The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1907-02-28
COLORADO ZINC.
Humble Metal May Soon Rival Silver
in Source of Wealth.

in Source of Wealth.
It was only three years ago. 1903,
that zinc began to figure considerably
in the metal products of Colorado
mines. Since then the value OF the
output has climbed rapidly. Last
year the production reached $4,000
900, and the promise is that this
figure will be increased fully fifty
per cent. by the yield for the present
year.
For many years the presence of
zinc in any considerable quantity was
q detriment. When the ores ran
heavy in the metal 1t was necessary
to shut down the mine. There was
then no market for zinc ores. In the
extraction process then in use the
zinc could be separated from the de-
sirable minerals only at an expense
that took all the profits away from
mining, and even then the zinc had
to be destroyed in making the sep
aration. Many mines were closed
because the ores had with depth run
into zinc. Their owners nursed a
grudge against the fate that had in
terposed large percentages of the de-
based metal between them and divi-
dends.
In Leadville, mines that fought as
long as they could against the con-
tamination Of the zinc piled up huge
dumps of the then worthless ores in
continuing the fight until 1t was i'm
possible to find enough ores free OF
zinc to permit operations to go on
at profit. To-day these same mines
rank with the gold, silver and lead
bonanzas of the Carbonate camp.
The big dumps of the early days have
been shipped, and fortunes made
from them by leasers, and mine op-
orators hunt new bodies of zinc ores
just as eagerly as they do the other
kinds.
Every year brings Improvements in
the processes that made it possible
to save the zinc, and the search is re-
vealing profitable bodies in many of
the mining districts. The promise is
that in another year zinc as a product
of the State will be running close to
silver, in spite of the fact that the
market for zinc brings into use much
silver that previously was locked with
1t in the mines.
Something of the Importance of
this addition to our mineral resources
can be realized in the substantial
way in which the American Smelling
and Refining Company is preparing to
further encourage production through
the introduction of a more econom-
ical system of extraction. The chief
competitor of Colorado in mining zinc
in the United States is the Missouri
Kansas field, in which the ores occur
in form that requires only the sim
plest process. That under which zinc
is separated from Colorado ores is
much more intricate and involved and
naturally the cost is greater, yet Col
orado, against this heavy handicap,
is making substantial progress to-
ward the Joplin production.
Thorough tests of the magnetic
separation have proved their eff
ficiency and economy and at all of the
large plants Of the smelling company
in Colorado they are to be installed
this year so that zinc ores will there
after be received at Leadville, Dur
ango'and Denver, whereas heretofore
it has been necessary to ship all such
ores to Pueblo. The saving in freight
will be considerable and the change
will greatly stimulate zinc mining in
the San Juan and Clear Creek dis
tricts, as well as enlarge the output
of Leadville by making marketable
lower grades than 1t was possible to
mine at the heavier expense.
Zinc can be said to be now firmly
established as Colorado resource.
The list of metals yet to be produced
in quantity for the supply of the
world is long one and Colorado has
them all. Tungsten, bismuth and the
radium ores all now stand in about
the same position that zinc occupied
five or six years ago: they are await
ing economic processes for reduction
Which is to be the one that will next
add its millions to the States annual
output?-Denver Republican.