Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1913-01-23

THE MINERAL POINT ZINC WORKS
One of the largest and Most Complete
OF It's Kind in the United States.

Mr.. J. H. Lewis, the able writer TO
the Milwaukee Free Press on the sub
ject of Wisconsin Lead and Yin
Mines, etc, touched on the Mnera
Point Zinc Works in his last write "
which appeared in that paper on tn,
Goth inst. as follows:
Not single mining man living il
the field and all parties at interest out
side of the field cannot invest then
time to better advantage than to visit
the new oxide works now in operation
at Mineral Point A personal inspec.
ton shows one of the finest establish.
ments of its kind in the United States.
This claim is made for it by the con-
struction engineers still on the ground,
who last week turned on the juice in
the new power plant operating the
works. Four blocks of furnaces, Y
double compartment blocks to the fur
naces are fed by hoppers overhead, the
supply being delivered from the mixing
machines by ten ton tram cars, operat-
ed by electricity and carrying scales
for the weighing of ore and hard coal
screenings. The capacity of the new
furnaces exceed that of the old more
than double. The bag rooms have been
increased over the old layout and so, 600
barrels of western prime oxide, $50 lbs
to the barrel, fill the capacious ware
houses. The ore bins on the hillside
are hewn out of the St Peters sand
stone and number seven, each so feet
deep and 80 feet square, over these
the freight cars are switched and un-
loaded direct to bin or TO the crushers
which can handle $50 tons Of ore daily.
Three eight-hour shifts carry the plant
on a constant schedule. The tanners,
four in number, are marvels in them
selves and force the oxide into the dis
tributmg fumes in the bag rooms. On
the west end of the branch one kiln is
operating day and night in calcining
low grade spelter ore much of which
in conjunction with western low grade
ores are now used for the manufacture
of white oxide. In fact at this writing
80 per- cent of the ore fed to the fur
naces is low grade zinc ore. No matter
how much carbonate zinc ore the Wis
consin field may produce here is a ready
market for the product. OF farther
reaching significance to all mining men
is the statement coming direct, that
the acid works are to be rebuilt and
that other big improvements are to be
made this season. This proves that the
Mineral Point Zinc Co. is here to stay
and that Wisconsin mining men are
guaranteed ready market at all times
at their very doors. Another statement
coming from an official carries with it
the intelligence that six new blocks of
furnaces are TO be built at Depue,
where the spelter works and acid plant
Of the New Jersey Zinc Co is located,
practically doubling the capacity Of the
big institution 1t means that more
ore will be required and this is predi-
Gated upon the provision already made
in the long list Of purchases recorded
by this company in the past five years.
Mineral Point is on the eve of such an
industrial boom as it has never hereto
fore experienced. The mining depart
ment is conducted apart from the en-
tire works and is in charge Of Ben
Hoskins, an expert authority on mineral
deposits. Thousands Of tons of hard
coal screenings are heaped up on the
ground. There is less ore in sight in
the open than ever before. The COW
cred bins have a storage capacity Of
20, 600 tons and are unique in con-
struction."