The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1917-05-24


, the development of which the grade
appeared to be just as good.
| You applied the copper methods OF
concentration?
! Yes, We abandoned in Alaska, as we
did in the Boston Consolidated mill
: the appliances We thought were obso-
lete, namely, stamps. We employed
rolls and tube mills in Alaska for fine
grinding and concentration, rather
than amalgamation. Our costs are
less and our recoveries better than we
estimated. There was no error in
anything we could demonstrates; we
ibid 1t on a large scale and the results
have proved that we Were right We
didn't know so well what was under
ground; but the best data we could get
appeared entirely satisfactory until
we began to mine a large tonnage.
Owing to the enormous tonnage of
low grade copper ore at the mines I'M
der your control, you are, of course,
vitality interested in the flotation liti-
cation?
Naturally so, because flotation has
proved the most effective means that
we have been able to find to make
greater 'recoveries within the limits of
reasonable cost from the finest class of
material, which has always been the
most troublesome material in concen-
trating mills. ! don't think flotation
is q panacea for all ores; and in the
development of new "porphyry,' or
any other kind of mine having ores
which contain sulphides, | wouldn't
abandon the old metallurgical meth
DDS by any manner of means. | would
pleased to call step grinding and frac-
| tional concentration, getting out as
much of the mineral in coarse sizes
as possible before grinding finer, get
cause those are simple operations,
mostly mechanical, and can be readily
observed, making products better adj
apted to smelling and easier to handle;
adjunct or auxiliary to do better with
the very fine products than we can
Go by any other means at permissible
costs.
What do you consider the most sat
isfactory episode in your career?
OF course, both from a professional
and business standpoint, / have, and
always will have the greatest salts
faction as being the first, so far as I
know to recognize the possibilities of
a character of low grade ore in the
Utah Copper companys properties
that had not before been commercial
lied, and which kind of ore today
serves as the basis of more copper
production than the total output of the
United States at the time | began the
development and equipment of the
Utah. The United States was refin-
ing 900,000,Q00 pounds of copper per
annum when the Utah Copper COM
pany started, and the porphyry cop
pers, including those of South Ameri-
ca, are producing more than that to-
day. | naturally feel the greatest
satisfaction in that; but it is only a
greater satisfaction in the point of
precedence and degree; precedence be-
cause Utah was the first, and degree
because it is the greatest. I have had
just as keen a sense Of satisfaction in
successfully developing the other
mines; the success of any one of them
has been no more gratifying than that
of any other, and my interest in each
has been as great as it has been in
any other
A thing that has been about as
gratifying to me as anything have
done is having been instrumental in
getting together the Utah Power &
Light Co. Water power had not been
developed when we started the Utah
Copper operations-not to an extent
justifying my using it. 1t wasn't suf-
ficiently dependable, so we built
steam power plants. Later thought
it should be developed, and called the
attention of some of my friends and
people in that business to the POSSIBLE
tiles of power development in Utah
and Idaho. We purchased the Tellu-
ride company's properties, and along
with that acquired some 30 other cor
porations engaged either in the pro-
duction or distribution of power, and
out of all we have built up the pre-
sent Utah Power & Light Co., of
which | am president. This company
row supplies the Utah Copper COM
pany with all its power and is one of
the greatest institutions of it's kind in
the country
Do you think it likely that further
large disseminated copper deposits
will be found in the west?
/ think in all probability there will
be some but / think the most impor-
tant ones have been discovered and
developed; the reason I think that is
because all of those that have come
into prominence and are big producers
today have been known for genera
itions; engineers and laymen have
known they contained copper; there
hasn't been single one actually dis
lowered in recent years. The Utah
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