Show SMELTING MILLING description OF LEAD AND COPPER SMELTER AND concentrator OF international TER NATIONAL SMELTING COMPANY the tooele thoele plant of the international smelting smelling Sm elting company is situated at the mouth of pine canyon on the western slope of the oquirrh mountains five miles east of tooele thoele city and about 35 miles southwest of salt lake city the plant consists of f a lead zinc flotation concentrator copper smelter and lead smelter the reduction plant site appears on railway maps as international the terminus of the tooele thoele valley railway which runs west through tooele thoele city to warner on an the los angeles line of the union pacific system and also on a branch line of the western pacific railway standard gauge railroad tracks enter the plant on three levels the high line or receiving tracks are on a level below the concentrator and above the smelting smelling sm elting plants from the hi high h line level a single track rises to ee the concentrator receiving pockets and warehouses the middle track is used for transferring smelter products and ores from one department to another metals shipped from the plant are handled on the lower tracks the plant treats lead lead zinc copper and dry silver ores res and produces blister copper lead bullion and zinc concentrates lead zinc ores are received mainly from park city and bingham utah and from colorado nevada and idaho idabo lead ores are received mainly from tintic gintic park city and bingham utah and from idaho and nevada copper concentrates are received mainly from california and idaho and ores from tintic gintic and bingham 1 utah all ore coke and fluxes handled with the exception of those ores received from the bingham district over the tramway together with outgoing products are shipped over the tooele thoele valley railway TRAMWAY lead lead zinc and copper ores from the mines of the utah delaware mining company and the utah metal and tunnel company in the bingham district are transported to the tooele thoele plant over an aerial tramway which passes over the oquirrh mountains at an altitude of 1450 feet above the loading station elation at the highland boy mine and descends 1800 feet to the tern terminal anal bins at the smelter intermediate bins also allow diversion of any ore to the concentrator the total length of the tramway is four miles the ore is carried in buckets of 1200 pounds capacity spaced feet apart traveling at a rate of about feet per minute upon arrival at the smelter the ore is dumped from the buckets into the concentrator terminal bins of 2000 tons capacity or into the smelter terminal bins from these latter bins the ore is drawn into special 50 ton motor dump cars weighed and delivered to the smelter receiving bins SAMPLING MILL copper lead and lead zinc ores received from all sources are dumped into steel receiving bins bing of a total capacity of tons in the case of company ore diverted to concentrator bins every fifth bucket is allowed to proceed to tram terminal bins for sampling purposes this is transferred by the electric dump cars to the receiving bins A thaw shed having a capacity of 20 standard railway cars allows cars of frozen ore to be thawed before dumping their contents into the receiving cei ng bins the temperature is kept at about F in the shed the sampling mill is a standard taylor and brunton mill built in two sections each with a capacity of tons per hour the ore is conveyed here from the receiving bins by conveyor belts crushed mixed and a representative portion automatically separated as a sample of the lot this sample is further reduced in r size ize and fineness in the pulping department part ment the resulting sample of a few ounces is sent to the laboratory for analysis after sampling the ores are distributed tri buted by belt conveyors to copper plant bins lead plant bins bing of lead zinc plant bins all in the smelter y yards ards from the lead zinc plant bins the various ores are bedded onto a belt conveyor by means of belt feeders and elevated into railway cars these cars are hauled to the concentrator and dumped into receiving P pockets dockets there concentrates do not pass through the sampling null they are hand sampled and dumped into bins in whatever department they are to be treated LEAD ZINC FLOTATION concentrator from data obtained obtained from over two years of experimental and research concentration work on the lead zinc silver ores of this district it was decided to suspend copper operations in the concentrator and remodel one tons per day unit to treat the characteristic te lead zinc ores on which the experimental work had beef been performed this remodeling was completed and operations were started as a cus torn toni lead zinc concentrator on november vember 1 1924 with a capacity of tons per day the high lead market stimulated the production of these ores and it was decided to increase the capacity consequently a second unit of tons per day capacity was put in operation february 4 1925 which was increased to tons per day on may 1 1925 since which time the concentrator consists of two units each of which is handling tons per day of lead zinc ore the major portion of the material treated comes from the park city and bingham districts the former received by rail and the latter by aerial tramway in addition to the above considerable tonnage is received from different parts of the state and from adjacent states lots mors more favorable freight rates are bringing in considerable ore of this character which could not be economically no moved prior to the development of this custom operation briefly the operation rati oil con consists fists of crushing and s sampling opt PI ing the ore and to a considerable extent bedding the different ores as above described prior to sending to the concentrator in order to maintain as uniform a feed as possible standard practice of ball mill grinding and classification is followed and then with different reagent additions additions series recovery of the lead zinc zinc and iron is made in respective concentrates by flotation alone as well as a final 0 or r mill tailing which goes foes to waste the concentrator is arranged in two separate and distinct sections the grinding equipment being identical in each but section no 1 is equipped with callow pneumatic fl flotation cells while section no 2 has mineral separation sub aeration machines the ores are treated in the section or combination of sections in which it has been found the equipment is best adapted as regards metallurgical results the respective finished products franr the two sections are combined for de watering and ad disposal I 1 osal As regards this feature the ae lead product is sent to the tooele thoele lead plant the zinc product to the great falls electrolytic zinc plant and the iron product to either the tooele thoele lead plant or copper plant as desired for fluxing flexing purposes the tailings from both sections are thickened to approximately fifty per cent solids and pumped into impounding dams the overflow or clear water from the thickener is returned to a head tank for general mill use in this way the only water lost in the operation is that contained in the respective v spec tive concentrates and the thick ened tailing the loss is made up with fresh spring water the general concentrator feed will average approximately six to eight per cent lead eight to ten per cent iron iron and ten to twelve per cent zinc from these heads a lead concentrate averaging sixty to sixty five per cent lead a zinc concentrate averaging fifty to fifty five per cent zinc and and iron concentrate averaging thir ty eight to forty per cent iron are made in this series treatment every effort is made to produce as high grade and clean products as possible and at the same time maintain good recoveries of the lead zinc and iron in their respective concentrates A very complete and extensive concentration cent ration testing laboratory is maint main bained for frequent checking of orl or receipts testing of new ores for pro cess amenability and for improving and working out of new treatment processes for these same ores the laboratory is equipped with several types of small batch testing machines and in addition has a callow test mill and a mineral separation test mill each of one hun hundred drel pounds per hour capacity complete in every way and patterned identically after the concentrator continuous tests are made in this test mill trying out new processes new reagent combinations and determining the effect of returning intermediate products which cannot be done consistently on the regular batch testing machines this concentrator is especially un unique I 1 i in in that it is treating a varying mixture of lead zinc ores from over fifteen different mines on strictly a custom basis and making a three mineral separation and concentration from them by flotation alone and by means of the same treatment process these ores are of widely different analysis and general character as would be expected but their general tendency is to react very similarly to the process employed it is evident from this fact that such a plant provides a profitable outlet for the mines of this district which have been limited heretofore in their output of ores of this character due to the often times prohibitive zinc penalty for smelting smelling sm elting ores this is especially beneficial to the relatively small producer who is not justified in putting up his own plant and at the same time secures profitable returns from his shipments to such a custom plant operating on a pay for zinc rather than a penalty basis LEAD SMELTER lead ores are received by belt conveyor from the sampling mill and are delivered to steel charge bins having a capacity of tons these bins are divided into two sect sections ions one of which contains the materials for making up the sintering wintering sint ering plant charge an and d the other the ores fluxes and sinter used in making up the blast furnace charge naces is from cars standing upon an elevated trestle above a large concrete pit coke is withdrawn from this pit through chutes leading to a tunnel below on to a belt conveyor and i is s elevated to a cylinder ical steel coke bin of tons capacity SINTERING PLANT practically all of the fine material treated at the lead plant such as concentrates cen flue dust etc requires sin bering to agglomerate it before including it in the charge tor for the blast furnace the various materials for the charge for the sintering wintering sint ering plant are drawn from the bins by mechanical feeders adjusted io to deliver the desired portion of each to a belt conveyor which discharges them toi to a mixing device from this they fall on an inclined conveyor belt leading to th the feed floor of the sintering wintering sint ering pla plant nt where the charge is distributed to the five ton feed hopper above each machine there are ten standard dwight lloyd sintering wintering sint ering machines inches the charge Is mechanically spread in a thick layer on a traveling grate the surface of the charre charae is igni ignited te by passing under an oil burner ignition is maintained by the contina ous drawing of air through the ignited bed by means of suction boxes connected to a suction fan sulphur is s about 12 per cent in the charge and is is roasted down to about 30 per cent in the sinter the material fuses slightly and forms a clinker like mass which is discharged at the end of the machine and falls into railroad cars these cars are hauled to the blast furnace bins and the sinter dumped therein to form part of the charge to the blast furnace each sinter machine has a capacity of tons of feed per 24 hours F fuel uel used is gas oil of about 36 beaume the gases from the sintering wintering sint ering plant are passed through a cottrell precipitation plant where much of the dust they contain is deposited the gases gabes pass through a flue to a brick stack 18 feet in diani diameter eeb and feet in height the cottrell dust is either returned to the sinter plant or sent to the arsenic plant dependent upon its arsenic content BLAST FURNACE PLANT this plant consists of five lead blast furnaces 52 to inches at the line each furnace has 25 tuy eres the height from line to charge floor is 24 feet 8 inches the capacity of each of these furnaces is about tons total charge per 21 hours the charge cars have hopper bottoms with hinged drop doors and are electrically operated they are of the same length as the blast furnace the bins are fitted with suspended weighing hoppers the constituent materials of a charge are drawn into these hoppers weighed and dropped into the charge car while in motion thus bedding the charge in the car itself the car is run over the furnace and the charge dropped therein the gases from the blast furnace are drawn off just below the charge floor and enter a cylinder ical dust catcher tangentially these catchers are 20 feet in diameter and 18 feet in height the gases are discharged from this catcher into a steel balloon flue feet long whence they are forced into the by a sirocco fan with a capacity of cubic feet per minute this brick bag bouse contains 1440 cylinder ical cloth bags 18 inches in diameter and 30 feet in length the fumes from the gas is is shaken from the inside of the bags by reversal of the pressure on the bag causing it to collapse the fume falls into pits from which it is removed periodically and returned to the blast furnace as part of fresh charge the filtered gases from the are discharged through a steel to the same stack into which the sintering wintering sint ering plant gases are received slag and matte are tapped from the blast furnaces into large movable forch earths in which separation is made by gravity the matte is tapped from the settler into 3 ton pots and hauled to the converting plant the slag overflows from the into a second settler and from that into a 7 ton slag pot in which it is taken to the slag dump lead is tapped from the blast furnace into three cubic foot conical pots and taken to the dr dressing plant PLANT the dr dressing plant contains four cast iron kettles each having a capacity of 30 tons of lead they are coal fired the pots of lead received from the blast furnace are poured into these kettles the molten lead is cooled and stirred by means of compressed air which causes the impurities mainly copper to collect as a dross on the surface of the bath this dross is skimmed off pressed in a howard press to remove excess lead and returned to the blast furnace charge COPPER SMELTER all ores for the copper copper department are crushed to uniform size and stored in steel bins of 2000 tons capacity from these bins and the concentrate bins the ore and concentrates respectively are fed through chutes on to conveyor belts which elevate these materials to the feed floor of the roaster plant ROASTER PLANT the plant consists of thirty two evans klepetko mcdougall roasting ing furnaces each with six hearths sixteen feet in diameter the capacity of each furnace is about 50 tons ton s of feed per 24 hours each furnace is fed from a cylindrical steel hopper of 10 tons capacity the ore and concentrates cen are distributed to these feed hoppers by a series of distributing conveyors with traveling automatic trippers grippers trip pers traversing the feed floor the gases from the roasting furnaces are conducted by two brick flues to a rectangular steel and brick dust chamber feet by feet by 40 feet high where the larger portion of the dust is deposited the gases pass from the dust chamber into a flue type C ottrell cottrell precipitation plant where an electric discharge precipitates the remaining dust and thence to the copper stack 25 feet in diameter and feet high the roasted material is discharged from the furnaces into hoppers from these hoppers the roasted ore or calcine is drawn off in small bottom |