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GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. 



The town of Bingham may be as interesting to tlie traveler as the 

 great mines that give it life. Through force of circumstances it is 

 a one-street town, and this street winds and twists with the winding 

 and twisting of the narrow canyon. The street is so narrow that 

 the traffic is accommodated with difficulty. By patience teams and 

 wagons are maneuvered so as to allow automobiles to pass, but even 

 these autocrats of the highway are sometimes involved in an almost 

 hopeless tangle. Residences have been built wherever there was 

 space; if this space was on level ground so much the better, but it 



plants of this character, it is built on a 

 hillside so that the ore may pass by 

 gravity from one process to another. 

 The ore is ground very fine. After the 

 material has been well classified it 

 reaches tables and vanners. The table 

 has a plane surface, which is tilted at 

 an angle and partly covered with riffles 

 or strips of wood. As the machine is 

 agitated the water carries the lighter 

 gangue or waste material over the 

 edge, separating it from the heavier 

 copper and iron minerals held by the 

 riffles. A well-managed table will 

 sometimes distinctly show three differ- 

 ent minerals, such as lead, zinc, and 

 iron sulphides, which have been sepa- 

 rated because of their difference in 

 weight. This machine applies the prin- 

 ciple of wet concentration. The prin- 

 ciple of flotation is the direct oppo- 

 site of this principle, for the heavy 

 metallic particles in the flotation proc- 

 ess float on a froth after the finely 

 crushed ore is mixed with oil and air. 

 Experiments with flotation are going 

 on at Magna and Arthur, and if this 

 system Is used in conjunction with wet 

 concentration the saving from losses 

 In tailing will probably be increased 

 about 20 per cent. At present the 

 mills save 63 per cent, or about 18 

 out of 28 pounds of copper. A ton 

 of the ore treated would make a cube 

 about 28 inches on a side, but the 

 copper recovered would be only about 

 a 4-inch cube. An additional 5 pounds 

 to the ton amounts to a large increase 

 in production if 8,000,000 tons are 

 treated each year. If flotation can 

 make a better savinif on the sulphide 



ore and the leaching process can be 

 used in treating the oxidized portion 

 the future will be bright, especially as 

 the company estimates the life of the 

 mine at over 60 years. When copper 

 is 25 cents a pound ore is worth over 

 $4 a ton at the present rate of saving, 

 and all costs of mining and treatment 

 are less than $1. 



The great work of mining may be 

 observed from the station of the Bing- 

 ham & Garfield Railroad. In the view 

 looking south, as shown in Plate XCV, 

 B, the Denver & Rio Grande Western 

 tracks circle the hills on several levels. 

 The northern side of the canyon is 

 served by the Bingham & Garfield 

 road. The work of the steam shovels 

 can be seen to better advantage if one 

 walks along the main canyon. The ore 

 body is about a mile in length and 

 approximately 1,500 feet above the 

 level of the road. Over 43,000,000 tons 

 has already been removed from the 

 mine, and drilling in various parts of 

 the area has shown that a total of 

 390.000,000 tons is available. Steam 

 shovels (PI. XCV, B) operate on a 

 great many levels, from the base of the 

 hill up to the very summit, where the 

 cap is being removed and dumped near 

 the old Jordan mine. In each scoopful 

 the steam shovel lifts 4 tons of the 

 ore into cars. The mining, handling, 

 and concentrating on a large scale by 

 the Utah Copper Co. of this great mass 

 of low-grade ore, which for a long time 

 was considered too poor to be of value, 

 has revolutionized Bingham. The out- 

 put of the Utah Copper Co. has grovrn 

 rom 3,000,000 pounds of copper in 1903 



