Show bunker hill increases capacity capaci t y SPOKANE washington CHRONICLE extensive additions and improvements are being made at the bunker hill smelters shelters sm elters kellogg idaho which when completed will practically double the smelting smelling sm elting and refining capacity of the plant these changes are described in detail as follows enlarge furnace building foundations for a seventy two foot extension to the furnace building are now completed and this will provide room for two additional blast furnaces during the last few months three dwight lloyd sintering wintering sint ering machines were added to the original roasting plant and construction work is now under way for two additional machines when these are completed the smelter will have nine of the standard dwight lloyd machines in operation the blower house has recently been doubled in size and a connersville Conners ville blower of cubic feet capacity has been installed in the extension add to lead refinery in addition to this a new compressor room has been completed and a Sull sullivan ivam two stage compressor of 1100 cubic feet capacity installed in the blower house a laid law dunn gordon compressor is being installed to be used as an auxiliary unit when needed according to walter K mallette construction st engineer who has been with the big plant since its early beginning and who is now in charge of enlarging the smelter the most noticeable piece of construction during the last month is the extension to the lead refinery this is being enlarged by the addition of seventy two feet on the west side of the original refinery the retorts have been removed from the silver refinery and are temporarily set up in the lead refinery new softening furnace A new softening furnace has been built west of the original no 2 softener and two additional desilver izing kettles are planned these changes will materially increase the capacity of the lead refinery two new cu furnaces have been built in the silver refinery in the space formerly occupied by the retorts these capels are much larger than the original double furnace and have added materially to the capacity of this department in the furnace building a second travel ing ig crane is to be installed so that one may inay be used for the refinery new tracks being built to facilitate the handling of the equip anent and provide for use of machinery as tar far as possible in all of the work two additional dit ional tracks are in the course of construction across the gulch south of the sample rill nn and another row of bins will be served by these tracks mr mallette states that these bins will be provided with a belt conveyor and feeders from which the charge of the roasters asters ro will be made up one of the lines of track will run clear through the plant this will provide a through track which will not be blocked blocked by cars at any time and greatly facilitate handling equipment had to move shop in order to run this track through the plant mr mallette says it became necessary to move both the main shop and warehouse sites As a result an entirely new shop building is now nearing completion just south of the old shop shenew shop embraces a machine shop a forge shop feet and a boiler shop feet these are all equipped with the most modern tools are served by hand operated cranes and furnish a complete equipment for all repair and improvement work A two story reinforced concrete warehouse is to be built near the site of the old shop A track will serve both the warehouse and shop jointly blake crusher used in order to handle the crushing of coarse material such as lime roc rocks its matte and crude ore a coarse crushing or primary crushing plant has been completed adjoining the sample mill this plant is equipped with an inch blake crusher bucket elevators a sampler and screen slow delivery of freight and material for the enlargement of the smelter has caused considerable delay but it 1 is expected a greater speed can be made now that the war is over and with the arrival of material many other proposed changes will be made the relative capacities of the various departments part ments of the smelter will be so much better balanced by the additions and changes now being made that the plant capacity as a whole will be nearly doubled according to mr air mallette it is thought a greater part of the work will be completed by shortly after the first of the new year |