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Show THE MINES AND SMELTERS OF UTAH. During tho past few years remarkable remark-able progress has been mnde In the ulldlpg up of tho smelting enterprise 'n Utnh. Activity In this regard hps heen directed principally to tho Salt Lake valley, where all the custom plants are located. A few comnanies, operating in remote re-mote sections of the state, havo provided pro-vided plants for their own properties But practically all tho wealth produced pro-duced in this mountain commonwealth "ornes through tho arteries of the smelters at Murray and Bingham Junction. Considerably moro than $30,000,00'' passed through these ovenues last vear, and nearer $40,000,000 will hav come Into circulation In the same wn when tho curtain rolls down and the year 1905 has passed into history. So active has tho smelting Industry become in tho Salt Lako valley that ho farmers, who settled in this fortil'-spot, fortil'-spot, havo raised an alarm for fea-their fea-their places will be devastated of vegetation veg-etation unless somo means aro provided pro-vided for tho control of tho Increasing volume of smoke emitted from th stacks at the several plants. Thl' natter was brought to tho attention of the smelting companies by the lane owners not lo :.so; and while thr oroblem Is nc altogether easy of solution, the former hope to find p remedy for the condition before the crops of next year begin their plant . ,i - j 'ife. Somo of the country's most not- I ?d chemists havo been employed to ''. conduct a series of Investigations of ' 'ho trouble, and these talented gen- ; lemon have been procured only at Treat expense to the corporations most directly Interested. Snlt Lake Is rapidly becoming the greatest smelting center in the world, nd substantial progress was mado in 1 'hat direction this year. All of the 1 ilants located hero have spent large I sums of money In providing additional I -oulnment to Increase treatment ca- 1 oaclt'y. g The four great plants south of tho M ",ity are now handling approximately ft t 000 tons of ore dally, and plans are i oelng considered to greatly Increase this amount. Up to a very recent date, the Amor- N can Smelting & Refining comnanv, I which owns the great works nt Murray, Mur-ray, was the only buvor of lead ores. The other plants tho TTt"h Consolidated. Consol-idated. Bingham Consolidated and United States, being enuinned with furnaces Intpnded onlv for the treatment treat-ment of copper ores. During this year, however, tho United States pompsnv '"roadend its sphere of uofn1npep hv 'he construction of a now led smelter "t a cot nnprovimating a little over i half million dollars, and for the plass of ores mentioned. Is in the market in fompotltton with tho Amprlcnn. Tho nlant has not yet been blown In: In fact, it Is not aulto completed, but will be early In tho npw year. Enlnrce-ments Enlnrce-ments have also been mado to tho company's copper smelter, which Is timing out crnpr bullion at the rate t about 13.000 000 pounds annullv. ri,o lead smelter has cnpaoltv for the '"potment of about 400 tons of oro dally. A year ago tho American Smelting Refining company had In contemplation contem-plation for this vear, tho construction f a copper smelting paint to cost up-vards up-vards of $750,000. Tho project would avo been carried through, perhaps. sad It not been for an nrroncement "or nn Intorchonge of ores with the gingham Consolidated. Tho latter, having a large reserve of lead ores In 't's own mines, had about concluded 'o install a lead stack. But under the 'rrangement entered Into with the merlcan, the latter Is to receive all he lead ores the Bingham Con. mines tself or obtains in tho markets. On he other hand, tho American switches '11 tho conper ores It purchases over 'o tho Bingham plant' at Bingham 'unction, where it undergoes treat-nent. treat-nent. By this arrangement, a great deal has been saved to both these con- j H Senator Smoot, of Utah B corns in trying to keep pace with the rapid development of the mines In this S and other states for nearly all the ), ore produced In Nevada "comes here I for reduction, as well as a good por-j por-j tion of the tonnages yielded by the I" camps of Wyoming, Idaho and Colo-ratio. Colo-ratio. As It Is, the American has not been compelled to build a complete copper plant and the Bingham Con. has found no necessity for a lead smelter; neither have had to worry about where Its fluxes are to come from If the supply runs short. Both companies, however, have made additions addi-tions to their respective plants. The Bingham has added new copper furnaces to its equipment, bringing the daily capacity up to 1,000 tons of ore out of which copper bullion is being be-ing produced at the rate of about 17,-000,000 17,-000,000 pounds annually. The American Ameri-can hns added new facilities for the reduction of ores other than copper, Increasing Its capacity, accordingly. It does turn out some copper bullion; however, nt present about 5,000,000 pounds annually. The Utah Consolidated, whoso Bing-. Bing-. hnm mines have continued to perform wonders, by increasing their ore reserves, re-serves, found It expedient to increase its o'ltput; and, at nn expense of about I ?300.000. mnde such enlargements as has enabled the company to treat one-hnlf one-hnlf as much ore in a day as was possible pos-sible a year ago, and is making copper at the rite of about 22,000,000 pounds annually. The discovery of Tonopah and Gold-field, Gold-field, in Nevada, and the general prosperity pros-perity which has come over other sections sec-tions of the mining west during the Vast ypar or so, through the smeUlni; companies opcntlng In the Salt Lake valley, hns been tho mens of bringing bring-ing many hundreds of thousands of dollars through Salt Lake channels. Two years ago, San Francisco had tho derided advantage in freight rates, but through the influences of local operators, oper-ators, Salt Lake has been given nn oven chance with tho result, that tho business from that section, or the greater portion of it, has been turned this way. Through these Influences, Salt Lake business houses have en- E joyed trade from this quarter, but not what they could have had, had they been alert as tho smelter managers In irnlnr' nffnr now VinnlnfiSS. The Bingham Consolidated is operating oper-ating with five copper furnaces, tho fifth one having been installed very recently while others are contemplated. contemplat-ed. The converter department contains con-tains two converters of extra ex-tra largo size and an unusually un-usually largo traveling crane. By smelting men, this department Is pro- nounced as being tho most complete, 11 as compared to other plants, in the j west. A feature in the construction of tho Bingham Con. smelter, worthy ot note, Is tho big balloon flue, which collects col-lects practically all tho valuable Hue dust, which is collected daily and brought down to tho brlcquetting press; after passing through this machinery, ma-chinery, It Is in shape for re-smelting. The flue mentioned, is about 200 yards in length. Tho equipment of the smelter has been made as automatic as possible and Is otherwise a very modern plant. Mr. W. H. Nutting serves the company com-pany as its smelter superintendent, having been associated with it almost from its inception. |
