My last epistle.  I wasn't, by the way, trying to start a Canada
Chat Page.  After some remarks I made about a proposed mining museum,
Peter asked if I would contribute some history for UK readers.  I hope
this is what was wanted and that it hasn't gone too far.
        The Sullivan Mine was originally discovered in 1891 when four
prospectors staked the "Hamlet" and "Shylock" claims.  These men had
journeyed on foot (about fifty miles?) from Kootenay Lake opposite Kaslo
through rough country and over at least one high mountain range until
they reach the St. Eugene Mission in the East Kootenay.  I like to tell
people who visualize miners as being rather ignorant men, that two of
these prospectors amused themselves on the journey by quoting passages
from Shakespeare at each other.
 The mine was worked continuously, but not successfully, until it was
taken over by the Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company (modern day
Cominco) in 1910.
         The real story of the mine, however, must begin with the
completion at Trail Creek of a smelter, in 1896, by Frederick (Fritz)
Augustus Heinze, a "Copper Baron" from Butte, Montana.  Heinze also got
charters for (and partially built) a railway from Trail to Midway many
miles to the west.  The Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) was forced to buy
the smelter in order to acquire the railway charters.  The Canadian
Smelting Works was formed and W. H. Aldritch was put in charge. Aldritch
immediately, with the backing of CPR, rebuilt the smelter, installing
the Betts Electrolytic Process for refining the lead after it had been
roasted.  This seems to have been a major development for the entire
Inland Empire.  Smelters at Nelson, Butte, Montana, and Tacoma,
Washington(?) prior to this time produced a "matte" which was shipped to
Swansea, Wales, for final refining.
         CPR's only goal at this time was to build up business for the
railway.  When Aldritch  installed machinery for making lead pipe,
Shaughnessy of the CPR ordered him to remove it.  Shaughnessy didn't
want to enter into competition with his eastern customers. (And so it
has continued ever since for we Kootenayites).
         In 1906, the Canadian Smelting Works was combined with the St.
Eugene Mine, at Moyie; the Centre Star and War Eagle Mines, of Rossland;
the Richmond-Eureka Mine at Sandon; and the Rossland Power Company to
form the Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company of Canada Ltd. At this
point technology becomes extremely important.  Because of the zinc in
the ore, smelting of the ores of the Sullivan Mine was not economical.
For some years, ore with large concentrations of zinc had to be picked
out by hand and discarded.
         In 1917, the company hired Ralph Diamond, a young engineer who
had worked with oil flotation at the Anaconda Mine in Butte, Montana. By
1920, Diamond and his group of engineers had developed a process of
differential flotation that separated lead and zinc salts as
"concentrates" and made economic smelting of all the Sullivan Ores
possible.  A history of the oil flotation process is provided on the web
by Dr. Jeremy Mouat:
        http://www.athabascau.ca/html/staff/academic/mouat/mouat.htm
        Because of this "zinc conflict", I have found some of the recent
submissions as regards the extraction of silver from lead ore to be
extremely interesting.  Although I have taken a course in geology, I
really know very little about metallurgy.
         The Sullivan did grow to be one of the largest producers of
lead, zinc, and silver in the world.  I have been told that the silver
taken from the Sullivan paid for all C.M.&S's expenses, and provided
Kodak with all the silver it required for years.
        In deference to Martin Potts (with whom I agree entirely about
checking your sources), I suggest readers consult other sources with
properly supported references if they are really interested in the
history.





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