Great Falls weekly tribune., 1895-10-04
SILVER SHELTER.
Twenty Eight Hundred Tons of Ore in
the Bins.

the Pins.
A TRIBUNE reporter Saturday called
at the silver smelter and found
preparations we'll in progress for the re
sumption of work at the smeltcr. For
several months past the company has
been receiving ore and they have now
about $500 tons piled up in the bins. 1t
is the present intention of ~ ard company
to start up. the roasters i,..,g,bout two
weeks, and couple of weeks later the
smelter will be started up with one
stack. This will give employment to
about 125 men and add about $4,000 Il
month to the payrolls of the city. Start
ing up silver smelter is rather costly
operation and the company in this i'll
stance have satisfied themselves that
they will be enabled to keep it in opera
tion before they decided to com
mence work again. 10 do this they
| require about - cars of ore per
week. This is not all, the ore
must be of several kinds, as it requires a
certain proportion of lead and siicaous
ores to Eme.t the refractory silver ores
| anG the company have to arrange for a
sufficient supply of these in oroer to run,
| The MOulton mine at Barker furnishes
d highly desirable lead ore. This ore
runs very high in lead and is growing
richer as depth is attained. i he ore
being turned out non goas as high as 50
per cent in lead. This is nearly the only
lead ore mine now in operation in this
section, and the company have to de-
pend largely on the ores from the Cour
d'Alene district in Idaho to supplement
the supply Of this variety Of ore.
The smeter also receives ore from the
Libby district, on the main line Of the
Great Northern. Eayera! mines in that
district being now ia a condition to ship
ore regularly. The 'uain source of supply
| to which the smeltnr mus look, however,
is Neihart This camp a! que can furnish
about enough ore To Keep one stack III
the smelter running right along, pro-
yided it was all shipped here. The very
low rate made by the Grea. Northern on
ore shipped to Everett combined with
the advantage that smelter has in the
way of rates for shipping bullion, has re-
suited in ore being diverted from the
Great Falls smelter to Everett, according
to the smelter officials here, and this
very claim was the main cause of their
shutting down. 1t is to be presumed,
however, that they see their way clear
now to overcoming these difficulties, as
they are making preparations to start up
again.
The Broadwator mine, which has now
settled all it's difficulties with the Nei-
hart Miners union, is the main reliance
of the smelter for ore supplies. This
mine is fortunate in having an ore rich
enough to pay for mining even at the
low price Of silver, and it is stated that
| it is making preparations to Largely in
crease its productions. The BrOadRater
is now in shape to ship about lG cars OF
ore week if it SO desires, and arrange
ments are being made between the
smelter company and the owners Of the
, mine Messrs. Clark and Searles, for d
large supply of ore.
The Florence is another rich mine
, that can operate under present condi-
: tions and will ship about three cars a
| week. The Gait is third mine from
, which the smelter people look for ore
3 while the old Queen of the Hills is max
/ ing preparations under the new reo1gan-
, ization management to become liberal
shipper Of ore.
The Moulton mine belonging to the