The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1909-10-07

formation relative to the Lead Bel
of st. Francois county nothing cal
bc taken as In the least indicative
of the early exhaustion uf the or
deposits now being worked. In fact
the signs point to II long life for thu
district
Foremost among these signs ar'
the very extensive operations recent
ly undertaken, and now about com
pleted, 10y practically every one o
the five operating companies. These
improvements and extensions are
proof Of the strong faith in this dis
trict Of the men in whose hands
have been placed the homogeneous
Oi the various companies.
The erection of great concentrate
ing plants, involving expenditures
running into the hundreds of thous-
ands Of dollars, the installation Of
more efficient power plants, the
sinking Of additional shafts, and
the Improvement Of equipment
throughout all the plants, point to
but one thing-a great increase in
the output Of the Flat River country.
Until very recently, the annual
potential tonnage Of the Flat River
district, estimating 800 working days
to tho year, was 2,1GO,OOO tons of
rock. During this year the tonnage
has been increased, potentially to
1870, 600 annually. In actual prac-
tice this probably will not be real
lied. These figures are exclusive Of
the Columbia mill Of the Doe Run
Lead Company, which also has been
put into operation, and which has
daily capacity of about 700 tons.
This mill at present is temporarily
closed down.
ON the old tonnage basis, and
during "A period in which one of the
largest producers was uncertain as
To- what milling practice to adopt, :
the annual tonnage of concentrates
reached about 100000 tons for the
five companies. For one year, at
least, 1906, It exceeded 100, 900 tons. |
Under present conditions, with the /
two largest mills in the district just
getting under way, the tonnage Of
concentrates should bc increased. to 1
approximately lj0. 600 tons annually. /
This means an increase Of at least /
One-third in the value of the lead |
produced, and the greater efficiency |
of the plants will bring about some
reduction in the average cost of I
milling and concentrating.
In IA general way, some knowledge /
Of the extensions recently made and |
under progress In the Flat River
country has come to st. Francois .
county citizens, but there has been
lack of specific information, and
undoubtedly specific information |
will continue to he scarce.
II is not expected that the large !
operating companies, regardless of
INV luNA AllhA Nl"N llhN' El'N u w !
proportions whore they are no longer
in the class Of private corporations, !
but have taken on a semi-public,char- |
acter-it is not to be expected that
these companies will divulge the
amount of their expenditures on eX-
tensions and improvements. But
-. /, "a Mt hand 10
to permit the making of rather defin-
tie statements relative to the physi-
cal conditions Of the Lead Belt
plants.
More Millions in Sight.
When the extent of these plants,
the excellent equipment throughout,
and the permanency of all structures
and machinery are taken into ac-
count, il is impossible to doubt that
the expectations of the companies
as to the life of the district and the
continuance Of the ore bodies are
very great.
When men possessed of the fore
sight and experience of Dwight
Jones and {. Il. Parsons of the st.
Joe Company, Firmin Desloge of
the Desloge Company, f. p. Graves
and o. NJ. Bilharz of the Doe Run
Company, II. NJ. McChesney of the
National Lead Company, and the
Gugganheims Of the Federal Lead
Company, are expanding an aggre-
gate sum amounting to several mil
lions of dollars, 1t may be assumed
from this fact alone that they ex-
pect to make these millions yield
other and more numerous millions.
In order to get at the extent of
the properties Of the five operating
companies the following data have
been collected and are published here
In greatly abridged form. The
limits of a brief series of newspaper
already more prolonged than