Tintic Smelter

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Tintic Smelting Company

First Tintic Smelting Co.

January 4, 1873
"Tintic Smelting Company. Diamond City; completed October 1871; built by Hopkins, Parsons & Co..; two furnaces; capacity, twenty tons per day; treating ore from the Shower mine; Charles Pointer, superintendent." (Salt lake Weekly Tribune, January 4, 1873)

Second Tintic Smelting Co.

"Nothing further is recorded of attempts at smelting in the district until 1908, when the Tintic Smelting Co. erected furnaces at Silver City for treating lead and copper ores from a number of mines controlled by the Knight syndicate. Before the end of the year two lead furnaces, each having a capacity of 250 tons, were operating, and a copper furnace was about ready to be placed in operation. Two additional lead furnaces, making four in all, were added in 1909 and operated until October. The lime and iron for flux were supplied from near-by quarries and mines of the smelting company, and as the ores of the district are of a siliceous nature fluxing conditions were ideal. Coke was shipped from Sunnyside, Utah." (Geology And Ore Deposits Of The Tintic Mining District, Utah, USGS Professional Paper 107, 1919, page 114)

"This venture was the last of the attempts at smelting in the Tintic district. Although a success in smelting, the Tintic Smelting Co. was dominated by other more powerful interests and the lowering of smelting rates made it more profitable for the producing mining companies to ship to the smelters near Salt Lake. The smelter was dismantled in 1915." (Geology And Ore Deposits Of The Tintic Mining District, Utah, USGS Professional Paper 107, 1919, page 115)

December 1, 1906
"Articles of Incorporation of the Tintic Smelting company have been prepared by Atty. Joel Nibley and will be filed in the office of the secretary of state within the next few days. With a single exception, the incorporators are influential Ogden and Provo citizens and the headquarters of the company will be in Salt Lake. The president of the Tintic company will be Charles W. Nibley, one of Utah's loading business men; the vice presidency will go to Jesse Knight, the well known and successful mining operator of Provo; the secretary will be former district Judge H. H. Rolapp of Ogden and John Pingree, cashier of the First National Bunk of Ogden will be treasurer. The foregoing named persons with David Eccles of Ogden, Bela Kadish of Ogden, William Eccles of Ogden; C. E. Loose of Provo and M. J. Donnelly of New York are mentioned as incorporators. The board of directors will consist of Charles W. Nibley, Jesse Knight. C. E. Loose, David Eccles and Bela Kadish." (Deseret News, December 1, 1906)

January 11, 1907
Surveying in work for new smelter west of Robinson. The survey was being done by West & Brown of Ogden. William Knight was on hand, and was the manager of the Beck Tunnel and Black Jack mines. Nibley was president of the smelting company. (The Eureka Reporter, January 11, 1907)

June 5, 1908
First ore at the new Tintic Smelter was received about 1 June, and was from the Silver Shield mine, at Bingham. (Eureka Reporter, June 5, 1908)

July 10, 1908
The Grand Central mine began shipping to the Tintic smelter yesterday; and there is to be a celebration of the starting-up of the smelter on the 24th of July. (Eureka Reporter, July 10, 1908)

"On July 24, 1908, Silver City and all Tintic celebrated Smelter Day. This festival or celebration was without doubt the most lavish and best attended of any ever held in Tintic District. Special excursion trains in addition to the regular schedules were run to the District by both railroads. Special pavilions were erected for the occasion. Special sight-seeing runs were made by Knight’s East Tintic narrow gauge railroad to the various Knight mines." (History of Juab County, by A. P. McCune, 1947, page 229)

June 15, 1909
"The first lead furnace was blown in August 28, 1908, and was followed a few days later by lead furnace No. 2, and the starting of a large independent smelter was hailed with joy by the mining industry. Then trouble came and first one furnace and then the other was shut down, and started up again and rumors of one kind or another were set afloat. After a change of management, things began to shape themselves and give an appearance of successful operation. Lead furnace No. 1 was blown in October 29, No. 2 on November 1, No. 3 on January 9 and the copper furnace on March 22." (Salt Lake Mining Review, June 15, 1909)

September 18, 1909
"Tintic Smelter To Close About Oct. 1 - That the Tintic smelter will be closed about Oct. 1, to remain closed indefinitely, was announced yesterday by officials of the company. Ores of the Knight mines are to be diverted to the United States company's smelter at Bingham Junction. Inability to obtain the kind of ores required for fluxing the silicious ores of the Tintle district is the reason given for shutting down the plant at this time." (Salt Lake Herald, September 18, 1909)

October 1909
"The Tintic smelter owned by Jess Knight at Silver City closed in October 1909 and has since been idle. The plant is being well taken care of, the machinery has been wrapped and is in good condition. The plant was operated but a year and two months." (Deseret News, December 19, 1914)

August 31, 1915
The Tintic Smelting Company petitioned the District Court for permission to dissolve the corporation. Jesse Knight, J. William Knight, C. W. Nibley, W, Lester Mangum and R. E. Allen represented 4844 shares of the company and there was no opposition. Organized on November 30, 1906, and completed "two or three years later," the company soon found that it could not operate at a profit, and the smelte was closed. Its machinery had been sold "piece by piece." (Provo Post, August 31, 1915)

Tintic Milling Company

(1915 to 1923)

In the later part of 1913 a mill was completed at Silver City to use the Knight-Christensen process of chloridizing, roasting, and leaching, which was being adapted to treat the low-grade ores of the Knight mines - Iron Blossom, Colorado, Beck Tunnel, Black Jack, Dragon, and Swansea. The ores from these mines are said to afford an excellent variety of oxidized, sulphide, and siliceous material, from which to make a mixture most suitable to the process of treatment. On April 6, 1915, before certain mechanical difficulties could be overcome, the plant was destroyed by fire. Reconstruction began on the site of the abandoned Tintic smelter in July, 1915, by the Tintic Milling Co., newly organized by a consolidation of the Knight-Christensen Metallurgical Co. and the Mines Operating Co., which had operated successfully for two years at Park City, using the Holt-Dern process of roasting. The new mill was at first equipped with three Holt-Dern roasters and one Christensen roaster. The latter was discarded and eight more Holt-Dern roasters were added in 1916, when operations on a commercial scale began. (Geology And Ore Deposits Of The Tintic Mining District, Utah, USGS Professional Paper 107, 1919, page 117)

June 30, 1915
"The Tintic Milling Company, of Provo, Utah, has been incorporated with a capitalization of $30,000 divided into 3-cent shares. The officers and directors are: Jesse Knight, president; Geo. H. Dern, vice-president and general manager; W. Lester Mangum, secretary and treasurer; J. William Knight and James C. Dick. The company will build a milling plant in Tintic district, Utah, utilizing the Knight-Dern process of ore reduction." (Salt Lake Mining Review, June 30, 1915)

November 30, 1915
The following comes from the November 30, 1915 issue of the Salt lake Mining Review.

Low Grade Ores Of Tintic. - Fred C. Dern of Salt Lake has the following to say regarding the low-grade ores of the Tintic, Utah, district, and of the history of the new mill now being constructed to treat those ores: The Tintic mining district produced, up to the end of the year 1914, ore valued at over $154,000,000. In mining it the various companies encountered ore that would not pay to ship to the smelters. Tremendous tonnages of that ore have been left in the various properties awaiting the advent of some process that would treat it at a profit to the companies.

The facts that the Tintic ores are of a highly siliceous nature causes the smelter charges to be higher than the ores of a better fluxing nature. Only the higher grade ores can be mined and shipped direct to the smelters. There are several millions of tons of low-grade ore, that is, ore that cannot be shipped at a profit, standing in the following mines: Bullion Beck, Black Jack, Beck Tunnel, Carisa, Centennial Eureka, Eureka Hill, Iron Blossom, Chief Consolidated, Colorado, Dragon, Eagle & Blue Bell, Gold Chain, Grand Central, Mammoth and the Victoria.

When these facts were brought to the attention of N. C. Christensen, Jr., and Theodore P. Holt, metallurgists who had been working on a process for the treatment of low-grade siliceous ores, a series of elaborate tests were made on the Tintic ores. The tests proved satisfactory from practically every point of view, and as a result the Tintic Milling Company was formed. The process had been discovered in 1911 and had been worked out on a small a scale by the Mines Operating Company in a the Park City, Utah, district.

It was perfected and standardized by March, 1914, and the plant at that time was treating 150 tons per day and getting an extraction of about 75 per cent of the values. This was being done with a crude hand operated furnace.

The present mill, that is being constructed at Silver City in the Tintic district will have a daily capacity of 300 tons. By adding additional roasting facilities and leaching vats the capacity can be readily brought up to 500 tons per day. It is steel-concrete mill and modern in every detail.

January 15, 1916
"The Mines Operation Company, formerly of Park City, Utah, and the Knight-Christensen Metallurgical Company, whose mill at Silver City burned down, have joined interests under the name of the Tintic Milling Company and are now erecting a 300-ton plant at Silver City. Jesse Knight is president of the new concern, and George H. Dern is general manager. The plant is to treat the lowgrade ores of the district by the roasting and chloridizing process, and is expected to be in operation some time in February." (Salt Lake Mining Review, January 15, 1916)

February 15, 1916
"The new plant of the Tintic Milling Company at Silver City, Utah, is now completed and will soon be handling ore. It has a capacity of 300 tons a day." (Salt Lake Mining Review, February 15, 1916)

September 15, 1916
"General Manager George H. Dern, of the Tintic Milling Company, states that the plant of the company at Silver City, Utah, will be brought up to full capacity of 300 tons a day within sixty days. Six of the new Holt-Dern roasters have been delivered at the property, and the other two should be there by the middle of the month. Metallurgists who have visited the plant say that the problem of treating the low grade siliceous silver-copper ores of the district has been solved by the process in. use. The plant is at present handling eighty-five tons a day, coming principally from the Iron Blossom and Dragon Consolidated properties." (Salt Lake Mining Review, September 15, 1916)

May 30, 1919
"It is reported that Geo. H. Dern of Salt Lake has sold his interest in the Tintic Milling Company, operating at Silver City, Utah, to the Jesse Knight interests." (Salt Lake Mining Review, May 30, 1919)

September 15, 1923
"The plant of the Tintic Milling Company, located at Silver City, is to suspend operations. Lyman Baker, the superintendent, says that the mill has ceased receiving and crushing ore but that the greater part of the month will doubtless elapse before a cleanup in all departments of the mill can be brought about." (Salt Lake Mining View, September 15, 1923)

(The reason given was that, because the major amount of ore received and processed was silver ore, and the mines were not producing due to the slump in silver prices, resulting in the mill was not receiving adequate amounts of ore to make a reasonable profit.)

December 15, 1924
Tailings of the Tintic Milling Company were being loaded into rail cars and shipped to the Asarco smelter in Salt Lake Valley. On the first day of operation of a steam shovel, 500 tons was loaded into 10 rail cars. (Salt Lake Mining Review, December 15, 1924)

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