Document Negz2VyL97wy1BrmDZ3MDvkV8

H EM 0 RAH DOM . BAST CHICAGO PLAST OJT XKTBHHATIOBAI. SUELTIHC AKD REFIB1HQ COKPAa? At the tin* it >ta abut down in August of tbo current year, tbls float consisted of a lead refinery, an electrolytic white load float and a sine oxlio float. Tho load refinery woo constructed la tho jraar 191S la eonneetlos with tho Tooele smelter. It bad an initial capacity of 5,000 toao of load far month whleh woo later laoroaaod to 9,000 toao. Per tho foot thirty yoaro, it woo naod to refine the lead reeoterod fro* sine plant rooldaoo at Great Falla and Sait Helena ea.wall aa the lead produced at Tooele, Subsequent to 1999, tho quantity of lead available for the refinery declined to between S000 and 5500 tone per month. Aa the result of the email Intake and the steadily mounting labor eoeta, the eost of refining became excessive. Im the Spring of the eurrent year, the American Smelting and defining Company whleh operatea a lead refinery at Omaha, Hebraska, offered na a refining contract which figured out about (5.00 par toa battar than wa aould do. Thla eontraet wan accepted and rune for a period of ten yeare. It covers the refining of lend produced at Bast Helena ae well as at Teoola. Tba lead Is returned to tho Anaconda Salas Company and Is guaranteed to contain last than 0.1 of bismuth whleh is * batter grade of load than wa were able to produce with tho facilities at Boat Chleaeo. The lead Is returned at Omaha with tranalt privileges corresponding to those n had at Bart Chicago. Aside fro* the fact that the terms offered last Spring by the A. ' ^ .\ V. ^ {' N11307 PNY CQ0G08 7 4:6 Memorandum - Sheet ft American Smelting and Refining Company are more favorable than any terms previously offered by that company, the contract con tains a new clause providing for the ratnrn of 90% of all bismuth in excess of 0.25% as refined metal reedy for the market. Tooele lead normally contains about 0.25% bismuth which was not recoverable by the refining methods in use at last Chicago and at times aade the sale of the lead difficult as it was considered an objectionable impurity. Three or four times during each year, a by-product of the Anaconda smelter which contained considerable bismuth as well as some lead, was shipped to the Tooele smelter for the production of a lead bullion con taining from 2 to 5% of blsnnth. This bullion was used is the White Lead Plant end yielded a bieanth residue running about 90% Bi which wse readily refined to bismuth metal running 99.9% Bl. Production of bismuth from this source amounted to 3,550,000 pounds for the pnst ten yearn and yielded groas profits of ' nearly 12,000,000. Under the contract with Omaha, the quantity of bismuth to be returned to us will be substantially the same as the possible recovery with our former preetlee. The opera tions at Tooele are simplified in that the so-called "bismuth runs" will no longer he neoeseary. The White lead Plant was established at Past Chicago in the yeer 1919 end used a novel electrolytic process developed by Mr. Zlmer A. Sperry. The plant is capable of producing about 10,000 tons of white lead per yeer. At the tine the plant was built, it wee considered worth while pertly because the new PHVCOCOOB7A7 Keaorendum - Sheet ft process > exptected to produce edit a lead of superior quality and partly beeeuse it provided an additional outlet for lead in tines of slack demand. There was a considerable Margin between the price of lead and the price of white lead. This Margin has tended to diminish and the domani for white lead has steadily decreased on account of competition fron other white pigment* developed during the peat twenty-five or thirty yeara, each as lithopons and tltsnoz. The future of white land is now con sidered aoaewhat uncertain and aince the plant is no longer . needed for the recovery of bieauth, it aeened advisable te go out of the white lead business. In 1922, it was dacidtd to establish a sine oxide plant at Hast Chicago and ia 1925, a ainilar plant was built at Akron. These plants ware justified on a basis siailar to that applying to the White Lead Plant, vis, the spread betveen tho price of sine oxide and aetallie sine and the need for increas ing our nurket for aetallie sine. The letter eoaslderatlon was particularly iaportant because up to about eight years ago, the contracts under which we purchased concentrates for our sine plants, obligated us to pay for the zinc regardless of our ability to market the metal so purehaesd. Curing tho past eight years most of our largs tine eoneentrate shippers have gone on a toll basia Thereunder we treat the concentrates on agreed up on terms and return the recovered metal to the shipper. This type of eontraet has relieved us of what formerly was a consider- AVable narket risk and since so anch of our sine business is now \ V PNYC0CQ08748 Heituiu - Sheet f 4 ob thla basis, we do not need the outlet provided by the sine azide plant. In fact, our own xinc Is at times seareely suffi cient to provide the needs of the Brass Plants, Tor tin past year or two, the oxide plant has been operating at a wary reduced scale on secondary sine metel, the supply of which Is uncertain and fluctuates between wide limits. for these reasons. It was considered advisable to drop out of the zlno oxide business. re were fortunate in being eble to dispose of the Past Chicago plant at a pries of about #1,000,000 to tha Tagls Pieher Company. They propose to use it .for the treatment of secondary lead, each as battery plates, and tha production of sine o.Tide fro* secondary metal and ores produced from eons of thsir mines. They say continue the operation of tho White Load Plant. They era in the pigment business on a considerable acala and tha plant is'wall adapted to their purposes and ia wall located, for various reasons, they decided to elate down a plant they had in Cincinnati about the time wo decided to dis continue operations at Zest Chicago. Tho acquisition of tho plant by Xagls Pieher aaens like a logical stop. In addition to tho money which we received for tho plant and adjacent unoccupied lend, the discontinuance of our operations released approximately two and one-half million dollars tied up la wsrsbouse and process inventories. Thus, tbs trcnsacticn made available to Anaconda for. other purposes approximately three and one-half million dollars. Savings in lead refining costs may be estimated at #200,000 par.year. Tha bast that eould be said for our white lead and xino oxide <\ A c00008l^ pHt Kenorendn* - Sheet fi : operations is that on a consolidated basis they broke eves. TL/Tt October 28, 1946 V PNYC00008750