Re: Montrose-Ouray ore service

The "ore" is actually concentrate. That is raw ore pulverized, then run through a process to remove the waste rock, leaving the mineral content. The concentrate was then loaded into boxcars, placing a big pile over each truck, for shipment to a smelter for processing. I would guess that most of the concentrated ore was then hand transferred to SG cars

The mineral matter could be gold, silver, zinc or a combination of all three.

The Montrose sample plant mentioned was just that. A sample plant takes a sample of the concentrated ore and analyzes it for mineral content, so the smelting process can be adjusted to suit.

When I ran the smelter switcher for the Arizona Eastern in Miami/Globe AZ, every carload of concentrate (in open hoppers) was sent to a track where a sample of the concentrate was taken for analysis. After the guys in the white lab coats got done doing their thing, another crew took the cars up the hill to be dumped into the smelter. So, in the big picture, very little ore goes through the sample plant.