Community Correspondence - Fax to the Commission dtd 08/11/05 from Anne Gomez regarding Davis-Monthan Air Force Base - Includes A Rebuttal to the D-M 50 White Paper

Abstract: Reconnaissance of Red Rock Valley was begun on December 10, 1953, and completed on February 11, 1954. The mines in the region were investigated and all exposures of Salt Wash were walked. Paleostream directions and alterations of the sandstones were observed and recorded on a base map. No important new mineralization was discovered-and the area is considered to be of no commercial significance if judged by the outcrops alone. However, a vast amount of Salt Wash lies at slight depth directly to the east of the investigated area.

From introduction: During the summer of 1951, Navajos conducted John W. Chester, Russell C. Cutter, and E. V. Reinhardt, Grand Junction Exploration Branch, U. S. Atomic Energy Commission, to a copper deposit in Copper Canyon. Little radioactivity was noted, and no further work was done in the area at that time. In October 1951, the same group of Navajos reported the discovery of uranium ore in another portion of the same area. The site was visited by Cutter who noted that an excavation made by the Navajos had disclosed a 3-foot thickness of low-grade uranium ore. In November 1951, Cutter again visited the area and observed that the Navajos had opened a 5-foot face of good ore.

Abstract: Ten days were spent during June 1955, examining the sedimentary rocks along the San Juan and Colorado Rivers between Mexican Hat, Utah, and Lee's Ferry, Arizona. The most favorable area for uranium deposits occurs in the Shinarump member of the Chinle formation between Clay Hills Crossing and Spencer Camp along the San Juan River. Mineralization is spotty and deposits are small and almost all below ore-grade. Only one small mine, the Whirlwind, is currently producing ore. Gray-green alteration of the underlying Moenkopi is moderately developed in the vicinity of the Whirlwind mine; elsewhere alteration is weakly developed.