United States Smelting, Refining and Mining Company

This corporation, which has its head offices in Boston and has a capitalization of $75,000,000, operates its various mines, mills and smelters under local titles. Its lead and copper mines at Bingham, Utah, are operated under the title of the United States Mining Company; its concentrator and lead and copper smelter at Bingham Junction, Utah, as the United States Smelting Company; its mines at Eureka, Utah, as the Centennial Eureka Mining Company, and the Bullion Beck & Champion Mining Company; its lime quarry as the United States Lime Company, and its Stores Department as the United States Stores Company. At its smelting plant at Bingham Junction, near Salt Lake City, it receives custom ores from all the inter-mountain States. It has developed at this plant its secret process for the handling 1 of smelter fumes, so that, whilst it daily treats from 1200 to 2000 tons of ore, its stacks are free from fumes or elements that are in any way damaging to vegetation. It has recently made improvements in its method of concentrating ores by which it will separate, electro-statically, the zinc from the iron, thus effecting, by a new process, a large saving of zinc that heretofore has been wasted. In addition to these Utah properties, the United States Company owns the Mammoth Copper Mining Co., which operates the Mammoth mines and copper smelter at Kennett, California; also the Richmond-Eureka Mining Co., of Eureka, Nevada. Its bullion output is shipped to its own refineries and smelters at Grasselli, Indiana, and Chrome, New Jersey, operating under the title of the United States Metals Refining Company. In Mexico the company operates in a vast territory, with mines and mills at Pachuca and Real del Monte, under the corporate title of the Compañia de Real del Monte y Pachuca.

Altogether the United States Smelting, Refining & Mining Company has an up-to-date organization and a name for fair dealing with its customers that has resulted in the development of an enormous metal business which is constantly expanding. It is ready with a competent field engineering staff to examine any and all mining 1 properties of merit as well as to mill, smelt, refine and market all grades of ore, bullion, metallurgical products and metals. Its principal office is at 55 Congress Street, Boston, Mass., and its local office is located on the ninth floor of the Newhouse Building, Salt Lake City, under the control of Geo. W. Heintz, its general manager for Utah, etc.

Deep Creek Mining District

Deep Creek is a mining district of unsurpassed mineral wealth. It is situated in the western part of Tooele and Juab counties, Utah, and is about one hundred and twenty-five miles distant from Salt Lake City. It is reached by the new "Western Pacific Railway, now practically completed between Salt Lake City and San Francisco, California.

The most heavily mineralized section of the country is in the Deep Creek Mountains, although the mines begin with the Dugway range and continue westward to the Nevada line. The Deep Creek range is some fifty miles in length and is heavily timbered and well watered. Some of the higher peaks have an elevation of 12,000 feet.

The mines of this region have been producing for the past thirty years, and millions of dollars worth of ore has been treated or placed upon the dumps. In the earlier history of the country, several small smelters were operated; but with the gradual decline in the price of silver, they were forced to close. Lead-silver was the only ore treated in those days, and little effort was made to develop the other resources of the country. But during the past few years, mining operations have been extensive, and some of the most remarkable ore bodies ever opened in the State have been developed. Gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc and iron have been found to exist in immense quantity; while bismuth, tin, nickel, antimony, tungsten and molybdenum are all found, particularly in the north end of the range. This is the only section of Utah where tin has ever been found. A large body of bismuth-gold ore has been developed on the property of the Lucy L. Mining and Milling Company. This is probably the only property in the United States that has bismuth ore in quantity and of commercial value. The vein is a very large one and is developed to the depth of over three hundred feet.

The Lucy L. Company has upon the same property a monster copper vein. It has been developed to the depth of five hundred feet and is two hundred and fifty feet in width. The ore is mostly a sulphide.

Assays from the veins of the Lucy L. mine, from miscellaneous samples, run from $1.34 to $33,365.00 gold; from seven to forty-seven ounces silver; from twenty to sixty-eight per cent, bismuth; from two to twenty-seven per cent, cop-per; from sixteen to thirty-eight per cent, lead; tin, one and sixty-five hundredths per cent; nickel, sixty-five hundredths per cent.

The general office of the Lucy L. Company is in Salt Lake City. The con-trolling interest is held by Wilson Brothers, Frank L. Wilson and Clyde H. Wilson, whose interests extend through forty miles of the Deep Creek range. It has been largely through the instrumentality of the Wilson Brothers that the Deep Creek section has been so extensively developed; and no one is more familiar with the mineral wealth and possibilities of that country, which is amply demonstrated by their splendid properties.

The Clifton Copper Belt Mining Company, whose property is on the same mineral belt and a mile south of the Lucy L., is in many respects similar to the Lucy L. The ores are gold, silver, copper, lead, bismuth, tin, nickel and molybdenum. The ore bodies most extensively developed are copper-gold and silver-lead. Some of the richest ores in the district are found in this property. The average ore is of uniformly high grade.

The Seminole Copper Company adjoins the Clifton Copper Belt on the south end and the mineralization is practically the same as upon the Copper Belt. The company owns two hundred and forty acres of patented ground in the Clifton District. There is probably no other property in the Deep Creek section of greater merit.

The Wilson Consolidated Mining Company has twelve claims, about two hundred and thirty acres. Six of the claims are in the Clifton District and six in the Willow Springs District, adjoining Clifton on the south. The ores are copper, lead, silver and gold, arid large bodies are exposed.

The Western Pacific Copper Company is located in the higher part of the Deep Creek range, in the Willow Springs Mining District. The property is well watered and timbered and is splendidly located for the economical extraction of the large bodies of ore. This property has the distinction of being the earliest shipper of high-grade copper ore from the Deep Creek country. The ore averages thirteen per cent, copper; twenty-five per cent, lead; twenty-four per cent, iron, and some silver and gold. It is the most extensively developed property in the Willow Springs District.

Since better transportation facilities are now offered, the greatest activity prevails in the different districts, and it is confidently believed that one of the greatest mining booms in the history of the West is just beginning.

Coal Industries

Among the many natural resources of the State of Utah which have tended to make the State one of the most prominent and most desirable are its coal beds, which are the richest and largest in the West. That these huge beds and strata of coal have merely been scratched, as it were, is apparent, and that the coal industry in this State will ere long become one of the biggest propositions in the State is generally acknowledged by all those conversant with the geological conditions existing in .the coal belt. In 1882 the Pleasant Valley Coal Company was incorporated at a time when the magnitude of the coal belts was first appreciated. This company, with offices in Salt Lake City, began to mine the product and supplied the entire State with fuel for both domestic and commercial purposes.

In the year 1900 the Utah Fuel Company was organized and that to-day it is one of the biggest propositions in the country is due largely to the foresight of those who organized and who have so successfully developed the mines. The capitalization of the company is $10,000,000 and some idea of the magnitude of the company and its properties may be gained when it is known that the properties ship this necessary fuel to Utah, Colorado, Nevada, Idaho, Montana and California. While a greater part of the business is confined to the States of Utah and Colorado, still the company ships large quantities of the black diamonds to the States mentioned because of the fact that the coal mined here is of a superior grade and is eagerly sought for by dealers in the other inter-mountain States.

The mines of the company are located at Clear Creek and Castle Gate, from which places comes a superior grade of domestic coal, and at Winter Quarters and Sunnyside. The last named camp is where the coke industry of the company is carried on exclusively. This is one of the busiest camps of the company, and the activity evidenced there is truly remarkable. In Colorado the company has a mine located at Somerset. From this mine a large tonnage is extracted every year and most of the coal from it is used in that State. Conservatively speaking, it is estimated that the tonnage of all the properties of the company is about 2,000,000 tons annually. This shows the magnitude of the company's properties, and, as the coal deposits are seemingly inexhaustible, it is safe to predict that the business of the company will increase wonderfully. The coke production is also very large, amounting to 350,000 tons, all of which comes from the hundreds of coke ovens at Sunnyside.

At the present time the company employs approximately 2300 men and this number will be increased as the mines are further developed. The company has its own houses in all of the camps mentioned, and the employees have modern and up-to-date structures to live in at a very small rental and everything done for them that can be done for their comfort and good living.

The officers of the Utah Fuel Company are: E. T. Jeffrey, president, New York City; C. H. Schlacks, vice-president, Denver, Colorado; A. H. Cowil, vice-president, Salt Lake City; H. G. Williams, general manager, Salt Lake City; W. O. Williams, auditor, Salt Lake City; W. B. Williams, general superintendent, Salt Lake City; M. P. Braffet, general solicitor, Salt Lake City; A. C. Watts, chief engineer, Salt Lake City, and E. A. Greenwood, assistant treasurer, Salt Lake City. 

Index

Source: Sketches of the Inter-Mountain States, Utah, Idaho and Nevada, Published by The Salt Lake Tribune, Salt Lake City, Utah, 1909