Weekly Arizona journal-miner., 1905-08-09
TREADWELL PLANT EXPECTED
 SOON TO PAY.
(From Sundays Daily.)

Treadwell Mining Company at Mayer is now in a fair way to realize its ex pectation of making the plant a paying property.
 So says Professor George A. Tread well who has been here for the past two weeks inspecting the smelter and the mines of the company.
 One of the first set backs was in in- stalling an oil burning smelter, which was build at considerable expense. It proved a failure for reduction pur- poses though it has since been utilized as an adjunct to the 250 ton old style | furnace that has since been constructed and that is now in successful operation. The trouble with the oil burning fur mace was that it got too hot, and not only melted the ore, but kept burning the lining out of the furnace. Whe ther it will ever be made a perfect pro- cess for ore reduction MT. TreadweIl does not venture an opinion, but be says that the plant at Mayer is now be- ing used mainly for treating the fue dust, sticking it together so it can be easily handled and utilized. In that way the plant is proving itself valu-  able, and by no means the big loss that it was once feared it might b e. He says the company has world of ore, and is besieged as well by other mine owners in the country who want to have their ore worked there. Some ore is be- ing bought, but not large amount of it yet, for the reason Ihat the company at this time really has more ore than smelter capacity. The company, he says. has already spent million dol lars on the property, and proposes to add another 25O ton furnace to the plant.
 The reduction. plant was started up in May, and run a few days, but it has been kept going almost continuously since the first of June. and it is expect ed it will continue to do so. The matte now being produced runs from thirty-fve to forty per cent in copper, from one and a half to two ounces in gold, and from fifty to sixty ounces in silver. With the capacity of the plant doubled, if the ore values are maintained, the gold and silver pro- duet will pay the expense of reduction and the copper will be practically all profit. The ore has been mainly of a sulphide character, and very similar to that of the United Verde
 Hitherto considerable of it has re- quired roasting, though just at present | they are taking out iron oxides that, | mixed with the sulphides enable their reduction without roasting. One trou- ble they have had heretofore has been to keep a supply of coke on hand, but they have now constructed several large coke bins, and will try and keep | a reserve stock of this fuel on hand. in | the matter of ore, the company has va rious mines at different stages of de- velopment. but is drawing mainly from the Blackberry mine, which alone, Mir. Treadwell says, can furnish ore enough for the smeiter.
 The entire plant, he says, is now well equipped, not only for smeltIng but for economy in handling from the mine to the smelter, the various mines being some distance away. The com panv has one small narrow gauge road that connects with the Prescott and Eastern, and it recently secured three new broad gauge ore ears for use on tre P. and E. in the transferring of its own ores. These cars are constructed Of steel, have a capacity of fifty tons each, and cost thousand dollars apiece.
 The company now employs approxi- mately a hundred men in its various operations.
 There is one feature of the smeitlng plant that is rather a novel one, and a decidedly successful one where it can be practically employed as it is at May CT. That is the disposition of the slag. The old-fashioned method is to wheel the slag aw"y iL pots by hand or by small raI;-"ad and push it over the dump. At the Treadwell there is a constat stream of water running under the siag outlet from the furnace, and through a trough to the face of the dump. This water is only few inches wide and few inches deep, and makes a stream of considerable force. The redhot slaS is emptied directly into the water. which granulates it turning it into little chunks or pebbles, when it is washed away through the trough, and