Valley Wells Copper Smelter

 smelter, historic ruins

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Although copper was being smelted here as early as 1898, these are the remains of the 1917 blast furnace smelter.

The copper milling process involves trucking ore to ore bin above the crusher. Upon crushing, it was sent by belt conveyor to a ball mill for fine grinding. Iron pyrite was roasted in the adjacent sulfuric acid plant, and sulfurous gas mixed with the fine ore. The ore was washed and filtered, and the copper sulfate solution ran through tin cans in a series of concrete tanks (launders). The copper-iron mud was taken to the adjacent smelter or shipped as concentrate. The smelter produced copper matte, which was first hauled to Manvel (Barnwell) and later to the new (closer) rail head at Ivanpah. After 1917, the copper matte was hauled to Cima and shipped by rail for further refinement at Garfield, Utah.

nsm.fullerton.edu/dsc/images/DSCdocs/2005oldores.pdf