The smelters of the El Paso district furnish a market for metallurgical lime and fluxstone obtained from Ordovician and Lower Cretaceous limestones which crop out in the immediate vicinity.

The principal lime rock in Texas is the Austin chalk formation (Cretaceous) which averages only 70 to 90 per cent calcium carbonate, but locally may have adequate purity for exploitation. This formation is quarried and burned for lime in several places in east central Texas, especially in Comal, Travis, and Williamson Counties. Chemical lime is produced south of San Antonio and shipped to the growing industrial area about Corpus Christi. Bedrock limestone has to compete with dredged oyster shell for the high quality stone market along the Gulf coast.

Colorado. About 20 per cent of Colorado's annual crushed limestone production is used as a flux in the Pueblo iron furnaces and in the smelters of Colorado's mineral belt. Most of the limestones in this state are too impure for metallurgical purposes, but two formations, occurring in the Mississippian and the upper Cretaceous, are locally adequate for fluxstone and lime burning.

The Leadville and other massive limestones of the Mississippian system are exploited in Colorado for metallurgical stone. Biggest production is at Monarch west of Salida in Chaffee County where fluxstone is quarried for use at Pueblo and Leadville. Another Mississippian limestone deposit at Rockwood north of Durango in La Plata County, southwestern Colorado, has been developed for both lime rock and flux.

The Timpas member of the Cretaceous Niobrara formation is exploited in east central Colorado, especially in Pueblo, El Paso and Fremont counties, for cement, lime, and flux. Reference: John W. Vanderwilt, "Mineral Resources of Colorado", Colorado Mineral Resources Board, 1947, pp. 244-246.

Utah. Utah is the eighth state in fluxstone production, immediately following Illinois. About one-third of the crushed limestone produced in this state is used as a fluxing stone, not only in the copper smelters and steel plants within the state, but also in similar plants in California and in the El Paso, Texas, area. Limestones are scarce in the southwest so metallurgical grade stone here has high place value and can also travel unusual distances to market.

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Leading counties for metallurgical and lime burning stone are Tooele and Utah. In addition to fluxing stone, dolomite is also quarried for refractory uses.

California. California is the leading state in the production of portland cement. It is ninth in lime production. This state also produces refractory dolomite, chemical stone, and fluxing stone, but the quantities are small because there is very little metallurgical grade stone in California. For this reason, steel companies have gone as far away as Utah, British Columbia, and Alaska in seeking stone of the quality needed.

The California limestones, used mainly in the manufacture of portland cement and in lime burning, are mostly of Paleozoic age. They occur as inliers in the highly folded Mesozoic and Cenozoic sedimentary and volcanic rocks. The deposits are discontinuous and individual deposits have a relatively short life.

Limestone has been reported from 52 of the 58 counties of California. During 1961 nineteen lime plants were in operation in thirteen counties; four-fifths of the total production came from plants in northern California. Much of the lime produced is used in open hearth steel furnaces and by the chemical industry.

Although most of the limestone produced is high calcium stone, dolomite also is produced and is used as a refractory and for chemical purposes.

References: Earl W. Hart, "Geology of Limestone and Dolomite Deposits in the Southern Half of Standard Quadrangle, Tuolumne County, California", The California Division of Mines, Special Report 58, 1959, 25 pp.; Oliver E. Bowen, Jr. and Cliffton H. Gray, Jr., "Geology and Economic Possibilities of the Limestone and Dolomite Deposits of the Northern Gabilan Range, California", California Division of Mines, Special Report 56, 1959, 40 pp.; O. E. Bowen, Jr., "Mineral Commodities of California", California Division of Mines, Bulletin 176, 1957, pp. 113-120, 293-306; William B. Clark, "The CoolCave Valley Limestone Deposits, El Dorado and Placer Counties, California", California Journal of Mines and Geology, Volume 50, Nos. 3 and 4, July-October 1954, pp. 439-466; Oliver E. Bowen, Jr., "Geology and Mineral Deposits of Barstow Quadrangle, San Bernardino County, California", California Division of Mines, Bulletin 165, April 1954, pp. 160-170.

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It was determined during the preparation of the first edition of this study 15 years ago, by inquiries sent to members of the National Lime Association, that the average life expectancy of the metallurgical grade limestone deposits then being worked was less than 30 years, and that an average of $10,000 was being spent by each responding company each year in the search for new deposits. Since then many deposit life expectancies have been shortened by increases in quality specifications, or by condemnation of valuable stone land for highway (including interchanges) rights-of-way, or for other reasons.

Likewise the search for adequate undiscovered limestone deposits has become more and more difficult, and more and more expensive.

It can be assumed that most of the limestone of metallurgical grade that will be needed fifty years hence has not yet been discovered, and the finding of it will not be cheap.

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SUMMARY OF PRINCIPAL POINTS

STATEMENT OF NATIONAL LIMESTONE INSTITUTE, INC. *

On Section 501(a) of H.R. 13270

Filed with the Senate Finance Committee

on September 26, 1969

(1) The National Limestone Institute, Inc. is an industry association composed of some 549 limestone producers located in 34 states. Its members produce aggregates for highways and other construction, agricultural limestone, and other limestone products.

(2) The National Limestone Institute opposes

the proposed reductions under the House bill in the exist-
ing percentage depletion rates for limestone from 15 and
5 percent to 11 and 4 percent.

(3) Percentage depletion recognizes that mineral
resources are wasting assets and is an important part of
the National minerals policy to assure an adequate supply
of natural resources at a reasonable cost to the consuming
public. The proposed rate reductions indicate a significant
change in this policy and should be carefully considered.
They were not based upon any study of either the limestone
industry or the mining industries generally, and it is
unlikely that the Ways and Means Committee even considered
them in terms of any mining industries other than oil and
gas.

(4) The economic impact of the proposed rate reductions would be severe in the case of individual producers in the limestone industry. It is an industry of small businesses and modest profit margins. The average price of limestone has actually decreased from $1.40 per ton to $1.38 per ton since 1950, when limestone was granted percentage depletion, although the producers' costs have increased substantially during the same period.

(5) Investors in the limestone industry need the incentive of percentage depletion to develop limestone deposits and produce marketable limestone products efficiently in order to meet the demand for limestone which has almost tripled since 1950 and which is expected to continue to grow parallel to the trends in population and gross national product.

* Submitted by Paul W. Seitz, First Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors.