Arizona republican., 1905-09-10
III 20 Eggs, You'd The Fresh
mH
Works of the Rigby Min
ing and Reduction Go.
ENTERPRISE DESCRIBED
It's Located at Mayer and is the First
Of Several Similar New Process
Plants to be Established in Various
Parts of the Country.

The Rigby Mining and Reduction
company of Mayer, Arizona, is receiV-
ing much attention, it is establish
ing a local market for the ores or the
district as by its special advantages
it is enabled to treat silver, copper and
lead ores and all combinations of the
same whether they be silicious or sui
phides. No penalties are charged for
either silica or zinc. This Will prove
great benefit to the average producer,
avoiding long and expensive freight
hauls and high treatment charges. Also
avoids losses in concentration of low
grade ores.
The company owns over seventy
acres of land adjoining the town of
Mayer, comprising one of the most
valuable mill sites in the Territory. 1t
is accessible from all points, both by
wagon and rail- owing to its own rail-
road spur 5000 feet long, connecting
with the Prescott & Eastern Railway
(Santa. Fe System), together with over
900 feet of yard tracks 1t has one set
of railroad scales with a capacity of
100 tons. Also wagon and other
scales. The company owns the water
rights of Big Bug creek, and is also
connected with the TreadweH and
Mayer pipe lines.
The officers of the company are
practical men. After searching inves-
tigation they adopted the POhle-
Croasdale process as the best COM
merciaI method of treating the ores Of
this section of Arizona.
The buildings of the plant number
about twenty-three in all, very sub
stantially constructed of timber COW
cred with corrugated iron. There is
over one and One-third acres under
baSidaS ore bipS with a canaCitV
of two thousand tons
The offices and laboratory are Of
brick. All the appointments and
equipments are most modern and COM
plete.
Opposite the large warehouse, con-
tanning the company's supplies, and
the weighmaster's Office, is the sam
pier. This building, with its modern
equipment, is a model of its kind.
Here the ore is reduced to the proper
size and sampled, the values found in
these samples being the ones on which
the ore is purchased. The machinery
used here is a 20x10 inch Blake ore
crusher, one pair 36x14 inch rolls, one
pair 16X10 inch rolls, one double Vein
automatic sampler, with screens, sam
pie grinders, moisture furnace and the
usual tools necessary for the proper
conducting of the business. A belt
ore conveyor 125 feet long takes the
sampled ore from the sampler to the
ore bins, where the ore is stored until
needed
The ore is moved eleven times from
its entrance into the sampler until it
is deposited in the tailings dump, and
is handled with shovels only when be-
ing unloaded from the cars, all other
movements being automatic by means
of cars, elevators and conveyors.
he ha iS tax nv
car to the dryer house, where it passes
through two revolving dryers, one 40
inches diameter by IS feet long, the
other so inches diameter by 20 feet
long, the hot ore passing from them,
by gravity, to cars which take it to
the feed hoppers in the roll house,
which is a three story structure in
which the ore is reduced to the proper
fineness for final treatment. This is
accomplished by three sets of 3Ox14
inch rolls, and one set of 2Ox12 inch
rolls, with the necessary screens, ele-
valtOrS etc, while the dust arising
during the crushing process is col
lected by three large automatic fans
and dust collectors.
The finished ore is taken from the
screens and deposited in a fOrty-tOn
iron ore bin in the mixer house by an au-
tomato belt conveyor "a feet long.
Here the ore is weighed from this iron
ore bin and the salt from a smaller
one, by two sets of hopper scales, and
deposited on a so belt conveyor, which
takes it to a box mixer, actuated by
power where it is thoroughly mixed
and dumped into a car which takes it
to the fourfeed hOppers, from where it
is automatically fed into the four
large revolving furnaces, and the ore,
after passing through them, is dumped
into a hot ore conveyOr that carries it
to cars, which place it in the tailings
dump, its values having all been vola-
tilted and taken to another depart
ment The furnace room is SO feet
wide, 1873 feet long and 40 feet high.
The fumes are drawn from the fur
naces through the flue house, which
contains four sets of 3-foOt wrought
iron pipe 175 feet long. into the con-
densing house by four large pressure
blowers, each one capable of handling
$500 cubic feet of gas per minute, and
on reaching them is forced into the
condensing chambers where the val
ues gold. silver copper and lead are
recovered. From the solution thus OBJ
tained, the gold, silver and lead val
ues are filtered and the copper is pre-
cipitated, either by electricity or iron,
and the precipitates melted down in
d small furnace and turned out in any
shape deemed advisable.