The Florence daily tribune., 1902-05-23

The Union plant is 40 ton chlorin
alton mill one of the most modern and
up-to date plants in the State today. 1t
is thoroughly equipped with all the
most modern machinery and has every
labor-saving device obtainable. A brief
description of the way the ore is handled
at this plant would be as follows:
All of the ore supply for this plant is
obtained from the Cripple Creek district,
being brought to the plant via the Flor
ence q Cripple Creek railroad. 1t is
unloaded at the sampler, passed through
the Blake crushers and Davis rolls and
is reduced 10 about 1, inch, then pass
ing to the bedding floors. These bed
ding floors and bins are merely used for
the purpose of mixing the ores 50 that
they may he handled to better advan
tage through the roasting and chlorinat-
ing departments, In the sampling
works the values of the ores are deter
mined and the shipper is paid so much
ton for each shipment. The ore is
conveyed from the bedding floor by belt
conveyors to the revolving ore dryers
and thence passes to the flashing rolls.
consisting of six l6 30 Davis crushing
rolls. In the crushing departm' mt the
ore is reduced to II mesh pulp, being
about as fine as granulated sugar. Af-
ter being crushed to - IN 'Sh, the ore is
/ I,Ns hnl tp + "a lt hp
conveyors, which distribute this pulp to
six 40 foot Pearce turret roasting fur
nances. Tne furnaces have capacity
of 10 tons each per day, and passing
| through them all of the volatile
matter is removed thoroughly oxi
dizing the ore and freeing the gold.
The ore after leaving the roasting fur
nances passes over the mechanical cool
ers and is put in such shape that it can be
conveniently handled. 1t then goes to
! the barrel house in the chlorinating de
partment, and is charged into the chlor
ination barrels There are twelve
barrels of 1913 tons capacity each. In
them the roasted ore is mixed
with certain proportion of sulphuri'
acid, water, and chloride of lime, and i
chlorinated for two or three hours by
revolving in the barrels with the
| chlorine gas, after which sufficient water
is pumped through the barrels to
thoroughly wash out all the gold which
has passed into solution as chloride of
gold. This solution is passed into lead
lined storage tanks and is finally ele-
waited to the precipitating tanks where
jet of sulphuretted hydrogen gas is
passed through it, precipitating the gold
as sulphide of gold This solution then
passes out through the filter presses,
the solution being valueless; the gold
sulphides remain in the presses. These
sulphides are roasted to remove the sui
phur after which they are melted down
into gold bricks and shipped to the
mint. The tailings, or residue left in
the barrels, are discharged to the concen-
trating plant where further saving is
made.
| The power for the Union plant is fur
nished by plant of six boilers, all of
which are fired with fuel oil produced in
( the Florence field. A five hundred
1 horse power tandem compound CorliSs
engine furnishes the power for operating
the plant. A large generator is driven
/ by this engine, and the current is wireu
to different motors around the plant.
This mill has pumping station on the
Arkansas river, which pumps approx
mately 100000 gallons per day.
This pumping station is equipped
with two large electric pumps, which
are operated by "A current from the main
power station at the mill
The Union plant can handle about
13,0O0 tons of ore per month. 1t EN-
ploys about 2Oo men. Monthly pay roll
sl5,oO0.oO Monthly pay roll at Metallic
plant $1,000; employees about 30 men.