THE MINES 169 



ill this progressive move and the others have not been slow to profit by the 

 experiments. The Montana Power Company controls some mig-hty plants 

 on the Missouri river near Helena and Great Falls, and of this company the 

 management of the mines purchases the power used. 



Not long ago steam power was used. This is fast becoming obsolete. 

 Not only are the mines using electrically driven horse-power, but so are the 

 smelters and so is the Butte, Anaconda & Pacific railway, udiich transports 

 the ore fro^m the Butte mines to the Washoe smelter. In all it is estimated 

 that the Butte mines, and the smelters employ .40,000 horse-power, furnished 

 by the Montana Power company. 



Electricity is emplo3^ed in mining in many ways. This power, for in- 

 stance, compresses the air, with which the big hoistiuig engines of the dis- 

 trict are operated. The tramiming, the driving of the drills and other forms 

 of Avork are now done by electrical power, either directly or 

 Electricity indirectly. The smelters employ electric power to crush tbe 

 Has Revo- rock that carries the ore and to concentrate this. 



lutionized And the biggest point of all is the big saving effected, for 



Mining. the companies are finding that electricity is much cheaper than 



steam. And thus the harnessed power of Montana's streams 

 is used to make cheaper and better the operation of Montana's mining and 

 smelting industry. 



Reference has been made in this article to the leaching of ores by the 

 Buitte & Duluth and the BuUwhacker companies. Along with the advance- 

 ment within a year of the zinc mining industry in the state these leaching 

 pla..v^ form a marked and significant change. It means that a 

 Getting the new industry has been added — a sort of adjunct to the 

 Metal by mining industry already established. It means that very low 

 an Easy grade copper ores lying at or near the surface can be scooped 

 Process. up by means of steam shovels and prepared for the market at 



minimum cost. The successful leaching plant is its own 

 smelter and refinery. It crushes the rock, extracts the ore and turns it into 

 the finished product, ready for the copper market. 



While this part of the copper producing industry is entirely new 

 and of sufficient importance to treat in a separate chapter. The Bul- 

 whacker and Butte & Duluth properties are located southeast of the Butte 

 hill across the flats and on the slope of the mOimtains just west of Columbia 

 Gardens. The companies differ in their methods somewhat, but both have 

 the same objecltive point, viz. — producing copper by the leaching process at 

 the least possible cost. 



For many months the leaching process was in experimental stage. 

 Gradually it was perfected and with perfection of the process came enlarge- 

 ment of the plants. In mid-sunmier it was announced by both companies 



that they had passed through the experimental stages and had 

 This Means arrived at the point when copper could be turned out of their 

 Big Things plants and shipped east for commercial j)urposes. Since then 

 for Butte. regailar shipments have been made and the plants have been 



bus}^ increasing their capacity. 



With all equipment in place the capacity of the Bullwhacker plant will 

 be 500 tons of ore per day, or about 20,000 pounds of pure, or electrolytic, 



-An acre of grain is worth more to the farmer in Montana. 



