.-Sec. 562, P. L. & R.U_. S. POSTAGE

Paid

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•

Gosh!)'I Wish ThisWar Would· End!•

GOSH, if I'm not sick and tired of this'war!Here I was, all set to step out tonight and have a little fun.

First thing you know, I'm all out of "A" coupons so I can't pickup my girl, and I can't chisel any gas. I get a taxi, and it, costsme four dollars six bits for fare, and when I get to the Hotsy-Totsy Club, they're all out of steaks. Not only that but the I·iquori~ lousy and after about a pint apiece of the stuff, my gal andIdecided we couidn't take any more. Besides that, they didn'thave any of my brand of cigarettes, and when I can't get my

~ own bran~, boy, do Iget sore! I sure wish this war would end.Going to work in the morning IS a pain because the bus

is always crowded and I can't read my newspaper because somewar worker gives me the elbow. In the old days I used to get a«Iecent lunch, but these days you have to take what you can. get, and after a c,ouple of days with only one pat of butter ameal, I'm ready to eat nails. I sure wish th'is war would end.

My laundry takes a week to get my shirts back, andthey're always messed up; I need a new tire but the darnedrationing board doesn't consider my work essential. The news-boy won't deliver my paper in the morning. and I can't get a'decent shave anywhere' in town. I sure wish this war wouldend.

I get sick and tired of reading about the laps this and the'aps that, and. I hope the boys get this all over soon becauseI'm fed up with talk about War Bonds and salvage drives. Isure wish this war would end.

I suppose some people would consider me selfish, butlay it's against the constitution to take away the pleasures andcomforts of us civilians, and that's why I wish this war wouldend. and I mean I sure wish it would.

Anyway, Merry Christmas!.2.

•.....

..

,I

Gosh!),I Wish ThisWar Would End!

I

GOS'H, if I'm not sick and tired of this war!I'v~ been Iyi'ng in this foxhole for hours, afraid to stick

my snoot out because there;s a Nip just over the rise, and he'lldrill me if I do. I haven't had a shave or a bath or a squaremeal-since I can remember. I sure wish this war would end.

I can't get over the sight of seeing two of my bosom pals-guy~ I knew back in my home town-cut to ribbons by ma-chine gun fire, and I can't forget how they writhed' on thegro~nd, with half their insides hanging out, until a mercifuldeath stopped it all. There wasn't anything I could do forthem. r sure wish this war would end.

Maybe I'm just a coward at heart, but I'm fed up with thestink and the sweat and the dirt and the blood. And I'm fedup with the ditch water I have to sleep in and the things thatcrawl over me at night. And I'm sick to death of the aching,tearing feeling at the pit of my stomach that tells me the nextbullet may have my name on it.

Before this war began, and it was years ago for me, I hada good job and a nice girl, and the'hope of a home of my ownand a garden and a couple of kids running around. That allseems Jike a pipe dream now; and I guess it must seem like apipe dream to her, too, after all this time, and I sure wish thiswar would end. ..

But I'm in this damned th,ing, whether Iwanted to be 01

not, for better or for worse. I'll be glad when I can go b.ackhome and live like a human being again, but as long as I'm ,here,and for as long as I'm here, I've got to make the best of thislousy mess. Maybe it'll be a better world to live in after it'sall over, and I sure hope so. But I sure wish this war would end.

Anyway, Merry Christmas!

•

..

DECEMBER 22, 1944.

In This Issue:FRONT COVER • .; 1.

The two pictures on the front cover showCoast. Guardsmen on the high seas onChristmas Day. The boys in the ArmedForces do their best to make Christmasas much like Christmas at home as pos-sible, even to having a Santa Claus andChristmas tree, as shown on the frontcover.

CETTINC TOCETHER AT CT. FALLS __4

The Labor-Management Committee atGreat Falls can well be proud of its ac-complishments. Not only has Uncle Sambenefitted by the fine co-operation of theLabor-Management Committee. but themen themselves feel that the results ofthis co-operation are worth while. Here'sthe story of some of their committees'work.'

THEY PUT ON THEIR COATS 7

The painters at the Anaconda Paint Shopin Butte which is a division of the Butte, .Mines' Machine Shop, really get around.They had finished the job at the Bell Dia-mond compressor room but we caught upwith them at the Badger State hoist. roomand got some pictures to show you the

. stagi ng necessary.

ANACONDA'S MANCANESE .8

Fourteen pounds of Manganese are neces-sary to produce one ton of clean, soundsteel. Maybe that doesn't seem like sucha large amount but just stop a minuteand think how much steel has beenneeded by Uncle Sam to manufacture theairplanes, ships, jeeps, tanks. shells andother war materials. The ManganesePlant at Anaconda did not let Uncle Samdown.

We are coming into the last lap of theChristmas Seal drive, If you haven't doneyour share yet, do it now. You may stillobtain seals in Silver Bow County throughthe Silver Bow Tuberculosis Association,which is located in· the County CourtHouse in BuHe. If you live in CascadeCounty, get in touch with Mr. J. P. Med-lin, 102 Sixteenth St. North, Creat Falls.In Deer Lodge County, communicatewith Mrs. Pete McBrid~, Alpine Apts.,Anaconda.

DE~MBER 22, 1944.

Christmas is no cinch for any of the boys in the Armed Forces. Everybody eve'Y.~

where wants to be home for Christmas. Millions of our boys will be as dreamy·eyecl

on Christmas Day as the Coast Cuardsmen, shown above=-somewhere on the hig"

seas. These Coast Cuardsmen are relaxin g a few minutes from their arduous dutie.

at sea to hum a Christmas carol-and think of their friends and families at home.'

They symboli:r:e the indomitable fighting spirit of America, who seek the enemy thai

has upset the world and their individual plans.

•COPPER COMMANDO is the official newspaper of the Victory labor-ManagemenlProduction Committees of the Anaconda Copper Mining Company and its UnionRepresentatives. at Butte, Anaconda, East Helena and Great Falls, Montana. It ISissued every two weeks ••• COPPER COMMANDO is headed by a joint committeefrom Labor and Management; its policies are shaped by both sides and ar~ dictatedby neither ... COPPER COMMANDO was established at the recommendation o~the War Department with the concurrence of the War Production Board. Its edi ...tors are Bob Newcomb and Marg Sammons; its safety editor is John L. Boardmanjits chief photographer is AI Gusdorf; its staff photographer is Les Bishop ••. ItsEditorial Bo~rd consists of: Denis McCarthy, CIO; John F. Bird, AFL; Ed Renouard,ACM, 'from Butte; Dan Byrne, CIO; Joe Marick, AFL; C. A. Lemmon, ACM, fromAnaconda; rack Clark. CIO; Herb Donaldson. AFL, and E. S. Bardwell. ACM, fromGreat Falls ... COPPER COMMANDO is mailed to the home of every employee o~ACM in the four locations-if you are not receiving your copy advise COPPER COM ...MANDO at 112 Hamilton Street, Butte, or, better still. drop in and tell us. This isVolume 3, No.9., ...3.

. ,.

Here's the Ceneral Victory Labor-ManagementCommittee at Creat Falls: W. S. Adams, ACM;Mike Rebar, CIO: Peter Fontana, CIO: E. C. Van

Getting

.. Together

at •

Great F.alls

~ H IS story is devoted to the VictoryLabor-Management Production Commit-tee at Great Falls. The members of jhiscommittee feel that they have cementedto a greater degree the fine relationshipthat has for many years existed at theplant between labor and management andhave made possible the various produc-tion records which have resulted in theplant receiving the Army-Navy "E"award four successive times. They feelthat production records. such as are re-quired to win the Army-Navy "E" award.can only be brought about Py co-opera-tion on the part of both labor and man-agement.

In addition to the Army-Navy "E"award; the Great Falls plant has been pri-vileged to fly the Treasury ''T'\ To the

Blarcom, ACM; lohn Epperson, CIO; R. B. Caples,ACM; Herbert Donaldson, AFL: Tom Parr, CIO:'Iack Clark, CIO; F. S. Weimer, ACM; E. S. Bard-

Bond Sub-Committee, one of the firstsub-committees to be appointed, the La-bor-Management Committee gives fullcredit for a job well done. The Labor-Management Committee is proud of theNational Security Award presented to theplant last spring, at which time BrigadierGeneral Eley P. Denson said: "Throughthe co-operation of all the employees andthe management, a program was set upwhich has functioned with outstandingsuccess." The Great Falls Victory Labor-Management Production Committee canwell be proud of its accomplishments.

The method of operation of a Labor-Management Committee is, for the mostpart, entrusted to the committee mem-bers themselves. The method of opera-tion of the Great Falls committee differsfrom the Anaconda and Butte commit-tees and we felt that readers of CopperCommando would be interested to knowhow the Great Falls committee functions ..

The Victory Labor - ManagementCommittee. at the Great Falls ReductionDepartment of the Anaconda CopperMining Company. was organized March18, 1942. The committee consists of tenactive members. five of whom representmanagement and five labor. The man-ager of the plant and the president of theMill and Smeltermen's .Union, by virtueof their respective positions, serve as ex-officio members of the committee. Thepicture above shows the committee at itsregular monthly meeting in R. B. Copies'office. Meetings are held at 10:30in the morning and are held on the lastWednesday of the month. The members

well, ACM; R. I. Kennard, ACM. Recently Rob-ert Cunningham, AFL, replaced Herbert Donald-son and Gordon Dial, CIO. replaced Tom Parr.

-of the committee, as shown in the pic-ture, are: Back row, left to right: W. S.Adams, ACM; Mike Rebar. CIO; PeteFontana, CIO; E. C. Van Blarcom, ACM;John Epperson, CIO; R. B. Caples, ACM.Seated: Herbert Donaldson, AFL; .TomParr, CIO; Jack Clark, CIO; F. S. Wei-mer, ACM; E. S. Bardwell, ACM, and R.J. Kennard, ACM. Recently Herbert Don-aldson was replaced by Robert Cunning-ham as an AFL member and Gordon Dial,CIO, replaced Tom Parr.

Sub-committees have been formedat the Copper Refineries, the Zinc Plant,the Wi re Mill and the shops. In thesesub-commi ttees, the superi ntendent actsas chairman, and labor has a majority ofrepresentatives on the committee. Regu-lar monthly meetings of these depart-mental sub-committees are held and spe-cial meetings are called as occasions arise.The Labor-Management Committee atthe East Helena Slag Treating Plant isconsidered as a departmental sub-com-mittee of the Great Falls committee. Theminutes 'of the departmental sub-com-mittees are brought by the chairmen tothe general committee meeting the lastof the month. In many cases the sugges-tions at the departmental meetings areacted upon at once and disposed of with-out referring them to the General Com-mittee. The major activities of the GreatFalls committee are conducted throughits departmental committees in which la-bor representation predominates.

In addition to the departmental sub-committees, there are special sub-com-mittees such as: Transportation, Housing,

c

Award, Posters ana Publlclty, War Bond,Health and Safety, Absenteeism, CopperCommando. Usually with these sub-com-mittees, the appointment is made fromthe General Committee and the membersof the General Sub-Committee then con-tact the various departmental sub-com-mittees and ask them to make committee

. member appointments.To give an example of the way the

Great Falls committee operates, we willuse the Bond Sub-Committee as an illus-tration. Pete Fontana, CIO; HerbertDonaldson, AFL; Jack Clark, CIO; MikeRebar. CIO. and E. S. Bardwell. ACM.were appointed to this War Bond Sub-Committee by the General Committee,Pete Fontana was 'made chairman andhandled the organization of the drive. He .called a meeting of his committee andmade these 'arrangements. Pete and hiscommittee contacted the various depart-mental sub-committees and asked themto appoint captains. The captains in turnappointed solicitors. so that each solicitorwould not have to call on more than fiveemployees. A supply of printed cards au-thorizing payroll deductions was securedand the names and payroll numbers of theemployees were printed on them for thesolicitors. Emblems, literature and stick-ers were secured for the solicitors. In thisway each' employee at the ReductionWorks was personally contacted andasked to sign a pledge card. In additionto the personal solicitation, talks were

..,

Members of the Zinc Plant Sub-Committee, shown above. are: W. Vogt. C. Jelenik, T. Parr, M. Rebar,J. Palagi, J. Stocker, S. Tambellini, F. Stimac, C. Jensen, A. Coster, F. Lench, L Sloan and R. Smith.

given to department groups by the com-mittee members on thei r day off. Hereare some of the accomplishments of thiscommittee:

The War Bond Sub-Committee con-ducted a campaign during the summerand early fall of 1942, which resulted inincreasing the percentage .of employeespurchasing War Bonds through Companychannels from 68 % to 100% . The100% participation was maintained formore than one year. and is now 98.05%.This means that every employee of theGreat Falls Reduction Department pur-chased bonds regularly through the Pay-roll Plan until late 1943. and that all buttwenty-two employees are now purchas-ing regularly through this plan. The fact

fhe top picture shows the Copper Refineries Sub-Committee. Standing are members, R. Petrini, B.Higgins, J. Epperson. Seated. T. Cleason, C. Overose and E. S. Bardwell. The Rod and Wire Mill Sub-Committee, P. Fontana, C. Cartlidge, G. Strizich and W. S. Adams, posed for us in the picture below.

that a few of the employees are not nowavailing themselves of this plan does notmean that they are not purchasing WarBonds, but it means they have reasons fornot purchasing them through the PayrollPlan. such as a man exjsecting to be'in-ducted into the armed forces. He wouldnot know whether or not he would havetime to complete the purchase of a bondby deduction, so he does not subscribe tothe Payroll Deduction Plan.

On September 5. 1942. the GreatFalls Reduction Department was awardedthe Minute Man pennant by the UnitedStates Treasury Department for havingachieved more than ninety per cent em ..ployee participation in the purchase ofWar Bonds. .

After achieving the 100% employeeparticipation goal, the Bond Sub-Corn-mittee of the Victory Labor-ManagementProduction Committee started a cam ..paign to increase the amount of bondspurchased by employees, setting ten percent of the payroll as their goal. This goalwas achieved. and the plant was awardedthe United States Treasury HT" to beplaced on the Minute Man Flags.' Pre ..sentation of the Treasury "T' was madeon May 9, 1943. Since that time. the em-ployees of the plant have continued topurchase bonds regularly in amounts ex-ceeding ten per cent of the payroll.

In addition to the regular monthJypurchase outlined above, the employeesof the Great Falls Reduction Departmenthave responded generously in each of theseparate War Loan Drives. by purchasingadditional bonds over and above the reg-:ular monthly payroll deduction pur ...chases. The War Bond Committee hasorganized and conducted the campaign inconnection with each of the six War.Loan Drives. From January 1. 1942, toand including July I, 1944; maturity valueBonds in the amount of $1,314,975.00have been purchased by the employees,At the July meeting of the Committee,Pete Fontana reported that the total Bondpurchases in the plant d'uring the FifthWar Loan Drive amounted to $110,500,of which $45.000 represented Bond pu ......chases over and above those purchasedthrough regular payroll deductions. Thecommittee conducted a similar campaignfor the Sixth War Loan Drive. That,folks, is co-operation ! It's co-operationnot only withlabor and management but

Shown above are the members of the Mechanical Departments Sub-Committee. W. Kohlis, Q. Aline.C. Wright. N. Davidson. M. Helgeson, H. Donaldson, G. Kalafat, J. ,arnot, O. Peters, J. Odegard, A.Crasseschi, H. Gray. M. Wynn. R. Cunningham. A. Raunig, L. Raddon. T. Hatfield. C. Marshall. J.Porter, A. Yelocan, R. Kennard, R. Wertin, J. Davis, I. Buergey are members of this Sub-Committee.

with Uncle Sam and with the boys out onthe battlefronts.

Results show that the other Sub-Committees, which function along thesame line as the Bond Committee, havemet with the same fine co-operation inthe departmental sub-committees and inturn with labor and management.

The Transportation Committee-R.J. Kennard, Pete Fontana and Mike Rebar-has handled all matters relating to bustransportation to and from work, assistedin arranging ride-sharing groups of work-ers and reviewed all applications for sup-plemental gasoline rations before submit-ting the same to the Local Ration Board.

R. B. Caples, Herbert Donaldson andJack Clark, members of the HousingCommittee, have kept in touch with thelocal situation regarding housing facili-ties and rendered such assistance as cir-cumstances permitted to employees seek-ing a place to live.

Suggestions to be considered havebeen referred to Herbert Donaldson, Jack

. ' Clark and E. S. Bardwell, the membersof the Suggestion Committee. Sugges-tions offered have had to do with im-provements in handling of materials, sal-vage, means of conserving critical ma-terials, and substitutions of materialsreadily obtainable for materials difficultto obtain. The.committee feels that theyrepresent a most important contributionto the war effort.

The special bulletin boards havebeen kept liv~ly andup-to-date with freshposters by the Publicity and Poster Com-mittee of which Pete Fontana, John Ep-person and Herbert Donaldson are mem-bers. Too, they have supervised the dis-tribution of pamphlets and other infor-rnwion relating to the war effort.

Health and safety suggestions havebeen referred to the well organized Safe-ty Department by the Safety Committee.

Monthly absentee reports have beencompiled and brought to the attention ofthe General Committee. Absentees,during critical production periods, wereinterviewed by Labor-Management rep-resentatives and asked to sign a slip stat-ing their reasons for oeing away fromtheir vital war job. The absentee recordfor June covering the entire month was2.76%.

Jack Clark, CIO, Herbert Donaldson,AFL, and E. S. Bardwell, ACM, are themembers of the Copper Commando edi-torial board and have offered many valu-able suggestions at editorial meetings asto material to be used in Copper Com-mando, the official newspaper of the Vic-tory Lab 0 r - Management Production

Committees of .the ·Anaconda Copper.Mining Company and its Union repre-sentatives at Butte, Anaconda, East Hel-ena and Great Falls. Their suggestionshave served a very useful purpose in tyingin the Great Falls operations with the wareffort in general for it is difficult formen who have been engaged in peace-time in producing copper and zinc to vis-ualize their contribution to the war ef-fort.

One of the newer Sub-Committees isthe Blood Typing Committee, of which E.C. Van Blarcom, Jack Clark and HerbertDonaldson are members. The plan is tohave typed blood available and recordsof the individual types on hand for emer-gency transfusion cases in the local hos-pitals. The committee reports show thata number of men have signified theirwiltingness to serve as blood donorsshould the occasion arise. ,

The Salvage Committee, of whichGene Morgan, W. S. Adams, E. S. Bard-well, R. J. Kennard, M. Helgeson, E. C.Van Blarcom and the Department Sub-Committees are members, has reportedregularly as to the scrap bronze, brass,copper, iron, steel, platinum, rags salv-aged. Arrangements were made by themfor the bundling of all waste paper fromthe General Office and the various de-partments in the plant.

The Labor-Management Committeecan well be proud of its accomplishments.Its members have made a real contribu-tion to the war program. Not only hasUncle Sam benefitted .by the fine co-op-eratren of labor and management at GreatFalls, but the men themselves feel thatthe results of this co-operation are worthyof consideration. Looking to the future,both labor and management membershave expressed the thought that an asso-ciation that has so well proven its valuein time of war will prove equally valuablein solving problems sure to arise in thepost-war period.

Members of the East Helena Sub-Committee are Bert Kane, ACM; Bill Hays, CIO; R. L. Thomson,ACM; Earl Baldwin, ACM; Arden Grandy, CIO, and Verle Grandy, CIO. They are shown above.

- Here are the two Bobs. Robert O'Neil and RobertMaguire are known as big Bob and little Bob and

you'll always find them working together. Theother team of painters who worked on the Bad-

.They Put· On Their ·CoatsThe boys from the Anaconda Paint Shop in Butte move from one job to another tothe many buildings on the Hill putting on fresh coats of P.!Iint. There's nothing likea fresh coat of pain~ to clean thin~s up and everybody enjoys the finished job.

T HE painters certainly get around. Wehad been watching the progress at theBell Diamond compressor room and whenthe boys fro~ the Anaconda Paint Shopin Butte, which is a division of the ButteMines' Machine Shop, moved over to theBadger State to do the hoist room/ wefollowed them. The paint job on theBadger hoist room was by no means un-usual. B~t, to the layman, it might lookpretty tough. At the Bell Diamond, forexample, the boys used about one anda-half tons of paint and gave the job two

•coats. It is finished in the approved colorcombination of blue-gray for the bodywith an off-white trim. The sashes arein bronze-green.

There are copper roofs on thesebuildings, and it is necessary to use wood-en cleats in order to prevent the hooks,which hold the staging, from punchingholes through the roof. At the Badger,the cleats were roped into place by tielines which were strung over the top ofthe building and after they were firmlyin place, the hooks and "falls"-thepainters' term for block and tackle-were attached.

One of the best known paint teamsis the two Bobs. They are shown at theupper left several feet in the air. Theycall them big Bob and little Bob; theyalways work together. Robert O'Neilland Robert Maguire both served their ap-prenticeship at the Anaconda Paint Shopin the Anaconda mine yard. The otherteam is Jack Petford and Ed Lenehan atthe right above. Jack has been on thejob since 1929-he worked as a painterin England. Ed is a newcomer, havingjoined the crew two years ago.

The hoist cable was pretty close tothe boys, as you can see in the same pic-ture-it was necessary for the boys tostop when the hoisting was being done.The hoisting engineer notified the boyswhen the cages were to move and theygot out of the way.

The foreman of the Paint Shop isJohnny Davis, who has held the job fortwo years. He has been wi th the Com-pany since 1929, and we show him in thepicture at the lower left with Roy Coli ins.Roy, who also signed up in 1929, hadcharge of materials for this particular job.Look closely and you wi] l see Johnny

ger-State hoist room was Jack Petford and EdLenehan shown at the right.

'1'holding a hook which is set into a woodencleat. Also' in the picture, on the floor.between the boys, is a brush kit devel-oped by the fellows in the Paint Shop.This kit has linseed oil in the bottom andthe brushes are packed so that the bris-tles are constantly moist. Each man hashis-own kit with his name on it. That'sthe finished job at the Bell Diamondcompressor shown in the center picture,while at the right below we' find BillFordmier. On this particular job Bill, whohas been with the Company twelve. years,is painting screens for the hoist room.Eighteen of these screens were painted anoff-white and they are so heavy that itwas necessary to use rope men to lowerthem. Bill told us that they weigh be-tween four hundred and five hundred

Ipounds each.

This able crew painted the entire ex-terior of the compressor room at the BellDiamond and the air receiver tanks aswell. ,

In more senses than one these paintjobs are home products. Not only is thejob done by Company crews but whitelead paint made by the Anaconda Com-pany for this express purpose is used ex-clusivelyon the buildings. The boys willtell you that they will paint any thing-all they need is a place to stand. The boyshad been on the hoist room job about tendays and were rushing it through to fin-ish before cold weather-you can't painteffectively when "it's too cold.

That's Johnny Davis, foreman of the AnacondaPaint Shop, and Roy Collins, painter in charge of

materials for the Badger-State job, in the pictureto the left. The center shot shows the finished

job at the Bell-Diamond compressor room. BillFordmier to the right is painting screens.

Anaconda's Manganese Plant.

Ana~onda~sManga~ese

•One of the metals needed vitally by UncleSam to win the war was manganese. Itwas one of the United States' most im-portant strategic raw materials for it isindispensible in the manufacture of steel.So when Uncle S~m found there was ashortage of manganese, he ordered quickaction and the Reduction Works at Ana-conda was asked to install the equipmentneeded to produce manganese nodules •

•

The top picture shows part of the manganesebuilding. The bins are in the middle; at the rightis the end of the kiln and to the left is the Fuller

cooler stack. In the center pictures, Olzie Davidis feeding ore from the bin to the shaking feederat the concenhator. The crushed ore goes to the

Here's Iven Krabbe. former superintendent of th e Manganese Plant at Anaconda. Iven recentlyjoined the Navy and has been succeeded by Marti n C. Messner, whose pidure appea.rs on page elev-en. Shown with Iven is Jean Tardevifle, secretary at the manganese office. So many of the fellows f,omthe plant are in and out of the office that it reminded us of an information booth.

~(

Ban Mills shown in the second picture for fur-ther grinding; on to the classifiers and then to flo-tation as shown, with Harvey Booth checking.

FOURTEEN pounds of manganese arenecessary to produce one ton of clean,sound steel. Fourteen pounds doesn'tsound like such a large amount, but whenyou consider that millions of tons of steelwere needed by Uncle Sam to fi II the re-quirements of the airplane, ship, Jeep,tank and shell manufacturers. it is easy tofigure out why Uncle Sam sent out hisS. O. S. for more manganese.

Uncle Sam knew there is consider-able tonnage of Rhodochrosite ore aroundButte and that this ore carries about 20.5manganese. 2.3 percent zinc, .6 percentlead and .1.0 ounces silver per ton. SoButte was called on to mine the manga-nese and Anaconda was called on tosmelt it and get it in a concentrated ornodulized form ready for shipment to thesteel companies in the East or 'to theMetals Reserve.

This new operation for Anacondameant the installation of a lot of newequipment. for manganese ore requires akind of treatment different from copperand zinc. But Anaconda came throughand produced around seven hundred tonsof concentrate a day as long as Uncle Samneeded it. Seven hundred tons of con-

centrate result in three hundred seventy-•five long tons of nodules. (Nodules isthe term for the concentrate after it hasbeen burned and is ready for shipment.)

Up to a certain point manganese oreis handled much the same as copper, ore.It is brought over from Butte to Anacon-da on the B. A. & P.. and dumped intoa bin at the concentrator. It is fed fromthe bin by a pan feeder to the shakingscreen feeder. The fine material dropsthrough the punch plate screen and thelarger pieces discharge into a jaw crusher.After being reduced by the jaw crusher,it goes through two small crushers and isscreened. From the screening. it goes tothe rolls which reduce it further and thenon to the ball Mills for further grinding.From the ball Mills it goes to the classi-fiers and on to the flotation where thesulphides zinc, lead. iron and silver arefloated. The manganese tailings becomethe feed for the manganese flotation rna- .chines. From here on the operations dif-fer from the treatment of copper ore.

The top picture shows the launder box whic"h

brings the manganese concentrate to the tank to

settle. Paul Frank is using hot water to keep it

from freezing. Mike Bolog is regulating the spigot

valves to control the concentrate density in the

middle picture with Tom Regan. shift foreman,

looking on. That's the 68 per cent solid concen-

trate in the slurry storage tanks in the bottom

picture. This concentrate is pumped to the kiln.

The manganese occurs in the ore asa carbonate. The gangue is largely silicaand silicates. By means of soap float themanganese carbonate is separated fromthe gangue. '

The concentrate from the flotationruns about forty per cent manganese andit is not usable as a furnace feed. It isnecessary to heat and semi-fuse it by driv-ing out the carbon dioxide gas andthus raise it to about sixty per cent man-ganese, called nodules, which make anideal furnace feed for steel furnaces.Here's how they do it.

- The concentrates from the flotationare conveyed to the Manganese Buildingthrough launders into Dorr thickenertanks and allowed to settle. The Dorrthickeners are ten feet deep and seventyfeet in diameter and around seven hun-dred tons of concentrate can go throughthem daily. When the concentrate isaround sixty-eight per cent solids. it isdischarged through a spigot and elevatedby elevators to the concentrate slurrystorage tanks. These tanks which arethirty-five feet in diameter and fifteenfeet high are located inside the building.

DECEM BER 22, 1944.

•

• .9•\

T'_hiS kiln IS the largest of its type in the world. It is two hundred seventy feet long and has variousdiameters ranging from ten feet six inches to fiftee n feet. Ceorge Barnes, the oiler, is in the Navy now.

•Manganese is vital to the nation's indus- .trial life for it is indispensible in the man-ufacture of steel, and steel is vital toUncle Sam in producing the equipmentneeded by our Armed Forces. WhenUncle Sam needed more steel, he neededmore manganese, so the ReductionWorks at A.naconda built the largest kilnin the world to help produce manganesenodules. Nodules are above sixty percent manganese and make an ideal fur-nace feed for steel furnaces. Nodulesfrom the Manganese Plant at Anacondaare shipped direct to the steel companiesin the East or to the Metals Reserve andare quickly converted into ships, guns,tanks, planes, ammunition and n,anyother things that the fighting forces re-quire in order to bring the war to a vic-torious end.

Douglas Upton, No.1 burner operator of the kiln,is shown checking the kiln nodulising.

•Here are the nodules dropping to the p~n con-veyor cooler with Paul Frank watching them.

The concenfrate in them runs around six-I ty-eight per cent solids. The bottom pic-ture on page nine will give you an idea ofwhat it looks like.

As you know, the manganese con-centrate in the slurry tanks is not usableas a furnace feed and it is necessary toheat and semi-fuse it by driving out thecarbon dioxide gas in order to producethe finished product, ·called nodules,which is an ideal furnace feed for steelfurnaces. Here is the way the carbon di-oxide gas is driven out.·

The thick slurry is pumped from theslurry storage tanks to the feed end of thekiln and passes down through the Rotarykiln shown in the upper picture. This no-dulizing kiln is the largest of its type inthe world. It is two hundred seventy-feetlong and has various diameters from.10'6" to 15'0". The purpose of it is to.(1) dry the slurry, (2) calcine it (whichmeans to drive the carbon dioxidegas from the manganese carbonate andthus prepare the manganese oxide fori no-duliz ing] and (3) to nodulize the cal-cined material. The tamperature of thecalcine material is brought up to the nod-ulizing temperature of 2600 degrees F.This operation changes the fine powderedconcentrate to lumps ranging from one-half inch to two inches in diameter readyfor shipment to the steel industry wherethe nodules are fed to blast furnaces inthe production of steel. In this 270 ft.kiln, the drying takes place in the first180 feet; the next 55 feet is the calciningzone and the sintering or nodulizing zonecovers about the last twenty feet of thekiln.

From the kiln the nodules drop tothe pan conveyor cooler, as shown in thebottom picture with Paul Frank lookingon. Notice the hood around it which isused to keep the heat in. The preheatedair which otherwise would escape is thusdrawn from the pan conveyor cooler tosupply air for the kiln gas burners.

The top left picture next page showsthe discharge end of the pan conveyor .The nodules at the discharge end l1avebeen cooled to 1600 degrees F and aredischarged onto a grizzly, which can beseen in the picture, which sorts the vari-ous sizes of the nodules and controls the ,oversized materials. The nodules whichdrop through the grizzly, which meansthat they are the right size, go to theFuller cooler for the purpose of reducingthe temperature of the nodules from1600 degrees to approximately 150 de-grees F.

From the Fuller cooler, the nodulesgo up an inclined elevator as seen in theupper right next page shot to the storagebins. From the storage bins, the nodulesare dumped into railroad cars, aftersamples have been taken, and off theygo to be fed to steel furnaces and helpproduce clean, sound steel.

So that's the story of manganese. ToUncle Sam it's an important one, for bat-tles can't be won without steel. Manga-nese nodules, made in this way, are neces-sary for the steel.

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The nodules discharge from the end of the pa~ conveyor into the Grizzlywhich sorts the nodules into various sizes and controls the oversized.

From the Fuller cooler where the nodules are. reduced in temperature to ap·proximately 150 degrees F., they go up this inclined elevator to storage bins.

The car of nodules is loaded and ready to be shipped to an Eastern Steel Millor the Metals Reserve. Before shipment, a sample is taken by Will Wallace.

Here's Earl Decker crushing nodule samples taken from the car to minusquarter inch. These nodules are about sixty-one per cent manganese •

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Bill sampler of nodules, is preparing the sample. Bill took it fromthe car and Earl Decker crushed it for the Metals Reserve and the Laboratory.

The kiln control panel records gas, draft and temperatures. Here Jimron, foreman, and Carl Marcuson from the No. 1 b,,,ner check.

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Here's a shot of Martin C. Messner, new superintendent of the ManganesePlant at Anaconda. Martin succeeded Iven Krabbe when Iven enlisted.

This is the office building of the manganese plant at Anaconda and that'.Jean Tardeville. secretary to Superintendent Messner in the doorway.

Here are the representatives of each departmentat the Smelter at Anaconda who met with the

Ceneral Labor-Management Committee and theDivisional War Fund Drive Committee on October

26, 1944, for the presentation of "Commenda-tions for Production Ideas".

"GETTING BEHIND THE BOYS

E. A. Barnard presents award to Joseph F. Domit-rovich, pipefitter at the Vanadium Plant.

ON hand to witness the presentation of Na-tional Awards for suggestions at the regularmonthly meeting of the Anaconda Labor-Man-agement Committee in October were local servicemen, War Fund Committee chairmen, and repre-sentative~f the departments at the Smelter.

A "Commendation for Production Ideas"award ,was presented to Theodore Munn for hissuggestion of putting curved pipe on the cylinderfor the transmission of oil to the copper pouringladles. To Joseph Domitrovich, the award wasmade for the suggestion of an improved burner inthe drier at the Vanadium Plant. .

D. H. Beary and S. C. Stewart, co-charimanof the Deer Lodge County War Fund Drive, inshort talks credited the Labor-Management Com-mittee at Anaconda for the success of last year'soutstanding drive. Mr. Stewart said: "We had'representatives in Anaconda from San Franciscoand Denver trying to find out how our Drive wasso successful. They came to the Chairmen of theDeer Lodge County War Fund Drive and for our-selves we don't claim any glory on this at ~II. Thewhole thing was the Labor-Management Commit-tee and the men up here on the Hill who put thatdrive over."

Folfowing their talks, each of the local serv-ice men present, as honored guests, told of theirexperience. Each urged the purchase of WarBonds. Sgt. Robert Eklund, recently returnedfrom the Pacific, said: "At times over there it ispretty hard to convince the fellows and some-times I have wondered myself, if the people wereback of us. I am really going to tell the' boys •about how you folks are backing us."

Award is presented to Theodore C. Munn, pipe-fitter at Converters, by Chairman E. A. Barnard.•

Anaconda service men wtto participated in Labor-"'anagement meeting, I to r.: Carl Bloom, Navy;

William Walsh, honorably discharged,Sgt. Robert Eklund, Army; James Vertin,

Robert ogan, Marines; Sgt. ncentnik. Marines; Lieut. Jack Haffey. Air Forces.