Show improvements AT ANACONDA montana copper company busy with many improvements along metallurgical lines work on the 2000 aton leaching plant of the anaconda company at the washoe washed smelter is making such good progress that tha L manager mathewson says the plant will be ready for operation toy by next spring excavation is now being made for the furnace building which will be fael in iii dimensions the leaching plant which will be feet the watering de building which will be feet and the so lution tanks which will occupy a space about the same size as the de watering bu briding buL ding iding orders for steel and furnaces for the plant have been placed this 0 o oi i plant pant is but a unit of what the system will be when eventually completed and which chic a will wili cost about the plant wa eventually be increased four or five times while at first it will be used for ane treatment of tailings there is no doubt but that in time it will be used on the ore direct and that the present smelting smelling sm elting system eventually will become obsolete five steps are used in removing the copper from the tailings first there is the de watering plant then the toasting roasting plant where the tailings are roasted the acid plant which prepares the chemicals the leaching plant itself where the tailings are treated with the acid solution and the precipitating plant the slime concentrator the new slime concentrator which has been in operation since march is giving splendid satisfaction six carloads or tons tans a day are turned out by this plant pant these concentrates run 7 to 8 per cent copper this concentrator has solved a problem that has bothered the smelter men for years heretofore about 25 per cent of the copper content of the ore escaped to the slum pond but by the new method this is practically all recovered and it is claimed that by the various improvements the company now recovers about 95 per cent of the mineral value of the ore new coal dust plant work on the new coal dust plant is well along toward completion and the plant will be ready for use by july 1st ast it Is being built at the east end of the building in this plant the coal will be dried and ground into a fine powder the furnaces in the department will be remodeled one by one so that the coal dust can be blown into them experiments have shown that the use of coal dust instead of lump jump coal results in a great saving in fuel no clinkers are left by the dust and the dust burns bums like gas it is predicted that the principles demonstrated at the smelter will in time be applied to coal burning furnaces and a maximum of heat from a minimum of fuel fuei obtained in addition to approving the action of the directors of the anaconda company in offering to take over the international smelting smelling Sm elting refining company tle the stockholders at their recent meeting approved other acts of the directors which disclosed two other important departures by the company ij j new organizations one was the organization and aaion of the blackfoot land development company to which all the vast timber landa of the company in raville sanders missoula and powell counties have been transfer rL at 2 per acre the extent of the timber acreage is not given and the transaction was not mentioned in the annual report of president thayer it is understood that the purpose of the anaconda company is to sell a lot of its timber lands to actual settlers there bellil a great demand for it and also a lot of agitation among assessors to baiso the valuation on oil the lands for purposes of increasing taxation the other company formed is the deer s lodge valley farms company com pany to which acres of agricultural land was transferred for this land comprises all the land owned by the company within the noted smelter smoke zone of the der deer lodge valley most of which has been chased by the company from smoke farmers in fact the anaconda company acquired practically all the land that was involved in the long and costly litigation between the farmers and the anaconda company the latter by long tests and experiments demonstrated that the land was little damaged by the smelter smoke and that the valley is ideal for small farming and dairying I 1 colonization scheme A plan was formulated and is now being carried out to cut up the entire tract into ten acre farms which will be sold to em aloyes of the company the company will maintain an expert agriculturalist to superintend the farming of the tenants for years without cost to them and will furnish blooded stock which will be sold to the em aloyes at cost and they will be given long time in which to pay for the farms and stock at small interest the companas comp anys electric railway between butte and anaconda will be run through the tract and schools will be established and a large public park laid out and kept up by the company for the use and enjoyment of the tenants the latter will always have the free advice of the companas comp anys experts building material and farm equipment will all be furnished at a reasonable price and everything will be done to encourage the settlers to build up profit producing farms A number of reservations have already been made although the land has nol noc yet been formally put on oil the market safety 1 hirst arst results He the safety first department of the anaconda company has had a very successful first year and tile the accidents of a serious nature were greatly red reduced aced under the new plan to encourage greater care anil and consequent greater safety for miners anu company offered prizes to the foremen of mines having the least number of accidents accident 3 ol oi a serious nature the result of the first year which ended march 31 11 has just been announced and the first prize of has been awarded to D P sullivan of the original mine while tile the second prize went to karl P kruger of the west colusa calusa mine tile the award is to be an annual one in construing a serious accident in making up the basis of award it was figured that where a man was incapacitated for thirty days through an accident in the mine it counted as serious while minor accidents where men lost only one or two shifts were not counted at all percentages Percentage 3 N were ere used and the number of accidents figured against the total number of men employed and the shifts worked underground As a result of the rewards and the interest created by the company s efforts to make mining less hazardous for its em aloyes every foreman in the employ of th company at its twenty two operated shafts is constantly on the alert to see that every possible safety appliance is used and that the men are careful and live up to the rules of the company the department was established ang ana placed in charge of C W glondale Gc GL odale manager of the boston montana department or 0 the anaconda company mr goodale recently made an extensive trip through the east visiting the plants of the united sates steel corporation and other large concerns employing largo numbers of men in hazardous labor to yee the methods used there them for the protection of the men it is estimated that the may production of the anaconda company will be slightly f n excess excess of the april production of 2900 pounds of copper which was about pounds below that of march boston commercial |