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non: 7 . CHAPTER VI MINERALS With incentives for finding new ore removed, little exploration work was carried out in the early 1960's and known reserves diminished. Since 1965, however, electric power producers have been ordering increasing numbers of atomic-powered generators to the point that proved uranium re- serves do not appear sufficient to meet the expected demand. Thus a new exploration and development "boom" is taking place in the plateau country but not with the enthusiasm of the earlier boom. Since surface outcrop- pings had been well explored earlier, expensive drilling is left as the only means of finding new reserves. Only the larger companies have the means and facilities to carry out extensive drilling programs. Condi- tions are favorable for finding subsurface ore reserves but, as with pe- troleum, it is expected that exploration and development will proceed cautiously. . Copper probably was discovered in the plateau as early as 1880. Ac- tivity was stimulated as early as 1906 in the White Canyon and Big Indian Wash Areas when the price of the metal increased. Since that time, sev- eral localities have produced intermittently. In the past, some of the ores, notably those of White Canyon, were not accepted at times because of an objectionable accompanying substance, uranium. When uranium mining became profitable in 1948, extraction of byproduct copper was investi- gated as some of the ores contained considerable ~uantities of this ele- ment. A copper concentrate was shipped to El Paso from the Texas Zone mill at Mexican Hat. Today copper is extracted from uranium ores at the Moab mill, and copper is leached from sandstone at several localities on the plateau. Some manganese may have been mined at two localities in the San Juan Area, one in the Wilson Mesa Area near Moab and the other near Muleshoe Wash near La Sal Junction. Examination of the workings indicates that little or no ore has been shipped. Potash Valuable deposits of potash minerals occur in southeast Utah and ad- jacent Colorado. in a thick seCJ.uence of saline deposits known as the Para- dox Formation. With the potash are potential commercial amounts of mag- nesium, bromine, boron, lithium, and other elements contained in bedded salt, in brines within the Paradox Formation, and in porous parts of other formations above and below the Paradox where brines have migrated. Sev- eral of these deposits are exceptionally large. One is known to be 110 miles long, about 30 miles wide, and with a thickness at one locality of' more than 400 feet. However, most of the potash-bearing zones are not thick, and many of the thicker sections probably result from flowage and concentration of salt into crests of folds. . With use of potash as a fertilizer increasing rapidly, the area's salt deposits are a vital resource for the nation. Domestic potash 62