The Western news. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1933-current, 1940-10-24
Brdndgdn
Mill Is Now
In Operation
Diesel Operated Generators
Develop Electricity For
Entire Camp.
A MODERN AND HIGHLY
EFFICIENT PLANT


A visitor to the Branagan mine
south of Libby finds that William r.
Wade and his associates have con-
verted that once quiet spot into
beehive of activity As ones car
climbs the steep road through the
canyon, there is assurance of ones
approach to the mine by the STAG
cato barking of battery of Diesel
engines supplying power to the mine
and mill and running night and day.
As the property is finally reached,
the visitor sees a handsome new
mill built snug into the side of the
mountain, and out of which comes
the barking of the Diesels that had
attracted the visitors attention from
a distance.
The location of the property is in
a narrow canyon, near the head of
Bramlet creek Here one finds not
only the large mill, but a score or
more of other buildings-cottage
for the workers, office buildings, as
say quarters, cts, etc. There are
also winding roads cut out of the
sides of the canyon and leading
hither and yon, three of them into
three different levels or approaches
to the mill.
A Modern Mill
A trip through the mill is what
had called us to this new industry
starting in the Libby territory, and
naturally we soon headed into that
structure. 1t provides most in
teresting experience to anyone in
terested in mining and fine ma
chinery in operation. At the top of
the mill there is a large ore bin
into which the ore is delivered as
it comes from the mine. An end
less belt carries this ore, as needed,
from the bin into the first crusher,
an A1lis-Chalmers powerful jaw
crusher There the large rock is
reduced to small gravel, again being
picked up by broad endless belt
and carried to second ore bin with
in the mill. From the second bin the
ore is delivered into cone crusher,
which further reduces the size of
the ore Then the ore travels into
large rotating ball mill, manu-
featured by the Union Iron Works
of Spokane This ball mill, as its
name signifies is large cylindrical
machine in which are many large
iron balls which bounce and tum-
revolves. The result is that the
ore is finally ground down to fine
sand or powder. Water is intro
duced into the ball mill and what
comes out from it is a thin, muddy
liquid.
From the ball mill the ore starts
on further trip through series
of highly technical machines whose
object is to extract every ounce of
gold, silver, lead or other mineral
of value that the ore may contain
There is a Clark Todd amalgamator
which takes out some of the gold
There are English corduroy rifles
over which the muddy water is
sent to recover more of the yellow
metal. There is a large machine
with two compartments. 1t is called
classifier. The dirty water and
muck is worked through it. That
part of the ore that has not been
ground to sufficient fineness by
its trip through the ball mill, is
automatically classified" and sent
back for another trip through the
falling and grinding balls. That
which is sufficiently fine is sent on
its way to other machines. Some
of it is sent into large cone recep-
tacle. Some of the overflow is
caught up and headed for the flo
tation cells. These cells are six in
number and there the powdered ore
&c cant into . ,rfotar and nil er,,rlc,py,
over the top of which there is a
heavy coating of bubbles. This is
the 'flotation" method of recover
ing certain metals. The ore has an
affinity for the oil bubbles and
clings to or floats with the bubbles.
The machine skins off these bub-
bles of oil and metal If the process
has reached high enough degree
of recovery, the ore is then de-
livered into large receptacle If
the recovery is not what it should
be, the scum containing the ore is
sent into other cells for further
treatment The final overflow from
the flotation cells is sent into a
dryer
AT another point in the reduction
of the ore, the tailings are caught
and sent over two tables designed to
catch more of the values.
Many Smaller Machines
Scattered along at the proper
places in the route of the travelling
ore are other necessary machines
There is Cagin mercury feeder
that automatically feeds half tea
spoonful Of mercury into the ore
every hour. There is a re-agent
feeder that injects blue stone anc
salsoda at proper intervals, all done
automatically. Just before the ore
enters the ball mill there is an au
tomato sampler that picks out sam
Piles of the ore at certain inter
walls. From this sampling, it is pos
Continued on page 81