The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1917-12-06
Bunker Hill Contract Contention of
A. S. & R. Company as Outlined in the
Affidavit of Vice President Newhouse

lnE * 1keHHlHS coulpdHy, 10 HioSt III
teresting contribution to the litigation
between that company and the Bunker
Hill & Sullivan. 1t gives the conten'
ton of the "smelter trust" In this ia.
nous litigation and is of such grea'
interest to the lead producers thai
The Miner feels justified In publishing
it practically in full:
Affidavit Of Mr.. Newhouse.
am So years of age, and have all
my life been engaged in the mining
and smelling business, principally the
latter / was educated technically al
the School of Mines, Columbia univer-
sity, graduating In the year 1886. My
professional career has been substan-
TALLY as follows;
In the year 1886. after graduating,
served as assayer and chemist at the
Argentine plant of the Consolidated
Kansas City Smelling & Refining COM
pany. Later, for the same company,
| was mining engineer. with head
quarters at Ell Paso, Texas. Later
was in charge of the mines and ore
buying business of the same company
In the Sierra Mojada mining districts
in Mexico. In 1883 | built a smelter
and operated the same for the Villa
Dana company at Nuevo Leon. Mex
leo In 1889 | served as superintend-
ent of the Philadelphia smelter at
Pueblo, Colorado. Later | served as
buyer and manager of said plant.
came to New York in 1908 as director
Of the American Smelling & Refining
company. In 1907 | was elected vice
president Of the American Smelling &
Refining company and was placed in
charge of their smelling operations. In
1915 ] was elected senior vice president
of the plaintiff company,
Since my graduation in 1886 I have
been continuously engaged in the min
ing and smelling business as above set
forth and Since 1883 exclusively In the
smelling business. For ten years last
past ! have been a vice president of
the American Smelling & Refining
company in charge of smelling oper
atoms, and have particularly had un
der my jurisdiction supervision over
all contracts made for the acquisition
of ores used in our smelling business
Metals are seldom found in nature
Except placer gold in a pure state.
They are nearly always in combina-
Ff,i,z
separation of these metals necessitates
the processes known as smelling and
refining.
The different combinations of the
metal in ores from different mines ne
cessitates different combinations in
smelling. Even in the same mine the
ore changes. The proportions of sill
yer, of lead, of zinc, or iron, of silica,
may vary widely, and any of these
changes in the ore are important fac
tors in smelling.
The freight rate to the smelter and
to the final market is an important
factor: hence the mine seeks to enrich
its product by eliminating waste and
saving In freight. This led to the de-
velopment of the process of concen-
tration under which, by grinding the
ore and agitating it in water and
sometimes other chemicals such as oil
and acid, the waste matter is elimin-
ated and a product containing larger
percentage of the valuable metals Is
obtained. These products are known
as concentrates and Shines
This concentrating process CONNER
cially Is an important factor both to
the mine and the smelter. There is
always loss of metals in concentrat-
ing, hence the mine must study the
amount of the metal losses in concen-
trating as compared with the addi- !
tional cost of shipping larger
of product with an Increased
freight and smelling charge The
smelter on the other hand, as a rule,
prefers a larger tonnage, but on the
whole finds product, such as defend |
tanning around so per cent of lead
When was a young man there were I
few large smelters In the country. 1t /
was customary for every important |
mining district to have smelter.
Such smeter was usually small in
capacity and did what Is now consid-
cred very expensive and inefficient /
work. Their losses of
metals and expense Of operations were
simply huge The first thick cream of
The richer deposits was being skinned !;
lff throughout the country as district /,
after district was discovered. AS soon
rs the ore in district justified, a
smelter would be established, the en-
lectation being that with the exhaus-
ion of the ores of the mine the smell
er would be abandoned and its total
'ost would be charged up to profit and
oss. While the general principles of !
melting have not been materially !
hanged, wonderful advances have s
'een made in methods of operations, s
along the line of larger !
lants, more perfect apparatus, and q
specially better combination of ores /
ermittng of better metallurgical re- 4,
ults, which means saving more of the v
fetal contents of the ora Where 30 s
ears ago there were few smelling s
lants that had cost in excess of $780, III