The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1900-01-29
Making All Possible Haste With
the Mountain Lion Plant.
IT MAY be RUNNING MARCH !.
First Equipment In the District for
the Elaborate Treatment of the
Gold Ores-Detailed Description of
the MILNE and CyanidinE-Ex-
pectation That the Ores Can he
Treated At an Outlay OF - Ton.

Special Dispatch to the Post-Inteiligencer.
REPJBLIC. Jan. 2S-The main buiid-
ing Of the new Mountain Lion plant COW
ers about two acres of hillside, just above
the old boiler and engine room OF the com
pressor plant building, and about hfty
feet to the west of the tunnels mouth
The structure comprises about 100000 feet
of lumber, and the several departments
will be models Of machinery superstruc-
ture and convenience.
The mahinery for this plant was ordered
about the middle Of September. and inside
OF ten days, Superintendent Wyatt states,
the last installment ought to be on the
ground, consisting of two boilers, each
of 100 horse power, weighing 6.4OO pounds,
and four mortars for the stamps. weigh
ing $500 pounds each. BY this time the
upraise from the tunnel to connect with
the working shaft should be completed,
and 1t Is his intention to put the whoie
force at work rushing to completion the
setting of the machinery and the connec-
tons, SO that inside Of thirty days, or
about the list of March, the stamps and
crushers should be pounding out ore at
the rate of 100 tons a day.
The scene in the mill is a busy one. Men
are at work in all parts of the structure.
Many machinists are at work on the I'M
mense tanks, of which there are seven
teen, each about twenty feet in diameter.
Others are busy In the boiler and engine
rooms The mill will be as complete and
modern as can be built. The length OF the
electric hoist is 425 feet. 1t will be oper-
ated with a seventy-five horse power mo-
tor and the ore elevated In hosting
drum. The shaft house is high enough to
allow fifty-foot raise from the ground,
where 1t will be dumped automatically on
a screen. Here will be crusher to catch
the larger rock and deposit 1t, after being
crushed along with the finer ore into the
ho
ore drops into car below that transports
1t on covered tram to the mill below,
distance Of 4so feet from the shaft house Sc
at the center frog allows the passing of
a car going each way.
The crusher erected in the shaft house Is
be by electricity. The car dumps ore at
the mill into a 520-ton capacity ore bin,
from which 1t will feed the twenty stamps
adjoining The stamps a, are made ma o, 10 a
They will crush the ore to thirty-mesh
impression. From this stage the powder
passes over copper plates. The pulp will
go into the Huntington mills and there
be reduced to sixty-mesh fineness. BY
this time the pulp will be ready for the
five big agttators. These are ten feet high
ing been drawn from the agitators the
pulp will find its way to the six percolat-
ing tanks.
In the meantime. of course. the pulp
will have been treated to the cyaniding
process. This will be just the straight
process. Superintendent Wyatt states
that the ore is the best he has ever seen
for cyaniding. Each of the percolating
tanks are of sufficient size to hold a days
crushing. 1t is calculated that the pulp
will be from two to six days in making
the complete extraction from the stamps
to bullion
1t is expected no waste of chemicals
will be allowed. as every precaution will
Element in the last tank. and by renewal
worked through the entire process several
times.
The process win be the forced filtration
amalgamate; then the straight cyanidipg.
As the gold will be very fine, the chemicals
will more readily attack II. and hence
large percentage of the values will be
saved.
Superintendent Wyatt says there is ore
enough blocked out to supply 100 tons d
the ore shoot has been opened for 600 feet,
with an average width of sixteen feet.
This is at a depth vertical from the sur
face of about $50 feet. Enough ore is
more. When the mill is in operation, from
the time the ore leaves the slopes until
1t Is run out as bullion, after passing
through the various processes of reduc-
ton and extraction, 1t is handled entirely
by machinery. The building will be sup
by electric lights, as also will the work.
ings in the mine be lighted.
About $4,000 has been the cost of the
buildings and necessary connections,
which amount mostly has been circulated
here. The Mountain Lion ore will aver
age $50 ton In value. and 1t is believed by
the management, upon assurances of the
best experts in the country, that the new
mill will treat 1t at cost of less than 81
per ton.