Bisbee daily review., 1908-03-29
CHEAP COPPER
 nON OUTLOOK
 FUR CANANEA
General Manager Makes De-
 tailed Report of 0verhauling
 and improvement of Can anea Plant Since Last Fall.

the SdHdHtd copper COlupd0y, Ill d report to the directors and stockhold- CTS, says great deal of improvement work Is being done at Cananea and when work is resumed mining and smelting can be carried on at less labor will also be cheaper He says in his report:
 The Reduction Works,
 Charles F. Shelby took charge of the shelter in July, 1906. He found the reduction works had grown by piecemeal, as is usually the case with first works on new mines. As con sequence they were congested as 10 location and facilities for handling material, and they lacked proportion throughout. This necessarily caused excessive labor costs, power costs, and fuel costs, and there were large losses in fine dust and great leakage of furnace gases, making the atmC- sphere in the works almost unbear- able. He also found the eight fur naces, of which there were seven diff ferent types, completely worn out, as also were the five stands of conyer- ters. A careful study of conditions has been made since that time and most extensive Improvements have been completed or are under way. The problem has been exceedingly difficult because the construction had to be carried on in a congested area, in very bad air, and during a cont,n- uous operation of the plant and r was made more difficult by the need of attacking the various improve ments as necessity required rather than in logical sequence. Most of ho.- a1, &> ton although the capacity of the plant has been largely increased py the work done. The work has all been undertaken on the basis that the saving in labor, power, fuel and repairs, will pay for it in year The work. approximately in the order It has been carried out. is as follows:
 The Furnaces.
 The eight old furnaces have been pulled out and scrapped. one at a time. Eight new furnaces have been purchased and seven are completely installed; the eighth is on the ground and will be completed in a few weeks. These furnaces are completely new, from the foundation to the hoods and fue connections. They are 4 feet by feet 6 inches at the tuy- eres, the largest size we could put fn- to the building They have 20 per cent more hearth area than the old furnaces and are capable of smeiting 90 per cent more charge.
 Converters.
 Two new stands of converters with eight shells were authorized in I906,1 and have been installed and operated to our great satisfaction. They are of the barrel type and of most moo ern design and were built on plans carefully revised by MT. Shelby. They have solid steel heads and riding rings cast in one piece. They are s feet by Il feet inches, with extra high noses to prevent splashing over They are electrically operated and can be turned through the complete circle. The three additional stands. with twelve more shells, are under order and will shortly be installed The converter building has been re- inforced, braced, and strengthened throughout, the crane runways re paired, and the cranes thoroughly ov- erhauled and rebuilt. Tamping ma been put in for lining the converter shells.
 Bullion Yarc.
 The bullion tracks and turntables have been torn out and a new bullion dock and track system, without rurn- tables, to be operated by trolley, have been installed
 Slag Haufase.
 The seven small settlers have been scrapped and replaced by four very large settlers of improved design each serving two of the new TUT naces. The slag track system mas been torn out and rebuilt. and the old slag cars replaced by cars of better design and double the capacity This change has demonstrated that with half the crew employed when we were smelting 50,000 tons of gross charge, we can easily do the work when smelting twice as much.
 Furnace Blast.
 The blowing capacity for the fur naces has been increased by the in stallation of a blower of a capacity of 30,000 cubic feet per minute driven by direct connected tandem com pound engine The two 42-inch blast pipes that led from the powerhouse to the blast furnaces were crooked, in the way of other improvements, and showed al oss of 160 H, P. in friction. These two blast pipes have been torn out and replaced by a straighter pipe 6 feet in diameter, with connections, new and complete from the top of the blower to the fur mace hustle pipes.
 FIue Area.
 Two additional goosenecks 8 feet 6 inches in diameter are being put in between the furnaces and the dust chamber to avoid loss of fiue dust and get rid of the fumes.
 Mining Bed System.
 Possibly the most important work, though by no means the most expen- sive, is the erection of 75-ton steel bins in front of each of the furnaces, i norder that we may utilize the mix ing bed system. This work is well under way The ore from the mixing beds will be delivered into these prns by the existing belt system, and the charges will be measured out and fed into the furnaces automatically Reverberstory Furnace. The reverberatory furnace, 19 feet by 100 feet. has been in operation during the period in question, but so far the results have not been satis- factory. The tonnage treated has been small and the fuel consumption high. Still the flue dust smelter has been done at a figure lower than the cost either of treating such material in the blast furnace or shipping it. Aside from defects in location, flues and cross section, the cost is due to coal that is not adapted to the work. The two coals obtainable are Gallup Ignite and Colorado-New Mexico coking coal. Neither will work alone; mixture of the two gave the best result. Shortly before the close