Largest Smelter on the Coast.

Still another line of industry in which Tacoma takes the lead, is in the reduction of ores of gold, silver, lead, copper and other metals. The Tacoma Smelting Company’s plant on the waterfront at the north end of the city is the largest smelter on the Pacific Coast. In 1902 the plant was enlarged by the addition of huge copper reduction works which began operations in September, 1902, and a copper refinery, the only plant of its kind west of Great Falls, Montana, is now in course of construction. The Tacoma Smelter began operations in September, 1890. In 1891 an average of fifty-eight men were employed, and the value of the output was $781,133.38. Five hundred men are now employed at the smelter and the output of the plant for the year 1903 was as follows:

Gold, 176,312.41 ounces$3,644,377.51
Silver, 1,899,831.64 ounces1,016,409.93
Lead, 22,488,377 lbs955,756.02
Copper, 10,889,463 lbs1,422,853.84
Total value of output$7,039,397.30

The amount paid in wages in 1903 was $264,767.60, freight paid to Northern Pacific railway, $336,751.85, and freight paid to vessels, $164,392.55.