Show present tendencies in in lead metallurgy by H B I 1 the specific and pertinent facts relating to the conditions costs and products bf lead smelting smelling sm elting are of the most vital concern to each and every lead smelter of peculiar interest to all lead miners and of considerable importance to all users of lead or its compounds more than this lead smelting smelling sm elting has a peculiar standing in that it is an important method of winning gold and silver from leady or other ores besides the varieties I 1 of market lead the smelt eries turn out bis nuth th copper silver gold and ead As a matter of fact in this coun ry the treatment of silver ores is now almost wholly a part of either lead or copier er smelting smelling sm elting taken in all its ramifications lead sm elting is quite a complicated business conditions cover wide ranges and are variable unqualified statements are danger armour institute of technology chicago chiago illinois ous the industry is also in progress of vigorous evolution and even as the pages are in press noteworthy advance is being accomplished A fully satisfactory exposition of the subject is little to be hoped for largely due to connoting interests in the business but certain generalities may be discussed in a tentative way from the data at hand the presentation divides itself naturally into these divisions 1 sources of ore supply VIV tr 4 zt 4 t at the front in a modern lead photo by L 0 howard 4 17 7 P M M siphoning the lead bullion into molds photo by bt H M smith 2 ore reserves and prospective resources 1 3 location of plants and methods of reduction 4 metals recovered 5 6 improvements in treatment methods 6 cost of smelting smelling Sm elting 7 qualities of metal obtained 8 uses for lead and its compounds 9 conditions of marketing sources of ore supply the united states is the largest prodoc i er of lead in the world at the present time the united states is also the chief consumer of lead this strong and independent condition of our lead business is accent accentuated ua ted by an appreciable tariff on lead and its ores so that there is slight foreign trade either way in the commodity what foreign lead does come in is nearly all from mexico naturally and financially tributary to our own country and and unrefined there because becaas of unfavorable industrial conditions our domestic lead mining sections are found largely in a few great districts foremost of all is the southeastern missouri field the coeur dalene district in idaho is a good second I 1 following these two greatest camps come southwest missouri the joplin district the three camps in utah park city and bingham the leadville district of colorado and san juan pitkin and mineral counties and san juan pitkin and mineral T counties in the same state each of these camps produces from a fifth to a fiftieth as much metal as the two leaders a after which and of still less importance may inay be mentioned the wisconsin zinc fields and various camps in arizona and new mexico our best authorities declare I 1 that the southeastern missouri lead unnes mines are yet in their unknown youth this does not infer that production is to increase remarkably or even at all but that the mines are going to be strong producers for many years the few large operating companies now control most of the known mineral lands and have established their production as on a manufacturing basis ore is extracted to meet the regular daily capacity of mills and amel teries ore og reserves it is not the custom nor is ds it necessary to actually blacck out ore reserves in the southeastern missouri lead mines the general mineral character of the holdings is pretty well known and current workings are making but small progress in exhausting the ever widening A few years ago 1906 idaho attained a maximum production produce ion and current reports had it thata that a permanent decline had set in during 1912 a new increase made production exceed all previous records while many of the mines ies are finding new deposits before unknown our two greatest camps are evidently going to continue great for many years yet utah is a very steady lead producer from to tons are mined each year the three important lead camps have operations so well established their silver lead mines so I large arge and well ordered that we have no fear of predicting uniform or even increasing yield for many years yet colorado is just now a gloomy mining region progress in ore dressing and smelt ingham ing has not expanded aided as rapidly as the richer deposits have yielded their treasure and the lead production has suffered a serious decline the effect is somewhat depressing but it is well to bear in mind that colorado has many huge deposits of mixed sulphides sulp hides now parly explored or under development which are of the utmost significance as resources it is not at all unlikely that one by one these deposits will come into the line of producers and give buoyant tone to every figure and reference to that states mineral production many of the metals are getting cheaper and their known reserves are increasing faster than their higher grade and most easily worked ores are undergoing depletion notable exceptions are platinum and radium the central valley zinc mines have been rich and their metal has been easily won but must inevitably lose relatively to the enormous deposits coming to the front in the west the same may be said of the lead mines southeastern missouri and the coeur dalene districts will long be heavy prodie producers ers but the lead to be won from the more refractory mixed sul sulphide bhide deposits of montana Alon tana idaho utah nevada arizona and new mexico is to increase both absolutely and relatively at the same time mining the characteristics of manu takes on more fracturing fac turing and loses the ill bestowed attribute of uncertainty Q quite bite recently the al armist alarmist ideas of a scarcity of iron ore have been effectually dissipated just as quickly would those proclaiming lack of zinc and lead ores find their words hollow if they understood the greatness of the western reserves plants and reduction ich at the present time there are twenty three important and active smelting smelling sm elting plants in the united states to this we may add nine refineries which rec recover over precious metals either in the same or adjunct plants the smelting smelling sm elting plants find their greatest concentration cent ration about salt lake city and the refineries fin eries about chicago in each instance three large plants are within a few miles of each other most of the smelting smelling sm elting plants are in the western states and conveniently situated on common com mon railroad points the ores have a short haul and coke usually a considerably longer one thus thi the e lead smelt eries about salt lake city treat ores from the camps of bingham park city and tintic gintic which camps immediately surround this central point the same smelt eries also serve to some extend the mines of nevada colorado ora doand and idaho chicago gets all or some of the crude bullion from eight or nine of the large western plants seven of the smelting smelling sm elting plants are in the central states and three in the eastern the larger plants consider not only railroad convenience veni ence but labor supply and the shortest combined haul for ore metal and fuel thus both federal and linsville collinsville Col illinois the locations of two large plants are close to the coal fields and on the right side of the st louis labor market as well as on the direct line of metal transport from fro in missouri Ils mines to market excepting the refinery near san fran cisco all the refineries are east of the mountains the largest in the world is at omaha three are within Chi cagos industrial limits and the most important ones on the eastern seaboard the locations have evidently been chosen on trunk lines near labor supply and not far from coal the idea is to refine at the most favorable point in transit from to market the methods of ore reduction vary considerably sider ably as influenced by conservatism character of ore available processes kind of ores and company progressiveness or temperament A curious relic of metallurgical evolution is yet operating at desloge missouri three old lead ies the last of the kind if in the country they treat a small part of the companas comp anys output and at a somewhat higher cost than larger plants do by other methods ore hearth plants still recover most of the lead from missouri mines in Iii southwest ern missouri all the plants have ore hearths the east side mines send most of their ore into illinois to ore hearth plants but at herculaneum Hercula missouri a great plant of improved western type is operating the general plan of treating in hearths yields some of the lead remarkably pure and obviates roasting equipment there are other minor advantages but the grade of the ore must be high and the material low in silica conditions of hygiene and labor and much are strongly against the process one of the southwestern missouri companies is already practicing the most approved roast sintering wintering and blast furnace combination while it is E not at all unlikely that the other plants will be constrained to adopt the same methods blast furnace smelting smelling sm elting is the universal method for reducing oxidized material while roast sintering wintering and then blast furnace reduction is the standard method for treating high sulphur ores in fact blast furnaces are so essential to full recovery of lead that practically every plant and ore hearth included uses this furnace to recover the last available amount of lead gold cold and silver not uncommonly bonati tute the greater value of both the original ore and the final bullion but the principals of the reduction are in no way altered lead is such a convenient collector of the precious metals that smelting smelling sm elting plants may at times be so gorged with gold silver ores and necessary fluxes that the scanty lead and matte fall barely holds the furnaces in working condition in this i case much skill is required and the smelling smelting sin sm e elting it I 1 ng has added importance lead is a natural collector of gold silver and platinum when they occur in ares ores melted in lead smelting smelling sm elting all lead ores and i most gold silver ores contain more or less copper sulphur is likewise a universal constituent ca n 1 1 of ores it joins with any copper 5 I 1 and then with lead and iron to make the ubiquitous matte during refining and of the lead dissolved copper silver and gold are separated and each found either in matte copper and silver or in dore bullion silver and gold gold and platinum originally present in the ores are recovered practically quantitatively tat ively and are best purified and separated by the electrolytic refining of the usual gold bars although most of the gold 1 in n an ore containing only oz per ton won would d actually be disposed of by the it is neither customary nor profitable to pay j for such in purchasing ore especially in tho j case of platinum it would be utterly out of the question to make the costly assays essays f bior or the insignificant amount commonly found fou in ore the real truth of the recovery first comes from the mint returns on recovered recovered rec overe metal to be continued |