History of Tennessee Copper Company and Successor Firms at the Copperhill Plant and the Ducktown Mining District Copper Basin, Tennessee
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HISTORY OF TENNESSEE COPPER COMPANY AND SUCCESSOR FIRMS AT THE COPPERHILL PLANT AND THE DUCKTOWN MINING DISTRICT COPPER BASIN, TENNESSEE March 2008 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE COPPER COMPANY AND SUCCESSOR FIRMS AT THE COPPERHILL PLANT AND THE DUCKTOWN MINING DISTRICT COPPER BASIN, TENNESSEE Prepared for: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Nashville District Region 4 Nashville, Tennessee Atlanta, Georgia Prepared by: Science Applications International Corporation 18912 North Creek Parkway, Suite 101 Bothell, WA 98011 Contract DACW62-03-D-0003, Task Order 07, Subtask 18 SAIC Project No.: 06-5124-04-2241-180 March 2008 March 2008 History of Tennessee Copper Company and Successor Firms at the Copperhill Plant TITLE PAGE Project: Data Gathering Activities for Interim Action Records of Decision, Operable Units 2-D and 3-D, Davis Mill Creek Site, Copper Basin, Tennessee Document Title: History of Tennessee Copper Company and Successor Firms at the Copperhill Plant and the Ducktown Mining District, Copper Basin, Tennessee Preparer: Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) Prepared for: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Nashville District, and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 4 Project Manager: Tom Dubé Principal Authors: Tom Dubé, figures by Ruth Otteman Reviewer: Ruth Otteman DISCLAIMER This report was prepared by Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Nashville District (USACE), to support the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 4 (EPA). The report was prepared under task order 07 of USACE Contract DACW62-03-D-0003. This report has not been reviewed or approved by the Corps of Engineers or EPA, and thus does not represent the conclusion or opinion of either organization. The report was prepared under SAIC project number 06-5124-04-2241-180. March 2008 History of Tennessee Copper Company and Successor Firms at the Copperhill Plant TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Introduction .........................................................................................................................ii Development of Historical Summary.................................................................................iii Reference Sources Used...................................................................................................... v Historical Summary Report................................................................................................. 1 References for Historical Summary ................................................................................ 107 Commonly Used Abbreviations...................................................................................... 116 Footnotes ......................................................................................................................... 117 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Features of the Ducktown Mining District, Copper Basin Figure 2. Features of the Copperhill Plant in 1907 Figure 3. Historical and Recent Facilities at Copperhill Plant APPENDIX Appendix A. Historical Photographs of the Copperhill Plant i March 2008 History of Tennessee Copper Company and Successor Firms at the Copperhill Plant Introduction This report presents the results of a compilation of a large amount of historical information pertaining to activities in the Copper Basin mining area of Polk County, southeastern Tennessee. The report was prepared for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 4 (EPA) under the Support for Others Function of contract DACW62-03-D-0003, Delivery Order 07, from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Nashville District. This report is a non-decision document that summarizes information from numerous sources related to environmental investigations and from many other sources that are directly unrelated to environmental activities. Historically, the mining and processing area within the Copper Basin has been referred to in the literature as the Ducktown mining district. It also has been termed the Ducktown Basin or Copper Basin mining district. Two towns in the Basin that straddle the district include Ducktown, which formed the mining center, and Copperhill, which was adjacent to a large smelter and chemical manufacturing plant (Figure 1). The most important company in the 150-year history of this district was the Tennessee Copper Company (TCC), which operated the Copperhill Plant, various mines, and other facilities for many decades. TCC was incorporated in 1899, and the process leading to this event began in 1896, which forms the chronological beginning of this historical summary report. This document describes activities taken by TCC and many successor firms in the Copper Basin. TCC eventually grew and expanded into a medium-large corporation, with facilities and subsidiaries across the United States. Although this historical summary report mentions those broader aspects of TCC and successor firms, it focuses on activities in the Ducktown district. This report covers a wide ranging list of historical aspects, including mining, metallurgy, engineering, legal cases, waste generation, environmental and regulatory issues, business decisions, and others. An enormous body of information is available that describes elements of activities that have taken place in the mining district and the wider Copper Basin, including environmental aspects. Much of this information is located in archives of the Ducktown Basin Museum, but much also resides at offices of the Copperhill Plant. Environmental agencies also hold large files of information about environmental and historical activities in the Copper Basin. And other information is available in libraries and through the internet. This report attempts to compile and synthesize a sizable fraction of this information into a topical framework, focusing on activities related to TCC and the Copperhill Plant. Regarding geographic terminology, it should be noted that the term Copper Basin commonly refers to a large area that was very heavily impacted by mining-related activities in the district beginning in 1850. Adverse impacts included deforestation of an area covering approximately 50 square miles in Tennessee and northernmost Georgia, with about 36 square miles suffering from severe erosion. In the heart of the Copper Basin lies the Ducktown mining district north of the Ocoee River (Figure 1), which has an area of 10 square miles and was essentially barren of vegetation until the recent past. This area has been dubbed the “Ducktown Desert” and it was even outlined and labeled as such on a U.S. Geological Survey topographic map. It should also be noted that the term “Southwest Ducktown district” has been used for the adjacent mining and prospecting areas south of the Ocoee River in northern Georgia. Mining in the Ducktown district extended from 1850 to 1987, and chemical manufacturing extended from 1907 to the present. The Copper Basin is renowned for a number of reasons. During ii March 2008 History of Tennessee Copper Company and Successor Firms at the Copperhill Plant years of operation, it comprised the largest copper mining district east of the Rocky Mountains and south of Lake Superior. Thus its main resources (copper, iron, zinc, sulfuric acid) served the important eastern cities and the South more economically than other districts. In addition, the situation of its location near the Georgia state boundary resulted in one of the earliest U.S. Supreme Court decisions on environmental issues and cross-boundary jurisdiction. This landmark 1907 decision is widely quoted and has recently been raised as an environmental case example by the Supreme Court, regarding global warming (2007). The deforestation of the Copper Basin, a result largely of ore smelting and roasting activities, was massive enough to be seen by Apollo astronauts, one of only two or three man-made objects visible from space. This mining district was the first in the northern hemisphere to successfully operate commercial “pyritic smelting,” where open heap-roasting of high-sulfide ores became a thing of the past. TCC constructed the world’s first sulfuric acid plant that operated from smelter blast-furnace gases, and TCC operated the largest sulfuric acid plant in the world for many years. These chamber-process acid plants in the district would eventually become the largest lead chamber installation ever operated. The London mill would become renowned for a number of pioneering innovations, and by 1958 was producing more sulfide ore concentrates than anywhere in the country. TCC also was instrumental in a number of other less renowned “firsts” in the mining and chemical world, and became noted as an innovator and model of a well-managed firm. TCC and its successor firms were quite popular on Wall Street, and well-reported in New York newspapers and mining journals. TCC’s neighboring firm for three decades, the Ducktown Sulphur, Copper & Iron Company (DSCI), also was well-known as an innovator and well-run firm. For years DSCI maintained the world record for investment profit by a copper company. This firm’s successor, Ducktown Chemical & Iron Company (DCI), was the first in the world to use metallurgical wet-gas cleaning, as part of their first contact acid plant. Even today, some “firsts” are taking place in the Copper Basin, but now from an environmental aspect. A water treatment system that strips metals and acidity from surface water in North Potato Creek, and then discharges to the South Pit (Figure 1), may be the largest acid-mine drainage treatment