Show THE MA M A S 0 RV R A V A ALLY alj EY 1 SMELTER S MELT ERY 7 0 by L T n 0 HOWARD M E 0 the of the mason valley mines company is situated at thompson sixteen north of moon nevada and one half miles an and d two miles northwest of wabuska babuska Wa buska the latter being a station 0 on n the goldfield branch of the southern pacific railway the property occupies a site of 1320 acres ind and in addition the company owns the of acres gregory ranch consisting 1 wore more some and a quarter miles south of the plant the site was so chosen as to make the handling of materials by gravity as easy as possible the contour of the ground being behig well fitted for this purpose water both for domestic and industrial use is all secured from sources located on company ground one mile east of the plant are two hot springs with a combined flow of forty gallons per minute this water is brought to the through a well as fuel aid and sup supplies aphes i is is f brought to wabuska babuska by the southern pacific thence to the plant by the copper belt the smelt ing company owns all of the on its property during the year 1912 the first year of the companas comp anys smelting smelling sm elting operations the plant treated tons of mason valley ore tons of custom ore and tons of limestone there was produced from the above tons of copper matte containing 1 pounds of copper ounces gold and ounces silver ore shipments from the companas comp anys mine are varied to suit the smelting smelling sm elting charges and all limestone used as flux comes from its min mines es at mason A lime carbonate ore in surface deposits provides a profitable part of the flux limestone is being quarried from above no 1 level of the weighing in hopper wei ghers A no gyratory crusher breaks the ore to pan pai a f four our inch ring it is then elev elevated abed to tl th top of the mill and a cut taken by a se ies of vezin samplers the plant is th tho 0 hughly to date the up reject is coil convene fey by belt to one of twenty five storage ba of about tons capacity each cleyon these bins is storage capacity tor for tor toi of coke from the bins any desired mixture 1 made by feeding through chutes to be conveyors which take the mixture to tk tl sample mill elevator and it can then t 1 accurately sampled and delivered to tl charge bins blast furnace equipment f there were installed in the blast f fi nace building which is f feet and cot co strutted ted of steel and concrete two blab bla furnaces twenty five feet long by fort ila M 1 fig 1 I general view of mason valley mines 0 company pay four inch pipe line by pumping to a reservoir the pump is electrically operated about feet south of the are two flowing wells one delivering 20 gallons per minute the other 0 these wells are coo and feet deep respectively and the water is lifted to storage reservoirs by electrically operated pumps in addition a 40 foot shaft well has developed seventy gallons a minute which is not being used the gregory ranch has valuable water rights and a slough on the site of the plant contains water on which rights have been secured source of ore the ore for the plant comes fro from m the many m any small niall s mines of the yerington district as well as from f rom the companas comp anys own mines at mason arason the mines of the nevada douglas at ludwig and the other shipping properties of the section the ore is delivered over the tracks of the nevada copper belt railroad which is controlled by the same interests which own the nevada douglas mines ore originating on other lines as mine hauled by electric motor to an aerial tram which delivers to the railroad by which it is hauled to the the ore charged to the furnaces contained somewhat over 33 per cent copper the recovery in the matte accounting for 3 32 per cent copper in the ore to which metallurgical losses must be added to get the copper content description of plant the construction of the was started in ill november 1910 the first train 0 of ore was received on december de C ember 2 1911 although the blast furnaces were not completed until january 1 1912 the first furnace was blown in on january 6 1912 ore brought in on cars of the nevada copper belt railroad is dumped to a crusher cru slier below a single track trac k shown to the left lef t of 1 lg 2 the sampling plant pl ant is situated near the right end of 0 f the trestle and occupies a building feet having four stories and a basement the capacity of f the plant is tons per hour all ore received is put through the mill after fc four ur inches wide the capacity of t furnaces was rated at tons each I 1 this capacity was much axce exceeded eded on one ea the furnaces has been increased i in n length leng to thirty feet and since september 19 19 has attained a capacity of tons of or c and flux the other furnace is b being bingel barged to the same capacity so that tk t total plant will treat about 1800 tons day with this present equipment the charge floor of the furn furnace ace is twe tw ty feet above the tapping floor the i fu naces are arranged end to end and 0 t I 1 charge brought from the charge bins ov tracks as shown in the illustration in trail trai of rocker dump cars which can be run 0 t either side of the furnaces and dun through the sides of the furnaces the hall hai age equipment consists co of tw two 0 jeffrey foli ton electric locomotives and twenty io v two ton rocker dump cars slag is hauled from the furnaces 1 twenty ton slag pots of which there three pulled by a fifteen ton jeffrey motive the pots are dumped by me of a controller located in the cab of the locomotive the matte is tapped to molds which are handled by another motor the matte contains forty per cent copper and is shipped to the garfield utah plant of the american smelting smelling Sm elting refining company for converting erting handling flue dust the gases from the blast furnaces are delivered to the dust chamber through steel down takes seven feet in diameter the dust chamber is of brick of a cross sc sectional area of square feet the arrangement ran gement for reclaiming the settled dust is interesting the floor of the chamber is ij given a 45 degree slope which causes the dust to flow by gravity to a conveying system whence a disc cable conveyor carries it about feet to the sintering wintering sint ering plant water is returned to the storage reservoir which keeps down the consumption the plant is provided with two electrically operated fire pumps and pipe lines for fire protection are run throughout the works proposed plant extension the company has recently let a contract for the installation of two converters of the great falls type twelve feet in diameter A glance at figure 2 shows that space was provided to the left of the blast furnace building for this equipment the saving by this improvement will be grea not only will freight and treatment charges be saved but an additional profit will be made by converting the copper on the ground ia h of the most modern type of high tension apparatus other buildings and equipment the machine sheet iron and blacksmith shop occupy a building feet built of heavy timber and corrugated iron the equipment of these shops is is very complete all sheet iron work for the the greater part of the enlargement work and mine repairs are handled here the carpenter shop occupies a frame building feet other buildings include a foot brick laboratory and assay office fully equipped two story office building of brick feet with six sleeping rooms and bath on the second floor electricians shop foot timber and corrugated iron warehouse boarding house for men completely furnished and equipped 4 aa ko ax W mi r 0 SIP k 11 st w K fig 2 view of mason valley from top of flue where with fine ores and concentrates it is sintered in two dwight lloyd sinter ing machines these machines handle tons a day the gases from the dust chamber pass through feet of foot flue to a brick chimney fifteen feet in internal diameter this chimney is located on an elevation of fifty feet above the charge floor and is feet high above the foundation giving a total height of feet above the charge floor water system water from the various sources is stored in a concrete reservoir of gallons capacity located above the at a height sufficient to provide ample pressure A wooden tank of gallons capacity supplies water from domestic purposes below the plant is a large cooling tower for the jacket water and all transformer water blast furnace water and com blowing equipment the blowers are situated in a brick and steel building with concrete floor feet there are two connersville Conners ville blowers having t a capacity of cubic feet of fi free ee air per minute each they are driven by four horsepower induction motors and are belted from both ends there i is space provided for a third blower A E K W motor 0 generator set complete with switchboard is located in the same room and supplies power for the D C electric haulage t locomotives in the transformer room which occupies a ce ep parate arate building 0 feet adjoining the blower building are three K W oil insulated water cooled transi transformers with oil switches arresters etc current is secured from the truckee river general electric company at 60 volts and is A transformed to ol 01 ak VT he installation with ice and refrigerating plant feet store building two story frame rooming house with twenty two rooms three pump houses cottages and houses as follows one 8 room for superintendent three 5 6 acom and bath nine 4 room and bath nine 3 room and bath three bunkhouses and schoolhouse profit and loss account the following charges have been written off covering the total operations of the c company for 1912 both mining and smelt ing mining ning development freight on com coill banys ore ore purchased sedy including freight or per ton of ore smelted smelt ed smelting smelling sm elting or 2522 per ton smelted smelt ed freight on matte converting refining marketing and interest on advances on copper or 1768 pelton smelted smelter smelt ed depreciation on oil building and equipment and amount written off deferred charges 0 or r per ton loss on gregory ranch or per ton interest on bonds or per ton making a total of or per ton smelted smelter smelt ed from sales of dopper copper silver and gold there was realized or per ton copper in transit or at refineries sold or unsold but not finally settled for is figured at or per ton of ore smelted smelter smelt ed ore matte and flue dust on hand at the or per ton smelted smelt ed rents or per ton making total credits of or per ton of ore smelted smelt ed leaving as net profits for the year or per ton smelted smelter smelt ed figured in pounds of copper the above means that the cost of producing refined copper was 1517 cents a pound comment the establishment of a in the yerington district has put that district in the producing class just what has been accomplished in this respect is evident by the future of this enterprise is indeed a glowing one and a comparison of the report for the year 1913 when it shall be issued with that of last year will probably serve to call favorable attention to t the ile yerington district as the center of a large copper industry tf 71 nil V al wak min 41 e II 11 3 A m ai I 1 T 4 t Z att mw slag pot and electric locomotive thompson portion of thompson photo by willa higgins photo by will 0 higgins the statement of jules labarth general manager in the last annual report that over different shippers sent ore to the plant these pres ores camel came from aiom over thirty different mining districts in nevada and california passing over the features of the plant which the description and photographs illustrate sufficiently it is evident that a prosperous enterprise has been started to produce copper at the above cost co S t might not be especially laudable in a long established plant but when the conditions surrounding this undertaking are considered the company deserves congratulation for its success the difficulties encountered are the usual ones in a new plant the org organization metallurgy and operating routine has required some time to bring up to efficiency and has now reached a stage where the economics of mining and smelting smelling sm elting will make their influence felt naturally the colip company any is now losing the profit prof it on converting which will soon be added to credit side when the converters are installed when all these factors are taken into consideration it is evident that the cost of producing copper will be greatly reduced |