Gilsonite
Last Updated: 3rd Jun 2013By Rick Dalrymple
Gilsonite
Gilsonite is a trade name for Unitahite or Unitaite *+. It is a hydrocarbon-based mineral product. Until recently it wasn't considered a coal, oil product, or asphalt. Now it is recognized as an asphalt. It is only found one place in the world, and that is in the Uintah Basin in northeast Utah and northwest Colorado.
Gilsonite was first discovered in the late 1850’s in what is today Gilson, Colorado. In August of 1857, a large scale privately financed project was started to retrieve petroleum products from gilsonite. This was the first time such an endeavor had been made to retrieve petroleum from a material other than crude oil.
Geology
The Uintah Basin ranges from 9,000 to 5,000 feet in elevation and is elliptical in shape. It is composed mainly of sandstone and shale that was deposited during the Cretaceous Period some 60 mya. Later the deposits were uplifted in the form of an elongated fold that brought strata that was previously below sea level to 20,000 feet above sea level. Over the next few millions of years the uplift was weathered and deposits of sand and mud were laid down in the Uintah Basin forming thick beds. It is thought that these beds contained the material that was to become gilsonite. Sometime later, as the ground flexed, it cracked, opening up areas that let the gilsonite fill in.
The veins of gilsonite run diagonally in a northwest and a southwest trend close to parallel. They range in size from a couple of inches wide to over 60 feet wide and some as deep as 2,000 feet and the seams go on in some places for 3 miles.
The only explanation to date, and it doesn’t really have much research put into it, is that the organic material, probably kerogen, was squeezed up through the sandstone.
Regardless, the seams have sat exposed for countless centuries, even as the area was being explored as early as the 1770’s. There are plenty of stories and legends about who and when it was discovered but nothing seems to be printed about its first observation. It is generally agreed that T.H. Wigglesworth was the first to take note of gilsonite as he was surveying a route for the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad Company around 1882. It was regarded as worthless until Sam Gilson made note of it in 1884.
History
Today it is named after Gilson. Who named it and when exactly, is lost in history.
In 1885, Professor William P. Blake wrote an article about it in “Engineering and Mining Journal” and gave it the name Uintahite.
But it is Gilson who brought what had previously be described as a "worthless rock" to a commercially valuable product. He enlisted mining engineers and chemists to find uses for it. He found new deposits and staked claims of his own as well as buying others claims as fast as he could.
Gilson wasn't just a man who stumbled into a remote area and found an interesting rock and became famous. He was a wild west adventurer. He was "desert smart". He was a former Pony Express rider, Indian scout and interpreter, he attended the Trans-Continental Railroad completion at Promontory Point for the Golden Spike ceremony, he attended the cornerstone ceremony for the famed Salt Lake Temple, and he served as a U.S. Deputy Marshall for a few years.
He and his venture capital partner finally got the big break they were looking for when they got the Anheuser-Busch Company interested in gilsonite. Anheuser-Busch had been importing asphalt from Italy to line their beer barrels and gilsonite was a much cheaper alternative.
Mining
In the early days, gilsonite was mined by hand. In many seams, a miner may have to work all day in a seam that he shimmied into sideways to pick at the gilsonite with one hand tied to a six pound pick. He would work up to 12 hours a day to fill a couple of 200 pound sacks. Gilsonite is very light so this would have been a monumental job. Work was also limited by how deep they could work, usually not going more than 100 feet down.
More recently it has been mined by hydraulic methods. Here the gilsonite is mixed with water and floated through a pipeline 72 miles long from the current mines to the current processing plant.
In 1901 there were about 300 claims for gilsonite, and by far the majority were owned by Gilson’s company.
There are no real figures printed showing the cost to produce and market gilsonite before 1902. But in 1902, one company report showed gilsonite sold for as little as $50 per ton to $100 per ton at a cost of $20 per ton to produce, making it very profitable to mine.
Uses
It is assumed that gilsonite's first use was to burn it like coal. This doesn't work well. It is not coal so it doesn't burn like coal. It melts, smokes, sizzles, and crackles a lot, but it doesn't burn.
Click on this link to see a 39 second video of it not burning.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssYQFfm5lYo
One of the first uses of gilsonite was as road pavement but it was too expensive. Cheaper asphalt could be shipped all the way from the country of Trinidad.
Then it was used as a preservative coating on metals to keep them from rusting. Ford used it as their “Japan Black” lacquer for the Model T cars, with as many as 13 coats applied for that glossy jet-black look.
By the early 1900’s it was used to add hardness and luster to varnishes. Run-of-the-mine material was used as a roofing material and then as a sealant for roofing. It was mixed with rubber to make buggy and coach tires. It was added to different types of ink.
Then it was used to preserve iron pipes and acid storage tanks as it is not attacked by acids (it can be dissolved by turpentine, alcohol, carbon bisulphate, heavy oils and fats, yet it is insoluble in water and acids).
As time goes on, uses for it have changed. Today it is used in the electrical industry. It is still used to line pipes and tanks because of its resistance to chemicals. It is used to insulate underground pipes for steam and hot water.
Gilsonite has been used in caulking, brake linings, electrical insulations, storage boxes for batteries, fiber board in buildings, and many molded products.
Gilsonite has been developed into high octane gasoline and extremely pure coke. It is still used in ink, paints and oil well drilling.
All in all it has been used in 160 different products.
* This is the same word spelled two different ways. It is pronounced the same either way. With the “h” is the official state spelling and without the “h” is the federal government spelling. The spelling without the "h" is used for natural features. These words come from Uinta-Ats Utes, a local Native American Tribe.
+Gilsonite is a registered name by American Gilsonite Company.
References;
The Story of Gilsonite by Herbert F. Kretchman. American Gilsonite Company
Gilsonite is a trade name for Unitahite or Unitaite *+. It is a hydrocarbon-based mineral product. Until recently it wasn't considered a coal, oil product, or asphalt. Now it is recognized as an asphalt. It is only found one place in the world, and that is in the Uintah Basin in northeast Utah and northwest Colorado.
Gilsonite was first discovered in the late 1850’s in what is today Gilson, Colorado. In August of 1857, a large scale privately financed project was started to retrieve petroleum products from gilsonite. This was the first time such an endeavor had been made to retrieve petroleum from a material other than crude oil.
Geology
The Uintah Basin ranges from 9,000 to 5,000 feet in elevation and is elliptical in shape. It is composed mainly of sandstone and shale that was deposited during the Cretaceous Period some 60 mya. Later the deposits were uplifted in the form of an elongated fold that brought strata that was previously below sea level to 20,000 feet above sea level. Over the next few millions of years the uplift was weathered and deposits of sand and mud were laid down in the Uintah Basin forming thick beds. It is thought that these beds contained the material that was to become gilsonite. Sometime later, as the ground flexed, it cracked, opening up areas that let the gilsonite fill in.
The veins of gilsonite run diagonally in a northwest and a southwest trend close to parallel. They range in size from a couple of inches wide to over 60 feet wide and some as deep as 2,000 feet and the seams go on in some places for 3 miles.
The only explanation to date, and it doesn’t really have much research put into it, is that the organic material, probably kerogen, was squeezed up through the sandstone.
Regardless, the seams have sat exposed for countless centuries, even as the area was being explored as early as the 1770’s. There are plenty of stories and legends about who and when it was discovered but nothing seems to be printed about its first observation. It is generally agreed that T.H. Wigglesworth was the first to take note of gilsonite as he was surveying a route for the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad Company around 1882. It was regarded as worthless until Sam Gilson made note of it in 1884.
History
Today it is named after Gilson. Who named it and when exactly, is lost in history.
In 1885, Professor William P. Blake wrote an article about it in “Engineering and Mining Journal” and gave it the name Uintahite.
But it is Gilson who brought what had previously be described as a "worthless rock" to a commercially valuable product. He enlisted mining engineers and chemists to find uses for it. He found new deposits and staked claims of his own as well as buying others claims as fast as he could.
Gilson wasn't just a man who stumbled into a remote area and found an interesting rock and became famous. He was a wild west adventurer. He was "desert smart". He was a former Pony Express rider, Indian scout and interpreter, he attended the Trans-Continental Railroad completion at Promontory Point for the Golden Spike ceremony, he attended the cornerstone ceremony for the famed Salt Lake Temple, and he served as a U.S. Deputy Marshall for a few years.
He and his venture capital partner finally got the big break they were looking for when they got the Anheuser-Busch Company interested in gilsonite. Anheuser-Busch had been importing asphalt from Italy to line their beer barrels and gilsonite was a much cheaper alternative.
Mining
In the early days, gilsonite was mined by hand. In many seams, a miner may have to work all day in a seam that he shimmied into sideways to pick at the gilsonite with one hand tied to a six pound pick. He would work up to 12 hours a day to fill a couple of 200 pound sacks. Gilsonite is very light so this would have been a monumental job. Work was also limited by how deep they could work, usually not going more than 100 feet down.
More recently it has been mined by hydraulic methods. Here the gilsonite is mixed with water and floated through a pipeline 72 miles long from the current mines to the current processing plant.
In 1901 there were about 300 claims for gilsonite, and by far the majority were owned by Gilson’s company.
There are no real figures printed showing the cost to produce and market gilsonite before 1902. But in 1902, one company report showed gilsonite sold for as little as $50 per ton to $100 per ton at a cost of $20 per ton to produce, making it very profitable to mine.
Uses
It is assumed that gilsonite's first use was to burn it like coal. This doesn't work well. It is not coal so it doesn't burn like coal. It melts, smokes, sizzles, and crackles a lot, but it doesn't burn.
Click on this link to see a 39 second video of it not burning.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssYQFfm5lYo
One of the first uses of gilsonite was as road pavement but it was too expensive. Cheaper asphalt could be shipped all the way from the country of Trinidad.
Then it was used as a preservative coating on metals to keep them from rusting. Ford used it as their “Japan Black” lacquer for the Model T cars, with as many as 13 coats applied for that glossy jet-black look.
By the early 1900’s it was used to add hardness and luster to varnishes. Run-of-the-mine material was used as a roofing material and then as a sealant for roofing. It was mixed with rubber to make buggy and coach tires. It was added to different types of ink.
Then it was used to preserve iron pipes and acid storage tanks as it is not attacked by acids (it can be dissolved by turpentine, alcohol, carbon bisulphate, heavy oils and fats, yet it is insoluble in water and acids).
As time goes on, uses for it have changed. Today it is used in the electrical industry. It is still used to line pipes and tanks because of its resistance to chemicals. It is used to insulate underground pipes for steam and hot water.
Gilsonite has been used in caulking, brake linings, electrical insulations, storage boxes for batteries, fiber board in buildings, and many molded products.
Gilsonite has been developed into high octane gasoline and extremely pure coke. It is still used in ink, paints and oil well drilling.
All in all it has been used in 160 different products.
* This is the same word spelled two different ways. It is pronounced the same either way. With the “h” is the official state spelling and without the “h” is the federal government spelling. The spelling without the "h" is used for natural features. These words come from Uinta-Ats Utes, a local Native American Tribe.
+Gilsonite is a registered name by American Gilsonite Company.
References;
The Story of Gilsonite by Herbert F. Kretchman. American Gilsonite Company
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Bonanza Area, Uintah County, Utah, USA