Digital Bob Archive

7 March 1980

OCTOBER 1, 1885-The enormous ore reduction mill of the Alaska Mill & Mining Company at Treadwell has been running at full capacity since the middle of September. The machinery was started up for the first time early in July but until two weeks ago was being operated at about half capacity. This was at first necessary while various kinks were worked out of the operation, but after the first of August it was because of a lack of water for power. This was unexpected but resulted from the dryest summer here in many years. The rains came in September and soon the mill was hitting on all 120 stamps. Even with the reduced operation, about $115,000 in bullion has been taken from the mill, and there is a considerable quantity of concentrate on hand for further processing. The ore, as it comes from the mine, is running from $8 to $15 per ton in gold. Cost of mining and milling is estimated at $1.25 per ton. Operation of the mill requires eight men on each shift, or 16 in all. These are in addition to the miners who drill and blast the ore, the muckers who shovel it into cars, the men who handle the ore cars, and the general laborers around the plant. Mr. Treadwell, the superintendent, is paying $4 a day for miners and mill men, $2 a day for Indians and $1.50 a day for Chinamen, of whom several are now at work.

The ore is blasted from an open pit at the top of the lode and sent down a vertical shaft to the haulage tunnel. There it is shoveled into ore cars which run on tracks to the ore bins. The tram cars run down to the bins by gravity and can be pushed back to the mine by one man. The top floor of the mill, containing the ore bins, is nearly level with the mouth of the tunnel. From the bins the ore is fed to the stamps of which there are 24 batteries of five each. The crushed ore runs over amalgamation plates where the free gold is caught. The balance passes to concentrators of which there are two to each battery, or 48 in all. The concentrates go to a revolving furnace or ?roaster,? of which there are two and are there subjected to a hot blast for 36 hours. They are then removed and bleached in large vats where the gold is chemically precipitated, collected and run into bars along with the free gold collected from the plates.

The original little five-stamp mill is said to have produced a total of $10,902 which was enough to pay its own cost and the cost of opening the mine. It will be sold when a buyer is found.