This Gibson Gyratory Crusher was an attempt to
make it easier for the miners and mining companies to extract the precious
metals from the ore in remote locations. In this case, the design was made to
allow the mill to be easily moved to these areas and the geology tested to
determine if the location was worthy for full scale mining. There is a
Gibson Gyratory Crusher that operates at the Mojave Desert Heritage &
Cultural Association in Goffs, California. This is the only one that I know
about that operates in the USA. The
following is the information that I have found of the historical account for
the Gibson Gyratory Crusher:
Patent
Information
The Gibson Gyratory Crusher serial # 217,750 was produced by W. W. Gibson and
patented on June 22, 1920. I obtained information from the Internet on the
United States Patent Office of the patent that discusses the construction of
the mill along with pictures of the crusher’s parts. The patent states “The
object of the invention is to provide such a mill, which, while substantial and
durable in construction, will be very efficient in proportion to its weight,
and therefore can easily be transported into inaccessible mining districts, and
which can quickly set up.” In other words, it can be used as a test mill. It
resembles a large mortar and pestle. The mortar being the round base of the
machine that crushes the ore and the pestle being the large shaft that is
operated by an eccentric and causes the circular motion that crushes the ore. I
do not know of any similar mills produced in that time period. I have only seen
one other mill in Jerome, AZ and it was in bad shape. The pictures below are
from the patent serial # 217,750.
Crusher Internal Gold Capture There is a sump
located between the annular die and the launder crusher outlet that is called
the Annular Chamber that holds mercury. The results are that the fine gold
passing over the chamber would be captured by the mercury. The picture below
shows the Annular Chamber #89, Annular Shoe #33, Annular Die #53 and the
Launder #84, the crusher outlet.
Crusher Specifications The table below shows
the specifications that are listed in the Gibson Mining Equipment Catalogue for
the two crushers they manufactured. We
think the crusher we have is a No.1.
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SPECIFICATIONS
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|||||||||
|
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Crushing Pressure Lbs.
|
Screen Area
Sq. Ft.
|
Net Weight Heaviest Part
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Total Weight
Lbs.
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Capacity Tons
|
Mesh
|
R.P.M.
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H.P.
|
Price
|
|
No 1
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3,000
|
10
|
290
|
1,650
|
10
|
30
|
200
|
3
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$1,000
|
|
No 2
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5,000
|
15
|
800
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4,400
|
25
|
30
|
175
|
6
|
$2,000
|
|
SAN
FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA
& OTTAWA, CANADA
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Early
Operational History 1930's I obtained the picture below, from the Mojave Desert
Heritage & Cultural Association, of an early Gibson Gyratory Crusher that
was located at the Golden Queen Mine area in the Soledad Mountains in
California. The picture below shows a crusher in operation circa 1930’s. The
picture has a couple early 30’s vehicles in the background.
As noted in the patent information section the
mill was portable and was taken to remote areas to test for precious ores. The
picture below shows the mill setting in a yard, ready to be taken to the field
and used to test the area for various ore bearing deposits:
Later History “The
Move”
The crusher was sold to the Mojave Desert Heritage & Cultural Association
(MDHCA) in Goffs, CA in 1999. The following bits of information were extracted
from the Mojave Road Report Publication of the Friends of the Mojave
Road and the Mojave Desert Heritage & Cultural Association, Report
number 187, dated January 2000. The report discusses the day by day
account of the purchase, disassembly, relocation to Goffs on the 16' Big Tex
Trailer and assembly of the crusher at Goffs by Bill
Fullerton, a crew of volunteers and with assistance from the folks at
the Golden Queen Mine. This activity was completed in the winter time and the
assembly crew braved the wintry weather to get the crusher reassembled into a
static display.
Restoration Phase It was decided to try
to bring the crusher back to operational conditions in 2016. There were a lot
of questions about the integrity of the mill, the speed and the device that
would drive the crusher since there was not a tech manual for the crusher. This
restoration was very simple with only four concerns.
Missing Components We compared the patent drawing to the physical
crusher and found three missing items: The cylindrical screen #83 that
separates the outlet from the die and launder outlet was missing. This screen
ensures that only the fine particles leave the crushing area. This would cut
down on the efficiency of the crusher, but we are not running a production mill.
Another missing part is the metal wall #86 that prevents any of the pulp from
splashing outside the launder. This again is a minor concern since we keep the
water flow down so that it does not wash out of the launder. The access port
Door #27 is missing. This permits access to parts needing adjustment or oiling.
Again, this is not necessary for proper operation of the crusher.
Mill Structural Integrity We went over the mill and tightened
down all the bolting and added some additional timbers to strengthen the mill. We
focused on the drive mechanism to ensure the eccentric rotated in a stable
manner. We rotated the mill to check the rigidity and found the mill to be
solid. The original set up of the crusher was for a static display only.
Driver We know that the component used an electric motor as
identified in the first picture above and the patent says that the speed of the
drive shaft to the pinion gear would be about 200 RPM. We did some calculations
and found the required speed of the mill at about 52 RPM. We ended up using a
fractional Hp motor and a double belt drive. The motor was mounted on a hinge
device that used the weight of the motor to obtain the proper tension on the
belt drive. The motor had plenty of power to run the mill.
Mill Operation Phase After over 80 years we ran the mill with water and crushed our first ore on Saturday, April 22, 2017. By the way, this is the only Gibson Gyratory Crusher, to my knowledge, that operates in the USA. I have only seen one other gyratory crusher in the USA and it was in pieces at the Gold King mine in Jerome, AZ. The picture below shows the crusher during the initial run with about 25 observers present. Everyone was impressed with the accomplishment.
THE END of the beginning!
