Colorado Paper - Manufacture of Ferro-alloys in the Electric Furnace (with Discussion)

Before the outbreak of the war in 1914, the only electric-furnace smelting plant operating on a commercial basis west of the Mississippi River was an electric pig-iron plant in California; rare metal ores were not smelted, concentrates of molybdenum, tungsten, uranium, and vanadium ores being shipped East for reduction. Practically no chrome ore was being mined, and only comparatively small amounts of manganese ore. Today there are two electric smelting plants in California, one in Washington, one in lowa, and four in Colorado; two plants are under construction in California, and one in Montana. Ores of manganese, chromium, molybdenum and tungsten are now smelted in the West, and although uranium and vanadium concentrates are still shipped to the East, they will probably be treated in western plants in a short time. The four electric-furnace plants in Colorado are listed in Table 1. Table 1.—Electric Smelting Plants in Colorado Capacity. Company Location KilowattB PRoductS Tungsten Products Co........... Boulder 800 Ferrotungsten, ferromo- lybdenum. Boulder Tungsten Production Co .. Boulder 400 Ferrotungsten. Ferro Alloy Co.................. Utah Junction 1200 Ferrochrome, ferrotung- sten. Iron Mountain Alloy Co......... Utah Junction 3000 Ferromanganese. Power for all of these plants is supplied by the Colorado Power Co. The plant of the Ferro Alloy Co., at Utah Junction, contains one 750-kw., three-phase furnace, to which power is supplied by three 250-lrw. transformers, connected /Y to give 129 volts on the furnace cables, the transformer ratio being 13,200 to 75 volts. The furnace operates with an actual voltage of 120 volts, and produces about 3 tons of ferrochrome per 24 hr. from 40-per cent. Cr2O3 ore. The furnace consists of a steel shell of circular cross-section, 8 ft. (2.43 m.) in diameter by 7 ft. (2.13 m.) deep, lined with magnesite, and having three vertical carbon electrodes 12 in. (30.48 cm.) in diameter. A 450-kw. furnace, of the same size as the 750-kw. furnace, is also operated on chrome ore. This furnace is three-phase in appearance, but operates electrically as a single-phase furnace. There are three vertical