St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-08-28
THE SILVER CITY.

monthly for wages ami supplies the sum of
$40 600. 1t is on the line of the L tab &
Northern, which is narrow-gauge division
OF the Union Pacific, running nOrthward
! from Ogden distance of 454 miles to
junction with the Northern Pacific at Gar
rison. The freight shipments by
this road average $4,000 tons
per week. Outgoing freights chiefly
consist of ore and copper matte, while
the receipts are mainly composed of mining
machinery, building material, merchandise
and produce. 1t is estimated that for the
current year there will be a total bullion
shipment from Butte Of $1,000. 600 and of
copper matte with its percentage of silver
OF SO, 200, 600, making total of S15,-
600, coo.
The assessed value of the property
in the cityis $1,000, 600. 1t contains eight
churches, three daily newspapers, three
banks, a court house which cost $780,
600, school facilities of a high order, a fine
opera house, two fire departments, has
water works, gas works, electric lights and
telephone system. The merchants are en-
terprlsing, and would make good class of
customers for our st. Paul iobbers.
An Interesting article in the August num-
Der of the West Shore an illustrated jour
nal published at Portland, gives a full de-
scriptiOn of the various methods ofreducing
the ore in the mills and smelters. The
silver ores are divided into two
classes-the free and base. In the
first the silver contents are extracted
after the ore has peen stamped by simply
mixing it with mercury in water, the pre-
cious metal amalgamating quickly with the
quicksilver. In the case of base ores the
process is more expensive and complex
After the ore has been hoisted from the
mine it is conveyed in handcars to the upper
part of the mill, where it is put through
large iron cruSherS, which reduce it to
about the size OF Walnuts. From the crush
ers it drops to the drying floor, where all
the moisture it contains is evaporated, and
where it is mixed with proportion of salt
varying from to IA per cent. OF its weight
the amount Of salt depending on the base
ness of the ore. When thoroughly dried it is
shOyeled under the stamps, large perpen-
dcular iron bars weighing 900 pounds,
which are raised by machinery and
below at the rate OF about fifty
strokes per minute. The effect. of
course, is to crush the ore to powder. in
which condition it is taken automatically to
the rOasters. These are huge hollow cvlin-
ders, revolving slowly, and filled with flames
of intense heat conveyed from the furnaces
below by means of a draft. As the
cylinders revolve the action of the heat
drives off the sulphur in the ore, liberates
the chlorine i'm the salt, and a chemical
change takes place in the nature of the
silver i'm the ore, making a chloride OF what
was formerly a sulphide of silver. and rem
dering it susceptible of amalgamation with
quicksilver. the same a the silver
in the free ore above mentioned.
From the roasters the pulp is
then conveyed by tramway to the
pans, large tubs filled with water, i'm which
quicksilver is placed with the pulp The
mass is then violently agitated so that every
particle of the silver chloride comes in CON
tact with the quicksilver, by which it is
taken up. The whole is then conveyed to
the settlers, another series of tubs in
which the water settles and from
which the quicksilver is drawn
in the form of amalgam. This is
afterwards subjected to heat, volatilizing
the quicksilver, which is afterwards con-
densed for use again by means OF cold Wa
ter pipes, leaving the silver in pure me
tallic state to be melted into bars and
shipped for coinage. The process by which
the copper ores are smelted is simple
enough. Like the silver ores of Butte
they are of sulphurous compo-
sition and require to be roasted be-
fore their metal contents can be put into
marketable shape. The copper ores Ct
Butte are either desulphurized by what is
called heat roasting. or by being put through
reyerberatory furnaces, i. e., long brick
ovens. into which heat and flame are intro
duced to drive off the sulphur and other
Impurities. After this initial treat
ment the ore. which had, of course, been
previously crushed and rolled to the
fneness Of sand, is dumped into the mat
ting furnaces. where it is reduced To a
molten state for the separation, as far as
possible, of the worthless ingredients from
the metal base. The metal is then drawn
OFF into sand cavities. where il cools
and becomes copper matte. 1t gen
orally assays from 81 TO 65 per
cent of copper and what silver the ore con-
tanned, though the Parrot company, by new
and improved processes, produced matte
carrying only ? per cent of impurities
Several Of the Butte companies ship ore in
crude state, as it contains from 40 to 7G
per cent. of copper, and pays handsomely
TO snip without smelling.