Two Montana Cities Part II Butte
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Copper ores are somewhat more simply smelted. They are of a sulphurous composition, and must be roasted before the metal contents are put in marketable shape. They are either desulphurized by “heat roasting,” or by being run through “reverberatory furnaces.” After this initial treatment, the ore, previously crushed and rolled to the fineness of sand, is dumped into the matting furnaces, whence, so far as possible, the worthless ingredients are reduced to a molten state to separate them from the metal base. The metal is then drawn off into sand cavities, similar to the drawing off of pig-iron, where the metal cools and becomes copper matte, This matte usually assays from 55 to 65 per cent. of copper, besides the silver it contains. Silver copper matte is a desirable matte. The Parrott Company, by an adaptation of the Bessemer converter process, produces a copper matte carrying only two per cent. of impurities. The process is a very interesting one, and probably the cheapest in use in this camp, all things considered. Some of the Butte companies, whose ore carries form 49 to 79 per cent. of copper, ship their product in a crude state-some to Eastern smelters, others to England and Wales. The high per cent. of copper returns a handsome profit.
Our hotel at butte was nearly the centre of the city. Close by ran the main street, with its ever-changing pictures, and from the upper end of which we could look down upon the famous camp. The sight was novel in the extreme. On every hand were tall smoke-stacks pouring forth smoke and flames like miniature volcanoes, and great heaps of mineral refuse were scattered around promiscuously . There was nothing to see but stamp-mills and smelteries, nothing to do but visit them. Mines and mining were the talk of the hour. No one thought of anything else. The very ground seemed honey-combed, and we know that by day and night an army of men was at work in the dimly lighted “cross-cuts,” industriously searching for the treasures nature so long refuse to disclose. Rough looking, pale, worn, and haggard are these miners of Butte. Many of the them have lived the greater part of their lives in the horrible chambers that, lined as they are with precious metals, have still no charm for their inmates. Life in the mines is modern slavery. The looks of the men prove this; the wan faces of the childern bear painful evidence of the fact.
Above the city proper, on the road to Walkerville, were grouped the cabins of these laborers. Nothing more desolate than their appearence can be imagined. Perched on rocky ledges, crowded into narrow gulches, unpainted, blacked by the smoke, unrelieved by tree or shrub or grass-plot, they bore not even the suggestion of home, but were more like hovels-untidy, neglected, and oppressive to look upon.
There are 340 stamps in operation at Butte, and the amount of ore treated every day amounts to 500 tons, ore 15,000 tons per month. Besides the stamp-mills there are seven smelteries, with a capacity of 1250 tons.
A majority of the mines have their own mills and smelteries, equipped with every modern appliance for the rapid and saving reductions of ore, and all are rich producers. Viewing the many properties, acquainted with their figures, one wonders how copper can be “cornered,” and how long it will be before silver is a drug upon the market.
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Butte, Montana information and photos