Washington Paper - Boston and Colorado Smelting Works

The Boston and Colorado Smelting Works are situated in the town of Black Hawk, Gilpin County, Colorado, on the Clear Creek Narrow Gauge Railway, 55 miles from Denver, in the Rocky Mountains, at an altitude of 7800 feet. It was one of the first works erected for the metallurgical treatment of gold ores, and the only one established in Colorado on a large scale which has been uniformly successful. Both gold and silver ores are treated, and gold, silver, and copper produced. The lead is not separated from the ores nor paid for, if it exists, and is entirely lost in the residues. The works were planned and built by Professor Hill, formerly Professor of Chemistry in Brown University, Providence, R. I., and is still managed by him, assisted by Mr. Richard Pearce, formerly professor in the School of Mines at Truro, England. They are very advantageously situated with regard to the ore-producing regions, having Boulder County on the north, which produces, besides ordinary gold ores, a series of tellurium minerals, such as altaite, sylvanite, and hessite, which are very rich in gold and silver. They are associated with copper and iron pyrites, blende, galena, and the carbonate and oxides of iron. Gilpin County itself produces for the most part the pyrites of iron and copper rich in gold, with a small quantity of galena and blende, which is rich in silver. In