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Show LEADING MINING MEN OF COUNTRY MEET IN WESTERN DlVISlDTj CONVEfJTlON J : Governmental and Industrial Problems are Discussed; J Various Phases of Selective Flotation Process Come in V for Attention. i ' " " . . - j M me operators, metallurgists, tax experts and silver producers J from British Columbia on the north, toMexico on the south, met I in convention this week at the Hotel Utah. Joint meetings of the i three national mining organizations American Mining congress, I V ; American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical engineers, and the I ' American Silver Producers' association, are beipg held. L. S. Cates, general manager and vice president of the Utah Copper company, called the opening meeting to order. Mayor C. Clarence Neslen of Salt Lake gave a brief address of welcome in the absence of Governor ' George H. Dern, who is in Denver attending a meeting of executices of Colorado river basin states. Following a few informal talks, the balance of the meeting was devoted to - a discussion of a number of technical subjects. . ... Monday noon the resolutions committee com-mittee met and made rccommenda-I rccommenda-I lions which will be presented to the . annual convention to be held in Washington in December. In the evening an' informal reception was tendered the visiting ladies. Tuesday's and Wednesday's sessions ses-sions were devoted almost entirely to a discussion of the flotation process. I ' - Papers from nearly every technical 'center in North America were presented. pre-sented. Thursday the. bureau of mines of-, of-, '' ficials in Utah presented the story of ' copper, a motion picture, at the Para- i mount-Empress theatre. The after noon of Thursday was taken up in trips to various mining districts of the state. A large number of the del-i del-i egates spent the day at Bingham, ... guests of the Utah Copper company. Friday will be devoted to a meeting of the Silver Producers' association, which will be presided over by W. Mont Ferry, managing director of the ( Silver King Coalation mine, and president presi-dent of the association. More trips are being planned by the visiting engineers en-gineers Friday and Saturday. At the meeting Monday afternoon Phillip Weisman was elected chair-' man of the western division of the . American Mining congress. Mr. Weisman hails from Los Angeles. An-geles. FV W. MacLennan of Miami, Ariz., was elected vice-chairman and , Robert J. Kerr of San Francisco as secretary. . Benefits .of flotation were discussed at the meeting Tuesday by J. O. Elton, El-ton, considered the father of the process pro-cess in Utah, and Ernest Gayford, . manager of the General Electric company. com-pany. Mr. Elton is manager of the International Smelting company. Mr. Gayford pointed out that flotation flo-tation is a wet concentration of the mines product which is separated into a higher grade ore. Mr. Gayford Gay-ford went back into history and point-ed point-ed out that flotation was first applied in extracting- gold from sand by the use of oil from feathers, and today has commercialized worthless ore and . - .greatly increased the miner's bankroll. With reference to the effect of flotation flota-tion on copper he cited the Utah Copper, Cop-per, the world's largest copper producer, pro-ducer, which he declared under existing exist-ing metal prices and high wages would be forced to close had it not. been for flotation. Copper of less than one per cent is being treated at the mine which pays $7,000,000 annually in dividends and returns more raw copper from a ton that runs 20 pounds of copper than .. those that used to run 30 pounds of copper to the ton. ; In dealing with the importance of flotation to the state of Utah he pointed point-ed out that it is now saving approximately approxi-mately 36,000 tons of lead ad zinc that formerly was carried off in slag. In conclusion Mr. Gayford stated that while metallurgical science is producing minerals faster than the world can absorb them, the engineer-- engineer-- ing world will continue to lead out the ( present known ore deposits which are fast disappearing. |