1969 1970. 1971.

• Revised.

There have been many attempts to make profitable use of the gypsum obtained as a byproduct in many industrial processes. Large quantities of this gypsum are produced in the manufacture of phosphoric acid fertilizer. This waste gypsum has to be either stockpiled at the factory site or discharged into rivers or the sea. In the United States, experiments aiming at the use of waste gypsum have not succeeded owing to the low quality of the finished product. Also, production on an industrial scale seems to have encountered difficulties. The quality of the manufactured hemihydrate gypsum, in some instances, reached the lower limits of the quality standards. Customers refused the use of essentially

lower quality gypsum. It thus appears that the use of byproduct gypsum is feasible only in those areas where no natural gypsum supplies are available.

Sabina Industries has announced that preliminary talks with two American corporations have taken place recently regarding the sublicensing of the U.S. rights to the process for production of high-quality gypsum from waste byproduct of phosphate fertilizer manufacture. Further discussions are planned in the coming weeks, these directed toward a possible agreement with one or other of these companies. Sabina has held the Canadian rights to the process from Giulini GmbH of Frankfurt, West Germany, for several months and re

cently acquired exclusive right to the process within the United States.2

A new hemihydrate process for making sulfuric acid is said to be especially suitable to locations near a good supply of nat. ural gypsum. Lummus Co. and Nippon Kokan of Japan, have developed two processes based upon Nippon's existing commercial acid process. Europe is expected to react with enthusiasm to this improved technology, and a Swedish firm already has opened communications about it.3

Oesterreichische Stickstoffwerke AG, of Linz, Austria, are currently cooperating with Krupp Chemieanlagenbau, of Essen, to improve the OSW gypsum-sulfuric acid process. The improvement, it is stated, will concern the heat economy of the process, this to be considerably improved by a sinking of specific heat requirements. The Austrian process, usable with natural anhydrite or phosphoric acid byproduct gypsum, is subject to worldwide interest, it is stated in Linz.4

To comply with state laws regulating toxic sulfur emissions and other stack gases, The Anaconda Company is installing smelter emission controls which essentially

remove the sulfur content of the gases. Present Montana State laws limit emissions to 43 tons per day, but Anaconda currently releases tonnages greatly in excess of this amount. As part of a long-term plan the company intends spending some $26 million to cure the problem and at the same time increase the capacity of the smelter. The first phase of the expansion plan will take two years. An interesting byproduct of the proposed installations will be gypsum. First the SO2 driven off in the gases is converted to sulfuric acid (the plant, which is similar to most other smelters in the U.S., will have a daily capacity of 600 tons); indigenous supplies of limestone will then be brought in, calcined, and reacted with the sulfuric acid to give easily stored calcium sulfate. However, Montana is already well supplied with gypsum by producers of the naturally occurring mineral, and Anaconda will have to look farther afield for markets.5

2 The Northern Miner. V. 57, No. 49, Feb. 24, 1972, p. 18.

3 Chemical & Engineering News. Sept. 13, 1971, p. 48.

Chemical Age. V. 103, No. 2719, Aug. 27, 1971, p. 6.

5 Industrial Minerals. V. 45, June 1971, p. 35.

Sales of high purity helium (99.995 percent purity) 2 in the United States continued to decline in 1971, falling 18 percent to a total of 447 million cubic feet.3 Approximately 39 percent of this total was sold by the Bureau of Mines and 61 percent was accounted for by private industry plant sales. Exports of high purity helium, all by private industry, totaled 130 million cubic feet in 1971. The f.o.b. Bureau of Mines plant price for high purity helium sold during the year remained at $35 per thousand cubic feet, while private industry plant prices averaged $21 per thousand cubic feet.

On January 26, 1971, following careful and intensive review of the helium conservation program over a period of 3 years, the Department of the Interior invoked the termination provisions of the four contracts under which the Bureau of Mines purchased helium for long-term conservation storage. Under the termination notices the United States was to cease the purchase of helium at 8:00 a.m., March 28, 1971. However, on March 27 the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas, in an action brought by three of the contractors, issued an order which, in effect, required

the United States to continue the purchase of helium from the three contractors pending further order of the Court. The order was affirmed on appeal on the ground that the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act had not been complied with. As of yearend 1971, the Department was in the process of formulating an environmental impact statement in furtherance of an evaluation of the environmental consequences of termination of the con

tracts.

The fourth contractor, who was not a party to the suit in Kansas, filed a suit in the Court of Claims contending that the failure of the Government to make payments under its contract for an extended period of time constituted a material breach of the contract excusing the contractor from performance. A decision by the Court of Claims held that the Government's failure to pay constituted a material breach, justifying the contractor in regarding the contract at an end. The issue as to damages is yet to be litigated. Pursuant to an interim storage contract, the Bureau of Mines is accepting for storage helium delivered by this contractor.

As of yearend 1971, there were 12 helium extraction plants operating in the United States. Of these, two were owned by the Federal Government and operated by the Bureau of Mines, five were private industry plants extracting helium primarily for long-term conservation storage, and five were private industry plants producing helium for independent sale to commercial (non-Federal) customers.

Total helium extracted from natural gas during 1971 declined approximately 1 per

cent to 4,565,103,000 cubic feet. Approximately 87 percent of this total was crude helium 4 and only 13 percent was high purity helium produced for sale. About 87 percent of crude helium production was

1 Geographer, Division of Fossil Fuels.

2 Referred to as grade A helium in previous Minerals Yearbook chapters.

3 All helium statistics in this chapter are reported in terms of contained helium measured at 14.7 pounds per square inch absolute and 70°F.

Helium mixed with various quantities of other light gases, mostly nitrogen.