The Chat Pile is now a 3-acre parking lot in sight of the new Valles Mines Post Office 63087, 3225 State Highway V, Valles Mines, MO 63087-9997 (636) 586-3069), formerly at A.P. Rowe General Store, after years across the street from the General Store/Lost History Museum. If you were wondering how it got there, here's its tale...

The Chat Pile Ore-Dressing and Beneficiation Mill

came about as an answer to World War II's need for materials. The Bureau of Mines thought it worthwhile to send what was formerly regarded as too small materials from the mines to be worth separating ("We got all the big pieces") through a separating mill. They chose the location known today as The Chat Pile. Dumps from mines all over the area were hauled here for further processing. The lead and barite were simple to separate, you just washed the dirt off and what was left was the ore. Unfortunately, in doing that, not only were fine particles lost but also the zinc component called "smithsonite"(see "Valles Mines Ore Washer" report, page 2 of 6).

Because it resembled red clay, was very similar in weight, and often bonded to rust-colored goethite, which also weighed the same and was very similar in weight, all three ingredients got washed downstream together, mistaken as huge amounts of waste mud. To make matters worse, the zinc that was recovered was low yield because it "glued" to the goethite (an iron compound) when it came in contact with water. In other words, very little of the zinc got recovered as they started trucking in the dumps of all the mines. As the "feed" got sorted through and washed out, it turned the creek red for miles downstream. To this day, those washings can be detected in nooks and crannies of the creek bed. Eventually the zinc separating operation was abandoned as unfeasible using that century old technology. [Read the original report (PDF format). This is a 20 meg. download (12 pages) and requires Adobe Reader. ]

On a brighter side, the lead from the Mill supplied during WWII helped win the war just as Valles Mines lead had helped win the Revolutionary War, the Battle For St. Louis, the Civil War and WW I. A lot has happened to technology since WWII and especially how it concerns the mining industry. Valles Mines never saw modern technology like electric lights in the mines. Miners were thrilled when they could wear the new carbide lamps on their heads instead of using candles. No one ever drilled horizontally to prospect when their mine payed out. Who could have imagined in 1945 how the invention of the hydrocone, centrifuge, teeter-bed separator, chip wringer, pneumatic, or electrostatic separator would change our world today? What would have those old miners have done with these modern rock tools? 

For that matter, who would have figured that the goethite problem keeping the Mining Company from reopening its zinc operation in 2010 would be solved by a magnetic separator from the Chinese mining industry? They would have to do some shopping because since log washers went out of style in 1945, there's lot of shopping to do for the new stuff. If the goverment wanted to stimulate the economy of the Lead Belt and SE Missouri, maybe they could start at Valles Mines. With zinc reaching a dollar/lb. recently (up from $28/ton back then), everybody might be better off.