Salt Lake Valley Smelters

This page was last updated on May 14, 2008.

Compiled by Don Strack

Additional Sources:

Tooele Valley Railway — A separate describing the history and operations of the railroad that connected the International Smelter with the Union Pacific and Western Pacific railroads west of Tooele.

International (Tooele) Smelter

October 15, 1909:
Tooele Valley Railway commenced operation. The railroad operated 6.235 miles of line between Tooele Junction and International, along with 1.698 miles of yard tracks and sidings. maxiumu grade was 2.4 percent, and maxiumu curvature was 14 degrees. The railroad was incorporated on November 18, 1908; construction began on November 18, 1908 and the railroad was opened for operation on October 15, 1909. The construction was fully financed by International Smelting Co., which also furnished substantially all of the railroad's freight consignments. (Interstate Commerce Commission, Valuation Reports Volume 110, Valuation Docket 9, pages 310-322)

July 14, 1910:
First ore was received at the International smelter, by way of the aerial tramway from Highland Boy. The tram was 20,000 feet long and was constructed to transport ores from the Utah Deleware Mining Co. in Highland Boy in Bingham Canyon. (Mining, Smelting and Railroading in Tooele County, page 72)

Ore arrived at the Tooele smelter by three methods: the 20,000 feet long aerial tramway of Utah Consolidated that traversed the ridge from Bigham Canyon; the 11,000 feet long tunnel of Utah Metals Company between its Bingham property and an outlet just two miles from the Tooele smelter; and the Tooele Valley Railway that operated between International and a connection with Union Pacific at Tooele Junction (later Warner), west of Tooele. The railroad connection allowed lead-zinc-silver ores (known as galena ore) and concentrates to be shipped in from all over the west, and for shipment of concentrates and smelted metals to refineries nationwide. Ores that arrived via the aerial tramway was dumped into railroad cars and moved to nearby sampler bins for storage and later processing.

March 1, 1911:
Construction started on a new lead smelter. While the original smelter had been constructed for copper, the supply of copper ore from the Utah Consolidated mine in Bingham Canyon dropped severely in 1910. A new lead smelter was constructed using much of the existing machinery from the copper smelter. The International smelter stopped processing copper completely in 1946, but continued to process lead (and zinc) until 1971. (Mining, Smelting and Railroading in Tooele County, page 75)

The International Smelter near Tooele was completed in February 1912. First furnace "blown in" on February 29, 1912. (Engineering and Mining Journal, January 11, 1913, p. 87)

Mid 1920s:
By this time the International smelter had become a custom smelter, processing copper and lead contrates and ores from Bingham, Park City, Tintic, nearby bauer, an from Idaho. At times there were 85 to 90 rail cars from all over the west, unloading at the smelter's rail yards. (Mining, Smelting and Railroading in Tooele County, page 74)

September 1941:
Operation began on what was called the Slag Treatment Plant to extract the zinc content from the slag dumps that had accumulated over the past 30 years. The Slag Treatment Plant continued in operation until early 1972. (Mining, Smelting and Railroading in Tooele County, page 77, 79)

January 28, 1972:
The smelter of International Smelting and Refining Company was scheduled to close on January 1, 1972, but reduced production work continued for another three weeks. On January 28, 1972, the Tooele Valley Railway made it last run between the smelter and the interchange at Warner. Throughout its history, the railroad had made the trip at least twice daily. The last trip was made with only a single boxcar and a caboose. The boxcar had been used to bring the last load of newsprint paper for the Tooele Transcript newspaper. (Tooele Transcript, February 11, 1972)

When the Tooele smelter closed, it left over 30 mining properties without a nearby smelter. These mines were forced to close due the high costs of shipment of their ores to the nearest custom smelters at El Paso, Texas, East Helena, Mont., or Kellogg, Idaho. (Mining, Smelting and Railroading in Tooele County, page 111, citing Deseret News of November 9 and 13, 1971)

The smelter was closed to save costs to Anaconda following the loss of its properties in Chile, which were taken over by the Chilean government in 1971. To save the company, its unprofitable properties were either closed or sold. The sell-off did not work, and by 1975, Anaconda was purchased by Atlantic Richfield. (Mining, Smelting and Railroading in Tooele County, page 118)

Tooele Valley Railway operations continued after the smelter was closed. Until about 1975, the railroad was used to ship outgoing scrap from the dismantling of the smelter, and until 1981, the railroad was used to accept inbound shipments of construction materials for the development of the new Carr Fork Mine. (Mining, Smelting and Railroading in Tooele County, page 118)

1980:
Tooele Valley Railway ceased operations in 1980. Offically abandoned by owner Anaconda Copper in August 1981. (Extra 2200 South, Issue 80, May 1984, page 33; Pacific News, Issue 233, January 1982, page 24)

August 1981:
Tooele Valley Railway ceased operations in August 1981. TV SW900 104 in storage on SLG&W at Salt Lake City. (Pacific News, Issue 242, October 1982, page 21)

August 28, 1982:
Tooele Valley operation ceased on August 26, 1982. (information from Larry Deppe; T he Mixed Train, September 1982, page 14)

From EPA documents for what EPA labeled the International Smelter "Superfund" site:

International Smelting & Refining Company began operations in Tooele in 1910 on approximately 1,200 acres. At various times, from 1910 through 1972, the company operated copper and lead smelters and a lead-zinc flotation mill. The smelter processed ores mined from several areas in Utah and Nevada. The copper plant was originally designed to process 4,000 tons of ore per day, although it never sustained a rate this high. In the early years of operation, tailings and slag were produced at an estimated annual rate of approximately 650,000 tons per year with declining output in later years. The copper smelter was closed in 1946, followed by the closure of the lead/zinc flotation mill in 1968, and finally, closure of the lead smelter in 1972. With the exception of a few incidental buildings, the smelter facility was demolished or scrapped in the mid-1970s.

From 1974 through 1981, the Anaconda Company constructed and operated a mine and mill known as the Carr Fork Operation. The main mill of the Carr Fork operation was one mile east of the Internnational Smelting smelter property in Pine Canyon on approximately 12.5 acres. The Carr Fork operation began processing ore in 1979 and ran for less than two years.

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