The Tintic Standard Reduction Mill presently stands in partial ruin. Drawings prepared by the HAER survey show front and side elevations, as well as a general plan of the mill’s remains. Enough exists to identify the structure as a mill, and to visualize the procedures involved in the milling process. It remains at the original location, Warm Springs, Utah, some two miles east of the town of Goshen in Utah County. The mill was erected on a hillside for gravity purposes.

Originally the mill contained water tanks, ore bins, crushing rolls, Holt-Dern roasters, iron boxes, leaching tanks, and to the side, drain boxes for lead precipitate. While the actual machinery is gone, the shell of the structure remains.

The Tintic Standard Reduction Mill (Harold Mill) was constructed during the 1919-1921 period by the Tintic Standard Mining Company, under Emil John Raddatz, prominent Utah mining entrepreneur. It served as the mill for the Tintic Standard, which became one of the nation’s leading silver producers, operating from 1916 to approximately 1945.

The significance of the mill, in addition to its place as a part of Tintic Standard’s operation, is attributable to its importance in the themes of engineering and industry. W. C. Madge designed and constructed the mill after having consulted with Theodore P. Holt and George H. Bern, Utah developers of the Holt-Dern Roaster. It was built at a cost of $580,000. The Tintic Standard Reduction Mill was the only use of the “antiquated” Augustin process in the United States during the early years of the 1920s. The plant was an acid brine chloritizing and leaching mill. Ore was first roasted with salt, then leached in a strong brine solution and finally precipitated with copper. Recovery rates were fairly high, as in 1924, when the mill recovered 88% of the silver, 60% copper. 32% lead and 7% of the gold held in the ore.

As related to industry, the mill was an important part of Tintic Standard’s operation. In addition, the construction of the plant also reflected the battle, then waging, over railroad transportation rates, which mine owners believed were too high. By milling the ore themselves, owners could save the shipping costs. By 1925, the mine could no longer supply ore of the grade for which the mill was designed. Also, by then, shipping rates declined, therefore, in the fall of that year, the plant shut down.

A town grew up near the mill, named “Harold” after Raddatz’s son. Only the site remains, nevertheless, the town site and especially the mill, aids both in the documentation of mining history and also in the affect this operation had upon nearby small fanning communities such as Goshen, causing them to experience “Boom periods” in their development,

Many people driving from Goshen towards Genola and Santaquin see the Mill up on the mountain and wonder what it is, it is quite curious looking.

Here are my photos from a trip on 09 May 2016: