INDUSTRY: Sulphur from the Sea

The search for yellow gold has sent Freeport Sulphur Co. deep into the marshes of the Mississippi delta country, drilling from rigs floated atop steel barges or straddled on a forest of pilings. The risks of searching for sulphur are high (the company lost $1.5 million drilling into one barren offshore salt dome last year alone), the costs of mining it even higher. But willingness to take the risks built Freeport into the second biggest producer (first: Texas Gulf Sulphur Co.) of the mineral that is used in the production of everything from fertilizers to detergents, steel and rubber. Last week Freeport tackled its biggest risk yet: President Langbourne M. Williams, 53, announced a deal to exploit one of the world’s richest sulphur mines and the first large known offshore deposit.

Freeport agreed to develop the Grand isle Block 18 dome (estimated reserves: upwards of 30 million tons), which was discovered in 1954 by Humble Oil & Refining Co. while drilling for oil under 45 ft. of water* six miles off the Louisiana coast. The two companies will split evenly the after-tax profits from production, which is due to start in 1960. But Freeport must first spend about $30 million in mining equipment and port facilities. To pay off its investment in Grand Isle Block 18, Freeport must mine 500,000 to 600,000 tons there every year—almost one-tenth of the total U.S. sulphur production of 6.9 million tons in 1955.

To withstand stormy waters on its exposed offshore location, Freeport will have to erect a drilling platform 60 ft. above the water. Using a method it pioneered, Freeport will pump superheated (330°) salt water down to the rock-imbedded sulphur, melting the mineral and forcing it toward the surface, from where thermos barges will haul the liquid sulphur 25 miles to Port Sulphur, La.

Freeport’s new production should put it just a pace behind Texas Gulf Sulphur (1955 production: 3.2 million tons v. 2.1 million for Freeport). Both companies carefully guard their reserve estimates. But some industry experts already guess that Texas Gulf Sulphur has been passed in total reserves by Freeport, which has an estimated 50 million to 60 million tons of sulphur buried along the Gulf coast, not counting the Grand Isle bonanza, which may produce up to double its expected 30 million tons.

* Freeport also got sulphur rights on two adjoining underwater Humble domes. Sulphur has already been found in one of them, while Freeport will continue the exploration started by Humble in the other.