The weekly tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1891-1894, 1894-08-17
ABOUT COKE, IRON, AND SILVER.
Some Interesting Information About
the New Coke Plant to Be
Put in at Belt.
Great Falls as an Iron Disirict-The
m~istOcles Silver Mines and Their
Relation to Neihart.

'Ss Aa ~ 81
Ross, the agent Of the United States Coal
Washing company Of Chicago, at the
Park hotel and learned some interesting
facts about the new coke and coal wash
ing plant which his company have con-
tracted to put in at Belt for the Cashier
Coal and Coke company. The plant will
be located On the flat below the upper
tunnel Of the mines and the ovens, which
number 100, will be built in a long row,
which will take up a space Of about 900
feet in length. The construction of the
ovens will require about 100000 brick
and a spur will have to be built from
the main line to reach the site of the
Coke works. AS soon as this spur is
built the material and machinery will
begin to arrive for the construction of
the plant. The coal washing plant will
lie along the creek. Altogether
the cost of the plant will ex-
coed Sl0o,CC0. Roughly speaking, it
takes about two tons of coal to make one
of coke, so that when the coke plant
turns out $50 tons a day, it's full capa-
city, it means an increase Of nearly 500
tons a day in the output of the mines.
SO that directly and indirectly the new
coke plant will result in a vast increase
in the numbero OF men employed at Belt.
A couple OF carloads of coke were made
in a sample oven at Belt a few weeks
ago and the establishment of the indus
try was decided on after a trial of this
coke. OF course, this coke was made of
unwashed coal and the quality will be
much improved when the coal is first
washed. The three main qualities in
coke which make it desirable from a
commercial standpoint is crushing
strength. freedom from ash and freedom
from sulphur. In all these respects the |
Belt coke has passed satisfactory tests.
The Anaconda company will use all the
coke manufactured at Belt, and it is |
probable that as 500 as the Belt coke is |
demonstrated to be a success other
smelling concerns will put in coke ovens
in order to secure cheap coke.
Speaking of the iron deposits in this
vicinity, Mr., Ross expressed the opinion
that the section OF country around Great
would some day be a vast iron man..
u~facturing district. Iron ore in large
quantities and of every variety, red and
brown hematite, specular, bog iron and
can be found within a radius
Of GO miles from Great Falls. Some of
the specimens assayed have gone as high
as 81 per cent manganese and all of them
are rich in metallic iron, and marked by
from phosphorus. Coke for
manufacture Of iron requires greater
than that used for the smelling
copper or silver, but there is every in
i~ication that the Belt coke, made from
we'll washed coal, will show all the neces-
'ary qualities for smelling iron ore. The
in this country is unsurpassed
n quality, u~nexhaustible in quantity
md can be vely cheaply obtained, 60
hat this section possesses all the essen
ial requisites to become a great seat OF
manufacturing industries. Such in
tustries, successfully located here,
would command the whole western
for a market.
The company represented by Mr.. Ross
Use the Luhrig patents and are ths sole
,wners of them in this country. Among ,
hese patents is one for the %concentra-
of low grade silver ores. At the
resent time a plant using this patent is
n operation at Laurium, Greece. 1t
vas here that 800 years years before
'hrist Themistoclee got his silver to pay
UT DuilulnP his Heet WHICH achieved n I
naval victory over the Persians al
and saved Greece from the
losts Of Xerxes. As old Them al. !
hough something Of a fighter wasn't
cry much of a miner, he left a good deal ,
T the precious material in the tailings, !
a company using the Luhrig patent !
at the present date working over these
Id tailings, which have been lain there
nearly $500 years, with very salts
actory results. Some idea of the ca '
acity Of the plant may be had when it ,
stated that it treats 1000 tons daily.
lr. Ross has an idea that this process
an be utilized in the concentration of
low grade ores at Neihart, and in
ends in a short time to make some ex- {
eriments in that direction. IL the
sader is not dazed by the giddy leap J..
'om the scene of Themistocles' mining
peratlons to the Queen mining camp OF '
orthern Montana he will see that a So
of the question Of the successful
'ncentration of the low grade ores of !
le Belt mountains is one which would
can a great deal to this section of the ;
and it is to be hoped that Mr..
oss' experiments with the concentra- {
on of low grade ores will prove salts :
ctory. !