Lyon County times. [volume] (Silver City, Nev.) 1874-1907, 1897-10-16
THE NEW COPPER SHELTER.
A Visit to the Boston Nevada Copper
Company's Plant In Mason Valley.
The smelter Now Running smooth
~ and the Mines Producing Good

A TIMES representative met DR..
w. }. Nelson, President of the Bos-
ton-Nevada Copper Company, on
the train last Mondsy morning and
accepted an invitation to visit the
company's property and plant in
Mason Valley. The plant is located
on the west side of the Walker river.
about one mile from the town of
Yerington, and. is reached by
drive of about twelve miles after
leaving the c. & C. road at Wabus-
ka. The smelter was not in opera
ton Monday owing to clogging up
OF the furnace, but it took only
short time to overcome this difficult
ty, and Tuesday morning she was
running again as smooth as a top.
At the smelter we met Mr.. o. HI.
Hardy, the Superintendent of the
works, who piloted us through the
plant and explained the working
OF every particle of machinery, and
the manner in which the furnace
was charged with different charac-
tiers of ores to make the lux perfect
for obtaining the best results.
To give detailed account of the
company's work up to date, it is
best to state that last April DR.. Mel
son and Mr.. Hardy formed a part.
nership, organized a company and
purchased some mines and located
others in Mason Valley, and that
the company now has ten claims,
all OF which carry good quality of
copper ore. One of the valuable
features about the property is that
in these ten claims there are found
all the characters of ore to make
perfect tiux, which insures the work
ing of the material up to the highest
percentage. For instance, one claim
produces an oxide ore carrying an
iron base, another claim produces
an oxide ore with a silica base, there
is ledge of limestone on the COM
pany's ground, and iron sulphurets
are easily obtained, so that coax is
the only material that has to be
purchased, and it has to be obtained
from California and Washington.
The ore in the company's ground
will go from II to 40 per cent. in
copper, and also carries little gold,
and it is estimated that there is ore
enough to keep the present smelter
"a forty-ton one-in operation
from three to five years, there being
from 10000 to $4,000 tons of ore
now in sight, From this it will be
seen that the main feature in max.
ing the enterprise a success-a suf-
ficient quantity of ore-is not lack
ing.
On the 18th day of last May
ground was broken for the erection
of the smelter, and work was car
ried on continuously, barring few
delays in obtaining lumber, etc, up
to the time the start was made on
the 2Sth day of last month. The
plant consists of a 42-inch water
jacket furnace Capacity forty tons
dav), a No. 5 Baker blower, two
stationary engines, Blake rock
breaker, rolls and sampling mill
and a 6O-horse power boiler, and
was constructed under the super
vision of Superintendent Hardy
1t is probably as complete and well
arranged as any plant of its size in
the country. The building is on
side hill; all the ore is delivered
into dumps at the top of the hill,
and from there it is run into the
building in a small car on a trestle
and dumped into bins in the upper
story of the building From these
bins it is run through the rock
breaker and lands in bins on the
floor below, and from these lower
bins is fed to the furnace. The fur
mace is charged about every thirty
minutes, or from 20 to 80 charges
are made every "a hours, and the
product in that time is from six to
eight tons of black copper which
will assay from 60 to 20 per cent.
copper. In addition to this there
is obtained from the bottom of the
molds about a ton of copper in
-------------------