Show THE BRANCH MINT MINE companas Comp anys big mill at galena is in successful operation pioneer times deadwood S D at twenty five minutes past noon yesterday the five hundred horse power engine at the branch mint mill at galena anade ade its first revolution in what is to be the fhe continuous running of the plant at the e instant that the machinery was put in motion william F spencer of new york broke oke a bottle of champagne on the fly wheel heel of the engine and christened the plant branch mine the ceremony took place in the pres ille ce of a number of friends of james D hardin president and general manager of the e company 0 evany both from deadwood and from om outside points there were also preset int mr hardins bardins Har dins mother and wife mr fencer accompanied the christening cere mony with a brief address to those present in which he complimented mr hardin on the great work he had accomplished and predicted the lasting success of the enterprise ten minutes after the machinery had been put in motion the one hundred and twenty stamps of the big mill were dropping on oil ore the start was made without the slightest friction and the run was commenced with a smoothness that under the circumstances of new machinery and untried parts was remarkable the ore bins were full of crushed ore that fed perfectly through the automatic feeders into the twenty four batteries the pulp pull passed through L the various stages of the cyanide process without hindrance and the career of the branch mint mill had commenced yesterdays event was the culmination of three years of hard work and untiring rint effort on the part of mr hardin coupled with a personality that has won him sub friends in the money centers of the east the work is not only a just source of pride to mr hardin himself but brings to his host of friends in deadwood and the east a feeling of satisfaction that is realized only when a great and worthy object has been attained besides exultation there was sentiment apparent yesterday when the wheels of the mammoth plant were put in motion james D hardins bardins Har dins mother stood in the engine room all anxiety and radiant with expectation and at the first throb of the mighty engine the tears fell from her eyes they were tears of pride and joy called up by the thought of the great work accomplished by her son after years of patient labor the equipment of the branch mint mill is as complete and perfect as modern ingenuity can devise tt may succinctly summed up as follows ten steel cars of ten tons capacity each drawn by a narrow gauge engine from the hoodoo shaft four miles up the mountains dump the ore which has been crushed to a two inch mesh into the ore bins at the top of the mill twenty four automatic feeders discharge into the same number of mortars where theore the ore is reduced to a twenty mesh by 1000 pound stamps the pulp is carried by an endless belt conveyor to the top of the mill where it is discharged into two classifiers the latter are the invention of the mill C N brown and are of the hoe variety A double set of hoes are dragged along the bottom of an oblong tank the bottom of which rises at a grade of about forty degrees As the pulp enters the tank the sand fall to the bottom and are carried by the hoes up the high end of the bottom and discharged into a launder through which they are conveyed to the rotating distributors over the leaching tanks the slimes overflow the classifier tank and pass directly to the slime plant the tank equipment of the mill consists of twenty six leaching vats twenty one of them are eighteen feet in diameter by five feet deep four of them are thirty six feet in by six feet deep and one of them is thirty feet in diameter by six feet deep the slime plant contains seventeen tanks in which the pulp may be pneumatically agitated they are eighteen feet in diameter and twelve feet deep the details of the process were described in these colu columns mils two months a ago go it is of the kind which has met with the best success in the black hills and has been brought up to date by the introduction of every approved device the ore for the mill is being hoisted from the foot level of the hoodoo hoist where is passes through a no 6 gates cates crusher and is carried by an endless belt conveyor to a housed in ore bin of tons capac capacity ty the rock is being scoped down from a foot ledge into chutes on this level and run through a 1 foot tunnel to the cages this body of ore is of mammoth dimensions and alone is capable of supplying the mill for an indefinite period in value it will average 4 per ton in gold the underground der ground work is in ili charge of A H simpson besides mr william F spencer who is one ef cf the principal stockholders holders in the branch mint company there was also present yesterday mr michael hecht also of new york and a prominent leader of the tammany faction numerous tele telegrams rams were sent to various parts of the country yesterday informing interested parties that the branch mint mill and mine had started on their regular run and would continue in operation indefinitely |