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Show MINING NEWS ORENA WAS OLD SMELTER TOWN Few people visning the new Oreana thai bSS become the gatewav to the Roi hester district are aware of Ihe faci that thev are In a town which It among the oldest in Nevada. and which bears the distinction of bavin:; the first silver lead smel'er in the United States, says a Nevada ex change True, the location of the town is not the same, but it was not far from the present site of the town that is again to become famous b reason of Rochester The old Orea;ia was on the banks of the Humboldt river about three and a half mllc from the mines of the Arabia district which was organized and operated in lxn.l It was at this time that Oreana first came to the notice of the world Some Interesting facts concerning the old town of Oreana and the mines in the Arabia district are contained in a report just issued bv Robert Wallace, Wal-lace, mining engineer, who has been Inspecting tho Arabia mines recentiv at the instance of Boston people and known as the Blectrlo Mining and Reduction Re-duction company Mr Wallace has been in the Arabia district nnd in Lovelock for several weeks and has Just forwarded his report re-port to his people In it he reaches the conclusion thai t hi mines of the Arabia district wfH bear further development de-velopment and that newer and strong er veins can possibly be opened up there These mines lay across the Humboldt valley from the mouth ol Rochester canyon m the western range of hills The following are ex-tracts ex-tracts from Mr Wallace's report I The Arabia district was organized in I860 and soon after that smelting works for treating Montezuma ore I were built at a railway station on the ' Humboldt river, three and a half miles southeast of the mines This plant was the first silver lead smel-I smel-I ter In the United States from which I lead was shipped in commercial quantities, quan-tities, and Oreana was the birthplace of the present silver-lead smelting Industrj In this part of tho country. The method was to smelt ore In a shaft furnace by which means crudo ! metal was obtained amounting to lor 50 per cent of the charge of ore. land consisting of lead, antimonv and I silver, the silver amounting to from $160 o $20u per ton of metal The metal was then subjected to treatment ! in s calcining or Bubllmailon furnace j bv which means the antimony w as ! removed From the lead bullion re suiting Irom this process the silver way extracted by cupellaMon Virion: the products of the sublimation fut naco was an alloy oT lead and ant I mony marketable a' a remunerate. price for the production 01 ipe meiai. The Montezuma mine ami h;rn:p . s weer operated successfully for a num her of years, aud a' a time when ill supplies were hauled by tnni from Sacramento before the completion of the Central Pacific railway In 1SH9. In 18H9. according to a report of the county assessor the Arabia dis trie t was rated as being capable of yielding more bullion than any other district at that time known In 1S7S the ground now owned by the Electric Mining A Reduction company com-pany was worked bj the Hurricane Mining company, and in lRi by Stone Tinslow k Co., no built a smelter at Siege on San Francisco bay. opei ated until 1893 Fifty-six hundn d tons weer mined from the Electric claim, and 27.00 tonR shipped to San Francisco, gave a return of $7?.. 640 From 1897 fo 1900 the mines were worked bv the Blectric Mining & R-.in- Hon company end the ore treated ,i their plant In R'nn rubla ores have been smelted in so many different differ-ent places. Oreana Salt Lake it7 San Francisco. Reno and some in Swansea. Wales, that it a Impossible to get at the exact production of ihe district, but It l probably from two to three million dollars |