Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-12-09
he Clergue syndicate of sault sainte

by the Clergue syndicate Of Sault Sainte
Marie. This company has smelters at its
mines, and 1t has been turning out matte
which it hopes to reduce by means of cleo
tricity generated by the water power of
the st. Mary's river. The Vivians of Wales
own the Murray mines, but they have, I
am told, lost more than two hundred thou
sand dollars in working them. There are
other mines whose product IS reduced by
the Mond process, the matte being Shipped
to England, and there are vast deposits in
the hands of private parties with no end
of country yet to prospect. Indeed, If a
cheaper method of getting the nickel out
Of the copper, sulphur and iron can be IN
vented. the other mines here will be rapidly
opened and nickel may become a compare
lively cheap metal. AT the time these
mines were discovered it was worth 81 a
pound. 1t IS now worth 40 cents, and no
one can tell what it will be worth In the
future
Tie Nickel Trust.
For all practical purposes there is only
one nickel company operating here today.
This is the International Nickel Company,
which is a combination of the Canadian
Copper Company, which operates here, and
its associate companies of the United
States which reduce the matte and handle
the product. The company has a capitali-
zation running high into the millions, and
l understand that it pays good dividends
The Canadian Copper Company was the
first to mine nickel in large quantities 1t
was organized by Ohio parties in 1886, the
chief incorporatorS being Cleveland men,
among whom were Judge Stevenson Burk,
Senator Henry B. Payne and others. The
Canadian Pacific road had made bare the
nickel deposits several years before; but no
one had looked upon the ore as nickel, and
1t considered valuable only for the cop
per it contained The Ohio company sub
scribed two million and a half dollars to
&c anti and IN nrl- j1a &C
at Copper Cliff for the copper in them.
They sent part of their copper to New Jer-
sey, and another part to Wales. The reduc-
ton works at New Jersey looked upon the
nickel as of no account and let ii run off
with the Stag, while the Wales smelters
paid only for the copper and kept the nickel
as a private rake-off. After a short time,
however, the Canadian Copper Company
discovered that the nickel in their ore was
far more valuable than the copper, and
since then nickel has been the principal
item of profit. The Sudbury region is
nickel country, and the copper In 1t is not
considered. The ore now being taken from
the Creighton mine carries about per cent
nickel, or 8 per cent of copper, about 40
per cent of iron and % or 30 per cent OF
sulphur, with other stuff to make up the
balance This equals about six pounds OF
nickel to the hundred, or one hundred and
twenty pounds per ton. At the selling price
of 10 cents a pound each ton OF ore there
fore contains about SIS worth of nickel. A
it pays well for mining and such ore yields
only $50 per ton.
In the Copper Cliff Shelters.
The Copper Cliff smelters are of enormous
size. Through the kindness of Mr. A p.
Turner, president of the Canadian company,
I have been able to go through them during
my stay The ore is brought in on cars
from Creighton mine. which is eight miles
cd nd screened
then spread out in great heaps on beds or
cord wood to be roasted. Hundreds of tons
of the coarse ore are piled upon the WOOD,
and the finer ore dust spread over them
The fire is started and the ore gradually
burns away day after day for period OF
two months or more. This roasts out 10 or
20 per cent of the sulphur
Birthstone Damnation.
The smoke which comes up from these
vast windrows of roasting metal is of a
light yellow color. 1t smells like burnt
matches, and 1t is almost pure sulphur
Added to the sulphur fumes from the fur
naces, it fills the air about Copper Cliff
to such an extent that no vegetation will
grow. Before the mines were discovered
the country was a green forest, and you
may here and there see the charred stumpS
standing out on the barren landscape. In
the town itself, which has, l judge, over
three thousand people, there Is not a green
leaf nor a DlaQe OF grass d DuSH nor Il
flower to be seen throughout the year. The
country around the smelters Is arid as
the Desert of Sahara. 1t makes me think
of the nitrate fields about Iquiqui. in north
ern Chile where there Is no fresh water
for hundreds of miles and all is sand and
rock. Indeed, nature here has been blast
ed by the birthstone damnation coming out
of the ore.
There are in the neighborhood of thou
sand miners employed here by the Canadian
Copper Company. One might suppose that
they would be injured by these sulphur
fumes They are, on the contrary, as
healthy as any people In the world. The
children have rosy cheeks and the miners
are more healthy in appearance than those
about Pittsburg or Butte city. Mont.
Use Rubber Nose Caps.
Even after this roasting there is 10 per
cent of sulphur left In the ore. The most
of this is roasted out In the smelling. The
air about the furnaces is loaded with brim-
stone to such an extent that the men use
rubber nose caps, for all the world like the
nipples on babies nursing bottles, save that
they are as big as your fist and each has a
sponge inside 1t soaked with carbonate of
ammonia. This counteracts the effects Of
the sulphur In the air breathed through 1t
and makes it possible for the men to work.
/ had one of these nipples my nose
when I went through the works to keep
out the fumes Notwithstanding this my
lungs became filed with sulphur. coughed