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Show BOSTON CONSOLIDATED. Everyone who can read English, Spanish, or reformed re-formed spelling knows something of the Boston Consolidated Mining Company, for it has held a prominent place in mining literature ever since it was organized. People who never heard of Boston before, now beam with a look of intelligence intelli-gence when the word is mentioned in their hearing hear-ing and say: "Oh, yes! That is a town back East named after the great copper property at Bingham." They are mistaken, of course. Boston was not named after the Boston Con., but the fact illustrates illus-trates the prominence of the company in the "West and the influence it has had on the education educa-tion of the masses. In. former anniversary issues Goodwin' Weekly has described in detail the mineral resources re-sources which first attracted the attention of-Samuel of-Samuel Newhouse and of some of the richest copper cop-per magnates of Boston and impelled them to invest in-vest great sums of money in utilizing for mankind man-kind the undeveloped treasures of nature. Since those descriptions were written further exploration explora-tion has established as mathematical facts estimates esti-mates that were once only roseate predictions. We have more positive knowledge of the extent and value of the porphyritic and sulphide ore bodies bod-ies than we had a year ago, but this knowledge simply confirms what had already been demonstrated demon-strated by the rules of logic and seen with the eye of faith. The really important developments of the year have been In the engineering and mechanical field. The transformation of hard, dull, dirty rock Into shining bars of copper, silver and gold at the lowest cost in money and time is the task to which the Boston Con. experts have addressed themselves. The problem differs only In details from that which confronts the pioneer who locates a great expanse of rich virgin land which must be transformed into wheat, corn, hogs, cattle, fruit and vegetables. The pioneer can do it, of course, . with perseverance and a sharpened stick, but, at ' the present price of farm products he can make , fl nothing by such. methods. To get results that will ( WM justify his efforts he must use some capital in the t, purchase of machinery and equipment, and still he must not spend more in producing his crops ' 9 than he can reasonably expect to get for them in the market. fl The maximum of efficiency at the minimum of , expense has been the object kept in view in all the improvements planned and executed by the ,. Boston Con. both at Bingham and Garfield. Re- '( 'fl memberlng that these improvements represent the ; best efforts of modern science to supply the world I , j. .H with copper, at the lowest possible cost, we should ! 1 "H take more than a casual interest in them. ' The treatment of the sulphide ores of BIng- ;. fl him is no problem at all. They are blasted out of the veins, loaded in cars in the usual manner and fed to the furnaces of the smelters. If the Bos- . . ton had only sulphides to deal with it would need 'M no concentrating mill and it would be less than half the mine it is1. The porphyry ore, which runs j not in veins, but forms a whole mountain, ere- i''l ates the demand for the mill and for a wholesale JH system of mining. The steam shovel attends to : '.J the mining end. For some months the Boston has had two of these sublimated navies scraping the . loose formation up by the ton and dumping It Into H waiting cars. The concentration process, which is being worked out at Garfield, on the south H shore of Salt Lake, is more complicated. H The company is doing at Garfield what it be- , H gan to do two years ago at Pelican Point, west , ifl of Utah Lake. The change was made because of i . S the unreasonable demands of Pelican Point land ! ; 'fl owners and also because Garfield had been se- i ( H seltec as a site for the copper smelter of the , ! fl American Smelting & Refining Co. Knowing full V . 19 well that human labor Is the most expensive item ( Jfl of operating cost, the Boston has exhausted its 1 jjH 1 1 I 'if Ingenuity in devising automatic processes. Folks I I ! ' f If! may safely carry the pennies made from its prod- I I ; ft,'. uct in their months, for the soiled hands of the I i M j :; workmen will not touch the copper from the time B , 1 ; ? -$ ; it goes into the mill as crude ore until it emerges I 't, as a high concentrate. Gravity chutes' and end- I J , ' ' jfjJ less apron carriers will move the material from , I a; place to place. The cars from Bingham will be I j . s jl dumped into bins at the highest point in the mill. I ,1 Thence the ore will be fed through patent gates j jp to the belt conveyors and carried to two gyratory j 1 i 1 , i; I ; crushers. After the preliminary crushing the ma- I It I- terial is automatically screened and the bigger I i' I ''iW' pieces diverted to a pair of Shorthead gyratory I ' ' J P crushers, which brings them down to the proper j y p ize for the stamps. More conveyors take the I .t t m crushed ore to the flne-oro bins, which, by the way, i ' ' ; P have a capacity of 12,000 tons. From these bins ; ; ', i j! the ore is drawn off in sufficient quantities to sat- j ) i '$ isfy the appetites of 312 Nissen stamps. When I ; : - . the stamps get through with it the ore will go j ; ; Hj- through a 28-mesh screen and is ready for division J ' t into valuable metal and uspless waste. ; r '1 ' . j m No one but experts and darned liars claim to j iw& understand the fine points of this final concentra- I j '; ifJH tion. The principle followed is that metal par- ' j . 'f tides are heavier than the particles of rock and l ? 1 1 can be made by suitable handling, either dry or ; 1 j in water, to settle to the bottom. At the Boston ( ' ."if-!;' mill the handling will be done over 286 Wilfley ' j X, tables, a set of Callow cone settling tanks and , I -."K 'l ! 234 Johnston concentrators. The finest ore will I ' I m have to run the full gamut of machinery, while ij j ' f! B the coarser particles will be 0. K. as they come I i I m from th0 w111103'8, - ' it K When the whole mass has been properly laun- ! ' BtifM' dried it will bo hung out in the settling tanks to f. IhB dry. Afterward machinery will place It in cars I llfK and tbe cars will carry it to the smelter to be t iffli starched and ironed, f '!$PPflff Tll Cftpacity oC tn0 ml11 19 dotorminod by the capacity of the stamps, and tests have shown that each stamp will pulverize 10 tons of ore in 24 hours. On this basis the plant will have an initial capacity of from 2700 to 3000 tons daily. Human skill is not yet able to save all the values in low grade gold ore. Copper is lighter than gold and is, therefore, harder to savo by gravity processes, but the men who know most about the Boston method say that the Wilfley tables will take out from G5 to 67 per cent of the metal and that not more than 25 per cent will get away from the settling tanks and Johnston concentrators. con-centrators. It is estimated that the plant will be able to show one ton of concentrates for every 16 or 20 tons that come from the mine. The electrical equipment of the mill has been awarded .o the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Manu-facturing Co. Oil-insulated, water-cooled transformers trans-formers of 4000 K. W. capacity at 80,000 volts will be installed with 80,000-volt automatic high tension ten-sion circuit breakers for their protection. Three individual high tension power linos will be in service at all times and two held in relay, thus assuring the company continuous service. These lines will be automatically connected, and in the event any trouble arises on one of them the others can be readily switched or transferred. Eighty thousand-volt lightning arresters will be installed on each circuit to protect the apparatus against the elements. This contract also includes the entire en-tire motor equipment, consisting of 2500 horsepower horse-power of induction motors. The amount of the outlay in this contract is possibly $50,000. The power for the operation of the mill will be furnished fur-nished by the Telluride Power Co. |