| Show news of the great northwest SPECIAL correspondence spokane wash july 23 A railroad up tip pine creek in the coeur calenes dA lenes district of idalio idaho will be built immediately agreements have been signed between the oregon washington railroad navigation company and the mine owners and work is to be commenced august the line will be about ten miles long and will furnish transportation por tation for several mines in that district which are shipping under linder difficulties in kellogg idaho of the at a ine meeting eting pine creek mine owners association it was unanimously decided to accept the proposition made by the railroad company the mine anine owners agreed to pay a ton toil for hauling the first tons of ore over the new line to a connection with the railroad at the pine creek junction they will pay 1 a ton for hauling out the second tons those who attended the meeting were W W and P J rogers of the highland surprise company R W nuzum thomas thwaite and F E lewis of the constitution mining company herman J rossi charles mowry and mr bishop representing the douglas mining company an and the anaconda copper mining company which has the lease on the douglas property william beaudry representing tile the stewart mining company and the nabob mines company 11 J sinclair of the nevada stewart mining ining M company and benjamin harmon of the northern light mining company new zinc process thomas french smelter expert who is completing a small electrolytic demonstration plant at nelson B C believes his process will revolutionize ore treatment and will yield enormous profits he says when my plant is in operation I 1 will have a daily profit of at an expenditure of a day for the ore and treatment at the present prices of zinc in ordinary times it would cost for a plant which would produce ten tons a day of the purest zinc and make a good profit at lowest possible zinc prices at present prices of machinery though it would cost more to build the plant 2 speaking of tile the difference between the old processes of smelting smelling sm elting ores by retort methods and the new electrolytic process mr french says A zinc smelter by the retort process can treat only very high grade ores and can recover only part of the silver and nd gold contents the electrolytic reduction process on the other hand can treat very low grade and very complex ores that is ore from which the lead silver and gold can call not be separated by concentration in the retort smelter process the ore is roasted with coal and brought to a white heat in a fire clay retort the zinc is reduced to the metallic state and distills over into a vessel the labor is extremely heavy and requires great skill electrolytic process in the electrolytic process also the ore is roasted this converts the zinc in tile the ore into a form in which it is soluble in acid while tile the lead silver gold copper and other metals are insoluble and are thus left in the residue which may be sent to a lead smelter for the recovery of these values the solution containing the zinc with some manganese undergoes a purifying process an electric current is then passed through the purified zinc solution in vats which contain lead anodes mm ain zinc cathodes the extremely pure zinc deposits in the cathodes while the manganese dioxide which is a very valuable byproduct by product used in dry batteries is deposited at the anodes As the zinc deposits the acid is set free and is used again and again only a small quantity of coal or oil fuel is required this costs about 7 cents for a ton of ore the required manganese which is only a small quantity is generally carried in sufficient quantities in tile ore nothings nothing else besides tile the power is used within a few years tile the old retort process will be knocked out or tile the electrolytic process will have to go As a matter of fact the retort process will soon be obsolete start of bunker hill smelter without ceremony but in tile the presence of scores of persons from all parts of the coeur calenes dA lenes tile the smelter of the bunker hill sullivan mining concentrating company at kellogg was formally blown in a few days ago tile the operations commencing when the slag was tapped after which tile the lead began to flow from the crucible of the first blast furnace there was not a hitch of any kind everything working smoothly from the start ingots ingols bearing tile the initials of the company B H S were run from the first metal handled and distributed among the visitors as souvenirs of the occasion tile the smelter said to be the most complete and modern in tile the world has been so constructed that it may be enlarged from time to time as tile the demands make necessary the first improvement to be constructed ted will be a zinc electrolytic plant this having been recently decided upon this will be a boon to the mines on pine creek where the ore runs largely to zinc new plant for granite poorman A new compressor plant with a capacity adof of 1500 cubic feet of air and a horse power electric motor is being installed at the granite poorman mine nelson B c they will give the company power enough to treble its output of ore improvements have been made to the concentrating cent rating section of the mill four new tables have been put in which give the mill a capacity of tons a day as far as concentrating cent rating is concerned the amalgamation and stamp end of tile the mill will be improved later thirty five men are employed at the property under F H skeels superintendent A G larson of spokane is consulting engineer for the company and R A carnochan and M W bacon of spokane are prominent among the stockholders the existing power plant is of about horsepower electricity is secured from the nelson city power plant final work on the installation of the new power equipment has been deferred owing to delay in the arrival of transformers many mining men of british columbia believe a big problem has been solved in the new concentrating plant of the consolidated mining smelting smelling Sm elting company at trail B C by water concentration and oil flotation process the separation of iron and zinc in ore from the sullivan mine is believed to have been accomplished the sullivan mine ships tons of ore ile weekly ekly but tile the ore is very diff difficult to treat as it contains lead zinc and some iron |
