The semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1882-1886, 1885-12-02
=,
VIEW OF ANACONDA.
A Description Of the Great
Shelter at That Place.
AN Q SCENE.
ga --1 -
An Idea Of the Size and Capacity of
the Works-The Great"
Water Wheels.

: NO~A - AAO04os
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correspondence of the Minneapolis Tribune.
ANACONDA, Montana, November TO-
From a distance of thirty miles the great
clouds of smoke that rise from among thu
mountains indicate the location of Ana,
conda and the greatest copper smelter in
the world. Anaconda is a town of 3 1000
people, and only two years of age, and il
located at the terminus Of a branch of the
Utah and Northern Railroad. While the
place itself is n of considerable import.
ance and bright promise, interest in it il
chiefly on account Of the location here oil
the smelter, and upon this enterprise. do
the people chiefly base their hopes offuture
prosperity for the town. Before entering
upon a description of the, smelter I will
speak OF the mines that supply it with ore.
The Anaconda mine is located at Butte,
was purchased four years ago by j. B.
daggln, OF San Francisco. Since that time
about W zoo, 900 have been invested in
improvements, and now the Anaconda has
been developed into what is probably the
most valuable copper mine in the world.
The shaft is about 1000 feet deep and is
divided into three compartments. Cross
cuts have been made in the vein from east
to west at every 100 feet below the surface,
y 6So No JAG OlO WlllCu OCCuT6 Ill 6uOOtS Ol
great width n uniform richness. especially
in the lower levels of the mine. Down to
the depth of 200 feet the silver occurring in
the vein is OF low grade, but below that
point the grade changes and the silver is
found in a native state and in good guam
titles ranging from $40 to $50 per ton. It
is this proportion of silver in the ore which
enables the Anaconda Company to sell it's
copper at the same price as the Eastern
copper, which can be reproduced at a smaller
cost. The st. Lawrence shaft, which pene-
trates the vein at another place, is also
and worked by the Anaconda Com
pany.
THE
90 The smelter is located on the north side
OF Warm Springs creek, opposite the town.
Some figures showing the dimensions of
some OF the largest of the ten buildings will
give an idea OF the magnitude of the works.
The old concentration building is 175x22O
feet in size and has a capacity OF 600 tons
OF ore a day. The old smelter is 175x49O
feet; SO tons of iron roofing were required
to cover this building. The ore house is
SOx22O feet; the matte houses are 5Ox22O
and the new smelter is 13lx396 feet. The
new building for calcine furnaces is 6Sx296
and contains 10 furnaces. Half a mile be-
low is the new concentrator, 175x225. 1t
is located here so that the water which pro-
PEELED the machinery in the other buildings
may have sufficient fall to run the ma
chinery in this one. This new contractor
has a total capacity of the establishment of
1 800 tons every "a hours-a quantity
quite uncomfortable in the absence OF the
mass itself.
Millions OF common brick and hundreds
of thousands of fire brick have been used in
L. l.,:ll.--o --l uo~o1 T1ok:1 oaa-41,
fire brick have been imported from Wales
at great expense, but stone has been dis
covered neal Dillon from which fire brick
81 per cent Of silica can be man.
ufactured. All the ore treated in the
is brought from the Anaconda and
St. Lawrence mines at Butte. The ore cars
nave a capacity OF 10000 pounds each,
and are provided with a patent dumping
They run upinto the ore house
a steep grade, which reaches a height OF
IS feet above the main track OF the rail-
road, and here the ore is dumped. 1t falls
into bins and is carried by it's own weight
down to the crushers. Here the ore is re-
duced to small Jumps and passed down
ward into receptacles, from whence it is
into small cars and rolled to the
being weighed, is dumped into q chute,
which it is carried to the rollers.
These rollers, which are very large and
which revolve with great rapidity, reduce
the Jumps to parse sand. After passing
the rollers the ore is sifted and the coarser
part is returned to the rolls to be made
finer. That part OF
THE NECESSARY MEM
is then passed into large %troughs, or bins.
which are filled with water. These are
called jigs, and are nearly 800 in number.
The water in them is kept constantly agi-
being OF greater gravity, sinks in the water.
The lighter and baser part is carried from
the top of the jigs, and washed out OF the
buildings into Warm Springs Creek by the
waste chute. The ore passes from the
OF the jigs into receiving troughs,
from which it is shovel-d into iron cars
and conveyed to the draining floor, where
all the moisture runs off. From thence it
is hoisted to the calcining floor, and then
passes into the calcining furnaces, or roast
ing furnaces, as they are called. Here, as
the latter name would lead one to suppose,
the ore is subjected to a roasting process,
the effect of which is to eliminate the sui
which is held in the ore together
with iron, silica, the copper and silver.
These latter are oxOdized in the roasting
but the ore is not melted. 1t falls
from the roasting furnaces into a chute,
from which it is removed in w~heelbarrows
to the melting furnaces. In these the ore,
consisting OF iron: silica, copper N
is melted at a white heat. The iron
and silica remain on top, and are skinned
off. forming what is termed the Stag. This
is a waste product, and as yet no process
has been found whereby it "a be utilized.
Three times the furnaces are charged with
ore. and after three hours are SKINNED OF
Stag and recharged. At the end OF three
or after the third skimming, the cop
per and silver are drawn off and run into
moulds about 3 feet by 2 in size. This pro-
dnct:is called matte The cakes OF matte
are taken to the matte house and crushed
into small pieces and put, into sacks con-
tanning 100 pounds each. These sacks and
their contents "" 90
ARE sHlppED TO SWANSEA, -.
England, where the copper and silver are
and from Liverpool 1T is SNIP
to all parts of the world. From 10 TO
25 per cent of the matte shipped to Swan
sea is waste, and consequently that pro-
Of the freight is a dead loss. Be-
sides, the heavy import duty On copper
brought about by the Calumet n Hecla
Superior) mine owners, some years
a 81, e~ffectually closes the American mar
ket against the Anaconda copper. The
contemplate building a refinery
here; it would greatly increase the facilities
and profits of the establishment.
Seven Thousand feet above the smelter
a part of the water OF Warm Spring Greek
is diverted into a flume six feet by TOUR III
size. The water runs in the f1ume abou
four feet deep to the smelter. Arriving
there it falls down. a vertical shalt ~
feet in depth, at the bottom OF which are
turbine wheels each. 80 inches in
After use here it passes to a
lower level and runs the wheels OF the new
concentration, as mentioned above. An IN
conceivable pressure is exerted by this 10
foot fall upon the two wheels. The motion
of the water wheels is transmitted to drlv-
ers revolving horizontally; these transmit
motion by means OF belts three ieet
to other drivers, from which IN turn 1t
is transferred by means Of wire cables to
arae wheels revolving vertically. The
nower is from these carried to the eoncen-
building by wire tables three-quar.
Tors of an inch in diameter. My first visit
THE ANACONDA SHELTER WAS AT MIGHT.