Re the photos of Cerro Muriano on the website -- the lowest of the three
looks to me like a reverberatory furnace at the smelter. There are two
launders, the one coming towards the photographer seems to be the one
into which copper would be tapped, perhaps into some receptacle on a
lower floor. The shorter launder with its end over a wagon on the narrow
gauge track could be for the slag (as the man on the left is doing from
another furnace). It all looks clean -- maybe the photo was taken just
after this furnace had been refurbished, before it went back into production???
A reverberatory furnace would have its side walls water cooled. Maybe
the top photo shows a large radiator. After passing through the furnace
walls, the hot water could be pumped through these pipes to cool it prior
to recirculation. There seems to be a misty spray in the centre of the photo
-- I did wonder if this was to help the cooling process, but guess it is more
likely from a leaky joint whose gasket needed fixing.
Tony Brewis
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