Tintic Reduction

N 39° 57.459’   W 111° 51.309’

 

Abandoned for almost 100 years, the Tintic Standard Reduction Mill located on the west slope of Warm Springs Mountain in Utah County is just one of the many visible scars that dot the Tintic Mountains in Central Utah. These scars; the shaft, pits and abandoned structures, are the remnants left by the mining industry that once dominated the area but has now all but forsaken it. 

            The Tintic Standard Reduction Mill or Harold Mill as it was also referred to was built in 1920 the same year that Timothy Leary was born and prohibition became law in the United States. The mill was built to further process and reduce ore it received from another mill approximately 13 miles west near Eureka, Utah.

            The process the Tintic Standard Reduction Mill used to reduce the ore to its valuable base elements was an acid-brine chloridizing and leaching process which became outdated and unused within 5 years of the mills construction thus insuring the mill's abandonment by 1925

            Although the mill operated for less than 5 years from 1921 to 1925 this structure and its legacy still remain with us.  Not only does the foundation of this short live processing mill still dominate the surrounding landscape but there is also some evidence to suggest that the mill's use may explain the heavy elements that poison a spring near the site.

Tintic Standard Reduction Mill Map

Ancient Ions

One of nature's most useful compounds, few substances are as important to mankind as salt. This simple mix of sodium and chlorine is vital to the welfare of all living things, is used extensively in industry, is one of man's five elemental tastes, and even plays a sacred role in many religious rites.

 As its name suggests the Great Salt Lake is flush with salt, 4.5 billion tons flush according to the Utah Geological Survey. This massive deposit of salt makes the Great Salt Lake the saltiest lake within a 6,600 mile radius, the saltiest lake in the Western Hemisphere and one of the top 10 saltiest lakes in the world.

 

Most of the salt present in the Great Salt Lake is remnants of the lake's ancient ancestor Lake Bonneville; a massive prehistoric fresh water lake that once covered much of Utah's landscape. 

Over 14,000 years ago a large portion Lake Bonneville escaped through Red Rock Pass in Idaho leaving Utah with a much smaller lake.  This reduced lake started to shrink even further from evaporation due to changing climate conditions. The minerals in the receding lake, unable to escape through evaporation, were left behind to grow in concentration.  The lake continued to shrink and the minerals within it continued to concentrate until at last the desert landscape was left with our present day Great Salt Lake.

 

Although it may not be the lake's most lucrative asset, the ancient salt within the Great Salt Lake is still one of its most valuable resources.  Several companies are active upon the shores of the Great Salt Lake  harvesting between 1.5 and 2.5 million tons of salt annually from the lake.