Comparison Between the Amalgamation Process at the Ontario Mill and the Russell Process at the Marsac Mill, 1891-1892 (Cover title: Amalgamation at the Ontario Mill Compared with The Russell Process at the Marsac Mill. Comparison with Smelting)
Park City, UT: Russell Process Co, 1892. Reprinted and Extended, from the Engineering and Mining Journal. Paperback. 20pp. Very slim octavo [22 cm] Saddle-stitched pink printed wraps. There is a short split in the spine fold at the head. The wraps and pages are also a bit stained at the head, near the spine fold. Item #57591
In 1873, four entrepreneurs from Grand Haven, Michigan (Edward Ferry, David McLaughlin, J. W. Mason and Frederick Nims) arrived in Park City and incorporated the Marsac Silver Mining Company. Edward Ferry purchased the Flagstaff Mine for $50,000, and it became their first holding.
In 1874, the Marsac Silver Mining Company built the Marsac Mill on the east bank of Silver Creek. That same year, members of the so-called "Michigan Bunch" also filed a patent with the U.S. Land Office for 120 acres of "un-appropriated and unoccupied" land surrounding their Marsac Mill. That patent describes most of what is known today as Old Town Park City.
The Marsac Mill was torn down in 1904, but the name "Marsac," chosen by the "Michigan Bunch," still survives as the name of a nearby street and an elementary school built in the late 1930s. In the early 1980s, the city acquired the old Marsac School, remodeled it, and renamed it the Marsac Municipal Building.
The Ontario silver mine is located near Park City. It was purchased by George Hearst for $27,000 in 1872 through R. C. Chambers. Hearst and his business partners constructed the necessary infrastructure to make the mine productive, including hoists and stamp mill. The mine was not profitable in the beginning. According to legend, development expenses drained Hearst's financial resources substantially. As a result of his compromised financial circumstances, Hearst sold his home and horses, and even enrolled his son William Randolph Hearst in public school. R. C. Chambers, who had been retained as manager, brought the ore body into production by the late 1870s. The mine eventually produced fifty million dollars' worth of silver and lead.
By the time of Hearst's passing in 1891, the Ontario mine had paid him more than $12 million in dividends. This was only one of the four big mines he had bought shares in and that were located in the West. The mine also made manager Chambers one of Utah's Bonanza Kings.
The Ontario mine was considered more consistent in yielding annual dividends during the late nineteenth century than any other mine in Utah. The Ontario company's mill was also the birthplace of two major hydrometallurgical processes, the Russell Process (the topic of this pamphlet) and the Cyanide Process. Edward H. Russell developed his process for working low grade silver ores by a leaching process, 1883-1884, and the youthful Louis Janin (UC Berkeley) experimented with cyanide on the ores, filing a caveat to patent a cyanide process in 1886.
Price: $150.00