Weekly Arizona journal-miner., 1903-12-16

seCJlOn, JOuTudl- MlueT representa-
tive recently visited the Home Run
mine, located on Groom Creek, about
seven and a half miles south of Pres
colt, in the Hassayampa district, for
the purpose of seeing the new mill,
which was started up only few days
ago. The stamps we're pounding ore
in a most satisfactory manner; each
stamp, which weighed 1900 pounds,
dropping l04 times per minute, the
drop being six inches. The stamps
we're crushing between seven and eight
tons each per twenty four hours. As
the mill is equipped with six of these
unit stamps it will be seen that it has
a crushing capacity of about fifty tons
per day.
As this is the first mill of the kind
that has been built in this section the
Journal Miner will give a somewhat
detailed description of it for the ben
eff of its readers, large percentage
of whom are interested in mines and
mills.
The mill is built on what is known
as the Nissen system, q. Ii. Nissen,
who personally superintendent the
work of putting up the mill, being
the originator of the system. 1t is
what is known as the unit mill, each
stamp dropping in an individual NOR
tar. This mortar is constructed on
plans which we're obtained as the re-
suit of 40 years of experience in stamp
mill building in Colorado, Nova
Scotia and other parts of this country
by Mr.. Nissen and his son, and while
this is the first one to be tried in Ari-
IONA yet the plan is by no means an
experiment, as years of experience has
proven them to be a decided success.
The Home Run mill has two batteries
of three stamps each, the mortar for
each stamp being round, the discharge
covering one half of the circumfer-
ence. Each one of these mortars
has three quarters as much discharge
as the old fashioned five stamp mortar.
The mortar being circr'ar there il no
tapping and consequent destruction
of the screens. This also prevents the
ore from getting into corners, there
being no place for it to fall except
under the stamp. The mortar is
equipped with an amalgamating plate
which goes clear Iaround the inside
and lays on an angle of about 40 de-
grees. This inside plate gives each
mortar almost as much amalgamating
surface as an entire five stamp mortar
has. There is a steel lining for each
mortar which can be put in and re-
moved at will and this makes the NOR
tar practically indestructible, as there
is no direct wear on the mortar itself.
Another feature in favor of these
unit stamps over the battery system is
that each mortar only weighs about
one ton, thus making it easy of
transporting to rough places where
freighting is of great difficulty. There
is a separate outside plate for each
mortar which enables the mill man to
hang up just one stamp at time
while all the other stamps are doing
service. This is a large item in
economy.
The 7mortars are set on cement
foundations which is said to be one
of the finest jobs of cement work ever
done in this section. The founda-
tions are nine feet deep and eight feet
wide at the bottom, thus making
them as solid as the everlasting hills.
The feeders for each stamp are of the
Challenge type and the ore is fed into
the stamps automatically from ore
bins having a capacity of fifty tons to
each battery of stamps, or 100 tons in
the mill Each battery of stamps is
also equipped with large Standard
concentration.
The ore, when it is hoisted from the
mine, is dumped over two grizzlies
into a bin from where it is fed into
the large Blake ore crusher where ii
is crushed until it is fine enough to
feed into the stamps. From the
crusher it is fed onto large belt con-
veyor which carries it into the mill
and dumps it into the bins from where
it is fed into the stamps. This is all
done automatically and results in
a great saving in handling the ore. The
rock crusher is operated by 20-horse
power engine and is Independent of
the other machinery.
The dimensions of the mill build
ing are 37x5S feet, while the boiler
room is 32x45 feet. The wood work
throughout the mill has been white
washed which gives it considerable
additional light and is a material
benefit in many ways and greatly i'm
proves the appearance.
The entire designs and drawings of
the mill were made by p. n. Nissen,
who besides being thorough mining
man is a skilled mechanic and ma
chinist, and the mill was built under
his personal supervision. W. W. Ell
lott, who is acknowledged to be one
of the best mill men in this section,
being superintendent of construction.
All the timbers and material used
in the construction of the mill are of
the best that could be obtained and
everything has been arranged with
the object in view of handling the
work to the best advantage and with
the lest expense. and the results are
very satisfactory, so far as they have