Re: Gilsonite mine -part II

There are several photographs of the mining operations in Uintah Railway Pictorial volume II. Mining is no longer happening in the veins south of the White river that the Uintah railway was built ot serve, bu tmining does continue north of the river at Bonanza, Utah. A crew of twenty miners or so, mine small quantities of Gilsonite to be used in many industrial applications. The mining today is done in almost the exact same way as it was accomplished in the 1920's and 30's, with men hand mining the Gilsonite off of the wall of the vein, hundreds of feet below the surface. The only real difference is he use of small pnuematic hammers rahter than a hand pick. American Gilsonite was bought out by Chevron corporation ten+ years ago, and is still alucrative operation. The chemical quality of the ore is tested continually, and depending on the properties found in a certain section of the mine, can bring exorbant prices, I was shown a testing lab int he early 1990's by the then mine manger, and a gallon paint can sized container of pulverized Gilsonite dust would bring $70-$300 depending on it s chemical make up. By wieght, at three hundred dollars, its not far behind gold and much better than crude oil, let alone its poor distant cousin - coal.
I highly recomend a trip to this barren area around Bonanza to see the Gilsonite mines to everyone, a marval of modern mining technology and a wonder of nature. Also the older smaller mines that the Uintah served are worth a trip, to see the old mines and the way the railroad reached them ( a book, a map, and even photographs do not do this rugged country justice).