced about 12l1a million tons per y{'ar, <br />according to the Colorado Geologica] Sur. <br />vey, <br />Nearly all the early produl'lion WjJ~ <br />from unrlergrounrl mines, anrl the ('(lal <br />wa~ used to fuel names, Inriu.~try Rnd <br />railroad~. When oil and natural ,Il1l~ <br />replaced ena], production dropped to only <br />a f('w million Ions annually, mostly for <br />power phmts and thl"! Pueblo stel.'l mill. <br />Shorta;:('!1 of oil and Ei:as and !h('lr <br />mcr('.flS('d cost are making ClIal production <br />inl'rease, he said. <br />