The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-06-23
ORE TREATMENT
IN EARLY DAYS
How Big Money Was Made and
Lost j! PiOche's Old
SmeIter Town.
SOME 0lO-TlME HISTORY
NOW GOING IN.
SOME 0LD-TlME HISTORY

There IS a good deal of sentimental his
tory connected with the accompanying
haff-tone Illustration. It shows the office
buildings of the old Bullionville Mining
& Smelling company at Bullionville, New,
few miles out of Phoebe. 1t was taken
nearly twenty-three years ago by Murray
Godbe and the people shown, or most Of
them, at least, were making history in the
mining, metallurgica and mechanical
world at that time. even though perfect
success did not always crown their eff
forts
Bullonville. in the early DAYS and the
boom days of the Phoebe district, was TO
that region what the smelter and mill
towns of Murray and Garfield are to the
mines of the surrounding districts today
1t was the place at which all of the ores
OF the mines were concentrated and smelt-
ed; il was the metallurgical heart of the
dlstr1cti II was the place where S4O,OOO,OO0
OF S50,OO0O00 in bullion was turned out to
enrich the world. 1t was there that mil
lions were recovered from the rich ores
of the district and where, owing to lack
or facilities and perfect knowledge
OF the metallurgy of the rock, together
with the prodigal waste that was char
acteristic of early day mining and smell
ting, millions more were lost.
oodbe and Chambers Combine.
In the early sos William s Godbe. now
deceased. and his sons with R c. Cham
bers organized the BullionviIle Mining q
smelling company and undertook the re-
covery of the values contained in the
hundreds of thousands of tons of tailngs
that had accumulated during the previous
years OF operation. Some good money had
been made I'm the operation of a 125-ton
concentrating plant, but the recovery was
nov satisfactory and the plant was re-
Duilt 10 employ the Russell lixiviation
process that was then being exploited
Ihls proved failure and MessTs. GOdbe
and Chambers decided to try some of the
me hOd a arl1rI tho
City.
Robert D. Rhodes. now superintendent
OF the United States company's smelters
in this valley was then mill superin-
tendent for Godbe and Chambers DO
In the picture). James Stevens CNO 81
millwrfght, and James D. Murdoch, chief
machinist for the Ontario company at
that time. were sent for and the construc-
ton of great plant to chlOridize and
leach the tailings was undertaken. Stede-
feldt furnaces were put I'm at great cost
tthe stack from these shows in extreme
left of picture). and that scheme was
tried. Like the Russell process il proved
a failure and the plant was overhauled
and reconstructed and Howell roasters
were tried. These schemes were tried out
over period lasting several years and
at cost approximating, for construction
payrolls. etc. estimated at a million or
more.
Change Follows Change.
In 1888. Just as silver went to the dogs
through legislation. the works burned
down. They were rebuilt and Howell
roasting and pan amalgamatiOn was tried
The low price of metals made IL impOS-
sible to do anything then and the mill
was finally fixed up with a battery of
stamps plates and pans and the gold
ores from DeLamar mines were treated.
1t was here that the worth of the prop
critics of that camp were demonstrated
and it was the work done at this plant
that finally resulted In the building of
the mills at DeLamar-
an effort made to cyanide the tail
ings. Twenty Thousand tons were treated
and. Notwithstanding the loss of the lead
and at least 50 per cent of the silver and
gold. a clean profit Of 81 ton was made.
This scheme was abandoned and a little
later George H. Robinson. who had then
been converted to the merits Of the Peck
process. secured rights TO handle the tail
ings and with the Pecks spent at least
$4,000 In trying out that process. This
proved the biggest failure of all and for
many years past no attempt has been
made TO do anything with these tail
ings.
Out of the Ashes New Life.
The world has moved since then Any
kind Of ore and all classes of tailings
from the old mills of the country are now
being successfully treated. A year or two
ago the Bullionville tailings and proper
ties were bought by Ernest L. and A H
GOdbe and ]. l. Hackett. the latter of
Louisville KY, and the Phoenix Reduc-
ganized TO recover the So, 10000 contained.
IN nearly 10000 tons of $50 tailngs that
remain in the dumps undisturbed.
few months ago Samuel Newhouse be-
came largely interested in the company
and was made its president. The Prince
mine, about nine miles from Bullionville
was bought and, when the affairs Of the
company. which has been fully financed
for the undertaking are rounded out the
remarkably fine fluxing ores of the Prince
mine Will be combined with the tailings
and ali will be smelted into bullion at
the cOmpanys own smelter at Bullion
Vile. The ledge in the Prince mine is
from 15O 10 200 feet wide and the ore
which has been developed to a depth of
800 feet averages per cent lead, six to
seven ounces silver and 81 30 in gold per
ton Iron and manganese with only a
small percentage of silica. make up the
total OF the ores contents Great quar-
ries of pure lime are located close to the
smelter site and. with all connected up
by rail- with the outside world and with
steam shovels employed in mining the
Prince ores the company proposes to Law
the Foundation for making Bullionville