The Eureka sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1902-current, 1921-03-26

largely increased the tonnage ship
ments out of Eureka of the speiss
contained in the immense Stag piles
owned by the Richmond Eureka Min
ing Company at the north and south
ends of town. Fer several months
these shipments to the smelters in
Utah have averaged 1000 tons per
month, and this large tonnage out
put is still being maintained. AS
showing the present value and in
creasing importance of the arsenic in
dustry, the Salt Lake Tribune of
March 13 prints the following article:
To state that as years pass and in
dustry progresses valuable uses are
found for by-products formerly re-
viled as base and worthless is al
most a truism. OF no industry is
this trite statement more true than
of mining. Formerly only the high
est grade ores were thought to be
worthy of exploitation. Nodadays
more often vast eiow-grade deposits
are sought FROM he fact that the
scientific man knows that the exploit
tation of such naturalization can be
reduced to formula, to an industry
of long-standing, whose every cost
and profit can be almost exactly COM
puted. Hence modern metallurgy
has transformed the mining industry
from a game where high-grade pock-
cts and stringers were followed in
their tortuous windings down into
the bowels of the earth to a business
where ore is blocked out in huge
masses and the extraction of theprec-
ious metal from the tons of rock
broken down is reduced to mere
manufacturing process. Gone is the
excitement and romance or the search
for bonanza ores. Yet in the long run
the profit is greatsr :.
ARSENIC INDUSTRY GROWS
With the rapid advancement of
horticulture and the necessity of pay
ing greater attention to the killing
of insects, the demand for insecti-
cides has grown enormously. Con-
sequently the demand for the arsenic
ores has grown not only in Utah, but
in the United States. Several hun
dred tons of white arsenic is used an
nually for killing weeds along rail-
road tracks, for which crude arsenic
trioxide is cheaper and nearly as SER
viceable as the refined. Water hya-
cinths in Gatun lake, Panama. were
poisoned by spraying with a solution
made by twenty-five pounds of arse
mic and twenty-five pounds of soda
and twenty-five gallons of water,
boiled together for an hour and then
mixed with 425 gallons of water.
Arsenic is being experimented with
for use in non-fouling paints for ship
bottoms.
Other uses for the mineral. not so
long ago thought to be useful only as
a drug, is in shot making. This use
is rather limited, only Ave or ten tons
of the metallic arsenic being used per
year. The use of arsenic in making
shot is said to make the shot rounder
and harder.
USES ARE NUMEROUS
Glass factories use arsenic in large
quantities, the consumption of sim
gle firm reaching five tons a month,
or about sixty tons per year. Glass
makers who have studied the subject
carefully say that arsenic apparently
enters directly into the composition
of the glass and probably tends to
make 1t clear.
Alive to the possibilities of Great
ing a profitable business out of the
treatment and handling of former
ly wasted product. the various smelt-
ing companies of the United States
have entered the arsenic manufactur-
ing industry. The American Smelt-
ing & Refining Company. the Ana
conda Copper Mining Company and
the United States Smelling. Refining
G. Mining Company have been able to
evolve processes whereby arsenic can
be produced as a by-product from the
lead and copper smelling operations.
Because OF the excellent price and de-
mand for the mineral. two of these
companies have made special efforts
to obtain high arsenical ores and
have smelted as large percentage of
these ores in their regular smelter
charges as possible. In one OF the
principal processes the arsenate
which is released in the form Of oxide
fumes is collected In baghouses.
DEMAND INCREASING