Arizona silver belt., 1884-06-28
CARD FROM l.. M swEExY.

Sweeny, will be read With interest by
 parties owning mines in this district and, perhaps, have moving effect
 upon those dcsirous of utilizing their ores. It seems that all that is wanted
 to render the enterprise a success is an adequate supply of Aux, iron and lead, to form proper smelling com bination. We are well satisfied that Mir. Sweeny fully understands the business of smelting, and it now re- mains with those who are more great ly interested than himself to see that the necessary want is supplied:
 My silver ores, made up into two beds, according to their grade in sil- yer, contained. the one GS per cent. and the other 60 per cent silica. My low grade lead silver beds contained 46 per cent. silica. My one lot of good grade lead ore contained 27 per cent. silica. The average percen- tage in iron of all these ores was , per cent. To Aux this enormous excess of silica, was compelled to use an iron ore, which in itself was 80 silicious that but 40 per cent of it was gavaila. ble to me as iron. To introduce, a sufficient quantity of this iron ore into my charge to attain my proper smelt- ing slag, would crowd out the lead ores, so that we could expect no bull lion product. If l used a sufficient quantity of lead ores to. produce the amount of lead required for a charge Tn so small furnace as ours, and, of silver ores to make the bullion of val5 ne (sihce our lead ores carry scarcely any silver), there was not place left for tenth part of the requisite iron ore, and the resulting slag-combina- ton would perhaps have allowed some melting, but noRmelting.
 The intermediate coursS which l used, left me with 5 to z per cent less lead than the lowest limit under which, as I had announced on first seeing this furnace, we could expect it to work, and with B per cent. silica above the limit where I know good smelting ceases. Having explained to the gentlemen associated with me here that I had never attempted any such work as this; that 1 could get no proper smelling combination from the materials OH hand, and that doubted even the possibility of carrying the furnace through the blow-in, 1 at last yielded to their request to make the attempt, since our delays had already been very great, though unavoidable, and there was then no immediate pros pect of bettering this situation. An easy blowin charge, made almost up to my requirements as to slag-combi;; nation, carried us through a fgood l start, but then had to be ahardpned for my poor working-charge Eas the bullion product wasssf~,ss- aA,et-itfs- silver, and had to- be ruin through again and thereby enriched. From that time the end slowly approached, and arrived five days later than I had at first expected 1t.
 1 might add that elsewhere I should | have considered the amount of copper and speiss-Inatter (antimony. arsenic, sulphur, zinc, etc., serious obstacle to good work, but this. evil was dwarfed by the monster excess of silica or lack of iron and lead in the charge.
 Having sacrificed myself to this ex- tent, it is now conceded that 1 may rest until 1 have materials with which | to make up a combination, at least somewhat nearly approaching what I know to be proper smelling charge. already have encouraging evidence of improved quality of ores, and now hope the quantity will sustain this encouragement.
 LoUGs l.. SwEENY.