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Show WASHOE SMELTER 10 MAKE FERTILIZER Will Utilize Sulphuric Acid and Convert Phosphate Rock Into Plant Food. Within a year it is probable that Montana Mon-tana will add to its Industries one of great Importance and one that will practically prac-tically convert what has been regarded as a detriment into a source of benefit and revenue. In establishing the sulphuric acid plant nt Anaconda, the Anaconda company has looked far into the tunire and the' possibilities possi-bilities of utilizing the pnos-pnaie beds that exist in different parts of this state. The manufacture of high-grade fertiliser fertil-iser bv using the phosphate rock and t he sulphuric acid promises to become of preat commercial importance and one of the bis industries of this part of the state. Investigations have been going on by representatives of the company into the phosphate beds in the vicinity of Maiden Roc);, about forty miles south of Butte on the Oregon Short Line, and, while these have not been completed, it is understood un-derstood that the rock there is of the rig-lit quality. All the phosphate beds In the state have beet! withdrawn from entry by the env eminent that they cannot be tied up by speculators, but will be available i'ir leas' purposes to persons or corporations cor-porations in a position to handle them for the benefit of the people. Wit h the sulphuric acid plant of the Anacondi company In readiness for operation, oper-ation, the company will be in a position to negotiate a lease with the government that will enable it to handle the phosphate phos-phate rock and go extensively into the manufacture of fertilizer. Tiie suiphur that once went out in the shape of fume? and has been the subject sub-ject of years of litigation will now become be-come a big commercial by-product through its conversion Into sulphuric acid and that in turn being- utilized in the making of fertilizer from the phosphate 1 reck. The sulphuric acid plant, it is expected, will bein operations in April. The plant w;ll have a capacity of about 100 tons of acid per day. A part of this will be used in the proposed leaching of the tailings that are piled up in enormous Quantities. It is estimated that there ar 20.000,000 tons of taiiincs at the Wafhoe smelter, and eventually these will be disposed of through the leaching nroeess at the rate of 10,000 tons a day. For the present, the leaching plant will handle from 2000 to 2500 tons dally. The tailings are said to carry about thirteen to fourteen pounds of copper per ton and the leaching of these will add about $00, 000 pounds of copper per month to the output of the Washoe smelter. |