Show american ameri can potash to make ma ke more fertile le fields FI elds 99 in its issue of may the reaper of richfield utah has the following to say regarding the progress being made in the establishment of an important industry in the near vicinity of marysvale Marys vale and of the going saturday april saw the practical completion of a new potash plant and the inauguration of a great industry at vale when at nine on the morning of that day the big steam siren at the V R v N V a W 11 Z 1 5 7 adv 1 W courtesy richfield reaper the new plant of the florence mining milling company into cominis commission sion of the new plant 0 of f the florence mining milling company in a section that has long been noted for its deposits of silver lead and gold the reaper article will doubtless be read with much interest by those interested in the production of potash as well as by those who are boosters boasters bo for the various industries of the state the reaper says plant of the florence milling filling company was heard fo for r the first time in the valley and the heavy machinery that will give the country american potash was set in motion while the country rings from coast to coast with the call to war and the word prep preparedness agedness is on every lip while men are being urged to till tile the soil as it was never tilled before and conservation of resources has the watchword watch word of the nation a great measure of conservation and preparedness has become an accomplished fact american potash to make more fertile fields potash for the farms that will be called upon to feed not only the millions of our own people but to feed the millions of war crushed and starving europe the new milling plant the new plant of the florence mining milling company is located about half a mile south of marysvale Marys vale station on the site purchased iby by the company i in n april 1916 the site contains acres and is admirably situated for the companas comp anys purposes lying east of the state highway and running to the river more than half a mile away for the most part the land lies about seventy five feet higher than the tracks of tile the denver rio grande railroad at which point it drops steeply to the river bottom land the companas comp anys engineer was quick to recognize the value of this natural hillside and he utilized it to its utmost possibilities in his plans to construct an up to date plant where all material passes iby by gravity from one stage of treatment to another until til the finished product is delivered at the ready for shipment the gravity idea in treating large quantities of material is brought to a high state of perfection in practice in the florence mill there is no the material it is handled once when it goes into the hopper of the crusher at the highest point in the plant af after ter that it automatically goes where it is wanted from crusher to rotary screen to the crushed ore bin to the kiln where it is roasted to the rotary cooler and then either directly to the cars for shipment or to the steel storage bins waiting shipment actual construction work actual construction work on the plant began august 1 1916 when the first stake was driven and grading for foundations was commenced on the hillside since that time the work has gone forward as rapidly as transportation and weather conditions would permit in some instances shipments of machinery from the east were greatly delayed and an exposed location tended to greatly hinder the work during the severe winter days of high winds and intense cold but the work of putting in the massive reinforced re concrete foundations and piers upon which the enormously heavy pieces of machinery rest went on steadily very early in the work the necessity of a railroad siding to the plant arose many car loads of machinery were on the way from the east fire bricks for the kiln lining had been ordered and cement and other supplies were coming in dally daily but railroad officials do not like to be hurried labor was vas scarce they said excuses were made and there was talk of delays then the florence company undertook the work and finished it in short order some 2000 feet of grading for main and spur track was finished before them the middle of august and as fast as the railroad company could be induced to furnish rails and ties they were put down by florence employees during august also the company put in 2200 feet of five inch water mains extending from the state road where it connects with the city water system to the mill where it is connected t to 0 fire hydrants on the hill overlooking the mill and to other hydrants distributed throughout the several buildings built in two sections tho plant is built in ill two sections or two separate buildings the first is a long the top of the narrow na arow building beginning at hill it descends to the east and is feet long in ili this buil building ding beginning at tile tho top is the crusher with a capacity of tons of crushed ore per day the rotary screen for dividing the fine from the coarse crushed ore the big Z reinforced re concrete bins bills with a capacity of tons of crushed ore and at the lowest point the feed end of the great 1110 foot rotary kiln tile the kiln extends through the end of this building across an intervening space of twenty feet and enters the second or main building which is feet long and fifty feet wide this building has a floor space of square feet and houses the power plant consisting of two horsepower bricked in boilers and a horsepower frick Fric Corliss engine an air compressor and compressed air container in this building also is the rotary coal dryer and the fuller lehigh ball mill for pulverizing the dried coal used in firing the kiln here too is the driving mechanism of the kiln which can be regulated to any given number of revolutions per minute the fire box end of the kiln and the ample steel storage bins for pulverized coal and for the finished product awaiting shipment in planning the present mill the florence company has kept well in mind the future needs of the company inasmuch as tile the entire plant with the exception of the kiln is designed to handle several hundred tons of material per day while only about tons can be treated iby by the kiln the crusher has a daily capacity of tons and the power plant coal dryer and coal can easily supply power and material enough for the installation of at least three additional kilns kalns of the capacity of the present one with improved transportation facilities from the mine the additional kilns kalns will be installed but until a tramway can the be built from tile the mine to the mill it is considered doubtful that more than tons can bi be e brought down by teams installation of plant A more immediate improvement and one that will be made during the coming summer is the installation of a separating or ivia tion plant which will separate the potash from the and give the company two high grade products to market for which there is great demand at high prices until this installation is made the company will ship or roasted alunite which will be ground fine and go into fertilizers without further treatment the building of a mill along modern and approved lines was by no means the end of florence activities during the past year having a mill they must necessarily keep it running to do that new roads must be built and old roads repaired and a mine developed and opened up for a large daily tonnage so early in the spring of 1916 tile the order came from tile the home office offic 0 in philada philadelphia e alphia to the local representative of the ca company apay to get ready to supply tons tolls of alunite per day from january at the same time the company called for surveys and estimates for a new wagon road from cottonwood canyon to tile the mine during the summer months the road building was completed with the exception of a dugway on tile the north side of tile the canyon about 2200 feet long 14 enough n 0 I 1 ibb work however has been done on this small piece of road before the winter storms came to permit ore hauling luring during the winter months As early in the spring as the company could put its men at road work this piece was finished the log cabin camp this gives the florence company several miles of splendid road from the old canyon road at the creek level to the log cabin camp which by the way has been greatly enlarged and improved by the add addition of a number of new buildings from the camp the road follows an easy grade to the big ore bins also built last summer to facilitate the loading of ore into wagons while this work was going on active preparations were immediately started to meet the demands of the new mill for a large tonnage two tunnels were driven to the alunite vein and a third that will give a depth of feet was started work on the third tunnel was stopped a few weeks ago because the development in the two upper tunnels will meet all possible demands of the present mill for the next eighteen months the construction of the new plant was placed in the capable hands of A P obrien a building engineer well known in the southern states as the builder of a number of successful fertilizer plants mr OB obrien rendered valuable aid to the officers of the florence company in the selection of the machinery that has gone into the plant he inspected each machine as it was purchased visited the shops where the machines were made and in other ways familiarized himself with the work lie he has brought to so successful a conclusion detailed description of mill the reaper reporter induced mr obrien to talk of his work and obtained fro from hin him the following detailed description of the mill the alunite is received by auto trucks and teams weighed and stored in a concrete floored stock pile of tons capacity a pac this will be our reserve stock pile to be used to keep the mill going to capacity should the road or other conditions condi tons delay the hauling from the mine of t ti lie when the mill is running most lost into in ore is dumped from wagons or trucks capacity Y the crusher hopper which has a capaci of twenty five tons should we need more ore at any time than the teams can haul we load from the stock pile in three ton quarry cars and run these cars over a sixton industrial track scale and on to the track dump over the crusher hopper usually the trucks and teams haul a surplus which after weighing goes to the stock pile from the discharge spout of the no 5 crusher which has a capacity of tons per day the ore passes over a foot revolving perforated screen the rejections go to a jeffry continuous bucket elevator and thence to the crusher hopper to he be further reduced and the fines pass by gravity to a ton reinforced concrete bin from which in turn the crushed and sized ore passes to an automatic weigh hopper of one ton capacity thence to the kiln feeding machine which can the ibe adjusted to feed from 0 to tons per day here also is drawn the sample of ore for our daily analysis this feeder is driven by the kiln and at this end is the dust arresting and gas scrubbing apparatus and also a stack to the atmosphere for the cleaned and cooled gas to escape means are provided for removing the dust continuously as this is a valuable part of the product the rotary kiln feet is firebrick fire brick lined throughout and is driven by a variable speed mechanism with a range of speed from 0 to 2 revolutions per minute th the kiln fire box is adjustable on a track to or from the kiln and can be withdrawn ten feet so as to facilitate cleaning or re repairs P airs to either kiln or fire box the kiln is fired iby by the finely pulverized coal which is dried before grinding this powdered coal is fed to the kiln by a mosser variable speed coal feeder and is sprayed into the fire box by a compressed air jet all the kiln and fire box mechanism is under control of one man and at this end is the testing apparatus and pyrometer and here also is drawn the samples for the daily analysis also the hourly test iby by the kiln man from this kiln end the hot ore is delivered to a foot rotary cooler which reduces the temperature so that the product can be loaded direct to box cars should we be short of cars we can deliver to a steel ibin bin of seventy five tons capacity which is high enough to spout iby by gravity with sufficient force to reach each end of a car this bin is fitted with gates and flexible spouts for quick loading A ton railroad track scales is at this point where we weigh both in and outgoing cars from this scale our tracks have a down grade through the yard sufficient for safe coasting we can also bring down the empties for loading by gravity from the empty car storage track to the south of the mill the power plant the power plant consists of t two wo horsepower high pressure erie city tubular boilers with feed pumps injectors inject ors etc in duplicate the main engine is a horsepower frick corliss with exhaust connected to ample feed water heaters all condensation is returned to a hot well and is pumped to boilers toi lers the steam piping is assembled with long radius bends and all fittings and valves are for high pressure the main shaft is 4 7 16 inch and extends across the main building and is belted east and west to countershafts counter shafts for the different machines all the heavy shafts are on concrete piers with cast iron adjustable sole plates all the pillow blocks chain and shaft hangers are ring or chain oiling compression grease cups are used where necessary all pulleys gears sprockets and set collars are split either steel or cast iron clutches are used to cut out the heavier consists of a main from the marysvale Marys vale waterworks water works which gives pounds pressure at the hydrants which are standard we also have standard 2 5 8 inch underwriters hose in approved hose houses and at several points in the millee mill we have 1 il 1 2 inch rubber hose in fifty foot lengths barrels of water with covers and palls pails are also adso placed at convenient points our pumps can deliver into the main or to independent hose connections we havet have a gallon elevated tank for emergency use filling both boilers and washing out boilers and to ibe be used should city supply ibe be cut off all the building machinery stock bases and other foundations are concrete the roofing is eighteen gauge galvanized corrugated iron riveted the mill machinery room floors are concrete all hoppers bins chutes etc where there is hot ore or water are either concrete or steel VA r 4 V J 1 87 g Z V pot 3 edna crater or geyser near northwestern outcrop of alunite AI unite photo by will C higgins machines and tight and loose pulleys for the lighter machines the bulk of the coal used is taken from the car to an elevator over a screen where the fine goes to a storage bin to feed the coal dryer and the coarse to the boilers from the coal dryer the coal goes to a steel bin over the fuller lehigh and after grinding is elevated to a powdered coal steel bin for use in the kiln all bins have capacity for over twenty four hours run should this be necessary and it is planned not to run several of these machines more than eight hours per day this will be sufficient to keep the one kiln going twenty four hours the crusher air compressor coal dryer and will keep three kilns kalns supplied if necessary we have a coal storage pocket of ten carloads capacity for our surplus and reserve coal kept for emergencies fire protection Sy system stern our water or fire protection system branch R R to mill we have an extension of the main line of the marysvale Marys vale branch of the D R G railroad up to and past our mill also a spur of sufficient length to serve for some time the track is well ballasted ballested bal lasted with gravel and well drained with sufficient cul verts we have a complete repair shop equipped with both hand and machine tools to do most of our |