Re: Standard Chemical Co./ Placerville, CO (pics/ link)

There is an interesting book on the Standard Chemical Company in the Uravan, Colorado area: "Standard Chemical Company, A Collection from the Rimrocker Historical Society". Rimrocker is based in Naturita, Colorado. Standard built and operated the Joe Jr. mill near Club Mesa, the site would later become the town of Uravan, which is no more. Numerous photos of mines and the mill, as well as other activities are included in the book.

There have been some discussions on some of the narrow gauge modeling boards about the Standard Chemical tank car and what it carried - according to the Rimrocker book it was "oil for engines". I assume that "engines" referred to the generators at the power plant for the mill.

As far as the discussion of radiation, and the vanadium mines, all of the vanadium mines in the Uravan mineral belt have significant uranium as well - they are, in effect uranium-vanadium deposits. The radiation that one might get exposed to on the surface is not appreciable, as the uranium grades are generally too low to be of significance, and the exposure time for an individual is quite limited. All of the mines have radon gas, which is a daughter product of uranium decay, and it is a health hazard, especially for smokers.

TED
u3o8geo



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/17/2016 08:33AM by u3o8geo.