The copper era., 1908-04-09

in the blast furnace or shipping it.
Aside from defects i'm location, fues
and cross section, the cost is due to
coal that is not adapted to the work.
The two Goals obtainable are Gallup
Ignite and Colorado-New Mexico
coking coal. Neither will work
alone; a mixture of the two gave the
best result. Shortly before the close
down we installed Aero pulverizers.
These machines showed during the
tests no radical faults and there is no
doubt that theycan be made mechani-
cally successful.
The powerhouse has had the addi-
tional blower installed as mentioned.
During the closedown we have also
repaired the foundations of the two
Allis-C Chalmers blowing engines and
are dismantling the large Rand COM
pressor and are putting in an entirely
new foundation for it. The latter
engine is one of the most efficient
and the largest compressor we have
for the converters, but it could not
be operated on account of the faulty
foundation.
We have also ordered and will in
stall barometric condensers and cir
culating pumps for the powerhouse,
together with the necessary cooling
towers, somewhat similar to the con-
densing system Mr.. Cole Installed in
1907 at the concentrators.
During the past year we had a dis
astrous fire, destroying most of our
supply houses, the machine shops,
blacksmith shop, etc. These were
located in a hollow on a different
level from the smelter and railway
tracks and the only means of trans
portation between the smelter,
powerhouse and railway was by wagon
or stone boat. During the year we
have built a new supply house. under
one roof, accessible to both the
standard and narrow guage railways.
We have also built a new machine
shop, pattern shop, foundry, electri-
cal shoe and blacksmith shop, accessi-
BILE to both systems of railway and to
the smelter trolley tracks. This does
entirely away with the wagon haul
age and renders the handling of
heavy materials for repairs simple
and easy. The buildings are not eX-
pensive and were designed under the
special direction of Mr.. Cole and are
models for efficiency and cheap work.
The cost of mining and beneficial
ing a ton of ore at Cananea, includ-
ing the cost of freight, refining and
selling the copper, has fallen year by
year. The average cost for the
period in question was about one
fourth less than for the year 1906,
and 30 per cent. less than for 1905.
This reduction has come almost alto
gether from reductions in the cost of
mining. There will undoubtedly be d
further decrease in this item and
look ultimately for mining costs fully
p per cent. less than the present.
Reduction in smelling charges per
ton of ore has not decreased for the
reason that at the closedown we were
only approaching a point where some
of the improvements could be util-
lied. On the ocher hand, throughout
the period We were charging off the
very heavy expenditures for labor
and material against operation.
When we start up the works, how
ever, the improvements enumerated
under the heading of "The Reduc-
ton Works. will be completed and
we will receive the benefit of all
these improvements, and at the same
time the large expenditures for eX-
traordinary repairs will stop. We,
therefore,, fairly look for notable
decrease in mining aud beneficiating
per ton when we start up without
further notable increase in capital
expenditure.
On the same lines we are giving
most careful strdy to other items of
cost that may be reduced without
large capital expenditure, including
the problem of decreasing the per-
centage of barren fluXes, raising the
grade of the matte, getting CONVEX
ter lining containing values instead
of using barren quartzite, etc.