Rifle mine, Colorado

All of the tests conducted in the pilot plant were with a single batch of Colorado oil shale from the U.S. Bureau of Mines mine at Rifle, Colo. Mine run material was crushed to 1/4-in. size at the mine and sieved elsewhere into various fractions. We selected a —6+10 U.S. Standard sieve size material for most of these tests because it was the largest size which we could successfully feed with our existing equipment. This material had a Fischer assay oil yield in the 20-25 gal/ton range. 

Any complex code, such as YAQUI, must be calibrated and verified by comparing calculations with the results of realistic field experiments. A series of explosive field tests using ANFO in oil shale has been conducted in the Colony Mine near Rifle, Colorado. These experiments were performed under DOE auspices with the cooperation of Atlantic Richfield, TOSCO, and the Colony Development Corporation. They were conducted for comparison with code calculations and to obtain empirical information about blasting in oil shale. 

Our starting material was oil shale from the Anvil Points Mine near Rifle, Colorado, that had been ground and sieved to <0.84 mm diam. This was then assayed and found to have an oil content of 22 gal/ton. The samples used in our experiments were pyrolyzed and analyzed in the apparatus diagrammed in Figure 1. 

Anvil Points mine near Rifle, Colorado. Some samples from the... 

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